it was their last few days in america and the maknae had decided to take a dip in the pool , to relax his muscles , and to get his mind off few things ; his new interest was swimming– the exhilaration of feeling the water slap against his palms when he pushed it away and his body practically soaring through the currents was something he craved since his stay in the hotels. jeongguk had a knack for watching videos of sports he had been interested in (interests that bloomed after watching a specific anime or a show that hyperfixated on said sport – it was enough to motivate him to learn it ) and thus , try it out for himself.
a gasp ripped out from the back of his throat when he pushed out from the chlorine - filled water , gentle music filling the silence of the pool area. a hand pushed back his slicked and wet hair , the water causing him to bob a bit , a frustrated expression on his tanned features. no matter how many times he tried , he could never get the timing of the turn right –
& just when he was about to give it another go , a familiar raspy - like voice boomed throughout the emptiness , clashing against the gentleness of the music rippling above them. jeongguk turned his head towards the entrance , eyes spotting the rapper taking steps towards him , a natural pout on his lips. the maknae laughed , a wet hand wiping the water off his face while he drifted close to the edge of the pool , toned arms crossing and resting against it , his chin gingerly resting against his forearms.
‘ i didn’t know you wanted to swim with me , hyung , ’ a teasing grin. ‘ but i didn’t want to bother you – everyone else is resting and all so i thought i’d come out here on my own. but … ’ carefully , the maknae drifted away from the edge ( for the sake of his own life ) , grin only growing. ‘ it’s kinda hard to forget because hyung’s so tiny , you know ? ’
when it comes to hotels, there are parts of it that yoongi frequents to quite regularly (his room, resting lounges, dining halls and, more because of duty than sheer will, the gym) and there are those that he’s entirely unfamiliar with -- just like the pool. he’s pretty confident he would not find his way around if it wasn’t for the signs and distant sound of water being splashed around, legs that still remember the not-long gone comfort of his bed sluggishly carrying him in the chosen direction.
he has no trunks, or towel, or will to actually swim, and while he’s sure that the hotel equipment would easily make up for his lack of preparation with the exception for the last point (unless there’s some very persistent trainer loitering around in the middle of the night, that is), he still walks right past the locker and changing room. soft slippers, sweatpants and a t-shirt, still crumpled from sleep, will have to do.
he walks into the pool hall with caution, first carefully looking around to see if nobody is there and then following the swimming body attentively, wanting to make sure that it is, indeed, their sports-obsessed maknae with a knack for unnecessarily tiring activities performed at the crack of midnight. only after confirming that his gut about seeing a sneaking form in the hallways just fifteen minutes earlier was right, yoongi walks in properly, lungs instantly filling with the warm, moist and chlorine-tinted air.
there’s something hypnotizing in watching the human body flow through the water so gracefully and move almost like it was made to live in there. it almost has yoongi’s own muscles relax, as if he’s the one in the water too, feeling light and free and like gravity is not a thing anymore.
and then--then it stops, the water splashes in less then graceful way, and the spell is broken. of course, it wouldn’t be jeon jeongguk if he didn’t strive for some kind of level of perfection in anything he does, swimming included. yoongi is clueless as to what his goal has been this time, but he can see just by a single look at the profile of his face, the furrow of his thick eyebrows, that he hasn’t quite reached it just yet.
“who says i wanna swim?” he asks, head tilted to the side slightly and a near perfect deadpan on his face, because, really, jeongguk should know better. “doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check on me and ask though,” he berates softly, but it’s with a glint of obvious amusement to his eye, the smallest curve of smile on his lips -- the kind of familiar, everyday banter that they’ve got going for the past years upon years.
he wouldn’t ever actually blame the younger (or anyone, for that matter) for supposedly forgetting about him -- truth to be told, yoongi’s life cycles tend to be a bit odd and he doesn’t expect anyone to follow them. with his energy drained in excessively quick manner, he’s usually the first one to fall asleep after schedules, so very often missing out on group activities, but then he also wakes up at odd times of the late evening, when everyone else is already coming down from the high of the day, ready to rest. it usually means he has some precious time for himself and most of the times, he doesn’t even bother looking for company. it doesn’t mean that, sometimes -- just sometimes -- a slow and quiet moment with company would be a nice thing. it’s the kind of luxury that they don’t get all that often, especially on tours.
yoongi crouches next to jeongguk, close to the edge of the pool, but just far enough to be safe from accidentally toppling over into the water. his elbow rest against his knees, and he lets out a huffy laugh at jeongguk’s words, eyes resting at his face that has drops of water running down from the strands of his hair.
“don’t push it, you overgrown brat,” he says, briefly reaching out to gently flick the very center of jeongguk’s forehead, catching it at the very last moment as he floats away. “yeah, keep on mocking my size, but i bet you’d stop laughing if i got in the water. smaller bodies are so much faster and more agile while swimming than a pile of muscle like yourself. you’d cry from frustration. cry, i tell you.”
