"Well, well. Look at you, dressed up all fancy."
Jeongguk's fingers still on the empty dish he was in the middle of stacking, staring down at the mustard stained napkin. He glances over his shoulder and almost drops every dish in his hand at the sight of standing there like he's ready for a photo shoot, leather jacket pooled around the joints of his elbows.
"Hyung," he yelps, steadying the plates in his arms before they spill onto the floor. "What are you doing here?"
Taehyung drags his sunglasses down his nose, exposing a row of beneath each of his eyes. "You told me you worked here. I wanted to come see it for myself. See if this place deserves to have my boy working here."
This is no time for Jeongguk to swoon and keel over. He's working.
Jeongguk spares a glance to the rest of the restaurant, people looking their way, some taking pictures of Taehyung. His boss looks like he may faint, clutching his chest as he stands in the corner.
"Besides. You said you couldn't hang out with me tonight. And I missed you," Taehyung adds and Jeongguk wonders how he can say things like that so easily.
A steak knife slips off the plate and before Jeongguk can think about how to manoeuvre to pick it up, Taehyung's already bending down to pick it up for him. "Thanks," he chokes out.
"You have anywhere you can squeeze me in?"
Jeongguk sets the plates on the trolley with the rest of them, eyes sweeping the tables. "You really want to eat here?"
Taehyung takes his sunglasses off and slips them on the inside of his jacket. "Why? You got a rat problem or something?"
"No, no!" He's quick to assure, checking that his boss hadn't heard that. "It's just that, uh. You know. It's not really your usual style?"
"I'm not a prig, Guk. Show me to a table."
Jeongguk quickly grabs one of the menus from behind the pedestal before gesturing Taehyung to follow him. He's not entirely sure where to put him, if he should put him in one of their smallest tables or on the family sized table, just to give him space. He eventually settles for a booth. A booth seems safe.
Once Taehyung's seated, he shrugs out of his leather jacket to reveal so much skin that Jeongguk's knees wobble. "Can I get you something to drink?"
"Look at you, my little boy being all professional. Getting me all hot, Jeon," Taehyung teases, shooting him a wink as he opens his menu.
Jeongguk only internally screams for about twenty seconds rather than the usual thirty. He's definitely getting better.
Taehyung hums, looking over the wine list. "I'll take the '98 Merlot. Been a while since I've had anything that young." And then he proceeds to look Jeongguk over, head tilting to the side.
Jeongguk stills, pen on the paper digging in so hard that it tears a hole through at least three pages. He laughs too loudly and quickly rushes off to go and get the wine. This will be a test of strength for him. To see if he can keep his professional work place composure, even in the face of Kim Taehyung. It'll be a stress test of sorts. He can't imagine anything tougher, though. Because when he's not working, he's out back texting Taehyung, or thinking about Taehyung. So how is he supposed to focus when the man himself is sitting at one of the tables?
His bow tie feels a little tight around his neck, tugging it away a few inches, only to drop his hand quickly as his boss, Mr. Jung dashes over to him.
"Are my eyes deceiving me, or is that really Kim Taehyung at table fifteen?"
