Chapter Text
He likes to chase the sun in the evening. Make the most of sunlight moments. Sunlit spots.
It’s late in the afternoon, everything coloured a tangible amber. A curtain over everything making it easier to say goodbye to the day as it reaches its end. Taehyung would say it’s never easy, but we aren’t listening to him right now.
He isn’t listening either. Too busy blushing at the warm rays kissing his cheek in a promise to meet tomorrow. Wagging a finger sternly at the sunset, Taehyung draws the attention of quite a few passersby at the park. If he notices, he doesn’t let it know.
It’s just shy of cold during this time in his neighbourhood. Seven something o’clock and orange red light filtering diagonally across the various trees, bushes and baby strollers. He’s wearing socks just in case, his soft skirt brushes wonderfully against his ankles, it’s loose and has a wide flare, dancing happily as he skips off the cobblestone path. He wonders if it would have felt a bit better against his bare legs; maybe at home later.
The buds in his ear play something soft at a low volume. Taehyung doesn’t want to drown out the noise of life outside. Just dull it a bit. The easy melody of a favourite piece accompanying his hums as he sways and skips past the tiny dogs and strollers. He’d have stopped by to say hi, but he’s in an alone kind of mood today. Sorry, babies, see you monday.
He closes his eyes at a particularly sweet part of the song just as someone settles down on the bench in the section exactly opposite to his. He would’ve noticed because they’re a bit jarring in how camouflaged they are. Military green and mud brown and deep black clothes. Skin flesh and pink.
Oh well. He’s going to pass by that section in about 6 minutes. Shall we see how it goes?
Yoongi gathers up the hair away from his neck and ties a loose knot with the hairband he keeps around his wrist. It's a nice neighbourhood, he guesses. Stone-laid streets and dainty little shops tucked in every corner. His new apartment overlooks a bakery, the fresh smell of warm pastry waking him up every morning since last week. Could this be any more indie?
He’s sitting on a bench right now, palms braced on the metal, shoulders drawn up to his ears and rocking lightly in the summer breeze. A sigh of content leaves him as he blinks slowly. The colours are rich. He should’ve brought his camera.
What surprised him the most are the smells. What do you know, it smells great in a park with all the plants and flowers and grass and whatnot. Hyung was right, he should get out of the house more. Not that he’ll ever admit that to his face.
Thinking of Seokjin-hyung brings a smile to his face. It’s been days. He misses that stupid face.
He’s trying not to, but it’s hard not to stare at the people walking and frolicking and doing yoga. It’s probably rude and he shouldn’t, but he can’t help but gaze. It’s definitely rude. There’s a baby babbling very excitedly in it’s stroller a few paces ahead but that should be none of his concern. He drags his eyes back to the bush in front of him, across from the walker’s track. He did talk about flowers earlier but there aren’t that many, honestly. Many of the branches lay bare and skinny.
Just like him, he giggles inwardly.
Yoongi slightly sniffs the air, the tip of his nose growing colder as the shadows lengthen. Should we get going?
He pushes himself off the bench, lanky arms hanging by his side, and strolls over in the direction of the main gate.
A lot of people seem to have the same idea, there’s a small crowd leading up to the gate. Yoongi decides to straggle towards the end of the line. No use getting pushed around.
Hands in pockets, he’s still walking almost shoulder to shoulder with another person who presumably decided to fall back to avoid the crowd. Someone who’s dressed appropriately in full sleeves and wearing a pretty flowing skirt that fell to their ankles. Humming happily to themselves, they seemed to be listening to something. Ear buds in their ears.
In a surprising burst of fondness towards society, Yoongi stopped looking at them through the corner of his eye and turned halfway. And waved. Also smiled a bit.
Heart beating steadily and increasingly fast, till they looked at him and met his eyes.
Several things happened in such rapid succession that Yoongi barely had the time to notice or think about anything. A few things he did notice.
For example, they had a lovely mouth that fell open when they turned towards him. Maybe in shock or something else. Yoongi had thought they had pretty eyes, large and expressive as they listened from their ear buds. He was wholly unprepared to watch them grow impossibly larger a minute later, eyebrows nearly reaching their hairline. It was fascinating. Yoongi would’ve spent good long moments observing how cartoonishly expressive their face was, but unfortunately he was too preoccupied with the sudden turn of events.
The events being, a huge explosion of flowers around them both. Daisies and dahlias and geraniums and lilies. All of them, in a huge wreath encircling them. The force of their apparition made a tiny tornado, blowing petals and leaves and pollen everywhere. Even blowing back Yoongi’s bangs, his forehead exposed in public for the first time since 2019.
The damn soulmate thing. He’s blushing, it’s a little embarrassing and he has to duck his head in shame. As much as he would like to see his soulmate’s face framed by blooming branches and hair waving gently in the wind, maybe a petal or two landing on their face, something he could brush off lat-
No, this is way too embarrassing. He wants to retreat his entire head inside his body like a turtle. Everyone’s probably watching and-
Ach-OOO!
The large beautiful eyes he was admiring just a minute ago are red, and brimming with tears. A hand covering the lower part of their face as it contorts and yoongi winces sympathetically just as another-
ACHOOO!
If he thought he couldn’t get more mortified than this then was wrong. The pollen, damn it. Does he have a tissue? A handkerchief? Yoongi frantically checks his pockets, pats down his shirt, his jacket, his pants- nothing. Shit. this is why a large number of people opt out of this soulmate thing, it’s so inconvenient and with the rise in the prevalence of allergies in their generation, it's inevitable-
Once again, he’s stopped in his train of thoughts when his soulmate lets out another huge sneeze, nearly bent double with the force. His heart drops to the floor of his stomach.
“Um, we should probably get away from this,” he tries to herd them away from the flowers, one hand clearing a path in the gigantic wreath. “It’s the pollen, isn’t it?” he tries not to let his voice shake.
His soulmate, their blowing their nose into their handkerchief, their breaths sounding increasingly wheezy.
“Uh,” sniff, “Yeah, it’s the-” SNEEZE “-the pollen, sorry,” sniff.
“Oh, no, no, no. Please, I am So sorry. Let’s get you out of here, this is a mess. Please don’t apologise,”
Yoongi wants to bury himself. Right now. Right here.
Of course, the floral wreath of death from hell decides to follow them. Great.
“It’s alright, Yoongi-ssi, I am fine now. Please, you don’t need to-”
He sighs.
His soulmate, whom he met all of 1 hour ago, pulled the curtains back and threw the windows open, dumping all of the leftover blossoms out in the street. He then closed the shutters with such seriousness, and a little frown on his forehead, and maybe even a little pout, that Taehyung wanted to chuckle.
He’ll have to clean that up in the street later, but that’s not something his soulmate needs to concern himself with.
“D’you need more tissues, Taehyung-ssi?”
Earnest and eager. Taehyung smiled. “I have some boxes in that cabinet over there, if you please,”
He’s darting over to the other side of the room before he even finishes his sentence. It’s a shame that their first meeting had to go like this. His pollen allergy isn’t that severe but he’d always thought that his Soulmate Blossoming would happen on a blind date, somewhere private, or maybe it wouldn’t be as extravagant. A lot of people reported pretty little vines with 15-20 flowers at the most, the culture was not that flamboyant these days.
But of course, his happened to be the hugest Blossoming he’d ever seen. They had to run around the park in circles for 15 minutes before a security guard came running behind them with a baton in hand. Yoongi-ssi had been about to throw hands before the guard explained that he was there to help them drive the flowers away. Half an hour of colourful sweeping later, he had somewhat recovered enough to walk without doubling over with sneezes. Which is when he and his soulmate walked to his house.
It was so unruly, Taehyung frowned. Having to chase flowers away like that like they were pests, or bees. He shudders. How terrible it would be if meeting your soulmate summoned a hive of bees, instead of just flowers. Jungkookie had a bee allergy. How terrible it would be, really.
Although, even just flowers managed to bring him down to his knees today, quite literally. It was truly such a shame. The flowers, with their delicate tendrils, were coiling around his fingers, Yoongi-ssi’s hair, and his bracelets. It’s something he saw through a film of tears between the earth shattering sneezes. It was as if the flowers wanted to be near them, in their happy moments. Their first meeting.
Taehyung leaned back against his pillows and allowed himself another smile. It would have been so cute to look at. Pink Yoongi-ssi with pink lilies. He sighed. If only.
He swears he’s going to paint him as soon as he lets him.
“These are the ones, right?” Yoongi-ssi brings the tissue boxes over, his voice gravel and whispers.
Taehyung nods. Please stay over, please stay over, please stay over-
He draws in a breath as his soulmate brings both his hands to the sides of his face and braces his thumbs on his temples, slow and lingering.
Taehyung watches him meet his eyes and then unconsciously chew at his lower lip. Fingers digging into his hair, combing through them to slide his headband off.
He exhales.
“You rest, okay? I’ll be right back from the pharmacy,” he combs through his hair quickly to fluff it up, relieving the roots from when they were held back by the headband.
Taehyung’s hair falls back over his forehead, his temples, his ears, tickling at his cheek. He watches Yoongi-ssi rush out, averting his eyes.
Damn.
Allergy medicine. More tissues. A steamer. Some snacks without potential allergens. An epipen? No, that’s too expensive and they probably don’t sell it at a street corner pharmacy. Right?
Yoongi bothered his lips. Taehyung-ssi probably would have had an epipen on him if he needed it. He did say his allergy is not that severe.
He still feels terrible, Taehyung-ssi was in so much distress. And Yoongi had no idea what to do except punch the flowers. Who punches the flowers?
He dragged a palm across his face, waiting in line at the pharmacy.
Sanitizer? You can never have too much. Inhaler? He should ask Taehyung-ssi for his dosage, where’s his phone-
He growls involuntarily at nothing in particular. The people around him are a bit startled but unbeknownst to him, the daisies curled in his hair do a lot to soften his appearance.
The phone- he forgot it at Taehyung-ssi’s place. That’s alright, he can always run to the pharmacy again after getting his exact prescription. Now, what snacks should he get? The pharmacist would know, right?
He repeats it in his head. Tissues, meds, steamer, snacks, sanitizer. He’s never letting anything like this happen to his soulmate again.
“My turn! Where did you get that t-shirt?” Taehyung giggles.
“This? Made it myself. Hyung wanted to get rid of his old clothes so I painted over a few of them for myself,”
Sitting across from him on the floor, Yoongi smiles and ducks his head. Taehyung squints at him and hands him a snack from the table.
“Really? You didn’t tell me you painted, Yoongi-ssi,”
“I don’t! This is just for fun,”
Taehyung leans back, letting his head rest on the couch cushion.
“Paint with me some time? For fun?”
“Of course,” Yoongi tilts his head, hitting the edge of the table with his temple. Eyes narrowing with fondness.
“My turn. Since you paint for a living, what do you like doing in your free time?”
“Hmm, I like watching shitty movies, bothering my friends, bothering my friends with shitty movies,” he laughs.
Yoongi tucks a lock behind his ear. “We better watch these movies you speak of sometime, then,”
“Oh, but you aren’t a friend, are you, Yoongi-ssi?” Taehyung faux-frowns. “I wouldn’t bother you at all,”
“Aren’t I a friend?” Yoongi cocks his head.
“Are you?” Taehyung leans in.
“Am I?” Yoongi leans closer.
“Are you?”
His eyelashes are so close he can count them as they brush against his cheeks. Salty spicy breath mingling into one, tips of noses millimetres apart. When they touch, Yoongi jumps a little from the coldness and blinks rapidly.
“I am so sorry for earlier today, I should’ve been better. You were so-”
A single index finger against his lips effectively silences him. “That’s enough, Yoongi-ssi. The Blossoming is not something that’s within either of our control,” his eyes look soft.
“And as for the allergic attack, I’ve had worse, y’know,” he grins. Looking at Yoongi’s eyes and smile turning downward, he rushes to pat his cheek.
“You don’t need to beat yourself up for something like this,” his voice is softer, hand cradling Yoongi’s cheek as he pushes against it, nuzzling.
“I’m very excited to get to know you, Yoongi-ssi. I don’t think we should think of this as something that has to turn into a romantic relationship, strictly speaking. I know a lot of people who are platonic friends with their soulmates, and they’re some of the happiest people I’ve met,”
Taehyung lowers his gaze. “I know the whole allergic attack thing must have made it very stressful, but I really am very excited to be your soulmate, Yoongi-ssi. If you’ll let me in, I think you’ll like me a lot,”
“How old are you?”
“Uh, 24,” he’s taken aback a little, eyes wide and the faintest hint of a frown of worry.
Yoongi smiles and covers the hand holding his cheek with his own, thumb rubbing gently.
“You can call me noona from now on,”
Taehyung’s smile right after is blindingly bright.