Work Text:
This the fourth time this week that Yoongi has felt his blood pressure rise this high this early in the morning. He finishes his coffee before he wastes any of it and only then does his crush the cup in his fist.
“Woah hyung,” Jimin comments casually as he passes by, stopping and draping an arm over Yoongi’s shoulder as he peers at the cup. “What did the paper cup do to you?”
Yoongi grumbles at Jimin’s weight over his shoulder and holds the screwed up cup just out of Jimin’s reach.
Hoseok instead snatches it, swooping in from the left.
“Did he misspell your name again?” Hoseok smirks as he deftly unfolds and flattens out the cup. He laughs once when he sees the name scrawled there in thick black marker and nudges Yoongi’s shoulder good-naturedly.
“Show me, show me!” Jimin whines, craning his neck to see.
Hoseok holds it up and Jimin cracks up as well.
“Hyung?” he snickers. “When did you go to the registry office and change your name to Joonji?”
“You should have seen yesterday’s one,” Hoseok adds much to Yoongi’s growing irritation.
“Oh? What was it? Koongi?” Jimin banters back playfully, eyes glittering under the goddam eight am sunshine. He knows fully well that Yoongi’s morning coffee ritual is sacred and anyone who disturbs it is just waiting to be clawed.
“Poongi,” Hoseok says, full of mirth, throwing back his head and laughing out loud.
Jimin doesn’t hesitate to join in, laughing so loud that the pigeons nearby scatter. “That’s like the name of my housemate's dog back home," he cackles.
“Before that it was Soonshi.”
“Okay, now that is actually closer to the name of my housemate's dog.”
“Seriously?” Hoseok doubles over, laughing so hard that there are tears at the corners of his eyes.
Jimin gives his most serious nod, though Yoongi can see he’s fighting to hold back the smirk that tugs at the edges of his lips.
Yoongi rolls his eyes and shrugs his way out from underneath Jimin’s one armed hug.
“Aww hyung,” Jimin grins, locking onto him again and lacing their arms together. “So who’s the culprit? It has to be on purpose right?”
“Damn straight,” Yoongi huffs. “Either that or he’s has an IQ of like negative five hundred. How difficult is it to spell my name. Yoon. Gi. It’s like two syllables. I don’t even know him. Why on earth is he doing this to me?”
“Maybe he likes you,” Hoseok says, fluttering his eyelashes as innocently as only he can. Yoongi reaches out to smack him but Hoseok dances away before his hand can connect.
“Brat,” Yoongi grumbles, giving up on him. “Remind me never to treat you to dinner again.”
Hoseok just laughs like he knows Yoongi doesn’t mean it. Yoongi knows he will never mean it either. Hoseok just has the darnest way of never getting in anyone’s bad books.
Jimin however hasn’t been there on the past three days when Yoongi has received his Starbucks cup with his name grossly misspelled.
“Eh, wait you know who did it? Who? Who? Tell me hyung?” He tugs at Hoseok’s sleeve and gives him those famous puppy eyes. Not that they’re needed. Hoseok is completely willing to tell.
“You know the Starbucks that Yoongi always goes to before morning class?” Jimin nods. It’s part of Yoongi’s i-can-only-be-efficient-at-nine-in-the-morning-if-i-have-a-double-shot-cappucino plan. “Yeah well it seems they hired someone new last week. And for some reason he keeps writing Yoongi’s name down wrong on the cup. Every single day.”
And to Yoongi who is always borderline on snapping any time before noon, such a deed is sacrilegious.
So of course Jimin promptly goes, “I want to meet him.” Like he’s a hero or something.
“Don’t,” Yoongi grumbles and tries to pick up his pace. Anything to put distance between him and these two idiots and that even greater idiot back at the coffee shop.
“You can join me tomorrow morning if you want,” Hoseok says like this is some sort of show or something.
“Sure thing hyung. I’ll drop by your place first before we go,” Jimin says, because of course they’re best buddies when it comes to the let’s-torture-min-yoongi show.
Yoongi’s eye twitches and he does his best to suppress his urge to throttle the two by imagining slowly boiling them in molten coffee instead.
*
Lo and behold Hoseok and Jimin are there at eight twenty the morning when Yoongi goes to get his liquid savior in a cup.
And of course lo and behold the very same barista is there, dimpled smirk and sparkling eyes.
“Welcome,” he says in the most courteous of manners. “What can I get you today?”
“Cappuccino. Double shot. Chocolate on top,” Yoongi grounds out, short and sweet. He wants to get this over with as quick as possible. Behind him he can hear Hoseok and Jimin whispering to one another.
“What size?” Dimpled Barista asks as he reaches for a cup.
“Regular,” Yoongi replies, short and simple.
“Is that all?” Dimpled i-have-really-nice-arms-as-i-reach-for-the-cup Barista asks in a faux innocent voice.
“Yes,” Yoongi says shortly and digs out his wallet.
“That will be three thousand and twenty won,” Dimpled i-sound-so-damn-chirpy-at-eight-in-the-morning Barista says as he taps the cashier with flourish and then pulls out a pen. “Can I get a name?”
This is the part where Yoongi has to resist the incredible urge to lean over and shake some sense into Dimpled i-really-can’t-get-such-a-simple-thing-as-a-name-correct Barista. Unfortunately that may be against the law and Yoongi has to make do with fantasizing the whole scene.
“Yoongi,” he says. “Yo-on-gi.” He says it again, emphasizing all the intonations the second time round.
Dimpled I’ve-just-have-to-stick-out-my-tongue-when-i-write-because-that’s-the-way-i-roll Barista sticks out his tongue as he scrawls some bastardized version of Yoongi’s name onto the cup and sets it aside. Yoongi can’t see it just yet but he’s dreading the outcome. He drops the coins and bills into the barista’s hand and moves over to the collection counter.
Yoongi doesn’t dare turn out to see what faces Jimin and Hoseok are making but he can sure as hell hear their antsy excitement. He’s going to murder those two later when he finally has enough caffeine in his system to function.
In the meanwhile he focuses on Dimpled Barista who apparently is also in charge of making the coffee today. Yoongi feverently hopes that his coffee making skills are nothing like his name writing one.
He however doesn’t need to worry. Dimpled Barista moves smoothly in the tiny space, tapping beans into place and sliding two tiny cups into the slot underneath. He opens the fridge perhaps a little too harshly, but he has the milk out and poured and is frothing it in under a minute. It’s surprisingly soothing to watch someone make coffee and for the first time this week Yoongi thinks he might not leave the coffee shop with murderous intentions. It’s a nice change.
“One double expresso cappuccino,” Dimpled i-can-actually-make-a-coffee Barista calls out as he sets the cup on the collection table. Yoongi jerks to attention and surges forwards to collect it. Only he’s too slow and suddenly Jimin is already there, making a grab for the cup.
“Jimin!” Yoongi hisses but Jimin just ignores him. Dimpled Barista watches with a look of great amusement as Jimin reads the name there and howls with laughter.
“What is it today?” Hoseok asks eagerly and takes the cup from him. He too bursts out into chortles.
“Shut up you two,” Yoongi snaps and snatches the cup out of Hoseok’s clingy hands. “We’re going to be late if you don’t hurry.”
He doesn’t look back as he exits Starbucks, a mirthful Jimin and Hoseok in tow. He doesn’t look at the name on the cup either until an hour later when he’s halfway through a lecture that’s boring the heck out of him and he tries to take a sip from his coffee cup only to realize its empty. With a sour look at it, Yoongi settles it down onto the table again and then he catches sight of the name on it.
Toongi, it reads and Dimpled Barista is so, so lucky that he’s in the middle of a lecture right now because otherwise Dimpled Barista would be Dead Barista, and Yoongi is so going to kill him tomorrow.
*
Yoongi wakes up super early the next day. He has his entire speech all planned out and none of it involves Hoseok and Jimin as audience. He’s going to get there before they do, throw open the door, and give Dimpled Barista the ‘I know it’s a Starbucks’s thing to mess up on names sometimes so that when people do get their cups given to them with the names correct they get that warm fuzzy I’m-special feeling but hey it’s been four days and this is getting ridiculous’ spiel. However today is not his day and as he throws open the door and readies his famously sharp tongue, he’s greeted instead with a-
“Hello. How can I help you today?”
Who? Yoongi stares.
“Sir? Hello?”
“Who are you?” Yoongi blurts out. It’s rude and he knows it but he can’t help the words that slip out.
The server raises a thin eyebrow, clearly not liking Yoongi’s attitude. “My name is Seokjin. And I’m a part time worker here. Do you have a problem with that?”
“Yes- no, wait, I mean no. I mean,” Yoongi stumbles, the words and the speech clashing spectacularly and nothing is going right today. “I mean I wasn’t expecting you!”
Seokjin’s irritation melts into one of confusion. “Not me? Then who?”
“He’s um, um…” Yoongi halts as suddenly he realizes he doesn’t know the name of Dimpled Barista. He’s just always called him Dimpled Barista in his head and that’s not exactly going to be helpful here. “He’s kind of tall. Broad. Black hair… Wears glasses sometimes…”
Seokjin slowly raises one eyebrow to him and Yoongi flushes, realizing that he’s basically describing the general South Korean male.
“Um, um, he,” Yoongi searches about for anything descriptive. “He’s new I think. He’s got a deep voice…and oh!” Yoongi clicks his fingers. “He’s got this super annoying dimple every time he smiles.”
Yoongi freezes as he realizes he’s just said exactly what he had just told himself not to say.
Seokjin stares at him half a second before breaking out into laughter. He doubles over and smacks the counter table hard.
“Dimples?” he cackles. “Well there’s only one guy who meets that requirement.” He stands and wipes away at the tears. “I think I know who you’re talking about, but like, why do you want him? Do you like him or something?”
Yoongi’s eyes flare wide. “No!” he practically yells. “I mean…no, of course not. I just wanted to have a word with him…” he pauses as he realizes how misleading that sounds as well. Seokjin’s lips twitch with amusement as he too picks up on the meaning. “No! I mean for the past week he’s been spelling my name wrong and I wanted to…to…correct him…”
His hands drop to his side and Yoongi lets out a tiny sigh. “Could I get a double shot latte. Make it grande.”
Seokjin presses his lips together in a vain attempt to hold back a grin. “Will that be all?” he asks and Yoongi just nods.
“That will be four thousand won,” he says. “And can I get your name?”
Yoongi can see it in Seokjin’s eyes that he’s interested in Yoongi’s name for more than professional reasons.
“H-Hoseok,” he blurts out, choosing the first name he can think of. Anything but his own.
Seokjin pauses, the pen above the cup and gives him a long look. “Hoseok? You sure?”
Yoongi can feel his cheeks start to heat. “Yes. I should know my own name,” he says with a tiny sniff to hide how bad he is at lying.
Seokjin’s eyebrow arches but he says nothing and scrawls down the name. He takes the money and goes to make the coffee. Yoongi walks away with the perfect cup of coffee and the perfect inscription of his (fake) name written on it, and everything is great. Everything is as it should be. Except…he can’t help but feel like something is missing. And Yoongi’s starting to get a sinking suspicion of what it is.
*
The weekend goes slowly. Without any classes and thus any need to get coffee, Yoongi holes himself up in his bedroom for the entire two days and tries to sleep and study. Keyword is try.
His phone buzzes and Yoongi reaches out across his bed for it. It’s a bit of a stretch but he can’t be bothered to get up and with a bit of effort he manages to nudge his phone towards him.
He swipes across it and puts the phone to his ear, locking it in the place between his ear and his shoulder so his hands are still free to flick the pages of the magazine he has spread open.
“Hey hyung.”
“Hey Kookie. What’s up?”
“My housemate says he heard from a friend that you have a crush on some barista at the Starbucks near college. Is that true?”
Yoongi splutters and flails about so hard that he falls off the bed.
“Hyung?” Jungkook goes. “Are you okay?”
Yoongi groans and puts the phone back to his ear. “Fine. Just fine. And who did you hear this from again?”
“Taehyung. My housemate,” Jungkook says.
Maybe Yoongi’s met the kid before but it doesn’t ring a bell now.
“And who did Taehyung hear this nonsense from?”
“His senior apparently. A guy named Kim Seokjin. Majors in theatre with Taehyung and all-
“The fuck,” Yoongi swears, cutting Jungkook right off. He can imaging Jungkook’s disgruntled expression right now but that is the least of his worries.
“So is it true?” Jungkook asks again.
“What? No!” Yoongi practically cries back.
“Then?”
“Seokjin has the wrong idea,” Yoongi says, trying to explain. “He’s working at Starbucks as well and he ended up serving me last Friday.”
“Is he the guy you have a crush on?”
“What?!” Yoongi screeches into the phone. “What part of i don’t have a crush do you not get?
“Then?” Jungkook says impatiently.
“Seokjin misunderstood. There’s this other barista working there – some Namjin or something – and I wanted to have a word with him but Seokjin was working the Friday morning slot and I got surprised.”
“Oh,” Jungkook says, sounding satisfied. “So it’s this Namjin guy you’re interested in.”
“What!” Yoongi hisses. “I said I. Am. Not. Interested. In. Anyone. Got it?”
“Yeah okay,” Jungkook says, far too agreeably. “Got it.”
“Yeah?” Yoongi says suspiciously. “Now if that’s all I have work to do.”
“Yeah that’s all,” Jungkook says.
“Cool. Bye.”
Yoongi makes to hang up but before he does, Jungkook adds on a, "And Taehyung says his name is Namjoon. And he is single. So good luck hyung.” And then he hangs up.
And Yoongi is so going to renounce them all from friend status to you-are-no-better-than-the-dirt-on-the-bottom-of-my-shoe status. He’s not even in the mood for work anymore and so he throws the magazine down with a little snarl.
The cause of this problem is all this Namjin- Namjoon- Nam something’s fault. Come Monday Yoongi is going to go down there and make sure Seokjin’s not on shift and if he isn’t and Nam-annoyance is there, then he better watch himself because if there’s one thing and one thing only that Yoongi’s going to make sure Nam-dimples learns, it’s his name and how to spell it.
*
Monday morning totally does not go as Yoongi plans it to.
Firstly he wakes up late, missing his first four alarms and only just managing to hear the fifth. Because of that he doesn’t have time to go get his morning coffee and so has to go to lectures feeling like crap.
Secondly Hoseok is there to tease him, asking about how his progress with Dimpled Barista has gone and whether any letters of his name on the cup remain of the original five.
Yoongi manages to ditch Hoseok after the second lecture and decides the ten minute trek across campus to the nearest Starbucks is worth the effort. On the way he bumps into Jimin and some kid with enormous eyes and the strangest box smile Yoongi has ever seen.
“Are you getting coffee?” Jimin asks in a tone of mild surprise by way of greeting. The hello hyung, how are you today are a far thing of the past. Yoongi mourns the sixteen year old Park Jimin who had been the sweetest little slave he could have ever hoped for. Jeon Jungkook is the reason why all of that changed; curse the kid and his black little heart.
“Yeah. I woke up late this morning, so this is replacement caffeine,” Yoongi explains.
“Oh…” the box-smile kid’s eyes round like coins. “No wonder Namjoon-hyung looked so sad this morn-“
Jimin slaps a hand over the kid’s mouth. Yoongi stares at him suspiciously and Jimin offers him a shifty smile.
“Ah, hey hyung I don’t think you’ve met Taehyung. He’s my new housemate.”
The name clicks now. “Oh, right, Jungkook mentioned you.”
Taehyung’s eyes brighten. “You know Kookie as well?”
“Yeah. In the music department they pair freshmen with seniors for the first few weeks or so. I got Jungkook.”
“Oh!” Now it’s Taehyung’s turn for things to click. “You’re the guy Seokjin-hyung was talking about!”
Yoongi’s eyes narrow. “Oh yeah? And what did he say?”
“That you wanted to have a word with Namjoon-hyung,” Taehyung says so solemnly that try as he might, Yoongi can’t find a trace of humor in it. He genuinely cannot tell if he’s being mocked or not. “By the way if you hurry Namjoon-hyung should still be on shift for…” he glances at his watch, “another ten minutes?”
Yoongi narrows his eyes at them both. Taehyung with his earnest gaze and Jimin who is hiding behind Taehyung and doing his best not to burst out laughing. “Fine,” he says shortly. “I’ll see you two around.”
Jimin nods furiously but says nothing. Yoongi can feel Jimin’s stare burn into the back of his head until he turns round the corner and slips into Starbucks.
“Welcome!” comes a warm call as the bell tinkle, announcing his arrival. Yoongi is surprised to see Seokjin manning the counter.
Seokjin catches sight of Yoongi and his mouth makes an ‘o’ shape. It flattens out and curls at the edge with amusement as Yoongi walks up the counter.
Yoongi opens his mouth to recite his order, but before he can make a sound, Seokjin taps at his chin and pulls a face of mock disappointment. “Oh dear,” he says, “my shift isn’t supposed to begin until half past and that’s…in five minutes? I’ll go get Namjoon. He’s supposed to be doing the work.”
Seokjin prances off before Yoongi can say a word.
He disappears through the black doors and Yoongi just stares. Is everyone trying to get him and Namjoon together or something? It’s a conspiracy he swears.
When Namjoon comes out of the backroom he looks disheveled. His apron is hastily tied on and his shirt is buttoned wrongly. It’s like he was halfway through changing into his casual clothes when Seokjin burst in and forced him back into the Starbucks attire. Seokjin, speak of the devil, is right behind him, pushing him through the doors.
“Hyung!” Namjoon protests. “You said you didn’t mind starting work a few minutes early-“
He stops as he catches sight of Yoongi.
“Oh…” he says and the protest goes out of him.
Yoongi drops his gaze and scratches at the back of his head, uncertain of what to do. He has another lecture in twenty minutes so maybe he should just head back or something.
Namjoon however approaches the cashier. “What can I get you?” he asks, his voice throatier than usual.
“Um,” Yoongi coughs and clears his throat. “Double expresso. Cappuccino…”
“Chocolate on top?” Namjoon goes and Yoongi nods. “Regular?” And Yoongi nods again.
Namjoon reaches for the appropriate cup and is about to tell him the price, but Yoongi has it in his hand already and he drops it into Namjoon’s palm, correct change and all. "Three thousand and twenty won, right?" he asks and Namjoon nods. "Now," Yoongi says in a dry and satisfying tone. "The question is, do you remember my name?"
Namjoon twitches like Yoongi’s hit the spot and he looks up with a tiny sheepish smile on his face.
“Yeah, I do,” he says softly.
Yoongi raises an eyebrow. “Is that so?” he says and leaves Namjoon to finish his job.
He watches, resigned, as Namjoon go about obviously writing the bastardized name of the day on the cup and filling it with heavenly coffee. His movements are smooth as always, quick and efficient, if a little heavy of hand at times. He puts together the cappuccino and sprinkles the chocolate carefully and then turns to hand it to Yoongi.
Yoongi goes, slow like he’s in a dream. He takes the cup between two hands and nods his thanks. Namjoon watches him with a hawk’s eye as he turns the cup around and spies his name there.
Joonmi it reads this time and Yoongi feel that tiny creep of irritation crawl back in. He looks up to flash Namjoon a fiery glare but Namjoon doesn’t flinch as most people usually do when they’re on the receiving end of pre-noon, no caffeine Yoongi. Instead he gestures for Yoongi to spin the cup around. He does with great suspicion, and then he realizes there’s more.
Date? is all it says on the other side.
Yoongi’s anger melts away and he stares up at Namjoon open mouthed.
“You?” he points. “Me?” he points at himself? “Date?!” it comes out incredulous.
Namjoon scratches at the back of his neck and he bites his lower lip. “Is that a no?” he says in a tiny forlorn voice.
“It’s a…” Yoongi finds himself surprisingly not saying an outright no. “It’s a question.”
“Oh…” Namjoon goes, blinking as he realizes he’s not being outright rejected. “Then yes. I’m asking. You. On a date. If you want.”
Yoongi’s lips curl upwards into a smirk. “If I say yes will you finally learn how to spell my name right?”
Namjoon grins, a quick and fierce thing. “Maybe,” he says teasingly.
“It’s better than nothing,” Yoongi says with a shake of his head.
“So is that a yes?” Namjoon asks again.
Yoongi gives him a long look. “Well it’s not a no,” he says and Namjoon beams.
*
Three weeks and four dates later, Namjoon reveals to Yoongi that the first time he misspelled Yoongi’s name was an accident.
“It was my second day there and you were kind of glaring at me and the pen slipped in my hand.”
“So you tried to cover it up by misspelling my name every time I ordered a coffee?” Yoongi says incredulously.
Namjoon at least has the grace to look sheepish. “Well you always looked so angry and even more so when I got your name wrong. That got me angry. I mean it was a one-off mistake and yet you looked like you were going to murder me. So I kind of got angry back and started misspelling your name every time you came for revenge.”
“For revenge huh,” Yoongi huffs. “You are so childish Kim Namjoon, you know that right?”
“Seokjin thought it was a good idea,” Namjoon says petulantly.
“Kim Seokjin is equally childish,” Yoongi says firmly. “You Kims all need to go back to primary school or something.”
“But Seokjin was right,” Namjoon says as he leans over onto Yoongi’s shoulder, eyes begging for forgiveness with that ridiculous puppyish way of his.
Yoongi absolutely refuses to believe he’s grown soft to those. “About what?” he asks mincingly.
Namjoon flashes him a grin, knowing he’s won the game. “That if I continued to annoy you eventually you’d talk to me for something other than coffee.”
“And how did he know that?” Yoongi says tersely. “It’s not like I’ve ever met him before.”
“He said his friend Hoseok told him that.”
Yoongi lets that one mull over. Seokjin knows Hoseok. Hoseok told Seokjin that Yoongi’s short temper is key to getting him to work or talk in early morning. And that fucking means that when he pretended his name was Hoseok, Seokjin knew. He knew.
“I’m going to kill them all,” Yoongi declares brightly.
“What? Who? How?” Namjoon says, sounding only slightly alarmed. Yoongi thinks he might keep Namjoon around for a little longer after all.
“I’ll boil them in coffee and serve them to the bratty first years,” Yoongi says, nodding triumphantly to himself. It's a perfect plan.
“Umm…” Namjoon goes.
“What?” Yoongi glances at him. “You’re with me right. You’re my partner in crime right?”
Namjoon gives a tiny sigh. “I don’t know what I ever saw in you,” he says, shaking his head. “C’mon hyung. I have a shift in fifteen minutes but if we hurry we can get there early and I’ll make you coffee.”
If there anything mostly good that’s come from all of this it’s the free coffee Yoongi now gets from his barista boyfriend.
There’s still one bad thing though. “When are you finally going to spell my name right?” Yoongi whines, prodding at Namjoon’s back with one sharp finger.
“Someday,” Namjoon smirks back and opens the door to the café.
Yoongi sits himself down on one of the cushioned chairs that he’s come to claim over the several weeks he’s had to spend in here and Namjoon goes to the backroom to change.
Yoongi takes out his phone and gives in to the unfortunate future that he may never see his name spelt right on a coffee cup. Somehow though it’s endearing that it all started because Namjoon was scared of him.
“Here hyung,” Namjoon murmurs. Yoongi looks up from the article he’s reading as Namjoon places down a paper cup with Yoongi’s order inside. Yoongi picks it up and turns the cup around, amused already to see what Namjoon has written today.
Namjoon settles down in the opposite chair and waits as Yoongi processes today's bastardization.
“Idiot,” he says quickly, refusing to meet Namjoon’s eyes.
Namjoon however leans forwards, making sure Yoongi can’t look away. “Do you like it?”
“Of course not,” Yoongi says roughly and puts to the cup to his lip. He drinks it so quickly he scalds his tongue and he knows from the way that Namjoon’s eyes are gleaming that he knows. “Oh shut up. Get back to work before you get fired or something.”
“Sure sure, hyung,” Namjoon says good-naturedly as he stands up. As he passes he quickly ducks and presses a kiss to Yoongi’s cheek. “I’ll be done in an hour and a half. Dinner?”
Yoongi is busy trying to pretend his cheeks aren’t slowly changing color from Namjoon’s straightforwardness, but he manages a rough “Yeah sure” and he doesn’t need to look to know Namjoon is grinning widely.
Yoongi takes out his books and tries to concentrate on his homework but his eyes keep straying to the cup and its distracting name of choice. He sighs and reaches over to pick it up, his thumb brushing over the carefully inscribed hangul and yeah, Yoongi thinks he might keep Namjoon around for a little longer.
Y♥♥NGI, is written on the cup in ridiculously cute font.
Yoongi looks up to the counter where Namjoon is working. His barista boyfriend catches sight of him and beams when he sees the cup in Yoongi’s hand. A grin and arms stretched over his head in a quick flash of a heart and Yoongi hurriedly puts the cups to his lips. Because if there’s one thing Min Yoongi will never admit to, it that’s Kim Namjoon can make him blush.
“Brat,” he grumbles into the coffee and Namjoon winks.