TwisteR [TaeKook]

Echo

   To say that Taehyung was fighting a headache would be an understatement. He was battling a full-blown migraine. Just the smallest of sounds would add to is misery, but that's not all. Even the dimmest of lights also slammed his brain with a sledgehammer.

   Curled up in a foetal position, he slowly moved his hands over his sensitive ears. He groaned at the pain in his head, which he instantly regretted. 'Has my voice always been this loud,' he wondered. Birds sang ugly songs all around him, bringing him on the verge of tears. He pressed his palms harder against his head, but the pressure from that only made the pounding worse. Then, he blacked out.

   Several hours passed before Taehyung regained consciousness; migraine no longer present. Dusk has moved in. A person's screams woke him from his unpleasant slumber. 'Someone else is out there,' he thought, feeling the smallest bit of hope building in him. Maybe he's not doomed after all. Although, the screams were wavering, as if he or she had been screaming for hours on end.

   Taehyung rolled onto his back, taking a deep breath before yelling at the top of his lungs, "Hello?!" He listened as the echo of his voice faded into nothing. Disappointment filled him from head to toe after receiving silence from the other person. 'Guess I'm alone after all,' he thought, 'all the more reason to get the fuck out of here!' Slowly, he sat up as beads of sweat rolled down his face. Moving his upper body was much more painful than he expected. The adrenaline that masked the pain was sluggishly wearing off. Leaning his extremely bruised back against a tree trunk, he outstretched his legs and tried to think of a plan.

   Kim Taehyung is a man of action. He refuses to sit around and wait for things to happen, or for things to come to him. Yes, he waited for a tornado to form, but he went to the tornado's location instead of waiting for the tornado to come to him. Nothing will happen if he just sits around on his ass all day. The only exception to this is when he's hurting.

   One of the boy's dark brown eyes studied his navy skinny jeans; fingers playing with the holes in them. His soaked, black V-neck clung to his body because his pain made him sweat like a hog. Although he was sweaty, he was not hot. Strong gusts of wind caused the boy to shiver. The air itself was already cool, and the wind only made it worse. Before the storm, he was wearing an old denim jacket, but it was separated from him during the tornado. Taehyung sure wishes he had it now.

   Regretting his decision to wear short sleeves today, Taehyung rubbed his benumbed arms. With no good escape plans coming to mind, he gave up. He didn't want to think about it anymore. Instead, he stared up at the patch of the night's sky that he could see through canopy. "Woah," he muttered to himself. The man was truly amazed at the sight of the thousands and thousands of bright stars littering the sky. Those bright white spots never looked like this in Daegu. In fact, they were hardly visible in the city he is from.

   He heard it again; a strained voice. This time, he was able to make out the other's words. 'Is that Korean,' he asked himself. 'It can't be! This is America. People speak English here... Unless, there's another Korean...' Sure enough, Taehyung had heard the native words correctly. Both boys had assumed he was the only South Korean here. Both were wrong.

   The brown haired male slowly rose to his feet, clinging to the tree behind him for support. It was pitch black outside, for the moon was but a thin slit in the sky; the canopy blocking the majority of its weak light. Taehyung truly couldn't see anything, but he could hear everything. He felt unnerved at the consistent sound of shuffling in the woods. Crossing his fingers, he prays that there isn't a hungry wolf anywhere.

   Although he was scared shitless, he was bound and determined to find the other person. He yelled, "Keep shouting! I'm coming to you!" He closed his eyes and held his breath while waiting for the reply. This way, he will only focus on the echo of the other Korean's words.

   Taehyung wasn't only fascinated by tornadoes, but also by storms; rain, lightning, clouds, hail, all of it. Every time there was a lightning storm, Taehyung would be right next to a window with a stop watch and a huge grin on his face. The second he saw a flash of light in the sky, his thumb would hit the button to start the stop watch's counting. Once the rumbling thunder reached him, he'd stop the timer and divide the time it took to reach him by three. That simple little trick gave him the approximate distance (in kilometres) between his location and where the lightning struck. Taehyung being his curious self just had to research how sound waves work.

   "Okay," the stranger replied. Using his knowledge on sound, he figured out which direction the echo was originating, and approximately how far he would have to walk, and began walking towards it in a straight line. "I don't know what to say!"

   Desperately needing to hear the echo again, he decided to interrogate him. "What's your name?"

  "Jungkook," he replied, stressing the second syllable of his name, making it sound more like 'Jungkooooooooooook!' 'That's a wonderful name,' Taehyung thought.

   He continued to interrogate the other about random things as he launched himself at tree after tree; at least, where he thought a tree was. He ended up throwing himself on the ground a few times. Tree bark was making Taehyung's hands bleed a little, since he gripped onto it so tightly. Pain washed over him like a tsunami, and he knew that he wasn't going to last long. Focusing just on walking, he forgot which way he was going. "Scream as loud as you can for me," he ordered Jungkook. Not a second later, he heard him screaming bloody murder. It was so loud; he was easily able to find the right direction again.

   'The multiple-vortex tornado must've come through here,' Taehyung thought as he came to a clearing. No trees were standing, and he was able to see the stars again. 'How am I going to get across with nothing to hang onto?' He took a deep breath, trying to think of a solution, but he came up short. Letting go of the tree trunk, he began taking small, super slow steps to the destroyed land. "Jungkook, are you injured?" Taehyung waited for his answer before proceeding to make sure he was still going the right way. "I'm hurt to-ohmpf!" Taehyung fell flat on his face, muttering a few swears at the rock he tripped over.

   Panic struck Jungkook's heart like a bullet when the other boy's voice was cut off. "Are you okay?!" After a long silence, Jungkook's hope was dissipating. He repeated his question, hoping he'd receive an answer. He didn't. 'What if an animal got him,' he worried. 'What if something gets me? I'd be easy prey since I can't even move!' In his chest, his heart was running a marathon.

   Finally, the other answered him, "Don't fret, I'm okay!" He smiled, realising how loud his voice sounded. Taehyung was getting much closer.

   "Hey, my throat," the younger yelled his voice starting to sound airy, "it hurts!" Taehyung could empathise with him, for both boys' throats were dry and overused.

   "I know, mine does, too, but you have to keep yelling, I'm almost there, Jungkook," he reassured. But, Jungkook could hear how weak the other guy's voice has gotten. He sounded tired, so Jungkook tried to convince him to take a break. Alas, Taehyung is as stubborn as a mule.

   "My voice isn't going to last much lo-," the rest of Jungkook's sentence was but a strained whisper. He broke down, tears streaming down his face. 'My home is gone. My money is gone. My dog is gone. My only chance of surviving is gone. Soon enough, I'll be gone, too...' Something touched his cheek, causing Jungkook to let out a breathy yelp.

   "You don't have to yell anymore," a deep voice told him. Jungkook froze, still trying to take in the fact that the boy actually made his way here. He felt a finger on the other side of his face. "You're not alone, anymore. I'm here," Taehyung reassured the younger. Something about that deep voice of his made Jungkook feel relaxed; as if everything will be okay as long as he can hear the older's voice. "I'm Taehyung by the way," he introduced himself as he settled down next to Jungkook. As soon as Taehyung's butt hit the rock surface, he fell asleep. A smile tugged on Jungkook's lips as he felt Taehyung's head on his shoulder.

   "Hi Taehyung," he whispered to the sleeping boy.

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Slow start & short, I know, but did you enjoy it??

~Author-nim