So it turns out that I've been using the wrong spelling of tennis racket and it's actually racquet and racket is another word for noise. I knew that, but I just thought it was the same spelling for both of them and now I feel silly. 🤣🤣

The chapter is already mostly written with racket and then halfway through, I found out I was spelling it wrong so if you see both spellings they mean the same thing. 🤣

Enjoy.

●

“Good morning.” Jimin smiles as Taehyung trudges into the tennis courts emotionlessly, carelessly dumping his black duffel bag down on the navy tennis court floor. His white polo shirt was tucked into black shorts, white Nike socks were pulled up to his calves and his messy bed hair was pushed back with his white-coloured Gucci headband. He sighed as he picked up his racket with his left hand.

“Is it?” He responds bleakly, and Jimin makes a face at him behind his back.

“Who shat in your cereal this morning?” He rolls his eyes.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Oh, TaeTae, it’s okay.” Jimin comforts, “If you’re not feeling up to it, then you don’t have to play today. I'm sure I can find Jeongguk and tell him to go home early or something.”

Taehyung shakes his head.

“I’m already here, so I might as well stay. Besides, my dad would rip my head off if I left.”

“Well okay then.” Jimin says, “I’ve got to go now; I was only supposed to come here and find a ball boy for me and Yoongi.”

“Are they all busy?”

“Yeah, there was one guy who said he’d do it, but I don’t know where he went.” Jimin shrugged. “Oh well. See ya later Tae.” He says as he wanders off to find a new ball boy.

Taehyung nods his head and doesn’t respond verbally, the weight feeling heavy against his shoulders that were weighed down with guilt already.

When Jeongguk shows up, I’m gonna apologise for being mean. He thinks to himself as he walks over the astroturf ground and sits down on a white bench, twirling his racket in his hands as he waits nervously for Jeongguk to arrive.

1 minute.

2 minutes.

5 minutes.

10 minutes.

Taehyung waited and waited but Jeongguk never showed up. He sighed and stood up, stretching out his body like a cat basking in the sun, before deciding to get up and look for Jeongguk himself.

He wandered around in random directions, checking the food court and the locker rooms and even the godforsaken karaoke room, but there was no sign of Jeongguk anywhere. Taehyung didn’t even have his number, so he couldn’t call and ask where he was. He decided to pop into the reception, and ask if Jeongguk had clocked in today, and to his surprise they confirmed that not only was he definitely at work today, but that he had even arrived 10 minutes early.

So where the fuck is he? Taehyung thought to himself as he thanked the receptionists and headed back to the courts. I think I should ask Jimin. He concludes, turning left and making a detour through the other tiger turf courts to get to Jimin and Yoongi’s favourite spot on the far-right end. He could see the familiar heads of blonde hair moving skilfully across the courts, and continued to walk over.

“Hey Jimin,” He called out when the intense rally ended and they had taken a quick break for a drink. “Have you seen Jeo-”

He stopped abruptly, frozen in his tracks.

His heart dropped and he couldn’t help the distasteful frown that enveloped his face, and souring his mood completely. There, right in front of his own eyes, was Jeongguk.

Picking up the balls for Jimin and Yoongi.

●

In reality, there was nothing wrong with it.

Taehyung knew he was being dramatic and that it wasn’t a huge deal, but he couldn’t help but feel betrayed. Like in year 8 geography, when he was going to ask Ben to partner up with him, only to find out he had asked someone else. He had spent the rest of the day sulking, absolutely offended that Ben would choose someone other than him.

There was nothing wrong with it inherently, but it still stung like a huge slap to the face.

Ben was allowed to have other friends.

And Jeongguk was allowed to pick up balls for other people.

Yet it still felt like he was getting cheated on.

“Taehyung!” Yoongi waved him over, and Taehyung cursed under his breath as he stomped over towards them, trying not to be angry and failing exponentially.

“TaeTae!” Jimin smiled.

“I see you found a ball boy in the end.” Taehyung sniped.

“Oh, yeah.” Yoongi said, not noticing Taehyung’s angry tone, “We bumped into Jeongguk and he said he had nothing to do. He's got a nasty bruise on his face but he said he was fine so he decided to come with us.”

“You’re supposed to be my ball boy.” Taehyung whined childishly, turning his attention to Jeongguk who was stuffing the tennis balls back into his pockets.

“I don’t belong to you.” Jeongguk muttered.

“Yeah, but you could’ve at least told me you weren’t gonna be here today. I spent the last hour waiting for you.”

“Whatever. Go find someone else.”

“Why can’t you just come with me?”

“Because I’m not a fucking dog, am I.” Jeongguk argued. “I’m staying here because Yoongi and Jimin actually treat me with respect.”

“So do I.” Taehyung refuted.

“Yeah right. That’s why I can only see out of one eye. Your respect blinded me.” Jeongguk shot back sarcastically.

“I already said I was sorry.”

“Good. Apology denied. Now fuck off ‘n find someone else to bother. The next round is about to start.”

“It’s called a set, you neanderthal.” Taehyung corrected.

“Whatever.” Jeongguk rolled his eyes as he walked off to join Yoongi and Jimin again, leaving Taehyung standing there alone, bitterly.

●

Eventually, Taehyung did find another ball boy, and they spent a few hours practicing together. It was very easy to see that they made a good team; the boy was 12 years old and very skilled, fast and alert and most of all, respectful.

He didn’t swear, wasn’t aggressive, and it didn’t take Taehyung yelling at him 5 times for him to pick up the balls. He was very good at his job and was actually what Taehyung needed for an effective practice.

But Taehyung wasn’t happy.

It felt weird to practice in silence; to not have silly bickering fill the air as he played. He didn’t have to yell at the boy to stop singing or tell him put his phone away, and he didn’t need to tell him to shut the fuck up every 30 seconds.

I miss Jeongguk. Taehyung caught himself thinking as another silent hour passed between them. By now, he would’ve asked his fifth stupid question of the day.

“Hang on, Mr Kim. There's still another ball on the court.” The kid said, snapping him out of his daydream.

“It’s called a court.” Taehyung corrected on autopilot.

“That’s what I said.” The kid replied in confusion.

“Oh.” Taehyung blinked. “Sorry.”

“Mr Kim, are you alright? Would you still like to continue?” he asked politely.

Taehyung shook his head and sighed.

“No, it’s okay. We can stop here for today. Thank you very much for your hard work.” He said, patting him on the head and deciding to pack it up and call it a day. They packed up their equipment and the boy left to go to the locker rooms, leaving Taehyung alone with his thoughts.

He had never realised how interesting practices with Jeongguk were, and he had sort of grown accustomed to being mildly irritated the entire time. Jeongguk kept him on his toes and made things less boring, and he was really, truly starting to deeply regret treating him in such an awful way.

“I really need to apologise properly.” He said to himself, feeling overwhelmingly guilty, the more the thought about things. “Let’s just hope it’s not too late.”

●

Miraculously, Taehyung managed to return to Jimin and Yoongi's court, just as they were packing up. They were in the process of leaving, hand in hand as they walked towards the exit gate of the courts, deep in discussion as they carried the equipment away.

“Jeongguk’s eye was so bad.” Jimin said sympathetically, “I wonder how he managed to bruise it like that.”

“I’m surprised he even showed up to work today. He must’ve been in so much pain.” Yoongi agreed.

“What do you think happened? D'you think he got in a fight?” Jimin gasped.

Yoongi shook his head.

“Jeongguk? Nah. Doesn’t seem like the type of guy to randomly throw punches. He mentioned that someone hit him but he wouldn’t say much else. Seemed like he didn’t wanna talk about it.”

“Poor kid. What kind of arse does that to someone?”

“Agreed. Whoever did that to him sucks.”

“Big time.”

“What a dick.”

They continued to walk and talk, unaware of Taehyung standing behind them as they left the court.

Salty tears pricked violently at his eyes which stung with shame. He was already aware of how heinous his actions towards Jeongguk were, but hearing his friends speak so angrily against him with unbiased language, really cemented the fact in. He sniffled, looking over in the distance and spotting Jeongguk sitting there with an icepack against his face over the bruise.

And Taehyung burst into tears.

He cried, heaving and sobbing at the reality of his actions, absolutely appalled that he had actually inflicted injury upon someone, whether accidental or not. Liquid anguish dripped from his eyes and stained his white polo shirt. He sobbed heavily, accidentally catching Jeongguk’s attention.

The ball boy looked up, surprise overtaking his features as he stared at Taehyung.

“Taehyung? A-Are you okay?” He asked with concern as he stood up and walked over to him, reassuring hand placed firmly on his shoulder.

“Jeongguk, I'm sorry.” Tae cried, big fat tears streaking down his face, “I’m really really sorry that I hurt you.”

“Tae-”

“It was mean and so horrible of me and I’m really really sorry.” He wept, wiping the tears from his eyes.

“Taehyung, don’t blame yourself too much; it was an accident, right?” Jeongguk said, feeling bad that Taehyung was crying. He had only ever seen him angry/bitter or somewhat neutral, and to see him in such a state of devastation made him feel... oddly protective. He just wanted Tae to stop crying and go back to his normal self. Sad Taehyung didn’t sit right with him at all.

“Y-Yeah, but I was still mean to you regardless, a-and that’s why you’re hurt. I'm sorry I did that to you.” Taehyung sobbed.

“It’s okay, Tae. Stop crying, okay? I forgive you.” Jeongguk said calmly.

“R-Really?”

“Mhm. I can tell you’re genuine this time, and that’s all I wanted.” Guk reassured as he gently wiped some of Taehyung’s tears away. “As long as it doesn’t happen again, then I don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to move past this.”

“N-Never. It will never happen again.” Taehyung said firmly.

“Good.”

“A-Are you still gonna be my ball boy?” He asks.

Jeongguk scratches his head awkwardly and avoids eye contact.

“I-I don’t know.”

“I promise I won’t be horrible to you like I was last time.”

“The thing is, I already promised Yoongi and Jimin that I'd help them instead.” He admits.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Sorry.” Jeon says sincerely. His phone buzzes in his hands and his eyes go wide as he checks the time. “Oh fuck, I’ve got to go home.” He says as he picks up his belongings and starts walking towards the gate. “But I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

“Bye.” Taehyung mumbles weakly in response, but Jeongguk most definitely did not hear him.

He sighs to himself, happy that Jeongguk had accepted his apology, and pissed off that he’d literally scared him away with his cruel actions.

He sighed again, heaving his heavy bones towards the exit too, figuring it’d just be best to go home and call it a day. Count his losses and all that jazz.

“Taehyung, you idiot.” He mumbles to himself as he walks towards his car miserably. “You just had to go and fuck things up, didn’t you, you stupid son of a bitch.”

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Anyone wanna do my french hw for me 😭🔫