NeoNara || TXT || taebin || yeonkai

2017, DAY TWO
Saturday, August 19, 2017 9:27 PM

Taehyun wakes up — surprisingly — to a knock on his front door.

He stirs, then realizes he's only hearing it through his left ear. No wonder it's so loud. His right ear is still pressed against Soobin's shoulder, and as he sits up, he notices just how full it feels. Hopefully it will dissipate by the time the concert starts tonight, but even in this condition, he could still play buckled in. He shakes the cobwebs from his head and looks around.

They made it back to the RV in one piece last night after the tribute show, and had basically collapsed into bed. River's set had lasted three hours, including the encore. Taehyun is still wearing the shorts and shirt he wore to the set. He feels the sweat and the grossness set in, and he makes a mental note to take a shower after he figures out who's knocking.

He gets up from bed — and slams against the wall.

Taehyun grabs the handrail before he can hit the floor. He's not hurt — only stunned. But it means that vertigo has taken control of his head. He can't walk unassisted right now, and he finds it greatly annoying. So he grabs Steve from where it is folded up against the wall, and he shakes it once and it springs out into a full walking cane.

Taehyun looks back at Soobin; in traditional Soobin fashion, the man has slept through all of this and will continue to. So Taehyun uses a combination of Steve and the handrails to walk out of the bedroom and to the front door. He grabs the rail near the door, then uses Steve to unlatch the front door and push it open.

Polaris Rider is standing outside.

"Oh, hey!" Taehyun says as Polaris lets herself in. He waves the cane. "Not having a good morning." In fact, now is a horrible time to be standing in front of one of his mentors; not only is he a drop fall risk, he's wearing last night's clothes and is swimming in the stink of them.

"You still up for a sound check?" Polaris asks, shutting the door behind herself.

Taehyun inwardly groans. The D4Fes crew does their sound checks early in the morning to avoid festival crowds. The first show at Sperry isn't until 5 PM, when Peaky P-Key plays, but if anybody hears sound coming from Sperry at, say, noon, they will come running, thinking they're missing a good set. And neither Polaris nor Taehyun want to take crowds away from the smaller shows playing those timeslots. Therefore, their sound checks are always done early in the morning...and Taehyun is not prepared.

"I might be in a minute. My ear is fine, but my vertigo is not." Taehyun notices how underdressed he is compared to Polaris; even in a white tank top and itty bitty cut off shorts, she still manages to look like a superstar. "Oh, and I need a shower and a change of clothes, I wore these last night. Can you grab me a water from the fridge?"

"I'll do you one better. Soobin here?"

"He's still asleep."

"Figured. I would just take him to the sound check, but I'm pretty sure he'd fall asleep halfway through." Polaris grabs the water from the fridge and hands it to Taehyun, then sticks her head into his bedroom. Soobin sleeps the whole time as she grabs a fresh pair of shorts from the drawer and a black t-shirt from the hanging closet. She shoves them through the curtain. "These work?"

"Yeah." In another world, this would be weird, but everybody is friends here. Polaris has been on tour for months with Taehyun and Soobin, and has helped with Taehyun's Meniere's on occasion. She knows exactly what is in all of his drawers, and she's not ashamed of it.

Taehyun showers and changes at the speed of light, then grabs Steve in one hand and Polaris' hand in the other. She helps him out of the RV and into the nearby golf cart, putting her arm around him to stabilize him as they take off. It's a short drive to Sperry, and as Taehyun drinks his water, he can feel the cobwebs start to clear. He'll probably need to be buckled into his seat for the sound check, but at least he's awake.