Being used to physical exercises for sport clubs, Jungkook had no problem following volleyball workouts. Though, he had a little difficulty with the excessive jump training that his legs started to feel like jelly. And that’s troublesome because the practice hadn’t even started, yet.

Apparently, Coach Bang was very strict in training the volleyball players according to his seniors when they were having a short break earlier. Even so, they said Coach Bang was a renowned coach who had brought many volleyball teams to compete in Nationals. Jungkook was even more fired up knowing this fact. He wanted to be good in volleyball and a strict, skillful coach would definitely help him becoming competent at it. Or better, becoming the ace of the team.

Hana High had been really serious when they had announced their goal to excel in non-academic fields, especially sports. That explained why this average-sized school had so many outdoor fields and indoor gymnasiums for various sports – although the volleyball gymnasium only had one court. This was also the reason why Jungkook had chosen Hana High. And looking at how amazing the coach was, he didn’t regret his choice.

“Hey, first-year!” Hoseok called out after they were finished with their exercises. Jungkook wasn’t sure if it’s him who was called so he pointed at himself to be certain. “Yeah, you,” Hoseok answered.

“My name is Jungkook,” Jungkook announced and approached his senior.

The warming up exercises and workouts were done by now and they were taking another five-minute break before they started the volleyball practice. Jungkook was already sweating profusely and his P.E. uniform – he hadn’t got the official practice attire because the manager was late – was drenched.

“Jungkook, what are you good at?” Hoseok asked and then he reworded his question. “Which volleyball technique are you best at? I mean, you know there are various basic volleyball techniques – serving, receiving or passing, tossing or setting, spiking, and blocking. I believe I’m good at spiking.” He swung his right hand downwards to demonstrate spiking. “And I’m not that bad at receiving, too.” Showing the form for underhand passing, he clasped his hands together while holding his arms in front of him and pushed them upwards.

It was a rather tricky question for Jungkook. He’d never been in a volleyball club before, so he didn’t know which technique he specialized at. He was recalling his memory about the basics of volleyball he’d learnt.

A serve was used to put the ball into play to start the volley. A receive or a pass was done to pass the ball to the player by the net who would toss the ball towards the other player to spike to the opposite court. The opponents could stop the attack by blocking the spike. Each team was allowed a maximum of three successive contacts of the ball in order to return the ball to the opponent’s area. So usually, the three contacts were used to receive, toss, and spike.

Jungkook had practiced all the basic techniques he’d known, but there’s no one to judge how good he was at them. He didn’t even know if he’d been doing them right.

“I don’t know,” Jungkook answered in the end. “I’ve never played in a game before.”

“What?” Hoseok asked in disbelief. Before he could say another word, the coach called them to gather up and started the volleyball practice.

The first practice was serving. All members were asked to line up behind the end line of the court and take turns to show their serves. As he watched the other members doing the serves, Jungkook was impressed and intimidated at the same time. He’s the only one who did underhand serves – easy-to-do serves for beginners – while all of them could do overhand serves – the serves that were faster and tougher to receive than underhand serves. Yoongi, Hoseok, and Taehyung even did jump serves – a type of overhand serve that was really hard to control, difficult to receive, and the most powerful – which was really amazing.

The same thing happened over and over again when they were practicing tossing, spiking, and blocking. The gap between Jungkook’s skills and the other members’ skills were too big that the coach seemed drained whenever it’s his turn. Jungkook admitted he was the worst player there, but that only meant he had wide room to improve, so he didn’t feel like giving up at all.

There are so many amazing players to learn from, Jungkook consoled himself. Becoming ace is not that easy.

So when it’s receiving practice time, Jungkook was determined to do better. For this practice, the coach himself stepped into the members’ opposite side of the court with a chair. He placed the chair near the net, stood on it, and hit the balls randomly downwards to their side of the court while shouting at them to receive the balls properly. Teacher Lee – the teacher advisor of volleyball club – took the volleyball cart with him and stood next to Coach Bang, continuously picking up volleyballs from the cart and giving them to the coach.

Honestly, it terrified Jungkook a lot.

“Receiving is the most important thing in volleyball! If you can’t receive the balls, you might as well stop playing!” Coach Bang yelled in anger as he hit the balls constantly, looking down at Namjoon who was barely keeping up with the balls. “Namjoon, you’re too slow!”

Coach Bang’s loud voice reverberated around the gym, along with the squeaking sounds of the members’ shoes and the thud noises of the balls hitting the wooden court. Soon, it was Jungkook’s turn. He was the last one to receive the balls from Coach Bang.

“You,” Coach Bang said with a volleyball in his hand, his eyes focusing on Jungkook. “You’d better be good at this.” The warning in his voice was enough to make Jungkook shudder.

“Yes, Sir!” Despite the nervousness, Jungkook managed to answer.

The first ball came right into Jungkook’s direction. Flustered, he moved aside and cleanly dodged the ball. His instinct from back when he’d played dodgeball suddenly took over.

Stupid! This isn’t dodgeball! Concentrate! Jungkook scolded himself.

“Don’t dodge the ball!” Coach Bang shouted.

When the second ball was hit, Jungkook managed to go towards the ball. But because he was thinking too much about where to aim the pass, he caught the ball instead. His reflexes from playing basketball in the past made him move automatically before he could stop it.

Coach Bang bellowed so loud that Jungkook flinched. “Why did you catch the ball?” The other members were laughing hard at him from the sidelines.

Jungkook had no time to be embarrassed because the next ball was hit and he also went right into the direction of the ball. But while he’s hesitating whether to receive it with underhand pass or overhand pass, the ball hit his shoulder.

“Receive with your hands! Not your body!” Coach Bang massaged his temples in frustration. The members’ laughter was even louder this time. He continued with a sigh, “Just try to bring the ball up in the air. You can use any parts of your body to touch the ball. Don’t think about anything. Don’t aim. Just bring it up. Understand?”

Jungkook nodded and took a deep breath. He got into ready position – his feet were slightly wider than his shoulders, his knees were bent, and his determined eyes were locked on the ball in the coach’s hand. I can do this! I only need to bring the balls up! I won’t let them touch the floor!

His body suddenly felt lighter than before when he moved to get the ball. Thanks to the basics of tennis footwork that he’d learnt, he could step sideways quicker and easier. One by one, he managed to touch the ball with his forearms to bring it up, although the aim was disorganized. But it didn’t matter right now. The most important thing at the moment was to get the balls back up in the air. His good reflexes finally became helpful as he had no difficulties chasing after the balls.

The coach hit the balls even harder, making it even faster for the balls to fall to the ground. But that didn’t faze Jungkook. Matching the balls, he also moved more quickly. He occasionally threw himself to the ground to receive and got back up to prepare for the next ball.

The balls went faster until Jungkook had to roll on the court to receive them. For the last two balls, the coach aimed the first ball far away from him that he had to dive towards the ball and slide his hand palm down on the court to make it bounce off the back of his hand instead of the court. And after that, Coach Bang hit the next ball to the far corner of the court, totally opposite from where Jungkook currently stood. But Jungkook’s instinct from when he’d played soccer kicked in and he performed a sliding tackle to receive the last ball with his foot.

Jungkook hadn’t realized that he had emptied the entire volleyball cart and none of the balls touched the ground. Panting heavily, he stil