Hoop 4

 

"E-Eh! We're only playing half a court?"

"Isn't that a little bit insulting?!" Hoseok exclaimed when he along with the rest of his teammates stepped foot into JYP High's gymnasium that next Friday after school for the friendly game.

"It's not little - this is downright a spit to our faces insulting," Yoongi added with annoyance prominent in his icy voice.

"Calm down guys, let's keep our cool," Namjoon, being the rational captain assured his team. "They may have a good reason for it, let's not jump to conclusions,"

"Everyone please be on your best behavior," Jennie told them, briefly eyeing Jungkook who had his headphones on and was playing with his phone, obviously not listening to her.

Of course.

"The coach of JYP is a really good friend to Coach Bang, so we better take care of our school and coach's image,"

"Hey where is coach anyway?" Seokjin asked, just realizing that they're coach wasn't with them on such an important day.

"Coach Bang can't make it, he has work stuff to do back in school," Jennie answered.

"Hey Jimin why are you wearing an orange whistle around your neck?" Taehyung asked, pointing at the tiny yet striking coloured item hanging around Jimin's neck.

"According to Today's Horoscope, Libra's lucky item today is a whistle and my lucky colour is also orange." Jimin, the superstitious guy who is currently obsessed with this daily horoscope Tumblr page, answered, actually looking like he was taking pride in his lucky item. "We need all the good luck today for our match with JYP,"

Taehyung rolled his eyes at him."You and your horoscope,"

"Oh! You guys must be Bighit!" A tall older man dressed a little bit too flamboyant for the gym with his green pants, tight blue pastel coloured polo t-shirt, white shoes and a shiny orange whistle around his neck, greeted the whole gang when he approached them.

"Hi, I'm Coach Park but you can call me JYP too cause my name is Park Jinyoung but if you rearrange my name in the western way, it's Jinyoung Park, thus the initials JYP! The same name as our lovely school! Isn't it wonderful! It's definitely fate that..blah blah blah,"

"Errr...is this man really the coach?" Seokhin whispered to the rest while the coach kept rambling on about how wonderful his school was and stuffs.

"Oh Chim, look he has the same whistle as you," Taehyung suddenly pointed out.

Jimin narrowed his eyes at JYP's coach whistle before a grin formed upon his face. "He must be a Little bralike me then,"

"I don't know guys," Jingoo muttered from where he stood beside Eunwoo, "He looks like a scammer to-Ugh!!"

"Hi, I'm Kim Jennie and I'm the manager of this team," Jennie introduced herself to the coach, totally ignoring the poor first year who she had stabbed in the rib with her elbow on the ground.

"His not dead right?" Hoseok asked as he watched Eunwoo poked his friend with one of his foot.

"His alive," Eunwoo confirmed when Jingoo showed signs of movement. "Barely but his alive,"

"I'm Namjoon, the captain of this team," Namjoon too introduced himself, ignoring the scene happening behind him. "So...what's this? Are we playing half a court?"

"Hyukkie didn't tell you guys?" Coach Park asked, making everyone looked at him with a question mark on their heads.

"I think he means Coach Bang," Seokjin whispered.

"Tell us what?" Jennie asked.

"That we will be only playing half a court," Coach Park waved a hand at the court. "I mean, there won't be enough for everyone to learn from you guys. Also, we don't want to waste time and space since our players have to train too. The only reason why I agree to this is because Hyukkie is a good friend of mine. If it was somebody else, I wouldn't even consider it because time is precious, yeh know? It's simple as that,"

Jennie narrowed her eyes as her grip on the strap of her bag tightened. She can't believe that this man was high key shading them for being weak right in front of them! And looks like she wasn't the only one who caught on to that. She noticed everyone else including Jungkook's eyes were glittering in anger.

"Hahahahahaha," Namjoon faked laugh as he tried to lighten up the mood. "I'm afraid no, he didn't tell us that part. He must have forgotten!"

Before the coach could say anything else, a loud voice suddenly interrupted himz

"Jeon Jungkook! Is that you??!!" A freakishly tall boy suddenly appeared out of no where, glomping Jungkook with his long limbs and surprising everyone. "I knew it was you from afar! I'd recognized that coconut hair any day!"

"Get off of me, Kim Yugyeom," Jungkook muttered trying to pry the tall boy off of him, making the later pout.

"You two know each other?" Coach Park questioned, looking back and forth between the two.

"Yep! Jungkook and I were the bestest of friends in middle school," Yugyeom grinned sheepishly, obviously thrilled to see his best friend here.

"More like you followed me around everywhere," Jungkook added, making the taller boy pout again at him.

"Don't be so mean Jungkook-ah!"

Jennie couldn't help but studied Jungkook's friend, amazed at how tall he was for a first year. He was as tall as Eunwoo but his limbs were longer and he definitely had the stance of a basketball player.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Yugyeom asked before he noticed the rest of the team. "Oh? Don't tell me that you guys are the team that's going to have a friendly match with us?"

"Yep, they are," Coach Park answered for them.

"What??" Yugyeom gasped, looking at Jungkook in surprised. "You joined the basktball club?!! I really thought you were going to join the soccer club again!"

"Huh? Jungkook plays soccer?" Jennie heard one of the boys asked behind her.

"Yeah he does and his very good at it too," Taehyung, who went to the same middle school of Jungkook whispered back. "Jungkookie was the best striker of our middle school team and he was the captain too. That's why I was surprised too when he joined our club,"

"I got bored of soccer...and the basketball club seem interesting," Jungkook casually told them as he turned to look at Jennie, not even bothering to hide the fact that he was directing the interesting part at her.

The manager however, remained motionless and pretended to not notice him looking at her, choosing instead to watch the JYP players who were warming up on the other side of the half court.

Ugh, that brat...

The others looked back and forth between the two, looking confused as hell.

"Well whatever it is, I'm excited!" Yugyeom cheered happily. "I finally can beat Jungkook at something!"

"What are you talking about kid? You're not playing today," Coach Park suddenly interjected, crushing Yugyeom's excitement of playing in a match against his so called best friend.

"Wh-what? Why not, coach?" The tall boy asked, looking disheartened.

"They're playing against the freshmen," The flamboyant coach waved a hand at the players who Jennie had been watching, warming up by the bleachers.

"But isn't he a freshmen like Jungkook too?" Hoseok questioned.

"Yeah, he is," Coach Park smirked. "But Yugyeom is on a whole different level. His in the first line up with the seniors and if I let him play, it won't even be a game anymore,"

"C-coach! Please don't say stuff like that!" Yugyeom made a scowling look as a tint of pink grazed his cheeks.

The coach ignored him and turned to the Bighit basketball team who were all silently fuming in anger and some were even subtly giving the coach death glares. Even Jennie was annoyed as hell but she had to remain compose for the sake of the team.

"Anyway, why don't you show them the locker Yugyeom?"

"Ah-o-okay," Yugyeom nodded, obviously flustered by the situation. "Come on guys,"

The players of Bighit and their manager then followed him towards the locker room. Along the way, Yugyeom decided to apologize on behalf of his coach.

"I'm sorry about that. Coach Park can be pretty boastful...his just really proud of his team and this school,"

"Why because he has the same initials as the school's name?" Taehyung snorted only to get elbowed by Jimin. "Hey! That hurt!"

"No, it's okay Yugyeom-ssi. We weren't offended at all," Namjoon assured him, only to hear the annoying sound of parrots going 'Liar, liar, liar, liar' coming from over his shoulder.

The captain of course ignored them.

"Psst, Jungkook," Jingoo whispered to the brunette walking beside him. "Is your friend really that good?? What position does he play?"

However instead of Jungkook, it was Taehyung who answered.

"Back in middle school, Kim Yugyeom played as a Centre," Taehyung whispered back. "I've watched him play before and damn, that kid is a damn unshakable wall. Everyone who he meets on court has trouble getting past his defense. He was already so tall the last time I saw him. But now..how the heck did he even grow any taller??"

Looks like I'm going to have to do more research on the new players too, Jennie thought to herself.

"This is the locker room." Yugyeom announced once they arrived. "I'll leave you guys to change, I have to get back to practice with the sunbaes in the other court. Good luck playing with Bang Chan's team! I'm gonna watch the game from afar!"

"Go already," Jungkook shooed him, only to make the tall boy pout at his coldness.

"You're always so mean to me Jungkook, hmph," Yugyeom sulked, half expecting his friend to apologize and hug him.

Jungkook however, was already gone from his spot.

Actually the whole team except for Jennie had already entered the changing room, completely leaving poor Yugyeom outside in the hallway.

"Waaaaa! You guys are all so mean!" Yugyeom sniffed dramatically while putting a hand on the wall with his head lowered gloomily.

"Sorry about that, the boys are just uncomfortable and nervous about coming here after what happened last year," Jennie told the younger boy, making him turned around to face her.

"I apologize sincerely on my sunbaes behalf," Yugyeom suddenly bowed at the manager. Sounding genuinely sorry.

Huh, now why can't Jungkook be like him? At least this guy has manners.

"No need to apologize. It's not your fault." Jennie shook her head. "We were just too weak compared to your team,"

Yugyeom's head suddenly snapped up and his eyes suddenly shone with admiration, "But now that you guys have Jungkook on your team, I'm sure you guys will do well this year! I hope I get the chance to play him this upcoming preliminaries! I'm praying that it will be JYP and Bighit in the finals!"

Seeing the look on Yugyeom's determined face, Jennie didn't know why but she found herself smiling.

"I'll make sure that you will get your chance to play against Jungkook," She told him. "I promise,"

"Thanks Miss Manager errr.....I don't know your name...."

"It's Jennie,"

"Right, Miss Manager Jennie!" Yugyeom grinned sheepishly. "It's a promise! I have to go now or Jinyoung sunbae is gonna nag at me again, Goodbye! I'll see you around,"

Jennie bid him goodbye and watched the tall boy sprint down the hallway, heading back towards the gym.

"Why were you talking to that idiot?"

The brunette turned her head and saw Jungkook standing beside her with a less than impressed look on his face, already dressed in his jersey and sports gear.

"I can talk to whoever I want," Jennie retorted, rolling her eyes at the same time.

With hooded eyes, Jungkook looked down at her and he didn't seem to be happy for some reason.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked, annoyed that she was being stared down at.

"Nothing. I just forgot my wristband," The brunette answered curtly before heading back inside the changing room.

Jennie lifted one of her eyebrows curiously.

"Damn it, we're down by 20 points," Taehyung whined during the break as Jennie handed out small towels to each of the players.

The first half of their friendly game against JYP's secondary tran had already ended with them being 20 points behind their opponents. Much to everyones dismay, The score was now, 26 - 46.

"There's only 20 minutes left too but we can't give up just yet," Namjoon said, trying to keep their spirits up even though he himself was beginning to lose hope of winning.

"I can't believe we're still losing even though we're not even playing against the regular team," Jimin sighed as he clenched his orange whistle in his fist.

"I guess we're just still very....uncoordinated..." Namjoon mutt