Chapter Text
June 28
It’s Friday night, there are a lot of customers, none of them are drinking much, the tips are slow, the night is dragging, and long story short, it’s Seokjin’s least favorite kind of night. Friday’s are supposed to be money-making nights, real busy, full of tips, but tonight he’d be lucky to get fifty bucks.
In hopes of making the most of the horribly slow night, he does the only logical thing and turns the charm way up. Everybody here might know him out of work and make it a little awkward when the cashier at the grocery store won’t stop making eyes at him for the next few months, but a little shameless flirting always helps pay the bills. He’s so focused on working the few people seated at the bar for everything they’re worth that he almost doesn’t notice when a stranger walks in the door.
The town is small and not much for tourists this time of year, much more popular in the winter for the beautiful snowy vistas, so Seokjin is a bit surprised to see this new face come in. Something about monsoon season makes the town a little unappealing for travelers, but this man is clearly not from anywhere nearby. Seokjin would remember a face like that.
He’s tall, rugged, dressed like a lumberjack, and god is he handsome. He looks straight out of a river guide, and the heavy tan coloring his shoulders and unmistakable tinge of dirt on his shoes are saying that maybe that impression isn’t so wrong.
Seokjin quickly decides the guy must be some kind of wilderness nut, starts trying to think of something to make the man stick around for a few drinks. Before he can come up with a good one-liner, the guy has made it to the bar and is asking something. He's so focused on finding the right thing to say that he has to ask the man to repeat himself, “what do you recommend? Any local specialties or something?”
Seokjin forces himself to snap to it, thinking quickly to come up with something. “I’m a big fan of margaritas. They’re not local but they’re my specialty.” He looks at the stranger, gauging his reaction. When he smiles and says that sounds good, Seokjin gets to work. He doesn’t go out of his way to be dramatic like some bartenders in the big cities do, but he notices that the man is watching him intently anyways.
"One margarita for one handsome stranger,” Seokjin winks at him as he hands over the drink, “be careful, though. They’re addicting and drinking too many is liable tequil-ya!”
The guy bursts into laughter, “you picked this drink just so you could make that joke, didn’t you?” He takes a sip and smiles, then winces, noticing that Seokjin may have put a little extra tequila in there. “I see you didn’t hold back on me.”
Seokjin beams, “don’t let my boss know.” He winks, like a kid sneaking an extra soda after dinner. This is half of why the Min brothers worked so hard to convince Seokjin to be a bartender here: his resume includes the line “professional flirt” unironically. He’s so good he can make sneaking candy sound like a sexy venture.
Most nights, Seokjin lived up to their expectations: hot bartenders make money, but hot bartenders who know how to flirt make bank, and Seokjin regularly raked in hundred of dollars in tips.
When his sister approached him asking if he’d ever considered bartending, he’d laughed right to her face, but then her husband started talking seriously about opening up a little bar on the main (read: the only) major road through town with his brother Yoongi, Seokjin jumped on board right away. Yoongi had been Seokjin’s closest friends for years and, despite his mild distaste for his brother-in-law, Seokjin couldn’t pass up the opportunity to run a business with his best friend.
This is also why Yoongi is sitting in the corner behind a pop-up card table covered in music equipment. It’s his “DJ table,” but really, it’s a simple setup of an iPod with an aux cord and an old control panel-record player plugged into some speakers that Yoongi works like million-dollar equipment.
Yoongi is, at this moment, trying to get Seokjin’s attention as he talks to the stranger, and only after several minutes of shooting daggers does Seokjin finally give in and come over to see what has him so worked up.
“Who is that?” Yoongi whisper-yells as soon as Seokjin is within earshot. “He’s a tall drink of water if I’ve ever seen one.”
A guy sitting at the closest table rolls his eyes, “You’re just saying that because he’s new in town.”
“Hobi, look at him. He’s hot and you know it.” The guy, Hobi, sighs and rolls his eyes again, mumbling a whatever, Yoon, and acting like he doesn’t care.
“He’s definitely some outdoors guy, probably just here for the night. He smells like sunshine and his clothes are dirty as hell, but not like gross-dirty.” Jin says, looking back towards the bar, “he laughs really easily, and I can’t tell if it’s because he’s a little slow or just that he’s uncomfortable.”
Hoseok looks back, too. “He’s sipping that drink like it’s poison.”
“Jin, please tell me it’s not a margarita.” When Seokjin doesn’t say anything, Yoongi sighs heavily, “I can’t believe you made him one of your margaritas. They’re criminally strong. What did he do to deserve that?”
“They’re not criminally strong, you’re just a lightweight,” Seokjin replies, accusatorially. “And I have to get back to work.”
Seokjin heads back over to the bar, trying to take care of everything, but he’s just a little distracted by a certain tall drink of water that won’t admit he hates margaritas.
June 30
It’s a Sunday night, so the bar is moderately busy given the circumstances, but there’s still only a handful of people around. Like most weeknights, people opt to go home and stay in, preparing for work instead of going to the local dive, so Seokjin makes use of his time by training his favorite waiter to bartend.
The kid is barely old enough to drink himself, so he’s thrilled at the idea of being able to serve. There’s maybe eight customers in the whole place, so between serving his two tables and learning how to make an old fashioned for the old man who comes in every night, Jungkook is having a pretty great time. Seokjin knows his own tips will suck tonight but it’s worth it to see Jungkook so excited.
Seokjin is letting Jungkook make pretty much all the drinks and earn all the tips because he’s working hard and saving up for some dance academy program in Los Angeles he’s been dreaming of since he was twelve and watched Dancing with the Stars for the first time. Seokjin is keeping himself busy filling bottles, rinsing cups, and checking inventory.
He’s not paying much attention to what Jungkook is doing, he’s got a pretty good handle on things and doesn’t need much supervision on slow nights, but he perks up when he hears Jungkook start greeting somebody and then stop dead in the middle of his sentence, making a sound like he just saw god come down from heaven.
Jungkook really only makes that sound when his long-time crush comes in, but the six-foot man in a blue flannel is most certainly not Yugyeom, and without thinking, Seokjin jumps up from where he’s crouched and steps in front of Jungkook, claiming this customer as his own.
He tells himself it’s just so he has something better to do than count shot glasses, but the guy was nice enough last time he was here and Seokjin, honestly, just thinks he’s cute. “What can I get you this time,” he pauses, inviting the man to give his name.
“Kim Namjoon. Or Namjoon Kim, since that’s how it goes here.” Namjoon laughs, a little uncomfortably, and offers a half-bow from his seat at the bar. “I don’t really know what I want, honestly. I just couldn’t think of anywhere else to go to entertain myself.”
"How long have you been in the US?” Seokjin asks, noticing that Namjoon speaks like a native Korean.
"Oh, like a year and a half? I’m kind of wandering the country alone right now but I came over with my-” Namjoon stops, starts again: “I’m trying to see everything I can, passing through lots of different places.”
Seokjin nods along, “so, just passing through, then. Tourist season here isn’t for a while but I think this is the prettiest time of year here, so you lucked out.” He smiles a big customer-service smile, “But anyways, do you maybe want another ‘local specialty’ that you’ll only pretend to like? Or maybe you want to tell me what you do like?” He doesn’t mean to sound flirty tonight, with just the two of them, friendly would be plenty enough, but here he is asking about drinks like he wants to know Namjoon’s deepest secrets.
Namjoon looks a little flustered, but that may or may not just be his face, Seokjin can’t really tell. “I’m actually, uh, not much of a drinker,” Namjoon admits, “but everywhere else in town seems to close at sundown, so here I am.” He laughs again, still sounding a little stiff. Like he’s not sure what the hell he’s doing.
Seokjin nods again, “yeah, we’re a bit of a sundown town. Not many people out and about past dark, here. At least not this time of year. What brought you to Anchor Falls, anyways? We’re not exactly world-famous. Even the city forgets we’re here, sometimes, we’re so far up.”
“I like hiking and whatnot, and the trail map I have said that the views up here can’t be beat and there’s a ridiculous amount of trails through the woods, which gives me something to do. So, here I am, spending all day out in the woods,” he trails off.
“An outdoorsman, very nice.” Seokjin says, his eyes lighting up, “I have just the drink for you, if you’ll indulge me.” Namjoon smiles and nods, silently hoping Seokjin isn’t about to make him another juiced-up drink for the sake of a pun, “How do you feel about coffee?”
“Love it.” Namjoon says, meaning it, watching as Seokjin digs around in the cabinets below the bar and starts fiddling around with something he can’t quite see.
Seokjin asks if he likes his coffee hot or cold, and then after a few more minutes, Seokjin is smiling proudly over a cup of Irish Coffee, watching as Namjoon takes a tentative sip. He remembers how strong that first drink was, so he’s a little wary, but this one tastes less like alcohol poisoning and more like a much-needed end to his night, but the trick is that this drink sneaks up on you instead of hitting you up front.
Namjoon doesn’t notice that part, though, until he’s halfway through his drink, and then he’s laughing, “you know, I thought I was strong, but this may have me beat.”
“I’m glad you like it, I made it espresso-ly for you,” and Seokjin laughs again, but this time it sounds like he’s actually enjoying himself and not just working the bar. He hears Jungkook sigh behind him and wander off to help one of his two tables, hoping they’ll give him something to do besides watch his friend flirt.
“Okay, I have to ask. Do you make the jokes based on the drink or the drink based on the jokes?”
“Depends on the person.” Seokjin leans onto the bartop, getting almost too-close to Namjoon as he talks, “with you, the jokes come naturally.” He drops to a whisper, “for him,” he nods his head towards the old man, “there are no jokes.”
Namjoon hums a little, “not worried about him leaving a tip?”
“He’s come here nearly every night for the last two years and never tips more than morally required.” Seokjin says, still whispering, then he perks up, “And! Since it’s such a slow night and I’m bored out of my mind, how about we make a trade? Drinks on the house if you tell me more about yourself?” He says it with a smile and clearly means it, so Namjoon can’t help but smile back. “I appreciate people who have stories to tell, and damn do you look like a man with a lot of them.”
“Can you actually do that? You don’t have a boss that’ll yell at you for giving out drinks?”
“My friend, brother-in-law, and I own this bar. I am the boss.” Seokjin beams, “Named it after them, though, since Min Min and Kim doesn’t have the same ring to it. Now, come on, tell me something.”
Namjoon’s not sure what Seokjin could possibly want to hear, so he starts off simple, but quickly realizes that drinking this coffee like it was a normal one might not have been the best idea because he’s still mostly sober but has pretty much no filter, and he ends up telling Seokjin more than he’d really intended to. It starts off innocent, silly high-school pranks he’d done with his friends and next thing he knows he’s telling Seokjin about his last boyfriend, “I thought he was the prettiest guy in the world, but I think maybe I was wrong about that.” He says, looking Seokjin dead in the eyes.
Seokjin blushes, all the way to the tips of his ears, and he has no idea how to handle that. Neither does Namjoon, who clearly didn’t end to say that thought out loud. Namjoon’s been to his fair share of bars, mostly overseas, but he has never once seen a bartender blush like that. It’s a bit flattering, if he’s being honest with himself, but it’s also quite confusing.
Namjoon’s not sure he deserves Seokjin looking at him like that, can’t figure out why this gorgeous man is standing here, talking to him, when he could be doing literally anything else, but the fact remains that Seokjin is paying full attention to him and blushing like a kid on a first date.
Thank god Yoongi isn’t here tonight, Seokjin thinks, knowing that his friend would be having a field day. Yoongi’s hobbies include music, laughing as he turns away underage kids, and watching Seokjin get in over his head, and this situation definitely qualifies for that last category. Seokjin would hate nothing more than giving Yoongi the satisfaction of seeing him get so flustered so easily.
It takes him a moment to reboot, but he’s back in fighting form before anybody can notice. He’s used to customers flirting back, but they’re never actually good at it, and he’s not even sure Namjoon is, either, but either way he’s out of his depth here. He’s not sure what to say next, so he busies himself wiping off the sparkling-clean bar and asking if Namjoon wants another drink.
“Anything you make, I’ll drink. Even if it’s as, uh, special, as that margarita was.”