Chapter Text
“I think we took a right from here.”
“No, I am 200% sure we took a left.”
“Why don’t we take a look in the GPS?"
“The car’s GPS doesn’t work. You know it right?”
“I meant on our phone, you idiot.”
“Oh. Right... I would still advise against it.”
“And why is that so?”
“Because you are the shittiest navigator, Jungkook. A baboon would be able to find the correct route on GPS, but with you, we will just wind up somewhere in a ditch.”
Jungkook scowled in Jimin’s direction. “I happen to be an excellent driver.”
“I didn’t comment on your driving skills. I am talking about your navigation skills,” Jimin muttered. “Well then, you find the way out, if you are so good at it,” Jungkook retorted, pulling the car on the curb, and folding his hands.
Jimin sighed. “Whatever. Give me your phone.”
“What’s wrong with your phone?”
“Low battery. Now hand it over,” Jimin explained.
Jungkook pulled his phone out from his back pocket and passed it to Jimin. He watched Jimin enter the password and open the navigation app. Jimin put the phone between the two of them.
“See, we entered from here,” Jimin said, pointing at a spot on the screen, “and then we took a left. Straight from there and there was another left and then…”
“And then we made the mistake of asking people for directions,” Jungkook finished.
“Yeah,” Jimin sighed miserably. He switched off the phone and leaned back in his seat. “What do we do now? There’s no one in sight too.”
Jungkook mirrored Jimin and leaned back in his own seat. Then, remembering something, he reached to where their sacks were thrown haphazardly on the back seat. He opened his sack and pulled out two bags of chips and two cans of coke, threw one of each into Jimin’s lap and stashed the bag behind.
“Thanks,” Jimin smiled, opening his coke. Jimin gulped down his drink, too thirsty to ponder over their situation at the moment.
“There’s one more inside the bag,” Jungkook said, mouth full of chips, pointing at his sack behind.
“How many times I have told you not to talk with mouth full? It’s not impressive,” Jimin chastised, wiping his mouth and crushing his now empty can. Jimin opened his bag of chips, and started eating it slowly.
“And whom do I have to impress anyway?”
Jimin shrugged, concentrating on his chips. Silence fell between them, except the crinkling sound of the plastic bag and the noise they made as they ate the chips.
“Anyway, I am sorry,” Jungkook murmured, looking out of the window, once he was finished.
“What for?” Jimin inquired, reaching behind and pulling Jungkook’s bag and fishing for the other can of coke.
“It was me who suggested going downtown. And here we are. Lost,” Jungkook admitted.
Now it wasn’t like Jungkook and Jimin hadn’t gotten in trouble before. They had their fair share of troubles together. Jimin was usually the brains behind the ruckus and Jungkook was the acting figure. Jimin’s wild schemes of trying and voicing new things and Jungkook’s never ending excitement and energy to act upon them out were a bad combination.
There was a time when both of them had wanted to crash a wedding and see how it works out. They had both rented old suits for fun and crashed a wedding looking like perfect gentlemen. If any side of the wedding party asked whom they were with, they were to say that they were with the opposite party. It had been going well until this one girl happened to listen to them saying they were with the groom and she told them she remembered them telling her friend that they were with the bride. They had to hastily make up a few lies and sneak out before anyone could get suspicious of them. Jungkook had resented the girl because they hadn’t had the chance to eat dinner.
Or the other time when Jungkook and Jimin planned to visit the cemetery at midnight and spend the night there. They had almost succeeded and had even sneaked out of the house, but Jimin’s mother had happened to spot the pair as they were entering the cemetery at midnight while she was driving past the road. Their monthly allowances had been taken away and Jimin’s mother threatened that should she find them again out of the house at night, they could say goodbye to allowances forever.
Another time, when they both had been in Busan to visit Jimin’s grandmother, the pair had spontaneously decided to go cliff diving, without anyone having any knowledge of it. It ended rather horrifically. Despite Jimin being a good swimmer, he had almost drowned due to the water currents being very strong. Jungkook had somehow managed to pull Jimin out and the latter had gotten a violent cold and fever. They told at home that they had spent too much time in the waters while their visit to the beach and had gotten away with a mild scolding, otherwise both were pretty sure that they would’ve been disowned by the family.
Despite there being multiple incidences, they continued to try out absurd things, except trying things which put their life potentially in danger, like cliff diving.
Jimin snorted. “Like I didn’t want to go downtown myself. It’s okay Kookie, don’t blame yourself. We both have had quite the adventure for ourselves, haven’t we?”
Jungkook turned towards Jimin and grinned, “Three hours in this part of the town and I have learned my lesson. We should stick to being good kids and roam inside the city. Downtown isn’t for us. We should look for trouble in the city itself. Some of the kids here seemed shady to me. And there aren’t many people here anyway. Actually, the whole place seems shady to me. Did you see how more than half of the shops were closed?”
“I know. The whole scene looked straight out of a movie. I admit I was a bit thrilled, but not so much when I saw the kind of people roaming around here. Did you see how that guy looked at us when we asked for the way? Looked at us as if we were fresh meat. I am sure something would’ve happened if you hadn’t pretended to know the way and started driving immediately,” Jimin recalled.
“I know. I was shit scared. I almost promised God I wouldn’t play Mario Kart continuously if I got out of the situation safely. Never mind that. We don’t know the way out. What do we do now?” Jungkook questioned, head cocked quizzically.
“I really don’t -” Jimin started when both of them heard noises. Before both of them could even turn to see what made the noise, the back doors of the car opened and two guys climbed in.
“What the...”Jungkook exclaimed, turning around to look at the intruders.
There were two guys. In the backseat. Of his car. Did he mention they were intruders?
“Drive, just fucking drive,” the taller of the two boys gasped, breathless, hitting the back of Jungkook’s seat, glancing behind him through the rear glass. He had a very deep and rough voice, attractive. Very attractive. The other guy was also looking behind from the car’s window. Both of them were breathing heavily, not paying attention to where they were or the fact that they had just entered a stranger’s car.
Jungkook was stunned. There were two intruders in the car. Two intruders. And did one of them just ask Jungkook to drive the car?? He looked at Jimin who was looking equally perplexed, jaw wide open and staring at the two newcomers.
Jungkook got to his senses first. “Get out,” Jungkook snapped.
The taller of the two boys, the one with the attractive voice, turned back, facing Jungkook. “Or what? You’ll scream? That’ll just attract unwanted attention and scenes.” The boy didn’t wait for Jungkook’s reply, and glanced back again.
“Oh shit. No. Fuck fuck fuck.”
Both intruders turned their attention back to Jungkook.
“Just fucking drive will you?” the boy pleaded, sliding low in his seat, as if not wanting to be spotted. Jungkook almost said ‘yes’ because the stranger was extremely gorgeous and that rough voice was pleading to him. Fuck. That was irresistible. Jungkook mentally shook his head.
“No,” Jungkook said, trying to sound firm. He didn’t want the two intruders to know that he was scared out of his wits. Both him and Jimin were in the unscrupulous part of the town and two strangers get inside and expect him to drive? Jungkook’s heart was racing. Before Jungkook could say anything further, the short mint-haired guy, pulled Jungkook by his t-shirt.
“Look,” he hissed.
Jungkook and Jimin both looked back. Around 10-12 people, the better term would be a ‘gang’, came around the corner, each holding long baseball bats, making a racket and hollering.
Mr. Mint Hair leaned back in his seat. “You don’t want to drive? Don’t drive. Once they spot us in this car, they’ll trash the whole car, not to mention what will happen to you…” the guy retorted coolly.
The taller boy slapped the other boy’s arm, sliding even lower in his seat. “You have some way of asking for help, asshole.” He turned towards Jungkook pleading, “Drive, just please drive.”
Jungkook turned towards Jimin, who seemed to come back to his senses and muttered, “Drive. Quickly.”
Jungkook cursed inwardly and revved the engine. He hit the accelerator and started driving. Besides him, Jimin was holding on to his seat for dear life, his knuckles white. Jimin glanced at him from the corner of his eyes as if asking ‘what had they gotten themselves into?’
“I don’t know the way out,” Jungkook warned, speeding up a bit.
“Take a right from here,” Mr. Mint Hair commanded. Jungkook promptly took a right and then wondered if it was the right thing to do. What if these guys were leading him even more inside the maze?
“You guys are lost here?” Mr.Attractive Voice asked, leaning back in his seat, now visibly relaxed.
“Yeah,” Jungkook muttered, hand clenched tightly on the steering wheel. He could’ve said no, but he had already revealed that he didn’t know the way. Plus he kind of needed the way out or he and Jimin would forever be lost in this hell hole. Not that he trusted Mr. Mint Hair and Mr. Attractive Voice. He was mentally thinking of all the items he had in his bag and which ones he could use as a weapon in case these two guys were some gang members or something. If it came down to it, he would physically fight them, although it would be a shame to punch that attractive face. Not that he knew how to fight. But the others needn’t know that.
“Hmmm. You kids shouldn’t be here at all. It’s not a good place. You might meet bad people,” Mr.Attractive Voice mused.
“Are you fucking serious?” Jungkook asked, incredulous. He stared at the guy from the rear view mirror. “What a fucking ironic statement,” Jungkook snapped. He turned his attention back to the road, for the guy was too gorgeous for Jungkook to handle and also because Mr. Mint Hair had asked him to take a left and he didn’t want to crash into a pole or a wall.
“Hey! Please. We are not the bad guys. The other guys were. We just needed help to run away and your car was standing right there as if God was personally waiting to escort us out of that hell hole.”
Jungkook snorted and glanced at Jimin, whose lips were twitching, either due to irritation or amusement at Mr.Attractive’s metaphor for the situation.
“Where are you heading anyway?” Mr. Attractive Voice inquired, patting his pockets.
Did the guy have a gun? Jungkook clutched the hand on the steering wheel a bit tighter as he stared at Mr. Attractive Voice. Maybe he could ram the backside of the car in case the guy did have a gun.
“Aha!” Mr. Attractive Voice exclaimed, pulling out a half eaten packet of gummy bears, smiling widely. Jungkook breathed a sigh of relief and focused on the road ahead. His eyes kept on flitting to the two intruders and looking for anything suspicious. Well, their whole presence was suspicious. Jungkook watched Mr. Attractive Voice stuff his mouth with gummy bears and offer few to his friend/partner/ whatever. Mr. Mint Hair threw him such a look that Jungkook would’ve buried himself into the ground alive and stopped his breathing willingly instead of being the one under that gaze. Mr. Attractive Voice however seemed unfazed and shrugged and continued eating.
“Anyway, I asked, where are you heading?” Mr. Attractive asked again.
“And why the fuck would we tell you that?” Jimin retorted coolly.
Mr. Attractive Voice shrugged. “Jeez. I asked because I wanted to know if you are heading to the same direction we want to go. Calm down. Could you drop us at Konkuk University Street? Or is it away from your destination?” Mr. Attractive voice questioned with mouth full of gummy bears.
Jungkook looked at Jimin from the corner of his eyes. Jimin nodded infinitesimally.
“Fine,” Jungkook muttered, finally emerging into the main street.
Jimin sighed audibly, relieved to get out the area, though not entirely, due to certain two people. Mr. Mint Hair gave Jimin chills. He had a poker face, which made it difficult to know what he was exactly thinking. There was something in that bored expression of his, but his eyes were unusually sharp and alert. Jimin prayed to God that the intruders weren’t some kind of psychopaths or kidnappers. He didn’t want to die soon. He mentally recalled how to throw punches from a video he and Jungkook had been watching late at night one day because they couldn’t sleep. Then again, looking at the other intruder, Jimin was slightly convinced that these guys couldn’t be kidnappers because Mr. Mint Hair’s partner was busy sorting out the red gummy bears from the green ones and eating them alternatively.
“So what are your names? What do you kids do? How come you were in such part of the town? Don’t kids have curfews anymore? It’s rather late.”
Before either Jungkook or Jimin to open their mouths to respond, Mr. Mint Hair slapped Mr. Attractive Voice on the back of his head. “You are a kid yourself, shut the fuck up. And why the fuck would they answer your questions? Shut the fuck up and sit back and thank them for getting us out of that mess, you little shit.”
“But-”
“One more word out of your mouth and I swear to God your mother will know it was you and not Soonshim who broke the china vase.”
Jungkook and Jimin burst out laughing as Mr. Attractive Voice visibly paled. The fact that this guy was terrified of his mother was proof enough that these guys were no kidnappers or serial killers and this information placated Jungkook and Jimin immensely. Mr. Attractive Voice immediately shut up and Jungkook grinned. He saw Jimin equally relaxed by his side, grinning and occasionally glancing at the intruders.
Jungkook speeded up as the sun had already set down. Jungkook spared a glance behind after some time for it was quiet back there and was surprised to see Mr. Mint Hair dozing off while the other silently stared out of the window at the passing imagery. Besides him, Jimin gave a huge yawn and look tired.
After another ten minutes or so, Jungkook pulled up on the side as they reached their destination and turned around. Mr. Attractive Voice looked blankly at him. Jungkook raised his eyebrows and jerked his head, signaling the other to get out. Mr. Attractive Voice kicked his friend awake, ignoring the death stare which followed, and got out of the car along with his friend. Jungkook started to rev the engine when he felt someone knock on his window.
Jungkook lowered his window and Mr. Attractive Voice leaned inside. “Do you have a pen?”
Jungkook sighed, contemplated closing the window and driving away, but instead opened the glove compartment, patting around to see if a pen was lying around. He pulled a pen and handed it over to Mr. Attractive Voice.
“I hope it doesn’t tickle,” Mr. Attractive Voice smiled and suddenly Jungkook felt a large hand encompassing his. Mr. Attractive Voice was scribbling something on to his hand, still smiling. Jungkook tried not to squirm as the pen tickled slightly. He watched the other intruder standing just behind him, and looking as curious as Jungkook was, as to what his friend was writing. Jimin, who had been silent the whole time, leaned in his seat to watch.
“That’s my name on top and my number. That’s his name,” Mr. Attractive Voice jerked his head in his friend’s direction, “and his number. Thank you very much for saving our asses today, or we would’ve surely died. I am broke as hell to pay you both for the ride, so if you ever need anything, call any of us on these numbers. We owe you guys one favour each.”
Mr. Attractive Voice turned around and watched his friend scowling at him. He raised his eyebrows and Mr. Mint Hair turned, stared at Jungkook and Jimin for a beat and then muttered a “Thank you,” very quietly, and Jungkook wondered if he was sincere or just saying it because his friend asked him to do so.
“You are welcome but I don’t really think I want to see either of you ever again nor I would’ve any favours to ask from either of you,” Jungkook said sweetly, smiling at the intruders standing outside.
“I wouldn’t be so sure of it,” Mr. Attractive Voice laughed, ignoring Jungkook’s bitchy reply. “I said ‘if’, so the offer is conditional. ‘If’ you need any favour, we shall comply, as long as it is in our limits. And maybe you might not need any favour but your friend might.”
“I am positive even he wouldn’t want to see either of you ever again or ask any favour,” Jungkook continued, still smiling.
Mr.Attractive Voice leaned so close to Jungkook’s face that Jungkook had to lean back to look at him fully. “Then maybe I want to see you again,” Mr. Attractive Voice murmured, smirking slightly, and then winked.
Jungkook’s mind went completely blank. He was so flabbergasted that he couldn’t even form a rational thought, much less have a comeback. By the time Jungkook came to his senses, Mr. Attractive Voice had already walked away 20 steps, his hand on his friend’s shoulder.
Jungkook shut his mouth. He was so busy watching the retreating figures that he didn’t notice Jimin leaning forward and taking Jungkook’s hand in his own.
“Kim Tae Hyung and Min Yoon Gi,” Jimin murmured, reading the names out aloud. Jungkook had almost forgotten about the names.
Tae Hyung. So that’s what Mr. Attractive Voice’s name was. Attractive Voice and Attractive name. Jungkook glanced out, but Taehyung and Yoongi had already disappeared in the night.
“That was quite something,” Jimin said, nudging Jungkook.
Jungkook looked at Jimin blankly, not quite over Taehyung’s words, “Yeah, that was something.”
“He was very cute. I ship you guys,” Jimin laughed.
“Excuse me?” Jungkook choked.
“I know you liked him. You were staring at him quite a lot. A lot actually,” Jimin corrected.
“Bullshit. I wasn’t,” Jungkook muttered, averting his eyes from Jimin’s, fiddling with the keys.
“Bitch please, you weren’t even watching the road half of the time. I was afraid we were going to get into an accident because your eyes were glued to the mirror. You were literally making heart eyes at him half of the time. It was sickening,” Jimin snickered.
“I wasn’t!! I wasn’t looking at him. I was making sure they weren’t dangerous or something” Jungkook argued.
“Sure you were,” Jimin snorted.
“I was. Why are we even arguing about it? I don’t want to talk about this,” Jungkook muttered, turning around to start the car.
“Because someone has a cruuuuush,” Jimin trilled.
“I do not have a crush on Kim Tae Hyung!!” Jungkook exasperated, yet feeling heat creep up his neck and cheeks as he turned the engine on.
Jimin laughed. “First name basis already?! Lord. You are fast. Hey, trying saying that without blushing and then maybe I will believe you.”
Jungkook turned around, stared at Jimin, contemplated beating the shit out of him and tossing him on the street. He sighed and muttered a ‘fuck you’ to Jimin and started driving instead, remembering that it wasn’t worth it getting their asses whopped if they arrived home late.
Late at night, Jimin came into his room as Jungkook was smashing Mario Kart. He was almost there, almost there to the finish line when Jimin threw Jungkook’s controller aside and took his hand again, and began typing something in his phone.
“Jimin!! I was almost there!!” Jungkook yelled, trying to wrench his hand away and attempting to swing at Jimin with his other hand.
“Relax! You always win. No need to be a cry baby” Jimin replied, unfazed, still typing, concentrating in his phone.
Jungkook fumed, then curiously peered into Jimin’s phone, “What are you doing?” “Saving Yoongi’s and Taehyung’s number,” Jimin replied cheerfully, yawning hugely.
“Why?! It’s not like we have to see them again.” Jungkook looked scandalized.
Jimin finally freed Jungkook and turned around to face Jungkook. “Just in case,” Jimin smiled, putting his phone aside.
Jimin leaned back and lied down on the floor. He patted to the space next to him and held his arm out. Jungkook sighed and smiled slightly. He leaned back, head resting on Jimin’s arm and turned around to face Jimin.
“I was wondering what were they doing in that part of the town,” Jimin smiled, looking thoughtful.
“Why are you thinking of them hyung? It’s not like we are going to meet them again,” Jungkook uttered his previous statement.
“I know Kookie. I am just curious. But I don’t think they were there by accident. They seemed to know the way out. They also knew what kind of people hang around there and that it was a dangerous place. But they seem like good guys. I wonder why do they hang out there,” Jimin wondered, yawning hugely, eyes fluttering close.
Jungkook reflected on Jimin’s thought. It was pretty clear that both Yoongi and Taehyung knew where they were and what they were doing. He wondered what kind of ‘mess’ Yoongi had referred to. Jungkook wondered if those people were really searching for Yoongi and Taehyung, and wondered what kind of trouble the latter were in. It was true that seemed nice enough, but Jungkook couldn’t understand why anyone would want to go there.
“Yeah, I wonder,” Jungkook echoed.
Beside him, Jimin snored softly, already asleep.
He looked at his palm, the scribble now slightly smudged, yet still very much legible. Jungkook pulled his phone out. He didn’t even know why he was doing this but he typed the names in, and as he clicked ‘Save’, he thought Just in case.