His first day of summer vacation oddly started with a piece of rock, knocking against his window. He didn’t regard it at first, being cocooned inside of his blanket like a burrito, feeling the warm fleece soft against his face. The second time the rock bounced against his window his eyebrow shifted, Yoongi humming incoherent noise against his pillow. The third time it was even a bigger rock, it somehow managed to pierce the glass through, entering his room with a loud crashing noise. The shattered glass couldn’t muffle out the noise coming from outside anymore, it got him hearing his friends’ loud screams and frantic yells.

“Oh my god Namjoon-hyung, you broke Yoongi-hyung’s window!” he faintly heard something that resembled Taehyung’s voice from the realm of his dream.

“You’re so dead Namjoon, so dead,” this time it was Seokjin.

“Wait. Yoongi-hyung’s still not waking up? What the-,” that was Jungkook.

And Hoseok added with a, “Well that’s Yoongi-hyung for you.”

“Hyung, wake up!” and that was Jimin yelling so loud it got the sleep off of him in an instant.

He groaned, trying to shift from his comfortable position and grasped on that sleep he wasn’t so ready on letting go. Sadly Hypnos had turned a blind eye over him because instead, he was getting more and more awake. Everything thanks to a certain group of idiot, of course.

“Hyung, wake up it’s 9 already!” Jimin screamed again.

Yoongi jerked from his bed finally, ran towards the window (forgetting the fact that he had a broken leg and winced immediately upon taking the first step) before yelling back a, “Shut up you s!”

(Somewhere in the background his mother screamed out a, “Language Yoongi!”)

“Look, he’s awake,” Taehyung said, giggling, pointing out at him.

“And who the hell broke my window?!” he screamed, realizing the gaping hole at the glass. Through it he could see six of his friends standing outside of his house, pointing a finger at Namjoon.

“Come down now, Yoongi. We’ve been waiting for you, honestly,” Seokjin said smiling.

“Waiting for what?” he said, eyes still half-closed.

“For an adventure, of course!” this time Taehyung exclaimed. “We promised Jimin we’re going to show him the Auraji train tracks!”

Truthfully he didn’t remember what he had promised from yesterday’s planning, for most of the time he was just nodding and his head got him actually thinking about all the private activity that he got to do by himself.

“Is it really today? And why do you have to do it so goddamn early in the morning?” he complained.

Just last night they’d been playing on the hills until around 2 a.m. and that kind of activity was equivalent to probably 20 hours straight worth of sleep.

“Honestly it’s 9 am already, Yoongi. And by normal people’s standard that’s not ‘early’ in the morning,” their eldest chimed in.

“It is to me!” he groaned, before retreating back to his fortress of pillow and pulled the blanket over his head.

He heard his friend grumbled and yelled his name out again and Yoongi just gritted his teeth, covering his ear with the pillow and tried to fall asleep again although knowing how impossible it would be. Heck, if he couldn’t sleep he would just lie there all day for all he cared.

But then, of course his friends had to be so goddamn stubborn. Of course his friends had to be stupid, wild and loud, for the next thing he knew the voices had suddenly stopped. He was glad, really, knowing that they had finally given up and smirked against his pillow. He closed his eyes and thought that maybe, sleeping wasn’t so impossible to attain for the second time after all.

And boy was he so wrong. The next thing he knew, his friends were barging in through his unlocked door, Taehyung jumping on his mattress and Hoseok shrieking on his ear.

“Wake up Yooooongiiiiiiii!” Taehyung yelled.

At the same time Seokjin pried the blanket off of him and not until Jimin ran his fingers against his side, tickling him at that spot he was so weak at that Yoongi woke up again with a jolt, muffled laughter escaping his lips. He thought about planning their death and funeral right there and then.

+.-.+

Yeoryang-myeon was actually a series of smaller ro in the Jeongseon area of Gangwon province, but the actual city of Yeoryang itself in which Yoongi spent most of his time in (considering their school is located in the heart of the city as well), is an area surrounding the two rivers of Songcheon and Goljicheon. It was a small town, really, with its only tourist attraction being the Auraji Train Station and this small little shop that somehow had the exterior look of a fish (and Yoongi never really got curious about the place to spend his time and check it out either). The other attraction was probably the Auraji Rail Bike that passed through the city, going all the way from Nochusan-ro at the north, though the real train track itself started from Gangneung City by the coast until it passed Seoul on the west. Tourist could actually board this little wooden platform and went down the train track on the Auraji Rail Bike, seeing the Songcheon River glistening by the side and the rows and rows of beautiful green fields that followed soon after. There was this one part that even led through a tunnel and at that place did the six of them had once found something amazing.

That day they all headed for the train track, following them by foot. Normal tourists should have paid so they got to board that little wooden platform and saved themselves from walking, but not them. And in this case, not even Yoongi who was doing it all with a broken leg and two troubling crutches under his arm. It was stupid of him to even get along with what his friends had to say and even more stupid to drag his broken leg across miles and miles of rocky roads and hills.

But in the end, he indeed loved his friends to that extent for him to agree with them (and of course he wouldn’t want to acknowledge that love). They walked down the train track from the Auraji train station, passed the resting locomotives and trailers in the train yard until they reached the northern part of the city just east of Songcheon-gil that went by the side of Songcheon River. He could see the water glistened at his right as they walked down passed it.

“You're okay there, Yoongi?” Seokjin asked.

“Well apart from my leg being broken and the other hurt as hell, I guess I’m okay,” he said with a cynical smile painting his face.

They had been indeed walking for an hour. When the Songcheon River was no longer in sight and they had passed through this field instead, did Yoongi’s walk become stuttered. He stopped for a moment, wiping the sweats on his forehead before observing his surroundings. It was field of pure green, the grass carpeting the ground, being a contrast of the blue above his head. A smile sneaked upon his face because as much as he hated the walk and how tiring it was, he couldn’t hate the scenery that unveiled in front of him.

His friends had seemingly walked ahead of him, taking a lead at the front and he would be left behind at the back if he didn’t hustle immediately. With the state of his feet Yoongi didn’t really like doing so either. It wasn’t until Jimin who had been laughing with Taehyung turned his head around, did he realize Yoongi who was slacking behind. The boy stopped his conversation before running back towards him.

“Hey hyung, you're okay?” he asked, jogging slightly towards him.

“Yeah, I’m okay brat, just go on without me. I just need a little break,” Yoongi said, bending down and massaging his sore leg from limping the whole day.

“No, no. I’ll stay here with you, don’t worry. Or do you want me to call the other and-,”

“Nah, I’m fine, just-,”

And the thing about Yoongi was how he didn’t want to burden people and be gazed at with this pitiful look on their eyes. Yeah he had a broken leg, but he knew what this journey would cost and he would pull through it just fine.

“Don’t push yourself too hard, hyung. You’ve got a broken leg, we know.”

“It’s not an excuse.”

“Yes it is!”

“Well it doesn’t stop you all from dragging me here so it shouldn’t stop me now,” he said.

“Fine then if you don’t want to rest. It left me with nothing but to take drastic measure,” Jimin said.

Yoongi wanted to ask what sort of drastic measure it would be before the boy suddenly swoop him off the ground, holding him by the feet and waist. And not until his feet was off the ground and him flailing around proved to be futile, did he realize that Jimin was holding him bridal-style almost too embarrassingly.

“You ing brat, put me down right now!” Yoongi hissed, trying to flail and hit Jimin with his crutch in the mean time.
“Oh god hyung stop wriggling around too much I’m going to drop you for real if you did,” Jimin said, trying his best to hold Yoongi who was moving too much and avoiding the crutches at the same time.

“This is embarrassing now put me down!” he yelled.

“Geez you’re so stubborn hyung just relax,” Jimin said, taking a step forward and miraculously still managing to hold the wriggling Yoongi.

“I demand you to put me down or I’m going to hurt you so bad!” he said before smacking Jimin’s head so hard right then. It did the trick because Jimin winced and accidentally dropped him to the ground. His legs felt like breaking for the second time (though he thought that it already did for all the walk he’d done the last couple of days). His felt sore and as he rubbed on them, Jimin stood up with his hands on his waist, ready to lecture him.

“Okay, I’m going to give you two options right now. Either you stop flailing and I carry you on my back or you just keep on wriggling and I’ll carry you bridal style all the way, hyung,” Jimin said.

Yoongi scoffed. Of course he wouldn’t even pick either of the two. Min Yoongi had such thing that was called pride, and boy did he protect his own with blood and sweat. There was no way in hell would someone see how weak Min Yoongi was, especially to the point where  he needed some holding from a mere boy brat who was way shorter than him (only 1 cm difference, actually, but still). In short, there was no way that Min Yoongi would be-

+.-.+

-held by Jimin because he was slowing everybody down, Namjoon had said. Yoongi groaned after that, telling that they shouldn’t even bring him along then in the first place. But of course, his friends just kept on walking, noting that grumpy old Min Yoongi and his protests were normal. Their friends were leading the way, the field still stretched around them. Yoongi wrapped his hand around Jimin’s neck, trying to keep himself from falling and the younger was holding him on his back. His crutches were hold by Jungkook and Taehyung who were now using it to play gun and sword almost too comically (they pretended as knights fighting over a girl whose part was played by Hoseok, making weird choking noises and shrieks like always). Namjoon and Seokjin were at the front, conversing with each other.

“This is ridiculous,” he muttered.

“Relax, hyung. This is just a piggyback. Everybody did this. You gave me one before,” Jimin answered cheerily. The boy was looking unexceptionally happy with how the situation that unfolded. He liked to see this particular Min losing his pride from day to day, it seemed.

“I gave you one?” Truthfully he couldn’t really remember when such thing ever occurred.

Jimin cleared his throat before answering with a hushed voice.

“Yeah, you remember, hyung? When I was fighting with my parents.”

The memories came rushing back. Jimin’s feet were bleeding, he remembered. The boy didn’t even put anything on before climbing down the window and ran barefooted on the road. He somehow unnecessarily remembered the same feet were running around the entire Yeoryang-myeon the next day, looking for him.

“Ah, yeah. Well, you needed it back then,” Yoongi said, remembering the pathetic look in Jimin’s face and how sad he was. The same memories got him remembering what had happened yesterday and somehow it got him clenching his fist and his chest feeling tight.

“Well, you need it now, hyung. You could barely walk”

“No I don’t. Heck, I’ll walk all the way back, I’ll just show you.”

“Walk? Don’t you mean crawl?”

“Oh, shut up Park Jimin. You’re heavy anyway,” he said, playfully flicking the boy’s head.

“You’re heavier!” Jimin protested. “The bike broke for a reason, you know, and that’s because you’re heavy. It didn’t break when I was the one riding behind.”

“It broke because you’re an incompetent rider!”

“Do the math, hyung. We fell down and you broke your leg because you fell down first.”

“I broke my leg? Wasn’t it you, who broke mine?” he said, returning the enunciated 'you' while poking at the boy's head.

“That’s why I’m taking the responsibility of being the one who’s holding you. So just you know, I’m a gentleman, hyung,” Jimin protested with a laugh which he returned with a simple scoff.

They were nearing the line of trees, its green canopy greeting them with its twigs blown by the wind, as if flailing their hand, inviting them to come. They fell into a comfortable silence, with Yoongi lifting his head to see the sky above, closing his eyes. The wind was indeed nice and he could smell that summer in the air, if such thing could even be smelled. Not until his neck felt sore did Jimin suddenly called his name, voice low and more like a whisper.

He cracked an eye open, grunting to make sure that he heard Jimin, but instead the brat just shook his head.

“No, forget it hyung,” he muttered.

At this point Yoongi was amazed at realizing how well he’d grown to know someone named Park Jimin. By any means, he certainly understood that a ‘forget it’ with that kind of tone from the boy wouldn’t mean what it had been literally said.

“Yeah right. Park Jimin you better tell me what you want to say before I hurt you,” Yoongi said, his hand and gave the boy a light smack on his head.

“N-no, really, just forget it.”

“Oh please, you’re really trying to say something,” he said.

He bet that Jimin was gulping right now, face looking worried and eyes casted downwards again. He didn’t need to see the boy’s face to know what kind of expression he was making. Jimin took a deep breath before asking and he couldn’t help but to be curious as to what the question might be. Was it something important? Was it something that would change the course of their friendship? Or maybe he had heard something bad about Yoongi? Or perhaps he was going to say something important. Was it something about Seoul? Did Park Jimin finally decided to-,

“Hyung, do you like Yujin?”

Yoongi blinked. That was far from what he had expected.

“What?”

“Oh god, no, no just forget I ever ask that,” Jimin said, sounding embarrassed.

“Where do you hear that from?” he asked, brows furrowed because really, what kind of a question was that? One that he wasn’t really expecting, that for sure. “Is it Namjoon? God, please don’t believe in everything that Namjoon said.”

Jimin didn’t answer him straight away but in the end he opened his mouth again and said.

“No, I don’t hear it from anyone,” the boy whispered.

“Then what?

“You know, hyung. I’m just-, curious. You said back then that Minju and the girls are beautiful, and I just thought-,”

“Well they are beautiful, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I want to date any of ‘em. What’s the deal anyway? You like Yujin and you’re afraid that I like her as well?”

By this time they were leaving the field, entering the lines of trees, the roof of green hovering above them, blocking the blue of the sky.

Jimin shook his head slowly.

“No,” the boy whispered but still loud enough for him to hear. “It wasn’t Yujin that I like.”

He wanted to pry, teasing the boy with whomever the boy was harboring his crush on before a certain pterodactyl sound caught his attention instead. He looked up towards the three idiots to find Hoseok using his crutches and pretended that he was a bird or something with Jungkook and Taehyung tailing him, recreating a Native American rain dance or something. He yelled at them, telling Hoseok in particular not to mess with the crutches and they ended up making more noises, he certainly regretted the fact that he was acquainted with them.

In the end it got his mind off of Jimin’s word entirely, the three idiots running towards Yoongi and , prying him off Jimin’s back and getting him seated between Jungkook and Taehyung’s shoulder, this time pretending as if he was a Native American chief or whatever (and he cursed and shouted and flailed, of course, but they got him too high on the ground he didn’t want to squirm too much and fall).

It got him completely forgetting Jimin’s words. And most importantly, it got him not seeing or even hearing Jimin’s little whisper as the boy stood behind, watching Yoongi being teased by his three friends as he smiled, letting two small words escaping his lips.

“It’s you.”

+.-.+

They passed the line of trees, all the way deeper and deeper into the forest and getting farther and farther from Yeoryang-myeon. It had been nearly two hours since they were walking and Yoongi had spent it getting a piggyride from almost the six of them he honestly believed that he had lost his pride as a man by now (he was just too hyperbolic, of course).

They would be somewhere along Nochusan-ro now, north of the city. The trees were now lining at either side of them, the train track leading to a certain concrete figure at the end of it and he knew that they were close. They made it there, at least, with Jimin asking Seokjin whether it was indeed the place they were heading.

If the hill was something that Taehyung had found, the Auraji train tunnel was something that him, Namjoon and a couple of the elder hyung had found years ago when they were still in middle school. It all started from a bus trip to Gujeoran-gil from the school. They passed this very tunnel through the highway right on top of it and as they poke their head to the side they would find the train track, wondering whether the one they saw were connected with the one back in Auraji. A childish curiosity was the one getting them following the train track on another summer day just like this one.

As they neared the tunnel Jimin had gotten more and more excited. Yoongi was finally back on his two feet again, limping closer towards the tunnel. There was a part of the tunnel that led to another secluded area, a structure right under the highway that was left unfinished. It was practically in the middle of nowhere even the homeless didn’t venture this far into the mountains.

But a group of delinquents did, for as Namjoon led them through their farthest hideout, Yoongi could see the worn out couch and made-shift seat that they left months ago still intact. Right in the middle of it was a barrel from which they made fire from. They had once camped out there last summer and it was indeed a good time, the six of them sleeping oh-so-soundly only to wake up with horrible mosquito bites on their limbs.

Jimin had quickly exclaimed how awesome that place was and he just smiled, noting at the series of graffiti that they had left on the wall, most of it belonged to Jungkook (because who knew the boy was so good at painting as well). All of them did their part, actually, everyone in the Bulletproof Boys basketball team writing something along the wall, even the hyungs that had graduated. It felt like their own wall on which they left their mark on, and of course seeing that got Jimin’s eyes teary again, especially the moment Taehyung took out some aerosol can from the backpack he’d been taking and offered Jimin to write his name there amongst them.

They spent the remains of the day there on the worn-out couch around the unlit fire, telling stories and lighting up a few cigarettes. Yoongi usually denied the offer because smoking would mess up his lungs, which he desperately needed for basketball. But quoting Taehyung’s, ‘what the hell’, he ended up shrugging and took a drag. They just spent the rest of the day frolicking, laughing at each other’s face (to Jimin taking a drag on his first cigarette and fail miserably at it just like everybody had expected him to). For once, him and Namjoon rap a bit for the other, showing them all the effort he’d been spending with his notebook. Them rapping got Hoseok standing up and danced a bit, beatboxing as he did so with Taehyung and Jungkook providing some beat, stomping their feet on the ground and clinging a couple of empty soju bottles together.

“You dance as well, right Jimin?” Taehyung said.

Of course the brat flushed, his face turning red and he tried his best to avoid it. They got him to stand up of course at the end, drying his throat and making excuses like how he hadn’t danced in months. Still they made a beat for him and Jimin closed his eyes.

The boy closed his eyes and he danced, his movement fluid like water. It was the same popping and locking like what Hoseok did but quite different. Heck, Yoongi didn’t know much about dancing, but he could tell that what he was seeing was just simply beautiful.

They got to thank Seokjin for the eldest had brought them some snacks and a nicely cooked bento. They ate, Hoseok ended up taking a nap and the rest of them drawing weird lines on his face, taking another cigarette and teasing Jimin with it and practically laughed their off until their stomach ached. They talked about a lot of thing but not once did the topic of the future come into surface, which was something Yoongi was so glad of.

Because he didn’t want to think about the future or the past. He just wanted to remember Yeoryang-myeon and his little band of friends, just like how they were on that exact summer day.

We took the brat to the train tunnel today. He was We were happy.