No matter where he stood with his life, the world has always revolved around volleyball for Jeongguk. There were a very few things lodged deep inside his thick stubborn skull, and he's been doing those for so long, he had forgotten to accept changes and shifts and people that came anew.
Volleyball. Family. School.
Other than that, nothing much remained.
He wouldn't say his life was boring, per se (mostly because he's too balky to recognize it)- sure his everyday life didn't change that much when the previous day turned into the next, but pouring his whole being into the sport, Jeongguk wouldn't say he even notices it. The stillness. The quiet. The solitude.
He'd much rather admit he was once an even worse type of company, and while that has never brought anything but peace in everyday life, it was an awful attitude on the court. Jeon Jeongguk has always been desperate to win, desperate to fight until the very last breath, completely urgent to redeem and prove himself in play, so really, he had no choice but to ... associate himself with his teammates.
Needless to say, it helped him a lot with the games he wanted to win; not so much with the said tranquility he's always been trying to maintain. Not so much with not losing his goddamn mind every time one of them opened his mouth.
Obviously, some of them were quite nice - didn't speak much, didn't disturb his momentum - but that isn't something he'd be able to say about every single one of them.
Jeongguk coughs as he slows down his jog right before entering the school's properties. The atmosphere around him can barely be called alive and the sun isn't even rising yet, but as a persistent vital young male, he refuses to give up on his routine morning run, even if for the sake of being in company with those blockheads for a few minutes longer.
The sky is painting itself light hues of blush pink and intrusive orange, the shades tinting the school windows in vibrant reflections of the day yet to come; and Jeongguk more feels than simply imagines the somnolence drain from his body, as if a dam has just been released, and the sleepiness is now flowing slowly over his worn-out sneakers and soaking the white of his socks.
He breathes in the fresh air (as fresh as the air in the middle of the biggest city of Korea can be); breathes out - it becomes a foggy wisp when leaving the curve of his lips, and vanishes into thin air as it has never even been there.
The morning is too cold, too raw for a boy to just stand there and bask in the early sunlight - but Jeongguk has never been a typical boy, and there are very rare things he wouldn't risk so that he wouldn't have to enter the gym right away. A cold isn't one of them.
It wasn't always like that, not at all. There were times when he genuinely enjoyed working out, being a team with individuals who shared the same dreams as him- Jeon Jeongguk wasn't always in need of loneliness but those times have passed long ago, even before he entered university and they were buried along with his tolerance and gullibility.
Jeon Jeongguk was no more, and in his place stood new, improved king of the court.
🏐
"Aw~ Look who decided to show up," the team captain, a pocket-sized defensive specialist with the number 1 on his back, attacks him the moment his foot lands on the surface of the school's gym, and everything inside the room stops for a moment long enough so Jeongguk's patience runs dry.
He doesn't bother with a response, instead, he shakes his jogging sneakers off his feet, picks them up quickly, and starts to walk in the direction of his locker.
Park Jimin, the previously mentioned dwarf, doesn't like it when someone doesn't play according to his plan, and he hates it even more when a snobby first year forgets his manners, so he takes all of his short glory and starts skipping by Jeongguks side, a shit-eating grin on his face.
"Why so down, Jeonggukie?" he sing-songs, annoying as ever, "Someone spit in your toothpaste?"
Hoseok, their wing spiker, snickers somewhere behind them, mainly because he had done that once when they were staying together in a hotel room before a match, and partly because he's probably done it again.
"Maybe if you ate as much as you talk," Jeongguk starts quietly, pulling the t-shirt over his head and replacing it with the official sports uniform of their school, "you wouldn't be so short, Park."
The jesting smile fades off the smaller's face then but it's only for a second or two before he, as yesterday and days before, sighs with his hands against the small of his waist, and shakes his head.
"There's no cheerful time with you, Jeon. If it wasn't for you on the team, we would be having dances and an upbeat atmosphere before practice, you know?"
As if on cue, the doors to the gym sway open, and in comes their middle blocker, a tall dimwit who Jeongguk has to look up upon if he wants to see his face, Namjoon - and the look on his face is nothing less than completely irked and sore from having to wake up so early. Instead of a promised cheerful good morning, he offers the captain an annoyed grunt when he passes them. Jimin, proven wrong once again, closes his eyes and grits his teeth in frustration but lets him be.
"As I was saying," he fumes, turning around from Jeongguk because he considers it invasive to watch the other male change pants for some unknown reason, and that aggravating playful tone sneaks its way back into his mouth, "I expected you to be here early since your favorite teammate has been practicing alone for a few hours already."
Jeongguk's hands freeze where they have been opening the protein snack bar for breakfast, hidden away in his duffel bag, invisible to the coach's prying eyes, and he draws himself up, lifting his chin in an arrogant manner. Chills run down his spine when the male's mentioned, the sharpness that he tells himself is from annoyance.
It's too early for this, he rants childishly, it's too early to hear that tomfool's name.
Jimin eyes him knowingly: "There are little things that gain your attention, Jeonggukie."
"You know it, little thing."
Jimin's mouth opens and closes a few times, and he only lets a flash of something in his eyes indicate how annoyed he really is. He's a captain, he needs to keep his chill.
"You're loud for a loser," he states, stalking closer to the frowning male that's now angrily chewing on his snack, "You lost. He was here first."
"Well, I've been winning for the whole week. Generally speaking, he's still trailing behind."
"Yeah, but today is match day," the older of the two states firmly, snatching the last piece of the bar and ignoring Jeongguk's venomous glare when he throws it in his mouth, "and Taehyung is in full form."
"Whatever," Jeongguk mumbles. ignoring the spark of jealousy that rises inside his throat.
But Jimin isn't finished yet (he never really is- Jeongguk is sure someone would have to sew his mouth shut so he would be quiet for a while).
"Aren't these competitions getting a little bit childish? You guys are a team so why don't you behave like one?"
"A team?" Jeongguk forces out a humorless laugh, picking up a volleyball that lays near, "He's nothing but a short unqualified oaf. How can I win if Taehyung's ruining the whole game with his -- His stupidity, and nuisance, and--"
"--and his pretty face, and beefy ass and hot body," Jimin starts to list along, pointing at his tiny chunky fingers just to annoy Jeongguk further, and would it not been for the hear rising to Jeongguk's face, he'd been proving him wrong right away.
The captain gives him a one-over before shaking his head in exasperation.
"Can't you guys just fuck already and get rid of all this sexual tension? It's affecting my team."
"I do not want to--"
"Oh please, Jeon. As if I can't see the way you stare at his ass all the time," Jimin sneers as if he's disappointed, "If this goes on, who knows when you'll miss the ball before a set, huh? We could lose because you're not getting laid."
Okay, alright, so maybe Jeongguk notices the way Taehyung's ass looks meaty and plump in those hideous orange shorts, and perhaps he lets himself look at it from time to time, possibly a few more times than he's ready to admit - but- it doesn't change the fact that up from his hips, Kim Taehyung is the most irritatable person he's ever encountered.
Stands far in front of the competition too.
And be his face as cute as it is, Jeongguk never lets himself affirm it, not even in the safeness of his head.
Jimin continues in all his diminutive importance.
"In our match last Friday your eyes were so transfixed on his ass that instead of setting the ball to Yoongi, you sent it to Seokjin. Seokjin. Our libero."
Okay so Jeongguk has made some mistakes --
"We scored, though."
Scoffing in disbelief, Jimin regards him with a moody stare that brings at least minimum satisfaction to Jeongguk's ego, so he adds: "And I made the last spike count."
"You and Taehyung made the last spike count."
Setting his duffel bag aside, Jeongguk's eyes search for their coach in the sea of sweating bodies of his teammates, and he notices the call for a meeting as soon as he spots him.
"The dude can fly only if I send the ball his way. He is nothing without me."
He's sure Jimin's preparing a sharp reply behind his back but as he strolls across the wide gym, his ears go deaf, and his eyes blind for anyone that isn't worthy of his attention.
(If Jeongguk notices Taehyung's ass, though, he's not ready to talk about that.)
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this is a short preview of this story that I wanted to post before I log off of wattpad for a while :)
I hope you'll look forward to this!
stay safe, keep a distance, don't fall in love