The Boy Next Door

First Game

Jackson picks Mark up the morning of their first game and they drive together to the school. Mark is still tired, but also energized. Jackson is talkative and wide awake.

When they pull into the parking lot, Jaebum and Jinyoung are sitting outside by their car, talking quietly to each other. They look upset about something. Neither of them noticed when Jackson's car pulled into the lot.

"Pays to have a hybrid" Jackson whispers feeling like he needs to be quiet.

"I wonder what they're talking about" Mark whispers back, taking off his seatbelt and grabbing his bag. "Where is everyone else? I don't want to be alone with them"

"We can wait here until they—oop, nope, they saw us, let's go" Jackson waves through the window, grabbing his bag and climbing out of the car. "Hey guys"

"How long have you two been here?" Jinyoung asks, keeping his voice merry, but wondering if they heard any of their conversation.

"About 30 seconds, I thought I left my phone at home! We almost went back" Jackson laughs, lying easily.

"I'm glad you didn't, we usually warm up before the others get here, so you two want to join us?" Jinyoung offers, pointing towards the field.

"Of course!" Jackson takes Jinyoung's offer immediately walking with him towards the field leaving Jaebum and Mark behind.

They look at each other awkwardly for a moment, both wondering if they should say anything. Mark lowers his eyes and walks past him after Jackson before Jaebum can think of anything to say. So Jaebum shrugs and follows.

Jackson is talking mindlessly about some podcast he heard one time and Jinyoung is politely pretending to be interested. Overall the whole situation is awkward and not a single one of them want to be there, especially not Mark. But Jackson is doing what he does.

"So how do you guys warm up?" Jackson asks immediately after finishing his story so no one laps into silence.

"We stretch and then run a bit, we can walk you through it or you can follow us, whichever"

"We can follow, right Mark?"

"Huh? Oh sure" Mark doesn't know what he's agreeing to but if Jackson has agreed to it, it can't be bad.

"Great! Lets go!"

They take the stairs down to the field in silence and Mark suddenly worries he has agreed to run laps with them. He hates running laps.

Thankfully, they only ask him to run two laps, and the rest is stretching, which Mark is great at. Sehun shows up with Shownu soon after they start and joins in immediately, followed by Youngjae and BamBam.

Much to their surprise, BamBam sits by them instead of Youngjae. He smiles sheepishly, but doesn't say anything, it's a quiet morning. The air on the field is crisp from the cold grass and the shade of the school building blocking out the sun. Yugyeom shows up with Jungkook and Junhoe right as they're finishing up.

"I told you we'd miss it, I told you" Junhoe whines too loud as he punches Yugyeom in the arm.

"I didn't expect them to be here this early, god"

"Yeah, they're never—" Jungkook cuts off when he sees the look on Jaebum's face. "Never here any later than this, let's run"

He jogs away, dragging Yugyeom after him, before they can start any fires. Junhoe catches the look too and jogs away, alone and left out. Jaebum scowls after them, those fucking morons.

The other team shows up shortly after that, but they stick to their side of the field while they warm up. People are starting to file into the stands, mostly parents and family but they see some of their classmates. Yixing and Kai wave excitedly to Mark and Jackson as they find seats.