bikers & beaches | tk ✓

❧23

a/n: tw for aquaphobia

❧ Too Much to Take More ❧

Taehyung had parked the car, treading down the slopes of the parking garage to hit the main roads of the city's downtown area, when he actually told Mark he was coming to visit.

Too nervous he'd chicken out or postpone it for unknown reasons, he didn't exactly mention taking the car and driving downtown to Mark until that moment.

Mark didn't even pick up his call, being in the middle of teaching a class, and Taehyung slapped himself. He really should have thought things through. Taehyung hoped it wasn't too awkward to simply walk into the place without someone to greet him, especially when he'd never been.

The city was lively at that hour, just before noon, and he'd picked the time so they could grab a meal to eat together at the same time.

That, too, he hoped Mark had time for.

"You're stupid, Taehyung." He muttered to himself, sunglasses pushed down from his hair and onto the bridge of his nose as he was hit with the sun peering through each gap between the towering buildings.

His biggest incentive to actually hang out with the older dancer in such a manner, without his hyungs, was for a chance to bring the connection they used to have back. As friends, instead. Which was the biggest change. Well, at least for Taehyung.

He knew he didn't feel for Mark like he had two years ago— even as recent as the beginning of summer just weeks ago. The older had a life far beyond the shore just like him and there were some things that didn't go further than the shore.

"Or the city." He whispered as he pulled up the directions on his phone again after reaching a side avenue that peeled off the main street. Taehyung waiting for it to route and then traced a similar path to find the hidden dance studio.

It was within a smaller building, surrounded by two others making it appear tiny. The brick outside was clean and the dance studio sign near other names was brightly welcoming. Taehyung hadn't ever been in that part of the city, pushing into the complex tower. A board was on the right wall, listing the occupying business of the leasable spaces and he removed his glasses to look at it.

It was only on the second floor and he dragged his feet up the steps to reach the next level.

Greeted by a small lobby, a secretary-like employee smiling at him and nodding her head. "Hello, what can I do for you?"

"Oh, I'm here to meet Mark Tuan." Taehyung chewed his lip as he gazed down the hall to see a couple dance studios on either side. Mark must've been in the occupied one, the muffle sound of music and footsteps rolling past the muting glass.

"He's in the middle of a class. It should only be about ten minutes if you'd like to sit and wait for him." The woman gestured to the row of chairs in the waiting area and Taehyung nodded, thanking her and taking a seat.

The quiet of the room was strange to Taehyung. Especially when he hadn't had a true moment of quiet in the past month. Not with the ocean in his backyard. He made himself small to keep from the curious front desk lady peeking at him.

The ten minutes passed rather quickly, though. Taehyung stood when students, who seemed to be younger than high schoolers, were talking amongst themselves, waltzing out of the dance studio with sweat clinging to them as they downed the remnants of their water.

He smiled at the desk lady before escorting himself down the hall to the studio spaces.

Taehyung paused in the open doorway as he heard two laughs fill the emptied room. He saw Mark, the familiar guy unplugging his phone from the Bluetooth system, and he also saw Jackson. A face he'd seen not often at all, but it was hard to forget.