Continuum

-じゅうに

 "We're gonna do it," Seokjin announced, consequences be damned, he mentally added with a twinge to his heart. Five boys stared at him with wide eyes.

Furthest back in the connected rooms, Yoongi was sitting at the table in the kitchen, his posture slouched as he held his head in his hands. Namjoon was sitting on the table in a way that made Seokjin sure that the younger had been talking to the older. Hoseok was out on the balcony, and had left the door open, allowing the cold autumn air to bring a shiver to everyone's spine. It was dark outside, Seokjin noticed. Jeongguk was sitting on the floor in the living room, his back against the couch and his hands folded in one of the proper manners, close to his body. Lastly, Seokjin could hear Jimin exiting his bedroom and padding over to him. At least, that's how those positions had been. Now it was silent as five sets of eyes bore holes into Seokjin.

Silence ending in three...

Two...

"-but, Jin!" someone shouted. One.

"Nope," he replied curtly. "Decision has been made."

And that was that, he decided as he turned and went back to his room.

It was late, and the others apparently didn't have the energy to go back to their respective dwellings, so they stayed at Seokjin's. The boy didn't mind, many of them did it often anyway.

After he had changed into nightclothes and removed his earring that night, he laid in bed, staring at the lights he had strung across his ceiling, and wondered what Taehyung was seeing at that moment.

Maybe he too was seeing lights.

Apparently, Taehyung never slept, because when Seokjin's resolve ran out at about three in the morning and he yanked his computer out of its case and bluntly asked Taehyung if he would go to Japan to meet them, the reply of "YES!!!!!" was immediate.

Well, no going back now.

The next few days went by quickly. The group had to keep up with their normal appearances (paint the face, the fake smile included, lie for the sake of the show, enrapture others with their lies, go home, practice, sleep, repeat) while figuring out how Taehyung was going to get from Taipei to Tokyo.

Of course, not all of them were actively participating. Several of the boys still seemed apprehensive to the idea of this "Korean" stranger coming to them.

Seokjin had originally wanted to just have Taehyung fly to Japan, but then they all collectively remembered that they shared a bank account that their managers were able to look into, and would often. A large sum of money missing and being linked to airfare would probably raise a few eyebrows here and there. But, not all hope was lost, as, admittedly, there were a few - keyword few - geniuses in the group that figured out a way that would only take a few smaller payments. Which also involved Taehyung hopping a freighter, which Seokjin was sure a few of the boys found absolutely hilarious.

The day the boy was expected to arrive came. They all waited at Seokjin's apartment, as he had the most space in a home that wasn't located in a haunted forest. (Jimin's apartment was basically a glorified broom closet.)

Seokjin was a bit concerned that Taehyung would get lost or something would go wrong, but he couldn't relay his feelings. The younger boy only had access to a phone, not a computer, so he would go offline at random times when his phone would lose connection or run out of battery. On the second day after he had messaged them he had shamefully told them he had stolen a phone charger from someone because he didn't have money to buy his own. No amount of consolation ("it's fine, cell phone chargers don't cost that much", "they probably just think they lost it,") would make him feel better.

The boys were back at their nervous habits as they had waited. As the days had gone by, the idea that Taehyung was really a cruel trick from the company became a more prominent idea. But Seokjin still had hope, as he didn't think anyone that worked at the company actually had enough heart to even act like the sweetheart Taehyung was portrayed as.

They had been able to finagle themselves out of work for the day, Seokin wasn't sure how. He had entrusted the sweet-talking to Yoongi, Namjoon, and Jeongguk, and those three were known to not fail. Because of this, they were all sitting in tense silence in the living room. It was an unusual feeling, because generally, if the feeling in the air wasn't a jocund one, then the boys responsible for keeping the atmosphere tense would eventually fight it out and then the world would go back to normal.

Seokjin was in the process of gnawing his ring finger bloody with nervousness when there was frantic pounding on the door. Everyone in the room jumped up and stared at the closed door, as if staring at it would make the sound stop.

It didn't.

A few seconds later, Yoongi sighed and got up, walking to the door. The knocking on the door didn't pause, even when the boy was unlatching all the locks. The door opened, and lo and behold, a boy, strikingly similar to the boy in the pictures stumbled through the door - and immediately fell into Yoongi's arms with a heart-wrenching sob.