This chapter isn't exactly interesting, but I have a present for you at the end.

><

Taehyung focus

They had arrived in Hongkong and they had found the swapped suitcase (Yoongi had checked that instantly), and now they were waiting in front of the giant airport hall for a call from Jin who would pick them up. And Taehyung was excited. His whole body was thrumming with energy and his body soaked up all the foreign sounds and voices.

"Can we please visit the Whampoa?" he asked Yoongi who stared at his phone impatiently.

"What's that?" his best friend asked.

Taehyung shared a disbelieving look with Namjoon before the ex-cop started to explain. "That's a mall shaped like a luxury cruise ship. It literally has everything from clothes over restaurants to a cinema. The area has been a haven back in the day, so as a reminder of that they build this concrete cruise ship."

Perfect explanation, Taehyung thought. He should always allow Namjoon to explain the places because he had not known that the area had been a port. Maybe they could learn something from the ex-cop.

"Interesting," Yoongi said absolutely disinterested, "By the way, Namjoon, put the foot chain back on. I don't want to lose you in Hongkong." With that, the hacker pulled the electronic tool, which they had taken off for airport control, out of his backpack and handed it over to the other.

Namjoon sighed but complied. Only now, Taehyung realized that their accomplice wore long trousers instead of shorts albeit the temperatures were summerly. Poor Namjoon.

However, Yoongi's phone was ringing and making him forget about anything unimportant.

"Jin... yes, we're outside... no, I don't see a limousine," his best friend said and looked around for one.

"What color?" Taehyung asked.

"What color, Jin?" his friend transmitted the question over the phone. "White, he says. We'll search for it." And Yoongi ended the call. "White limousine with black windows. Jin will wait outside the car," he said and grabbed his suitcase to walk down the seemingly endless airport road, Taehyung and Namjoon following behind.

Two minutes down the arcade-like sidewalk and about a thousand red-and-white raggedy taxis later they finally saw their friend. A wide smile decorated the handsome features of their personal shopper who leaned against a shiny white limousine with chrome rims.

"Is that your car, Jin?" Taehyung shouted from afar and saw the beauty shake his head with an amused smile.

"It's rented by my customer. Welcome to Hongkong!" he greeted them and walked towards the trunk to let them stow their luggage. "The ride to your hotel will take about half an hour. You can entertain me with the story of how you got your equipment into the country."

Yoongi snorted and shook his head for some reason, and Namjoon showed no reaction at all. Weirdos. "I'll tell you," Taehyung lilted happily and smiled back at their friend.

It took him about two minutes to tell the story of the suitcase swap, then Yoongi had to take over to talk about his part of the plan. When his best friend had finished, Taehyung knew why his newly bought suitcase was already limping. He had wanted to ask about that later.

"Can you fix that?" he asked his best friend instead.

"Of course. I'll fix it once we're at the hotel," Yoongi assured him and then closed his eyes to melt into the comfy leather upholstery and dose off.

But Taehyung did not even want to think about sleeping. He wanted to see the skyscrapers and the ocean. Sadly, for now all he could see was a dry asphalt street and cars (It was weird to drive on the wrong side of the road), but only one minute later, the first giant 30-stories apartment blocks came into sight. It was a loose ensemble of concrete and glass (but mostly concrete) that contrasted quite strongly with the soft mountains that protruded from the ocean in the background.

"Wow," Taehyung whispered when the drove past the massive concrete giants. They looked a little like cactuses.

"Hongkong has about seven million residents on one thousand square kilometers. That's horrendous," Namjoon mumbled.

"Wait until you see the real city," Jin added with a knowing half-smile.

"This is not the real city?" Taehyung asked confused.

The personal shopper shook his head. "This is Lantau Island, the biggest and greenest of all the islands of Hongkong. The real devil's kettle is still twenty minutes away. You'll understand when you see it, believe me."

Taehyung nodded absentmindedly while he stared out of the tinted window as so not to miss a single thing.

Fifteen minutes into the ride he found himself on the longest bridge he had ever seen. It did not seem to end at all and there was ocean everywhere. Ocean with giant container ships that looked tiny from so far above. And apartment blocks. Not as high as the ones from Lantau Island but massive, so massive that they looked unreal.

Then they drove into a tunnel and Taehyung's brain got some time to process the new impressions.

"What hotel will we stay in?" Namjoon asked their host.

"The Eaton. It's a nice hotel. You'll like it," Jin reassured the ex-cop. "I don't know about the room your employer chose though. I only told him you need three beds."

Namjoon nodded understandingly. Yoongi snored softly.

"How long will-" Taehyung seriously had wanted to ask how long the ride would still take, but the tunnel had ended and the sight in front of him was overwhelming. The tunnel had opened onto a bridge and now they suddenly were surrounded by the city, and in the far back Taehyung could make out even higher buildings, before they continued their way under the wide shadows of the highway that was built through the city as an overpass.

"Container haven," Jin stated when they followed a street that was decorated with container towers on the right.

"I never would have guessed," Namjoon mumbled with a snort, but Jin did not seem bothered at all.

And after a confusingly green part of the drive, they finally hit the city. And it was doing things to Taehyung's guts he did not know were possible. A disgusting excitement twisted his stomach and chest at the flood of cars, people and enormous buildings. 30 stories now were not enough anymore; there was 50 or 100 stories, concrete, glass and dusty asphalt, and it was all flooding his head and making him feel lightheaded. It was dirty he realized through all the haze, really dirty and shabby apart from some modern glass needles that tried to tickle the clouds.

"Welcome to the heart of Hongkong," Jin said softly when they passed the first of those glassy towers. "You've officially arrived in our chaos."

Taehyung knew he was grinning like an idiot, but he could not help it. This was fantastic.

"It's kind of ugly," he stated with a chuckle when they passed an extraordinarily ramshackle building.

"Hongkong is not beautiful at day," Jin said in a loving tune, "It shows his beauty at night. Then the dirt vanishes in the shadows and the technicolor busts transform the streets into a futuristic fantasy. You'll understand after your first night out."

Five minutes later, they exited the small streets they had gone down and found themselves on a wide plaza with one building being especially showy.

"This is your hotel," Jin introduced their stay and Taehyung poked Yoongi to wake the hacker up.

><

"This is perfect," Yoongi stated when they entered their room. "We can use the green panels to stick up organizational things. And look at that spacious table... Send Mr. Jang our thanks, Jin. This room is perfect. I'll customize that TV a little, so we have a big screen to work with, and you can unpack."

Of course, Yoongi was already adjusting the room for their job in his head. Taehyung could picture it as well, but right now he needed to pee more than anything else.

"Ah, now that you say it," Jin remarked and stopped him from searching for the bathroom, "Mr. Jang wants to know how long this will take to adjust the time for the reservation."

"I've got no idea," Yoongi replied with a shrug, "We'll have to find the current owner, do some spying on his apartment... I don't know, Jin." Like his best friend had said, they had no idea how to operate in Hongkong, so they would need some time to adjust and get acclimated to the city's lifestyle. Yoongi would probably visit every single electronic shop around here, and Taehyung wanted this to be more than just a job; he wanted to have a proper vacation as well.

"I know who the current owner is, and I know where to find him. So, I'll tell Mr. Jang three weeks for now. Have a nice stay, and until tomorrow," the personal shopper concluded, and every motion in the room stilled.

"You know the owner of the hair needle?" Taehyung asked in disbelieve. Why had Jin not told them earlier?

"Yes, it's Choi Seunghyun. We're members of the same private club," the beauty stated nonchalantly.

>><<

You might know Choi Seunghyun as T.O.P. of BigBang.

I love google street view. Do yourself the favor and 'drive' the road from the airport to the center of Hongkong. It's so out-of-this world. I mean, I saw pictures of New York, but this is a whole other level of proximity regarding living space.

Plus: I found this one corner in Hongkong where Google made the pictures at night. It's only this one corner, go back or forth and you'll see sunny and dry Hongkong again, accept for the small street, there you'll see rainy Hongkong. I loved it.

https://www.google.de/maps/@22.3085669,114.1705903,2a,75y,93.41h,97.3t/data=!3m9!1e1!3m7!1swUxs-wZyrW8AAAQY9ZwjDQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!9m2!1b1!2i24

(I hope you can access that link... otherwise, have fun typing ^^)