strike three ⚾
“sometimes, you find love where you’d least expect it.”
☽ baseball team captain!jinhyuck x softball team captain!reader
☽ ft. up10tion’s jinhyuck, uniq’s seungyoun, up10tion’s wooseok and most likely other produce x 101 contestants aswell
☽ also kim jiyeon, cho sojung and kim hyunjung of wjsn just to have a face to those names, but if you want to imagine your own people go ahead because this is mainly a produce x 101 fic
☽ fluff and bits of angst, possibly more mature content but only following a warning
☽ second person view, female reader who goes by your name (y/n)
☽ finished at 2019-07-15, 1:00 am
☽ a/n : sorry for writing it as jinhyuCK instead of jinhyuK… consider this my fight back against the weird romanization of the korean language! but hey here’s the first chapter, i hope you enjoy!
↬ You were not someone who longed for love. You could watch couples in the campus café and you think that you were happy for them - nothing more. It wasn’t something that you thought about daily, the need to fall in love or get a partner, unlike some of your other friends. You would always joke that your best friend Sojung was a hallway major, always strolling around the hallways talking to boys instead of actually being in the classrooms and listening to the teachers. You, however, studied as a real student would; but after school hours, all your time was spent working out or practicing.
You were the greatest pitcher in your softball team, and that hadn’t exactly come easily. You had put down a great amount of practice in your younger years to get a scholarship in this college, which was the best one in all of Korea when it came to softball and baseball. But that wasn’t the final goal, only a pit stop on the way. You wanted to become one of the very best and play in the biggest leagues, and this education really helped you on your way. But in order to not lose your scholarship and get sent back to your hometown, you also needed to stay focused in class. Your coaches and teachers had made it very clear to you that they would not keep anyone in school who was failing the classes. Somewhere along the way, you had also become the team captain, thanks to your happy and positive nature that dragged your teammates forwards at every game against other schools. As a team captain, you have a great responsibility and can not slack around to expect everyone else to do hard work, just because you radiate good vibes - you need to be the one who practices the hardest and the most often, and motivates everyone else to do the same.
So even if you had been wishing for love, there wouldn’t be time. You had to stay focused every minute in school so that you wouldn’t need to study overtime, and as soon as classes ended you made it to practice. And the little free time you had? It was needed to recover and rest your body so you could continue improving and grow even stronger.
You had many friends who understood your situation. A lot of the girls in your team had similar positions, being on scholarships and needing to focus both in class and on field, but they were all very well aware that you were overworking yourself. Even the boys in the baseball team weren’t working as hard as you. But maybe they weren’t aiming as high as you either.
There was one boy though who was very similar to you in terms of hard work. His name was Lee Jinhyuck; the baseball team’s captain and also their strongest batter. He was known to be one of the most popular boys on campus, as talent often brought fame - along with something else he had a lot of; good looks.
Though this was something that might be changing in the future. Not his good looks, that is, but his fame and his status in the team. At least according to your friend Seungyoun, who was a baseman in the baseball team.
The two of you were chatting a bit as you had just finished your practice, and he was about to begin his. “Well, he’s losing his status. You know Wooseok, right?” he asked and leaned his arm on the wall next to him in the corridor you two were currently talking in. You nodded at him and he continued talking. “He’s dating the coach’s daughter…”
You couldn’t help but let your mouth hang agape. “Really? That’s insane…”
“She’s a freshman, aswell…” You chuckled. That meant she was three years younger than you, as you were in your last year in school, a senior. “Word has it that he’s only doing it because he thinks the coach will see him as the best batter. And you know who’s got that position right now…”
“Jinhyuck.” You were friends with a couple of the boys in the team, including Jinhyuck, though you weren’t really close to any of them except for Seungyoun. But he enjoyed gossiping, so you were aware of almost all the small in intrigues and things going on in the team. It felt almost like you were in fact friends with them, as you knew everything from what their personalities were like and what things they’ve said about their girlfriends.
“Apparently it’s a cool thing to have a girlfriend, and it’s a cool thing to be picked by the coach. And, well, Jinhyuck hasn’t had a girlfriend ever since Siyeon…” Seungyoun muttered, really stressing the name of Jinhyuck’s latest girlfriend as they didn’t exactly end… well. You nodded and he checked his watch. “Oh, two minutes until I need to go. Let’s talk quicker.”
You chuckled again. “I don’t really see the problem though. Why doesn’t he just get another girlfriend? Is that so hard?”
“Well spoken from a person who hasn’t had a real lover in like… ever?” You stuck out your tongue at him. “But honestly though, don’t you know what she said about him? She thought he was too lazy and never wanted to spend any time doing anything other than like, cuddle. So he apparently isn’t really boyfriend material.”
“Oh, is that so?” He nodded and you thought about it for a moment. From what you had noticed of Jinhyuck, he wasn’t someone who struck you as a lazy type. And he wasn’t someone who struck you as the do-not-date-type either. Nor the not-boyfriend-material-type. He was handsome, had a sweet personality, was fit and was really talented, so you didn’t really understand the fuzz. But again, you hadn’t been in a serious relationship that lasted for more than a few weeks since… You couldn’t even remember when. Did you lack that part that made you understand the dateability of boys since you hadn’t been interested, and since it hadn’t been one of your priorities?
“Hey,” Seungyoun interrupted your thoughts. “aren’t you going to sign up for prom queen? Apparently the prom committee needs the applicants pretty early so that they can prepare for the voting.”
You sighed. Becoming prom queen had been one of your biggest wishes, non-sport wishes, ever since you had been really young - well, isn’t it everyone’s? Standing on the stage in front of all your schoolmates, all the people who have voted for you, and accepting the crown, looking over at the person who’s just been crowned king- and right. There’s that problem again. The king. “Well, this year, they changed the rules. You’re only allowed to compete as couples. So first of all, I would need a partner-”
“Already screwed.” You huffed and acted mad, pushing his shoulder lightly. “Okay, okay, go on.”
“And second of all, you’d need to be a popular couple in order for people to actually vote for you. So we’ll see how it goes.”
“I believe in you! You’ll just have to-”
“Cho Seungyoun! Get your ass on field right this instant, you’re already late!” his coach yelled at him, and he quickly put on his helmet and waved goodbye to you before running away towards the field. You laughed at him as you could see his face redden up as he got scolded by the coach in front of all his teammates.
You stood in your place for a while, leaning against the wall and thinking about all you had discussed with Seungyoun. Wooseok dating the coach’s daughter just to get an advantage while playing; your failed hopes at becoming prom queen in my last year of college; and Jinhyuck, who apparently is falling in the boys’ hierarchy.
As you were standing there, lost in thought, suddenly Jinhyuck came off the court and into the hallway you were standing in. He waved at you and gave you a sweet smile, which you answered with a quick “hi”, before heading straight into the dressing room.
And that’s when it hit you. You came up with a plan. A plan that could help both of you.
