of clocks and river sharks {hoseok/taehyung, pg}
hoseok/taehyung, namjoon/yoongi - pg - 6.4k
he's pretty sure this isn't a healthy thing for him, being alone in long erratic moments in time. it’s always been like this- spending hours, weeks, in a stand-still world where it was possible to snatch water droplets from the air, to shove straws up people’s noses without them ever knowing how they got there. he dealt with it in his own way.
warnings: ableism and internalized ableism, but not severe
a/n: special thanks to jxxnggxk for helping me write so much of this! ilu babe. <333 edit: and i just wanted to say, the inspiration for this fic came from here. dont credit me for everything babes pls omg ;___;
This is the fifth time this week.
Hoseok stares, exasperated, at his coffee, now perfectly still, the ripples vaguely resembling silk, frozen. The normal clatter of the cafe has gone eerily silent, the traffic outside has come to a standstill, and his breath is the only sound that fills his ears as he waits, patiently.
The first time it happened, when he was a child, it terrified him. He cried, and cried, until his mother unfroze from that picturesque mid-frame pose she had stopped in, and she didn’t understand- “what happened, you were just fine a moment ago, come here, tell umma what’s wrong.”
He didn’t understand her nervous smiles towards his father, the scared look that she tried to conceal from her son as he described everything stopping still until much later on, but by then, he had already learned to conceal his ability.
Ever since he was a baby, his dreams had always been lined with the sound of clocks ticking. Now, as he glanced out the window, he took in the image of a bird paused in flight, swooping over the people in the plaza, wings spread wide in a glide.
It didn’t faze him anymore.
“Well, I guess I have to make my leave,” he quips, to himself. (This happens often enough, and long enough, that he’s used to talking to himself.) “Just leave a few bills on the table, and… ah, great.” He stood, leaving the payment, before turning around to glance at the other patrons. Thankfully, most of them weren’t looking in his direction- but the ones who were only took a small, gentle nudge, before they were facing slightly this way or that, never enough to jolt them but more than sufficient.
“Right then. Time to go, then, Hobi.”
Maybe it’s sad, that he talks to himself- always wearing a bright smile, even though no one else will ever see him while he walks through the frozen crowds of people, and once they unfreeze, it’s not like he ever stops smiling. “You’re our hope!” his graduating class had called him fondly, for how bright and outgoing he was. He was reminded of clambering hands, shouts of “you did it! you’re done!” and saying goodbye to the faces he’d spent his entire life sitting in classrooms with.
High school was good. This didn’t happen as often back then. He felt normal.
Nowadays, it seemed like time stopped more and more often for him, and always more jarring than the last- in the middle of a tram on the way to work, during a particularly good movie, while he was sitting on the toilet- (yes, that’s happened, it’s not a story he ever plans on retelling.) It was always random, sudden, ripping him out of the normal day-to-day bustle, and how long he had to wait before the clocks started ticking again seemed to feel even longer every time.
If Hoseok could guess, he had about three days to kill.
And so he wandered.
He’s used to it, the roaming part- usually, he pilfers from the stores and takes home a stash of junk food to feast off of until the sun starts moving in the sky again. It used to be awful, how boring it was, until he figured out how to make the electronics flicker back to life. As it turned out, while he still couldn’t control his- whatever it was, he was slowly getting better. If he touched something with the intent to, he could bring it out of stop motion- the TV, the microwave, the fridge. Hoseok tried it on a person, once, but nothing happened- it seemed like, if the thing actually, you know, breathed, it didn’t seem to work.
It wasn’t like he was lonely or anything.
Hoseok had plenty of friends, that wasn’t a problem- but sometimes, every time he had to deal with an elongated pause in his day to day life, it was exhausting. For some people, it might have been relaxing, welcome even- more time to get things accomplished that other people didn’t have access to, a quiet time for his thoughts without any worries of people prying. True privacy.
But Hoseok didn’t ask for that. Privacy was nice, he supposed, but not when the tradeoff was utter seclusion.
Besides, in comparison to real time, Hoseok had spent almost two weeks in a frozen world in the last seven days. He didn’t want to keep doing this, spending more time alone than around others. He lived off of socializing- this was hell to him, practically.
Using whatever knowledge he had managed to keep from Psychology, he's pretty sure this isn't a healthy thing for him, being alone in long erratic moments in time. It’s always been like this- spending hours, weeks, in a stand-still world where it was possible to snatch water droplets from the air, to shove straws up people’s noses without them ever knowing how they got there.
He dealt with it in his own way.
Once, he tried to tell someone about it- his… ability, so to speak, even if he couldn’t control it. They stared at him for a long time, before nervously laughing and walking away, and Hoseok had to climb down the fire escape later to stop from being arrested by the police to be forcefully institutionalized, taken away to some loony hospital. So much for nice neighbors.
Maybe this really was just in his head, like some fucked-up dream or hallucination or what have you that kept on repeating when he least expected it. ...Hah. Even telling himself that wasn't very assuring. He couldn't even bring himself to think that the idea could possibly be true.
Then again, the whole 'being able to freeze time' thing wasn't very plausible either.
So he continued on with his usual routine, spending momentarily-captured moments exploring the city, breezing past stopped conversations without the usual trail of laughter following behind him after the punchline he would never hear. (His conscience doesn't exactly try to argue just how ridiculous it was to be drawing on random strangers' faces with black permanent marker in order to 'spice things up'.
Permanent marker: 1,000 won. The reactions on their faces when time starts again: Priceless.)
If just one person- anyone, anything that breathed, would reply back to the empty greetings he tried sometimes, he would be elated. It's almost surprising to him that he hadn't lost it yet, although calling out to frozen people who couldn't respond back and talking to himself wasn't exactly the best of signs. He liked to fancy that he was a ticking time bomb, counting down to the moment where he finally lost his grip on sanity, the irony not lost on himself.
Still, he exhaled while thinking. If only.
There’s something about the sanctity, the silence of the library, that has always been unnerving to Hoseok- maybe, it’s the fact that he’s heard true silence, the utter feeling of being truly all alone in the world, even if only temporary. Or maybe he’s just weird.
Just being weird isn’t too far off the mark. He reasons with himself this way as he tries to ignore the buzzing in his head from the faux silence, trying not to focus in on the sounds of papers shuffling and pens scraping against notepads.
It’s been about three days since the world started moving again, and Hoseok really questions where his priorities lie if he has all this free time to himself and he still hasn’t finished that paper due on Friday. (Which is tomorrow.)
Sure would be nice if he could willingly stop time now.
He growled softly to himself, rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration, before promptly slamming the book before him shut, to which he received a series of ‘shhh!’s, and he mumbled a small apology. It’s not his fault if the theory of Marxism kind of flies over his head, okay? He tries to understand it, but… the big words without definitions fuck him up. (Maybe that’s a sign he should pay attention in his government class.)
Hoseok cards through the papers at his side, chewing on his lip. There is no way that he’s going to finish this paper tonight, and as much as he’d love to sit in the library all day scowling over socialist theories, he should probably get something to eat-
He stands and quickly becomes aware of the fact that no one else reacts to the sound of the chair screeching across the floor from Hoseok’s carelessness.
“...Convenient, for once,” he quips to himself, raising an eyebrow at a particular scene of some girl in the middle of shoving noodles into her mouth outside the window. Hoseok will never get tired of seeing the true beauties of life, and watching people freeze while eating things is one of his favorites. He snaps a photo. For memories.
The little click his phone makes garners some strangled noise that Hoseok’s sure isn’t from him, so he whips his head around to find someone- “Oh my god,” he breathes.
The person stares at him in awe, maybe a little bit of fear. “Wh-what-” Okay, maybe a lot of fear. It’s- it’s someone else, shorter than him, maybe an underclassman. The kid hugs the small stack of books close to his chest for dear life, his eyes struggling to take everything in, darting around nervously, his tongue flicking out to wet his lips.
“Uh,” Hoseok says, very intelligently. “This- This hasn’t ever happened before,” because Hoseok is really bad at keeping his thoughts to himself after spending half of his life to himself.
“What,” the stranger squeaks, and one of the books slip and clatter to the floor, loud, echoing through the frozen space. “You k-know- what’s going on? I-”
“Okay, um, calm down buddy, chill,” the slightly taller male tries, hands going up on a peace gesture. “Look, I’m just as confused as you are-”
“Nobody is moving!”
“Yes, thank you for stating the obvious, I couldn’t tell.”
“But you and I- We’re not-“ The stranger hesitantly turns towards a girl nearby, stuck in the middle of hovering over her textbook, her pencil frozen to her notes. He reaches out to poke his finger into her cheek. Nothing. “What-”
“Yeah, I know,” Hoseok responds, gently clasping a hand over the boy’s and guiding it away from the girl, looking up at him. “I kind of, um, deal with it all the time.” He’s never explained this to someone without any kind of evidence that it actually, you know, is a thing that happens- and while it’s almost frightening that suddenly, out of his entire life, the one thing that has never changed, the fact that he’s always been alone, is suddenly moot- it’s also exciting.
He’s not alone.
“Tell me something, have you ever played miniature golf through people’s legs?”
The other boy gives him a dumbfounded look, and Hoseok isn’t exactly sure whether the message he’s trying to get across is an “Are you actually being serious?” or a “Will I get the chance to?”.
Taehyung, as he manages to coerce out of the boy, adjusts slowly, spending a lot of the time clinging to Hoseok’s sleeve while he looked around him at their changing (or, rather, unchanging) environment in wonder. “So many people aren’t even- they don’t even know we’re here.”
“Yep,” Hoseok confirms, looking down at the other with a grin. “Let me tell you, the stuff you can do while no one is looking- literally- is fucking great.”
After that, it doesn’t take long to break the ice, after the initial shock and marvel- pretty soon, Taehyung is laughing too, while Hoseok draws some silly character on the face of an old man who looked like a frighteningly accurate real-life rendition of the Grinch. He hands the marker to Taehyung- he always has some on hand for these occasions, because how else is he supposed to entertain himself?- and lets him run wild.
“There’s not enough creativity in just black,” Taehyung comments, but he’s beginning to trace the man’s eyelids with the marker regardless.
“I’ll keep that in mind next time.”
And Taehyung just laughs again, loosening himself by scribbling half-assed trails of tears down the man’s eyes. Hoseok’s attention always manages to stray back to his hair- orange, fading to strawberry blond, out of all colors. “How were you even able to manage this all by yourself?” And with that, Hoseok’s momentary daze is broken.
“...What?” The question catches him off guard, the pristine moment of elation shattered at the return to reality. Taehyung spares him a guilty look, before looking back to his art piece. Now he’s drawing a river across the man’s chin, from the tears.
“You said, well, that… this has never happened before,” he starts, the black marker squiggling across wrinkled skin. He draws in a cool shark for the heck of it, even though sharks don’t live in rivers. “Someone else being here with you, I mean. ...Have you been doing this all alone this whole time?”
Hoseok is very silent, enough so that Taehyung actually looks at him again, and shame flushing across his face. “...Sorry, that was a little too personal-”
“No, no, it’s… fine,” Hoseok interrupts, even if the words come out a little choked. “I’ve never, um- talked to anyone else about this, as you can imagine.”
“Ah,” Taehyung responds, an awkward air settling between them. He finally speaks again, a little more confident. “How long have you been… dealing with this- thing?”
“My whole life.”
“Oh.”
Hoseok knows, he must seem like a freak, but something deep down- something hopeful, the part that’s always been screaming for company, says that if he’s a freak, Taehyung is, too- because there is no way he’s imagining the youth, drawing sharks and rivers and tears across people’s faces. A sudden bout of paranoia claws up his throat, because what if he is? What if he really is fucked up in the head, what if this is all his imagination-
“Um, this is going to sound weird, but- can I touch you?”
Taehyung’s face turns red so fast that Hoseok has to quickly amend his words, “no, no, not like that, Jesus Christ, no, I’m not that much of a loner-”
“...You want to make sure I’m real, right?”
Hoseok isn’t sure how to cope with how blunt Taehyung is, but it’s almost refreshing. “...Yeah,” he exhales. “Yeah, if you don’t mind, I… it’s kind of hard for me to believe myself, so I want to… be positive that I’m not just getting my hopes up.”
Taehyung tentatively holds out his arm, and Hoseok suddenly isn’t sure what to do with the offer now that it’s there- so instead he takes the younger’s hand, seeing how it fits, the warmth of skin against his.
“...I don’t think I can imagine that,” he says softly.
Taehyung squeezes his hand and gives him a gentle smile. “Me neither.”
Kim Taehyung has always loved the supernatural, the strange, anything that separated himself from the boring, dull reality that he lived in. He’s always been known as The Weird Kid- or, well, a good-looking weird kid, but still, weird- with the big glasses who gets way too excited over UFO sightings and the next season of American Horror Story (subbed, of course).
Nobody treated him badly for it, though- maybe he was lucky, and just surrounded by the right, tolerant people. Hell, his best friend even indulged him sometimes, which would result in Kim Seokjin sprawled across the couch with him at too-early-in-the-morning o’clock in the older male’s flat, watching reruns of the X-Files while Namjoon snored upstairs, draped across that grumpy lump of a music major he called a boyfriend.
(Min Yoongi was, quite possibly, one of the most sour people Taehyung had ever met, but to this day he would never be able to get over how quickly his scowl could melt whenever Namjoon was around. It was kind of gross, how cute they were.)
He had always been a sucker for apocalyptic theories - reading up articles on possible ways the world might end. Meteors, comets, the world collapsing under the end of ancient calendars. Zombies were his personal favorite, even if it was highly unlikely the planet would ever fall to a walking dead invasion no matter how convincing western TV shows and movies made it out to be.
Though he didn’t exactly think about the planet being frozen in time and, even if he did, he would have expected himself to join the rest of the population in stasis, probably having stuff drawn on his face by one college kid with- literally- too much time on his hands.
Maybe that’s why it was so easy for him to adjust to the situation, though- he didn’t know much about Jung Hoseok, and he had never dove too far into temporal theories, but something about how eager the other man had been for company, it struck a chord in Taehyung that he couldn’t ignore. So he buried down the shock and went with him, maybe if only for his sake. And maybe he was excited, too, and too curious for his own good- besides, mini golf in the middle of a frozen crowd sounded fun. And difficult.
“You see that person over there-“
“Which one- That one-”
“No, God, the one with the hood.”
“That doesn’t really give me much, hyung.”
Taehyung squints through the crowd of people, his eyes following Hoseok pushing his way through until he stops smack in the middle and waves to tell Taehyung where he is. Why did Taehyung agree to this again?
“Right here,” Hoseok explains simply, patting the aforementioned man’s head, playfully tugging at the hoodie’s strings. “Your goal is to get here.”
“That’s not fair,” Taehyung half-whines, making exaggerated gestures with his arm. “How the hell am I going to be able to do it with all these people around?”
“You can do it, as long as you believe.” Hoseok grins.
“You have the most ridiculous ideas,” the younger sniffs, but he’s smiling too, because Hoseok’s grin is infectious. “What’s your highest score?”
“I once managed to land a hole in someone’s hat.”
“Dude!”
“I know, I know.” Hoseok spreads his arms wide as if accepting an award, smug pride blanketing his face. “I’m amazing, I know.”
“No, you just have too much practice,” Taehyung counters, taking the club (he doesn’t question why Hoseok actually has these things on hand, instead opting to not care), and starting to move away from the male in question that was his goal. “It’s not fair to rookies like me!”
“Don’t worry!” Hoseok calls back, and even from twenty feet away, Taehyung can see his smile perfectly. “You’ll get plenty of practice as long as you stick with me!”
Taehyung is thankful for the amount of distance between them, because he isn’t sure how he’d react if the elder saw him blush. He sets a ball down and grips onto the club tight, tongue sticking out in pure concentration. He probably looks pretty ridiculous, if Hoseok's laugh gave any indication. He swings it back slowly, trying to aim, only to hit the ball too hard and send it flying over a few shoulders and right into-
...
Hoseok's head.
The older male stumbles back, his hand immediately going to cover his forehead as he leans over, releasing a garbled noise of pain. "... Ow."
Taehyung is frantic, panicking while dropping the club and rushing his way through to reach Hoseok. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Don't worry, I'm fine- I'm just a little-" Hoseok winces again, his fingers curling against his forehead. "Ow."
Taehyung's hand flies up to cup Hoseok's face, immediately surveying the damage, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. "Y-You don't have a concussion, right, hyung? Oh, god, what if I gave you a concussion-"
"I don't think you can give me a concussion with a golf ball, Taehyung-"
"But still-"
Hoseok lets out a pained breath through his teeth, and Taehyung is about to continue speaking, when he suddenly feels a little lurch in his stomach and the next thing he knows, there are people plowing into him, separating him from Hoseok before either of them have a chance to react, the sudden sound of the world coming back to life overloading his senses.
"-Hoseok-! Hoseok-hyung, wait-"
"-Shit, where did you go? Taehyung? Oi!"
And like that, the crowd has pushed them too far away from each other, Hoseok's voice growing more and more faint despite Taehyung's best efforts to reach him, before he's simply gone.
They never even exchanged phone numbers. Taehyung is left alone, their time together suddenly over, abruptly ended by things neither of them had any control over.
A dream.
That's what the youth tells himself later, marveling at the experience.
Hoseok's face is unforgettable- they had only spent at most a few hours together, but it was impossible for Taehyung to forget the way the older man had grinned, how it was sweet enough to make his stomach flutter, or the grip on his wrist that had been so tight, so desperate.
It had to be a dream. There was no way that had happened, and especially not to Taehyung, of all people.
"Just a stress-induced hallucination," he mumbled to himself, burying his face into his pillow. Park Jimin raised his head from the book he was studying with a "hm?"
Taehyung spared him any explanations. He loved his roommate, really, he did, but he doubted the younger male would believe him.
Then again, Jimin was a good friend to him, even if they hadn't spent much time together yet. A lot of it was Taehyung recounting various experiences he swore really happened, and Jimin had believed him about- almost- everything so far. Even the UFO he saw over his house once, to which Seokjin had laughed while Yoongi had questioned why the aliens hadn't taken Taehyung with them.
“Because he’s too sweet for them, obviously,” Seokjin pouted, pulling Taehyung into a tight hug. Yoongi gagged.
Namjoon shook his head with a laugh, watching Yoongi and Seokjin with a fond expression before bustled back into the kitchen, while Jimin roared at the television about some plot twist that Taehyung was missing because Seokjin was too busy squeezing the life out of him.
“No aliens are getting you,” Seokjin announced loudly, and Taehyung was giggling, smothered by his best friend. “It’s my job to torture you, not theirs.”
Despite all this, he kept his mouth shut- Jimin was sweet, but he was also his roommate, and they’d only been rooming together for a month, and Taehyung didn’t want to scare him off. (Backwards logic, really, considering this was Kim Taehyung they were talking about- if Jimin hadn't already run off screaming, he probably wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.)
He just felt like he didn’t know him well enough yet to trust him with any kind of information that could potentially, you know, get him locked up in an asylum or something-
That is, if it had actually even happened.
If it really was a hallucination, some kind of daydream that Taehyung managed to think up from being too stressed over school- even though he wasn’t the kind of person to stress much to begin with- he wondered whether or not he thought up Hoseok’s face, too, or if the male was really just some passing stranger he’d met eons ago that seemed to stick with his subconscious.
“Taehyung-ah, you’re frowning at the flowers.”
Jimin’s voice cuts through Taehyung’s thoughts, and he snaps his head up, before laughing, trying to play off his worries. “They’re making me angry.”
“What did they ever do to you?” his roommate sniffs, playing along. “You’re so mean.”
“Yeah,” Taehyung responds, looking back at the potted plant sitting in his window, a gift from his father when he went away to college. “Something like that.”
Taehyung's sure he didn't absorb a single word out of his professor's lecture, too preoccupied with his thoughts that may or may not involve Hoseok and a beautifully (read: crudely) drawn river shark invading the margins of his notes. He looks up just in time to hear his professor announce the end of class, lost in the midst of his classmates who are now clearly better educated about the importance of Korean literature.
God, why were Korean credits necessary in college again?
He packs his bag defeatedly and make his way out the lecture hall, the noisy chatter of students filling his ears as background noise until they all empty out and go their own way. He still has an hour before his next class, and he isn't sure how he wants to spend it yet, whether to eat or study- he frowns at his surroundings, unable to reach a conclusion. Maybe he can try the library again or something.
"Taehyung-ah!"
He lifts his head, searching for the source of the voice. He could have sworn someone was calling his name-
No. He hears it again, a little louder this time. He goes around in small clueless steps, unsure of which direction to take, but the person keeps on repeating his name- over and over and gradually getting louder- until Taehyung turns around to see Hoseok running (galloping?) almost straight into him if not for the younger barely dodging his attempted attack.
Taehyung's heart did not just make a little backflip out of joy, no.
“Um,” Taehyung says slowly, eyes wide, books pressed to his chest. “Y-You-”
“Yeah, I’m real,” Hoseok announces. It’s been three weeks, Taehyung’s heart has just about burst out of his chest, but they’re both grinning a little too big for almost-strangers, and Hoseok is breathing hard. “I didn’t- think I’d ever see you again.”
“Me neither,” the strawberry blond exhales. “Did you just- run across campus?”
“What else was I supposed to do, let you get away from me again?”
“No,” Taehyung says, and his words are not caught in his throat, no, they are not. “No, definitely not, no way.”
Hoseok laughs. It’s the sweetest thing he’s ever heard. “I’m glad.”
It wasn’t obsessive at all, for Hoseok to hunt down Kim Taehyung- the first day, he spent forever wondering whether or not he should even try looking for him, if the kid evenwanted to be found. It was a little nerve-wracking, knowing that he was out there- somewhere- and that Hoseok wasn’t alone in this. Time hadn’t stopped again once since he’d met Taehyung, and if he believed in fate, he would have said that it meant something, that what had been such a frequent problem in his life suddenly disappear once he met him.
And he wasn’t sure what it was about the younger boy, but he was drawn to him- a little inexplicably, but it probably just had to do with the fact that, instead of screaming at him the entire time, Taehyung went with it.
He willingly spent time with Hoseok, who was- for all he knew- some supervillain intent on stealing all his money or something with funky time powers that were more inconvenient than helpful.
Okay, that was kind of a tangent, but still.
Maybe Hoseok worried a little too much. But can you blame him, after having- literally- an encounter of a lifetime?
Maybe he’s just spent too much time alone.
Taehyung is initially surprised that Hoseok actually sought him out- to which Hoseok replies incredulously, “why wouldn’t I?”
“W-Well, I mean, we only spent like an hour together-”
“That doesn’t mean I’m not going to go looking for you.”
He swears that Taehyung blushed, but the younger moved his face out of his line of sight too fast for him to be certain, but he does know that they’re both smiling like a couple of fools.
Hoseok had led him back to a quiet place to sit down- that cafe he frequented so often, with the fancy French name he didn’t bother trying to pronounce and the gaggle of ahjummas who sat in the back and giggled at jokes no one else was privy to. “So then, you can actually…”
Taehyung doesn’t have to finish his sentence for Hoseok to know what he’s implying, and he pauses, not sure how to answer. “...Yeah,” he says finally, looking down at the cup of hot chocolate sitting in his hands, and the elation of actually finding the younger boy again is suddenly lost at the confrontation of the actual details. “Sort of, anyways. ...I can’t actually control when it happens, it just kind of… does. I don’t control the on and off switch- it sort of decides on its own, really.”
“I see,” Taehyung says quietly. Hoseok notes that he’s wearing glasses. It’s ridiculously cute. "So, how come I wasn't frozen back then?"
That's the one thing Hoseok can't wrap his head around, and he makes it obvious, brows furrowing as he frowns into his mug. "I don't know. I told you earlier, it hasn't happened before."
"Maybe I have powers too," Taehyung suddenly proclaims, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. (His anime prophecies have finally been answered.) "Maybe I could freeze time too!" He sounds a little too eager.
Hoseok gives him a look that’s somewhere between skeptical and pondering, before shaking his head with a tiny laugh. “...I don’t know,” he admits, because it’s true- he’s never been one to hold back when he doesn’t know the answer to something. “Maybe,” he agrees, “maybe not.”
Taehyung droops just a little at the prospect of his idea not being correct, absent-mindedly stirring an absurd amount of sugar into his coffee. “So you really don’t know very much about this, then?”
“Not really.” Hoseok shrugs, taking a sip of chocolate. “The only thing I can really say is that, well- I think you being there definitely meant something, because normally, time stops like that last for days. We only spent, what, an hour? Two hours together? And all we were doing was goofing off, not necessarily messing with anything pertinent to the laws of existing, or whatever.”
Translation for Hoseok speak: they weren’t doing anything different. Except for, you know, Taehyung being there. (Maybe it was the younger’s absurd level of cuteness that make time start moving again whenever he was around, warming up everything around him. Hoseok kept that thought to himself.)
“So I could have powers,” is how Taehyung chose to interpret it, eyes bright and excited again.
Hoseok doesn’t respond at first, not glancing back up- he’s staring intently down at his mug, some kind of realization dawned on his face.
“Hobi-hyung?” Taehyung says, reaching over to wave his hand in his face. “...You’re not frozen, are yo-”
“No, no, I’m not,” Hoseok says quickly, distracted. “But- I just remembered something.”
The youth is quiet, expectant, as the older male tries to pull his words together.
“When- when you hit me with the golf ball,” and Taehyung winces at the memory, “and you came over and started to check if I was okay- your hands were really hot. I remember your hands being way warmer than usual, but I didn’t get a chance to process that, because next thing I knew, you were gone, and the hoodie guy was stumbling into me. That’s- it could be a coincidence, but, well… it’s something, at least. I’m not exactly the obscure superpower guru, or anything.”
Taehyung looks thoughtful, adjusting his glasses again. (He also notices that his eyes are a slightly brighter shade of brown than normal- maybe they’re circle lenses, and Hoseok wonders if they’re prescription, or if Taehyung is just trying to be cuter.) “I have absolutely no idea if that means anything, hyung,” he announces suddenly, “but everything froze again.”
Hoseok blinks in surprise, before glancing around. “You’re right,” he says, disbelief layering into his voice. “I didn’t even-”
“Notice, I know. You were too busy talking.” Taehyung is grinning at him, expression devious. “I have colored sharpies.”
Hoseok looks back at him, and with an astonished expression, realizing that this is the same coffee shop from weeks ago, the one with the frozen bird outside that he had trained his eyes on so intently- like some kind of symbol of his hopelessness. Looking back, it was all very melodramatic, and he swallows in a sweet laugh.
He’s a lucky man, Jung Hoseok. He tells himself that, because it’s true- the fact that out of all the people he could have been stuck with in this situation, the only two people in the world who had an ounce of control over time, and it was Kim Taehyung. The sweetest boy he’d ever met, and he could deduce that from only a few hours in his company alone.
If you had asked him three weeks ago, Hoseok would have told you that the idea of not being alone in this world was about as ridiculous as the idea of river sharks, and laughed it off, maybe it even bitterly. Then again, no one would have asked him that- because back then, nobody else knew.
Now, he’s not sure what he believes in, but Kim Taehyung’s existence is very much real, and he thinks that maybe the idea of river sharks might not be so far off after all.
“Hell yes,” Hoseok breathes, mirroring Taehyung's grin with his own. “Let’s do it.”
Maybe Taehyung was onto something about the whole powers ordeal, because this time, it only lasts about forty-five minutes.
Thankfully, they don't lose track of each other this time- Taehyung almost disappears from Hoseok's line of vision when time suddenly restarts again, but then warm, tan fingers entwine with his and they anchor against each other, determined not to be separated again.
"That was sudden," Taehyung exhales, breathing hard from the two of them pushing their way out of the crowd. "Are you- are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Hoseok responds, squeezing his fingers for reassurance. "You?"
"I'm good," and that's enough. By the time they reach the cafe again, Taehyung's hand isn't nearly as heated against Hoseok's anymore, and he releases his grip.
Well, that wasn't embarrassing.
"We... should do this again."
Taehyung gives him a puzzled look at first, before- "Well... it depends on when it'll happen again-"
"No. I mean," Hoseok begins, making some unintelligible hand gestures. "Without the whole..." More gestures. "Time stuff. Let's hang out again. Do something other than drawing on people's faces." He knows that they have a lot to talk about- someday, they’re going to have to figure out exactly what it was that was happening to them.
If Taehyung’s warm hands meant anything, if they could ever master their control over the time powers thing, if there were more people out there like them, or even get rid of their powers altogether- instead, he finds himself more concerned over when he’ll work up the nerve to ask the younger male on a date, what he might wear, how to go about it.
Taehyung considers this for a moment. "You have to be honest though, drawing on people is pretty fun."
"Taehyung-ah." Hoseok's voice is firm, but he's still giving that ridiculously bright smile of his.
"Then again," the younger male continues, looking up at him with an equally bright smile of his own, almost cheeky. "You're fun too, hyung." The words are playful, underlined by the timbre of Taehyung's voice that's always reminded Hoseok of cartoon characters, so expressive and vivid.
"Are you trying to flatter me?" he mused, his own smile turning wry as they entered the cafe again, holding the door open for him.
"It's my way of saying yes," Taehyung responded, looking up at him with those big, mischievous eyes. "I like spending time with you, so, yes."
Hoseok feels a little winded- he likes this kid. A lot. More than he had anticipated. The compliment settles low in his stomach, burning gently, like a promise of the future.
They collect their things from their table- no one had noticed them disappear, thankfully. Hoseok buys another cup of chocolate milk, Taehyung adjusts his glasses in the window reflection and patiently waits, and they part ways in front of the shop.
"Oh," Hoseok starts, before Taehyung had a chance to pull away after finishing their goodbyes. "Kakao- do you have one? KakaoTalk, I mean. It's a messaging app."
"No," Taehyung replies, turning around and looking up at him curiously. "Never heard of it. Why, should I make one?"
"Yeah! Yeah, you should," and Hoseok gently grabs Taehyung's hand, turning the palm up so he can scribble down a username on it. "You should add me, okay?"
"Are you planning on sending me dick pics?"
Hoseok flushes, pulling back, feeling absurd. "Wha- no, what-”
"Kidding! I'm kidding!"
hey, is this hobi hyung??? am i adding the right person, or is this some stranger???? kekeke
the kekeke wasn't necessary, taehyung ah (and yes, this is hoseok)
of course it was!!! kekeke!!! (glad to know im flirting with the right person)
you sound like a frog……….....wait. what???????????
:-)
Hoseok later finds, much to his surprise, that with Taehyung tucked under his arm, in the dead of night while the younger male snores just lightly enough into his chest to be endearing over annoying, he no longer dreams of clocks. He dreams of sweet smiles, river sharks, and anything else absurd that the male can imagine to fill Hoseok’s head with.
And it’s enough. It’s more than enough for him, god.
He doesn’t need the universe to answer any questions for him, because Kim Taehyung is enough.
by the way!!!!!!! river sharks are TOTALLY REAL!!!!!!!!
please. they are not. there’s bull sharks, but river sharks are not a thing, taehyung-ah~
no seriously they are lol google it!!!!!! they actually exist and they live in like africa or something but dude i was RIGHT
…………………….what the fuck holy shit thats kind of terrifying
like me ;-)
please go back into your crib.
wow!!! WOW!!! see if i ever stay over at your place again!!!!!!
you have no one else to play smash brothers with, taehyung ah, you wouldn’t dream of it.
i have jimin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
jimin is too busy making out with that underclassman kid. jungkook? is that what his name is?
his name is HOMEWRECKER >:-( and fine, then i have seokjin!!!!!!!!
...who is too busy “spending time” with namjoon and yoongi.
………………..what is that supposed to mean?????? they all just live together hyung…
mhmm. okay. stay oblivious, taehyung. <3
?????????????????????????????????
love you too.
ew, old man germs, gross, stop being affectionate!!! old people arent supposed to be affectionate!!!!!!!!!
<3