One.
Of Meadows and SunshineAll through his childhood, no one exactlyunderstood Kim Taehyung.
He told everyone that there was a world where dolphins spoke the language of bubbles and butterflies transformed into cocoons, only to break out their sugary soft shell with different wings. That he would go visit on Wednesdays, when the pixies visited him at four am; he had to sing this special tune to alert the pixies he was ready.
He believed that clouds were treats that the sun wanted to share with everyone, but couldn’t figure out how to share them without leaving his children, the stars, and his lover, the moon, behind. So, sometimes the sun would cry when he had too much candy. That’s why clouds cover the sky when it’s raining.
And that Jung Hoseok was his own special garden; that without Hoseok, he’d still be nothing but a wilting weed amongst vibrant green grass. Because of Hoseok, Taehyung believed that he was a flower, he hadn’t quite figure out what type. But he was a flower. He is Hoseok’s little flower, and that pleases Taehyung so much.
Growing up, Hoseok was, and still is, the only one who understood Taehyung through all his weirdness and illogical explanations of some of the most bizarre concepts. He listened to Taehyung’s tales of the fairy tales.
“Did you know that sour patch kids fight in their box and the last one you eat is the winner?” Taehyung said as him and Hoseok were lying out in the grass. He’d pulled up flowers within his arm reach and arranged them in order from smallest to biggest on Hoseok’s stomach. “And that the prizes in cereal boxes only present themselves to the worthy eater?” The clouds above them drifted slowly, bringing Hoseok to remember the time Taehyung told him about sun’s candy. He chuckled lightly, the flowers fluttering out of order ever so slightly and Taehyung pouted comically as he sat up.
“Yah! Why are you laughing, hyung. I saw sour patch kids fighting with my own eyes ones!” the orange head exaggerated, his arms flailing. He folded his arms to his chest with his lower lip now jutting out and a soft whine spilling out over his plump lips. Hoseok turned his head away from the clouds to catch Taehyung look like he was a young child, and Hoseok thought Taehyung was at his utmost cutest.
“I believe you, Tae!” He laughed and smoothed his thumb along Taehyung’s lower lip to ease the pout a just a little. “I was just thinking about the clouds,” his thumb leaving Taehyung’s lip only to point up at the sky. Taehyung’s wide eyes left Hoseok’s face and looked up, his pout turning into a look of awe and amazement. “Lay down with me,” Hoseok commands, “and we’ll pick out the shapes in the clouds.” He’d never seen Taehyung smile so big and listen to instructions so quickly.
On rare – many – nights, Hoseok finds it hard to sleep without Taehyung babbling in his ear until his deep voice is nothing more than a squeak before turning into soft snoring. It’s become customary for Taehyung to sneak out his second floor bedroom window, Taehyung wanted to jump out of it cause him and the kazoo growing on the side of his house had a pact. Taehyung would make sure to sing them a lullaby before the pixies came for him, and in return, they would catch him if he ever fell out of the window. Hoseok calmly suggest that he’d climb down the tree growing next to the window.
Taehyung had been distraught about the idea of actually disturbing a tree while he was sleeping, but Hoseok convinced his friend that he’d spoken with the tree the night before, and he as okay with Taehyung using him to safely get to Hoseok’s room. After all, a few weeks before, Taehyung had become an honorary person in the Secret Society of Petals and Stems, or SSPS, as Taehyung called it. After tears and a few pieces of candy and one long pinkie promise, Taehyung agreed to use the tree instead of the kazoo.
The pair lay in a pallet on Hoseok’s floor. Both of them fitting on a sweater that was four sizes too large and bought for this particular reason; of course it’d been Taehyung’s idea, to keep them safe from having their dreams stolen in the middle of the night. Once again, Taehyung babbled in Hoseok’s ear until them both fallen asleep peacefully.
Hoseok and Taehyung find themselves in their meadow more often than not. After school, Hoseok waits outside his old school gates and looks over the sea of students until he spots the bright, highlighter orange of Taehyung’s hair color. The tall bundle of flower petals and sour candy bounces his way over to his best friend, arms already out stretched for a hug.
“Can we go to the meadow today, hyung? It’s the turn of spring and the flowers must be lonely..” Taehyung wanted to bury his face into the crook of Hoseok’s neck and inhale his manly scent but too many people were watching, and Hoseok’s not comfortable with that level of skin ship with judging eyes.
“Of course, little one,” one pat on Taehyung’s back and they are separated.
The meadow is a little far off at the edge of the Han River, he held the younger’s hand the day they found the meadow that’s now their own. It was also the day Taehyung and Hoseok had been rudely confronted about the too much skin ship for males their age, but today was special. Taehyung has a surprise for Hoseok and they held hands as they walked along the Han River and to the entrance to their meadow.
“Why do you like holding my hand so much?” Taehyung questions out of the blue.
“Your hand feels nice in mine.” Hoseok said simply.
“Did you know that flowers can’t bloom without help?”
He nodded, tightening his hand around Taehyung’s. Hoseok sworn he felt flowers fluttering beneath their intertwined fingers.
“But did you know that the sun determines which direction a sunflower will face?”
“Does it really, Taehyung?”
“Yes! Did you know that I grew facing my sun?”
“So you’re a sunflower now?”
“I’m always a sunflower when my sun is shining.”
“Oh? Who’s your sun?”
Turning his head towards Hoseok in the meadow, Taehyung spoke as gentle as the flowers breaking through soften soil. “You are.”
Comments