Thread by @fruityboops

{treading lightly, tightly}
#yoonkookau where childhood friends jungkook and yoongi meet again for the first time in years and realize that despite how little has changed about them, everything between them rests on the precipice of something radiant
a gift for @vangohsky

jk had seen somewhere, probably in a meme, that some nebulous percentage of people generally met their life partner by the time they were 20. the argument starts to fall apart after a few pointed questions, but jk had been maybe 13 when he first saw it,

and it had been just enough of a spark to shape the rest of his life. he had looked around at the people he knew and considered what being together with one of them for the rest of his life could even mean. which one of his annoying friends could he tolerate for that long.

but he had only been 13, and it hadn’t occurred to him yet how long a lifetime was. the meme and it’s subsequent spiral had faded rather quickly, distracted as he was with his friends and schooling, but part of it stuck in the back of his mind like sharp grass.

as he grew older and wiser his inner circle of friends became smaller and more solid, no matter how far flung they became chasing dreams. jk learned, having dropped off and picked up all of his hyungs from the airport at one point or another, that time and distance

had both everything and nothing to do with the limits of the human heart.
that being said, saying goodbye was never easy, but it was never harder than when it was yg.
jk had known yg before he knew himself, had watched yg grow and fail and start over.

yg had been the first person jk had looked at and thought, “i want him in my life for the rest of it.”
there was no one he understood more, no one who knew him better. even within their friend group, which was extremely close, he and yg were closer. always.

“text me when you land,” jk murmurs needlessly, having made the same request at least a dozen times this morning alone. yg doesn’t call him on it, just smiles tremulously and tugs him close for a hug.
“always do.” yg squeezes him tight, but jk feels bereft.

“hey, i’ll be back before you know it and we can go eat at all the new places that crop up while i’m gone,” yg pokes at his armpit, trying to draw out at least a huff. it works, but jk sobers quickly. it’s not the first time yg has gone, but it will be the longest.

“i miss you,” jk sighs, taking a moment to soak in his best friend in all of his obnoxiously cuddly glory.
“i miss you too,” yg responds automatically, leaning up to press a quick kiss to jk’s cheek before he turns to disappear into the security line.

jk stays to watch until he can no longer see even the fluffy wisps of yg’s hair, and then he stays until he can swallow around the heartache hissing behind his ribs.
the drive home is quiet, too quiet. his apartment feels cavernous and terrible when he steps inside.

but time only ever moves on.
what was supposed to be 2 years overseas became 5, and when yg was finally free to come home, it was jk’s turn to leave. they had tried, had poured hours into trying to overlap just enough to say hi, but it never worked out.

they pass like ships in the night, 5 and a half years since the last time they saw each other, and it doesn’t hurt, per se, because they’ve gotten better at keeping in touch. they’ve spent endless hours video calling to hear each others silences.

but it aches.
it aches because maybe there’s been a part of jk that’s always been a little bit in love with yg. maybe that part he’s ignored and disregarded over the years has reared its head now that they’re talking more. now that yg calls just to hear him laugh.

jk is gone for 2 years, working his ass off for a future he doesn’t realize he’s building for THEM until yg comments that all of his plans when he returns revolve around settling down for a quiet life.

“i just never pictured you as a ‘little place in the mountains’ kind of guy,” yg is flush with alcohol through the screen, giggly and soft and radiant like a blooming flower under moonlight.
“i always thought you’d travel forever,” yg murmurs wistfully, “be my vagabond.”

“nah,” jk replies, “maybe at once point but…i guess i’m more interested in a soft place to land lately.”
yg hums, and their conversation tapers off, but neither moves to hang up. yg falls asleep like that, face tilted into the camera.

when it’s finally time for jk to go home, there’s an odd trepidatious anxiety tingling along his spine the entire plane ride. their schedules didn’t line up for yg to pick him up, but they’ll see each other soon enough at the welcome home party sj is throwing for him.

jk exits the airport tiredly, prepared to hail a cab to take him to a hotel for the night.
but waiting for him, stealing jk’s attention from the nostalgic feel of being home again, is yg.
“koo!” yg yells, screams really, and then he’s sprinting across slow traffic.

jk feels a crystal clear moment of soul shaking fear that pops like a bubble when yg is back on the sidewalk, leaping and dodging around other people with half hearted apologies. before jk can so much as take a step, yg is slamming into him.

yg wraps around him utterly, and jk melts, always does, curling around him in return until they are but a single many-limbed organism. he’s home.
“i missed you so much,” yg whispers in his ear, voice sounding suspiciously thick with emotion.

“i missed you too, moondrop” jk whispers back, relishing the way yg sags even further at the familiar pet name.
there’s a moment, when they pull apart, where they pause, breaths mingling and gazes locked. it hardly last a full second, but jk feels something shift.

it comes back in the car on the way to yg’s place. they’re just talking, catching up on gossip and discussing neighborhood changes when jk looks over at a stoplight, and meets yg’s burning stare. neither of them say anything, but the tension builds, because they both know.

yg turns off the car but doesn’t make a move otherwise when they pull up to his apartment complex. jk doesn’t move beyond turning to look at yoongi once more.
he’s studied at yg’s face almost constantly since he was 11 years old. he knows it better than he knows his own.

“why’d you come back?” yg asks, head tilted curiously but his eyes are still searing, daring jk to admit anything but the truth.
“for you,” he replies softly, nervous despite the almost certain hope blooming in his chest.

“me?” yg asks, leaning forward slightly over the console, like they’re teenagers again sharing secrets in the back of their shared physics class. jk nods, and then opens his mouth the speak when yg narrows his eyes at him with a slight frown.

“i’m in love with you,” jk confesses quietly, heart hammering against his ribs as he watches yg digest the information, gaze unwavering.
“you know i had a crush on you when we were 12?” yg asks abruptly and jk gapes.
“you did?”
yg hums affirmatively.

“i thought you were the only cool person in school,” yg snorts and then sobers.
“when we were 15, i thought you were the smartest guy around,” he continues. jk’s breath hitches, clogs up his chest and freezes him in place.

“when we graduated…i tried to just let it go. move on. above else i wanted you to to be happy,” yg whispers, gaze finally tearing away to look out the windshield at the rapidly falling night.
“i am happy,” jk says, reaching out to hold yoongi’s hand.

“but…with you i’m…more than happy. i’m home.” jk tugs until they’re both leaning over the middle console, breaths mingling once again.
jk thinks about what a lifetime with someone means. a lifetime was his childhood. a lifetime was his teen years.

a lifetime was the first time he realized he had a crush on his best friend and a lifetime was the years half of his heart was across the world.
a lifetime doesn’t sound like nearly enough time to love yg, but perhaps it’s a start.

“and if i got over my crush?” yg asks, curious and cheeky.
“then nothing, honey. we go inside and have fun. we’ll work it out.” jk is positive of that, at least. there’s no version of his best life that doesn’t include yg.

yg hums, eyes bright in the encroaching dark.
“who’d even want to get over you anyway,” yg grumbles, as if the very idea is blasphemous, and then he leans forward to press a soft kiss to jk’s grinning mouth.
it’s. a little awkward.

to be entirely fair, it’s not the first time they’ve kissed, but it is the most hesitant and soft kiss they’ve ever had.
which is probably why it feels a little wrong.
“let me just…” jk pulls back to whisper against yg’s plush mouth.

he reaches up, tilts yg’s face into the orange glow of the streetlights. yg hums questioningly but doesn’t do much more than lean further into jk’s space. in answer, he presses the tips of his thumbs gently into the soft pillows of yg’s cheeks and smiles.

jk tilts his own head to mirror yg’s and then leans back in for another kiss.
and this time it’s as breathtaking as it was always meant to be. there’s nothing nervous like the real first kiss, it’s not clumsy like any of their drunken kisses.

and it’s not overly soft and hesitant like the one a moment ago.
it starts easy, closed mouths and the repeat pleasure of lips meeting over and over again.
it evolves slowly, a nip to yg’s lower lip, a kitten lick to jk’s upper lip, the tightening press of their upper bodies.

one of jk’s hands abandons yg’s cheek in favor of wrapping around his back and pulling him closer. if not for the limits of the car interior, jk is certain they’d be inextricably tangled together, a mess of limbs and love spilling over every side.

jk is just considering the merits of stealing yg away to a hotel after all, lips pressed to his pulse point and large, delicate hands in his hair, when both of their phones ring. he pulls away from yg’s neck with a gasp, but yg doesn’t let him go far.

with hands still buried in jk’s hair, yg tugs him closer to glare. the effect is ruined by his swollen lips and what may or may not be a subtle stubble burn from where jk was determined to kiss yg’s entire neck. the phones are still ringing.

“we’re finishing this later,” yg swears, pressing another hard kiss to jk’s mouth before silencing his phone and moving to get out of the car.
grinning and foolish and in love, jk follows him, reaching for yg’s hand as they start walking. his phone rings again.

before he can move to answer, yg is halting them to stand on the tips of his toes and pull jk down for a kiss that burns. jk shoves his abruptly silent phone in his pocket and then wraps both arms around yg to deepen their embrace.

it is surprisingly easy and comfortable and perfect to fall into his best friend of over a decade like this.
“fucking finally!!” comes sj’s voice, already sounding on the edge of a teasing scold. jk and yg pull apart, but just barely, still sharing air.

and jk, looking into the eyes of the love of his life, whispers, “finally,” before stepping away to fold into his hyung’s hugs. yg is similarly piled on, but he accepts the teasing and tickling with aplomb and hardly a whine.

yg grabs his hand as they resume walking inside with the others surrounding them. jk takes a moment to look around, tasting the air and relishing in the sense of rightness flooding his veins.

“welcome home, my love” yg whispers, and then leads jk inside.
and jk, lifetimes away from the boy who first considered love over and through time, heart pounding and sunlight in his veins, steps through the threshold and into the rest of his life.
-fin-

hi hello, thanks for reading. this is just a short and sweet drabble idea.
ko-fi.com/shaboopie