so brightly everywhere
g || block b/bangtan || zico-centric || 1.7w || christmas fic
summary: jiho’s only connected to the world through voices, but today it’s enough; he makes a friend in seokjin.
originally posted here, written in nugu-seyo for a_dead_koala.
By the time Jiho opens his eyes, it’s fifteen hours into Christmas Day. He lies in bed, eyes closed, and doesn’t move until he’s convinced himself that he can’t fall asleep again. Even then, he makes only a minimal effort to leave the comfort of his covers and ends up with half of his body off the bed, half still on it. There are no sounds in the dorm, which is strange, so he calls out a random name. "Park Kyung!" he yells into the rest of the house. There's no answer, and he tries again, louder. "Jaehyo hyung!"
One by one, he shouts the rest of the members' names, but there is only silence. "Is there even anyone home," he groans, finally sliding out completely onto the floor and lying there. They'd all spent Christmas Eve together, with a couple of friends added in at a small party in the dorm, which was partly for Christmas Eve, and partly to celebrate Jaehyo's birthday on the 23rd. Jiho looks up at the ceiling, the cold air in the dorm pressing down too heavily on his chest. The quiet stillness surrounding him, Jiho shivers and rolls onto his side. With no one around, the house feels less like home than a sterile collection of empty spaces, placidly leaning against each other.
Jiho pulls himself up from the floor and dresses more appropriately for the cold, pulling on a sweater that he's pretty sure belongs to Minhyuk. Pulling open the bedroom door and walking into the kitchen, he shivers as he microwaves a cup of milk and ponders his breakfast. "Where'd they all go?" says Jiho absentmindedly to himself, and pulls out a mostly empty package of crackers. He opens the front door just to check that there’s no one outside and comes back into the house rubbing his hands together. There’s an empty couch in front of him, and suddenly Jiho remembers childhood winters, where coming home meant coming back to warm rooms and people smiling down at him. This is...a different kind of coming home, he supposes.
While he's dusting the last cracker crumbs off his fingers, Jiho texts Jihoon, where did you guys all go? It's not long before he gets an answer. ahhh we're all eating together but i think it'll be a while before we get back ^^
Jiho's thumb rests on the last character of the message until the screen goes dark, and he leans over onto the table and lets his arms and head rest there for a couple minutes, resignedly bored. "Blooooock..." he sings in a quiet voice, then clears his throat, tapping his finger on the table idly. He looks down for a moment to move his phone onto the table and stares at it.
"B..." continues Jiho with his face down on the table, coming out in a muffled groan. Even though he hasn't had anything official to do since the past couple of days, Jiho has still been shouting lyrics and writing the occasional score when he's been alone. Now, though, with the immediacy of the snow and sleep over him, he doesn't want to move from the warmth of his seat, but gets up to watch television to occupy himself.
A couple hours later, Jiho ends up back at the table, where he's just finished a bowl of ramen. His phone vibrates twice in quick succession. Jiho checks it, but the message turns out to just be another Line update. He buries his face into the crook of his elbow for a few minutes. Then, remembering to send his family holiday greetings, he picks up his phone again. Jiho decides to call Taewoon, who doesn't answer. "Hyung," he says after the beep of the voicemail sounds, holding out the vowel of the word and passing the phone back and forth in front of his face, then hangs up.
He taps a few more contacts and calls, only to be greeted with voicemail messages and quick conversations that end with "hey, sorry but I've got to go!"
It is the holiday season, Jiho reasons, but the thought doesn’t stop him from feeling like he’s the only one alone on Christmas Day. One rapidly ended phone call after another, he shrinks further into his sweatshirt until his legs are tucked under his chin, limbs all held within easy warming distance. If only, thinks Jiho as he breathes across the tops of his kneecaps, if only everything else were as close, the rest of the pieces of places and people he’s considered home.
Jiho keeps dialing increasingly distant friends until he hits Namjoon's phone number. His call is picked up on the second ring, but the voice that answers isn't Namjoon's. "Hello?"
Jiho, who's been pulling on the strings of his sweatshirt, puts his legs down and sits up, abruptly alert. "Ah yeah, I'm looking for Namjoon...?"
There's a shuffling sound on the other end, and Jiho thinks that the phone's been transferred to Namjoon and is about to break into a loud "hey" until the same voice comes on again. "Uh," and it sounds like the phone is some distance from the speaker's face, until the voice is suddenly close again, "this is Jiho hyung? This is Seokjin from Bangtan." The respectful tone of Seokjin's voice makes Jiho think that he's almost about to bow to him through the phone.
"Oh, hi hi," says Jiho. "How are you? Where's Namjoon? We haven't really talked before, have we?"
There's a pause before Seokjin answers. "Namjoon's out with a couple of friends, I think."
Jiho's too glad for the contact, even through the phone, to hang up yet, so he continues. "How are your holidays? Are you going to celebrate for Christmas?"
"Hmm, not really," Seokjin says, slowly warming to the conversation. "How about you, hyung?"
Jiho laughs for a moment. "I woke up not too long ago, actually, and we had a party by ourselves last night, so I guess that's what I'll be doing for this year. I'm alone, because everyone went somewhere while I was asleep."
"Basically what happened to me," Seokjin murmurs into the phone, sounding preoccupied.
"Do you need to be somewhere else? I can hang up if--" Jiho offers.
"Oh, no, I was just thinking about...uh...gifts, actually," responds Seokjin hurriedly. "I mean, this is a nice conversation, um..." There's a whispered "hyung!" in the background on Seokjin's end. He keeps talking. "It's really nice to talk to you, so, yes. Yeah. Was the party fun?"
"Yeah!" says Jiho, and animatedly describes how they'd each gone out to buy weird party additions (Jihoon had outdone them all and came in dressed up in a red suit and white beard), and that Minhyuk, of all people, was the first to fall asleep and Kyung had drawn on his face. Someone took a picture. "Make sure the selca's at the right angle," Jaehyo snickered from his place on the couch. Minhyuk had suddenly woken up, though, during the second picture, and looked at all the eyes on him. "What? Why are you all staring?" The rest of them had burst out laughing, and when they were all in the shot, Jaehyo's face ended up as the worst in the picture, mouth wide open in a hilariously ugly expression.
Seokjin's laughing by the end of Jiho's account, and Jiho's pleased with himself for acquainting himself with Seokjin so quickly. "How did you spend last night?"
"Well," Seokjin says, “it was a quiet but pretty enjoyable evening." They're silent for a few minutes, Jiho tracing circles on the surface of his cell phone screen and wondering what Seokjin's doing on his end. The phone feels hot on Jiho’s cheek, and when he puts it down, he realizes that he’s been on the phone with Seokjin for a while. He checks his phone, and they've been talking for seventeen minutes now.
Jiho hears the key in the door a few seconds before it swings open, the rest of the members filing in quietly with bags in their arms until they see that Jiho's awake and sitting at the table, and they freeze for a moment before their entrance explodes into a cacophony of sound and chatter. "Hyung," Jihoon roars in greeting, and sits down next to Jiho, immediately starting a stream of chatter. "I thought you'd be taking a nap or something, we went out and bought stuff you know, I mean it's been hours, have you moved from when you texted me earlier--"
Jiho waves frantically at him to try to cut Jihoon off, but it isn't enough, so Jiho nudges his arm. "Pyo Jihoon, I'm talking on the phone."
Seokjin, who's been silent since Jihoon started talking, speaks up. "No, it's okay, you have things to get back to, yeah? And Namjoon should be there, too, he said he wanted to surprise you so I didn't say anything. Yeah, it's totally fine." He sounds embarrassed now.
Jiho's almost disappointed. "Well...if you want to talk again, uh, do you want my number? I can give it to you now!”
Despite the sounds of feeble but lighthearted protest coming from Seokjin’s end, Jiho relates his number quickly. “Wait, sorry if I interrupted anything that you were doing, it's been more than twenty minutes now, but yeah it was nice talking with you! Oh, and you don't have to call me hyung, Namjoon's told me that you're only a couple months younger than me."
"Alright," Seokjin agrees, and adds "Merry Christmas!" Jiho ends the call smiling, and Jihoon speaks up again. "Hyung, who were you talking with?"
"Ah, Seokjin," Jiho answers distractedly, and turns to sock Namjoon in the arm. "Hey, you didn't even tell me you were coming!"
Namjoon laughs, and it's an open, lighthearted sound. "Sorry, everyone said you were asleep and I accidentally left my phone at the dorm."
Jiho looks around, and all the members have scattered to different rooms, Yukwon calling for Minhyuk from another part of the dorm and everyone busy with the spoils of their shopping trip. Realizing he's really not as alone as he thinks, Jiho grins and slings his arm around Namjoon's shoulder. "Seokjin's nice to talk to."
"Merry Christmas, punk!" someone's laughing in another room, and Jiho thinks that maybe he could get used to a different kind of coming home, after all.
thanks to jy and j for the beta work and cheerleading!! ♥
summary: jiho’s only connected to the world through voices, but today it’s enough; he makes a friend in seokjin.
originally posted here, written in nugu-seyo for a_dead_koala.
By the time Jiho opens his eyes, it’s fifteen hours into Christmas Day. He lies in bed, eyes closed, and doesn’t move until he’s convinced himself that he can’t fall asleep again. Even then, he makes only a minimal effort to leave the comfort of his covers and ends up with half of his body off the bed, half still on it. There are no sounds in the dorm, which is strange, so he calls out a random name. "Park Kyung!" he yells into the rest of the house. There's no answer, and he tries again, louder. "Jaehyo hyung!"
One by one, he shouts the rest of the members' names, but there is only silence. "Is there even anyone home," he groans, finally sliding out completely onto the floor and lying there. They'd all spent Christmas Eve together, with a couple of friends added in at a small party in the dorm, which was partly for Christmas Eve, and partly to celebrate Jaehyo's birthday on the 23rd. Jiho looks up at the ceiling, the cold air in the dorm pressing down too heavily on his chest. The quiet stillness surrounding him, Jiho shivers and rolls onto his side. With no one around, the house feels less like home than a sterile collection of empty spaces, placidly leaning against each other.
Jiho pulls himself up from the floor and dresses more appropriately for the cold, pulling on a sweater that he's pretty sure belongs to Minhyuk. Pulling open the bedroom door and walking into the kitchen, he shivers as he microwaves a cup of milk and ponders his breakfast. "Where'd they all go?" says Jiho absentmindedly to himself, and pulls out a mostly empty package of crackers. He opens the front door just to check that there’s no one outside and comes back into the house rubbing his hands together. There’s an empty couch in front of him, and suddenly Jiho remembers childhood winters, where coming home meant coming back to warm rooms and people smiling down at him. This is...a different kind of coming home, he supposes.
While he's dusting the last cracker crumbs off his fingers, Jiho texts Jihoon, where did you guys all go? It's not long before he gets an answer. ahhh we're all eating together but i think it'll be a while before we get back ^^
Jiho's thumb rests on the last character of the message until the screen goes dark, and he leans over onto the table and lets his arms and head rest there for a couple minutes, resignedly bored. "Blooooock..." he sings in a quiet voice, then clears his throat, tapping his finger on the table idly. He looks down for a moment to move his phone onto the table and stares at it.
"B..." continues Jiho with his face down on the table, coming out in a muffled groan. Even though he hasn't had anything official to do since the past couple of days, Jiho has still been shouting lyrics and writing the occasional score when he's been alone. Now, though, with the immediacy of the snow and sleep over him, he doesn't want to move from the warmth of his seat, but gets up to watch television to occupy himself.
A couple hours later, Jiho ends up back at the table, where he's just finished a bowl of ramen. His phone vibrates twice in quick succession. Jiho checks it, but the message turns out to just be another Line update. He buries his face into the crook of his elbow for a few minutes. Then, remembering to send his family holiday greetings, he picks up his phone again. Jiho decides to call Taewoon, who doesn't answer. "Hyung," he says after the beep of the voicemail sounds, holding out the vowel of the word and passing the phone back and forth in front of his face, then hangs up.
He taps a few more contacts and calls, only to be greeted with voicemail messages and quick conversations that end with "hey, sorry but I've got to go!"
It is the holiday season, Jiho reasons, but the thought doesn’t stop him from feeling like he’s the only one alone on Christmas Day. One rapidly ended phone call after another, he shrinks further into his sweatshirt until his legs are tucked under his chin, limbs all held within easy warming distance. If only, thinks Jiho as he breathes across the tops of his kneecaps, if only everything else were as close, the rest of the pieces of places and people he’s considered home.
Jiho keeps dialing increasingly distant friends until he hits Namjoon's phone number. His call is picked up on the second ring, but the voice that answers isn't Namjoon's. "Hello?"
Jiho, who's been pulling on the strings of his sweatshirt, puts his legs down and sits up, abruptly alert. "Ah yeah, I'm looking for Namjoon...?"
There's a shuffling sound on the other end, and Jiho thinks that the phone's been transferred to Namjoon and is about to break into a loud "hey" until the same voice comes on again. "Uh," and it sounds like the phone is some distance from the speaker's face, until the voice is suddenly close again, "this is Jiho hyung? This is Seokjin from Bangtan." The respectful tone of Seokjin's voice makes Jiho think that he's almost about to bow to him through the phone.
"Oh, hi hi," says Jiho. "How are you? Where's Namjoon? We haven't really talked before, have we?"
There's a pause before Seokjin answers. "Namjoon's out with a couple of friends, I think."
Jiho's too glad for the contact, even through the phone, to hang up yet, so he continues. "How are your holidays? Are you going to celebrate for Christmas?"
"Hmm, not really," Seokjin says, slowly warming to the conversation. "How about you, hyung?"
Jiho laughs for a moment. "I woke up not too long ago, actually, and we had a party by ourselves last night, so I guess that's what I'll be doing for this year. I'm alone, because everyone went somewhere while I was asleep."
"Basically what happened to me," Seokjin murmurs into the phone, sounding preoccupied.
"Do you need to be somewhere else? I can hang up if--" Jiho offers.
"Oh, no, I was just thinking about...uh...gifts, actually," responds Seokjin hurriedly. "I mean, this is a nice conversation, um..." There's a whispered "hyung!" in the background on Seokjin's end. He keeps talking. "It's really nice to talk to you, so, yes. Yeah. Was the party fun?"
"Yeah!" says Jiho, and animatedly describes how they'd each gone out to buy weird party additions (Jihoon had outdone them all and came in dressed up in a red suit and white beard), and that Minhyuk, of all people, was the first to fall asleep and Kyung had drawn on his face. Someone took a picture. "Make sure the selca's at the right angle," Jaehyo snickered from his place on the couch. Minhyuk had suddenly woken up, though, during the second picture, and looked at all the eyes on him. "What? Why are you all staring?" The rest of them had burst out laughing, and when they were all in the shot, Jaehyo's face ended up as the worst in the picture, mouth wide open in a hilariously ugly expression.
Seokjin's laughing by the end of Jiho's account, and Jiho's pleased with himself for acquainting himself with Seokjin so quickly. "How did you spend last night?"
"Well," Seokjin says, “it was a quiet but pretty enjoyable evening." They're silent for a few minutes, Jiho tracing circles on the surface of his cell phone screen and wondering what Seokjin's doing on his end. The phone feels hot on Jiho’s cheek, and when he puts it down, he realizes that he’s been on the phone with Seokjin for a while. He checks his phone, and they've been talking for seventeen minutes now.
Jiho hears the key in the door a few seconds before it swings open, the rest of the members filing in quietly with bags in their arms until they see that Jiho's awake and sitting at the table, and they freeze for a moment before their entrance explodes into a cacophony of sound and chatter. "Hyung," Jihoon roars in greeting, and sits down next to Jiho, immediately starting a stream of chatter. "I thought you'd be taking a nap or something, we went out and bought stuff you know, I mean it's been hours, have you moved from when you texted me earlier--"
Jiho waves frantically at him to try to cut Jihoon off, but it isn't enough, so Jiho nudges his arm. "Pyo Jihoon, I'm talking on the phone."
Seokjin, who's been silent since Jihoon started talking, speaks up. "No, it's okay, you have things to get back to, yeah? And Namjoon should be there, too, he said he wanted to surprise you so I didn't say anything. Yeah, it's totally fine." He sounds embarrassed now.
Jiho's almost disappointed. "Well...if you want to talk again, uh, do you want my number? I can give it to you now!”
Despite the sounds of feeble but lighthearted protest coming from Seokjin’s end, Jiho relates his number quickly. “Wait, sorry if I interrupted anything that you were doing, it's been more than twenty minutes now, but yeah it was nice talking with you! Oh, and you don't have to call me hyung, Namjoon's told me that you're only a couple months younger than me."
"Alright," Seokjin agrees, and adds "Merry Christmas!" Jiho ends the call smiling, and Jihoon speaks up again. "Hyung, who were you talking with?"
"Ah, Seokjin," Jiho answers distractedly, and turns to sock Namjoon in the arm. "Hey, you didn't even tell me you were coming!"
Namjoon laughs, and it's an open, lighthearted sound. "Sorry, everyone said you were asleep and I accidentally left my phone at the dorm."
Jiho looks around, and all the members have scattered to different rooms, Yukwon calling for Minhyuk from another part of the dorm and everyone busy with the spoils of their shopping trip. Realizing he's really not as alone as he thinks, Jiho grins and slings his arm around Namjoon's shoulder. "Seokjin's nice to talk to."
"Merry Christmas, punk!" someone's laughing in another room, and Jiho thinks that maybe he could get used to a different kind of coming home, after all.
thanks to jy and j for the beta work and cheerleading!! ♥