On Sunday morning, Taehyung was talking to Seokjin on the phone, the latter giving him some information for finding and identifying Jungkook and his rented off road vehicle. Taehyung wasn’t really keen on having a stranger drive him to and from the hut every day, so he was reconsidering Seokjin’s and Namjoon’s offer about sleeping on the floor of their hut on an inflatable mattress. But, for that, he needed updates on the situation with the mice, so he was asking Seokjin about it as he was stepping out of his room at the guest house.

T: “So you’re saying you haven’t seen even one RAT?!”

Taehyung yelled that last word and jumped back as he was startled by another guy coming out of the room on the opposite side of the hallway from where his was. The other guy only heard that last word yelled in his direction and glared at Taehyung before locking his room and exiting the hallway, because it had sounded like Taehyung thought of him as and called him a rat. Because Taehyung looked startled and not like he wanted to start a confrontation, the other guy let it go without saying anything. Taehyung also realized that he involuntarily offended the guy staying in the room across from his and thought he should apologize if they’d see each other again.

After exiting the guest house, Taehyung searched for a black off road vehicle on the opposite side of the street and, when he located it, he closed his eyes and mentally face-palmed because the one placing his backpack on the backseat of that vehicle was none other than the guy he had accidentally called a rat.

T: “Uhm, hi! Are you Jungkook?” Taehyung hesitatingly asked as he approached the vehicle while the other guy was still outside, making the latter turn towards him, raise his eyebrows, then bring them together as he glared at Taehyung for a few seconds before replying with the driest of tones:

J: “Hop in.”

This was off to a great start…

T: “I’m Taehyung and, by the way, I’m sorry about earlier. It was a misunderstanding.” Taehyung said, holding out his hand to shake Jungkook’s after they both got inside the car.

After a moment of thought, Jungkook shook Taehyung’s hand and it was such a firm handshake that it made Taehyung intimidated and made him start rambling as they were securing their seatbelts.

T: “When I said “rat”, it wasn’t directed at you. I was talking to Jin on the phone about their situation with rodents and that word came out louder than the rest when I got startled by someone coming out of the room across from mine that I thought was unoccupied. And it wasn’t intentional, but sorry again.”

J: “Okay. Whatever.” Jungkook dryly replied while checking something on his phone. “Jin’s location sharing didn’t work properly and placed them 1 kilometer away from here, but he told me the road is around 5 kilometers long and uphill. There are no signs on the road and I didn’t understand all the instructions he gave me properly, so I’ll be counting on you to tell me the way.”

Taehyung couldn’t remember the way exactly, but he was afraid of admitting that to Jungkook.

T: “Well, from the guest house, we went in this direction.”

J: “That part I can tell from the shared location.”

Taehyung started wondering if Jungkook was usually a grumpy jerk or if he was just in a bad mood, but he didn’t get the chance to develop such thoughts because his mind froze when saw and felt the abruptness with which Jungkook pulled out of the parking space and got onto the road. His mind started working again just after they zoomed past the intersection where they were supposed to turn right.

T: “We had to take a right turn back there.”

Jungkook abruptly stopped the car and then, instead of going forward till he found a place where he could properly turn the car around, he shifted gears, looked through the back window and started setting the car in motion in reverse. Even if the road was empty, that was still illegal.

J: “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

T: “I didn’t think we’d reach that point so fast.” Taehyung tried throwing a subtle jab at Jungkook’s speeding.

J: “You sure you know the way?”

T: “Yes.” Taehyung lied for some reason unknown even to him.

When they took a right turn and they were going in a legal direction again, Taehyung didn’t know whether to relax or stay more alert than ever because the speeding started again and it made him so on edge that he wanted to tell Jungkook to stop the car and let him go on foot.

J: “Which way?” Jungkook asked as they were nearing a crossroads.

T: “Left.” Taehyung answered acting confidently because he didn’t want to seem uncertain and nervous in front of a guy that was steadily making him mad.

The asphalted road ended and Taehyung was unexpectedly happy to enter that dreadful dirt road section because it meant that Jungkook would have to drive slower. That happiness was short lived however, since Jungkook still used more speed than Seokjin did even on this kind of road. The car was shaking uncontrollably and Taehyung was aggressively jolted in all directions enough to make him dizzy. But he was still fine until he made the mistake of looking out the window towards the right side, where the edge of the road was so close to the car wheels that it wasn’t visible, the alarmingly steep slope stretched out beneath them and the deep valley reminded Taehyung from how high they could fall.

T: “Please drive more carefully…” Taehyung let out in a weak voice.

J: “You scared or something?”

T: “YES!”

Jungkook peeked towards Taehyung and saw him holding his palms against his temples, blankly staring at his knees and possibly shaking. Taehyung was trying to keep himself from spiraling into a panic attack, so he downright admitted how scared he was, even if Jungkook would only mock him in response.

J: “There’s not much I can do differently though. If I don’t give it gas, I can’t advance uphill or get out of the holes. But it’s fine. We’re not gonna fall. And I’m starting to get used to this road.”

So not only did Jungkook not mock Taehyung for being scared, he also slowed down a bit. Just a little bit. So was Jungkook a bit more than a grumpy and dangerously reckless jerk?

Luckily, Taehyung remembered all the turns right and, by some miracle maybe, they made it to the hut intact. Taehyung couldn’t get out of the car at the same time as Jungkook because he felt his soul trying to get out of his body, so he needed to sink back into the car seat for a bit and just breathe.

S: “Ay! Look at you still alive and all that! I’m so proud.” Seokjin cheerfully came to great his cousin.

J: “Well you look like there’s less and less of you each time I see you.” Jungkook also cheerfully went up to greet Seokjin before they initiated a handshake that involved hitting and looked to Taehyung as if the two were fighting on a clap-clap rhythm.

S: “I’m not just loosing fat, you know? I’m also gaining muscle.”

J: “Where? On your tongue?”

S: “Let me show you where.” Seokjin said as he playfully pulled Jungkook into a headlock.

J: “Let me go and I’ll compliment you.”

S: “Alright. Let’s hear it.” Seokjin accepted, letting go of Jungkook before the latter cleared his voice.

J: “You’re also looking younger than usual.”

S: “Pff! To you, I’ve been looking old since I was 14. Complement denied.”

Meanwhile, Namjoon also came up to greet Jungkook and Taehyung got out of the car to slowly approach them, but he was too stunned by how cute Jungkook could look while he was laughing and being cheerful.

S: “Hey, Taehyung! Any permanent mental scarring or just temporary?” Seokjin asked as he came up to Taehyung to shake hands with him, but the latter was still dazed and replied with:

T: “Huh? What?”

S: “I did warn you that JK’s a daredevil driver. Given how tensed you get with things like that, I was sure you were gonna pull the manual break and come up the rest of the way on foot.”

Taehyung didn’t know how, but somehow Seokjin’s warning about Jungkook completely slipped his mind until that moment. Then he remembered Jungkook was supposed to be his driver 2 times per day, each day for the following 2 weeks.

T: “I… I need to go sit down for a bit…”

As Taehyung went to regain his calmness by sitting on the ground and watching the cows lazily graze, Namjoon and Seokjin showed Jungkook around the area, like they had done with Taehyung the day before. After a while, Seokjin showed Jungkook the area where Namjoon had leveled the ground that morning so that Seokjin could safely move his car further uphill and leave his regular parking space for Jungkook’s rented car. Then Seokjin instructed his cousin on how he should park there and urged him to turn the car around now. Taehyung was pulled out of his dazed state by the sound of wheels screeching against the dirt. He looked over and saw Jungkook park his car the way that Seokjin had previously done, but with way less careful movements, and thought that the stress caused by seeing Jungkook at the steering wheel might make him take up smoking during that trip.

J: “What’s up with this shabby shed?” Jungkook asked after getting out of the parked car, referring to the abandoned and old hut. “Parking and turning’s a real pain ‘cause of it. Can’t you tear it down?”

N: “I can, even though it’ll take some time. But since Jin, uhm… gently insisted that I make this a priority, I got a written agreement for taking it down and I was planning to start tomorrow. Taehyung already agreed to help. Would you also want to give us a hand?”

J: “Yeah, sure. But is it really haunted, like Jin said?”

N: “No. Jin just likes joking about that. The screeching and cracking noises are from the rotting wood reacting to changes in temperature and humidity.”

J: “Oh. Too bad…”

N: “Wait! Hold up!” Namjoon shouted, stopping Jungkook with his hand on the door before he could open in to go inside and explore. “It may not be haunted, but it sure as hell is dangerous. The decaying roof could cave in at the slightest movement, trapping you underneath, and I have no idea what else is inside and could fall on you. You may not die, but the nearest hospital is more than an hour’s drive from here and you don’t wanna go down this bumpy road with an open fracture or some other serious injury. So we’re not touching this hut until after I bring down its roof, okay?”

J: “Fine…” Jungkook let out after clicking his tongue.

Not very long after that, Namjoon went across the valley to get fresh cow milk from Mr. Yang. He thought Jungkook would definitely want to join him and explore the area on foot more, but he said he will do that some other day. Seokjin got busy with rearranging a few things in a more efficient way inside the hut, Taehyung went outside to go to the bathroom, which in this case consisted of whatever spot you could find that wouldn’t make you easily lose your footing and wasn’t too near the hut, and Jungkook stepped outside to smoke a cigarette while taking in the view.

However, while Taehyung was coming back from doing his business, he saw Jungkook looking around and seemingly thinking no one was looking at him, throw his still lit cigarette into the fireplace, go up to the abandoned hut, turn on the flashlight function of his phone, open the door and go inside.

Taehyung couldn’t decide whether to yell at Jungkook to stop or yell at Seokjin to come stop Jungkook, so he just marched towards the abandoned hut until he heard a loud crack and:

J: “AU!”

The wood-cracking noise and the pain-induced cry Jungkook let out from inside the abandoned hut was followed by dozens of mice storming out from under the hut in all directions. The sight of so many mice running everywhere, even past his feet, made Taehyung feel faint, but then he remembered Jungkook was probably hurt, so he rushed towards the entrance of the hut.

T: “Jungkook! Are you alright?”

J: “Yeah. Just... kinda stuck.”

With the light coming from the flashlight of Jungkook’s phone, Taehyung could tell that Jungkook’s right foot went through the decayed wooden flooring, cracking it open and scaring the mice that had fled from the scene, and now his leg was stuck between the cracked floorboards, making it difficult to pull his leg back up without getting it severely scratched.

Jungkook was trying to figure out how to get his leg out with minimum damage while Taehyung remembered that the biggest danger was the roof caving in. So, even if more movement than necessary was really dangerous, Taehyung stepped inside with his own phone flashlight , went up to where Jungkook was and carefully picked out which boards he would place his feet on before holding his phone with his teeth and grabbing a cracked floorboard with both hands to pull it up enough for Jungkook to take his leg out without hurting himself even more.

S: “What are you two doing?! What happened?!” Seokjin yelled from the entrance where he arrived a few moments after Taehyung had entered and where he wondered if it’d be better to go inside and help or stay outside and help the other two out if the roof ended up caving in.

J: “It’s fine. Nothing much happened.” Jungkook said after his leg was free again.

S: “Get out here right now! But do it slowly!”

J: “Don’t panic, will’ya? I said it’s fine.”

T: “Let’s get out of here, please…” Taehyung whispered, grabbing onto Jungkook with shaky hands while the rest of him was frozen stiff in a semi-bent position.

J: “Okay. Hold onto me.”

Both of them moved carefully until they got out of the hut, Jungkook choosing to step carefully instead of leisurely strutting outside more for Taehyung’s sake than for his own.

S: “Oh God! Look at your leg! Why did you go in there? Come with me! We need to clean it! Now!”

While Seokjin pulled Jungkook to where the water container and faucet were, Taehyung took a few more wobbly steps, then planted his on the ground and his head between his hands trying to calm down. As Seokjin was nagging and washing Jungkook’s leg, getting rid of the shoe and sock that were covered in something disgusting, Jungkook kept glancing over towards Taehyung and eventually asked:

J: “Is he okay?”

S: “Taehyung, are you okay?” Seokjin yelled towards Taehyung.

T: “I’m okay.” Taehyung yelled back. “I just need to calm down.”

S: “Good. One injured idiot’s all I can handle at the moment…” Seokjin mumbled to himself. “I knew you’d be stupid and reckless enough to not resist going in there, but I never imagined he would…. What on earth possessed him to act so out of character…”

J: “He came inside to help me get unstuck.”

S: “Oh. I see. That explains it. My bad for misjudging him and the situation.”

J: “Is he a coward?”

S: “I wouldn’t use such negative terminology. He just gets anxious and afraid more than the average person.”

J: “Then I don’t understand. Why did he come in to help me if he was so afraid?”

S: “Because you were hurt, stuck and in danger of the roof falling on you at any moment. When people are hyperaware of the risks, they become scared. When people face those risks they’re afraid of because the situation calls for them to step up and intervene, it’s called courage. Do you understand the difference between courage and recklessness, my 3 year old that needs to be kept on a leash?” Seokjin asked, flicking Jungkook’s forehead before dragging him into the hut to apply disinfectant on the wound, check for rodent bites and cover the leg up in bandages.

Still outside, Taehyung didn’t move for quite a while or even open his eyes. When he did, he saw a mouse near his feet and jumped into standing position without letting out a sound. The mouse ran towards the valley and Taehyung ran towards the hut, stopping at the entrance with a face as pale as the moon. Jungkook, who was sitting on the bed only in boxers from the waist down, and Seokjin, who kept Jungkook’s injured leg on his knee as he started wrapping the bandages, looked at him puzzled.

S: “Something wrong?”

T: “Your mouse-related troubles might not be over yet.”

S: “We’ll get better poisonous bait next time we go into town.”

T: “Should I go bring something inside so it doesn’t get chewed on?”

S: “Nah, don’t worry. Grab a beer if you want and just chill. I’ll get started on lunch after I finish playing nurse for this troublemaker cousin of mine. Speaking of which…” Seokjin started before he grabbed Jungkook’s cheeks and glared at him. “Tomorrow morning you’re driving yourself to the E.R. in the next town and you’re getting this wound properly checked. And if you feel anything weird in your leg today, you have to tell me and I’ll drive you there immediately. Understood?”

J: “It’s just a freaking scratch. What’s the big deal? And I don’t wanna go to the E.R. in the next town tomorrow morning. I promised to bring Taehyung up here and I promised Namjoon to help him take down that rotten hut.”

S: “And I promised your parents I wouldn’t let you die on my watch. But it’s getting more and more difficult each time…”

J: “Oh, come on…”

S: “Don’t “come on” me! It wouldn’t hurt you to be a bit more prudent. Quite the contrary! And you just narrowly avoided having your organs sold on the black market last month…”

J: “That wasn’t my fault!”

Jungkook then locked eyes with Taehyung who just managed to avoid chocking on his beer when he heard what Seokjin said and, for some reason, Jungkook felt the need to repeat:

J: “That wasn’t my fault. Really!”

A.N. This is the old and abandoned hut. As you can see, it really did make parking and turning the car an adventure each time.