"As the sirens fill the lonely air
Oh, how did we get here, now, now, now, babe?
We see a storm is closing in
Pretending we ain't scared"
❀
-
Jk -
The hazy lights at the shooting set swirled with a daze of excitement and exhaustion. The blacktop street was as soothing as the velvet sky above.
The music video for their song 'Run' was scheduled to be released by the end of November, and the preparations were in full swing.
The alleyway lights shone in the dark night in a serenade to heaven's bright eyes. The shooting locations were fascinating as much as varying, a street, the set of an old house, railway tracks, the river bank, and a whole tunnel.
"Jeongguka," the gruffy voice of the elder sounded behind the maknae's ear before he felt a pair of arms clad in a deep blue jacket, wrap around his torso.
"Ah hyungie, are you tired from all the running?" Jeongguk chuckled
Taehyung hummed in response.
"You know-" Yoongi said sipping on his americano and running a hand through his mint hair, "When we worked on the lyrics for Run, I never really thought that we would literally have to run in the music video as well."
"My feet are killing me," Seokjin groaned, massaging the soles of his feet.
Taehyung hummed in response again, making Jeongguk shake his head the elder's clinginess.
A sleepy Taehyung was like a baby koala. He need some body heat, a soft presence, and bam- he could fall asleep immediately.
"Hyung- don't sleep-", Jeongguk said gently swaying himself along with Taehyung from side to side. "We still have to finish the shooting"
"I am not sleeping," Taehyung mumbled into the maknae's shoulder. "I am just resting my eyes."
Jeongguk let out a small laugh , "I see- that's a great idea hyung."
"It really is, just let me take a small nap."
"Please move away from each other, they are shooting for behind the scenes," a staff member spoke from beside them. Her voice was kind, and Jeongguk wondered if the staff ever questioned these bizzare things they were asked to do.
Over the course of this month they had been constantly asked to move away from each other whenever a camera was recording.
Life was exhausting as it is and the added comments, claps, finger clicks, subtle waves, and hand signs from the staff to move away were just not making things better.
And why only them? Jeongguk still wondered.
He just wanted to be close to the elder, laugh with him, hold him, play around with him. They weren't doing anything wrong.
Or at least so they thought.
An order was an order though. They were simply bound with it.
Taehyung sighed and moved back removing his hands from the maknae's shoulder. He walked away dejectedly and sat down beside Jimin who was sitting with Hoseok on the sidewalk. Behind them, a line of closed shop shutters and doors stood like sentries to the street. Jeongguk stood in place watching Hoseok pat Taehyung's knee while he nodded solemnly.
"I know just the thing to help my tired Juliet, I'll give you a neck massage," Jimin laughed, his voice a tad bit higher and like a hound dog on a hunt the maknae's ears shot up with that sentence.
Jeongguk glared at the three on the sidewalk with a frown.
"Maybe I should train to become a sniper," Jeongguk thought to himself, "Then I can take out Jiminie hyung from a distance."
"You want to become a sniper? Wae?", Yoongi asked sipping on his coffee.
Oh did I say that out loud?
Jeongguk rubbed the back of neck, his ears feeling buzzed. "Nothing- it's just a thought hyung- it would look cool."
Yoongi smirked. "Definitely."
Their massage session turned into a tickle contest and by the end of it laughs and giggles could be heard till a few feet away. The laughter that soothed all the maknae's nerves also burned at the corners of his heart when it was not shared with him.
The cameras had turned away now, the crew were filming Namjoon's scene while the rest of them sat on the sidewalk.
Jeongguk sneaked past Hoseok and Jimin who were engrossed in conversation of what would happen if dinosaurs were still alive,
and like a cat, he quietly sat beside a half asleep Taehyung, holding his head up on his palm, elbow on his knee.
He felt Taehyung move when he sat beside him and like a moth to flame, the elder leanee his body towards the left until he found the grey hoodie clad body.
"Jeongguka-" he mumbled, wrapping his arms around the maknae's. Taehyung ran his fingers over the swell of Jeongguk's muscles, underneath his slender fingers. "You're getting too fit Jeongguka," Taehyung spoke softly, his tone almost accusatory.
"You don't like it?" Jeongguk asked instantly.
"Aniya- I love it. They are my favourite thing about you," Taehyung replied with a cheeky grin.
"You mean you only like me for my body?" Jeongguk faked a gasp.
"What? No-" Taehyung sat up straight. "That's not what I meant Guk, I mean- I like you for other things as well- "
"Oh yeah? Like what?" Jeongguk raised an eyebrow.
"Like- your voice- and your eyes- and your bunny smile- and aish you brat stop making me nervous," Taehyung swatted the maknae's arm, making him laugh.
Hoseok and Jimin were still busy in their conversation. Jin was talking to someone on the phone, and Yoongi stood with Namjoon discussing something with the camera director.
Nobody faced them, nobody was looking at them. Taehyung's smile was still on full display, and Jeongguk's heart could only take so much.
Jeongguk knew the risk he was going to take, but Taehyung's soft brown hair slightly ruffled with the breeze and the rest of thr world became a blur around him.
He put a hand on the elder's nape and pulled him closer making Taehyung's eyes go wide.
Taehyung held his own body taut and Jeongguk was about to close his eyes and do the deed but stopped himself just before their lips met, because he saw the camera crew turning towards them in his peripheral vision.
He stared at the elder's lips who licked it in nervousness.
So inviting, so tempting.
So close, yet so far.
"Guk," Taehyung whispered, eyes frantically looking around for onlooker. "What are you doing?"
Jeongguk pulled away when the camera panned towards them.
"Nothing- nothing important," he huffed, looking away from the elder.
Jeongguk noticed the thunderous pace at which his heart had started beating. Maybe he should have gone ahead with it. Kissed him in front of everyone just to see what would happen.
"Guk, wait- " Taehyung mumbled.
Jeongguk cleared his throat and got up, "It's nothing hyung, I hope you are awake now," he said with a wink.
He did not want to make things go haywire between their shoot. Their patience and energy was stretched thin as it is, but being so close to Taehyung again, felt like he had been touched by a live wire and jolted back to life.
"You are such an evil brat," the elder swatted his arm making him snicker. "I swear I-"
"Oh come on, hyung." Jeongguk had a shit eating smirk on his face. "You know you liked it too."
Taehyung pushed at him lightly, shaking his head and burying his head in his hands.
"Ah hyungniiim," Jeongguk singsonged. "Are you blushing?"
"Get the fuck away from me," Taehyung spoke in his hands.
Jeongguk laughed and leaned on him. "Never."
Taehyung lifted his face up to meet the maknae's eyes. "Never?" His voice was low.
"Yeah, I am never leaving you, hyung."
They were ambitious words but it came naturally to Jeongguk. He truly did mean it. He was never going to leave Taehyung. Not when the elder had managed to break every wall Jeongguk had built around him brick by brick. Taehyung had opened a window to his soul, removed each brick gently and given his hand for the maknae to hold. He had bared his soul in the dark of the night and held him whenever Jeongguk had cried into his chest.
There was no world he could imagine without Taehyung in it. No iteration of his life play out where the elder's boxy smile did not exist. Kim Taehyung was the most complex enigma he had come across. He was like an ocean, and Jeongguk had discovered a quarter of it. The rest was still a mystery. But from what he knew, Taehyung was gem stone buried in the dark mines.
In order to shine, Jeongguk needed him. Needed him to never his hand go. But Jeongguk also knew he would never leave Taehyung either.
His feelings towards the elder might be conflicting and his emotions might be haphazard, yet he would never walk away.
He was a deity, Jeongguk would fall to his knees.
"You don't mean that," Taehyung scoffed.
Jeongguk put a hand over the elder's nape. "I do Tae." There was a finality in his voice. "I really do mean it."
Taehyung smiled.
Jeongguk stared into Taehyung's eyes. In their depths, he thought he could count the years they would have together like rings on a tree. If he had his way, there would be many, but he wanted more.
He wanted an eternity with Kim Taehyung.