The Long and Winding Road || A Vhope FF ||✔️

Chapter 4

If Hoseok had any complaints in the morning, it was only that the futon was super uncomfortable. It felt more like a yoga mat than a futon; the stuffing inside of it had been beaten that thin.

Hoseok dozed on it for a while, feeling the pressure on his back complain at him, and so he rolled over to face the faint light coming from the kitchen.

Taehyung was already awake, doing his best to be quiet in the kitchen. Hoseok considered staying in bed for another hour--he was an early riser, generally, after years upon years of dance practices, but this was a couple of hours earlier than he was used to for sure--but instead he decided to just get up. No point in avoiding the inevitable, after all.

“Oh,” Taehyung said, once Hoseok had walked into the kitchen. He was wearing glasses, the shape of which gave him a very dignified--if dishevelled, in his long, striped pajamas with bed mussed hair--look. “Did I wake you up? I’m sorry. I was trying to be quiet.”

“No, you didn’t.” Hoseok shook his head. “I usually wake up early anyway.”

“Well, I was going to make some coffee, if you’d like some. I usually go watch the sunrise on my back porch before I start my day. It’s a good time for me to let Yeontan out too, to do his business. You can come too, if you’d like.”

“Sure,” Hoseok said, with nothing else to do.

The coffee that Taehyung made was instant and cheap, and Taehyung put more milk and sugar in his cup than any barista at Starbucks would have ever dreamt, but Hoseok found that he didn’t mind.

“Usually I have hot cocoa,” Taehyung explained as they walked through the house, “but I’m trying to use up the rest of my coffee, and I figured you’d like that more than hot chocolate anyway.”

“Hey, no, I love hot chocolate,” Hoseok said. “I’ll drink whatever in the morning, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m not a habitual anything drinker.”

“Okay,” Taehyung agreed, brightening up some.

The sun had already risen over the horizon by the time that Hoseok and Taehyung made their way to the front porch. Yeontan zoomed out past them once the door was open, running into the grass to roll around in it and go to the bathroom, the very picture of doggy happiness.

The air had a bit of a bite to it, but Hoseok didn’t notice it, as wrapped up in his clothes as he was. It was the time of year where, during the day, but at night and in the early mornings and late afternoons it was cold. Jacket in the morning, but by noon you felt fine in a light sweater.

“Oh wow,” Hoseok breathed out, taking in the pastels of dawn.

“Right?” Taehyung said, and he was full on grinning now. He was looking at Hoseok when he said, “It’s beautiful.”

“Absolutely. I see why you’d want to come out here every morning.”

The golden light of the sun hit upon the dew on the grass, and the roofs of the barn and the chicken coop. It made everything seem like part of a dream, but also too bright for Hoseok’s eyes. He took it all in, and felt at peace for the first time in a long time.

He couldn’t imagine waking up to this every morning. To getting to experience something like this every day. His apartment in Seoul had a pretty fantastic view of Gangnam, but there was something about the simplicity of this sunrise that meant more.

Hoseok figured that Taehyung must have gotten used to it by now, considering that he seemed as though he had lived at this farm for years, but Taehyung didn’t seem like that. When Hoseok looked over again, he saw Taehyung gazing at the sunrise over the rim of his coffee cup with a look of contentment on his face.