kicks ✓ || namgi || k.th

027: winners and losers

chapter 27: winners and losers
location: baltimore, maryland, day 2

Hoseok was up early, thank God, when there was a knock at their hotel room door.

When he opened up the door, there was a police officer standing there, alone. Hoseok immediately cursed himself out in his head. He should have used the peephole first!

"Excuse me, young man," the officer said. She had one hand on her hip and was now leaning against the open doorframe. "Is it all right if I ask you some questions?"

"Me? Questions? About what?" Hoseok cursed everything in existence at this point.

"Well, we recently got a report at the station about suspicious activity. Straight from the FBI. We're wondering if you've seen a group of seven individuals, all from South Korea. They were on the news a bunch about a month ago. Two are wanted for overstaying their student visas. Now, the last place they were seen was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and that's when their national file was opened. There are warrants out for all of their arrests now, since they were involved in a hit and run while driving a purple van that's old as dirt. Thing is...I've matched the license, and the same purple van is sitting behind this Holiday Inn."

Hoseok was a dancer. And dancers had to act. When it came to contemporary dancing, he had to infuse every emotion he could into the littlest of movements. It also meant that he had a great poker face. He had been training years for this moment. "You don't say."

"Have you seen this group of seven?" The lady pulled out a picture that somebody in a police office had probably drawn. Sure, there were seven boys on it, but each and every one of them looked exactly the same. Whoever had drawn it clearly hadn't thought that Asian people could look different from one another.

Hoseok shook his head. "I have not, ma'am." Which was the truth. He had not seen seven identical strangers.

The police officer eyed Hoseok, looking him up and down. "You know, who's to say you're not one of the seven? Who all is staying in there with you?"

Hoseok was pretty sure this was against his rights, even as a non-US citizen. But he played along. "Three, including me."

"And what are you all here for?"

Hoseok was glad he had studied the maps and watched TV. "We're in from New York for a dance contest. The semifinals are down at the convention center tomorrow."

"And which one of those cars out there is yours?"

"We took the bus, ma'am. None of us can drive. We live in New York City, after all." Hoseok smiled at her.

"I'm gonna need to see some ID," the officer said, shaking her head.

Hoseok was glad he was prepared for this as well. New York state IDs were basically made out of paper, and as such, they were very easy to replicate. He pulled it straight out of his wallet. It said he was local, and also that he was over 21, which made it very easy to get into bars. The picture looked just like him, as well as a fake name: Hyun Lee.

The police officer looked it over, then handed it back to Hoseok. "Sorry for bothering you, sir." And with that, she let Hoseok close the door.

Hoseok counted to ten, then exhaled and sat on the ground. He hated lying! It was one of the things he had always swore he would never do. But this entire trip had been full of lies, mostly to keep his friends safe. While it was great to go somewhere new all of the time, it still made Hoseok nauseous to think that their entire existence was built on secrecy. He had agreed this was necessary, and even he wasn't looking forward to military service next year...but he wanted to be back in New York, to be dancing again.

He bit back a sob. If Hoseok could act in front of that police officer just now, then he could continue to act in front of his brothers.

"Hobi?" It was Yoongi. "Are you okay?"

"No," Hoseok made the mistake of saying. "I hate this."

Yoongi got out of bed. Namjoon was still asleep, in the bed by the window that he shared with Hoseok. Yoongi sat on the floor, next to the door and Hoseok. "What's up, dude?"

"I'm just -- sick and tired of traveling -- and being away from dancing -- and I didn't think it would be this hard and --" Hoseok hadn't realized how much he had been bottling up until it all came spilling out. All it had taken was for Yoongi to ask.

Namjoon was up in seconds when he heard Hoseok bawling. He grabbed the nearby tissue box, and the three sat on the ground together, letting Hoseok cry. "I just want to go back to New York and dance," he sobbed. "I was having so much fun. I don't want to be living in the car forever."

Namjoon looked over at Yoongi. "Well, the idea is, at some point, we will find a place to actually live," he whispered. "Remember: we're not running forever. We will stay hidden until this all blows over. And then we'll find a way to make new lives for ourselves. That can include dancing, if you want."

"Yeah," Yoongi said with a smile.

"But I'm not going to be dancing as Hoseok," he said in between sobs.

"I don't know, you could make up a new name. You could be Hyun Lee like on your fake license. Or you could get a stage name, something like...hm..." Yoongi thought back to all of the showtime dancers he had seen on the streets in New York. "Ho...Hope. Like, J-Hope or something!" He swung his arms around, showing off as much swag as he could. "Yo, I'm your hope, you're my hope, I'm J-Hope, let's get to dancing! And then you could make dance videos or something and all the white ladies on the Upper East Side will take your dance classes."

"You...you really think that could work?" Hoseok asked.

Namjoon and Yoongi nodded.

He grinned, and then he remembered the seriousness of the situation. "Oh, by the way, we have to leave now. Apparently the FBI is onto us."

Namjoon wasted no time. The three were packed in five minutes; Yoongi stayed behind to rouse the others while Namjoon and Hoseok got in the car. There was still a police vehicle right outside the front of the Holiday Inn. That officer had to still be somewhere in there.

Namjoon drove the car to the side door. Within seconds, once the coast was clear, Yoongi and the other four boys jumped in. When Namjoon pushed the supercharged button, it took an extra second than usual, but they were gone in a flash.