COMFORT OF STRANGERS|| VKOOK ✓

9. Moonlight

The couch is about as uncomfortable as every other time Jeongguk has woken up on it. He's up earlier than usual, strangely enough. But he was able to get about two hours of sleep after Taehyung left before he was up and working again, and that in itself was quite a feat.

The painting's looking quite nice, if he does say so himself. The colours play nicely together, thanks to the warm yellows and smooth, easy lines he brushed through it the night before. It's complex, certainly, far different in size and form from anything he's ever done before, but that comes from the amount of time he's spent on it now.

Longer than he needs to have spent, he knows. It could have been done in half this time, if he really wanted it to be done. Sure, it wouldn't be perfect, and nothing like it is now, but his heart would be done, so to him, the painting would be too.

He's dawdling. Drawing this out far longer than it needs to go, because at least this gives him an excuse.

It's... complex. Multi-layered, multi-faceted. The type of thing someone could spend hours staring at, interpreting. Taehyung's that type of person too, Jeongguk knows. He's put in the hours interpreting him. It's not complete. Far from it, in fact, Jeongguk has accepted that now. To any observer, it would be just about done, requiring just the finishing touches before it's titled and a new canvas is whipped out, a new subject sought out.

Taehyung's more than that, though. He's someone Jeongguk's starting to think he'll never be able to recreate.

He fumbles for his phone, muscles still uncoordinated and weak, and he drops it on the floor with a loud clatter before finally getting it in front of his face, one more web of cracks spidering from its corner as he turns on the screen. He hadn't checked it since Taehyung had shown up the day before, but he's mildly surprised to see a string of missed messages.

From: Jimin

Don't be mad at Tae

I know how you get

He's really excited about this

-

He hasn't texted me yet so I'm assuming it's going well

Thank you

-

I hope you know he's trying

You really matter to him and he's put a lot of work into tonight for you

-

He hasn't texted and the credit card bill came though, I'm assuming he's still with you

I'm proud of you

I hope you had a good day

He thinks about replying. He should, he knows he should, his mind wandering back to his conversation with Taehyung the night before.

Jimin makes up his mind for him though, as another text comes through.

From: Jimin

I'm here

Open up

Jeongguk shoots up, sending Pepper sliding off the foot of the couch with an indignant yowl. She shoots away before Jeongguk can apologize, and the door swings open.

"...Jeongguk." Jimin's stoic, staring at Jeongguk with a look that makes it seem like he's shocked himself by even showing up in the first place. But when Jeongguk, ever the awkward person, doesn't say anything, he seems to snap himself out of his trance. "Can I come in?"