Gentle.
It descends, catches on Taehyung's eyelashes. On the upper curve of his top lip, on the jut out of the bottom one. Jeongguk stares from where he's sat on the balcony, unsure whether or not to go join him, or to just watch. Admire. Both seem like good options.
One is easier.
It's probably not the best idea to wordlessly pine after your roommate. The one who you were randomly paired with, but every day it seems increasingly less random. Like you were meant to meet that day in the dimly lit hallways of a run down college dorm. Your college dorm. The one you share.
And it's probably an even worse idea to watch them while they stand under thick clouds, coating themselves in water, straight from above. Watch as the rain beats down on Taehyung, violent in the sheer amount of it, but gentle in the way it touches his skin. The way it slides off of his face and hits the ground below, splattering onto the already saturated pavement.
Taehyung always likes to say there's two kinds of people. Ones who love standing in the rain, and ones who love watching it from afar, admiring it from a distance. Like Jeongguk's doing right now in more ways than one.
It sounds corny, cliche, and that's because it is.
But Jeongguk likes to think that Taehyung means it in a way that goes beyond just describing endless drops of water as they flow from the sky. He think it describes life and the tendencies it has, the tendencies they have, because overall. Jeongguk is more of a watcher than he is someone who actualizes. Who goes for it.
Taehyung's the opposite. When it rains, he goes outside with a smile and stands in it. Asks Jeongguk to come with him, live a little. He runs into the water headfirst, embraces the way the cold feels as it soaks through his clothes, his mind.
And Jeongguk always says no. He thinks it's because he hates the rain, but if he's being honest, it's a choice. Because he likes watching Taehyung. Because it'd be so easy to run out into the rain right after him, fingers intertwined, mouths doing more. Because Jeongguk wants Taehyung's mouth, wants the gentle water that comes with it without having to face the violence that is the rain. That is thunder.
Jeongguk's a pussy.
He could easily do it.
There's nothing stopping him. Absolutely nothing holding him back, except his own mind. Taehyung invites him out into the rain every single time, gives him this look, this upturn of the corners of his lips as he bites down on the lower one, eyes wide and enticing and flirtatious.
Everything about Taehyung is so enticing. It makes Jeongguk want to circle hands around his hips and pull him close, so that there's no space between them, nothing but rain. The rain Jeongguk finally had the courage to step into.
But he guesses that won't happen today.
Instead he keeps watching.
He hears a laugh.
It isn't gentle. If anything it's a direct contrast to the rain, this bubbly sound that fills the air, makes Jeongguk stare more. Look closer, listen too. To the nice pitter pattering sounds against the roof above him, the only thing standing between him and the rain that mixes with Taehyung's laugh. The only thing standing between him and Taehyung.
"Ggukkie," bright sounding despite the clouds, coming from the road about twenty feet in front of him. Where Taehyung stands, lips boxy, hair wet. Smiling at Jeongguk.
Jeongguk's heart drips from the pet name, the feeling in his chest indistinguishable from the rain.
"Yeah?" he calls, shouting over the downpour. His voice mixes in with the water like Taehyung's, but doesn't sound quite as sweet. Doesn't make him feel like if he just stepped a few feet forward, out from under his shell, he could stick his tongue out and catch a raindrop, one that tastes like candy. Got turned into sugar from Taehyung's voice.
