Work Text:
gray roads / mist / blossoming flowers / a warm sweatshirt / holding hands
//
There’s mist hanging in the air when they arrive at the festival. Namjoon’s wearing a dark gray jacket, one that falls to his knees and covers his hands, triangular hood caught on the back of his neck where it’s been pushed back. The rain had stopped about two hours ago, but the ground is still wet, a coat of mud latching itself onto the bottom of his trainers as he walks along the road.
Beside him, Jungkook is practically bouncing on his heels as he reaches up to brush his hand against the blossoms of a cherry tree.
“Wow. It’s really been a while since I last came to something like this,” he says to Namjoon. He lets his hand fall and tugs on the strings of his red hoodie, cinching the hood a little tighter around his face.
“Me too,” Namjoon says, resisting the urge to laugh at Jungkook’s squished cheeks. Must not make fun of dorky boyfriend. “My grandma took me here a few times, back when I was little- I think this was her favorite time of year.”
“My grandfather’s, too.” Jungkook smiles again, a bright smile that Namjoon thinks could probably cut through the haze of mist if it wanted to. If smiles could, anyway. Jungkook’s smile for sure would be the first.
There are lights set up all around them- colorful lanterns and ropes dangling from the bridges and tree branches. Jungkook insists on taking photos of everything- pulling the camera around his neck up to eye-level and snapping picture after picture of the bright colors, the floating clouds that seem almost suspended in the moment.
“Oh, hyung- here, stand in front of this tree,” Jungkook says every few minutes, and Namjoon complies because this is Jungkook, and when does he not do what Jungkook asks him to do?
Jungkook snaps a quick photo of him next to a soft, fluorescent pink lantern. Namjoon lets his smile relax as Jungkook pulls away to eye the photo through his camera’s screen.
“It’s so misty,” Jungkook complains, turning to show Namjoon the picture he’d just taken. Namjoon reaches forward and balances the camera in his hand; the photo is a little grainy, the dark grays of the atmosphere offsetting the pink trees and Namjoon’s red shirt.
“I dunno,” he says, because he really doesn’t know how cameras work. He carefully pushes it back into Jungkook’s grip, hyperaware of the fact that it probably costs more than he wants to think about paying back in the event that he breaks it. “I don’t think a camera could really capture all of…this, though. Like, it wouldn't really show up well.”
Jungkook frowns, double-checking the security of his strap before letting the camera hang freely around his neck. “I guess. It’s kind of like a sunset, maybe.”
Namjoon perks up. “Yeah, exactly," he says. "Beautiful in real life, but shitty on film.”
Jungkook snorts. (He doesn’t pick up the camera so much after that.)
They make their way down the gray road, sticking to the right side as people gather on the left, next to the river flowing past the fence bordering the road. The lights cast a strange look over everything- red and pink and white, hazy and gentle, wrapping around the outstretched arms of visitors and the fallen petals of cherry blossoms sticking to the damp ground.
“You know, I don’t really feel that nostalgic very often,” Namjoon says, “but this definitely makes me feel nostalgic.”
Jungkook makes a noise of assent, like he completely understands what Namjoon means. Namjoon wouldn’t be surprised if he does- they're more alike than they are different, after all.
“I always liked the outdoors as a kid,” Jungkook says, pulling his hood up to cover the back half of his hair. “Like, my brother and I were super outdoorsy, right? I remember we’d even take sticks in our backyard and ‘plant’ them next to our front door. Mom told us we were planting trees.”
Letting out a startled laugh, Namjoon crouches down a picks up a petal resting on the ground below their feet. “Ha. Yeah, that definitely sounds like something you’d do.” He rubs his thumb over the petal, watching it wear away under the pressure.
Jungkook reaches over and gently pulls it away from him. Under the pink light illuminating from the lantern on the tree branch above him, his cheekbones look soft, eyes shining.
He takes Namjoon’s hand into his, and it’s so effortless that Namjoon can almost feel his heart starting to melt. Instead, he pushes down the building, swirling feeling in his chest and continues to walk down the road, now with Jungkook taking every step with him. Jungkook swings their hands between them, and there’s a childish innocence in the action that makes Namjoon smile.
“Ah, hyung,” Jungkook says after a moment, breaking the comfortable silence hanging in the space between the two of them. “Thanks, for…you know. Coming here with me. I know you’re busy a lot, but….”
Namjoon’s smile turns softer, like the blossoming flowers of the trees, the gentle petals coating the ground beneath their feet. “Of course, Jungkook-ah. I’ve been meaning to come to something like this for a while now, anyway. I always forget how nice this is, you know?”
Jungkook nods, and Namjoon pretends not to notice the pretty pink blush climbing up the back of his neck like a vine around a column. “Right. Yeah, of course.”
Namjoon barely manages to hold back his smile.
They probably have a mile or so left until the road ends- it stretches out for a long time, the canopy of trees and flowers fashioning an illusion of something more grandiose than maybe it truly is. A moment of silence falls between them again as they trek down the path, Jungkook’s grip warm and firm in Namjoon’s own.
In front of them, a pair of children are chasing each other through the legs of other passerby walking along the road. Namjoon feels his heart ache as he watches them giggle and scream, though he can’t quite pinpoint why.
Jungkook must notice- notice something change in Namjoon’s eyes, because he turns to give Namjoon his full attention. Namjoon glances over at him, too. Through the mist coating the air around them, he can see the question in Jungkook’s eyes.
“I’m just thinking…sometimes I miss being a kid,” Namjoon says honestly. Something about the atmosphere is making his heart feel raw, open, blunt and honest.
What he means: I miss when we could be so free and open without a carry in the world. I wish I could still see the world through a child’s eyes.
Humming, Jungkook nods. He trains his eyes on the pair of kids Namjoon’s watching, staring for a moment as well.
Then he suddenly drops Namjoon’s hand, a devilish grin taking over his face. “Race you to that blue lamp post. For dumplings,” he says. And then he’s gone, taking off down the road before Namjoon’s own wits can even catch up to the conversation.
“Hey, not fair!” he calls after him. Jungkook lets out a laugh, hand coming up to grab onto his camera protectively as he throws his head back, ignoring the looks other people are throwing at him.
A second later and Namjoon takes off, too, not bothering to stifle the laugh that’s bubbling out of his chest from the absurdity of it all. He runs after Jungkook, hot on his heels, and he lets his worries melt away for a moment and fade into the mist hanging in the air, just for tonight.