The Silence of the Sea || Taekook

Chapter 6: What a Sad Day It Will Be

Welcome to chapter 6, dear readers! If you haven't already seen it, I added a section right after the Summary/Trailer that has notes on sirens and their language and beliefs so that it's easier to understand what Taehyung talks about.

_ _ _ _ _

Taehyung learns something new.

Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,

Listen! you hear the grating roar

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,

At their return, up the high strand,

Begin, and cease, and then again begin,

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring

The eternal note of sadness in.

Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach"

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Kim Taehyung was the kind of boy that made every male in sight question their sexuality, Jungkook decided. His lips were full and pink and were currently tilted in a shy smile as if he wasn't entirely sure what to do, which was honestly a blessing because Jungkook himself wasn't sure either. From the front, his face was rounded in an elegant, swooping curve, but when he turned his head to read Jin's hands, a pointed jawline stabbed Jungkook in the gut hard enough to elicit an audible huff. Taehyung's eyes flickered to him - charcoal eyes, so dark that his irises melted into his pupils like warm chocolate - before sliding back to Jin, but it only took that brief instant of contact for Jungkook to look away, blushing like a fucking schoolgirl. When Taehyung turned away, though, Jungkook's shoulders fell in relief as he found a third of the little moles he had been counting - one on his nose, one on his lip, and now another on his left cheek. But it didn't offer much solace because something about them made him even more attractive, not less. At this point, Jungkook was desperate to find something wrong, until his eyes traveled back to the stranger's and he realized he had two different eyelids - the left was a double, and the right was a monolid. But seriously, why didn't that make him look flawed? Why did he look so perfect even with those things that could be considered blemishes?

And why did he look so goddamn familiar?

Frustration prevented Jungkook from realizing that he was being talked to, and he snapped his attention to Jin the second Namjoon tapped his shoulder.

"What?"

Jin waited, but Jungkook just gave him a glower because damn it, don't embarrass me in front of this guy, of all people. So, thankfully, Jin replied, "He has agreed to tutor you in sign language."