SPACE ;; TAEGGUK

thirty six

:)
___________

;;

every passing second
that he spent with jeongguk
felt like eternity in a heartbeat.

time faded away with him
at his side.

his troubles, his thoughts,
his worries— they disappeared into
plain nothingness. bleak, empty
space. it was funny how his slender
fingers held so much power, the
power of his smile, his blossoming rose
cheeks, his button nose, the twinkle
in his eyes that held a million clusters of
galaxies, swimming about in the
depth of his ebony iris.

taehyung wanted to hold him.
he wanted to hold him and tell
him how dear he was to him, how
much he meant, how much he
helped. how much he'd been there
for him despite him not knowing
so in the slightest,
beyond thought.

no matter how hard he tired
to force it back, nothing
worked.

he'd never wanted anyone
more in his life.

________

"the brooding soldier," taehyung
spoke quietly, bringing up his
camera to take a picture of the
large stone memorial that stood
as a vast giant above their heads.
it remained tall and stately before
them, eleven metres high, silent,
sullen, powerful and true; depicted
terrors that it's comrades endured
like no other memorial in the town;
could be seen from a
mile away.

"i want to sketch it." jeongguk
replied softly, he kept his voice low out
of respect. "i'll never forget this."

"commemorates the canadian
first division's participation in
the second battle of ypres."

"they had to defend themselves
against the first poison
gas attacks along the western front,
didn't they?" "it certainly is thought evoking."
the small boy whispered.

"sixty nine thousand allied troops,
fifty nine thousand of which
were british and ten thousand french, against thirty five thousand german,"
the older male added
solemnly.

"jesus." jeongguk breathed.

"the deaths were inevitable. the
sheer difference in numbers
is explained by the little defence they
had against the chlorine gas."

jeongguk didn't reply.

he only
stared up at the stone statue.

watching.

________________

"i never really felt the importance
of knowing about all of this until
i actually physically experienced
being here." jeongguk spoke.
"on the battle field."

"it's moving, isn't it." taehyung
hummed beside jeongguk, hands
deep in his pockets as the pair walked
through a vague footpath
by the statue later
that day.

he'd patiently waited for
jeongguk to finish his
magnificent sketch of the
sullen soldier, in a trance from the
way his pencil moved so fluidly
across his paper, the
concentration in his eyes,
his dark, furrowed brows
and thin lips tilted
into a soft frown
as he focused on his piece.
and solely his piece.
it reminded him of himself
when he was younger. the same
eagerness, the same exhilaration he
felt when his pigment would glide
and he'd transfer his photographs
and transform them to a vision
of what his eyes truly saw. the
rawness and untainted perfection
of his countless sketches.

"can we sit down for a bit?"
the teen asked tentatively,
pulling at the straps of his backpack.

taehyung looked around.