Episode 1

Chapter 4

Ming arrived at his local court, filled with a desire to play. Normally, he would have been at school, training during this time of the evening however, that was no longer an option. A metal fence loomed in front of him as the night's court-lighting beamed onto the ground, illuminating the unusually well cleaned surface. Grimacing, he tried to ease himself of the memories looping within. After all, this was the same place where he had lost to Junhui yesterday.

Inside the court, a group of six people were playing already. He could easily slot in as a substitute. Ming walked over to the gate and tried to push it open. Instead, he found it was held shut by a larger boy with spiked hair, eyeing him with clear disdain.

“What you doing here?” The boy behind the gate asked through gritted teeth.

“I’m here to play basketball? This is my local court after all” Ming responded, slightly confused.

“No, I don’t think you understand your situation, schoolie-” he opened the gate and walked straight up to Ming, staring him down. He stood a clear head taller than Ming. “-You lost yesterday, which means you ain’t gonna play in here no more.”

“I don’t see how losing prevents me from playing here. This is a public court. Everyone has the right to play-” Ming could not finish as his aggressor shoved him hard, causing him to stumble back.

“You don’t get it. So I’ll tell you now. You nice kids from your pretty schools ain’t welcome around here-” he said as he cocked his mouth and spat on the pavement. “-Sure, you might have played here wit yo crew for the last two weeks but, now you lost. So get yo sorry ass outta here or I’ma get pissed.”

Cracking his knuckles, the boy stared at Ming, expecting him to make a move. Not wanting to escalate the situation further, Ming turned and headed back into the open street. An angry voice followed.

“Yo sorry ass lucky Purple Flash ain’t here tonight, else you’da been fucked up for real!”

I guess that must be Jun? Ming wondered to himself as he looked down at his phone screen. The time read 7:50pm. It had been almost an hour since he left his house, and his irritating desire to play had not been satisfied. Furthermore, his loss yesterday had now rendered him unable to use the local court to practise. Granted, he had not used it often, but now it remained the only location close by where he could feasibly play. Closing his eyes, he breathed out deeply. Everything truly was going downhill today.

The darkness of night began to close in, as Ming scoured the local area for a court to play on. He had walked for what seemed like hours, searching for an empty court, but to no avail. For some reason, the local government had only considered constructing this one court within his home’s vicinity. The rest he would have to go further out to find. Despite the late night, he continued searching until he reached a narrow street which led to seemingly nowhere. Deciding he had nothing to lose, Ming walked down, desperate to find a place to relieve his itch. There would be no going home until he could play.

To his surprise, the street opened into a small clearing that had a rusty basketball hoop and backboard at its far side. Its concrete floor, cracked in various places, with a puddle on the right side that stood below its single court light. It shone on the area below which barely constituted a basketball court. But for a desperate Ming, this was more than good enough. After all, beggars could not be choosers and heck, there was even a chain-link fence behind the hoop. Who cares if it had leaves poking through the holes; from the uncut trees of the dirt path that lay just beyond the fence. As far as Ming was concerned, it was a perfect court.

8:45pm, read the clock as Ming checked his phone again. He had around two hours to play. Smiling like an excited child, he placed his bag down by the side fence and proceeded into his usual practice routine. After stretching, Ming threw his ball into the air. Then, as it fell, he caught it with his right hand and bounced it to his left, before bursting to the basket and laying the ball in mid jump. After he had landed, he decided that the best skill to hone on this lonely night was his dribbling. This was followed by Ming, picking up the ball, and retreating to the three point line. Then, for the next half hour or so, an intense session of non-stop ball bouncing reverberated into the air.

After he had finished his third set of dribbles into layup or shooting variations, his mind wandered to memories of his team. It was around this point he would have got his team involved. Passing it to them mid-drill, finding their best shooting spots, how best to let them receive the ball; all to build the perfect chemistry and create a cohesive unit.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

As he bounced the ball between his left leg, and guided the ball behind his back into his right hand, a pang of sadness struck from within. His team, the team he had dedicated so much to, had not even tried to stop his exile. They had left him to dry, not one of them had come to check on his well-being, or even seemed to care when he went to talk to them. Even Xiaoli had hurried away. Instead, he had been thrown aside and replaced within the day. As if all the sacrifices had meant nothing. Sadness turned to anger, as Ming bounced the ball with such force, his hands began to hurt.

In a fit of rage, he flung the ball with all his might at the basket. It hit the backboard hard, bouncing off high into the air and far behind Ming. His face drifted downwards as his eyelids began to feel wet.

Psh, psh, psh.

His moment of emotion was quickly interrupted. It was the sound of his ball bouncing behind him. Turning quickly, his eyes were greeted by a strange sight.

There was someone casually bouncing his ball. He wore blue jeans that complemented his black hoodie, fitting a style that presented comfort over all. Wireless headphones lay across his head; which was covered in curly, silver hair that exuded a vibrant glow in the lone, court light. He wasn’t much taller than Ming, if at all.

“You sure put a lot of emotion in that shot,” he said, smiling from his pure face. He passed the ball back to Ming, and walked over to the side.

“Are you here to play?” Ming asked, catching the ball, slightly surprised at the sudden intrusion.

“Oh,-” the newcomer looked over from the side like someone who had just woken up. “-Sure, let’s do some shots.”

Ming proceeded to shoot the ball into the basket. Then, the silver-haired boy caught the rebound and shot too. This continued for a while, creating a rhythm that eased Ming of his worrisome thoughts.

Ming observed as the boy shot. He noticed the boy’s form was well disciplined, as if years of training had been drilled into the boy, in order to create such a precise shooting motion. It's certainly much nicer than mine, Ming thought to himself as the two continued the shooting drill. The more he observed, the more questions he gained. Why was he here so late at night? Why does he have no ball if he wants to play? And why is his shooting form so good? Eventually, curiosity got the better of Ming and, after the ball had fallen his way again, he suddenly caught it and paused.

“Um, so are you here to practise too?” Ming asked, wanting to satiate his curiosity.

“I guess, I am now,” the boy said, as he smiled back nervously.

“So, where's your ball then?”

“Oh, well, I wasn’t intending to play tonight, but since you offered I decided I would join in.”

“So, you came here without a ball and, if I was not here, you would have just stared at the basket?” Ming’s face scrunched in disbelief, as he stared at the newcomer.

The boy seemed to ponder his thoughts for a moment, as his kind eyes focused. Then, he turned to Ming and said

“Yeah, pretty much.” The boy smiled again, as Ming tried to contain his jaw from going limp with disbelief.

“Yunhai! You’re early today.”

A loud voice boomed from behind the two, saving them from an awkward moment. Yunhai turned to face the new voice and waved.

“Ximin~ you’re late.”

“It's only twenty past nine bro, we still have plenty of time.” Ximin said. Carrying a ball of his own, he walked up to the pair standing by the basket. From his Air Jordan 37s, to his night time tracksuit, complementing his lean figure which stood tall and proud on the court; Ximin’s every piece of being screamed: baller. Leaning over, he looked at Ming from at least a head and a half above. Ming could only stare at the chiselled jawline, contrasted at the side with deep black hair, which blocked his view.

“Oh? is this your friend?” Ximin asked the aloof Yunhai, who had started gazing at the sky for no apparent reason.

“Huh? Oh, this is…hey what's your name?” Yunhai looked at Ming, smiling again.

His smile is getting kind of annoying, does he even pay attention? Ming thought to himself as he responded “It's Ming, Lan Ming.”

“Pleased to meet you, Ming,” Ximin said. Ignoring Yunhai, he faced Ming and held out a hand. “We should always start with pleasantries, am I right?” Ming nodded and shook Ximin’s hand in return.

“Don’t mind Yunhai, sometimes he goes into his own world. He's not trying to be rude, it's just how he is.” Ximin said, clearly worried Yunhai had given a bad impression.

“It's fine, don’t worry about it,” Ming said, shaking his head slightly.

Maybe one of them is normal after all, he thought as he stood, watching the two people who had intruded onto his practise session.

“I’m guessing, you two are teammates?” Ming asked.

“Teammates? No-,” Ximin stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment, “-more like, he’s my coach.” Hearing this, Ming gagged and choked on the air. Whilst Yunhai did look like he could shoot the basketball, there was no way in hell he looked like he was a serious player. Especially not when compared to Ximin.

“We do attend the same school, but he's not on the team. Speaking of which-” Ximin’s lips curled into a wide grin “-aren’t you the schoolie from yesterday who lost to the Purple Flash?”

Ming’s eyes rolled upwards in frustration as he said “Is that Junhui’s street name? Were you there too? God, this is so embarrassing.”

“Hardly. On the contrary, I believe you played quite well. Especially for someone who no one had heard of until that match.” A wave of relief washed over Ming, as he was finally given some good news. It had been a long day.

Then, Ximin bounced his ball, as if testing its usability. Catching it on the bounce back, he checked it over thoroughly, with a look of excitement forming, as he continued

“Yes, the defence you played for the most part was very good, as were the two points you scored. They were very impressive indeed.”

Suddenly, Ximin dribbled over to the top of the three point line. As if on cue, Yunhai sighed and walked to the side of the court, shaking his head in disappointment. “So impressive in fact-” Ximin’s face twisted into a wild look, illuminated completely under the moonlit court “-I want to 1 on 1 you.”