rain » vkook

eight

taehyung wakes up on the floor of jeon jeongguk's living room with a crick in his neck and sleep-crusted eyes. but he wakes up happy.

he's safe.

the biggest menace in his life is gone.

he blinks up at the ceiling for awhile, trying to wrap his head around it. of course, he still has the scars and fading marks on his skin, but he's not looking into the mirror. yet. he fights off a shudder and sits up, wrapping his blankets around him.

then he sees jeongguk.

he's painting in the kitchen, framed by the sun entering the window behind him. paint splatters the shirt he fell asleep in and he looks sleepy, too, but a strange kind of peace pervades his features. he's almost smiling but not quite - an expression more captivating than anything taehyung has ever seen. more captivating than the flowers he likes to collect, more captivating than the first time he had listened to debussy - after he first met jeongguk.

but that had been cold and uncertain, and he was entirely too drunk on his limited sense of freedom that he didn't remember anything besides jeongguk's voice and figure blending into the rain.

and now, everything is warm. jeongguk's skin glows and his hair shines, his eyes sparkle at whatever he is painting on the white canvas in front of him. he hasn't noticed that taehyung has woken yet, so taehyung gets his first real look at jeongguk's apartment.

the walls are white, and the kitchen floor is a light, glossy blond color. the wooden table is covered with drying paintings that taehyung assumes jeongguk has just painted. there are splashes of green plants everywhere, and small paintings cover the walls. the furniture in the living room is mismatched and tattered, heaped with rugs and blankets.

it's a home.

taehyung thinks of his old house; the one he had shared with his boyfriend. the one that was nowhere near as lived-in and cozy as this one; the one that was only home because his bruises and pain originated from it.

one of the reasons he stayed with his boyfriend was because he had nowhere else to go. he had moved away from his parents, separated from support by thousands of miles. so he suffered, alone as he could be while his perfect relationship slowly fell apart.

but he looks around once more. and he smiles.

"good morning," he says. jeongguk jumps, looking guilty.

"good morning," he replies, in his soft-loud voice. it's so strange, but taehyung likes how jeongguk talks. like he doesn't know his voice is projecting but he's naturally shy and quiet. endearing.

the two find that they can't look away from each other; perhaps realizing, once again, how different they look in a new environment. taehyung thinks that this is the most comfortable he's ever seen jeongguk, with flecks of yellow decorating his hands and shirt, and a paintbrush tucked behind his ear. it's dripping blue into his hair and down his neck, but jeongguk doesn't seem to notice.

taehyung stands, noticing how jeongguk looks back at his painting, then at the floor. his left leg bounces up and down quickly but the rest of his body remains completely still. he just stares, like he's trying to turn into a statue.

taehyung moves past him slowly into the kitchen, spotting paper towels sitting on the counter. he wets one and stops in front of jeongguk, who looks up, and up further, above taehyung's head. taehyung smiles.

"you have paint on your neck," he says, then gently touches the towel to jeongguk's skin. jeongguk closes his eyes even though they're still trained on the ceiling as taehyung wipes it away. a faint blue smudge still remains, but taehyung decides to leave it.

it's as much a part of jeongguk as his voice or wandering gaze or rushed words.

jeongguk cleans up his paintings, packing away his easel and letting them dry in his room. they eat breakfast, staring at each other and out the window like they're unsure of what commands more attention.

for taehyung, it's definitely jeongguk. after all, this strange painter had saved him. taehyung would've never guessed. if he saw jeongguk on the street, surrounded by other people, he would immediately sense that something about him was different. here, in his apartment, he looked natural. in the rain, he looked extraordinary.

in the supermarket, he looked like he was barely together. like he was the one who needed a savior. but he had become taehyung's savior.

and taehyung still can't grasp what that means.

their eyes meet across the table, and hold.

it means that his skin would no longer be colored black and blue, would no longer spill forth blood. it means that his heart would no longer be suffocating inside his chest, it means that he could let go of the worry that kept him glued to the ground.

jeongguk smiles at him tentatively.

"i was painting you," he says. "i was afraid of waking you up, but i just couldn't...stop. i kept closing my eyes and laughing because my paintbrush kept moving. i couldn't stop." he says that last part in his strange manner, in his insistent tone that begs you to understand, even though he himself may not fully understand.

"why?" taehyung whispers.

"because it's like you're art itself. but you're a person and you shouldn't be art but you are." jeongguk clamps his mouth shut, embarrassed, and taehyung finds himself laughing. softly, but he's still laughing.

he tells jeongguk anything he can think of; he blabbers on about his old book of pressed flowers and how much he loves wildflowers especially. while he talks, jeongguk returns to his canvas and begins painting almost apologetically, but taehyung somehow knows that jeongguk's still giving him his full attention. and he can't stop talking about the flowers, watching them bloom from the tip of jeongguk's brush.

for his entire life, everything had felt so fast. like he was going normal speed but the earth was turning faster than he could keep up with and the people were moving faster, too. that was why he didn't realize the truth of his relationship until it was too late. that was why he moved away from his parents with his abusive boyfriend. that was why he was unbothered by his gap year that had turned into two.

but in that moment in jeongguk's homely apartment, he finally fell into the earth's natural rhythm.

a/n: i finally updated omg