a/n: before i get hated on, this chapter is largely technical stuff and world-building so pls don't hate me :(( let me know which parts of the fic you enjoy and which parts are like meh so that i can get better and create better works :))

(also huge huge thank you to @seung-ie for your sweet words) (this chapter's for you bb)

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practice was chilly after the introduction. jaemin would glance over once in a while, only to see serena completely ignore her father, who was trying to strike up a conversation every so often. it strikes a chord in jaemin, dragging at the pits of his empathy.

here was a man that he respected, and even revered, and his own daughter wasn't even looking his way. he could feel himself get more and more frustrated with her apathy the more he watched, physically having to cool himself down with some water before he could get back onto the court. and if jaemin was struggling, jeno was scathing. 

jeno was barely present, his headspace clearly messed up. it was evident to everyone that this situation was neither formerly discussed with him, nor was it a pleasant one he would choose to be in. jaemin had no idea what the story was behind coach's daughter or even jeno's entire family, but he had no intentions of pressing on it.

"na! get your head in the game or i take your ass out of it!" jaemin is whipped out of his reverie at the furious shouts of his coach. no sooner does coach lee yell at him, jaemin is back and focused. he stalks towards the ball currently in haechan's hands, not unlike a panther to its prey. he sidesteps jisung, swiping the ball out of haechan's grip and passing it over to renjun, who easily goes for a lay-up, effectively bringing them to the end of their scrimmage. 

coach lee claps his hands, gesturing for all the boys to make their way over to the bleachers. serena's got the pen she had been scribbling with between her teeth, looking up every so often as if to ensure she had written down the correct information. 

"alright, before we run laps, soo - serena's got a little bit of feedback she'd like to share as the team manager. serena?" serena dips her head slightly in the barest of acknowledgements and steps forward, clipboard now tucked under her arm. she looks a couple players in the eyes - jaemin, haechan, jeno, renjun and jisung - before sighing and shaking her head. 

"to be honest, i had heard a lot of really great things about sm's basketball team," she begins in a somewhat impressed tone. her eyes shine with cold intelligence, and for the first time in a very long time, the entire team is on edge. "but this does not even come close to my expectations."

even coach lee is shocked at that, the entire team looking at her with gaping mouths. jeno is practically shaking with anger at this point, and jaemin has half a mind to just let him go off. this new girl, jeno's sister or not, is a fucking bitch. she's team manager out of the kindness of coach's heart for his daughter and she has the nerve to insult their team?

"i know what you're all thinking. why does this girl think that she can tell us, blah blah blah. save it. zip it. i don't want to hear it. keep your toxic masculinity to yourself. i don't know what coach lee has been telling you but this team is not good enough. there are so many players on this team who are so much better than the mediocre playing i have been seeing so far," serena says, unbridled discontent dripping from her voice. 

"number twelve, who was it? right, park jisung," serena continues, flipping through the papers attached to the clipboard. "i saw some solid defense out there but it was too little too late. your screens need to be much tighter and more practical. you're trying to get every single movement to be perfect and in that, you're wasting time and energy and losing the game."

jisung bristles, offended but unable to say anything in protest. she wasn't wrong. they were subtle things that jisung had mostly just been managing without previously, but it was clear that serena didn't like that. she turned her attention to the slightly shorter male next to him.

"number sixteen, donghyuck, haechan, whatever your name is. why are you so lazy? you practically gave the ball to number twenty-three the moment he tried to grab it. where's your competitiveness? don't give me bullshit about a scrimmage; what if this had been a game? who taught you to give up control that quickly?" the words that come out of serena's mouth were bullets, attacking every single minor issue with deadly accuracy. haechan's eyes fire up but he says nothing and looks to coach lee - who's struggling between confusion, anger, and pride - and looks back down. but serena catches and glances and steps closer towards haechan.

"don't give me the fire now. i need it on the court. you can bitch about all you want but if you want to play ball, and not just play, i suggest you listen to what i'm saying," serena says with steely anger lacing her voice. she sighs, shaking her head and steps back, looking down at her clipboard. she must like what she sees because the hard expression on her face softens the slightest bit, coming in eye contact with renjun. 

"number twenty-five, right?" serena pauses, waiting for renjun to indicate he was listening. renjun nods, torn between outright sassing her and just taking the feedback, whatever it was.

"i saw some good plays from you out there today. in fact, i think that was some of the best playing i saw from anyone today. it was tight, aggressive, and effective. but you think way too much. once the point's over, it's over. you cannot afford to get hung up on past mistakes, otherwise you miss the present, alright?" renjun nods and jaemin swears he can see a little bit of a twinkle in his eyes. serena lets a ghost of a smile slip onto her face before it slips off just as quickly when she turns to jaemin.

"number twenty-three. na jaemin. i was looking forward to your playing the most," serena says, stretching out the syllables a little bit. jaemin smirks, and to his surprise (and maybe even horror), serena returns it. 

"but nothing special. i heard you were a beast on the court. the phantom? is that what they call you? please. you're barely casper the friendly ghost. you have got to start utilizing your players more. you side-stepped jisung and gave it to renjun, who did well, but it was a silly move. if you had thought for a split second, you would've realized that if you had given it to jisung, it would've been an easy three," serena says, charisma practically oozing out of every word she uttered. jaemin doesn't like this girl. sure, she might be a little right, but she had hurt his pride at this point. 

now jaemin wasn't a man with a large ego, but he was a man. which automatically meant he had a large ego, given that the words are practically synonymous with each other, and his large ego did not like being insulted. even for self-bettering. especially for self-bettering.

but before jaemin's internal conflict becomes an external conflict, serena lets up, seemingly haven extracted all the information she needed to from him. when she turns to jeno, it seems as if the gym has just dropped by another thirty degrees, a cold shiver running down renjun's spine. 

jeno's hands are clenched at his sides, his tensed shoulders a dead giveaway of the hate he was so desperately trying to keep off of his face. serena just shakes her head, shoulders drooping.

"that's all from me. coach lee? laps?" 

jeno looks up, and for the first time, he doesn't look at serena with contempt or anger. just simple and pure unfamiliarity. as if he didn't even know who she was. jaemin could practically see the tension between the two of them, climbing and climbing until someone was going to suffocate from it. and it was definitely not going to be serena.

"well! you heard her! fifty laps around the red!"

jaemin doesn't hear the rest of it because jeno has already begun to sprint and there was no way in hell jaemin was about to let him run on his own. not...not when he was like this. 

serena just watches from the sidelines, upset and frustrated, and not listening to a word coach lee was saying to her. probably about the boys. it's definitely about the boys. when does coach say anything besides his team? 

by the time the first of the boys have finished the allotted fifty laps, serena's already left towels for each of them and coach lee is the only one there, fighting to keep the smile off of his face. 

"she's really not all that bad, you know," renjun says, a certain spring in his step as the boys leave the gym. jisung immediately clamps a hand over his mouth and drags him backwards, likely to explain why renjun should definitely not be saying anything remotely positive about serena right now unless he wanted a bloody nose. 

renjun did not want a bloody nose apparently, because no one brings up the coach's daughter with the iq of basketball einstein for the rest of the walk to the parking lot.

jaemin has no idea what happens at the lee household, with his texts going unanswered by jeno and the group chat being dead silent. jaemin was busy himself, practicing uh, human anatomy with kim soobin, but it was the thought that counted. right?

he's about to get into his car to pick up haechan for some late night convenience store ramen (which was definitely a bad idea to eat in the middle of his season but neither of them could just bring themselves to care) when his phone pings. he clicks the latest notification, and opens it up to a group chat with all of the dreamies - minus jeno.

what the fuck just happened

lonjeon: whoever made this gc thank u i was getting bad vibes from the dreamies gc

jwisungie: just say you're scared of jeno and go

lonjeon: did NOT ask for this slander 

fullsun: idk and idc but someone's gotta figure out what beef that serena chick and jeno have

zhongle: i kinda know

fullsun: chenle??? tf

jwisungie: wait chenle, you know what the beef is?

lonjeon: and u let us just suffer without knowing bitch

hold on. wait. i know renjun isn't talking.

lonjeon: ok fine whatever let u guys suffer or whatever just tell us

zhongle: idk too much but i do know that serena's from the us. she moved there when she was six and just moved back. a second year, but taking third year stem classes. apparently coach lee and her mom are divorced but she suddenly upped and moved back to korea 11 years later.

jwisungie: literally what does jeno have to do with any of that?

zhongle: idk this is all i could find out about her. i'm guessing the beef has to do with the fact that one kid grew up in korea and the other grew up the us??? i mean how likely is it that the judge makes one parent take one kid and the other kid the other???

lonjeon: chenle's got a point divorce court judges basically never split the kids 

fullsun: jaemin are u coming or not????

just started.

jaemin places the phone in the cupholder, looking down every so often to see snippets of the conversation, seeing that haechan and renjun were once again bickering about the practicality of aliens, and for a moment, all is well. 

he finds out the next day in school that it was just the calm before the storm.