Chapter Text
“Fall in love with someone who is both, your safe place and your biggest adventure.”
The sun hasn’t even fully risen and Seokjin, a beautiful and elegant cat hybrid, was wide awake already, standing in front of his full body mirror and holding different clothes in front of himself to see what he should wear on this important day. While looking at the ever growing mountain of discarded clothes, he shook his head and threw the royal blue dress shirt he was holding to the others on the bed as well. He groaned in frustration and let himself fall right onto the pile of clothes that was currently piling up on his mattress. Nothing was looking the way he wanted to, he needed to dress to impress today after all.
Today was his first day at his new workplace in an office of a big fashion magazine, something he waited so long for and now that the day was finally there, he was so close to going crazy and that over something silly as clothes. He definitely needed to look good, the best he could on this day.
Seokjin turned his head and looked at the clock on his bedside table, he still had an hour to go until he needed to leave his apartment. Breakfast and showering were already done and he had packed his bag the evening before. So now there was really only one question left, what should he wear.
In the end, he decided on the first outfit he tried on, the light blue dress shirt and with the form fitting pants. With all his nervousness and not knowing what to wear, he barely avoided being too late for his new job. When Seokjin arrived at the building he would work in now, he almost turned around to go back home again, if not for some random boy running into him and distracting him from his plan to run away from his nerves and his new job. After a thousand apologies from the other, he just headed inside and only realized that he was almost there when the elevator drove upwards to the top office of the high building. He was alone in the elevator, so with the mirror inside there, he checked his outfit, stroked over his shirt a bit, and fixed his hair, and tried fixing up his ears a bit, so it wouldn't lie as flat on his head. He wanted to make a good first impression and not look totally tense.
When the doors opened with a sound almost too loud for his sensitive ears, he flinched and stumbled out of the small room. For a moment Seokjin just stared at the ground in front of him, before taking a deep breath, releasing his tail from his right leg, which had instinctively wrapped around it to ground himself a bit, and looked up.
The office was full of people. Many sitting at their desks or running from here to there with a lot of papers in their arms, others talking to their colleagues, or just calling someone on the phone.
His eyes flew over the room looking for someplace he could go or someone he could talk to. His job interview wasn't in this building, so this was actually the first time he was seeing this place.
Seokjin saw a smaller boy with bright pastel pink hair running in his direction after a few minutes of helpless waiting while no one noticed him. Maybe it was just a few seconds, he kind of lost his sense of time with his nerves laying bare in the foreign environment and no comfort around. He straightened his back and threw a nervous smile in the direction of his welcoming committee, the small boy who just came to a halt in front of him.
A bit earlier said boy sat on his desk, deeply in thoughts while reviewing some articles of their last magazine edition. "Jimin? Jimin? You have to go, the new one should be coming every second." Jimin flinched and looked up, his eyes turning to a light yellow. Taehyung, Jimin's coworker and best friend, immediately got worried and rushed to him. He laid his hand on Jimin’s back. "Are you okay? Have I surprised you that much?" Jimin relaxed while feeling and hearing the other. "Just a bit I am okay. I was just overviewing the last articles. Not the best we ever had." He closed his eyes and paused for a moment, before opening them again and looking at Taehyung. "Are my eyes back to normal?" The other nodded and stepped a bit back so that Jimin could stand up. "Perfect. Then are we gonna meet at lunch break? I will probably need to show the new guy around and explain a few things."
They both agreed on it before Jimin made his way out of the desk section and quickly moved, almost running, in the direction of the elevators. He really hoped that he wasn't too late. It was quite a habit for him, to get lost in his work and forget the time while doing so.
When arriving there he looked for a person he didn't know and immediately found a face that was foreign to him and smiled nervously. Before he approached the nervous man he let his eyes linger for a moment and gulped. The stranger was really really handsome. He was tall, had broad shoulders, and a perfect face. Also, his hair looked just perfect. He could feel his eyes changing color again, probably because he was so in awe of the stranger, and could only imagine that they probably had a pink touch now.
He took a deep breath, to calm down a bit and not weird out the man from the first second they meet before he crossed the last steps to him and cleared his throat to get the attention of the other. The man’s head snapped to him, his eyes widened and he bowed without missing a single beat. "Hello, I'm Kim Seokjin. I'm starting to work here today and was waiting for someone to collect me and show me around. I’m sorry if I was standing in the way." Seokjin stepped to the side, ready to let Jimin go further. Jimin smiled endeared and extended his hand. "Hello, you're not in the way, don't worry, the one to show you around is me. I'm Jimin. Sorry that I kept you waiting." Seokjin looked at the other's hand surprised before shaking it carefully. "Oh, no no it is okay. I was a bit early so it is my own fault. No need to apologize." He looked Jimin in the eyes and his own widened. "Are you okay? Your eyes are kinda green." Jimin let go of his hand and took a step back. He shook his head and sighed. "Yes, no need to worry. I'm a seahorse hybrid and my eye color changes according to my feelings. Green means happiness and similar things. That is kind of the only outer feature I got from my parents. Otherwise, people probably wouldn't even notice." Seokjin nodded. "Okay. That is pretty interesting. I have never met a seahorse hybrid before. I'm really happy to meet you." Still being nervous he was about to bow again but Jimin smiled and stopped him. "Stop being nervous and relax. Everyone here is pretty nice and we are happy to have you here. The last weeks were kinda rough." Seokjin stopped in his motion and tried to relax. "Okay, I'll try." Jimin clapped his hands. "Then let me show you around and then your workplace. If you know everything better you won't be as nervous as you are now." Jimin was about to start moving but stopped again. "By the way, I think you are older than me, right? I am 26. Is it okay, if I call you Hyung?" The other nodded, finally smiling for the first time this day. "Perfect, then let us start Seokjin Hyung."
A few weeks later and Jimin has hopelessly fallen in love with his new coworker. So in love that Taehyung was really annoyed with him. "I really can‘t believe you.“ Jimin snapped out of his thoughts while staring at Seokjin from afar and looked to his best friend. He was shaking his head while picking some vegetables from his plate up to eat. They just had their afternoon break. “Just go and talk to him. I bet he won‘t mind.“ “I can‘t.“ Tae ate what he picked up a few seconds ago and mumbled. “Why not? You‘re cute, funny, and really hot. Like really really hot. If you weren't so in love with Seokjin Hyung, I would totally hit on you.“ Jimin shivered. “No stop. Don‘t say something like that.“ Tae gave him his boxy signature grin. “But you understand what I‘m implying right?“ “Yes… but we don‘t even know if he likes men.“ Jimin had lost his appetite and put down his fork while leaning back. Meanwhile, Tae had finished eating. “I bet he does. Should see how he looks at you.“ Jimin's eyes widened. “What do you mean?“ Before the other could answer him, a careful voice sounded from beside them. “Excuse me, Jimin-ah?“ Jimin looked surprised to his side, his secret crush standing there. Neither of them had noticed that Seokjin had come to them while they were talking. “Yes?“
“I have some questions about the project I‘m working on and need some help. Would you mind helping me, when you’re done with your break?“ Instead of Jimin, Taehyung answered for him, while he stood up as fast as he could, wanting to help his best friend to get some alone time with his crush. “Actually we‘re already done. So he is all yours Hyung.“ He picked up his things and turned to Jimin. “See you later.“ Jimin, a bit startled, nodded, and also stood up. He smiled carefully. “Let’s go.“ Seokjin bowed slightly. “Thank you.“ They went together out of the cafeteria. Before leaving it Jimin made one last eye contact with Taehyung, who was now talking to some other colleague. When he noticed Jimins looking, he mouthed something like ‘Do something about your crush’ in his direction. Jimin just smiled unsure at him and turned back to Seokjin. For the rest of their working day, Jimin helped him then and answered every question the older had. It was nice working with him and he was feeling really at ease the whole time.
When Seokjin returned home the same evening he closed his door and sighed immediately. The day was nice, he liked having Jimin near to him, but also very exhausting. There was all the new work and also his newfound crush on his coworker. He was pretty sure he started to like Jimin. The whole time it was a real hassle to stop himself from blushing and keeping his tail still. Normally his tail would get pretty active when he was excited and he didn’t want to expose himself like that so he tried his best to keep it under control. Also, he wasn’t even sure if something like this, relationships between coworkers, were allowed or not if there were any guidelines for it. While making his dinner, he decided to ask some inconspicuous colleague the next day about it.
So the first few weeks passed and Seokjin was now sure that he definitely had a very big crush on Jimin, but he wasn’t sure if he should confess to the other. He didn’t have the impression that Jimin was feeling similar to him and he didn't want to make a fool out of himself. The only thing Seokjin noticed was that Jimin's eyes turned a shade of red or pink every time he was near him and until now he hadn't dared to ask what this could mean. He knew Hybrids could be pretty sensitive about these things. In the end, it took a lot of long talks with his friends and pouting from himself, that he decided to do something, but he still didn’t know what that something should be.
Jimin's situation was similar. Over the last few weeks, he now was certain, with what he wouldn’t believe to be the truth in the beginning. He really had a crush on his new Hyung and it took only a visit from Taehyung and a bit of talking to make him decide that he definitely wanted to act on his crush.