NeoNara || TXT || taebin || yeonkai

2017: Friday, Part Two

2017, DAY ONE
Friday, August 18, 2017 11:37 AM

Taehyun starts walking.

He should be back at the RV, waiting for Soobin to get back from the grocery store, but upon waking up from his nap he has decided that it is much more exciting outside the RV. And even though NeoNara doesn't technically open until noon, Taehyun is antsy. He woke up nice and refreshed, nothing like last NeoNara, where he had to take precautions and be careful, where he spent all of Sunday in bed with Meniere's symptoms.

He wants to see NeoNara. To breathe in the air, to smell the fried food he can't taste. To properly hear the noise and music.

And technically, he's supposed to be with someone else no matter where he goes, which means he should be waiting on Soobin. But Taehyun is also not in the mood to be babysat. He takes one precaution: he takes his new cane with him, a folding walking stick that he doesn't quite need all the time, but can use if his gait becomes unsteady in the grass. Soobin has named it Steve, for some reason. So he takes Steve, and he locks the RV door behind him, and he walks out and through the RV camp and to NeoNara proper.

The food trucks and rides are set up, going through final checks before opening. There is concrete here, so Taehyun can walk steady, keeping the cane with him just in case. He makes his way past the Sperry gates, taking a moment to look out at the open-air amphitheater. Tomorrow night, he will play there with his friends, and on Sunday, he will play there with Soobin.

For once, it feels like he's actually earned this honor. He never thought he would get here, but he did.

"I made it," he whispers, mostly to himself, to the eighteen year old him who first played NeoNara five years ago.

"Oh, give me a break!"

Taehyun turns toward the voice. A girl with a suitcase is walking away from the registration tent, and from the looks of it, the suitcase looks heavy. She's trying to roll it, and one of the wheels looks broken, and so the suitcase keeps hobbling along behind her. Taehyun catches her talking to herself some more in a frustrated voice, but he can't actually make out what she's saying.

Taehyun walks toward her, as quickly as he can considering his issues, and gets to her right when she reaches the All Access stage entrance. "Excuse me?" he asks, then realizes he can't really help carrying the suitcase unless he puts his balance in danger.

The girl turns toward him. "Oh, sorry," she says in accented but clear English. "Am I in your way?"

"No, I just -- do you need help carrying your suitcase? I saw the wheel was broken."

She looks down at the suitcase. "It's been a pain since I got off the plane! I'm just glad my decks aren't damaged inside."

"Oh, that must be heavy then." Taehyun checks his balance, then picks up the back of the suitcase. "How about we each take one end? Where are you taking it?"

"To the Rising Stage. I'm playing there soon, but I didn't think it would take this long to set up!" They both take slow steps, and now that Taehyun is next to somebody else, he feels less tense about his Meniere's.

"Are you playing at the Rising Stage?"

"I am! My name is Maho, by the way."

"I'm Taehyun. I'll be playing here tomorrow. What time is your set?"

"At twelve o'clock."

"That -- that's not long from now! We've got to get a move on, then!"

The Rising Stage is completely devoid of people this early in the morning, but there are some signs of activity. There are staff members setting up queue lines and ensuring speakers are plugged in correctly. A man in a security shirt -- Dayton, if Taehyun remembers correctly -- is on stage, testing a microphone on a boom stand. The stage is much as Taehyun has remembered it from his previous years of playing on it: a simple stage, currently with a table on it for mixing, with the hookup behind the stage and a NeoNara banner as a backdrop with all of the sponsors on it.