Jungkook and Taehyung arrived at the hut only after Namjoon and Seokjin had eaten lunch, so the fish was left for dinner, which apparently would include another campfire. So the 2 visitors had some soup and Jungkook then went to turn the car around.

However, it had rained during that night and some of the ground was now a puddle of mud in which the wheels skid and couldn’t gain enough traction for Jungkook to push the back of the car onto higher ground. He made several maneuvers but, since the mud was working against him, at one point the car went towards the valley, stopping with its front side right over the edge. Everyone went pale in that moment when Jungkook was about to roll with the car down the slope, but Jungkook didn’t even hesitate in trying to make the car go in reverse again. Seokjin suggested a different tactic for getting the car on higher ground and, after 20 minutes of struggle, the car was parked and turned in a safe way.

Following that ordeal, Seokjin went back to work and the 2 visitors helped Namjoon in clearing up what was left of the abandoned hut and then level the ground in the area in a way which would allow for safer and easier car movement and in which it wouldn’t come undone when the next rain fell.

Namjoon continued to oppose Jungkook riding a cow, but he had talked to the owner of Victor, the grey horse grazing in the area, if he could let his friend ride it for a bit, so he proposed that to Jungkook. When Seokjin came out of the hut to go to the bathroom, he saw Namjoon and Taehyung just watching as Jungkook ran after and alongside Victor all over the nearby slopes. Then, still in the middle of high speed running, Jungkook grabbed onto the mane and jumped on Victor’s back, riding him while letting out excited cheers.

S: “I… suppose a domestic beast is no match for a wild one…”

Victor eventually grew tired, so Jungkook got off and tried petting him, but the horse turned and kicked with its hind legs in Jungkook’s direction with the latter dodging just in time. However, the way he dodged made him lose his balance and start rolling down the slope a few meters.

Evening came and Mr. Cha came for the cows, stopping to chat with Namjoon again, although he had done that for at least half an hour each morning since they arrived. Seokjin wasn’t even hiding how displeased he was. The 3 dogs also came and, since Seokjin just went inside the hut, Taehyung took on the task of feeding them. They stuck around after Mr. Cha finally left, Jungkook had started the campfire and burnt a bit of his sleeve out of carelessness in the process, Seokjin had put the fish, some corn and other stuff on long skewers and placed them near the fire to get roasted.

Because Seokjin was so obviously displeased with Mr. Cha’s presence, Namjoon offered to go with him on part of his way back home, both to deter him from sticking around too much and because he wanted to get something from another neighbor. When he came back, he handed Seokjin an acoustic guitar.

S: “This is what you went to borrow?”

N: “It’s what was missing from our campfires. We had music in the speakers, but it’s not the same.”

S: “You think I remember how to play this?” Seokjin rhetorically asked while testing the guitar and regaining his good mood.

As they cooked the food and ate it, Seokjin proved that he did remember how to play and the accompanying vocals ranged from normal singing to comical screaming. A few hours passed like that and Seokjin only then noticed something that was off:

S: “JK, are you sick?”

J: “Huh? No. Why?”

S: “Why have you been drinking only non-alcoholic beer?”

J: “Oh, I made a deal with Taehyung that I’d only drive while completely sober for the next 3 months.”

S: “Aha… Taehyung, can I hire you for taming purposes?”

When Taehyung and Jungkook were driving back to the guest house, Taehyung remarked:

T: “You… seem a bit on edge tonight. Pun not intended.”

J: “I’m probably going through a bit of withdrawal. And I’m kinda exhausted from resisting an urge.”

T: “Oh… Are you gonna be okay driving in this state?”

J: “Yeah, I just gotta concentrate more than usual… since this is an unusual state for me.”

Taehyung didn’t think he could feel tensed while Jungkook was driving sober and slowly and he genuinely questioned if it was safer with a sober or an intoxicated Jungkook behind the steering wheel.

At the end of the dirt road, Jungkook stopped the car, exhaled the breath he had been holding for a long time and let his forehead fall on the steering wheel.

T: “You… did good.” Taehyung said, for some reason petting the back of Jungkook’s head.

A little while later, Jungkook went back into action and they moved forward on the asphalted road.

J: “This isn’t gonna work out in the long run, not like this anyway. Can I have just 1 beer? Even if it’s a few hours before the drive. 1 beer doesn’t even show up when you blow into the vial.”

T: “Yes, it does, and no, you can’t. Is this how you keep your end of a deal?”

J: “But I’m constantly gonna have to drive around, which means I can’t drink at all during this whole trip except for after we get back to the guest house. It . Can’t we negotiate the terms of this deal?”

T: “Fine. We’ll alternate the days in which we drive. Tomorrow it’ll be my turn, so you can drink then.”

J: “I… thought about suggesting that, but I didn’t think you’d accept… Much less offer it yourself…”

T: “Maybe it’s the cumulated tiredness in me talking… We’ll see if I have the guts for this tomorrow.”

J: “You will. For someone who claims to be scared of nearly everything, I think you have a generous amount of unrevealed guts.”

T: “Speaking of generous amounts, did you just smoke a whole pack of cigarettes in under 2 hours?”

J: “I need to stay focused and alert somehow. Are you gonna nag about this as well?”

T: “I have literally sweated trying to not nag about this until now.”

J: “Oh, boy…”

On Wednesday morning it was raining heavily. It had been an eventful and exhausting set of days and the cumulated tiredness was making its presence known. Taehyung sluggishly exited the hallway of the guest house to go to the store and noticed Jungkook sitting on the terrace, dozing off with a lit cigarette in his right hand. When Taehyung came back from the store, Jungkook was still there, but his head had fallen to the side, his mouth was open and almost letting out snores, the cigarette in his hand had been burned out and the ashes had fallen all over Jungkook’s knees. As he took the cigarette bud from his hand, Taehyung startled Jungkook into waking up, then he dusted the ashes off of his knees and said:

T: “I got us coffee and something to eat. And water. Start drinking more water. I barely ever see you drinking something properly hydrating.”

Jungkook rubbed his eyes and mechanically reached out to take the bottle or water and drink from it.

J: “You’re really caring, Taehyung.”

T: “What brought that on?”

J: “You got me breakfast and coffee again… and water, you help out Jin and Namjoon with a lot of stuff without them even saying anything, you warmed up my hands yesterday… and a bunch of other things.”

T: “Well… at this point it’s reflex, I guess… My immediate family consists of 2 biological, divorced and remarried parents, 2 step parents, 2 little sisters, 1 biological and 1 through mom’s second marriage, 1 older step sister with her husband and daughter, 3 pets and 4 sets of grandparents.  In this complex and ever-evolving environment, I learned that everyone needs an ally. So I learned to look out for when someone needs to be cared for…”

J: “Something wrong?” Jungkook asked because Taehyung suddenly fell silent for a while.

T: “After the divorce I stayed with my mom because she needed all kinds of support and it looked like dad would remarry fairly soon. When mom remarried I didn’t want to leave her and my biological little sister with 2 new family members and then I stuck around till both of the girls went to college at the start of this month. But I also stayed with my dad and that side of the family a lot because I didn’t want to leave him alone either… Then, not long before coming on this trip, I felt like things just suddenly stopped and I had to look around me. And I realized that all the allies I fought alongside with are either settled into a pretty happy life or going off somewhere else to build their lives… And I just felt so alone and aimless… I know I should also move and start building my life, but I just have such a bitter taste in my mouth that won’t go away…”

A few moments of silence later, because he didn’t have anything better to say, Jungkook went with:

J: “I understand now why you don’t want a hookup with me.”

T: “Huh?”

J: “You’re the type to get emotionally invested. But you think that, since a hookup’s probably the most you’re gonna get out of me, it’s not worth that investment. Because you don’t wanna feel abandoned again.”

Taehyung stared at Jungkook before letting out a series of breathy laughs that weren’t caused by amusement. Jungkook had hit the nail on the head on something Taehyung even avoided thinking about. But now that everything was out in the open for both of them, Taehyung wasn’t sure what he was hoping for. Because if Jungkook promised it was gonna be more than a hookup, Taehyung probably wouldn’t believe him given Jungkook’s personality and beliefs. But if Jungkook just left it at that, Taehyung couldn’t deny he’d feel disappointment and regret. Jungkook didn’t say anything else though and, luckily, Taehyung’s phone rang and pulled them out of that atmosphere.

T: “Hey, Joon.”

N: “Hey. Can I ask you to do me a favor? Please.”

T: “Sure. What is it?”

N: “Can you go to the pharmacy in town and check if they have cherry tails tea or cranberry tea? And maybe some meds for kidney pain.”

T: “You’re having kidney pain?” Taehyung asked, setting off without his umbrella towards the pharmacy.

N: “No. Jin is.”

T: “From sitting around the campfire during the very cold evening hours?”

N: “Maybe. Why do you think so?”

T: “I also felt that my lower back was constantly cold even with 5 layers of clothes on me. I’m on my way to the pharmacy right now. Any kind of specific meds I should ask for?”

N: “I’m not sure. We have all kinds of meds with us, just not something for this kind of trouble. I’m about to set off towards the pharmacy too, but I don’t want to leave Jin alone in this state while I make such a long trip and just come back empty-handed. That’s why I wanted to ask you to check if they have what we need first and then go get it.”

T: “Hang on.”

Taehyung reached the pharmacy, but they didn’t have the kinds of teas Namjoon mentioned and neither did they have any meds that Taehyung thought would be good for Seokjin’s current problem, so he informed Namjoon of the situation and declared he would ask Jungkook to borrow the car to go to the next town or the next couple of towns in search for what Seokjin needed.

N: “You wanna drive to the next town? But it’s raining. And you’re not familiar with the road.”

T: “I’ll handle it.” Taehyung declared as he got back to the guest house’s terrace and addressed Jungkook: “Can I borrow the car to go to the next town and find what Jin needs?”

J: “Uh, sure. Here’re the keys.”

T: “Thanks.”

J: “Wait. I’m coming with you.” Jungkook said running after Taehyung still in house slippers.

Before hanging up on Namjoon, Taehyung told him to call Jungkook if he needed anything else or if there was an emergency, since he’d have to focus on driving. Jungkook never imagined he’d witness Taehyung driving with that kind of speed, especially during bad weather, but it wasn’t all that surprising anymore now that he knew Taehyung had guts and a reflex to take care of people.

After buying over 10 items in the next town’s pharmacy, Taehyung told Jungkook to call Namjoon and put him on speaker as they were getting in the car and starting to head back.

T: “How’s Jin doing?”

N: “He’s still in a lot of pain, but he has a work task to finish, so I can’t unglue him from his laptop.”

T: “We’ll be there in an hour or so. I got cranberry, nettle and cherry tails tea. He should be drinking these for a while. Also, since kidney pain is most often caused by urinary tract infections, I got the kind of antibiotics doctors usually recommend before they can learn more about the infection. On that note, whenever Jin’s feeling up for it, we should take him to a hospital where he should get a urine exam and maybe an ultrasound done. Tell him to pee as often as he feels the need to and stay warm. I got him a heat pack for his lower back by the way, but I’m not sure how much that will help if it’s an infection. Also, if there’s blood in his urine, if he gets a high fever or if he starts feeling very weak and nauseous, we’re taking him to a hospital as soon as we arrive up there. Okay?”

N: “Okay, but… even if the situations is like this, don’t rush and drive carefully.”

J: “Aren’t you being a bit too agitated about this?” Jungkook asked after the phone call ended.

T: “Kidney pain is no joke. It can hurt so much you can barely breathe. And if the causes behind it are left untreated, it can even lead to one or both kidneys shutting down. Urinary tract infections are way more common in women than in men and almost all of the women in my family suffered from this at some point. My older step sister had really nasty trouble with this while she was pregnant and my mom was stuck in a hospital for days ‘cause of dehydration. Jin’s stuck on that mountain top with Namjoon who can’t dive, so I’m thinking of letting you drive back to the guest house while I stay with them overnight.”

J: “Hey, I’m staying overnight too. In case there’s an emergency, I wanna help. But you should stop being so agitated. Whatever the situation, Jin’s kidneys won’t shut down in the next 24 hours. But if you keep driving in this weather without calming down a bit, we might have an accident. And then we’ll be causing Jin and Namjoon even more trouble instead of helping.”

Jungkook was ready to forcibly stop the car and take over driving it if Taehyung didn’t calm down even after that, but luckily what Jungkook had said managed to get Taehyung to force himself into a calmer state.

About an hour later, they reached the hut and Taehyung left the parking to Jungkook as he sprinted out of the car with the bag of items from the pharmacy to get to Seokjin faster. The sick person was still working and Namjoon watched Seokjin get a taste of his own medicine, along with the actual medicine, as Taehyung scolded and nagged at Seokjin like there was no tomorrow. Seokjin fought back, arguing that he still had to work and it was just some temporary pain, but then Taehyung said:

T: “If you don’t start prioritizing your own wellbeing over other things right now, then you have no right to call Jungkook reckless anymore!”

That sealed the deal, so Seokjin set his work aside and did everything Taehyung told him to do. Eventually the pain lessened and, fortunately, the only other symptom was a mild fever. Seokjin felt well enough to embark on a long and bumpy ride, so Jungkook suggested that they all go to the guest house before it got dark because, that way, it was faster to take Seokjin to a hospital that night in case of an emergency, it was faster to take him to a hospital for examinations the following morning and Seokjin as well as Namjoon could take their first proper shower in days in the private bathrooms Jungkook’s and Taehyung’s rented rooms offered. After Jungkook had driven them to the guest house, somehow it was decided that Seokjin would stay with Taehyung and Namjoon with Jungkook. Probably because Seokjin was now listening to Taehyung…

A.N. This is Victor, the horse. Actual name also Victor :D