Forced to Date 3 Alphas in a Comic: Chapter 7

Forced to Date 3 Alphas in a Comic: Chapter 7: Successfully Joining the Basketball Team

He didn’t even register it when the final whistle blew. The thud of a three-pointer dropping through the net. Mi Yu landed and his mind was still slightly blank. It was over? That fast? He hadn’t even gotten his fill yet. Chao Xun was nearly dead on his feet. Mi Yu’s speed and reaction time were so far above the previous teammates he had played with that Chao Xun had been sprinting at full capacity the entire time, simultaneously keeping track of the opponents’ movements and the ball’s trajectory. These ten minutes had left him more exhausted than the twenty minutes before. He genuinely had nothing left. He hadn’t eaten dinner, and if they made him play another five minutes he would drop. Clap. Clap. Clap. Applause came from the sideline. Xie Qian Yi was standing beside the scoreboard clapping, a lazy smile on his face. “Very good. Better than I imagined.” Mi Yu looked over. The scoreboard read: 28:9. A ten-minute game and they had won by nineteen points, nearly double what the coach had set as the target. It was also the highest score Mi Yu had personally put up in a single quarter. Of those 28 points, 21 had been his. His feelings right now were complicated. The thought that the high that had broken his own record had been delivered by the very person who had contaminated a year and a half of his high school life gave him a strange sense of conflict, like falling for his own enemy. Ugh, what a terrible comparison. Mi Yu cursed inwardly. Have I lost my mind? The watching teammates applauded and cheered along. The losing side looked unhappy, but the worst of all was Wang Nan, who felt he should find a crack in the floor and disappear into it. That had been possibly the worst game he had ever played. And yet he had told himself to stay calm, to win no matter what. How had it come to this…… The onlooking teammates hadn’t noticed Wang Nan’s state of mind. The electrifying game had excited them all, and now they were crowding around Chao Xun with congratulations. “That was incredible!” “You played great just now!” “Come be on my team sometime, I want a game with you.” Mi Yu, standing nearby, did not look pleased at this. I’m not done playing yet. It’s not your turn, he scoffed inwardly. Chao Xun smiled and responded to a few of them, but didn’t lose sight of his objective. He took a few steps to put himself in front of Mi Yu and asked with careful, hopeful eyes: “Mi Yu, classmate, was my performance just now okay?” Mi Yu looked down at him with a lofty expression, seeming about to say something cutting, but held it back at the last moment. What came out in the end was a single stiff sentence: “Barely keeping up, I suppose.” Then he walked away. Chao Xun watched his retreating figure, thinking he still wanted to ask whether he could continue to pursue him. Given how much stimulation he had already thrown at Mi Yu tonight, he decided to find another moment. Zhuang Xu had deliberately sat out the game specifically so he could stand on the side and record. Phone still in hand, he was taking a moment to come back to himself. Mi-ge was terrifying. He glanced quietly at Mi Yu, whose expression kept shifting, then at Chao Xun bent over with his hands on his knees catching his breath, and thought: if I had been out there, could I have scored that high too? The players from both sides had already thrown their arms around each other and were making peace. Mi Yu was still standing in place locked in internal conflict. He glanced over at Chao Xun catching his breath nearby, thought about how terrible that stamina was, then thought about whether there might be another game soon. Probably not. He gave a quiet click of his tongue. Xie Qian Yi came over with a smile, extending his hand to Chao Xun: “Welcome to the basketball team, classmate Chao Xun.” Chao Xun immediately straightened up and shook his hand: “Thank you for your recognition, Coach. I look forward to learning from you.” He snuck a quick look at Mi Yu. Good. Expression complicated, but no verbal objection. Xie Qian Yi: “Don’t celebrate yet. You’re only a reserve member for now. Your stamina is too poor to count as a full pass.” Chao Xun: “Please train me as hard as you want, Coach. I promise to take everything seriously.” Xie Qian Yi couldn’t help laughing: “Asking for devil training? Alright. Every single day from now on.” Chao Xun: “……Including Saturdays and Sundays?” Xie Qian Yi: “Of course. Is that a problem?” Chao Xun: “No no no, that’s fine!” It had been a long time since he had pushed this hard for anything. Xie Qian Yi gathered the team members who were present and announced: “New team member, Chao Xun. He’ll be training with everyone from now on.” The teammates exchanged glances. Chao Xun? Had they heard that right? Wasn’t this Mi Yu’s obsessive fan? Every pair of eyes turned toward Mi Yu in unison. The campus heartthrob was bouncing a ball by himself nearby, paying no attention to the questioning looks. Feeling the strange, tense silence, Chao Xun had a premonition. If he didn’t say something to shake off the obsessive fan label right now, things might get awkward for him going forward. He thought carefully, then raised his voice slightly: “Senior teammates!” Give them all a little cap to wear first. With their attention on him, he shifted into a serious expression and spoke with sincere feeling: “I know the way I behaved before has given everyone reason to doubt me. But after a week of deep reflection, I’ve come to understand my mistakes. I worked up the courage to walk onto this court today not just because I love basketball, but also as a form of making amends. Most of you saw the friendly match just now. I’m not here to slack off. I will use my perseverance and my ability to prove myself to all of you!” By the end his expression was resolute, the rims of his eyes and his cheeks faintly flushed. What a resounding speech. Xie Qian Yi stood to the side listening to the new team member’s heartfelt words and couldn’t hold back a laugh. He very graciously began to applaud: “Alright, everyone heard that. Let go of any preconceptions going forward and get along.” The teammates hesitated, then followed with uncertain applause. The atmosphere eased considerably, but Chao Xun knew he had only cleared the first hurdle. Going forward he would need to be careful about how he presented himself within the team, and keep his distance from Mi Yu to avoid being suspected of ulterior motives again. Even though he absolutely had them. But he had to play it well. He casually glanced in Mi Yu’s direction, trying to gauge his reaction to the speech. Good. He had moved even further away. The shift in his identity and attitude had been too fast and had put Mi Yu more on guard than before. But this was only the second day. Fishing required patience. Chao Xun decided to focus first on building good relationships with the teammates. Group dynamics mattered too. And now that he was on the team, he needed to carry himself like a team member. Building up his stamina was the real work. After the other players dispersed, Xie Qian Yi said to Chao Xun: “First day, so I’ll take it easy on you. Go run ten laps on the track to start. Timed. Come back and show me when you’re done.” Chao Xun hadn’t eaten dinner before coming, had played three rounds of basketball, and was now starving. He looked at Xie Qian Yi with plaintive eyes: “Coach, I haven’t had dinner……” Xie Qian Yi smiled pleasantly: “Good, an empty stomach means no risk of discomfort. Just have an energy drink. That’ll do.” Truly ruthless. Chao Xun had nothing to say. He finished the energy drink a kind person had given him and went to the track to run his laps. Once Chao Xun had left the gym, Xie Qian Yi called Wang Nan over. “What are your thoughts on the game just now?” Xie Qian Yi asked. Wang Nan looked at the floor and said nothing. Xie Qian Yi: “Start by thinking about why you lost.” Wang Nan’s lips moved. A long pause, then quietly: “I didn’t play well……” Xie Qian Yi shook his head: “Your biggest problem is that you don’t do what you’re supposed to do. When you should pass, you don’t. You’re always trying to score yourself. Basketball is a team sport. Teammates need to work together.” Wang Nan still said nothing. Xie Qian Yi was disappointed. He held back the heavier words: Chao Xun is better at reading details than you, and his reaction time surpasses yours by a significant margin. He said instead: “He’s only a reserve right now, and you’re still a full team member. If you don’t start reflecting on this, that may not stay the same.” Wang Nan’s head snapped up. Xie Qian Yi: “Think it over. Go train now.” He left, leaving Wang Nan standing there with a colorless face. With Wang Nan dealt with, the next person was Mi Yu. Xie Qian Yi walked Mi Yu to a corner of the gym and looked at the boy whose face plainly said why are you bothering me, then asked lightly: “So what do you think of him?” Mi Yu’s expression went through several shifts. A long pause, and still he didn’t answer, as though the question was genuinely difficult. Xie Qian Yi: “I’ll be direct. My plan is to have Chao Xun replace Wang Nan and enter this year’s city league.” Mi Yu answered without hesitation: “Wang Nan’s team awareness and skill level, he should have been replaced ages ago.” Xie Qian Yi: “And do you have team awareness?” Mi Yu’s face soured but he didn’t argue back. Xie Qian Yi: “You should be grateful Chao Xun showed up. Otherwise I was going to bench you, not Wang Nan.” Mi Yu stared at him in disbelief: “Bench me? You think I’m more of a liability to the team than Wang Nan?” Xie Qian Yi held back a laugh: not quite, but your aim is uncomfortably accurate. “Don’t get worked up, that’s not what I meant.” He said with patience, and seeing Mi Yu still glaring, explained: “What I was originally planning was to have you play only half-court games. Your biggest problem is that you’re too self-reliant.” Xie Qian Yi: “Your technical skill is above everyone else here. But precisely because of that, you feel the ball should always be in your hands. You always want to break through yourself and you’re reluctant to pass.” Mi Yu accepted this criticism, because he knew it was true. He just couldn’t seem to help it. Xie Qian Yi: “By the second half, opponents have you completely marked, but you still don’t think about depending on your teammates. Instead you get more and more frustrated, and not only do your own errors pile up, you spread that mood to everyone else on the team.” Mi Yu said flatly: “I know.” Xie Qian Yi, with a very serious tone: “You know. You just don’t change.” Mi Yu had nothing to say to that. Xie Qian Yi: “Chao Xun has exceptional observational instincts. You won’t find anyone else at this school who can combine observation and judgment the way he does, completing both in an instant and with such precision. I’m going to put real training into him. You should thank him for making up for what you’re missing in court awareness.” Hearing Chao Xun praised while he was being criticized, Mi Yu did something rare: he made no cutting remark. Xie Qian Yi: “Set aside whatever history you two have. Your coordination training together is going to be important going forward. Come in whenever you can over the next while. The competition isn’t far off.” Mi Yu nodded in silence. Xie Qian Yi was satisfied with that response and went off to oversee the rest of training without saying anything more. During the rest of the session, Mi Yu kept turning over the exhilarating feeling of those ten minutes, and kept coming back to Chao Xun’s speech and what the coach had said. The wall he had built up against Chao Xun in his mind had developed a crack somewhere in the last hour. But he had the persistent feeling that the other person had dug a very large pit somewhere and was waiting for him to fall into it. If Chao Xun could hear his thoughts he would absolutely agree. Of course it was a pit. A pit designed to catch one proud lion. But he couldn’t hear them. Instead he was swaying along the track like a very tired cat. With that level of fitness, how had he ever managed to follow Mi Yu all the way home? Don’t ask. The answer was the extraordinary power of being in love. When he finished his laps, he did one slow cooling-down circuit of the track before taking his timer back to the gym. He was so hungry by now that his stomach felt hollow. If Xie Qian Yi asked him to do strength training on top of everything else, he would just have to play the sympathy card. There were quite a few people in the gym resting after their own training. Mi Yu was also sitting on a bench with his phone, drinking water. He was looking at his screen with his head down and didn’t notice Chao Xun come in. Mi Yu was watching the video Zhuang Xu had recorded. The one where he and Chao Xun had played on the same side. Seen from a third-person perspective, the coordination between them had a completely different quality about it. They looked like two people who had played countless games together, their understanding of each other so deep it seemed limitless. God, where had Chao Xun been studying all this time? With skill like this, why had he only shown up now? Whatever, that was what being romance-obsessed did to a person. All that time pretending to be an omega, and yet he had managed to bury his negative impression of him this deep. He really should have just been himself from the start. Mi Yu sat on the bench radiating cold air, and the other players all kept a cautious distance, not wanting to disturb this particular deity. Chao Xun spotted him too, but having no idea what was going on, chose to walk around him and go to the coach instead. Xie Qian Yi took one look at the timer, nodded: “Good. Go eat dinner.” Which meant he was expected to come back after eating. Chao Xun felt tired in his soul, but still nodded. Xie Qian Yi watched him for a moment, then said: “I notice Mi Yu hasn’t eaten dinner either. How about I have him take you along to get food?” Chao Xun: You think I don’t know what you’re doing. Have you seen the low-pressure zone Mi Yu is currently generating from that bench? He quickly declined: “Coach, I think that’s probably not necessary. We have different tastes.” Xie Qian Yi: “Is that so. You seem to know his tastes quite well.” Chao Xun said without batting an eye: “I’ve liked him for a long time, after all.” Xie Qian Yi: “……” So straightforward he genuinely didn’t know what to say. He looked at the beta boy in front of him. His lips were slightly pale, his fringe plastered to his forehead with sweat, his T-shirt damp and clinging to him. Clearly exhausted. And yet still standing perfectly straight, eyes clear and bright, expression entirely composed. The picture of a good, obedient student. Xie Qian Yi: “Alright. I need to put some proper thought into your training plan. You can head back for today.” Chao Xun was more than happy with that. He proactively added the coach as a contact: “Coach, let’s add each other for easier communication. Could you also add me to the team group chat?” Xie Qian Yi accepted and casually pulled him into the team group. Step one of infiltrating Mi Yu’s inner circle: complete. On the way home, Chao Xun thought to himself with quiet satisfaction: at this rate, when the system comes back online, he was going to surprise it.