Never Mind | #yoonmin

3

The little office where Jisoo and I spend most of our time planning episodes feels stuffy from the heater and our conversation with Boram from finance. We again spent precious time on futile efforts to convince her to increase the budget so we can hire an extra pair of hands for the production crew. The crew has been struggling to get everything in an as high of a quality as they want with the current small team. They say they have to keep cutting corners in order to make the deadlines, but Boram doesn't agree that this is a priority now to "throw money at" — as she calls it. Boram leaves the room and Jisoo lets her head drop into her arms on the table.

"Don't worry Jisoo, we're still doing fine. We'll just have to tell the crew to keep cutting those corners for a while longer." I try to soothe her.

"Ugh. Fine." She doesn't sound convinced at all.

"Shall I get you a coffee? I could use one as well."

"You just want to go out for a smoke." Jisoo's voice is muffled in her arms.

"Ha, no really, I want a fresh cup of coffee from the cafe down the street." And I might smoke, but she doesn't have to know that. Jisoo lifts her head and looks at me with her eyes squint, but then relaxes her face and sighs.

"Okay, thanks Yoongi. I'd love a coffee."

On the elevator ride downstairs my mood feels unsuitably uplifted in contrast to the result of the meeting just now. I hum the tune of Namjoon's new single which changes into a light whistle as the elevator doors open on the ground floor. I grab my card to open the gates of the building and see someone struggling to open the gates on the other side, trying to get in. My whistling sound abruptly disappears when I see who it is.

What the hell is Park Jimin doing here? Last time I saw him was several weeks ago at Namjoon's party when he just disappeared. I freeze with my lips still puckered from whistling and my hand with the card floating above the gate I was about to pass through. Jimin notices my awkward position and looks up. It takes me a solid 5 seconds to defrost and produce a sound.

"H-hi." Whoa. Great work Min Yoongi. You said hi, barely. "Do you ehh... need help?" I point at the card in his hand.

"Oh, yeah... It won't open, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong." He tries to open the gate again by placing the card on the scanner. Nothing happens.

"Try this gate, that one can be a bit moody." I take a step back from the gate.

"Oh, okay." He chuckles softly and walks over to "my" gate. The gate beeps positively and opens up. Jimin walks through and stands before me. "Thank you." He bows his head slightly.

"No problem." Come on. Say something more. "What ehh... what are you doing here?" Okay, that almost sounded rude, but sure, it's something. Jimin looks at me a bit confused, understandably so.

"D-do you know me?" He points his little finger at his own chest and raises his eyebrows.

"Yes... You're Park Jimin from Lachimolala. You spilled my drink on me." Fuck, why am I so awkward? I'm a freaking talk show host, talking should be my thing.

"Oh, you remember that..." He scratches the back of his neck. "Anyway, I'm renting the new dance studio here with my crew since this week."

"Ah, on the thrid floor?"

"Yup."

"Cool."

"Yeah. Anyway, I should get going, they're waiting for me." Jimin purses his lips and bows his head again quickly.

"Ah sure sure, see you around then." I watch him sprint to one of the elevators before it closes its doors. Temporarily stunned by my own awkwardness I make my way through the gates and walk out of the building.

When I enter the cafe I realise I got there fully on autopilot so my brain could process the short conversation with Jimin. I can't stop thinking about the things I should have said versus what actually came out of my mouth. I could have asked him politely if he's indeed Park Jimin from Lachimolala — which I know he is, but at least it's a smoother start of the conversation — and that it's nice to see him again. But instead I just blur out "What are you doing here??" Ugh. I rub my eyes as if the embarrassment is stuck on my eyelids and take a deep breath before it's my turn to place my order.

"Here you go." I place the coffee on Jisoo's desk.

"Oh my god you're the best. Thank you." She eagerly grabs the cup and lets the hot steam enter her nostrils before taking a sip.

"Hey ehh, do you know the dance group Lachimolala?" I can't resist finding some excuse to talk about my interaction with Jimin.

"Yeah of course, they're renting the space downstairs now right?" She says causally while trying to type something with one hand and holding her coffee in the other. Always multitasking.

"Oh, you knew? I just ran into Jimin downstairs so I just found out." I say slightly surprised that she knew already while I didn't.

"Hmm yeah you know I like to gossip with Narae the receptionist, she told me weeks ago already. She always knows everything that happens in this building. Anyway, what's Jimin like in real life?" She now looks up at me, seemingly quite curious to know the answer.

"He's... very kind, and polite. We didn't talk much, but he seems quite different from his dance videos. He's so fierce there while in real life he almost seems a bit shy."

"Really? He looks so confident in his videos..."

"Mmm. Didn't you meet him at Namjoon's party?" I ask, hoping she heard some gossip about why he left in such a rush, since I can't help but feel curious.

"He was there? Was Jungkook there as well??" She almost slams her coffee down on her table.

"Who?"

"Jungkook! One of the other dancers! I have a major crush on him, I keep hoping I run into him in the building..."

"Oh, I don't know, I didn't see who he was with." Which I really didn't. The faces around him didn't look familiar. Did I even really look at who was standing next to him?

Jisoo insists that I watch one of their videos with her so she can show me who Jungkook is, just in case I run into him in the building and can get him to meet her. As if I'm some kind of Cupid now. We watch the video on her laptop, but my eyes are solely glued to Jimin's effortlessly moving body. His sweater is behaving just as flirty as Jimin and keeps showing us a little peek of his belly button, causing me to feel a little funny in the same area of my own body. As the video ends I clear my throat and want to walk to my own desk, but Jisoo stops me.

"Omo, Yoongi, I have a great idea!" She digs her fingers in my arm.

"What?"

"We should get them on the show!" She shakes my arm in excitement.

"A-all of them? There's like... 20." I weakly point my finger at the screen where Jimin's belly button was just teasing me.

"No of course not, maybe just Jimin since he's the leader and one other? Like... Jungkook?" She smirks and bounces her eyebrows up and down.

"Jisoo... You just want to meet him." I chuckle.

"Well, that too, but wouldn't it also just be kind of perfect for the show? They have been quite popular and we haven't had dancers on the show yet, at least not from a dance-only group like them, so it would be something new. And I bet we could get that active wear brand that contacted us as a sponsor."

"Hmm... Actually that's not such a bad idea, but we should run it by Jessi first and try to see if we could actually get a sponsor. I don't want to disappoint Jimin in case it all falls through."

"Fiiiine." Jisoo returns her focus to her screen, allowing me to take my coffee to my own desk. I sit down with a sigh, planning to enter the password of my laptop and catch up on emails, but the fingers of my free hand stay clear of the keyboard and slowly drum on the table instead. I do really like Jisoo's idea to get a dance group on the show, but... Jimin? Jimin makes me nervous and awkward, how could I possibly make that a good episode? I can barely say a proper hello to the guy. But it does mean I could get to know him better. I want to. He's fascinating me. I could shamelessly interview him about his life, where gets his inspiration and motivation from, and how he manages to be such a duality king...