Hoop 7

 

"Wow! There are so many schools participating this year!" Taehyung exclaimed excitedly as he looked around the indoor stadium like a kid who had just entered Disneyland for the first time ever.

"It's so stuffy in here and it reeks of men," Jimin scrunched his nose up while cradling a stuffed teddy bear against his chest.

"Why the hell did you bring a teddy bear here? It's embarrassing, people are staring at us!" Taehyung asked with a judgmental look at Jimin whose face suddenly turned bright red from blushing.

"It's my lucky item for today!" Jimin scowled back, hugging his teddy bear tighter. "If they have any problem with my bear they can say it to my face!"

"You're ruining our cool image!" Taehyung whined.

"Says the guy wearing the green pajama pants!" Jimin retaliated, pointing at Taehyung flashy pants.

"It's not a pajama pants!" Taehyung gasped, sounding hurt. "Its called a palazzo pants! And excuse me for wanting to keep up with the latest fashion trend this season!"

"Fashion trend for who? The old homeless hag community??"

"Take that back!!"

"Then take those pants off first!!

"I spend half my allowance on this pants!!"

"Then use the other half of your allowance to buy actual pants!!"

"Okay that's it!! Stop fighting you two!!" Seokjin yelled, slapping both of them on the back of their heads. "You're both ruining our cool image!"

"Ow hyung!!"

"That hurts!!"

Jennie let out a sigh at the noisy scene happening over her shoulders. Not even 10 minutes after stepping foot into the venue, they  had managed to earn a few dirty looks from the other students of the other participating schools for standing out too much.

So much for first impression...

"Looks like we're in Block B with eight other schools," Jennie informed them while her eyes diligently scanned through the tournament match list in her hands. "We have to be the team with the most win if we want to be the winner of our block and advance to the final league of the preliminaries,"

"Can I have a look at it Manager-nim?" Namjoon asked.

"Here," Jennie handed him the flimsy piece of paper to him.

The other members then quickly crowded around their captain to get a glimpse of the names of the schools that they were going to go up against.

"Oh, JYP High is in Block A," Hoseok noted, actually sounding quiet relieved. "Guess we won't be playing against them unless we make it to the final league,"

"Don't sound so relief just yet," Yoongi said. "Even though JYP is in a different block than us, we're still up against pretty strong schools,"

"Yoongi is right," Namjoon agreed, looking up at the others. "We're in the same block as Woollim, Cube and even Starship. Each of this school have their own specialty in playing,"

"Hey what about Jungkook's friends team, what block are they in?" Taehyung asked, peering down at the paper in Namjoon's hand.

"They're not my friends," Jungkook snorted in a monotone with his hands in his pockets.

Ignoring him, Taehyung then said, "Oh! They're in Block C! What a bummer! Looks like we won't be playing against Jungkook's friends unless both of our schools make it to the final league!"

"I said they're not my friends," The brunette repeated as he narrowed his eyes towards the crowd.

Jennie noticed a muscle in his jaw was clenched and he looked like he was glaring at something or rather someone up ahead.

Curious, she followed his gaze all the way across the court and over the sea of heads that belonged to the other players from different schools. If it wasn't for his ridiculous height, she probably wouldn't have spotted Kim Mingyu standing among his team members and glaring intensely back at Jungkook.

Damn how the hell can these two spot each other in this crowd?

She could feel the electricity sparking from their glares to one another.

"Holy , it's one of the Big 3!"

"That's JYP players right?"

"I'm so glad we aren't in the same block as them,"

"Man, they don't even have to try. I'm sure they'll qualify for the Interhigh without even breaking a sweat,"

"Hey, look, is that girl their manager? She's so cute!"

Jennie shifted her attention to the commotion suddenly going on in the arena. She could sensed a strong presence suddenly entering the building. There was no doubt it, they have arrived.

JYPPPPP

And just like the top 3 kings they were claimed as in the South Korea's high school basketball hierarchy, everyone automatically stepped out of their way to give them plenty of room to walk to their designated position for the opening ceremony.

Everyone couldn't keep their eyes off of them as they casually walked passed them. Most of the males had their eyes glued in awe at the petite yet adorable girl that was walking with them. She was practically skipping merrily in her path with this cute bunny like smile plastered on her face while emitting this ray of sunshine and sparkles out around her.

"Is that JYP's manager?? She's so freaking cute!!"  Jingoo whispered to Eunwoo who only shrugged his shoulders in return.

"That's Im Nayeon. I went to the same middle school as her and hell yeah she's freaking cute!" Hoseok agreed, nodding his head a little too much.

"Why can't our manager have pig tails and dress cutely in a skirt like that?" Taehyung suddenly asked, wriggling his eyebrows at the same time as he did.

"Hmmm...." Everyone hummed as they tried to imagine their own manager dressing up all cutesy and bright like JYP's manager.

An image of a smiling Jennie with her hair up in two pigtails while wearing a skirt as contrast to her her usual serious look, messy bun and sweatpants suddenly crossed their minds, making almost all of the boys blushed scarlet red and gulped in unison.

"S-so cu-cute...."

Jennie felt her left eyebrow twitched in annoyance. Really now?

Suddenly sensing the hostile aura, they turned to look at their manager. Seeing the blank expression on her face, they quickly waved the image away and out of fear, pretended to talk about something else.

"H-hey d-did you do something to your hair Yoongi hyung? It looks soft,"

"Oh-oh yeah...it does look soft,"

"Hmm...Hey you're right. Did you go to a salon?"

"Oooo, can I touch it??"

"Keep your filthy hands off me."

"......Oh...hehehehe...I touched it! Oh! It's so soft!! Like silk!"

"Hey, what do you know, Tae is right! It is soft like silk!"

"I wanna touch Yoongi's hair too!"

"What shampoo and conditioner did you used Yoongi?"

"...Erm...sunbaes, Yoongi sunbae doesn't look too happy with his hair being touched..."

"Oh come on, Eunwoo, you should trying touching his hair too!"

".....I'd rather not....."

"I'm giving everyone exactly three seconds to take your filthy hands off my head before I hurt someone."

"Oh come on hyu--"

"Three."

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Hyung! OW!!"

"Ow! Yoongi that hurts!!"

"Please spare the hand! I need it to play!"

"Sure, the face then?"

"No! Not my pretty face!"

Jennie lowered her face and even took a few steps to the sides so there was some space between her and the other boys. Great, it was bad enough that people were already glaring their way for being loud and annoying but now she was pretty convinced that they have already made a few enemies even before the games have started. Oh how she wished she had brought a cap to wear so she could cover her face and hide herself. 

She let out sigh and didn't even realized who she was standing next to until she felt her shoulder brushed against the person next to her. She turned her head and was met with Jungkook's deadpan expression. He was looking at her with one of his eyebrow raised and when he noticed that their shoulders were touching one another, he took one long stride to side, creating a sudden gap between them.

Jennie felt the corner of her lips twitched at his action.

Ever since that day where he 'gave back her first kiss that he stole', Jungkook have been avoiding her in his own odd way. He always made sure that he was standing at least a metre away from her and when he wanted to relay any message to her, he would use Jingoo or Eunwoo as his messenger even if he was in the same room as her.

At first it was fine with Jennie because that meant she finally could rest from all his teasing and harassment but now it has became quiet annoying. When she said to him not to touch her so easily or invade her private space, she meant to be more mindful and respectful of his actions towards her, not to avoid her like some kind of plague.

"Do you know childish you are being right now?" Jennie asked, narrowing her eyes at Jungkook who was suddenly texting on his phone. 

She waited for him to answer when Jingoo suddenly tapped her on her shoulder, making her turn around.

"What's wrong Jingoo?" Jennie asked, seeing the frowning look on the first year's face.

"Errr….Jungkook send this text to me to tell you that, his not being childish. His doing exactly what you want to prove how serious he is...hmm serious about what?" Jingoo asked looking up from his phone.

"Are you kidding me now Jeon Jungkook?" Jennie scoffed, whisking her head to look at the brunette in disbelief.

Beep beep

"He said yes," Jingoo answered on his behalf. "Wait, are you two fighting or something?"

"No we're not fighting," Jennie rolled her eyes. 

Beep beep

"He said you're still mad at him,"

"I am not mad anymore," The manager sighed.

Beep beep

"Really?"

"Yes!" Jennie exclaimed. 

Beep beep

"Really? Really?"

"Oh for god sake Jungkook, stop using Jingoo as your personal telegram already,"

"That was actually kind of fun to be honest," Jungkook said as he walked closer to them and stuffed his phone in his bag. 

"How is that fun for me?!" Jingoo exclaimed. 

"Can we please put whatever this whole thing is on hold and focus on the preliminaries first?" Jennie asked the first year with a raised of an eyebrow. 

Jungkook was about to answer when all of a sudden a high pitched voice suddenly yelled, "JUNGKOOKIE!!" at the top of his lungs, catching the attention of everyone around them.

Already anticipating the attack, Jungkook ducked his way out of the long arms that belonged to a certain giant, letting the attacker hug the air instead of him. Everyone was now looking their way, curious to why a JYP player had suddenly decided to attacked Jungkook.

"Jeon Jungkook you meanie!!!" Kim Yugyeom exclaimed with a pout. "I just wanted to hug my best frien