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The sounds of rackets striking the shuttlecock echoed inside in an empty court, and there were two black people playing inside. Marcus and his coach, Nichelle, were moving around the court speedily, hitting the shuttlecock with perfect precision. It was ruthless, yet it was also elegant. Suddenly, Nichelle jumped up and hit the shuttlecock down aggressively. Marcus awkwardly positioned himself and tried hitting it, but he missed, and it fell down on his side of the court.
“Marcus, you should be confident with how you strike the shuttlecock when an opponent strikes it down,” Nichelle admonished, stretching her arms. Marcus looked up to his coach, giving her a troubled look then lied down on the floor. His shirt was drenched in sweat, his breathing was heavy. All he wanted right now was to rest. His coach approached him and lied down with him.
“I really tried my best, coach , it’s just the way you struck it down was unbelievable,” Marcus breathed heavily from every word he said. Nichelle just laughed at him.
“And I’m not at my ‘prime’ age! You’ll be scared if you challenged me when I was 23!”
“But Nichelle… aren’t you like, 33-years-old?”
“Oh… yeah, but comparing to my 23-year-old self, I felt invincible! I really miss being young!” she stretched her arms excitedly and accidentally hitting his face. His nose was bleeding from impact, and out of embarrassment, she took out her towel and covered his face. Oddly, it felt cool, as if it wasn’t inside her pocket throughout the entire training. He wasn’t able to look at her face, but he could imagine that her face was red like a red light bulb.
“I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it,” she caressed his hair. Marcus rose up from the floor, holding the towel on his hand, and saw her frowning and mumbling curses to herself.
“It’s okay coach, it wasn’t that bad.”
“But it was just so rude of me, I should’ve been more considerate as a wife and a coach.”
Marcus tried to laugh at her bashfulness, but calling herself as his ‘wife’ made it impossible for him to laugh. It brought out stressful thoughts that he tried to bury. She had been his coach during his beginnings as a professional badminton at the age of 19, though strangely, they naturally started dating. He never thought of even marrying her in the first place, but her energetic yet kind personality and her determination, they dated for some time then they married and that made them happy.
But the idea of publicizing his secret marriage with Nichelle worried him; not that she was a bad wife, she was anything that he could ever desired. What worried him was the reaction of his family, friends, acquaintances, and even the strangers that he will never meet. What if they call her a predator that hunted him down and groomed him? What if they call him delusional for even marrying his coach? Sick of beating around the bush, he talked her straight-forwardly.
“Nichelle, aren’t you afraid about our marriage being exposed one day?”
She stared at him with unease, then relaxed herself immediately.
“...maybe. The idea that my parents will think of me as a creep is so… blegh!”
“Not just that, imagine if the public found out about it; our whole careers will implode just in seconds and we’ll be seen as ‘that perverted badminton couple’. Damn it!!” Marcus threw down the towel aggressively. Nichelle, looking concerned, got close to him and hugged him tightly. Marcus was silent. He felt the warmth of her body, soothing him from his anger. She didn’t say it, but he knew what she meant to say was “I’m scared”.
Both of them stared intently at each other, not talking. Marcus swallowed his throat and said,
“We’ll go through this together.”
Nichelle nodded, and they kissed together. Her warm lips gave him a bliss of his mind, eroding away dreadful thoughts. They then stopped kissing, though he wished that her sweet lips would continue to embrace his.
“Not here,” she said softly, “maybe someone could come here unexpectedly. Let’s do it at home”
Nodding at her suggestion, both of the stood up from the floor and went out of the court, holding hands together.
“Hey Nichelle,” Marcus whispered, “are you going to be with me, even if the world hate us?”
“I’ll never abandon you, even if my parents want to lynch me,” she chuckled, “will you do the same for me?”
“I will, Nichelle, I will.”