Take Me to the Sky | BTS+

Tae and Kookie Go For a Run

What is this feeling? It's so bright and clean. And warm.

Jeon Jungkook opened his eyes.

Whiteness and space echoed around him, beneath him. He sat up from the blank ground.

He looked into the lines of his perfectly clean hands. His fingers plucked at strange white linens that wrapped around his frame. Then he leaned forward and got to his feet.

"KOOKIE?!"

There was a rush of wind and limbs, and suddenly lanky arms were wrapping around Jungkook's neck and he felt laughter quaking in the chest that was stuck up against his. Then the arms let him go.

"TAE?!"

Kim Taehyung's smile shone with the delicate glow of starlight, crinkling his narrow, happy eyes. The two young men held onto each other's shoulders a moment, stuck inside of their laughter, feeling beautifully happy and absurd all at once.

"Tae, what happened to your hair?" Jungkook reached out to tug at a few strands of what had somehow become crimped grey hairs that were now falling around Taehyung's perfectly symmetrical face.

"Uh, is it different?"

"Yeah, bro, it's like grandpa status."

"But it still looks cool, right?" Tae asked with a boyish wonder to his voice.

"Yeah. It still looks cool. Actually...it kinda suits you." Jungkook punched Tae playfully in the shoulder.

Tae punched Jungkook in the arm playfully back. His jazzy voice asked innocently, "Oh? How's that?"

"Because the way you dress... you are such a grandpa!" Jungkook shoved Tae square in the chest, then started running away from his friend at full speed. Jungkook's screech of joy echoed in his wake, as Tae bolted after him.

The two young men ran and whirled their way through the whiteness, through and around obstacles they couldn't really see clearly, shapeless and formless lumps beneath them--until Jungkook's run suddenly came to a halt.

His eyes went wide

Taehyung let out a few gasping breaths of laughter as he jogged up to Kookie's side and threw a hand casually onto Jungkook's shoulder. Tae looked over at the stern look that had crept into Jungkook's features, then the playful young man's gaze followed Jungkook's.

"What is that thing?" Tae asked.

It was a white tree. It's branches were almost bare, save for a scattering of pink petals that lingered on the lower branches. An un-felt breeze whistled through those few pink petals that remained. A couple of them were plucked from the branches by that breeze. The soft pink petals twirled and fluttered their way towards the boys, and a single petal landed on each of their shoulders.

Tae brushed his off.

"What kinda tree is that?" Tae asked, feeling a touch annoyed that Kookie was ignoring him.

"I've seen this before," Jungkook answered with almond eyes wide in wonder. He took a step closer and stretched out his hand to brace his palm against the white bark. It was warm and smooth. "I know this place."

Tae took a step backwards. "It kinda reminds me of somewhere I've seen before. Someplace I didn't like." He wrapped his arms stiffly into his frame and a fearful look crept into Kim Taehyung's face. His eyes were suddenly unseeing, as if he were remembering something that he didn't want to.

Jungkook turned around and watched his dear friend. Somehow, at his hand touching the tree, a strange realization had struck the young pilot.

"Are you... are we both...? Tae, what the heck happened to you?"