REMNANTS | JIKOOK ✔

Chapter 8. Hide

Squinting against the bright light, Jungkook grunted and jerked his arm again, yanking on the cord connected to the large generator below him. The hunk of metal whined, whirring as the old engine inside it attempted to flip. Decades of sitting in hot sun and scouring sand had left the station more brown with rust than black metal. It was a wonder it worked at all. Some sort of nuclear power source was supposed to keep these comm signal stations working, though there was no life in this one and now the backup generator seemed to be kicking the bucket too. It was supposed to run on battery, but the diesel engine had to kick in first to get them running.

“Come on, you fucker,” Jungkook muttered, but the engine spluttered again and fell silent.

“Damn it!”

From his spot on the seat of Jungkook’s quad bike, Jimin asked, “What's so important about this thing anyway?”

Jungkook swiped a hand over his head, irritably. “Communication!” 

He softened a little when Jimin made a face. “Sorry,” he said. “I just don’t really need this, you know?”

Jimin made a sympathetic noise and kicked his legs. “Why’d they send you out here to fix this anyway? Aren’t you like, general of the base?” he lowered his voice into a serious tone, then laughed.

Jungkook’s mouth quirked. “My rank isn’t as high as you think,” he said, blushing a little. “There just isn’t anyone else as high up as me out in this shithole.”

For some reason he felt mild embarrassment and busied himself gripping the starting cord of the motor in his fist and jerking it quickly. Once more the motor whined loudly but refused to turn over. Jungkook gave a defeated sigh.

Apparently unconcerned, Jimin launched himself from his seat and walked over to Jungkook, peering casually over his shoulder. “So, what rank are you then?”

Jungkook shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. “Like, Captain. Or First Lieutenant.”

Jimin grinned. “Like captain?” he asked. “Or First Lieutenant?”

“Captain,” Jungkook repeated, rolling his eyes. He grimaced. “Well, I mean, technically I’m First Lieutenant, right? But you’re not supposed to command a base unless you’re at least a captain so... I’m supposed to be getting promoted. I mean, I am promoted, just not formally. Things are kind of hectic right now,” he finished lamely, knowing his face was bright red.

“So...” Jimin said, tilting his head to one side. “First Lieutenant-Captain?”

Jungkook shrugged, awkwardly. “I guess.”

The danachi’s eyes were sparkling. “Is that even a real rank?”

“Yes that’s a real rank!” Jungkook cried. “Gods. Look, would you shut up and let me fix this?”

Pushing off Jungkook’s shoulders, Jimin backed away until he could sit on the quad bike again. A dusty, low slung thing that had once been red. “Why’d they send a captain out here to fix this anyway?”

Jungkook jerked on the motor again. “Well,” he grunted, resisting the urge to kick the generator when it refused to work. “I didn’t know it was broken when we came out. It needs routine checks and I don’t know... I thought you—we might want to get off the base a bit.”

He glanced over his shoulder and saw the danachi smiling a little, his booted feet swinging back against one large tire.

“Thanks, Jungkook.”

The words made something soft flutter to life in Jungkook’s stomach and he turned back to the generator so it wouldn’t show all over his face. Jimin had been buzzing with a happy energy from the moment Jungkook had turned the ignition on the quad bike back at the base. The ride out across sand and stone had never felt so good as with the danachi’s thin body pressed hot to Jungkook’s back. But now here they were, out in the middle of nowhere with nothing but stone and hard, craggy rocks for company. To their left a mountain range of bare rock burst out of the desert and scraped into the sky in hard angles. The sun was already low in the sky.