"Persevere!" The veins on the neck of Yumi's coach almost popped out from his forceful shout.
"The one who gets tired first is the loser! You cannot let yourself slack! Boost your stamina right now and beat the asses of your opponents on court later!"
"Persevere! Do your footwork!"
After that eventful Sunday, Yumi was now in intense training for the upcoming National Games this April.
It was not even an exaggeration to say that she's busier than a carabao right now.
Even her grandma, who rarely saw her recently, joked that she had a tenant instead of a granddaughter. Yumi would just laugh it off and promise that she would spend more time with her after this competition. Every time Grandma Cruz would hear her say that she would just pat her hand, her eyes full of pride with a mix of melancholy for her little sweetheart.
She's just like her mother, completely head over heels with a racket and feathers.
Being the gold medalist in the last MIMAROPA Regional Athletic Meet, she was now under great pressure to represent the whole region. She only had more than a month to achieve a perfect condition and beat all the promising young badminton athletes all over the Philippines. It was nerve-wracking but exciting at the same time.
There were two players from their province. One was her and the other was a boy from another high school. For the purpose of training and having a well-matched opponent during practice games, their coaches resolved to train together. The positive effect was imminent. The two improvements were gradually increasing day by day.
She would religiously wake before dawn to do warm-ups, followed by fifty laps of jog on the football field and then footwork.
Next to that, she would perfect her stance, doing non-stop smashing and swinging. Finishing all of these, she would take a short lunch break and then start the half of the day by matching up with other players for a few rounds.
"Yumi, you always open up chances to your opponents. Fix that and be decisive! You'll be doomed if you're against John."
Yumi looked wryly at the young man who was training with her for the National Games. It was really a blessing that she and this guy were from the same region or else the gold medal that she was eyeing would be out of her reach.
"Yes, coach. I'll fix it."
The two begin another round and before they know it, it is now class dismissal.
After the class bell rang, Isagani would wait for her on the court's bench while doing none other than his favorite thing, math exercises. When the coach finally dismissed the players, the two would walk side by side to Yumi's home and Isagani would run through all the lessons that she missed.
According to him, she can't just let her extracurriculars affect her academics. They were now in their last quarter of the school year and about to take the 4th departmental exams. It's their last stretch to their moving up ceremony and then they would be an official Senior high school by then.
Compared to her tight training, these after-school make-up lessons with Gani were more torturous for her.
Who wants to have a strict and perfectionist teacher?
Every time she got an incorrect question, he would make her repeat it three times. According to him, in this way, she would not commit the same mistake again.
"I'm so pitiful. I'm so tired from running and smashing for the whole day, but instead of resting at home, I need to do this unrecorded homework. So pitiful. So pitiful..." Her shoulders were wilted and her lips pouted. She intentionally dragged her words to sound pitiful while checking at the side of her eyes the terrible teacher, Isagani, who was currently sitting comfortably on her bed.
"You would be more pitiful if we all moved up except you." He side-eyed her and continued, "Imagine all the lower grades would call you older sister because you can't pass junior high school because you slacked off."
Imagining it sent her shivers. She didn't want to repeat her grades, but she was extremely exhausted today.
She sighed.
It's not physical exhaustion, but more mental.
The athlete from the other high school, John, made her kneel the whole afternoon. The sudden disparity of their gameplay shocked her and she lost all their seven matches.
It was a big hit on her ego and an early wake-up call to triple all of her efforts.
She had a big crisis but she's still drowned by this school stuff instead of practicing.
Yumi could not help but resent his laid-back attitude, leisurely reading a book she didn't know what was all about, while she suffered from this pile of study materials.
She really wanted to burn this homework and be gone with it.
Are they just tripping when the song said that high school life's memories were beautiful? That high school life was exciting and oh so happy? She really wanted to ask Sharon Cuneta.
She was so immersed in her own misery.
She really didn't want to study right now.
She cracked her head to come up with a flawless excuse to skip today's tutorial. Her eyes glinted with scheming.
"Aaaaaaaaaah!"
He almost jolted up when he heard her shrieking in pain.
He dropped his book and marched to her side.
Yumi was balled reaching for her left toes. Her face displayed pain and hurt. It was wrung while tears started to fall down her cheeks,
"Cramps! Cramps!... Ahhhhgh... pain.. huhu..."
Isagani's expression was grave from anxiety. He hooked his arms below her knees, his other arm supported her back and carefully moved her into the bed.
After lying in a comfortable posture, the girl gave her all to produce the most agonizing holler that she had ever made while recapturing her right toe.
He laid the wriggling girl, kneeled at the edge of the bed and reached for her foot.
"No... Don't touch!... It's painful..."
He put away her slippers and started to gently stretch her legs and forcefully flex her foot while pressing her toes.
He looked at her face to find traces of discomfort but instead discovered her half-cooked bluffing skills. He halted the movements of his hands and scanned the girl's left foot and then her right.
The worry in his eyes changed and was replaced by naughty calculations.
He didn't expose her deceit. He would let her tell on herself. Since she's evading study time, then they'll do other things instead.
"Oh gosh! Why is it so painful? Is it injured? No! This can't be! How about my dreams--" She stopped and sneaked a glance at the boy to see if he caught her bluff. She got carried away a little there. It was just a simple cramp, she did not know where she got the injured narrative. Good thing she sobered up immediately.
He let down her foot and walked towards the doorway, "Wait here. I'll look for spicy mint oil."
He tip-toed in the living room and checked the old lady. She was now napping at the side of the window.
He was a little guilty that he was grateful Grandma Cruz didn't hear her shrieking earlier because of her hearing problems.
He came back without anything in hand.
The girl was still fake wailing. She almost moved herself from her heartfelt performance. Yumi wondered if she was pitiful enough now to make the boy let her off studies tonight.
She saw Gani reach for the essential oil beside her bed.
He poured it on his palms, evenly lathered onto the girl's ankle and slightly brushing into her sole.
Feeling the assaulting tingles, she wanted to retract her foot from his hand. How could she act if she accidentally laughed from being tickled?
Still putting up that act?
He directed his provocative leer at her, his finger purposefully gliding between her toes in and out.
Her breath was stopped because of the stimulating visual. It was not helping that the feeling of his finger between her toes sent her an unknown sensation that ran through her nerves.
She knew she was in trouble.
"Persevere!" The veins on the neck of Yumi's coach almost popped out from his forceful shout.
"The one who gets tired first is the loser! You cannot let yourself slack! Boost your stamina right now and beat the asses of your opponents on court later!"
"Persevere! Do your footwork!"
After that eventful Sunday, Yumi was now in intense training for the upcoming National Games this April.
It was not even an exaggeration to say that she's busier than a carabao right now.
Even her grandma, who rarely saw her recently, joked that she had a tenant instead of a granddaughter. Yumi would just laugh it off and promise that she would spend more time with her after this competition. Every time Grandma Cruz would hear her say that she would just pat her hand, her eyes full of pride with a mix of melancholy for her little sweetheart.
She's just like her mother, completely head over heels with a racket and feathers.
Being the gold medalist in the last MIMAROPA Regional Athletic Meet, she was now under great pressure to represent the whole region. She only had more than a month to achieve a perfect condition and beat all the promising young badminton athletes all over the Philippines. It was nerve-wracking but exciting at the same time.
There were two players from their province. One was her and the other was a boy from another high school. For the purpose of training and having a well-matched opponent during practice games, their coaches resolved to train together. The positive effect was imminent. The two improvements were gradually increasing day by day.
She would religiously wake before dawn to do warm-ups, followed by fifty laps of jog on the football field and then footwork.
Next to that, she would perfect her stance, doing non-stop smashing and swinging. Finishing all of these, she would take a short lunch break and then start the half of the day by matching up with other players for a few rounds.
"Yumi, you always open up chances to your opponents. Fix that and be decisive! You'll be doomed if you're against John."
Yumi looked wryly at the young man who was training with her for the National Games. It was really a blessing that she and this guy were from the same region or else the gold medal that she was eyeing would be out of her reach.
"Yes, coach. I'll fix it."
The two begin another round and before they know it, it is now class dismissal.
After the class bell rang, Isagani would wait for her on the court's bench while doing none other than his favorite thing, math exercises. When the coach finally dismissed the players, the two would walk side by side to Yumi's home and Isagani would run through all the lessons that she missed.
According to him, she can't just let her extracurriculars affect her academics. They were now in their last quarter of the school year and about to take the 4th departmental exams. It's their last stretch to their moving up ceremony and then they would be an official Senior high school by then.
Compared to her tight training, these after-school make-up lessons with Gani were more torturous for her.
Who wants to have a strict and perfectionist teacher?
Every time she got an incorrect question, he would make her repeat it three times. According to him, in this way, she would not commit the same mistake again.
"I'm so pitiful. I'm so tired from running and smashing for the whole day, but instead of resting at home, I need to do this unrecorded homework. So pitiful. So pitiful..." Her shoulders were wilted and her lips pouted. She intentionally dragged her words to sound pitiful while checking at the side of her eyes the terrible teacher, Isagani, who was currently sitting comfortably on her bed.
"You would be more pitiful if we all moved up except you." He side-eyed her and continued, "Imagine all the lower grades would call you older sister because you can't pass junior high school because you slacked off."
Imagining it sent her shivers. She didn't want to repeat her grades, but she was extremely exhausted today.
She sighed.
It's not physical exhaustion, but more mental.
The athlete from the other high school, John, made her kneel the whole afternoon. The sudden disparity of their gameplay shocked her and she lost all their seven matches.
It was a big hit on her ego and an early wake-up call to triple all of her efforts.
She had a big crisis but she's still drowned by this school stuff instead of practicing.
Yumi could not help but resent his laid-back attitude, leisurely reading a book she didn't know what was all about, while she suffered from this pile of study materials.
She really wanted to burn this homework and be gone with it.
Are they just tripping when the song said that high school life's memories were beautiful? That high school life was exciting and oh so happy? She really wanted to ask Sharon Cuneta.
She was so immersed in her own misery.
She really didn't want to study right now.
She cracked her head to come up with a flawless excuse to skip today's tutorial. Her eyes glinted with scheming.
"Aaaaaaaaaah!"
He almost jolted up when he heard her shrieking in pain.
He dropped his book and marched to her side.
Yumi was balled reaching for her left toes. Her face displayed pain and hurt. It was wrung while tears started to fall down her cheeks,
"Cramps! Cramps!... Ahhhhgh... pain.. huhu..."
Isagani's expression was grave from anxiety. He hooked his arms below her knees, his other arm supported her back and carefully moved her into the bed.
After lying in a comfortable posture, the girl gave her all to produce the most agonizing holler that she had ever made while recapturing her right toe.
He laid the wriggling girl, kneeled at the edge of the bed and reached for her foot.
"No... Don't touch!... It's painful..."
He put away her slippers and started to gently stretch her legs and forcefully flex her foot while pressing her toes.
He looked at her face to find traces of discomfort but instead discovered her half-cooked bluffing skills. He halted the movements of his hands and scanned the girl's left foot and then her right.
The worry in his eyes changed and was replaced by naughty calculations.
He didn't expose her deceit. He would let her tell on herself. Since she's evading study time, then they'll do other things instead.
"Oh gosh! Why is it so painful? Is it injured? No! This can't be! How about my dreams--" She stopped and sneaked a glance at the boy to see if he caught her bluff. She got carried away a little there. It was just a simple cramp, she did not know where she got the injured narrative. Good thing she sobered up immediately.
He let down her foot and walked towards the doorway, "Wait here. I'll look for spicy mint oil."
He tip-toed in the living room and checked the old lady. She was now napping at the side of the window.
He was a little guilty that he was grateful Grandma Cruz didn't hear her shrieking earlier because of her hearing problems.
He came back without anything in hand.
The girl was still fake wailing. She almost moved herself from her heartfelt performance. Yumi wondered if she was pitiful enough now to make the boy let her off studies tonight.
She saw Gani reach for the essential oil beside her bed.
He poured it on his palms, evenly lathered onto the girl's ankle and slightly brushing into her sole.
Feeling the assaulting tingles, she wanted to retract her foot from his hand. How could she act if she accidentally laughed from being tickled?
Still putting up that act?
He directed his provocative leer at her, his finger purposefully gliding between her toes in and out.
Her breath was stopped because of the stimulating visual. It was not helping that the feeling of his finger between her toes sent her an unknown sensation that ran through her nerves.
She knew she was in trouble.
