Taekook/ This Is Us

4. lesson learnt

Jungkook bit his lip and slipped into the gym, sitting on a bench where he had a clear view of the whole gym, and more importantly, the situation that was going down. 

"why don't we have Taehyung show you what he can do?" Jimin called, pushing Taehyung forward slightly. the boy didn't seem to bothered about the situation, but nevertheless he gestured for one of the other tenth graders to throw him a basketball, they complied and Taehyung caught it with ease, then began dribbling up the court. he reached the net fast and jumped straight up. Jungkooks mouth hung open as the boy, who could've only stood at about 5 foot 8, jumped up and dunked the ball straight through the net. as he came down he caught the ball, dribbling it a few feet, before stopping, bending his knees and doing a backflip, releasing the ball just as his feet touched the ground. Jungkook shouldn't have been surprised that the ball curved a perfect arch into the net, but he was. he saw the cocky tenth grader swallow nervously as he watched Taehyung stand at the halfway line, aim at the net and score, Hoseok threw him another ball, and he moved back to three quarters of the way up the court, aimed, and scored again. he then moved all the way to the end of the court, getting ready to throw.

"hey man i get it, you're really good but you don't gotta do that, the chances of you scoring are seriously low and you might miss." the tenth grader called, his voice shaking.

"V doesn't miss." Taehyung replied simply, before shooting the ball and having it circle the ring of the net, before falling through it. Jimin, Hoseok and a few other eleventh graders started screaming and going crazy, jumping on Taehyung, crushing him to the floor, but he didn't seem to mind, and just laughed, messing around with his friends. 

"shut your mouth you'll catch flies kid." it was Minho, she walked in front of him and grinned, "he's good isn't he? has he inspired you to try out?" 

"i don't know.." Jungkook sighed.

"come on! if you used to play on a team you obviously enjoyed it, what changed?" Minho prodded, grabbing Jungkooks wrist and pulling him to his feet. "tell me! it couldn't have been that bad."  Jungkook groaned and pulled his wrist free, turning to leave.

"hey! Jungkook! you decided to try out?" that voice froze him, he turned to see Taehyung stood next to Minho, smiling his rectangle smile, behind him, was Yoongi preparing everyone, getting them organised surprisingly fast. Jungkook hesitated, he didn't know why he was suddenly re considering, why did this boy have that affect on him? 

"no, sorry." Jungkook spluttered quickly, before exiting the gym as fast as he could. he heard footsteps behind him and felt a hand on his shoulder, turning him around. Taehyung was only a foot away from him, the proximity made his heart flutter. 

"please dude, we could really benefit from you on the team." that word, team. it brought a sour taste to Jungkooks mouth. 

"team is just a word for a bunch of people acting like leeches, feeding off each others success. it's meaningless." Jungkook muttered. 

"i don't know what your last team was like, but mark my words, this team is my family, not one of us is more important that anyone else." Taehyung countered.

"you're the ace." Jungkook deadpanned, "you're pretty much the most important player out there."

"i used to think that too, my team hated me for it, then i came here and Yoongi taught me to not be selfish, and I'm still learning, we're all learning. please Jungkook." Taehyung begged, "i think we could go really far with you on the team." 

"i might not even get through the tryouts anyway," Jungkook started,

"if you want to be on the team i can guarantee you will have a place." Taehyung interrupted, raising his eyebrows