kicks ✓ || namgi || k.th

015: breeze

chapter 15: breeze
location: st. louis, missouri, day 1

"Holy shit," Jimin said as he stared up at the Gateway Arch. "We can go inside that thing???"

"You sure can," Hoseok said. "Rand McNally said so!"

The seven of them had traveled away from North Carolina and were now in St. Louis. Once they had poofed onto the interstate, the arch was all they could see in the distance. Hoseok had read in the map book that the arch was a monument to the westward expansion of America. "We all know how America started, right? Well, all those people lived on the East Coast, like in New York City, where Columbia is. Eventually they all slowly moved west and started living out there as well. It was gradual, and it was hard, but it was full of opportunity."

"So they just took over America?" Seokjin asked. "Didn't other people live here first?"

Hoseok shrugged. "I think so? But the book doesn't say anything about that."

They had parked and walked to the arch itself. The massive arch loomed over them, six hundred feet in the sky. The park around them was green and beautiful, with trees and benches everywhere. Kids ran around playing games and drawing with sidewalk chalk. Hoseok walked ahead of them and led the group to the underground visitor's center. There, they walked through exhibits about the Westward Expansion.

"Told you," Namjoon said as he pointed to an exhibit on Native American peoples. "There were people living here first."

They then got in a tram that slowly took them up to the top of the arch. The seats were plastic but comfortable, and it felt almost like riding an enclosed Ferris wheel. Once they were at the top, the tram opened up to a comfortably sized but enclosed observation area. There were tightly sealed windows along both sides of the narrow corridor, giving a view of the city below.

Jimin, Yoongi and Namjoon gathered around one; Jungkook and Seokjin went to the other side. "You can see the river from here!" Seokjin said, pointing. "That's the Mississippi River, right, Hoseok?"

Hoseok stood in a corner. "I'm just gonna stand over here and read this informational pamphlet." Even after living and working and studying in New York City, Hoseok was afraid of heights.

Taehyung wandered through the crowds of tourists, finally stopping in front of one of the windows. It made him a little queasy, being this high up, but he knew that he had solid ground below him and that he was enclosed. It wasn't like he was going to fall out anytime soon. And if nobody had recognized them so far in St. Louis, he figured they would make it through the city without being arrested. They had watched TV last night in North Carolina, and the missing Korean boys from NYC hadn't been mentioned once.

He got the sensation that he was being watched, and he turned to his right. A girl was standing there, American, white, short, with long brown hair. She wore a blue dress that was relatively conservative. It reminded Taehyung of the girl he had seen in the park in Arizona, but this girl wore a black beret and black Converse with her dress. A pair of circular sunglasses hung from her collar.

"Coolsville, huh?" she asked. "The view, of course."

Taehyung wasn't sure what coolsville meant, but he nodded. "Yeah."

"I like your jacket. But how did you get your hair like that? All brown and...green." She giggled. "I've never seen green hair before."

Her laugh was a shot to Taehyung's heart. He blushed. "I -- I got it colored, at a salon." Then he realized that nobody except those who could afford it colored their hair. It was a very dangerous process that hadn't really been perfected yet.

Before the boys had left NYC, Taehyung and some of the others -- Namjoon, Yoongi, Jimin -- had visited the same stylist who had done Gwen Stefani's blue hair for the VMA's. Namjoon had paid, and they had all gotten major hair upgrades. It had been awesome at the time, but it now really made them stand out. This girl could know Taehyung's secret.

"Oh, that's nifty. I always wanted something other than brown hair." She looked away. "I guess I'm still getting used to reality. Didn't know things like green hair were possible. But that's what reality is, isn't it? Anything is possible."

Phew. Taehyung seemed to be off the hook.

"Do you ever feel like that?" she asked. "Like your entire life is just made up for you, and you can't do anything about it, and you want to be free?"

"I know of some people like that, yeah. And I'm kind of like that." Taehyung had to remember not to reveal too much information, even to a pretty girl. "Always wishing I could do more? What was that you said about anything being possible? It is, if you put your mind to it."

"It is if you're allowed to put your mind to it. Or else they throw you in the loony bin." She hadn't even started telling her story, and it reminded Taehyung of Namjoon. They all knew his family had money, but money cost something as well, and that was part of what kept them on the road.

"Loony bin? You? Nonsense."

"Let's just say I have some demons chasing after me. I'm Sara, by the way, with no H."

"No H?"

"Yeah, how you spell it." Sara drew in the air with her finger. "S-A-R-A, eh? And you are?"

She was flirting. "Taehyung," he said, before he could stop himself.

She pouted for a moment, considering how to pronounce it, then, "You know what, I'll call you V. V for Victory, because that's what you're going to do, V. You're gonna come out on top, I just know it. Anything that's thrown your way, you'll part it aside just like the Red Sea and walk forward, unhindered. Is that coolsville?"

It felt silly, but Taehyung laughed. "If you want to call me V, you can if you want to."

"So, V, what brings you to meet me in St. Louis?" Sara leaned against the wall, and the two of them talked for what seemed like hours but was only thirty minutes. When Taehyung went to leave with his brothers, Sara had scribbled something on a piece of paper and given it to him. He had thought it would be a phone number, but it was an email address instead, one of those Yahoo emails that you could get for free.

He couldn't email her yet, not from his Columbia email. But maybe he could make a new email, and send her one there. He felt giddy the entire way down the arch. Sara with no H. She was beautiful.