It's a schedule free day! Taehyung can't keep still. Which is slightly inconvenient, considering everyone is cramped together in the car enough as it is. Normally they'd use a van, but now the group is doing activities outside their home country, they have to resort to other vehicles.

Taehyung's legs are kicking up a bit and it takes only a couple of seconds for Jeongguk to mimic him happily. Jimin sits in between the two and giggles, bouncing up as his enthusiasm is awoken.

It's silent for the rest and obviously that needs to be solved with songs. Jeongguk starts to hum something and Taehyung joins in. They end up singing trot together while Jimin listens to and looks at them in awe. It only takes a good 5 minutes before something is said about it.

"Kids, can you please, please stop kicking against our seats?"

Taehyung abruptly stops in his part of the duet with Jeongguk and rests his feet on the carpet. "Ah, I'm sorry," Taehyung mumbles. His head hangs a bit and Jimin tries to think of something else to do. The manager is nice to them during the car ride, but his pleading voice still makes the others feel guilty.

Seokjin turns around on the passenger's seat and looks at the people in the backseat. "Hey, the manager didn't say you needed to stop singing." The tone in his voice is pretty neutral, but Jimin sees his face is beaming with positivity. The corners of Seokjin's lips are pressed upwards and he turns around, unashamedly tapping his feet like the rest just did. He seems... excited?

The trio yells happily and Taehyung and Jeongguk continue singing in all pitches they can reach. Jimin looks through the window behind him to see the car that follows them. He spots the person from the staff who offered to drive (Seokjin rather does it but he insisted), that really nice stylist and in the back are Hoseok, Namjoon and Yoongi. They're surrounded by even more backpacks and other luggage than in the maknae line's vehicle. Hoseok and Namjoon are talking animatedly with their arms and even Yoongi looks wide awake.

Jimin sits comfortably again and closes his eyes, enjoying the funny but beautiful singing voices filling his head. He hopes this day will be as fun as the rest keeps telling him it'll be.

"What shops do you want to look for? O-or items? I don't think I have enough money for what I want. Taehyung-ah?" Jimin asks through his mask as he tries to keep up with his best friend's pace. 

"I don't know. I don't know this place," Taehyung replies briefly as he continues walking through a sloping alley. 

Jimin knows he asked kind of a silly question, but he finds himself unable to stay quiet and so he rambles on about anything that comes to mind. He pulls his mask for smog down and talks about the weather, the condition of his body, things he hopes for and everything in sight. Sometimes he nags without wanting it, sometimes he's more positive, but at any rate, he keeps going on. It happens more often. The rest of the group doesn't react a lot and just lets him be as he skips across the tiles.

He spots a cute looking building in the distance at the end of the alley, where it crosses with a more crowded street. The building looks a bit older than the ones next to it, but it's still well maintained. There is a sign above the door, but he can't make out the icon on it. What kind of place would it be? Maybe some strange vintage store. Jimin stares at it for a while and takes a couple of steps in that direction, but then realises he's alone.

"Ah- Oh. Wait for me!" Jimin pleads as the others head into a store. A bit panicky, he fastwalks down the alley, for the tiles underneath his feet are too slippery to run now. It isn't until he catches up with his groupmates and the staff, that he sees shoes displayed in the shopwindow and realises it's a shoe store.

Entering it, he sees the others have already scattered across the interior.

"Hmm, it's mostly sneakers," Jimin mumbles as he looks around.

He didn't intend to speak to someone, but Yoongi still reacts. "Thank there's barely any Converse," he grumbles.

Jimin laughs a bit and plants an arm on his back, asking "Ah, hyung, are you thinking of Namjoon's obsession with it?"

Yoongi only grunts something inaudible, removes Jimin's arm by his elbow, and walks away. But Jimin spots a grin on his face and knows he isn't that grumpy.

"Hey."

"Waah!!"

Jimin is startled by Hoseok, who greeted him out of the blue. Hoseok, in return, is scared off by the yell and jumps back even further. 

"H- hyung, what, what were you even doing?" he asks giggly.

Arms wrap around Jimin's waist and they rock from side to side, bodies pulled close. "Nothing! Just saying hello," he says with amusement.

A bit embarrassed about his position and afraid of causing a disturbance in the shop, Jimin tries to push the arms around him away. "Ah, Hobi-hyung," he says with a whine. Not wanting to look around, he keeps his head down as he tries to get a hold of Hoseok's wrist.

But then, he sees something shiny spark in the corner of his field of sight. Raising his chin only slightly, he looks up. Normally he would admire any look his best friend takes on, but now... Now he's just anxious.

"Taetae-ah, what..." he says under his breath.

"Oooh, what's going on," he hears the person behind him say and Jimin finally feels himself being freed. He stumbles forward a bit and looks nervously at his groupmates when he stands straight up again. 

The only one not standing straight is Taehyung. He keeps twirling around, jumps up a few centimeters, stretches his legs when sitting and then gets up again. He moves a lot and the others guide him so that he doesn't bump into a shelf or display. His dark grey jeans are rolled up further than they are by default, to make room for a pair of black heels that come up to a little above the ankles. The material looks polished and glossy, so Jimin draws the conclusion that those heels were what caught his eye.

He thinks his friend looks stunning and he would say something nice, if it weren't for Jimin's suffocated feeling. His chest feels too confined. No, his entire upper body feels tense and it sends heat through his limbs. The inner sides of his hands start to perspire. Jimin knows he's overthinking stuff, but he can't help but to worry: Did Taehyung forget they'd look for feminine clothes together? Did Jimin forget to remind him that this would have to be a secret between the to of them? Jimin swears he told him in the end last night. Or do shoes not fall under the category 'clothes'? He knows Taehyung can be carefree or even careless, but he would never break a promise... right?

"Jimin-ssi, are you okay?"

He snaps out of his thoughts. He sure is absent today?

"...Yeah?"

"Are you okay?"

"Ah. Uhmm. I." Jimin is still looking down to avoid eye contact, though he doesn't want to look at the heels either. He's trying his best to not come off as if he's judging his friend, but he might just be doing exactly that.

Taehyung's hand moves a couple of centimeters forward and Jimin takes one in his own. And then quickly the other one. They swing their joint hands a bit, waiting for Jimin to speak up again.

Jimin's hands are still sweaty and he wonders if his bestie thinks it feels gross, but changes his mind when he feels a squeeze and they intertwine their fingers. He always liked how far apart Taehyung's fingers are, because they offer the perfect spots for Jimin's slightly wider fingers. It feels like a sort of home to them, but one that makes your heart beat incredibly fast in a good way, no matter how many times you stay or return.

He sighs again and draws his hand back, solely to wrap them around the taller one's waist and hold them, palms flat, against his back. Taehyung doesn't laugh loudly, but Jimin can tell his open-mouthed smile from the way his cheek moves against Jimin's.

"Taehyung-ah, you didn't forget our promise, did you?"

The person asked almost moves out of the hug, but he halts. He doesn't want to upset his friend. If one of the two is expressing worry, it only rarely is the dancer. "...From yesterday? No, I didn't."

"The-then how did you- Why did you- uh-" Jimin swalllows and looks down at the heels, hoping Taehyung gets the hint. He feels a bit too confused to develop a finished sentence.

Taehyung takes the hint. "Oh, these shoes?" he asks in an amused tone. His feet shuffle a bit as they both observe them. "Jeonggukie gave them to me. I don't why. But. So I tried them on!"

"Ah... Ahahah!" Jimin sounds a bit dumb-founded at first, but then starts laughing. He can't believe he thought bad of the other.

Jimin draws back a bit, but still holds onto his friend. Similar to last night, fingers are slowly running in circles over his back. He would love to stay like this forever, and he imagines Taehyung to feel the same way. But alas, they're in a shop and they need to leave sometime.

They let go of their bodies and express their best grins to each other. "Sorry for doubting you," Jimin apologises while scratching his own arm, somewhat embarrassed. "Hee hee, it's okay. I forgive you. ...Or won't I??" Taehyung says the latter with a fake-sly expression. Jimin gets in the mood for joking along and lets out an equally fake angry roar as he furrows his eyebrows. "Ohhhh you will!!" he says in a deep voice and Taehyung sprints away, heels still on. Jimin follows him hastily.

Jimin manages to corner him by the wall and there he stops chasing him. Which is just in time; Jimin saw the cashier almost head towards them to send them of the store. 

Just as he want to tell Taehyung to take off his ankle boots, he's already sitting down on a stool and pulling down the zipper of his left boot.

"Are the- they damaged now?" a person asks Taehyung quietly.

Taehyung gasps and looks up from under his bangs. "I don't think so, but..." He quickly takes off his other shoe and inspects the pair, holding it close to his face as he looks at it with wide eyes.

"Nope! It's fine. Did you want me to buy them, Jeonggukie?" he asks and he stands up. With a couple of fingers he holds onto the boots, making them dangle.

Jeongguk shakes his head a couple of times. Jimin thinks the youngest feels the need to talk further, but can't.

"Are you going to buy them??" Hoseok chimes in curiously.

Taehyung seems determined and says a definite "No". He walks around the store, trying to find the spot where the boots came from. With a slight tug on Jeongguk's sleeve, he signals him to help. Jeongguk points to an aisle behind the displays in the store and they quickly find an empty space on a shelf and a box nearby on the ground. Jimin and Taehyung lower themselves on their knees and feet, wrapping paper around the footwear and putting it back in the box carefully.

After everything is put away, the group heads outside the store. Seokjin and Namjoon are the first ones to be standing outside and Hoseok leaves last, for he want to practice his 'goodbye's in his best Mandarin to the cashier. Jimin has the feeling they're not as annoyed with the customers as before.

"Hey, let's go this way," Seokjin speaks as he points at a warehouse and the rest immediately goes in that direction.

Jimin notices they're now passing the cute building he spotted before, but he doesn't dare to protest. What if he ruins other people's joy? So he just follows Taehyung's example and hops downhill to their destination. Seokjin still walks coolly in the front with Bangtan and the staff behind, like a mother duck would lead the way for her little ducklings.

Standing in front of the department store, Jimin swears he can hear something crack when leaning back, trying to look up. This building is huge!

Now that he thinks about it a bit longer, he realises the size of the store is big enough for him and his friend to shop at the women's department without being confronted by their manager, stylist or friends.

He decides to tell Taehyung this. After stepping inside the building and making sure it's crowded enough to not be overheard, Jimin whispers his plan into his friend's ear. "Oh?" Taehyung speaks softly and puts his own hand beside their faces, mirroring Jimin's hand next to his mouth and barricading their conversation from the public. "In this store?" Jimin nods.

The taller one of the pair chuckles in his distinctive low pitch. "Okay, let's go."

They quickly inform the nearest people they see (Hoseok and Namjoon) they'll split from the group. Aside from Hoseok's response ("What? Why, why? Where are you going?") there isn't much resistance to that, and they wander off. There's only food stalls and accessories in the ground floor anyway.

Though it's very crowded, the two aren't worried about losing each other due to it. Jimin suggests they look for a floor plan to get an overview of what stores the warehouse has to offer. They find one, but most of the brands are unreadable or unknown to them. Taehyung opts they just explore the different departments blindly. Jimin doesn't have a better idea and so he just goes with it. They head up the escalators.

On the first floor they see mostly lingerie and sleepwear. They agree that they don't want to look for anything here, so they go up higher. Jimin is scared the cut up sleeves of Taehyung's white sweater will get stuck on the guardrail, but he seems to be doing fine.

On the second floor there's the women's department. Jimin brightens up at that realisation. Looking over his shoulder, Jimin sees his friend get off the escalator and return Jimin's smile.

With his hand protectively on the other singer's back, Jimin makes them both move to make room for people on the escalator.

"Hey, that looks nice!" Taehyung speaks his mind.

He's pointing at a certain clothing rack and Jimin's eyes t