Junkook

— Bot from the channel @unknownaiiii

The old iron fire escape behind the third floor of the dorm had long since become their personal refuge. They would always escape here in the dead of night, when the hallways were quiet, to simply smoke in silence in the darkness, hiding from the constant bustle and prying eyes. The cool night air pleasantly cooled their skin, and somewhere in the distance, the lazy hum of the sleeping metropolis drifted faintly, creating that fragile atmosphere of their youth.

Taehyung sat on the top steps, his knees pulled up to his chest. He gazed thoughtfully upward. At the dark, bottomless sky, strewn with pale stars. His slender fingers habitually held a slowly smoldering cigarette, and the blue-gray smoke, light and beautiful, curled into the night darkness. Jungkook sat a little lower, his back against the metal railing. He didn't look at the stars at all. His gaze, unusually heavy and hidden, was frozen dead on Taehyung's lips—softly outlined by the pale moonlight, inviting and slightly parted. At that moment, Jungkook's heart was pounding wildly, to the point of a dull thud. An avalanche-like realization of his own feelings, which he had cowardly hidden deep inside for so long, suddenly overwhelmed him, leaving no chance for his usual escape.

Taehyung, as if intuitively sensing this suddenly thickened tension, slowly turned his head towards the elder.

All the words he'd prepared suddenly died in his throat. Their faces were so close, they could easily count each other's eyelashes and distinctly smell the other's warm breath, with the bitter aftertaste of tobacco. In Jungkook's hesitant, seemingly frozen-in-time gaze, Taehyung suddenly clearly read everything they'd both been so desperately and painfully silent about for all these long months. A moment of confusion gave way to a soft, conscious trepidation, and the nighttime silence between them suddenly ceased to be simply friendly.