it's just kissing | m.j ✓

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.

It's about two weeks until their annual Christmas party. Hoseok, despite all the complaining, does manage to pick out a decent sized tree for decorating, despite how difficult it is to purchase one in Korea on such a short notice. Jimin nearly crashes into the tree in excitement as soon as he sees it inside the bar, and luckily, it's Jungkook who catches the man right before he runs straight into it.

"Wow! This tree is so much bigger than I expected!" Jimin says with a giddy grin once the initial excitement has worn off. In all honesty, he'd been expecting a small tree barely the size of himself standing sadly in a corner, but no, it was much bigger than him. Right now, it was barren, but he knows for a fact that there are boxes of ornaments waiting to be hung up. Afterall, he picked out most of them alongside Taehyung, who seemed to be just as intrigued by shiny things.

"When do we get to hang them up?" Jimin asks, turning to look at Hoseok, who is busily writing something down on a notepad. The manager barely glances up as he answers, his hand still moving rapidly across the paper.

"We usually take volunteers to work on it on a day off or just work on it after business hours. You interested in volunteering?"

"Of course. I mean, I can get started on it today. After work."

To this, Hoseok does look up, with raised eyebrows and all. "Wow, you really are into the whole Christmas thing, aren't you."

"Yeah. I know, it's silly, but...I've always wanted to try this."

"Well, that's good for us, I guess," the manager replies with a grin. "We'll see who else wants to stick around and help then," he finishes before flipping to the next page and then rushing off elsewhere. Jimin turns back to the tree in front of him and stares at it in awe. There is something beautiful about the way it is standing to one wall of the otherwise modern bar. Jimin can picture all the lights and sparkly ornaments adorning it. Now his only question is if there will be Christmas carols.

"Wow this is the biggest one we've had yet."

Jimin jumps slightly at the familiar voice behind him and finds Taehyung eyeing the tree as well.

"Really?"

"Yup. Usually, it's not this flashy. I suppose this explains why our manager made us pick out a lot more ornaments this year."

"Oh..."

"Not to mention that we weren't even supposed to have a tree this year," the bartender continues, scratching his chin.

"What do you mean?"

"Last year, a couple of drunk people almost knocked it down and it was really close to getting Yoongi, who was, well as you know, DJ-ing. I think he was more pissed about that fact that his equipment almost got destroyed...but yeah, boss man banned it because he didn't want to risk killing someone this year around."

"I...didn't know that."

"Oh. So you don't know why we have a tree again this year."

"No..."

"Hmm, well, I'm glad it's back either way," Taehyung says with a shrug and then rushes off when Seokjin yells for him. Jimin glances back at the tree with a small, confused frown. How come Namjoon hadn't told him anything? Perhaps the man had made a decision to put the tree back up before he even asked. Yeah, that must be it. It's not like he himself has that much power in decision making to begin with anyway.