FRAT LINE-KNJ✔️

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THIRD

"Up!" Namjoon hears Ty shout.

He passes the ball up right to Midas and he shakes around the guy guarding him. He passes to Tyrell who takes the shot. He makes it as the buzzer sounds and the breath that Namjoon is holding almost kills him.

Overtime.

They have to go into overtime.

"Over here, boys! Let's go. Hustle up!" Coach yells in their direction and they jog over. They're all out of breath, sweating and more than anything else, Namjoon is worried.

They've been playing a great game. They've kept up with with every single opponent that they've had before. But it's never been this close. They're tied 102-102. Duke is not on any games tonight. They never are but neither are the guys.

He expected this to be a bit easier, just a tad. Namjoon is always up for a challenge, it's never anything that he can't handle. But this championship feels like everything to him right now.

In the locker rooms, Coach gives them the pep talk. A damned good one. They have a few minutes before we have to get back on the court. He calls Malia and she picks up on the second ring. Reading the distress on his face, she becomes worried.

"What's wrong? We saw y'all gotta go into overtime."

"Yeah. I'm just-." He cuts himself off as his eyes water. He walks into the private bathroom and wipes his face. "I'm scared, Lia. I can't do this."

He leans against the door as he tries to calm himself down.

"Yes, you can. You're not D-1 for nothing and you're not captain for nothing. I know this game is stressing you out. It's probably stressing everybody out. Duke is a good team but they're not the best. You worked hard for this spot, Joon. Don't let this distract you from that. And even if y'all don't win, you've gotten this far.

"You got this, baby. At the end of the day, you still got to play Duke. Nobody else back home can say they did that but you. I know your mom's at home losing her shit. She prolly at my parents' house screaming in the living room."

Namjoon cracks a smile and laughs. She is not wrong. His mother is his biggest supporter. There's no doubt in her mind that she's telling everyone about the situation right now. And Malia's mother is an old friend of hers. They're probably screaming together.

"And I know that your dad is proud of you, too. So, even if you don't win, he'll be proud of how far you've come. Everyone will be, myself included." She says as she smiles at him. Namjoon sees the sincerity in her eyes. His eyes water at the thought of his father.

Tyrell knocks on the door and tells him it's time to go back on the court.

"Make us proud, Namu. I love you." She blows him a kiss and he kisses his phone screen.

"I love you too, Lia." They hang the phone up and he jogs to put it in his bag.

On the way back out of the locker room, he takes the necklaces out from under his jersey. The intertwined chains of the four leaf clover and rose hang around his neck as he walks.

From his peripheral, he sees Chloe coming in his direction.

Today was one of those coinciding city days that Coach told them about. A lot of the basketball team went to their competition today. There wasn't anything else to do.

Namjoon thinks that they took that for more than what it was.

They did really good out there. There were two teams that he and Hakeem thought were a little nicer but they were still pretty clean, nonetheless.