Chapter Text
Run episodes were a big thing amongst the fans. Many of the famous moments in the show had gone on to become hilarious inside jokes. Times such as Yoongi transforming in Yoonji or Hoseok screaming when a zombie came too close to him had been turned into immortal memes.
Tae had a fear of water, but the memes hadn't caught that yet. But when the Run writers decided it would be a great idea to do a water course, he didn't protest.
Do it for the fans, he told himself. Do it for the people who stay up late writing fanfiction about you, he told himself.
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Tae stared at himself in the mirror. If he had to be frank, he looked scared. His face had a whitish tinge to it and even his biggest fake smile didn't cover it.
Sighing, he exited the bathroom to join the other members in the dressing rooms.
Yoongi looked up from his phone to glance at Tae briefly as he walked into the room before going back to his task. Namjoon was sitting at the back, book in hand. Probably more art books.
Loud talking and laughter came down the hallway. The other members burst into the room, big smiles on their faces.
Lucky. They're not scared. Tae thought before joining Yoongi on the bench.
"What are you looking at?" he halfheartedly asked the rapper.
Yoongi held up his phone to show Tae the new track he was working on. Red and white boxes signifying the beats. More tracks were layered on top of it.
"Do you like it?"
Tae nodded.
Yoongi thanked him with a smile. "I just need to smooth out the transitions and then I can send it along to the producer."
Tae grinned uneasily. He wished he had something to do to distract himself.
He contented himself with watching Jin and Jungkook punch each other in the background. Those two were always bickering and fighting. Tae's heart warmed in a sweet way when he saw Jin's foot accidentally smack Jungkook too hard and the eldest immediately got to his knees to check on him.
Sejin entered the room, counting the members to make sure they were all in there. They were. He cleared his throat loudly and stared at Jungkook and Jin with a smirk.
"Uhh guys?" He said after a while.
Jin and Jungkook looked up. They laughed when they realized everyone was staring at them.
"It's time to start filming now. You guys ready?"
"You bet!" Hoseok screamed.
"I'm too broke...but anyways, let's just go." Sejin mumbled.
Tae took a deep breath, racking his brain to remember all the breathing techniques Namjoon had taught them recently. Regardless of how much his lungs inflated, he could feel the thumping of his heart against his ribs pick up speed. He rubbed his hands trying to get them to stop shaking.
Sejin led them through the corridor. Cold air blasted all of them when they opened the door leading outside.
The water slides sprawled in front of them in the outdoor pool. Slides with impressive heights cascaded down into the depths. Tae's hands shook harder just looking at it.
The filming would begin shortly afterwards.
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Lifejackets were currently being fitted onto the members, but Taehyung couldn't help feeling that the flotation device resembled a cage. He felt claustrophobic. The thing was too tight.
He resisted the urge to fidget, instead trying to focus on Jimin who kept giggling at a bird on a tree. The bird kept flitting to and fro like it was nervous. Like Taehyung.
There was no more time to calm himself down. The staff ushered them all in front of the camera. Tae was seriously starting to feel sick by now. He really didn't want to do this.
The intro and the team picking were over too fast for him. He talked loudly, hoping that the other members would leave him for the last and then forget about his turn.
"Well then, Tae, why don't you go first? You're talking a lot today!" Namjoon said enthusiastically.
148 IQ, seriously?
"Yes, he's talking my ear off, thank you." Yoongi said.
Feeling like the whole world was collapsing on him, Tae shakily nodded before climbing up to the top of the water slide.
The view from the top of slide was even scarier than when viewed from the bottom. The slide jutted out harshly, and the last three meters were just a freefall into the water.
Tae stared at the slide. His doubt and fear combined into one heartless monster causing his heart rate to speed up and his hands to shake. The members were cheering for him far below, but he couldn't really feel himself focus. He wiped the sweat from his forehead.
His hand went up again to wipe the sweat. Dizziness was starting to make him sway.
Tae remembered the last time he had gone on a water slide, the way the slide plunged him down into the water leaving him kicking and thrashing in the water. How the vile taste of chlorine polluted his mouth, and how moments afterward, he stopped kicking and...just went still. He will always remember the way his dad lifted him out even though he probably wasn't fully conscious anymore then. But he can swear, he does remember.
And because he remembers that, he is terrified now.
The sights in front of him blurred into indistinct shapes. His sense of hearing was reduced to murky noises that his frazzled brain couldn't comprehend. He moved his hand up again to wipe sweat away again.
Fear gripped him tighter and tighter, never intending to let go. His hand trembled in front of his face and he couldn't control it to do the thing that he wanted to do - to get rid of his sweat. His body had a mind of its own.
A pit opened up in his chest. The gaping hole demanded more air. Tae did what most people would have done - he began to breathe faster.
"Taehyung!"
What the others heard as a loud yell from Namjoon, Tae heard as a quiet pin dropping five feet away from him, even though the leader wasn't all that far from him at all. He had run up the ladder when there was no response from the second maknae, and now was standing right beside him.
"Tae!"
Namjoon placed his hands on the said man's shoulders. The second maknae was visibly shaking, trembling, and his eyes were unfocused and scared. But as soon as the leader's hands came in contact with his shoulders, Tae screamed. Backing away, he put himself at a distance from the leader. He couldn't think straight. For all he knew, the leader might be trying to push him in.
"Tae!"
"Tae!"
Namjoon and the others' yells and pleads for Taehyung to listen are like an annoying insect too close for comfort to the second maknae. All Tae wanted to let them know was that he couldn't go down the slide. He was going to fall. He was going to sink. He was going to drown and die...
"Tae, listen to me!"
Namjoon was near tears himself. He watched the second maknae helplessly mutter to himself and continue staring at the slide with unforgiving wide eyes. Namjoon, with his 148 IQ, was unable to do anything to help Tae.
The slide seemed to taunt him and all Tae could feel was a fear that he had never felt. He didn't want to die. Drowning seemed to be a painful way to die. He just didn't want to die...
"Tae!"
The second maknae jumped. His ears had suddenly gotten unplugged and Namjoon's yell startled him.
"Don-don't push me-me in please!" Tae's voice shook like a leaf. It wasn't steady.
Namjoon took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. He chose his words carefully. "I won't push you in Tae. We can go back home if you want, because we all want you to feel safe."
"But-but the shoot-"
"Don't worry about that."
Tae blinked. Namjoon's words were starting to sink in, bringing him the relief that he needed. More than anything he just wanted to go home and not have to face anything scary.
Namjoon lowered himself so he was at Tae's eye level. "Do you want to go home?"
The second maknae nodded vigorously.
"Let's go then." Namjoon smiled gently, showing his dimples.
Tae shakily mirrored his smile.
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The second maknae crumpled into Jin's lap as Sejin drove them home. The manager looked worried, deep lines etched in his face.
The eldest, in turn, propped Tae up in between himself and Hoseok, and let the second maknae rest his head on his own wide shoulders.
"He looks better now, doesn't he?" Yoongi mumbled from the back.
"Yeah, he does." Jin whispered. He kept his tone low so he wouldn't wake Tae up.
A small smile spread throughout Tae's face and he snuggled into Jin, wrapping his arms around the eldest subconsciously.
"Sweet dreams, TaeTae."
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