Basketball System: Rebound of the Underdog

"Ah, my head hurts," Kun said, holding onto his temples as he woke up from the floor.

"I'm not drinking ever again," Zeren continued. "Did I say something stupid last night?"

Kai, on the other hand, was just in a daze. "Why do I have a blanket?" he asked.

Shang turned to him with a frown. "Yeah, what the heck? Didn't we all fall asleep here? Why do you have a thick-ass blanket?"

Kai shrugged and held it closer to his chest. "It smells nice," he whispered.

Lina, who was preparing some food in the kitchen, shook her head as she heard the chaos from the living room.

"Those idiots," she muttered. "They only drank banana milk."

"Should I tell them?" she asked herself.

Then, she shook her head. "Let's not burst their bubble for now."

Yuze, who appeared bright and well-rested, looked at his teammates in confusion.

"Well, you all look like horse shit," he said, making the team groan.

"Don't say that," Jinping said. "We already feel bad as it is."

Just then, Lina went out of the kitchen and placed some steaming hot red soup in the middle of the table.

"There," she said with crossed arms. "I reckoned you wanted something spicy and warm."

The players looked at Lina with bright, wide eyes.

"You're the best," Zeren said.

Shang and Jet, too, looked at her with teary eyes. "How come you know us so well?" Shang asked.

Lina shook her head in amusement. "Come on. We still have half a day before we leave this place. Let's make the most of it and have you guys train."

The team groaned, but with one glare from Lina, they all shut up and started eating the soup with gusto.

With that, Lina went back to the kitchen to grab her own serving.

However, she didn't realize that someone had snuck up to her.

"Can we talk?"

Lina jumped in surprise, nearly knocking over her bowl.

Fortunately, the intruder held onto her elbow to stabilize her posture, saving the bowl in the process. Enjoy more content from empiren/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Lina looked up and saw Kai. Well, his chin and hair-covered nose, that is.

However, despite this, his lips were still visible, and they were close—dangerously close to hers.

She stopped for a moment and gulped.

"Are you alright?" Kai asked.

Lina followed the motion of his lips before her eyes widened in realization.

"What the heck am I doing?" she muttered before gently pushing Kai away.

Then, she cleared her throat and looked away from him.

She had been ignoring him for the past day, but now, it seemed like she had to face reality.

"Kai," she said in a professional tone.

Kai couldn't help but smile since she found her really cute.

"Can you talk to me now? Are you done ignoring me?" he asked.

Lina clicked her tongue and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I'm always ready to talk to you. What made you assume that I was ignoring you?"

"Well, after the kiss—"

Lina's eyes widened, and she quickly went to Kai and covered his lips with both hands.

Kai's eyebrows raised in surprise while Lina glared at him.

"Don't even say the k-word," she warned.

Kai stepped back, loosening Lina's hold.

"The kiss?" he asked, making Lina grow even redder.

"Yes!" she exclaimed. "That word. Don't say that word."

Kai scratched the back of his head.

"Well, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry," he started off, causing Lina's breath to get caught in the back of her throat.

'Did he regret it?' she thought.

"I really didn't mean to do it," he continued, making Lina hold her breath. "I was just trying to escape the chaos when I fell to the ground. I didn't realize that you fell on top of me and our lips...touched," he muttered.

"Don't feel too bad about it. It was—"

"We should just forget about it," Lina said, causing Kai to halt.

The two of them were silent for a few moments, feeling strangely breathless with their close proximity.

"Forget...," Kai muttered. "Hmm, you want to forget about it."

No.

It was my first kiss.

"Yeah," Lina awkwardly chuckled. "As you said, it was an accident. You didn't mean it. Our lips only touched. We didn't kiss!"

Kai pursed his lips and placed his hands inside his pocket.

Meanwhile, Lina continued speaking.

"We should just forget about it..." Lina concluded.

"...right?" she suddenly asked, sounding unsure. She gazed at Kai with wide eyes, but the latter had his eyes focused on the scenery outside.

Please say no.

"Yeah, I guess," Kai said, agreeing with what she said.

"Forget," he muttered. "I'll forget about it."

Lina pursed his lips before smiling widely.

"Well, that's settled then," she chuckled while offering her hand. "Let's not be awkward around each other anymore, okay?"

Kai, too, chuckled and shook her hand.

He could now look into her eyes, making Lina nod in defeat.

Right, this is for the better.

"Anyway, how'd you like the soup I made?" she asked.

Kai pursed his lips. "The other boys ate it all up. However, it's okay. My head doesn't hurt anyway."

Lina raised her eyebrows. "Why would your head hurt in the first place?"

Kai's eyes widened before he chuckled awkwardly.

"We talked too long last night, so we didn't get enough sleep," he said, making up an excuse.

"Hmm, I see," Lina suspiciously said.

Kai chuckled once more. "Should we head back? You told us that we still have to train this morning, right?"

"Yeah," Lina said, finishing her last bite.

The two of them made their way back to the living room. However, before they arrived there, Lina held onto Kai's bicep.

Kai turned to her. "Is there something else you want to say?"

Lina nodded. "Your potential," she said, making Kai's eyebrows to furrow.

He fully faced Lina out of curiosity.

"What about my potential?" he asked.

"I think there's a lot more than I had anticipated," she said, finally revealing what she really thought of Kai's skills.

"I think you already know that I can read other people's potentials," she continued.

"I've heard," Kai said. "It's honestly amazing."

"The first time we met, I thought you had a low potential index. However, after this training camp, I realized that your potential is higher than everybody else's."

Kai couldn't believe his ears.

Had he improved so much?

"Even more than Yuze's," she continued, making Kai even more shocked.

"Are you sure?" he chuckled. "Does Yuze even know of this?"

Lina remained serious as she said the next words.

"Yuze was the one who said this."