VARSITY 9 | BL

TWENTY-THREE | PROMISE?

"Wen!"

..."Wen!!"

Flames. Smoke. Screams. His sisters. His mother. They were calling his name. He needed to get to them. His father had found them.

Wen shifted in his bed uncomfortably as he dreamed of his family being hurt by this drunken father. Memories of the night when his father had last found them raced through Wen's sleeping mind, and he longed to reach them. However, he could not. No matter how hard he tried, Wen could not get to his family.

They were screaming his name, screaming for him to help. But Wen was stuck. He could not move from where he was standing. He could only watch as his father raised his blazing fist.

"No!! Stay away from them!" No matter how loudly he called for his father to leave, the man would not turn away from his mother and sisters. Stretching out his arm, Wen reached for his family, trying with all his might to run to them. But, instead, he woke up in a cold sweat.

Wen panted as he sat up in bed. He was at Azari; he was not with his mother and sisters. He was safe...but was his family?

Scenes from the nightmare still vivid in his mind, Wen quickly grabbed his holophone from the nightstand and messaged his mother to ensure she and his sisters were alright. It was currently three in the morning, so Wen did not expect an immediate reply. However, his nerves were too heightened to go back to sleep, so Wen slid out of bed and grabbed his blue, zip-up jacket from where it hung on his closet's door.

He then took his T3 from the nightstand next to his bed and teleported to the training center. The center was empty as Wen walked through the compound to where his class's training room was located. Other than the cleaning robots making their way through the center, there was no sign of movement as Wen entered the training room.

Sensing a student enter the training room, the three robots that were cleaning the floor quickly exited to leave space for the student to train as they pleased. Upon the doors sliding close behind the robots, Wen unzipped his jacket and slid it off to reveal his bare chest and abdomen. Since it was only him in the room, Wen did not feel uncomfortable going about shirtless.

After setting his jacket on one of the benches lining the wall, Wen walked to one of the in-ground sprintstrips. The sprintstrip was fashioned after a device called a treadmill; it allowed a person to run however fast or slow they liked and automatically adjusted to the person's speed based on the user's pace and rhythm. However, unlike a treadmill, sprintstrips were flush against the floor and did not possess the standing bars. If it detected the user tripping or falling, it would automatically stop to prevent harm.

The sprintstrip activated the moment Wen stepped onto the black tread strip, and the outline of the strip glowed blue to indicate it was in use. Starting with a slow walk, Wen gradually increased his pace until he was sprinting. And as he ran, Wen ran through his nightmare over and over again. The more he thought about it, the more restless and anxious he became.

He was reminded of the reason he chose to lead the life of a xaiyon and become part of a varsity team. He needed to move his family to somewhere his father would not be able to go, somewhere he could not find them, somewhere they would be safe. And to do that, he would need money...lots of money. 

Participating in varsity games was sure to bring in money. Each varsity member had sponsors, and besides that, the SA they attended would cover their tuition as well as pay them a fee for each game they played. And if their team won, they would be paid a handsome bonus.

And to get to that point, to earn a varsity position, Wen needed to do well in the JV tryouts and obtain a position on Azari's JV team. And to do that, Wen needed to train. So, that's what he did. Every night following the announcement of the tryouts, Wen would spend hours training once classes were done. He often skipped dinner to get extra training in.