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The sky is barely cracking into dawn when Yoongi decides to strap up a leash onto his six-month old corgi and step outside for a jog (if putting on jogging shoes and walking in alternating speeds count as jogging). The nameless ball of adorable fluff—as Jimin so gently put it when he’d reprimanded Yoongi for leaving the dog unnamed—lets out a muffled whine as he throws his head side to side when Yoongi struggles to hook the leash onto his collar.
"Hold still, damn it." Yoongi mutters exasperatedly after a succession of attempts. After a bit more persistence he’s able to hook it, finally hearing that accomplishing clicking sound. He lifts the dog up to his eye-level, a silent and unintentional invitation to slather spit onto his nose with its tongue. "Christ. I just washed my face." He says, deciphering the seeming curve of the corgi’s mouth as a mocking grin. "Wipe that grin off your face or I won’t introduce you to the neighbor’s shih tzu." To which the dog responds by landing a paw on Yoongi’s face.
Contrary to what all his friends believe, his pet’s lack of name is not because he’s a sentimental guy who has to have substantial amounts of symbolism behind every artifact of his life. Yes he writes symbolistic and cynical lyrics, but that’s primarily because it’s what he’s good at and it’s usually what works best to make a meaningful song. There’s no reason for him to burden the cute animal with a name that embodies, say, the senseless abode of today’s youth.
He just has to think of something that’ll stick.
(“What about Dagger?” Jeongguk had suggested, to which Yoongi’s mere response was a crinkle of his nose.
“Cookie Dough.” Jimin blurted out.
“Oh my God my corgi is going to be a stripper.”)
Yoongi firmly grips the handle on the leash as he starts to stroll along the sidewalk, the happy-go-lucly corgi hopping by his side to match his pace.
The neighborhood is eerily quiet, save for the unobtrusive sound of a broom rubbing against concrete as some ahjumma starts her morning clean-up routine. The sky is still gray with a faint hue of blue, the sun still waiting to emerge from slumber.
A familiar-looking jogger with a name just as unknown to Yoongi as his corgi jogs by and greets him good morning. He bows slightly in return to the petite girl who beams before sticking her earbuds back into her ears and running off. He wonders if he should ask for her name sometime or ask if she’d like to grab coffee, but he remembers this is probably the fiftieth time he’s thought about it and never really got around to execution.
Better to leave it be than try to make changes and fuck things up, a life motto.
When Yoongi jogs four blocks without stopping for breath—a notable record—he almost trips on his shoelace. He crouches down to tangle the laces in his fingers and pull them tight before tying them into a knot.
He straightens up and grips on the handle of the leash again, feeling a strange lack of pull from the other end. He sees a broken lock and a missing collar before it hits him, paleness swallowing the already lack of color of his skin. “Shit.” He says, anxiously glancing around for any sign of light brown scurrying about. “Dog, where are you?”
It’s when he turns the next corner, half-panting, half-muttering profanities to himself when he finds the runaway.
In some stranger’s arms.
The dog happily leans into the guy’s hand on its head before finally craning its neck and lapping its tongue along the stranger’s cheek. Yoongi slowly shuffles over to the hunched figure on the ground. “I’m sorry about that.” Yoongi says before whistling to grab the dog’s attention. Sure enough, it hastily turns its head and wriggles out of the dip between the stranger’s crossed legs to run towards Yoongi. “Here boy.”
The stranger stands up—or tries to. “Ah, so the owner’s even cuter than the pet.” He slurs, voice baritone deep.
Yoongi looks up slightly confused until he meets the stranger’s gaze from the ground he’s crouching on. It’s terribly high, the guy’s height strongly resembling that of a lamppost from Yoongi’s view. “Excuse me?” He straightens up and tries to mask a disdainful look. Now he’s only half a head shorter.
“Sorry that came out w-oops.” The guy says, his body slanting to the side before hastily steadying himself again to keep himself vertical. “-weird.” He looks up—or down at Yoongi with glowing eyes and slightly parted lips.
He has a boyish look, a snapback perched on his chestnut brown hair and an oversized blue flannel over a plain white shirt. He reeks of alcohol and Yoongi guesses the guy’s too wasted to get home on his own. “Uh, do you live around here?”
“Hm sorta.” The guy says. And then it’s quiet. Too quiet.
“Ah.” Yoongi doesn’t push for a more legitimate answer. He’s just about to say farewell—or nothing at all and just walk away before he discovers the guy is actually a mugger or an ax murderer—when the guy blurts out. “Hey!”
Yoongi chances a glance at the stranger again, getting slightly irritated. “What?”
“I— hey I don’t know you but. Know I don’t usually. I’m not always...” he gestures wildly to himself. “This. Sorry.” He grabs the snapback off his head and shoves his face into it.
“Relax. You don’t have to worry about me judging you, dude. We probably won’t see each other again anyway.” Yoongi shrugs.
The stranger makes a soft, humming sound. “I really like your dog.” He says.
“Oh.” Yoongi looks at the dog in his arms who’s trying to squeeze out of his grip—looking towards the stranger. “I guess, he kinda likes you too?” Yoongi lets the guy pet the dog, a wide smile spreading across his boyish features, lips forming a weird square-like shape. It’s endearing to look at if Yoongi ignores the stench of alcohol seeping out of the guy’s mouth each time he exhales.
“What’s his name?” He asks.
Yoongi pauses, too long. “Actually he doesn’t have one—yet.”
The guy halts from petting the corgi and gives Yoongi a confused, drunken gaze. “You got a nameless dog?”
"Hey, I’m not judging you for being completely shitfaced at five in the morning so don’t judge me for finding it hard to think of a name for my dog." Yoongi jeers, unable to stop himself. The brown-haired boy’s eyes widen while he’s taking a step back. Maybe Yoongi regrets what he said.
But then he’s grinning much wider than before, and Yoongi wonders how his face is able to accommodate his mouth. “Got ya.” He holds up a thumb and an index finger before shaking his head when he realizes he was supposed to make a thumbs up on both hands. He bites his lower lip before smiling lazily. “I'm Taehyung. What’s your name?”
Yoongi hesitates to answer, weighing the possibilities of what could happen the moment he reveals his name to this weird kid. Eventually he decides to say (whisper) it. “Yoongi.”
Surprisingly, this Taehyung character seems to have heightened hearing abilities because he manages to pick up Yoongi's soft response and even repeats it a few times as if he’s trying to learn a phrase in Mandarin. “Yoongi.” He says before he mumbles something to himself, a sound that Yoongi thinks could be mistaken for a whirring power generator with how deep it is. “I know what you should name your dog.”
Yoongi’s eyebrows arch, genuinely curious. “And that is?”
"Tae-Gi." Taehyung says, snapping his fingers accompanied by another megawatt smile that makes Yoongi feel like the sun is rising earlier than usual. "It’s mine and your name together. Isn’t it neat? Isn’t it a stroke of genius?" He leans in to meet the dog in Yoongi’s arms at eye-level. "He certainly looks like a Taegi." Taehyung leans back and nods firmly. "He’s Taegi now."
The nerve of this guy to randomly suggest attaching their names together and deciding on his pet’s name like they’re some married couple. “That’s—wait, you’re kidding right?”
"Do I look like I’m kidding?" Taehyung says, eyes bulging as if they’re threatening to fall off their sockets. Frankly Yoongi thinks he looks serious. In a terrifying serial killer-esque way.
Yoongi almost rolls his eyes at himself for actually considering it, letting the name roll off his tongue as he eyes the corgi. “Taegi.” He says once, twice, and a couple more times. He sees Taehyung beaming again while bouncing on his heels.
He can’t believe it. He can’t believe he’d let a stranger name the dog he’d spent a little over three months googling a name for. It’s because the name feels so right when he says it, the previously unnamed dog perking up upon hearing it. It’s as if he was meant for that name. “Jeez. Okay. I’m going crazy probably. But—okay. Taegi it is.”
"Awesomesauce!" Taehyung cheers, pumping his fist in the air and Yoongi contemplates taking it all back. "You know, now that half his name came from mine, that technically means I’m half his master."
"Wait—"
"Not to worry, I’ll make it easier on you. I’ll be crashing at my friend’s house ‘cause I’m broke as fuck but yeah it’s right down the street with the ugly ass jeep parked in front—" He motions to a brick wall before trying again and actually aiming at the right direction. "There, not in the brick wall like in the Harry Potter movies. Don't...run into a brick wall. It's painful. Trust me I know." He clears his throat. "You can take me out for coffee when I’m not buzzed out of my mind and we can talk—"
"You’re nuts." Yoongi pinches the bridge of his nose. "I’m nuts." He sighs.
"You’re cute." Taehyung lets out another deep, chortling sound. Yoongi tries to stop the heat from spreading from his neck to his face. Goddamn it.
"Christ."
"Sorry to disappoint but it’s still just me." He snorts, obscenely loud. I’ll see ya later, Yoongi." He says before grinning like a maniac and shaking Taegi’s paws. "You too, Taegi." He straightens up, patting Yoongi’s cheeks with a satisfied smile drawn across his lips, before staggering off.
Yoongi watches Taehyung’s retreating back, slightly teetering off-balance as he walks down the street. “What the fuck just happened?” He mumbles, and Taegi perks up, head snapping to face Yoongi with what he thinks is a menacing grin. “You did this.”
And as much as Yoongi would think about how he’d just experienced the strangest encounter to date, he can’t deny that Taehyung, in all his square-mouthed boisterous glory, has somehow started to make his way through the cracks of Yoongi’s apprehension.
Yoongi silently wishes that—just like the name he’d given the dog—Taehyung would stick too.