"wait, you're being serious right now?" jeongguk asked the blond-haired male, gazing peculiarly at him.

"i don't know, am i?" taehyung countered back, shuffling his feet nervously while fiddling with his fingers.

"that's why i'm asking you."

taehyung huffed out in defeat, tugging on his shirt. "i don't know, i'm just kinda... bored," he spoke, though it portrayed that of a question more than a statement itself.

jeongguk scoffed, sighing in disbelief. "but what if you're just getting yourself into some random pervert who stalks people all the time?"

"you don't seem like one."

"that's not the point. i'm trying to ask you why you want me to stay with you instead of hanging out with some of your friends or something."

"well, maybe," taehyung pressed his finger onto jeongguk's chest, "it's because..." he slowly lost confidence, moving his finger away from the other, trailing his voice off into the chilled air.

"because?" jeongguk urged curiously.

"maybe it's because you look handsome, okay?"

immediately feeling flustered, taehyung turned away from him and looked down at the soaked concrete. jeongguk, who had widened eyes, looked down at himself. he's rarely ever been called that word at all, much less recently. in fact, all of the times he has been labelled that was mostly from his family. for someone like taehyung to compliment him like that, it made him feel nothing but comfort blossoming in the confines of his body.

alright, perhaps his chances of saying 'no' to his favor were lowered to some extent, but it still wasn't enough to his liking.

"so..."

"that still doesn't give you an excuse, you know," jeongguk uttered, crouching down onto the drenched sidewalk, knowing that it was barren and empty anyways.

taehyung copied his movements after, panting with somber thoughts. "i bought you the hoodie though, so that has to equal a favor."

"i never said it didn't equal one. i'm just asking you if you could change that favor of yours."

"what if i don't change it then?"

"then i would say 'no,'" jeongguk said as if it was the simplest of answers.

taehyung whined, nudging him lightly. "come on, a favor is a favor!"

"it's a weird favor though."

"what does that have to do with anything?"

"it has to do with everything you're asking right now."

"then how come?" the whining male questioned, stopping his actions to listen to him bitterly.

"first of all, we don't even know each other's names, so that's lovely. second of all, you could've asked me for any other favor that was hopefully sane enough which i could've easily done for you and we could've been on our merry way already. but no, here we are, with me wasting my time on you and also wasting my own sleep time. any more questions, smartass?" jeongguk explained, even counting the reasons off from his fingers, finally jabbing his index finger on taehyung's forehead.

a flustered and speechless taehyung didn't say anything. well, not like his mind gave himself the guts to say anything at all.

jeongguk exhaled, standing up to take his farewell. "well, if you'll excuse me, i'll be going-"

all of a sudden, taehyung pulled on jeongguk's arm harshly, causing him to fall back down onto the sidewalk. "i should be the one saying 'excuse me' then."

jeongguk only looked at him weirdly, which made the older grit his teeth. "you know, it's the middle of the night, both of our heads are gonna hurt anyways, with or without sleep, so what's the point? besides, do you know how stupid you sound when you say you're wasting your own sleep time? did you really just say that when it's the middle of the night and when there's rain? you think anyone's gonna believe that when you have purple bags under your eyes in the first place?" taehyung contravened, jabbing his own finger onto jeongguk's chest, a few more water droplets from above splashing onto his clothing.

"and what the fuck do you mean when you said i could've asked for a sane enough favor? what, did you think i wanted you to buy me a soda and that's it? you think i would've asked you that when i bought you not one, but two hoodies with my money? fuck off with that, alright?" he exclaimed with narrowed eyebrows to jeongguk.

"listen, hanging out with me for one night isn't that bad of a thing, is it? it's not like we're gonna do batshit crazy things. we're only gonna stay at some random place and just sit there, and when that's done, we can both go to our homes and we don't have to see each other again."

taehyung puffed his cheeks out, pointing at himself this time. "my name's kim taehyung. you mentioned that we didn't know each other's names yet, right? well, now you know mine, okay?"

"three," jeongguk finally voiced out, immediately confusing taehyung.

"what-"

"that's three sentences that you said that weren't a question for the entire time. guess my hunches are right then."

taehyung widened his eyes, curling his already formed fists and preparing to abruptly leave with pursed lips when jeongguk held onto his hand. "hey, hey, i never exactly rejected the favor, you know." 

"you said you would say 'no' to it before."

"change of plans, since you're just gonna keep nagging me even if i said that. might as well get it over with."

"w-wait, really?"

"i didn't stutter, did i?"

~~~

and that's where they are now: sitting on a random bench under a single tree that was conveniently placed right next to the clothing shop, right in the act of the pouring rain.

jeongguk had already worn his hoodie over his old and torn up one, for obvious reasons that taehyung was strangely oblivious to when asked by said person. the spare one he boughtー well, taehyung bought, that isー was seated on his lap, and jeongguk couldn't help but to play with the loose sleeves on it since he was currently uninterested in the other entities in the world at the moment.

anyone else could've argued that it was quite the lifeless, dull, and mundane event, but not jeongguk or taehyung; it wasn't as if it was a surprise anyways. the two rain lovers were sat there on the bench at a respectable distance, laid back on the doused wood whilst being doused themselves by falling pebbles of liquid, either on their clothing or the exposed parts of their skin.

taehyung, who was sticking his arm over the upper half of his face to try and shield his eyes from the rainfall above, groaned and sat up, facing a nearly dreary jeongguk. 

"this is boring," he verbalized, breaking the awkward silence between them.

"technically, that's your fault," jeongguk replied, looking up expectantly, as if pleading for the rain to stop already.

"well, maybe if you just talked to me or something, it wouldn't be like this."

"i don't feel like it."

taehyung groaned even more, pushing jeongguk back and forth with his arms. "fine, you know what? let's ask each other some questions then, okay?"

jeongguk hummed, seemingly not interested at all.

"favorite color?" taehyung questioned first.

"that's like the most basic question you could ask, taehyung."

"hey, you said my name for the first time!"

"you're not even paying attention to your own question now."

"but at least you said my name, right?"

"yeah, whatever."

'but that's only because your name sounds pretty anyways.'

"so, are you gonna answer the question-"

"red, black, and white," he interrupted him, which caused taehyung to pout right after.

"okay, now your turn."

"i'm too lazy to ask. just give me more questions."

"favorite food?"

"lamb skewers."

"favorite hobby?"

"drawing, sleeping, or looking at the rain."

"favorite kind of music?"

"hip hop."

"your name?"

"jeon jeongguk," jeongguk knew from the start that the question would be asked sooner or later, and he answered with no hesitation.

taehyung gasped, slightly squealing with absolute delight on his face. "that name sounds super cool!"

that was the first time jeongguk had seen taehyung grin so brightly, showing off a boxy smile that held perhaps an endless multitude of joy. he sighed, laying back into the bench even more.

"my turn now," he declared, watching as taehyung's gaze turned curious again. the former thought of something reasonable to say while also trying to gain himself some entertainment at the same time.

"alright then." he looked at taehyung lazily. "so, taehyung, why do you love the rain?"

that made taehyung's eyes widen with shock. there was a few seconds of silence between them, and he pursed his lips. "well, it's something that i don't really like sharing..."

"i mean, you don't have to tell me the full story if you don't want to. just tell me the general reason why you like it, if you can."

more silence.

"i don't know, i guess you could say i'm kind of... lonely." taehyung stared at the speckles of fluids that decorated themselves on his hands. "what about you?"

jeongguk's eyes softened for a second, his mouth twitching upwards. "i guess you could say the same for me."

then it stopped.

taehyung stopped feeling rain on his damp hair. he stopped feeling it on his sodden clothes and in his waterlogged shoes. he stopped feeling it on the tips of his eyelashes whenever it managed to sneak their way into his eyes.

"oh... the rain stopped," taehyung said, almost in a deadpanned voice.

"you know, your clothes are really wet," jeongguk pointed out, looking at the other's sopping attire.

taehyung stared at him, perplexed. "the rain stopped, jeongguk, you can go now. isn't that what you wanted?"

"yep." said male stood up, stretching his arms and yawning. "you should probably go home too."

"since when did you become so caring?"

"i don't know, since when did you become so moody?"

"you're weird."

"thanks."

taehyung scoffed, standing up alongside with jeongguk with soggy shoes and moist clothes that he felt overly uncomfortable in for some reason. his shirt would stick to his skin, sending shivers down his spine whenever it made contact with him. his pants were no better. normally, he felt fine and could've tolerated with them until he changed into dry ones.

"you look sick, to be honest," jeongguk, yet again, pointed out. "is it because of the clothes?"

taehyung squirmed, holding the ends of his shirt to keep it from attaching to him again. "maybe..."

"here."

he felt a large piece of cloth surrounding him suddenly, entrapping him in satisfying warmth. his eyes widened, realizing what was put on him. looking down, he saw a white hoodie engulfing his entire figure. he whisked his head up, ready to give the fabric back to him when a sneaky finger was placed onto his lips, suspending him from saying anything else.

"keep it. you need it anyways," jeongguk nonchalantly spoke. "now, finally, if you'll excuse me, i'll be taking my leave."

he flicked taehyung's forehead playfully, causing the latter to yelp out, amusement surging through both of their veins as the younger turned around.

"see you later. actually, see you never, taehyung."

and just like the clouds that halted their downpour, jeongguk walked away from taehyung's side. but, a physical part of him stuck onto taehyung; the sweater that was originally jeongguk's was draped over him, and taehyung couldn't help but to wrap himself in his arms to plunge the heat it emitted even deeper into his body.

'you're lucky your name sounds pretty at least, taehyung.'

~~~

i present to u a rlly boring update !!! wowzers

also its still new years for me so happy new year !!!!!

im glad i could finally go away from the rlly cringy and confusing year of 2017 oof

uhhhh stan red velvet and all of nct bye