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taehyung isn't sure when, exactly, he noticed the figure in the crowd that seems to be at most, if not all, of his sets. not sure when that gaze became a constant. not sure when it became something sweet, something he looks forward to.
he is sure, however, as he sits on his stool on stage, the band behind him playing as he sings smooth and low, that he wouldn't mind seeing those eyes on him without the low lighting of the jazz bar. he wouldn't mind seeing those eyes up close, looking at him from across a coffee shop table, maybe, or from right beside him on his couch. wouldn't mind seeing if those eyes are as sweet, or possibly even sweeter, from up close.
his eyes move across the crowd in front of him, most of them completely ignoring him and the band sitting at their tables. the bar is situated in the higher-end part of the city, so there’s plenty of middle-aged men still in their suits from work, sitting around tables together; slowly draining their whiskey whilst talking about whatever it is that men like that talk about.
(taehyung doesn’t know nor does he care to, he just hopes they tip at the end of the night.)
of course, there are people other than those middle-aged men who are avoiding going home to their families; there’s the bartender, hoseok, who he’s grown quite close to in the past few months he’s worked with the bar. there are people his age who seem to just genuinely enjoy jazz, one regular among them who he’s seen often but has never been able to catch their name. and then there’s his admirer , if he could even call them that. he certainly hopes he could, honestly.
they stand at the edge of the room near the door where taehyung knows, from experience, they’d just slipped in right before or maybe even just as taehyung’s set started. and he knows, from experience, that once taehyung finishes his set, that they will slip back out, disappearing before taehyung can even step off stage.
and with them, they will take their gaze and leave taehyung only with yearning and endless curiosity.
as taehyung makes eye contact with the stranger, it takes all he has for his breath to not catch in his throat. for him to not just stop singing, to not rush to this stranger and - do what, exactly? he has to remind himself. he doesn’t even know them. doesn’t know their name, their age. just knows that he’s so inexplicably drawn to them and it seems, at least, that the feeling is reciprocated.
if the way the stranger watches him means what he thinks it means; if it’s meant to be so honey-thick and sweet that he can feel it even when he’s not looking at the stranger then... it’s definitely reciprocated.
he smiles a little to himself (and a little to the stranger) at this thought, drawing his eyes away from the stranger once more to sweep them back over the room.
his set only lasts about an hour, and, too quickly, he’s reaching his last song of the set, well aware that this means that he will soon no longer be able to feel that weight on him. he allows his gaze to travel back to the stranger, using his last few minutes in the best way he knows possible.
once he finishes, there’s scattered applause within the bar as he stands, leaning into the microphone, “thank you guys, have a good night,” he says with a smile. he heads backstage with his band, congratulating them on a good job before he goes back out to the bar.
taehyung pauses for a moment as he gets closer to the bar, seeing a figure sitting at the bar, talking to hoseok.
could it be? no, they normally leave before he even walks off stage.
but.
it’s rare to see anybody sitting at the actual bar, normally choosing the tables that are scattered all throughout the bar. taehyung sees hoseok and the person talking, hoseok laughing before he catches sight of taehyung. he waves taehyung over, setting him in motion again.
taehyung chooses the seat directly beside the person, hoseok setting out on fixing taehyung’s drink -- coke -- without taehyung even having to say anything. he learned very early on that taehyung can’t stand any alcohol other than soju.
and for a moment taehyung’s entire world stands still, his eyes meeting those that he’s practically memorized at this point. the stranger is the first to break the silence, “hi.” they say with a smile and a little giggle, presumably at the way taehyung at just frozen and -- if taehyung isn’t a puddle of molten person in his chair right now, it’s truly a miracle. “my name is jimin.” they say, sticking their hand out, that motion being the one that snaps taehyung out of his stupor.
“hello.” taehyung says, his voice a bit hoarse. he clears his throat into his fist, trying again, “hello,” his face flushing a little, “my name is taehyung,” placing his hand into the -- into jimin’s .
hoseok returns to the bar, placing taehyung’s glass on the bar in front of him, causing their hands to separate.
“jimin’s been quite the regular since you started performing here,” hoseok says with a shit-eating grin like he’s tattling on his friend, “i could hardly get him to come to the bar but as soon as you show up, suddenly this is his favorite spot.”
taehyung takes a peek at jimin out of the corner of his eye, seeing his cheeks turn the same light pink he’s sure his have as well. for not only jimin’s sake but also his, he changes the subject, “so, you two know each other?” he asks curiously, putting chin in the palm of his hand to listen.
“we’re on the same dance team!” jimin answers. taehyung can hardly recover from the way his heart skips a beat at the very thought of seeing jimin dance when hoseok chips in with “yeah, he’s a real star!”
taehyung barely has time to process what he’s even saying before he’s blurting out, “i believe it.”
both taehyung and jimin blush a bright pink (and hoseok could not look less ecstatic about this), but taehyung doesn’t move to take it back because, though the words were impulsive, that’s truly how he feels. he thinks jimin would probably be the most beautiful dancer he’s ever seen.
after a moment of quiet, taehyung clears his throat, “what style of dance do you two do?”
“well, our dance team is a hip-hop team, but i also do ballet,” jimin answers and he clearly has no care for taehyung’s mortality because holy shi t he thinks he might be having a heart attack right now --
taehyung takes an inward deep breath, trying to calm himself, “that’s so cool! i’d love to see both some time.”
jimin’s eyes light up at that, “we have a recital in about a month! you could come to that!” he offers before backtracking slight, “but only if you want to!”
and taehyung doesn’t know who treated jimin like the things that are important to him don’t matter, but he’d like to be someone who changes the way he seems to make himself smaller. “i’d love to! just tell me when it is and i’ll make sure to make time for it!”
the smile taehyung is rewarded with is so beautiful he can picture himself doing anything humanly possible just to make sure he gets to see it again. it’s the kind of smile that could outshine the sun. the kind that makes it impossible not to smile back at, taehyung thinks as his own smile crosses his lips, his heart clenching in his chest, feeling all kinds of warm looking at the man beside him.
jimin tells him the time and the date of the recital while taehyung marks it down in his phone’s calendar, making a mental note to ask for that evening off. there’s no way he’d allow himself to not go to this recital.
they spend their evening right there in each other’s presence, talking to hoseok as well in between his bartending duties, until jimin glances at his phone, frowning lightly when he notices it’s getting late into the evening.
“i should probably get going,” he says, the light in his eyes dimmed a little at the prospect of having to leave.
“have you eaten dinner yet?” taehyung asks, already setting down the money he owes to hoseok for his drinks. jimin shakes his head in response, making taehyung smile lightly.
“we could get dinner together if you want?” taehyung says, the statement coming out as a question.
and there’s that smile again, nearly enough to knock taehyung on his ass as jimin nods, “yeah, i’d like that.”
they both wave their goodbyes to hoseok, his voice following them all the way out the door telling them to “stay safe,” and “have fun,” in a way that sort of sounds like a proud dad.
“so,” jimin draws out a little bit, “where are we going?”
taehyung smiles at him, “well, where do you want to go?”
jimin looks up at him warmly with his own smile, “surprise me.”
it’s only about a 10-minute walk to taehyung’s favorite diner in town, the two of them making idle chatter the entire walk there, laughing together over stupid things.
taehyung holds the door to the diner open for jimin, gesturing for him to go ahead. “what a gentleman,” jimin comments, the smile on his face teasing. taehyung laughs a little, pretending to tip a hat in jimin’s direction, which gets a giggle out of jimin.
they wait a few moments at the front of the diner for a waitress to greet them and tell them that they can sit anywhere, and then takes their drink order.
by the time their drinks come out, they’d both decided on what they want to eat.
“i hear you’re a pretty big fan of me,” taehyung says as the waitress walks away with their food orders. jimin groans jokingly, his face tinted pink, “maybe a little ,” he says begrudgingly.
“oh? only a little?” taehyung teases, “so that’s why you were at so many of my sets?”
jimin’s eyes widen slightly, “you noticed ?”
taehyung can’t help but smile at him, “it’s hard not to notice someone as pretty as you, jimin.”
jimin sputters slightly, “well the same could be said about you!” he says, clearly flustered, the pink of his cheeks growing deeper by the minute.
taehyung thinks he looks beautiful.
“so you only noticed me because of my face and not my voice?” taehyung says, “i’m not sure whether i should be offended or flattered.”
jimin just looks at him for a moment, the smile on his face fond, “flattered, for sure.” he says.
taehyung lets out a low laugh, “yes sir,” he says, nodding.
just a few moments later, the waitress walks up with their food, setting it down in front of them. taehyung wonders what they must look like to her, sitting across from each other, smiling silly smiles at each other, easily bantering back and forth.
while they eat, there’s more idle chatter between the two of them, in between bites. at some point, their hands meet in the middle of the table
and they stay there.
(neither of them say anything about it, but their pink-stained cheeks say enough for both of them.)
“tell me more about yourself,” jimin requests once they’ve finished eating, a small smile on his lips and his eyes alight as he looks as taehyung.
jimin allows taehyung to ramble on about himself, his eyes lighting up when he finds out that they’re actually the same age, jimin only being a couple of months older than taehyung. “and, obviously, i’m a musician. i started singing at the jazz bar probably,” he pauses to think for a moment, “5 months ago?” he finishes.
“and i’ve been coming to the bar for probably about 2 of those months,” jimin says with a smile. “hoseok actually dragged me out one evening when you were performing telling me that i had to see this new artist that had started performing a few months ago,” he says, “the rest is history, as they say.”
“and the rest has finally led to you staying after one of my sets,” taehyung says.
jimin giggles, “and the rest has led us to this diner at,” he starts, his eyes widening a bit as he looks at the time on his phone, “11:30 at night on a weekday.”
“exactly,” taehyung smiles, “now, you tell me about yourself.”
“well, my name is park jimin,” he starts, “you already know my age, i’m in college right now for dance, with a minor in education. i want to be a dance teacher once i graduate.”
his eyes have that sparkle in them that people have when they’re talking about what they’re passionate about, and taehyung cannot get enough of that look on him. cannot get enough of just looking at him, honestly.
taehyung smiles at him, “i think you would be an amazing teacher,” he says with all the confidence of someone who feels, somehow, like he’s know jimin all of his life.
“really?” jimin asks a bit shyly.
taehyung nods, “of course.”
jimin continues on with telling taehyung about himself, his cheeks tinted a bit more pink than they were before, and taehyung listens like there’s nothing in the world he’d rather be listening to.
which, to be fair, is definitely true. he wants to know everything he can about the man in front of him.
they talk until their waitress approaches their table, “i hate to interrupt, but the diner will be closing in a few minutes.” she says, looking a little guilty.
“oh!” jimin exclaims, “we’re so sorry, we got carried away,” he says.
taehyung pays for both of their meals while jimin leaves a big tip on the table and they exit the diner together.
taehyung takes jimin’s hand as they come out onto the street. it’s nearing midnight which means, on a weekday, that it’s pretty barren, only a few people other than themselves out on the streets.
“can i walk you home?” taehyung asks, looking down at jimin.
jimin smiles up at him, nodding, “yeah, of course you can.”
“lead the way, little dancer,” taehyung says, causing jimin to shove at him a bit, “i’m not that little,” he grumbles at him even as he blushes lightly at the nickname.
they walk down the street hand in hand, jimin leading taehyung in the direction of where he lives.
it only takes about 10 minutes to walk from the diner to the apartment building that jimin lives in, and it’s obvious neither of them want this (this what? this date? taehyung hopes it’s a date.) night to end.
as they stand together in front of the doors to the apartment building, they face each other, jimin looking up at taehyung hopefully.
“i had a really good time tonight,” jimin breaks the quiet between them with a smile.
“i did too,” taehyung responds, “and i hope that we can do it again sometime?” he says, the sentence ending up turning into a question.
jimin smiles at him, “yeah, me too,” he says, “can i maybe… have your phone number?”
taehyung scrambles to pull his phone out his pocket, handing it over to jimin, while jimin hands him his own.
after they’ve returned their phones to their owners, taehyung decides to be brave, “jimin, do you mind if i kiss you?”
“i thought you’d never ask,” jimin breathes out, his head tipping up towards taehyung.
taehyung places his hand on jimin’s neck, crossing the distance and placing a light kiss on jimin’s lips before pulling away. jimin quickly closes the distances again, kissing taehyung harder, wrapping his arms around taehyung’s neck.
by the time they separate, they’re both breathless and their lips are red and swollen. their faces flushed pink, their hearts racing.
they stand together, one hand still connecting them, both unwilling to leave each other.
taehyung eventually sighs, bringing jimin’s hand up to his mouth, kissing his knuckles, “i should probably get home.”
jimin’s visibly unhappy at this, but he knows it’s true, “yeah, you should,” he says before tipping his head up once more.
taehyung gives him what he wants without hesitation, pecking his lips, “good night park jimin, little dancer.”
jimin smiles that smile at him, pecking him on the lips again for good luck, “good night kim taehyung, little star.”
(neither of them say anything about it, but their pink-stained cheeks say enough for both of them.)