❞Venti Macchiato, please.❝ minjoon ✔

❞ Chapter XII ❝

The way Seokjin is looking at him should be outlawed for sanity preservation. “So?” Seokjin asks, a smile that asks for good answers and won’t accept anything but greeting Namjoon as he returns with their food. “How did it go?”

“I got our food, what does it look like?” Namjoon says, sitting down still with his frown on. “Now eat it before I change my mind about this.”

“Did something happen with you and Jimin?” Taehyung asks, leaning forward to get his sandwich and looking concerned, his big eyes and big mouth both wide in expectation. “It looked like it was going well. Hoseok even laughed and gave you a thumbs up.”

“What did you do?” Seokjin says, frowning at him in preemptive disappointment.

Namjoon is indignant. This isn’t even a thing. It’s not supposed to be a thing. He just was going to figure out why Jimin had stooped so low as to label him ‘New Jersey’ and instead got turned down for a phone number. “I didn't do anything!”

“That’s probably the problem,” Taehyung says, voice and gaze laced with sympathy. “You know, if you don't reach out for the things you want or love, they’ll fall away from you. Like leaves from a tree or a bad game of Jenga.”

“A horrible- what?” Of all times that Namjoon needs Taehyung to make sense, now would be one of them.

“Taehyung, honey, that doesn’t make sense,” Seokjin says in a soothing and patronizing voice, smiling in what Taehyung refers to as a ‘motherly way’. Then he turns to Namjoon and the expression vanishes into a look of pure abrasive judgment. “You could at least have asked for his number or something. You were up there fidgeting for a good ten minutes.”

“I did,” Namjoon defends himself. The look on Seokjin’s face it is worth the admission of his split second lapse in judgment, and the look on Taehyung’s face is priceless. The shame though, Namjoon could do without that.

“And?” Seokjin has never looked so urgent in Namjoon’s entire time of knowing him.

“He told me no,” Namjoon says, and smiles with the bitterness of his life. Exactly like his coffee, except without the milk. “Romance is dead.”

“He just told you no?” Taehyung asks, putting down his sandwich. It’s impressive really, how Namjoon’s failure of a life has managed to distract Taehyung from one of the few joys in his life; food. “That’s it?”

“Yeah,” Namjoon says, reaching for his coffee with the same bitter feeling in his gut he used to have every morning that started with a pessimistic phone call from Seokjin. “Just said no and told me he’s off work at five. Which is-“

“Namjoon.”

“-completely irrelevant, I don’t even get done with work until-“

“Namjoon.” Seokjin looks so ready to smack him Namjoon actually leans back in his chair when he looks up. Breathing in to calm himself, Seokjin just nods at his venti macchiato. “Look at your coffee. Right. Now.”

Aware of self preservation and its immediate relevance when Seokjin’s temper is involved, Namjoon does as he’s told. There, in large black letters, are the words ‘Nice Jawline ~ :)’.

Oh.

“Oh,” says Namjoon.

“You’re the most helpless human I have ever had to work with,” Seokjin tells him with a smile that doesn’t match his insults. “Go find that poor boy before his soul is crushed by your incompetence.”