// seokjin.

@jiho "Well, then, I'm very glad you kept your eyes on the road." He was joking, or maybe just mmostly joking.

Jin sat in front of the wheel, feeling alien for the first time at the helm of his own ship. The seat was still warm from Jiho's turn, with the wheel turned at an awkward angle in parking, and it felt oddly comfortable-but-foreign in a way that Seokjin couldn't quite explain, to himself or to anyone else.
After making for absolute certain that Jiho was back in the car, Jin put the vehicle out of parking and waited for an opening through which he could slide in and take the road down just a bit further down to his neighbourhood. And he thought, as he know suspected may just be what drivers did on road trips while they had time alone.
He thought.

His parents probably wouldn't kick him out, Jiho had made a pretty good point, but what would become of the duo if.. if.. The list of Horrible Things That Could Happen seemed to keep stretching longer and longer by the second. Where could Jiho stay, if not at Seokjin's house? What happened if he more cognize Jiho? All these questions and more made homes in Jin's brain and camped there. Relaxed and at home, they were probably even roasting tiny figurative marshmallows and singing campire songs as a big group in his head right now.

Seokjin to a familiar street, the low stone wall declaring the name of the particular area in fancy lettering with swoops and curves and serifs. Almost there. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, only heaven knew.

"It'll be fine.." He reminded himself, repeating Jiho's words like some sacred ritual. Which house was it again? He'd almost forgotten.
Thirty... thirty... six? Seven? Maybe it was forty-five. That sounded closer... Forty- one? He decided to just drive by the forties and hope he could recognize his house just by looking at the lawn.

He could.

Next thing Seokjin knew, he was fidgeting with his fingers in front of the front door, standing on the uselessly adorable doormat and bouncing on his toes. Wringing his hands, looking around nervously, repeatedly holding and letting go of the handle of his luggage bag. He needed purchase on something, some kind of stability somewhere, but he wasn't finding it. In a fit of insane nervousness, no doubt, he suddenly grasped Jiho's hand, squeezing it hard before turning his gaze to the doorbell. It looked very intimidating in a way it never used to. "Jiho... I'm worried... for you, for me, for my mother... for yours." He looked up at his brother, watching him for a moment and listening to what he had to say before going forward and hitting the doorbell.
It was almost here, now, the moment.

Why was it taking them so long to open one damn door.

And then a satisfying, close by click of the door lock, and the door tself swinging open to reveal..

"Dad."

"Mom. Hi. This is, this is the friend I was talking about. So, um, can we.." what might they want to do, if they were really just friends? "Hang... out..? Together? Alone?"

Seokjin was a bad actor, okay? It wasn't his fault.
Really.

(Aaaaaahhhhh had to shorten and tweak for info and structure.. and just life in general..)

@jiho (Have finally gotten around to some free time, am working on the reply right at this very moment.)

@seokjin (1/2)
It was something of queer relief as Seokjin decidedly gave up the wheel. Jiho had never been quite the best driver for the job, his need for speed sometimes getting the best of him, but even his half crazy rush seemed to have a better chance at survival than his friend's sleep driving. He supposed he could swallow his urge to slam the gas just this once for the sake of their safe arrival at Seokjin's home. Likely, Jiho wouldn't be a favorite among the hedgehog's list of friends, but he surely didn't need a reason to intensify the loath of him.

Tossing his bag lazily into the trunk with his friend, Jiho let out a low hum of acknowledgement at the thanks. "I'm going this half to save my own , y'know." There was a smaller smile perking the corner of his lips as Jiho closed the driver's seat behind him, being careful his tail didn't catch. Turning over to glance at his friend he shrugged. "It's fine, just don't sleep for too long, I don't know your neighborhood." Pulling his tail to rest looped around his waist, Jiho strapped himself in, begrudgingly, and glanced down at the map loaded on the cell phone screen. A second of studying the arrows, and he nodded, twisting the key into ignition and leeting the vehicle roar to life under him. And he swallowed, pushing down the urge to slam down on the exhilerator.

There was much in Jiho's mind as he pulled out of the campus, his brows curling beneath shaded specs as he rolled down onto the road. He had never completely thought out his much unexpected reunion with his father. What would happen? For sure, the feline had since long decided that he hated the man. He had done wrong, leaving his mother and he; and no matter what reason the man might have had to blunt the blow, he had since young decided, would stand no chance in his hatred toward him. But that had all been musings done before he had known that the man had been also the father to his best friend. Jiho scowled.

A side glance could tell that his friend had fallen sound asleep, folded in on himself in a sort of ball. Though he couldn't stare for long, he was driving after all, the short look brought a sort of smile to him. It was cute; Seokjin was very much so, as well a precious friend to him.

Could he really hate the man his friend loved so much? Perhaps, but not nearly half the passion he'd originally had. At least the bastard seemed to have done right with one of his two sons.

A series of scenarios played out in Jiho's mind. A case would be if he wasn't recognized. Jiho could simply walk in, introduce himself as Seokjin's friend and spent the night over before deciding his next plan of action. This had probably been what the hedgehog had most wished for, letting Jiho come along during the break. And perhaps this would indeed be the best course of action; that is, if Jiho's pride and emotions overthrow his rational. Or things could turn out differently. The man could recognize him. Jiho wished he did. He wished he would look in him and see his mother and feel the utmost guilt for having walked out on the duo.

His thoughts were broken as a sharp noise broke to his right. Ears twitching in irritation, Jiho turned to see his friend awake. "Bad dream?" He'd had plenty of those, the few days prior to today. The cheetah let off a low rumble to sooth his friend, tapping his finger lightly against the steering wheel as he rolled on, keeping his eyes back concentrated on the road. He wasn't sure if he could take looking at Seokjin right now, without being reminded again of their shared father. "Yeah, you slept practically the whole way here. If you slept any longer, I might've ended up driving circles around town trying to find your place." And Jiho simply had not nearly enough patience to do such wasting activity.

"Besides driving?" He laughed, turning toward the next exist as per instructed. "You should be lucky I was only driving or you might've woken up with a tube sticking out of your nose." He was kidding - maybe. "I was thinking," Jiho filled in another a moment, mulling over the words as he glanced through the side mirror before taking a turn. And he sighed. "They wouldn't kick you out." But Jiho? They had no obligations to keep the cheetah housed. He tried to appear nonchalant. "If he recognizes me, then he does." In fact, that had been a part of Jiho's original plan - though now, he wasn't quite so sure. "I just want to see him. I never saw him. I just want to see him" It wasn't totally a lie. "I'll leave maybe in a day or two and you can do whatever you want after that." That hadn't been what he'd originally thought, but it wasn't as if he had an actual plan to begin with in the first place.

@seokjin (2/2) Pressing his lips together, Jiho rolled the car to a pause by the street, pressing the emergency lights and undoing his seat belt. "Come on, switch with me. You know your neighborhood better than I do. I don't feel much like wasting the whole day in the car." He wasn't about to admit, that his hands had begun shaking in the anxiety - no, never. The secret of his becoming fear in seeing his birth father could die with him. Sliding out of his seat, and pausing, Jiho turned back to his friend, a slight, for once unsure, smile itching. "It'll be fine."

No, it wouldn't. Who the hell did he think he was kidding? - Surely not himself.

(eu eb sounds good. sorry about this post otl. wouldn't quite come out the way i want it to ////)

@jiho Seokjin didn't argue, though when he walked over to the other side of the car it was not without a moment's hesitation first. He opened the trunk to haul in the bags for their trip, closing it when they were done, and coming around to the passenger's-side door in the front. "Thanks, Jiho.." He rather awkwardly sat down in the passenger seat of his own car, but that was far from the top of his mind now, as he buckled his seat belt like a good little boy and pulled his hood over his unruly blond hair. "I, uh, didn't sleep, actually. In case you couldn't tell, ha-ha... not just yesterday, but I was working on this assignment for the past couple days, so.." He would stay awake until the car engine started, at least, he told himself, but he didn't last very long, curled up with his head against the window on his right mere minutes after he looked up his house's address and showed it to his friend, brother, half-brother, leaving his phone open on that page and placing it in its little holder on the dashboard so Jiho could see it better while he was driving.
The sun might have interfered with his rest if he hadn't worn anything with a hood, but now his face was comfortably shadowed.
Seokjin had a habit of sleeping curled up into.. not a ball, but a sort of fetal position, when he slept, instead of lying down straight; his body just wanted to function that way, he supposed, but it probably had a lot to do with his hedgehog DNA.

He dreamt of his father. Most of his dream was bad-quality replays of old videotapes from his childhood that he'd seen later, clips ranging from learning to ride a bike to graduating from high school, having his first birthday to his eighteenth. And then after all these other videos, there was one taken of his parents, probably with a camera strapped to baby Jin's hand, that loomed up at them waking and smiling down at the camera. It was lovely st first, but then his father's face began to change from an easy grin to more of a grimace, his mother somehow disappearing from the video and leaving his father, now grimly staring at Seokjin as though he were looking through the screen and through his soul. And he stood there, stern-faced and almost frowninf, staring... staring... staring.....

Nightmares.
There was a shout on Seokjin's lips when he jumped awake, startled. He wasn't sure whether the dream had woken him or whether Jiho had woken him up, but he was grateful either way. " 'morning..." He greeted, but upon looking at the clock saw that it was well into the afternoon alr e day. "Woah, it's three? Take the next exit and let me take over from here." He felt significantly better now, though he could have rested better and more if not or that terrifying dream. "What have you been doing while I was out? Besides driving, of course."
Anyang was honestly very close to Seoul, but it felt like eons on the road. Left room to think, and maybe to talk...
"What do you think you'll do, when you see him? What if be recognizes you? What if we get kicked out of the house? What are we going to do?"

(Ehhh I think we can bring them to the doorstep of the house in the next or the next-next one.)

@seokjin .
Jiho had thought that he hadn't had nearly enough rest, but even one glance Seokjin's way, proved his self-created theory wrong. He looked more than well, in comparison.

His reaction to his friend - or brother, he ought to grow used to saying - collapsing on him was to frown, arms reaching out for the just barely able body to steady. Wrinkling his nose, a little huff parting him when the pair of sunglasses perched on his nose slipped the slight, Jiho pressed his lips together, letting his arms drop and nodding along to the motion out, a slight puzzle going on mind whether or not to let the stumble pass without scold. "Did you sleep at all?" Voice a little scratchy, Jiho turned his head back to peer over his shoulder at the hedgehog, his brow curling behind shielding lens. "You look like you're about to kneel over." And he wasn't exaggerating in the slightest.

Shifting his strap over his shoulder, Jiho tilt his head in anything but belief at his friend. Let Seokjin drive? In his state now? Jiho scoffed, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest. "Sorry, but I don't have a death wish." He himself hadn't too well of a night's sleep, but letting Seokjin drive in the state he was in, would probably result in the both of them with their head cracked open and passed out on the road.

Undoing the folded cross of arms, the cheetah moved to the driver's side of the vehicle, knocking his friend on the head with a half clenched fist. "I'm serious when I said you look like you're about to kneel over." And he really didn't feel like ended up as road kill today or any other days for that matter. Dropping his hand to the boy's shoulder, Jiho gave him a slight squeeze, giving him a slight shove to the other side of the car. "I'm driving, you can give me directions and swap with me later when I start to doze."


(they would have probably both passed out if they went on a bus lol)

@jiho (Couldn't really decide where to go, but the computer lab seemed kind of full now and so.. here we are!)

One night was NOT enough time to calm Seokjin's nerves. No length of time was, actually, but that was beside the point. He stayed awake, watching the hour figure slowly blink to higher numbers until twelve on the clock on his bedside table, his thoughts filling up and clogging his brain with worry and anxious energy. 
Groaning with frustration at his own inability to fall asleep, Seokjin got up and got himself some milk in his favourite mug, the one with the little smiling hedgehog on it (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/57/d9/b4/57d9b44b2a9d96833da35c99c29e6a9a.jpg), setting it in the microwave in his mini-kitchen (more accurately, the microwave itself was the entire kitchen) to warm up a little before he drank.
Jin sat on the floor with his back against the foot of his bed, drawing his legs close and hugging them to his chest, closing his eyes to try and maybe coax his brain into thinking it was time he relaxed. No such luck, and when he finally found himself sipping at the last few droplets of his beverage, he was still wide awake. How would Jiho react after seeing their dad? Would he flip out and get them both kicked out of the house? Maybe his dad would recognize Jiho first, and run away or get angry at them? Really angry? What if it was actually a different person and there had been some sort of mistake? That seemed like both the best- and the worst-case scenario, where on the one hand they didn't meet Jiho's dad.. and they also got Jiho worked up and restless for the rest of the trip. Or the rest of his life, even. What if, what if, what if......

And when the clock finally hit the right time in the morning, Seokjin got up and fixed his hair halfheartedly, stuffing it under a snapback from his expansive collection and throwing on one of his lighter-fabric hoodies. It was still warm enough out for him to be wearing cargo shorts, which he was, but he would probably need a hood to shield his eyes if he was going to sleep a little on the way to his house. Which he probably wouldn't be able to anyway, because it was his house and he would have to drive there, obviously. Even in his state. Maybe.

Morning had come much too fast. Seokjin stood near the doorway, lifting his glasses a bit to rub at his failing eyes as he yawned, bringing even more moisture to them. God, he should have tried harder to get to sleep last night... He'd almost forgotten his wallet yet again when he'd left his dorm room, and that sort of looked like a big, red sign he should be seeking help about that.
Things were confusing and muddled this morning, and of course he knew it was the severe lack of sleep, not just from one night but several consecutive nights before.

When Jiho stepped into the computer lab, Jin made his way over to the doorway to meet him, though, when he got there, he stumbled and had to catch himself on the feline hybrid with whom he was going to be spending the entirety of the next week or so. Or maybe just the next few hours, and then Seokjin would instantly die from the tension between Jiho and their dad. Hopefully he would live to get back to school, of course, but it might just happen. Would probably happen. Would happen no matter what.
It was a hard life.
"Uh, sorry, I'm just-" he yawned, "a little tired, is all. Sorry." Jin steadied himself, blinking to open his eyes and hopefully get the sleep out of them, before gesturing for Jiho to step out of the lab now that they had met. He followed him out, letting the door close behind them, and sort of half-staggered, half-walked after Jiho's receding footsteps. He wouldn't have been so distracted and dysfunctional if it had just been one night's sleep he'd lost, but Seokjin had been furiously trying to finish a project he'd been working on before the holidays, so he'd barely even had time to pack, much less get some shuteye before or during the previous night.

"Uhm. I'll drive.. You probably don't know the way, so." Seokjin stood next to the driver's-side door, his hand on it more to prop himself up than to prop it open, and biting down a stifled yawn.

(Couldn't decide whether to give Seokjin a car or send them off on a bus.. Finally settled on car, though, because I think it would be easier for them to have some conversation and whatnot.)

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