yoursjoon (ao3)
BTS fly to Osaka for the first time and things don't go exactly as planed when Hoseok picks the ticket seat that reads next to Taehyung's. Jungkook's one jealous fella, but what's new.
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It's unbelievably cold outside. For that, Taehyung knows he should probably rush inside where the rest of his team mates are waiting, sitting sluggishly on the chairs as their manager Sejin prepares everything for their check-in, but the exclusive cubicle for smokers that stands to his right speaks louder.
He knows it's a bad idea, for not only he might get caught with a cigarette between his lips by the small amount of paparazzi that had followed their entire journey to the airport but also for the fact that he shouldn't be smoking at all.
And don't take Taehyung wrongly, he's not one of those compulsive slash obsessive smokers that can't keep his shit right when the high of nicotine starts dropping. However, he can't deny that on days like these he's always enjoyed the feeling of a sole warm cigarette hanging from his mouth.
He let's his gaze trail through the different people that stand inside the cubicle and he stares at them shamelessly, catching up with every mannerism or tic those same ones have. Being common with the habits of smokers — not that he's a regular one though — he doesn't miss the way the tall man's fingers tremble as he lifts a cigarette up to his lips or the way the awfully thin woman taps repeatedly her foot on the ground, or even the young college student that rasps the back of a cigarette with her red coloured nails as she exhales a mouthful of smoke.
It's funny, he thinks, how everyone had looked extremely calm while surrounded by the polluted air until he took his time to really look at each one of them and came to the realisation that they're all in fact filled up with stress. Taehyung can relate.
Being an idol is not exactly the piece of cake people tend to believe it is. It's difficult, extremely tiring and exhausting and it's not always as rewarding as it should be. There's always been too many idols, too many kids and even adults wanting their fair share of attention — even if they're not always worthy of it — and sadly, just a few awards that consequently could only bring recognition to a small number of idols. But what can he say? Taehyung's not any different from those other idols, really. Coming from a small town in the province of Daegu, he grew up wanting nothing more than to get out of there as soon as he'd be old enough to legally make his own decisions. So when he turned eighteen, much to his parents disappointment, he announced his departure and some days later he was nowhere to be seen around Daegu.
It's also funny thinking how his story was much similar to Yoongi's, except maybe a little less tragic and sad, but equally surprising.
He likes to think it's because of his background story that he and Yoongi had gotten along so well in the beginning, when he was nothing more than a bad dressed trainee who was still trying to win his recognition among the others. Both of them coming from a difficult background and even the same province had been enough for Yoongi to create some type of empathy with Taehyung and the younger had always been grateful for that. Because even though Taehyung lacked professionalism and even potential as a singer and musician, Yoongi had always been by his side as a major encouragement and influence for him to follow.
He'd let Taehyung slip into his suffocatingly small studio complex on days he was feeling too lonely to stay at the dorm with the other lousy trainees, and he would let him sleep on the studio couch whenever he knew he would stay in late too to work on an unfinished track and when Jimin was away or too busy with his own dance schedule, just because he knew how much Taehyung struggled to fall asleep alone.
And lastly he thinks it's funny, now that he's looking at the small gathering of smokers that are slowly, one per one, leaving as they smash the tip of the cigarettes with their feet, that he'd caught his smoking habit from Yoongi too.
