chicken noodle soup || sope

eleven

Yoongi waited in the restaurant kitchen at an hour much earlier than he would have liked. He kept checking the time on his phone, hoping that the Starbucks coffees he had gotten for Hoseok and himself wouldn't get cold. Hoseok wasn't late, Yoongi was just nervous. He didn't know why he felt so jittery, it was just training after all.

It was just then that Hoseok popped his head in through the door, his bright smile not even slightly dampened by the early hour. "Good morning sir!"

"Good morning Hoseok," Yoongi felt himself warm up a little. The early morning start suddenly didn't seem so horrible as Hoseok skipped into the kitchen, filling the room with his bubbly energy. He picked up a coffee cup and handed to the red-haired man, who stared at it inquisitively. "It's for you."

"Oh- thank you," Hoseok stared down at the warm paper cup. He wasn't usually a fan of coffee (too bitter), but he tried to look grateful anyways.

"It's not coffee," Yoongi explained, quickly noticing the employee's hesitancy. "It's a caramel macchiato with whip cream, and with oat milk because I wasn't sure if you were lactose intolerant or something. It's like 99% sugar or something but I don't know... I thought you'd like it."

"Oh!" Hoseok exclaimed, a little more excited this time. He took a tiny sip of the drink; in case it was too hot. He grinned immediately as the sugary coffee hit his tongue. "It's great!"

Yoongi grinned, glad that Hoseok liked it. Those sugary coffee drinks were not at all his style, that much sugar would have given him a headache. He enjoyed the bitterness of an iced americano most of the time, but Hoseok was a sweetheart- so sweet drinks just seemed fitting.

"Let's get started," Yoongi decided, handing Hoseok an apron. The red head took another swig of the coffee before placing it down on the countertop and following the head chef over to the stoves like a baby duck waddles behind its mother. "I think we should start with your knife skills- they need a lot of work."

"Oh right, okay," Hoseok agreed. He was ready to get to work. Yoongi had been kind enough to keep him on as a chef, the least he could do was put 100% into each of their sessions. He needed to learn if he ever wanted to fulfill his mother's ambitions.

Chef Min pulled out a chopping board and a hefty basket filled with at least fifty red apples, dropping them down in front of his employee, who stared at them with wide eyes. "You want me to cut all of these."

Yoongi nodded. "It's all about practice. You'll need to spend some time chopping before you start to see improvement. Plus..." He paused, grabbing one of the apples out of the basket and taking a large bite out of it, "We can eat apples for breakfast."

Hoseok grabbed one of the shiny fruits, placing it down carefully on the cutting board and bringing the knife up to begin what seemed like it was going to be a long morning's work.

"Wait!" Yoongi quickly reached out and grabbed Hoseok's forearm before he could bring the knife down. When Hoseok turned to his head chef, the dark-haired man's eyes were filled with panic.

"What's wrong?" Hoseok asked.

"Your fingers," He let out a long breath, already exasperated by the red head's undexterous ability with a knife. "You can't hold the apple like that, or you'll chop off your finger tips."

"Like this then?" Hoseok wondered, shifting his grip on the fruit.

Yoongi shook his head, "No, try like this."

Now Yoongi could have very easily grabbed another apple and demonstrated proper knife skills, but why would he do that when Hoseok's hand was right there, slender tan fingers awkwardly placed on the fruit.

Something illogical in Yoongi took over, and he placed his larger hand over Hoseok's, slowly positioning his fingers properly on the apple, as he pulled his body close to the younger's to get a better view over his shoulder. This is normal, Yoongi told himself, I'm sure this is fine. We're just training. Even still, his thoughts did nothing to curb his quickening heartrate.

Hoseok gulped. Yoongi was so close behind him that he could feel the heat of his breath on the nape of his neck. The hairs on his arms stood on end, as his boss' large hand lingered upon his own. "Um sir?"

"Yes Hoseok?" His voice came as a low whisper, the smooth tone making his cheeks redden. Yoongi put a finger to Hoseok's chin, tilting his head so that they were eye-to-eye, only a couple of inches apart. He immediately caught the blush that had fallen over Hoseok's face, the way his lips were slightly parted, his deep brown eyes wide with a timid astonishment. Hoseok was completely flustered.

"I uh I-I..." Hoseok stammered faintly, his heart pounding as Yoongi leaned in slightly. He watched the man's pink lips, realizing how much he wanted to feel them on his. He let his eyes flutter closed as Yoongi leaned closer and their foreheads came together, lips just barely apart.

"Oh fu-"

Both men came apart, twisting around to the kitchen doorway where Jungkook was standing, his jaw falling as a look of terror fell across his face, before he turned around to hide his eyes from the scene in front of him. "Oh my god! I'm sorry!"

"Jungkook," Yoongi squeaked, eyeing the young brunette nervously, "What are you doing here?"

Jungkook had left for work early just in case his rusty old bike broke down again. He didn't want to be late to work, although now he just regretted coming in at all. "M' sorry, I'll leave- I didn't see anything, I swear!"

Yoongi walked over to him, "Jungkook, it's fine, we were just-"

"IM SORRY PLEASE DON'T LOCK MY IN THE FREEZER," Jungkook cried, bringing his arms up in front of his face to protect himself, as if Chef Min was about to fight him. He wasn't ready to die, he hadn't even had sex yet.

"Jungkook!" Yoongi voice became serious, trying to get him to calm down. "You're not in trouble, okay?"

Jungkook peered out from behind his hands, "I'm not?"

"No," Yoongi repeated, "Just don't say anything alright."

"Yes sir, of course!"

"Maybe just give us a minute," The head chef suggested, "You can uh... go wipe down the menus."

Jungkook ran off faster than Lightning McQueen in the Piston Cup. Yoongi turned back to the red head who stood awkwardly by the basket of apples, blushing and shy. The dark-haired man couldn't help but grin at him, a smile which Hoseok quickly returned.

"Those apples aren't going to cut themselves," Yoongi quipped, grabbing his americano and taking a sip, deciding that he would find a better moment to kiss the sunshine boy's pretty blushing lips. Work probably wasn't the right place for that.

"Right- the apples," Hoseok echoed softly, turning his attention back to the cutting board, although he didn't have a lot of confidence. He was a little too wobbly to carve the apples properly in his current state of disbelief. My boss almost just kissed me. How the hell would he explain that to Seokjin?

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