Jungkook watched as another call came onto his screen, and he knew that if he didn't pick it up, he'd be dead. "Yeah?" he squeaked out, trying not to sound guilty but failing rather miserably.
There was a long beat of silence. "You go missing for fifteen minutes and ignore ten calls and when you finally pick up, you answer with, 'Yeah'? Jungkook, this is a serious matter. I was about to contact your guardian."
"I'm sorry!" Jungkook said, biting down on his lip. "I just-"
"I'll hear your reasoning later; for now, you need to get to the game. If you're not here in the next ten minutes, we'll be forced to forfeit."
"But I don't know where the school is!"
"You have your phone, Jungkook," Namjoon said, lowering his voice so it sounded as though he were instructing a child in how to properly use a fork. "Just pull up the map."
"Right," Jungkook said after a second, feeling his panic begin to subside. "I'll be there soon." He hung up and followed Namjoon's recommendation, punching the school name into a mapping app and tracing his path from his current location. He felt stupid that he'd been too panicked to think of mapping it out, but he honestly didn't use his phone much at all anymore and he tried not to use data for anything since it cost extra on their phone plan. But this was sort of an emergency, so he figured he could explain it to his mom at a later date.
For now, he focused on following the projected path, jogging across the intersection when the walk sign displayed and continuing farther into the city. He knew he would make it faster if he flat-out ran, but he didn't want to attract additional attention to himself.
He had just arrived at the school when he realized that he had no idea where the gym was (and he doubted that his phone would be much help for a specific room), but he saw Namjoon waiting inside the school lobby, arms crossed and foot tapping at a frantic pace while he checked his watch.
"Hi, sorry I'm-" Jungkook began, huffing slightly, but Namjoon didn't even let him finish the sentence, just grabbed his arm and started dragging him down the hallway.
"They started running the clock because we have to be out of the gym by a certain time," Namjoon explained as they hustled to the gym. "Just drop your bag by the bench and get in your wheelchair – Jin's got the jump ball, so just focus on...I don't know...defense for now I guess."
Jungkook opened his mouth, wanting to ask Namjoon to let him take on a bigger role for the offense today because he'd been practicing with Yoongi, but he lost his courage. Instead, he nodded, and when they got into the gym, Jungkook tried to ignore all the eyes on him as he tossed his bag toward their bench and got in the only empty wheelchair on the court. He kept his eyes on the wood floor because he didn't want to see the glares of his teammates, not now when he was still reeling from the almost-encounter with his father. A whistle blew, and just like that, the game had started. Jungkook blinked and realized that most of the players were already heading down the court, and he pushed after them a few seconds too late.
Jungkook rarely got possession of the ball, and when he did, it was often wasted on a bad pass or a poor shot. Despite practicing extra for the past week, he didn't make a single basket. His bad passes had resulted in at least three turnovers, and it felt like the other team was pushing in circles around him. He couldn't keep up at all. He felt so weak, worse than last week for sure, and that made him feel even worse because he knew that he was dragging down the team.
Last week, they'd all made mistakes, but today, it seemed that he was making enough for everyone. Jimin was shooting better than last week, making nine out of twenty, and Yoongi was fifteen for twenty-nine. Even Hoseok and Jin had points on the board today.
