namkook - "with arms outstretched"
The serene expanse of the glacial lake is unchanged. The sun, warming Jungkook’s face and the wooden dock under his back, hasn’t changed in time so big Jungkook can’t even imagine it. Jimin and Taehyung are laughing up on the lawn, and they sound the same as ever—but that bubbling giggle between them is Taehyung’s toddler, and she is terrifyingly new. Time is passing whether Jungkook can imagine it or not.
Someone leans over Jungkook upside-down, blotting out the sun—Namjoon. “What are you doing down here?” he asks, a gentle smile on his face that suggests Jungkook is being a little strange.
Jungkook grew up so thoroughly accepted by his hyungs and adored by his fans that it took him a while to understand that the impulses and whims he let guide him around were pretty strange to some people. But by then he didn’t care to change, or have to. “I wanted to feel the sunshine.”
Namjoon smiles and hunkers down next to him, making a little puff of noise when something pops in his hip. He lies back, his head close to Jungkook’s and his body angled away. Even without looking, Jungkook can feel the heat of him, the gravity. The lake laps underneath them, lightly rocking the dock.
Jungkook still feels like a child inside, small and strange. That’s who he sees when he looks in the mirror—he has to blink a few times to really focus on the aging man he’s becoming, even though he loves the smile lines and the newfound peace.
And when he looks at Namjoon, he sees that lanky teenager he first met. He has come to understand, too, that Namjoon was also kind of goofy back then, his puppy limbs and desperate haircuts. But Jungkook doesn’t care about that, either. He sees what he saw then, and he’s as impressed every time.
“What are you thinking about?” Namjoon asks.
For years, Jungkook has been telling himself it’s too late, too late, if he ever had a chance he missed it. But the sun glows and the lake sighs and everything feels right on time. He turns his head to look at Namjoon’s face, his childlike dimples and his smile lines, and he says, “You.”