kicks ✓ || namgi || k.th

002: starve

chapter 2: starve
location: fort wayne, indiana, day 1

"Uh, weren't we just driving down the street to get gas?" Hoseok asked. Sure enough, this was a totally different town. The buildings hadn't changed much, but nothing was quaint. It all looked industrial.

"Like...this is a totally different city, guys," Seokjin said as he looked out the window. "There's smokestacks in the distance. I've only seen those in movies!"

"I don't think we're in New York City anymore," Jungkook said.

Hoseok pulled out the Rand McNally maps in the glovebox. "None of these roads match upstate at all."

"How about we pull over and ask?" Jimin said.

They drove up to a gas station, and Namjoon and Hoseok went in. "Indiana," the man behind the counter told Namjoon. "You all look like you're lost. Are you not from here?"

"How did we get from New York to Indiana that quick?" Hoseok said. They were back in the van, and Hoseok was pointing out the states on his Rand McNally map.

"I don't know. This is weird." Namjoon leaned against his seat. "We were just in New York."

"America is so big," Jungkook said as he looked at the map. As the youngest, he had only been in America for his freshman year.

"You know that there are fifty provinces in America, right? In English they call them states. We just went from this state to that state in ten seconds." Hoseok pointed it out on the map.

"Do you think it had anything to do with that button I pushed?" Namjoon asked. "I mean, it does say 'supercharged.' What if we warped like in Star Wars or something?"

"That sounds dumb." Yoongi was finally awake.

"Shouldn't we be trying to find some place to sleep?" Taehyung brought up. "Sun's set. We can't fall asleep in here."

"Yeah, and I'm hungry," Jungkook said.

They put the map away and drove down the road until they found a motel. Namjoon bought his way into two rooms, side by side with a door in the middle. He, Hoseok, and Yoongi stayed in one; Jimin and Taehyung, and Seokjin and Jungkook in the other.

Yoongi immediately climbed into his own bed as Seokjin ordered pizza. "Are you gonna eat anything?" he asked.

"No," Yoongi said from under the covers.

"Up and at 'em," Namjoon said, pulling the blanket off Yoongi. "We don't want you to starve."

Yoongi stuck his tongue out.

They all sat together, eating pizza and talking. Jimin turned on the TV, and they flipped between late night hosts. On one of the channels was a news broadcast. Seven men from Korea, all missing. The police were everywhere.

"We really gotta watch," Jimin said.

"Well, if the police show up, we just get in the van and push the supercharge button!" Jungkook said. "Then we blast off!"

"Hey, how about we keep this hotel room for a couple of days?" Hoseok asked. He had his map open on the floor.

"Why's that?" Seokjin asked.

"Nobody here knows us, so we should get some sightseeing in while we're here!"

"Are you crazy?" Yoongi asked. "We're gonna get caught. The entire point is not to get arrested, Hobi. If we do, time's up for me and Jin."

"I agree," Seokjin said. "We'd be wise to stay in here for now."

"But guys." Hoseok pouted as he showed them the map. "There's a zoo here."

--

Asterhythm: OMG guys I gotta breathe. Anywho. This is your author interrupting for a quick note. Welcome to 'kicks!' This is a TOTALLY different story than I would normally write, but these are also different times we're living through. What would I be doing if I wasn't stuck at home? If I could travel anywhere, where would I go?

The idea for 'kicks' was in my head before the coronavirus hit, but it revealed itself as the perfect story to write right now. I wanted to write about the outside world, from the perspective of the good old American road trip. And since we're cooped up nonstop, I wanted to write about a road trip that never ended.

Normally I plan out everything I write, start to finish, before I begin. While I have a rough idea, it's mostly like Hoseok's maps: giving general guidance but not the specifics. Which means...

YOU can help me write 'kicks!'

As you can kind of tell, that 'supercharged' button that we all think Namjoon broke is actually some sort of weird portal maker. This means BTS can go anywhere in America! Where should they go? If you live in America and love your hometown or your nearest big city, tell me about it! If you've never visited, where would you visit? And then I'll see if BTS's big purple van of love can travel there next, in-story! How does that sound?

Also, I don't know how often I'll be able to update this, but obviously if you vote/comment then that will inspire me to work on it. I am an essential worker, so I'm very very busy. Thank you all for reading so far, and I hope this story can take away from the stress for a while, and remind us that after this passes, there is a great big world worth exploring. Let's go~