TRAVEL FAR AWAY (BTS & MAMAMOO)

START THE CLOCK

(Soundtrack: Non-stop- Hamilton Cast)

Two months until D-day.

.

He slept poorly and woke much worse.

After his mind went back and forth in a dance between confidence and doubt, then confidence, and then back to doubt, Yoongi slapped his face to shake him back to his senses. Get a grip, Yoongi!

Yoongi submitted his information on the website and called his boss saying that he was quitting his part-time job as a food delivery rider. Yoongi had two months before the songwriting competition.

The setting was a small bedroom that let in enough sunlight. Shelves housed CDs and cassette tapes from people Yoongi admired. He had a collection of notebooks filled with complete compositions and crappy chicken scratches.

Just hours ago he had a study table that was a total train wreck. But after chucking scrap papers, several chips wrappers, and pens that had long run out of ink, Yoongi now had a clean wooden table top. In front of him was a fresh pad of paper.

"Okay," Yoongi said to himself. He sat down and twirled a blue pen in between in fingers.

"Time to get to work," he looked to the side as the fan inside his laptop whirred loudly. It's probably overheating.

"Gotta write something for the contest," he bounced his knee and clicked his tongue.

"Anytime now," a random bird tapped his window.

"Any-time-now," he looked up at his clock.

"Oh! Screw this! I need a nap!"

.

"And that's why we don't take naps in-"

Bang!

"Hajima!" Yoongi screamed.

His senses jolted awake to the sound of a thick book slammed in front of his school desk. All eyes were on him and his classmates snickered. Yoongi winced when he came eye-to-eye with their Korean Literature teacher, a man with square glasses and an equally square jaw.

"I appreciate you volunteering to clean up after class, Min Yoongi," their teacher said coolly.

"After class? Seonsaengnim, it's Monday. My turn to clean is on Wednesday."

"Ah. To clean the classroom," their teacher dipped his chin. "Alone."

It was inevitable. The punishment meant he had less time to work on a new song. Yoongi grumbled as their teacher went back to his lecture about Joseon poetry.

"Thanks for volunteering, Yoongi!"

"Yeah! More time for us at the PC-bang!"

"Yo! Wait up!"

Yoongi rolled his tongue in his inner cheek and glared at his classmates. While the rest went out, Jieun stayed behind and sat on the teacher's desk, swinging her legs back and forth.

"You got a song yet?"

"Mm," Yoongi's mouth formed a line as he got out a broom. "Got nothing yet. Um. Hey."

"Mwo-go?"

Yoongi leaned on the wall. "You know that feeling where you get stuck on something?"

"You? Stuck?"

"Yeah."

"Min Yoongi doesn't get stuck," Jieun commented. "You practically made a song on the spot about dried squid."