The score was 19-17. Lars's team was one 2-pointer away from driving it home and teaching the bullies a lesson. However...

"By the way," Mike spoke up. "Do you know there's a special rule about winning in a 3v3 game?" 

"What rule?" Kai borrowed her eyes.

"You can't win the game with a 2-pointer," Mike explained. "The final point has to be a 1-pointer."

"Huh." Kai frowned. So lame. He feels cornered so he’s grasping at anything he can to get an advantage.

Unfortunately, the rule he talked about really existed. It wasn't used in all variations of 3v3, but it was popular in some. It was an odd rule that Kai never paid much heed to before, but right now it was critical.

At 19 points, a 2-pointer was exactly what the team needed to win. On top of that, they had the right man for the job, the godlike basket sniper. Alas, Mike was trying to deny that easy winning option. What a scumbag.

"You should've mentioned it earlier," Kai argued. "It's lame to start changing rules now."

"I'm not changing anything,” Mike insisted. “We never said we’re not using that rule. At least, on our side, we knew that rule was in place all along, right guys?”

"Yep!" James nodded.

"Totally," Larry agreed.

Their acting is so bad... Kai made a face. It was clear those two never gave this rule any thought until now. It was all Mike's doing, but of course, the goons supported the godfather.

This is unfair. Kai ranted. Who does he think he is, coming up with new rules on the fly? There should be a limit to how much of a scumbag you can be. I won't stand for this!

"Okay," Lars agreed without hesitation.

"Wha!?” Kai jumped. “Wait, what are you-" 

"So," Lars continued. "If I score from afar now, what gonna happen? Will it count as one point?"

"No, you won't get anything," Mike stated matter-of-factly.

"Say what?" Kai objected. "That's plain dumb." 

"There are many variations to this rule, but I like this one the best. It forces the end-game to be close to the basket. That's the more fun, don't you think?"

"More ‘fun’? You’re just trying to make things easier for yourself, aren’t you?”

"Hmph." Mike ignored the comment with a sneer. He clearly had no intention of discussing this with Kai. His gaze was wholly concentrated on Lars, demanding a reply from the team’s true leader.

He doesn't even register me. Kai clicked her tongue. Her fists itched to punch the hell outta that bastard, but this wasn't the time to lose her cool. That'll just be playing into the bastard’s hand.

Instead of arguing with the cunning bastard, it was best to convince the "captain" of the team to reject that rule. "Lars, we shouldn't agree to-" 

"Okay," Lars accepted without hesitation.

"Wha-!?" Kai jumped. "Wait, but...!" 

"It's okay." Lars flashed his teeth. "The rule gonna apply to them too, so it's all fair."

"Yeah, but still...!" Don't you get it!? It'll put us at more disadvantage! No, of course he gets it. But then, why is he smiling like it's nothing!?

There was only one explanation: Lars was confident. Even with his 2-pointers sealed, he was confident about beating Mike's team.

That confidence is sure on another level. These guys aren’t exactly pushovers. Kai sighed. Okay, fine. Let's roll with it. We got the lead right now so we just have to score two more times. We can win this.

"So," Lars verified one last time. "We can only score from inside, yeah?" 

"Right." Mike nodded. "Of course, the same will apply to us once we get that many points."

"Nah, don't worry. It won't apply to you."

"What?" Mike raised an eyebrow.

"Because your points won't get that far, yo!"

"Hmph." Mike glared at the grinning fool. "We'll see about that."

That brief exchange made everything clear to Kai.

Of course. Kai nodded. Lars isn't happy about this rule either, but he's maintaining that smile to not show any of it. He doesn't want to give Mike the satisfaction of coming on top. Meanwhile, I... Well...

In short, she has been overreacting to every little thing Mike threw her way. That bastard was probably having the time of his life when messing with her.

It's not good. I better learn a thing or two from how Lars acts. Kai smiled wryly. Huh, I never imagined I’d ever think of doing anything like this.

"Don't worry." Lars tapped on Kai's shoulder. "Let 'em set the rules. We just gotta beat ‘em at their own game, that's all. The more control they got over the rules, the more embarrassing it gonna be when they lose."

"That's true," Kai agreed. The harder they shatter the enemy’s pride, the more convincing their victory is going to look.

From the summary Kai received, the spark for this entire basketball nonsense was that the delinquents insulted the Classmancers club, calling them "fake athletes". Therefore, mopping these bastards on their own turf, under their house rules, would be the most fatal blow ever.

And so, the game went on. The enemy opened with another attack and Larry received the opening pass.

No, you don’t! Kai failed to intercept the pass but she didn’t give up there. She thrust her hand toward the ball immediately!

Alas, her hand only touched empty air.

“Shit!” Kai grit her teeth.

"Payback time, baby!" Larry smoothly maneuvered around Kai’s predictable attack. She was far too eager to get the ball.

“You little…! Tch.” Kai stopped herself there and took a deep breath. She couldn’t allow herself to be triggered by such small things, it’d be detrimental to her gameplay.

I'll get him next time. Kai convinced herself to think this way. There was no point getting agitated every time she lost a duel. I need to get used to taking an L every now and then.

Of course, deep down, it was infuriating. She didn't want to submit to these wrong-doers. But, they were the ones who played basketball on a regular basis, it was their sport. So, as douchy as these bastards were, they were bound to be at least semi-decent at the game. There was no point denying that much.

Mike was somewhat stronger than Kai and Larry seemed close to her level. These were simple truths that Kai couldn't overwrite, no matter how much they frustrated her. Therefore, there was no reason to lose her head over every single defeat against them. She just had to adapt and move on.

The score was 19-18. Lars’s team attacked next. As usual, the offense started with Ben passing to Kai.

Phew. Kai let a breath of relief. Larry almost intercepted the pass with his needlessly long arms, but the ball safely got to Kai in the end. It was her turn to attack.

"Ready for a payback for your payback?" Kai dribbled the ball from side to side.

"Come at me, baby." Larry grinned confidently.

This time, I’ll get past you! Kai drove to the right!

"No, you don't!" Larry dashed in to block the path! But, he soon realized his mistake. Even though the opponent was running in one direction, her hands were moving the ball to the opposite side!

Fell for it. Kai passed the ball to the left. I really wanted to pay him back and drive past him, but…

It was unnecessarily risky. But, it’s not like she couldn’t do it or anything, okay? She was definitely capable of driving the ball past this bastard. Easy.

But, the risk was there and it was undeniable. Therefore, carelessly challenging this bastard for the sake of a petty vendetta was plain dumb. It might cost points and put the entire team in jeopardy.

So, instead of confronting that bastard, Kai opted to pass the ball. "Ben!" 

"O-Okay!" Ben caught the pass.

"Shoot, dude!" Lars encouraged.

"Y-Yeah!" Ben aimed at the basket and-

"SURPRISE MOTHAFUCKA!" James jumped in to block! But, he was one breath too late. "Craaaaap!"

The ball launched toward the basket but not all was lost. Perhaps James failed to block the shooting course, but it seemed his yell startled Ben more than enough. The aim was off.

It's going to rebound! Kai discerned at a glance and darted toward the basket. Unfortunately, her rival noticed it as well.

“Mine!” Larry caught up to her and jumped to grab the rebound too. Even though Kai jumped first, that bastard beat her in terms of reach.

Damn, these long arms...! Kai lost the air battle. Their speed and jumping ability were roughly the same, but Larry had these long snake arms that stretched to infinity. He snatched the rebound and passed the ball to Mike.

Wasting no time, Mike aimed at the basket from his current position. However! A wild Lars appeared and smacked the ball away!

The ball hopped and hopped until it rolled out of the half-court. As a result, the ball went to the enemy's possession.

If only I scored back there... Ben bit his lip. This entire sequence of events started with him. It was his fault.

Kai properly passed him the ball, yet Ben completely messed up the opportunity. As a result, the team lost possession and the enemy got another chance to attack.

"One point," Yuel announced. 19-19. The enemy caught up and it was all because of Ben.

Throughout the entire match, Ben hadn’t scored a single shot. He had multiple opportunities but the ball never went in. The only thing he did somewhat reliably was to get passes across to his teammates, though even that didn’t always go smoothly.

But, that's all I can do. Ben hung his head. I can't help the team in any other way, so my job is to get passes across. But, anybody can do something as simple as that.

In practice, Ben was just dragging this team down. He didn't possess even half the skill his teammates possessed. Neither his speed nor his accuracy was anything to write home about. Mike must’ve forced Ben to participate in this match to be nothing more than a handicap for Lars's team.

If we lose, it'll be my fault. It wasn't just his usual pessimism speaking for him. It was an undeniable truth. He was the one who couldn't keep up with the rest of the team.

Even though this entire situation is my fault, I'm being completely useless here... The sense of guilt was eating away at him. He was the one who allowed all of this to happen. His clubmates got dragged into this mess because he wasn't decisive enough.

I should've quit the club earlier. Ben thought. A cheater like me didn't even deserve to join the club in the first place.

Yes, cheater. Ben was practically that. It was shameful trickery that got him into the club, not his actual skill. It just so happened that he was the only one in the group to resort to such measures, so that’s why he got in while Mike, Larry, and James had to stay behind.

Back then, the four of them used to play together. They queued into Ranked as a premade team and destroyed the competition together. These were the fun times, back when everybody was still friends.

They played together on a daily basis and ranked up a lot. By the time they entered middle school and applied to the Classmancers club, all of them were at Gold III. These were probably the happiest day of Ben’s life, though a couple of caveats were present even then.

For one, his friends always made him play Support. It was the role nobody ever wanted to play but it was crucial for somebody to pick it.

With a 4-man party, at least one of them always had to play in Bot. So, to enable smooth cooperation in the lane, his friends insisted that two of them had to populate Bot. That approach made a lot of sense and that’s why Ben never openly complained about being stuck as the Support.

In truth, Ben didn't even dislike the role. Helping his teammates and keeping them safe generally felt good. Especially, when things were going well, his friends even praised him for it.

"Yo, you totally saved my ass there!" 

"Nice initiation."

Moments like that were some of Ben's fondest memories. Most likely, they were the very reason Ben fell in love with the game. For an unathletic boy like him, Classmancers was the first team game in which he was actually helpful for the team. It felt great!

In fact, Mike probably introduced the game to the group with that very intent. He didn't say it out loud, but it seemed he wanted Ben to join in on the fun when everybody played together. It was something Ben couldn’t do that well with real-life sports, so Classmancers was the next best thing.

Mike is a nice guy. At least, he used to be. These were Ben's honest feelings.

Mike always protected Ben from bullies with his mere presence. As long as Ben hung out with Mike, nobody dared to lay a finger on him. It was like an unwritten rule in the class.

For an obese boy like Ben, who was no stranger to being targeted by bullies, Mike and Co. were like saviors of sorts. Therefore, Ben was glad to repay them by playing Support all the time.

Nonetheless, there was a little friction in Ben's heart. He didn’t dislike Support, he really didn't. And yet, over time, he found himself yearning to play other roles as well.

Perhaps it was an overdose of playing the same role all the time. Or, maybe he just felt like rebelling a little because the role was practically forced on him.

And, on top of all that, there was the occasional toxicity he found himself surrounded by. It started happening more and more as they climbed up the ranks. From the moment they hit Gold V, there were more complaints than praises.

"C'mon, Ben! You should've saved me there! It's your fault I died!" 

"Why are did you retreat so early? We died because of you."

When things went wrong, they usually blamed Ben first. No matter who was truly at fault there, it was always somehow Ben's fault too.

As hard as Ben tried to pretend he didn’t care, it actually hurt him deeply. He was their Support, the one who was helping them out by playing a role they didn’t want to touch. And yet, they repaid him with nothing but rants.

Not to mention, it seeded doubt in his heart. Even though he was 90% convinced that none of it was really his fault, the remaining 10% haunted him. “But, what if I really did something wrong? Maybe I could’ve done something better?”

Every time it happened, a new dark memory formed in his head and tormented him for hours, sometimes days. It sucked out a lot of the fun from this otherwise amazing game.

That’s why, sometimes, Ben let off some steam by playing alone in solo queue. It was a completely different experience, one which didn’t reward him with the joy of helping his best friends. But, on the flip side, it gave him the freedom to play any role he wanted and he wasn’t blamed for mistakes he didn’t commit.

... okay, that was a little lie. He met many toxic people in solo queue. They usually blamed the Support, but sometimes they targeted other roles too. But, it was easy enough to ignore them because Ben didn’t know them personally. It had a different impact from when his best friends blamed him for something.

All in all, solo queue was a liberating experience for the most part. Nobody forced him to play any specific role, so Ben could be anything he wanted: Top, Mid, or Jungler. He played all these roles to his heart’s content while taking a break from supporting.

Carry was the only role he always avoided. It was mechanically demanding and often required the player to initiate pushes, something Ben wasn’t too fond of doing himself. It was far more comfortable to follow the team’s lead from behind, that’s how he always played.

Aside from Carry, the rest of the roles were all fun. Especially, Top Laner appealed to him the most. Its classes usually had defensive utilities like Supports did, and some of the classes even really doubled as viable Supports. And yet, the game plan in Top was very different from Bot.

In Top, it was just Ben fighting against one opponent. He didn’t have to live up to the expectations of a lane partner and nobody blamed him for every little thing that went wrong in the game. It was a chill role in which Ben could take it easy and enjoy the slow development of the game.

It was probably extra chill because he queued into Casual mode. He tried solo Ranked a couple of times but it was too toxic to his taste. In addition, he didn’t want to accidentally rack up too many points and surpass his friends’ ranks.

None of them really talked about it, but there was something of an unwritten rule between them. It stated that everybody had to stay at the same rank, which was Gold III at the time. Of course, Ben had every intention to stick to that rule as well, at least at first.

Then, middle school happened. As regular tryhards in Ranked, the group was interested in joining the Classmancers club.

“Too bad they don’t have enough open spots for us,” Mike said. “But, let’s apply anyway. They said there are two spots, so at least two of us can make it.”

And so, the entire group applied for the Classmancers club. From what they heard, the selection process was primarily based on rank. The players with the highest ranks and impressive match histories were prioritized over everybody else.

But, we’re all the same rank... Ben thought. How are they going to pick between us?

It was worrisome. Ben wanted to get into the club and find more people to play with. It was the only team game in which he ever felt useful, so he wanted to go further and play with more people so he could feel even more useful.

Of course, it was still the most fun to play with Mike, Larry, and James. But, beyond just playing with friends, Ben also genuinely enjoyed the game in general. The games in Casual as a Top Laner were really fun too. So, he wanted to experience more the game, to go further, to improve.

“Let’s grind Ranked this week,”  Mike said. “We’re pretty far from Gold II but we might make it in time if we win enough.”

That was a great suggestion. Ben wholeheartedly agreed with this crunch time idea. The higher they climb, the more likely it was for the Classmancers club to accept them.

But, is it enough? Ben couldn’t help but worry. I don’t think we can rank up in a week. Also, if we all rank up together, we’ll still be tied for the rank...

In other words, Ben’s chances of getting into the club will barely improve, if at all. He’ll still be competing against all his friends.

But, he had to get in! This was the club he wanted to spend his middle school years in, he was 100% convinced of that.

Maybe I should grind Ranked a little in solo queue too. It was this innocent idea that gave birth to a disaster. A devil must have whispered that idea into his ear, tempting him to commit this betrayal.

But, Ben ignored the tingling sense of guilt. He pretended he was just going to work a little harder than the rest, fooling himself regarding the true meaning of what he was about to do.

I need the extra points to keep up as a Support. Ben excused himself.

As the Support, his KDA and other stats were often inferior to his teammates’, so the system sometimes awarded him with fewer points. As a result, he was always lagging a little behind his friends.

And, it’s not like I play Support all the time because I want to. Ben complained. I keep doing it because of Mike and the others. I give them what they want, so it should be fine if sometimes I do what -I- want, right?

After coming up with many justifications for his actions, Ben started grinding Ranked in solo queue. He focused on playing Top and Mid, the two chill roles in which he didn’t have to report to anybody. It was a simple, consistent experience.

Time flew in a blink of an eye. Before long, it was time to apply for the Classmancers club.

And, as Ben initially feared, they didn’t make it to Gold II in time. Everybody had to apply for the club as Gold III players... except for him.

Yes, Ben made it. The night before the application process, he hit Gold II. His chances of getting into the club skyrocketed!

“When did you get to Gold II?” Mike demanded.

“Um, I just played a little in solo queue...” Ben clammed up. He made a few excuses to defend himself but all of them were met with a frown. That’s when the fraction between them started to form.

As expected, Ben’s superior rank made the Classmancers club prioritize him over his friends. To add insult to injury, he was the only of the group to make it in the club.

The other spot was taken by a fellow Gold II player - Luke. Surprisingly, despite the guy’s frequent memeing, he grinded lots of Ranked at the time. His natural skill carried him far enough even with his questionable picks.

But, that was a story for another day. The biggest shock was that only Ben made it.

Only me...? Ben stiffened as he learned the news. That was bad. His plan was to only increase his chances of getting in. He definitely didn’t expect to be the ONLY one to make it. Now, it looked like a complete betrayal...

“You sure pulled a fast one on us, meatball,” Larry criticized.

“That was a low blow, man,” James agreed. “I thought we were buddies.”

“..........” Ben couldn’t say anything back. What could he say? He practically cheated his way into the club. It was a scumbag move; a complete betrayal.

From that day on, their friendship became rocky. The other three constantly reminded Ben of his betrayal and forced him to run errands for him. Before long, the situation escalated into something akin to bullying.

But, it wasn’t just some unjustified harassment. His friends were angry about his betrayal so they were punishing him.

Yes, it’s just punishment, not bullying. Ben convinced himself. I totally deserve this. If only I didn’t try so hard to cut in ahead...

Ben had to own up to his crimes. The punishment was painful but it won’t go on forever, so he just had to endure and wait. Surely, before long, the four of them will return to being best friends. At least, that’s what he thought...

When will this end? There was no end in sight. If anything, the punishment was only turning fiercer and fiercer as time went on. How long will it take them to forgive me? I know I’ve done something bad, but aren’t we friends? They should be able to forgive me after this long...

Alas, even a year later, there was no sign of the situation improving. Ben was still on the receiving end of his friends’ “punishment”. It started looking like plain bullying and his clubmates definitely believed that to be the case.

That’s what led to the current situation, to this basketball match between Mike’s group and the Classmancers club. Everything started from a sin Ben committed. He was responsible for this entire situation.

But, wasn’t it enough already? Hasn’t he repented enough?

I can’t take it anymore. Ben clenched his fists. They trembled in an uncharacteristic manner.

Staying calm was one of the few things he believed he was good at. Locking his feelings away was one of the few skills he possessed. He believed that’s an important skill all humans should learn, it’ll surely bring the world one step closer toward peace.

But, right now? Ben was mad. No matter how hard he tried to justify his friends’ actions, he couldn’t convince himself he deserved that treatment.

Yes, I betrayed them back then. Ben admitted. But, I just really wanted to play Mancers. I was trying to get into a competitive club for a competitive esports game. So, it made sense for me to grind as much as possible in order to get in, right?

Enough was enough. This situation has gone on for far too long. No matter what the result might be, Ben wanted to drive this situation to closure.

And, the first step toward achieving that was to win this basketball match. Hopefully, it’ll prove to Mike that the Classmancers club was a very competitive place and that Ben had every intention to work hard there.

He didn’t work so hard and outranked his friends out of spite. He genuinely loved the game and wanted to go as far as he could with it.

To that end, Ben will do everything in his power to help to achieve victory in this decisive match...!