Namjoon hadn't been able to make it to practice, so they broke up into teams of two to practice more offensive and defensive strategies. When an hour had passed, Jimin and Jin had packed up, leaving just three of them in the gym.
Jungkook looked between Hoseok and Yoongi. "Is he joining us?"
Hoseok cleared his throat. "If the question is whether or not I've generously decided to take additional time out of my day to bestow upon you both my talent and quick wit, then yes."
Yoongi narrowed his eyes and scrunched his nose, clearly already regretting his decision to include Hoseok. "If the question is whether or not we have to put up with his big mouth and pestering attitude for the next hour, then yes."
Yoongi's oh-so-complex drill ended up just being a game of tag. Hoseok started off as It, and the other two had to try and outpace him to avoid being tagged. Jungkook managed to stay ahead for exactly five seconds before he was tagged, and he spent the next ten minutes trying to catch either Yoongi or Hoseok. He eventually tagged Yoongi, but for the remainder of the hour-long practice, Hoseok was never It again.
They stopped by the bench after the hour had passed, Jungkook panting, Yoongi's brow beaded with sweat, and Hoseok just grinning at the two of them and not looking at all worse for the wear. Yoongi headed over to the bench to get water, but Jungkook stayed out on the court with Hoseok, trying to ignore the shaking of his arms and the acute pangs of soreness setting in.
"How are you this fast?" he asked before breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth, trying to get oxygen to his muscles.
"I'm just a talented person," Hoseok said with a grin, skimming his palms over the handrails as though prepping for another lap. If he took off now, though, there was no way in hell that Jungkook would be able to chase him.
"I don't think I'll ever be able to catch up to you," Jungkook let out with a sigh. "Not for a long time anyway since you've been in a wheelchair for your whole life."
"That's...not true, actually," Hoseok said, his palms stilling on the handrails before he dropped them into his lap, staring down at his fingers. "I'm not like Jimin, who was born into the wheelchair life." One side of his mouth quirked up, but he didn't smile. "I've only been wheelchair-bound for three years. No, that's not right...two years, I think. It feels longer."
"Oh..." Jungkook hesitated before taking another breath to appease the hammering of his lungs inside his chest. "I thought- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"It's fine," Hoseok said, waving a hand in the air loosely, but he still wouldn't look up to meet Jungkook's eyes. "You want to know how it happened, right?"
Jungkook paused before dipping his head forward in a small nod since it seemed like Hoseok was prepared to tell him anyway.
"I used to be a dancer," Hoseok said, clenching his hands together in a supplicative gesture. "One day, I had a solo performance, and...I don't know how it happened exactly. I fell wrong. A 'freak accident,' they called it. I went unconscious in the ambulance, and when I woke up..." He gestured with a shaking hand to his lower limbs. "All numb. Paralyzed from the waist down." His eyes skid up, and he gave Jungkook a loathing smile. "I could have fallen in a million different ways and been fine, but I had to make the one mistake that cost me everything. I guess I'm just a lucky guy, huh?"
Jungkook looked down, wanting to escape the piercing gaze of Hoseok's, but then he was just staring at his paralyzed legs and that made it worse, so he shifted to look down at the court instead, then over at the basketball net. "So...why are you doing this – playing basketball, I mean?"
"Jimin wanted to try," Hoseok said with a shrug, following Jungkook's line of sight. "He's made these past two years easier for me. And...I guess part of me wants to push my body as far as it will go. I'm scared," he admitted softly, his voice falling. "I'm scared that if I don't fight against it, this will become who I am. Restrained, immobile, paralyzed. I can't move my legs, so I have to move the rest of my body as much as I can. I don't want to stop entirely, winding down like a broken clock."
Jungkook wondered if that was why Hoseok was always zipping around so quickly, if maybe he was fighting against his condition in the only way he knew how – outrunning it. "Do you miss dancing?"
The sigh that came out of Hoseok was soul draining, and Jungkook shivered at the bleak resignation. "I miss the action of it, but I don't miss dancing itself." Hoseok tapped against his head with one finger, a small smile alighting on his lips. "Because I'm always dancing in here."
Jungkook didn't really understand how that could work, but he thought that maybe it was just something he couldn't comprehend because he'd never been in the position where he'd been unable to do something. His family had endured some financial hardships which meant that he couldn't have everything he wanted, but that was altogether different from being physically unable. "It must be nice to have something you're passionate about," Jungkook said after a moment. He'd tried to imagine himself in Hoseok's shoes, stuck in a wheelchair and unable to fulfill his greatest passion, but he felt so empty. Not a spark of passion in him. Nothing he would mourn the loss of.
"You're not passionate about anything?" Hoseok asked, tilting his head and squinting at Jungkook. He seemed happy to move on from himself as the subject and focus on Jungkook instead. "No hobbies or anything that excite you?"
Jungkook shrugged, searching through his brain, but nothing was coming up. "I don't know. I left all my old friends behind when we moved here, and I stopped doing the stuff we did when we hung out. Video games, bowling, whatever. I guess maybe I only liked them because I liked the people involved, not so much the activities."
Hoseok hummed. "I mean, that makes sense. But why can't you be passionate about people instead of a specific hobby?"
Jungkook blinked. "Passionate about...people? What do you mean?"
Hoseok shrugged, rolling back and forth a foot in each direction while he talked out his idea. "I just mean that maybe you're someone who just enjoys being around other people. Maybe that's what makes you happy. Not so much what you're doing, so much as who you're doing it with."
"I guess that makes sense." Jungkook didn't really know if he needed a passion anyway. He'd gotten by just fine up to now. Although he was starting to wonder what would happen when he graduated high school in three years. If he didn't have any passion at all, what would he do?
He wondered if he was like Hoseok said, someone who just enjoyed being around other people. He wondered if there were jobs suited for people like him.
He shook his head, dispelling any notions of graduation and joining the workforce. All he needed to focus on at the moment was basketball. The rest could wait.
"Let's run another drill," Jungkook called out to Yoongi, who was staring blankly at his phone.
Yoongi looked up, blinking several times before dropping the phone into the open pocket of his backpack. "Yeah. Right, another drill." He rolled over to them, and they got back to work.
--updated 07/29/20--
A/N: thanks for being patient guys! sorry the update is a week late but i'm trying to get back on schedule. might need to push along the pace a bit lol
