Chapter Text
ONE
The Thursday morning rush at A Latte Love is much like all others, except Seokjin runs into a tiny, tiny problem: his coffee shop is about to run out of coffee. It’s nine in the morning.
“Jimin,” Seokjin says, looking for his pastry chef and right-hand man. “Jimin. I have a problem.”
Jimin, who is putting out a fresh batch of croissants in the display case behind him, hums in response. “Did you finally realize that the yellow sweater you’re wearing is hideous even on you?”
“That’s not a fucking problem, and it’s not even true. I meant like an actual problem,” Seokjin says as he shakes the last bag of coffee beans into the grinder. “This is the last of the coffee.”
“What?!” Jimin exclaims, loud enough that the two other employees at A Latte Love, Soobin and Kai, along with the line of customers that has formed along the display case all look at them.
Seokjin whisper-yells, “Get over here. Don’t scare our customers at nine in the morning.”
Jimin tucks the aluminum tray under his arm and walks over to Seokjin, who has moved out of hearing range and closer to the doorway that leads to the back of the shop. “Are you sure that’s it? Did you check the back?”
“Good idea, why don’t I go do that right now?” Seokjin says and then hisses, with flailing arms, “Of course I already did that! I wouldn’t be telling you I’m in a crisis if I didn’t! The truck won’t be here until this afternoon, either.”
“Didn’t you say we’d be fine?” Jimin grimaces and looks around the shop. “What are you going to do? The line is almost out the door today.”
Seokjin takes a quick glance around A Latte Love. The cafe is on the smaller side, with room for about twelve tables and a long rectangular glass display case that separates the cafe floor from the long workstation counter along the east wall. On busy mornings like this, all the tables are full and there’s the line that nearly reaches the door as Jimin has pointed out, and a quick survey through the shop’s floor-to-ceiling windows that face the busy sidewalk shows that more people are likely to walk in. With this in mind, he nods and quickly pulls up the only contingency plan to fix this he can think of.
“I think I’m going to have to do the unspeakable,” Seokjin replies and begins to untie his black bistro apron.
Jimin leans in and whispers, “What? Are you going to tell the customers the truth?”
He shakes his head fervently. “Fuck no. I’m walking down the block and--”
“Wait.” Jimin’s eyes widen and he grabs Seokjin's arm. “You don’t mean you’re going to--”
Seokjin nods curtly, cutting him off. “It’s the only thing I can do right now, Jimin.”
“Does it have to come to this, Seokjin?”
"It’s for A Latte Love." Seokjin slowly takes Jimin’s hand off his arm and looks at him with resignation. “I have to.”
Jimin raises his hand in a salute. “Captain, I know this is not an easy decision for you to make. You are a brave and stupid man.”
Seokjin claps a hand on Jimin’s shoulder. “I leave the bridge in your hands. Help out Soobin and Kai so they don’t get overwhelmed, okay? This is an espresso mission so I should be back in a few minutes.”
Jimin snorts and waves him off. “And yet you still have time for coffee jokes. Go, I’ll cover you.”
“And do not, under any circumstance, tell them where I’m going!” Seokjin warns as he dips into the back of the shop and goes out the back door.
Chilly, blustery mid-October air greets Seokjin as he steps out into the back alley and he nearly goes back inside to grab his coat, but Seokjin thinks better of it-How was he going to complete a stealth mission if there’s evidence that he left somewhere?--and takes off into a sprint toward the main street, hoping the exercise warms him up.
It takes him about three minutes to reach the end of the main street and his destination of the corner building at the end of a long strip mall. He skids to a stop at the corner shop entrance and struggles to open the door against another gust of wind, growling in frustration when he only manages to open it wide enough for him to slip through.
“Hold the door, please!” he hears someone call from nearby. Seokjin glances around and sees a man coming up the street, but they’re still several meters away and Seokjin has no time to waste.
He slips into the shop and lets the door shut behind him, instantly feeling guilty at his current presence in this shop and the fact that he just ignored a complete stranger asking for a favor. As Seokjin runs his fingers through his windblown hair to get it out of his eyes and catches his breath, he immediately feels like a complete fraud as he takes in the coffee shop around him and the familiar scent of brewed coffee. But he doesn’t have time for remorse or regret. He needs to do this.
Seokjin hurries to one end of the store where the display shelves hold the shop’s brand name coffee beans, feeling uncharacteristic beads of sweat begin to form on his forehead as he sweeps his arm across the shelf and gathers as many coffee bags as can fit into his arms. Seokjin hefts the heap of bags in his arms and shuffles over to the line for the counter, smugly noting that it is only three people deep including himself. Despite it being a weekday morning, at least his shop had business.
He gets his turn at the counter and dumps the bags of coffee beans on the countertop before the cashier can get the shop’s standard greeting out.
“Just these,” Seokjin says, digging into his pocket for his wallet.
The cashier gapes at him.
“I just need the coffee bags, please,” Seokjin insists as gently as possible.
“Looks like you’re preparing for the apocalypse,” says someone behind him.
Seokjin glances over his shoulder and nearly does a double-take when he recognizes the man who had called out to him earlier about holding the door. He’s about Seokjin’s height and Seokjin is momentarily distracted by the oversized black puffer jacket he’s wearing--it’s likely at least three sizes too large for him. Seokjin avoids looking at the stranger's face, feeling the accusing gaze on him. He shakes off the guilt he feels at ignoring him earlier and tries to laugh casually. “Sort of.”
As he turns back to the cashier, she is piling the coffee bags into a paper bag with the shop’s unmistakably recognizable green mermaid logo. “No! No bag, sorry!”
The cashier jumps and stares at him with comically buggy eyes. “But--this is a lot of coffee--are you su--?”
“Yes, yes, no need to worry about it,” Seokjin interjects, grabbing some bills out of his wallet and placing them on the counter. He also arranges his face into a smile that he knows stuns most people speechless as a gesture of apology as he sweeps the coffee bags into his arms. “I’m very sorry. The change is all yours. You never saw me here, alright? Thank you!”
Before anyone can say anything else to him, he makes his way out of the shop, ignoring the stares that follow him from the commotion he just made. Had it been for anything else, Seokjin might have allowed himself to feel a little embarrassment. But when it came to the coffee shop he built from the ground up over nearly four years that was like a literal child to him, he would do anything short of selling his body for it. Not that it had ever come that far. At least, not that anyone but him and his closest friends knew about. In some dark corner of the internet, some photos of Seokjin existed that he hoped would stay in that dark corner and never come to light.
Halfway back to A Latte Love a bag of coffee beans slips from the pile in his arms and lands on the pavement behind him. Seokjin groans and stops to go back for it but shakes his head. He’s already getting suspicious looks from passersby around him with the stupid pile of coffee bags in his arms and he can afford to lose one tiny, overpriced bag of coffee beans.
As soon as Seokjin runs into the back of the cafe, he spots Soobin's tall, lanky form coming into the kitchen.
“Soobin! You’re supposed to be out front!” Seokjin calls as he steps into the storage room and out of view.
“We just ran out of coffee. Is there some in the storage room?” Soobin replies, his voice coming closer.
“I’m grabbing some right now. Don’t come in here! I’ll be right out,” Seokjin says as he dumps the forbidden haul on one of the empty shelves in the storage room. He gathers several bags into his hands and starts to leave the storage room when he realizes, with horror, that the bags are printed with the other shop’s logo on the front. There was no way he could explain them to Soobin and Kai--or god forbid, a customer --if they saw them.
Seokjin stuffs the bags under his arms and goes over to the kitchen, grabs one of Jimin’s mixing bowls, and sets everything down on the worktable in the middle of the kitchen.
As Seokjin rips open the coffee bags to dump them into the mixing bowl, he hears someone come through the doorway.
“Hey Jin, Soobin says you’re acting wei--what the FUCK are you doing?”
Seokjin doesn’t look up as Jimin rushes over to his side.
“Those are for food, Seokjin!” Jimin exclaims, grabbing the edge of the mixing bowl and tugging it away from him. “What are you doing with my precious mixing bowls?”
He looks at Jimin with desperation and tugs the bowl back. “Hiding evidence. I can’t show these coffee bags, Jimin. My reputation is on the line here, Jimin. You understand, don’t you, Jimin?”
“Okay, okay, just calm down,” Jimin says, laughing nervously. “We need you out there. We’re falling behind on orders and Kai looks like he’s about to cry.”
Seokjin dumps the empty bags in the trash next to the counter and grabs the mixing bowl. “How long was I gone? Did they notice?”
“I told them you’re shitting out a storm in the bathroom,” Jimin says. He puts his hands up when Seokjin gives him a disgusted look. “What? It happens to everybody. You think just because you’re beautiful you don’t get irritable bowels sometimes?”
“Do you look at this face and think diarrhea?” Seokjin retorts as they walk back out to the front of the store. “You couldn’t tell them I was counting money or getting abducted by aliens if we’re coming up with unrealistic excuses, dickhead?”
Soobin and Kai are both scrambling at the workstation when Seokjin approaches with the coffee beans. He feels a pinch in his chest at having left them alone to handle the shop’s busy workload, something he’s never done before. They both brighten when they see him approach.
“How many orders do we have?” Seokjin asks Soobin as he goes over to the coffee grinder and dumps the contents of the mixing bowl in it. He hardly finishes emptying it out before Jimin snatches it out of his hands and starts heading back to the kitchen.
Soobin points to the line of order chits that print out with each order that he and Kai have spread out between the machines. “A lot. We need help.”
Seokjin turns on the grinder and turns his head in the direction of the kitchen. “Jimin! Can you handle the register for a bit while we catch up?”
“I’ll be right there!”
He turns back to his two baristas. “Kai, I’ll put you in charge of helping Jimin grab food orders. Soobin, you and I will take care of the coffee orders. Let’s get it done.”
“Got it!”
Making coffee is always therapeutic to Seokjin, even during the most hectic of times, and it’s easy to get lost in the groove and forget everything else. Seokjin has found solace in coffeemaking from many of his life’s troubles--so much so that it became the reason he decided to open his own coffee shop. Today is no different as Seokjin quickly hits a stride with work and his plight from moments ago is instantly forgotten. However, Seokjin is only able to luxuriate in this beloved routine for a grand total of ten minutes and five coffee orders when he’s unceremoniously brought back to reality with a figurative cold splash of water.
“Hello and welcome to A Latte Love. What can we get started for you today?” Jimin greets every customer the same way, so this does not alarm Seokjin at first.
“Is there a Kim Seokjin here?”
Seokjin freezes in the middle of making an iced hazelnut cappuccino. The voice sounds familiar. And it's quickly throwing Seokjin back into the crisis he had already put in the back of his head.
“Kim Seokjin?” he hears Jimin reply with some uncertainty in his voice. “Why do you ask?”
Seokjin slowly turns to face the front of the store, looking in the direction of the register where Jimin is talking to the customer. “Shit,” he mutters under his breath. He turns to Soobin beside him. “Can you finish this one? I have to go help Jimin out real quick.”
Soobin takes the unfinished cappuccino and nods. Seokjin wipes his hands on his apron and heads over to Jimin’s side.
As he feared, it is the man from earlier. The giant black puffer jacket is unmistakable. The man notices his approach and his eyes light up with mutual recognition.
What in the hell are you doing here? Seokjin thinks, narrowing his eyes as he walks up to the register.
“I believe this is yours,” the man says and sets something down on the counter.
It's the bag of coffee Seokjin dropped earlier.
Seokjin gasps and lunges forward, grabbing the bag of coffee beans and kicking it under the counter before anyone can see it. “What do you mean? There is nothing here,” he says, leaning on the counter with the pretense of leisure.
The man--well, he looks to be as young as Jimin or even Soobin, so he’s really a young man--stares at him with wide doe-like eyes. “What on earth did you do that for?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea of what you’re referring to,” Seokjin replies with a tight smile. “How may I help you this morning?”
“You were just at the Starbucks down the street,” the young man says with raised eyebrows. “I think you dropped that bag of coffee and--”
Seokjin’s eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets. “Ha! Ha! Ha! That is absolutely impossible, young man. I have not left my establishment all morning. You must be mistaking me for someone else.”
The line of customers behind the doe-eyed young man begins to pay attention to their conversation and Seokjin’s telltale sign of embarrassment, burning ears, begins to creep up on him. He needs to take care of this, and take care of it fast.
“You are not being very cool right now,” Jimin says through clenched teeth, kicking his foot under the counter.
Seokjin keeps his eyes on the young man in front of him, who has dropped his wide-eyed expression to one with narrowed eyes. The young man is wearing all-black and a big black backpack hangs over his shoulders. On his ears dangle a number of silver chain earrings, the piercings leading all the way up to the shell of his ear. His hair is a rich, glossy black that brushes past his cheekbones and makes his ivory skin look pale and bloodless. Though the big eyes betray his youth, Seokjin can’t help but slowly grow suspicious. Don’t thugs wear all-black and have scary piercings? He watches as the young man stuffs one of his hands into the pockets of his jacket and begins rummaging for something.
“Um, young man,” Seokjin says, staring at him. The pockets in that jacket look huge. They could be hiding anything. A knife. A gun. Maybe even several bricks. “What are you doing?”
The young man keeps his eyes narrowed and begins to take his hand out of his pocket.
Seokjin holds up his hands. “Look, we can talk this out. Do you want the coffee back? You can have it. You don’t have to do anything rash.”
Jimin jumps behind him. “Jin, does he have a knife?”
“And your first instinct is to hide behind me?” Seokjin hisses over his shoulder.
“Have I ever told you that you have very nice, broad shoulders that make me feel safe?”
“Jimin!”
“I don’t have a knife,” the young man declares flatly, holding up his hand.
Seokjin leans forward to inspect the rectangular object he’s pulled out, eyes widening again when he recognizes his wallet. He pats his pants pockets, realizing for the first time that they’re empty. “Where did you get that?”
“It was on the floor. At the Starbucks. Down the street.”
Seokjin can feel himself begin to sweat. God, why is he sweating so much today? “I see. Well. I have never seen that wallet before in my life.”
The young man opens the wallet to show the license in the clear card slot. Seokjin fights back a cringe when he spots the picture on the license. He still has another year to look at the worst haircut of his life. “Isn’t this you? Kim Seokjin.”
“No. That must be someone else,” Seokjin says. He can tell the young man is losing his patience. Seokjin clears his throat and begins to pluck the wallet out of the young man’s hands and adds, “Tell you what. I will hold onto this wallet you found and turn it into the police for you and save you some trouble. How does that sound?”
The young man pulls the wallet out of Seokjin’s reach and then takes out a pink business card from it. “Listen, old man--”
Seokjin sputters. “Old man?!”
The young man waves the pink business card in front of him and speaks so fast Seokjin struggles to catch the words. “Yes, old man. I have a business card here for a coffee shop called A Latte Love inside a wallet that has a license that belongs to a Kim Seokjin with a picture that looks just like you. Are you really telling me this is not yours?”
Seokjin tugs at his sweater collar, feeling inexplicably hot under the young man’s sharp, accusatory gaze. “Um. Stranger things have happened…?”
The young man huffs. “This is ridiculous. I just wanted to return your things but this is how I’m treated? Whatever.” He turns around and faces the customers in the shop. “Listen up! This guy's a phony! He’s feeding you coffee from Star--”
He’s cut off by Jimin grabbing him in a chokehold and stuffing a croissant into his mouth. The young man makes a muffled noise of surprise and starts thrashing in Jimin’s arms. Seokjin walks around the counter, grabs the young man by the arm, and yanks him out of the line.
“Good work, Jimin. I’ll take care of it from here.”
Jimin looks unimpressed. “Like you’ve been taking care of it so far?”
“Just give me a minute,” Seokjin says and then faces his customers, who all seem engrossed by the exchange that just unfolded. “Ha! Ha! Ha! Ah, this little brother of mine sure knows how to pull a prank on me! I hope you all enjoyed the show! We’ll have your orders ready for you shortly.”
“Since when do we do skits here?” Kai mumbles to Soobin.
Seokjin half-tugs, half-drags the young man over to an empty part of the cafe by the back wall and sits him down at one of the small two-person tables before sitting across from him.
The young man is still chewing through the croissant stuffed in his mouth and levels a glare at him. “Wha’th fell is your ‘roblem?” he asks around a mouthful of food.
Seokjin crosses his arms. “What the hell is your problem? Are you trying to ruin my business here?”
“You’re doing a pretty good job of that yourself,” he retorts, looking completely unapologetic. A chunk of food flies out and lands on Seokjin’s cheek.
Seokjin wipes the food off with a grimace. “You know nothing, young man.”
The young man mirrors his expression. “Will you stop calling me young man, old man? Are you supposed to be forty or something?”
“Twenty-seven,” Seokjin snaps. “So I am older than you. And as you are a perfect stranger to me, I have nothing else to call you.”
“ Jungkook,” the young man says clearly, mouth finally clear of food. “Will you forget it in two minutes? Like you somehow forgot your own name just now?”
“I don’t have time to waste talking to you, young man,” Seokjin says, exasperated. He holds out his hand. “Return my wallet and we can just forget this whole thing happened. I have to get back to work.”
Jungkook smiles smugly and wags his eyebrows. “Oh, now it’s your wallet?”
“Listen, young man--”
“It’s Jungkook.”
“-- Jungkook. You did the noble thing by returning the things I dropped and I appreciate you taking the time to return them promptly,” Seokjin says, “Even if you managed to embarrass the shit out of me in doing so.”
“I think you did the last part on your own,” says Jungkook matter-of-factly.
“You were no help!” Seokjin bursts out and then quickly recovers. “Anyway, thanks for bringing back my wallet. Now may I have it back.”
Jungkook hands over the wallet, and just as Seokjin begins to take it, holds it tightly so it remains in his hand. “This is all I get for returning this to you?”
Seokjin tries not to yank the wallet back and remain civil. “What could I possibly give you?” He waves the wallet held between them. “The money I have left in here? There’s probably only like ten thousand won left.”
“Five thousand,” Jungkook corrects. “I checked.”
“How honest of you,” Seokjin replies flatly. “Wait. If you don’t want money, what do you want?”
“Well, Mr. Kim Seokjin, since you’re offering…”
Seokjin scoffs and tries to tug the wallet out of his grip. “ Offering? Who said anything about offering you something?”
Jungkook grins. “If you’re offering, coffee would be nice. I didn’t get mine earlier because I was caught up behind you in line.”
“That’s all?” Seokjin laughs, but it’s harsh and sounds insincere even to his own ears. “All this just for a free cup of coffee?”
Jungkook shakes his head. “You know, I did find your wallet and likely saved you from a mountain of inconveniences. I think that calls for free coffee for the rest of my life.”
He rolls his eyes. “You’re out of your mind. I’ll give you free coffee for today and that’s it.”
Seokjin is taken aback at how quickly the expression changes on Jungkook’s face. His big doe-like eyes get bigger and practically sparkle under the mix of natural and artificial light in the shop and his mouth curls up in a pout that Seokjin once thought was adorable only on toddlers. The expression is especially odd given his all-black clothing ensemble and the dangly silver earrings all over his ears, and yet it doesn’t look out of place at all and it’s disconcerting.
Seokjin reels back and grimaces. “What are you doing? Why are you trying to look like you’re five years old? It’s not going to work on me.”
“Are you sure it’s not working?” And then the pout gets cuter.
Seokjin looks away and checks his wrist. “Oh, would you look at the time? I have to get back to work.”
“You’re not even wearing a watch!” Jungkook exclaims, pointing at Seokjin’s empty wrist.
Seokjin gets to his feet and takes advantage of the distraction to swipe the wallet out of Jungkook’s hand. “If I’m in this shop, I’m working,” he answers, grinning when Jungkook loses the toddler’s pout. “My free coffee offer is only good for the next fifteen minutes. If you would like to redeem it, please join the other patrons at the back of the line.”
As Seokjin begins walking away, Jungkook mutters at his back, “Like the coffee here would be any better than Starbucks.”
It takes every ounce of self-control Seokjin has to keep him from turning around and spit out an equally petty comeback. It’s not the first time he’s been challenged on the quality of his coffee--Seokjin has seen a fair share of troll comments on reviews of A Latte Love across the internet and it’s not the first time, nor likely the last, that he’s had to deal with the insinuation that his coffee is not comparable to the mass-produced, soulless drinks of his corporate competitors. He’s confident enough, at least, in the reactions of the customers who try his drinks and by his steady roster of regulars, and if that wasn’t enough, he can just point to the awards from competitions over the years that Jimin insists on prominently displaying on the wall near the entrance of the shop.
So with a measured, even voice, he calmly says over his shoulder, “Clearly you’ve never been here before. Try insulting my coffee again after you’ve tried it, kid.”
When Seokjin returns to the back counter, he finds all three of his employees pretending to work while awaiting his return with eager eyes.
“Are you lot working?” he asks, hoping to deflect from the very obvious fact that his ears and neck are on fire from the attention and hopes they have the decency to not point it out.
“We’re almost caught up,” Soobin replies from his place at one of the espresso machines. He cranes his neck to look in the direction where he and the Jungkook kid were sitting. “Did you make up with your little brother?”
Seokjin heaves out a sigh that he did not know he was holding and rubs at his temples. “If I had a little brother like that, I would have died from an aneurysm a long time ago.” Not that his actual older brother was any better, but it wasn’t something he regularly thought about.
“Is your secret safe?” Jimin asks, and then stops to clear his throat. “Oh. We’ll discuss that later.”
“Why?” Seokjin asks, noticing that his employees are looking over his shoulder. He turns around and finds Jungkook at the end of the short line of customers along the display case. “Don’t you have other business owners to pester?”
“Hmm, let me go through the list for today,” Jungkook says, flipping imaginary pages of an imaginary book in his hands. “Nope.”
Seokjin does not grace him with a courtesy laugh. “What are you still doing here? Is jeopardizing my clientele and insulting my craft not enough for you?”
Jungkook grins, the smile scrunching his eyes up. “Duh? My free coffee? You offered?”
The smile on Jungkook’s face vaguely reminds Seokjin of one of the smiling emojis on his phone.
“I recall you saying, not thirty seconds ago, the unlikelihood of my drinks being ‘any better than Starbucks,’” Seokjin says, using air quotes. “I didn’t think you’d want to redeem your offer.”
Soobin and Kai gasp. Jimin, still working the register, laughs as he repeats an order to a customer. Seokjin shoots daggers at him with his eyes. Fucking Jimin.
“Since I’m not being compensated monetarily for my noble act of returning lost items, I will be a skeptic for today and see what all the fuss is about,” Jungkook replies without missing a beat.
Seokjin swallows a sigh. He’s exhausted already. “I will literally give you the five thousand won I have in my wallet if that will get you out of my face.”
“Do you treat all your customers like this?” Jungkook returns, crossing his arms.
Seokjin scowls. “You’re not even a customer. You have only been a menace to my business.”
“Fine then. I will order something.” Jungkook’s grin widens and shows off his teeth.
“Fine then. Please give your order to Jimin when you get to the register and I’ll make it for you and that will be the last of this.”
He turns away, effectively ending the conversation there, and tries to resume his work. However, it turns out to be easier said than done because while Seokjin is ready to put an end to this irritating turn of events, the rest of his staff is not. Soobin and Kai both do a shit job of being subtle about stealing looks at Jungkook and Jimin is eagerly helping all the customers in line as quickly as he can to get to him. Seokjin has half a thought to call them out on it, but all he wants is for nothing else to go awry and for his life to go back to normal. So he ignores it all and tries to focus on his work again.
Jimin greets Jungkook brightly when he reaches the register for the second time that day. “Hello and welcome back to A Latte Love. What can we get started for you? Would you be interested in trying one of our signature drinks? And are you sure you have no firearms or any other weapons in your possession that I need to be aware of?”
“I literally have no idea why you think I’m armed,” Jungkook replies. “Can I have a latte?”
“Sure, sure. What kind would you like? We can make any kind of latte you want.”
“No we can’t,” Seokjin mutters, thinking no one heard him.
“Please ignore him,” Jimin says breezily. “Since it’s your first time here, why don’t you try our rose latte? It’s our owner’s specialty. Also, if you could please empty out your pockets so I can make sure you are indeed not armed.”
“Why would I rob a coffee shop of all places? What’s in a rose latte?”
Seokjin walks over to the register to stop Jimin before he launches into a cross-examination. “Jimin, isn’t it time for your break?”
Jimin looks up at him innocently. “I don’t need a break, Jinnie. I’m fine.”
Seokjin shoves him away in the direction of the kitchen. “Go bake something then. And you two!” he exclaims, pointing at Soobin and Kai, who are pretending to clean the countertops. “Actually, I have nothing for you to do. Go check on the tables or something.”
He turns back to Jungkook. “Sorry. What did you want again?”
“I’ll try the owner’s specialty,” Jungkook answers with a smile. “I hope it’s good. It has to be worth my time and effort for everything I’ve done for you today.”
“You’ve done nothing but make my life impossible,” Seokjin mutters under his breath as he rings up the order. He looks up at Jungkook. “I’m not giving you another drink if you don’t like it. Go wait at the other end of the counter and don’t. Talk. To. Anyone. I’ll have it right out.”
Jungkook gives him another wide grin and nods before moving away.
As Seokjin turns away to prepare the drink, he wonders which god he might have pissed off to have his morning go as awry as it has so far. He’s had a number of close calls in the past with one thing or another for the cafe but none have unfolded as crazy as this.
He can feel Jungkook’s eyes watching him work but he ignores that as much as possible. During his time running the shop, he’s had all sorts of customers--the kind that just want their coffee and go, the nice ones that chat him up, the kind that isn’t satisfied unless they get exactly what they want, and the list goes on--but it’s a first to have someone come into his shop and immediately get under his skin. This Jungkook guy seems determined to rile him up in every possible way and it’s annoying even if it’s also the most engaging encounter he’s had in a long time. He is more than ready to put it behind him, though, and when he’s done making the drink, he sets it down in front of Jungkook with determined finality.
“You’re giving it to me to-go?” Jungkook asks as he takes the paper cup. The pout from earlier, at half strength, returns. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
Seokjin raises his eyebrows. “Don’t you want to leave? Jesus Christ.”
Jungkook smiles again. “I don't have to be at my job for another twenty minutes.”
“Well, I can’t stop you from enjoying your drink here,” Seokjin says, jaw tight. “You are more than welcome to sit down at one of the tables.”
Jungkook snorts and brings the coffee up to his lips. Seokjin, without realizing it, holds his breath and watches as Jungkook takes a small sip and waits for a reaction. “Hmm.”
The “hmm” tells Seokjin nothing. Was it good? Okay? Bad? No, he knows it’s good. He doesn’t need to know it’s good.
Jungkook replaces the plastic lid on the cup and nods. “Well, I’ll be going now." He holds up his cup. "Thanks for the free coffee!”
With that, Jungkook makes his way to the exit. Seokjin tells himself that he is not disappointed by the lack of response to his drink and waves him off.
As Seokjin turns away, he yelps when he finds that Jimin has materialized next to him. “What the hell, when did you get here?”
Jimin is looking after Jungkook, who is walking past the windows and up the street. “So…that guy was cute.”
“What are you talking about.”
“He was cute! Those eyes of his were dreamy!” Jimin leans against the display case with a smile. “I’ve never seen anyone fluster you that much. You even gave him free coffee!”
Seokjin begins to reply with a firm negative to all of his assumptions when his attention is turned to the approach of Soobin and Kai. He is grateful for the interruption because the last thing he wants to do is give Jimin any fuel to tease him with.
Soobin covers the side of his mouth and says in a hushed voice, “Seokjin, there’s--there’s Starbucks coffee in the storage room. Is that why you were gone earlier?”
Seokjin sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “I should have locked the door.”
Kai snaps his fingers. “I knew something was up! When Jimin said you had, um...diarrhea, I thought it was weird.”
“See, I told you that excuse was unrealistic,” Seokjin says with a smug smile in Jimin’s direction.
Jimin rolls his eyes. “I should tell them about that time we had all-you-can-eat spicy braised chicken and the number you did in your apartment bathroom. They would believe anything I tell them.”
“You are fucking fired, Park Jimin.”
* * *
The following day business is back to normal. After the truck arrived the afternoon yesterday, Seokjin stowed away the coffee he had bought in a dark corner of the storage room for it to collect dust and be forgotten. He rationalized that it was better if he kept it instead of throwing it away because it would serve as a reminder of what not to do in a crisis if it ever happened again. He also dropped a stupid amount of money on it.
Because of the events from the day before, Seokjin also made a pledge with himself to check inventory diligently once a week instead of when he felt like it, which had been his method of keeping track of the shop’s stock before, though this method hadn’t brought him any problems until...well, the day before.
The quiet hours mid-afternoon after the morning and lunch rushes finds Seokjin in the small kitchen helping Jimin prepare fruit tarts to replenish in the display case.
“I don’t think you’ll actually pay attention to our inventory,” Jimin says as he arranges grapes and blueberries on his tart. “You hate doing inventory. You always put it off.”
“I will. I’m putting it on my calendar.” Seokjin is working on slicing strawberries and kiwis under Jimin’s instruction. He raises the hand holding the knife to gesture to his hair. “If I miss even a single week of doing inventory from now on, I will let you cut my hair off. Swear.”
Jimin snorts. “You’ve already let me do it once though, remember?”
Seokjin shudders as he recalls a lost bet between them that ended with a drunken bathroom haircut with Seokjin’s kitchen scissors three years ago. His hair had hardly even grown out for his license photo a month later.
Jimin continues. “Wouldn’t you be more motivated if like, instead of cutting your hair off, you tattooed my name on your ass?”
Seokjin pops a strawberry into his mouth. “You know what? That’s a good idea. I never want you to be a part of my body.”
“Rude. I would tattoo your name on my ass if you asked.” Jimin twists his hips so his butt sticks out facing him and points to his left cheek. “Right here. In pink cursive font and everything. We can get matching tattoos.”
“That’s worse. I never want to be a part of your body,” Seokjin says. “That would be horrendous. Thanks for motivating me.”
“Why would matching ass tattoos be horrendous? We can get Yoongi in on it too.”
Seokjin imagines his roommate and best friend’s reaction to the idea. “Are we talking about the same Min Yoongi?”
Jimin laughs and then taps his chin thoughtfully for a moment. “Maybe if we get him drunk enough?”
“Psh. Did you already forget that he drinks whiskey like water? Last time we tried keeping up with him we ended up in the hospital getting our stomachs pumped. And Yoongi was sober enough to do all the paperwork for us.”
Jimin shudders. “You’re right. He’s a monster.”
Seokjin laughs. At the entrance to the kitchen, one of his other employees, Yeonjun, pops his head in the doorway.
“Hey, Seokjin? There’s a customer out here saying you’re giving him free coffee?”
Seokjin’s laughter dies out. “I have said no such thing.”
“Oooh,” Jimin croons, face splitting into a wide smile. “Could it be who I think it is?”
Seokjin turns to glare at Jimin before setting down his knife. “You better hope you’re wrong.”
He follows Yeonjun out to the front of the shop, wiping residual strawberry juice off on his apron. Surely enough, the young man from yesterday, Jungkook, is standing at the register, wearing another all-black get-up of an oversized black jacket with a black turtleneck and black pants, light catching on the dangling silver chain earrings on his ears. He looks very out of place in the white and pink decor of the shop.
“You again,” Seokjin says in lieu of a greeting as he walks up to the register.
Yeonjun looks at him with surprise. “So you know him?”
“I wish I didn’t,” Seokjin mutters and then shakes his head. He nods at Yeonjun. “Why don’t you go help Jimin with the tarts? I’ll take care of him.”
Jungkook seems to wait until Yeonjun is out of view before crossing his arms and furrowing his brows. “Is this how you greet a customer?”
Seokjin mirrors his stance. “No, this is how I greet a menace trying to scam my employees.”
“Now I’m a scammer?” Jungkook’s expression melts into a grin. “Well, it takes one to know one. What with you scamming your customers yesterday with Starbucks coffee and all.”
Seokjin is nearly overcome with an impulse to punch him in the arm.
Instead, he sighs. “Don’t you have better things to do than pester a business owner who committed an unspeakable act out of desperation and is trying to forget it?”
Jungkook laughs. “Alright, fine. You might not believe me, but I am actually here for coffee.”
Seokjin stares at him. “You. Are here. For coffee.”
“Yes. The coffee here is...not bad.” Jungkook looks unconvinced as he says it.
Seokjin scoffs. “Not bad? That’s all?”
Jungkook tilts his head and shrugs. “I thought I should try it again to make sure.”
“You’re weird,” Seokjin says, holding back the urge to grimace. He decides he’s not going to indulge in whatever antics he has planned and decides to be straightforward. “So? Are you placing an order?”
Jungkook drops his hands on the countertop and leans forward. “Can you give it to me for free?”
He rolls his eyes. “Again? Why would I do that?”
“Well,” Jungkook says, swaying from side to side as he speaks. Seokjin begins to wonder if he’s actually a teenager and only looks like a grown man only to remember that he doesn’t know how old he is. “When we met at Starbucks yesterday--”
“Will you literally stop bringing that up.”
“But it happened!” Jungkook points at him accusingly. “How could I forget? I asked you to hold the door for me and you let it slam in my face! And cut in front of me in line! On top of me finding your wallet and lost bag of coffee on the floor and bringing it back like a nice person only to be nearly choked to death by a croissant!”
Listening to his side of yesterday’s dramatics almost makes Seokjin feel sorry for him. But then he remembers how he was embarrassed in front of his own customers by him and reconsiders.
“Did that happen? It was such a long time ago,” Seokjin says, rubbing his chin and pretending to think. He turns a hard look at him. “I’m still not giving you free coffee.”
Jungkook frowns before he drops his shoulders and sighs. “Fine. Whatever. If I pay for my own coffee, can I still order?”
Seokjin puts on his bright customer service smile. “Of course! I never say no to a paying customer. What would you like?”
His customer service smile must have an effect on him because Jungkook stares at him with his mouth slightly open and doesn’t say anything right away. Seokjin waves a hand in front of his face and that seems to bring him back to reality.
“Right. Yeah. Um. Can I have the same thing from yesterday?”
Seokjin feigns ignorance. “And that was…?”
“That latte,” Jungkook says, miming a cup on the counter. “It had pink in it.”
Seokjin raises his eyebrows as he rings up the order. “One rose latte. Okay.”
“Will you make it for here though?” Jungkook leans forward again and gives him a weird sparkly-eyed look.
“Sure, sure.” He looks down at the register, unable to hold his eyes. “Anything else?”
“How about a slice of fruit tart? They’re fresh!”
Seokjin looks to his right and spots Jimin much closer than he needs to be arranging the fruit tarts they were working on in the display case. He starts to poke Jimin’s side to make him go away but stops once Jungkook moves to observe the pastries.
“You make these?”
Jimin nods proudly and pats the display case. “Everything here is made from scratch by yours truly.”
Jungkook’s face lights up as he leans in closer to the glass to inspect the pastries.
Jimin points to a strawberry and kiwi tart. “How about that one? Seokjin helped me make it.”
Seokjin is about to roll his eyes when he notices Jungkook’s eyes widen perceptibly.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll try that one.”
Jimin glances at Seokjin with a meaningful smile that he promptly ignores. Seokjin rings up the fruit tart on the order and calls Jungkook over with his total and sends him off to one of the tables with an order number and promises to have his order out in a few minutes. As soon as Jungkook is out of hearing reach, Jimin faces Seokjin with another of his face-splitting, shit-eating smiles.
“Did you see that?”
Seokjin turns away to get started on making the espresso shot for the latte. “Don’t you have a fruit tart to plate?”
Jimin follows him and leans over to show him his stupid smile. “Do you want to know what I saw?”
Seokjin leans in and gets close to Jimin’s face before saying, “You want to know something? I don’t care.”
Jimin sticks his tongue out at him and moves away.
Leave it to Jimin to assume that a bratty kid’s pestering means something more. Seokjin has had customers that are much more straightforward--or downright lewd--in their interest in him. There is nothing of the sort in Jungkook’s behavior towards him.
However, as Seokjin approaches Jungkook’s table with his order a few minutes later, his limbs move stiffly and awkwardly as Jungkook follows his approach with his eyes. It could be that he is just looking at the things on the tray in Seokjin’s hands. Or Jungkook finds Seokjin’s cloud print sweater interesting. It didn’t have to be Seokjin he was looking at. Seokjin marches the rest of the way forward and sets down the order on the table.
“Wow! I didn’t know the latte had layers. I have to take a photo of this,” Jungkook coos, arranging the coffee and pastry dish to his liking in front of him. A cell phone materializes in his hand seconds later.
Seokjin smiles, relieved. So it was the tray he was looking at. “Enjoy. Also, if you’re taking pictures, make sure to leave any photos of the employees out of them if you’re posting them online.”
“Yeah, got it.” Jungkook raises his face and shows a disarmingly radiant smile--teeth on full display, eyes curled into crescents, cheeks round. “Thanks.”
Seokjin clears his throat, nods, and walks away without saying another word. Holy shit. He’s kind of adorable , he thinks as he returns to the counter.
Over by the display case, Jimin seems engrossed in arranging some danishes and pretends not to see him return. Seokjin goes over to his side and leans against the display case. “You want to know something, Jimin?”
Jimin does not look up. “What? Did anything even get to happen during the whole ten seconds you were over there?”
Seokjin nods. “Yes. I realized something.”
Jimin looks up eagerly. “What? What?”
Seokjin places a hand on Jimin’s shoulder. “That kid is cute. I’m going to adopt him.”
“Kid? Adopt?” Jimin echoes and then shoves him away. “You’ve been single for four fucking years and you want to start a family before you even try to get laid? I’m sick of you.”
Seokjin laughs and steadies himself. “Why can’t I be a hot single dad? What do they call those again?”
“DILFs,” Yeonjun supplies helpfully as he passes by them to go to the back.
“I’d be trying to take him home if I were you,” Jimin mutters, glancing in Jungkook’s direction.
“We don’t even know how old he is. Or if he’s gay.” Seokjin laughs again. “You’re acting as if we run a bar and not a coffee shop.”
“Why didn’t we open a bar instead?” Jimin huffs and then stands up. “You’re not getting any younger, you know.”
Seokjin bristles. “Why don’t you worry about yourself more? Who was it that had a meltdown not that long ago because of a gray hair?”
Jimin covers his ears and starts making his escape back to the kitchen. “Don’t bring that up! You promised that you would never bring it up again!”
Seokjin grins at his tiny victory. It’s not often that he gets the last word with Jimin, though he feels bad for bringing up the gray hair incident because it had very much sparked a quarter-life crisis for Jimin last week before his birthday. He also knows that this win will be short-lived because Jimin always seems to have endless ammunition against him.
His cell phone starts buzzing insistently in his pocket with an incoming phone call. Seokjin fishes his phone out of his pocket and finds that the phone call is from an unknown number and sends it to voicemail. He then turns his attention to some customers that walk in and after they’re taken care of he and Yeonjun practice making one of the new specialty drinks on the menu. Yeonjun skips away to show off his lemoni espresso to Jimin as soon as the lesson is over and Seokjin watches him go with a smile. As he turns back to scan the shop floor, he spots Jungkook still sitting at the table near the windows, still taking pictures of his coffee and fruit tart, both looking largely untouched. Seokjin watches him, wondering what he’s up to, and weighs the pros and cons of engaging with him any further before giving up and walking over to check on him.
“Your coffee is going to get cold, you know,” he says as he comes up to him.
Jungkook looks up with a start. “Oh! Right. I’m just trying to get a good photo.”
“If you’re trying to compete with the other influencers who hang out here, you’re probably going to lose pretty fast.” Seokjin checks social media feeds that tag A Latte Love in their photos and can hardly believe some of them are images of what they sell in the shop. “They’re scary good.”
He holds up his phone and points to his coffee. “I’ve checked the photos online. They’re not as good as mine.”
Seokjin smiles and leans closer to look at his phone screen. The photo Jungkook is showing isn’t half-bad. “The stuff here are all Instagram-worthy, sure. Have you really been taking pictures this whole time?”
Jungkook shrugs. “My best friend is a photographer. He always says it’s better to take more photos than you need.”
“Even of food?” Seokjin asks, smiling wider. Jungkook makes a face at him. “Can I look at them?”
“Sure,” Jungkook says, handing the phone over to him. “They’re all unedited though, so don’t be too impressed yet.”
He chuckles and starts swiping through the photos as Jungkook proceeds to take a sip from his coffee. There’s several photos of the coffee and food on the table, but Seokjin finds himself surprised when he comes across several pictures of the shop. There are some photos that focus on the interior details, like the vases of dried pink flowers that hang on the white brick walls, and some rather artful faceless photos of the patrons at the tables. He’s also pleased to see that there are no photos of any of the employees so far.
“Why does the coffee taste different today?”
Seokjin looks up from Jungkook’s phone. “I’m back to using my own coffee beans today. Yesterday’s incident that must not be named was the result of poor inventory taking. Why? Doesn’t it taste better than Starbucks?”
Jungkook scrunches his nose and takes another sip from the mug. “Hmm…”
Again with the vague-sounding “ hmm ”? Seokjin scowls. “What? You said earlier that my coffee wasn’t bad.”
“I never said anything about liking it.”
Seokjin’s ears and neck flush hotly. What did it matter to him if he had this kid’s approval or not? Especially after all that mess from the day before? “You know what? I don’t care what you think.”
Jungkook smiles and it’s an echo of the radiant smile from earlier, but Seokjin can see past its innocent look. “You are a terrible liar.”
“I got your money today and that’s all that matters to me,” Seokjin insists, neck and ears burning. “You have to at least like the tart. I’ll never hear the end of it if you don’t like Jimin’s tart.”
“Jimin? Is that your friend over there?” Jungkook asks, picking up his fork and gesturing in the direction of the counter.
Seokjin glances over his shoulder and spots Jimin coming out of the back with his light brown hair brushed differently. He swallows a rogue giggle at the likelihood that Jimin just spent a better part of the last fifteen minutes making sure the gray hair from the other day is still gone and turns back to Jungkook, who’s chewing on a bite of the tart now.
“Yeah. He’s the resident pastry chef here,” Seokjin replies. “He’ll never admit it out loud but he’s fueled by people’s appreciation of his food.”
If Seokjin is partially the same way, he’ll never admit that, either.
Jungkook looks up at Seokjin with wide eyes and an enthusiastic nod. “Hmm! Wow! This is good!”
“Awesome. Great. I’ll let him know,” Seokjin says, sulkier than he intends.
“Yeah, this goes great with the coffee,” Jungkook adds as he eats more of the tart.
Seokjin, in spite of himself, leans in closer. “In a good or bad way?”
Jungkook watches him as he takes a delicate sip of his latte. “It’s eating you not knowing if I like your coffee, isn’t it?”
Seokjin sputters. “Whatever. I said I don’t care and I mean it.”
His ears are tickled with the sound of Jungkook’s laugh and he wants to pinch himself for thinking how cute it is. He doesn’t grace Jungkook with a look and instead turns back to finish looking at the pictures on Jungkook’s phone.
“Your face says something different,” Jungkook says, still laughing as he continues goading him. “What are you going to do if I don’t like your coffee?”
“Nothing,” Seokjin replies, shoving his phone back into his hands. “I know you won’t come back and I’ll have peace in my life again.”
Jungkook taps his chin with his index finger. “I don’t know. It’s been fun picking on you the past two days. The coffee has just been a plus.”
Seokjin pinches the bridge of his nose. “I’m getting back to work now. My blood pressure is spiking just being in your presence.”
“Oof, old people problems.” The cheeky smile on his face is the last straw for Seokjin.
Seokjin has an overwhelming urge to stick his tongue out at him. “I’m leaving now. Enjoy your coffee. Or not. I don’t care!”
“Maybe I will. Or maybe I won’t!” Jungkook says, mimicking his tone.
He tries to clap back, but all that comes out is an incomprehensible sputter. Jungkook giggles again. Seokjin decides to simply walk away rather than try again and embarrass himself. He heads straight for the back of the shop, needing to lock himself away to put that damn laugh out of his head.
“Soooooo what happened?” Jimin, who had clearly watched the entire exchange, asks as Seokjin walks past the counter. “Where are you going?”
Seokjin passes through the doorway into the kitchen, unties his apron, and throws it on the table and heads for the storage room to check the inventory again. “I can’t believe I thought he was cute.”