Chapter Text
“Choi! Hustle up to help them!”
Jongho groaned as he pushed himself up off of the turf field. “I’m getting there, don’t worry,” he muttered under his breath. He was far enough down the field from his coach that there wasn’t any way he could hear the murmurs, but Jongho could never be too careful.
It wasn’t like they were playing an actual game anyways, it was just a scrimmage. Just practice.
Pushing off as fast as he could, Jongho sprinted towards where Hongjoong was just tackled by none other than their tallest, biggest player: Yunho.
He heard the coach’s whistle blow through the air to call the scrimmage. The team composed themselves and jogged towards their coach to huddle with Jongho in the midst of them.
“Oh boy, coach doesn’t look too happy.” Jongho turned his head towards one of his shorter teammates, Wooyoung. The boy had a nasty bruise on his cheek from when he took a shoulder to the face from their previous sevens tournament.
Rugby was definitely a sport where injury was the reward, but only if you played it wrong, or, in Wooyoung’s case, tried aggressively tackling the players who were twice your size.
Jongho loved the sport though. It was his favorite! Plus, it was a good way for him to relieve stress and take out his frustrations without getting in trouble (unless he got a yellow card for something he shouldn’t have done.)
His roommate, and best friend of five years, Mingi, had convinced him to try it out in high school. Jongho fell in love! When he came to university and found out he could play rugby there as well, he was beyond ecstatic for the opportunity. He easily made the team and was assigned to be the starting Tighthead Prop for the Sevens season.
Usually he was in a different position for the Fifteens season, but he could work with being a Prop. They chose him because he could actually run decently fast and thankfully the Sevens matches (where there were seven players per team on the field) were only 14 minutes long compared to the 80 minute long games (with fifteen players per team on the field) during the Fifteens season. Granted, you only play one 80 minute game compared to six or seven 14 minute games in a Sevens tournament.
Jongho’s team was still at the beginning of the season and had been able to play a couple of practice matches with other nearby teams, and even in those matches he had the time of his life!
Practice, however, could be pretty rough at times.
Jongho’s coach didn’t seem to like him as much as he initially thought. There were plenty of times when he would try his hardest in practices and especially the practice matches, yet his coach only seemed to pick on him. His teammates have noticed it as well, but they all, Jongho included, chose to ignore it and hope it would change eventually.
So the team stood there in a circle around their coach. Jongho hung his head as the coach tore into him about not getting up fast enough and not making it to help the rest of the team.
Jongho took a deep breath to try and keep a level head as he lifted his head to make eye contact with his coach. The look of anger on his face made Jongho’s stomach churn.
“You’re this close to losing the starting position, Choi.”
His eyes widened at the coach’s threat and his heart rate picked up a little. He glanced around at his teammates and noticed the angry glare Hongjoong, who happened to be a team captain, sent at the coach. Reconnecting eye contact with their coach, Jongho swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded, casting his eyes downward again.
The coach let out an exasperated sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, our first tournament of the season is this weekend and we have to pull it together,” he shook his head and looked around the circle at the group of boys. “I know you’re all extremely excited about the season starting up, but you need to focus. Now,” the coach clapped his hands together, “let’s scrimmage again and focus on your contacts before we end. You know what to do.”
Making their way onto the field, the twelve boys split into two teams to practice tackling. Jongho rolled his neck and shook his arms to warm up a bit more. He loved tackling, but he also was well aware of the fact that if you didn’t tackle or get tackled with the correct technique, you would get injured.
They all got ready and their coach gave the other team the ball to start. Jongho’s team had some of his favorite people on it, people that he would definitely get a red card for if the situation called for it. He had Hongjoong (their starting Center), Yunho (the starting Scrum-half), Wooyoung (the starting Winger), Seonghwa (who was basically back up for every position because he was just that good), and another newer kid who hadn’t started playing rugby until that year.
The other team consisted of Mingi (their starting Loosehead Prop; otherwise known as Jongho’s other half), Yeosang (their starting Hooker), San (their amazing starting Fly-half), a guy named Wonho who was just built different (usually subbed for the props if needed), and two others.
He wouldn’t brag or anything, but there was no denying that Jongho’s team was definitely stacked. He smiled at Mingi from across the field. The older attempted to wink at him, only making the younger chuckle.
Getting into their positions, the other team kicked off and Yunho easily received the ball. Jongho took a deep breath and ran.
With his mind laser-focused on the scrimmage, Jongho tried his best to keep up with his long-legged teammate, waiting to support him in a ruck if needed. While Yunho was a scary guy to go against for those who didn’t know him, everyone on their team has had the pleasure of going against the giant, so they were used to the intimidation.
So it didn’t surprise Jongho when he watched as Mingi moved to tackle Yunho.
The taller player seemed a little surprised at the Prop’s determination and speed and didn’t successfully pass the ball before he was tackled to the ground and fumbled, giving the ball to the other team.
More specifically, to Wonho.
Jongho took a deep breath and steeled himself. He took off in a sprint, still maintaining somewhat of a formation with his remaining teammates. Curse the field for being so big , Jongho thought to himself, huffing in and out as he went straight for Wonho.
The older, much more muscular man didn’t hesitate and neither did Jongho.
The only thing on the younger’s mind was tackle , but he soon found out he wasn’t thinking hard enough to be careful.
Crouching down a bit more to get some leverage on Wonho, Jongho didn’t focus enough on his technique.
He threw his arms back to get ready to wrap the other, but he was too centered on the man’s body and not off to the side like he should’ve been. He turned his head a tad to not hurt it, but didn’t think about the consequences.
Just as Jongho’s neck and shoulder made contact with Wonho’s hip, pain flared through that area and Jongho let out a grunt as he gave up on the tackle.
Everything happened at once.
His vision blacked out and he could feel himself get rolled onto the ground, his shoulder screaming in pain as he did so. With his cheek shoved into the turf, he figured he was lying face down.
Jongho didn’t dare move after that even after he heard the game move down the field. He could hear his coach yelling at him to get up, but he could only manage to squeeze his eyelids tight, keeping his eyes closed.
His shoulder was throbbing, but he knew he had to get up and keep playing.
Being careful to not put any pressure on his entire right arm, he pushed himself up onto his left arm and knees. Jongho tried his best to open his eyes and stare at the turf below him. The edges of his vision were dark and fuzzy. His breath came out a little faster than normal as he attempted to catch his breath.
He wasn’t going to lie, it hurt like hell, but he didn’t want his coach to get mad at him more than once in the same day; so, holding his right arm just on top of his stomach, he stood up shakily and attempted to jog after the rest of the team.
Jogging turned out to be an absolutely terrible idea. With every step he took, he jostled his shoulder, causing him to wince from the pain. In addition, his vision began to swim, making him feel nauseous.
“Crap.”
There was more yelling in the distance when Jongho decided to give up on running to continue playing and gingerly sat down on the turf field instead. Logically he knew that couldn’t just hang out in the middle of the field in case his team got the ball back and made their way back down, but he couldn’t bring himself to move another inch.
A whistle blew and his coach was yelling.
Jongho winced and tried his best to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill. It was hard enough to deal with his shoulder, but it seemed like a chore to breathe normally. His breath kept stuttering, but he couldn’t think of anything that would help with it.
“Jongho, hey!”
There were sounds of multiple pairs of cleats hitting against the turf coming closer to where he sat. He couldn’t bring himself to look up at the faces of his teammates, so he just stared at their approaching shoes and matching socks.
Someone crouched down in front of him and placed a hand on his left shoulder instead of his injured one, which Jongho was grateful for. “Hey, you okay?” It was Hongjoong.
Jongho took a deep, shaky breath and shook his head. He heard someone behind his captain let out a curse.
“Can you look at me?” Hongjoong asked softly.
He was tempted to shake his head and continue staring at the ground, but Hongjoong placed a gentle hand under his chin and lightly pulled his head up. Jongho winced at the bright sun and squeezed his watery eyes shut again to block out the light.
“Tell me what hurts, okay? Yunho and Mingi are running to grab the athletic trainer.”
“M’shoulder,” Jongho weakly said and then weakly gestured to the back of his head with his uninjured arm, “ ‘nd my head.”
“Okay, okay,” he could recognize the slight panic in his friend’s voice, “you probably have a small concussion or something and if your shoulder hurts…” Jongho made eye contact with the older player as he trailed off. Tears welled up in his eyes when the realization hit him that he wouldn’t be able to play if he was badly injured.
“It’ll be okay. We got you.”