aperture: an opening formed by the metal leaf diaphragm within the lens through which light travels, affecting exposure, depth of field and sharpness

Jungkook stirs to the sound of feet shuffling over the tatami mats in his room, and cracks an eye open to a full display of half- Taehyung, a towel wrapped around his waist and his hair near black with water.

For a moment, Jungkook steeps in the muted silence, gentle rustling of the leaves in the cherry blossom trees, and the chilly morning breeze that awakens the goose bumps on his skin. He tugs the blanket higher up, drowning himself in the warmth of his futon as he watches the other man.

Taehyung is a darkened silhouette in the predawn, faint lines of faded orange where he is solid in the background of the sunrise. It takes Jungkook's breath away, both the sky and the way Taehyung seems to blend seamlessly into the colours, as if he had been made to fit.

A petal floats in through the opened sliding windows, settling on the hem of Jungkook's blanket, and Taehyung turns around, all soft smiles and crinkles by his eyes.

“Good morning,” he says, his voice a soothing hum, b with just enough enthusiasm to make Jungkook groan, his eyes heavy with sleep.

“It’s still kind of dark out, what the are you doing awake, when you’re on vacation?”

Taehyung's laugh is bubbly and deep, and it rouses Jungkook just a little, draws him in, and makes him curious. “What’s the point of a vacation if you sleep all the best parts of it away? Look,” and he tilts his head yet again, sweeping an arm out as if to show Jungkook the sunrise, but all Jungkook is looking at is Taehyung.

“Huh,” Jungkook mumbles, suddenly dazed.

“You should take a bath, a really hot one,” and Taehyung is still talking in the background, outside of the static crackling in Jungkook's head. “It’s good for your health and all, also a very useful way of boosting your mood for the rest of the day. I left the heater on for you.”

For the first time since he’s graduated from high school, Jungkook gets up and takes a bath while the sky has yet to break out from night.

Taehyung is a travel blogger. Jungkook learns this when he’s padding out of the bathroom and rubbing the water out of his hair with a towel, and the older has his socked feet up on the small dining table in their apartment, propped dangerously close to a glass of water.

“Have you travelled the world, yet?” there’s a soft tinge of mirth in Jungkook's voice as he opens the fridge to pull out the small carton of milk, sauntering around the kitchenette for the instant coffee mix, and unfortunately, finds none.

“I’m planning to,” Taehyung gets a little defensive at this, removing his feet from the table and Jungkook's this close to squeezing his eyes shut just in case the glass topples. It doesn’t. “I’ve just started doing this, you know. There’s a first to everything, figured I’d start nearby, so I took a ferry over. I was in Fukuoka before this.”

“Mm.”

They fumble around in the comfortable silence, and Jungkook feels more at home. Taehyung's friendly, light-hearted, and it is so easy to fall in beat with his wavelength. Jungkook does just that, only startling when he finds a glass of water suddenly shoved into his hands and the milk plucked from his grip.

“Wha—”

“Vitamins.” Taehyung makes sure that Jungkook's holding the glass before he pops a tube open and drops a tablet into the water, effervescence and bubbling at the surface, soft scent of oranges flicking at Jungkook's nose. “It’s my duty to make sure that you stay alive, because I’m going to have to be following you around.”

Jungkook's brows cinch in confusion as he waits for the tablet to dissolve completely, lifting the glass to take a sip, rolling the tip of his tongue against the roof of his mouth at the taste. A fizzy, sweet and sour tang, but he’s always liked citrus anyway. “Don’t you have your own places to go?”

“I don’t believe in planning,” Taehyung announces, and it is this that makes Jungkook believe that everyone is still young, childish, somewhere deep inside themselves, even when they’ve become adults. “I like to go with the flow.”

“Well, I—”

“I’ll behave,” Taehyung promises, eyes earnest and lips already quirking into that wide, rectangular smile of his (the one that Jungkook finds endearing and overbearing at the same time), as if he knows that he’s won. “I promise.”

Jungkook sighs. “That’s very subjective.”

They end up sharing an umbrella, Jungkook's the one holding it because Taehyung's too enamoured by the way raindrops are slipping down the slope of the transparent canvas, staring up at their little shelter with too-curious eyes while they’re walking from the station of their first destination.

Jungkook watches him, camera around his neck and a hand under Taehyung's elbow, because Taehyung just isn’t looking where they’re going, and Jungkook's suddenly suspicious. Is he really twenty six?

“Will you watch your step?”

“I won’t fall. If I do,” and Taehyung tosses him a quick smile, he looks so carefree. “I’ll just stand up again.”

Jungkook rolls his eyes. “Jesus.”

“Bruce,” Taehyung says, clearing his throat and deepening his voice (as if it isn’t already low enough). “Why do we fall?”

“God damn.”

Taehyung ignores him, already turning away, fingers wrapping around the umbrella, tugging it from Jungkook's grasp. “So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

It’s funny, how a stranger you’ve known for less than twenty four hours can make you smile so hard that your jaw aches. That someone whom you’ve met less than a day ago can bring nostalgia rushing back up over you like an ocean drowning in itself.

“Didn’t peg you for a Batman sort of guy,” Jungkook's chuckling, taking advantage of his free hands to lift his camera up, stopping occasionally to steal moments from reality into his flash memory.

Taehyung doesn’t reply, so Jungkook turns, but is met with the mouthful of fallen cherry blossom petals that Taehyung throws at him, and he yelps in surprise, eyes widening.

“Hey!”

And Taehyung's laughing, so hard, that his shoulders are shaking and Jungkook's own chest is aching just from watching, though he keeps the irritation written on his face, plain as day.

Taehyung just grins, says, “why so serious?”

Jungkook grabs some of the petals off the pavement, chucks it back at him, and Taehyung tells him to get the back under the umbrella if you don’t want to catch a cold, but his eyes are smiling.

“So,” Taehyung says when they’re both sure that the other will not continue the cherry blossom war, “where are we going?”

“Osaka castle.”