{A/n: Shin Se Kyung as Yoon Dalnim (/^▽^)/}

...

"Yoon Dalnim: Outside Hitter of Women's National Volleyball Team

Young and Dedicated, There's Much More to This Athletic Beauty"

Yoon Dalnim gritted her teeth at the article written about her in one of South Korea's popular magazines, CHEER. When she had done this interview, which commanded by her coach, she didn't think this was going to be the outcome of it. Now that she had read the article, she realized the magazine showed how much of a rare beauty she was on court. None of which included how hardworking her fellow team was or of the upcoming national competition they will be a part of before going into the 2016 Olympics.

"Will you be purchasing this magazine, miss?" The vendor of the stand asked, a tired and wary tone in his voice as he blankly stared at her.

Dalnim glanced back at the magazine in her hands. Disgusted, she placed the magazine back where it previously was. "No thank you. Have a nice day." With a curt nod, she continued down the sidewalk.

She couldn't have felt more peeved off at the current situation. She was more than just her looks, which she couldn't care less of at the moment. Dalnim had achieved her dream of being in her nation's volleyball team straight after college, and there are high chances she'll be participating in the upcoming Olympics. All so fast, her dreams were becoming a reality.

What wasn't part of that dream? The snootiness of fame.

All she wanted is to play volleyball and possibly be the best female spiker in her nation, but why flaunt it around? She didn't join on the team to gloat about to others, she's there because she earned it fair and square.

She turned the corner and hurried closer to the building before her. With a swipe of her ID, she scurried inside and rushed down the hallway until she made it to the main room. The sound of balls hitting against the wooden floors echoed from wall to wall and the smell of sweat hung in the air, everything that had all been so familiar to her since junior high. At least she felt a little better...

Just a little.

"There she is! Girl of the hour. Our precious and most beautiful player, Yoon Dalnim!" Without effort, Dalnim caught the volleyball that was aimed to her face. She glared intensely at her teammate, who just gave her an innocent look. How pathetic must her teammate be to result to violence from hearing the news? "Yah, aren't you coming in a little late, superstar? Finally letting that star status get to you?"

"I'm not late," Dalnim scoffed as she started to made her way to the locker room. "Besides, it was only one article. You shouldn't let your jealousy get the best of you, Hana." Once inside the locker room, she spotted a few more of her teammates, all huddled together. Curious prickling at her, she tip toed closer and peeked over their hunched shoulders. It wasn't a surprise to see that they had the recent copy of CHEER Magazine in their clutches.

"Dalnim's so lucky," one of her younger teammates, Hye Rin, sighed. "Being interviewed by a magazine. She's so amazing."

"She only got to do it because of her looks. I should've been able to do an individual interview, aren't I pretty?" Yeon Kyun, the team's setter, uttered with her arms crossed her chest.

"Not pretty enough!" Tae Ri, the flexible libero, snickered behind her hand. "Stop being such a sour puss, unnie. Dalnim-unnie was able to represent our team, more people will be looking us up on the Internet because of this article."

"Yeah, right! They'll be looking for Dalnim rather than our team," Yeon Kyun scoffed. "You think she had a lot of admirers in school?"

"No, I didn't actually," Dalnim answered, causing the three women to flinch in surprise. She walked over to her assigned locker and began changing into her practice uniform. "It's good to hear that not all of my teammates resent me."

"Hey, I don't hate you," Yeon Kyun burst out. With a pout, she added, "Just a little mad that they asked you to do an interview."

"Well, maybe ask Coach to do the next interview," Dalnim replied as she slipped on her shirt. "She was the one that told me to do it in the first place."

"Honestly, I think Coach is a little bit more biased towards you, unnie," Hye Rin responded. The young girl stood up from the bench and closed the magazine, finishing her change of clothes. "Isn't it because her son likes you?"

"Hey! Coach Seon is not biased towards me and don't say that Young Gi likes me, he's just a friend." Dalnim threw her belongings into the locker and slammed it shut. Whipping her slick, black hair into her ponytail complete with a headband, she was ready for practice.

"We're not accusing you for getting on the team because of connections, unnie, but maybe there might have been little influence," Tae Ri mumbled out, tying her shoes.

Dalnim stared at the three in disappointment. Weren't two of them defending her just moments ago? And now they're claiming that she gets special treatment? The young spiker scoffed at the nonsense. "Coach Seon claimed that I should do the interview because I could speak the most English out of all of us. You know how CHEER magazine is, they're international so it's best to have an English speaker. And I tried out for this team just like everyone else and got on here by skill. If I hear any of you saying otherwise behind my back, I'll roundhouse kick all of your asses, got it?" Dalnim wrapped her towel around her neck, turned her heel, and left the locker room leaving her teammates flabbergasted with the threat.

God damn CHEER Magazine and their bullcrap writing.

After five minutes of stretching, the team's coach called them to line up. Dalnim rushed into place between Hana and Tae Ri with eyes forward, not giving either girl a glance of welcome just as she did many times before. "First of all, congrats on Yoon Dalnim for her interview being in CHEER Magazine! Everyone give her a round of applause." Coach Seon and the other 14 girls clapped on command. Dalnim's cheeks reddened at the unwanted attention and hung her head low to hide her face. "Don't bury your face, Yoon. You should boldly hold your head high and show off your beauty!"

Dalnim refrained from barking back a retort from biting down on her lip. Deep breaths and all is fine.

"Alright, secondly, the national volleyball competition is just a couple months away! So we gotta stay on our toes, ladies! We're the best of all of South Korea so we can't let anyone beat us. Winning this competition is our ticket to the Olympics, understood?" All the girls shouted in response. With a nod, Coach Seon blew on her whistle. "Alright ladies, let's start practice!"

~*~*~

No laughter. No words of encouragement and "job well dones." No joking around in the locker rooms to avert attention away from their exhausted bodies. How could they be carefree after the pathetic practice they just had?

The tension from the team and Dalnim hung thickly in the air. She knew that because of the magazine article and the rumor of Coach Seon being more biased towards her, her teammates became distant. It peeved her off to know that something as silly as this caused such poor performance on the court. No one wanted to cooperate with her. It caused her to miss the volleyball more than once in their practice match. All of this didn't sit well for Coach Seon and had them run around the building twenty times as punishment.

Dalnim did the usual routine, stretch out her tired muscles (legs especially), take a refreshing shower, change back into her clothes, and leave. She didn't bother to say a farewell to her teammates. Tomorrow, hopefully they would all cool down and continue to do their best for practices. There's no more time to waste for them to slack.

She rushed to leave the building but Coach Seon called out for her. She couldn't help but roll her eyes before turning around to face the initial cause of her problems. "Yes, Coach Seon?" She greeted nonchalantly, stopping just before the exit of the building. The older woman approached her, a kind smile on her face, a big contrast to when they were in volleyball mode. Where was the kind smile when she'd demanded her team to run outside in the cold?

"Dalnim, are you going out to see my son?" Coach Seon asked her.

The younger nodded. "Yes ma'am. I'll be heading to the hospital."

"Today is one of the days you teach the sick kids English, isn't that right?" Dalnim nodded again. "You should've mentioned that in your interview."

"Why would I? My interview was supposed to bring support on our team. You told me I was most qualified to do the interview because of how well I speak English," Dalnim grumbled. The thought of her volleyball sisters turning their backs pained her and she's going to make sure their coach gets the message. "I can see why my teammates are mad at me and I don't blame them. That interview made it look like I'm taking all the glory."

"CHEER Magazine wanted to interview you, Dalnim. You gotten a lot of attention from our last competition and why turn them down? Just enjoy whatever is coming while it lasts." Coach Seon patted her shoulder. Dalnim fought the feeling of shrugging her coach's hand off. "Make sure Young Gi eats something after work, ok? Something hot since it's cold out."

"Sure, Coach Seon." Dalnim waved her off and left without anything else.

With a short bus ride, she made it to Gold Hospital by 6 p.m. She walked up to the front desk in quick strides while she tried to fish out her ID to show. "Dalnim-shi, don't worry about it. You can go right in, I'm sure the kids are waiting," the woman at the desk informed her.

A look of relief crossed Dalnim's face at her words. "Thank you, Soo Yin-ah," she beamed at her.

She walked over to the elevators, went inside, and pressed for the fourth floor. Once on her floor, she jogged over to the rest area where the hospital allowed her to do her teachings.

Her feet halted to a stop by the entrance. She peered inside and smiled at the sweet scene before her. Her best friend, Seon Young Gi, was playing with all the kids to keep them occupied until she arrived. While some were watching a kids program on the television screen, a few others, all of which happened to be girls, were messing around with the man, claiming that he was their Prince Charming. Dalnim giggled softly as the young girls fought for his attention.

"Dalnim-noona is here!" One boy hollered upon seeing her. The kids, the ones who could move about freely, flocked around the girl, greeting her like they haven't seen her in years. Being here with all the excited children warmed Dalnim's heart and definitely relieved her from all the stresses of today. She greeted them back with the same level of enthusiasm.

"Hello, I hope I didn't keep you all waiting too long," Dalnim said as she set down her bag onto the floor near her.

"Young Gi-oppa kept us company!" One girl chirped out just as she clutched onto the nurse's arm.

Young Gi pleaded with his eyes for Dalnim to help him out of the current situation. "Well, I'm glad he did. Everyone say thank you to Young Gi, but say it in English. I've taught you all this a couple lessons ago."

In a messy blurb, all the children said their thanks to Young Gi in their best English.

The male nurse smiled brightly. After all, he had been supervising the lessons from the beginning. It may have not been perfect but it was a delight to see the children learning the difficult language at a good rate. "You're welcome. I'll leave you all in Dalnim's hands then." He stood up quickly, and stepped alongside his friend.

"I think you have some admirers, Young Gi-yah," Dalnim snickered under her breath.

"I'd be happy to be their Prince but please spare me my arms," Young Gi replied, holding onto himself. He rubbed his now sore arms and shot Dalnim his famous puppy-dog pout. "They're a lot stronger than I thought."

"Therapy must be going well for them then."

"I guess so. But by the end of therapy, they'd be able to rip off my arms by its sockets!"

Dalnim laughed and patted his shoulder for comfort. He flinched at the touch. "Man up, Young Gi."

She turned her attention back on the children. "Alright everyone, today is a special day because I..." From her bag, she took out the Disney version book of Peter Pan. She sat down in a chair in front of the waiting children. "Have brought a book my mother read to me when I was your age. Who knows the story of Peter Pan?" Most of the children raised their hands in response. "Oh good, well for those who don't know, don't you worry. I may be reading this in English, but we will be discussing what each part means, ok?" The children cheered and settled themselves to be comfortable for the story.

Just as she opened the book to its first page, she felt her phone vibrate in her coat pocket. She excused herself from the children and took out her cell phone to see what kind and who sent her a text message.

>From: Unknown Number
Hello Dalnim! Don't freak out ok? I got your number from Ha Neul. It's been a long time since we've talked, years! You look like you've been doing well, I've seen your article in CHEER. Wow! I'm seriously so proud of you. I would call but I'm running on a tight schedule. Text me back when you can! We need to catch up.

Confusion filled Dalnim as she read and reread the text message. Who could this possibly be? She hoped that her younger sister didn't give her number out to some stranger. Dalnim would definitely kill Ha Neul if she did. But whoever messaged her seemed like they knew her personally. Dalnim racked her brain for all the possible people she lost contact with... She was absolutely blanking.

Young Gi saw the sudden change in expression and walked over to sit beside her. "Hey, what's wrong?" Dalnim showed him the text to read. "Uh, text them who they are." Dalnim nodded and quickly texted back asking for some kind of identity.

Their response was instantaneous. When she read it, she gasped in surprise, a wave of emotions hitting her all at once.

It has been way too long.

Seven years, to be exact.

>From: Unknown Number

Who else? Your ray of sunshine ;)

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A/n: I will admit that I've got the idea of Dalnim being a volleyball player from Haikyuu!! Spare me. And if you haven't already, there will be a little bit of cussing... Sooo, if you're uncomfortable with that, I apologize.

But, yay, there's my first chapter to this story. I really do want to write more on this one, hopefully I'll have time to do so once classes end for winter break.

I'm also currently typing chapter 5 of Goodbye Summer soooo that will be out soon.

Until next time, my lovelies!