chapter one;
an interesting start
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Jeno wandered aimlessly through the Japanese airport with his suitcase in tow behind him and a brochure grasped firmly in his fingers. Thousands of people were packed inside just one building, and it brought the young adult a great deal of discomfort whenever he'd be faced with pushing past others. Young children with their sticky hands had bumped against his legs far too many times now, apologising as they'd been taught, but not with the mature sincerity that came with age.

None of that mattered, however. He was finally taking his college's exchange programme to Japan after months of signing papers, laying down deposits, planning schedules and working hard to earn enough money to do it at all. It had been the biggest endeavour of his life so far, and he wouldn't let ice-cream-covered fingers against his jeans drag that excitement down. He'd been studying the language and culture for two years.

"TTN...." he murmured gently while dragging his case up against a free wall and checking over the same bus company's brochure he'd been reading for three months, again. Nothing had changed since he examined it half an hour ago on the plane, but now that he needed to find the damn vehicle, it felt as though he was reading Greek.

Fortunately, his parents were very engaging and encouraging towards adventure and change. Traditions weren't really a thing in Jeno's household, and so everything was new all the time. Convincing them to let their twenty-three-year-old son who still lived at home go to a new country wasn't so difficult.

'Call regularly' they had said. 'We'll see you in a month.'

"God, where's the exit?" The male suddenly wondered worriedly as he looked up and down the bustling hallways, across the huge, neon signs hanging like banners above, and of course along the doors where instructions as well as advertisements were plastered on. The sight of another boy around his age racing towards the toilets captured his attention, but not for long.

"Ugh, are you kidding me?!" Donghyuck whined, standing in line with all the other impatient men as the queue for the toilets slowly moved on. "I have a bus to catch...."

The whole room reeked of something, but it could've been anything, really. Cheap soap, Linx body spray, crap. Anything. Hyuck refused to let it get him down though, since a long as hell plane flight from Korea to here hadn't broken his free spirit yet. A little queue meant nothing, and besides....the bus would wait. He was certain of it.

His suitcase was heavy and cumbersome in his grip, but he had no friend travelling with him to protect it while he came in here. Had it been a great idea to drop out of college to embark on a journey of self discovery? Probably not. And would realising his goal of finding a hot Japanese boy to date fix the mess he'd created in his life? Highly unlikely also....but Lee Donghyuck was a firm believer of 'you only live once', and by God would he make the most of this life. He'd been born good-looking, clever and charming, so there was no reason to waste his blessings.

"Jeez, hurry it up...." he whined, uncomfortable enough as it was while standing in shorts and a t-shirt riddled with sweat. Japan may have been hotter than he'd researched....but only a little. Summer was a stupid idea.

"So impatient," someone in front of him rolled their eyes, but the young brunette took no notice of it, and instead clicked his tongue in response before thinking 'he's just cranky'.

"Oh, Sweet Jesus!" Huang Renjun called gleefully before running towards an ugly, ugly bus with the letters 'TTN' painted in pink over a turquoise background across the side. It wasn't huge or anything, maybe capable of holding around ten to fifteen people....but it better have had air conditioning.

His little legs were already prancing up the laborious three steps and into the miniature transport vehicle, guiding him to nicer places. His suitcase was left neglected beside the coach, unattended, yet he didn't seem to mind. His hazel eyes immediately took to examining the interior of the bus he'd be stuck inside for the guts of a month, sizing it up and determining its values.

"Oh. Hello," a young boy in the driver's seat waved, his white hair falling over his forehead in a sweaty mess along with a dazzling, pearly smile to match. "You must be one of the passengers. What's you're name?"

The Chinese adult tilted his head, having half expected an old, plain, middle-aged guy to be escorting them through Japan....not a hot, young lad. "Renjun. Huang Renjun." He watched as the white-haired male reached for a clipboard on the dashboard and read over a list of names.

"Ah, you're telling the truth."

"Of course I am."

"No need to get defensive."

"I'm not getting defen-" Renjun paused, holding back his urge to ramble and argue. This was not what he needed to start off his adventure, and clearly this guy with a god's smile was only winding him up for fun. Perhaps this was him making an effort to be friendly. "Okay, fine. What's your name then, Mister?"

"Oh, don't bother being all formal. I'm literally twenty-three."

"Ah, what? I'm twenty-four. Shouldn't you be in college?"

He shrugged as though it were a silly notion and not one to get uptight about. "Nah, I ditched college. I hate classrooms."

Renjun hummed in response, though admired his confident features and honey-like tone of voice. He was nice.... "You never answered my question. What's your name?"

"Jaemin."

"Jaemin?"

"Mhm. Na Jaemin."

The blonde blinked a couple of times blankly before nodding along and digesting that very name with curiosity. Na Jaemin, huh? He turned to glance over his shoulder at his suitcase outside and wondered what it was he could do. "Um....you're driving this bus, right?"

The younger arched his brow, tilting his head around and looking downwards as well to view the baggage below. "Sure. Why?"

"Well, the bag...."

"Ah, yes. I do that, don't I? Hang on," he got up from his comfy seat and slid around the shorter to descend the minuscule flight. He manually opened the side of the bus to view its luggage carrier, happily picking up the red suitcase belonging to Renjun and pushing it inside. "All good."

"Thanks," the older bowed ever so slightly before shifting through the rows of dusty, fabric seats. There was nobody else here yet, which was odd. The brochure had definitely stated to arrive at half three in the afternoon.

Yet just as he was about to question it more, another body dragged itself up the steps of the vehicle and started to talking to Jaemin without any filter. His deep, sort of raspy-due-to-lack-of-use voice swam down to the other end of the bus where Renjun had collapsed into the third seat from the back. He peeped over the backrest in front to check him out, surprised to find a tall boy with brown hair and blonde highlights.

"What was your name?" The driver quizzed, pulling out that same clipboard again. "Oh! Are you Jeno?"

"Um, no."

"Wait, I wanna' guess. Give me a minute."

"There are literally six names on that list. There's no point...."

The oldest continued to watch in amusement, checking his watch and feeling thankful that someone else had come along. The new arrival was shifting his weight from one foot to the other, clearly unamused.

"Jesus, if I'm not Jeno, I'm not Donghyuck and I'm obviously Korean, then there has to be one goddamn name left," he groaned. "Jisung! Park Jisung."

"Uh, wrong," Jaemin hummed with a smirk. "There's another name here."

"Yeah. My mother's. She's in the bathroom right now, so wait for her please." With that the younger proceeded to stomp off towards the very back seats where he'd hopefully remain undisturbed for the rest of the trip. Renjun pouted now that he knew he'd have to deal with a brat for a whole month. How unfortunate.

Jaemin looked down the way through the aisles and caught the Chinese male's eyes, smiling at him so prettily. The older hoped the reddening of his cheeks was due to the sheer heat of the day, and slid down to lay low in his seat. Outside the window, he could spot people racing towards taxis and minivans, families arguing about time limits, and planes descending overhead. Before he knew it, another guy was jumping on up and greeting the driver.

"Heya, I'm Lee Donghyuck. The queues in the toilets were so ridiculously long, so I'm a bit late."

"Aaaw," the blonde whined, "I wanted to guess who you were."

"Oh," the shorter blinked, shrugging nonetheless and smiling cutely. "Sorry. Who would you have said?"

"Donghyuck."

"Hah, sure you would've," he chuckled and wandered down the vehicle to find a seat near the middle. He was dressed quite scantily, like he held all the pride in the world. Jaemin departed from the seat he'd been glued to and wandered out into the rays of sun to pack the vulnerable suitcases into the baggage holder. There was plenty of space at least.

"Oh, you're already packing up," someone spoke behind him, and when the tall male turned around to view who it was, he found two new passengers.

"Travelling together?" He asked.

"Oh, no," the ravenette around his height shook off the assumption. "We just-"

"We were both lost, so we found our way together," the tallest of the trio gushed. "I'm Chenle, and this is Lee Jeno. We should be on the list?"

"Mhm, Jeno is anyway," the blonde stuck his thumb up. "I can barely pronounce the other names. So, welcome aboard the," he looked at the side of the bus, "TTN."

"Thanks...." they responded simultaneously, leaving their bags with him and wandering on towards the steps. Once out of sight, Jaemin counted on his hand how many had arrived, and recalled that there were six people due. So far, he had Renjun, Jisung, Donghyuck, Chenle and Jeno. That meant there was one left...

He was about to clip the storage door shut, but froze when a loud, male voice demanded he stopped. "Hang on, hang on!"

Jaemin smiled softly at the shorter man who was definitely older than him, and extended his hand. "You're not late, so no need to panic."

"O-Oh," he tilted his head, sighing and leaving his suitcase down. "Great. If we could take off as soon as possible, that'd be wonderful," he exclaimed before boarding the bus and pulling out his phone that seemed to constantly ring. The taller smirked to himself as he thought of the crazy group he'd acquired. How interesting.

Once on board as well, his eyes traveled over the six heads occupying the various seats, each different and new. He slid dutifully into the driver's seat and buckled up, acquainting himself with all the buttons, all the controls and nodded now that he was ready. "Okay, guys. We're off."

The passengers were all spread out, quite possibly avoiding the awkward atmosphere shared between strangers. Well, they'd have to suck it up at some stage, since a month was a long time to remain silent.

On the opposite side of the very back row with Jisung, Chenle excitedly twisted around in his seat to view the airport ranks where people were still going about their lives through the back window. They were sailing away now, on a mighty adventure as a random group of seven men. His brows furrowed when he saw a woman racing out through the exit of the massive structure, dropping her bags and waving her hands at their bus like a lunatic. She seemed distressed, but Jaemin had seemed sure that they had everyone.

A man trailed over to stand beside her with equal shock and amazement, but that all disappeared as they left the scene in their little bus. Maybe it was nothing....

He glanced towards the boy on the far side of this row, listening to music while reading a comic of sorts. Chenle sort of wanted to communicate and perhaps make a friend or two....but his social nerves said 'no'. He sighed and flopped back to relax, tilting his head back and gazing out at the passing road beyond the window.

I hope this'll be fun.....

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Hope you enjoyed the first chapter as an intro to various characters.
It'll only pick up from here, and there are some fun scenes to get through ;)

Thanks for reading~
lily