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A small smile flickered across Taehyung’s face as he wandered aimlessly down the darkened street. I wonder if I’ll meet anyone interesting tonight… He thought to himself, yet again finding amusement and joy in the fact that the voice in his head did not belong to him. The only irksome factor was that he did not yet know who owned such a lovely voice.
The thought would often play itself back in his mind, an ongoing loop of soft tones that did not belong to anyone he’d had the – obvious – pleasure of meeting.
Currently, Taehyung was making his way towards a small club that his friend Jimin had been begging him to visit for weeks. Alas, previous engagements had barred this very much anticipated – Jimin’s words, not Taehyung’s – event from occurring. But now, the inevitable thrum of bass-heavy music was awaiting him. This had better be fun. His thoughts were a jumble of excitement and annoyance. It was nothing to do with having to go to this place, though. He just wasn’t really feeling too great today; it was just one of those days – perhaps the rhythmic spray of melody after melody would boost his low mood.
The streetlight above him flickered, eliciting a sharp glance upward. What if this is a sign? That lovely voice rang through his head once again. I’m going to get mugged instead of going to this club probably. Speculations ran a rampage through his head, allowing distractions to seep in and awareness to decrease.
And that’s why Taehyung didn’t notice when he tripped over a stray stone that had found its way to the pavement.
He also didn’t notice that Park Jimin was standing right next to him, an odd expression resting on his generally gentle face. “What are you doing?” Was all that his friend could calmly muster before laughing at the embarrassed Taehyung.
“I was caught up in my thoughts okay!” He sounded frustrated as he spoke, still somewhat nervous due to the fact that Jimin would doubtlessly keep mentioning his stumbling (over a rock) throughout the night.
Much to his steadily increasing chagrin, Taehyung finally noticed the other boy that was standing by Jimin’s side. “It’s not even that funny, jeez…” he mumbled in defeat when Jimin’s laughter did not stop.
He took a brief moment to drink in this new person’s appearance, instantly enamoured somewhat by this stranger’s seemingly angelic face. The dark eyes, rimmed with youth and a certain, noticeable fringe of determination. It was a relief to see that this stranger was distracted entirely by the phone in his hands and the earbuds in his ears.
“Oh.” Jimin clapped a hand on Taehyung’s shoulder, grinning. He must have noticed the confusion that rested upon Tae’s face. “This is Jeon Jungkook – I met him a few weeks back and we just seemed to hit it off instantly! I really wanted you to meet him because I just knew that you two would get on really well somehow. He’s two years younger than us but I don’t think that will be much of a problem...” He continues to ramble, nodding over at the oblivious Jungkook occasionally with enthusiasm.
I wonder if he’ll be right… Taehyung thought to himself idly, joining Jimin in patiently waiting for Jungkook to finally notice their staring.
A few moments passed before the youngest of the three finally lifted his gaze from his phone, locking eyes with Taehyung and instantly bowing his head in embarrassment for being rude. There was a speedy movement to pull the earbuds from his ears before his attention was fully turned towards the other two.
When he didn’t seem to make any movement to introduce himself, Taehyung jutted his hand out for the younger boy to shake “Hello! I’m Kim Taehyung – but I’m guessing you already knew that since you’re friends with Jimin.” The hearty tone in his voice seemed to startle Jungkook, who froze and didn’t make any inclination that he was going to respond. He shyly nodded, flashing Taehyung with a small smile before taking a few steps back. “Oh..” Tae’s happy expression faltered for a moment, but was soon to return to its previous level of excitement as he turned to Jimin. “Should we go into the club then?”
“Of course,” Jimin seemingly chose not to comment on the somewhat disappointing exchange between his two friends, but the frown that he was desperately trying to scrub from his face was definitely noticed by the convoluted Taehyung. He looked to Jungkook for a confirmation that they could enter the bright establishment – the aforementioned boy just nodded his head in response, having been spooked into not talking for some reason. Did he just dislike Taehyung? That would be strange; generally people loved him right from the first second of meeting him.
Did he take some kind of instant disliking to me? Tae couldn’t help but be slightly disheartened by this meeting as he was pulled into the flashing building that seemed to have caught Jimin’s attention.
–
Not a lot of time had passed before all three of them had been sucked into the blaring, psychedelic lights that surrounded them. Taehyung had observed his surroundings with enthusiasm as his vision became continuously clouded and hazy as the night drew on and more drinks were taken in. He had no idea about this perilous task that he’d subconsciously set himself to quench this unbearable thirst for intoxication.
So, in reality, Tae had pretty much decided to get drunk tonight.
By the third bottle of beer, he’d managed to lose sight of Jimin (who’d probably got roped into some kind of dance battle with Hoseok who’d also decided to turn up at the last minute) but Jungkook had seemingly remained nearby all night.
Why does he refuse to talk to me? Taehyung asked himself after the fifth attempt of making conversation with the presumably timid Jungkook. He’s not a mute is he.. Oh my god what if he is? And I’ve just been horribly ignorant all night. He ran deft fingers through his soft hair, sudden stress overcoming his mind, I should apologise... and there was the spontaneous decision to speak once more.
“Hey,” He leaned over towards Jungkook who was leaning against a wall a watching the crowd with interest; they were very much like a body of water, languidly moving as one – constantly ebbing and flowing with the tempo of the violet music. Tae had to forcefully pull his own attention from the dancefloor, “I’m really sorry if I offended you with talking so much- oh god I’m doing it now aren’t I… It must be so hard being a mute and then being unable to respond to someone as idiotic as me…” Jungkook moved his hands to stop the rambling older boy, but nothing could stop him from releasing these feelings (that had probably been very much jumbled up by the amount of alcohol he’d poured into his system) “And like, I shouldn’t have assumed that you’d want to talk to me – if you could actually talk to me, that is – and I probably made you really uncomfortable. So, I’m, l-like really sorry.” Jungkook finally opened his mouth to speak, a bundle of tentative nerves. “Really, really sorry.” Taehyung interrupted one final time.
“I can talk…” The whisper fell from Jungkook’s lips, disturbing the loudness of the club surrounding them and forcing Taehyung to move closer, clumsily bumping shoulders with the younger boy and almost suffocating him with how close he’d actually ended up getting. “I was just-” Jungkook takes a second to breathe, and Taehyung’s thoughts thickly trickle onwards, why does his voice sound so familiar? I could swear that I’ve heard it before… “I was just scared; scared that you might reject me; scared that I wouldn’t be someone you’d expect or even want to be with. And then when I heard you speak I was just so surprised, so shocked that it would be you – the one that Jimin has spent weeks speaking of with such fondness.”
The drink in his system was definitely prohibiting Taehyung from understanding what in the world this boy was going on about. “I don’t..”
“I-I just heard your voice and I was at such a loss with the fact that it was the same voice I’d been hearing in my head since before I can remember.”
Taehyung swore that his heart skipped a beat.
Everything seemed to instantly click into place; the familiarity of the lilts and embellishments to his tone had finally been placed as the soft, dulcet voice in his head that stated his – often wandering – thoughts.
“I understand now,” Tae spoke after a second of clear thinking, “But why would you think that I wouldn’t accept you? Right now I honestly feel like the luckiest person in the world…” He spoke daringly, watching the younger boy with a soft – albeit slightly askew – stare.
The heat that rose to Jungkook’s cheeks was unforgettable, “You really mean that? It’s not just… some kind of drunken proclamation that you’ll forget tomorrow when you wake up with an awful headache.”
“Okay.” Taehyung began, a small smile playing on his lips, “For starters, I’m drunk, but not that drunk.” This elicited a chuckle from Jungkook. “And secondly, I wouldn’t forget this for the world.”
The expression of joy that encompassed both their faces was on display for everyone to see for the duration of that night, and was followed by countless days of excitement and affection.