The train journey from Daegu to Seoul is murder on Yoongi’s spine. Whoever designed these seats didn’t have long distance travel in mind and in the unheated carriages he stores excess tension anywhere he can.

The cold isn’t really what’s making Yoongi tense, but the old woman sitting next to him doesn’t need to know that. Tense is perhaps the wrong word for the cocktail of emotions that Yoongi’s feeling right now anyway - he’s aprehensive and exhausted and terrifed and most of all excited, all of which is held back by the fear that this is not going to go as well as he thinks it could.

If Yoongi’s being honest with himself, there’s no way this is going to go as well as he likes to imagine it might. He tries to stay realistic but somewhere along the line his mundane imaginings of what will most likely be two days sitting in a windowless studio with a stranger who may or may not be a total arsehole become fantasies of Tiger JK swooping in and asking Yoongi to produce his next album.

Shivering, Yoongi pulls his scarf further up his face. Runch Randa’s probably never even met Tiger JK.

From somewhere within the many layers of Yoongi’s winter clothing his phone begins to buzz. Under normal circumstances he wouldn’t answer it but when he’s so close to a make or break moment in his career, he knows he’d be made not to. Bracing himself against the cold, Yoongi unfolds his arms and delves through the greatest hits of his jumper collection from the past six years.

"Hello?"

"Hey Gloss how’s it going?" Yoongi recognises the voice from tracks he has overplayed on his mp3 player, partly in preparation for today and mostly because he can recognise talent when he hears it,"

"Not too bad, train’s ing freezing though,"

"Ahh sorry to hear that, I promise you the studio will be warm once you get here,"

"Yeah about that, what subway line do I need to get on when I arrive?"

"Don’t worry about it, my afternoon freed up I was gonna come down and get you myself,"

Yoongi’s eyes widen in alarm, “is that safe?”

"Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?"

In his mind, Yoongi had already decided that Runch Randa shouldn’t be able to move through Seoul without at least ten loyal fans trailing behind him. He’s seen the way people talk about him on hiphopplaya, he’s had a fairly substantial email exchange with the rapper-on-the-rise; Runch Randa always seemed overconfident and larger than life. The kind of person who magazines stalk and idol companies consider a thorn in the side of their profit margines. 
Then again, the guy on the other end of the phone doesn’t sound like he fits that description - Yoongi wonders where his prejudice ends and the facts begin. He shrugs, even though he knows Runch Randa can’t see him, “no reason,”

"Thanks so much for doing this by the way, I know it’s a having to come all this way but I’m kind of a perfectionist when it comes to my beats,"

"It’s fine, I’ve been meaning to come see my relatives in Seoul anyway," it’s not completely a lie. Yoongi does have relatives in Seoul and he has been meaning to come to the capital, it’s just that the two facts don’t necessarily have anything to do with each other. He’s been dying to come up to Seoul and have a go at getting himself into the underground scene proper; Daegu is nice and his friends are talented enough but there’s no future for a high school drop out with nothing but some outdated audio software and an unrealistic dream to his name. When Runch Randa had contacted him in the wake of his most recent work with D Town asking if he would be able up to come to Seoul to work on a track or two for him, it had seemed too good to be true.

Yoongi hopes that numb buttocks and freezing fingers are the only catch he needs to worry about in this venture.

"Ok well I gotta go if I want to get to you in time, I’ll be wearing black shorts and a Supreme hoodie," the phone line flickers for a moment and Yoongi realises that at the other end of the line Runch Randa is on the move.

"I know what you look like," Yoongi replies before he appreciates how creepy it makes him sound. Luckily Runch Randa just laughs,

"I knew you were a fan,"

And before Yoongi can protest, he hears a hasty ‘see ya later’ and the line goes dead. Out of the window the city is approaching fast and just for a second Yoongi let’s himself imagine that he’s coming home.