plummet || taegi

07. montreal

taehyung woke up with a start, blinking rapidly, breath ragged. he pat the side of his bed and sighed when he felt it cold and empty. was he relieved? was he disappointed? he couldn't tell. he was too disoriented right now.

this was becoming annoying.

yoobi, yeonsi, yugi, whatever his name was, the coffee shop guy, the can't-get-over-my-goth-phase dude, that guy, yes. he needed to get the fuck out of his head, of his dreams.

it's been almost two weeks of this shit.

the thing was taehyung kept going to that coffee shop, at least twice a day. the baristas already greeted him by name (although he went by v because no one knew how to get his name right, and because it was short for vante, but irrelevant right now). taehyung's thoughts kept bouncing back and forth like this: yugi, his insta handle, his amateur photography, yeonmi, the amazing mocha frappe he had tried, work, yuli,  drawing, his boss, yoosik, and back to his dream and the circle kept going and going.

but whatever he thought about, yugi came back to his mind in a heartbeat. taehyung tossed the sheets off and shook his head. he really needed to find out his name.

just then his phone rang. initially he thought it was his alarm, but he turned to see the glaring brightness of his screen and scrunched his eyes into slits as he reached for it. because of this, he couldn't see who was calling. "hello?" he grumbled, sleep still heavy in his tone.

"taetae! glad you're awake! but you should go back to sleep now!"

he frowned as he recognised his boss's voice from the other side of the line. "uh, sir, what do you mean?"

"it's december twenty-two! go do your christmas shopping and stuff! you can leave the store closed until january second, actually. see this as my christmas gift to you, paid vacation!"

taehyung was fully awake now, eyes wide as saucers. "no! you can't be serious! are you serious?" his boss laughed through the other side of the line, taehyung letting out a breathy laugh of his own. "you're amazing. best boss ever! i'll buy you a present, too! thank you so much!"

"yeah, yeah, go back to sleep, kid. enjoy your week of freedom."

"thank you! bye!"

he hung up, feeling like a kid on christmas morning, and quickly checked his card's balance. he wanted to get some proper gifts for his friends and brother. lucky for him, financial aid covered his main expenses and his boss paid him generously. his parents also deposited money in his card once in a while, so he was left with more than plenty of money. he thanked the gods for convincing seokjin to let him live with him, since his pockets would have been empty if taehyung also had to pay rent. he realised he, as the temporary manager, most probably had to let the other employees know the store was closed for holidays, so he opened the phone app. but then he winced.

the call from his boss said unknown number from montreal.

long distance calls.

oh, boy. he really needed some coffee now.

and he wasn't the only one.

yoongi barely made it to the counter alive, the barista giggling. she was a young girl, high school junior, and she was a fan of his. yoongi realised he should probably act cooler in front of a fan now that he had debuted as an artist, but he couldn't right now and he was too comfortable with the staff of this coffee shop at this point.

at least he had bothered to look good today.

"i expected you to crawl in with pyjamas, if i'm being honest," the barista admitted through giggles. the cashier came back from wherever he had gone and pushed her away. "americano, three pumps vanilla syrup?" she called. yoongi nodded.

"make it a medium, please." he turned to the cashier. "on a scale from zero to bette white, how close to death do i look today?" he asked the cashier punching in his order. at his words, the poor guy looked up, mouth hanging open.

"rude," he reprimanded, shaking his head. "she doesn't look near death."

"right, and my hair is bright blue." yoongi swiped his card with a yawn, clicking his pin in and looking around while his order processed.

"he's not here," the cashier said, "that v guy. he hasn't come yet. maybe he stares at you because he knows you're famous?" yoongi blinked at him slowly, then he blushed when he realised he was too obvious about looking for the newly blonde boy. "you're such a hard rapper and you turn into mush when you think about that guy. it's cute, honestly, but i'm getting frustrated."

yoongi frowned. "why is that?"

"because our ship won't fucking sail," the barista yelled. she was smacked in the head by another kid working with her.

the cashier snorted but shrugged. "yeah, it's getting tiring. you guys should just talk. i honestly have been thinking recently that maybe he knows your music and that's why he stares, but you don't have any music videos out yet, right?" yoongi shook his head. the videos were due on january first, since he wholeheartedly hated december. it was such a jinxed month for him. "but maybe he doesn't know who you are and he genuinely is interested in you."

yoongi puffed his cheeks and let out a long sigh, his puckered lips making his breath blow at his bangs. "maybe he's just weird and stares at people. don't get my hopes up here." he groaned then, rubbing the bridge of his nose, pushing his glasses up in the process. "since when are you guys so involved in my love life?"

"we're basically your friends now," the barista chirped, skipping to the cash register and handing yoongi his coffee. "can't escape us. we come with the caffeine addiction package." yoongi took his coffee and sighed, realising he didn't even pay attention to their names.

"okay," he mumbled, taking a sip. he looked at their names quickly, memorising their names. peter and alex, peter and alex, peter and alex... "hey, those polaroids of me and my friends, when are you going to display them?"

"we're working on that right now actually—."

alex was cut short by a girl clearing her throat. "excuse me? i was just wondering, are you agust d?"

it was like a switch flipped, and yoongi was a completely different person. his eyes full of mischief and mirth, and happiness for being recognised, focused on the the three girls as he smiled. "that would be me," he replied cheekily. two of the girls passive aggressively stared at him while the girl who had approached him first just smiled and nodded. "uh, do you guys need anything? are you okay?"

"w-we wanted to get a photo!" she finally sputtered. yoongi grinned and almost melted at the smile the girl reciprocated with.

"then, let's take that picture, yes?" the girl nodded and the four of them huddled together, posing for the photo. he was so glad he actually decided to look decent today. he should probably do that more now.

while he thanked the girls and had a generically polite conversation, taehyung and chanyeol walked into the shop, mid conversation. "i can't do this anymore, i need to know what you got jimin for christmas! you can tell me so come on and—." taehyung stopped mid-sentence when he saw yeonmi with three other girls, laughing. it looked like he was paying for them. taehyung's jaw clenched. why was he jealous? he couldn't be jealous right?

chanyeol didn't notice his silence because he had already begun talking over him, so taehyung decided to turn his attention back to his friend. but just as he turned his head, he caught sight of the usually moody man, and he actually smirked at him.

taehyung could have sworn something in his neck cracked at how quickly he turned away.

he could also have sworn he heard the man chuckle.