shot clock || na jaemin (the court series #1)

quarter three: minute seven

"you guys have a fetish for kidnapping or something? why can't we ever handle anything like normal people," jeno hisses, looking around to make sure an innocent passerby wasn't in the vicinity. jisoo punches him in the shoulder but is unable to rebuke him because it wasn't as if he were wrong. really, it was an issue at this point, jisoo realizes, how much they rely on kidnapping people as a means of an intervention.

"you kids realize this is the second time i've been kidnapped by the basketball team i coach, right?" coach lee asks, tapping his fingers as he waits for his ramen. perhaps a ramen shop wasn't the best kidnap location but they were high school kids on a budget, and they had to be close enough to the vicinity to make sure that jeno could easily reach jaemin and sooyoung, given that sooyoung's nightmares still occurred every so often. 

"and you realize that you're a part of the kidnapping heist, no matter how much you shit on it?" chenle counters, taking a swig from his water bottle to quench his hunger to some extent. 

"and you," chenle continues, using formal language with a very informal tone. "you do realize that you're in a really terrible position if a bunch of teenagers with a kidnapping kink had to deal with you, right? hey, don't look at me like that, you're not my coach."

jeno glares at chenle, whispering some choice words before smiling nervously at his father.

"dad, you know this is for your own good, right?" jeno says carefully, pausing when the server comes over with ramen. the poor waiter nearly trips over his own feet trying to catch parts of their conversation, only to come up empty handed. note to self: no more kidnappings at ramen shops. not that there would be any more in the future, he hoped. 

"you're telling me that a bunch of high-schoolers know what's good for me? i'm older than all of you. combined," coach lee says in between slurps. renjun calculates it in his head, about to counter coach lee with the argument that no, he was not older than all of them combined  (actually, he was about thirty years short of doing so), when haechan pulls him into a corner, saying that they were going to search for a restroom.

"sir, i don't think you understand the gravity of the situation," jisoo begins carefully, looking at coach lee with an earnest expression. coach lee says nothing. they sit in silence for almost ten minutes before coach lee asks for two bottles of soju, ignoring the protests of his son.

he takes a long drink of the soju (haechan had failed to intercept them on the account that he was a minor with absolute zero use for alcohol), smacking his lips before he speaks. coach lee looks at jisoo with an uncharacteristic look of cool apathy, finishing off his noodles. jisoo flinches but holds his gaze stubbornly, somewhat afraid of what was going on.

"i heard the rumors about you, you know. i was hoping my daughter would do the right thing and chase you out the day you came to ask for permission, but i suppose she was caught too. women like you - women like my wife - you're dangerous. you take hearts and break them for fun. that's what you intend to do to my son, isn't it? you want to hurt my son. that's all women do," coach lee says, stabbing her in the chest with every word that came out of his mouth. jisoo is frozen, and for a split-second, she feels as if she were sooyoung, back when they were in seoul and she had faced suho.

her worst fears were realized. jisoo's worst fears. sooyoung's worst fears. jeno's worst fears. jeno's hand clasps jisoo's, pulling her backwards so that she was standing behind him, her back pressed to his back. she comes face to face with haechan, who can only grasp her other hand and hope that she can see the expression of sincere friendship and love in his eyes.

she can't.

"i think i shouldn't be here right now, jeno," jisoo whispers softly, the words somehow dancing their way through the air to jeno's ears, so pure and innocently heart-breaking.