The New Year's Kiss \\ pjm x kth

Part 12 - Springtime

The late afternoon sun shone brightly, not a cloud in sight. It was enough to warm the air slightly, but not enough to melt much of the snow. Taehyung's feet crunched in the half-melted slush as he shoved his hands into his pockets, sighing out a white cloud.

"I feel like if there's still snow on the ground, it shouldn't be considered Spring." He said, frustrated.

"I like the cold." Seokjin said.

"Of course you're one of the weird people who like the cold."

"You complain a lot." Hoseok interjected, immersed in whatever he was doing on his phone. Taehyung rolled his eyes and was about to walk through the gates and onto the property where the festival was being held, when Jungkook stopped him.

"Hold on, we're waiting for Jimin."

"Jimin's coming? Who invited him?" Taehyung asked, then cringed at how rude he thought he sounded.

"He's been in the groupchat for weeks." Hoseok said. The rest of the group had a silent understanding to just disregard Taehyung and Jimin's strange tension.

Never in his life had Taehyung gotten so nervous in such a short amount of time.

Jimin would usually avoid events if it made him uncomfortable. Taehyung was aware of this. So why was he coming? Did he not know Taehyung was there? Or maybe he did and he was trying to come through on what he said the few nights before...

"It'll be fine." Taehyung tried to reassure himself. "Sure, we haven't acknowledged the kiss or even seen each other for a few days, and he tried to sleep with me while he was drunk, but..."

Taehyung wracked his brain trying to think of a but.

"...It's not going to be fine..."

"I think he could find us just fine if we went in. There aren't many people here anyway." He really couldn't care less about whether or not Jimin caught up. He just wanted to be able to enjoy the festival as much as he could before he inevitably did catch up.

"Can we just wait another few minutes?"

Taehyung didn't reply, he knew how much Hoseok hated silence. Hoseok took one final glance around, then sunk his shoulders.

"Ugh, fine."
Taehyung cheered eagerly skipped through the entrance gates.

"You're annoying." Jungkook said.

"Ah, but you love me." He teased.

Jungkook glared at him, repressing a smile. Taehyung's grin faded.

"Say it."

Jungkook sighed. "I love you."

"Yay!"

Before they naturally gravitated towards the small booths of food and drinks, they walked around the festival for a bit. It was still quite cold despite the absence of wind, and the snow wasn't pretty like it had been through the winter. Now it was melting and dirty. However, the new plant life that always came in the springtime was enough to brighten up the scenery at least a little bit.

Taehyung didn't know if it was because this festival was being held in a different town than the one he grew up in, or it was simply because he hadn't been to one in many years, but it felt much smaller than it used to be.

"Here, take some tea." Hoseok handed Taehyung a cup of the tea off of the table. Taehyung took the cup and glanced into it. The tea had flowers floating in it. He instantly thought back to the days where his mother would be hosting the festival and forced him to drink the tea.