Taehyung never considered himself to be a bad kid; of course he did bad things, but that didn't make him a bad person.  Namjoon on the other hand, preferred to consider himself on the more mature end of people his age, accepting of his poor morals; which is why the two of them got along, after all people did say that opposites attract.  Taehyung was an easily influenced, rambunctious teen with a fiery passion to please the people around him.  The only person around Taehyung just so happened to be Namjoon.  Taehyung was bursting with admiration for him from the second the two of them met.  He grew to find great pleasure in sticking by Namjoon’s side, whether it was for the consolation of himself or to protect the other, he didn’t know.

So when Namjoon texted Taehyung at 10:45 pm to meet him in the driveway of his own home, Taehyung complied. He raced downstairs in his pajamas to slip on a pair of gym shoes, careful not to wake up either of his parents.  He opened the door to find Namjoon waiting on the sidewalk, hood up and cigarette in his mouth and backpack slung over his shoulder.  Taehyung was beaming.

“What took you so long?” Namjoon asked, taking the stick between two fingers and puffing out the smoke.  

“Sorry, I didn't want my mom to hear me, that would have been bad.” Taehyung’s grin spread from ear to ear, revealing large white teeth in contrast to the black bags under his eyes from the lack of sleep.

Namjoon nodded in agreement, on the cigarette again before digging in his pocket to pull out the whole pack.

“Y’want one?”

Taehyung’s eyes widened at the flash of the pack of sticks with the dim lighting of the street lamp above them.  Biting his lip and looking around the block, he reached forward to take one, sticking it between his teeth and waiting for his older friend to hand him the lighter.  Once it was in his possession he held it up to the cigarette, the flash of the fire catching his eye, lighting the end.  Namjoon let out a low laugh as Taehyung choked on the smoke, breathing out carefully with the stick between two fingers.

“Why’d you wake me up?” Taehyung inquired, taking a step forward, hoping that Namjoon would follow.  He, of course, did.  

“You weren’t really sleeping. Were you, Taehyung?” Namjoon asked, striding along the younger boy.  Taehyung blew out another puff of smoke, shrugging.

“No, but I could have been.” he paused, putting the cigarette back in his mouth, “So why’d you come here?”

Namjoon took his own cigarette from his mouth, “I wanna vandalize some .”

Taehyung wasn’t surprised with how blunt Namjoon was, but he was shocked when the older boy swore.  Not wanting to be a bother, Taehyung nodded.  The two of them vandalized all sorts of buildings and structures in the city, and quite frankly, the idea got Taehyung buzzing with excitement.  The last time they did anything reckless besides smoking on their freetime was just about a week prior when Namjoon threw rocks at Taehyung’s window and they spray painted a dried swimming pool.

“Where do you want to go, hyung?”

Without responding, Namjoon grabbed onto Taehyung’s wrist and pulled him along a few blocks until they came to an alley.  Few streetlights were spread through the block, and the ones that were in the alley were blinking; light bulbs threatening to go out at any minute.  There were apartments on either side, inviting brick walls just waiting to be painted on. There were few bushes in the alley, but a large tree covered the view to the porch of the leftmost building.

“Look at this,”  Namjoon yanked the younger boy to the nearest stretch of open bricks.  Seeing the hopeful expression on his friend’s face, Taehyung marveled at the blank wall as a child would in a candy shop.  A sound of footsteps behind Taehyung sent him whirling around, pulling out of his friend’s grip.  Namjoon stopped to look at the other boy, offended at his quick gesture.

“What is it?”

“Don’t people live here?” he tapped the brick and paced to a dusty window, peering inside of it.  There was no sign of a light and Taehyung stepped back to investigate more of where the noise came from.  He swore he saw someone run past the tree and disappear into one of the apartments.

“Rarely, the only people that live here are invalids and addicts,” Namjoon answered matter of factly, slipping the bag off of his shoulder and reaching in for a black can of paint, shaking it well before testing it out on the toe of his shoe.  Taehyung made a sound of acknowledgement and stepped back to grab a can of paint, not bothering to test it out before spraying it on the wall. He let his hand trace swirling patterns on the wall, dark red paint dirtying his hands.  

“You have the red?”

Taehyung turned to face Namjoon, some of the paint smudged on his face and neck, but a toothy smile on his face, “You need it?”

“Toss it to me.” Namjoon cocked his head to the side, a hand outstretched to catch the can of paint being thrown his way, “C’mere.”

Taehyung stepped hesitantly towards him and Namjoon grabbed his shoulder with one hand, with the other he pressed the nose of the spray can into his stomach.  Red seeped through Taehyung’s shirt as Namjoon sprayed the paint into his abdomen.  Taehyung was startled and didn’t know how to react, until he saw Namjoon smiling at him.

“Doesn’t it look like blood, Tae?” he laughed.

Taehyung laughed too.  Hesitantly at first, but the sound bubbled through his throat and he tossed his head back. The somewhat loud noise from Namjoon seemed to trigger him. It was awkward but he didn't seem to notice. His eyes watering as he laughed more.  The feeling enveloping him, his stomach hurting as he shook. He wasn’t sure exactly why it was funny, but at this point it didn’t matter.  It wasn't until after he calmed down that he realized it might have been too much.  Namjoon was staring, and that's the moment he knew he messed up.  He dried his eyes with his sleeve and looked away, ashamed. Namjoon was well aware that Taehyung had little control over his extreme emotions, and at this point he found it worthless to try to teach him otherwise.  Taehyung cried a lot, but he also laughed just as much.    

“I’m sorry,” he started, refusing to make eye contact and taking a step back.

“It was a joke, it’s okay, Tae.” Namjoon smiled, brushing the incident off as if it were nothing; hoping this wouldn’t lead into something out of his control.

Taehyung didn’t respond.

“Tae?”

“I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have.”

God.

“Listen, it doesn’t matter.” although Namjoon understood Taehyung’s situation, he was starting to get fed up with the unnecessary emphasis that the younger boy put on everything he did incorrectly. He reached forward to grab Taehyung’s arm, afraid he would run. Taehyung yanked his shoulder away, stomping childishly and panting loudly.  

“Tae, you’re fine.”

Taehyung looked up and snatched the red paint can from Namjoon’s loose grip.  He knit his eyebrows and pushed Namjoon to the wall, his head hitting the bricks.  He took a few paces back and sprayed an “x” on the older boy’s chest.  More red dribbled down his hand and dripped onto the ground.

“I think you should get home, Taehyung.”  Namjoon raised his hands in defeat, palms outstretched for him to hand the spray paint can over.  

The walk home was silent and Namjoon had to hold Taehyung by the shoulders so he wouldn’t fall over.  Taehyung tripped on his laces more than once and Namjoon took the initiative of bending over to retie them so it wouldn’t happen again before sending him on his way.  Neither of them thought twice about the incident, but Taehyung stayed up an extra hour scrubbing the red paint from his clothes, laughing quietly to himself.