He's Just a Friend

Chapter 6

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Otsu Seiromushi, as the place was called, was a Korean BBQ restaurant that was luckily situated near campus and their home. Today, Seokjin mentioned that said place was having its grand opening and that he wanted to go during dinner time to see if it was as good as he had heard it would be; Namjoon had agreed, completely willing to try any new place out. Especially after a whole day of moving.

Namjoon had officially settled in. He had spent most of his winter break in Ilsan, convincing his parents of the move. His parents were a bit worried that would mean less visits home, since he tended to go to Ilsan over break, but Seokjin had been able to charm them when he went up to visit. It seemed like being handsome was Namjoon's mom's equivalent of being a "nice young man", because that's all she could gush about on the phone the next day they brought all Namjoon's stuff over.

Otsu Seiromushi wasn't super busy when they arrived. Seokjin had reserved a table and he left to wash his hands as soon as Namjoon and him were guided to their seats. Namjoon was debating through the different meat options on the menu when he was interrupted.

"Seokjinnie will probably just order some beer and some beef."

Namjoon looked up from his menu at the voice. There was a guy staring at him, elbows propped up on the back of their chair's seat, chin resting on his knuckles, and gazing at Namjoon with an amused gleam to his eyes. Namjoon raised a brow at the stranger, squinting at him. The guy seemed somewhat familiar but Joon was sure he'd never seen this face in his life. "Excuse me?"

The guy extended his hand, his crisp black dress shirt bore the restaurant's gold-threaded logo. "Kim Seokjoong," he said in a friendly manner. "I'm Seokjin's hyung. You're Namjoon, right? Seokjin's roommate?"

Namjoon's chair screeched backward as he shot upright. His thighs hit the table hard enough to slosh water from the glasses. "Sorry," he muttered, but his hand—now wet from the water— extended and grabbed the other male's with an embarrassing squish. Namjoon wanted to die at that moment.

Seokjoong just laughed good-naturedly. Didn't even dry his hand when he let go. "It's fine. It's my fault for catching you off guard."

He was so soft spoken that Namjoon can immediately tell that Seokjin learned to speak from his hyung. There were similarities in their mannerisms, in their way of speech and even their faces had similar features: their lips, the crinkle in their eyes, their cheeks. Although of course, Seokjin was much more handsome.

"Sorry," Namjoon repeated, "Jin-Hyung didn't tell me you worked here." Actually, he never really even told him he had an older brother. "I would've greeted you earlier."

Seokjoong let out a faint chuckle. "Actually," he said, his lips curling into a sly smile, "I don't just work here."

Namjoon blinked. "Oh?"

Seokjoong straightened, adjusting his cuffs with deliberate nonchalance. "This is my place."

A beat of silence.

Namjoon's brain finally managed to process those words. "You—" He gestured vaguely at the restaurant, at the staff bustling around in uniforms bearing the same gold-stitched logo on Seokjoong's sleeve. "You're the owner?"

Seokjoong hummed, clearly enjoying the reaction. "Yup," he said, popping the 'p' like Seokjin tends to do. "I'm a bit nervous since it's our grand opening. You never know if the place will actually fill up. I wanted Seokjinnie to be our official greeter for the week— you know, stand by the door looking pretty, maybe take some selfies with customers. His face alone would've doubled our opening week revenue." He sighed dramatically, "But he told me he'd be busy helping you move in. And well, gotta let him do his own thing, you know? Although, between you and me, I miss the days where I could just boss him around and he would drop everything and do it."