Never Mind | #yoonmin

4

Drinking with Namjoon is always as good of an idea as a bad one. Last evening still hangs on my body as a heavy weight, making my head whine and protest against being outside, away from my bed. I should probably skip smoking this morning, especially considering how much I smoked last night, but the first spring-like sun of the year makes me want to celebrate with a cigarette. I manage to resist with the power of my undeniable hangover. Luckily we're not filming anything until next week, so I feel like I'm allowed to be a bit of a mess today.

Namjoon sometimes invites me over to his place when he's having some friends over, he's always afraid I get lonely. I'm not one to plan gatherings like that myself, I rarely even suggest to meet my friends one on one. Luckily I managed to find myself friends who don't mind that about me. When I'm feeling extroverted and do end up meeting them, it's always like we meet every week.

I drag my feet to the cafe before going to the office. The morning rush hour makes me wait patiently in line while scrolling through Instagram on my phone. Images and videos of Lachimolala are painfully frequent in my feed these days. I haven't even been watching their content that much, but the algorithm obviously feels like I should be. A fan edit of Jimin's belly button fighting for freedom from his sweater catches my eye. I watch it while feeling embarrassment tickle in my thumb, hovering above the screen, waiting for me to allow it to scroll to the next video.

"Mr. Min?" A soft voice says behind me. I quickly lock my phone and turn around.

"J-Jimin?" I look at him with enlarged eyes, did he see what I was watching?

"Good morning." He nods and looks at me with a gentle smile.

"Good morning." I slowly take my headphones out and tuck them away in the pocket of my long, black coat, contrasting with Jimin's white padded jacket. The customer in front of me moves to the pick-up area, making me realise it's my turn to order. I turn around to face the barista.

"Ehh... one hot Americano and... whatever he's having." The last words escape my mouth without thinking while I twist my body and point my thumb at Jimin. It is now Jimin's turn to grow a surprised look on his face.

"Oh! Y-you don't have to..." Jimin waves his hands to politely decline.

"It's fine, as a welcome to the building."

"Okay... iced for me please." Jimin purses his lips for a moment while looking down. "T-thank you, Mr. Min."

"No problem." I pay for the drinks and we shuffle to the pick-up area. Feeling slightly smug from my lack of awkwardness, I gain a bit of confidence. "You can call me Yoongi, by the way. Mr. Min makes me feel old." And I also just want us to be more causal, but I don't tell him that.

"Oh, alright. Thanks, Yoongi." Hearing him say my name so cutely makes me smirk. Now that I'm facing him I can see his features more clearly and I can't help but notice his eyes look hollow and a bit red. It's difficult to read if it's from a similar night as mine, or if events with a more sad undertone took place. If we'd known each other better, I'd ask, but...

"How has the dance studio been so far?" I ask instead.

"It's really nice, much better than our previous one, but the heater is kind of broken so it's freezing in there."

"Ai. Yet you still order an iced Americano?"

"Ha, right, I didn't really think about that... Maybe I should have ordered a hot one." Jimin chuckles. "I guess warm up will take a bit longer today."

"You should really bother the concierge about that, nothing in that building gets fixed without having to ask a dozen times at least."

"I see, I'll call him again..." Jimin shuffles his foot, making him look on the full shy end of his duality spectrum. "I ehh... I really liked your latest episode. I was laughing like the whole time."

"Oh, thanks... I was afraid I was being too casual." I admit, wondering why I'm being so honest.

"Really? No not at all. At least, I don't think so. You two had great chemistry."

"We have great editors, they can make any conversation look like sparks are flying. Sometimes by literally editing in sparks." I smirk as I watch Jimin giggle over my silly joke. Being able to make someone who I barely know laugh makes me either proud or convinced they're just trying to kiss my ass. With Jimin, I feel proud. I couldn't imagine him kissing anyone's ass.

The barista places our order on the counter and we pick up our cups, but before I allow Jimin to start walking I take his cold drink and place my hot one in his confused hand.

"So you don't need such a long warm up." I say confidently and just manage to hold back a wink, that would be a bit too slick. Jimin releases another giggle and thanks me politely. We walk out of the cafe and make our way to the building while the sun tries to warm our wintery pale faces, but it's still to early to feel the full effect of the rays. We chat calmly and I try to ignore the fact that the iced drink is making my hand crave the warmth of the cup I gave to Jimin.

We enter the building and reach the gates that will allow us to enter the area that separates us from those without shiny entry cards. Jimin laughs as he tries to enter through the same gate that always denies him. He follows behind me through the friendly gate and we enter an elevator. I press the 3rd floor for him, and 8th floor for me. We ride up in silence. Three floors up, it feels too short. Jimin bows politely and wishes me a good day, I wish him the same. Five more floors.

I decide to pass by Jessi first. I kind of wanted to ask her again if she thought about having Lachimolala as a guest on the show, or basically any dance group. She just needs to give her thumbs up on that genre, she doesn't bother with checking each guest beforehand.

I peek in Jessi's office to see if she's there, but she's not at her desk. It's been almost two weeks already since we asked, but no decision yet. I don't blame her though, she's been dealing with some weird shit that's been going on with her outside of work, something about inappropriate AI images that someone made of her. The laws around AI are so vague at the moment, it looks like she won't get things to go in her favour. She doesn't share many details about it with us, so all I can really do is just not bother her too much about work. Besides, she's EP of more shows than just Honsool, so she must be flooded with work now. I sigh and make my way to Jisoo's and mine four walls.

"Morning." I mumble at Jisoo, who's glued to her screen.

"Morning. Did you see that email from the creative director? I kind of like the idea but I definitely do not want the budget to go there. I want another editor." Jisoo looks at me as I sit down.

"Aigo, let me finish my coffee frist."

"Ha, sorry... Why do you have an iced Americano by the way? You always drink hot when it's cold out."

"Oh, just felt like it..." I don't feel like explaining what happened with Jimin at the cafe, for some reason I feel like keeping that a private little memory. Besides, I'm afraid she's going to ask me to get in touch with Jungkook through Jimin or something.

I sip my — or technically Jimin's — cold coffee, thinking about how Jimin is hopefully enjoying my hot drink right now. I can't deny it feels good, like we have an invisible connection through our switched cups. Do I have a little crush on him? I better not give too much life to that thought, considering he's probably taken and might end up on our show. Let's just call it "possible new friendship jitters", or "possible great show guest jitters".

Instead of logging into my laptop, I grab my phone and search the concierge's number. It rings for a while until he finally picks up.

"Hello, it's Min Yoongi.
...
No it's not about that this time. I wanted to ask if you can check the heating on the third floor."

I see Jisoo turn to me, she tilts her head and mouths a clear "What? Why?" in my direction.