Best Of Me || Taekook

Ten

I was standing awkwardly outside the gym. I didn't have any sports clothes of my own so I had been forced to borrow some of Hoseok's. Who had looked at me amused while I tried them on.

"You know, normally people are more comfortable in sweats, but you look like you're wearing a three piece suit that is two sizes too small," Hoseok had laughed. "Just chill out, relax."

I had shot Hoseok an annoyed look and left to meet Jungkook. Standing there outside the gym made me curse myself for always being early. I felt even more out of place than normal. Right as I was about to go in and check why the hell I took Jungkook so long to get here I heard the deep but excited voice of a group of guys near the exit.

"Hey Taehyung! How's it going? Is Jungkook getting you any girls yet?"

Yoongi playfully put an arm around my shoulder while he stared at Jungkook like he was trying to provoke him, in a teasing way.

"Don't worry Yoongi, I'm sure Jungkook will get Taehyung his girl before you get one!"

One of the other guys of the team I hadn't met yet yelled jokingly. Everyone started laughing while Yoongi's lips changed from a smile into a hard line. I couldn't help but chuckle a little myself.

"Ha, ha. Aren't you the funny one, Buck."

"Hey, you started it Min."

"You can come along with us Yoon if you want, I could maybe learn you a trick or two."

Jungkook's grin was wide and playful while he looked at Yoongi's grumpy face. Yoongi who hadn't expected everyone to turn on him so quickly started to look a little hurt by the mocking of his dating skills. Jungkook who noticed was quick to apologize.

"I'm just messing with you, man! Don't worry about it."

Then he turned to me, "Let's get going, it's getting late already, the soccer team will start practice in an hour."

And with that we walked to the field besides the gym and Jungkook started getting some things out of his sports bag. A stopwatch, two big bottles of water and some of his gym clothes.

"Okay, so I know you're probably wondering why we're here right?"

Jungkook didn't wait for my response. "So when I was a kid I was pretty tiny, and quite skinny to be fair. You know like most of us Asian kids."

I nodded while I wondered where he was going with this. I knew we were going to do a sport of some kind, but why he was telling me this story about his childhood was less clear to me.

"I was always pretty self-conscious about my body and my looks, so when my gym teacher in middle school told me I could make a great basketball player I almost laughed at him in his face."

Jungkook was looking serious, his brows lowered while he looked past me at some non-existent scene right behind me. When he all the sudden looked back at me the intensity of his gaze made me gasp for air.

"But I starting training anyways, hoping I would get ripped you know," he said while letting out a short laugh. "That didn't happen though, at least not at first. What did happen quite quickly was the way I felt about myself. I felt stronger, I had goals I wanted to achieve and things to do in my spare time. I got more and more confident about my body, and myself."

"But I'm not you," I was quick to point out, "I'm not a talented athlete. No teacher ever told me I was good at any sport whatsoever."

"That's not the point, the point is that once you'll start exercising, even as simple as say running, you'll start to get in touch with your body more. Start to take care of it more, and feel more energised and confident."