Work Text:
Yoongi really regretted being part of the editorial team at college.
The only reason he had joined was because of a certain nerdy bastard named Namjoon that he unwillingly calls a “friend” winning a bet and consequently sent him out to sign up because apparently, he worked too hard and needed to “get out more”.
This was Namjoon’s idea of “getting out”, apparently. What a joke.
It’ll be fun, he had said. It’ll be a change of pace from the songwriting and hey, maybe you’ll get inspiration.
Inspiration. Inspiration. The only thing he was inspired to do was write 50 verses on why he was seething with hatred for the younger. Though Namjoon would probably brush it off and ask why he hadn’t written a 5000-word article about it.
So here he was, at a freaking art exhibition a good few miles away from home, where he could be working on his music, needing to find a student to interview about their dumb display.
…Okay, maybe that was a little harsh. The artwork was nice and he appreciated it; he just really didn’t want to be here.
Yoongi considered looking for a secluded corner of the exhibition to sit cross-legged and just leisurely fabricate the answers to the questions another nerdy bastard back at the editorial team (this one was named Hoseok) had written out several times – once for each member – in a rushed 20 minutes when he was reminded of his role for this trip on the train journey here.
This editorial team was a fucking mess, if it wasn’t obvious enough.
Composed of disorganised, disgruntled and disinterested kids that can barely hand in their assignments on time, yet thought they could handle the extra work being on the editorial team brought.
At least Taehyung and Jungkook did some work, even if it was the bare minimum. They formed some kind of safety net for the editorial team to fall back on for the days they sucked exceptionally hard. Though, not everyone was as glad to have the two youngest editors around, as Taehyung had said once with a wide, shameless grin that the two of them were only around for the free trips, causing the entire table of editors to turn to the supervisor in unison to witness the iconic eyebrow twitch of complete and utter irritation. The back-and-forth exchange of shade between Taehyung and the supervisor became the butt of group jokes soon afterwards.
After poking his nose around for a bit and humiliatingly having to tip-toe a little occasionally to overlook crowds of viewers to see what all the fuss was about at a couple of displays, Yoongi decided that maybe his idea wasn’t awful and began to wander past tall panels of displays and smaller 3D sculptures in glass cases in search of somewhere where it wasn’t so fucking loud. All he had to do was make sure there were answers written under those questions, and then he could leave. Although, after that he would have more work to do, and that would be writing the article itself up. Ugh.
He did find somewhere to park his ass eventually, though. Behind a particularly big, tall display panel which attracted a shitload of viewers. Though, from one glance, he was pretty sure they were gathered around just to watch the guy speak because he was pretty… well, pretty. He was handsome. Good-looking. Whatever other synonyms suit. He was glamorously tall – something that Yoongi might have raised an envious eyebrow at and goddamn the maknaes really need to stop drooling. Disgusting.
Only when Yoongi sat himself down on the floor, against the back of the panel did he notice that there was one more display at the back, and it was completely unattended. It was pretty nice though – the panel was monochrome with silhouettes of dancers. Some were paintings while some were more detailed pieces done with charcoal.
Yoongi tilted his head a little. He’ll admit it. He was impressed.
Yoongi decided against walking over there and was about to return to writing fake answers to Hoseok’s dumb questions when he noticed what looked like brown tufts of hair from behind the medium-sized glass case right at the front of the display. His curiosity drove him to actually get up from his seat and investigate the glass case and he was confused, to say the least, to find a sleeping figure – seated, head in his arms and completely knocked out on the table immediately behind the case. Yikes. He must’ve been tired to fall asleep like that. He looked pretty comfortable though. And kinda cute. Not that cute. But pretty cute.
Yoongi contemplated on whether or not to wake the boy up. He supposed it was safe to assume that the kid was the owner of the display, so maybe he could wake him up and ask for photos of the display and maybe actually do something on the editorial team for once? Should the music career not take off as planned, a little extra credit for the curriculum vitae to look like some dedicated student shouldn’t hurt.
Well, he wasn’t given much freedom of choice when the boy stirred and rubbed at his eyes and holy hell never mind he’s very cute. Yoongi cleared his throat awkwardly, earning a small surprised yelp from the boy.
“You don’t mind if I take photos, do you?” he asked, gesturing to the display panels. “It’s for a paper at my college.”
“No, it’s fine. Go right ahead.” Wow, even his voice was cute.
The next few seconds weren’t Yoongi’s coolest moments of his life. His hands wouldn’t stop fucking shaking – not so much that it was noticeable to anybody except him, but enough for him to spend an unholy amount of time fumbling with the camera, trying to take a shot that wasn’t blurry. And it didn’t help that he could feel that cute brat’s eyes on him the entire time.
“Do you like it?” the boy asked shyly, rubbing the back of his neck and eyes not quite meeting Yoongi’s.
"Yeah, I do. I love it.”
The boy beamed and Yoongi tried his best not to swoon.
He instead opted for sauntering around to the front of the display and flicking through the portfolio resting on the top of the display case for an excuse to hang around there a little longer. Nothing short of amazing there, either.
“Nobody’s gonna see your display if you just sleep, y’know,” Yoongi said when the boy yawned again after a pause. “And that’d be a real shame.” Though, you’re probably the best work of art around here anyway.
“Yeah, I’m sorry.” The boy laughed. The sound was melodious and Yoongi felt himself melt a little more. “I was up all night picking what should go up on display. I couldn’t stop worrying about it,”
“Well, I’d say you did a pretty darn good job of arranging it,” Yoongi said, somewhat defensively.
It was gratifying to see the boy grinning again. Couldn’t Yoongi just sit here and watch him smile for the rest of the visit?
“So, uh… Jimin-sshi,” Yoongi said, reading the name off the nameplate on one of the corners of the display case. “You wouldn’t mind if I asked a couple questions, would you?” Yoongi scooted closer to the table Jimin was seated at, dragging a chair along with him. “This is for the paper, too.”
“Sure, I’d love to!” Jimin said, seeming awfully happy despite the fact he was still only getting attention from a single person out of a crowd of maybe five hundred. And he stayed that happy for the duration of Yoongi’s “interview”, also known as reading-questions-off-the-sheet-and-copying-down-responses-while-simultaneously-staring-lovingly-into-the-brown-haired-boy’s-eyes-as-they-sparkled-with-passion time.
“Is that everything?” Jimin asked as Yoongi aligned the pieces of papers against the table and attached them back onto the clipboard.
“Doesn’t have to be,” Yoongi shrugged. “I might have more questions for you… Like… what’s your number?”
Jimin laughed and Yoongi was too mesmerised to be offended or embarrassed at him laughing at his albeit somewhat cheesy attempt to woo him.
“Real smooth,” Jimin commented before pulling out a pen and scrawling something onto a post-it note.
Score~
It was cheesy but it worked. Yoongi couldn’t even internally celebrate without having the displeasure of catching the image of the maknaes in his peripheral vision. He glanced at them to find two big, playful, shit-eating grins on both their faces; with Taehyung’s hands clasped as if to say awwwww and Jungkook putting both of his thumbs up in the air. Yoongi’s eyes rolled into another galaxy before returning to Jimin.
“There ya go.” Jimin said, sliding the note across the table to Yoongi as he rose from his seat.
“Thanks. My work here is done,” Yoongi himself was unsure if that referred to the interview or getting the cute brat’s number but whatever. Two birds, one stone and all that. “Better be leaving. Gotta start on the article itself and all. Don’t go back to sleep! People need to see your work… It’s too good for you and everybody else to sleep on it like that – literally!” Yoongi rattled, looking back every few moments as he walked away and Jimin couldn’t help an amused smile.
“Gotcha. Take care~ And tell me how the article goes!” Jimin called and Yoongi almost wanted to turn back.
At least this was going to make the story of the year, he was pretty sure.