"How do you think they're doing?"

The guys are on the coast, just a few kilometers away from the island. If Jungkook and Taehyung squint hard enough, they might see the yacht floating on the horizon, way way out of their reach.

"Should we check up on them? I'm afraid they might start killing each other," Namjoon suggests. "Taehyung can get pretty scary when he's mad."

"Nah," Yoongi says, sipping on his champagne. "If they die, they die."

"Wow," Jin raises his glass. "I've never heard anything so inspiring before. Cheers to that, Yoongichi."

The two friends raise their glass to each other with a -eating grin on their face.

-

It blows their mind with what the note suggests. They've been taking turns reading it over and over again in case they miss something. But even if they have to go in-depth and analyze every word like they're back in high school analyzing Literature, nothing's going to change.

"So what should we talk about?" Taehyung sighs, plopping down on the couch where Jungkook is currently contemplating his life. 

"Already?" He groans. "We have 3 days,"

"Pretty sure they're watching us through these," Taehyung points to the surveillance cameras around the house. "So if we can just... finish this, maybe we can go back home faster." 

"Even if they haven't abandoned us, our vacation isn't supposed to end tomorrow either-"

"Jungkook."

A sigh. 

"Alright," Jungkook sits up, "Didn't know you hate to be in the same room with me this much,"

"You know damn well that's not what I meant,"

"Let's talk." Jungkook makes vague gestures, probably trying to get Taehyung to come closer. "Just so you know, there's like 95 percent that I'm gonna cry so if my nose acts up, you need to be responsible."

"Only 95?"

"Fine. Maybe 97.5,"

"I'm not responsible for anything, Jungkook. You're the stupid one to get hit by the ball,"

"Maybe if you didn't call my name,"

"I called to tell you to duck,"

Jungkook giggles out of nowhere.

Taehyung pauses. He stares, "What?"

"Nothing. I just thought that if this was a text conversation, I wonder if auto-correct will change duck to something else."

More giggles. From only one person.

"Unbelievable. Did you hit your head as well or what?"

"Okay, okay. I'll be serious."

Taehyung gives it a few seconds.

As expected, Jungkook burst into another fit of giggles, toppling over with both hands on his stomach.

Taehyung lets him. It's no use trying to stop him in this state. Jungkook laughs until he cries, his face and neck red all over. Taehyung questions his sense of humor.

"Isn't your nose-"

"Ow! Oh my god!" 

"I knew it."

-

Taehyung makes use of the place since he's stuck there anyway. After the fit of giggles, Jungkook starts tearing up because of the pain in his nose.  After taking a painkiller, Jungkook just locks himself in his room. Taehyung wonders if the side effect of the painkiller is mood swing because heck, what is that.

Taehyung finds himself outside soon after learning every corner of the house. He strolls along the beach, the gentle waves crashing into his feet, the sand soft under his sole. After a moment, he settles down by the shore, his feet stretch out in front of him, the wave touching his toes as they come and go. He hears the soft footsteps before he even sees the person. Jungkook's muscular self joins him shortly after, plopping down with a soft grunt.

Both of them sit there in silence, watching the sun setting on the horizon, bright orange like a burning sky. They can spot a yacht in the middle of the water and know for sure their friends are watching them from a distance as well.

"You know," Jungkook starts. There's something in his voice that makes Taehyung look. At that moment, the color of the sun casting on Jungkook makes him look so young, his eye bags visible.

Jungkook appears more exhausted than any kid his age should be. 

"I never got to know why my parents split up," he says so quietly yet too loud at the same time. Something in Taehyung's chest clenches at the thought of Jungkook watching his parents walk away from each other and not knowing why. Taehyung knows Jungkook—knows how innocent his love is, so at this moment there's nothing Taehyung can do except feeling sad with him.

"I guess that's the perk of being the youngest, your parents just don't trust you with anything. My mom won't answer my calls. My dad lets me go live with him in a foreign country but he refuses to tell me why he has to run away like that," Jungkook sighs. "My sister said I should look after dad and she'll look after mom but that's not how a family should be, right? A family shouldn't be divided like this."

The silence returns. Taehyung reaches out and runs his hand up and down Jungkook's arm. Jungkook used to love it when Taehyung did that, it calmed him down. He's not sure if it's still the case.

"I'm not telling you this to earn any sympathy, Tae," he continues. "I just want to let it out. I didn't want to tell anyone in Japan. They don't know me like that."

They're not you, he wants to add but decides not to.

"My life's a mess. But you know what I realized?"

"What is it?"

Jungkook holds their gaze, "I realized that I did run away from my problems too, just like my dad."

And silence falls over them once more as Taehyung's lip quivers, eyes b with tears. Jungkook nods to himself before turning away. The sun is almost gone, the beach getting dark and chilly. They watch the sun disappears below the sea, replaced by the blinking stars scatter across the dark ocean. The breeze gets colder the longer they sit there, no words exchange except for the sound of their breathing.

"Tae,"

Taehyung turns. Jungkook keeps his eyes on the water.

"You once asked me what I loved the most in this world,"

Taehyung remembers that moment clearly. It was one of the few instances that he got a bit upset with Jungkook as well. 

"You didn't answer," he says.

Jungkook nods, "I wasn't ready then,"

"Are you ready now?"

Another nod.

"You asked me what I thought of first when I was happy. You asked me what I loved the most in my life. There were a lot of things, then and now. But one never changed,"

Taehyung's eyes searching Jungkook's. 

"It's you. It's always you." Jungkook breathes as he glances at the boy by his side and regrets it immediately. 

Taehyung's lips tremble slightly so Jungkook turns to look away again because he can't say what he needs to say if he see