HYBRID

🏒Paddle⛸️

"Woah!"

At the sound of a sudden shriek; both Xian and Jun turned in unison to see a young girl skating towards them.

"Coach Jun! That was awesome!" Her face that had an awed smiled turned pale at the sight of Xian. "No way! No way! No way!" She kept repeating and finally came to a stop; close to where Xian was standing.

"You're..." Glancing at Jun, the young girl pointed towards Xian's face, "Coach Jun! Is this..." Turning back to the man in question, the young girl finally mustered up the courage to ask, "Are you really Grandmaster Wei?"

Grinning at the adorable seven year old kid, Xian nodded enthusiastically and as expected, she gave out a high pitched squeal and skated even more closer to him.

"I can't believe you're Grandmaster Wei! I have seen all your live games! I am such a huge fan of yours. Not only I; but every single one of us are your fans!"

Eyeing Jun, the young girl grinned, "Never would have guessed that coach knew you. You! The Grandmaster Wei!"

What was apparently few minutes later, Jun shook his head and made necessary introductions. "Xian, this is Song Ara. She's one of my many students."

Looking around the arena to find it empty, Jun frowned and enquired, "What are you doing here all alone?"

"Coach Jun, mom is inside cleaning all the equipments. I came here to see what was happening when I heard voices. That's when I saw you playing. Grandmaster Wei's face was covered, thus could not recognise him."

She turned those big puppy eyes back on Xian and giggled, "I have two huge posters of yours in my room. You're even more prettier than your photos."

Crouching down to Ara's level, Xian gave his best camera angle smile.

"Thank you sweetheart, but I am not as pretty as you princess. You have the most beautiful smile on this earth."

Blushing on cue, the young kid became extremely shy and all Jun could do was watch their interaction in silence. He realised with him, these kids were always verbose and boisterous. But with Xian, such a complete opposite.

"Grandmaster Wei."

"Yes sweetie?"

"Would you mind if my mother clicked a picture our ours? I would love to post in on Weibo."

Jun did not miss a second of hesitation on Xian's part.

"Sweetie, how about for now you keep it a secret that you met me, and later in season when I am back on the national field, I shall personally send you tickets to see me play? Then, you can have innumerable autographs, pictures and what not!"

Jun was perplexed hearing Xian's answer. 'Why do you wish to keep this a secret?'

The kid was ecstatic!

"You promise?"

"Of course. If your mom is busy, you can always ask Coach Jun to bring you to see me play."

Xian glanced up at Jun and winked, while the latter just rolled his eyes and ignored him.

"Okay! Grandmaster Wei?"

"Yes?"

"Can you once show me the move you did in your last game? The one where you slid across your belly to protect the puck from scoring, and then with your paddle, you flipped the puck all the way to opponents territory!"

This time Xian looked embarrassed and Jun had to hide his smile. 'So he has humility in him?'

"Kid... that was-"