Taehyung had arrived in the town at the foot of the mountain Namjoon’s hut was located on sometime during Friday. After checking in at the guest house, he went to explore the town and was pretty much done with all the historically and culturally significant attractions by the time he came back to the guest house on Friday night, because there wasn’t that much to see anyway.

He discovered the largest “supermarket” in that town was about the size of a regular corner store in his city and, to his horror, he learned that there was only 1 pharmacy in that whole town and the nearest hospital was in another town that was 20-30 minutes away by car. Now he was really worried about getting sick during those 2 weeks.

When he closed the lights in his rented room before going to sleep that night, he discovered that the darkness was so dense that it almost looked solid. He couldn’t make out anything in that darkness and he could only hear his own breathing. So he e of the lights back on and tried going to sleep like that, being really grateful later on when he heard a dog barking in the distance for around an hour.

Saturday morning came and Taehyung was eagerly awaiting Namjoon’s and Seokjin’s arrival during that afternoon because, even though he had been alone in a foreign place for not even 20 hours yet, he was already bored and anxious.

To waste some time, he set out along the river bank, but his way was blocked a couple of times by dogs running around freely next to their homes that started growling and even barking at him. Then he came across a narrow, wooden bridge and, despite feeling a bit uneasy about it, he willed himself to cross it and explore the other side. When he wanted to go back however, he saw a goat blocking his path at the other end of the bridge.

He waited for half an hour for the goat to go away, but it didn’t. He looked for alternatives for getting back on the side of the river where the town was, but there weren’t any good ones. He felt pathetic being held hostage by an animal not even half his size, but that animal had horns and possibly an aggressive nature.

So he called Namjoon to ask what he should do and, after finding a thick and long stick as his friend had suggested, Taehyung went to carefully try crossing the bridge, ready to use the stick to defend himself in case the situation called for it. The goat lazily looked at him at some point, then went back to staring into the distance. When Taehyung was 2 meters away from it, the goat lazily looked at him again and slowly got out of his way, as if it had just suddenly realized it had been impolite. Taehyung wearily got off the bridge, walked away, dropped the stick and ran back to the main road in the town.

After the “confrontation” with the goat, Taehyung just went and bought himself something to eat, because there weren’t any restaurants in that town and he didn’t feel like cooking in the guest house’s kitchen, then just waited in the town’s center for Namjoon and Seokjin to arrive and pick him up.

When they finally did, Namjoon and Seokjin got out of the car, shook hands with Taehyung, shopped around a bit for food, greeted and talked to some of the locals as if they were locals themselves, then got back into the car after placing the groceries in the trunk. Taehyung got in the back, secured his seatbelt and asked Seokjin how come he got an off road vehicle, since Taehyung was used to seeing Seokjin drive around in a fancy car made for urban landscapes.

S: “Joon and I got this car together specifically to go back and forth from the hut and a few other places. Attempting such trips with my regular car would be a herculean task and possibly also suicidal.”

T: “What do you mean?”

S: “You’ll see when we get there.”

By the time they reached the end of the asphalted road, Taehyung was already sure he couldn’t make this journey on foot. The road was long, very narrow, full of turns and crossroads, but the real problem was that it kept going uphill and Taehyung’s legs wouldn’t be able to take him that high up.

Then the fun part began.

Before entering on the dirt road, Seokjin switched to gear 1 and reduced his speed to less than 10 km/h. The road was so ridiculously uneven that Taehyung kept getting jolted up and down, left to right, back and forth and, when the car would pass over pebbles, he felt himself be aggressively shaken. Thanks to that road, Taehyung now had a good idea of what it felt like to be inside a blender.

But that wasn’t the only stomach-upsetting aspect of that road. On his right, Taehyung could see that where the road that was narrow enough to fit only 1 car ended, a steep slope began, so steep that it nearly formed a 90 degrees angle with the road, and they were so high up and the valley looked so infinitely deep that, if the car were to tip over, it seemed like it would roll downhill forever. To top it all off, there were barely any fences or any kinds of barriers between the road and the slope and, even where there were some, they looked sturdy enough to barely prevent a tipsy sheep from falling to its death, let alone a heavy car.

Taehyung didn’t say anything to his friends, but he silently wondered if there were any messages he should be sending to his family in the event of not making it out of this trip alive.

S: “We’re here!”

N: “Our home away from home! Feels like it’s been over a month…”

S: “You two get out while I park the car. Take the groceries with you.”

Namjoon and Taehyung did as Seokjin instructed, but the latter stayed back to watch Seokjin park the car because he was worried. The edge of the slope was so damn near the road, the ground was ridiculously uneven and a seemingly abandoned hut was limiting the car’s movement space, so Taehyung really felt admiration for Seokjin when he saw him not only park the car but also turn it around, because it didn’t look even remotely easy and it didn’t look like someone without experience and nerves of steel could pull off those maneuvers.

Meanwhile, Namjoon checked the situation around the hut, unlocked the door, the light and went inside. Taehyung wearily approached the hut, careful where he stepped because the ground was mostly diagonal and he knew that at some point there had been snakes around the hut, though Namjoon said they likely weren’t around anymore with the recent colder weather. Taehyung’s first step inside the hut revealed that it was shaky, so he asked:

T: “Is it stable?”

N: “Yup. Its main structure is anyway. I made sure of that before we filled it with furniture. Things shake inside even when you laugh out loud, but you could do breakdancing in here without the hut going downhill. Though I’d recommend no breakdancing, since things might still fall off the shelves.”

For some reason, Taehyung couldn’t help imagining what it would feel like having on the bed on his right, shaking the whole hut in the process, then suddenly feeling it slide down towards the valley.

N: “Oh, speaking of shelves, what do you think of them? They’re the most recent thing I’ve built inside this place. I’ve also made that bed and this table, I put up the insulation and the windows. Jin brought electricity and light in here and handled all of the wiring. He set up that electrical heater over there, got us that fridge and hooked up the portable stove to the gas tank.”

T: “Wow…” Taehyung let out in awe. “You two did great in making this place livable. It was just a set of 4 wooden walls with a roof and no windows when you sent me pictures of it in spring.”

S: “It’s livable on the inside, but there’s still a lot of work to be done outside.” Seokjin said while coming into the hut. “Speaking of livable, did you find anything alive or dead in the mouse traps?”

N: “No, just feces. They did eat the bait though. Maybe it wasn’t poisonous enough?”

S: “Next time we’re coming here I’m bringing 16 cats.”

N: “Wouldn’t work. Cats really don’t stick around places where they don’t get food. As soon as we’d leave, they’d just go to the neighboring houses.”

S: “Call back the snakes then. They also eat mice.”

N: “Are you good enough on the flute to deter them from hibernation?”

S: “I might as well get licensed as an electrician and snake charmer while I’m here…” Seokjin joked as he opened up one of the grocery bags on the table and looked inside. “Aww, you got my favorite sweets.”

N: “Of course.” Namjoon replied after getting a brief kiss from Seokjin.

S: “I’ll put this stuff away. You can go give Taehyung a mini-tour of the area while it’s still light outside.”

Taehyung was in disbelief how chill Seokjin was about mice and snakes, although he knew that a year ago Seokjin had been just as freaked out about things like that as Taehyung was, and he realized that people get stronger and braver the more they’re faced with things they initially don’t want to face.

After Taehyung and Namjoon exited the hut, the latter pointed to their right side where 10 meters uphill you could see a plastic container tied to the trunk of a tree. It had a faucet and inside there was water Namjoon would regularly bring from a nearby spring. It was drinkable, but it could also be used for washing hands and dishes. Stairs made out of boulders led up to it and, around 20 meters on its left side, there was the outdoor toilet that was still under construction. Not very far below that, there was a fire place and a grill they would be using later on and, between those and the hut, there was a spot where Namjoon would chop wood for various purposes.

They ventured out a bit more as Namjoon explained how much his piece of land extended in each direction and the many ideas he had for how to use that land. Taehyung saw a few cows and a horse grazing not very far away and Namjoon told Taehyung each of their names and which neighbor they belonged to. Their closest neighbor however was an old drunkard who lived alone with no livestock around 1 kilometer down the valley.

Namjoon had bought some land a few years ago on a mountain in another county and he had to prevent trees from growing on that land so it could be used for grazing. An organization that handled the preservation of such grazing areas paid Namjoon 2000 euros yearly for this purpose. But for this piece of land, Namjoon had other plans, ranging from agriculture, including growing mangos in dug up spaced inside the slopes where the earth would provide insulation from the cold, to touristic attractions, like building tree-houses and an artificial lake. Taehyung was once again admiring Seokjin for being willing and able to keep up with and support Namjoon in all of his various travels and endeavors.

As they walked around, Taehyung was constantly struck by how high up they were whenever he looked towards the valley. When they were getting back to the hut, 3 dogs suddenly ran towards Namjoon and jumped all over him, dirtying his pants, but Namjoon was just as happy to see them as the dogs were. Seokjin was not in such a jolly mood as he seemed fed up with talking to an older man who then spotted Namjoon and cheerfully came to greet him.

C: “Hey, Namjoon! Long time no see. How’re you doing?”

N: “Good evening, Mr. Cha!” Namjoon cheerfully replied, shaking his neighbor’s hand. “I’m good. Just came up here to get some more work done before winter comes and show the place to a friend. This is Taehyung. Taehyung, this is my neighbor, Mr. Cha, who lives about 1.5 kilometers that way. He brings the cows up here to graze each day and comes gather them around nightfall. And these are his dogs, Novo, Vera and Boy.”

After shaking hands with the neighbor and trying to decide on whether it was safe to pet the dirty dogs or not, Taehyung was left to awkwardly third wheel on the chatting between Namjoon and Mr. Cha. Then he looked towards Seokjin and saw the latter slowly rub his palm over his face, his exasperation visible even from the foot of the mountain.

C: “So, since you’ll probably have another BBQ party tonight, how about I bring you guys some good old homemade brandy?”

From way behind Mr. Cha, Taehyung and Namjoon could see Seokjin make an X sign with his hands and frantically shake his head in an effort to convince Namjoon to decline that proposal.

N: “Sorry, Mr. Cha, but even if we might have a BBQ party later on, we also have some other plans since Taehyung’s visiting and all. Maybe chat tomorrow?”

For a few seconds, it looked like that would make Mr. Cha go on his way, but he turned back and started talking to Namjoon again, so Taehyung went to join Seokjin as the latter whistled for the dogs to come to him before he put dog food into 3 bowls and the dogs started eating without wasting a second.

T: “Can I help you with something?”

S: “Can you hum for me like in guided meditations so I won’t lose my cool and blow a fuse?”

T: “Uhm, I can try… But what’s wrong?”

S: “Joon is too friendly and generous with people and, if I don’t do something about it, Mr. Cha comes here every goddamned day and chats for 2 hours both in the morning and in the evening. Just look at that. Joon said they’d chat tomorrow and he’s still stuck there… I need a way to retrieve him… Hey, Joon!” Seokjin shouted in Namjoon’s direction. “We’re gonna need chopped wood pretty soon.”

N: “Alright, I’m coming. See you tomorrow, Mr. Cha. Good night!”

Even though Namjoon said “good night”, turned around and ran up to the wood chopping spot, Mr. Cha still hung around for a few minutes, not very eager to leave. When he did leave, the dogs stayed behind.

N: “I know he annoys you, but I can’t just shoo away my neighbor. And, besides, I don’t mind chatting with him.” Namjoon said to Seokjin a while after he started chopping wood for the fire.

S: “And you can do that all you want for the most part, but not when there’s work to be done or when we have guests. You’re basically held hostage in a conversation and, judging by how that conversation was going, he would’ve ended up staying with us until we’d take Taehyung back to the guest house.”

N: “What’s so bad about that?”

S: “Nothing if it happens occasionally. But he would’ve come back and hung around tomorrow too and the next day and so on for the following 2 weeks.”

N: “Man, I never thought you’d have such an antisocial side to you…”

Seokjin just sighed as he finished cleaning the grill with the wire brush and switched to rubbing it with grease. Taehyung didn’t know what to do, neither to dissipate the tension between his friends, nor to help them with preparing for the BBQ, so he thought of some funny stories to tell them and get their minds engaged with something else and restore the good mood.

It had been a struggle to start a fire with moist wood and there were a lot of things Taehyung learned through that process, but by the time the flames were steadily spreading and the fire had produced enough embers to put under the grill and start roasting the meat, the harmony was restored within the couple and the good mood was restored among the 3 of them as they were laughing a lot and apparently competing for who did the weirdest things during childhood.

Taehyung had met Seokjin through Namjoon only a year and a half ago, so he didn’t know until that point that Seokjin came from a relatively rich family and had always had a more than comfortable life. This made it even more stunning that Seokjin had gotten so used to living on a mountain top with very few things at his convenience in such a short time.

Seokjin didn’t find a job as a navigation system tester out of necessity, but out of passion. He had liked traveling and driving around on unfamiliar roads for many years before meeting Namjoon and he got so annoyed with all of the navigation systems he tried that he decided to enter the industry. Currently, he was able to work remote, from any place where he had internet access and his necessary hardware, but eventually he hoped to learn enough to be able to develop a navigation system that was better than the current offer, at least for the national market.

Suddenly it occurred to Taehyung that Seokjin and Namjoon suited each other perfectly, despite occasional disagreements and tension like just recently with the chatty neighbor issue and despite both of them repeatedly claiming that they were very different from each other.

At around 1 a.m., after most of the meat they had grilled settled inside their stomachs, they all got into the car for Seokjin to drive Taehyung back to the guest house. The latter thought he might involuntarily empty his stomach through his mouth at the thought of driving on that road at night, but they got to the asphalted road with no problems and Taehyung let out a sigh of relief.

After locking the door to his room at the guest house, Taehyung decided to sleep with the light on again because he was too worn out to deal with any kind of change or discomfort-inducing context. It had been an eventful day, full of new things and stimulation, and the next day would likely also be like that, starting with meeting Seokjin’s cousin, Jungkook, who had apparently agreed to drive Taehyung up to the hut sometime before noon the following day.

A.N. This is the hut. The fireplace is on the right side of the photo and the water container is on the tree closest to the camera.