Bird of Paradise • taekook

Eleven

A shrug in the dark, "I'm on vacation, remember? Not supposed to touch this thing outside of work." His fingers fly across the keyboard, "Ok, what was her friend's name again. Mahina-"

"Yes. Mahina Kane, I think." Jungkook thinks of Jin's words.

Click. Click.

The wind shakes the truck as they get on the main road. The wipers creak back and forth furiously, making soup of the torrential rain.

"Ok, got it. Simon Kane is the father, truck registered under his name. License plate..." The keyboard clicking is barely audible against the rain splashing over the car, but it still gnaws at Jungkook.

He keeps his eyes on the blurred windshield, and asks cautiously, "You can look up all that from your laptop?"

Click. Click.

The headlights span into the murky darkness and fan out a blurry sphere of visibility. Taehyung's next to him, but in his own world.

Not another car on the gravel road. Jungkook thinks of the asphalt main road not far ahead, and hears Taehyung's murmur, "Ok, so there are five traffic lights in this area with cameras. I'll start with the one at main and highway 36. The software will scan through the footage for the license plate, shouldn't take long."

Jungkook stays silent, and grips onto the steering wheel.

"And... there it is. Time stamp 0423 today, turning onto the highway and heading north. Ok, there are three more traffic lights on the highway northbound that I can check for, to see how far they've gone. Hmm, the airport and ferry are all in the south, so they're staying on the island. Where do you think they'd head to in the north so early in the morning? On a rainy day at that."

Jungkook hesitates, but eventually responds, "I'm not sure. This whole thing is very odd, Yoonji is not like this. She doesn't care about all the girly stuff like the others, doesn't really sneak out to meet boys or anything like that. All she ever cares about is surfing. All her close friends are huge into surfing like her-"

He suddenly pauses, as a thought flashes across his mind, "How far up north can you check on highway 36 again? Is there any camera around mile mark 13?"

"Mile mark 13? Hmm, lemme see... Yes, I think there's a branch off the road after that point onto a gravel side access. Lemme run the feed through the software..."

The pitter patter gets louder as a strong gust rocks the truck, making Jungkook wince. Eventually Taehyung pipes up again, "Ah, there. Time stamp 0546, same license plate. They did take the gravel road."

"Shit. I should've known." Jungkook rubs his eyes hastily. "Pe'ahi..."

He can feel Taehyung's gaze next to him, "Is that the area she's always wanted to surf?"

"Yes, the North Shore. There's a spot that's particularly well known for big swells in winter. The other name for Pe'ahi is Jaws, because the waves can be as high as 70 feet during a storm."

A soft gasp escapes Taehyung's lips.

Jungkook taps on the steering wheel, as dark outlines of houses zoom past them in his peripheral, "That's the absolute highest though, usually early in the year. I haven't looked at the PacIOOS chart or listened to the high surf warnings for a few days, but I think without tow-in, the highest wave she can get to is probably up to 20 feet."

"That's... that still sounds like a lot for an eight year old."

For sure, even for an experienced adult surfer, with the wind up to 40 knots in the storm, Pe'ahi is a monstrous spot. The paddle to the wave is physically demanding, most don't even make it. Then, if one's lucky enough to successfully surf the massive wave, what follows any fall is the biggest fear of them all - the hold down under the wave, where the surfer will run out of air eventually while being tossed underwater like a rag doll.