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College life is dumb, adulting is dumb, and Jeon Jeongguk has considered dropping out more times this semester than what could be considered reasonable.
I’m fucking hot, he always argues to himself, surely I could just become a model?
Or homeless. Homeless is looking more likely, on his diet of noodles, and hygiene of showering only-god-knows-when.
//
It’s on a rainy Sunday morning, skies stormy and dark to fit his teenage #angst, that Jeongguk decides to just fuck his entire life up and go adopt a puppy.
Who needs to eat on a regular basis? Weaklings, that’s who. As he starves, surrounded by his life-saving funded textbooks, at least he’ll have this hypothetical puppy to cuddle.
God damn, yeah, he’s gonna go get this puppy right now. He’s gonna buy it a fucking collar and it’s gonna be cute as fuck and all the other puppies are gonna be jealous and maybe even Jeongguk can flirt with cute boys who also have adorable puppies and-
Oh shit.
Oh mother fucking shit, Jeongguk’s prayers have been heard and he’s being compensated for the 10,000 bullshit essay he had to write last week.
He’s looking at an angel. Well, like, an exhausted-looking (it’s 8am, to be fair) human, but an angel.
Sure, the angel is wrapped in an outfit with a corny tag of ‘we save ‘em, you adopt ‘em!’ (who the ever-loving fuck got paid for that shitty catchphrase), but the being turns and greets Jeongguk. His face is adorned with a smile brighter than sunshine, and Jeongguk feels all breath leave him.
And he’s choking.
Choking, in front of the cutest fucking human he’s ever seen, and now he’s probably going to fucking die. Goddamn, here he was, innocently being blessed by the angel/employee’s presence, and now he’s definitely going to need CPR or something (actually, maybe this was a brilliant idea).
“Oh my god!” A high-pitched voice cuts through his cunning, “Are you okay? Oh my god, I don’t know the procedure for this, please don’t die!”
Jeongguk manages a thumbs up from where he’s planning his funeral, letting out a few more strained coughs before rising. The angel (shit, human, he better stop referring to him as that before he does something really stupid. Like say it aloud) looks, quite frankly, terrified. Jeongguk tries to meld his face into a friendly, more attractive look than of someone who almost became deceased.
“Um...hi?”
The angel, fuck, employee, just blinks at him for a moment, before he rushes into apologies blurring with questions on Jeongguk’s state of health, “What happened? Oh my god, I’m so sorry! Did I put the heater on too high? Are you allergic to dogs? Can you breathe?”
Jeongguk just kind of stares at him, trying to process that this angel is actual real, and speaking to him right fucking now, oh my god. When the other’s voice gets near-on hyperventilating, Jeongguk smacks himself out of the trance and blurts, “You’re just really fucking pretty!”
Oh fuck, end his life. End his life right here and now. This is the end, goodbye cruel fucking world.
The employee opens and closes his mouth a few times, (understandably) confused as all hell. He eventually replies with, “Huh?”
“Fuck,” Jeongguk mutters, groaning and hiding his rapidly reddening cheeks, “Oh fuck, can you please forget I just said that? I, yeah, fuck.”
The employees eyes widen and his confusion turns to a smugness and he grins, “Oh, I see.”
“Shut up.” Jeongguk whines, throwing in a pout for extra childishness.
The employee giggles, and holy fuck he's even cuter, Jeongguk needed some serious assistance right now, “If choking on thin air was your way of getting my attention, you certainly succeeded.”
Jeongguk laughs, despite his mortification, “Oh, yeah. My plan all along.”
“Good,” biting his lip, the employee looks up at Jeongguk shyly, “Um, anyway. I’m Jimin.”
“Jeongguk,” He breathes back, suddenly forgetting that it’s rude to stare because holy shit, is it legal for lips to be that plump and pink?
“Hello,” the giggling is back with a vengeance, and Jimin’s cheeks are dusted with a rosy pink to match his lips and fuck, Jeongguk has never felt so gay.
The bark of a dog pierces through Jeongguk’s skull, and the moment is broken, as he lets out a screech of shock. Jimin’s giggles turn into full-body chortling, as he snorts (but still looks bangable as fuck, what the hell), waving his hands in apology, “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, you just...your face!”
Jeongguk huffs a bit, but in reality he’s imagining seeing that smile more often, and being the reason behind it.
“Do you, um,” Jeongguk scuffs his shoe, and, suddenly, forgets every aspect of the Literature degree he’s majoring in, “like, wanna go on a date? Or something. I, like. I could make food and shit?”
“You did almost die because of me,” Jimin grins, a touch of something Jeongguk doesn’t recognise (until a few months later, anyway) within his gaze, “So, I suppose that I must.”
//
Jeongguk walks out, mood almost as bright as the smile Jimin had thrown him, (after kissing his cheek, fuck yeah), mumbling, “Talk to you later, cutie.”
There’s a nagging sensation, somewhere, in the very back of his consciousness. For now, it’s overruled by a burning desire to see Jimin again, to feel the press of his lips against Jeongguk’s own.
It’s not until that night, tangled in his bed sheets and just off the phone to Jimin, that Jeongguk realises what it is.
Oh yeah, he forgot the puppy.