花開く
autumn

"Where are you taking me, Taehyung?" Jungkook asked as he allowed the older male to lead him. He couldn't see anything, having been blindfolded by Taehyung almost as soon as he walked into the shop. He'd struggled at first, thinking it was more than just his co-worker wanting to surprise the younger for God knows what reason; then, over the top of the brunette's own shouts, Taehyung explained what was going on. Although most of that was just: "Jungkook, stop! It's me, Taehyungー ow, why are you hitting me? I'm not trying to hurt you!"

Once the male had calmed down, the older one explained that he had a surprise, that he'd borrowed the blindfold from Seokjin and that he was going to take Jungkook to wherever the surprise was.

"I spent all day preparing this; Seokjin helped." Taehyung explained, completely ignoring the younger's question. He came to halt, almost causing the other to trip. "I think I might need to carry you..."

"Why?"

"Well we have to go up a hill. If you trip because you can't see, then you'll bring me down with you."

"But if you trip while carrying me then we'll both fall. Why don't you just let me take this blindfold off..."

"Nope. We'll just keep walking then." Taehyung said, holding tightly onto the younger's hand as he led him up the incline. Their progress slowed as they made their way carefully up it, not wanting to trip and fall. After a few minutes, they'd finally made it to the top and Taehyung got Jungkook to stop. He came around behind him, untying the blindfold and pulling it off.

They were on the top of a hill ー this was clarified when Jungkook looked around. The thing the rose-haired male had been preparing was a picnic: the blanket was stretched out across a flat surface at the top of the hill, a basket placed in the centre surrounded by numerous cushions. There was also another folded up sheet, so the younger could only assume this picnic was going to last a little while.

"What's this for?" Jungkook asked, frowning at his friend, who was now setting out the cushions.

"Your employee record has your birthday on it ー you can't fool me, Jeon Jungkook." The effeminate male responded, patting the space beside him. "I wanted to give you a surprise birthday present; a picnic seemed like it'd work."

"You didn't have to..."

"No, I didn't. But I wanted to." Jungkook took a seat beside the older male, resting against the pile of cushions. Taehyung continued to set everything up, opening up the picnic basket and pulling everything out. He'd certainly prepared a lot of food ー biscuits, fruit, meat and rice, sandwiches ー as well as some bottled drinks that the younger couldn't recognise but could label as alcoholic. "What do you want to start with?"

"Uh... I don't know." The younger shrugged, feeling a bit spoilt for choice. This didn't seem to bother the older male, who just opened the container of meat and rice first. He shuffled closer to Jungkook, picking up a mouthful of the food with his chopsticks and held it out to him. It took the brunette a few moments to realise that Taehyung was trying to feed him, and he hesitantly allowed him to do so.

"Good?" Jungkook nodded, smiling as he chewed the meat. Taehyung smiled back, eating some himself. The older male continued to feed the younger ー with brief intervals where he fed himself ー despite Jungkook's few moments of protest. Eventually he realised it was better to let the stubborn male do what he wanted, given there was nothing he could say to stop him.

Strawberries came next; Taehyung dipped one in a melted chocolate sauce and lifted it up to the younger's lips. Jungkook parted his lips, feeling chocolate sauce clinging to his lips as the strawberry entered his mouth. His eyes remained on Taehyung, feeling rather conflicted about this whole interaction. The older male's fingers brushed against his lips, which lightly tingled at the contact. When Taehyung withdrew his hand, he licked the chocolate off the tips of his fingers. This process continued, until the brunette felt it was probably best to stop thinking about what was happening and just go with it.

"I was looking at my calendar the other day ー that's how I realised it's your birthday ー and I figured out, we've known each other for seven months." Taehyung said as he picked out another strawberry. He dipped it in the chocolate and fed it to Jungkook. "We've nearly known each other for a year ー just five more months."

"Oh..." The younger wasn't quite sure how he was supposed to respond to this statement, and the older wasn't giving him any indicator. He just bit into a strawberry, chewing it as he looked around.

"Oh, the sun's setting already?" He exclaimed, putting the strawberries away before shuffling closer to Jungkook. He wrapped his arms around the younger, pulling him even closer as they watched the sunset. The brunette felt warmth rush through him, unsure as to what the cause of it was. The lilies were back again and Jungkook found himself focusing entirely on it ー it was a scent he'd grown unintentionally fond of. "Isn't the sun pretty?"

"Yeah..." Jungkook responded, his voice quiet. He grew comfortable, leaning even closer to the older male. "It is nice."

"Sometimes I like to come out here just to watch the sun set. I'm surprised more people don't know about it - it's not exactly hidden. But hey," Taehyung shrugged, his body moving against the younger's, "I'm not gonna question it."

Taehyung then moved away again, pulling out two thin glasses. Placing them beside him, he grabbed one of the bottles.

"Hold these." He said as he gestured to the two glasses. Jungkook shuffled forward to the edge of the picnic blanket, picking them up. The older male then removed the cork from the top of the bottle, which came out with a decently loud pop. White foam then rolled out from the top, spilling down the neck of the bottle and onto Taehyung's hands before dropping down into the grass. Champagne, that's what Jungkook realised it was.

The glasses in his hands were then filled before the bottle was placed back where it'd been taken from. Taehyung accepted one of the glasses from Jungkook and smiled.

"Happy birthday, Jungkookie." He said, raising his glass to the younger. He then took a sip, looking back at the setting sun.

After the sun set, Taehyung used his phone torch to get part two of his birthday celebration ready. It didn't take him long to get the cake out - which was fortunately still in one piece - and put sparklers on the top of it. Average candles were boring, he said as he poked them all in the top. He then lit them, turning his torch off as they... well, as they sparkled.

The soft glow of them illuminated the grin of the effeminate florist's lips. He looked up at the younger, his smile growing even further until it seemed to reach past his eyes. Jungkook was pretty sure that if Taehyung smiled any further his face would rip apart, or something like that.

"Happy birthday to you," Taehyung began singing, carrying the cake over so it sat in front of the birthday boy. He continued to sing the happy birthday song, all while Jungkook just sat there awkwardly. Once he was done, the brunette didn't bother to attempt to blow out the sparklers - it seemed like it would just spoil the fun. Instead they just waited for them to die out. Taehyung picked one out while he was waiting, writing things with its light. The younger couldn't quite make out everything wrote. The lights died too quickly.

When the sparklers finally did die, leaving their remains scattered across the chocolate cake, Taehyung turned his torch on again to assess the damage. As he stared at it he realised that, in hindsight, candles probably wouldn't have been so bad.

"We should probably pack up." Taehyung said from where he was resting against the younger. They were both lying down now, beneath the sheets as they stared up at the night sky. The stars twinkled down at them, shining brightly for the pair despite the city lights not far off. There'd been a shooting star earlier, but Jungkook had never asked what the older male had wished for. Even if he had, he figured Taehyung wouldn't tell.

Despite using the pronoun 'we', Taehyung did all of the packing up. Jungkook tried to help, but when he did he was simply pushed away. The older male was insisted that, because it was still the younger's birthday, he couldn't do any of the work. It was probably a good thing he wasn't working though because, had he not been sitting there sulking, he might not have noticed the shooting stars in the sky. Except they weren't shooting stars - they were too big and too many in number. It was a meteor shower.

"Taehyung, look." Jungkook said quickly, tugging at the older male's sleeve. He pulled him closer as he pointed up at the sky. Taehyung looked up, a small "wow" escaping his lips as his smile grew. They both were still, mesmerised by the meteors. The brunette was too distracted by the lights flashing across the sky to realise just how close he'd pulled (which was rather close given the older had slipped a little in the process). It wasn't until they finally died down and his gaze lowered to the male that he noticed.

He wasn't sure if Taehyung noticed or not, because all the older male did was smile and chuckle at the younger. The low levels of light made it difficult to gauge what exactly his expression was ー Taehyung was grateful for that.

Lovestruck was not an emotion he wanted Jungkook gauging.

ーー＊ーー
note: quite proud of my phallic symbol

even if it really wasn't that overtly phallic
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

plus these regular updates (and doubles) mean you're now 4 chapters behind me. So you've nearly caught up...