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.

"ready?" jungkook asks. taehyung looks up to see jungkook in his usual emo black clothing and with his 'gateway to narnia' backpack, but this time he has an additional surgical mask covering half his face, making his dark eyes more prominent than usual.

taehyung nods.
"here." jungkook outstretches an arm and taehyung spots another surgical mask in his hand. he takes the mask and puts it on hesitantly whilst jungkook slips his feet into his damp sneakers, visibly wincing at the feeling.

"let's go." jungkook says, sounding muffled behind his mask.

                                        +

jungkook focus
after waking the b&b owner up and getting her to grouchily help them sign out, jungkook leads taehyung out of the building and into the practically empty parking lot. nothing is there save for a motorcycle parked by the building, a black motorcycle that's a little on the battered side but it's perfect in jungkook's eyes.

"follow me and stay quiet." jungkook orders quietly as he walks toward the motorcycle. taehyung walks close by him, confused as to why they were heading for someone's motorcycle.

he understands when jungkook hunkers down by the motorcycle, checking the vehicle with care before sliding his fingertips over matte paintwork for an access to the interior of the bike.

"uh, jeon, what're you doing?" taehyung questions in hushed tones — he didn't want to wake up the few people residing at the b&b at this hour. especially the owner of this bike.

"hot wiring a motorcycle, kim, so i can use it to ship you to my boss." the younger replies monotonously.

"but this is someone's motorcycle!" taehyung gasps, incredulous.

"wow, kim, i didn't know that!" jungkook replies, sarcastic.

taehyung ignores his sarcasm. "can't we just grab a bus or something that doesn't require stealing someone else's possessions??"

"look, will you just shut up and hold this for me?" jungkook grunts, handing taehyung his locked phone with the torch setting activated. taehyung takes the device grudgingly whilst muttering something about the number of crimes jungkook is breaking right this second. he lifts the phone half heartedly into the air and accidentally flashes the white light directly into jungkook's vision.

"fuck," jungkook hisses, wincing and turning away. he grabs taehyung's wrist and forces him to lower the phone so the light reflects on to the surface of the motorcycle and wasn't capable of blinding anyone. "keep it like that, okay?" jungkook grunts, rubbing his eyes.

taehyung, apologetic, stands still and holds the light out for jungkook whilst keeping his mouth shut, knowing that speaking'll just lead to more stony glares and scowls. he sighs and looks around the car park instead. nothing in the car park strikes his attention much but the colours streaking through the expanse of the sky overhead does. toned down shades of orange and yellow rise high up to the sky alongside the slowly rising sun, making taehyung stand back in awe. this was the second time seeing a sunset and he just knows he'll never grow tired of the sight set before him.

the sound of metal scraping brings him to look over at jungkook who had cranked open a compartment of some sort near the handlebars. he reaches inside his leather jacket for a small length of wire and starts to insert the unknown wire into the opened compartment.

"what're you doing?" taehyung whispers, bringing the phone light closer to where jungkook fiddles with the wire.

"im putting a speaker wire into the eye of the cap and into a socket cap. this'll engage the ignition." jungkook explains quickly, moving his fingers quickly to feed the 'speaker wire' into the vehicle."

taehyung, blank and confused but not wanting to show it, mumbles out, "mm okay," as if he understands jungkook's techy jargon.

after a few frustrated groans and more tenacious fiddling, a light appears on the motorcycle and jungkook smiles, satisfied at his work. "the ignition's engaged." he announces, not bothering to hide the pleased expression on his face. taehyung just nods and shifts jungkook's phone into his other hand — both his arm and legs were numb from standing unnecessarily still for so long.

jungkook focus
jungkook hoists himself up from his crouched position and swings a leg deftly over the motorcycle, smoothly seating himself on the seat. taehyung watches as he reaches over for the handlebars and switches on something, something that wakes up the previously dormant motorcycle and leaves it startled awake. a low growl escapes from the motorcycle's engine and jungkook grins at his work — he had just successfully hot wired a motorcycle. hot wiring a car? simple. hot wiring a motorcycle? hm. he'd never tried hot wiring a motorcycle, (until now) and yet somehow managed to ignite the engine with ease. jungkook was proud of himself.

"alright, get on, kim." he says, not wiping the grin off of his face, he turns to taehyung.

taehyung does not look happy.

"what's wrong? you never been on a motorcycle before?" jungkook starts, "just hop on — it's not as scary as it looks—"

"it's not that." taehyung murmurs. surprisingly, taehyung isn't afraid of the motorcycle (well, he is kinda but that's not the point), he's afraid of the owner of the bike. "that's someone's bike, not ours, and they're gonna be pretty pissed when they wake up and find their bike missing."

"it's either this — an easy vehicle that'll take us out of this town with no worries — or walking through this town for an hour and a half and then continuing to walk for another hour and also another hour and—"

"okay, okay, i get your point but don't you feel guilty stealing someone's car?"

"no." jungkook easily says with no hesitation.

"well, i do." taehyung crosses his arms defiantly, the plastic bag in his hand swings from the movement.

"what d'you want me to do?? go find the owner of this bike's room and apologise for hot wiring his or her's car? or write a fucking sorry note or something?"

"oh, that's actually a good idea."

"you've got to be kidding me."

"nope -- do you have paper? and a pen?"

"kim. seriously?"

"yes, hurry up. we're in a rush remember?"

jungkook rolls his eyes but rummages around his jacket pocket for a pen and paper. he finds the red marker in the side of his backpack and a receipt for the fried chicken order they had bought a couple of days ago. he hands the items over to taehyung, who kneels down and hurriedly scrawls out;

to the owner of this bike,

we deeply apologise for stealing your motorcycle — it was needed for an major emergency and its purpose could not be ignored during this urgent time.
we promise to take the utmost care of your vehicle and hope to bring it back to you as soon as possible.
we wish for your understanding.

— from the (very apologetic) people who 'borrowed' your bike.

when taehyung hands the receipt over for jungkook to check if he had written anything about being kidnapped, the younger had obnoxiously snorted at the formal language taehyung had used.

"couldn't you have just said "sorry for taking your bike, lots of love, anon."?" jungkook asks, a corner of his mouth raised in a joking manner.

taehyung scoffs, "i wanted to be sincere." he kneels down and finds a big enough pebble amongst the gravel and lays the note beneath it.

"if you're done with your note, shall we go?"

"yeah," taehyung hums as he gets to his feet. he claps his hands to rid the dirt that clings to his palms. he looks up.
"uhm."

jungkook raises an eyebrow at him, "what now?"

"i have to sit at the back right?" taehyung confirms. he chews on the inside of his cheek. "what if i slip and slide right off on to the road?"

"you won't because you'll be holding on to me, idiot."

jesnsbakajayajajajsnsvssva i don't wanna hold on to you though sgkfkfkfkfkfkf

"or you could sit at the front, i guess. just don't make any sudden movements or touch the engine."

"uh." for a couple of seconds, taehyung debates it out inside his head. "the front. i wanna sit at the front." he gives an extra nod to affirm his decision.

shrugging, jungkook moves a little further back to allow space for taehyung to sit on and waits for taehyung to mount the bike. he looks over at taehyung expectantly.

taehyung mounts the bike, yes, but not as nicely and smoothly as jungkook did and he doesn't manage to do so without jungkook's help. taehyung had practically flung himself on whilst hoping he'll get on.

he doesn't get on. jungkook, muffling a laugh, had to hoist him up by the hand and wait for taehyung to slide his other leg over the side. once seated, taehyung feels jungkook moves a little closer, pushing his legs up against the back of taehyung's and leaning over taehyung to grab ahold of the handlebars. he can feel the younger's breath fanning over the shell of his ear as he revs the engine, causing taehyung to tense up between the younger's arms.

"comfy?" jungkook asks, close to his ear.

"as comfy as i can be sitting this close to you." taehyung mutters back, reddening when jungkook chuckles softly in response.

without another word, jungkook revs up the motorcycle once again. the roars of the engine startling taehyung to sit up straight and make him clutch at the bundled up plastic bag in his arms.
jungkook motions for taehyung to lift his legs up on to a part of the motorcycle so his legs didn't dangle.

whilst doing so, a b&b room window slams open and a female in her early thirties pokes her head out. dark hair falls into her face as he lifts her fist into the air and yells, "oI, THATS MY BIKE, YOU LITTLE SHITS."

"we're sorry!" taehyung shouts back up just as soon as jungkook lifts his feet off the ground, he twists the handlebars and with a sharp intake of breath from taehyung, jungkook leaves the car park with an extra loud roar from the engine.

"COME BACK WITH MY BIKE OR IM CALLING THE MOTHERFUCKING POLICE."