Their third game was on a Friday and was another away game. They loaded up on the bus as usual, and Namjoon started driving them to the school, which was closer than before. The ride was quiet on the way there; Jungkook didn't know what everyone else was thinking about, but he was staring out the window, running through everything Yoongi and Hoseok had taught him. At best, he'd been dead weight in the past few games; at worst, he'd been the reason they'd lost. He didn't have the drive that Jimin and Hoseok did, and he wasn't naturally gifted like Yoongi. He thought that maybe he and Jin were in roughly the same boat; neither of them seemed innately suited to the game, but they were both interested in improving. He wanted to do better than Jin at least.
Only Jungkook got the feeling that Jin was doing this for Jimin since they were part of the buddy program together, and Jungkook knew he was really just doing this for himself. To get the court mandate signed, to absolve himself of guilt. Which made him feel really shitty, but not doing well wouldn't be of service to anyone.
Namjoon parked the bus in the school parking lot, meaning that they didn't have to walk a mile to the court this time, thankfully. Yoongi and Jungkook hopped off the bus first, and Jin worked with Namjoon to assist Jimin and Hoseok. Eventually they had all unloaded. Since their wheelchairs folded up, the walking members of the group decided to just carry them since it felt strange and somehow appropriating to use them outside the game itself.
"Listen up," Namjoon said once they'd gotten into the gym and settled on the bench. The other team was already warming up; there was no way of really telling which of their players were truly paralyzed and which were just sitting in for the game like himself, but Jungkook saw how fluidly most of their team moved around on the court and decided that most of them had been at this for some time. "You guys have been doing really well in practice lately. I know I haven't been able to make every day, but from what I've seen, you're all making more shots with a higher degree of accuracy. All I want to see you guys do is play to the best of your ability, and that means enabling other teammates to play to the best of their ability. I want to see passing. I want to see assists. If the game were meant to be played by only one person, then we wouldn't have five on the court. Understood?"
Everyone nodded, and Namjoon stood up, satisfied. "All right. I really think you guys can win this game. Not that it's all about winning – pardon my fragment – but I think you all deserve a little bit of validation for your efforts."
He was looking at Jungkook when he said that, and it made Jungkook wonder if Namjoon knew about them staying late for extra practice. It didn't really matter whether he knew or not, but a small part of Jungkook wanted to be recognized for the extra work he'd put in.
Namjoon had a few other pieces of advice to present based on an analysis he'd compiled on their opponent, and he assigned each person an opposing player to guard for situations when they went man-to-man. "Any questions?" There were none. "Great. Now get out there and win for once, please."
They headed out onto the court and proceeded to actually play basketball. Jungkook couldn't exactly define the difference between this game and their previous ones; his father hadn't shown up unannounced, so that was one clear difference, but with that glaring exception, it wasn't something he could pinpoint. Just, before it felt like they were rolling around on a court, sometimes throwing the ball at the basket, sometimes throwing it to other players. But today, it felt like they were playing basketball, and that made all the difference.
Jungkook felt light on the court. He wasn't fast per se – Hoseok could still lap him easily – but he didn't feel like an elephant on roller skates anymore. He could keep up with the other players, even dodge past a few of them on offensive runs. His teammates actually passed to him this game because he managed to sink a few baskets – his first points in any game. It had taken him a month, but he'd finally put a few points on the board.
