My passion is basketball.

I honestly cannot remember when I first started playing, but it feels as if I've played the sport my entire life. Basketball is my passion, my life, my soul, my everything.

 

Because of this, there's just one thing that bugs me...

 

 

Would you consider dancing a sport?

 

 

I certainly wouldn't.

 

And many of my friends would agree with me—though they also play basketball.

 

There's only one person in my entire life that disagrees with me. There's only one girl I know who absolutely believes that dancing is a sport, Choi Jihye. I've known her since we were kids and she keeps insisting that dancing is a sport. We used to hang together all the time as kids, given the fact that our parents were close friends, but we've clearly dispersed in our separate ways. She obviously doesn't know what she's been talking about.

 

It's just a fact.

 

Dancing isn't a sport.

 

"Hey Suga." My name is Min Yoongi, but most people prefer to call me by my hard-earned nickname I got from playing basketball—Suga.  I have that sweet and adorable face that people love, but when I'm on the court, my skills are literally cookie points to my rep. "Are you ready for the game tonight?" My teammate, Kim Taehyung, asks as soon as he set a pick against me—which ultimately failed. 

 

After passing through him I managed a layup shot, then I scoffed, "I'm pumped."

 

He chuckled, "Figures. You're always ready for basketball." He then got off the court towards his gym bag to grab his banana milk and chug it down in one go, "Can you believe that the gym director suddenly is running maintenance on the floors of the indoor gym during lunch of all times? I mean, we have a home game tonight and we wouldn't have to be playing in the heat."

 

"It's either practice now or nothing," I nonchalantly agreed while wiping sweat off of my brows.

 

"Isn't that the girl who's always preaching about how dancing is considered a sport?" Taehyung peered over my shoulder across the court. She was carrying signs and handing out pens so that people would sign her petition. "What's her name? Ah! Choi Jihye!"

 

Choi Jihye.

 

Choi Jihye.

 

Choi Jihye.

 

"Please sign this petition! Our school will not let the dance team compete in competitions unless it s deemed as a sport!" Choi Jihye. I couldn't help but not notice her sleek, black hair tied up in a ponytail. From what I remembered, she always let her hair out. I guess she's changed—but I guess from the looks of it, she still seems very intuitive as she was when we were kids.

 

In fact, back then, Jihye and I were close friends up until we ended up going to different middle schools. We would have sleepovers, play on my Gamecube until night time, go to the neighborhood pool together, and literally spent so much time together. She was basically a part of my childhood. But what exactly happened to us?

 

"Oh my gosh, Min Yoongi, are you staring at her?" The question brought me back to reality.

 

I turned to face Taehyung, and blinked several times, "W-What are you talking about?" I asked in hopes that he didn't notice.

 

"Were you staring at Choi Jihye?" He pointed, "I mean, she's cute, but she doesn't seem like your type at all. I mean, we don't think dancing is a sport, we don't even click with her social group, and the list really can last until eternity." He laughed, and somehow I felt the need to mechanically laugh along. "Things like basketball, football, volleyball, and baseball are sports—those are the people we click with."

 

"Your definition of sports only includes balls," A familiar, yet gentle voice was heard, "Excuse me." . That can't be- "I would appreciate it if you didn't talk about me," She's still as bold as I can remember. "But I would appreciate it even more if you would sign this petition for me." I looked up to see Choi Jihye poised in her standing position in the flesh. To be honest, we haven't been this close to each other for years so this is completely refreshing to see someone you haven't spoken to to be right next to you.

"You think we were talking about you?" Taehyung asks mockingly, "That's childish." Between the rambling happening in front of me, I felt like I wanted to say something, but couldn't bring myself to do so. I just kept on staring at the two arguing, "Who do you think we are?"

 

"I'm not dumb, Kim Taehyung. I heard my name," She fought back, "And you," She pointed at me which completely caught me off guard, "Aren't you going to say something?"

 

My eyes grew wide, "I uh-"

 

"Watch out, Jihye, he's the Comeback Lord of the basketball team." He patted me on the back, "Take it away, buddy."

 

She looked at me unconvinced, "Comeback Lord? Really?" Growing up, I wouldn't speak or have any comebacks, and Jihye is the person that knows this the best. After we grew into our respected paths, she hasn't seen this new side of me since we both started attending different middle schools. "I'd like to hear this." She folded her arms to wait for me to say something.

 

"Your face looks like a bouquet of elbows," I smirked.

 

She scoffed, "Couldn't you think of something more clever than that?"

 

"Well that's the Comeback Lord for you. it or leave." Taehyung stuck out his tongue.

 

" what? There was nothing to be on in the first place." She then walked away to go back to her dance group petitioning, "Maybe you guys can on balls, because that's what you consider sports to be."

 

Damn. 

 

I felt that burn.

 

"She's definitely not our type of people," Taehyung nonchalantly chugged another bottle of banana milk. "Her words are like venom. You never know when she's going to attack." He somehow grabbed another bottle of banana milk from his bag to chug another bottle within a split second.

 

Suddenly I felt the need to defend Jihye. "Weren't you the one that attacked first? You talked about her."

 

"Are you defending her?" He bluntly questioned me, "Are you okay, Suga?"

 

"B-Bwoh? I'm perfectly fine, but I was stating the obvious." I clarified as I cleared my throat, "I think I'm going to sign the petition."

 

He looked at me in disgust, "You're crazy."

 

 

 

Oh my god.

 

I don't think I can do this.

 

Why the hell am I hiding behind a tree? I'm just here to sign a petition, it shouldn't be that hard, right?

 

"Did you have fun balls?" A familiar voice crept from behind me, "You did say that was your sport."

 

"Yah!" I turned around to see Jihye staring me down with her arms crossed, "I never said balls was my sport." I took a step back, "Basketball is my sport." When has she become so sharp with her words?

 

She then rose an eyebrow, "I could care less what your sport is," Confidently, she took a step forward, "Why are you spying on us? As you can see, we are busy getting our petitions to be signed." When has she become so intimidating?

 

"I-I am here to sign your petition," I stuttered. When did I become so nervous around Jihye?

 

She then clicked her tongue, "Look, this petition means a lot to me. It would be great if you didn't sign it like you would sign for a bathroom pass, okay?" As she passed the clipboard over, our hands touched just slightly, "Just so you know-"

 

I looked into her deep brown eyes, "What happened to us?" Both of our grips were on the clipboard.

 

Assuming my question threw her off guard, she started to blink multiple times before answering, "Bwoh?"

 

I didn't want it to look like I was joking in this conversation. I wanted to be serious enough for her serious reply. "What happened to our friendship, Jihye?"

 

Her eyes darted all over the place, before looking back at me, "...I don't know, Yoongi, I don't know. I guess after moving to different middle schools, we found different friends, different passions, and clearly we both grew up to be different than how we used to be." She then realized she still had her grip on the clipboard then let it go for me to sign the petition, "Why are you suddenly asking?"

 

I held onto the clipboard, "...Uh. You see..." Why did I ask that? Really? What is wrong with me today? "I...uh-"

 

"Jihye! There you are!" The transparent male voice suddenly called for Jihye. He then appeared, clearly taller than me, and definitely the type of person to light up a whole room, something I'm obviously not capable of unless I'm on a basketball court.

 

As if hearing his voice was like a spell, she immediately turned around and they both embraced each other—an embrace too much for school grounds in my opinion, "Hoseok!" Hoseok? As in Jung Hoseok, the one and only J-Hope?

 

I've heard about this guy. Apparently he's amazing at dancing and is a literal ball of sunshine.

 

I'm confident he's not Jihye's type.

 

Then something I never expected to happen to Jihye happened and my chest suddenly started to pound heavily—that feeling I get after running several laps around the gym but this was much worse.

 

Hoseok kissed her cheek while they were in embrace.

 

I quickly signed the petition, "Ahem," I faked a cough, "I finished signing your petition." I deliberately handed the clipboard in between the two lovebirds.

 

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