vớ vẩn 2

chap 2 - Jump!

The skateboard wheels made a clattering noise under his feet, the wheels rolling over little chunks of pebbles or knocking them aside so that they skittered off the platform and landed down by the tracks. He turned his head and watched one such chunk bouncing; a jagged slate coloured shard that hit one of the metal lines and rocketed off out of sight. He couldn't possibly trace its movement in the dim lighting because the sky was still a mottled shade of purple overhead, a small scattering of stars nestled here and there and the moon hanging pregnant and glowing in the sky. Soon enough the moon would be going away once more, the sun rising to take its place, but there was also going to be something else in the sky this morning, right at dawn according to the reports he had checked. Taehyung didn't glance at his watch because he didn't need to see the time, he was more or less already at the trainyard and so he stopped skating, kicking hard on the back of the board so that it jumped up into his palm. He tucked it back inside his backpack, not able to zip it up and rather just leave it open, and then shoved both of his hands into his jeans pockets to turn and scan the place.

He had been here countless times in the past, they all had, and though the place was still in use the sights rarely changed in the spaces between each visit. The tracks that were just beside him weren't in use anymore, that much he knew, rather the area was used to store large freight containers that would be moved from the location in the backs of massive juggernaut-like trucks. He had caught sight of a few of these leaving the trainyard over the years but had never been told off by any workers. He always made it his goal to not be seen by any of the men just to avoid the trouble and it wasn't hard to do so. Whenever there was a truck around he would be able to hear the loud rumbling noises of things being moved, of shutter doors being rolled up, the sight of the cranes moving visible over the tops of the metal boxes as they shifted the goods for them to transport, and often he would even hear the men shouting to one another as they worked. Therefore he just stuck to moving about the lanes between the walls of containers and that was usually enough. Right now he could hear nor see anything that revealed that there was anyone in the trainyard but him at this current moment; but pretty soon there would be six more people arriving.

Taehyung glanced down at the tracks and then turned his head to the right. The view it offered him led even deeper into the trainyard, a small stone tunnel that was only a couple of feet in length that the trains used to pass under. Back when it had been in use people used to wait on top of the small bridge, for he had been up there a few times and saw that there were worn-down benches in place. He could imagine kids stepping up on tiptoe to glance over the metal railing and the sight below; the colourful and speeding trains shooting out under their feet as they did. Had he perhaps been here as a child and that was why he could visualise it so strongly? He couldn't recall, but it seemed that he might just have been here at least once; back when the area had been bustling and full of life and not cold and desolate. Back when it had contained lines of humans waiting for trains and tickets and not just metal shipping containers that stretched for miles and miles on end. He ran his eyes up the front of the bridge for a moment, taking in the deep grey stones that it was made of, visible dirty cement in the cracks to hold it up. Here and there across the high walls there were graffiti tags, even more inside the interior even though it was pitch-black in there during the daylight hours. Some of them were so old that the weather and time had aged them into faint markings like cave art and none of them were that impressive, except for maybe the one that they had left behind.

He could remember that day clearly in his mind, that late winter night when they had all climbed up the chipped stone steps to get onto the bridge, stepping in piles of filthy slush snow filled with rotting leaves and litter, boots pounding on the steps like drums. It had been his idea at first of course, like always he was the one to come up with the ideas, but unlike usual he hadn't been shot down. His friends hadn't shaken their heads and called him crazy for the suggestion, nor had they just ignored him and discussed something else as if they hadn't heard. No, his friends had listened to what he had said and then rapidly started rallying questions back and forth amongst each other; making it sound like his plan had been a very good one indeed. What was the tag going to look like? How big? Who was going to do it? How were they going to do it? After some crazy discussion they had finally settled on the idea and that was when Hoseok had slipped his backpack off and unzipped it to pull out spraycans. The other boy had been experimenting with them as an art form and had found them noisy and irritating and it had been his suggestion about getting rid of them that had started the great debate, but Taehyung had been the one to take the suggestion that one step further. Then they had all slipped their scarfs free from their necks, even when the weather was below freezing and they had started shivering as they had, and Jimin had set about knotting them into a long rope; for he had had the best knowledge on the matter with his bed sheet creation they had all marvelled over.