Work Text:
“Better luck next time, Jinjin!”
Jinwoo stares at the notebook in front of him, the words on the paper not registering in his head because he only has one thing on his mind.
Soccer practice.
Today was the first day of the new season, and a new season meant working harder and kicking Oh Heejun’s soccer team’s butt this season. They always made it to the finals in the little league they were apart of, but every year, Jinwoo would always lose to him.
It made sense, he supposed, considering Jinwoo was coaching his team for financial aid purposes for university, meaning he wasn’t exactly the best coach to be training his team. He knew enough to make them good, but definitely not enough to make them the best.
Unlike Heejun, who had been a soccer star since the age of six, competing in everything and anything soccer related. He had trophies upon trophies in his parent’s house, and if not for an injury back in his last year of high school, Heejun could’ve gone to the big leagues.
Instead, now, he coaches one of his own teams, partly for financial aid purposes, and partly because he liked to live vicariously through his kids. One day, he hoped maybe they’d go onto the big leagues.
Jinwoo, however, only hoped for two things.
One, to have his team beat Heejun’s. He just wanted one year, one year where he could beat Heejun and gloat in his face during one of their classes together that his team won. He wanted to carry around the trophy and show all his friends who got first place. Heejun truly brought out the competitiveness in him, that was for sure.
The second thing, however, was he hoped he could finally get that cute guy’s number who stood on the sidelines, cheering for his nephew each soccer game. He had been around for two seasons now to watch his nephew play soccer and all the while trying to beat out anyone else’s cheering as the loudest fan. Jinwoo had been smitten since he first saw the guy smile, getting so distracted that one of the kids ended up kicking a ball right to his stomach.
Jinwoo had been teased nonstop ever since then, but eventually the teasing had to add up to something. Eventually he’d have to go ask for the guy’s – Myungjun, according to his nephew – number.
And this season?
This was the season to do it.
Jinwoo closes his notebook, shoving it into his backpack and pulling out his soccer notebook, the one where he writes all his plays down and his task list for their practice.
At the top of the page is words scrawled across the top “better luck next time, Jinjin.” Heejun’s words were going to be true this time.
Jinwoo and his team were going to win against Heejun, and he’d be the one telling him “better luck next time”.
Jinwoo was sure of it.
-
Jinwoo arrives at the practice field ten minutes late, his lungs feeling like they’re on fire from running so much. He had gotten out of class late and had to rush to the field, and that was never good. Jinwoo really wasn’t the best at running.
It had to be humorous, surely, considering he coached a bunch of little kids that ran around all day.
He drops his school bag, taking out his soccer notebook and rushing over to where Minhyuk, the assistant coach, was huddled up with the kids eating their predrill snack. He was lucky they ate snack before they practiced, or else Jinwoo would’ve missed quite a bit.
Collective cheers sound as the kids notice Jinwoo, and soon enough he’s being tackled to the ground by his team. Jinwoo doesn’t even mind, he hadn’t seen his kids in a few months, so being tackled and hearing their yells was almost soothing to his heart.
“You guys, come on, get off Jinjin hyung before he suffocates,” Minhyuk says, laughing at the scene before him. The kids scramble off of Jinwoo, quickly going back to their snacks but leaving an open space for Jinwoo to join their circle.
“How is everyone doing? We’re all doing well, right?” The kids all agree in unison, that yes, they’re doing well, and the smile that spreads across Jinwoo’s face is full of delight. He’s happy his team is doing well.
As he takes rollcall, making sure everyone is there, he notices on kid missing. He looks around, hoping maybe to see them on the sidelines hanging around one of the parents that bother to stay, but he doesn’t see them. He doesn’t want to hold up practice long for said kid, and luckily, he doesn’t have to. Right when the kids are done with their snack, he sees two people running towards the field, hand in hand.
Jinwoo tries not to smile when he notices it’s Myungjun and his nephew.
“Ahh! Sorry, sorry, we’re late! I just got out of class and their was so much traffic, but I’m here! We’re here!” Myungjun stops right in front of Jinwoo, grinning at him with that bright smile that’s so terribly distracting as he explains the situation.
“It’s okay. We were just about to start,” Jinwoo says. Myungjun nods his head and breathes a sigh of relief before letting go of his nephew’s hand and letting him go take his position for drills. Jinwoo watches him walk to the sidelines, setting up his usual spot to watch their practice.
“Hyung, come on, pay attention. Stop thinking about ways to flirt with Myungjun hyung,” Minhyuk says. Jinwoo turns to him, seeing the smirk on his face.
“I am not- shut up, Minhyuk.”
Practice goes well, only two minor injuries (on Jinwoo, Minhyuk and the kids laughed at him when he tripped) and only one kid had to leave early. Besides that, Jinwoo was excited. The season was going to go well, he knew it. Not only was Minhyuk excited, he was excited and the kids were more than happy to cheer when Jinwoo asked if they wanted to win finals.
And they were going to win finals, he was so sure of it this season. He wasn’t going to let his team down this year. He refused.
“Oppa…” Jinwoo looks down at one of the girls on his team who is tugging at the hem of his shirt. He crouches down to her height so he can hear what she has to say.
“Yes?”
“Are you going to ask MJ oppa on a date?” Jinwoo is taken aback for a second. He looks around, hoping no one else is in on this conversation. Of course, that was stupid to expect. Of course all the other kids were in on it. Of course they’d ask the most talkative person on the team to ask Jinwoo.
He shakes his head at all the kids staring at him from where they’re standing, drinking from their water bottles and pretending as if they’re not waiting for good news.
“Why would I do that?” Jinwoo asks innocently. He could play their game.
“Because we all know you liiiiiikkkkeee him. You could have a picnic on the field! We can tell him you want a date with him!”
Jinwoo wants a new team. Jinwoo definitely wants a new team. A new team that wasn’t trying to set him up with Myungjun, because he could do that himself. In ten years, sure, but that was still by himself.
“I don’t like- you can’t tell him.” The girl looks appalled and crosses her arms, pouting.
“Why not?!”
“Because if you tell him… I’ll get cooties. You don’t want me to get cooties, do you?”
“Ew, no!”
“Then you can’t tell him,” Jinwoo says. “The only way I won’t get cooties if I tell him myself. Okay?”
She nods her head and promises not to say anything to Myungjun before running off to tell her teammates. Jinwoo lets out a sigh of relief, standing up and walking over to Minhyuk. Jinwoo was hoping to get Myungjun’s number, but he had to do it himself. He couldn’t let the kids do it for him.
“Cooties, huh?”
“Shut up, Minhyuk.”
-
“Jinwoo!”
It’s Thursday morning and Jinwoo is beat. Their first game is today, and Jinwoo isn’t prepared. For the game, for the assignments he has to finish by four, nor the person calling out his name. He lifts his head from where it’s resting on his arms and looks to his left, seeing Heejun grinning down at him.
“Hey, bud- Woah, you look like crap,” Heejun says. Jinwoo makes a groaning sound before putting his head back where it belongs. “Long week, huh? Is practice going okay?”
“Mm.”
“You ready for your game today?” Heejun asks.
Jinwoo makes another groaning sound. He wasn’t ready for anything today. It’s not like they weren’t going to win; they always won their first game, but Jinwoo was tired. He had stayed up the past two nights trying to finish an essay that he had procrastinated on that was due this class period. He didn’t mean to procrastinate, but being busy with the kids and with helping his best friend, Dongmin, tutor some of the high school kids (Minhyuk included), it was tiring. Not to mention he had three other class he needed to do work for.
It was all so much. He wanted to go home and take a nap after his classes, but in doing so he knows he’ll just sleep right through the game.
“Don’t worry, buddy. I’ll be there, I’ll cheer your kids on and you’ll win. Just like you always do.” Heejun puts a supportive hand on Jinwoo’s shoulder, and he’s glad that off the field, they could be friendly like this. He’s glad that Heejun doesn’t try and bring him down, and usually only boosts him up.
Definitely not for the final game of the season, but that’s expected, because Jinwoo doesn’t boost him up either when that comes around.
“Do you think you could also maybe do this assignment for my next class-
“Ah, nope. I draw the line there, you know I do.” Jinwoo laughs a little at Heejun’s words.
“Okay, maybe just take notes that I can copy later then?” Jinwoo asks. Heejun grins at him.
“That, I can do.”
Jinwoo wakes up two hours later, being shaken awake by Heejun. He wants him to go away, to let him sleep longer, but Heejun doesn’t stop.
So, with a little more coercing, Jinwoo gets up and gathers his things, shoving them into his bag haphazardly and following Heejun to the door. Heejun tells him he’ll see him later at the game, and Jinwoo waves goodbye to him before heading off to his next class.
Unfortunately, the day just seems to get worse and worse because the moment he steps into the building where his class is at, he collides with someone, knocking them both to the ground. It wakes Jinwoo up enough to help them collect their stuff, and it wakes him up even more when he sees who it is.
Jinwoo takes it back, his day is great. Nothing is wrong with his day, especially since Myungjun is grinning at him.
“Hey, Coach Park! Fancy seeing you here,” he says. He stands up, and Jinwoo follows suit, dusting himself off a little.
“Yeah, I know. I didn’t know you went here…” Jinwoo pauses a moment, frowning. Coach Park. That sounded weird coming out of Myungjun’s mouth. “You can call me Jinwoo, you know.”
“Right, right, Jinwoo. Park Jinwoo! Guess you don’t know a lot about me, do you if you didn’t know I went here too?”
“Would love to know some more stuff, but I have a class in ten minutes…”
“Maybe you should talk to me at practice, then. I’m always there, you know,” Myungjun says. He sidesteps Jinwoo, giving him a path to his next class. Jinwoo nods his head. Of course he knew Myungjun was always there. He couldn’t keep his eyes off him half the time.
“I’ll have to talk to you next time, then.” Jinwoo begins walking, but not before remembering that there’s a game. He had to know if Myungjun was coming. He turns back around, calling out Myungjun’s name. Luckily, he’s only halfway out the door and he looks back at Jinwoo, curiosity written on his face.
“Are you coming to the game today?” Myungjun smiles.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
-
Jinwoo manages to move along through his classes without falling asleep again, and even manages to finish all the assignments he wanted to get done before the game at four. He’s glad he won’t have to worry about it later, because he knows for a fact the moment he’s home, he’s going to sleep.
He happily heads to the field with Minhyuk after he gets out of class, setting up the goals and getting out everything needed for the game. Soon enough, the teams are arriving, and Jinwoo is briefing them about what to do, telling them they have this, before sending them off onto the field.
“Don’t look so nervous, Jinwoo. You know they’re going to win,” Heejun tells him from where they’re standing on the sidelines. Jinwoo crosses his arms and nods his head.
“Yeah, I know. I know they are.”
From the other side of the field, Jinwoo hears screaming as his team is heading for the goal with the ball. He immediately recognizes who is screaming, because of course the one who is in control of the ball right now is his nephew.
Myungjun cheers and cheers until his nephew makes the goal, shooting it straight past the goalie and into the net. The other parents erupt into applause, and the kids cheer around Myungjun’s nephew.
Watching Myungjun cheer puts Jinwoo at ease, and he visibly relaxes, knowing the game would go well as long as Myungjun was cheering. He feels energized, as if he hadn’t only gotten a few hours of sleep last night and earlier in class.
He was good to go now, definitely, and his team was going to win.
Jinwoo is sure of it.
The first game goes about as swimmingly as Jinwoo expects. His team scores five goals, winning over the other team’s two. He lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding when it’s announced his team won and he grins when they all come rushing over to him to pull him into a team hug. He’s happy, his team is happy, and he can see the parents smiling from the sidelines.
And now, as he finishes up taking things down by himself, Minhyuk having gone to dance practice, he lets out another breath.
His team won their first game, and it could only go uphill from there.
Soon, his team would be winning finals against Heejun’s team, and Jinwoo was going to get Myungjun’s number. There was no doubt in his mind that he’d score both of his goals.
-
During practice one day, after the second and third game of the season has been won, Myungjun’s nephew gets injured. Myungjun had rushed over, worried as ever, but finding out it wasn’t anything really terrible, Jinwoo had managed to calm him down.
Unfortunately, though, he had to be the bearer of bad news as well. He couldn’t let an injured kid, even if it was just a twisted ankle, play in the upcoming games. Myungjun had been upset but eventually agreed. He wasn’t going to let his nephew play even if he wanted to.
The worst thing about it, is that Myungjun’s nephew had been one of their best players. He always scored at least two of their goals during their games, and, without him, they were bound to score less.
Jinwoo is right when his team loses their fourth and sixth game. They barely managed to win the fifth game, only winning by one point. Without one of their best players, Jinwoo wasn’t sure they’d win the next game. If they lost a third game, especially this next one, his team couldn’t be placed in the semi-finals.
But he was still letting Myungjun’s nephew rest. He wanted him to be in tip top shape, not in partially good shape where his injury could get worse.
He was stressed thinking about it. Their seventh game was important, and he couldn’t let his team lose after hyping them up so much about winning finals.
He couldn’t do that to them.
Jinwoo lays on the field, going over drills in his head, trying to think of ways that maybe they could not lose the next game, but it just makes him more frustrated as he thinks about it. He needed to get his mind off of it, off of the team and soccer in general.
“Fancy seeing you here.” Jinwoo sits up quickly at the voice, looking up at Myungjun. He has that signature grin on his face.
“…I should be saying that to you.”
“Mm, nope. That’s my thing.” Jinwoo laughs.
“Right, of course. What are you doing here, though?” He asks. Myungjun plops down across from him, setting his bag down on the grass.
“I wanted to talk.”
“To me?” Jinwoo tries not to get his hopes up about this sort of thing, but Myungjun wanted to talk to him. How could he not get his hopes up?
“…you’re the coach, of course I wanted to talk to you. It’s about my nephew.” Jinwoo visibly deflates. Of course he wanted to talk about soccer. The one thing Jinwoo wanted to get off his mind.
“Myungjun, I’m sorry, I’m not letting him play-
“He’s fine, I swear! I swear, he went to the doctor today, and his mom told me that he was good to go for the next game.” Jinwoo doesn’t look totally convinced in the least. He still doesn’t want to jump up on the “he’s all better bandwagon” but Myungjun was getting increasingly hard to say no to.
“Come on, Jinwoo. His parents can only come to the next game, and I think it’d be really good if he could play. Please? I’ll pay you back in food. I’ll take you out to eat.”
Jinwoo perks up at that offer. “You’ll take me out to eat?”
“Yes. Any food you want.”
Jinwoo weighs his options. He could outright say no, and make Myungjun upset, or he could say yes, get taken out for dinner, and possibly get his number while they’re there.
The game was next week anyways, which gave plenty of time for Myungjun’s nephew to rest up just a little bit more before the game. It’d be fine. It’d be fine, they’d win, and Myungjun would treat him to dinner.
“Fine. Deal. Take me out to dinner and he can play.” Myungjun grins at Jinwoo.
“Deal. Tomorrow, after practice, okay?” Jinwoo and Myungjun shake on it, and Jinwoo feels butterflies when he holds hands with Myungjun for those few seconds.
“Tomorrow after practice.”
-
“What’s got you looking so happy?” Jinwoo looks up at Minhyuk as he drops his backpack next to his own. Jinwoo only smiles at him, continuing to put air into the soccer balls at his feet. Minhyuk continues to eye him suspiciously, but Jinwoo pays him no mind. He was being treated to dinner later, by Myungjun of all people and that was going to stay his and Myungjun’s little secret.
Until Myungjun and his nephew got there of course. Myungjun waves at Jinwoo from the sidelines, and almost immediately his nephew is rushing over to the other kids, explaining that my uncle and Jinjin hyung were going on a date. Thus, leading to all the kids crowding around Jinwoo, cheering in excitement for their coach.
“Guys, guys, it is not a date.” Minhyuk laughs next to him.
“It’s totally a date guys.”
“It’s not- Minhyuk, shut up-
“Jinjin hyung, that means you won’t get cooties, right?” One of the girls asks. Jinwoo sighs and nods his head.
“Yes, I won’t get cooties.”
Jinwoo distracts himself with the soccer balls again, looking up at Myungjun when the kids aren’t paying attention. He has a soft smile on his face directed at Jinwoo, and Jinwoo thinks his heart stops a little bit.
Only a little.
Unfortunately, when the end of practice comes, and most of the kids have packed up, Myungjun and his nephew are hurriedly rushing off to Myungjun’s car, not even bothering to look back at Jinwoo as they leave.
His heart feels a little heavy as he watches them leave, not sure what was happening. There wasn’t even an explanation, and Jinwoo feels like he was stood up.
Jinwoo was totally just stood up.
“Hyung, hey, I have to get to practice but Myungjun-
“Left, I know.”
“Yeah. He also left this for you.” Minhyuk hands over a slip of paper, patting Jinwoo on the back. “Told me he had to go finish a paper or something by tonight, so he said not to use that until tomorrow.”
Jinwoo looks down at the paper, seeing a number scrawled across it and a short note from Myungjun.
:( sorry I had to ditch!!! Text me and we can try again!! -Myungjun <3
“Wait, he left this for me?” Jinwoo asks. Minhyuk rolls his eyes.
“Of course he did. Not like he was going on a date with anyone else, hyung. I have to go. I’ll see you later, okay?” Jinwoo nods, waving goodbye to Minhyuk as he heads off to dance practice. He takes another look down at the note, a smile spreading across his face at the number staring back at him.
He got Myungjun’s number. Myungjun wanted him to text him tomorrow and set up another day to go out. Myungjun gave Jinwoo his number.
Jinwoo throws a fist up in the air in victory, because he had achieved one of his goals for the season.
Now all that was left was to beat Heejun in the finals.
-
Jinwoo swears Myungjun must be a lucky charm or something, because ever since he’s started texting him, he’s only had good day after good day. One day he found money on the ground, another he got test results back telling him he got a perfect score, another day one of the kids he helped to tutor told him they got into their number one choice university, and, another day, the day of their seventh game, his team won.
Jinwoo remembered Myungjun cheering so loudly, beating out any other parent or attendee that might have been trying to cheer. He boosted their team spirits up, boosted Jinwoo’s spirits up, and Jinwoo had no doubt in his mind that Myungjun was their teams lucky charm.
He was Jinwoo’s lucky charm.
And, as semi-finals came and went, Jinwoo’s team beating the other by four points (and Myungjun cheering just as loudly at the last game) Jinwoo hoped he’d be able to stick around even after the season was done. He wanted Myungjun to continue being around him, bringing his spirits and his luck up every day.
“You busy tonight?” Jinwoo asks when Myungjun is packing up his things and the kids are messing around on the field with Minhyuk, trying to stop him from making a fourth goal in a row.
“Mm… Not that I know of. Why?” Myungjun smiles at Jinwoo, and Jinwoo tries to keep his heart from leaping right off the bench on the sidelines and into Myungjun’s face.
“Dinner. You, uh, you promised me dinner. And, since your nephew kind of helped us win semi-finals the other day… I feel like you definitely owe me.”
“Kind of helped? You know he was the star of that game.”
“It’s a team effort, Myungjun,” Jinwoo says, laughing. Myungjun laughs with him, before reaching a hand out to place on his shoulder.
“Dinner tonight. I’ll text you the place and meet you there after dropping my nephew off, okay? Sound good?” Jinwoo nods.
“Yeah. Sounds good.”
After cleaning the field up and putting everything away, Jinwoo rushes off to meet up with Myungjun at the restaurant, heading straight in when he sees him talking to the waiter at the front.
“Hey,” Jinwoo says, tapping him on the shoulder. Myungjun grins at him.
“Hey, fancy seeing you here. I was just getting our table.”
The waiter leads them to said table, sitting them down and placing two menus in front of them. They get drinks, and as they wait, Myungjun and Jinwoo talk.
They talk about normal things college students would talk about, school, Myungjun’s part time job, Myungjun’s dog (that Jinwoo totally asks if he can meet some time), Jinwoo’s friend Dongmin, who is only doing the tutoring because there’s this other tutor, Moon Bin, who Dongmin can’t work up the courage to ask out but likes to be around him. Myungjun finds it funny and almost chokes on a piece of steak as he laughs.
It’s nice, talking and being with Myungjun like this. It feels like a date, but definitely not a first one. More like a third or fourth one, and at the thought of that, Jinwoo smiles. He’d love to have more dates with Myungjun.
“You nervous for the final game?” Myungjun suddenly asks. Jinwoo looks up from the ice cream he’s eating and shrugs.
“I’m always nervous. Heejun’s team has beat my team every season. And you know, he’s a soccer prodigy, so, what isn’t there to be nervous about?”
“Well, hey,” Myungjun reaches across the table, grabbing one of Jinwoo’s hands. “He’s not going to win this year. Because I’ll be cheering from the sidelines, louder than any other time, and your kids will be working their butts off to win. They’re going to win.”
“Yeah?” Jinwoo smiles fondly at Myungjun.
“Yeah. I bet you… another meal that they’ll win. If they do, you have to treat me. If they lose, I’ll treat you again. You know, to soften the pain.”
Jinwoo laughs, and together, they make another deal, shaking hands. This time though, Myungjun doesn’t let go when they’re done. Jinwoo doesn’t find himself minding.
-
It’s the day of the final game.
Jinwoo got a decent amount of sleep the night before. Myungjun texted him a “I’ll see you at the game later!!!” earlier in the morning, and Dongmin had finally asked Moon Bin out on a date at their tutoring session today.
Today was going to be a good day. Jinwoo was going to have a good time, he was going to see Myungjun, he was going to kiss Myungjun’s cheek maybe, he was going to do his best with his kids, and he was going to take them out for celebratory dinner when they won.
Finally, Jinwoo and his team were going to beat Heejun’s.
He heads to the field after his last class, preparing the goals and making sure the soccer balls were ready for the game. The kids arrive and start drills immediately with each other, Jinwoo watching and approving of their moves. Minhyuk arrives eventually, as well, taking over for Jinwoo in drills as he goes to greet Heejun who had arrived just then as well.
“Jinjin!” Heejun grins at him when they make eye contact, and Jinwoo jogs over to him. He can’t spend a lot of time on him, really, because they both still had to prep their teams a little more before the game.
“Made it to finals again, buddy,” Heejun says.
“As always. This time will be different, though.” Heejun cocks an eyebrow in interest at Jinwoo, curios about what could possibly be different about this time around.
“And what’s that?” He asks.
“This time my team is winning.”
Heejun laughs at Jinwoo, but doesn’t say anything, only offering him a friendly handshake between them. Jinwoo could tell he respected his words, and knew their teams were both going to do their best.
He walks back over to his team, getting ready to have their pregame talk, but not before he’s stopped by someone grabbing his hand and pulling him back. When he looks back to see who it is, he sees his friend, Dongmin, grinning at him next to Moon Bin and a face he hadn’t seen before.
“Hey, you came!” Jinwoo grins at his friend, hugging him quickly and pulling away lest Bin’s glare ends his life now.
“Of course I did.”
“Who’s your friend?” Jinwoo asks, gesturing to the boy next to Moon Bin.
“Sanha. He’s one of the new kids going to tutoring. He actually plays soccer at his school, Jinwoo. You should see him play.”
Jinwoo smiles at the boy who grins back at him with two rows of teeth covered in braces. He’s cute, and Jinwoo would love to watch him play soccer sometime. Maybe he could bring Heejun along and they could watch together.
Or, even Myungjun, if he wanted to watch anyone but his nephew play.
“I’ll come watch sometime. I gotta get back to my team now, though,” Jinwoo says, beginning to step backwards away from his friend. Dongmin waves at him.
“Good luck, hyung! I’m rooting for your team!”
Jinwoo waves goodbye and rushes back to his team who are already huddled around Minhyuk. A spot is open for Jinwoo, waiting for him to join the circle, and he happily joins in, starting their pregame talk.
He wishes them well, tells them they can do it, that they can totally beat Heejun’s team this time around. Jinwoo tells them there’s no doubt in his mind that they’ll win, and after Minhyuk agrees, giving them his own words of encouragement, they’re putting their hands into the middle of the circle, letting out a loud cheer before running off to their positions on the field.
Jinwoo is about to get into his own position on the sidelines, but someone is tapping at his shoulder to get his attention. He turns around to see Myungjun smiling at him, looking almost bashful.
“Myungjun? Hey. Aren’t you going to get to your usual spot?”
“Yeah, it’s already being saved but- I needed to give you something.”
“Give me something?” Myungjun nods and asks Jinwoo to close his eyes. Jinwoo does as he says, and suddenly, a kiss is being placed on his cheek. It’s quick and gone in an instant, and when Jinwoo opens his eyes, Myungjun is already halfway down the sidelines.
“Good luck, Jinwoo! Your team is definitely going to win!”
Jinwoo stares after him, a smile breaking across his face so big it could barely be contained.
They were going to win. Jinwoo’s team was going to win.
-
Jinwoo feels like he’s moving in slow motion.
He watches as one of his kids kicks the ball towards the goal, the time on the clock less than ten seconds. He watches it soar through the air, watches as the goalie for Heejun’s team misses it and it goes right past him. He watches the ball hit the back of the net, and then a horn is being blown, announcing the end of the game.
Jinwoo looks to the scoreboard, seeing exactly what he thinks he’s seeing, and then turns to the kids who are all running at him like there’s no tomorrow.
He gets tackled to the ground, kid on top of kid on top of him and Minhyuk, and he feels like crying.
They won. His team won. They scored the last goal, right before the time ended. They scored one more point than Heejun’s team.
They beat Heejun’s team.
Jinwoo definitely feels the tears. He can barely register any of the kids screams or their cheers, too busy trying to stop himself from crying.
He couldn’t help it though. His team won, they won against Heejun’s team. Jinwoo was so stupidly happy.
Eventually the kids are being pulled off of him and Minhyuk, and they get up, going over to the trophy givers. They give Jinwoo the trophy and hand Minhyuk plenty of medals for the kids to have, all of them saying “1st place”. Jinwoo meets Heejun in the middle of the field when the kids are bowing to each other, telling each other it was a good game.
“Good job, Jinjin. You really did it this time- oh my god, you’re crying? Stop it. You’ll make me cry.” Heejun hits at his shoulder, and Jinwoo can’t help pulling him into a hug.
“It was a good game. Real close.”
“Yeah, but I knew you were going to win the whole time,” Heejun says, pulling away from the hug. “Your boyfriend gave you a good luck kiss. How was my team ever going to win against that?”
As if on cue, Myungjun comes into Jinwoo’s line of sight, and he starts crying again at seeing him. Jinwoo knows his kids worked hard, he knows really they were the ones who won the game, but he can’t help but think Myungjun really was their good luck charm. If he hadn’t been there, cheering on the kids, yelling encouraging words at them whenever they passed by him, he wasn’t sure they really would’ve won.
“Your team won! I told you they would.” Myungjun grins at him, but his face falls a second later seeing the tears running down his cheeks. “Oh my god, are you crying? Why? You won! You should be celebrating!”
Jinwoo mumbles a “good job” to Heejun before moving onto Myungjun, wrapping him up in a hug with the trophy between them.
“I’m just really happy right now. We won.”
“Yeah, you won. Don’t be a crybaby, Jinwoo. You should be smiling with your team.”
Jinwoo nods his head, sniffling a little. If Myungjun asked, he’d stop crying and smile, especially if it was for his team.
“We couldn’t have won without you,” Jinwoo says.
“I didn’t do anything. You were the coach. You did everything, helping them win.”
“No, you were the good luck charm. You cheered them on and me- you helped us win.” Jinwoo pulls away, smiling at Myungjun. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Myungjun smiles back. “I should’ve kissed you two seasons ago then. Then you would’ve won finals three times in a row.”
Jinwoo laughs and pulls Myungjun back into their hug. “You definitely should’ve kissed me two seasons ago.”
“I’ll make up for it, yeah? How about we start with you treating me to that meal you owe me,” Myungjun says. Jinwoo feels him kiss his ear, laughing a little into it as Jinwoo hugs him tighter.
“It’s a deal.”