Jungkook watched as another call came onto his screen, and he knew that if he didn't pick it up, he'd be dead. "Yeah?" he squeaked out, trying not to sound guilty but failing rather miserably.

There was a long beat of silence. "You go missing for fifteen minutes and ignore ten calls and when you finally pick up, you answer with, 'Yeah'? Jungkook, this is a serious matter. I was about to contact your guardian."

"I'm sorry!" Jungkook said, biting down on his lip. "I just-"

"I'll hear your reasoning later; for now, you need to get to the game. If you're not here in the next ten minutes, we'll be forced to forfeit."

"But I don't know where the school is!"

"You have your phone, Jungkook," Namjoon said, lowering his voice so it sounded as though he were instructing a child in how to properly use a fork. "Just pull up the map."

"Right," Jungkook said after a second, feeling his panic begin to subside. "I'll be there soon." He hung up and followed Namjoon's recommendation, punching the school name into a mapping app and tracing his path from his current location. He felt stupid that he'd been too panicked to think of mapping it out, but he honestly didn't use his phone much at all anymore and he tried not to use data for anything since it cost extra on their phone plan. But this was sort of an emergency, so he figured he could explain it to his mom at a later date.

For now, he focused on following the projected path, jogging across the intersection when the walk sign displayed and continuing farther into the city. He knew he would make it faster if he flat-out ran, but he didn't want to attract additional attention to himself.

He had just arrived at the school when he realized that he had no idea where the gym was (and he doubted that his phone would be much help for a specific room), but he saw Namjoon waiting inside the school lobby, arms crossed and foot tapping at a frantic pace while he checked his watch.

"Hi, sorry I'm-" Jungkook began, huffing slightly, but Namjoon didn't even let him finish the sentence, just grabbed his arm and started dragging him down the hallway.

"They started running the clock because we have to be out of the gym by a certain time," Namjoon explained as they hustled to the gym. "Just drop your bag by the bench and get in your wheelchair – Jin's got the jump ball, so just focus on...I don't know...defense for now I guess."

Jungkook opened his mouth, wanting to ask Namjoon to let him take on a bigger role for the offense today because he'd been practicing with Yoongi, but he lost his courage. Instead, he nodded, and when they got into the gym, Jungkook tried to ignore all the eyes on him as he tossed his bag toward their bench and got in the only empty wheelchair on the court. He kept his eyes on the wood floor because he didn't want to see the glares of his teammates, not now when he was still reeling from the almost-encounter with his father. A whistle blew, and just like that, the game had started. Jungkook blinked and realized that most of the players were already heading down the court, and he pushed after them a few seconds too late.

Jungkook rarely got possession of the ball, and when he did, it was often wasted on a bad pass or a poor shot. Despite practicing extra for the past week, he didn't make a single basket. His bad passes had resulted in at least three turnovers, and it felt like the other team was pushing in circles around him. He couldn't keep up at all. He felt so weak, worse than last week for sure, and that made him feel even worse because he knew that he was dragging down the team.

Last week, they'd all made mistakes, but today, it seemed that he was making enough for everyone. Jimin was shooting better than last week, making nine out of twenty, and Yoongi was fifteen for twenty-nine. Even Hoseok and Jin had points on the board today.

Everyone except Jungkook seemed to be having a great game.

He noticed how they stopped passing to him as much in the second half. While it frustrated him, he knew it was probably for the best since he'd inevitably end up passing it to the other team or missing another shot. If they had any extra players, he could sub out, but they had no one else (except Namjoon, who was firm on the fact that he wouldn't be playing) and couldn't play with less than five on the court.

So Jungkook played, albeit poorly, and when the final buzzer rang and they were behind by six, they all rolled over to the bench, sweaty and disappointed.

Namjoon got up from the bench and waited a few moments. He looked like he wanted to say something, a rousing speech maybe, or just a pat on the back sort of thing, but he just shook the bus keys. "I'm going to go get the bus. I'll pick you guys up in twenty." Jin and Yoongi got up to go with him, but when Jungkook put a foot on the ground, Namjoon shook his head. "You stay here with Jimin and Hoseok." Then the three left the gym, and Jungkook looked back down at the ground, frustrated and disappointed and angry and still not okay after having just missed his father.

Jimin and Hoseok were quiet. Maybe they sensed that he didn't want to talk about why he'd been late, or maybe they didn't want to talk to him because he'd been the reason they'd lost the game. Either way, they sat in silence for twenty minutes before Jimin announced that Jin had texted him and that the bus was out front. They moved to the front entrance, where Namjoon helped load Jimin and Hoseok into the bus, and Jungkook collapsed his wheelchair and stored it with the others. Then he got on and took a seat near the front this time so he wouldn't have to look forward and see five disappointed heads.

But he could feel them all staring at the back of his head, and he thought that maybe sitting at the front wasn't a good idea after all.

Namjoon got in the driver's seat but didn't pull out of the school entrance. Instead, he turned ninety degrees to the right and slung an arm over the shoulder of the chair so he could look back at them all. "Good game today, guys. I saw a lot of improvement from last week."

Jungkook hunched his shoulders, waiting for one of them to argue with Namjoon that not all of them had showed improvement, but no one spoke up.

"Jungkook."

Jungkook looked up at Namjoon, swallowing and trying to slow his heartbeat. "Yes?"

"What happened?" Namjoon asked, and Jungkook took a deep breath. "You were walking right behind us one minute, and then when I turned back a few minutes later, you were gone. Did you get lost?"

"No, I-" Too late, Jungkook realized that he should have just said that yes, he did get lost, and he spent fifteen minutes trying to find them before realizing like an idiot that his phone was in his pocket the whole time. But now he had no choice but to be honest. "I- I thought I saw my dad across the street, and I..." He didn't know how to finish his thought because there wasn't any logical way to frame it, how he'd just recklessly run after the man who had abandoned their family.

Namjoon waited, brows furrowed because of course it didn't make sense, but Jungkook heard a small exhale from somewhere behind him.

"Oh, Jungkook..." Jimin said, his voice tinged with pity, and Jungkook realized that Jimin was the only one who knew about his dad since they'd discussed it in the car last week. "What happened? Was it him?"

Jungkook half wanted to look around at Jimin, but he was still too afraid to meet the disappointment and now pity in his teammate's eyes, so he just stared down at the grimy floor of the bus, wishing he could disappear into it. "I think so, I don't know. He was gone before I could catch up to him."

"Do you not see your father often?" Namjoon asked carefully, clearly trying to understand what had driven Jungkook to run around the city and nearly forfeit their game.

"Not since he left us last year," Jungkook said, wincing at the words because they still hurt even after all this time, and because it wasn't information he'd wanted to share with them. But he felt like he owed it to them since he'd ruined the game. "I just wanted to talk with him. I'm sorry that we almost had to forfeit. And I'm sorry that we lost the game because of me."

He tensed, waiting for Yoongi to call him out and remind him of all the mistakes he'd made, but it wasn't Yoongi who spoke up next.

"It's fine," Hoseok said, and Jungkook looked around to see if he was genuine, and he seemed to be. "This was only our second game. And no, you didn't play well today," Hoseok said candidly, "but everyone has good and bad days."

"Seeing your father must have made you upset or at least distracted," Jin offered up, sounding as though he were trying out Jungkook's perspective. "It's understandable that you didn't play as well as you could have."

Jungkook nodded slightly. He didn't like people making excuses for him, but he appreciated that they weren't pretending that he'd done a good job, either. "I'm sorry, though. It won't happen again."

Namjoon just waited a beat before nodding solemnly and turning back to face the windshield, buckling in and switching gears. Nobody mentioned Jungkook's mistakes the rest of the ride, and no one tried to ask him about his dad either.

Once he realized that the discussion was over, he took a deep breath and resolved to practice harder next week. He was tired of losing games. He thought that maybe he'd like to win one for a change.

--updated 07/09/20--