Out Of The Woods (TaeJin)

7 - Monday, November 4th

Monday, November 4th

Seokjin stood at the photo-board and admired the growing collection of pictures. He was in love with one picture of the Eiffel Tower at night - blurry but beautiful. There would be at least one new picture every two days.

He then gasped as he looked closely at one new picture. It was him – in an apron, with hands on his waist, standing in front of the café, staring up at the sky as the sun hit only his face. Even Seokjin couldn't remember when it was from. He was confused if he should be worried about a scary stalker or be flattered by how effortlessly beautiful it looked. His fingers hovered over his picture before he decided against taking it down and walked back to the kitchen.

Now that Irene was back – only after she was promised the same pay as the others – the workload seemed balanced. Jungkook was able to squeeze in few hours of college work too.

Seokjin himself was busy with building a mobile application – one that would help users hire people for all kind of odd jobs. It was an abandoned project but now he had to pick it up because his job search was hitting a dead end. His ex-firm was still withholding his certificate and Seokjin had no proof to provide information about what he did in the last 3 years.

He was now waiting for Mr. Song to show up.

The 'Little Sheep' orphanage received a generous amount of donation from an anonymous source, so they had a little party planned for the children the coming Saturday and because he volunteered to bake cupcakes he had to leave early from his shift.

He walked into the kitchen when the door bell tinged and Jungkook went out to take the order from the new customer while Seokjin wiped the kitchen counter. Irene was busy serving the other customers.

"Seokjin!", Mr. Song came in with that stupid toothy grin.

Seokjin turned and walked to him, who was standing at the door with his arms stretched. As always, he ignored the creepiness and spoke, "I will have to leave early this Saturday. I've to –".

"But we've a lot of customers on Saturday.", Mr. Song cut him short.

Seokjin nodded, "I know. But I really have to be at this place and – "

"Seokjin, Jin, Jin. You ask for too much.", he replied as he came closer locking the other against the counter between both his arms. "How will I benefit from this?"

Seokjin's stomach retched as his breath hit his face. "Uh – I will work overtime on the next Monday."

At that the manager broke into a laughter and in a swift act, grab-smacked Jin's ass.

At the same time, Jungkook pushed the door and looked startled at the scene in front of him.

"You know how to compensate, Seokjin.", Mr. Song said and left.

Jungkook huffed, "We should add rat poison in his food."

Seokjin laughed, "What's the order?"

"Oh. It is that Gucci boy. He specifically asked for your sloppy-joe burger."

"Really?", said Seokjin and went back to peek. "He isn't there, Kook!"

"What?", said Jungkook as he mimicked Jin's actions. "I swear he was there. He left, maybe."

"Oh.", Seokjin responded trying to hide his disappointment and unsure of why he was even disappointed.

...

Taehyung stormed out of the café and got into his car. He asked Brutus to take him back to the office to talk to Jimin.

When he found Jimin at his desk, scrolling morosely through a document, he noisily settled down opposite to him.

"Welcome to KTH Inc. How may I help you?", Jimin asked stifling a yawn.

"Have you been to the café?", Taehyung asked.

Jimin glanced at him and back to the screen, "A lot of them opened – "

"Our café.", Taehyung interrupted.

Jimin shook his head, "I didn't go. But, Joonie did."

"I did too."

"And?"

"Jimin-ah.", Taehyung trailed as he rested his chin on the table. "I don't like the manager. Don't tell Joonie but get him fired."

Jimin sighed and looked at him, "Is this about that waiter that Joonie is afraid you have a slight obsession with?"

"Joonie said that? Why?", Taehyung said surprised.

"You have pictures of his without his knowledge?", Jimin asked unsure of how much of a lie it is. But honestly, he knew Namjoon can't lie.

Taehyung's face lit up. "Do you want to see?", he said pulling out his phone. "Most of them are distant and polaroid ones – but see."

Jimin went still. His best friend entirely misread the situation. "Tae, babe, I don't want to sound crazy, but you sound like a stalker."

Taehyung pouted and ignored Jimin as he went through the pictures he took. Most of them were in black and white, but he loved the guy in those.

"Tae?", Jimin patted him on his arm.

"I am not obsessed, Jimin. Just look at him – he has this ethereal face and his personality exudes from within. I try but I can't seem to capture the vibe he has around him in photos.", he replied shoving the phone into his face.

Jimin tilted his head away from the phone, "You know nothing about him."

"I will get to know him, and you'll see how right I am.", he said as he continued to check the photos.

Jimin only sighed, afraid that his Taehyung would be hurt.

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Why is daylight savings a thing? What is wrong with this world?

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