the new kid

.03.

8th period eventually rolls around, taehyung dreading it. but he's also excited. he's ready to meet his new teammates. it's easy making friends since he's such an extrovert and can make conversation with the wall if he truly wanted to.

but there was one reason he wasn't excited for practice. jungkook. after the incident in the bathroom, bad blood and tension was all you could feel between the two. he's honestly scared of the boy. jungkook is very muscular for a junior in high school. anyone would be scared of him.

taehyung arrives to the locker room and everything gets quiet. he immediately gets stares from most of the boys, besides the ones he met at lunch. he just nods his head and smiles kindly as he walks to his locker to get ready for practice. suddenly, he starts getting bombarded with questions by the whole team.

"why did you move here?"
"are you really as good as everyone says you are?"
"have you met jungkook?"
"is is true that you've been offered by colleges?"

before he can respond, he hears someone yell. "hey! get away from the kid. he probably hates all of you already." he looks around for the voice, finding it to be jimin's. they all back away and start conversations about their new teammate.

"sorry about them. it's like every time they see someone hot they go insane." he says, sitting his stuff down next to taehyung's. taehyung blushes from the complement and thanks him. "it's no problem. they're all annoying anyways." he tells his new friend.

taehyung giggles and nods. "hey, uh, random question." taehyung tells jimin while tying his cleats. "shoot." jimin says, slipping on his jersey. taehyung leans closer so that he can only be heard by jimin. "do you know if jungkook is gay? or something?" he asks.

jimin furrows his eyebrows and cocks his head. "i don't think so, but he might be. you can ask hoseok. that's his best friend." jimin informs the boy. taehyung just nods. since it's only practice, taehyung decided to just slip his gear on over his jersey once he gets on the field.

as he exits the locker room, he runs into the person who could make this the best practice or the worst practice. "watch where you're going." jungkook mumbles while slipping past taehyung. but there's one thing taehyung didn't miss.

he saw the look of guilt behind the boys dark eyes. i guess you could say taehyung is quite skilled at that. his mother used to always tell him, "words may lie, but eyes never will." and he's definitely stuck by that.

he walks out to the field with his stick and gear in his hand. he sits it down on the sidelines as he goes to introduce himself to the coach. he sticks his hand out to the coach for a handshake. "hello coach min, it's a pleasure to meet you!" he exclaims.

the coach gives the boy a firm handshake back and smiles at the boy. "it's a pleasure to have you on our team. you'll make a great asset." he tells him. "thank you, sir." taehyung politely replies. "i don't suppose you've met jungkook?" the coach asks, pointing at the boy.

"yes sir, i have. i've met a few players already." he informs his new coach. "great! you've already made friends with some!" the coach exclaims. "well you should go out your gear on, you'll need it." his coach says.

taehyung nods, turning to go get his gear. he starts to put it on, but a voice stops him. "why are you putting your stuff on?" jungkook asks. taehyung closes his eyes frustratedly and turns around to reply to the boy.

"because coach told me to. got a problem with that, captain?" he says, bitterness rolling off of his tongue. jungkook scoffs. "what's up with you?" he questions, getting closer to taehyung. "why are you asking so many damn questions?" taehyung replies back quick.

he continues to put his stuff on without responding to jungkook. turns out, jungkook had walked off already. he smirks to himself. 'two can play at that game.' he knows he shouldn't be reacting this way.

but how else is he supposed to react? one minute the boy is trying to kiss him, the next he's telling him that he hates him. he leaves taehyung no choice but to act cold to him. the only difference is that he has a legitimate reason, jungkook doesn't.

by the time he's done putting his gear on, coach calls the team to the middle of the field. all the boys jog to the middle. "okay boys. if you haven't met him already, this is taehyung. i'm sure you all know about him already. he will be with us for the whole season and he'll make a great addition to the team." the coach announces to the team.

taehyung looks around at all the boys, who are now his teammates, stare at him. most of them are giving him a friendly smile, and some are giving him a smirk that just screams "fuck me!" but one teammate isn't even looking at him.

jungkook has his arms crossed and is looking to the side, his tongue poking his cheek. "okay boys, games are in less than a week, and we have some serious work to do. so work your asses off, or your asses will be on the sidelines. got it?" he asks the teenagers.

"yes, coach." the boys respond together. "good. taehyung, you'll be partnered with jungkook working on blocking drills. you two will be used the most during the games." taehyung nods at the information.

he looks back at jungkook, making eye contact with the boy. the team all separate into groups to work individually and taehyung walks up to jungkook. "this should be fun." taehyung remarks sassily.

jungkook rolls his arms and puts his arms back down to his side. "come on, newbie. we've got some work to do." he says, heading towards the closest goal to him. "best nickname you can come up with?" taehyung asks.

jungkook continues to walk to the goal, ignoring the other boy. "oh now you're not even talking to me?" he hears taehyung say. "real mature, jungkook. real mature." he says in a tone that jungkook can't quite analyze.

"why do you want me to talk to you, huh?" jungkook asks sharply when they finally get to the goal. taehyung sighs, then smirks. "because i wanna hear your trash talk. so far it's not the best, probably like your playing." taehyung responds sassily.

jungkook chuckles, almost sounding evil. it was a deep and had no emotion behind it. he gives the boy a death glare. "game on, newbie." he says, smirking. taehyung smirks back.

'here goes nothing'