"It was Jimin's idea," Hoseok began before tilting his head. "Actually, it was my idea to make it happen, but I only brought it up because Jimin said it was something he'd always wanted to try."
"It just looks kind of fun," Jimin said, his face dusted with pink.
"So I talked to the principal and he said he'd look into getting it listed as a community program and here we are now," Hoseok announced rather grandly. "Ready to get our heads in the game."
Jimin groaned as he threw a hand up in front of his face. "Hoseok made us watch High School Musical to 'study up' for this. Twice, back to back."
"It is absolutely an educational resource," Hoseok defended before looking at Jungkook. "Jungkook, have you ever seen High School Musical?"
"Um, no-"
"All right, I'm kicking you off the team," Hoseok said.
"What? I-"
"Never mind, you've sufficiently convinced me. You're back on." Hoseok said. "Besides," he added with a mischievous grin, "I can't really kick you off much of anything, can I?" He tried to give his foot a little wiggle, but nothing much happened.
"I'm sorry, since when was I on a team? What team?" Jungkook asked. It all felt overwhelming and certainly nothing like what he'd expected.
"They want to play basketball," Namjoon explained, waving aside Hoseok's antics for the moment. "They need a team of 5. So we need you and Jin to step in here."
"What about you?"
"I'm an academic, not an athlete," Namjoon said, waving his hands away. "I'm here to supervise, so I'll be your guys' coach."
"Coach Namjoon," Hoseok said, testing it out. "I like it."
"Coachjoon," Jimin suggested.
"Namcoach," Jin suggested.
"Isn't that only 4 people?" Jungkook interrupted as more names were thrown about. "Don't we need one more?"
"I'm working on that," Namjoon said, rubbing the back of his neck. "But I have a feeling like he's going to be a bit stubborn." He let out a sigh before setting his hands on his hips. "In the meantime, let's get you two in wheelchairs."
"What?"
"It's wheelchair basketball, Jungkook," Namjoon said, eyebrow raised. "You didn't expect to play standing up, did you?"
"I-"
"I'm not going to break your legs. Just wait here while I grab the extras from the storage closet," Namjoon said, heading off to the opposite side of the gym towards a pair of blue doors covered in chipping paint labeled STORAGE.
"Hi, I'm Jimin," announced the boy from earlier who Jungkook had been subconsciously thinking of as "wheelchair kid #2." "Thanks for helping us out."
"Jungkook," Jungkook introduced for what had to be the fifth time that day. "And...uh, it's no problem," he added. If they didn't know that his participation had been mandated by the court for paralyzing another kid, then he didn't particularly want to announce it. "Why do you want to play basketball, exactly? It seems...sort of...you know..."
"Weird for a kid in a wheelchair?" Jimin finished easily, laughing at Jungkook's flustered grimace.
"No- well, I mean, yeah, I guess..." Jungkook rubbed the back of his neck, eyes flicking downward before he looked back at Jimin.
"I don't know, I like to try new things," Jimin said, smoothing his hands over the tops of the wheels on either side of him, rolling back and forth in a slow and even motion. "This sort of thing only stops you if you let it."
"Oh." Jungkook hesitated. He felt bad for staring, but what was he supposed to do, look away? "That's...Yeah, I guess that makes sense."
"I'm the same as you," Jimin said, his eyes tilted up curiously at Jungkook. "I'm just not going to take first on the track team. Probably not second, either."
"Yeah, but it's not really the same at all," Jungkook argued, biting on the inside of his cheek. Looking at Hoseok and Jimin, he was faced with the harsh reality that he had done that to someone, that someone else would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of their life because of him. He thought of everything he'd taken away from that boy, and he couldn't look Jimin in the eyes and just forget that. "You can't do a lot of things that you probably want to. And- And you probably need help getting places and doing stuff and-"
"Everyone has things they want to do but can't," Jimin interrupted, rolling himself back a little so he could look at Jungkook without craning his neck. "It doesn't matter if you're in a wheelchair or on the Olympic swimming team. Everyone's got something that's beyond them. And yeah, I need a little help now and then, but I can get around pretty well by myself. It's not like I'm living just to be a burden to someone else. I have my own life."
"Hey, it's all good," Hoseok said, wheeling over and setting his head atop Jimin's head, messing up the strands. "It's like we're giraffes and this is Jungkook's first time in a zoo."
Jungkook's jaw dropped as he sputtered to defend himself; meanwhile, Jimin knocked Hoseok's arm off his head, to which Hoseok responded by ramming his wheelchair into Jimin's, which lead to Jimin punching Hoseok in the arm before rolling away. Hoseok gave chase, and a few seconds later, the two of them were flying down the length of the gym.
Jungkook didn't think they could go that fast. They looked...surprisingly strong and able.
Like they weren't disabled at all.
It didn't soothe the feeling in his gut, though.
-updated 04/23/20 (mm/dd/yy)-
