Baseball (VHope)

Sixteen

"Baby bear, do you see them?" Namjoon asked as he scanned the bleachers for Jungkook, Jimin and Yoongi, finally finding them behind home plate. They waved at us and we waved back, moving up the steps to our saved seats. We were in the local baseball fields, which had really nice seats; almost like real stadium seats, just not as comfortable. Jin wanted to come, but he decided to stay at Hoseok's house with Lucy just in case she needed to be driven to the emergency room. So it was just Namjoon and me; two of the three Kim Mouseketeers.

Jungkook smiled and knocked our foreheads together when we sat down. "TaeTae, you made it!" he mumbled and I nodded, reaching over him to pinch Jimin's cheek as a greeting. He glared at me and sat on Jungkook to reach over and hug Namjoon. "Hi, Joonie-hyung! Good to see you again!" he cheered and my brother winked at him. "Nice to see you again too, beautiful," he said and Jimin blushed. My big brother always loved to mess with Jimin just to see him blush. It wasn't hard to do.

But Jungkook frowned and hugged his boyfriend tight. "Hyung, with all do respect, this is my boyfriend. Hands off," he grumbled and Namjoon laughed and ruffled his hair. "Bun's mad at me! I'm so scared!" he joked and my best friend huffed in annoyance and let his boyfriend sit in his respective seat. Still, he kept an arm around Jimin's shoulders.

"Who are we against?" I asked and Yoongi, who was sitting behind us, ruffled my hair. "South Gangnam. If we win, we get to play Anyang Central, then Ilsan Elite, then Incheon All-Stars. If we beat Incheon, then we play our ultimate rivals, Goyang Tigers. We beat them, we go home as Grand Champion," he said and my eyes went wide. "Holy shit," I whispered and he nodded in agreement.

He sat back in his chair and popped a piece of popcorn in his mouth. "Let the games begin."

 I turned back around, right as I saw someone approaching us. It was Lee Jihoon, holding the hand of a very tall, very skinny boy. He looked so familiar. They reached us and Jihoon held the tall boy still. "Hey, guys. Can we sit with you?" he asked, gesturing to the empty seats next to Namjoon. We all nodded as they sat down, my eyes never leaving the sick-looking boy.

"Kim Mingyu?"

We won against South Gangnam and Anyang Central. South Gangnam's devastating loss cost them their place in the tournament against another school, so the stadium filed out and only our school was left. Then, Anyang Central fell two points behind us, knocking them down to take South Gangnam's place in the tournament. Currently, we were on the fourth inning against Ilsan Elite, which was more of a competition than the other two schools. We were currently one point up from them.

"So," I said quietly, wringing my hands in my lap out of pure nerves. Jihoon had to leave, so I decided to look after Mingyu for the rest of the tournament. He was staring ahead, watching Wonwoo go up to bat. "S-so," he replied, stutter evident. It was apparently a side effect. Wonwoo hit and got all the way to second base. A smile played on Mingyu's lips. "Th-that's m-my bab-by," he muttered and I nodded in agreement.

I coughed and licked my lips out of nervous habit. "I'm glad to see you again. I know we didn't really go out on good terms, but it's still nice to see an old friend again," I said, eyes glued to my lap. Mingyu smiled a small, sad smile. "It's-s good t-to see y-you," he stuttered out, slowly moving his head to look at me. "W-Wonnie's t-told me th-that you're d-dating H-Hoseok-k?" I smiled at him and nodded, a blush creeping across my cheeks at the mention of my boyfriend. "Yeah, I am. I'm happy," I bashfully admitted and my old friend patted my shoulder with a shaky hand. "I-I'm glad, T-Tae. Be h-happy," he said and held my hand.

We stayed that way for the rest of the game, both of us smiling widely when Hoseok hit a home run and won the game in the last inning.