road trip.

[26] gateway to fucking narnia

taehyung focus
it's early next morning when taehyung wakes up to jungkook prodding his shoulder hard with his rolled up map.
"hurry up and get dressed, we need to leave." jungkook orders, pulling the duvet down so taehyung wouldn't burrow under it. taehyung whines when he spots the time 5:45am — can't they have left after having a few more hours of sleep and breakfast??

"kim, get up. and pack up all of your shit and dump it into the plastic bag i gave you yesterday." jungkook instructs as he bends down and repacks items into his backpack — the backpack that taehyung suspects is the gateway to fucking narnia, (because how else does jungkook manage to fit spare bullets, two weighty looking sleek m9 pistols, clothes to last half the week, a box of nutrition bars, a phone charger and a rolled up map in his backpack???)

taehyung groans as he messily climbs out of bed; he somehow manages to unknowingly drag the duvet along with him and the towel that he had tied last night around his hips threatens to slip off completely. his brown hair sticks up in little tufts and he regrets not towelling his hair dry after emerging from the rain last night.
last night.

last night, taehyung thinks as he walks into the bathroom. he remembers yesterday's 'dancing' and allows himself to smile at the ten minute long fun he had yesterday whilst grabbing his toothbrush and toothpaste. he sits perched on the edge of the bathtub and applies the toothpaste on to his toothbrush.

last night, i danced in the rain, i did one of the things ive been wanting to do ever since i took that girl, yongmi on that stupid date last year and saw that billboard, taehyung thinks, feeling accomplished.

taehyung vaguely remembers a day last year when his father had arranged a date for him with one of his much favoured clients.
taehyung doesn't remember much about his assigned date, yongmi — her face, her personality, what she said, what she wore, her last name even, or how the date went but he remembers one moment. a moment when he had dragged his eyes away from his uninteresting date and looked outside where a billboard was seen visible in the distance. the billboard poster was huge — it loomed over several skyscraper buildings and could be seen from miles away. but the actual image was what captured taehyung's interest; on that billboard poster was a still image of a handsome man in a black suit and a glamorous woman in a red evening dress, both dancing in each other's arms and in the midst of a thick rainfall. the man and women bore wide grins on their faces as they held each other — they looked happy to be with one another.

the whole idea of dancing in the rain with a girlfriend or a boyfriend suddenly seemed to stupidly appeal greatly to taehyung back then. he remembers placing his cheek in his palm and staring contentedly at the poster whilst yongmi droned on about something. i wanna do that one day, taehyung had thought then, yearningly.

dancing in the rain; what a cheesy and prepubescent teenage thing to put on your bucket list, taehyung. taehyung tells himself  now as he stands up and spits the toothpaste into the sink. he reprimands himself though when he washes his face: it might be cheesy and something that a thirteen year old might write on their to–do list, but you can't hide the fact that it was fun doing it last night.

it had been weird — dancing with his  kidnapper — but also strangely fun. the 'dancing' was clunky and awkward because of taehyung's ankle but the spins worked out well. taehyung doesn't remember how many times he was spun round but he does know that it was enough to make him wanna regurgitate the japchae he had for lunch.

he pockets the toothbrush in the box that came with it and does the same for the toothpaste. he bundles up the items as well as one of the complimentary towels (he's grown to love the soft texture of the towel overnight and now refuses to part with it) into the plastic bag that jungkook had given him. he grabs the shorts and underwear that had dried overnight and quickly dons them before walking out of the bathroom.