The cheerful nature of the festival echoes throughout the park, families are enjoying the wondrous Christmas as children play out on the streets. Stalls and booths line the sidewalks with snacks, drinks, and fun games.
Amongst the crowd, a 15 year old high schooler walks past the flashy glowing lights, holding a soccer ball in hand.
"Man, I really do suck at sports, huh? I should've just stayed home to play some first-person shooter games with my friends." He says.
Then, a notification dings on his phone, lighting it up.
[Murayama Ryo | Just Now]
[Hey, Kazu-kun. Where are you right now?]
The high schooler is Aki Kazuhiko, a seemingly ordinary high schooler who spends his days playing games.
Aki opens up his phone, eager to reply,
[Oh, hey Ryo, I'm here at the park.]
Ryo replies,
[Whatcha doin' over there?]
Aki taps on his keyboard,
[I was just looking around, I have my soccer ball with me if you wanna play…]
Aki looks around him, searching for a field he can play in.
Suddenly, another notification dings on his phone.
[Hey, Kazu-kun… You don't want to play soccer, don't you?]
[H-huh? What do you mean, Ryo?]
[I've noticed that you seem really unmotivated in our games. I've known you since we were kids, I know you don't like sports.]
[Well… You aren't wrong, I've been trying to find a sport that I'm good at, I've been terrible at every single one so far… And to make it worse, I feel too demotivated whenever I play any of them…]
Ryo replies,
[Well, maybe you aren't looking for a sport you're good at… Maybe you're looking for a sport that'll start a spark in you. Something that interests you, y'know?]
Kazuhiko smiles and reacts with a thumbs up emoji to the message,
[You're right. I just haven't found a sport that intrigues me yet-]
Suddenly, while he is typing, a loud commotion can be heard in the distance.
Kazuhiko walks through the grass of the park, and peers through the leaves of bushes.
He finds a basketball court, with several players in a match.
It was a 3v3, 5 of the players were incredibly tall, taller than Kazuhiko, he watches—interested in the sport—paying close attention to the ball as basketball shoes squeak all over the concrete floor of the park's basketball court.
Then, a player yells out,
"Pass it!"
Kazuhiko watches as the tallest player on the team passes the ball to the shortest player amongst them, who was just slightly taller than Kazuhiko.
He frowns,
"Why would they pass to a person shorter than them? Isn't basketball about height and physicality?"
Suddenly, the player sprinted through, dribbling the ball past a defender who was far taller than him.
Another tall player immediately ran towards him, trying to guard him, but to no avail.
The short player simply passed the ball to his taller teammate, then, while the enemies were distracted by the pass, he slipped past them.
The taller player passes the ball back to the shorter player, he positions himself into a shooting stance as 2 tall opponents attempt to block…
Then, the player fakes the shot.
Right before the 2 taller opponents' legs could reach the ground, the shorter player jumped up and shot the ball into the basket as the net swished.
A 3-pointer… The shorter player had managed to shoot a 3-pointer even amidst taller opponents.
"Nice one, Namhwa!"
Kazuhiko's eyes widen,
"Namhwa? A Korean player? Woah! That's sick!"
Kazuhiko notices one of Namhwa's opponents click their tongue,
"Tsk, we'll pay you back tenfold!"
Kazuhiko watches on in awe at the game unfolding before him,
Namhwa's team gets a grasp of the ball.
One of his teammates passes to him, he dribbles across the court but is suddenly stopped by a 3-man block.
The entire enemy team is blocking him,
"Hey! What're you doing? That isn't fair!" One of Namhwa's teammates yells out.
"To hell it isn't! This is more than fair!" One of the opponents exclaims.
Namhwa laughs,
"Is this all you can do?"
Suddenly, he makes a series of incredibly quick steps and dribbles which distract the enemy, appearing as if he is suddenly teleporting all over the place.
Then, he nutmegs one of the taller opponents, bouncing the floor down in between the enemy's legs—Namhwa slips past the enemy, continuing to dribble the ball as he sprints incredibly quickly.
"H-huh!? How'd he do that? Get him!"
The enemies are quick to react, running at fast speeds and catching up to Namhwa…
Then, in the blink of an eye, Namhwa assumes a shooting position,
"Block that!" One of the enemies yells out.
Namhwa jumps—prepared to shoot the ball—The 3 enemies jump extremely high, making sure not to let the ball slip past.
All of a sudden, Namhwa—like magic, lands nearly instantly, as if gravity obeys his command, and dribbles past his opponents who were still in the air.
"W-what!?! How!?"
Namhwa runs past at breakneck speeds, jumping incredibly high…
The enemies still persevere though as one of them jumps up, blocking Namhwa's sight of the basket with his hand.
Then, Namhwa pivots his body backwards, falling down faster than his enemies.
The moment Namhwa's feet land on the ground, he jumps backwards—like a dash—his jump lands beyond the 3-point line as Namhwa quickly releases the ball in an instant right after landing.
"N-no way!?" The enemies yell out.
Namhwa turns around, facing away from the basket.
"Good game." He mutters in a monotone voice, pushing his short black hair back, and fixing his glasses.
The ball perfectly goes in the basket, not even touching the rim.
Kazuhiko is so entranced by Namhwa's play. Then, he notices that Namhwa was still wearing an office worker uniform, donning a black suit, a black necktie, a white dress shirt, black slacks, and black dress shoes.
Namhwa laughs,
"Hahahaha, that was fun. Thanks for that game, everyone." He says in broken Japanese.
Both his enemies and teammates are shocked, their jaws hanging from their faces.
Kazuhiko grins widely,
"T-this… This looks like fun!"
He looks at his phone,
[You're right. I just haven't found a sport that intrigues me yet-]
He quickly erases his message,
[Hey, Ryo. I think I know which sport I'm interested in now.]
As Namhwa leaves the basketball court, he walks slowly.
Suddenly, Kazuhiko yells out from behind him,
"Hey! Mister!"
Namhwa turns around,
"Hm?"
Kazuhiko's eyes are sparkling—full of interest.
"Mr. Namhwa, can you please teach me… Your basketball!?"
Namhwa chuckles, pivoting his body around and looking Kazuhiko in the eyes.
"You want to learn my basketball?"
"Alright, what's your name, kid?"
"I'm Aki Kazuhiko!"
…
Namhwa nods,
"I'm Lee Namhwa. Nice to meet you."
"Sure, I'll teach you…"
"My basketball."