Chapter Text
The decision to leave was made easily enough. The city had become an unwelcome place, full of smog, noise and too much artificial light. Yoongi didn’t really need the city, and the winter had proved to be specially isolating, so come spring he’s had enough of it. He reaches this decision on Tuesday, looks for and rents a cottage on Wednesday, packs his bags on Thursday, and on Friday sets off towards the coast.
***
Yoongi loves driving, likes to feel the wheel under his hands as he makes a turn and the wind on his hair as he cracks the window open. The unpolluted air of the countryside feels like a balm that settles his aching probably-full-of-unnamed-carcinogens lungs and he smiles when he smells the first tang of salt in the air before he sees the ocean. Soon enough the ocean comes into view and knocks the breath right out of his lungs. It’s late in the afternoon, the horizon is a bright orange that then fades into yellow, then grey, and finally into a quickly darkening blue. The moon shines half bright white, half translucent white. It’s been far too long since he last visited the sea, but he instantly feels more at home than he did in the city, and some of the weight he’s been carrying lifts off his shoulders.
By the time Yoongi arrives at the cottage he rented, the horizon is devoid of any orange and just a small amount of yellow remains, soon to be engulfed by the darker mantle of blue. The cottage is right next to the beach -but not actually on the beach nor does the property include any part of it because Yoongi would strongly object to the privatization of the beach-, nestled between two other houses at the end of a long but quiet residential street.
He’s brought over the groceries he had in his city apartment, so he didn’t need to stop by the town’s center and just drove right over to the small house. Just as he’s unloading the trunk of his car a familiar chirpy voice says, “hi hyung, did you have a nice drive over?”. Startled Yoongi almost drops the box he’s carrying, but without missing a beat, retorts, “give a guy some warning, make some noise when you move, you cat!”
“Oh, come on, hyung, just let me help you carry that.”
Yoongi can’t help but smile as he hands over the box to Jimin. His friend lives full time with his partner Taehyung in the light pink cottage at the end of the street, right next to the one Yoongi rented. Bright-eyed Jimin is just like him and that’d been exactly why they’d met traipsing along rooftops in their teens. For you see, that’s a thing Yoongi and Jimin can do, as they are both cat shifters.
Cat shifters -and any type of animal shifter for that matter- can turn into their animal form at will once they hit puberty and retain all their human cognitive capabilities while in their non-human form, so they are generally considered smarter than their non-shifter non-human animal counterparts. Shifters are becoming increasingly rare, so once Jimin and Yoongi had met, they’d decided to stick together for good.
But before Yoongi can get sappy and sentimental Taehyung saunters over in all his radiant glory and helps Yoongi carry three big boxes of yarn towards the cottage. Yoongi offers to make dinner for the three of them and closes the trunk of his car before making his way over to the door. He takes one last look at the now completely dark sky and smiles.
***
Yoongi wakes up around 5 am and can’t fall asleep again. Used to the incessant bustling of the city, the beachside cottage offers a deep quiet that wakes him up more effectively than the most incessant and blaring alarm. It’d be funny to anyone to see a small cat with ginger-spotted white fur curled up in one corner of a queen-sized bed, but that’s exactly what they’d find if they were to walk in on Yoongi right now. He stretches his paws and yawns: there’s absolutely nothing he can do now other than start his day, but laziness keeps him in its grasp until 5:05 am.
After taking a quick drink of water Yoongi -still in cat form- resolves to take a walk along the beach to see where it takes him. He steps out the beach-facing porch and breathes in the still morning air. His whiskers move, tingling with excitement and he practically leaps right into the sand. He rolls around in the sand to the music of the rolling waves; he doesn’t need to see it to vividly picture the foam that forms as the waves crash, and he relishes in the sound of little bubbles fizzling out. Probably half an hour is spent like this, until Yoongi decides to start his little walk.
Slowly he treks along the beach all the way up to the first house that lines up that stretch of land. He continues walking past a big chunk of land where nothing has been built until he stops in front of a garage like structure, a few kilometers still from the now-within-viewing-range town center. Said garage has a small room built over it that’s clearly much newer than the original structure. The wooden walls of the whole structure are a faded birch-tree-white, but the sliding metal doors of the garage look like they were newly painted a bright red. Yoongi thinks about how the owner of the garage must often have to repaint the doors to keep them from rusting over, being so close to the sea and all.
The sun has broken over the horizon and illuminates everything with tentative tendrils of soft yellow sunlight. As Yoongi looks at the garage he feels the sun start to warm up his little back, so he decides to make his way back to his cottage so he can take a shower and have breakfast. With his back now facing the garage, he doesn’t notice the garage doors being opened nor the tall man that steps out and catches a glimpse of a small cat leaving little imprints of their pawprints on the sand. The man, holding a steaming mug of tea, genuinely smiles for the first time in a while as he sees the cute cat trip over the sand.
***
Once Yoongi’s inside his house again, he takes a shower in his human form, has some breakfast, and starts to work on the orders he has for his e-shop. After trying many jobs Yoongi found that selling and making custom-ordered knitted pieces was the best way for him to earn his livelihood on his own terms. He knits almost anything he can, from highly affordable pieces for everyday use, made of thick and sturdy wool-cotton yarn, to soft-as-cloud blankets for newborn babies charmed (with Tae’s help) to keep colicky babies pain-free.
As he sits down to work, eager to take advantage of the natural sunlight, Yoongi’s filled by a sense of calm he hadn’t experienced in a long time.
***
The next day, Yoongi wakes up at the same time as the day before and decides to go for a walk (albeit sans the rolling in the sand). Even though he walks slowly (and sometimes trips over the shifting sand) he’s sitting on the shore before the sun is high enough to provide any warmth. He makes his way over to the very edge of the damp stretch of sand the waves periodically cover and waits for the sun to rise enough to warm up his little face. Before it gets too hot, he starts to walk back to his house, leaving little four-toed-imprints on the sand.
Once again, he doesn’t notice the same man that’d watched him retreat the day before stare at him and neither does he see that he even whips out his smartphone to take a few pictures of the pawprint trail he left behind.
***
After taking a shower Yoongi realizes he now needs to buy groceries if he’s to subsist for the next few days. Truth be told the prospect doesn’t necessarily excite him, as he much prefers to stay within the comforts of home -cat form or not-. Nevertheless, duty calls and thus he makes his way over to the village on foot (not paws as he’d much rather prefer) and carrying reusable tote bags to bag all his groceries.
The quaint seaside town he chose for his time away from the city might lack a lot of things taken for granted by city dwellers, but it most definitely does not lack charm. Not yet gentrified by touristic developments, life in this little town flows at a pace that can seem slow but is actually just right.
Yoongi buys a kilogram of tangerines form an old lady with a big crate and is delighted at the opportunity of buying some freshly caught fish at the fishmonger. He walks into a bigger shop, not quite a convenience store but close enough, and eyes a promising (but expensive) bottle of locally sourced milk “We absolutely promise our cows are loved” reads the label. Even though Yoongi’s inclined to doubt claims made on food packaging, he really wants to buy the milk. The container is quite nice to be honest, instead of a plastic bottle the milk comes in a reusable glass flask that gets you a “200 won discount if you recycle this bottle!”. “It’s actually as delicious as they promise, just so you know,” says a friendly voice to his left. He looks over to see a doe-eyed employee (if the green colored vest with the shop’s name is anything to go by) smiling encouragingly at him. “Thank you for the recommendation, I’ll try it,” Yoongi answers with a genuine smile. The younger man just nods at him and gets back to his work, which Yoongi thoroughly appreciates because he would not have been able to carry on a spontaneous conversation.
At a whooping 5,000 won per liter this is like a total splurge, but Yoongi decides to buy it regardless, because everybody deserves a treat now and then (and he is honestly not one to eat lots of sugar). The cashier has the prettiest smile he’s ever seen and talks enough for both without making Yoongi feel uncomfortable about not really knowing how to answer. He thanks both men profusely and clutches his milk bottle to his chest as he makes his way over to the exit.
Just as he’s about to step out and before he can make sense of what just happened, a tall man barrels right into him and makes him drop his milk. The bottle crashes against the floor spectacularly. Yoongi almost falls too but at the last possible moment the tall stranger holds him by the shoulders and prevents his fall. They make eye contact and Yoongi sees the stranger’s eyes widen slightly. Yoongi himself is awestruck but the stranger’s knowing eyes. In the split second they stare at each other he also notices the delicate curve of the stranger’s nose and their plush plump lips. Yoongi gulps: his brain cannot compute.
“Namjoon, you’re going to have to pay for his milk, eh!” calls out the impossibly friendly cashier, laughter imbued into his every word.
That seems to snap the stranger back to his senses because next thing Yoongi knows he’s once again on his feet and the stranger has taken a step back from him. “I’m very sorry I crashed into you, I’ll pay for what was broken right now,” the stranger says rather stiffly. “Okay, I’d appreciate that,” answers Yoongi blushing furiously.
“Kim Namjoon you’re staying and cleaning that mess right now, huh,” says the cashier. “Yes, Hoba, don’t worry about it,” answers Namjoon (it’s a nice name Yoongi thinks, it fits him).
“Ok, that’ll be 5,000 won, please.”
The stranger -Namjoon- turns to look at Yoongi, brows up so high in his face that they are obscured by his messy bangs. “You paid 5,000 won for one liter of milk?”
“Yes, it was a treat!” Yoongi answers rather defensively. He doesn’t think the stranger said it in bad faith, but he does not appreciate the fact that this rather handsome and affable enough stranger might somehow judge him for his purchase.
“Okay, I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean anything by that. I’ve had that milk, my brother loves to buy it, I just didn’t know the price.”
To his credit the stranger does look a bit sheepish and apologetic with his head bowed and his right hand scratching the back of his neck, so he decides to smile at him and thank him for buying a new one. The cashier (Hoba?) waves at him as he carefully exits the store, promising to be back with his review of the milk as soon as he tastes it.
***
The next day Yoongi takes a walk along the beach once again. Having set off at a brisker pace than normal, he is in front of that weird garage a long time before the sun breaks. He decides to investigate a little and makes his way over to the small building. He is pleasantly surprised to see he fits right through a small gap between the red metal doors and the wall, and so he smoothly enters the construction.
Once inside he is struck by the smell of metal and grease, and only has to look around a bit before he recognizes he’s inside a car shop. Two cars take up most of the space, one a new looking white sedan suspended in the air by a metal structure, another one an old but perfectly kept up red convertible. Yoongi jumps on top of the hood of the red car, coils his body into a little circle, and promptly falls asleep, lulled by the strong sense of safety that permeates the room’s atmosphere.
He sleeps for a whole hour before a tall coverall-clad young man descends a flight of stairs Yoongi didn’t notice upon his first inspection. The man recognizes the cat and smiles contently showing a delightful deep-set dimple on each cheek. He goes through a narrow door right next to the staircase into what seems to be a small office and comes out of the same door a few minutes later holding a steaming mug of tea. The man stands under the door’s threshold, just sipping his tea until he finishes it all. Then he goes back inside the office and the murmur of water flowing form a tap is heard as the man rinses his mug.
Thunk
The sound of something dropping startles Yoongi out of his sleepy state and he instantly jumps off the car’s hood and darts out of the garage the same way he’d come in. A few moments later the tall, dimpled man comes out of the office space carrying a small plastic bag filled with ceramic shards, a guilty slant to his mouth and eyebrows marring his handsome face. He holds the bag like he wants to hide it, but he suddenly seems to remember there’s nobody to hide it from. Relieved he sets the bag on top of a metal cabinet off to the side of the office’s door and turns around, eyes searching for something. Upon discovering the hood of the red car to be cat-free, the relieved expression on his face instantly turns devastatingly sad. Before anything else can happen, his phone starts ringing and he quickly picks it up.
“Jin-hyung?”, pause, “No, I haven’t eaten, I’ll be right over.”
***
That’d been a close call for Yoongi. Having slipped one too many times into spaces where he was unwelcome, he now knows better than to stick around for long when he hears a sudden noise. Not that he really thought or felt like something bad could happen in that garage, but one can never be too sure.
He walks back to his house to find Jimin and Taehyung busy in his kitchen. “Good morning, Yoongi-hyung,” calls out Tae upon seeing him slip through the door still in his kitty form.
Meow
“Cat got your tongue, Yoongi-hyung?” Jimin laughs at his own joke.
Deciding to ignore the on-the-nose pun, Yoongi slips into his room and comes back a minute later dressed in black sweatpants and an oversized grey t-shirt. He’s got to admit the food smells delicious, so he makes his way over to the kitchen.
“What are you making?”
“Savory pancakes for our sugar-abhorring sweetest hyung,” Jimin answers cheerily. “And decaf cold brew,” Tae adds.
Yoongi smiles and allows them both to lovingly pat his head. He loves this, loves them, has missed them ever since they moved away from the city a year ago. In this moment he feels more alive and at home than he ever did in the city. In fact, the city has been so out of mind the past few days it’s hard for him to remember he absolutely loved it once upon a time. He guesses that’s normal and that sometimes change can be the most welcome thing.
***
Yoongi is once again awake at 5 am. No matter how far from the city he is or how much of a respite his best friends offer, he wakes up way too early. In the city he’d sit on the window ledge and watch the sun rise as progressively more and more people walked the streets. He’d see workers arrive at cafés to open at 7 am, convenience store workers change shifts, and runners complete hour-long runs before the sun had risen. Watching so many people go about their lives gave him solace and distracted him from his isolation, but it also made him feel very afraid and tired at the same time. The sheer memory of that feeling makes Yoongi tremble. No, he can’t -shouldn’t- be torturing himself thinking about that.
He decides to take yet another walk along the shore; hey, maybe he’ll make that his routine. He slips out of his house and starts the long trek towards the garage where he’d taken a nap the previous day. He hadn’t consciously set out with that place in mind, but halfway there he realizes that’s where he’s headed. Once there Yoongi-the-cat finds the same red convertible form the day before and hops on the hood for a well-deserved nap.
An hour passes as if it never did; nothing moves or changes, and the small cat with ginger spots breathes placidly on. He doesn’t notice when the sound of footsteps overhead starts, and cat Yoongi just mildly stirs when a big thunk is heard some minutes later. However, the sacred peace between cat and cars is unceremoniously interrupted by the enthusiastic trot at which the coverall clad man descends the stairs.
Yoongi’s ears twitch and his nose sniffles, he half opens his eyes and considers either leaving the garage or sleeping a bit more, potential trouble be dammed. But before he can reach a decision, his eyes widen at the sight of the convenience store stranger at the foot of the narrow staircase he’d honestly failed to notice before. Yoongi’s whole kitty body tenses up.
To be fair, the stranger looks equally shocked to see him there. But the open mouth shock on his face quickly morphs into a wide friendly grin, so Yoongi relaxes and flicks his tail. A cursory glance at the man gives Yoongi the following information: 1) he’s wearing dark green coveralls so he’s probably the car mechanic, 2) he seems much friendlier and relaxed than he seemed at the store (though that was probably due to the stress of crashing into someone, Yoongi muses), 3) he has a very very nice set of dimples.
“Hello there, kitty. What’s your name?”
Meow
“You’re right, that is a dumb question because you can’t answer.” The man bites his lip. He is pretty cute, Yoongi must admit. “Or if you can answer then I can’t understand you, I guess.”
Yoongi nods and the man’s eyes widen again. Clueless Yoongi! He should know better than to act too human like! Actual prosopopoeia is not cute (!), he reminds himself.
“Well, I can at least tell you my name, right?” The man asks expectantly. Yoongi has to consciously hold himself back from nodding this time.
“My name’s Namjoon and I’m honestly really pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Namjoon. Nam-joon. Namjoon. Yoongi concludes that the name certainly has a nice ring to it. This, he cannot verbally say, but that of course doesn’t stop him from communicating. Yoongi hops off from the car’s hood and proceeds to rub his back all over Namjoon’s legs. He steps over his black thick-soled boots and purrs. The other man giggles and Yoongi immediately looks up, managing to catch a glimpse of pure myth on Namjoon’s face.
Truth be told he hadn’t expected this big (probably lonely man much like Yoongi himself) buff man to be so sweet and Yoongi feels so very pleased to have found him. All of this he thinks in just a couple of seconds after the man stops giggling, because next thing Yoongi knows is that Namjoon’s crouching down to his eye level and asking, “Would you mind if I carried you?” Yoongi would not mind, he would not mind at all.
Next thing he knows he’s being scooped up from the floor and right into Namjoon’s strong looking arms. He cannot control the purring when it starts, it’s just inevitable once he’s being held snug against a very well-defined chest. Sadly, all things come to an end because too soon for Yoongi’s liking his being carefully put back down on the floor.
“Will I see you again tomorrow?”
Yoongi smiles a kitty smile, closing his eyes and looking al smushed up. Namjoon smiles back at him. As Yoongi is slipping outside of the garage, he hears Namjoon call out: “I’ll be waiting for you!”
Yoongi trots back home with renewed spirits; he has plans for the next day.
***
Later that day, he goes into town again to buy some fresh vegetables. As he stands in line to pay behind a woman buying fresh radishes and potatoes, he overhears two women choosing between bunches of leafy greens say “Ah! He is a very handsome young man, but he has a terrible attitude.”
“My husband says he does his job well, nobody else can repair that damned car of his! But he always politely refuses all idle conversation. He’s grumpy like an old man!”
“I’ve tried to introduce him to our Aera, but he always says no…”
Yoongi doesn’t want to hear more. He has an inkling of who it is they might be talking about, and he is not willing to hear any more gossip. In that moment the door to the shop opens and Namjoon walks in; the two women immediately fall silent. Yoongi recognizes him and shyly nods at him. For a moment he thinks the fluffy pink beanie and white mask he’s wearing will make it impossible for the other man to recognize him. Namjoon, also wearing a mask, looks at him for a couple of seconds before his eyes widen in recognition. “Hello there, how was the milk?” Yoongi swears he can feel the smirk radiate from Namjoon.
“It was actually very good, thank you for asking.” Yoongi thanks the stars for the fact that Namjoon can’t see him blush because he’s wearing a mask. Little does he know his blush extends all the way down to his neck. “Cute,” thinks Namjoon.
“I’m glad the 5,000 won were worth it then.” Namjoon winks at him and Yoongi feels his heart skip a beat. He must move forward in the line to pay for his vegetables, so he doesn’t notice Namjoon tenderly examining him from behind. After paying Yoongi swiftly moves to the side thinking Namjoon has to pay too, but as he fumbles to place his change back into his wallet, he overhears Namjoon say, “Mr. Park I just came over to let you know your truck’s ready to be picked up, I just needed to change the brake pads. Your really should stop using the brakes so aggressively.” Yoongi looks over because he’s afraid the older man won’t take kindly to unsolicited advice, but the older man just chuckles and says, “ah, thank you Namjoon. I will try to be more careful. Here, take this with you,” and hands him over a bag filled with fresh turnips. Namjoon thanks him and bows, and then turns to go, but upon seeing Yoongi still standing there, raises and eyebrow at him as if to say, “let’s go”. Yoongi follows him feeling the two gossipy women bore holes into his back and steps out of the shop thanking Namjoon for holding the door open for him. They start walking. Where to? Yoongi doesn’t know, but he’s glad to follow.
“Can I ask you something?” he tells Namjoon.
“Well, you just did.” Yoongi huffs and doesn’t feel Namjoon’s tender gaze on him.
“Why did you come all the way here to tell Mr. Park to go pick up his truck when you could’ve brought the truck over and saved him the trip?”
“You see, you’re making assumptions there, because I could not have brought over his truck due to the fact that I cannot drive.” They stop at a street corner and wait for a car to make a turn. Yoongi turns to fully look at Namjoon.
“You’re a car mechanic that can’t drive?”
“How did you know I’m a car mechanic, huh, pink nose?”
“I obviously heard you talk to Mr. Park back in the shop.”
“Touché, little one.” Yoongi is kind of getting annoyed. Well, no, not really. But this conversation is not going where he meant it to. “I guess this is the perfect moment to ask for your name then?” Namjoon says, sounding a bit too cocky for Yoongi’s liking.
“Yoongi. My name’s Yoongi.”
“I’m Namjoon.”
“I know.” Namjoon turns to look at him and narrows his (pretty! Yoongi’s brain helpfully supplies) eyes at him. “Have you been gossiping about me with the ladies at the shop?” he strokes his chin as if in deep thought, “or why do you already know my name?”
“No! I heard your friend call you by your name when you crashed into me.”
“Oh. I see. That makes sense actually” Yoongi notices all the cockiness has seeped out of him. Without realizing how or precisely in what moment, they are now standing in front of a café. A modern glass and wood covered café Yoongi had noticed when he arrived the first day.
“Well, this is my stop,” Namjoon teasingly says. “Oh, are you meeting someone?” Yoongi asks in what he hopes is a nonchalant voice. “Yep.” Yoongi is torn between finding how Namjoon never offers up information without being asked incredibly annoying or not. He knows he’s doing it on purpose. Namjoon seems to sense his frustration because without being prompted to do so, he offers up more information. “My brother, you know, the one that buys the same milk as you? –,”
“I don’t usually buy that milk, it was a special treat-,”
“Will you let me finish, please?” He doesn’t say it in a mean tone, nor does he raise his voice. Yoongi looks up to him and sees Namjoon smiling at him, dimples on full display.
“Sorry, you were saying?”
“My older brother owns this place, so I come over everyday at some point. He always gives me a discount,” Namjoon says smiling smugly. Before Yoongi can think of an eloquent enough thing to offer in response, an exasperated voice says, “Namjoon, are you coming in or not? Your tea is getting cold now.”
Both men turn towards the café door and Yoongi is awestruck to see the most beautiful man he has ever laid eyes on. Neither Namjoon nor he say anything, even though the handsome man is looking at them clearly waiting for some kind of reaction.
“Well?? Look, Namjoon, you made a lunch date with your elder brother. Ask the boy for his number and stop flirting, you promised you’d be on time to help me with my bookkeeping!” Yoongi turns to look at Namjoon who’s looking down at the ground and awkwardly rubbing his neck. Then he looks back to the handsome stranger. He tentatively says, “Hello, I’m Min Yoongi. I just moved into town.”
Even though he’d just been looking at his younger brother with accusing eyes, the man turns towards Yoongi and smiles. He extends his hand towards him. “Pleased to meet you, I’m Kim Seokjin, this one’s,” he nods at Namjoon, “loving older brother and owner of the best café in town.” Yoongi smiles at him and Seokjin smiles back. Yoongi thinks he looks like a nice and friendly person, and he clearly loves his brother, which is nice as well. He looks over at Namjoon and sees he no longer looks embarrassed and now has a neutral face expression, hands tucked into his denim jacket’s pockets.
“Come on, Joonie-bear, exchange phone-numbers, I’ll wait for you inside,” he says to his brother with a more tender tone. “I hope you visit us soon, Yoongi.” He winks and turns to goes back inside the café.
Cough cough. “Soooo…” Namjoon says. Yoongi turns to look at Namjoon, “Yes?”
“Humm, we don’t have to exchange phone numbers if you don’t want to.” Cough. Yoongi realizes he’s nervous, and is violently reminded of the Namjoon he met at dawn break. “I mean I do want to, but if you don’t, that’s totally fine too…”
“Namjoon.”
“Yeah?”
“Give me your phone.” Namjoon hands it over without question. Yoongi quickly saves his contact number with the name Pink Nose (Yoongi). “Here you go. You can text me so I can save your number too.” He looks up at Namjoon, who’s looking down at him. “I hope to see you soon, Yoongi.”
“See you, Namjoon.” Yoongi starts walking away (feeling rather cool to be quite honest) and feels Namjoon’s gaze on him until he makes a turn at the end of the block.
***
“Sooooo…”
“Soooooo…” Namjoon knows Seokjin’s trying to get him to talk without having to ask, but Namjoon honestly usually doesn’t feel compelled to just spill his guts without some incentive.
“Are you going out with him? Did you ask him out?”
“No, hyung, I did not. We met the other day, he’s the guy whose milk I had to pay for.” Jin eyes him skeptically. “You didn’t mention he’s so cute, so that’s really suspicious.”
“Hyung I-,” Seokjin holds out his hands as if to say stop. “Calm down, I’m not going to say anything else. I’ll leave you to it,” he pauses ominously, “for now at least.”
Namjoon covers his face with his hands and groans.
***
Yoongi wakes up at 5 am sharp and bitterly laments he could never achieve this habit when he was still in school. He stretches his small paws until each one of his little toe beans separates from the other, and then he licks his whiskers. He plays some more with his paws, enjoying seeing how they open and close, open, and close. Ten whole minutes go by before he’s had enough of this and decides to go on a walk (like every other morning since his arrival).
20 minutes later his curling up on top of an old green sedan. Even though the workshop smells like car grease and metal, he finds it comforting, and soon enough he’s fast asleep. An hour goes by before the thud of work boots is heard descending the stairs. At the foot of the staircase appears Namjoon in all his coverall clad glory. Eyes searching, he looks over at the green car’s hood and instantly smiles when he spots Yoongi all curled up. Conscious of the sleeping cat he tiptoes over to his office to prepare a mug of tea with utmost care, so as not to wake up the skittish animal in the room next door. When he comes out of his office, he sips his tea until he finishes the mug, and still the cat doesn’t stir. Namjoon feels unbelievably happy to be able to provide such a peaceful atmosphere for the small animal, he doesn’t notice it’s time for him to start working.
“Better get on with it,” Namjoon thinks. He gracefully slips under the green car to check for undercarriage damage. “Now why would someone go off roading in a sedan?” he complains. He tends to do that a lot, talk as he works. Even though nobody is usually there to listen, it makes him feel better about how frustrating it is for him to fix so many things that could easily be avoided if only people took better care of their cars. Alas, he really shouldn’t complain so much because it allows him to easily make a living. Well, whatever, why should he care about teaching people to take better care of their cars? He thinks all this while knowing very well he will keep trying do exactly that.
He’s able to work without waking his furry friend up, and even finishes making a diagnosis of the car’s problems. Namjoon slips out from under the car and stands up, wiping his greasy hands on a rag. Just as he’s about to go and properly wash his hands, he hears a small intake of air followed by the soft smacking of a little mouth. Slowly he turns around and sees his still-sleepy-looking friend staring straight at him.
“Good morning, sleepy-head,” he says.
Meow
“It’s alright, I love to have you here. Would you like something to drink?”
Meow
“Perhaps some milk for the kitty cat?”
Meow, the cat says looking happy and all smushed up.
“Well tough luck, my friend, because I actually know you’re not supposed to give cats milk, it’s just a stereotype perpetuated by the media. And I will not fall for it.”
Meoooow, says the cat scowling at him. “What does this boy think he knows??” Yoongi says to himself, “I can drink milk because I’m a shifter!!” His brain then helpfully supplies “He doesn’t know that, silly.” Without meaning to, Yoongi looks like he’s positively fuming and Namjoon has started to nervously wring his hands. “Please don’t look at me like that or I will actually give you milk and that wouldn’t be good for you.”
Yoongi softens. The other man looks so distraught at the thought of him being upset, that he feels kind of guilty for making him feel bad. No, he never ever wants to see this man upset. He meows and rolls over, so his tummy is facing up, inviting the other man to rub his belly. He looks back at Namjoon, who’s softly smiling at him, dimples on full display.
“You know what? You remind me of someone I recently met. They are cranky too,” Yoongi tenses up and Namjoon chuckles, “but secretly very sweet.” Yoongi purrs in understanding, “if only you knew!” he thinks to himself.
Namjoon’s big hand softly rubs his belly and Yoongi’s honestly drifting back to sleep, when Namjoon says, “I need to go and change, so I can go and have breakfast with my hyung. You can come up too if you want.” Namjoon starts walking away towards the staircase. Yoongi considers for a minute if it’s a good idea to follow him or not, but before he can conclude anything Namjoon turns back to look at him expectantly from the foot of the staircase, and Yoongi swiftly abandons the green sedan’s hood in favor of following the softly receding steps up the stairs, the offer of a drink long forgotten by both men.
What Yoongi had expected from the other man’s living quarters he cannot eloquently say. Maybe dark walls, car posters, and dubious hygiene. What he finds is big sea-facing windows framed by linen curtains, minimalist wood furniture, and no synthetic dyes. The floor is newly swept, and a fresh laundry scent permeates all the small open-floor-plan apartment. Yoongi sits still under the door’s threshold, looking all over the room. Right next to him he notices there’s a small shoe rack, where a pair of running sneakers and the black work boots Namjoon was wearing rest. The flutter of the curtains catches his eye, and he sees a still unmade bed in the corner of the room. Eyes searching, he scans the room for Namjoon until he spots him coming out from what he supposes is the bathroom, dressed in black shorts and a white tank top with a pink and blue pattern. And oh- oh- Yoongi hadn’t expected this. No, not at all. A particularly strong gust of wind blows and Namjoon quickly walks over to close the window, momentarily taking Yoongi out of his shocked state.
The small cat was not ready to see Namjoon’s arms in all their full-fledged glory. Delicately defined muscles hugged tightly by impossibly soft skin, Yoongi can’t stop staring. It’s a good thing he’s in cat form, he thinks, because he knows his staring is cute. After closing the window Namjoon walks over to him and crouches down to be as eye level as possible with him. “I’m going to have some breakfast with my brother and then going for a run,” he says, “do you want to come too?” Now Yoongi is contemplating it, but he also wants to take a shower. Nevertheless, with no way of communicating this effectively, he just meows. “Well, let’s go then,” Namjoon responds. Namjoon puts his shoes on and descends the stairs. The garage’s bright red doors are easily pushed by the strong man, gracefully followed by the content looking cat. The man starts to walk towards the road, away from his seaside shop, but is stopped by the cat butting his head against his leg. Namjoon stops and looks down at him, but the cat just waddles and rubs himself against his legs before scampering off towards the beach.
“Huh,” Namjoon murmurs and then calls out, “see you tomorrow then?” Soon enough he can no longer see the cat.
***
Cough Cough Cough
Yoongi arrives nearly breathless at his house, having run all the way over. He shifts into human form and runs into the shower. Shampoo, soap, razor. He’s out of the shower after 5 minutes, applying moisturizer all over his legs and blow drying his hair as quick as he can. After adding some citrus smelling product to his hair, he then dabs sunscreen on his face and gets into a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie. He adds a beanie and to top off the look, a pair of sunglasses.
He’s about to walk out the door when he realizes he hasn’t had breakfast yet. For a moment he considers skipping breakfast, but he knows Jimin would tell him off for it later, so he adds a banana and some strawberries, along with some soy milk, and ice to a blender and then serves that into a tumbler. Armed with a delicious breakfast (for him at least, don’t judge) he steps out onto the beach, barefoot and with a plan.
The sun’s high up in the sky and gives off pleasurable warmth, but even though it’s technically spring, there’s still a slight chill in the air that warrants a jacket. As Yoongi makes his way along the shore, the air tousles his hair so much he quickly decides to forgo the beanie, which he just sticks into his pocket. By the time he’s halfway down the way to the town, he spots a now familiar tank top clad figure. Slowing down his pace, he stops to look at the waves as he waits for Namjoon to spot him. Soon enough he hears labored breathing nearing him and then…go right by him. He turns to look over at Namjoon and sees his back recede in the direction of his own house. As the running man’s back becomes smaller and smaller Yoongi snorts, laughs, and before he knows it, he’s full-on cackling. It’s just so funny to him, how he wanted to bump into Namjoon, but the other man, so deeply concentrated on his workout, didn’t even see him.
He starts trudging back to his house, still chuckling at himself. Maybe as little as a month back he would’ve been mortified at the thought of trying to see someone so much he’d try to bump into them, but after living as he has been since he arrived at the sea, he just laughs.
Before he knows it, his house comes into view and there, laying on the sand in front of his house, is Namjoon. His eyes are closed, and he’s spread out as if to make a snow (or sand) angel. Yoongi walks up to him and peers down at him until Namjoon opens his eyes. The sweaty man blinks a few times. Faced scrunched up in confusion he asks, “Yoongi?”
“Hello Namjoon. Have you been following me?” he asks, voice sickly sweet.
Namjoon sits up a little so he can rest his torso on his elbows. “No?? I was just running and decided to rest for a bit. What are you doing here?”
“Ah, that’s easy to answer. I live over there.” He points at his house, right behind where they are. Namjoon turns around following Yoongi’s pointed finger. “Oh.”
“I’m sorry, Joon. Can I call you Joon? I was just teasing you. I actually wanted to see you.” Yoongi plops down next to Namjoon. “Yeah? Why?”
“I just wanted to talk to you.”
“Okay, why?” Namjoon says as he sits up.
“I like talking to you.”
Yoongi isn’t looking at him, he’s staring straight towards the sea. But Namjoon’s staring at him. With the rush of the sea in his ears, he studies the delicate slope of the other man’s nose, the pink lips he kind of wants to touch, the dark windswept hair that frames his dainty cheeks. “But we’ve hardly talked,” he murmurs.
Yoongi doesn’t answer, he just stares at the sea. After a moment Namjoon follow’s suit, small smile blooming across his plush lips.