4:30 PM. In the farthest room from the main entrance of this old and dusty, godforsaken university, loud protests from fifteen beefy rugby athletes all together. 

"Really? Disbanding the team?!"

"What about our fucking scholarship?!"

"Hold your horses, dudes. No swearing."

"Shut your fucking mouth!"

The dean let out an enormous sigh and massaged the bridge of his nose. He knew this pack of unchained delinquents, masquerading as athletes, was very volatile. It hasn't even been five minutes since the main agenda of this meeting began. 

He picked up a ruler from the table and repeatedly hit it against the surface to get their attention. 

"Please let me finish." He said once they all focused on him and glared at them. "We will continue to exist as a team. We just cannot afford anything for the championship game to New Zealand. No plane tickets, no accommodations because we also have our basketball team and soccer team to fund. We might have to give up for this season and for the next ones until the venue lands here in Delaware."

"But if we win, aren't we taking a huge amount home? That'll pay off everything."

"And if you don't?" The dean rebutted.

The room erupted into huge chaos once more. Everybody argued with the dean, except for a bright red-haired athlete alone at the back of the room, Cale MacKenzie.

He occasionally glanced at his teammates with his fist against his chin. His legs couldn't stop shaking as he hoped for the dean to change his mind and actually let them go for the championship match. Sweat soaked his jersey as his anxiety silently got him, while fighting the urge to suck his knuckles.

"Don't worry. You guys made an impressive performance, and the university wouldn't let it go to waste." The dean pulled out a block of mysterious black coupons. "Because of that, we will give each one of you three coupons to an all-you-can-eat buffet."

The room fell into silence. Cale rolled his eyes at the ridiculous bargain. 

"You're looking for a reason to get jumped." Cale thought to himself as he waited for his team to react. 

But instead of glaring and more shouts, the team glanced at each other and slowly nodded. 

Cale's leg stopped shaking as his eyebrows furrowed, his eyes darting to each of these greedy, shallow idiots. 

"Alright." The team captain, Akio Watanabe, spoke for everyone. After that, they all stood with their duffel bags and received their coupons from the dean, who looked relieved.

They all exited the room, but Cale couldn't move. Eyes hollowed at Akio, who got the rest of those coupons before nodding the dean out of the room.

Akio then turned and smiled at Cale. 

"Dude, let's have dinner together." He waved the coupons in front of his face. "It's a good buffet. I heard they make great steaks."

Akio walked closer to his best friend and tapped his shoulder. Cale's hazel orbs met Akio's dark brown ones as his hair damped against his forehead from how much he's sweating. 

Akio looked closer, scraping the droplets off Cale's forehead with the coupons. "Are you alrigh—" 

A jarring punch landed on his cheek before he could even finish his sentence. He held his face, eyes enlarged as he saw the first drop of Cale's tears slip out of his eyes.

"Akio..." Cale lowly said, staring at the floor while avoiding a glimpse of his friend's face. "Leave me alone."

The latter stood still for a moment before shoving the coupons onto Cale's chest and letting them drop to the floor when Cale didn't catch them. 

"Asshole." Akio, pissed, left the room with heavy footsteps.

Cale stood alone in the same spot for minutes. Fat tears soaked the coupons as he couldn't believe that his best friend, who knows damn well how important the championship is to him, allowed this to happen.