starry nights.

STARS,

it's art class and jungkook stands next to taehyung and his canvas, smiling at taehyung's jokes.

the art teacher is saying something but jungkook is staring taehyung instead.

"paint something you think is beautiful."

taehyung turned to look at jungkook, and like usual, jungkook was already staring. "what are you going to paint, gukk?"

jungkook stepped over to his canvas, examining the white, blank, and empty space.

and after a moment, he realized that his empty space had to be inhabited by something beautiful.

he shoots taehyung a smile. "you'll see."

he grabs his brush and looks at all the shades of colors. no. colors don't have to describe the beauty of someone.

instead, he grabbed shades of grays and blacks and whites, colors he found the most beautiful. because in black and white, pictures had a different effect.

as he dabbed delicate strokes onto his canvas, he made sure the person in the painting was looking away.

he hadn't realized he had gotten so immersed in the painting until taehyung praised it. "wow, gguk, that's amazing!"

jungkook couldn't help but look away as a blanket of warmth covered his cheeks.

"thanks."

for a second, he felt embarrassed — embarrassed that the boy he was drawing had seen his painting.

but, he had come to realize, from the back, taehyung looked like many other boys in the school, including jungkook himself.

as he continued, he had gotten other words of praise.

"is that you? i love the fact that you didn't use colors. does it have a deeper meaning?"

he steps back, inspecting it then turning to the teacher. "it does have a deeper meaning. you told me to paint the most beautiful thing or person, so i decided to paint a person."

"is it anyone we know?"

"that's private." he gave her a small shy smile.

his art teachers expression became smug and a bit shocked. "mm? private, huh."

he nodded, unsure that his answer was acceptable.

"well, okay then. looks great so far."

with that, she walked away and jungkook stared at his painting in another angle. even though everyone else couldn't recognize the person he'd painted, he still could.

it looked exactly like taehyung, he thought.

the most beautiful person to him was kim taehyung.

he looks over at taehyung's painting, and it's a sky full of stars and planets that are faded by distance.

"mesmerizing."

taehyung smiles warmly at him. "thanks."

jungkook went back to his canvas.

no, taehyung. i was talking about you.