"So let's all go over this just one more time," Namjoon instructed, and several audible groans answered in protest. "What are we not going to do?"

"Throw the basketball at people's heads," everyone responded with varying degrees of enthusiasm. There were several eye rolls and more than one glare pointed in Yoongi's direction, not even so much for injuring Jungkook the other day, but for being the reason behind Namjoon's impromptu "Safety Session."

"Great," Namjoon responded without batting an eye. "Now, our first game is this Friday. I'm not concerned about winning, but this is a good opportunity to test out our team. Right now, we're weak in our offense because we only have one person-" He glanced at Jimin. "-who has even made a basket."

"I can shoot," Yoongi immediately argued, crossing his arms defensively.

"You can shoot, you were just too busy yelling at your teammates and throwing things at people to do so," Namjoon agreed. "Pardon my run-on sentence, but we're still weak on offense, and our defense lacks coordination. The first week was about getting used to moving around and understanding the general rules, but now we need to actually exercise a bit of strategy."

"So, we're not great at offense, and we're not great at defense," Jungkook summarized slowly. "So...we're definitely going to lose Friday, right?"

"Probably!" chirped Hoseok, looking somewhat excited by the thought. "But hey, maybe Yoongi will injure someone on the opposing team this time. That'll be a plot twist."

They all bickered amongst themselves – Jungkook mostly watching – until Namjoon's phone began ringing. He paused and checked the caller ID before heading for the gym doors. "I need to take this. You guys start – I don't know – practicing making baskets." He slipped out the gym doors, and there was a small click as they shut behind him.

"You heard the man," Hoseok announced, picking up the ball from where it had been lying on top of Namjoon's jacket. "First one to make 10 points wins."

By the end of 10 minutes, the score was 0-0-0-2-6, Jimin in the lead and Yoongi having made one basket in the small window of time where he hadn't been yelling at or otherwise antagonizing another team member. Jin's shots had all been airballs, and Hoseok had spent most of the time just trying to block Yoongi, infuriating the older.

Jungkook hadn't made any baskets, but he'd only had 2 attempts. He was still a little too shy to ask the others to pass him the ball when he knew he was going to miss anyway.

He was starting to wonder what had happened to Namjoon though, and seeing as he wasn't really a vital part of the exercise, he wheeled away slowly, heading for the gym doors. Once he got there, he ran into the awkward situation of trying to push open the door while in his wheelchair, and after a minute, he decided to just get up and do it. Oddly enough, it felt weird standing up after being in a wheelchair for a while.

He pushed open the door a crack, ready to call out, but he saw Namjoon's back to him, phone up against his ear.

"The application isn't due until the end of the month," Namjoon said, his voice tense. "No, I'm not slacking off on my studies. I've been working hard; I'm just-" Namjoon sighed, looking up at the ceiling in vexation. "Yes, I know how important this is to you." He winced as the voice on the phone picked up in volume. "And to me too, yes, I know. I know, Dad. I won't let you down."

Jungkook hesitated before easing the door back shut. He remembered seeing the open tabs on the student council room computer. Namjoon was a senior, and he should have been busy filling out applications for college admission, but here he was, coaching a wheelchair basketball team. It had sounded like that was why his dad was upset, at least.

Jungkook felt sort of guilty for listening in, so he hopped back in the wheelchair and returned to practice, taking (and missing) another two shots before Namjoon returned.

"Let's switch to working on defense," Namjoon announced without preamble. "Generally in basketball, there are two types of defense: zone, and man-to-man. Zone means you're guarding an area, and man-to-man means each of you guard one specific player on the opposing team."

"Which one is better?" Hoseok asked and Yoongi, the experienced basketball player, rolled his eyes.

"One isn't better than the other, idiot. You choose based on our team, the opponent's team, and the situation. You can switch it up during the game too."

"Yoongi is correct," Namjoon confirmed. "It's best to be familiar with both styles of play, but let's start with man-to-man. Hoseok, you guard Yoongi, and Jungkook, you guard Jimin. Jin, I'm going to have you start at half court and look to pass to either Yoongi or Jimin, all right?"

They all nodded and made their way into their assigned positions.

Hoseok, being the fastest on the court, easily blocked Yoongi from moving into a passing position, and Jungkook could hear Yoongi swearing from the other side of the three-point line. To his credit, Jungkook attempted to keep up with Jimin, but the older boy easily slipped past him and out into open court. Jin passed to Jimin, who (once again) rolled right past Jungkook and took a shot. The ball fell through the net with a swoosh, and the score was 2-0.

"All right, switch!" Namjoon yelled, blowing on his whistle just for the hell of it. "Jin, you stay at the top of the key. Jimin, you're guarding Jungkook now, and Yoongi, you're guarding Hoseok. Start!"

Jungkook tried to move forward, but Jimin rolled into his way with an apologetic smile. Jungkook tried to move closer to the lane, but Jimin blocked him there, too. Meanwhile, Hoseok was zooming around the court, skidding across the paint before wheeling around Yoongi just to show him up.

"Get back here you little rat," Yoongi snapped, pushing aggressively on the hand rims and trying to catch up, but he was always too late to block Hoseok. "This isn't fair, he's too bloody fast," Yoongi complained, shooting Namjoon a glare, who just shrugged with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"If you want to catch him, then you'll just have to get faster," Namjoon said. "You can't complain about things 'not being fair' in a real game, you know. That's poor sportsmanship and a weak excuse for not performing better."

Yoongi growled, turning back to the exercise and trying to keep between Hoseok and Jin, who was just watching Hoseok fly around as though getting winded secondhand. When Jin finally decided to try passing (not to Jungkook, who was basically dead weight on the court as of present), Yoongi gave a sudden burst of speed and intercepted the pass, turning and shooting.

Another swoosh.

"Very good," Namjoon complimented with a genuine smile.

"The exercise was about blocking though, and he sucked at it," Hoseok immediately protested. "This wasn't about shooting."

"Maybe not, but the game itself is," Namjoon pointed out. "You may be the fastest player on the court, Hoseok, but unless you utilize that speed to either pass to a teammate in shooting position or take a shot yourself, you're no help to the offense."

There was some general grumbling among the team which was silenced by the blowing of Namjoon's whistle. "Need I remind you all that we have a game in just a few days?" he asked, looking at each one of them. Jungkook shrank back from his gaze, feeling that he hadn't really done much of anything to support the team as of yet. "Listen up. I won't be disappointed if we lose Friday-"

"When we lose," someone muttered.

"-but I will be disappointed if I don't see you guys trying some of what we've been working on in practice. Now, let's trying running this drill again."

There was only a little bit of grumbling as everyone got back into place and they began practicing again. Not five minutes later, however, a fight broke out between Hoseok and Yoongi, and Yoongi hopped to his feet, fully ready to take the first punch.

Namjoon immediately blew his whistle and hustled over, standing close to the pair but not getting in between them. "Can one of you please explain to me what is going on here?"

Yoongi scowled at Hoseok, his hands still clenched into fists. "He's being a fucking brat."

"Au contraire," Hoseok said, a grin on his face as usual, but his eyes were narrowed. "I'm just doing my job. If you don't like it, then maybe you should try playing better."

"You little-"

Namjoon blew the whistle again, and both boys cringed at the shrill shriek. "You guys can't keep fighting like this. We have a game Friday; are you all going to fight then, too?" He looked at Hoseok. "You owe me ten baskets from outside the paint." He turned to Yoongi and crossed his arms. "You owe me ten baskets outside the paint and ten laps around the court in your wheelchair."

"What the hell!" Yoongi immediately snapped, stabbing a finger in Hoseok's general direction. "Why's he getting off easy? Is it because he's disabled? Because that's a load of bullshit!"

"No," Namjoon said calmly. "You're getting a more severe punishment because you got out of your wheelchair during practice, and you were ready to prompt physical violence. If you keep yelling at me, it'll be twenty baskets and twenty laps."

Yoongi stared at Namjoon, his jaw clenched, and five tense seconds passed before he threw himself back down into his wheelchair and turned away from both Hoseok and Namjoon.

"Um, Namjoon? Er, Coach?" Jungkook, who had been hovering nearby, asked, and Namjoon looked over at him.

"Yes, Jungkook?"

"Maybe we should switch up who's guarding who. Just since, you know, Yoongi and Hoseok don't really seem to work well together..."

Namjoon looked at Jungkook for a long moment before tapping at his chin. "What you meant to say is that they don't work well together now." He looked out across the court at where Yoongi was taking his ten laps and where Hoseok was shooting (and missing) from just outside the lane. "Thanks for the concern, Jungkook, but I'm going to keep the partners as they are for a while longer."

Jungkook just nodded, not understanding Namjoon's logic at all, and went off to join Hoseok to practice his own shooting a bit.

By the time practice ended, he had officially made his first basket.

--updated 06/11/20--