Chapter Text
“kang taehyun!”
he sneezes, delaying his reaction time. before he can turn around to face the person who called him, he feels a strong grip on his shoulder.
choi beomgyu glares down at him. “did you just try to ignore me? don’t you know how to respect your elders?”
taehyun makes a noise in astonishment, but beomgyu takes it as a malicious scoff, scowling.
“did you just laugh at me?” beomgyu doesn’t give him the chance to respond. “you know what, i knew i didn’t dislike you from the beginning for a reason. my gut feeling is never wrong.”
and with that he’s gone as abruptly as he came, not even concealing his expression of disgust as he goes to join some of the other older members of their school’s soccer team as they chat idly.
“dude, what’s his problem with you? it’s literally our first official team meeting, it’s not like you know him or anything.” minsik, one of the other new recruits, tries to give him some sympathy.
taehyun honestly doesn’t know either. this was only their second time meeting, their first being tryouts. at the time, taehyun paid no mind to beomgyu at all besides putting face to name, more occupied with trying to secure his own spot on the team.
choi beomgyu was one of the returning members of the school’s soccer team, so his position was guaranteed as long as he kept up to standard, and he carried the same relaxed poise that the other upperclassmen on the team had. they didn’t have to worry as much about proving themselves to the coaches, unlike the new recruits and freshies, and weren’t nearly as competitive.
nevertheless, there was one glaringly obvious reason for beomgyu’s innate hostility towards him: they were both goalkeepers. and on a team with an overflow amount of fifteen players, that meant that the likelihood of one of them being benched was notably high.
and taehyun was no bench warmer.
he wasn’t exactly a utility player, having been goalkeeper on both his middle school team and his club team for six consecutive years, but he wasn’t completely useless either. he had trained extra hard leading up to tryouts for this reason.
one year ago, he had attended one of the high school’s soccer matches to see what he was going into. after watching beomgyu play, he had prayed to the soccer demons that the pretty goalie would graduate before he enrolled. unfortunately for his soccer career, that wasn’t the case. he really didn’t mind seeing beomgyu every day at practice though. especially in their uniform shorts.
their captain, choi yeonjun, beckons them over. he had risen to captain this year after their old captain graduated, and was a centre midfielder. all of beomgyu’s friends were midfielders, and had held their positions in chokehold ever since they joined the team. generally, they were not to be messed with.
they all line up with yeonjun’s instruction and greet their head coach, who smiles at them warmly. he has hecka fatherly vibes.
“we’re going to be putting in the orders for your jerseys today. for returning teammates who don’t want to change their number, you can go continue whatever you were doing. the rest of you, line up neatly and provide a first and second choice to our team manager.”
said manager waves, pointing to the clipboard in her hands. as soon as the head coach finishes his orders, they all dissolve into chatting.
taehyun can’t help but notice yeonjun’s piercing voice throughout the noise.
“beomgyu, are you not going to change yours? i thought you were lying in wait until chanhee hyung graduated to take his number.”
the sophomore gives a lukewarm response, shrugging. “too lazy. besides, it feels sacrilegious now that he’s actually gone.”
he can’t catch the rest of the conversation as the upperclassmen get further away and he falls into line behind minsik, who immediately grabs his attention by starting conversation.
“what numbers are you picking, so i don’t get the same ones?”
“i don’t know yet. i’ll think about it, i guess.”
he doesn’t think about it at all. when it’s finally his turn, he takes the pen and clipboard and quickly writes ‘12’ and ‘34’ in the blanks for first and second choice. it’s not like he cares about that kind of thing anyways, as he is always the goalie and can be spotted regardless of his jersey number. the team manager smiles politely at him when he gives the pen back, then tells him to go see the head coach. the other freshmen watch him go nervously.
he finds their head coach over by the bleachers with beomgyu, waiting for him to approach. beomgyu avoids eye contact.
“boys, i’m sure you know why i’ve called you here.” their head coach has a grim expression on his face, arms crossed. “i want to start by saying you are both very valuable members of this team. so, after discussion with the other coaches and management we’ve decided that it’s best for you both to share the goalkeeper position, and alternate play time.”
“what will happen when the other person is playing as goalkeeper?” taehyun asks meekly.
the head coach gives him an apologetic look. “bench time, probably. we have too many players already, but of course that also depends on your skills.”
beomgyu stays silent the whole time, not making eye contact. he’s probably seething with anger, taehyun muses.
“if you’re done, can i speak to coach privately?” beomgyu breaks his silence, addressing taehyun with a glare.
“sure, sure.”
taehyun walks away, a little miffed. as soon as he gets back to the others, they crowd around him like bees.
“what did he say? why was beomgyu sunbaenim there?” minsik asks, looking way too excited. but taehyun’s already annoyed, especially by the unwanted attention, so he brushes them off and goes to pack up.
by the next morning, rumours are already travelling all around school about the beef between the boys soccer team’s two goalies.