Work Text:
Namjoon snuggled further into his scarf. The inside of the train was honestly no warmer than outside, the constant battering of rain on the windows a reminder of the frankly horrific experience of getting onto the train in the midst of a storm. The glass was starting to steam up with the heat of the bodies inside the carriage, although Namjoon couldn’t help but wonder what heat as he shivered and shoved his hands deeper inside his pockets. He gazed out at the passing city lights shining as brightly as they could through the rain and fog, whizzing past as the sole reminder that other life existed outside of this train. It was hard to remember that when you had spent the past couple of days on a train. And then another train. And another again. God, this city needed better transport.
He hoped that Seokjin wasn’t out in this weather, although he knew it was just wishful thinking. He knew that the older man was at the station already and would probably be anxiously pacing and stepping outside onto the platform every few minutes in case Namjoon’s train miraculously arrived three hours early. He couldn’t help but smile softly at the thought of his boyfriend’s endearing nerves. Which he would never admit to having, of course, but Namjoon knew Seokjin like the back of his hand.
“Where has your mind gone, dear?” He glanced away from the window to be met with Mrs. Lee’s twinkling eyes. Namjoon had met the old lady the day before. It turned out they were travelling in the same direction, so he had helped her with her bags when changing trains and she had been smitten with the polite boy who had helped her ever since. He couldn’t deny that she was pleasant company, full of the wisdom and humour that only seemed to come with having lived on the earth for a long time. The crow’s feet that adorned her eyes were testament to her cheerful nature. He’d be sad to reach his destination only because it meant leaving her to finish her journey alone.
“Ah… just thinking about the person I’m meeting at the station,” he replied. Her already twinkling eyes sparkled knowingly.
“I see. A loved one?”
He smiled again, feeling his cheeks heat up slightly. “Yes. Very much so.” Mrs. Lee beamed at him fondly, heart fluttering at the distant memory of young love.
“Why don’t you tell me about them, dear? We have plenty of time. How did you meet them?”
“Well, I met him a few years back…”
~~~
The weather had been beautiful, a warm and sunny spring day, but Namjoon’s mood had been far from what one would call sunny. He was in his studio at the university when the problem occurred, the same problem that had been plaguing his existence for the past week and a half. Every time he went to plug his new speakers in to the studio setup that he had become so familiar with in the last year, not a single sound would come out. That’s right, not one of the sounds that he had painstakingly created and layered in his latest song would emerge from this damn speaker, the one he had spent most of his bank account on. And okay, that wasn’t exactly hard to do seeing as his life as a student was hardly rolling in money, but whatever. He pays money, he expects things to work. “Fuck…” he muttered under his breath as he picked up his phone and instantly dialled number two on speed dial. He waited impatiently as the phone on the other end rang, staring venomously at this piece of equipment that was slowly ruining his sanity.
After a few seconds the ringing stopped. “Hello?” Yoongi sounded gruff as usual, but Namjoon knew it was just his usual tone and not an indicator of his mood. “This fucking speaker Yoongi, it’s driving me insane!”
He heard a sigh in the background and the unmistakeable sound of Yoongi lying back down on his bed. “Did you plug it in this time, Joon?”
As much as that one stung, he knew the elder had good reason to ask that. “I tried Yoon, but it’s just not working. Not a single sound is coming out and I need to listen to the new song. This assignment is due in two days,” he whined, knowing that the older was a sucker for a pout and a good whine. It always worked for Jimin. He heard a sigh and knew that it had worked for him, too.
“Just come on over, Joon-ah. I’ll show you how I plug mine in and it should make it clear for you. Okay?” Namjoon just grinned, already making his way towards the studio exit.
“Thanks, love you hyung.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
He arrived at the apartment door a few minutes later, knocking and being met with Jimin. “Hey hyung, looking for Yoongi-hyung?” The small blonde was holding a wooden spoon and Namjoon was met with the smell of food cooking as he walked in.
“Yeah, where is he?”
“He’s in his room, just let yourself in,” the younger man replied, returning to the pot on the stove. He made his way across the apartment to the door that he had been through numerous times now, usually when he needed his ass saved. He let himself in like Jimin had told him and wasn’t surprised at all to see Yoongi lounging on his bed and scrolling through his phone, Hoseok curled up beside him and clinging to the smaller man like a koala. They both glanced up as the door opened, Hoseok’s face splitting into an award-winning smile. “Evening, Joon!”
“Hey, Hobi,” he replied, waving at the dancer. “Mind if I steal Yoongi for a bit?” Hoseok scrunched up his face and snuggled into the elder’s neck before sighing dramatically, turning to Namjoon with faux despair on his face. “If you must.” Yoongi smiled fondly at his boyfriend before getting up and following Namjoon out into the main room, heading towards the area where he had all his equipment set up.
~~~
Namjoon glanced up at Mrs. Lee momentarily. “I won’t go into all the details about the equipment since I imagine you won’t understand much of that. I’ll skip ahead a bit.” She smiled at him gratefully and he couldn’t help but laugh before continuing.
~~~
Him and Yoongi were elbow deep in wires that just seemed never-ending – it turned out what Yoongi considered straightforward was, in Namjoon’s humble opinion, not. Yoongi still continued trying to explain everything he was doing, despite the fact that it didn’t really seem to be helping much. His explanation was interrupted then by knocking at the door, and it took a lot of effort for Namjoon to hold in his sigh of relief. “Ah, that must be Jin-hyung!” piped up Jimin, placing down the spoon he was holding and bouncing happily towards the door.
Hmm, Jin. Namjoon wracked his brain but he couldn’t remember ever hearing the name before. The door was opened and he heard the voice of another man floating though it. “Jimin-ah! Your saviour has arrived, you can stop panicking now.”
“Hilarious,” the blonde retorted drily, although Namjoon could see the mirth sparkling in his eyes as he turned around, the other man following him inside. And no, Namjoon had definitely not met this Jin guy before.
Before him stood someone who had to be a model. If he wasn’t, the fashion world was even more flawed than he thought. The man was tall, probably only slightly shorter than himself, and had a mop of dark shiny hair that fell tastefully across his forehead. His brown eyes were large, looking around the place in a way that showed he was familiar with the apartment, and he had gorgeous plush lips curved into a cheerful smile. His t-shirt draped gracefully across his broad shoulders, his body built and elegant. Frankly, Namjoon was offended at this being’s beauty.
“Hey, Jin-hyung,” Yoongi mumbled, barely glancing up from the mess of wires, but Namjoon’s eyes were glued to the (apparently older) man as he walked towards the stove with Jimin, immediately taking over from where the blonde had left off. Jimin began animatedly telling him what he had done so far, the older nodding and working away, seemingly in his element.
“He’s a culinary arts student.”
Namjoon snapped out of his stupor, looking back at Yoongi. “What?”
Yoongi smirked knowingly. “Jin. He’s a culinary arts student, so he’s helping Jimin with cooking. You know Min, takes stuff to heart. Me and Hobi made the mistake of criticising his cooking. Should’ve known the kid would go and find a literal expert to help him out.” He rolled his eyes fondly. “He’s more of a friend than anything now, though. Nice guy.”
Namjoon nodded thoughtfully.
“Hey, Joonie, are you staying for dinner?” Jimin directed the question at him, eyes gazing at him and eyebrows raised inquisitively. Beside him, Jin was also looking at him curiously, a friendly smile painting his face.
It wasn’t in his original plans to stay, but Namjoon didn’t have to think at all before agreeing.
~~~
He smiled now, the memory of that very first evening lighting up his brain. Mrs. Lee continued gazing at him fondly. “This Jin seems to make you very happy.”
“He does. Seokjin, he’s really the best.”
Her brows furrowed slightly. “Seokjin? Did your friends in the story not call him Jin?”
A laugh burst out of his chest at that, knowing that if his boyfriend were here he would turn to him, exclaiming about how right he was.
~~~
“Joonie please, it sounds so formal!”
They were in Namjoon’s room, his lyrics notebook long forgotten at the end of his bed. They were a tangle of limbs, the elder’s head lying on his chest as he stroked his hair gently. Now, however, Seokjin was sitting up and glaring at Namjoon. His pout made him seem years younger, childlike. Namjoon would comment on this, but he knew the older would just come back with something about trying to maintain his youth or some such thing.
“I don’t think it sounds formal. It sounds pretty.”
The older scoffed, looking at him sceptically, head tilting adorably to the side. “The only people who call me Seokjin are my grandmother, my mother and you. Of course it sounds formal.” He flopped back down onto his boyfriend’s chest with a huff.
“Why do you insist on calling me that anyway?”
“It’s a pretty name. It fits you.” Namjoon’s hands had returned to combing through the elder’s hair. “It sounds like something from a drama, the name of a prince or something. All elegant, and strong, like you.”
He couldn’t see his boyfriend’s face from the position they were in, but he imagined that if he could he would see a pink blush on his cheeks.
~~~
Mrs. Lee giggled at this story, imagining the scene between the two young lovers. “Was that early in your relationship?”
He nodded. “Yes. He’s used to me using his proper name now. And he knows that even if he complained I wouldn’t change it, anyway,” he added with a cheeky grin. Mrs. Lee throws her head back and laughs merrily.
“Oh, dear. You must have had quite the honeymoon stage at first.”
It was his turn to laugh heartily, then. “Oh yes, definitely! We never heard the end of it from our friends...”
~~~
It was a Halloween party at Yoongi, Hoseok and Jimin’s place. The two dance majors wanted to celebrate the festivities and had somehow managed to rope Yoongi into it, although he made sure to remind them at every possible moment that he’d much rather be having a quiet night. His costume consisted of a sign stuck to his hoodie that read “This is my costume.” It contrasted quite alarmingly with his boyfriend’s extravagant outfit, bright yellow feathers erupting everywhere to form some semblance of a bird costume.
“I still don’t understand why you dressed up as a chicken,” piped up Jimin, dressed up as Mario and standing beside his friend Taehyung, who was of course Luigi. Hoseok glared at him, brows pushing together in irritation.
“It’s not supposed to be a chicken, you brat! It’s an exotic bird.”
A third dance major named Jungkook, who was dressed as the grim reaper, snorted from beside Yoongi on the couch, watching the squabble with amused eyes. Hoseok turned his attention to someone he knew would back him up.
“Namjoon, tell him!”
“I wouldn’t bother asking him, hyung. He looks a bit… distracted,” Taehyung supplied casually, glancing over to where Namjoon and Seokjin were living in their own bubble. The group of friends let out one collective groan.
Namjoon wasn’t sorry, though. Jin had dressed up as a vampire, and while that may have been the most popular choice of costume, no one could pull it off quite like Jin. The man was just gorgeous, and Namjoon felt like a potato in comparison in his witch costume, even though Seokjin insisted that he looked “hot”. Neither were much for dancing. Well, Jin was, but the three dance majors would ridicule him mercilessly whenever he tried, so they chose to just sit and talk instead.
The talking had soon developed into wandering hands and lips, however. Namjoon would blame it on Jin just looking too damn good, and he was sure Seokjin would probably agree that yes, he did look damn good, thanks.
He remembers feeling Seokjin’s warm breath ghosting the shell of his ear. “Do you wanna head back to mine?” For the second time since meeting Seokjin, Namjoon didn’t have to think before accepting. They rushed out of the apartment with their hands interlocked, the sounds of their friends’ teasing whistles following them out into the night.
~~~
He flushed deeply at the memory, feeling somewhat flustered and definitely not wanting to share that particular story with Mrs. Lee. “We, um, definitely had a honeymoon phase, yes.”
They settled into a comfortable silence then, both lost in their own thoughts, the only sounds being the rattling of the train on the tracks and the steady thrum of rain. It still hadn’t died down. If anything, it seemed worse. Mrs. Lee spoke up again.
“The honeymoon phase doesn’t last forever, of course. I’m presuming things are still going okay?”
“Oh yeah, things are great!” he assured her. “Of course there are obstacles. Just recently actually, we got into a fight…”
Mrs. Lee nods empathetically. “Of course, these things happen. Was it about anything serious?”
“Well, yeah actually…”
~~~
Namjoon had just gotten off the phone with a producer from one of Korea’s largest record labels, and it was fair to say that he was in shock. After months and months of searching for jobs after graduation, him and Yoongi had finally found somewhere that was interested in interviewing them. He would have to get all his work together and ready to show them and sort out his travel to get across the country to them, but first on his list was telling Seokjin the exciting news.
He found him where he expected, curled up on their sofa reading a book with quiet music playing in the background. The older man looked up upon Namjoon entering the room, immediately looking intrigued about the obvious excitement on his boyfriend’s face.
“Babe, you’ll never guess what!”
“What?” he responded, placing the book down beside his legs and leaning forward, anticipatory.
“I just got a call from that record label I was telling you about! Remember, the one Yoongi and I were hoping to get in touch with? They just called, they want to interview us for the next two weeks and hear our stuff!”
He waited for the excitement, the congratulations. It didn’t come. Instead, Seokjin stayed silent, glimmer leaving his eyes rapidly.
“Didn’t you say they’re based across the country?”
“Uh, yeah. Why?”
“So you’re going across the country for two weeks for this interview?”
“Yes. Babe, what’s the problem?”
The older stiffened, turning away from him. “Don’t babe me right now, Namjoon. Not when I’m clearly upset.”
Namjoon felt the irritation starting to bubble in him then. “Well how am I supposed to know what’s wrong when you won’t even tell me what’s wrong? You’re acting like a child!”
Seokjin immediately whirled around, fury blazing in his eyes. “I’m the one acting like a child? When you’re the one just leaving across the country for your own benefit, not even acting like this relationship is important to you?!”
The irritation was no longer bubbling below the surface. Full blown flames of anger licked inside him now. “Are you fucking serious? You really think I don’t treasure our relationship?”
The older pouted petulantly. “Well clearly not.”
“Oh why, because I’m doing a work interview? Am I not allowed to do that, or does it mean our relationship doesn’t mean shit? Jesus, Seokjin, Yoongi is going too, you don’t see Hoseok getting on his back about it-“
“Because they don’t have their anniversary next week!”
Oh.
Oh shit.
All that could be heard was the music still playing quietly in the background, some singer crooning a gentle ballad.
“Shit, babe, I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry, how could I forget that? Jesus Christ, I’m such an idiot…”
He thumped down onto the sofa, head in his hands. He had never felt so much guilt in his life, knowing that he had hurt the person he loved the most.
“I’ll call them back, tell them I can’t go. Not when we have our anniversary, that’s so much more important to me. Fuck, babe, I’d cancel a meeting with the goddamn president to show you how important you are to me.”
He heard a sigh, then felt the cushions sink beside him as his boyfriend sat down. The older took his hand in his. “I don’t want that.”
He looked up, confused. “What?”
Seokjin met his eyes then. “I don’t want you to cancel, Joon. You and Yoongi have been waiting for this opportunity for years, I don’t want to take that away from you. Besides, I wasn’t annoyed about the interview, just the whole… forgetting thing.” He looked down at his knees awkwardly.
Namjoon squeezed his hand tighter. “Baby, I’m so sorry about that. It’s not an excuse, but in the excitement it just slipped my mind. It shouldn’t have, and I swear it won’t happen again.”
Seokjin met his gaze once more, eyes now glassy with unshed tears. “I believe you. I’m sorry for what I said.”
“Me too, baby, me too. Listen, how about I tell them I can go for one week but then I have to return to my wonderful boyfriend to celebrate my life with him?”
The older laughed then, a tear slipping from one of his eyes. “I’d like that,” he smiled, nodding.
“Then consider it done. I love you.”
“I love you too, dork.”
They melted into each other’s arms, kissing away all the words they shouldn’t have spoken.
~~~
He finished the story, looking up at Mrs. Lee once more. She smiled at him softly, eyes a whirlpool of emotions. She reached across the table between them, gently placing her hand over his where it rested before him.
“I’ve lived a long time, dear. I’ve been through relationships, many that failed and one that didn’t. I know a strong one when I see it, and yours is one of them. May it last and may you have eternal happiness together.”
He didn’t quite know what to say to that, so he simply flipped his hand over and squeezed hers back, hoping his eyes would express the things he couldn’t articulate. She smiled one last time before turning to the window again, and he knew that she had understood.
The rest of the journey passed in silence, with every passing minute making Namjoon more and more eager to see his boyfriend. After what felt like centuries, the announcement sounded that his stop was coming up. He sighed in relief, seeing the station through the window and stood up, hoisting his bag onto his shoulder. Mrs. Lee looked at him again.
“Enjoy your anniversary, dear, and send my best to your Seokjin. It was an absolute pleasure to have met you.”
“You too, Mrs. Lee. Thank you, for everything.”
She nodded, and he made his way towards the doors. His heart leapt in his throat when he finally saw Seokjin, standing in all his glory on the platform. He stood beneath a lamp, a halo of light formed behind his silhouette in the night, and he was soaking wet. Namjoon supressed the urge to laugh. He knew he would wait on the platform in the rain.
Half blinded by the rain, Namjoon stretched out his arm, Seokjin doing the same, their chilled hands meeting in the middle. They pulled together like magnets do, moving into the wet darkness and kissing, still unable to speak. On the train Mrs. Lee marked a neat circle on the glass with her glove, watching the two lovers who she hoped with all her heart would be able to overcome all legendary obstacles.