Chapter Text
It was his birthday today and Yoongi had promised himself he wouldn't look at his wrist but he couldn't help the furtive glance his traitorous eyes had sneaked.
Blank as a canvas.
A bitter smile tugged on his lips as he scoffed. Of course it was blank. What did he expect? Words suddenly, magically appearing there? He was twenty-two already. Basically an adult. He shouldn't be acting like that. Impossible dreams were for children and he wasn't one anymore.
And yet he couldn't stop the painful throbbing as it accompanied every pulsing beat of his heart at seeing his wrist.
He sighed. He shouldn't be like this so early in the morning—or maybe he had the right to, since he wasn't really a morning person and he was already up at 9 (yes, that still counted as too early for him). His best friend Taehyung, the asshole, had called him at the same time the sun came up and told him to "dress his best" because they were going to celebrate his birthday today.
He was awoken at 7 am but stayed in bed for almost an hour, staring at nothing and contemplating about life in general, before Taehyung called and nagged him again about going straight to his place with his brother Namjoon just to get him moving. Yoongi finally went out of bed when he heard this, only because he was threatened with a visit from Namjoon. Namjoon was also a good friend, but last time he was in Yoongi's apartment, he had somehow managed to break the door, collapse the coffee table, and shatter Yoongi's favorite mug all in one go. He didn't want the god of destruction causing havoc in his place again.
Couldn't he, the birthday boy, just sleep in and stay in bed all day?
He sighed again as he realized the answer to that. No, Taehyung wouldn't allow him. Nor would Taehyung's soulmate who, of all people, happened to be Yoongi's younger cousin.
Truth be told, if it weren't for Yoongi, Taehyung and Jungkook would still be looking for their soulmates ignorantly. They were so clueless about it. It had happened by chance, one cold afternoon when Yoongi actually felt like going out to buy real coffee. He had invited Taehyung to go with him to the coffee shop where his cousin Jungkook was working.
See, Taehyung and Yoongi had been friends since they were still wearing nappies. Scratch that. Taehyung was the only one who was wearing diapers at that time since Yoongi was two years older. And so Yoongi knew the words tattooed on Taehyung's wrist like it was his own—wait, never mind. His soulmark was nonexistent.
Yoongi and Jungkook had been quite close too, before Jungkook's parents moved to Busan, taking the brat with them, so he had seen the words on his wrists as well. Jungkook had gone back to Daegu once he turned eighteen, living with their grandparents.
So when Yoongi introduced the two of them to each other and Jungkook asked Taehyung, "What can I get for you?" and Taehyung answered, "How about you?" with a smirk and with the same flirtatious voice as Jungkook, Yoongi's mind clicked in realization faster than theirs.
The two of them had been almost inseparable since then, only detaching themselves from each other when it was time for Taehyung's classes or for Jungkook's shifts at the coffee shop.
Yoongi exhaled, his breath coating the bathroom mirror in front of him in a fine mist. He moved to the side to get a better look on himself, too lazy to be bothered with wiping the blur out. He pushed back his black bangs and put on his snapback backwards. He gave himself a once over. Ripped jeans, his red and black jacket, which looked like it belonged more to a racecar driver or enthusiast, on top of his Bulls 23 jersey that Taehyung had given him on his last birthday even though he knew nothing about basketball. He figured he was good to go. This was all the effort he was going to give Taehyung and Jungkook. They should be feeling lucky. It was a far cry from Yoongi's usual loose shirt and sweatpants combination.
Yoongi got out and sat on the sofa to put on his shoes when his phone rang once again. With his customary exasperated sigh, he fetched it from his pocket and pressed the answer button.
"Taehyung, I swear to god if you call me one more time, I'm going to tell Jungkook you once got drunk and pretended to be a unicorn. I was about to put on my shoes anyway and you decided it was a good time to call," he ranted to the phone which he had sandwiched in between his shoulder and ear as he reached down to do what he was supposed to be doing before the call.
He heard someone laugh from the other side before someone said, "Hyung, you just told me my soulmate got drunk once and pretended to be a unicorn."
"Shit," Yoongi yelped as he jerked in surprise, causing the phone to fall from his shoulder. He picked it up from where it fell face down on his sofa and sure enough, when he flipped it, Jungkook's name greeted him. Fuck. "Listen, brat. Pretend this never happened."
Yoongi didn't want Taehyung knowing he had inadvertently told Jungkook that. Taehyung would whine endlessly at him and Yoongi preferred the silence of his apartment to that.
"What's in it for me, hyung?"
Oh, of course. Yoongi rolled his eyes, put his phone on loud speak—why hadn't he thought of that earlier?—and moved as fast as he can. He cursed silently and vowed that he would never buy shoes with laces ever again. They're a pain in the ass.
"I'll go buy coffee every other day?" he offered. He stood up from the sofa, his task finally done.
He heard Jungkook musing from the other side. "But hyung, that would be extra work for me." Yoongi could see him pouting in his mind. "Speaking of work, there's this cute guy who just started working here two days ago. He's the owner's nephew so at first I thought he would be a stuck-up but he turned out to be a pretty cool guy. Maybe I'll introduce him to the group later."
"You called him cute. I wonder how Tae's going to react to that." Yoongi smiled. He knew just how Taehyung was going to react. Despite being only two years younger than him, the guy had a child-like personality. He'd be pouting all day at Jungkook.
Jungkook groaned. "You know just what to counter me with, don't you, hyung? I should've know better. You and words, ugh."
Yoongi laughed. "Words are the only thing I have. I work with them night and day. Oh, crap!" He scrambled back to his bedroom. Sure enough, his work desk was as messy as he had left it last night when he was too tired to even bother cleaning it up.
"What is it, hyung?"
"Nothing. I just forgot I haven't cleaned my desk last night," he said to the phone. "I've been trying to complete the lyrics for this one song but so far, nothing good has come to me." He stacked the notebook and pieces of paper at one side and threw the crumpled ones at the bin below his desk.
"Is that so?" Yoongi heard something mischievous in Jungkook's voice. "Maybe this will help," he snickered. "My break's ending. See you in a few minutes, hyung."
"Wait, what do you mean help?" Yoongi asked but the only answer he got was a beep that indicated that the call had already ended. He sighed and was about to put away his phone when it pinged again, this time with a message.
Jungkook
9:23 AM
I'm sure this will help, hyung. ㅋㅋㅋ He's the cute guy I was talking about.
Yoongi
9:23 AM
right. that's cute. mind if i send it to tae?
Jungkook
9:23 AM
No problem, hyung, but he's seen it already. And he's seen me at my worse. Hahah
Jungkook
9:23 AM
WAIT. WRONG PIC
Yoongi
9:24 AM
brat