Namjoon had not expected to be climbing out the car at 4am in the morning to cross the gas station lot, but then again he was not really surprised by this turn of events. He had been the one to mention the national park, the one Taehyung had already requested that they visit today with that wonderful eagerness of his. The kind of eagerness they all wanted to appease to keep him happy because it wasn't as frequent as it had once been. He was more than certain that if Taehyung were to ask any of them to jump they all would have asked him "how high?". He knew for a fact that he would and so he assumed that the others would too. That wasn't to say that they were all blindly following Taehyung's demands, but to keep him happy... Right now, the smallest things really didn't seem that much at all. Going to the national park would take quite some time, for it was nearly a two hour drive from their home from what they knew. That was going on road maps studied at this very same gas station and a lot of assumptions however. Assuming seemed to be what they did best. But the planned day out also required supplies. Once they were in the park there was no telling how long they could be wandering along trails and pushing through low hanging trees branches. Judging from the current heaviness in the air that Namjoon could feel it was going to be the hottest day yet of the summer, and so they needed water, plenty of it. Also snacks and maybe other small things too, just to be safe. Known their luck bringing flares for when they got lost on the trail would be the smartest idea of them all.

Namjoon wanted the day to go well and so he really didn't mind being woken up by Seokjin at 4am if it meant being prepared. The pair of them could easily hit the gas station and get what they needed; gas, basis supplies, some last minute charging of phones and his camcorder. The whole gang didn't need to tag along, it would likely just complicate things. That was why their friends were all asleep in the house whilst they were a good couple of miles away. Or presumably asleep anyway. He hoped that was the case, they had all needed rest after what had happened yesterday, and he also hoped that none of them had gone wandering on their own. Like Jungkook had used to do; always going off on his own accord without warning and wandering the streets unattended. To his knowledge it had been quite some time since that had happened and so he hoped that it wouldn't happen again.

Namjoon couldn't recall when exactly he had started thinking of the building as a house, as a home but he had. Perhaps it was because of how Seokjin and Taehyung had referred to it, perhaps it was because it was where they shared meals and slept together? Whatever the case right now it was thinking of it as a home, as strange as it might have seemed.

There was currently just a single car and two motorbikes pulled up at the station, the former in the act of being filled up with gas, and the latter two stationary as their owners were either in the store or using the restrooms. His friend slammed the door shut with a weary sigh and then he was crossing the lot so Namjoon followed after him. There was something at the back of his mind telling him that he should try talking to his friend now whilst he had the chance, but what to talk about he was not sure. Today? What had happened yesterday? Was it worth bringing it up after everything or should he just stay silent and not remind him?

Yesterday had meant to be a good day just like this one, which it had been for quite some time he supposed. After waking up cold and damp on the beach Namjoon hadn't expected much improvement to the day but upon finally reaching the market it had greatly picked up for them all. The weather had went from a rather downcast grey to a bright summer sky blue that had also reflected their moods. Everyone had been so happy and lighthearted, wandering up and down the packed streets just trying samples of food and not worrying about a single thing. Yoongi had snapped away dozens of great shots, Taehyung and Hoseok had seemed happy enough for he had caught sight of their entwined hands over the entire duration they had been in the market - a sight he hadn't really noticed had become rare since that night back in Seoul. Jimin had been as happy and upbeat as usual, laughter sweet enough to have been heard over the drone of countless voices, Seokjin had had that trust Sony camcorder in hand and even he had been happy. Namjoon had genuinely felt like things had started to pick up, that they had started letting go of the negativity in favour of some joy and positivity.

But then Jungkook had received that phone call and it had all turned bleak once more. The boy had been caught out stupidly, had fallen right into the net that his terrified and understandably pissed off mother had tried to catch him in. He had inadvertently admitted to running away and tossing his medication in just a minute of talking to her on the phone. The medication that Namjoon hadn't even known that he was on, and he assumed quite a few other of their friends hadn't either. Surprise and discomfort had turned into shouted words and anger and that had resulted in shattered phone screens and torn-up knuckles from punching brick walls. Namjoon thought that it was very lucky that the boy hadn't broken a finger or three as a result of that, for the force of the blow had been sickeningly hard. Sure it had ended with raw trenches in his skin, entire chunks of flesh scraped free from the brick, but he had still expected a break. Yet Jungkook had struck lucky and had managed to avoid such an injury, for the last thing they would have needed would have been a rushed visit to the hospital to fix his broken bones. Yet a thick application of bandages and soothing words had greatly calmed the boy down. He had reached a hysterical level that he had not seen Jungkook achieve in several years. Even Jimin's brush with death had brought out just a few tears and loud sniffs, but yesterday had been an unexpected shock.

The sight of Jungkook sobbing and shaking, so very child-like and small in a way that he hadn't really seen the boy for a long time. It was as if he had reverted back to his childhood in the space of a single phone call, no longer seventeen and preparing for his final year in high school but rather seven and crying after getting a slap on the wrist.

Upon getting back to the building in the late afternoon Jungkook had ended up curling up on the broken settee, using Seokjin's lap as a pillow and most of him hidden away under a blanket; falling asleep before the sun had even set from exhaustion. It seemed like a tender topic that he should leave alone, and yet Namjoon had a feeling that he was should really attempt to dispel the awkward air that the incident had caused rather than let it stagnate.

Wandering up and down the aisle of the gas station he tried to study Seokjin and gauge if he should say something. In his hand there was one of the red store baskets which was filled with bottles of water, bags of dried seaweed and potatoes snacks, and bug spray just in case they found themselves caught up in thick swarms of biting little midges. Yet Seokjin stayed remarkably silent until they passed the newspaper aisle, and that was when he finally spoke.

Seokjin told him that he and Yoongi had checked the papers yesterday morning and found no need information about Taehyung's father, which he supposed was a good thing. His expression said that, but the tone of his voice seemed to say otherwise. Listening to him explain that he had found nothing about murders or dead bodies or missing people, he was talking in a rather flat tone. Maybe he was too tired to really put the effort in? Yet Namjoon thought that it was something else instead. After all, hadn't Yoongi looked strangely off upon coming back inside after his cigarette? The other man had looked torn between relief and distress in the most puzzling of ways. Yes Yoongi was renowned for his incessant worrying, but coupled with Seokjin's current mood he felt that there was something certainly amiss. It was just as the last items were being scanned at the counter that Namjoon finally decided to say something to his friend.

"Did you know about Kookie?"

"...Yes," Seokjin admitted after a few seconds of silence. "He told me about it all not that long after we had gotten back after the 'adventure'. The very first day I was back in Seoul he told me that his mother had dragged him to an appointment to get checked." Namjoon asked him what the results had been in a quiet voice. "He pleaded with me not to tell anyone over and over, that he was embarrassed and ashamed and all of that shit but it seems a little pointless now, after everything. He was diagnosed with mild ADHD and ODD, so he's essentially a teacher's worst nightmare."

"Attention deficit disorders, both of 'em, right?"

"Yes, restless on one hand, aggressive on the other, put them together and you get one hell of a disruptive person." Seokjin started shoving the bottles into one of the paper bags. "He didn't even have a clue, none of us did really." Namjoon quietly said that it hadn't even crossed his mind because he had always assumed that he had been copying Taehyung all along. "See, that's the problem. We all assumed he copied Tae but thinking back when he was a kid and Tae wasn't that bad... Kookie was still trying to cause trouble. He was just young enough to get away with it. Then when he became a teen it was definitely Tae's fault, we all blamed him for setting a bad example but I wonder how much of it all had actually been because of his influence?"

"Probably not that much at all..." He watched him finish with the bottles and opened up a new paper bag to shove the snacks inside. "Still Jin, his mother. Can you blame her for getting pissed off like that? Imagine being in her shoes..."

"I currently am in her shoes," his friend retorted with a forced laugh, "and one thing I do know is to not yell at him. She should know to not do that, she should have expected him to get upset and react like that but she let her emotions take over. I know it's hard to think of things from Kookie's view but...she really upset him talking like that and she didn't even realise. The moment you start ordering him around he's going to not want to do it, so screaming at him like that was a very stupid thing to do. Especially after she found out he hadn't taken his Ritalin."

"Why do you think he threw his meds away like that?" Namjoon asked as he glanced up at him, no longer interested in the bag packing. Seokjin said he had probably wanted to not let them find out he had the prescription, or maybe he had just missed a dosage and felt the need to rebel childishly. Whatever the case it really didn't matter right now, for the damage had been done. "What're we supposed to do if he starts causing trouble Jin? Do we just...I dunno, talking to Kookie's hard when he's prone to getting pissed off if you say a single word that he doesn't wanna hear."

"...I'm not sure, just leave it to me and Yoongi," Seokjin replied as he stuck his card in the machine and hit the keypad. "You worry about the other kids instead."

After waiting around the counter for the camcorder to finish charging, drinking a single instant coffee that had made Namjoon feel nauseous, they both exited the gas station to get into the car. As he fastened his seatbelt up he suddenly recalled what Hoseok had said to him that day in the gas station restroom miles and miles away; of Taehyung and his possible problems. Should he say something or was that a bad idea? Had Hoseok told him in the hopes of secrecy, or had he told him because he had been hoping that he would go on to talk to someone like Seokjin like this? He didn't know but he also didn't know if his friend was right. The Taehyung situation wasn't a simple one, it could turn out that way or not at all so maybe it was for the best that he keep quiet. Eventually Namjoon settled on silence because they had already had one heavy debate for the morning and he didn't think another was worth having. So he just settled back into the seat and watched the roads pass by until they got back to the outskirts of the building.

Unsurprisingly they returned to the sight of Jungkook attempting to hang damp clothing up on the line, struggling to do so without the aid of the flatbed to stand on. He had likely woken up shortly after they had left, Seokjin disturbing him when he had lifted his head off his lap and had placed it down on the settee cushion. One glance at his clothing and glistening hair showed that he had already showered, and at the sound of the wheels crunching on the dry soil he spared a glance back over his shoulder at them. His friend killed the engine and said that he would wake the others up, climbing out of the car and leaving him sitting in the front on his own. After thirty or so seconds Namjoon decided that he didn't want to sit there in silence, twiddling his thumbs and staring at the dashboard, so he shifted to undo his seatbelt and then popped the door open to climb out. He walked around the car and the boy just carried on fiddling with a pair of jeans.

"Hey, you good kid?" Namjoon asked, looking at his hand as he did. He could see the bandage currently dangling over the twine line, gently moving in the soft breeze.

"Yeah, kinda stings a little," Jungkook explained as he lifted his hand and flexed it, wincing slightly as he did. The wound on his knuckles looked very painful, a raw red patch of skin surrounded by a deep pink that went down to the second set of knuckles of his fingers.

"I wasn't just talking about the hand..." he said in a quiet voice as he leaned back against the hood of the car. "I mean are you doing good the other way too?"

"Mentally?" Jungkook asked with a snort, and a Namjoon corrected him by saying he had meant emotionally. "Uh...I guess? I don't really think about emotions. But I guess I feel good today? Hopefully I won't...do that again."

"There's nothing wrong with getting upset Kookie," he explained as the boy turned back to the line of wet and dry clothing. "But you should really try and talk those emotions out you know? Rather than punch 'em."

"I was feeling good," Jungkook explained. "I've been feeling good ever since we left Seoul, it's just...I dunno what happened yesterday I just got mad is all. But I wasn't mad or upset before then, I told you I felt pretty good. So I didn't really have enough time to talk about my emotions, you know?"

"...Yeah I get you," Namjoon agreed, figuring out exactly what Jungkook had been trying to tell him.

The angry outburst had not been from days of emotional suppression, it had just come out of nowhere: the sharp snap of a hidden bear trap around the ankle. The boy hadn't meant to get mad, it had just happened way too fast for him to control it. Which was what the Ritalin was supposed to have done, but currently could not do so. Namjoon wondered if there was possibly a way of helping the boy without the aid of lacing him with chemicals but thought that the chances were slim. It would require research, which he would have to do on his phone next time they ended up at a gas station. He wouldn't let the boy know of course, just in case it upset him. Or angered him. Anything that could stop another incident like yesterday was worth researching.

From the building beside them came a loud yawn that echoed off the walls and turned into a deep laugh, presumably Taehyung waking up. Even with the door open he couldn't really hear what his friends were saying, just the sound of their voices bleeding out through the gap. Jungkook turned away from the line to ask him if they were going to the national park today, curiosity in his voice and a rather natural-looking smile on his face. It was almost as if they hadn't just been talking about what had happened yesterday: the split knuckles and hysterical breakdown. The sight of his upturned lips was a rather jarring juxtaposition to his injured hand. So he confirmed that it was so, that they were going to visit it and spend the day there if possible. The boy asked if he thought that they would see any animals and he laughed and said that he very much hoped so.

It was the beginning of a new day, the sun now visible in the sky over the trees, and Namjoon almost prayed that it would be a good one.

The park came into view even when they were still a distance away because most of it was towering trees and massive hills that seemed to reach heights close to the buildings back in the industrial centre of the city. Maybe what he was looking at could be classified as mountains, but Namjoon didn't really know. It looked like it would be fun trekking up and down those hillocks and he wondered if the trails went up, or around them. Not that it mattered either way. He doubted that it would matter because he just knew that his friends would stray right off the beaten path for the sake of it. A glance at the side-mirror showed Taehyung leaning over the side to stare at the road in front of the car; mouth wide open. It took several minutes of travel to get close to the park, a few stops in traffic and a dozen or so side streets, and when they did he saw something on the very outskirts. The sign that they passed had the name of the park engraved into the golden maple wood, inches deep and wide to be read easily: Taeanhaean National Park. He hadn't actually known the name of the place but now he did he liked it a lot. It rolled off the tongue so perfectly well, fluid and light.

Seokjin slowed the car down as they drew closer to the park entrance, eyeing the wide lot that currently had a bare few vehicles inside. Finding a space to park in wouldn't be at all difficult but having to park at the bottom also meant that they had to leave the car behind. No walking for a few hours until they were tired and then riding back across the city, napping in the car. They would have to walk back through the park first. That was probably a bad idea but Namjoon thought that it would be nice. After all they had walked for many hours last year, spending nearly entire days on the roads with backpacks weighing them down. Would this be any different? Their friend turned the wheel slowly, maneuvering it over and to the very end of the lot so that he could park it in the available space. The branches of a tree dangled over the top of the vehicle, the breeze causing a few tiny pines to fall off and land on the roof and open flatbed of the car. Then they were all climbing out of the vehicle.

The sun was still that soft pink but there were hints of blue starting to appear, signalling that the sun would appear soon. Now that he was out of the car Namjoon could smell the park strongly, the fresh woody scent of pine mingling with damp soil that would still have dew beading the grass and leaves. It was a wonderful scent, one that he hadn't smelled in a very long time. The parks in Seoul didn't carry this scent, nothing more than the faded fragrance of mown grass. Taeanhaean Park was just like those train tracks in the forest they had once walked along. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he could almost visualise it all in front of him. From the back of the car came a loud yawn and he looked back to see Jimin's head popping up like a meerkat emerging from a den, hair slightly messy as he rubbed at his eyes. He had fallen asleep in the flatbed clearly, and as he shifted to climb off the back he saw him shrugging one of the blankets off. Taehyung struggled upright and hit his head on one of the branches, cursing in surprise before guffawing and rubbing at his head. There would be pine needles trapped in the lengths for hours, like grass caught in shaggy dog fur; he would have to shake his head vigorously and knock them all free. Then he was jumping down last, Jungkook having already got out the back first.

"So..." Yoongi shifted to look across the lot, hands in his jacket pocket. "What now?"

"Need to make a plan of action," Namjoon said, running his eyes along the lot to try and locate a welcome board of some kind. He found one across from them, built just outside a block building of restrooms and another that looked to be a check-in desk of some kind. Maybe they sold tourists goods and maps?

"Let's pack a bag or two first," Seokjin advised as he glanced up at the sky. "Don't want to walk around for an hour and remember we have no water-"

"Or snacks!"

"Or snacks," he agreed, shooting a grin back at Jungkook. The boy was already wandering around the foot trail across the lot, hand running along tree trunks as he weaved through them and kicked at dried up leaves. "I think it's going to be a very hot day. The trees might shade us but it might get pretty humid too." Hoseok sarcastically voiced his love of humidity, shrugging his checked shirt off in preparation to knot it around his waist. Namjoon saw that he wasn't the only one preparing for the heat. Jimin was wearing just his torn up tee-cum-vest, Jungkook had abandoned his jacket in the flatbed. Even Taehyung had decided to tie his denim jacket around his hips. Maybe he should leave his hoodie behind too? So he shrugged it off and tossed it back into the passenger-seat before slamming the door shut again.

"I can do that," Yoongi said as he moved to go to the flatbed, wriggling up onto it. "You and Joonie go and check that building out and I'll take care of the backpacks. Maybe you need to tell 'em we're entering the park?"

So they both left their friends by the vehicle to cross the lot, weaving around the few parked cars until they reached the building. As expected there was a check-in desk and a guest book, a large display rack covered in folded-up maps and tour guides. There was an area with vending machines filled with water and fresh juices, small selections of snacks too. Seokjin went right over to the worker behind the counter, wide smile as he greeted her in his typical friendly fashion. Namjoon hanged back for a moment and instead scanned the wall by the entrance door. There was a cork board covered with photographs and paper warnings alerting people to nettles and poison ivy, of what wasp nests looked like and how to avoid accidentally finding them. Also there were some on berries on the trail that were safe to eat and others that would cause stomachache. He pictured their younger friends finding a bush and picking off handfuls and that was what made him pull his phone out and snap a photograph of the berries to be sure. The last thing they needed was vomiting and cramps because they had gotten a little greedy. Namjoon was already anticipating the chances of someone getting nettle stings - likely Jimin though he didn't want to assume.

"...better to stick with a tour guide of course," the woman on the counter said. "Because it cuts down on chances of accidents and people getting lost. Of course, that would mean having to wait a couple of hours for the influx of tourists to show."

"Surely if we stay on the trails we shouldn't get lost?" Seokjin asked, in a sweet and naïve tone that made Namjoon grin to himself.

"Of course not, you said you were a group right? A small group?" He confirmed this and she made a soft noise under her breath. "As a rule we usually don't allow pairs or single tourists onto the trail alone but a group should be fine. But I would suggest buying a map or guide just to be sure. It can get rather hard to keep track of the trails sometimes."

"Of course," Seokjin said as he pulled one of the map free and eyed it for a moment. Then he was reaching into his jeans pocket to pull some coins free, enough to cover the cheap cost of the map. The female worker explained that there were cell towers in the area and that should they need assistance there were numbers printed on the map. "I'm sure that we will be fine, thank you for your assistance Miss?"

"Park," she said with a warm smile. Then Seokjin turned on his heel to leave the check-in building so Namjoon shoved his phone away and moved to push the door open.

"Try to not flirt with all of the workers," he joked as he held the door open for him. His friend retorted that he was just being friendly and that it had its benefits. Across the lot he could see Yoongi had packed two of the backpacks with the goods from the gas station and he was tossing the others in the backseat for safekeeping. "OK, let's check this thing out..."

According to the massive tour guide board the park was a lot larger than they had all anticipated. In his mind Namjoon had pictured a series of trails through a wooded area or maybe up a sloping mountain path, a few little rest buildings in place along the length. He had not pictured this. The board was a massive chunk of thin wood set on two thick legs. On the front there was a large diagram of the park and on the side sections of text about the sights and the trails. The first thing that hit him was the fact that there was more than just a simple trail.

First, the park started off as a thick forest, the sight of which was directly in front of them. To the right of the forest there was a swamp area that looked to be several miles in width. Once they managed to emerge through the hectares of trees they would find a stretch of sand dunes that led to a beach. It was less a national park, more an island, and he wondered just how long exactly it would take to get through it and back out again. It wasn't incredibly detailed but it was good enough to highlight the basic facts. As he studied it he heard the crunch of footsteps bounding across the lot and then shadows falling over him, someone close enough for him to feel their breath on his shoulder through his thin tee.

"I wanna go there!" Jimin declared, reaching over to point at the board and revealing that he was the closest body to him. There was a scent coming off his arm and Namjoon realised that it was the bug repellent, a scent like sun cream that had a faintly sweet undertone to it. He thought that such a scent would attract the bugs more but Jimin's arms would show if he was right or wrong a few hours from now. The place in question that he was pointing to was the beach of course, but more directly it was an area labelled as a promenade. In his head Namjoon pictured wooden walkways along the coast, very picturesque and pretty. The sea breeze would blow against them and they could lean right over the sides and looks at the water a dozen or so feet below them.

"I think everyone does," Hoseok agreed from the far end of the board, reading over the text slowly. "But that means walking through a lot of forest..."

"Pft, that's nothing!" Taehyung declared, arm going around his shoulders and Jimin's so that he could squeeze between them. "We've walked more miles than that along open fucking roads. Think of the shade, the scent of flowers and the bird song pissing us all off. Fun, right lover boy?" Hoseok retorted that he actually liked bird song and Jimin reached up with one hand to trace his fingers along the back of Taehyung's scarred hand. "I bet that I can climb a tree higher than Kookie..."

"Is that a fucking challenge?" Jungkook called from Namjoon's left, already eating some of the food they had packed for the trail; one of the backpacks shrugged up on his shoulders. He raised his eyebrows at him and Taehyung probably returned the expression but none of them could tell from under all of his hair.

"No tree climbing," Yoongi nagged as Seokjin took the other bag off him and got it on one shoulder. "'Cos you'll fall and bust your goddamn asses..." Namjoon saw that the Polaroid camera was present, currently bulking out his jacket pocket. He would regret wearing it most likely, but he knew that the man could be very stubborn about things so it wasn't worth telling him to leave it behind.

"I challenged Kookie not Badass," Taehyung quipped, and that made Namjoon remember Jimin's newly christened nickname. Well, not exactly new but more recent than 'dumbass' for sure. Jimin forced a laugh and then punched at Taehyung's forearm hard. He pulled him into a tight headlock as punishment. "If we can't climb trees what the fuck can we do?"

"Enjoy Mother Nature like normal people?" Namjoon suggested with raised eyebrows. There was momentary silence and then his friends were all laughing at him.

"It was worth a shot..." Seokjin said with a soft smile as he retrieved his camcorder and popped the window open.

They stayed true to the trail rather religiously from the start, not using the map but rather just walking along the neatly maintained paths that were cut through the grass and marked to make them easy to follow. At first it was rather bare, just a few dozen trees along the sides and lots of grass and dirt, but as the trail started to grow in length it started to change. Suddenly they were entering a rather forest-like growth of trees and they were all tall and thick, covered in deep green leaves that signaled summer. Walking through the park during autumn would probably be a wonderful experience, seeing all of the different shades of yellows and oranges, the reds that deepened to almost plum purples in parts. The trails would be covered in a blanket of leaves that would blow in the wind with great rustling sounds, but currently there was just the whisper soft sound of grass dancing in the breeze.

The trail stayed wide enough for them to all walk along it in a group if they wanted, yet naturally they fell into the usual formations they used to: Jungkook in the lead flanked by Taehyung and Hoseok, Namjoon and Seokjin several feet behind them and Yoongi and Jimin bringing up the lazy rear almost lagging behind at a leisurely pace. Just like the rapidly appearing trees however the trail did start to narrow as it crested up a soft hill and then widened out once more when the ground was more even. Several minutes into walking Namjoon realised that they hadn't even covered a percentage of the trail yet; they were still on the outskirts.

"You know," Jungkook called from the front of the formation. "Times like these call for a song..." He looked right at Taehyung as he said this and Namjoon could see the smirk on his face.

"Look who's talking Kurt Cobain," Taehyung retorted, making them either laugh or roll their eyes at the comment. "Make your own song up kid." Jungkook sighed and said that it wasn't the same if he did it. Namjoon thought that that summed up a lot of things now, the thought sudden and nostalgic in a way that made him feel a wave of sadness before it passed. "Fuck, this is boring I'm going-" Taehyung more or less pulled Hoseok across the path as he headed for a thick bank of trees. "On an adventure."

"It's been five minutes Tae," Seokjin called, camcorder currently switched off and in hand rather than held up to record. "Let's follow the trail a little-" but the pair of them had already disappeared through the first couple of trees and were visible only by a flash of their clothing between branches and trunks. "Longer?" He finished under his breath as he watched Jungkook dart off after them with Jimin right behind him.

Namjoon just decided it was best to stay in a group so he stepped into the knee-length grass without much care. Yoongi grumbled something from a few feet back down the trail but then he shuffled across the path to catch up with them all. Following after Taehyung in the past had proved very helpful, he was a little like a human compass, but whether it not it was a wise thing to do now would reveal itself in time. He led them through thick growths of trees that they nearly had to squeeze sideways to get past, branches scratching and roots tripping. They went up slight hills and back down them again, slipping in loose leaves and one time in Seokjin's case riding down to the bottom on his ass and causing laughter loud enough to echo on the still air and cause birds to take to the air with wings flapping like the sound of book pages being turned. No good photographic opportunities there but at least they knew that there were indeed animals in the park; the fun part was finding them all.

Eventually was a break in the trees that looked to lead into a clearing of some kind, not a large one but rather a path of some kind. A foot path? A quick glance at the map showed no such thing but it did show a stream. He heard the sound of his friends crashing through the trees to get to the other side and so he followed them through to see a wonderful sight.

There was a wide gap between the trees they had been walking through and another thick copse visibly across the clearing, the centre between them both a thick stream of water several feet deep. The ground wasn't grass but rather hard packed soil that turned into a rocky embankment on either side, slate grey pebbles and chunks of stone keeping the stream from swelling and flooding over the sides. A glance to his left showed that it stretched in that direction and it appeared to flow from the right judging from the rippling surface of water. A quick glance down showed that it was crystal clear, much clearer than the stuff that they had played around in last year. It was probably clean enough to drink, the sediments settling at the bottom so that only pure water ran down the stream. His friends had already beaten him to it, Hoseok and Jimin hunkered down in front of the water and Jungkook collecting handfuls of rocks to try and skip along the surface. Taehyung had wandered a little further up where the stream started to widen out slightly.

"Oh wow..." Seokjin said as he stopped beside him, lowering the camcorder to actually look at the stream without the device blocking his view. "I didn't expect that." Namjoon quietly agreed that he hadn't either, folding the map up again because he had a feeling that a small break would occur here. It was the perfect place for a couple of minutes of rest, the air notably cooler because of the water. The water that Jungkook was currently disturbing with his skipping rocks.

"Let's not strip this time around, huh?" Yoongi joked as he flicked the cigarette butt into the water. Most certainly not allowed and also dangerous to the perfect ecosystem, but it wasn't going to stop him. Hoseok explained that the water was only shallow, sticking his hand in as proof. His arm disappeared up to his elbow if that before his palm rubbed against the thick silt; hardly the depth that they could splash around it. "Good, we-"

"Holy shit! What's that thing?!" Taehyung called out, voice echoing across the river bank and bouncing off the trees loud enough to surprise them all. The thing in question was an otter, currently floating lazily on the surface of the water, on its back with its forepaws folded on its rounded belly. From what Namjoon could see the dark brown of its fur was nearly black from the water like an oil slick, tail floating and occasionally twitching to allow it to move through the water. Yoongi made an excited noise and hastily walked along the rocky bank to get closer, Polaroid camera in hand to try and get a shot.

"That's an otter," Jungkook said before smirking. "Never seen an otter before Tae?"

"No," Taehyung explained as he stared at it, wide-eyed with wonder. "It's...pretty." The boy ribbed him with a laugh, trying to tease him. "Huh, kinda looks like you Kookie." The comparison was enough to make them all burst out into laughter, for it was rather apt. The otter had a rounded mischievous face with a pointed little nose, rounded eyes and twitching whiskers. It very much looked like their friend and of course Taehyung had been the one to notice it.

"It's cuter than him," Jimin commented, still hunkered down by Hoseok rippling the stream with his fingers. This made the boy grumble under his breath and scuff his boot on the rocks. Yoongi dropped to one knee on the very edge of the embankment, wetting his jeans in a dribble of water babbling through the rocks, and he lifted the camera to try and get a shot. After turning his head this way and that he made a frustrated tsking noise under his breath and that got the animal's attention. The otter lifted its head and he hit the button just in time, catching the moment perfectly. The noise of the shutter scared it and it dived down into the water with a loud splash, making Taehyung laugh as it disappeared. "Is it a keeper?"

"Fuck yeah it's a keeper," Yoongi replied with a wide grin as he studied the snap. "It's probably the best shot I've taken yet." He wasn't lying, for when Namjoon glanced at it a moment later he saw that it was a fantastic shot. Had he have used a high power camera it would have been the kind of photograph he expected to see in brochures, in nature photography books that people always snapped up to go on coffee tables: packed with beautiful birds, shots of misty mountains and blooming vibrant flowers. The otter had been looking right at the camera and so it looked right out of the photograph too; black eyes keen and whiskers pricked up curiously. It would most certainly look amazing in Hoseok's photo album, that was for sure. "One shot down," he said as he shoved the Polaroid shot into his jacket pocket. "More to come."

They followed the stream along the clearing for quite some time for the sight of the rippling water wasn't the only pleasant thing to observe. As they traveled along it they started to see great bunches of flowers growing close to the stream, nestled away in lush grass and seemingly blooming better with the water and sunlight readily available. They had barely seen any flowers growing under the shade of the trees but now they could see great swathes of them. Beautiful white ones that bloomed into tiny star-like patterns, glowing yellow centres; great bunches of purple flowers like bells that danced when touched; large petal pinks blooms that made Seokjin declare that he was in love as he ran his fingers along the soft petals. Yoongi took a few shots of those and one more of a bunch of otters caught running along the opposite embankment. Taehyung loved the sight of that and asked of otters could be bought as pets. Upon being told no he still said that he wanted to take one for a walk anyway. They saw a few elusive birds landing on branches but they didn't stay longer than a moment, caught on camera rather than on film. Namjoon didn't track the time that they walked alongside the stream because time itself seemed to stop when they had entered the park. All he kept track of was a chain of memories that allowed him to remember what had happened: the path, the stream, the otter, flowers. It was strangely easy to forget about time and just focus on everything else around him; to get lost in the sensory experiences: sight, scent, taste, touch and hearing.

The next event to register on this chain was the discovery of several soft rising waterfalls of a couple of feet in height. Where the water fell over the side it landed with a soft crash and cause ripples to spread across the surface but no white foam appeared like the sea. Then Taehyung discovered a frog on the embankment, which he dived on to catch in his hands.

"Kiss it lover boy," he said with a wide grin, the golden creature sitting happily between his fingers. "It might turn into a prince."

"Already got one," Hoseok argued as he gestured over at Seokjin. Yet his lover lifted the frog up to kiss its head even though it was probably covered in filth from the stream. Hoseok made a disgusted noise and declared that he was never kissing him again and Taehyung ignored him and tried his hardest to get everyone else to do it. Jungkook refused to back down from a challenge, and Jimin backed out last minute and ended up getting the frog head rubbed against his cheek instead. He yelled that it was wet and slimy as he rubbed as his cheek.

"He got a little too excited he can't help it," Taehyung retorted.

Eventually the frog ended up being placed back on the embankment and it hopped off to disappear into the grass a few feet away. Then they went along the stream for a little while longer before taking a break. Backs against tree trunks in the grass, sitting close to the flowers but not too much to avoid any possible bees from flying their way, they opened bottles of water and packets of food, passing it all around. Namjoon hadn't really registered his hunger and yet whilst chewing rice cakes and seaweed crisps he realised that there was a little hole under his ribs that needed filling. He spread the map out on the grass in front of him and tried to study it whilst he ate, hoping to find their current location from the lines and patches of colour printed on the page. He wasn't really paying attention to what was happening as he did this for when he heard his friends go quiet all of a sudden he looked up.

The sight that he was greeted with was a massive butterfly sitting on one of Seokjin's drawn up knees. It had just drifted over whilst they had been sharing food and witticisms and decided that his friend was the perfect resting station for a break, just like they were currently doing.

"Whoa..." Jungkook breathed the word out and a quick glance over at him showed that he was very interested in what he was looking at. The boy had ribbed Taehyung for being amazed by an otter earlier and yet the sight of the butterfly currently perched on Seokjin's kneecap had greatly gotten his interest. Just last year the boy had joked about killing bugs and now the sight seemed to evoke a sweeter emotion in him. "That's a big butterfly..."

He was right, for Namjoon himself hadn't seen many butterflies that size. Up in Seoul they were rather small, rounded wings and tiny little bodies that would just float past in a soft flutter of white and yellow and blue wings. But this one was rather large, wingspan perhaps two or so inches. It was perched on their friend's knee with its antennae lazily swirling around, wings currently folded up. He could see that they were a burnt orange with black webbing around the outer edges that matched its furry body. It was so small, paper thin delicate wings, yet it seemed so much stronger because of its vibrant colours.

"It's here for its close-up," Hoseok joked. It was rather fitting, seen as it was just sitting there and letting Seokjin record its cleaning session on his camcorder. "Anyone know what type it is?" He asked before looking right at Namjoon. He shrugged and said that he didn't have a clue. Last year's bug expert and lover of jewel beetles Yoongi didn't have a clue either.

"Let's just call it a butterfly and leave it at that," the blond man suggested as he took a sip of water. Namjoon looked back at it and saw that Jungkook was still studying it with great interest, eyes wide and attentive to track every soft beat of its wings. "What's Kookie wanna call it?"

"Huh?" The boy looked up from it for a second before dropping his gaze again. "What'd you mean?"

"You're looking at it like you want it as a pet," Yoongi explained.

"It's just 'cos I've never seen one before," Jungkook retorted. "Not like I like it or anything..." Seokjin told him that there was nothing wrong with liking butterflies, that he found them pretty too. The butterfly in question just stayed silent and still, wings folded up and antennae moving like satellites. "Yeah, nothing wrong with it if you're a baby...or a pussy."

"Good thing you're both," Taehyung smirked at him from across the glen. Namjoon was about to look back at the map when the bug took to the air suddenly, catching them all by surprise.

"Ah," the boy moved his head back in surprise and that was when the butterfly landed right on his nose. The sight made them all laugh and point, amazed by this twist of events. Jungkook went cross-eyed staring at it and then he let his breath out in a soft laugh. It made the butterfly's wings twitch and then spread open, obscuring his cheeks behind a curtain of orange and black.

"The butterfly's got a crush," Jimin cooed as Yoongi once again hit the Polaroid camera button; another photograph for the album. He had otters, frogs, flowers and now butterflies too. It only stayed on his nose for perhaps a minute before taking to air once more and fluttering off into the trees but that bare minute was enough to leave Jungkook grinning widely for many more to come.

After most of the snacks were eaten, the remains bundled up for later and Yoongi had slipped a few pieces of film into the camera, they were on the move again. It didn't take long to end up on a foot trail and it seemed that the temporary wandering had sated their wanderlust for they stuck to following the map from that point onward. When they had entered the park the sky hadn't exactly been blue, still faded pinks at the edge of the horizon, and when they emerged through the trees to stumble onto the sand dunes the sky was a vivid denim blue that signaled it must have been close to noon. That was when his friends started racing off again, running along the hard tan ground so that their boots and sneakers pounded like a matching band, arms over heads and hollering at the tops of their lungs. It was an infectious kind of crazy, which probably explained how he found himself chasing along after them even with the heat of the sun overhead. The hard ground turned to soft soil with patches of grass and then into sand, and the sight of the promenade came into view.

It was a series of long walkways that started on the sand and ran along the beach before stretching out over the water; deep brown wood that had faded and bleached to lighter shades from the sun and sea water. Around the walkways there were wooden fences and as Jungkook darted along one he smacked the posts with his mostly empty water bottle. The seven of them raced along the currently empty promenade whilst they could still act this way and not attract stares and stern words from other tourists and park wardens. The walkway seemed to run for a mile into the water and so they went along it until eventually coming to a stop around the midway mark.

Arms folded on the fencing, eyes on the water below or the sky above, they all caught their breath and still laughed softly to themselves. A quick glance back the way that they had came made the shore look like it was miles and miles away and it was almost as if they were floating out in the actual sea.

"What're those?" Jungkook asked, a question that they had all gotten used to over the last few hours; for every new plant and animal that crossed their path needed to be identified. What he was pointing at was a rocky bluff back near the shore on which a series of birds were circling around. He had done no more than point when one dived down into the water like a bullet, causing a few surprised noises. Namjoon said that he thought that the birds were ospreys but he couldn't be sure from their distance. The boy said that they looked like eagles. This caused more snapping sounds of Yoongi taking shots on his camera.

After a moment of silence Hoseok laughed and said that this had been fun but that they had to go all the way through the forest again to get out, eliciting a few weary groans in response. Namjoon noticed that Taehyung had fell decidedly quiet and so he shifted his arms off the fencing to look along the promenade, locating him a few feet away.

Taehyung had his chin planted on the wooden fence and both arms dangling over the side as he looked down at the water below, deep blue in shade and lapping around the posts in a thick sea foam white. He was staring down at the choppy water below them with a serene expression on his face. It wasn't exactly a smile but it was close, the softest upturn at the corners of his lips. Namjoon asked him if he was alright and he nodded but didn't look up from the water. Seokjin asked him if he felt nauseous because of the water, if he was a little scared of standing out on the rickety promenade like this. It was a little strange standing over the deep water that went all the way out into the sea on nothing more than a series of wooden boards. They were thick and sturdy yes, and would most certainly hold their weight. But nonetheless it was still strange knowing that that was all that separated them from the waves down below. He wouldn't be surprised if any of his friends felt a little nauseous or uncomfortable because of it.

"No I like it," Taehyung replied, "I like the sea. It's beautiful, I was just looking at my reflection. It kinda looks like me but doesn't, 'cos of the waves. I look different."

"You sound drunk," Jimin retorted before laughing to himself. It did sound like something that their friend would have said just last year, drunk on either soju or mixed shots of vodka. But not now. No, Taehyung was very much sober and clear headed and he was speaking directly from the heart. This wasn't the wisdom that came from the last dregs of a bottle of booze, but rather something that meant something to Taehyung.

"Kinda like the water made me a different person..." He shifted to look back up again, blinking at them languidly for a few seconds. Then Taehyung seemed to realise that they were studying him in amusement and curiosity and then he offered them a sheepish smile. "Bet you're all too pussy to jump in..."