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He has his fair share of friendships formed over mutual likings, Namjoon likes to think. After all, he’d met Jung Hoseok when he spotted the older whipping some sick moves to a track blaring at a rather shady college party during senior year- one that he himself produced, now Namjoon doesn’t know if that makes it being friends with a fan of his work or with someone who has similar likings- and had been hella impressed. Namjoon knows he’s not a great dancer, so he had just stood by until the then unknown boy was done impressing the audience with his limbs to head over and chat.
And now they lived together.
So, yes, he’s had his fair share, after all, Jung Hoseok as a best friend is a handful.
Obviously then, he didn’t think much when he spotted the guy with a head of flaming vermilion hair softly cussing under his breath. His face was hidden under the mostly dim, yellowish lighting of the cafe, but Namjoon traced a prominent cupid’s bow, and really, really captivating eyes. Triangular, softly tapering down where the count of his long eyelashes ended.
The guy shifted in his seat, and Namjoon’s gaze quickly snapped at the bright screen of the phone the latter held, just out of reflex and fear of being caught of staring. It was a long wooden table in the middle of the cafe surrounded by bar stools to sit down on, and if he would have been caught, he probably wouldn’t have had any half assed excuse to whip up. He was surprised then, to see that the other has been trying to download the exact same track he has, but courtesy of the shitty wifi the cafe was offering, it wasn’t quite working out. Namjoon, however, currently had earphones plugged in and the same track, Night Call, playing to his ears at a decent volume.
Namjoon is always up to help fellow music mutuals, so he doesn’t let a second thought pass as his pauses the song and pops one earbud out, lightly nudging the guy’s sleeve clad arm with a pinky finger.
“Hey.”
When he looks up, his fiery locks flop back down on his forehead covering half the skin, and he squints, clearly slightly annoyed. Not at him, Namjoon can tell, but at what this cafe calls WiFi. Namjoon finds, that he was indeed wrong and that red hair has the most beautiful eyes and not just pretty ones, and he tries to ward off the look of being blown away that he’s probably sporting. He has thin lips but yet a slight natural pout, and they’re almost the colour of his hair (just how, Namjoon wonders), contrasting his porcelain skin. He realises he’s gaping like a fish when the other tilts his head in question, an eyebrow raised.
Namjoon never splutters, but. “I uh, I have this song,” he points at the opposite screen. “The wifi is shit I know, do you wanna maybe..?” Namjoon gently offers one earbud, eyebrows raised in hope. “Unless you’re alert about like, ear wax and stuff, you know, but I assure you mine are clean to use, you-”
Fire head cracks a lopsided smile, and almost seems mocking before he slightly nods and grabs the white earbud, popping it in his left ear. Namjoon slowly nods, surprised at his own flustered behaviour, and then resumes to replay the song. For an entirety of four minutes, Namjoon watches the still unnamed boy bob his head to the beat with a faint smile on his face, whilst tapping his fingers on the wooden surface of the table.
When it’s over, he almost yanks the earbud out and grins wide and wow- it’s all gummy and ear to ear and cute, and Namjoon purses his lips in a thin line to keep from grinning just as wide.
“Killed it,” fire guy near to screams. “Thanks, dude.”
“Namjoon,” he laughs. “And it’s no big deal.”
“Right, I’m Yoongi,” Namjoon receives a nod. “Oh! There’s this song, I think you might like…” Yoongi mutters, trailing off inaudible towards the end as he starts scrolling down his seemingly endless playlist, and Namjoon grins when he sees a lot of common music his own playlist includes. “Ah! Yes!”
Yoongi, lacking hesitation, plugs the earphones out of Namjoon’s phone and plugs them to his own, pressing play. This time, he hands Namjoon both the earbuds and sits there with his chin propped on his right palm, watching silently, waiting for judgement.
Soft, familiar guitar notes flow in, and Namjoon looks down at the screen, seeing the time bar move as the song blares. Undercover Angel.
Namjoon looks up. “Favourite.”
The gummy grin he gets in return makes Namjoon thankful of his own music taste.
Namjoon had only gotten out of the apartment in hopes of being able to spend some of hours of his extremely boring evening doing something productive. And productive here meant walking up to his usual coffee place to grab a macchiato. He remembers wishing for a free day for a few weeks now, and now that he suddenly had it, he didn’t know what to make of it.
Listening to Undercover Angel with Yoongi quickly spiralled into recommending more music to each other and hyping about their favourite tracks and artists as quietly as possible, and Namjoon was stoked to find out how much they had in common, liking wise.
Hours have flown by and the two don’t realise until Yoongi hops down to dispose off that americano that he’s finally sipped down to an empty cup after all this time. The latter is tiny, Namjoon realises, and he only observes just how tiny he is when Namjoon hops off the bar stool too. His head ends somewhere near Namjoon’s nose tip, probably.
Yoongi is tiny, but definitely fierce. He walks back to where the taller is standing, and offers him a ‘what next’ look. Namjoon would lie to himself if he says he wants to head back to the apartment, after all, it’s not like Hoseok’s in town to chill with, but it’s mostly just because Namjoon believes he’s had very less of Yoongi’s time.
Yoongi smiles, lips stretching ear to ear.
“You’re off to?”
Namjoon shrugs. “Not definite.”
Yoongi nods. “We could continue talking about that artist you said you found out about.”
Namjoon accepts, but only if he knew that it was a subtle invitation to actually walk around the whole fucking town, he’d maybe had said no, because suddenly, he can’t imagine not having someone with whom things are so smooth, so natural, in his life.
It wasn’t complicated; Namjoon felt the most calm he has in a while. Which is a bit contradictory to the things they’re doing. Literally running around town, Yoongi pulling him into stores and at spots as if Namjoon hadn’t quite literally grown up in the city, but he goes along with it.
Somewhere along their city tour, Namjoon lets it slip that he’s got the whole evening free, and then Yoongi’s eyes are as wide as saucers, and he’s dubbed himself Namjoon’s ‘nightlife connoisseur’, and Namjoon finds himself being more than okay with it.
It’s in the middle of this city tour when Yoongi first pulls Namjoon into a rather tiny music shop. Vinyls are arranged all over multiple shelves and the lighting is dim too while some older music Namjoon doesn’t recognise softly plays in the background. He’s awed by the atmosphere, there are a few people looking through countless titles as Yoongi mindlessly pulls him around the shop, eyes curiously finding something.
He stalls at a shelf.
“This isn’t always what I listen to, but, it’s one of my favourites.”
He pulls out ‘Everywhere’ by Fleetwood Mac, and Namjoon smiles, the song quite familiar to him. He dusts the cover and looks down at the square packaging, feeling the hard surface of the flat disc under his fingertips.
The lyrics are fit in his head and the melody in his heart.
“Can you hear me calling, out your name.” He sings, the best he can.
“You know that I’m falling, and I don’t know what to say.” Yoongi backs up.
They share a smile and dive into the chorus.
“I wanna be with you everywhere.”
Their chatter never stops, and at the hour of around ten thirty on the clock, they find themselves walking out of an old, dingy and dusty book store tucked away in a corner of the city, individual bags containing each other’s recs. Namjoon’s on about one of his current read when his stomach makes a sudden whale call, and then Yoongi is doubling over, his red hair flopping all over the place. A few seconds and Namjoon joins in, this time him dragging Yoongi to a nearby place he knows of.
“Two of my dongsaengs run it. The ramen is to die for,” he explains as they make their way, following the straight path the stone footpath leads. “You might like them.”
“What are they like?” Yoongi peers up in curiosity.
“Well, for starters, married, ” Namjoon snorts, but also smiling fondly. “But really sweet. It’s a tiny place that they run together, a little better than a roadside cart, but they’re just helping themselves with paying for their bills and their struggling singing careers. Honestly, we’re all just struggling. But when you have people you love around you…”
Yoongi nods.
“Sounds a lot like Jin hyung, Jimin and I,” the latter quips. “Jimin’s the youngest, and he decided to make it on his own into dancing, despite his parents having all the doubts in the world. He’s amazing though, there’s never a time I don’t find myself jaw dropped when he performs. I think he recently online auditioned for a couple of entertainment companies. He’s from Busan.”
Namjoon gasps.
“Jeongguk’s from Busan too!” He exclaims, suddenly excited, to have found another tiny common link. “The younger out of the two, I mean. Taehyungie, his boyfriend, is my little brother,” a fond sigh follows. “A special one, I tell you.”
“We’ll see.” Yoongi laughs.
Like Namjoon had said, the shop is quite literally falling short of being a roadside cart. It’s a tiny shack almost, with space only enough for one square table and two chairs, a small counter island for the cash register, and a barely there kitchen area. It’s well lit, however, and soft pop music plays through the speakers in the background. The space immediately feels bigger and welcome however, the moment they walk in and settle down on the table.
A cheerful, bouncy looking boy hops out from around the counter, slapping down two menus on the shaky table surface.
“Hyung!” He exclaims, and Yoongi’s eyebrows shoot up at how deep his voice his, and he has a hard time matching it to his much softer face and rectangular grin for a few minutes. “Show up more, why don’t you?” He pouts.
“Yeah, hyung.” A softer voice follows, and Yoongi cranes his neck over the counter too have the back of another male with raven hair come into sight.
“Sorry, Tae, you know I’ve been really busy lately.” Namjoon helplessly shrugs.
‘Tae’ giggles. “That’s okay, I know you’ve been working a lot on that song of yours? Have the lyrics come by yet? I know you had a little bit of a problem with the concept but-”
“Uh,” Namjoon, laughs, rather nervously, scratching the little spot by his temple. “I’ve kinda not worked on that, to be honest? I won’t say I scrapped it but- it sounds stupid really, but I’ve been working on a few other tracks to get rid of the demotivation I have for that song.”
Taehyung deflates. “Oh.” His shoulders slump down, and a frown births on his face. Eyes previously casted low gradually rise up, finally locking with Yoongi’s gaze. The latter slips a small, warm smile and lightly waves, seemingly shyer. Namjoon notices he completely forgot introductions when his eyebrows shoot up.
“Oh!” He bites down on his lip. “Tae-ah! This is Yoongi. Uh, we met today?” Namjoon explains as the other nods soaking in the new information, lips bunched up in a curious pout. “Yoongi, this is my baby brother. Kim Taehyung.”
Yoongi doesn’t miss Namjoon’s tone shifting to something very fond, causing the corners of his lips to lift.
Taehyung groans, lightly punching his sweater paw on the older’s shoulder. “I’m not a baby, hyung.”
“Yes, you are.” It’s the boy who’s back and head Yoongi had seen earlier in the inside of the shop. He sneaks up from behind Taehyung with a tray of water, placing them in the middle of the table. He then turns around, grinning, holding up both of Taehyung’s fists in his own hands, tugging at his sweater sleeves. “What with the Shin Chan sweater and all.”
Taehyung pouts, rosy lips jutting out.
“It’s my favourite.”
Taehyung is really, beautiful, Yoongi observes. In a very capturing way. He’s the kind of beauty who’d make you stop in your track if you catch a glimpse of him while you’re on the way to your destination, and maybe you’d stay frozen in your spot for a few seconds even after he’s out of sight. He’s unmissable.
Yoongi shifts his gaze to Namjoon then, who’s fondly watching Taehyung and the other boy being sickly cute with each other (Yoongi’s memories dig up to earlier and remembers how Namjoon had mentioned that they’re practically married). Namjoon, Yoongi observes, is charming. He has a confident face, but he imagines it could be just as vulnerable too. He’s not missed his dimples either, and the one time Yoongi’s seen Namjoon smile the widest- gums and teeth and all- makes him believe is the contagious kind. And the giggle that had followed hadn’t helped the cause either.
Yoongi pens Namjoon as the kind you might not notice at first, but can’t stop once you have. He says so from six hour experience.
“-c’mon, let’s let them be, Tae, c’mon.” Yoongi’s only focusing back on reality when the other boy is noisily pulling Taehyung away from their table while Taehyung whines on about something along the lines of we should get to know hyung’s new friend but the other doesn’t heed any attention to him, pulling him straight to the stove.
Namjoon chuckles.
“Told you they’re too cute, didn’t I?” Yoongi nods, smiling. “The other one was Jeongguk. Self proclaimed guard to Tae- he probably needs it too, you should see that boy fall off a perfectly stable chair- but yeah. They’re both… family.”
Yoongi spares a quick glance at the couple.
“They’re good together.”
“Oh, I ordered for us, by the way.”
Yoongi shrugs. “You know what’s good to get here anyway.”
“You produce music?”
Namjoon almost chokes on his own spit when he hears the new information, and Yoongi nods slowly. He doesn’t understand why despite being in each other’s company for the past six hours, they didn’t talk once about what they do as a living, or profession, or whatever you might call it. Namjoon figures it slipped, but six hours? He assumes Yoongi must be caught off guard when Taehyung mentioned about Namjoon’s tracks out of nowhere- reason why Namjoon avoided talking excessively about it- but learning that Yoongi does something in a similar field is, well, surprising.
“Bits, yeah. Just, I don’t know, experiment and stuff? I don’t really have anything solid yet, you know? I have tons of stuff written, but producing is something I’m greatly interested in too.” Yoongi explains, fingers fidgeting with the ends of his sleeve, and Namjoon quickly detects the nervousness. He grins.
“That’s amazing, I’m sure you’re good,” He quips. The next words that threaten to slip out of his mouth don’t stop. “I hope I can hear some of your stuff some time.”
Yoongi’s eyes pop, mouth falling slightly open, and he slightly stumbles while trying to form a sentence, when Taehyung noisily walks towards the table, two bowls containing hot, steaming kimchi ramen neatly settled before them. He looks back and forth between the two, yips a quick ‘enjoy!’ and scrambles back to the kitchen.
The steam from the bowl swirls around, and Yoongi sighs at the delicious aroma. It mixes amazingly well with the hint of petrichor in the background, the sign of forthcoming rain- and that they should probably put down the waterproof sheets to stop the shop from becoming a pool.
He decides to push Namjoon’s earlier words in the back of his head and dive into the food, picking up the chopsticks provided.
“Let’s dig in.”
Namjoon smiles with lips pursed, and tucks his chopsticks in to mix the noodles with the soup well, when the sudden eruption of hot steam settles itself on his large black rimmed glasses, creating a layer hot fogg on the glass surfaces. He blinks once, and then stupidly looks up at Yoongi, vision unsettled and blur.
Yoongi lightly splutters, countless giggles tumbling out as he covers his mouth with his sweater sleeves, rocking back and forth.
Namjoon settles in marvelling at Yoongi’s laughter as he busies himself with cleaning his glasses, smiling.
It’s two bottles of soju (and yet one each in their hands now), a farewell to Taehyung and Jeongguk as they closed for the night, and a long, aimless walk later when they find themselves bank of the river waters, having passed the Banpo bridge a couple minutes ago. The dawn is much more colder, but sunrise is rapidly approaching with the oranges and purples starting to be visible in the skies and the light chirping of birds in distances. The grass under their feet has dew too, and everything like that is frosty except for their bodies, a pleasant buzz from the alcohol still present, cheeks reddened and possibly only a shot worth of liquid in of their bottles left.
It’s been silent for a few minutes, and it’s very much comfortable, both taking in the scenes around them, but Namjoon’s brain pushes him to dig up a topic they forgot about earlier.
“I really mean what I said earlier.”
Yoongi responds a few seconds later.
“Hmm?” He replies with furrowed eyebrows, tilting his bottle as the liquid swishes around.
“Earlier. About, listening to your stuff,” Namjoon nods. “Only.. only if you’re okay with it though. I-I don’t even know if we’re meeting again so-”
“Okay.”
Namjoon stills.
“Okay?”
“Yeah,” The shorter slowly nods, taking the last swig of liquid from his bottle, nose scrunching up. “Finally I’ve found someone who does the same thing as I do. Understands the shit that comes with it, the hardships, so why not? Plus, we’ve pretty much disclosed our whole lives and we didn’t know about each other's’ existence until some hours ago.”
Namjoon finishes his part too, and they both place the glass bottles at a safer distance, then leaning against the railing. Yoongi faces the river and Namjoon, the opposite.
“It’s tough.”
“A struggle,” Namjoon agrees. “I do weird jobs to pull through. Sometimes it’s pizza delivery, sometimes better stuff like waiting tables at nicer restaurants. I guess even things labour jobs?”
Yoongi smiles. “I’ve been at the clothing department at a local mall for a while.”
“It pays good?”
“Enough to fill my stomach and give me time to work on my stuff.”
Namjoon nods, screams a hundred percent relates! in his head.
It’s weird, really. How he met Yoongi who almost lives a life similar to his, maybe sometimes gives up on basic meals to run towards what he really dreams of, caught in the middle of the business that is this city. There he had thought his day off was going to be a complete waste of time, and he suddenly meets someone. Someone he’s never related more with.
Is this really possible in a handful of hours?
When Yoongi asks about the song he was talking about earlier with the utmost interest and curiosity, eyes sparkling with wonder as he dives into the explanation, then Namjoon thinks that maybe it is.
“A thought each day. I don’t know, it might take forever. I don’t know when I’ll be satisfied with it, but I don’t want to stop until I am. It’s everything. The struggles, the happy days, the people I love, staying up until ugly hours to get the lyrics right with only unhealthy ramen to fill the hole in my stomach, or maybe coffee, random walks when my brain feels like there’s nothing in it. Everything… Just-”
“The journey?”
Namjoon looks up when Yoongi says that.
His eyes are wide and dark brown. He waits for Namjoon’s response but at the same time looks like he knows what his response will be. He looks slightly smug. Why has Yoongi suddenly completed his sentence too, is what he wonders. He doesn’t respond, however, eyes wandering around the place.
He notices the difference in the lighting then, and it’s brighter. The sun has risen, not fully, but enough to softly flow rays of soft sunlight through the nooks and spaces between the leaves of the trees, it highlighting fresh dewdrops stuck to grass blades. Warmth spreads through Namjoon’s veins, and he’s awfully aware of the other’s coursing gaze fixed on his figure, maybe still waiting for an answer, all the while Namjoon can’t help but compare him to this exact kind of sunshine.
Gentle, soft, the kind you want to bathe in and the kind that leaves a ghost of warmth on your skin and leaves you asking for more, yet doesn’t make you unresponsive to your surroundings and wanting to flee away from scorching heat. He can’t help but think that Yoongi is-
“Komorebi.”
“What?”
Namjoon looks back down at the older, biting down the smile about to split on his face.
“You,” He plunges in for it. “You’re like komorebi.”
Yoongi looks lost.
“The hell is that?” He clears his throat, shuffling around. “Sounds like a medicine.” Namjoon bites his tongue. Points at the exact tree opposite them.
“Sunlight,” He nods. “Warm and gentle sunlight that falls through the spaces amongst the leaves on trees.”
If Namjoon knew that Yoongi could blush too (he doesn’t know if it’s still from the alcohol in their systems, because he definitely has only been able to say all this cheesy crap because of the buzz, really), he wouldn’t have said all of that stuff. The red rises on the apples of his cheeks a whole minute after he soaks in what Namjoon had said, and then his eyes started rapidly wandering around, lips scrunching up in a pout (that’s the evil that caused Namjoon to not being able to stop looking at them, now), and he starts swinging his body back and forth on the railing.
Namjoon’s heartbeat slowly speeds up, the more he thinks about his own comparison.
It almost bursts when the gummy smile returns on Yoongi’s face minutes after silence.
“You’re fucking cheesy.” His cheeks are still red, and voice shaky, but he’s smiling like a kid on Christmas and eyes lit up. “I’m not.. reading this weird? Thank God I’m not the only one who… thought of stuff? I’m not as cheesy as you are though, you compared me to sunlight? What-”
“You’re rambling.” Namjoon stifles his giggles.
“Yeah, I- should not.”
“You shouldn’t.”
Namjoon dives in first, capturing Yoongi’s lips, and yes, it’s extremely something like two teenagers kissing for the first time, because it’s featherlight and barely there, but Namjoon feels like being enveloped by his favourite blanket in warmth on a cold, fierce day.
“Nice.” Yoongi mumbles, hands looping around Namjoon’s taller frame.
So Namjoon deepens the kiss, experimentally, and they only break apart when the swipe of his tongue across Yoongi’s pillow like lips causes the latter to visibly shiver, foot accidentally kicking the soju bottles past the railing and rolling into the river water.
“Fuck.”
They run out of there, to yet another unknown destination.
“Hyung! HYUNG! I want to be in the next Cypher, please, please! For the love of everything you love, and that includes me, so please! I’ve been begging for months, why-”
Namjoon hangs up.
“Why, lord, why.”
Yoongi from besides him, snuggling up further. “Maybe we could give him a line-”
“No.”
“He’s not going to give up-”
“I swear you all pamper him more than I do, ya’ll can’t resist him-”
“Who can, honestly? He’s cute.”
Namjoon pouts. “I’m cuter.”
“We all know that’s not true.”