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Today they had all decided to spend the afternoon outside relishing in the fair weather that Mother Nature had gifted them. It was warm with a gust of wind blowing their hair around every five minutes or so; the perfect weather for American football.
Now Sungwoon knew he wasn’t the only one on the field who knew about forty percent of how the game was played, preferring what most other countries called football instead; soccer for the Americans. Leading the game was the person who probably knew the most about football. Probably would look best in the uniform, Sungwoon thought, eyes taking in their temporary captain’s wide back.
“Okay, guys. I know a lot of you don’t actually know how to play, but I’m hoping you have some type of understanding of how the game works.” Daniel started. “I guess we’ll pick teams first and then I’ll give you a quick rundown.”
Automatically, Daniel served as one of the two captains while the other captain was to be voted on. The guys looked amongst themselves silently analyzing one another until Woojin spoke up.
“Jisung hyung?” Woojin’s suggestion was approved by multiple head nods.
“I wasn’t even going to play to be honest,” Jisung said, 2% apologetically.
Someone jogged up to the field dropping their bag by the mini bleachers.
“Hey guys. Has the game started yet?” Sungwoon’s eyes darted directly towards Minhyun who started to rub his forearm. Anyone who knew Minhyun well enough knew this was a nervous tick of his, but only Sungwoon knew the reason that triggered it. He smirked when he and Minhyun made eye contact. Minhyun quickly averted his gaze.
“Leader!” Seonho yelled as he pointed at Jonghyun. Jonghyun looked taken aback.
“Great! Jonghyun hyung you’re the captain for team two.”
“Oh, okay.” Luckily, Jonghyun was accustomed to being leader- of everything really- so he assumed his position easily. “Are you going to dish out some rules for us, though?”
“Yeah, of course! But let’s split into our teams first. Usually there’s 11 people to each team but I don’t think we have enough people for that.” Daniel did a headcount and nodded his head affirmatively. “We can do seven to a team and Jisung hyung can be the ref.”
The captains played a quick round of rock, paper, scissors to see who got to have the first pick and Daniel came out successful.
“Hmm. I’ll pick…” Daniel carefully grabbed his chin. “Woojin.”
Woojin nodded in appreciation and walked to Daniel’s side, giving him a dap.
“Youngmin.” Jonghyun called with a smile.
Sungwoon turned his eyes to his captain as he made his second pick. Daniel didn’t even look at him. Sungwoon laughed to himself. How dare he believe he’d be chosen to play a game he didn’t know how to play? Their little situation obviously didn’t gain him any special treatment. Which was fine because he didn’t need anyone getting suspicious.
Guanlin placed himself next to Woojin next. It wasn’t until the fifth teammate was chosen that Sungwoon was called. Fortunately, Daniel kept a neutral face as he said his name. As Jonghyun picked his fifth player, Daniel waved him over.
“Hyung, what do you think about Minhyun hyung?” Daniel asked him, completely relying on his opinion. Maybe I do get some special treatment, Sungwoon thought smugly.
“Don’t pick him. Let him be on their team.”
“Yeah?” Daniel looked over at the remaining guys. Seongwoo was desperately mouthing the words to the theme song of the trainee elimination show he loved to watch. Something about 나야나… “Sewoon! Come on over!” Seongwoo’s jaw dropped as his name was not called.
Jonghyun called Minhyun’s name and the latter’s eyes landed on Sungwoon who gave him a lopsided grin. Team one’s final member was Gunhee.
“WHAT?!” Seongwoo hollered incredulously.
Gunhee grabbed Daniel’s hands and kissed them in gratitude for not being picked last.
“Even Gunhee got chosen before me? I thought we were friends Daniel!”
“Sorry, Ong. I was just trying to choose brawn over beauty.” Daniel replied, sending his best friend a wink.
Seongwoo scoffed. “You can’t buy my forgiveness through flattery, but thanks for the compliment.”
Daniel’s team consisted of Woojin, Guanlin, Jihoon, Sungwoon, Sewoon and Gunhee while Youngmin, Taehyun, Jaehwan, Minhyun, Seonho and Seongwoo were on Jonghyun’s.
“Okay so the point of the game is to get the football as close as possible to your end field. The offensive team tries to get the ball down the field while the defensive team tries to stop them. There is a quarterback, a center, offensive and defensive guards, wide receivers, linebackers and running backs.”
Daniel stopped to make sure everyone was with him but all he got in return were blank stares and kids kicking the dirt beneath their sneakers. He laughed and instead said,
“Whoever catches the ball when the quarterback throws it, run. Everyone who doesn’t catch it, run after him.”
Suddenly everyone’s expressions cleared up and they nodded happily.
“Can we tackle each other?” Jihoon asked.
“Always the aggressive one,” Guanlin shook his head at his roommate. Jihoon looked scandalized.
At a loss for words, Daniel looked over at Jonghyun who had his lips sealed tightly.
“I know we see that in American games, but for the sake of future performances, we won’t allow tackling.” Jonghyun declared. Jihoon pouted minutely. “Don’t you want to be able to dance on stage for your dance recital, Jihoon?” Jihoon nodded. “Then we have to play it safe.” Jonghyun ended, patting the aggressive sophomore on the shoulder and pushing him to his team.” Now, shall we begin?”
As the winner of the coin toss that determined which team would start the game off, Daniel carried the football into the team huddle after leaving Jonghyun with some general guidelines of the game.
“Well guys. I’ve never really been leader for anything so I’m just gonna say try to get a touchdown and have fun.” Daniel smiled kindly at his team members.
“What about our positions?” Woojin brought up.
“Oh!” Daniel smacked his forehead. “Forgot about that. Well, I’ll be the quarterback. Sungwoon hyung can be the center. You pass the ball back to me when I say hike. Uh, Sewoon, I’ll throw the ball to you. Just keep running to the goalpost. The rest of you block the others so Sewoon can get a touchdown. Gunhee,” Daniel looked at him seriously, “Just keep running. Try not to touch the ball.”
Their huddle broke with a manly “ah-ooh!” and they lined up at the makeshift 30-yard line. Sungwoon bent over, cradling the football in front of Taehyun who rested his arms on his thighs as he squatted.
“Everyone ready?” Jonghyun “shouted”. (His shouts were equivalent to Daniel’s inside voice.) He was met with affirmative responses.
“Hike!”
Sungwoon, who was too intrigued in making faces at Taehyun, missed Daniel’s order. He saw everyone running in different directions and panicked.
“Pass me the ball between your legs!” Daniel yelled which flustered Sungwoon even more. There’s no way he said that out loud.
“That’s the gayest thing I’ve ever heard you say, Daniel!” Jisung called from the sidelines.
Nope. I guess everyone heard it.
Sungwoon tossed the football backwards and Daniel sent it in a spiral to Sewoon who caught it as it pounded into his chest. While everyone busied themselves running down the field chasing Sewoon, Sungwoon stayed back to casually stand next to Daniel.
“Pass me the ball between your legs?”
Daniel tried to hide his smile but the corner of his lips turned up. “You liked that?”
Sungwoon glared at him sideways. “You know what I would like better is if you kept the phrase ‘balls between your legs’ out of your mouth.”
Daniel bit his bottom lip. “Out of my mouth, huh.” He looked at Sungwoon through his peripherals. “When we’re in public? What about when we’re in private?” He whispered seductively, turning his head completely to catch the smaller’s reaction.
Sungwoon’s jaw dropped. Well I’ll be damned, he thought. There was a pink haired guy dirty talking him in the open air of the field. Daniel winked at him, slapped his butt in good ol’ American football spirit and ran to the other guys shouting, “Sungwoon hyung, let’s go!”
Oh, two could play at this game.
Thirty minutes later, both teams were waiting for Youngmin to punt the ball after the third down. No one really understood how the first and second downs happened but they were in no position to question Daniel’s authority so they went with it. Just before Youngmin was going to kick, Seonho piped up.
“Wait!” He screeched and Jisung blew his whistle loudly (read: so loud the kids watching on the bleachers covered their ears in pain.) Youngmin halted mid-kick, almost tumbling over.
“What is it, Seonho?” Jonghyun said trying to hide his irritation.
“What if I kick instead? I haven’t touched the ball yet. It’s kinda not fair.”
“That’s not really how it goes, Seonho.” Jonghyun rubbed his forehead.
“Don’t you have to be good at the game to touch the ball?” Guanlin snickered alongside Woojin.
“Well the only ball I saw you touching isn’t the one that Youngmin hyung is holding right now so I don’t wanna hear it from you!” Seonho snapped back.
“Alright, alright!” Jonghyun said as he tried to bring order to the noisy field.
Youngmin handed the ball to Seonho with a pat to his back and everyone got back in position. Seonho prepared to punt the football and…
It slid completely to the left and out of bounds along with his right sneaker. Guanlin let out the most incredible dolphin laugh any of them had ever heard before Seonho stomped over to him with angry fists.
Sungwoon jogged over to pick the football up and Daniel followed.
“Hyung, I’ll get it.”
Sungwoon got to the ball first and put all his effort into bending over with his ass in the air right as Daniel pulled up behind him.
“Want me to pass you my ball, Daniel?” Sungwoon raised one eyebrow and held the ball to Daniel’s chest. Daniel grabbed it slack jawed and watched him saunter away. If his pants fit him a little tighter at that moment he hoped no one would notice.
The game ended shortly afterwards. Jaehwan tripped over Sewoon’s foot miraculously into the end zone scoring the only touchdown of the 45-minute game. Although they didn’t know what they were doing a majority of the time- Daniel’s rules? Questionable- they had fun. Sungwoon would be lying if he said the tension between Daniel and him every time they got close to each other didn’t turn him on a little. A secret touch here, a lusty glance there. They were new to this secret rendezvous game, but man did they play well.
The others headed back to their respective dorms to clean up and attend to their varying schedules, but Sungwoon and Daniel found themselves pressed against each other in a bathroom stall inside the building next to the field.
Daniel stared down at his hyung hungrily, fingertips sneaking into the back hem of his black joggers. “Am I allowed to say my line now? We’re in private.”
“You’ve been waiting all day to say it again, haven’t you?” Sungwoon grinned while rubbing his hands up and down Daniel’s toned abs.
“Like you haven’t.” Daniel grinned back.
“I wasn’t the one sporting a boner while running after some sophomore guys.” Sungwoon trailed a finger down Daniel’s semi hardened junior.
“Hey! That wasn’t for them. That was for you.” Daniel pouted as he rested his forehead against Sungwoon’s.
“I know, I know.” Sungwoon said giving into temptation and kissing the human Samoyed. Daniel squished Sungwoon into him leaving no space between them. Within a few seconds he was shoving his right hand down Sungwoon’s pants and sucking on his neck.
“Whoaaa.” Sungwoon exclaimed, pressing on Daniel’s stomach to get his attention. The younger removed his mouth but kept his hand in place.
“What?” He said innocently while that hand moved not so innocently. Sungwoon did his best in gaining control and pulling the totally welcomed unwelcomed hand out of his pants.
“I don’t know about you but I don’t practice exhibitionism.” He told Daniel.
“What? Hyung, are you serious? This is hardly exhibitionism.” Daniel laughed at him.
“Oh, I beg to differ. If someone walks in on us-”
“No one is gonna walk in on us.” Daniel interrupted trying to sneak his hand back in.
“This is a public bathroom, Daniel!”
“Alright, so what I’m hearing is you want me to do you on top of the sink.” He got a hard punch to the gut, but managed to laugh through his pain.
Sungwoon opened the stall door and went to wash his hands. Daniel wrapped himself around him.
“Hyunggg. You can’t leave me hanging like this.” He said cutely, pressing his chin into the junction between Sungwoon’s neck and shoulder and squishing his face there.
The bathroom door creaked open and Sungwoon ripped the other’s arms from around him. They both slightly bowed to the senior that came around the corner and made for the door to give him some privacy.
“You’re really going to leave me like this?” Daniel asked entirely distressed.
Sungwoon placed his hands in his pockets and faced him. “Sorry, kid.” He leaned in closer. “You’ll have to catch these balls later.” He popped his eyebrows up and left Daniel impatient, unsated, and completely wanting more.
Now that’s how you play the game.