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Seokjin curses his mother.
Sure she gave him this face, the one that has gone viral after being candidly snapped in a grocery store (Hoseok still teases him about #martbae), the one with lips always described as plump (which made him feel like he was being picked over like a tomato at a farmer’s market), the eyebrows that Jimin said gave him a dangerous wolf-like edge (whatever that means), and the crystal clear complexion that doesn't need filters to look airbrushed (this was just true).
But she also gave him this blush. The blush that constantly rose up his neck and checks, but most of all: his ears. Sometimes it was an indicator of some rush of emotion, but it also was known to appear at random and inopportune times. Basically if anyone pays him any attention...here comes the blush. It doesn’t even matter whether or not he finds the person good-looking or has any spark of interest. Most annoyingly, this means he can’t manage any innocent interaction with any customer service or retail employee without turning beet red. If they were vaguely around his age and a human being, it would start. And then he’d notice and he’d worry that they’d notice and think he was blushing from finding them cute and then it’d get even worse. If their hands brushed while he was picking up his cup? A goner. He was never trying to flirt or hit on someone while they were working, but his damn ears didn’t seem to get the damn memo.
It was at its worst when he was in the middle of discovering that he noticed boys too. Then, he became a blushing mess in anticipation before he’d even reach the counter to get his tea or cake or bowl of noodles. His brain had fumbled with what this meant for months until he realized, oh. Duh. It was a formative time but highly embarrassing, and he would like to humbly request that the scientists of the world develop a memory wiper specifically to erase this era from his existence. (And also possibly that time he had streaked through his university campus wearing Mario underwear on a dare, while they’re at it.)
The girl behind the bar today is maybe more cute than pretty, but she hands him his beer with a coy smile that guarantees blazing ears and an evil giggle from Jimin beside him. He thanks her politely and tries not to literally run to the table where Namjoon is waiting for them.
“Well, that’s another bar down. Can’t ever come here again,” he sighs.
“Hyung, what are you talking about?” Jimin’s eye roll is equal parts exasperated and fond. “You didn’t even do anything embarrassing!”
“Yeah, Jin-hyung,” Namjoon drapes an arm around Jimin and smiles at Seokjin. “Your red ears are adorable. Believe me, if anything she was endeared.”
“Don’t you mean enEARed?” he offers half-heartedly and knows he deserves the dead eyes both his friends send his way. Logically yes, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Nothing except his stupid face and his stupid genes that make everyone in his vicinity think he has a crush on them. Curse you, mom.
***
Seokjin’s in line, which is when he usually starts doing internal calculations, watching how fast the different registers are moving and trying to guess where he’ll end up so he can prepare for the amount of damage he’ll be facing. But this morning the options are the café’s owner, an older woman in her fifties, and his roommate, Yoongi—both blush-neutral territory. He’s going to end up at Yoongi’s register and tease him about how cute he looks in the uniform purple cap and apron, and then maybe suck up to him to get the discount that Yoongi would give anyway.
But as he walks up, someone calls out Yoongi’s name urgently and his friend shoots him an apologetic smile as he moves away to answer. Another boy steps up in his wake.
Seokjin didn’t actually know that full bodies could blush.
Now he knows, because as he looks up and makes eye contact with the handsome young man in front of him, he feels the tips of his ears burn but then also his cheeks and maybe even his arms? Dammit. He hasn’t even tried speaking yet.
“What can I get for you today?”
Oh god, the barista’s voice is deep, much deeper than Seokjin was expecting, even if he only had about two seconds to form that expectation. It’s smooth too, a sort of drawl that’s relaxed without sounding bored.
Seokjin stares at the menu board above his head as if he’s considering what to get, as if he doesn’t come here multiple times a week, so he doesn’t have to look at him . He’s tall first of all, maybe just about Seokjin’s height, and has a mop of dark hair that curls around the nape of his neck. Seokjin didn’t know mullets could be a good look, but he has a feeling anything would be a good look on this guy.
“Green tea, please. Small. Please.” His voice is surprisingly stable for someone who is so thrown he just took thirty seconds to come up with the most basic order. “And uh, a blueberry muffin, please.” He still doesn’t look at the barista, rubbing the back of his neck as if he was really concentrating on that very very important overhead menu.
“You’re Yoongi-hyung’s friend, right? I’ll make sure you get the unofficial friends and family discount,” the young man whispers, low and conspiratorial.
Seokjin gives his thanks in a sort of mumbled way that he hopes doesn’t read as dismissive.
“You can insert your card now. Please,” the barista adds with a little smirk, just as Seokjin finally meets his warm brown eyes again and he thinks maybe the blush isn’t such a bad thing if it’ll help him melt into the goddamn ground faster.
***
“So you met Taehyung today?”
Seokjin immediately knows who Yoongi is talking about, even though he never caught the barista’s name. No time for reading name tags when you’re in the middle of dying, turns out.
“Hmm?”
“The kid who took over for me at the café. That’s Taehyung. He’s the one I was telling you about who I’m helping with photography?”
Seokjin vaguely remembers. But Yoongi also collects younger artists to mentor like it’s his job, so he forgets most of them (except Jungkook, who has managed the feat of actually infiltrating their apartment). He hums noncommittally again.
“He mentioned he gave you a discount, hoped it was okay.” Seokjin still doesn’t react, so Yoongi leans in closer with a smirk. “And also, holy fuck, I didn’t know it was even possible to blush that hard.”
Seokjin lets out a wail, torn between burying himself in the couch and launching himself at Yoongi. In the end he kind of does both, pinning Yoongi to the couch below him and hiding his (blushing) head on his shoulder.
“Why are you so bony? This hurts, hyung.”
“Not more than my bruised ego.”
***
It had been a long day at the office, full of spreadsheets and bad news, and Seokjin getting saddled with more responsibility than he was technically supposed to as an assistant. So he doesn’t think twice about swinging by the café on his way home for a pick-me-up cookie and a chat with his friend. But Min Yoongi is a fucking traitor. This time he sees Seokjin approaching, he winks before he turns to tug on the sleeve of someone behind him. “Taehyung-ah! Cover for me while I restock the muffins?”
Taehyung whirls around and smiles when he sees Seokjin, a wide square-ish smile that makes him look endearingly innocent but also, ah. Hot .
Seokjin smiles back, a genuine but slightly thin-lipped one, ears already blazing.
“Welcome back. What can I get you today?”
Taehyung’s hair is pushed away from his forehead with a bandana. It should be illegal, how good it makes him look. He needs to be equipped with one of those “caution: contents are hot” warnings found on the café’s coffee cups. Someone could sue, for god’s sake—Seokjin should really bring it up with the proper authorities. His eyes flick back up to the menu, even though Taehyung probably knows he doesn’t he doesn’t really need to look at it. Shit, now he needs to order something different than usual so he doesn’t look stupid.
“The mocha latte is really good, if you’re looking for something new?” Taehyung’s warm voice cuts in. “I don’t even like coffee but I drink like three of those a day sometimes.”
Seokjin shoots finger guns his way. “Sounds perfect.” Oh nooo, finger guns might actually be even worse than the blushing. He cringes and doesn’t make eye contact for the rest of the transaction.
***
A week after meeting Taehyung, their hands touch when the younger man hands him his drink instead of placing it on the counter.
Seokjin swears he feels his toes blush.
***
The last time he had formed an accidentally flirty acquaintance with a barista, he had promptly avoided that café for a couple weeks just to make it clear he wasn’t going there for him . He can’t seem to do that this time though.
It’s just because it’s where Yoongi works, and it’s perfectly on the way between their apartment and his office, and they make the best muffins, okay? His weak attempts at denial crumble the first time he goes to the café with more friends.
When Seokjin saw Taehyung was the only one at the counter as they entered, he hadn’t let anyone wait with him in line, insisting he’d treat them all like the generous hyung he is. But when he returned to the table with red ears, they had all started squealing with glee.
“Who is the culprit this time?” Hoseok asks, peering around Namjoon in a manner that he probably thinks is inconspicuous and very much isn’t.
Seokjin swats him on the arm and attempts to steer the conversation to literally anything else. But then “Order ready for Seokjin!” booms through the cafe and his face betrays him.
Jimin gasps. “No! Kim Taehyung?”
“You know him?” Seokjin says, instead of something smart like, Hm? Who is that? I don’t know that person you’re referring to at all.
Jimin gasps again, the dramatic little bastard. “Oh my god, I can’t believe you have a crush on Taetae.”
Seokjin jumps out of his seat and drags Namjoon up to grab the drinks with him, which just makes it extra clear that he’s flustered—because Kim Namjoon is an obvious first choice to have by your side for most things, but carrying hot beverages is not one of them.
When they return, Hoseok and Jimin have both devolved into giggles, and the younger one has stars in his eyes. “Hyung, we went to university with Taehyung. He took dance with me and Hobi-hyung. He’s like, the best. You two have to start dating and make beautiful babies together.”
Seokjin shoots him a sullen look.
“What?” Hoseok chimes in. “He’s handsome, you’re handsome. You two get together and you’ll be one of those couples that everyone just assumes must be famous when they see you out and about together.”
Jimin gets up to go talk to Taehyung, and Seokjin tries to embody the chair he’s sitting in, become one with it like he’d do in one of those batty exercises in his old acting class, so that next time anyone looks over they’ll only see the chair. Kim Seokjin who? There is only Chair now. A chair that started life as a mighty oak tree, survived through the ennui of millennia, suffered through the pain of being felled only to find new life at the hands of—
“Hi again!
He blinks his eyes open. Unless Taehyung is used to making eye contact with chairs, his artistic transformation hasn't been successful.
“You know Minnie and Hobi-hyung, what a small world!”
He doesn’t think it’d be much of a surprise to Taehyung that he knows Jimin, since he already knows he’s best friends with Yoongi, who’s best friends with Namjoon. But Taehyung (Taetae ) seems genuinely delighted by the realization, so Seokjin can’t help but beam back.
“Ha, yeah. Almost as small as Jiminie,” he adds, for payback.
Luckily that sets Jimin off on a rant, and Hoseok, Jimin, and Namjoon are some of the most talkative people he knows, so he lets them take the reins of the conversation from there until Taehyung’s break is up.
***
Seokjin should have known better than to go into the cafe in the middle of the day, when he unexpectedly has work off one day. It’s empty and Taehyung is sweeping. Seokjin realizes he is also dancing—somehow it is exactly how a grandfather would dance and incredibly sexy. He tries not to think too hard about that.
(Although he has been thinking a lot lately about the paradox that is Taehyung. Namjoon had told him once it was all Seokjin’s contradictions that made him fascinating to people, apparently — the sculpted body and beautiful face paired with the dorky dad jokes and computer gaming obsession.
“Maybe it plays into the whole manic-pixie-dream nonsense. But while boring hot guys are still hot,” he had explained, “weirdass dudes who are also smoking hot? Irresistible.”
That had made Jimin frown. “Hey! Are you saying I’m not irresistible then?”
“Oh, no, you’re weird as hell, babe.”)
Seokjin only ever understands half of what Joon is talking about, but he thinks he gets that, now.
Taehyung catches him staring and starts dancing over to him. Or not to him, just in his direction. Seokjin flushes a deep pink.
“It’s cute when you do that.”
He lets out a sort of choked sound of acknowledgment. “Hmm?”
“Change color like a chameleon.”
Well, that’s one way to describe the heat spreading across his cheeks at this particularly potent mix of hot-boy-proximity and embarrassment.
“Oh yeah. It just kind of happens randomly, you know?” He takes his hat off to run his hands through his hair self-consciously.
“Because you’re part chameleon?”
“Yeeeeah.” Without thinking, he starts rapping along to the hip-hop song playing over the speakers, and ends with his arms crossed over his chest. “‘Cuz I’m a rap-tile.”
There’s a terrifying moment where Taehyung has absolutely no reaction at all. Then he places a hand on Seokjin’s shoulder, looking at him solemnly. “That was beautiful.”
Seokjin gulps as the barista immediately turns to cross the room away from him. He stays frozen, but Taehyung waves him over to the counter as he fiddles with a phone.
“I’m overriding Yoongi-hyung’s playlist. It’s time,” he stage-whispers, “for jazz.” This is punctuated with jazz hands as the soft blare of a trumpet sounds around them. “What can I get for you today?”
By the time he leaves the cafe that day, Seokjin can’t lie to himself anymore. He has a real, full-blown actual crush on this guy.
Which means he’s definitely going to be too chicken to come back here. Goodbye, oh delicious muffins.
***
Yoongi isn’t one to beat around the bush, but he’s also usually one to leave the bush alone, so Seokjin doesn’t understand why he comes into the apartment after work to find his roommate basically waggling his eyebrows suggestively at him.
“Guess who asked about you at the cafe today? Misses his favorite customer?”
Seokjin lets out a groan, and anyone who didn’t know him might think it’s in a joking way and keep pushing, but if there’s anyone who does know him, it’s Yoongi. The smirk drops off his friend’s face and he comes to sit near Seokjin on the couch. “What’s up?”
“Everyone has been on my case about this, uh, Taehyung thing. I don’t even know if — I’m just really tired, Yoongi-yah.” He drops his head on Yoongi’s shoulder and they sit there for a minute.
When Yoongi speaks again, it’s comfortingly familiar, each word low and considered.
“We’re just, well, maybe not worried about you. But you’ve just been so stressed because of work, and quiet at home, and sometimes you get in that mode where you just shut the world out, you know.”
Seokjin buries his head further into Yoongi’s shoulder. He knows the last few months have been hard, that he hasn’t quite been himself. He just didn’t think anyone else had noticed. “You’re one to talk,” he mutters, even though they both know that despite being reserved, Yoongi spends a lot of his time outside of work (and maybe some on-the-clock hours too) networking, and that he’s the one who had been behind the formation of their now established friend group. Still, his roommate chuckles good-naturedly.
“Yeah, yeah. God knows I understand that you don’t have to be going out and meeting a bunch of new people to have a fulfilling social life. A handful of dorks is all a person needs. But there’s something different about the way you smile when you see him, hyung.” He pauses, squeezes Seokjin’s hand quickly. “And you have so many wonderful smiles, I think it’s good to have a whole mix of people around who can bring each one of them out.”
“God, that’s such a Jimin thing to say,” Seokjin grumbles but he feels tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. It’s unfair, having smart and kind friends who make you think honestly about feelings .
“I’ll stop teasing you about it, and you don’t have to marry the guy. But hyung, you spend so much time up here,” Yoongi taps a finger against Seokjin’s head, “worrying about how other people think of you, you don’t notice when they’re looking back.”
***
Later that week, Seokjin resumes his usual café visits.
“You’re back!” Taehyung leans against the counter as if he was instinctively going for a hug. His perm must be starting to relax because his curls are less defined, fluffier. He looks so soft, Seokjin almost wishes the counter wasn’t there between them. Then Taehyung pulls back, peers at him through the curtain of hair over his eyes. “I hope I didn’t scare you off.” He laughs, but it is underlined with uncertainty, like someone has told him before that that’s a thing he does.
“Never. I just needed to take a break from the pastries here,” Seokjin frames his face with his hands. “For the sake of my handsome face.” He can’t quite bring himself to wink cheesily like he would with his friends, but there’s something freeing about accepting that Taehyung knows how flustered he gets around him. He doesn’t look up at the menu this time, and Taehyung’s big eyes widen a little more when they make eye contact.
Over the next week, Seokjin discovers Taehyung can cover about ten different topics in a two minute conversation. He tells Seokjin about how some of the photos on the walls are his, since his manager let him display them (his manager is Yoongi). They talk about video games, although they didn’t play the same kind, and the movie industry, since Seokjin works at a casting agency and Taehyung had dreamed of being an actor when he was little, or a star of any sort really. Seokjin can imagine that easily. Taehyung doesn’t quite laugh at his dad jokes but he very enthusiastically tries to guess the punchlines before they come. Seokjin tells him to call him hyung.
Hoseok and Jimin come to the café with him one day, and as soon as they walk in the door Hoseok starts gushing about how he’s so glad Seokjin didn’t make them abandon this place like he’s done with so many others where he’s fallen head over heels for employees. Hoseok has never been the best at volume control, and Seokjin shoots a worried look up at the counter. It’s the one of the few times he doesn’t find Taehyung’s eyes already trained on him. Jimin gives Hoseok a very stern tug on the arm, and whispers in his ear--something threatening, based on how sheepish Hoseok looks after and basic knowledge of Jimin’s personality.
Still, that doesn’t interrupt the flow of whatever this is, don’t worry about it too much Seokjin just let it happen ok, for once in your life take a chill pill between him and Taehyung. The barista’s eyes light up like he’s surprised whenever Seokjin walks through the door, and if he isn’t working at the register he’ll still talk to Seokjin as he makes drinks, or hang off of Yoongi’s shoulders and watch the two of them have conversations, until Yoongi grumbles “Taehyung-ah, don’t you have work to do?” (but then smiles knowingly at Seokjin when he’s gone). Taehyung starts drawing on all of Seokjin’s to-go cups. Sometimes they’re little messages but mostly they’re drawings of little squiggly creatures. He never writes his number, not that Seokjin checks for it. Seokjin admires one particularly cute heart-shaped design and contemplates saving his used cup. But a burst of bravery compels him to say, “Hey Taehyung-ah, can you draw me this one on a napkin? It’s cute.”
Taehyung’s grin in response is blinding. “I can do better than that! I’ll find real paper! Just one second, hyung.” But then the morning rush descends so the cafe gets really busy and Seokjin has to leave, sadly depositing his doodled cup in the trash on the way out.
The next time he comes in, Taehyung sort of bounces in excitement and pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket.
“Here, Jin-hyung. I doodled while I was thinking about you the other day,” he says as he hands it over, like that’s something easy to admit. Like it’s simple to look someone in the eye and tell them, I was thinking about you when we were apart and not only that, I was thinking about you so much I wanted to express it for you somehow. Here, look at this physical representation of my feelings.
Seokjin takes the paper and his heart skips (or adds?) a couple beats. He’s so impressed by the way Taehyung doesn’t blink in the face of what he himself often runs scared from. He’s careful not to spill his tea on the paper, and spends a while using his finger to trace over the scribbles, abstract with intention.
***
Jungkook is the first person he sees when he enters the art gallery. He gestures grandly.
“Hyung, the music playing in the background tonight is all brought to you by yours truly.” He slings an arm around Seokjin and sighs. “God, Yoongi-hyung is so cool for doing this.”
“Cooler than me?” Seokjin says, exaggeratedly affronted.
“Yeah,” Jungkook deadpans. He gets a punch on the arm for it, but secretly Seokjin kind of agrees. Namjoon was the one who worked at the gallery, but Yoongi had pulled the necessary strings to put together this showcase for a whole bunch of artists he knows. Some of his photography is on display—some of Taehyung’s is too. Seokjin scans the room.
This is his first time seeing Taehyung out of his cafe uniform. He can’t say he’s surprised at his style. It just feels very Taehyung. A button up, pattern wild enough it would overwhelm anyone who didn’t have that face, super wide-legged pants that should really make his nearly six-foot-tall frame look squatter than it is but don’t, thin wire rimmed glasses, and a beret jauntily perched on his head. It’s a look that is meant to be uniquely—maybe a little self-consciously—cool, like he had searched “what do artists wear” on the internet and copied the first picture, then kept twisting it at the last minute to make it his own. It’s fashionable but not necessarily supposed to be hot, unlike the ripped skinny jeans Seokjin has worn specifically for this occasion. It is the most attractive thing Seokjin has ever seen.
Taehyung’s mouth drops open a little when Seokjin approaches.
“You have to stop being so surprised to see me, Taehyung-ah.”
“Yep, hyung, surprised. Totally surprised.” Seokjin swears he sees the younger man roll his eyes. “You read me so well.”
Yoongi approaches them and they circle the gallery for a while, discussing the pieces on display, before they end up camped out with some snacks. At one point, Taehyung’s arm ends up around the back of the couch behind Seokjin, and it’s not around him exactly but he thinks he can’t be blamed for spacing out for a minute, or twenty.
When he looks around next, the others have drifted off to different corners of the gallery again. It’s just the two of them.
“Your photos are incredible, Taehyung-ah. Really.”
“I’d like to take a photo of you one day.” Seokjin hides his face in his hands, and Taehyung peels them away. “Oh come on, you have to know how beautiful you are. I don’t really do portraits but, man.”
Seokjin can’t make eye contact at the moment so he settles for scanning the rest of Taehyung’s face. There’s a freckle on the very tip of Taehyung’s nose that he’s just noticed, and he wants to reach over and tap it with his finger. He surprises himself by doing just that.
Taehyung leans closer to him. “Did you just boop my nose?” His mouth hangs open, a little disbelieving.
Seokjin shrugs, pretending to be nonchalant. “That’s what noses are for.”
Taehyung nods as if he has made a very sage observation. He reaches over and taps Seokjin right back, which he should have been expecting but flusters him just the same. He’s still reeling with a sort of fizzy energy when Taehyung reaches out to cup his jaw, and says sweetly “Ah, such a cute hyung.”
Heat rises in his cheeks but for once instead of pushing him away, it’s the fuel that moves him forward, so he’s the one leaning in, in, closing the distance between them.
It’s more than a peck, but just by a little. Taehyung’s lips feel as smooth and warm as his voice sounds, and Seokjin finds himself smiling into the kiss before he pulls away.
“I don’t know if you’ve guessed already, but I really like you. Can I take you out sometime? I know this great little café actually.” It all comes out in a rush.
Taehyung attempts to turn his dazed grin into a concerned pout. “Only if you don’t go falling in love with the barista there.”
Seokjin pretends to think as he intertwines their fingers together. “Hmm, no promises.”
The pout starts to deepen but then his words sink in, and Seokjin watches in awe as a rosy glow of a blush works its way over Taehyung’s tan skin.