Brotherhood BTS AU

Boys That Survived

Seokjin took a deep breath and let it out slowly, leaning out of the carriage so that he could wait for the perfect moment. He had tight hold of the door frame so that he wouldn't fall out for the metallic floor vibrated underfoot terribly, sometimes enough so that it felt like they were travelling over tiny little speed bumps. From the rest of the carriage he could hear his friends talking amongst themselves, nothing important at all but rather just doing so to stop a silence falling. He was glad for it for he didn't want the air to feel cold and distant right now; alien to them after everything that they had been through together. But the sight of Seoul was so clear on the skyline now that it would be only a few more minutes until they ended up on the outskirts and then it was time to blow the train and make their way into the city by foot.

He didn't know the exact time. He could ask either Namjoon or Taehyung for it because they both had watches - a miracle that the boy's one was still working after everything - and yet he didn't want to. He could judge it from looking out at the sky instead and he was currently estimating it to be around 7pm. Earlier on they had observed the sunrise as a group, eyed the myriad of pastel colours that Jimin had described as looking like 'a dream' and now he was looking at the complete opposite. On the horizon there was still a burnt orange that glowed with such an intensity it seemed to pulse like a living thing. The low clouds that floated just above the setting sun were tinged slightly with the colour but mostly they were a deep purplish colour that resembled a bruise, clashing against the darkening blue that was the rest of the sky. Some people might find the sight somewhat dreamy but to him it didn't contain the same emotions that the sunrise had made them all feel. The sunset made him feel what Yoongi had said; a coldness and a loneliness that seemed to permeate down into his bones. He didn't know why he was feeling this, or even thinking it, for it was nothing more than a simple sunset, but over the course of the past few weeks he had learnt to find both enjoyment and misery out of the most simplest of things.

Seokjin had always thought himself as already an adult, mature and developed to the point in which he wouldn't grow any further. He had reached that intangible point in his life where nothing would could make him feel such raw emotions like a child and be unable to control them, and yet he had found that to not be the case at all. The 'adventure' had revealed to him that he still had ways to go and for some reason this made him feel a sense of relief. Adult in age but not yet nature...he couldn't imagine a better stage to be at right now.

From across the carriage there was a sudden outburst of laughter and he turned his head to look at his friends. It seemed that Taehyung was in the midst of explaining a story of some kind, one that Jungkook had gotten himself mixed up in too for the boy occasionally added words or gestures here and there to flesh it out.

"...and I mean I nearly puked honestly," Taehyung said as he leaned back on his wrists. "So I've decided I'm gonna try and break the sound barrier, and I need Kookie to help me."

"I don't think that's even possible," Namjoon remarked with a furrowed brow. "Not on a roundabout, nu-uh, you need jet planes to break the sound barrier."

"You're underestimating my abilities," Jungkook said with a wide grin and the young man scoffed and said it was pretty obvious why he was. "Hey, if you try and dream hard enough anything can happen, yeah?"

"That's a good attitude to have," Seokjin agreed as he turned back to look out of the carriage doorway. Namsan Tower was a glowing beacon now, blues and reds and whites all up the length like the signs at the end of an aeroplane walkway. Didn't it feel like they were getting ready to land soon enough; coming down from a high that had lasted a very long time and was now over? There had been turbulence along the way but they hadn't crashed yet and now...now they were getting ready to touch ground once more. "Time to move kids," He bent down and grabbed his own holdall bag, slipping it up onto his shoulder for convenience. From behind him he heard the others shifting to collect their own, to get to their feet and come over to where he was standing.