Chapter Text
The café had started out as purely a personal thing. A way for Yoongi to combine his three loves--hip hop, coffee, and cats. Of course, he hoped it would be successful enough to remain open, but he never expected Lil Meow Meow Café--name courtesy of one Kim Seokjin--to get as popular as it did. He never expected a café that exclusively played hip hop music while also providing the chance to love on and chill out with cats that he took in from various shelters to help them find their forever home would become a hot commodity. He never expected to have people commenting on the café's instagram posts about how they would willingly put themselves into debt just to play with or adopt the cats in the Kitty Lounge. He never expected to have people emailing him asking to use his place to host events, which in turn brought even more customers and profits his way. And he never expected to get busy enough to have to eventually hire on a staff member beyond just him and Seokjin.
But most of all he never expected Park Jimin.
Yoongi wasn't typically one to remember the names or faces of customers that came in, especially with how many came in on a daily basis. But he remembered Jimin, because he had a routine. Every Saturday, he would come in the second they opened--sometimes he would even already be waiting outside the door when Yoongi, Seokjin, or Jungkook came to unlock it and flip over the sign to say 'open'--order their daily special, then pay 40,000 won to spend the whole day in the Kitty Lounge. And spend the whole day he did. He would occasionally step out of the lounge to order another drink or to use the restroom, but other than that the male would stay inside the lounge from the moment he got there until the moment the café closed.
But it wasn't Jimin's unwavering schedule that had caught Yoongi's attention. No that had been captured from the very first time Jimin had visited the café.
It was the day of their soft opening, a Saturday that Seokjin and Yoongi had picked to gauge what kind of traffic they could expect when they officially opened, and Jimin was one of the first people to come in after they'd unlocked the door. He looked around the, at the time, still bare walls and tables as he waited in line, gaze lingering on the window that looked into the Kitty Lounge. A soft smile was on his face by the time it was his turn at the counter. "Welcome to Lil Meow Meow Café," Yoongi greeted him as cheerfully as he could muster, as Seokjin had spent the morning leading up to their opening time reminding him that he needed to be friendly and not his 'normal self'. "What can I get you?"
"Uh…" Jimin had obviously forgotten to check out the menu while he'd been watching the cats through the window. "What do you recommend?"
"Well, we don't exactly have customer favorites yet since it is day number one." Yoongi said. "And personally, I just go for plain black coffee. I'm not actually a fan of the fancy frou frou drinks, but my business partner insisted on them." He could feel Seokjin's glare on him from where the other male was preparing the previous customer's order.
Jimin, however, didn't seem put off by Yoongi's bluntness. Rather he let out a giggle as he scanned the menu once more before glancing at the mini chalkboard next to the cash register. "You already have daily specials?" He inquired.
Yoongi hummed as he glanced at the board. "Marketing tactic we're trying out. Don't know if it's gonna be daily or weekly yet, but we're gonna highlight a different cat and promote a drink based off them. I mean, they all have drinks named after them, but we're gonna cycle through which one is getting promoted. We picked Mugunghwa first because she's currently our oldest cat. She's 15 years old."
The wide-eyed expression that took over Jimin's face at that moment had Yoongi's heart fluttering in a way that honestly had him panicking a little bit. "What kind of drink is it?"
"A hibiscus rose tea latte." Yoongi answered.
"Can I get that in a large?" Jimin asked. "With oat milk?" Yoongi nodded and grabbed a cup to write the drink name down, along with Jimin's name after asking for it. "And does all day in the Kitty Lounge literally mean all day?"
Yoongi hummed in confirmation. "You'll get a stamp on your hand to prove you paid for it, and then you can come and go as you please."
"I'll take that too." Jimin requested, practically vibrating with excitement.
"That'll be 46,100 won." Yoongi said after ringing him up and Jimin swiped his card without blinking an eye, already holding his hand out to receive his all-day stamp. Once the stamp was on his hand, he all but ran to the door leading to the Kitty Lounge.
"Someone's got a crush." Seokjin teased Yoongi.
Yoongi shot him a look, ignoring the burning in his cheeks as he moved to make Jimin's drink seeing as no one else had come in yet. "I don't even know him."
"But you still like him."
"Can't like someone you don't know."
"Fine, you are intrigued by him." Seokjin amended, and Yoongi refused to reply, focusing purely on making Jimin's drink.
Once it was ready, he traipsed into the Kitty Lounge to deliver it to Jimin, finding the male sitting on the floor of the lounge with Mugunghwa in his arms, nuzzling his face into her fur. Yoongi stepped towards Jimin only to stop when the male pulled away from Mugunghwa with a sniffle, revealing his pink tipped nose and watery eyes. Yoongi was debating turning around and leaving so that he could bully Seokjin into delivering the drink instead--after all, Seokjin was way better at dealing with other people's emotions than Yoongi was--when Jimin let out a series of sneezes that let Yoongi know he wasn't crying. "Wait, are you allergic?" Yoongi asked in confusion as he held the drink out to Jimin.
"Just slightly." Jimin giggled, quietly thanking Yoongi as he accepted his drink.
Yoongi blinked at Jimin as he took a sip, humming happily at the taste. "You're allergic to cats…and you came to a cat café."
"Yep." Jimin beamed, setting his drink on the ground next to him before petting Mugunghwa again.
Yoongi continued to stare at him in confusion. "And paid to spend a whole day in here." Jimin hummed again with a nod, burying his face in Mugunghwa's fur only to have to pull away to sneeze again. "Why?"
"Because!" Jimin exclaimed, holding Mugunghwa up. "Kitties!" There was that wide eyed look again, now paired with a slight pout that had Yoongi hurrying out of the room before his heart could burst out of his chest.
"I take it back you don't have a crush." Seokjin said once Yoongi had closed the door behind him. "You're in love."
"I'm pretty sure he's psychotic." Yoongi deadpanned. "Or at the very least a masochist."
"Ooh, kinky." Seokjin said, laughing as he dodged Yoongi's elbow as the shorter male moved past him to resume his post at the cash register.