kicks ✓ || namgi || k.th

013: admire

chapter 13: admire
location: durham, north carolina, day 1

"I still can't believe we made it out of there alive," Jimin said as they all hung out in the hotel room that night.

"I can," Taehyung said with a smile. "As long as we are all together, nothing can stop us. We're literally bulletproof."

"Yeah, tell that to the police squads keeping an eye out for us all over America now," Yoongi lamented while sipping on an iced Americano. He was at the desk; the others were on some of the beds and the floor, digging into takeout fried chicken and watching some kids movie on pay per view.

"We will be fine," Hoseok said. "If you believe otherwise, then you're just gonna make yourself sick."

"So what is there to do here?" Jungkook asked.

"Well, there's a university nearby," Hoseok said.

"If there's a school, that means they'll have computers, and we can use the Internet. I'd like to get on and do some research," Namjoon said.

"You're not gonna check your Columbia email, are you?"

"Hell no. They'll know I logged in and try to trace it. Just wanted to sift through some news articles and check something on Britannica. They should have it, being a school and all."

"Do you think the school computers can play Doom?" Jungkook asked. "I need a new copy, but man do I miss playing."

"Jungkook, you need a video game that's less violent," Seokjin said. "Maybe something with funny monsters."

"Yeah, because I'm totally gonna play Ducktales on Nintendo forever like somebody I know."

Seokjin acted offended. "Hey now, that moon level is nothing to sneeze at!"

Yoongi actually sneezed then, and everybody laughed.

They all went to sleep shortly after that, but Taehyung couldn't sleep. He grabbed one of the room keys and headed to the lobby, taking some change with him. The vending machine had some strange soda pop called Surge that Taehyung had never seen before, so he bought a can and stood in front of the pamphlet rack.

There were so many places to go. The State Capitol. The Museum of Natural Science. The Botanical Gardens. He could visit every place and would still find new things to do, every time.

Both Taehyung and Yoongi had grown up in the same part of Korea, but while Yoongi had been a city boy with a past he didn't talk about, Taehyung was from the farming sector. He had never wanted anything more than to be a farmer, just like his family. Then one day, he had seen a choir on TV. It almost seemed ethereal, the way everybody moved in unison, their voices reaching to the sky.

"We don't have the money or time for voice lessons," his father had said, during one of the few times Taehyung had actually hung out with him. Farmers were busy men.

His grandmother had agreed, but had given him some hope. "What you must do is find something that only you can do," she had said. "Find that thing that makes you stand out from all the others. Nobody else may be doing it, but it will reveal a grand path to you, one only you can walk."

So Taehyung had watched even more television, all he could to learn about music. And he saw another concert on TV, this one taking place in China, where a white man with long hair played a golden instrument on stage. Taehyung had never seen anybody else do that before, so he decided he would be the first he knew.

It took a long time, a lot of saving, and a lot of practice, but Taehyung became the best damn tenor saxophonist of his age in Daegu. So good, in fact, that Columbia scouted him to come to their school, play for them. A degree from an overseas school - and fully paid, at that! - was too good to pass up.

All Taehyung had wanted to do was be a farmer. Then, all he had wanted to do was be a saxophonist. But as he had stepped off the plane at JFK, he had been hit with a new dream. New York was so different from Korea. What other places were out there? He wanted to know. School didn't provide many opportunities for long distance travel, although he always spent his weekends on the subway, going to new neighborhoods and discovering new places to hang out.

But now, he was on the run. Traveling across America with a weird van straight out of a science fiction movie. And he was enjoying every second of it.

He picked up every brochure he could find and took them back upstairs, putting them in his backpack. It excited him, this idea of traveling forever with his friends. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something waiting for him out there, and he would chase it until he found it.