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Seokjin has been using the sound of the door smashing closed as greeting for way too long. Hoseok doesn’t even flinch anymore. The fucker laughs.
“He was there again today, uh?”
It’s too early for Seokjin to endure Hoseok’s teasing smirk. But he doesn’t have to, he has learned to ignore his business partner and best friend as a pro by now. After so many years, he has a doctorate on ignoring Hoseok’s teasing, and lately he has been putting those abilities into practice more than ever.
Life was perfect. Seokjin didn’t believe that was possible, but for a few blissful months everything went well in his life. Remedy , the restaurant that was the dream of his and Hoseok’s life, has been getting the attention of the public steadily. They have had a few articles written about them as a must-visit in the area and the most promising new place in the city. Seokjin has every article framed. They have good suppliers, an excellent team, they’re making money, and they’re on a safe path to pay all their loans, what else can he ask of life? Sure, Seokjin can’t remember the last time he took a day off, but that’s a price he’s willing to pay for their life project to soar into the skies.
In Seokjin’s opinion, life was perfect, and he should have seen that as the first warning sign. Nothing is ever perfect.
“He waved and smiled at me, Hoseok. How dare he?” Seokjin leaves the office to change into his work clothes, replaying in his head this morning’s encounter with that… Man ? No, he isn’t a man. He’s a monster who came to destroy Seokjin’s dream, he’s a demon, his archenemy, Min Yoongi .
When he leaves the locker room and enters the kitchen, he finds Hoseok making a quick inventory of the products in the fridge.
“We’re running low on truffles,” Hoseok comments, but Seokjin’s head is on a different lane.
“He’s plotting something, Hoseok. I know,” Seokjin says, looking around them, as if there were hidden microphones in the kitchen.
Hoseok snorts. “You’re so fucking dramatic, hyung.”
That’s something he hears often from Hoseok. He doesn’t regard the situation with the same gravity Seokjin does, and Seokjin can’t understand why. The situation is putting everything they’ve worked so hard for in danger.
“This is serious, Hoseok.”
“No, this is epic.” Hoseok laughs some more. “It’s like watching a drama, but I still don’t know the genre. Could be either a crime thriller or a romcom.”
Seokjin sighs and turns around to start preparing the kitchen before the rest of the team arrives.
“No, seriously.” Hoseok seems to interpret his silence as encouragement to keep talking. “You’ll end up either murdering him or marrying him. I don’t think there’s an in between.”
“It’ll be murder, definitely murder,” Seokjin hisses, as he picks a knife to sharpen.
“If you stepped out of the circus for five minutes—”
“All I say is there are thousands of corners in Seoul,” Seokjin nearly growls. “Why does he have to sell his greasy aberrations right outside our restaurant?”
Hoseok sighs and rolls his eyes. “He was here first.”
“But we’ll stay last.”
🌶
It was an accident really. The start of the passionate hate story , as Hoseok likes to call it, between Seokjin and the street vendor of the corner was product of a few misfortunate words Seokjin heard in passing one day from one of his customers.
For this price, I’d buy ten bags of churros to the guy at the corner.
Seokjin tried to be mature about it. People can have their opinions. Nothing wrong with that.
Yes, their restaurant has prices that are maybe not for everyone, but that’s because they offer a product that Seokjin and his team craft with the upmost professionalism and passion. Carefully selected ingredients to make unique dishes that are closer to art than food. They’ll have a Michelin star before their fifth opening anniversary, he knows. That’s why he can’t stand impassive when an ignorant asshole dares to say he’d rather pay for fried dough sprinkled with sugar.
Seriously ? It’s outrageous. He won’t tolerate such disrespect.
Hoseok has pointed out many times that the comment didn’t come from the vendor, but Seokjin can’t help his gut reaction. To be honest, Seokjin hadn’t even noticed the presence of the churros stand before the incident, but once he did, he couldn’t stop.
Every day Seokjin finds a different reason to be annoyed by the guy. Seokjin has to admit that sometimes he’s a bit unreasonable, and just the ordinary red and yellow color scheme of the stand upsets him. Sometimes is the carelessly styled black hair of the vendor that he doesn’t even bother to cover. Sometimes is the whole concept. Churros, what’s all the hype about them? Seokjin can’t understand it, and not only there is always a crowd of people in front of the little stand that makes it hard for Seokjin’s patrons to enter the restaurant, but also the smell of hot oil and fried goods always seems to find its way to Seokjin’s place. Sometimes his clients leave the restaurant and buy a churro, as if Seokjin’s food hadn’t been filling enough.
“Our portions are ridiculously small, Jin. I don’t blame them,” Hoseok dared to say once and he was lucky the knives were far from Seokjin’s reach or he would have ended with a few fingers less.
The day he found a crumpled paper napkin with the logo of the fucking churros stand at the entrance of his restaurant, Seokjin nearly made spontaneous combustion. That ridiculous churro with a happy face was laughing at him. It was unacceptable. He strode with all his might towards the stand, and fortunately, there were no clients waiting, just the vendor preparing a new batch of churros.
“Move to a different corner.” In retrospective, maybe that wasn’t the best way to introduce himself to the guy, but Seokjin was at his limit.
“Excuse me?” The guy didn’t seem sure whether to laugh or not.
Seokjin was even madder at how attractive the guy was this close, but that was neither here nor there.
“You heard me,” Seokjin continued, undeterred. “Sell your greasy stuff in a different corner, you’re stinking my restaurant.”
The guy stared at him for a little bit too long. Seokjin’s aggressive stance was about to waver when the guy finally reacted. He looked at Seokjin up and down, unimpressed, and snorted.
“You’re the owner of the swanky restaurant over there?” The guy pointed at his restaurant and made a grimace, as if it wasn’t something Seokjin should be bragging about.
“Co-owner, yes, and—”
“Okay, let me tell you one thing, buddy,” the guy said, cutting Seokjin’s attempt of keeping the conversation civilized. He stared at Seokjin a little more, shook his head, then put a new batch of dough sticks in the oil. The cloud of heat that rose from it left Seokjin momentarily blind and breathless. When he was able to see the churro man again, he was smiling. “Fuck right off.”
Seokjin left deeply offended after that, and ever since that interaction, shit became personal. It was war.
🌶
“His name is Min Yoongi, he’s twenty-eight, could beat the shit out of you but would rather hold your hand. Oh, and he’s single.”
After his fatidic first talk with the churro man, Seokjin deemed it was necessary to gather some intel on the guy. Know your enemy, they say. He gave the task to the restaurant host, Jimin, whose smile could get first-borns surrendered left and right.
“How did you get that information?” Seokjin frowns suspiciously at Jimin’s puffed out chest. Min Yoongi doesn’t seem like the type of guy who would fall for a pretty smile so easily. It took Jimin less than a week to give him the report and he seems awfully proud of it.
“I tricked one of his employees to talk. It was easy.” Jimin shrugs one shoulder.
Oh, of course. Sometimes the stand is tended by a boy with moppy brown hair and adorable boxy smiles, other days there’s another kid with too many tattoos for his scared bunny appearance. Surely Jimin managed to break one of those guys.
Seokjin gets a bit mad at himself for feeling relieved knowing that Jimin didn’t use his flirty methods on Yoongi. After all, the guy is his enemy.
“Wait, tell me this employee is not the cutie you said you took home the other day?” Hoseok, as usual, butts in just to create chaos.
When Seokjin sees the blush taking over Jimin’s cheeks, he gasps, horrified.
“Fraternizing with the enemy! Park Jimin, you traitor … I should fire you!”
“No! I was just—”
“No one’s getting fired over this.” Hoseok rolls his eyes and claps Jimin’s back. “Jiminie, go back to work. And you…” Hoseok grabs the back of Seokjin’s clothes and drags him away from the window, where he was trying to catch a glimpse of who’s tending the churros stand today. “End this madness already.”
“Only when one of us is cold underground,” Seokjin hisses and doesn’t stay to hear Hoseok’s exasperated sigh.
🌶
It’s a cold war.
Hoseok keeps saying it’s all in his head, but Seokjin knows Min Yoongi hates him with the same fervor Seokjin does. He sees it in Min Yoongi’s eyes every time they meet his, and that happens quite often. Not that Seokjin has been spying him during his breaks, not at all. But every time he casually looks that way, Min Yoongi is looking too. As if he knew something Seokjin didn’t, as if he was laughing on the inside at Seokjin’s ignorance.
So, it’s a cold war until it isn’t.
Tired of feeling victimized by Min Yoongi, Seokjin decides to throw the first blow.
It’s a Thursday night, a good night. Not as good as Fridays or Saturdays, but there are lots of people still in the street, mostly workers and students going back home. He hasn’t been able to see the person behind the churros stand, because it’s been packed all day. The restaurant did well today too. They hosted a company celebration, so they were full until closing time.
They close at eleven, but after cleaning and putting everything back in order, they usually leave near midnight. Seokjin is always the last to go home, and tonight he told the cleaning staff to go a little earlier to make sure there are no witnesses.
Seokjin wraps everything up in the kitchen and takes his bomb. It’s obviously not an explosive device, but it might as well be. He’s been cooking this pestilent baby for a week, and today he deemed it ready to blow. He shakes the bottle with the muddy concoction of liquified leftovers, old broth, and potato peels and grimaces.
Perfect .
Byulyi, one of the cooks, almost threw it away when she found it this morning. Seokjin had to bribe her with a few days off to look the other way.
Seokjin won’t do much, he will just accidentally spill it by the churros stand. Min Yoongi won’t know what hit him.
Last time Seokjin checked, the churro man was still selling. On good days like this, he stays until there are no people in the street. Great. Seokjin will be able to see his face. This might be a dirty move, but Seokjin is not planning on doing it behind anyone’s back.
All his plans plummet down when he leaves the restaurant and turns to the churros stand. There’s no Min Yoongi in sight. In his place, cleaning and closing the stand, is one of the boys, who stops what he’s doing when he sees Seokjin and looks at him, big doe-eyes slightly scared.
Seokjin groans. It’s the tatted bunny. Jeongguk is his name, according to Jimin’s spy work that is definitely not just dating the other employee, Taehyung. Yoongi has another stand in a different part of the city, tended by Taehyung and Jeongguk in turns, and both of them sometimes come to help Yoongi at this one.
Seokjin narrows his eyes at the boy, who is still looking at him ready to flee. Seokjin strides towards the pile of trash waiting for the truck and tucks his now useless bomb into one of the bags.
“Hey, I wanted to—”
The boy coming at him startles Seokjin so much that the bottle slips away from his grasp and falls to the ground spilling all its stinky contents onto Seokjin’s shoes.
The boy gasps and tries to help him clean, but Seokjin can only damn Min Yoongi.
🌶
Min Yoongi’s knowing looks are worse than his ruined shoes and pants.
Of course, Seokjin would rather die than addressing the incident, but that little step back won’t deter him. If anything, it makes the fire of hate grow hotter.
“Ask him out already,” Hoseok teases when Seokjin opens up about Yoongi’s mocking looks.
Hoseok is not as lucky this time and he takes a few whips of the scallions Seokjin was getting ready to chop.
There are a few more failed attempts of hurting Min Yoongi. Hoseok stops him the day he’s planning on breaking into the stand and messing with the gas supply, and Seokjin later admits that it was going too far. Some other day he’s ready to take out the trash at six pm, rush hour for the churros stand, but Jimin convinces him that it wouldn’t look good for the restaurant either and he’s right, so Seokjin goes back to planning.
Maybe being openly aggressive is not the answer, so he tries a different approach.
Everyone in the kitchen gives him weird looks when he places the artfully decorated plates of courtesy churros he’s planning on giving as dessert today.
“Seokjin-nim…”
“What?” He looks at the worried faces around him and hates how his ears start feeling too hot.
He’s not insane, for fuck’s sake. By now, everyone knows about Seokjin’s animosity towards the street vendor. Some think it’s funny and don’t take him too seriously, which Seokjin thinks is extremely offensive but doesn’t take it to heart. Some share his view and Seokjin shuts them down as soon as they get too into it. When the comments get classist, he has stand up for his enemy and he realizes that maybe he’s going too far with this war thing if it’s prompting such vicious views.
It’s not about that.
It started as a joke. He pretended he had been deeply offended by the guy and then things started getting out of control to the point that he convinced himself that Min Yoongi was actually evil. It was ridiculous, he knew he sometimes went a bit overboard, and it wasn’t funny or proper of someone in charge of a kitchen and a business.
So, Seokjin seriously considered apologizing. He thought the best would be starting anew with their sort of neighbor, that way he could go back to focusing on what really matters, offering good food and securing good clients.
The morning he woke up determined to make things right with the churro man, he arrived at the restaurant a little earlier and went to Hoseok’s office first to inform him of the ceasefire, even though it was always one-sided and there was never any real fire.
He closes the door like a normal person and smiles at his best friend, anticipating his relief and maybe even praise, but all he finds is Hoseok with his head in his hands and a look of absolute devastation in his face.
“What happened?” Seokjin asks, smile also falling off his face.
And so Hoseok tells him. The fatal blow came from the enemy. Unerring and lethal.
“Don’t make this about that fucking churros stand, please,” Hoseok sighs, and Seokjin feels terrible.
“I’m sorry.”
During his daily check of the whole restaurant, Hoseok found the bathrooms infested with roaches, and it seemed like it wasn’t something that happened overnight, so probably someone saw it the day before, some client.
They know how this industry works, and a rumor like this could be their end.
“I already sent a message to everyone to take the day off, and I’ve been trying to contact a pest control service, someone discreet and quick, but there’s no one available, at least not this week or in our budget.”
Hoseok takes him to see the state of the bathrooms and it’s awful.
“I think something broke down there. A few days ago, Jaesung told me there was a funky smell coming from somewhere. I forgot to look into it…” Hoseok sighs and bumps his head on the wall.
“This is not your fault, Seokah.” Seokjin rubs Hoseok’s back. “Shit happens. We’ll get over it.”
“We’ll have to close until it’s fixed.”
Seokjin sighs. They’ve been doing well, but the truth is that they’re not in a place comfortable enough to afford more than a couple of days closed.
“We’ll be fine,” he says, trying to convince himself in the process.
They make sure the bugs can’t reach the kitchen, and Hoseok makes a few more calls. They try to clean as much as they can, but it’s useless. The roaches are endless.
They make a sign to let their clients know that they’ll be closed until further notice, and have a little breakdown, because they both know that constancy is crucial for an emerging business like theirs. They are closing the metal curtain when a voice Seokjin has heard just once but can’t get out of his head comes from behind them.
“What happened? Is everything alright?”
Seokjin doesn’t have to turn around to know is Min Yoongi and he doesn’t really have to think too hard to know that this is the worst time possible to act on his bullshit, but he can’t help it.
“Clearly everything is not alright ,” Seokjin says and holds back a wince, because it sounded rude even to him.
“Shit, fine,” Yoongi huffs and goes back to his stand.
“Was that necessary?”
Seokjin doesn’t feel strong enough to face Hoseok’s disapproval. He had enough hearing it in his voice.
“Not now, please,” he mutters and wishes his hair was long enough to cover his ears, probably red as a crab by now.
They walk to Hoseok’s car in silence. It’s just around the corner in an alley, but they walk slowly, heavily. Seokjin is sure Hoseok feels the same weight on his shoulders, crushing his heart. Maybe it’s not that bad, maybe they find someone to fix this mess before this week is over. Maybe not. They both thought they had left the uncertainty phase behind already.
Hoseok drives him to his apartment. It’s not too far but it’s on the way to Hoseok’s home a bit farther. Hoseok parks outside his building and stops the engine. They breath in the silence of the car. Hoseok usually has the radio on, but Seokjin guesses he has too much in his head now.
“I’m waiting for some people to call me back and I’ll ask around some more,” Hoseok says and nods, as if he was making a decision. “We’ll have this fixed as soon as possible, Jin.”
Hoseok smiles at him and for the first time today, Seokjin feels like crying. He nods too and tries to keep the tears at bay.
“What should I do?” In their business relationship, Hoseok is always the one with the ideas, Seokjin is the one who follows his lead and works hard.
“Rest,” Hoseok chuckles. “Maybe this is life telling us to take a day off for once.”
“Hoseok…”
“No, I mean it.” Hoseok smiles again and scratches under Seokjin’s chin. “Rest, because when we open again, we’ll have to work extra hard to make up for the lost time. Come up with something for later, an event or a new dish or something. Do your thing, I’ll do mine, Jinnie.”
Seokjin sighs and pulls Hoseok into a hug. “Okay. Keep me posted.”
“Will do.”
Seokjin waves at Hoseok until his car turns the corner, only then he enters the building and takes the elevator to his apartment.
It’s weird to see his apartment in the daylight. Seokjin goes out every day very early and comes back when it’s already dark. The few days they've been closed, Seokjin has slept all day or gone out. To be honest, Seokjin doesn’t feel at home in his apartment. It’s where he sleeps and where he keeps his stuff, but his true home is Remedy’ s kitchen. Maybe it’s a bit sad, but his job is his entire life. It’s the only thing he excels at, everything else is barely holding up. He’s pretty sure there are still things packed in boxes in the spare room.
He moved here after a breakup. When they were still in college, he and Hoseok shared a tiny apartment. When they graduated, they went separate ways to get the money to start their business. Hoseok went back to his hometown where a friend of his father offered him a good, stable job. Seokjin moved with the boyfriend he had back then and worked in different kitchens, making a bit of a name for himself. Fine cuisine is a competitive industry and Seokjin, as a rookie, had to work triple hard to stay afloat. The boyfriend didn’t stand that for long, so Seokjin looked for his own place.
Seokjin sits on his sofa and takes a deep breath. It’s a nice apartment. Not too big to feel cold, not too small to feel cramped. The walls are white, and the window is big enough to let natural light in. He pays a girl that lives in one of the upper floors to come clean once a week. It could be said that it’s minimalistic in style, but the truth is that Seokjin has never bothered to properly furnish it beyond the essentials and decoration was obviously out of question. There is a comfy sofa, a TV, and a bookshelf full of books on high cuisine. He hasn’t even opened most of them, but they look pretty. When he had other friends beside Hoseok, they liked to give him that kind of books at every occasion. Seokjin really liked how they looked, so he started to collect them.
Oh, he also has a coffee table that is currently getting wet with something melting in the bag he brought from the restaurant. He and Hoseok took home some stuff that wouldn’t make it for too long in the fridge. With a groan, he stands up, takes the bag to the kitchen and groans some more.
In his opinion, his kitchen is really sad. It’s all shiny stainless steel and sleek black countertops, it’ modern and stylish, but that’s it. His kitchen is spotless clean, because he barely uses it. In fact, he brought some meat and other ingredients, but his pantry lacks all the basics to make an actual meal. He never cooks for himself. He loves food, he loves cooking and he’s really good at it, his food is delicious. He likes to eat and he’s not picky. He can tell when a dish is prepared with love and that’s all he needs to like it. But he never cooks for himself. It feels like too much work, not worth it.
He considers ordering something. Maybe pizza or something fried—
At the thought of fried goods, Min Yoongi’s scowl comes back to his mind. He tried to be nice, despite all of Seokjin’s bullshit, he bothered to ask what was wrong, like a decent sort of neighbor and human being, and what did Seokjin do? Spat on his face.
Well, no, gross . But kind of.
Seokjin sighs and closes his eyes for a second, kicking Min Yoongi’s stupid pouty face out of his mind. He’ll worry about that later. Maybe.
He’ll go buy groceries. Yes. That sounds like a good thing to do. He might stay home for longer than expected, so he should make sure he doesn’t starve. What a shame that would be, he’s a chef, for fuck’s sake.
Yeah, he’ll go buy groceries and come up with something new for their comeback.
🌶
Once in the supermarket, Seokjin feels a bit overwhelmed and finds his way to the instant ramen aisle.
He knows he has to buy stuff to eat while he stays away from the restaurant. He also has to use the ingredients he took home. He was planning on making something nice and giving it to the neighbors or he could invite Hoseok. In any case he has to buy shit, but he can’t bring himself to think what to buy, so he’ll just take a few packs of ramen and try again tomorrow.
He’s gathering his brain to choose between spicy and extra spicy when he feels someone stopping behind him.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
Seokjin hears the muttered curse and again, he doesn’t need to turn around to know who the voice belongs to.
“What are you doing here? Are you following me?” Seokjin turns around, eyes narrowed.
“What—?” Min Yoongi looks taken aback by the accusation. “I live around the corner… Are you following me?”
“Me!”
A couple of old ladies entering the aisle throw dirty glances at them.
Yoongi clears his throat and whispers, “I have more reasons to be suspicious after you sent your host to spy me.”
Seokjin huffs and puts the first ramen he can grasp in his basket. “Whatever.”
Yoongi breathes out a laugh and grabs a few packs of ramen himself. “If I take a picture of you now buying instant ramen… Would it serve as blackmail material for you to leave me alone?”
“You are the one following me in the supermarket, weirdo. You leave me alone.” Well, it’s true, but it could also be said that they’re both walking towards the registers.
The sound of a picture being taken makes him stop. When he turns around another picture is shot his way, and Seokjin can only gape at Min Yoongi’s snickering face hiding behind his cellphone.
“What are you doing?”
“I told you. Next time you think about vandalizing my stand— Yes, I know about that,” Yoongi says when Seokjin fails to mask his guilt. Fucking traitor, Park Jimin. “I want you to know that I’ll paper over the whole block with these pictures.”
Seokjin snorts. “So what? There’s nothing wrong with eating ramen.”
“You’re the chef of a fine restaurant. Shouldn’t you be cooking fucking… teurgoule ?”
Seokjin can’t hold back a laugh at the mention of the simple French dish. “Do you even know what that is?”
Yoongi shrugs, his stance turning defensive. “Maybe.”
“I’m in the mood for something salty, though.” Seokjin sighs, resuming his walk towards the registers.
“Hey, wait!”
Seokjin is already passing his stuff to the cashier when Yoongi reaches him.
“I won’t try to vandalize your stand, I promise,” he says, all fight drained out of him.
You’re the chef of a fine restaurant.
Yeah, a fine restaurant that might be sinking as they stand here. There was no bad intention in Yoongi’s words, but they reminded Seokjin of the dire situation Remedy is going through.
“I know, I was joking about the pictures.” Yoongi’s worried frown tells Seokjin how bad he must look. “Wait for me a little, yeah?”
“What?”
“I want to talk to you, but I need to grab a few more things.” Yoongi points over his shoulder with his thumb. “Five minutes,” he says and rushes into the aisles before Seokjin can answer.
Seokjin thinks about it while he pays and puts the stuff he bought in his tote bag. He walks out of the supermarket slowly, still considering Min Yoongi’s petition.
Why does he want to talk to him? He has good actual reasons to hate Seokjin… Maybe he wants to tell him off some more. Although, the only times Min Yoongi has been rude to him have been after Seokjin had been rude first.
He groans and closes his eyes for a moment. It’s dark outside already. Seokjin took his sweet time showering and picking an outfit for the supermarket, and once here, he walked the aisles aimlessly, trying to focus on what he needed to make something with the things he brought from the restaurant. In the end, he bought the ramen and a six pack of beer. Classy .
Seokjin looks at the street ahead. He lives just two blocks away. Yoongi said he lives around the corner. They’ve been practically neighbors this whole time.
Maybe this is his chance to apologize. He should, especially now. This is no time to have enemies.
Yeah, he’ll wait.
Five minutes. No more.
Min Yoongi makes it in four.
“Oh, I didn’t know if you’d actually wait…” Yoongi looks nervous, as if he hadn’t planned this conversation at all.
“Well, I did.” Seokjin shrugs. “What was that you wanted to talk about?”
“Oh, um…” Yoongi frowns, and the light isn’t the best, but Seokjin would dare to say that he’s blushing.
Interesting .
“I-I, um, I’d like to know your name, first of all.”
“Oh… Did the traitor of Park Jimin not tell you?” Seokjin chuckles, already thinking about terrorizing the host.
“I mean, he did, but I’d like to… Like, properly… you know? Get acquainted.”
Seokjin chuckles at Yoongi’s hesitancy.
“I’m Kim Seokjin.” He offers his hand, and Yoongi passes all the bags to one hand to shake Seokjin’s awaiting hand.
Yoongi’s hand is big and warm and feels really nice against his.
“Min Yoongi,” he says, all polite and serious.
“I know,” Seokjin says, always trying to be a smartass.
Letting go of his hand, Yoongi rolls his eyes, and Seokjin has to bite his bottom lip to hold back a smile.
The silence stretches for long enough to turn awkward, but then Yoongi clears his throat and seems to make up his mind.
“You’re clearly going through some shit, and I think I couldn’t live with myself if I’d let you go home to eat ramen and beer, um…” Yoongi moves his hand as if he was going to touch his own face, but mid movement, the bags hold him down. “Do you want to come over to my place for dinner?”
He says all of that really quickly, and Seokjin is about to tell him he’s really cute, but then he remembers why he came to the supermarket in the first place.
“I can’t.” He realizes he sounds disappointed. He feels really disappointed. “I left some Kobe beef marinating and I have to make it tonight, or it’d go to waste…”
“Oh, I understand.” Yoongi also looks disappointed.
“But you could… come to my place… if you want?” The invitation surprises him as much as it surprises Yoongi.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Seokjin chuckles. “I have a bunch of fancy ingredients and nothing to pair them with, but…” He snoops into Yoongi’s bags. “If you lend me some stuff, I think we can come up with something good.”
“Yeah, okay.”
They smile at each other for a moment before they start walking in the direction of Seokjin’s building.
“Can I help you with the bags?” Seokjin points at Yoongi’s, full to the brim.
“It’s fine.” Yoongi shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders. He’s wearing a loose sweater, but he fills it well. Seokjin has seen him in the stand, wearing more fitting clothes, and although he’s not bulky, he has a strong frame.
And Seokjin has no idea why he’s thinking about that. Maybe now that he’s kind of looking him as something different from an enemy, he’s ready to accept how fucking attractive Min Yoongi is.
Clearing his throat, Seokjin ushers Yoongi to pass him some things. “My bag is empty, come on.”
“Okay.”
With the bags more balanced they keep walking. Silence falls between them again, until Yoongi breaks it.
“A lot of people stopped by the stand today to ask what happened to you.”
“Oh, so that’s what this is? You wanted to pry.” Seokjin is mostly joking, but Yoongi still stirs.
“No!”
Seokjin chuckles, taking pity on him. Yoongi lets out an exasperated sigh.
“I just want to know… Maybe there’s something I can do.”
Seokjin gasps. “Is this your way of admitting that it was actually you?”
“What?!”
Seokjin slaps Yoongi’s shoulder and laughs. “I’m sorry,” he says, sobering up. “We have a bug problem in the bathrooms.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, maybe that too.” Seokjin takes a deep breath and looks for his keys in his pocket since they already reached his building. “The worst part is that Hoseok hasn’t been able to find someone to fix it quickly and for an affordable price,” he says as they cross the entrance hall towards the elevators.
“I thought you were doing well,” Yoongi hums.
“We are, but this kind of situation puts us against the ropes. We’re barely paying our loans, and closing for more than a couple of days can be rough for us.”
“I get it.” Yoongi nods and pushes the button to open one of the elevators. “I had nothing to do with it. Just to be clear.”
Seokjin chuckles. “I know.” Once the elevator doors close and they start going up, Seokjin takes a deep breath and does it. “I’m sorry,” he says quietly, but the space is so small that there’s no way Yoongi didn’t hear.
Yoongi tilts his head. “Why?”
“ Why ?” He looks at Yoongi, incredulous. “I’ve treated you like shit at every chance I’ve got.”
“What? Nah…”
Seokjin huffs. “I’ve been awfully rude. I know it, it was on purpose.”
Yoongi laughs. “Well, maybe I like that.”
The elevator dings open and Seokjin is still frowning at Yoongi.
“Why?”
Yoongi shrugs, and maybe there is a peculiar glint in his eyes when he says, “It’s funny.”
“You’re weird.”
Seokjin leads the way through the hallway to his apartment.
“What?” He asks as he turns to the door to open it. He can feel Yoongi’s eyes on him.
“I just want to know what made you hate me so much.” Yoongi chuckles. “We lived in peace for months.”
Seokjin lets Yoongi into his house and leads him to the kitchen, trying to avoid the question. He tells Yoongi to put the things that need to stay cool in the fridge and as Yoongi does it, he looks through the bags to see what he can use. He picks a few things, the rice and some vegetables, a carton of milk, and goes check the meat he left covered with seasonings.
Seokjin washes his hands and turns around to set a space to chop vegetables in the kitchen island, but when he raises his eyes to pick a knife, he finds Yoongi watching him, expectant.
“Don’t think I let you go that easily. Answer my question.” Yoongi nods at him, defiant, and Seokjin can’t help but scoff.
“Well…” Seokjin thinks about how everything started and closes his mouth. He knows he will feel ridiculous if he says it out loud. “Y-you’re always looking at me, you can’t tell me that’s not suspicious.”
He’d slap his own forehead if that wouldn’t be terribly embarrassing in the current circumstance.
Yoongi snorts. “Suspicious of what?”
“I don’t know… Sabotage?”
Yoongi laughs, and if Seokjin wasn’t so mortified he’d be melting. Yoongi looks really soft when he laughs, his eyes disappear and his gums are on full display, his teeth are ridiculously tiny for a grown man like him. Yoongi is cute when he laughs, and Seokjin doesn’t know what to do with that information.
“I’m sure you’re aware of this, but…” Yoongi clears his throat and rests his elbows on the kitchen island in front of Seokjin. With his face on his cupped hands, he looks up at him and without even flinching, he says. “You’re really fucking pretty. That’s why I look at you so much.”
“Oh.”
“I thought all this war thing was your way of flirting.”
Oh.
“Y-you really have a problem, you know?”
Yoongi hums a laugh and stands up, grabbing the knife and the onion in Seokjin’s hands. “So, what are we making?”
Right, food. That’s more easily approachable. Still…
“We?”
“Yeah, I mean, you’re the chef, of course, but I can help.” Yoongi shrugs one shoulder and starts peeling the onion.
“You can?” He doesn’t mean to sound so condescending, but when Yoongi looks at him with narrowed eyes, Seokjin can’t help but arch a challenging eyebrow.
“What? You think because I make churros, I can’t make anything else?”
“We’ll see,” he says, eyes never leaving Yoongi’s, and maybe he is flirting after all.
🌶
They cook as if they’ve been a team their whole life.
Yoongi definitely isn’t a casual cook, he has technique and seems to enjoy what he’s doing. If Seokjin thought Yoongi was mildly attractive before, he’s downright sexy to Seokjin’s eyes now.
As they wait for the water to boil – they’re making ramen anyway – Seokjin watches Yoongi clean the space where he chopped the vegetables he later sautéed to accompany the beef.
“Why churros?” Seokjin asks, unable to hold back his curiosity any longer. “You clearly know what you’re doing in the kitchen, why sell fried dough?”
Yoongi snorts. “I know you’re not trying to be offensive, but…”
“Maybe I am.” Seokjin shrugs one shoulder. The air around them is tense but it’s not uncomfortable, it’s a good kind of tension. “You said you like it.”
“Oh, you’re trying to please me now?”
Seokjin bites his lip. There’s something in the churro man that makes Seokjin want to be difficult, but the thing with Yoongi is that he gives as good as he takes, and that’s driving Seokjin crazy. Good crazy. The kind of crazy that comes with a funny feeling in his stomach.
Yoongi takes a deep breath and mirrors Seokjin’s position: hip propped on the island, arms crossed over his chest.
“It’s simple. Churros are very straight forward.” Yoongi shrugs. “They are exactly what they promise to be. You can’t go wrong with churros.”
“I feel like this is deeper than fried goods.” Seokjin chuckles. The more he knows about Yoongi, the more intrigued he gets.
“Maybe…” Yoongi laughs. “Not really. Churros are cheap and everyone loves them. A stand is way easier than a restaurant and gives money quicker… And man, did I need the money a few years back.”
“Wait, you wanted to open a restaurant?”
Yoongi tilts his head, thinking about it. “No, but I like cooking. I mean, I have a degree and all—”
“You—! Sorry, keep going.”
Yoongi smiles at Seokjin’s hand covering his own mouth to stay quiet. “I wanted to cook for a living, but working in a restaurant…” Yoongi shakes his head. “That wasn’t for me. Then the stand idea popped up and— Oh, speaking of that…” He pulls his cellphone from his back pocket and starts tapping on the screen. “I have a friend that might help with your bug situation.”
Seokjin snorts. “You know a pest control worker?”
Yoongi hums. “Well, Joonie does all kinds of things. He can fix whatever is broken underneath and get rid of the bugs in the process.”
“Are you for fucking real?!” Seokjin takes a few steps towards Yoongi and feels close to grabbing the guy’s shoulders and maybe shaking him a little.
“I’m asking him if he’s busy this weekend—”
Seokjin whimpers and hides his face in his hands, slumping slightly. “Fuck.”
“What? What’s wrong?” Yoongi’s hand touches Seokjin’s shoulder hesitantly, and Seokjin whimpers again.
“If your friend is free, and you give us his number, and he actually fixes the mess…” Seokjin lets his hands fall from his face and sets what he hopes are helpless eyes on Yoongi’s. “I’ll be eternally in debt to you. You , my worst enemy, I don’t know if I can live with that.”
Yoongi snorts and nudges his shoulder lightly. “Well, he is free this weekend, and you can even pay him with food. I’m sure he would think it’s a good deal.”
Seokjin opens his mouth in a silent squeal.
“Give me his number to send it to Hoseok,” Seokjin says puling his phone from his pocket. “He was looking for someone who could make the job.”
“Oh, does that mean you’ll give me your number?” Yoongi arches an eyebrow, and Seokjin has to bite the inside of his cheek to not giggle like an idiot.
“You could send it directly to Hoseok—”
“No, I want your number.” Yoongi shakes his head, thumbs already hovering above the keypad on his cellphone screen.
Seokjin does end up giggling. He’s smiling while Yoongi sends him the contact information of his friend, his fingers tremble a little from excitement as he sends the information to Hoseok, and he almost cries when a few minutes later, Hoseok informs him that he made a deal with Yoongi’s friend and he’ll be over the restaurant tomorrow morning.
“You know why this is hitting you so hard?” Yoongi asks him as he starts making the ramen. “You’re hungry. Your sugar levels must be very low—”
Seokjin yanks Yoongi away from the stove, turns him around and tips his face up with a hand on his chin. Before he can overthink it, Seokjin leans down and kisses Yoongi’s lips.
It’s a short kiss, but a determined one. Yoongi looks a bit disoriented when Seokjin pulls off.
“Um…”
“Thank you,” Seokjin says, eyes mapping Yoongi’s face, from his round, surprised eyes to his lovely pink lips.
“W-whenever you want.” Yoongi clears his throat and turns back to the stove to stir the noodles. He pokes the noodles with a pair of cooking chopsticks once, twice, hesitates the third time and surrenders at the fourth.
Yoongi leaves the chopsticks over the countertop and turns to Seokjin. Seokjin finds him midway, closing a fist in the front of Yoongi’s sweater as Yoongi plants both his hands on Seokjin’s waist and drags him into another kiss.
Despite the abrupt start, Yoongi kisses him slowly, studying the shape of his lips, tasting him curiously. Seokjin’s toes are curling, he already forgot when was the last time someone kissed him this good. Maybe never, maybe this is a first, he can’t really tell, his head is full of the soft feeling of Yoongi’s lips sliding against his. Seokjin puts his free hand on Yoongi’s jaw to angle his face the way he needs to deepen the kiss and relishes the low sound Yoongi makes when their tongues touch.
Seokjin can see himself getting addicted to Yoongi’s lips. Dinner be damned, he’d gladly kiss Yoongi all night.
Sadly, they jump apart when the boiling sounds coming from the stove become too violent. Yoongi rushes to turn off the stove and when the silence returns to the kitchen, they exchange a look and chuckle.
Yoongi clears his throat, and Seokjin looks away. “So…”
“That happened.”
Seokjin walks past Yoongi and picks the ramen seasoning. He rips the little package open and pours its content over the noodles. He’s pointedly not looking at Yoongi. He might jump his bones right here in the kitchen if he looks at Yoongi for too long.
“What do I have to do for it to happen again?” An arm snakes around Seokjin’s waist and he feels Yoongi’s breath on the side of his neck.
Seokjin closes his eyes for a second as a shiver runs down his back.
“Well, depending on how happy this meal makes me and whether or not you intend to ask me out on a proper date…” He finally turns to Yoongi and arches an eyebrow.
Yoongi’s open mouth closes in an instant and he starts moving.
“I’ll put the table. And I know from a good source that you’ll have at least half of the day off tomorrow, so how does fishing sounds?”
“Fishing?” Seokjin laughs. It’s odd, but good odd.
“I’ll make you the best sashimi you’ve ever had and maybe you’ll want to marry me.”
Seokjin laughs again. “What about your stand?”
Yoongi makes a gesture with his hand as if that was the least important thing. “Oh, I have a couple of slaves, also known as my cousin Tae and his pet bunny.”
Seokjin tries but he can’t keep his smile at bay for much longer. “Sounds like a date to me.”
Yoongi smiles right back at him. “Great, so… Do you have some paper and a pen?”
“What for?” Seokjin frowns, but it’s good naturedly. He has no idea what Yoongi will come up with and that’s so exciting.
“Well, to sign a peace treaty, of course.”
Seokjin laughs. “I don’t know… I think I have to try the sashimi first.”
“Okay,” Yoongi says, lips curling in a smile. “It’s a truce till then.”
Yoongi offers his hand, and Seokjin pretends to think about it, but just as Yoongi is about to whine, Seokjin shakes his hand.
It’s a truce.