SECOND

“Chin up,” Jimin tries. He pats Hoseok’s shoulder but he knows it won’t help.

Hoseok mumbles. “The one thing I was actually looking forward to. Now the entire year’s busted.”

With a roll of his eyes, the younger pushes him through the door of the gym. “Have fun!” He waves until the door clicks into its lock. Then he sighs.

On his way back, he unceremoniously crashes into someone, and he braces himself for scolding whoever it is. Not because it’s in his nature, but because it’s expected of him. He is a bad boy after all, according to the school. He has a reputation to uphold.

“Hey watch where you walk!” Jimin huffs, his eyes slowly trailing off to the boy that wordlessly gets back onto his feet.

Instantly recognising the boy as Min Yoongi, the new guy, he in the words that were about to slip of his lips next, and just blatantly stares at him.

Yoongi, on the other hand, doesn’t seem interested one bit in the person he just bumped into. He slings his bag back over his shoulder in one slick, lazy movement before shooting him the most soul-piercing glare Jimin has ever seen. Yoongi scoffs, and trudges past him to the door of the gym. A few seconds later, he’s gone.

It takes another couple of seconds for Jimin to unfreeze. He doesn’t get what happened, and he doesn’t get why he traces his steps back to the gym and enters.

Sheepishly, he takes place in the bleachers. Hoseok spots him and waves at him. Not so much for saying ‘hi’, but more in a ‘what are you doing here’ kind of way.

Jimin just shrugs and looks away.

That’s when his eyes fall upon Yoongi. Whereas the others have all changed into some kind of sports attire, he’s still wearing his black hoodie. Though it doesn’t seem to hold him back, Jimin muses as he watches the boy practically fly over the court and skilfully dunk the ball into the hoop.

After a while, the coach blows his whistle and gathers them all in a circle. He says some words, looks expectantly at Yoongi, who shakes his head in reply. He mumbles a few words, which do not sit well with anyone, but he doesn’t seem to care one bit.

When Yoongi breaks away from the group to start playing again, the others just look at him, completely taken aback. And it’s Hoseok who speaks up first.

“Yah! Min Yoongi!” He takes a basketball himself and nearly chokes it in his grip.

Jimin braces himself to back his friend up, because Hoseok is pissed, and Hoseok doesn’t get pissed often.

“Show some respect!” Hoseok yells. And when Yoongi dribbles the ball a few metres further, brazenly ignoring the other, Hoseok throws the ball at him rather hard. It hits Yoongi on the shoulder, which makes him halt his feet instantly. 

And just like that, the air gets heavy. No one says a word; all that can be heard is the thumping of the ball on the ground, until it hits the wall and rolls into an idle state. Yoongi’s fists clench by his side, and Jimin swears he can see him gritting his teeth.

Then all of the sudden he turns around. Hoseok and Yoongi advance at the exact same time, their steps getting bigger and bigger in anticipation of who gets to hit first. It’s Hoseok who’s taking the lead when his fist goes up, but Yoongi instantly ducks so Hoseok merely hits the air. He gets punched in the stomach as he stumbles forward. He doesn’t make the same mistake twice and plants his own fist against Yoongi’s cheek. Repeatedly.

It takes two men to hold back Hoseok, Yoongi instantly stills when someone else tries to stop him. Even though they are no longer physically fighting, Hoseok swears Yoongi is trying to murder him with his glare.

“Stop it you two!” The coach warns as he stands in-between them, spreading his hands to make sure they’re at distance. “Cause I swear if you don’t, you’re both out!”

At that, Hoseok feels his energy drain out of his body and he stops trying to fight the people holding him back.

The coach looks back between them, then after a while, he lets out a deep sigh. “You know what?” He rubs the bridge of his nose, suddenly feeling exhausted as he wonders why in the world he ever wanted to become a high school basketball coach. “You guys figure it out yourselves.” He drops his arms and takes a step aside. When he se