"so, hoseok, how old are you?" yoongi asked the bright train as they arrived at the work area.
"oh, i'm 23, how about you?" he replied, happy to talk to someone.
"i'm 24," yoongi said, "and as i'm older, i'll show you around."
"ok, yoongi,"(insert yoongi's longest yeah boy ever) hoseok answered, looking down in thought before continuing, "oh yeah, i forgot to say this earlier... but i'm going to help you get out of here." yoongi was caught off guard by the sudden suggestion made by the younger, causing him to choke on his own spit.
"pardon?" he questioned in shock, stopping in his tracks (haha good pun helen ha h a lik eit mM).
"i'm going to help you get out of here," hoseok repeated bluntly, stopping also.
"what? how? there's no way we can escape - we don't have hands!" yoongi cried as hoseok was silent.
"woah, woah, woah, what's all the commotion about not having hands?" jimin quietly asked, rolling up beside yoongi.
"he said that he's going to help us escape?" yoongi replied, doubting it further once he had said it out loud.
"what?!" jimin exclaimed, suddenly brighter, "you can help?" he looked towards hoseok.
"of course!" the other smiled, watching as the rest of the trains appeared.
"guys, he said he can help us out of here!" jimin exclaimed excitedly, grinning widely.
"you can? are you serious?" jin gasped as jungkook stared in silence.
"really? but how?" namjoon questioned, a feeling of hope rising in his chest.
"leave it to me - yoongi's right that we don't have hands... but, we do have mouths!" the other trains stared at hoseok in confusion, "we can hold stuff with our teeth?" a second later, they had all caught onto hoseok's plan and a chorus of "oh"s and "right"s and even a few "yeah that makes sense"s sounded throughout the group.
hoseok nodded, a determined look painted across his features as he began to speak.
"ok, so, here's the plan..."
after hoseok had explained his master plan to all the trains, they were ready to begin their ultimate escape.
"ok, i'll see you all there after work," hoseok smiled deviously, a glint in his eye as he glanced at everyone else. they all had the same look of mischief across their faces, their excitement showing through their glowing features, however, one train's happiness slowly began to fizzle out.
"but what about taehyung?" jimin asked, sadness overtaking his tone, "can't we help him?" all the trains suddenly fell silent, a dark feeling heavily resting upon all of their shoulders (wait, what shoulders?).
"could you enlighten me of who this is?" hoseok gently asked, knowing it was a painful subject.
"he is- was a wonderful guy - so kind and naive," jimin began, the small smile on his lips fading as he carried on, "until they took him." he scowled at the ground, anger replacing the hopeful feeling he once had. the yellow train frowned before turning to the rest of them.
"where'd they take him?" he questioned, eyes scanning the circle of his new friends. there was a silence until namjoon let out a frustrated breath.
"the factory," his voice was barely above a whisper, "it's over the hills to the east but nobody knows what happens to the trains who go there." with a glance to the east, hoseok saw two huge green mounds blocking the horizon and figured the factory must've been beyond them.
"but you can help, right?" jimin suddenly cried, "you can help taehyung too, right?" jimin moved forwards a little, the distance between him and hoseok closing. the yellow train opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by jin.
"jimin, taehyung is gone," jin whispered, "we- there's nothing we can do..." jimin looked towards him, his face falling.
"oh," he mumbled, reversing away again after realising he had let his emotions take over. hoseok felt a heaviness about his chest as he watched their hope crumble.
nobody muttered a word after that and instead everyone gloomily watched the mud on the ground.
"i'll find him," a voice said, cutting through the silence. all the trains looked up in shock to where the voice came from - it was hoseok. jimin's face broke out into a huge smile.
"you will?" he gasped as hoseok smiled, "oh, thank you so much!"
"no, no, it's fine - i'll find him and bring him back, don't you worry," hoseok replied as the younger shone brightly.
"no, i won't let you - it's too dangerous," yoongi suddenly spoke, voice dark, making hoseok flinch.
"it's fine, you worry too muc-" hoseok was interrupted by the elder.
"no, it's not fine - you could die, hoseok! what about the rest of us? how will we escape when you're gone?!" yoongi cried angrily. the younger was taken back by yoongi's sudden outburst, frowning.
"ok, how about this... i'll help you escape first and then i'll go and help him," hoseok suggested, exasperated.
"no, that would be too late!" jungkook spoke up suddenly, catching the attention of everyone, "i overheard that they fully dispose of all the trains there at the end of every month and this is the last day until that happens."
"why didn't you tell us that earlier?!" namjoon cried, a little annoyed with the younger.
"well, you know, i only just heard it like half an hour ago," jungkook defended as the other trains stared at him.
hoseok interrupted the tense air with another attempt to reason with the trains.
"ok, what about i help him first and then escape with all of you?" hoseok sighed as yoongi quickly reminded him of his argument. after a while of going back and forth between saving taehyung or not, jin had had enough.
"for god sake!" he shouted, "i'll help taehyung then!" everyone went quiet until namjoon piped up a few seconds later.
"no, hyung! i'll go!" he said, trying to sound brave, "... i don't want you to get hurt." jin stared at namjoon, a warm feeling of delight in his chest (that moment when your crush notices you 😩😩👌👌💯💯).
"no, i can't let you go alone! let's go together!" jin replied, catching namjoon off guard.
"really? you wanna go with me? together?" he asked, flustered.
"he's not asking you on a date," yoongi deadpanned, making namjoon scoff.
"of course he isn't... but, you know... if he was..." he mumbled quietly before changing the subject (how would a train even go on a date wtf ok), "okay, jin and i will save taehyung and you guys can think up an escape plan, how does that sound?" there were a few mumbles before everyone agreed making namjoon break out into a determined smile, "good, let's go!"
once they had made sure everyone was prepared, they parted ways and started to work. except hoseok had no idea what he was doing so yoongi heroically decided to show him the ropes and slide into those dms while he was at it. wink wonk (why am i like this).
"so... how did you get here?" yoongi asked hoseok as they pulled coal down the tracks.
"i don't really know..." hoseok began, his eyebrows furrowing, "the only thing i remember was waking up in a dark metal room - i don't remember anything about my life before that... but i do remember things like: how to talk... and i know that this is coal and that's a tree, and that's the sky... but i don't know how i know that." yoongi was silent, knowing exactly what hoseok was talking about.
"that's the same as me," he sighed, "i guess we'll never know." hoseok only smiled sadly as a response, tugging the heavy tanker behind him forward. after a few seconds of listening to the faint rustling of the trees on the hills, hoseok broke the silence.
"but i am definitely certain of one thing," he said, looking over at yoongi.
"what's that?" the older asked, watching as hoseok's face transformed into a smile.
"this place sucks!" he laughed, "so let's escape together," yoongi didn't know if it was the excitement of escaping, or if it was the sun in the sky, but he felt a smile tug on his cheeks and he realised that he did, in fact, enjoy smiling.
(wow cringe lmao kill me jk. damn look at all the ships holy moly it's like the navy in this chapter)
