Fire On Fire [TK]

(9) Something to last

"Just a matter of feeling.
This moment's madness sure to pass
And tears will dry as you're leaving
Who knows you might find something to last."

— A Matter of Feeling, Duran Duran

❀

— V —

The month of May breathed fresh life into the streets of Seoul. The birds chirped and chattered, out and about after the troublesome temperatures had finally weaned off and the plants woke from their slumber, filling the air with the bloom of spring, while people shed their down jackets and coats for light sweaters and hoodies.

Taehyung pedalled slowly, balanced easily atop his bicycle, the wheels whirring against the concrete, and smiling at a family of squirrels dart across the grass, when a laugh sounded beside him.

"Are you racing me, hyung?" Jeongguk rode up alongside him, hands firm on the handlebars. "Can't get enough of losing every time?"

"Not at all," Taehyung scoffed. "Who dare race, Mister perfect?" He obviously missed the sweet, scared version of the younger, too afraid to speak up to people, but was now developing a razor sharp tongue. Taehyung supposed that was his own fault. 

Trying to be a good friend instead of his hyung and all that nonsense.

Jeongguk grinned, the breeze carrying his laughter ahead of them. “Because you’re scared?”

“Because you cheat.”

“Ah, hyungnim,” Jeongguk sang. “If you’re scared, just say so. I know it can be scary racing with the champion here."

"Thanks for the compliment, Jeongguka!" Seokjin hollered just behind them. "I know  am the champion," he came up beside Jeongguk. "And you're losing quite spectacularly, Jeonggukshi." Then flew by them.

Jeongguk muttered something unrepeatable and chased after him.

Taehyung scratched his forehead, sighing at the two advancing forms. Jeongguk's denim shirt fluttered behind him, his laughter echoing past, and Seokjin's curses not far behind. In the past few months, since Jeongguk had decided to hijack his bed, Taehyung had been privy to a few interesting revelations. He realised he never had any nightmares when the snoring kid, really, he snored right into his ear, slept beside him, making the covers too hot with his body heat, and more times than he liked, Taehyung woke up feeling like he was being cuddled by a slab of burning coal. The next was that the said kid, delightfully smelled of oranges

Fresh, citrus-y, sweet oranges that sparked something in the wiring of his brain making him calm.

Thirdly, after his rich experience of sixteen years of his life he concluded, Jeongguk was radioactive. There was no other way Taehyung could describe it. He radiated something, like Uranium. What was it? Taehyung didn't know. But it wasn't just happiness he felt near him. Being next to Jeongguk was a special kind of relief, a sort of tranquil, that made Taehyung's body after copious amounts of practices feel just a little less fragile. Staying in the same room as Jeongguk for a few hours became enough for Taehyung's skin to feel less prickly with the nerves, but sleeping beside Jeongguk? Be it on the bed or the floor, their shoulders practically touching as they dozed off side? It changed the entire game. Because it wasn't hard to do the math that followed.

If a few days spent beside the younger lulled Taehyung into good night's sleep, what would happen if he spent months? years? Wouldn't that change his life? 

The idea of getting dropped from the company to never seeing Jeongguk again suddenly made his stomach clench.

And lastly, with no less amount of horror, Taehyung realised he liked touching him.