Namjoon pushed the room door open and when he stepped inside he saw that Yoongi was nowhere in sight. Presumably he had went into the other room shortly after Jimin had brought Hoseok back, and it seemed that he was counting himself out on this one. He couldn't blame him but that left the situation in his and Seokjin's hands and he was just hoping that they would be able to do something, that they wouldn't be awkward and bumbling and just make everything worse. They really needed to talk, needed to get the boy to open up to them, and that meant that they had to play this right. The plastic store bag in his hand wasn't heavy at all, just containing a bottle of water and a small bag of candy. He had grabbed them on instinct, the fruit flavoured chews, because he thought that Hoseok's blood sugars might be low, a reason for his collapse or maybe just partly the reason. If the boy didn't want them he could always give them to the other kids but the sugar would at least help him feel a little less woozy.

He closed the door behind him without looking, hearing it click loudly as he let go of the handle and looked over the room. Hoseok was on one of the beds with Seokjin, just like they had both been when he had left a few minutes ago, except he was now sitting up rather than lying down. His legs were stretched out in front of him, under the wrinkled covers, and he was hunched forward slightly, one hand on his lap and the other up so that he could rub at his eyes, his forehead, and temples in turn. His hair was a messy tangle and he wasn't even trying to flatten it, making it even more matted with his fingers. At the end, seated so that his legs were over the side, was Seokjin. His friend looked tired but he knew that the expression would change in a moment, back to a soft and comforting smile to make the boy feel at ease.

"Hey," Namjoon said as he stood by the door. "Everything OK?"

"Yes yes," Seokjin replied, that same expected smile appearing on his lips as he nodded. At his voice Hoseok opened his eyes and glanced over at him, slowly lowering his arm and placing his hand on top of the other. "Yoongi went to stay with the kids, to not crowd the room too much."

"Not kids," the boy said with a lazy smile. "Remember?" He wasn't speaking in a slurred voice but he was talking slowly, as if he was still a little foggy. But the sight of a smile on his face, even if it wasn't the most brightest, was a damn sight better than a pained grimace.

"And you remember what I said, right?" Seokjin retorted as he turned his head to look at him.

"Yes, I do." Hoseok nodded before stopping himself with a groan, the movement enough to make a stab of pain flare through his head most likely. "But I still disagree..." Namjoon crossed the room to get to the bed and he lifted the bag up to slip the bottle free, handing it over to the boy. Hoseok accepted it and tried to unscrew the cap but after a few seconds he couldn't seem to do so, his fingers not able to grip it properly. Seokjin held a hand out to offer the help and he passed it to him, the eldest managing to get it off with a simple twist of his wrist. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," he said softly as Hoseok accepted the bottle back and took a sip of water. "How is your head?"

"How's Jimin?" the boy asked suddenly. Though it seemed like he might just be changing subjects to avoid talking about himself Namjoon could see that he genuinely wanted to know. His expression looked both concerned and also like he felt bad for what had happened, a kind of guiltiness because he had collapsed on the boy and scared him that way. "Is he OK?"

"I think so," Namjoon said after a moment of thought.

"He was a little shook up of course," Seokjin added. "But that's to be expected. As soon as he saw that you were OK he calmed down."

"I feel really bad," Hoseok said quietly. "For scaring him like that. I shouldn't have left the hostel room, it was stupid for me to do so." He eyed the bottle of water and went silent for a few seconds. "I felt a little...uncomfortable, so I thought some fresh air would help but it didn't. Instead I just collapsed and scared him."

"You didn't mean to faint," Namjoon said as he sat down on the floor beside the bed, legs folded up in front of him so that he could place his arms on top. "Don't feel bad about it, you couldn't help it." Hoseok made a soft noise under his breath and then took another sip of water. "Seriously, you'll make yourself feel worse if you do. There's no need to feel bad, we're not mad at you, we're not upset with you. Don't stress yourself out thinking that way." He studied the boy's face and let this hang in the air before asking him about his head again, seen as he hadn't answered the question earlier.

"Hurts."

"Jimin said that your headache went away earlier," Seokjin said, "and that you seemed fine for the rest of the day. Did it come back again? Do you think that's why you collapsed? Another migraine?"

"...Kind of," Hoseok said as he played with the plastic wrapper around the bottle, pulling on it between his thumb and forefinger as if he wanted to tear it free.

"Meaning?"

But the boy didn't say anything in response to the question and the hostel room fell silent. Namjoon moved so that he could sit on the side of the bed and then he reached over to place his hands on either side of his head. Hoseok jumped slightly from his touch but when he figured out what he was doing he slowly lowered his shoulders. So he started massaging the sides of his head gently, around his temples and along his brow.

"I..." Hoseok paused and took a deep breath before letting it out in a sigh. "Do you promise to not get pissed off with me? If I tell you?"

"Tell us what?" Namjoon asked curiously, shifting so that he could look at the side of his face.

"About...the medication, about why I collapsed."

"We won't get mad at you," Seokjin said and the boy nibbled on his lower lip for a second as he studied the bottle once more, avoiding their eyes. "Honestly Hoseok, we won't. We just want to make sure that you're OK, that's all."

"It's the pills, that's why I collapsed. I have...I have Xanax," Hoseok said the word in a low voice, barely above a whisper, "and they make my head hurt. Like really bad. But I have to take the pills...or at least I was supposed to. I tried giving them up after a week because they made every day unbearable. That's why I wouldn't go out with you guys, because it hurt too much to go out in the sun, to walk around. But I couldn't give them up. I mean I tried, I really tried. I didn't even tell my parents that I stopped taking them that week. But then I caved and started popping them again."

"Why couldn't you give them up?" Namjoon asked even though he knew the answer, doing so because it might help him open up and talk to them both.

"Taking them gave me headaches but giving them up made me feel even worse. I felt nauseous and sleepy, I couldn't eat or do anything because I felt so shit. But if I took one of them it would make me feel better, even if I risked getting a headache as a result. I don't get them all of the time just...a lot of the time."

"How many have you taken today?" Seokjin asked quietly.

"Three," Hoseok said after a moment.

"How many are you supposed to take a day?"

"...One."

Namjoon studied the back of his head silently but he didn't stop massaging his temples. He thought that he should say something to him and yet he couldn't think of what to say to break the silence. Though he had expected something to do with the pills he had thought that maybe he had collapsed as a result of a migraine, a really bad one. He had not really thought that it would be something like that, something like him taking too many pills. Why, it was practically an overdose but he knew that he hadn't taken them for that purpose. No, he had taken that many because he was addicted to them clearly. They had discussed the possibility of it all of those days back and yet he had hoped that it wouldn't be the case but here the boy was, admitting to taking three times the dosage amount and that meant one thing only.

"It's stupid I know," Hoseok said to dispel the awkward air, "I know I shouldn't have taken them but I couldn't help myself. At first it was just one and that was it but...but then I started off on this adventure and I needed more. It was the stress, it made me nervous and the pills make me calm most of the time. So it was two...then three. You want to know something funny?" He lifted his head slightly to look at their friend. "If I hadn't collapsed I probably would've taken another tonight. Isn't that hilarious?" He let out a soft laugh that was flat and devoid of amusement.

"That's why you took them?" Namjoon asked. "'Cos they made you feel better and...nothing else?"

"Yes," he replied instantly, "that's all. I didn't try and-and-and overdose or anything like that. You didn't think that I did it on purpose, do you?"

"No, not at all."

"Because I really didn't mean to. I feel...well I feel better than I did before this adventure, you know? Before it I felt alienated and...and I did feel like waking up every day was too much effort, but I don't feel that bad right now. I'm not happy everyday of course, and I know that I don't really show it but I do feel better when I'm with you all. Even if we get into stupid shit and it all goes bad you guys always fix it and..." he paused for a moment before quietly adding, "I felt like you might just be able to fix me too."

"You don't need fixing," Seokjin said as he placed his hand on top of his. "So don't think things like that, OK?"

"It feels like I do, sometimes I feel so broken," Hoseok said in a quiet voice.

"Everyone has problems," Namjoon explained, "but that doesn't make us broken, it makes us human. I've got problems, so does Jin, and Yoongi and Jimin and Kookie and Tae. We've all got something we want to hide, that we feel makes us broken or ugly, but that's a part of life."

"Tae knows about it, he knows about the pills and the...condition."

"And what did he say, huh?"

"That I should talk about it, that it's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Kid spoke something other than shit for once." At this jibe Hoseok snorted laughter and Seokjin offered him an amused smile so Namjoon continued. "But he's right, you've got nothing to be ashamed of. You know you can tell us."

"I know, but it's such a burden."

"If we couldn't handle each other's burdens we wouldn't be friends," their eldest friend said. "Because friends are supposed to support each other through everything, no matter what."

The boy seemed to think this over and Namjoon stopped massaging his sore head to place his hands on his shoulders instead. He could feel the curve of bone under his thin tee and he realised just how thin he was, how very fragile just like Yoongi. Below the very ends of his jet black hair he could see a bump that signaled the beginning of his spine and the rest of his back likely looked that way too, little knobs visible and able to be felt through his skin like Braille on paper. He was getting too thin and it was really no surprise considering what he was currently going through.

"I will talk about it," Hoseok said after a moment of silent contemplation. "But not right now...is that OK?" He shifted so that he could look between them both, twisting his head to look over his shoulder to hold his eyes. "I need to think about it a little more, but you can tell the others about my medication if you want."

"It's fine," Namjoon said with a nod. "Take your time and talk when you're ready."

It didn't take long for the boy to fall asleep and he knew that it was because he was exhausted, that the day and the events had really drained him of whatever energy he had had left. He didn't even get washed up or undressed but rather fell asleep curled up in the bed closest to the door, covers up high enough to hide his lower face, hair on the pillow messily. Namjoon didn't even care that that meant he was sharing with the other man because all he cared about was that Hoseok felt comfortable and safe. Seokjin had given him some aspirin to combat the headache and he had reluctantly swallowed them. He wondered if he was thinking about his own pills as he did or whether he was a little conscious of the fact he was taking more after admitting that he had an addiction to his medication. Xanax. He hated it when Yoongi was right.

"Joonie?"

"Hmm?" Namjoon dragged his eyes away from Hoseok to glance at his other friend and that was when he realised that he was still sitting up. Seokjin was lying on his side so he settled down on his back and turned his head to maintain eye contact.

"When we tell the kids about all of this...about the collapse and the medication, should we...well should we maybe ask them if they have anything they want to talk about?"

"What, like a kinda group therapy thing?" His friend thought this over before shrugging slightly. "It's a good idea, I mean we do need to all talk at some point but I dunno if it's a good idea doing it right now. Not after talking about Hoseok. Maybe give it a few days to sink in and let them think about it and then try it."

"They wouldn't talk if we asked anyway, would they?" Seokjin asked with a soft smile and he laughed before agreeing that he was probably right. "I'm just scared that he's not the only one that needs a little help. You know, back when were in the first hostel room, way back in Seoul, Yoongi said that he was worried about the kids; worried about them straying off the right path and getting into trouble and I thought that he might just be a little worried over nothing but now I'm not sure..."

"'Cos of Hoseok?"

"Because of everything. Kookie's getting into too much trouble these days. Jimin's family situation is really bad right now. Tae is just...and shit I haven't even mentioned Yoongi either. I'm worried about everyone now and it's stupid, I feel that such a level of worry looks like I can't trust you all to not do bad things."

"I think it's perfectly reasonable to worry," Namjoon said quietly, "especially over a bunch of idiots like us." He paused for a moment and thought his words over before asking. "Do you worry about me too, huh?"

"I do, I worry that you'll get arrested in one of those dens. I worry that you'll run out of luck even though that seems impossible." He grinned at this remark and his friend continued. "But mostly I worry that you'll feel responsible if something goes wrong because you always do, even when you're not the oldest and you're still a kid to me and-"

"Not this kid shit again."

"Joonie, I think you forget the fact you're younger than Hoseok sometimes. Just because you graduated before he did doesn't make you any older; it just means you're a smart kid, that's it." Seokjin smiled and he rolled his eyes. "I worry that you try and carry too much yourself without sharing. You act like a big brother to the kids in a way me and Yoongi can't, so naturally you feel a duty to them."

"I might be the big brother," Namjoon said, "but Yoongi is the dad and you're the mom. He's the chain smoking dad prone to cursing and refusing to get out of the armchair, but he's protective and he's not afraid to be blunt about things for the sake of honesty. He's respectable. You're the affectionate mom that always calls at the exact same hour, that wants to make sure that everyone had been eating and studying, that everything is alright. You're dependable."

"And my cooking is clearly the best."

"Oh yeah, clearly."

"So you can talk too, you know? If you feel like you need to."

"I will. When the time feels right and we all sit down and talk it over I'll be sure to be open and transparent. You will too, yeah?" Seokjin made a soft noise in agreement at this as he ran his fingers along his pillow slowly. "Even moms need advice sometimes."

"Please don't call me that, Tae's bad enough with the nicknames and-" he stopped talking for a moment before raising his eyebrows sharply, "ah, that's what I forgot. Tae."

"Tae's a story for another day," Namjoon said wearily as he turned his head to look up at the ceiling. "In fact it'd take a whole fucking day to talk about him."

"I'm really worried about him, I mean I think I might be worried about him the most," Seokjin said before sighing heavily. "I don't even know what's going on with him anymore, he's drifted so far off that I feel like he's a buoy at sea; unsinkable but so far away. If he does sink under then I can't see him from the coast..." It was a rather poetic analogy but one that he found himself silently agreeing with. The boy had claimed that the point of this adventure was to stop them from drifting away, so that they could enjoy it all whilst they were still the same and unchanged, and yet it seemed that Taehyung wasn't even aware of how different he was already.

"If Tae sinks we'll know about it," he said after a minute of silence, "'cos he's an anchor, not a buoy, and he'd drag us down with him."

The fast food joint wasn't empty but it wasn't full either, rather just a small handful of people sitting in groups in random sections of the interior, mostly by the windows as it allowed a breeze to get in and keep them cool. He also thought that there was a chance it would attract many flies too, that they would come swarming at the scent of sugary drinks and fatty foods but no one seemed to care at all. Though they stuck to the corner booth away from the door he could sense eyes on them, watching them as if they were very interesting when they were doing nothing more than eating just like they were. It was probably their appearance, or the fact that they had all squeezed around a single table by stealing chairs from other ones. If the kids had been throwing fries and causing trouble then he would understand them looking but they weren't. Instead they seemed too hungry to waste food like that. Namjoon stopped glancing around the room and looked down at the food in front of him, the slice of pizza sitting in front of him on a plate, the cheese and toppings almost glistening. Rather than eat it he instead lifted his soda and took a sip of it, cola freezing cold because nearly half of the container seemed to be ice cubes.

When he placed it back down he spared another glance across the joint and sure enough he saw a group of girls looking at them, maybe high schoolers, maybe old enough to be young ladies in college. They weren't doing so in a rude way, not at all, but they were still staring. He managed to catch the eye of one of them, a girl with wavy black hair in a pink summer dress with a matching Alice band, and she rapidly turned her attention back to the table in front of her, but a few seconds later he saw her shifting to say something to her friend, holding a hand up as if to block her lips from being read. Her friend's eyes moved to look over at them, rolling behind her glasses as she looked from face to face and at the backs of his friend's heads, and then she settled her eyes on Seokjin. After a moment he realised that they were looking at them and likely discussing how they looked and he thought that the answer was not good. They probably looked at them and saw worn clothing and tired faces, and yet he could see keen interest on their faces regardless. Maybe they looked at them and thought they were runaways that were rebelling against something, bad guys with interesting and shady backstories, and they would be right in at least a couple of their cases.

Namjoon looked back over at his friends but none of them had even noticed because they were preoccupied with their food. There were four girls and one of them even turned to look over her shoulder at them. The girl with the glasses definitely seemed to be interested in Seokjin. The wavy haired girl that had made eye contact with him seemed to be glancing at Taehyung the most and he thought that her friend on the other end, who had dyed blonde hair and many earrings dangling from her ears, also seemed to have taken a liking to him, both of them following him as he crossed the room to get some napkins like hawks before both laughing as they caught each other staring at him. The girl that had twisted around in her seat had a bob and it bounced with every slight movement of her head, and after a few seconds of keen study she seemed to settle on Jimin. The boy accidentally dribbled sauce and it ran down his chin and he was about to wipe it off with the back of his hand when Yoongi beat him to it and instead wiped at his face with a napkin. At this he heard the bobbed girl nearly squealing, loudly exclaiming about how cute they both were and not seeming to care when it attracted their attention.

"I can't believe that we went the wrong way..." Jungkook muttered under his breath between mouthfuls of food, seemingly not caring about the girls because he had his back turned to them. "That we ended in up fucking South Chungcheong."

The boy was talking about the fact that they had somehow ended going the complete wrong way on the roads for the past few days, mostly a result of the wandering between cities with no signs to point them in the right direction. Since entering Yeongpyeong County they had followed the river across the city and had went through Yeoju County, and then they had ended up passing straight through and into North Chungcheong before settling down in Eumseong County. Then Jincheon County and Cheonan, and right now they were deep down in Gongju. They had walked the entire length of the southern stretch of Gyeonggi and managed to get through two regions as a result of it, rather than heading up north to Seoul. In terms of mistakes they had made one that was easily reaching a good couple of hundred miles so far and it was going to require some maneuvering to get back on the right track. Two wasted days and now they were way over a week on the road. It would likely be two weeks before they even got close to Seoul because all of the backtracking was going to be hell.

"We shouldn't have followed the river," Seokjin said with a shrug. "But we didn't know. Like Tae said back in Gangwon, it's not like we have a map."

"We should get one," Jimin commented as he dipped a handful of fries into a puddle of ketchup.

"Where do you even get a map?" Yoongi asked in confusion as he watched him, most of his pizza slice still in front of him but missing a few mouthfuls at least.

"A bookstore?" the boy suggested, tone showing that he didn't really have a clue. "Don't they sell those national road map books in bookstores? Or a library."

"Yeah, let's go in and find a book of maps, rip all of the pages we need out and then leave, problem solved," Taehyung said with a wide grin. This earned him a few laughs. "But if we aren't supposed to go south then we just go in any other direction, right?"

"We need to try and go north," Namjoon explained, "'cos we've gotta be halfway through South Chungcheong now and if we don't we'll end up in North Jeolla. But it's not like you can just go north. We need to follow roads, even if they take us a little off the mark. north-east would be our best bet I think, but it has to be north."

"So we don't need a map," Hoseok said after a moment. "We need a compass."

"What we need is cash."

"Cash?" Taehyung asked sharply as he looked up from his food, fry sticking out of the corner of his mouth. "What'd we need cash for?"

"I've been thinking," Namjoon said, "that we should try and get back to Seoul other than by foot. Maybe by coach if we could afford it." At this he felt all of his friend's eyes on him, all of them thinking his words over carefully. He had been worried about mentioning this for several days now but the right time appeared to have arrived. He couldn't keep pondering on it without saying something, without at least trying. If he kept the idea to himself then they would never get back to Seoul at this rate so why not now; when they all seemed tired and in dire need of going back home? At best they would say yes, at worst they would just mull over it and not really give him a clear answer, so he really had nothing to lose.

"That would cost a lot of cash," Yoongi broke the silence in a low voice, almost as if he didn't want to do it. He nodded and said that he knew that, but he had been thinking it over for some time now despite this fact and he thought that they could do it. Taehyung shifted in his seat at the mention of money and he seemed to be a little uncomfortable with it but he wasn't sure why. Was it because he didn't want them to travel by coach and instead keep walking because it would make the adventure last longer, or was it something else entirely? At his fidgeting Jimin also seemed to start acting a little off, eyes constantly going from him to his food and then quickly looking over the rest of them in turn. Any other time he would ask him if he was okay but it didn't seem worth the effort right now. "You think we can make enough cash to get there?"

"In the time it took us to make it we could probably walk back," Jungkook said as he wiped his greasy fingers on a napkin. "'Cos it'll take us a whole day of work to maybe get enough for the first tickets, and we've been getting through two cities a day these past few days 'cos they're only small. Wouldn't it make more sense to just keep walking instead of stopping? We'd have to search for work too, that can be pretty fucking hard."

"He's right," Hoseok agreed with a sigh. "Even though I don't want to admit it, he is. We'll need maybe three coaches to get to Seoul, one to get us across here and back into North Chungcheong most likely, and then one to get us into Gyeonggi, probably Yongin before getting to Seoul. That's three sets of tickets. How much will the tickets be? And what if there's no coaches that run here and we need to get to another city first before we can even start?"

Namjoon sighed heavily and took his soda straw between his fingers, fiddling with it in annoyance. He had made the suggestion in the hopes that they would maybe agree with him, or at least voice some interest, and yet it seemed that his idea had been shot down in flames. That meant going right back to the roads after finishing this meal, right back to hours and hours of walking and days to reach Seoul. Jungkook was likely correct about it and yet he was still holding out for the chance of something else. If they were lost somewhere in Gyeonggi then he wouldn't complain because at least they were close to Seoul, but so far away down in South Chungcheong? That was going to take a good few days and it wasn't like the coach idea was that bad in comparison to the alternative.

"We haven't got that much cash left any way," Namjoon said after a few minutes of silence, in which his friends carried on eating without a care. "So we're gonna need to make it somehow. Why not try and aim for enough for coach tickets?"

"We'll get cash somehow," Taehyung said brusquely. "Don't you worry about it."

The sight in front of them was that of another abandoned building. Unlike the subway, which was a structure made of metal and glass that housed the broken escalator that went down into the system that was more of a shell than anything else, this was a lot more substantial. It was a long rectangular building made of concrete with windows set high into the very tops, flat roof rather than a peaked one, and most of them were broken. The remains of glass was still stuck in the frames, jagged shards that looked like teeth, and he thought that the inside would be littered with great puddles of the rest of the glass. It looked like kids, or perhaps even adults, had tossed rocks at them and shattered them for no reason other than they could, because they were uncovered and therefore a nice easy target. And just to solidify this idea Jungkook bent down to grab a pebble and he also tossed it at one of the windows. It didn't break any glass but rather sailed right through a gap that was already in place, the faint clattering sound of it landing inside a few seconds later. The boy dropped his eyes to scan for another one and a moment later he was wandering up and down the curb in hunt. Namjoon studied the building intently before taking a few steps forward and placing his hand on the exterior wall. Mostly smooth to the touch, the occasional pitting in the concrete from age and wear, he ran his fingers along with before wiping dust off on his jeans.

"What do you think it is?" Seokjin asked as he also looked at it, stood way back so that he wasn't even on the sidewalk but rather standing in the gutter, hands shoved into his coat pockets.

"Area's industrial," he replied with a shrug, "could be an old factory I guess. Maybe a food packaging one, a shipping one...maybe even a textile one."

"You think it's still in use?"

"Well, it isn't right now," Yoongi remarked as he kicked a pebble in Jungkook's direction. The boy picked it up and proceeded to hurl it at the window. It missed and bounced off the wall but he tracked its descent and then ran off to retrieve it. "And if it is then it's a pretty shitty factory with those windows. I wouldn't buy any food that got produced here."

"Don't lie, right now you'd eat anything," Taehyung said as he fixed his backpack straps and then went over to the large metal shutter across the length of the building. "'Cos I know that I would." He examined it for a moment before hunkering down and lifting up the heavy padlock, feeling the weight in his hand and studying the keyhole. "Kookie, a little help?"

"What'd you need?" the boy asked as he tossed the pebble and finally succeeded in knocking a large sliver of glass free from one of the windows. Taehyung asked him for his lock pick and Jungkook shoved his hand into his jeans back pocket before pulling it free and tossing it at him. Namjoon turned his head to see what it was and it looked to be a piece of metal, twisted and turned into a pick of some kind; possibly copper judging from the colour of it.

"Thanks for breaking more of the windows," Jimin complained. "First a freezing cold subway and now a factory that will let all of the wind in. Great. Another night of freezing my ass off." Taehyung shifted to get a better view and proceeded to slip the end of the pick into the padlock and start fiddling with it, slowly moving his hand back and forth as he tried to wiggle the tumblers inside and open it. "This is gonna be fun..."

"Hey, you wanna go for a run and find something better?" the other boy asked with a grin as he carried on messing with the lock and after a few seconds there was a crisp sound and he declared. "Ah-fucking-ha!" Taehyung twisted the metal arm and then slipped it free from the hinge so that he could grab hold of the shutter and roll it up. The noise it made was deafeningly loud in the still air and Namjoon turned to look around them quickly, seeing that the area was still completely abandoned. "Let's see what we got here..."

The interior of the building was a single room, wide with a high ceiling that seemed to go on for a mile. Along each wall there was a walkway, mesh metal flooring suspended from thick fixtures, and there was a staircase in the far corner to get up onto it that didn't look very sturdy at all. The walls were bare of pretty much everything and though there were no tools inside there were the remains of several belts that ran the length of the left side of the room. Everything was concrete save for the broken windows and he could see the puddles of glass he had thought about just a few minutes ago, twinkling in the setting sunlight like precious gems: diamonds. Not far from the staircase there were pipes running on a wall and a medium sized box connected to them all, perhaps a water system.

"We got...nothing," Jungkook announced, voice echoing off the walls and making them all snort laughter. "Literally nothing."

"It's abandoned, the fuck were you expecting? A penthouse suite?" Taehyung retorted. Namjoon tossed his holdall bag somewhere near the centre of the room and then went over to look at the system on the wall, intrigued by it enough to want to know what it was.

"I think this might have been a mechanics," Seokjin said. "Can't you smell that? Smells like oil..." Yoongi said that it could be from oiling machinery and the eldest thought this over before making a noise in agreement. "Maybe they made car parts here?"

"Maybe," Namjoon mumbled as he stopped in front of the pipe system. He had just started looking at it when he felt a shadow fall over his shoulder and a quick glance behind him showed that Hoseok was also studying it. The boy reached over and tapped his finger on the painted white metal box. "Water system?"

"I thought it was electricity at first, but then I saw the pipes." The boy pulled his hand away before gesturing up at the ceiling. "Not that it matters if it was electricity because the lights have all been taken out." The ceiling was indeed bare of any fluorescent bulbs, metal fixtures still in place where they should have been. "So yes, I think it's water."

"Hang on a sec," Jimin said as he hastily crossed the room to get to where they were standing, boot soles echoing off the concrete flooring. "Let me see, let me see." So Namjoon moved out of the way to let him look at the piping system and the boy automatically reached over to start touching it, running his hands along it until he reached a valve. "They shut it off obviously, 'cos this place is abandoned, but I'll bet that I can get hack into this and get it flowing again."

"Would it be safe to drink or clean with?" Hoseok asked as he watched the boy examining it all.

"All that happens when I switch it on is that the water gets diverted to this building. Clean water, water that would be travelling somewhere else 'cos the pipe is closed off," Jimin said as he hunkered down and stared at the system just above the floor, the big box with all of the buttons and pipes coming out of it. "It might take me awhile but I'll bet that I can get it flowing."

"I'm sure you will," Yoongi called from across the warehouse. "But I'd still only use it for cleaning skin and clothes, I wouldn't risk drinking it. We still have enough water to last us, no need to get sick." The boy pulled on a section of the box and it opened up, swung outwards like a door to reveal more buttons and slots for which keys looked to be shoved into.

"I'm not washing the clothes," Seokjin sighed heavily. "Someone else can do it for once." Namjoon said that he would do it and his friend shot him a grateful look. "What I'm going to do is eat my portion of food and then clean up and sleep, that's it. Finally some rest."

"Sounds like a plan," Hoseok agreed as he crossed the room to go back over to the others. Jimin was intently studying everything and Namjoon watched him for a minute before deciding it would be best to leave him to it and not disturb him. He didn't like people breathing down his neck whenever he was in the gambling den and therefore he should give the boy some room like he would want.

It didn't take Jimin long at all, in fact he had managed to get it working in the bare time it took Namjoon to finish eating his meager meal of leftover chips and plain rice cakes that he shared with Seokjin. He had fiddled with the pipe and buttons and he didn't have a clue how he had managed to do it but he was not asking. Better to leave the boy to what he did best and fix this unlike the broken car that he had been unable to. When he twisted the valve and made the water start flowing out of a tap fixture across the room, spilling out all over the floor with a gushing sound, they had all cheered for him. Jimin had laughed sheepishly at this but he had looked both relieved and happy that he had managed to do it.

When the others were finished eating they all settled down to get comfortable, possibly to sleep because they were all so tired. Namjoon didn't do so and instead he made sure to collect anything that needed cleaning. Though the warehouse was mostly empty he did find a small container after some searching, one that looked like it might have held tools in the past. It wasn't deep but it held enough water to at least mean he could use it. So he sat down on the cold concrete floor in front of the water tap and attempted to get it finished so that he could sleep too. He filled the container and poured some of the detergent in before dumping the clothes in and then he settled back on his wrists to let them soak for a few minutes, instead looking across the warehouse. The sky outside was now a deep purple that showed him that it was evening, moonlight already starting to come in through the windows.

He had just finished rinsing a tee through when he saw something moving out of the corner of his eye and he didn't turn to look and rather waited for whoever it was to come over to him. Except they didn't and he heard the sound of the shutter being lifted up so that someone could slip under it. When he looked over at the sleeping bodies he saw that Yoongi was not present and that meant that he had left, perhaps to stand outside and smoke because there was no window that he could sit by as they were all up too high and out of reach. It seemed unusual, but he might just want a little fresh air too even if it seemed a little ironic that he would mix the fresh air with the toxic cigarette smoke. Namjoon just turned back to the clothes in front of him and he wrung the tee out before hanging it on one of the pipes, so that the clothes could dry hanging rather than lie on the dusty floor and get dirty once more. The water was freezing cold and his hands felt numb from submerging them in the container but he was nearly done now. Just a few socks and underwear and he was finished and could rest. So he turned his attention back to doing so and after a few minutes Yoongi reemerged back into the warehouse, lifting the shutter and letting it down slowly to stop it from making a loud noise and waking the others up.

"Can't sleep?" Namjoon asked as he squeezed a pair of soaking wet socks between his hands and looked over at him. He could see him clear as day because of the moonlight coming in from the broken windows and illuminating the interior.

"Not really..." Yoongi said as he stopped by the others, seemingly contemplating settling back down or crossing the room to get to him. After a few seconds he decided to go with the latter and he moved over to hunker down beside him, arms folded on his knees. "It's nothing new, right?"

"Right," he replied as he added them to the pipe. "Still not adjusted to the break yet?"

"Nu-uh, my stupid brain won't stop long enough to let me sleep. Too full of thoughts all of the time."

"Thoughts you wanna talk about?" Namjoon asked, thinking about what Seokjin had said to him just that morning, about him worrying about the kids. But he had also mentioned the man's name too...

"Not really," Yoongi said a little brusquely. "'Cos it's mostly shit anyway. I don't even know, I just can't stop thinking. Feel like I'm going fucking nuts."

"When have you been sane?" he joked and his friend offered him a glare before shifting to reach over and stick his hand in the container too. He winced at the cold and then grabbed hold of something before pulling a pair of underpants out. He sighed heavily and looked at him as if to ask "why me?" "Hey, that's the last pair of them, I had to wash six pairs and only one of those were mine. I feel bad for Jin now."

"Don't feel bad, it was his idea."

"Yeah, but without it we'd either be naked right now or wearing filthy clothes. Clothes still dripping river water and covered in car oil and soil." Yoongi started rubbing the material together so that the soapy water foamed against his fingers and then he dipped it in to wash this free and repeated the action. "I'd rather wash underwear then go through that."

"If Tae told me that this was part of the adventure I'd have turned him down."

"But you didn't."

"Nope, probably should've but then I'd be back in Seoul working eighteen fucking hours so maybe this is worth it." Namjoon grinned at this and he balked. "Maybe, I said maybe." He washed the clothing through before rinsing the suds off and copying him, wringing as much of the water out as he could and then reaching over to place the underpants on the spare gap of pipe. His arm brushed just a mere inch in front of his nose and that was when he noticed something on his skin.

Namjoon's eyes latched onto it and when his friend shifted back to get something else out of the container of water, the last sock that was still floating inside, he turned his head to continue looking at it. At first he had caught sight of just a single hint of colour, something pink and nothing more, but as he studied it he saw that it wasn't just a blemish, perhaps a bug bite or something like that from the annoying clouds of flies that occasionally swarmed them when they got close to fields.

No, it was a small cluster of marks that were most certainly not bites.

There were two of them in the crook of his elbow, nestled away in the fold in his skin and another one an inch or so higher on his upper arm. It took just a single glance to see that they were burns, for they were very recognisable to his eyes. Swollen and painful-looking little welts that came out of his skin, the area around them a horrible deep pink. The one on his upper arm was slightly red too, the welt not even fully formed yet because the skin was still raw and open. The marks were not big at all, perhaps less than a centimeter in width, but with the area around them being so pink it was impossible to miss them, especially against his pale skin. The perfect size for the head of the cigarette and nothing more, except maybe the coil of a car lighter. They didn't have a car any more so that ruled it out of the question.

But Yoongi hadn't even noticed him staring because he was too busy with the task in front of him, hastily washing the sock with his own eyes firmly on his hands as he scrubbed at the material. He had had his jacket on all day long, the sleeves rolled up a few inches at least to let his forearms out, and Namjoon had thought nothing of it for the weather hadn't been too hot at all. But it was now pretty obvious why he had been wearing it, not because of the weather but so that he could hide these marks from everyone. And yet here he was staring at them and he briefly wondered if anyone else had noticed them too.

"Hoseok alright?" Yoongi asked as he dipped the foamy sock into the water.

"Uh yeah, he's good. As good as can be anyway. He said that he'd talk to us all about everything soon but he's not ready yet but he said enough to me and Jin. He didn't try and hide it away, he was pretty open about it all. Stupid pills, that was it all."

"The doc that gave him those stupid fucking things should be fired."

"It's the only things they can give people with...depression. Except maybe counselling. You think he'd agree to talk to a stranger when he couldn't even speak to us about it, huh?" Yoongi made a noise under his breath. "Jimin?"

"Freaked out," his friend replied as he continued scrubbing at the sock once more. "I mean really freaked out, he was jittery all night long. I wonder if he even got any sleep 'cos he just kept tossing and turning."

"He seems to be carrying a lot of things right now, don't you think?"

"Things like what?"

"...I think Jimin's carrying a couple of secrets that he's not fessing up to, and I don't just mean about himself. I think he's knows a little something about a few of us and he's keeping it a secret, just not that well." Yoongi asked him who he thought he had secrets on as he rinsed the clothing out and wrung the water with several twists of his wrists. "I think he knows something about Tae at least, maybe just him and no one else. But if that's the case he knows something big and that's why he's acting a little jittery these days. You saw how he was when we asked about Tae-"

"Looked like a rabbit caught in a snare," the other man said as he stopped wringing the sock out and looked right at him. "Yeah, he knows something alright and I'm gonna find out what. Just gimme a little time and I'll sniff it out."

"I think..." Namjoon shifted slightly as he thought his words out, not entirely sure if he should just say this or play it safe and not. But after a few seconds he decided to take the plunge. "I think he knows something about you too. Something you're hiding." At this Yoongi's eyebrows raised up so that they were hidden under the mess of hair on his brow, and then he let out a soft laugh and leaned over to toss the last sock on the pipe.

"Like what?"

"Like this," Namjoon as he grabbed hold of his friend's wrist before he could move back, snagging hold of it so that his arm was held out in front of them both. He twisted his hand slightly and it revealed the markings. He didn't glance at them but instead looked at the man's face and he saw Yoongi's eyes drop to stare at them, his lips pulling in in a thin line. "I gotta say, if you're gonna burn yourself and try and hide it it's probably a better idea to do it somewhere less noticeable..." His friend pulled his arm free hard and in the process he ended up falling back on his ass, balance knocked off because he had only been hunkering and not sitting. His teeth came together hard and luckily he didn't bite his tongue but it still looked to be a jarring sensation nonetheless. "Or is that the point and you want someone to notice it?"

"I don't want nothing," Yoongi retorted petulantly as he moved to right himself.

"You want something, that much is certain."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Relief," Namjoon said as he got his feet back underneath him again, ready to get upright and walk away from him. "A way to get all of those stressful thoughts out, a way to make it all go away for a little while. Am I right?" His friend paused for a moment at this, frozen between walking away and uncertainty. "You do it 'cos it makes it feel better, yeah? But you shouldn't."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," he said with a nod, "'cos no matter what it makes you feel you're hurting yourself, and that's not worth a little relief." Yoongi scoffed at this and got back upright and before he could stop himself he blurted out. "It's like Hoseok and the pills." He regretted saying it almost instantly, having to resist the urge to clap his hand over his mouth as if to trap the words and not let them spill out into the air, but it was already too late for that. But it worked because Yoongi stopped dead and didn't take a single step away from him. After several seconds of deathly silence he let his breath out in a sigh. "And Tae and the stealing and drinking, and Kookie and his fights. You're doing just what they're doing too. The same pattern of self-destructive behaviour, the exact same."

"Then worry about the kids," Yoongi said quietly, "and stop worrying about me."

Namjoon wanted to argue against this but he knew that there was no point and it might just escalate into an argument, one that he most certainly didn't want to get into with his friend. He had never even gotten close to such a thing with Yoongi and he planned on keeping it that way for there wasn't a single thing they disagreed on...or at least until now. So instead he just held his tongue and let his friend cross the warehouse to lie back down with the others, feeling annoyance and anger radiating off him in waves. He had touched a nerve with him and he felt that he had gone too far but he hadn't been able to stop himself. The sight of the marks on his arms had made a strange feeling course through him, a strong mixture of concern and panic that had caused him to grab his wrist like that. Yoongi could have argued against what he had said, he could have made up excuses for the burns but he didn't. He didn't bumble about dropping cigarettes or say that they were something else like bug bites, he had just stared at them and said nothing and that meant one thing to him: it meant that he was right about them being burns and self-inflicted ones at that.

He didn't know if he would have preferred him to try and deny it or just be silent like that.

Namjoon watched Yoongi settling down on the floor and then looked back at the container in front of him, filled with slightly pink liquid rather than the purple that had been the old detergent, the scent coming off it lily and some other flower that suddenly made him feel a little nauseous because it was too sweet. He didn't know when exactly Yoongi had started his little habit of burning himself with his cigarettes but he was going to keep an eye on him whether or not he wanted him to because he wanted to ensure that it ended soon.

After a minute or two he got to his own feet with a sigh and dusted his jeans off roughly before going over to the lazy formation across the warehouse, the semi circle of sleeping bodies. He sat down at the very end beside Seokjin but didn't lie down just yet, instead folding his arms on his drawn-up knees so that he could balance his chin on his forearms. The interior of the warehouse was silent and even the drone of traffic didn't bleed in through the broken windows like usual. He knew that Yoongi was still awake because he wouldn't fall asleep for hours now and he felt that he should say something to him. Even if he didn't reply and pretended that he was asleep, it was probably better that he say something.

"I'm sorry," Namjoon said quietly, "for being so blunt about it. That was rude and insensitive."

"Don't say sorry," Yoongi muttered. "I told you, just think about the kids instead. OK?"

"...OK."

"'Cos I don't need anyone worrying about me too."

Namjoon thought about this statement for quite some time before he felt himself drifting off, playing it over and over in his mind. He thought that it was quite obvious that his friend did need someone to worry about him because his behaviour was far from logical at this current moment. Yoongi admitted to being errant-minded and he had had several nightmares over the course of the journey that Namjoon was aware of. His friend had only woke up from one however so he was certain that Yoongi didn't even know this fact, for he had heard him crying out things in his sleep on more than one occasion, things that seemed to have scared him greatly. But those things were all the results of stress of course, for he knew that he had been under a ridiculous amount of stress these past few months with work constantly on his mind. It was only natural but this sudden new habit was not. He didn't have a clue if Jimin even knew about it, he had just used the boy as a means to broach the subject, and there was a very high chance that he was really the only one of them that did know but he doubted it. One thing he did know was that he was the only one that had spoken to him about it because his reaction had been very revealing. Eventually he lay down on the floor with a weary sigh and stared up at the high ceiling overhead instead, until his eyelids got too heavy to keep open.

Seokjin was right, he really was trying to be the big brother too much.