Sunset

11 ; "sunset"

Taehyung is nine years old when Jimin officially becomes his bestest friend. He’d been sitting by himself in the school cafeteria, waiting for his friend to join him for lunch when a couple of the more well-known kids in his grade had started crowding around him and tugging on his hair, a pretty, dark red that he’d inherited from his father. Politely, Taehyung tries to tell them that his colour is completely natural but his explanation goes unheard and what starts out as light tugging becomes a painful pulling of his scalp and he’s seconds away from crying when he sees his tormentor stumble backwards, Park Jimin’s chubby face all scrunched up and sporting a red mark across his right cheek. Jimin gets into the most trouble he’s ever been in for “fist fights during school time” but he tells Taehyung that he doesn’t regret it at all.

At fifteen Taehyung realises, after Jimin grabs him in a bone-crushing hug the second he makes it to the backstage area, flushed from the adrenalin high he always gets after performing, that what he feels towards his best friend might not be completely platonic, not when his heart jumps and lodges in his throat whenever Jimin displays even the slightest bit of affection (which is more often than not).

He’s sixteen and far too old to still be climbing the same tree he used to when they were five and he’d just moved into the neighbour, but they do it anyway, because sixteen is when you’re two years away from being a legal adult and all you want to do is hold onto your childhood a little bit longer.

From their place on one of the highest branches, they can see all the way to their local high school and the park their parents used to take them to, back when everyone has just started getting to know each other. Jimin is exclaiming at the streaks of pink, purple and orange that paint across the sky and reflect off the tiled roofs, and Taehyung is mesmerised by the rays of sunlight that dance off his friend’s bright red hair, newly dyed to match Taehyung’s natural auburn locks. This high up above everything else, and far away from any judging eyes, Taehyung gives up fighting the semi-consistent tugging in his gut that had been present since the beginning of the year and throws caution to the setting sun. Linking their fingers together he avoids his best friend’s questioning gaze and leans in, closing his eyes when he feels Jimin’s lips against his.

11th entry for 30daydrabble challenge ^_^