Destination Wedding

20

The seven young men wearily trudged down to the shoreline as the sun rose on Oahu. The scene was undoubtedly tranquil, a much needed sensation for Taehyung after his tumultuous evening. They happened upon a petite young woman who was hauling large paddle boards from the bed of her pickup truck. Namjoon waved her down and jogged up to her.

After exchanging greetings, he returned to the group with their presumed yoga instructor for the morning. "Good morning, gentleman. My name is Kaneli and I will be guiding you through paddle board yoga this morning." The rest of the group introduced themselves, and Kaneli motioned them over to the boards.

"I just need a few minutes to lash the boards together. We're going to be going out as a group and the boards will be tied in a circle, like a raft. We will go past where the waves are breaking, to the calm water out there." She pointed to the spot she had in mind. "It looks far out, but I promise it's quite shallow. There should be a nice sand bar to get your footing."

The boys watch in awe as a young woman heaved the boards into their arrangement and began lashing them together.

"So Kaneli is ripped. Do Yoga for results."

Kaneli laughed, having overheard. "Balancing on the water provides an additional challenge and puts more muscle groups to work."

Yoongi scoffed. "What's with all of the exercise, boys? Jin-hyung, I feel like you're preparing us for a calendar shoot rather than a wedding ceremony." The lot of them laughed.

"We are here to find our center and inner calm! You can thank me later if you tone up in the process," Jin snapped, loudly.

"Okay, no more coffee for Jin-hyung," teased Taehyung.

Kaneli interrupted the cackling boys. "I need a couple of volunteers to pull the boards down to the water. I'll carry the anchor."

"I can do that for you," offered Jeongguk.

Kaneli waved him off. "I got it. What kind of host would I be if I made you do all the heavy lifting?" She pulled the compact anchor up on her shoulder and made her way to the shoreline, dragging it's rope behind her.

Jimin's eyes bulged. "Ripped as hell!"

The group managed to make their way past the lightly breaking waves and anchor the circle of eight paddle boards lashed at the noses. The boys hilariously struggled to mount their boards, with Jin toppling off a couple of times before resigning to crawl on and sit in a pretzel pose. Namjoon was no better, but ultimately succeeded in mounting his board and laying on his belly, already tired from struggling with his own center of gravity.

Jeongguk and Jimin got in their boards with relative ease, followed by Yoongi and Hoseok who managed without much flailing. Taehyung struggled a little bit, but ultimately rolled on and wound up flat on his back, staring up at the early morning sky, permeating with color from the sunrise.

Kaneli lead the group through a leisurely paced beginners version of the sun salutation, offering the young men modifications to avoid toppling over into the water. She demonstrated some more challenging poses for her pupils and earned many remarks of praise at her skills. Jimin and Jeongguk of course took Kaneli's display as a challenge and actually managed some of the poses with a little bit of difficulty. Taehyung opted to relax on his board and cheer them on.

The instructor then readied the group for the conclusion of the session, which was a mindfulness exercise. She instructed everyone to find a pose that felt most physically comfortable to each of them, and she chuckled when they all opted to lay flat on their backs with their heads together.

"Savasana it is. You all are cute. Let's begin by closing our eyes and breathing deeply. I want you to concentrate on the physical sensations around you. Listen to the sounds of the ocean, the waves and the flow of water. Smell the salt in the air. Feel the breeze along your skin and the paddleboard beneath you, supporting your body from head to toe. Breathe deeply and allow your head, neck, shoulders, and back to sink deeply into the board beneath you. Pay attention to your bodies. Find any places of tension or discomfort and adjust. Try to release that tension."

The group, who had been giggling and laughing throughout the morning's exercises, was now very quiet. Only the sounds of the nature around them and their deep breaths could be heard.

"Rather than opening your eyes, I want you all to look inside for feelings of unease or negativity. Inhale through your noses as you visualize breathing warm, white light and positivity. Exhale through your mouth as you visualize breathing out your negative energies like a grey smoke. Continue to inhale and exhale until you only visualize that warm light of positivity cycling through your bodies, cleansing you of negativity.

Kaneli gently guided the group through this exercise for several minutes. Taehyung didn't realize how honed in on the exercise he was until he felt a few warm tears escape his eyes and trickle to his temples.

The instructor had the group slowly open their eyes and return to a seated position. They looked around at each other and appeared noticeably refreshed.

"Okay, Jin-hyung. I'll give you this one. This was a great idea," said Yoongi. They all nodded in affirmation and complemented the instructor.

"Thank you all for practicing with me this morning. You've been a lovely group. And congratulations to Jin and Namjoon on there big day approaching! I was thrilled to be a part of your celebrations."

They thanked Kaneli profusely, all feeling blissfully unwound in their own ways. They made their way back to shore, helping the instructor load up her gear.

Taehyung gently pulled her aside. "That mindfulness exercise was really amazing. Where can I find more of that? Are there classes or something?"

"I would be happy to text you some links. There are probably classes out there, but there are a lot of really excellent mindfulness videos on YouTube. You can find a relaxing spot at home and just listen to them. Honestly, they're like ASMR for me."

"Some links would be great, thank you." They exchanged numbers and Kaneli promised to send Taehyung a few videos later on when she had the chance to search them up. He thanked her once again and followed the rest of the group back to the resort.

"Jeongguk-ah," called Namjoon. "Are you still up for running some errands for me today?"

"Of course, hyung. Whatever you need. Was Taehyungie going to join me to get some things for Jin-hyung?"

Taehyung heard his name. "What are we doing?"

"Best men errands. The grooms need some things picked up in town."

"Oh yes, of course. Did you want to eat breakfast here or get something in town?"

"Hmm..." Jeongguk pondered. "Might be fun to see if there are any little breakfast spots around town, if you want." He tried to suppress his blush. Do I sound like an eighth grader asking his crush out on a date? Maybe I should check and see if my Eomma can drive us.

"I'm in. Let me just go get my things."

"Okay, but you might want to put on some pants too."

"Pants? I mean, I was gonna throw on some dry shorts. Wasn't planning on going full Winnie the Pooh for shopping."

Jeongguk giggled at the image of Taehyung only wearing a red t-shirt, and then he blushed as his vision materialized from the waist down. "Erm... right, no. I meant to protect your legs. We're taking the Harley."

Taehyung's eyes widened. "Come again?"