𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐥'𝐬 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰 ↬ ᵗᵃᵉᵏᵒᵒᵏ ˢʰᵒʳᵗ ˢᵗᵒʳʸ

﹝2﹞

Their silent walk coming to an end, the two boys finally arrived to the soul's loft. 

"Make yourself at home" , the older said. 

The shadow just smiled and slightly nodded as a response then began removing his boots and ash colored  jacket. 

Once he was done, he peeked towards the kitchen to see Taehyung making coffee while humming an unfamiliar tune. He then continued to march along the large corridor that led to the spacious living room located in the middle of the soul's modest home.  

While walking along  the said corridor , Jungkook stopped multiple times to admire the myriad of miniature paintings that decorated both sides of the wall. 

But the more he discerned the tiny masterpieces, the more each painting seemed to lure him into confusion. 

All of them radiated immense pain and suffering with the continuous themes of blood and teary eyes being robbed out of their place. Some also showed hands reaching out into nothingness which strongly reminded the shadow of how hopeless and lonely souls were by nature. 

Jungkook continued to leisurely make his way to the dimly lit room but suddenly stopped his tracks again as he caught a small glimpse at a very conflicting picture. It was colorful and had a happier vibe to it unlike the previous ones. 

"Wow.." the shadow whispered to himself in amazement. 

This painting was much larger than the past ones, three times as much more or less. 

It showed the accurate silhouette of a nude man holding a small bouquet of yellow and white chrysanthemums. The figure was extremely detailed, almost as if it had been done while the subject was purposely posing for its painter. 

The black-skinned subject appeared to be smiling but , to the shadow , the movement looked apologetic instead of happy.  

The background of the painting was colored bright yellow which harmoniously blended in with the golden flowers the figure was holding. 

Although the silhouette was obviously a stranger to him, the shadow felt at peace looking at his skinny frame as his face showed that undoubtedly apologetic beam he wasn't even trying to mask. 

"JK" , a voice suddenly called. 

"FUCK ME-" , Jungkook jumped in fear. 

"At least buy me dinner first , jeez.." Taehyung sighed as he made his way to the living room, shaking his head in disappointment. 

"NO ! I-It's a h-habit !! I just said it out of habit.. I-I didn't a-actually mean it.." the shadow continued the soul while hurriedly explaining his choice of words which he now immensely regretted. 

Ugh, stupid habits. 

"Sure, whatever you say bunny boy" , answered the soul after seating himself down in a velvet sofa directly facing the couch Jungkook was sitting on. 

The shadow tilted his head in confusion and sent in the soul's direction a questioning look in return of the other's cocky grim, "... bunny boy ?" , he asked , not avoiding eye contact. 

"You j-just resemble one.. yeah" , Taehyung muttered looking away. 

Perhaps was he embarrassed of his own nickname for the shadow ? No, surely that couldn't be the case as he was definitely not a softie that could be intimidated by another's attempt at direct eye contact. 

"Well you definitely look like a bear so I'm fine with being bunny boy as long as you're teddy bear" , smirked Jungkook. 

Was the friendly little shadow gaining confidence by the sight of Taehyung's red cheeks ? Yes, yes he was. And was the soul enjoy being flirted with like this ? Yes, he definitely was. 

"Y-yeah whatever..." , Taehyung replied shyly and still refraining from meeting the other's eyes. 

Shortly after this small but fundamental interaction, the two entities engaged in a larger , more general conversation about their lives and anything you'd discuss with a newly acquainted person.  

Taehyung learned that Jungkook had been amongst invisibles longer than him and therefor had more experience with other kinds of invisible creatures. 

The shadow had briefly told the other about his friends without going into to much detail as he was mostly focusing on flirting with the immortal. 

Frankly speaking, Taehyung was getting more and more flustered which quite overwhelmed his senses but he kept silent about his growing nervousness and told himself that he could take the dangerously familiar feeling. 

"Hey umm... I was wondering, that painting on the wall, you know the one with the guy, who is he ? And like, what's the meaning behind his nudity and stuff ? " , Jungkook's relaxed tone interrogated.

Taehyung finally woke up from his trance upon these sudden questions. 

"Well umm...their name is- was...Luke. They...umm.. they were my partner.." , the soul replied quietly as he shifted his eyes from the shadow to the floor. 

"Oh.. I'm sorry to hear that" , the younger said with empathy. 

A small silence settled in the room. Some bits noises could be heard coming from the street but nothing major as it was nearly dawn outside.

That was until soul spoke up again. 

"The chrysanthemums... the flowers I mean.. they represent goodbyes" , he whispered mostly to himself but loud enough for Jungkook to distinguish. 

"I drew them naked to symbolize and to remember them as someone who was pure and kind. Mostly because they were but not that much haha" , the soul sadly chuckled. 

Jungkook stayed silent as the older proceeded to portray the painting's meaning in the most elegant and graceful terms he had ever heard in his past life. 

The two beings continued their exchange of hobbies and such but as both of them began to yawn repeatedly , Taehyung kindly suggested for Jungkook to stay at his modest loft for a few days as the other didn't really have a place to call home. 

The shadow was hesitant at first but eventually agreed and made sure to show his gratitude towards the elder by bowing until the soul had to physically stop him from doing so. 

Even thought Taehyung was ready to offer the younger his bed, Jungkook immediately let the other know that that wasn't an option and that they were gonna share the small frame. 

Deep down, this is exactly what the soul had expected. And was he happy about being right ? Yes, yes he was. 

And as the sun slowly greeted the planet, the two creatures finally let the long and eventful day settle behind them as they held each other trough another. 

𝖙𝖔 𝖇𝖊 𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖚𝖊𝖉...