#i Drew this rly quickly — sorry it kinda is all over the place lmao

[sentientsky]

pov: your baby brother is a Weird Little Guy™️

[itshyejung]

Slam Dunk - Cai Xukun

Type: Scenario

(Not gonna do genres bc tbh idk how to categorize my scenarios? I guess they’re fluff I mean they’re not rly angsty and def not smut so... just cute? Who even knows lmao)

Characters: Nine Percent Cai Xukun x you

(Pics are edited by me so pls give credit. Scenarios are not requested, I came up with all these a long time ago but never really shared them publicly, so hope you guys enjoy! I tried to be creative with each scenario and not do super cliche or boring ones but I think all of them are still kinda cliche lmao...)

You didn’t know what it was that the coaches always saw in you, but you seemed to be some sort of prodigy in their eyes. You played basketball freely, not to impress anyone or be the best. You just wanted to be yourself and basketball made you feel this way. The coaches called it potential. You argued there were better players on the team, but in reality you were like a teacher to them. Each day your teammate friends would ask you to teach them how to shoot like you did. You’d just roll your eyes at them and smile. “As long as you can shoot your own way, you’re fine,” you joked.

However, you decided basketball was especially important to you. It could help you consider scholarships and even score them. It could help you with hand-eye coordination, and planning and organization, teamwork, agility, stamina, strength, and much, much more. Basketball gave you your personality: tough but clean, just like a slam dunk that passed through the hoop with nothing but net, not even brushing the rim. And you were especially good at those.

It was no surprise to you that you had made the tryouts for the girls’ high school varsity basketball team. However, you never imagined you’d be captain. You were only a sophomore, and by the school’s sports team rules, only seniors could be captain. But no one else objected. You wondered to yourself how you could possibly play better than one of those intimidating seniors. Scary.

Coach Liu started practice right away. You quickly kept up with the drills the seniors and juniors were participating in. You had thought the varsity team would have much more difficult challenges, but you felt familiarity and at home even on a new court. You felt excited to play your first game in the upcoming preliminaries, even if it was sort of far way. It was the perfect time to improve your skills.

After a few weeks of practice, you realized that you collaborated well with the juniors and seniors and they often passed you the ball to slam dunk. You often took free throws and arched the ball beautifully towards the basket from the three-point line. Honestly, you could play just about any position. And you had fun with your teammates.

At the end of practice one day, Coach Liu called you over to her office, so you suspected something was wrong. However, what she had to say surprised you.

You pushed open the door to her office quietly, not wanting to draw a lot of attention in case your teammates might overhear the conversation, and sat in front of her desk voluntarily, waiting for her to finish upon a phone call. You couldn’t help but stare at the many championship awards that filled her walls and siplay case. Her very first had been when she was only four years old, which shocked you. You hadn’t thought of playing basketball until you were maybe seven or eight years old, and here was a child basketball prodigy. No wonder she was the coach of a team like this. You saw that she had wirtten “Goal: three-timing girls’ high school champ” on her yellow notepad and instantly worries began filling your head. You had heard that this school’s team was insanely good, so you wanted to help Coach keep that reputation. Maybe she wanted to move you to junior varsity after all…

“Thanks for waiting,” Coach Liu clicked the phone into place and turned in her chair to face you. “I’ve rarely met with any of the varsity teammates individually before, so I hope you’re prepared for the important news I’m going to share with you.”

You nodded. “Of course.”

“I see youv’e noticed my goals sheet.” Coach Liu pointed to the yellow notepad you were staring at earlier. You gulped, hoping it was inaudible. You had just started on the team and now was going to get bumped down. “I’ve only written one for girls, as you can tell.”

Wait, what was she suggesting?

“You see, even with larger amounts of practice, the boys’ varsity team cannot withstand a good enough reputation. Some people wonder just what is going on at our school, although they respect our girls’ varsity team a lot. And through all my years of coaching, I don’t think I’ve seen one person as dedicated to basketball individually as you. So I decided to offer you the job of being the manager of the boys’ varsity team this year. Would you like to?”

Wait, what was she suggesting?

Your mind went blank for a moment. You, a sophomre who just got on the varsity team, now becoming the manager of the boys’ varsity team? Wasn’t this a bit too much? You were dumbfounded by her question for quite a while. But you thought about it a lot. You thought about what the upsides and downsides were. Downsides: not enough time to practice for your own team, not enough experience to lead them well, distracting, etc. Upsides: well, you thought maybe you could learn a few things from their mistakes and methods. Perhaps they had trouble with things that you didn’t, so you could challenge yourself into helping them on different measures.

Coach Liu’s voice cleared your thoughts for you as she patiently asked again, “Have you decided?”

You rotated your thumbs in your lap for a bit before answering uncertainly, “Yeah, I’ll take the job.”

Coach Liu clapped her hands together. “Great! I’ll let their coach know.”

You left her office in confusion. What had you just agreed to? Well, there was no turning back. You headed towards the gymnasium to begin your job. The boys team practiced right after the girls team, and today was tryouts day. You couldn’t miss the very first day as manager.

“The manager is here, boys.” The coach’s voice was different from what you thought. The attitude was also different. It didn’t feel like basketball. It felt like boot camp. The boys looked like zombies. Well, except for this one boy… who was he? He had an aura completely different from the other guys on the court. HIs attitude towards basketball impressed you, and considering how others thought of you on the court, it was a rare feeling you got. It seemed like he was also one who worried about his own improvements and not what anyone else did. The more you watched him behind your clipboard, the more you thought he was just like you.

After Coach Han introduced you to the team, there were many surprised faces. Of course, they thought “How could a girl be the manager of our team?” Some faces looked embarrassed that they needed a girl to manage them; they knew they sucked like crap. Some looked like they didn’t care at all. You stepped up confidently.

“Well, sorry you guys have to do this after practice, but we’ll begin tryouts right away,” you said clearly and loudly, scanning the line of boys standing in front of you uncertainly. “First, we’ll begin with a simple lay-up line. I’m sure you’re all educated enough to know whta a lay-up is, right? Let’s start.”

The boys swiftly went through a lay-up line, but it still looked awkward. You jotted down some quick notes that came into your mind while Coach Han barked at them. You drew diagrams of their body structures as they ran through the other drills and analzyed the levels of their strength and stamina. Some were fit for basketball and some needed more work. You also drew a game plan and a line-up for starters, which Coach Han approved of. He wrote down who had qualified for first, second, and third lines. At the end of practice, you read them aloud.

“First liners, also starters for line up.” You announced the names one by one. “Cai Xukun,” you concluded. It was that new boy you had spotted earlier, the male version of you. You were a little surprised, but you half smiled in his direction. He returne d it with a full smile, and bright, sparkling eyes. You looked away and said, “Now for second line.”

Cai Xukun. He was definitely a player who was going to be hard to forget.

_______________________________________________________________________

You didn’t know exactly what being manager of a basketball team meant, but it sure took up a lot of your time, especially since now you kind of had to work harder towards your own team. You felt your skills slowly dying, you felt the joy and freedom of playing basketball slipping away. You didn’t know what had gone wrong the past few days, but it didn’t seem right.

Dejected, you stayed on the court after practice on day trying to land your three-pointers. A square basket of balls sat next to you, and you grabbed them hurriedly, aching to shoot a perfect three-pointer. None of the balls you shot touched net, only rim. You were shocked. Where had your ability to play basketball gone? You had never lost it, always practicing with your father, the coach of the state boys’ basketball team, and your brother, who was part of the state team. What had happened?

Confused, you picked up allt he balls on the floor, but there were just too many to hold in your arms. All the sad-looking balls on the floor represented all of your failures, it seemed, even the failure to pick them all up. A few dropped from your arms, reminding you of how your heart and mood had dropped recently. You tossed the balls back into the basket that held them and decided to start again. After all, you weren’t the type to give up before at least a good couple baskets were made.

As you shot over and over again, another shadow was watching you from outside, leaning neatly against the frame of the gym doors, with a slight smile playing on the lips, watching you carefully with pretty eyes.

One of the balls that bounced off the rim threatened to roll out the gym doors, but was stopped by a rather large foot. Surprised that there was someone else in the gym at this hour, you looked up in confusion only to find Cai Xukun of the boys’ varsity team staring back at you with tthat same smile.

“Hey there, Ms. Manager,” he grinned. “I’m Xukun.”

You sighed a little and smiled back, worries running through your head. Had he seen you practice? Had he seen your terrible shots? “Of course I know you, Mr. First Liner. You did awesome at tryouts.” 

“Thanks,” he nodded. “Stuck?”

You sucked in your breath. You hated admitting failure, but nevertheless you had to be honest. “Yeah, a bit. But it’s probably just a phase. It’ll pass before the International Cup quarterfinals.”

“Oh, you guys qualified? That’s great.”

“Thanks. I better brush up on my skills by then.”

“Don’t worry, you will.” Pause. He shook some of his white-blonde hair out of his eyes. “I could practice with you.”

You hesitated. Someone like him, with someone like you? Well, in a sense, it worked extremely well. Besdies, wasn’t his style of basketball just like yours? What was there to worry about, really?

“Umm, that would be really helpful, thank you.”

His eyes crinkled cutely as he grinned, and he walked over to the basket of balls with a super subtle bounce in his step. He carefully chose a ball and turned it over in his hands a couple of times, as if seeing it for the first time. After a lot of blinking, he turned to you and tossed it in a perfect arc. You caught it easily, but was surprised at how much better you felt already, and how much more of your confidence had come back. 

“Try shooting your three-pointers again, only this time, shape your fingers a little more in the direction of the ball, and have more bounce in your motions. Also, turn your head slightly towards the left a bit,” Xukun instructed you, becoming serious. You had never tried anything new before, besides your own style of basketball, but this wasn’t the time to argue. 

You stepped up to the three-point line once again, feeling weird. It was like you had a new attitude towards basketball: to be successful together with your team. Of course you knew teamwork was important, but you had never thought of it much more than a methodology of passing the ball around. You made most of the shots yourself. But now, you wanted to change that. You wore your confidence once again and took a shot.

_______________________________________________________________________

Quarterfinals went by fast, as did semifinals. You were surprised by the level of basketball the high schoolers at first, but soon it was the day for finals, which went more or less like this: 

Secretly nervous, you jumped for the tip-off as the game started. Arching your fingers a bit more just like how Xukun taught you, they grazed the ball just barely ahead of the opposing team, and you were able to obtain it. Looking around quickly, you bounce-passed it to your teammate and ran ahead towards your basket, weaving easily through the maze of defenders that stood before you. Doing your best to dodge the defender that was tight against you, your eyes watched the ball travel back and forth like a hawk until it landed in your hands again.

You tossed the ball over your head up towards the basket. Easy two-pointer.

The game progressed quickly but also with a high level of difficulty. The team had also been a hard rival of your school last year, so you weren’t about to let them get away with their revenge plot. 

At the end of the fourt quarter, the score became 141 to 98. You had crushed them.

After being engulfed by your teammates and coming close to suffocating in them, but somewhat still giddy with joy, you heard a roar of shouting coming towards you and turned around in shock, meeting the eyes of the boys’ varsity team. You didn’t know they’d come in quietly and sat in the middle of the bleachers to get a good view of the game.

“Well, what’d I tell you? Wasn’t this a good experience after all?” Coach Liu asked, putting a hand on your shoulder.

“Yeah, I really have to thank you. You helped me change my perspective on basketball to something more positive.” 

“I’m glad! Keep it up. I think some guys want to talk to you,” she winked. I groaned as she walked away.

You were surprised by how many compliments you recieved from the boys’ team. In fact, they went further into the fact that they really enjoyed having you as a manager because you really improved the team, and they had reached semifinals in the International Cup, which was far, far ahead from where they ended up last year. And the entire time, your smile did not diminish.

Especially when it met one just like it, belonging to Cai Xukun. It was beautiful. You thought back to all those months you had practiced with him, hung out with not only at classes in school but also out in town, walking your dogs to the park, or playing basketball with your father and brother. And you realized that Xukun was actually an important part of your basketball career.

“Hey, I realized something, Ms. Manager. When it comes to basketball, you really are at the center of my heart,” he said to you, trying to ignore the whoops of his teammates behind him.

You laughed nervously, groaning internally at the pun but responding with one of your own. “Well, I guess I’ll have to manage as best as I can with that.”

You both laughed, his tinkling pretty, yours sounding more like hiccups. Yikes.

“Your laugh is cute,” he said, not even blushing. “Ever since you’ve been our basketball manager, I’ve been watching you, because you seemed different from the other girls. I was right; your style of basketball is similar to mine: free.”

“It’s funny,” you said, your smile getting bigger. “I was actually doing the same thing.”

“Guess that means we were meant for each other,” he said nonchalantly. “So, will I see you at our final game?” He held out his hand as if wanting to shake on it.

“Yeah. Definitely.” You laughed and nodded, grabbing his hand in a handshake but feeling your heartbeat skip for a second as he had other thoughts, intertwining his fingers with yours and pulling you closer to him.

It was interesting; the both of you, who had never really held anything other than a bumpy, rock-hard basketball, felt the rough calluses on your palms but also a deeper, softer feeling. Basketball never felt so good.