"I don’t get it, what are you even doing up there?" Nakyoon laughs down the phone. He’s trying to keep things light-hearted but Yoongi knows it’s just a cover for his curiosity. It’s understandable really, the idea of music as a stable industry with cash to burn was enchantingly foreign to him when he first arrived in Seoul but sometimes he feels more like a vicarious path to the capital than a sorely missed friend.

"I dunno. Dance practice, vocal training, dance practice, gym, dance practice, etiquette, dance practice,"

"The do you need to learn etiquette for?"

"Variety shows and…stuff? The staff here won’t shut up about ‘image’ and all that publicity bull, they say we need to learn how to behave,"

Nakyoon snorts, “you need to learn how to behave you mean. Tell me, have you managed to get yourself an actual criminal record yet or are you still limiting yourself to petty theft,”

"Oh off that was one time,"

"Kid the way you talked about it it was like you’d robbed the national bank,"

Yoongi glowers at the wall opposite for a full two seconds before he remembers that Nakyoon can’t see him, “ you,” he mumbles

"C’mon now that’s no way to speak to your hyeong who’s coming all the way to the big city just to see you next weekend,"

"What?"

"You heard,"

"Forreal?"

"Got my train ticket booked and everything,"

Yoongi sets the pen he’s been fiddling with down on the table, “huh.”

It’s not that he’s not excited to see Nakyoon. Actually he’s ecstatic, becoming so lively and talkative whenever someone brings it up that even Hoseok tells him to shut up, but Yoongi feels oddly apprehensive at the idea of having to actually spend time with him. His memories of Nakyoon, of any of the old D Town crew are run ragged with nostalgia and the rose tinted glory of childhood misadventure. He’s desperate to reconnect with his past yet unsure that they’ll be anything left to connect with once a shared hometown and their struggling hiphop crew are removed from the equation.

Namjoon doesn’t get it

"You’ll be fine," he shrugs, "you guys still talk I don’t see what you’re worried about,"

"Yeah but we haven’t seen each other properly since I moved up here,"

"So?"

"So, talking face to face is different that chatting down the phone,"

Yoongi frowns at the back of Namjoon’s head and worries the dead skin of his lips with his teeth. He knows if he waits long enough he’ll be treated to the zen teachings of Kim Namjoon which, irritatingly enough, often hold significant merit.

Namjoon sighs, “I don’t get why you’re so worked up. If Ikje rang you this evening and told you he’d just arrived at Seoul station you’d be down there in a flash no questions asked but you can’t be excited about seeing your oldest friend without turning it into a stress fest.”

"Nakyoon’s not my oldest friend," Yoongi snaps, he’s not sure if that’s strictly true but Namjoon’s smart enough without knowing the intricate details of Yoongi’s social life, "and what does Ikje have to do with anything?"

Yoongi sees Namjoon’s eyebrows raise in his reflection in the computer monitor but he doesn’t get a reply. Maybe Namjoon gets it after all.

"Oh no, don’t turn around and get all anxious on me when you’ve been so ing excited Yoongi, I’m not in the mood for all that emotional indecision right now," Hoseok chides after Yoongi has finished what he feels was a rather soul bearing monologue regarding the inexplicable uneasiness eating away at him every time he remembers that in just two days’ time Nakyoon and him will be face to face, "I’ve had it up to here with you and Namjoon whining about how it’s so hard to keep your underground contacts now you’ve got some major label backing."

"But it is hard,”

"Then quit,"

Yoongi glares at him, Hoseok purses his lips.

"It doesn’t bother you at all? All your friends back home seeing you differently now that you’re going to debut?" Yoongi asks

"I’ve been training for this since I was five," Hoseok deadpans, "there’s no one going to change their mind about me now."

And before Yoongi can delve any further into the mysterious world of Hoseok’s brutal realism the lights have been cut and all conversation has been rendered over.

was it hard going back to the underground when you left big hit?

Yoongi stares at his phone and decides that that’s too straightforward. He deletes it all and starts again

when you quit, was it because of the company or your parents or your underground friends or…???

Again, Yoongi decides that’s far too upfront, even for Ikje.

He’s sitting on the steps outside Seoul station waiting for the train from Daegu to come in. He told Nakyoon that he’d meet him outside Dunkin’ Doughnuts and then they’d head down for Namdaemun for lunch. It seemed like a safe place to start.

His phone shows half twelve - five minutes to arrival.

a friend of mine’s coming in from daegu today. I haven’t seen him since I left home but I talk to him all the time. i’m kinda worried that we’ll see each other and he’s only gonna see the idol part of me and we won’t be able to talk like we used to, but i’m more worried that I’ll see him and nothing will have changed and i’ll wonder what the hell i was thinking leaving the underground scene behind

Yoongi deletes the text almost as soon as he’s finished writing it. It’s therapeutic to say it, even if he’s not really saying it out loud but there’s no way Ikje would actually give him a proper answer.

The clock rolls over to 12:35 and Yoongi waits with baited breath, watching the station doors like a hawk. Nakyoon comes out grinning against the wind and looking for all the world like the person who waved Yoongi off from Daegu station almost a year ago. Like a ghost from the past he rushes forward and pulls Yoongi into a bone crushing hug, “I missed you kid.”

And then it’s just like old times; the same jokes, the shared memories, the Daegu twang heavy in their accents and for all Yoongi’s lessons in how best to conduct himself in front of the viewing public he falls back into his position as the ‘nearly rebel’ production whizz kid of D Town like someone had been keeping the spot warm for him.

He’s missed this, they both have. He doesn’t know why they don’t talk about that more often.

"Hold up a sec," Yoongi pauses halfway through his fishcake to pull his phone from his back pocket to find the device still ready and waiting to send a message to ‘Choi Ikje’

I miss you

Yoongi sends it before he can second guess himself. Forward or not, he decides things are easier when he’s not beating about the bush.