The First Race, Pt 2.
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Yoongi crouched low and flew through, making himself as small as possible. And a good thing it was because the flames shot up higher even as he did. When the drone captured him again on the other side, a portion of his jacket was smoking, but otherwise he seemed unharmed.
And instead of diving towards the next ring, he hovered there, assessing the rest of the course.
Which Jin supposed made sense because he wouldn’t really be able to chart out a plan of action once he entered the next ring, for two reasons.
One, Metalhand, his competitor, was due to start any moment, seeing as Harley had finally almost completed the laser course, even though he seemed short of a few fingers, and two, the distance between the rings was smaller the further you proceeded through the course, not to mention their gradually diminishing diameters. So much so that the final portion looked more like a fiery tunnel than anything else.
Jin felt his throat dry up when Yoongi stretched his limbs and popped his knuckles, a steely sort of determination entering him. Jin knew that the other man would have to go through it, but that didn’t mean it was any easier for him to watch Yoongi do it.
And then he dived, without warning, swerving at the last minute, and perfectly crossed the next ring, immediately proceeding to lean back so fast that the board shot up through the third ring. One of his jacket pockets caught fire and he tore it off himself, tossing it into the air.
Jin was glad.
On Yoongi went, diving, swerving and flying upwards, all the while making himself as small as possible. And it worked, he crossed over half of the course without a hitch.
Hoseok let loose a shaky breath and Jin gripped his hand tighter, reassuringly.
Jin had no idea what there was between Hoseok and Yoongi, but he knew there was something. He was a lot of things, but blind wasn’t one of them. Even if all Hoseok had told him upon being confronted was, and to quote him, “I’m not obsessed with him. I’m just intrigued by how a person can be so dumb and yet so loyal and stupidly brave even while faced by defeat. That’s it. It’s purely scientific.”
Jin had left it at that because there was no point going down that path even if his friend liked Yoongi, because, well, Yoongi had a boyfriend too.
Even if it had made him wonder how unlucky Hoseok and himself had to be, and how much fate had to hate them in order for them to fall in love with, or be ‘obsessed for scientific reasons’ with, two guys who were already together.
And also consider asking Hoseok to marry him, because of course no one else really would, and he didn’t want to die alone.
Though, in his defence, he was pretty stoned when he had proposed to his best friend over a glass of vodka on their terrace, the others having gone to sleep early that day.
Hoseok, thankfully, had had enough of his senses left to turn Jin down. And hold out against the river he had apparently cried at the rejection.
He had been very very stoned.
Yoongi was still making it through the course without any issues, Metalhand finally having started too, when, without warning, the flames blew up to cover all the other rings entirely, only occasionally parting to make enough space for a child to pass through.
