"This is all your fault." Jeongguk huffed. (Stan Yugeom hoes)

"Me? Why is my fault and not yours?"

"Because if you had just agreed to give me a raise, then we could've got here faster and there would've been a free court for us to use." Jeongguk grumbled.

"I'm going to pretend like that makes even just a shred of sense." Taehyung said.

"Well what do we do now, Gucci boy?" Jeongguk asked.

"Don't call me that. It better not become a thing, otherwise I'm going to fire you." Taehyung grumbled.

"So you can fire me but you can't give me a raise?"

"Jeongguk shut up."

"You shut up."

"You're so fucking-"

"TAETAE!" A happy voice called out from one of the courts on the far right. A short blonde man came walking towards them, smiling from ear to ear.

"Jimin! Nice to see you." Taehyung smiled.

"You can smile?" Jeongguk asked in disbelief. "You have emotions other than rage and spite?"

"Shut up." Taehyung glared at him, but the blonde boy began to laugh.

"I like him. He's funny. What's your name?"

"Tweedledumb." Taehyung replied.

"It's Jeongguk." Guk said, glaring at Taehyung. "Gucci boy over here seems to think he's funny."

"I am funny."

"Funny-looking is more like it." Jeongguk snorted.

"I'm Park Jimin." The blonde boy said.

"Nice to meet you. Are you and Gucci boy friends?"

"Yup. Best friends."

"Wow. You must either be a literal saint, or you committed mass murder in a past life and are atoning for it. I can't imagine anyone spending more than 5 nanoseconds with Taehyung voluntarily." Jeongguk said in a pitying tone. He put a hand to his forehead and saluted. "Thank you for your service."

Jimin laughed.

"He's not that bad." Jimin said. "Just a bit grumpy."

"Grumpy is an understatement." Jeongguk agrees.

"Anyway, Tae, why aren't you and your opponent playing yet?" Jimin asked.

"He's not my opponent." Taehyung informed, "He's my ball boy."

"Isn't he a bit old to be a ball boy?"

"Tell me about it." Taehyung sighed. "We can't find a free court because he was being dramatic earlier on."

"Since you can't find a free court, do you wanna play with me and Yoongi? We're not really doing much today." Jimin offered.

"Sure." Taehyung nodded, and the three of them walked over to the far-right court where another blonde guy was standing there, fiddling with his racket absentmindedly.

"Yoonie, look who I found." Jimin smiled.

"Taehyung!" Yoongi smiled warmly. "And who's the other guy?"

"Satan incarnate." Taehyung rolled his eyes.

"His name is Jeongguk." Jimin said, "Him and Taehyung are friends."

"He's not my friend." Both Jeongguk and Taehyung said simultaneously.

"He's just the ball boy." Tae said.

"And he's just an arrogant prick." Jeongguk retorted.

"Well, um, it's nice to meet you, Jeongguk." Yoongi said.

"Likewise." Jeongguk smiled.

"Jeongguk let me show you something cool." Jimin gasped as he grabbed Guk's hand and tugged him off in a new direction.

"So, Jeongguk, huh." Yoongi said, smirking lightly at Taehyung now that they were alone.

"What about him?"

"He's handsome, isn't he?"

"Yoongi, stop it."

"What? I'm just saying."

"I know what you're trying to do. Stop trying to set me up. I am not going to have an enemies-to-lovers arc with Jeongguk. You need to control your obsession with that trope." Taehyung sighed.

"You might!"

"Shut up."

"He seems like a nice guy too."

"He's not. He complains about everything under the sun." Taehyung sighed.

"So do you." Yoongi pointed out.

"And he's a crappy ball boy too. He's so slow at everything."

"Well you're too fast paced and high intensity sometimes. It'll do you good to learn how to slow down." Yoongi said wisely.

"Whatever." Taehyung sighed. "I don't even want a relationship at all, let alone one with that bastard over there."

"Why not?"

"Because relationships are a waste of time. Tennis comes first. Love isn't going to pay my bills." Taehyung sighed.

"You're too cynical. Why can't you have both? Look at me and Minnie. I love that little idiot and we still get to come here and play tennis too."

"You guys have careers that aren't tennis. Coming here is relaxing for you guys, but this is where I train when it's not tournament season."

"But if you were to date Jeongguk, then you can have love and focus on tennis too." Yoongi said.

"1. I don't like Jeongguk. 2. He's only here for the summer. 3. Oh dear, I forgot. What was it again? Oh yeah. I DONT LIKE JEONGGUK." Taehyung said angrily.

"Wowee. Somebody's panties are in a twist." Yoongi sighed. "Whatever. I'll drop the conversation for now. But for the record; I ship."

"Shut the fuck up right now or I'll tell Jimin that you tried to flirt with me."

"As if he'd fucking believe that." Yoongi snorted. "Come on then grumpy pants, let's go see where Jeongguk and Minnie ran off to." Yoongi said, dragging Taehyung by the arm and walking off in the same direction as the other two.

●

It turns out that Jeongguk and Jimin had wandered inside, and Jimin was showing him the karaoke room. They were singing out of time into the crappy microphones, swaying and giggling like a pair of drunkards.

"Yoongi!" Jimin smiled, and the shitty, crackly sound bounced around the room, making all four of them laugh.

"Hey baby. What song is this?"

"I don't know, Jeongguk picked it."

"It's called I know better by Lauren Evans." Jeongguk smiled.

"Well, I wish you two could sing better." Yoongi laughed. "Aren't you going to practice?"

"I wanna stay here." Jimin said.

"Me too." Jeongguk agreed.

"Well, you can't, because I have to practice." Taehyung said.

"Aww." Jeongguk frowned. "Please?"

"No. I have a match tomorrow, so I really need to practice."

"Fine." Jeongguk said, disappointed. He handed the microphone to Jimin and bid him goodbye.

"Jeongguk come back later, okay?" Jimin asked.

"Yeah. I'll come back during my break." He agreed as he stepped out of the room and followed Taehyung to the courts.

●

It shouldn't bother him.

Taehyung knows it shouldn't bother him so much, but the thought of his enemy and his best friends being all buddy-buddy together was really getting to him. It pissed him off to say the least. Jeongguk's lunch break was 50 minutes long, but the incompetent fool had already been gone for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Taehyung sighed, putting his racket down and trudging off to the karaoke room, ready to drag Jeongguk out and back to practice.

"Again! Jeongguk sing another one!" Jimin begged. "You're so good at this!"

"One more, and then I have to get back to work; Taehyung's going to kill me if he finds out where I am." Jeongguk said.

"Too late." Taehyung said as he entered the room, arms crossed against his chest.

"Oops."

"Is this what we pay you for? To sit around in the karaoke room and mess around?" Tae said sternly.

"Jesus Christ, who shoved a rod up your arse, Tae?" Yoongi muttered. "Why are you so stiff and grumpy?"

"I am NOT stiff, nor am I grumpy." Tae denied.

"Then let Jeongguk stay." Yoongi said.

"No."

"Please, TaeTae?" Jimin begged, "We're having so much fun!"

"No. Jeongguk come out now." Taehyung commanded, and Jeongguk sighed and trudged out of the room again like a child.

Back outside, Jeongguk was still not happy that he wasn't allowed to hang out with his new friends. Sure, he was supposed to be working, but they'd practiced nonstop for hours, not the mention the intensity of the other previous days; what was 1 hour of fun going to do?

"You're so slow at picking up the balls." Taehyung complained.

"Whatever." Jeongguk shrugged.

"Hurry up, then. I've seen parked cars that move faster than you."

"Damn, Tae cut him some slack. The poor boy is tired." Yoongi said.

"Yeah, Yoonie's right, Tae. Just let Jeongguk come in and relax." Jimin agreed.

"Who invited you two slackers here?" Tae groaned. "Just go home."

"Let Jeongguk go home too."

"He's still on the clock, so I'm not actually obligated to." Tae shrugged.

"That's kind of mean, Tae." Jimin said.

"How is it mean? I just want to practice for my match tomorrow, and now I'm being guilt tripped into sending him home just so he can go and do a couple rounds of shitty karaoke?" Taehyung complained. "I am not the bad guy here."

"But Taehyung, I'm tired. I just want to relax, and we've been going the same thing for like an hour." Jeongguk whined. "It's not like you're making any improvement - you're perfect as is. It just feels like a piss-take now."

"You know what? Fine. Jeongguk go home. I don't care anymore. Go the fuck home and sing whatever stupid karaoke song you want to. Yeah? I don't give a shit now." Taehyung yelled, throwing his racket down on the floor in a fit of rage and storming off in the direction of the locker rooms.

"You can go to hell. All of you." He yelled.

"Especially you, Jeongguk, you lazy, stupid son of a bitch."

●●●

I'm having so much fun writing this book lol 🥰