+ seventeen

Narda was convinced by Nari to go to the tryouts, which was a two day event and then at the end of the second day, five girls would be chosen to train with the team for a month. From there, only two would be offered contracts to become official members of the team. Narda showed up with Nari who was there to cheer her on, and also to work as her translator.

Nari had been given the day off by SM Entertainment, which was strange considering the boys were busy that day and would defiitely be needing their stylist. But neither of them thought too much of it. Nari was glad to have the day off because she was able to accompany Narda. Chanyeol wanted to accompany her, but EXO would be performing on M Countdown to perform Call Me Baby. The music video was yet to be released, and the managers at SM were planning a special showing of the video to the EXO girlfriends. Their reactions would be recorded and posted on their youtube page. But Narda wasn't invited, and neither was Nari. Only Mae, Sarang, Florencia, and Taeyeon had been asked to go.

When the two girls walked up to the table for sign ups, the person at the table completely ignored Narda and instead spoke to Nari in Korean. "Are you here for the tryouts?" The man dressed in sports attire asked her.

Nari quickly gave a shake of her head and then gestured to the girl standing beside her. Narda could only understand a percentage of what they were saying. "No. I'm just here to support my friend, and to translate for her. She understands Korean pretty well, but she doesn't really speak it." She grabbed Narda by the arm and introduced her to the man at the table. "Her name is Guti and she's the best football player I know. Plus, her brother is a professionall football player in Mexico."

That seemed to catch his attention. "Mexico?" He asked with curiosity.

Nari gave a nod of her head. The man seemed pleased by what he heard and grabbed a clipboard with an application on it. He had seen many games in which Korea faced up against Mexico, the most recent being when they had been defeated by them four goals to none. If she was good, then he definitely wanted her on the team. "Fill this out and then take it to that other table." He gestured to another table a few ways away. They were handing the girls jerseys there, after getting them ironed with their names and a designated number for the next two days.

The application was filled mostly by Nari and then they handed it off to the next person. There, Narda had been handed a jersey with the name Guti in Hangul characters and the number 61. Narda felt it had been a lucky coincidence when she got Chanyeol's number. She then went to join the other prospective athletes as they began with some stretches. Nari went to go sit on some bleachers nearby. Narda had been nervous at first when she saw everyone. She was the only non-Korean and even the only non-Asian at the tryouts. But she quickly adapted and made friends with some of the other girls, some of which were already on the team.

After stretches they did a few warm up exercises and then they had one football match. They were divided into teams of eleven and they were made to play against each other. Though Nari didn't understand the rules of the game, she cheered like crazy each time Narda had the ball. By the end of the ninety minutes, Narda's team and the team they played against were tied two goals to two and they sent them into penalties. 

Narda's coach for the match had been the man at the front desk, who was impressed with her because she was Mexican. He had chosen her to take the first penalty and Narda instantly grew nervous and hesitant. The players to take the first and last penalty kicks were usually the ones a coach thought were the best in the group--the cream of the crop. She stepped up to the penalty spot and her mind played tricks on her. She felt like the goal was growing smaller and her opponent to beat getting bigger. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and sucked in a deep breath. 

Taking a few steps back, she took a running start and barely touched the ball when she tried to kick it. It moved about two feet and then stopped, not even making it close enough to become a threat to the goal keeper. She had slipped on her way there and had fallen to the ground. She remained there, lamenting her mistake while her coach facepalmed himself and cursed himself for having trusted her and put her up first. 

They ended up winning the match, and the other group of girls as asked not to return to try outs the next morning. With tryouts over for the day, Narda walked towards her friend with slumped shoulders. 

"Guti!" Her coach called from a distance.

Narda stopped in her tracks and turned to face him. Nari walked towards her, meeting her halfway as the coach spoke. "Those kinds of mistakes can be forgiven when you make it professionally. But when you're trying out for a team, you're not supposed to show yourself giving in under pressure. I'm going to have to ask you not to return to tryouts tomorrow." He had explained it to her in English, so that she could understand him.

"Wait a minute Coach Choi." Nari cut in, reading off the name tag clipped to his white polo shirt. "Guti scored the goal that got you the draw in that game. Without her, there would have been no penalties for you to kick. You should be grateful."

But Narda was already dismayed. It was the second team she had been rejected from. She didn't want to be there anymore. She just wanted to go home and sulk. She was already planning to call Chanyeol later so that they could have a movie night together. Tugging on her friend's arm, she said with a sigh, "Just leave it Nari. Lets go home."

"No." Nari refused to budge. "We're not leaving until he apologizes and asks you to come back to tryouts tomorrow."

"I won't do that." The coach was equally as stubborn as she was.

"Whatever." Nari huffed. Turning to her friend, she assured, "We're coming back tomorrow and they're gonna let you play. You just leave everything to me."

-

Chanyeol was waiting backstage to perform at another show that night. He had gone off to one corner of the room when he felt his cellphone vibrate in his pocket. He looked at the caller ID to see the contact name My Girl with a picture of Guti flashing on the screen. He glanced around the room to see what the other members were doing before taking the call. Most of them were distracted on their cellphones, or making conversation with each other.

"Hello?" He half whispered into the phone.

He even wanted to keep the sound of her voice to himself. When it came to Narda, Chanyeol could be very selfish.

"I'm sad, papi." She said from the other line and he could almost hear the pout in her words. 

Chanyeol immediately gulped at her use of the word papi when she referred to him. She knew that it was the Spanish word for daddy, and he liked that she called him that. He liked it a lot.

"What's wrong, vida?" He asked her, his own expression dropping into a frown. He couldn't stand the thought of knowing she was sad. He had most recently taken to calling her vida, since she had started calling him that before she switched off to papi. She had explained to him that vida was like a term of endearment--like calling someone love or baby. Only vida literally translated to calling someone life. Chanyeol thought it was accurate, since he thought Narda was his life.

She heaved a sad sigh. "I went to the tryouts today and the coach asked me not to return tomorrow. All because I missed a penalty when we were having a shoot out."

He didn't quite understand what that meant, since he wasn't into football all that much. But he understood enough to be outraged. "Are you sure he wasn't talking to someone else?" He asked her. 

"He said: Guti, don't come back tomorrow. You can't be much clearer than that." Narda informed him, a gloomy tone to her words. She wished she had been mistaken or had heard wrong. But he had called her by her name when he asked her not to come back. 

"Vida, if you want to be on that team, I will get you on that team. Just don't be sad and leave it all to me. Your boyfriend will fix it." He swore. He was already planning to look for the facility phone number of the sports complex where the female team trained and played their games. He didn't like to use his name and face to get his way, but for Narda he was willing to do all of that and more. 

Narda immediately tried to stop him. "Please don't, Chan." She pleaded. "I don't want to take advantage of our relationship to get on a team. I didn't use my brother for that, and I won't use you. I'll just try out next season." There was a smile in her tone now which she had forced into her words in order to reassure him that she was okay and to deter him from doing anything to help her. "All I want right now is to watch a movie with you, and cuddle, and eat a huge tub of pistachio ice cream. You can do that for me, right papi?" She said her last sentence in a cutesy voice.

And of course Chanyeol quickly gave in, or at least he gave into the part about them watching a move together that night. "I'll get back to the dorms around eight at night." He told her because the next morning she would be getting up early to teach at the primary school where she worked. 

"That's fine. I'll wait." She said.

He grinned at that. "Okay. Go get us that tub of ice cream and some snacks. I'll sneak you into the dorms when I get back so we can watch the movie in the lounge."

"I don't know..." She was hesitant at that suggestion. 

He knew that the only reason she was unsure was because Baekhyun would be there. Things were a bit better since they had arrived from Busan, but she had gone right back to ignoring him. But in the back of his mind, he had purposefully planned that way. He wanted his room mate to see them together so that he would finally understand that Narda was with him, and she he would never get her because of the horrible way he treated her. 

"I promise no one will bother us." He tried to calm her worries. By no one, they both knew he was talking about Baekhyun.

"Alright." She sighed, but she wasn't fully convinced.

"Go with Kkot cause its getting late." He said. Ever since the incident in Busan, he was always uneasy about letting her go anywhere alone. Especially if it was at night.

"I'll ask Flor if she's busy." She said to him with a smile. "I'll see you later tonight."

She made a kiss sound as she said goodbye to him over the phone and he said his goodbye as well. He couldn't wait to see her later, and he couldn't wait to hold her in his arms. He wanted everyone to know that Narda was his.

-

a filler ish chapter for tonight. 

i've resolved to try to update this more often. i was going to try to post an update for mexico, but its getting late and my laptop battery is running low. so it will have to be tomorrow after work.

thank you all for reading and supporting. it means the entire world tome.

-clary