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It was a suffocating cacophony of colors tonight, the dull beige of falling rain bubbling underneath a never-ending din of harsh reds and pinks and oranges. Every now and then, the sunshine yellow of Hoseok’s whooping would bleed into the sounds, or the earthy greens of Jeongguk’s hollering, or the rich purple of Yoongi’s laughter. Taehyung usually loved these sounds, usually loved basking in the swirling palette of shades that rose in puffs of air whenever one of his friends spoke. But tonight, he couldn’t bear it. Tonight, the yellows looked nauseatingly lurid, the greens glaringly out of place, and the purples intense enough to create an unpleasant pounding in his head. Tonight, all Taehyung wanted to do was close his eyes and escape the incessant fireworks show shooting up from people’s lips.
“Are the colors too much right now?”
A spurt of baby blue blossomed from within the inky darkness behind his eyelids, seeping into all the other colors. Taehyung sighed in relief, a coil of brown creeping out from underneath his vision. He didn’t even have to open his eyes to recognize the owner of those sky blue words. “Yeah.” He replied simply, keeping his eyes closed.
Closing his eyes never really helped, at least not for very long. The colors always came back stronger, each shade now contrasted against layers and layers of black. Still, Taehyung preferred it over having to see the colors juxtaposed with people having a much better time than he was.
Taehyung felt the soft pressure of a hand on his shoulder, fingers leaving invisible imprints on his shirt sleeve. “If you want, we can leave right now.”
He did want that. In fact, there was nothing more he wanted right now than that .
“Nah,” he said instead, opening his eyes simply for the purpose of giving Jimin a smile that he was sure was unconvincing. “I’m having fun.”
He wasn’t.
“You’re not” Jimin replied immediately, his words sending twirling ribbons of cerulean across Taehyung’s vision. Concern was etched in every plateau and valley of Jimin’s face, and the sight made Taehyung’s stomach turn, even more than Hoseok’s sudden, sharp laughter.
“But you are,” Taehyung managed to mumble out over his pulsating headache. “And it’s still early.”
Jimin took a moment to glance down at his wristwatch, before turning up to look Taehyung in the eye. “You’re right, it’s still early.”
Taehyung’s heart fell, fell harder than the lilting blues of Jimin’s voice did when he stopped speaking. A small part of him had wanted Jimin to protest, wanted Jimin to drag Taehyung out of that hellishly harlequin room without taking no for an answer. Despite how selfish it was, he hadn’t expected Jimin to agree with him so easily.
“It’s 8, so if we want to get ice cream before the shops close, we better hurry up.”
And, with a wave of light blue flooding his senses, Taehyung’s headache disappeared.
⌁
Taehyung had always liked the color blue.
It was the color of his favorite jacket, the one with a million zippable pockets. It was the color of the M&Ms that he stuffed inside said jacket every morning before going to school, only stopping when his mom grounded him for a week after she discovered faint streaks of food coloring lining the inside of his pockets. It was the color of his favorite fruit, blue raspberries (which apparently ‘didn’t exist’, but whatever, that was just his science teacher’s opinion). It was the color of his toenails when his older cousin/supposed babysitter had gotten bored and decided to paint them for the first (and last) time, the glittery shade vivid against his tan, blistered skin.
It was the color of a D note, bright and crisp as it curled upward from the black and white keys of a piano.
“I don’t understand the piano,” The girl sitting next to Taehyung complained loudly, fuming. “I’ll never remember all of these notes.”
Taehyung grinned broadly, as all kids do without realizing. “It’s really not that hard,” he interjected cheerfully. “You just associate colors to the notes that they come out of.”
The girl frowned, face contorted in confusion. “What?”
Taehyung didn’t really understand what there was to be confused about, but he supposed that he could explain it a little further for the sake of his classmate. Besides, she had a nice voice; dark red with golden flecks decorating the edges. “Well, you know how A is silver, and B is maroon, and C is tangerine?” He started again slowly, playing the corresponding notes as he spoke and smiling to himself as said colors shot out from the keys like puffs of smoke. “Just...Remember which note is which color, and you should be fine.”
Her frown deepened. “What are you talking about, you freak?”
At the last word, Taehyung’s smile faded. Her voice suddenly seemed a lot less nice. “Y-You know, the... The colors,” he stuttered out. The classroom fell quiet, and the only thing Taehyung could see were the quivering, brown zigzags of his own voice. “Like...Like how your voice is red and gold, and Ms. Seo’s is dark green, and—”
“Ew, stop!” The girl spat out, confused features shifting into disgust. “I knew you were a freak.”
“I-I’m not!” He said quickly. “Doesn’t everyone see the colors?”
The classroom was dead silent now. Every student stared at Taehyung, some in the same expression as the girl and others in amusement. Even Ms. Seo, the spacey piano teacher, had noticed the lack of conversation and was now looking up from her papers to see what was going on. All the colors were gone now, and there was nothing Taehyung wanted more than for them to come back.
“What color am I?”
Taehyung turned his head towards the curious voice, a soothing azure that flowed across his vision like water sliding down a flower petal. He recognized it, remembered hearing that shade of blue perform with the school choir during assemblies, remembered thinking to himself that he had never seen a blue voice before, remembered deciding after the assembly that he liked the blue one the best.
“Blue,” Taehyung replied quietly, not daring to look the boy in the eyes. If the reaction of the girl with the red and gold voice had been indicative in any way, he was about to be called a ‘freak’ for the third time that day. Despite this knowledge, he couldn’t stop himself from continuing. “Blue, like a D note.”
An amazed gasp left the boy. “Nice,” he said in awe. Taehyung looked up at him in surprise and found that the corners of his eyes were crinkled in a friendly smile, lips slightly agape. “What kind of blue?”
Taehyung felt his own lips turn upwards into a smile, and he hit a D note on the piano. “It’s light blue, like the sky on a really nice day.”
The boy’s eyes seemed to disappear with how hard he was smiling. “That’s my favorite color,” he gushed, fingering a key on his own piano before pressing down a couple of times. Rings of blue billowed out from underneath his fingers, and Taehyung couldn’t help but grin, too.
“Mine too!” Taehyung said excitedly, rectangular smile expanding. The other students, including red and gold voice girl, had clearly gotten bored of their conversation and were back to minding their own assignments, a low hum of colors buzzing in the room again. Even Ms. Seo had stopped paying attention, going back to her papers.
At Taehyung’s eagerness, the boy giggled. Spheres of vivid baby blue flew out of his mouth at the same time, and Taehyung was captivated. He didn’t think he had ever seen a voice that pretty before. “What’s your name?” The boy asked in between giggles, giggles that Taehyung decided were his new favorite color.
“Taehyung.”
“I’m Jimin.”
⌁
“Yo, where did you and Jimin disappear to last night?”
Taehyung frowned as his earbuds were violently pulled out, the smooth red and orange swirls of Vivaldi suddenly replaced with a spurt of yellow. “Well, good morning to you too, Hoseok.” He mumbled, picking his earbuds up from the side of his chair as the older boy slid into the seat across from him. Before he could plug them back in, Hoseok was swatting them down again.
“Why did you two leave without telling anyone?” Hoseok continued insistently. “Neither of you answered your phones, either. Yoongi was worried sick.”
“I was not.” A sleep-laced voice interjected, a shot of dark purple through the bright yellow. Hoseok yelped as Yoongi pushed him further down the seat to make room for himself. “I was most definitely not.”
“He totally was,” Jeongguk gushed gleefully, emerald green assaulting Taehyung’s senses. He plopped down next to Taehyung and stole a cantaloupe slice from his fruit bowl. “You should’ve seen his face. He looked like he was about to cry, and—”
“Watch it, Mister ‘I still can’t go to sleep without kissing all my stuffed animals good night’.”
Jeongguk sputtered in disbelief, chunks of cantaloupe spraying the previously spotless diner table as Hoseok’s guffaws overlapped the sound. “Hyung, I told you that in confidence!” He squeaked out indignantly.
A baby blue laugh cut through all the other colors, and Taehyung felt the corners of his lips curl up involuntarily. “Aw, cute little maknae still sleeps with his stuffed animals?” Jimin cooed as he slid into the spot next to Jeongguk and began pinching at his cheeks. Jeongguk groaned and clawed at Jimin’s hand, but didn’t pull away when the older boy slung his arm across his shoulder. Instead, he curled even closer to him, instinctively pushing himself towards his body heat, and okay, ow, Taehyung’s chest was hurting a little.
“You still haven’t answered my question,” Hoseok whined, snapping Taehyung’s attention away from his weirdly timed chest pain. “Why did you guys leave the party so early last night? Yoongi hyung almost got drunk enough to do shots off of Namjoon’s stomach.”
“But I didn’t,” Yoongi interrupted, raising a finger. “Because I am an extremely responsible drinker and the designated driver.”
Hoseok’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Responsible drinker, my ass,” he said with a scoff. “You literally ended up in Japan once!”
A wistful smirk crossed Yoongi’s face and he plucked a blueberry away from the top of Taehyung’s fruit bowl. “Yeah, that Sailor Moon cosplayer was wild as fuck.”
As Hoseok groaned in disgust and stole a grape from Taehyung’s bowl, Jeongguk laughed loudly, burying his face into Jimin’s shirt collar to muffle the sound. Taehyung tried to blink the fat, green blobs away from his vision. “Gross, hyung,” Jeongguk snorted out, absentmindedly playing with Jimin’s hand underneath the table. Every now and then, he would bunch Jimin’s fingers together against his palm, before splaying them back out and running his own fingers against the calloused skin, repeating this process until Taehyung couldn’t look anymore.
“Tae, you've been kinda quiet,” Yoongi spoke up suddenly, in that meticulously aloof way of his. “Everything alright?”
As Hoseok chanted out, “Yoongi hyung cares! Yoongi hyung cares!”, and Yoongi threw a wad of napkins at his face, Taehyung plastered a smile on. “I’m fine,” Taehyung reassured with a wave of his hand. He ignored the fact that Jimin’s fingers were now curled in Jeongguk’s jet black hair, ignored the fact that his own lungs felt like they were on fire. “I mean, I would be if you all stopped stealing my breakfast.”
As if on cue, Jimin’s palm stopped on top of the pile of fruits, hovering over the last strawberry. His eyes widened, and he quickly pulled his arm back to his chest.
Taehyung rolled his eyes. “You can have it,” he insisted. “I mean, everyone else already took one, anyway.”
Jimin’s eyes lit up, and he reached for the strawberry again. “Thanks, Tae.” He gushed, nibbling on the end of the fruit. Crystalline blue bubbles coiled up from Jimin’s lips as he hummed in satisfaction, and Taehyung’s forced smile shifted into a painfully wide real one. He ignored the niggling thought in the back of his mind reminding him that the strawberries were his favorite in the bowl.
“Yah, you’re so lucky Tae actually likes you, hyung,” Jeongguk mumbled sleepily, eyes half closed as he continued to lean against Jimin. “If I tried to take the last strawberry, I would’ve lost my fingers.”
Jimin snorted, hitting the side of Jeongguk’s arm. “Stop being dumb, he just owes me one because I paid for his ice cream last night.”
“Yeah, stop being dumb.” Taehyung teased, poking the same spot Jimin had hit while Jeongguk pouted. He had actually forgotten about the ice cream, but yes, Taehyung supposed that excuse would work just as well as any other.
“Wait, so you ditched last night for ice cream?” Hoseok gawked, peeling a wet napkin off of his cheek. “Dude, lame .”
“Shut up, hyung.”
Taehyung found it a little easier to stare at the sky blue rings floating up to the ceiling as Jimin spoke, rather than his hands on Jeongguk’s neck, Jeongguk’s collarbones, Jeongguk’s chest. “Yeah, shut up, hyung.”
⌁
“So, what color are you?”
Taehyung kicked his legs forward, propelling himself further up. “You don’t wanna know.”
As soon as Taehyung reached the highest point on his swing, Jimin had fallen back down to the lowest. “What? Of course I wanna know.”
Taehyung made a face. “It’s ugly, though.”
Jimin snorted, and a spurt of blue appeared in the middle of Taehyung’s sight. “Stop being dumb.”
“What?” Taehyung almost slipped off of his swings in surprise.
“You’re just calling it ugly because you’re used to other people telling you that it’s an ugly color, right?”
“N-no…”
“Yes, you are. And that’s a dumb thing to say, so stop being dumb.”
Silence fell on them.
“Brown,” Taehyung mumbled after a while, trying to ignore the muddy shades of his own voice in the corner of his vision. “It’s brown.”
Jimin made a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat. “That’s nice,” he said, his words wrapped in genuine sincerity. “Like chocolate. Or a dog. Or dirt.”
Taehyung made a face. “Dirt?”
“Yuh huh,” Jimin replied, nodding eagerly. “My mom told me that all plants need dirt and that they can’t survive without it.” He paused. “I bet there’s someone out there who can’t survive without you, too.”
A strange, gurgling noise rumbled in Taehyung’s throat, a stream of brown bubbles in the corner of his eye. He didn’t reply, instead choosing to jump off of his swing and land on top of a pile of grass in front of the swingset.
“Yah, why are you all quiet now?” Jimin whined out, giggling and squealing as he followed Taehyung’s lead and landed next to him.
“Because you’re being all weird,” Taehyung answered stubbornly, flicking a ladybug off of his shorts as he stood up
Jimin just rolled his eyes, looping his arm through Taehyung’s and pulling him towards the playground exit. “Come on, you weirdo, it’s getting late.” He wordlessly let himself be dragged by Jimin, the two of them biking home that day with grass stains and Taehyung’s laughter smeared on their shorts.
⌁
“Hey, since you and Jimin got ice cream together last night, can you treat me right now?”
“Eat my shit, hyung.”
Hoseok puffed his cheeks out, pouting as Jimin guffawed next to him. “You know, a simple ‘no’ would’ve sufficed.”
Taehyung raised an eyebrow. “Would it really have, though?” He mumbled, already sure that Hoseok would’ve bothered him until he finally settled for paying for half of his purchase, and then eventually for all of it, because he ‘forgot his wallet at home’.
“Jiminie, can you buy me some, then?” Hoseok cooed, either not hearing or ignoring Taehyung. He stuck his bottom lip out, grabbing and shaking Jimin’s arm like an overexcited puppy. “ Please? ”
Jimin responded to Hoseok’s whining with a short laugh, aqua blue snaking out of his nostrils like crystallized breath on a cold day, and Taehyung felt the weird pang in his chest again. He had attributed it to Jeongguk before, but now he knew that it couldn’t be him. After all, he wasn’t even here right now, having left with Yoongi to their morning visual arts class together. So, it must’ve been Hoseok’s fault. Yes, that had to be the only explanation.
“I’ll pay you back, I swear,” Hoseok continued to whine, now rubbing his cheek on Jimin’s shirt sleeve. Taehyung frowned, not really sure what Hoseok had done to make his chest hurt so much, but ready to fume over it anyway.
“Yah, stop it, you big baby,” Jimin replied in a grumble. Although he was obviously trying to look annoyed, Taehyung could identify the smallest fragments of a smile on his lips, and it was making it a little hard to breathe.
Hoseok wrapped his arms around Jimin’s even tighter, horrifying cutesy noises leaving his body in bright yellow waves. Taehyung rubbed at his temples, trying to make the blinding colors go away. Hoseok’s voice didn’t usually interfere with his vision this much; he wasn’t sure why it had decided to start being annoying today. “I’ll stop when you buy me ice cream, oppa.” He replied in the most vomit-inducing aegyo Taehyung had ever heard come out of Hoseok’s mouth. (which was saying a lot, considering that this was Hoseok .)
Jimin stuck his pointer finger out and pretended to gag around it, miming retching noises as he did so. “Oh, dear Lord, please make it stop,” he groaned, shuddering slightly. He looked up at Taehyung and lifted his free hand in his direction. “Tae, free me.”
Taehyung would’ve gladly played along any other day, perhaps by dramatically trying to peel Hoseok off of Jimin and ending up a tangled mess with the two other boys on the sidewalk as a haze of laughter surrounded them, gold and cerulean and caramel. But today, today Taehyung wasn’t up for it.
He shrugged, not meeting Jimin’s eyes. “Dude, just buy him the ice cream.”
“Just buy him the ice cream, oppa!” Hoseok repeated in an ear-splitting high pitch, almost screaming by now.
Finally managing to push Hoseok away from his arm, Jimin groaned again. “Thanks a lot, Tae.” He grumbled. Taehyung knew there was no real malice in his words, knew that Jimin was joking, as he usually was, but it still stung in a strange way.
“Meet me outside of the dance studio after class,” Jimin huffed out reluctantly. “If you aren’t there within three minutes, I’m leaving without you.”
An unearthly shriek left Hoseok, and garish yellow shades clouded Taehyung’s vision. He blinked quickly, steps faltering a bit as he held onto his forehead. Fuck, what was wrong with him today? He wasn’t usually this affected by the colors. After twenty years with such a dramatic reaction to loud noises, one learned to cope. At least, he thought he had.
“Taehyung, you okay?” Jimin asked, azure voice heavy with concern. The words immediately soothed Taehyung’s headache, and he felt a wave of satisfaction. Jimin was paying attention to him. Jimin was finally paying attention to him, and Jimin cared about him.
With the satisfaction came a horrible rush of guilt, as Taehyung realized that he was acting like a toddler. Jimin wasn’t obligated to give him any kind of affection, and it was so childish of Taehyung to think that way. His own behavior was actually making him nauseous; Taehyung wasn’t sure why someone as good and pure and Jimin as Jimin had become friends with him in the first place. “I’m fine,” he replied curtly, increasing his speed so that he was ahead of the pair. “I just want to get to class early today.”
Jimin blinked. “Oh, uh…” He paused, and Taehyung only walked faster. “Okay, don’t let us slow you down, then, I guess.”
Taehyung could only assume that Hoseok had told Jimin a joke right before he ran into the building housing his morning classes because he was trying to rub blue and yellow bubbles out of the corner of his eye all day.
⌁
The first time an adult told Taehyung that he wasn’t normal, he had shrugged and asked his mom to ‘pass the soy sauce, please’.
“Taehyung, did you hear me?”
Taehyung frowned, staring down at his unseasoned rice. “Did you hear me ?” He countered back. “I asked for the soy sauce.”
“Taehyung, listen to your mother when she’s speaking. She’s trying to tell you something important.”
His frowned deepened, and he settled for shoveling plain rice into his mouth.
“Sweetie, I went to the doctor recently,” his mom started slowly. “And she told me that there’s a name for your condition.”
“What condition?” Taehyung interjected, spraying rice all over the dining room table. Instead of reprimanding him like they usually did, his parents just looked at each other gravely. He swallowed the rice, along with the lump in his throat. They sounded serious today. Maybe he should pay attention.
“Your...Your colors.” His mother continued hesitantly.
“Oh.” Taehyung always forgot that other people didn’t have the colors. What a shame. His mom would’ve loved her vermilion voice; it matched her favorite pair of earrings.
“It’s called syn-es-the-si-a,” Taehyung parroted to Jimin the next day on the playground. “Apparently, not a lot of people have it,” he finished, his chest puffed out proudly.
“Woah,” Jimin breathed out, eyes wide. “That’s so...Cool.”
Taehyung grinned, lips stretched out in a rectangle. “I know, right? My mom told me not to tell people about it, but that’s weird. Why wouldn’t I tell anyone?”
Jimin scrunched his eyebrows together in thought, wrinkling his nose a little. “Maybe some people will get jealous.” He replied seriously.
Taehyung was quiet for a while, before nodding along to the idea. “You’re right,” he said in awe. “People might think I’m trying to sound better than them.”
“But you’re not,” Jimin finished quickly. “It’s just so cool .”
Taehyung discovered later on that he had more reasons than bragging rights to hide his condition. People rarely ever had the same opinion of it as Jimin did, as indicated by his first girlfriend, and his second one, and his third one, and his first boyfriend (all leaving him with similar ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ speeches after he confided in them).
“They’re just jealous,” Jimin assured him after his first breakup, rubbing Taehyung’s back as he opened another tub of ice cream.
“But what if they’re not?” Taehyung mumbled, digging his spoon into the tub. “What if I’m some kind of freak destined to never stay with someone after telling them about the colors?”
“Stop being dumb,” Jimin snapped immediately. “In that case, they’re just assholes.” He picked up his own spoon and hacked at the ice cream for a while before giving up with a huff. “Now, come on, let’s just watch this movie.”
Taehyung fell asleep that night with a spoon on his chest, two tubs of strawberry ice cream in his stomach, and crystal blue words ringing in his head.
⌁
Taehyung wondered what he had been in his past life to deserve this.
More specifically, he wondered what he had been in his past life to deserve watching Jimin giggle and squirm in Yoongi’s lap for half an hour.
“Wait, this is the best part.” Jimin gasped out in between laughter, tilting his phone slightly towards Yoongi’s direction.
A beat passed, and the two of them burst into giggles (Jimin much more so than Yoongi; if anything, a very manly chuckle left Yoongi). Taehyung winced at the purple and blue flooding his vision. Maybe he had been a bloodsucking parasite of some sort in his last life. Like a mosquito. Or a politician.
They laughed again, and Taehyung resisted the urge to look over. Not when he already knew what they looked like, when he already knew that their foreheads were practically touching with how close their faces were bent towards that tiny phone screen, already knew that Jimin was sneaking fond glances at Yoongi’s face to catch his reactions for some of the parts, already knew that one of Yoongi’s hands was resting on Jimin’s stomach while the other held onto his hip steadily.
The thoughts made his chest ache , and he knew it wasn’t Jeongguk’s or Hoseok’s fault, now. No, now it had to be Jimin’s fault. He was the only one who had been around during all the weird chest pain, and he was the only one Taehyung could blame right now.
“Where did you even find this video?”
“Taehyung showed it to me.”
Yup, definitely a politician.
“Tae, where are you going?”
In his surprise, Taehyung accidentally looked straight at the pair. It was even worse than he thought; Jimin had started playing with Yoongi’s hair, and his arm was slung around the nape of the older boy’s neck. Taehyung swallowed the lump in his throat, and it went down like fire, setting his entire ribcage alight. “I-I just need some air,” He stammered, pointing at the exit of his shared dorm with Jimin. “I’ll be right back.”
Before either of them could protest, Taehyung was out the door and speed walking down the hallway, footsteps sending light pink rings flying across his sight. A few seconds later, a different set of footsteps followed, red-orange rings joining the pink ones. “Taehyung, wait!” A baby blue voice panted out, hand landing on Taehyung’s shoulder. His steps slowed, and he turned to face Jimin.
“Tae, you’ve been acting all weird today,” Jimin wheezed out between heavy breaths. “What’s wrong with you?”
Short, cut off laughs left Taehyung in brown puffs. “Seriously?” He asked incredulously, shaking his head. “Are you seriously asking me that right now?”
Jimin frowned, finally catching his breath. “What?” He asked, sounding genuinely confused.
Taehyung shook his head again. “Oh, my god, I can’t believe you,” He mumbled out. “First, you let Jeongguk fall asleep on you, and you keep...Touching him. Then, you let Hoseok cling onto you like a child, and you actually buy him ice cream for that. And, on top of all that,” Taehyung could hear his voice rising in volume, could see the usual brown waves of his words appearing with increased intensity, but he couldn’t fucking stop . “You have weird Santa lap sitting kink sex with Yoongi while I’m sitting right there, in the same room. I mean, at least let me leave first—”
“Tae, what—”
“And you have the nerve to ask what’s wrong with me —”
“ Tae! ”
A burst of blue shot out at Taehyung, and he blinked. He hadn’t realized how hard he had been breathing until he realized that he could actually see his own heartbeat pounding, a forest green dot pulsating in and out of the corner of his eye. When his vision finally cleared, he found that Jimin’s eyes were wide and wondering, and a pang of guilt replaced the anger coursing through his veins.
“Tae,” Jimin repeated for the third time, this time much more calmly. “What?”
Taehyung licked his lips nervously, not realizing how dry they had gotten from his tirade. “I… You keep on…” He mumbled, suddenly at a loss for words. “You keep spending so much time with the others, and it’s not fair.” He blurted out.
Jimin furrowed his brow. “What, with Jeongguk, and Hoseok, and Yoongi?” Taehyung couldn’t muster the energy to nod a yes. “What are you talking about? I’m spending as much time with them as I usually do.”
Taehyung was ready to argue until he realized that he was right. Jeongguk was always touchy with Jimin when he was sleepy, just like how he got touchy with Taehyung and Hoseok when he was excited. Hoseok always got what he wanted with aegyo, whether it be through Jimin or Yoongi or the lady on the street corner handing out limited free samples. And Jimin was always, always, always sitting on Yoongi’s lap because that was just such a Jimin thing to do. Jimin was right. Today wasn’t any different from any other day.
Then why did Taehyung feel like his chest was going to fall into pieces every time he saw Jimin wasn’t talking to him ?
Jimin’s eyes widened. “Wait, what?”
Shit, did he just say that last part out loud?
“I-I—” Taehyung stammered.
A wide smirk spread on Jimin’s face. “Is this your way of asking me out on a date?”
What.
“What.”
“You know, you could just ask like a normal person, and I would've said yes.”
“What,” Taehyung repeated blankly.
Jimin laughed, the soothing stream of blue returning, this time unaccompanied by any green or yellow or purple. “You’re lucky I like you this much.”
What.
“Okay, then, I accept,” Jimin continued, grinning. “Where are we going for our date?”
“Uh, I think you’re misunderstanding,” Taehyung stuttered, face heating up.
Jimin raised an eyebrow. “Well, you like me, don’t you?”
Taehyung almost protested again, until he actually thought about the possibility. Okay, so maybe that might've been a small factor in his behavior towards Jimin lately. Maybe. A small one. Besides, if Jimin was actually offering a night out with him, uninterrupted by any of their other friends, Taehyung wasn’t going to refuse. Even if he thought it was a date. Which, it totally wasn’t.
(“Yo, that’s totally a date.” Jeongguk sniggered the next day.
Taehyung’s eyes widened. “What? It’s not! I don’t even like Jimin like that!” He sputtered.
“Just remember to use protection, kids.”
“ Not a date. ”)
“How does ice cream sound?”
⌁
“Are the colors too much right now?”
Taehyung gasped as he rolled his hips downward, a haze of brown clouding his vision as another groan wracked his own body. A similar sound left Jimin, and fuck , his moans looked like an endless expanse of the night sky, his fingers on Taehyung’s hips tasted like stars being formed, his chaste kisses felt like a supernova. Taehyung’s fingers disappeared in Jimin’s hair, tugging at the strands and pulling another moan out of him. More blue radiated out of Jimin’s body, and Taehyung was sure he was going to see everything with a layer of blue for the rest of his life. That was fine with him, though— blue was his favorite color.
“Yeah,” Taehyung answered breathlessly, fingers trailing down to occupy the infinitesimally empty space between their bodies. Jimin whimpered at his touch, sending azure and cobalt and sapphire and cerulean and blue flying across Taehyung's vision. He changed his mind and decided that that was his favorite color. “Yeah, they are.”
But he wasn’t closing his eyes anytime soon.