Three-point Through your Heart

For as long as she remembered, Jimin always had a basketball between her hands. 

Her first memory of basketball was when she was five years old. She clearly remembers her father’s utmost excitement when he had come home that day, with a brand new shiny basketball hoop stuffed in their van’s trunk. Tiny Jimin, not quite understanding what the fuss was but always ready to help, had helped him setting things up, all happy to see her father being so thrilled about something. 

And that day had been the first time she had properly played basketball. Her father had put a tiny orange ball in her small hands, beaming. 

“You should try to shoot it inside this hoop, Jimin. It’s really fun!” 

Alas, Tiny Jimin was way too small to reach the three meters high hoop, and she definitely didn’t have enough strength to be able to successfully throw the ball inside the basket. She was beyond frustrated with her father, who was just laughing at her struggles!

“Here, let me help you out sweetheart.” 

Her father had carefully placed his hands under Jimin’s tiny armpits, before suddenly raising her in the air, making Tiny Jimin way taller than she was supposed to be. And with this setup, she was successfully able to flawlessly throw the ball through the hoop.

And the feeling had been… indescribable. It was just a simple throw though but somehow, Jimin thinks that she fell in love with the sport right at that instant. And the next day, she enrolled in basketball classes, ready to recreate this incredible sensation she had felt, and became addicted to. 

And obviously, like any first loves, Jimin had never been able to forget basketball. So her still playing through middle school, highschool, up until college hadn’t been a surprise. What had been more of a shock though, especially for her loved ones, was that Jimin actually pursued the goal to become a professional basketball player. And the thought had entered her head during her second year of highschool. 

She was the star player of her team then, and loved the sport just as much as she did when she was five. But she had never really thought much of it. For Jimin, playing basketball was the perfect way to unwind after a tough day, or to just empty her mind from the headache school could sometimes be. 

But she didn’t really have any real motivation to keep on getting better in the sport. She was already the best in her team, so why bother to spend so much of her time practicing more, when she could just hang out with her friends or sleep instead? 

However, one day, everything had changed for Jimin, the cause of it being a tiny brunette who, on the first day of Jimin’s second year of high school, walked through their practice, and plainly humiliated Jimin. The girl was literally a midget too, which was even more embarrassing for Jimin who had always been proud of her unusual tall height! But she scored at least ten three points on Jimin’s face in the span of like, a minute. 

Jimin remembers the devious small grin on the other girl’s face when she had realized that her win would be a terribly easy one.

Later, Jimin learnt that the girl’s name was Minjeong, and that she was a freshman, who was aiming to become a professional basketball player, despite her small size and petite stature. She remembers how people would laugh at the younger girl for proudly displaying her seemingly unattainable dream, but Jimin knew that Minjeong was dead serious about it. And that she had everything in her to actually make it. If her humiliation wasn’t enough to prove it.

And after her shameful one versus one against Minjeong, Jimin, incredibly frustrated, had actually decided to stay behind to practice after everyone else had gone home. But when she turned her head, Minjeong was also still inside the gymnasium, already shooting from the three-point line on the opposite hoop. 

Jimin remembers rolling her eyes at the sight, even if deep down, she felt admirative of the younger girl’s resilience. However, all sense of admiration quickly vanished, when Minjeong turned to look at her, and shamelessly laughed right in her face. 

“Woah, I didn’t expect to see you actually practicing. Was the humiliation too much to handle?”

Jimin frowned, not expecting this level of cockiness from the seemingly timid girl. But before she could retort, Minjeong turned her back again, and resumed her mechanical movements, relentlessly throwing the ball, and flawlessly scoring each shot.  

But those extra practice hours hadn’t been an exception. Because following that day, Jimin had started to go inside the gym to get some additional practice every single day, without fault. And everytime she arrived on the court, Minjeong was already there, standing behind the three-point line, and throwing the ball towards the basket like a robot. 

This ordeal lasted for a good year, before the two actually decided to face each other again on the court. They hadn’t properly interacted ever since Minjeong’s snobbish remarks, mostly because Jimin did everything in her power to avoid Minjeong like the plague. But that day, Jimin had taken her revenge.

During a whole year, she had worked harder than anyone. She, who didn’t care less about hard work before and solely relied on her talent, had practiced every single day to prove some high school girl wrong. Jimin might not be the most passionate person, but she’s definitely competitive, and hates when people fantasize a pejorative and deluded image of her. 

So she trained, more and more, every day without fault. She practiced everything, and even relearnt the basics. How to make precise passes, how to dribble without giving her opponent any ways to steal the ball from her hands, how to efficiently block shots, how to skillfully perfect her signature crossover and jump shot. 

Jimin reviewed every single thing, to ensure her victory during her next game against Minjeong. And it was during that time that she discovered that maybe, basketball wasn’t just a way to unwind. Basketball was way more to her. It became the vessel of her sweat and tears. Of all of her hard work and passion.

Maybe basketball was made for her. It wasn’t just a simple hobby for her. It became a life goal.

Despite their differences, the two girls, forced in the same team, had also reluctantly learnt to play with each other. And what annoyed Jimin to no end was that, when they put their efforts and common skills together, they were simply unstoppable. With just the two of them, their team had managed to easily win the region’s high school championship. And both Minjeong and her had been chosen as the MVPs of the season.