To the average person walking by, Sinsi Tower doesn’t look any different from your average office building. Tall, almost looming over the street, with each floor awash in bright lights that stay on even until the darkest corners of the night. The only thing that stands out, though, is the utter lack of the lights from the seventh floor. For some inexplicable reason, that particular floor is always dark, and no one has ever managed to catch a glimpse of its interior from outside.
Even stranger is the fact that most people who work in that building only have the vaguest idea of what occurs there. If one were to stop a suit-clad worker hurrying out of there after wasting his life away in the ninth floor, and asked him about any floor, he would spill the name of the company, who its CEO is, and all the drama it’s embroiled in. When it’s the seventh floor, his eyes would lose their light, and he’d give a shrug.
“Dunno, man. I think it’s like a studio?” Is probably what anyone could supply. It’s not even some life-altering piece of information, as anyone who walked inside could see that Sinsi’s directory had floor seven listed as MIN’S STUDIOS, and it was the only thing there. Who worked there, and what did they record? Certainly not any A-list artists, or else they would have been spotted by someone. No one who went up to floor seven was a familiar face to the media, and they never discussed their work in public, or out in the shared lobby.
It was impossible to figure out anything about them either. Their website provided very little information, as it was mostly a black page with minimal information typed out in white, no links or contacts in sight.
But the physical location was even more obscure. In Sinsi, every floor had a similar layout upon stepping out from the elevator — a lobby with carpeted floors, a couple of sofas, with glass walls and a glass door. Sure, the doors were protected by security, and didn’t let just anyone waltz into the rest of the office, but the transparent glass still allowed one to take a peek inside, and see what was up.
Min decided that tinted glass and black walls were the way to go, so anyone who mustered the courage to visit it would find themselves greeted with darkness. If a particularly courageous soul could brave standing in there for an extended period of time, they wouldn’t hear a single whisper, and eventually leave.
What they might realise after leaving is that if it’s a studio, they most likely use it to record audio, so it should be soundproof. And indeed, Min Yoongi invested in the highest quality soundproof materials that money could buy, something that the employees were massively grateful for — especially Kim Seokjin.
Because had Yoongi not spent so much, there was always the chance that some unauthorised personnel would have strained their ears really, really hard, they would have caught the slightest hints of what Seokjin was doing in there, and made some terrible assumptions.
But he has nothing to be worried about, and can blissfully make whatever noise he needs to without any concerns.
“Hmph…” He whines into the mic, head thrown back, eyes rolling up to the heavens. “Ah—ah— ah— ” The last one is drawn out, clinging into the walls of the booth.
He then opens his eyes, so he can peek at the tablet open in front of him, and read out the rest of the text.
“ ‘Nawoo thrusts deeper into Gwanghyeon, tight walls stretching under his erection.’ ,” Seokjin internally winces as he feels bad for Gwanghyeon, who always seems to have something going up his ass. It’s usually Nawoo’s gigantic co*ck , as the author was so fond of describing. Sometimes he did end up with other stuff, though. “ ‘Nawoo tightens his grip around Gwanghyeon’s narrow waist, leans over, and whispers in his ear, “Remember who your owner is, remember that you belong to me, and no one else.” In response, Gwanghyeon lets out a muffled groan of acceptance around the gag in his mouth.’.”
The dialogue continues along this vein of being equal parts nasty and cringeworthy, but Seokjin takes it all in stride. After all, this isn’t his first rodeo with books of this type — it’s not even the first book he’s ever read featuring Nawoo and Gwanghyeon. One could say that he exclusively specialised in recording audiobooks for the steamiest, juiciest stories, when in reality, it was more of a case of him being the only one in their company’s roster that could read such works without bursting into laughter or getting horny.
The prose might be cringeworthy, but his cheques are loaded, so he thrives.
He reads out the rest of the scene with his signature breathy voice, low moans tossed in when necessary. It’s filthy work, but the fact that Seokjin knows he’s the best at it is what keeps him going.
The scene ends as most scenes of this type do: Nawoo comes inside Gwanghyeon, and in turn, Gwanghyeon comes all over whatever it is they’re f*cking on, then Nawoo does aftercare on his little Gwanghyeonie , and everyone is happy. It’s cute and wholesome, but all Seokjin cares about is that he’s finished with it.
He says the last line, and tears his eyes away from the tablet to look at the two people on the other side of the glass.
“That was the last scene of the day, right?” He asks into the mic.
The one standing on the right, Namjoon, gives a thumbs up, and that’s the confirmation he needs. Unhooking the headphones from his head, Seokjin picks up the tablet, and steps out of the recording booth.
As he leaves the confined space of the booth, and makes it to the studio, he’s immediately attacked with the words he’s been dreading, “What’s your progress on the romance parts?”
Seokjin slowly swivels his head in the direction of the one who said it, and gives an apologetic smile. “Hoseok-ah, hey, what’s up, man?”
“Don’t avoid the question.” He narrows his eyes. “Answer me.”
“Well, I’m practising.”
“And how’s that going?”
“Um…”
“I thought so.” Hoseok grumbles, and Seokjin immediately feels guilty.
“Hey,” Namjoon pitches in. “You did great with the scenes you read out! I almost ca—”
Hoseok elbows him to shut him up, a favour for everyone in the room. “As much as I agree with Namjoon, you know that this current manuscript isn’t the same as your usual stuff. Just nailing the sex scenes won’t do you any favours this time.”
The books that Seokjin is usually entrusted with are the most obscene, the raunchiest ones out there. Pages after pages of smut, with the plot added in as an afterthought. That’s exactly what Raising Hell was popular for, which was the first book of the series that launched Nawoo and Gwanghyeon to the spotlight. That book, and the following sequel were both narrated by Seokjin, hence it made sense for him to also take on the task of being the voice of book #3.
What he hadn’t anticipated was the fact that this third book — Raising the Stakes — actually had some plot to speak of. Somehow, his constant exposure to reading out what could only be described as hardcore p*rn, he finds himself completely unable to do any scene that has the slightest bit of plot progression or romance.
It was embarrassing when he stepped into the booth the day before to finally record a scene that involved a serious conversation, integral to the plot of the book, and could only make whimpering noises for the most part.
“Look, Hoseok,” Seokjin places a hand on his arm, and looks deeply in his eyes to plead his case. “I know I absolutely f*cked up that reading, and I’m sorry for it. But I promise, I’m working on a way to fix things!”
“Really? And what is it that you’re up to?”
“I’m going to go on a date!”
The silence that follows is deeper than anything Seokjin has ever experienced before, it’s probably the quietest this studio has ever been.
“A date?” Hoseok narrows his eyes.
“Uh-huh. My roommate set up a profile on one of those dating apps, and I matched with this really cute guy — we’ve been chatting for a few days, I’m finally going out with him tonight. Hopefully it goes well, and I can get in the mood for some romance!”
“You’re going on a date with someone you met on an app?” Seokjin braces himself for more scepticism, but is met with a shrug instead. “I mean, if it helps, why not? I’m more interested in results than the approach. If you think this’ll work, then go ahead.”
“Thanks, you’re the best!” He engulfs Hoseok in a quick hug, and steps back.
Namjoon clears his throat, and starts, “Sorry to ruin this precious moment, but do stay safe, Seokjin. You never know what the people you meet online can turn out to be like in real life. Lots of liars and scammers lurking around there.”
“Is this about the guy who sold you that cardboard copy of some rare Pokémon card?”
“He swore it was real! Showed me the certification and everything! Everyone on the internet is a liar.”
“Well, I don’t think Park Jimin is a liar.” Seokjin has seen all the pictures he posted on his dating profile, and even checked out his social media which he offered up very gratefully on their first conversation. The name on the account matched the one he was talking to, and all the pictures featured the same blonde-haired boy with plump lips and a sweet smile. Either he was legit, or the most dedicated scammer.
If anything, Seokjin hasn’t done much to prove his identity. If Jimin cancels at the last minute, or doesn’t show up, he’s not going to be very surprised.
For now, he assumes it’s still on, so he says his goodbyes. “I’ll be off for now, I don’t want to keep my hot date waiting for too long. See you guys on Monday — I’ll keep you updated.”
Hoseok gives a friendly wave, and says, “Take care, I hope it goes well!” Meanwhile Namjoon mutters, “If your date exists at all.”
Seokjin pretends not to hear that comment, and leaves. He walks out of the studio and crosses the dark void of the lobby to get on to the lift. It takes him to the ground floor, and he walks out of the building. Hunkering down on the front steps, he takes out his phone from his jacket pocket to start texting.
Me
free yet?
i gotta go home asap
i have a date to get to
remember
Today, 7:12pm
Roommate Jeon Jungkook
yeah yeah i rmbr ur date
but nah
a man can only dream of such freedom
this stupid meeting tho,,,,,
it wont end hyung im so tired
do they not know i have other sh*t 2 do after this
Today, 7:13pm
Me
you’re the f*cking boss
why can’t you just call it off?
Today, 7:13pm
Roommate Jeon Jungkook
oh sh*t ur right
ill just do that lol
where u @
Today, 7:14pm
Me
outside
on the giant stairs
Today, 7:14pm
Roommate Jeon Jungkook
cool beans
stay there
wrapping this sh*t up
give me 5
Today, 7:15pm
Seokjin reacts with a thumbs up, and switches to the dating app so he can see his conversation with Jimin.
Park Jimin
Wednesday, 5:49pm
Seokjin-ssi, I’m really enjoying talking to you. I think we should take this to the next stage. How does a date sound? I’m sorry if this is too forward but I just really want to see you!
Wednesday, 9:01pm
not too forward at all
sure we can do that
got any places in mind?
There’s this Italian restaurant I’ve been to before. It’s so good, their pasta is amazing. We can get dinner there if you’re down for it.
i’m okay with anything
let’s do it
Okay! Are you free this Friday?
yep
Then it’s a date. How does 9 sound?
fine with me
Here’s the address: [link]. See you.
see you too
can’t wait
And that’s the last time they spoke. Seokjin debates if he should send a text confirming if their date is still on, just to be sure. Jungkook had advised against it, saying that it would either make him look responsible or desperate. It was up to Seokjin to take that risk, and at the time he passed on it.
But now that there's less than two hours left, the paranoia is starting to settle in. There’s always the possibility that something’s come up, and Jimin isn’t sure how to tell him. When they began texting, Jimin went MIA for a couple of days, and left Seokjin with the impression that he was no longer interested. Two days later, Jimin profusely apologised, saying that he had a horrible bout of food poisoning that had just recovered from. Whether he’s forgetful, or reluctant to share anymore personal information, Seokjin doesn’t quite know. But maybe a confirmation text is the best play here.
He types out a simple, ‘we’re still on for tonight, right?’ and hits send. His plan was to wait for an answer, but the doors behind him swing open, and a small crowd of employees spill out. Seokjin counts about ten of them either walking off to a nearby bus stop, or lingering at the doors.
The last one to walk out is dressed the most casually out of them all, in an oversized t-shirt and baggy cargo pants. To the uninformed, he would be easily mistaken as an intern, but Seokjin is far from uninformed when it comes to him.
When he catches sight of Seokjin, his face lights up with a sly grin. “Aye, look at you waiting for me like a good boy.”
“f*ck off, Jungkook.” Seokjin snaps, without thinking too much about his comment. It’s only after he says it that he realises he cursed at Jungkook in front of his employees, but he doesn’t seem to mind.
“Uh-huh, whatever. Car’s here, get up.”
Sure enough, a sleek, black Mercedes pulls up in front of them. Jungkook makes a big show of opening the back door for Seokjin before climbing in next to him.
Once they’re seated, Jungkook shakes his head disapprovingly, and says, “We need to do something about that filthy mouth of yours, you’ve been cursing too much! That’s no way to act like a gentleman, especially when you’re about to go on a date with someone new. What kind of a first impression would that make? You know what I think you should do, hyung?”
“What?”
“You should wash your mouth with soap before you see him.”
“Are you incapable of shutting the f*ck up?” Seokjin mutters under his breath.
“I’m trying to give you some advice, is this how I get treated? I am hurt.” Jungkook punctuates the last line with a hand on his chest.
“What makes you qualified to give me advice?”
“I have been on more dates than you.”
“One night stands don’t count as dates, Jungkook.”
“That’s one way of looking at it.”
Seokjin huffs at him, and is about to retort, but his phone buzzes. Frenzied, he gropes at his jacket to take out his phone. A notification pops up from the dating app, which he opens up without a second thought.
Park Jimin
Today, 8:15pm
We are! Unless something came up for you?
Aw, was he worried that Seokjin was going to postpone or cancel on him? It’s kind of sweet but he also feels bad, so he quickly texts him to let him know that it was just to double check. He waits until the read notification shows up, before pocketing his phone. When he looks up, Jungkook is staring at him, mischief playing in his eyes.
“Who’s that, hyung?”
“None of your damn business.”
“Is that what Jimin goes by now?”
Seokjin has to bite back a retort, lest Jungkook brings up washing his mouth with soap again.
Instead, he opts to ask, “Why are you asking questions that you know the answers to already?”
“I like seeing how you reply. You’re being snippy today… will that last for the date as well?”
“No, because unlike you, Jimin isn’t a pain in my ass. You could learn from him.”
“Hyung, be serious. You’ve known me since kindergarten, meanwhile you only heard about Jimin for the first time last week! You don’t know anything about him.”
There it is, the biggest problem. Seokjin knows jacksh*t about Jimin outside of what they’ve texted. Not only was it for a few days, but he also has to keep in mind that it’s very easy to lie like this. Who knows what Jimin is like beyond the app? Seokjin himself hasn’t been very open on his profile or in their conversations so far.
He’s been counting on this date to be the antidote to his problems, but what if it doesn’t work. Worse — what if it does more harm than good? Seokjin has seen every single one of his relationships fall apart in the same way, how does he know that it won’t end like that with Jimin?
“Earth to Seokjin hyung.” Jungkook waves a hand in front of his face, which is enough to snap him out of his thoughts. “You okay there?”
“Yeah, I’m… fine.”
“No you’re not.” Jungkook squints at his expression, forehead creasing. “I know that look, you’re double guessing this, aren’t you? You’re one step away from calling this off with Jimin.”
Oh, he hates it when Jungkook figures him out so accurately. “Did you sell your soul for mind reading powers? Be honest.”
“Nah, I just spend too much time with you.”
Seokjin sighs, looking down at his palms. “I’m just worried we’re not going to be a good match.”
“This is sh*t you worry about after a date, not before. Are you freaking out over what I said? Oh my god, hyung, I’m always saying dumb sh*t! Don’t listen to me, just meet with him, and see how that works out.”
How does he tell Jungkook that it’s not entirely because of that, but he has other concerns as well? Things Seokjin doesn’t want to bring up, and silently hopes that he’ll just notice?
Well, it doesn’t look like Jungkook’s realised it, so Seokjin just says, “I won’t call the date off. I’ll give it a shot.”
➽──────────────❥
Jimin has three rules he follows every time he goes on his first date with someone:
- Always pick a venue far from his house and in a public space
- Make sure that it’s somewhere he’s been to before at least once, but doesn’t frequent
- Never let his date drop him off to his house
The restaurant he picked is one he’s been to several times. He and his roommate, Taehyung, have so far celebrated both of their birthdays twice each, and took a mutual friend out for a treat once. In line with rule #2, he’s familiar enough with it that the staff recognises him, and can help if anything goes south. But they’re not so close with him that they know his personal business, so if the date sours and Jimin turns him down, his date won’t have the opportunity to accost the staff for information.
It makes him sound paranoid, he knows, but it’s necessary. None of his dates so far have gone bad enough for him to be so worried, but there’s always a first time for everything.
Besides, he didn’t even invoke some of his additional rules, especially additional rule #5.
“Taehyung-ah,” Jimin whines into his phone. The taxi driver is probably annoyed at him at this point, but he doesn’t care, because this is important. “Can you seriously not drop by? Not even for a second?”
“How many times should I remind you?” Taehyung takes a deep breath, and starts, “No, I cannot. The client I’m meeting with is very high-end, and I need to make sure I score this job. This guy is absolutely loaded — we’ll be swimming in cash if he hires me. Our lives will be changed forever!”
“But do you really need to block out an entire night for this?”
“Yeah, apparently he takes his time to vet his employees, especially one that’s going to be working so closely with him.”
“But you’re the best damn stylist in town! Maybe in the whole country!”
“You’re so sweet, Jimin-ah, I wish everyone loved me the way you do.”
“If you finish early, can you come over then, please?” Jimin hates nagging like this to Taehyung, but he can’t help it.
“I’ll see what I can do. Oh — I’ll talk later, gotta go now, bye!”
Jimin waits for Taehyung to click off. Soon enough, the disconnect tone buzzes in his ear. The very thought of being alone at a place without a close friend within earshot is terrifying. He wonders if he should bump this up from additional rule #5 to main rule #4.
No time to amend that now, so he does the only thing he knows that soothes his nerves. Reaching into his bag, he pulls out a pair of wired earphones that he still insists on using because he doesn’t trust wireless earbuds, and connects them to his phone. As he places the earphones in one at a time, he opens up the books app.
He’s greeted by a large selection of audiobooks, which are mostly of the romance genre, but that’s not what he’s interested in now. The surface of his collection are silly, cheesy novels that anyone would find coincides perfectly with his sweet image. But if anyone got their hands on his phone, and scrolled down, they’d discover the type of stories Jimin actually enjoyed.
Erotica.
The filthier, the better.
Jimin hid the nastiest ones, which also happened to be his favourites, at the absolute bottom. He’s actually listened to some of these more than a couple of times, like the one he’s tapped on right now. Not only is the prose of Blackened Roses vulgar in the best way possible, but it’s also narrated by the man with the most stunning voice.
“ ‘Chapter 1: Fate Calls’ .” The voice announces. He wonders if it’s perverted to be listening to something so risqué when there’s another person right in front of him, but it’s just the start of the novel as well. There’s some minor filth, but the actual graphic sex scenes don’t start until the second chapter.
Closing his eyes, Jimin sinks into the seat, and lets the narrator do his job.
His voice is like honey, pouring down Jimin’s body in rivulets. Warm, sticky, clinging to his skin, sinful in its sensation. sh*t, it feels so damn so good. He can feel the moan at the back of his throat, fighting to slip out, but he bites his lip to keep it at bay. Despite the many fantasies he has of things he could be doing in the back of the taxi, getting hot and bothered from listening to smut isn’t one of them.
It’s so easy to lose himself in the narrator’s voice, so much so that he doesn’t notice the taxi stopping. No, he has to wait for the first chapter to finish, and think, damn, it’s been a while, we’re still not there yet? Then open his eyes to the driver staring intently at him.
“Suh—sorry.” He stutters out the apology, pays his fare, and rushes out without a single glance back. Oh, that’s so embarrassing — hopefully he doesn’t do anything stupid like this on the date.
Stumbling into the restaurant, he stops at the front desk and the host perks up.
“Jimin-ssi, you’ve finally arrived.”
Well that doesn’t sound good. “It seems that I have. Did my guest arrive already?”
“Kim Seokjin? Yes, he did, and he’s been waiting for a while.”
“Oh.” He’s already made a fool out of himself in front of his date before even meeting him. Great job. “I see, thank you for telling me.”
Well, here goes nothing. Jimin nods his head at the host to say thanks, and steps into the main area of the restaurant.
Il Paradiso Della Pasta is booked out every Friday, so Jimin had to call a week in advance to make sure he could get the same table that Taehyung and him always grab. It’s a quaint two-seater at the furthest corner of the main area, tucked away from most of the chaos. Sure enough, every seat is taken up by large, rowdy gatherings of friends and family, which hurts his brain to just walk past. But the deeper he goes, the closer he gets to his seat, until he reaches it.
As expected, there’s another person sitting there already, with their back turned to Jimin. He takes a second to collect himself, and take a deep breath. Kim Seokjin is hardly the first man he’s going on a date with after meeting online, so he knows how this will go. Everyone picks their best pictures for their profiles, tweaks them a bit to look like the ideal boyfriend. Catfishing is very prevalent, and everyone does it to some extent.
So Jimin prepares himself for disappointment, reminding himself that the man sitting in front of him won’t match the pictures he’s been seeing for the past couple of days. Seokjin has only five pictures on his profile, and he hasn’t shared any more with Jimin over the course of their conversations. Is it a red flag? A little, but it’s not the worst thing in the world.
Jimin keeps his expectations low, telling himself that if Seokjin looks half as good in real life as he did in his pictures, it’s still a win.
He walks ahead, turns to make contact with the man, and— oh, dear.
Jimin was right on one count, he doesn’t look like the photos from the profile.
No, Kim Seokjin is even more gorgeous in real life.
Dark fringe pushed back to show off his forehead, aegyosal highlighted under his pretty eyes, plump lips stuck out in a half-pout — he’s just drop dead beautiful. He even had the audacity to wear a deep v-cut shirt with a long black scarf wrapped around his slender neck, the dangling part draped over his exposed collarbones.
“Jimin?”
And his voice. It’s so smooth, Jimin has to grab the back of the free chair to stop himself from collapsing.
“H—hello.” He stutters out. “Did I make you wait too long?”
“Eh, don’t worry about it.”
“Sure…” Jimin pulls out the chair, and takes a seat. He flicks his wrist towards himself to take a look at his watch. 10pm. sh*t, he’s like a full hour late than promised. Has Seokjin been waiting for that long? Hopefully not.
“Well, I’d love to exchange some more pleasantries, but my stomach is absolutely growling.” Seokjin gives a lopsided smile. “Would you mind if I ordered first?”
“Sure, not at all.” Jimin looks down to see a menu on the placemat in front of him, which he flips open to start reading. It’s more for show than for purpose, because he’s gone through the menu enough times to have it memorised.
“Y’know, it’s my first time here,” Seokjin says, flicking through the pages. “I adore Italian cuisine, but it’s not something I get a lot while I’m in Korea, so I’m hoping you chose this place because you can vouch for it. Have you eaten here before?”
“Yeah…” Jimin has only half listened to what Seokjin actually said, the other half of his mind distracted by something else. Namely, his voice. Something about the way he speaks… it itches a familiar scratch at the back of Jimin’s mind. It’s like hearing the voice of an old friend, or listening to a song you grew up with. Did they know each other in the past, or does Seokjin just happen to sound like someone he knew?
“Jimin? Is everything fine?”
His head snaps up to see Seokjin looking down at him with concern in his eyes.
“Oh, uh, I’m fine.” The nervous laughter he lets out doesn’t help his case.
“Good to hear. So, can you help me pick something out? You told me the pasta was amazing, and I’d love to know your personal recommendation.”
“I remember I had the…” The combination of Seokjin’s beauty and voice has thrown his brain into haywire, so he panics and looks down at the menu, scanning it to remember what he’s had before. “The cacio e pepe! It’s with, uh, pepper I think?”
“Cacio e pepe…” Seokjin lowers his eyelashes, and bites his lower lip. “Ah, I see it. They make it with bucatini? I’ve only had it with spaghetti before, but I bet it’ll taste good with bucatini too.”
“I bet.” Jimin answers, still distracted.
They give their order to a passing waiter. Seokjin gets his cacio e pepe, but since Jimin didn’t decide on anything beforehand, he blurts out “lasagna” because that was the only one he could think of at the moment. After their menus are whisked away, Seokjin places his elbows on the table, and props his chin on his hands.
“So, Jimin,” he starts, voice silky smooth. “I’ve really been looking forward to meeting you.”
“Right back at you.” Is what he says out loud, but internally he’s still wondering, where have I heard you before?
“Well, I’m glad to hear that. For a moment, I was worried I was going to get stood up, and I dressed up like this for nothing.”
“Ah, sorry, it took me way longer to get ready than I anticipated. My time management isn’t the best.” That’s actually code for ‘my ten minute nap turned into a full sleeping session and I woke up half an hour after we were supposed to meet up so I threw together the first thing I found in my closet and ran over’. Seokjin doesn’t need to know all that, though. His cream crop top and baggy jeans ensemble looks just good enough that it doesn’t look like a last minute outfit either, which sells the illusion more.
“No hard feelings, I don’t blame you at all if you felt like the vibes were off. The internet is a scary place to meet people.”
“Yeah, definitely.”
“Anyway, just because we’re actually seeing each other face-to-face doesn’t mean we need to continue this. If you don’t want to see me anymore after this, then that’s okay.” Seokjin tilts his head to the side, squishing his cheek on his hands. “Just tell me, and I’ll back off.”
“I really hope it doesn’t get to that point.” At least, not until I figure out why you sound so familiar to me.
Seokjin beams sweetly, and as Jimin looks at him closely, even his face starts to look familiar. Is he a celebrity of some type? Has Jimin seen him on TV before?
He doesn’t recall what job Seokjin had listed on his profile, so he asks about it.
“Ah, my job? I’m surprised you don’t remember, I thought that was one of my biggest selling points.”
Jimin looks down sheepishly. “Er, no, I don’t. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologise. If anything, I’m relieved you didn’t agree to this just because of what I do!” Seokjin leans in, as if he’s about to share a secret. “I’m a model.”
“Really?” Jimin raises his eyebrows, and gives him a quick once over. “Well, you certainly chose the right career path.”
“Oh, I’m so flattered!” Seokjin leans back, and puts his hands on his chest, punctuating the movement with a loud gasp.
But if he’s a model, then where would Jimin have heard him before? That doesn’t make sense, still. “What kind of a model are you?”
The question feels idiotic, but it makes Seokjin perk up.
“I never answer this question when I’m chatting online, but since you’re asking me directly, I’ll just tell you: I’m a underwear model.”
“What?” Jimin chokes on air. “No way.”
“You believe I can be a model, but not an underwear model? Why’s that?”
“Wait, I didn’t mean it like that!” Jimin scrambles to cover up his mistake, but Seokjin just laughs sweetly.
“I’m not angry, there’s no need to explain yourself to me.” Seokjin assures him. “But if you want, I can show you my portfolio as proof.”
“No need, I’m good.” Jimin might actually pop a vein if he sees Seokjin in skimpy clothing. “Let’s put a pin on it for now and revisit it for a future date.”
“’Future date’, huh? I like how you think.”
He takes that as a compliment, but it’s still not the answer he’s looking for. “Um, so do you just take pictures, or have you filmed commercials as well?” Perhaps Jimin has heard him on TV before.
“For underwear? No, never. I did film some commercials back in the day, but the last one was over a decade ago. But why do you ask?”
The last part catches Jimin off-guard. “Huh?”
“Well, it seems like you want to know something specific.” Seokjin narrows his eyes. “I’d appreciate it if you asked me about it directly instead of beating around the bush.”
“No, no, please. That’s insane, why would I be doing that?” Jimin snorts, which makes Seokjin narrow his eyes even further.
However, to Jimin's relief, he doesn’t pursue it. “If you say so. And I think we’ve talked enough about my job, I’m tired of this sh*t. What about you? You’re an accountant, right?”
“Oh, you remembered that?” Now he feels worse about forgetting Seokjin’s job.
“Well… yeah, I did.”
“Thanks, that’s… nice.”
“So, how is it? I’ve never worked a 9 to 5, I don’t know what it’s like. Do you enjoy having a fixed time schedule to follow? Or do you sometimes wish you got random days off at a stretch?”
Seokjin sounds sincere, and that’s what stings. There’s no malice behind his words, he seems like an actual sweet guy. And Jimin’s going to lose him because he couldn’t be bothered to keep in mind what his date’s profession was — one of the rare things he actually knew about Seokjin — then proceeded to ask him stupid, and invasive questions about it.
There’s no way this is going to work out. Jimin knows how it’s going to play out: Seokjin will tell him at the end of the night that he doesn’t think things will work out anymore, and they should stop seeing each other. There’s no reason why he should continue to consider Jimin as a prospective boyfriend after so many mishaps. Besides, with the combination of that face, job, and voice? There’s definitely a line of suitors waiting for him. He’s nothing for Seokjin.
“It’s… fine,” Jimin mumbles, not sure what the point is in talking anymore. “I never thought about it, but I do like the certainty of knowing exactly when I need to be there. But it’s a little too certain, you know? It’s kinda monotonous. Sometimes I wish I had something new to look forward to.”
“Aw, I see.” Seokjin pouts. “I think I’d trade my excitement for a chance to sleep in a couple of extra hours. Being up at 6am sucks on winter mornings.”
He should chase this. Ask something related to it, but his will to continue this has fully left him. He’s about to excuse himself to the bathroom so he can have a good cry, but that’s the moment the waiter brings over two plates of pasta.
Seokjin’s face immediately lights up when his cacio e pepe is placed in front of him, while Jimin stares down blankly at his piping-hot lasagna with the cheese bubbling. He tells himself he’s just waiting for it to cool down, not that he’s lost his appetite.
But Seokjin has no such concerns, and he digs into the steaming pile of food, gleefully twirling the pasta on his fork. He brings it up to his lips, blows on it cautiously a couple of times, before taking a bite of it. Immediately, his eyes close, and he lets out a low moan of appreciation.
And Jimin remembers.
He remembers where he heard Seokjin before.
That moan… he would recognise that anywhere, because he’s heard it a million times, and even gotten off to it on more than one occasion.
He’s the voice from Jimin’s erotic audiobooks.
There’s no doubt about it.
It sounds insane, and maybe even kind of unbelievable, but he is so, so, so sure of it.
In fact, he’s going to prove it to himself right now.
“Sorry,” Jimin gets to his feet while clutching his bag, and offers a lopsided smile. “Please excuse me for a second.”
Without waiting for a confirmation from Seokjin, he races towards the bathroom.
Once he safely locks himself into an empty stall, Jimin perches on a closed toilet seat and digs into his bag to grab his earphones. Just like he did in the taxi, he connects it to his phone, and plays the last thing he was listening to. He recalls finishing at the end of the first chapter of Blackened Roses , and the narration continues from there.
“ Chapter 2: Weeping Willows, ” announces the voice. “ As night falls over Gardenia Avenue, a certain house still has its lights on… ”
Jimin closes his eyes once again, but this time his attention is only on the speaker, the words nothing more than background noise. The sensual tone during the nastier parts and the way he glides over the words while lingering over some syllables isn’t identical to the way Seokjin has been speaking to him. But the general cadance and the way he narrates the non-sexual parts is a perfect carbon copy of his date.
He skips to a later part of the chapter to a sex scene, and waits five seconds to hear Seokjin moaning in his ear. An exact replica of the noise he heard not too long ago.
Sure, Seokjin insisted he’s a model and that may very well be the case, but Jimin doesn’t believe he’s just a model. Maybe this audiobook thing is like a side hobby or whatever. It’s still sexy, and his skin starts to overheat at the thought of it. Sex with Seokjin would go crazy, just imagining all the dirty talk in the bedroom makes his toes curl.
But he’s getting ahead of himself. The fact still stands that since Seokjin hasn’t said anything about it, Jimin won’t bring it up either. It feels right to let Seokjin be the one to tell him first, or else he’s going to look like a stalker. He’s already on thin ice, no need to mess things up more.
Jimin does need to tell someone about this revelation, and who better than his best friend slash roommate?
He unplugs the earphones, and dials Taehyung’s number.
Five rings later he gets a curt reply. “What?”
It takes Jimin aback, but then he recalls the meeting. “Hey — wait, are you still giving your interview?”
“No.”
“Great, so you’re free now!”
“Not really.”
“So, you will never believe what I just discovered about my date— wait, did you say you’re not free?”
“Yeah, I did say that. But if it’s short, you can still tell me what it is.”
“Oh, uh, I found out he’s the narrator for all the novels I like to read.”
“ Your auditory p*rn stash.”
“Taehyung!” Jimin hisses, and he can hear his friend chuckling on the other end.
“You know I had to. But why are you telling me this? Shouldn’t you be talking to your date now?”
“I can’t discuss this with him because he didn’t tell me, I figured it out by myself.”
“…how?”
Jimin explains the entire thing, and is met with silence. For a moment, he thinks Taehyung got disconnected, before hearing, “I like to say it as a joke because of all the smut you listen to, but this is serious: you’re actually a pervert you know that?”
“Hey, man, don’t do this to me.” Jimin whines.
“I’m not doing anything, you are. How do you even…” Taehyung trails off as another voice starts speaking on the other end, and Jimin can hear Taehyung whispering that he’s just on the phone with his best friend, it’s no big deal.
“Who are you talking to, Taehyung-ah?”
“The guy whose dick I was about to suck before you called. He’s getting impatient now, I have to hang up. Bye!”
What the hell just happened? Jimin lowers his phone, and blinks down at Taehyung’s contact page.
Since when does Taehyung go around sucking other people’s dicks? He’s never been the type to sleep around with random strangers.
Today has been just one surprise after the other.
Wallowing over this in the bathroom isn’t any solution either. And Seokjin might be feeling lonely eating all alone, maybe even wondering if Jimin bailed on him.
So he packs his things up one at a time, and heads back to his table.
As soon as he arrives at his seat, he’s also in Seokjin’s line of sight.
“Hey, Jimin,” Seokjin pouts at him, eyes brimming with concern. “Is everything fine?”
“Pfft, why wouldn’t it be?” Jimin sits down, and pokes the top layer of cheese on his lasagna, which is starting to cool down.
“You looked kind of down before our food showed up, and when it did you just ran off? And you were away for a while, I was worried something happened.”
“There’s nothing for you to be concerned about, I’m perfectly fine.” Except for the part where he’s still internally freaking out, and maybe even a little horny. There’s a boner just begging to happen right now — god he needs to keep himself in check.
“If you say so.” Seokjin says, and goes back to his pasta, which he’s cleared half of already.
Jimin figures he should start on his food as well. As he sinks his fork into his lasagna, one thing is certain: he cannot let Seokjin get away, not when he’s everything Jimin needs in his life.
Yes, there was that brief moment of pessimism where he was sure he couldn’t make it work with Seokjin. He failed to consider in the moment that their date isn’t over yet, so there’s still time to salvage it.
After about three or four bites, Jimin figures it’s time to bring this date on track once more. He doesn’t want to talk about his job any longer, nor did Seokjin seem interested in his own. Jimin is still curious about how his narration work ties into all this, so he tries for a different approach. “So, you said your schedule is really strict. But you surely must get some free time… what do you do then?”
“Nothing,” he answers simply.
“Nothing?” Jimin echoes, confused by the answer. Is he being cryptic on purpose?
“Yeah, I just wake up, and f*ck around for the whole day. Eat, sleep, play video games — it’s usually MapleStory — and mostly I vibe.” Seokjin shakes his head. “I know that makes me sound like a lazy bum, but I don’t care because I’m having fun.”
Well, that’s not helpful at all. Looks like he’s just wasting his time with all this.
“What about you, Jimin?”
“Oh, I like to read books.”
“A bookworm, I see. What types of books?”
Here it is, this is his opportunity.
Jimin prepares himself to spill his secrets then it strikes. The brief jolt of doubt.
What if it’s not Seokjin, what if it’s just a guy who sounds like him? There’s no guarantee it really is him.
He wants to argue against his mind, remind the stupid voice that he’s sure of what he heard. Jimin didn’t spend all these hours listening to the audiobooks just to be unsure.
Yet. Yet when he tries to tell Seokjin about the erotica he reads, the words die in his throat. Even if Seokjin narrates that stuff, what if he judges Jimin for admitting it on their first date? Seokjin himself hasn’t admitted what he does, what if he doesn’t think they’re close enough for it?
“Uh, Jimin?”
“Y—yeah?”
“You’ve been staring at me for a full minute.” Seokjin blinks slowly. “Are you okay?”
“Oh, hah, of course! Just got caught up in my thoughts.” Jimin sits up straight. “You asked me about what I do in my free time, right? Well, I like romance novels! Cute, cheesy, full of clichés.”
“So you’re a romantic at heart.” He hums, and lets his eyes trail over Jimin. “That just so happens to be my type.”
“Is that so?” Jimin isn’t sure if he should be happy or disappointed. Certainly someone who reads smut must also be into it to some extent? Or maybe Seokjin has a nasty side he’s concealing until the time is right. Sure, he’s going to go with that.
“Yep, I think we’ll get along just well.”
“Same… so, are you not like a reading guy at all?”
“Nah, not really, the only story I actually know is the MapleStory lore, that’s it.” Seokjin chases the last of his bucatini around the plate, before slurping it up. “Then again, it’s so long that I wouldn’t have space to remember anything else.”
Just as he says that, the gears begin to turn in Jimin’s head. He might not have gotten Seokjin to admit to his narration work, but maybe he can get the next best thing out of it. “Can you tell me about it? I played the game as a kid, and my roommate likes it a lot, but I don’t remember anything anymore. I’d love to get a refresher.”
“Are you sure? It’s very long.”
“Go ahead, I don’t mind.”
Seokjin’s eyes light up with childlike wonder as he begins, “So, it starts with the Primordial God, who made 365 creations…”
As warned from beforehand, the lore is long. Jimin tries to hear the story as much as he can, but he’s mostly listening to his voice. There’s none of his sensuality still, but he doesn’t mind because Seokjin still has a beautiful voice regardless. Jimin can listen to the audiobooks whenever he wants, but they’ll always be slightly distorted the way recordings usually are. Neither can they show how animated Seokjin is when he speaks, with his silly hand gestures and funny faces.
During the conversation, Jimin slowly gets through his lasagna, which has gone mostly cold. Seokjin’s voice distracts him from the unappealing texture, as it always has. Oh, how Jimin wishes he could tell Seokjin precisely how much he means to him… but not yet.
Jimin manages to finish his lasagna eventually. As he puts his fork down, he notices the restaurant emptying out, with only about a quarter of the seats taken.
“…and that’s all about the ancient war!” Seokjin concludes with a triumphant smile. His eyes meet Jimin’s gaze, so he looks back. “Oh dear, is it closing time?”
“I think so.”
“Well, it’s time to get out. I’ll call the waiter for the bill.”
The bill is placed in front of them in a leather cheque folder. Jimin unzips his bag to get his wallet out, but Seokjin is a few steps ahead of him. He slips something that looks suspiciously like a stack of 10,000 notes into the folder, and holds it up for the waiter lingering by the tableside. As the waiter scurries off, Jimin hisses, “What are you doing?”
“Paying for our meal.”
“Well, how much was the total?”
“Why do you wanna know?”
“Because I want to pay for my half!”
“No need. I talked your ear off long enough, this is the least I can do to repay.”
Jimin is taken aback by this — no way Seokjin thinks that Jimin was the one doing him a favour, not the other way around.
The waiter returns with a mountain of notes, which looks like more money than Jimin brought with him in the first place. Seokjin pockets all of it, and says, “Let’s go.”
Absolutely starstruck by what he’s witnessed, Jimin follows him out to the pavement right outside.
“Do you have a ride?” Seokjin asks.
“I can just call a taxi, it’s okay.”
“That’s going to take some time to arrive… mind if I wait until it arrives or…?”
“I’m okay.” Jimin has bothered Seokjin enough for today. Besides, this feels like a bit of a violation of main rule #3, which is letting his date drop him off.
“Alright then, take care, and get home safe.” Seokjin nods his head at him. “I take it that we’ll see each other soon.”
“We will, yeah.”
Jimin busies himself with requesting for a cab to pick him up. As soon as he gets linked up with a driver, a black car drives up in front of them. Even if doesn’t know anything about cars, Jimin can tell this is definitely a luxury brand.
Surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly, Seokjin walks up to it, and opens the back door. He drops a wink at Jimin, saying, “Text me when you get home!” Then he gets inside, and the car pulls forward.
All this happens before Jimin can react, which leaves him standing on the pavement looking like an idiot. Between the way he paid the bill and the expensive car, he can only wonder how rich Seokjin must be.
Modelling and audiobook narration must be a lot more lucrative than he thought, huh?
As he waits for his cab, there’s one thing Jimin knows for certain: he’s seeing Seokjin again. And next time he’s going to make sure their date goes even better.
➽──────────────❥
Seokjin has been out of the dating scene for way too long. So long that a simple dinner knocked him out the second he got home. No time to change clothes, nothing. He stepped in, walked over to his bed, and collapsed.
This leads him to waking up with his nice clothes all wrinkled. What a shame.
He has bigger problems now, like his growling stomach, so he drags himself out of his room to the kitchen, wrinkled clothing and all.
Upon arriving at his destination, he sees Jungkook is already up and at the counter, slicing up some carrots. He catches sight of Seokjin, and grins at him.
“Hey, hyung, you’re finally up.”
“I guess.” Seokjin takes a seat at the counter, and peers at Jungkook’s clothing. Or lack thereof. “Why the f*ck are you just wearing a towel?”
“Because I just showered.”
“You couldn't be bothered to get changed?”
Jungkook doesn’t say anything, just eyes Seokjin’s rumpled clothes.
“Okay, touché.” He mumbles, defeated.
As Seokjin reaches out to take one of the carrots slices to munch on, Jungkook asks, “So, how was last night, hyung? It was at an Italian restaurant, right? What did you get?”
“Cacio e pepe. With bucatini. But I think I like it better with the spaghetti more.”
“Oh, you miss Rome now?”
“I think they make it with bucatini in Rome too.”
“Seriously? Ugh, I’m just realising we haven’t been to Italy in years! Remember the time we went backpacking there after graduation?”
“I don’t think ‘backpacking’ involves staying at a hotel that costs 3 million won to stay in. Per night.”
“Technicalities, who cares? I just wanna go there again.”
“Absolutely not, Jungkook. My narration is going sh*t, and my agency is skinning me alive with all these modelling gigs. Let’s put a pin on it, and plan a trip later, when I’m done with all this.”
“Sure, hyung.” The carrots on the cutting board have been replaced by some cabbage leaves, which he also starts to slice. “But I’m getting sidetracked. Your date. How was it?”
“It was okay.” Seokjin admits, thinking about everything that happened. “A little weird, but it was fine. I’ve had worse dates.”
“What do you mean by ‘weird’?”
“Jimin seemed sweet enough at first. A bit awkward, but that was probably because he was a full hour late, and was feeling bad about it. Understandable. But then all of a sudden, he just — changed!” Seokjin snaps his finger. “Like that! And he started acting kind of spooked. I have no idea what happened, he looked so scared and paranoid. I thought he saw like an old ex or something. So strange.” That’s not what he really thinks. But he’s afraid to verbalise his actual thoughts, lest they turn out to be true.
“But did you have fun?”
“Yes! He let me rant about the MapleStory lore! No one has ever willingly agreed to that. Uh, sorry, Jungkook.”
“No worries.” But his eyes are haunted, as if he’s remembering the late night rants Seokjin would subject him to. “Whatever. What I really wanna know is if you think there’s a chance you’ll go on a second date or not.”
“Honestly speaking? No, not really. I think he just let me indulge myself with the lore because he knew it was going to be the last time, and was trying to be nice.” The image of Jimin with the petrified look on his face is seared into Seokjin’s mind. There’s no way he could have caused it, right? He recalls it happened after their food arrived… what did he do except for enjoying his meal? Surely that couldn’t have been a reason.
“Aw, and here I was hoping you’d take Jimin with us to Italy, maybe you could have a little weekend rendezvous with him! But that’s okay, hyung, there’s plenty of others out there. You’ll find someone else to love.” Jungkook sets down his knife, and starts to crack eggs into a bowl. “Also, it’s not like you were doing it to find a boyfriend, so who cares? As long as you figured out how to read the non-sex bits.”
“Can you at least try not to sound like a degenerate?” Seokjin groans as he reaches into his back pocket, and miraculously finds his phone here. Saved himself a lot of trouble there.
He opens up the copy of Raising the Stakes he saved beforehand, and scrolls through it to find page 39, the dreaded picnic scene.
Clearing his throat, he begins. “ ‘Gwanghyeon sets down the basket he packed. As he pulls out each item one by one, Nawoo observes him with hawk eyes. “You brought strawberry jam? Seriously?”’
“‘Confused, Gwanghyeon looks down, wondering what the issue is. “Huh? I thought you liked”’ —”
“Cut!” Jungkook interrupts the narration. He added his veggies with the eggs he cracked earlier, and is gently kneading them together using his hands. “The way you said ‘huh’ sounded like a moan.”
“Ah, Gwanghyeon’s line.” He sighs. Seokjin has been doing relatively okay with Nawoo, but Gwanghyeon’s parts seem to be the main culprit tripping him up. “I’m not surprised. For Nawoo I can use my usual voice, but I was told to sound softer, more shy for Gwanghyeon, since he’s the more romantic one of the two.”
“And you interpreted that as whiny bedroom noises.”
Seokjin wants to scold him, but he’s right. “I guess so.”
“Don’t be so down, hyung!” Jungkook chirps. “It’s still better than last time, trust me. It was just one word that started off. The first time I heard you do it, the entire line was… oh, let me not go there.”
If Jungkook feels too scandalised to say it, then it must be terrible. “Okay, I believe you.”
“You should. And this is definitely a step in the right direction — you’re improving! I think you just need to go on a couple more dates, and you’ll be back to your old self.”
He wants to believe it, but considering how the date went… he doesn’t have very high hopes for a future meeting. Jungkook will probably give him a pep talk, which he really isn't in the mood for now. Also his hands are still in the bowl, and Seokjin is pretty sure Jungkook is waiting for this conversation to be over so he can get back to cooking.
So Seokjin gives a nod, and watches Jungkook go over to the stove, and toast a few slices of bread. Returning to his phone, Seokjin opens his email to find the schedule his agency sends him every week. He’s happy to find that there’s nothing planned for today or tomorrow, which means he’s allowed to work on his audiobook over the weekend. But he’s booked out for the rest of the week with some meetings, early morning photoshoots, as well as designated workout sessions.
Ugh, he hates modelling so much sometimes.
Seokjin forwards his schedule to Hoseok, letting him know that he’s going to be late at the studio for the next week. With that sorted out, he switches back to the story, trying to read it once again.
This cursed date scene has been weighing on him for a long, long time, which led him to reading it over countless times as an attempt to nail it. No such luck. He gives it another go, mumbling out the lines. But every time he reads one of Gwanghyeon’s parts, that terrible moan slips out.
He despises the way it sounds, yet he can’t help it. His only consolation is that he does this while reading, and isn’t a part of his regular speech.
This scene is still too difficult for him to do, so he flips over to another scene further ahead — where the two protagonists are taking a bubble bath. Despite the premise, it’s a surprisingly tame scene. The steamiest thing that happens is that Gwanghyeon asks Nawoo for a back massage, and he actually gets it without having sex. A feat for the two of him.
On his first trial run, Hoseok said he sounded a little too whiny, so hopefully he’s going to do better this time.
Just as he finishes reviewing the scene, Jungkook places a plate in front of him, with his finished breakfast on top of it: a breakfast sandwich loaded with the fillings he was preparing earlier. Seokjin replaces his phone in favour of the food, and notices that there’s two more plates with a sandwich on each.
“You’re eating two today?” Seokjin asks before biting into his.
“No.” Jungkook picks up both plates, and drops a wink. “See you later, hyung.”
“Wait, Jungkook,” he attempts to speak around the food and make sense of what he’s seeing. He always eats one sandwich, and sits with Seokjin. Why are there two, and he’s taking both away — oh. Oh wait.
“Jungkook!” Seokjin snaps at his retreating figure. “Is the other one for your f*ck from last night.”
He stops, and turns back. “What makes you think I f*cked someone last night, let alone brought them here?”
“Be serious, you have a one night stand every two days.”
“Damnit, you got me. Yes, this is for last night’s f*ck. He’s very sleepy, can barely move. I’m afraid I went too hard on him.”
“Ugh, enough.”
“I might need to get him an ice pack.”
“Please shut the f*ck up.”
“But you asked!”
“Not these details! Please leave.”
“Fine, sheesh.’
Seokjin returns to his sandwich, and glances at his phone in front of him. He’s still not too confident in his scenes, and still needs Jimin’s help. On top of that, he’s a sweet guy who Seokjin wants to get to know better. All he can hope for is that Jimin thinks the same about him.
➽──────────────❥
When Jimin got home after the date, Taehyung wasn’t home. Frightened, Jimin sent him a text asking if he was fine, and stayed up until he got a reply. Jimin didn’t even check time, he was just relieved that his roommate was alive, and went to sleep.
He wakes up a few hours later, feeling refreshed. Then he checked the time on his bedside clock, and was confused. Shooting out of bed, he runs out of his room to see if Taehyung is there.
And there he is, lounging in their living room, seated on the sofa in front of their television, some historical drama playing. Taehyung perks up when he sees Jimin, and waves at him.
“Hey, Jimin, you’re finally up!”
“Kim Taehyung, did you mess with the clock in my room?”
“Your clock?” He frowns. “No, why would I do that?”
“It says that it’s 5pm.”
“Maybe because it is 5pm.”
“Huh?” No, that doesn’t sound right to Jimin. How could he have slept that late? That’s fine, he can just check the exact time, since he went to sleep after he got Taehyung’s text. So, he runs back to his room to find his phone. It also displays the time as 5pm, which he tries to ignore. Opening the messaging app, he clicks on the latest conversation between him and Taehyung.
Me
Taehyung, where are you? It’s getting late, I hope you’re back soon.
Yesterday, 11:13pm
Taehyungie <333
sorry jiminie i was gonna text earlier but i fell asleep <///3
will be back in a couple of hours ㅠㅠ
see you then
Today, 7:20am
Jimin stares at the time. Was he actually up until 7am in the morning? That’s so f*cking crazy, he doesn’t even remember that. No wonder he slept until 5. Thank god he doesn’t have any pending work, or he’d be so screwed.
Sheepishly, he goes back to Taehyung, and hangs his head down. “You didn’t mess with my clocks.”
“No, I didn’t.” Taehyung rolls his eyes. “That’s not important anymore, go eat first. I ordered jjajangmyeon and tangsuyuk for lunch, there’s some leftovers in the fridge.”
Jimin is annoyed that he needs to eat leftovers. But his other two options are to cook or get takeout, both of which will take time, so Taehyung’s leftovers it is.
He goes to the kitchen, and takes out the two Tupperware containers in the middle shelf. Jimin is happy to discover that there’s a good amount of food in both of them — looks like Taehyung ordered extra portions. How sweet of him.
After taking his time to transfer the food to microwave bowls, then heating them up, he arranges them neatly on a tray. With some difficulty, he picks up the tray, and trudges back to the living room.
“You’re eating here?” Taehyung asks when he catches sight of Jimin, who nods in response.
He doesn’t say anything until he places the tray on their coffee table, and he plops down next to Taehyung.
“Of course, I have lots to ask you. Like,” Jimin twists his body to face him “who was the guy whose dick you sucked? Where did you meet him?”
“Not answering until you eat.”
“Ugh, fine.” Jimin picks up his bowl jjajangmyeon. He takes a few bites of the noodles, then looks up at him.
“Alright, I’ll tell you. Promise you won’t judge me.”
“I could never.”
“You know the interview I had last night with the CEO?”
“The interview you ditched me for.”
“Yeah, well, it was with him.”
“I’m sorry, what?!” Jimin almost drops his bowl. “You had sex with your future boss?”
“I know you would judge me—”
“Judge you?” Jimin is baffled. “Are you kidding me, that’s one of my wildest dreams come true! Do you know how many stories I’ve read with this premise?”
“Right, I forgot about your p*rno. Forgive me.”
“I am going to dump this jjajangmyeon over your head.”
“Then I’d make you clean the whole sofa. How would you do that, you can’t even pick up your clothes!”
Taehyung’s got a point there. Defeated, he sags into the sofa, jealous that Taehyung gets to experience something he’s been dreaming about for ages.
“And he’s not my future boss.” Taehyung admits. “He said that he thought it was inappropriate for him to engage in anything like this for someone who was going to be working for him. Power imbalance and all.”
“But that’s what makes it sexy!”
“No. Anyway, he could see I was still desperate for a job, and told me he would refer me to a friend of his. By the way, did I tell you the interview was at a restaurant? Like in VIP sitting?”
“You had sex in a VIP room?”
“Yeah.”
“I hope you drop dead tomorrow.”
“Jimin!”
“It’s not fair, I’m the one who fantasises about all this, how did it happen to you?”
Taehyung shrugs, and continues. “Yeah, so, he wanted to take me back to his place. I said no, because what if he just f*cked me, and never referred me to his friend? Then what? So I made him set up the meeting for me first. It was hilarious, he was sitting there, calling his friend about such a serious thing with his dick out.”
“Then?”
“Then I let him take me to his place, and he f*cked me stupid.”
“Christ.” Jimin doesn’t remember the last time Taehyung spoke about sex so casually. The two of them would bar hop every other weekend while in uni, looking for a one night stand. They grew out of the habit after graduating, as Jimin refused to give any more men a chance as they left him unsatisfied. He needed more, something that could surprise him, hence why he turned to erotica. Meanwhile, Taehyung claimed to be bored of the act and over it.
Not anymore, it seems. Unless…
“Taehyung, do you think CEO-nim will make you his boyfriend?”
“Well, he did make breakfast for me, and kissed me a lot when saying goodbye.” He answers pensively. “Also told me to ‘call him back’ if I ever missed him. So maybe?”
“Oh my god. That literally sounds like something out of a book!” Why can’t Jimin have this? Then he recalls what happened last night and… “No, wait, I had my story moment yesterday, I almost forgot.”
“Right, the voice actor.” Now it’s Taehyung’s turn to adjust himself and face Jimin properly. “Is it actually him? Did you look that up?”
“Nah, I didn't get time.”
“Fine, I’ll search for you.” Taehyung takes out his phone from his back pocket, and unlocks it. “What did you say his name was? Kim Seokjin?”
“Yeah.”
“Wait a sec, let me… oh.” It looks like eyes are about to bulge out of his eyes. “Wow. I don’t think that’s quite right.”
“Why not?”
“I keep getting pictures of some guy posing in his undies.”
“He did tell me he was a underwear model.”
“You—you went out with him?” Taehyung flips his phone to show Seokjin laying on some satin sheets, wearing nothing but a pair of tight, lace boxers — tight enough to leave nothing to the imagination. If that wasn’t enough, his hands are criss-crossed above his head, wrists bound with a leather belt.
Holy sh*t. How is this the same man who ranted to him about MapleStory? “Yeah, that’s Seokjin.”
“And you were getting jealous over me.” Taehyung turns his phone back to ogle at the screen. “The sh*t I would do just to have one night with him.”
“Don’t you have a boyfriend now?”
“We haven't made things official yet, let me drool over hot men.”
“Yeah, well, this hot man’s going to be my boyfriend soon.” Just as he says it, he internally cringes when he remembers how stupid he acted last night. “At least, I hope.”
“It will work out. Anyway, I can’t really see anything about narration jobs.”
“Maybe you can look up the name of one of the books he narrated? Blackened Roses ?” Jimin is sure the narrator is credited in his copies of the audiobooks, but his phone is too far for him to fetch.
“Sit tight, I’ll look it up.”
Jimin returns to his noodles, which are starting to go cold. A cruel parallel to the night before — he could scream from frustration right now. He vows to eat his food as fast as he can, no need for a repeat of the cold lasagna.
A few beats pass, the only sound being from Jimin slurping up his jjajangmyeon. It’s broken when Taehyung lets out a low hum, forehead creasing.
“Is everything okay, Taehyungie?”
“I found the narrator’s name, but it’s just a pseudonym.”
“Oh, what is it?”
“Cheongbajin.”
“Cheong—” Jimin chokes as he tries to repeat the name. “Huh? It sounds like a typo.”
“That’s what Naver says too.” He groans. “It keeps correcting my search to cheongbaji. I’m not looking for jeans, c’mon.”
He types away for a little longer, before tossing his phone to the side. “This is useless, I can’t find sh*t on this Cheongbajin person at all. They’re like a ghost!”
“So you can’t find anything at all?”
“Just a list of the audiobooks he worked on.” Taehyung twists his mouth before adding, “I bet you read them all.”
“Hey!” Jimin whines, but Taehyung is probably right. “Can you still send me the full list to make sure I didn’t miss anything?”
“Perv.” He mutters.
“But I’m sure Cheongbajin is Seokjin! You can hear it for yourself, I’ll play you some of the audiobooks.”
“Jimin, I’ve never heard Seokjin before, how would I know?”
“Further proof you should have been there yesterday.”
Taehyung huffs. “Maybe you could call him up? I can hear him speak over the phone, that’s probably accurate to how his recorded voice would sound.”
“Oh my god, you’re a genius!” Jimin sets aside his almost-finished bowl of jjajangmyeon down to fetch his phone from his room.
Once he brings it back, he busies himself with going through his contacts. However, for some reason, he can’t find Seokjin’s name at all. How did Jimin save his number? Just Seokjin brings up a blank, as does the name of the dating app — wait.
“Um, Taehyung, I think we have a bit of a problem.”
“Yeah?”
“I never asked Seokjin for his number. Now what?”
“Ask for it? Just shoot him a text, I’m sure he would love to give it to you.”
That seems unlikely, considering how stupid he acted the entire time. Still, he decides to give it a shot.
As he switches to the dating app, and starts to type out the message, he pauses. Sure, Jimin can directly ask Seokjin for his number… but he can also do something else.
Kim Seokjin
Today, 5:35pm
Hello, Seokjin. I really enjoyed our date last night. Hope you got home safe. I was going to text you earlier, but I just woke up. I was wondering if you were free tomorrow? We could go on another date.
hi jimin
i’m down for another date tomorrow
where do you wanna go?
Actually, I didn’t think about that yet, I just wanted to set up a date with you.
no problem let me see
you picked our first date location, i can pick the second
That’s wonderful. But I think the restaurant was a bit too loud and crowded. I would like to spend some time with you somewhere a little more secluded.
got it
give me a sec
oh hey how does an escape room sound?
there’s one near the restaurant we went to
they have a couple of slots still free
I’ve never done an escape room before, but sure.
oh yeah me neither
but we can figure it out together
how do you feel about the 4pm slot?
That works out perfectly. And I won’t be late for this like yesterday.
okay because we only get the room for an hour
and we need to solve it by then
time is of the essence
I’m on board with that. Book the room, I’ll be on time.
so it’s a date?
It’s a date.
fastest date i ever planned
[link]
that’s the address
can’t wait see you there next week
Right back at you, Seokjin.
Jimin lowers his phone, surprised that his plan mostly worked out. It’s in direct violation of his rules — even though they’re officially for first dates, he follows them for the second as well.
But he needs some personal time with Seokjin. Jimin gets to be with Seokjin for a whole hour, and talk to him the entire time, without anyone else in the way. An escape room sounds brilliant, they’re essentially paying to be locked up together. He couldn’t have picked a better place himself.
“Taehyungie,” Jimin calls out. “Will you help me get ready for tomorrow’s date?”
“What the — you already planned another one so soon?”
“Yeah,” he answers, sighing dreamily. “I do. And please make sure I’m ready by 3, I don’t want to be late.”
➽──────────────❥
Even though he was the one who set it, Seokjin feels a bit unprepared for his date. But then again, it’s an escape room date. How would he even prepare himself for it?
“Hyung,” Jungkook whines next to him, hands loosely gripping the steering wheel. “Calm the f*ck down, it will be okay. The worst that will happen is that you won’t be able to solve anything. Big f*cking deal, you have been through worse.”
Why did Seokjin let Jungkook drive him? Somehow he’s making him even more anxious. “Gee, thanks. I feel a lot better now.” He deadpans.
“You worry too much, I’m sure he loves you — oh, we’re here.”
Seokjin thanks his lucky stars for putting him out of his misery. “f*ck, finally.”
“Stay safe, hyung.” Jungkook slows down the car, before stopping at the front door. “See you soon, and make sure to use protection.”
He wrinkles his nose at that, and makes a show of disapprovingly clicking his tongue. “I’m not banging Jimin in there. And that place is crawling with cameras.”
“Isn’t that what makes it more fun?”
“Degenerate.” Seokjin mutters under his breath, then steps out. He takes a second to straighten out his clothes first — since there’s a lot more physical labour involved today compared to last week, he’s wearing some more comfortable clothes. He figures that his favourite trousers, and his loosest button-down would be the most appropriate for the occasion.
A couple of deep breaths to calm himself down, then he walks in. He’s greeted into a lobby, which mostly comprises a reception desk, a couch, and a lot of doors.
It’s pretty empty, as the desk is manned by one person, and there’s about four or five people milling around. One person is sitting on the couch, and they look very, very familiar.
“Jimin?” Seokjin hollers at him.
He doesn’t respond at first, eyes glued down to his phone. As Seokjin approaches him, he notices the earphones plugged into his ear.
“Hey,” he grabs Jimin’s shoulders, and he jumps up in shock.
“Oh, Seokjin!” He pulls out the earphones one at a time, a shaky smile on his lips. “I didn’t see you there.”
“Can’t blame you, looked like you were busy. And you actually showed up on time!”
“Hah, I told you I didn’t want a repeat of last week.” Jimin neatly packs his phone and earphones back into his little bag, and zips it up.
“I love that.” He extends his hand out for Jimin. “So, shall we?”
“We shall.” Using Seokjin’s hand for support, he gets to his feet. The two of them walk over to the desk.
Seokjin clears his throat to get the attention of the receptionist, a younger boy with shaggy hair, who’s reading some trashy tabloid.
He looks up, first at Jimin, then Seokjin. As soon as his gaze lands on Seokjin, his eyes widen.
“Wait, I know you! You’re the guy who models for—”
“I know.” Seokjin raises his hand to stop him. “No need to announce it.”
His mouth sputters open and close like a fish out of water, which is equal parts funny and tragic.
“Anyway, I had a room reserved for today. 4pm slot.”
“Ah, yes, let me check.” He tosses the magazine aside, and starts to type away at the desk computer at record speed. “Hm… do you recall which room it was?”
“I think it was the high school one?”
“Right, Escape from Saengsacho High. You booked it for… just two people?” He squints at them. “It’s one of our hardest rooms, we recommend at least four.”
He’s aware of that, that’s what he was told when he made the booking. But it was also the only one left by then. “That’s fine, we’re more here to have a good time, whether we can solve it or not.”
Then the receptionist gives him a look. It’s one he’s familiar with, especially when someone finds out his job. He practically does nude photography? Surely that means he has sex all the time, right? He doesn’t have anything against people who are sexually active since they haven’t done anything to him. And yes, Jungkook does crack jokes about it, but it’s fine, because Seokjin knows he’s not being serious.
It’s only when other people assume him to be one that his skin starts to crawl. Like right now.
Seokjin glances over at Jimin, who mostly looks restless. Hopefully he’s not one of those people, or else this won’t work out.
He averts his eyes from the boy, and can hear the hesitation in his voice. “Okay… well, it’s almost 4pm, so your room should be ready now. Submit your belongings and follow me.”
Seokjin slips his phone onto the counter, and Jimin places his bag. Both of these are tucked away into a metal box, and a plastic tag is offered up. From the corner of his vision, he can see Jimin pick up the tag, then shuffling away, so Seokjin just follows him. They’re led towards one of the doors he saw when entering. The click of a lock, Jimin steps in, and Seokjin trails behind.
The room they walk into is ominous, with wooden furnishings — large wardrobes, study desks, and chairs — with a lot of random junk strewn around.
From behind, the boy explains, “Welcome to Saengsacho High. You two are students who got locked in one of the storage rooms. But this isn’t any regular storage, it’s haunted. You have one hour to escape before the spirits locked here get you. If you feel stuck at any point, you can ask for clues, but you only get three. Happy escaping!”
The door locks behind them, and Seokjin instantly starts to shiver.
Jimin looks around, and mutters, “Oh man, this is a lot creepier than I expected!”
Seokjin definitely agrees. He had been told that this was a scarier room, but with the door locked, there’s way less light in here. The shadows look a lot longer for some reason, everything is darker, and it feels chillier. No wonder he’s shivering. Maybe he should have gotten a sweater.
“Same, but it’s okay, we have each other.” Jimin pats his shoulder. “Let’s split up and start looking for clues, okay?”
“Okay.”
Jimin goes towards a desk on the right, so Seokjin picks the left. There’s a small pile of papers laying on the ground, and he kneels to take a closer look. Upon further inspection, they look like tiny pieces of ripped up paper, which he probably needs to put together.
It sounds easy, but some of the pieces are barely large enough for him to hold, so he has to slide them over the wood floor to get them in place. It’s tedious work, and his wrist starts to cramp.
At around the halfway mark, it’s starting to take some shape into a newspaper cutout. He’s got the headline (Fire breaks out at Saengsacho High, 25 killed) and some of the body as well. While he’s Jimin calls out. “Hey, Seokjin, can I tell you something?”
“Hm, go ahead.”
“So, uh, my roommate was just… trying to do some background checks, and when he looked you up… he might have found some of your, uh, modelling pictures.”
That’s what he wants to talk about now? Seriously? Seokjin braces himself for whatever Jimin might follow up with. “What did you think about them?”
“I actually only saw one, but… wow you looked gorgeous! I’m so glad you told me beforehand about it. My roommate looked like he was about to have an aneurysm, and he’s never even met you. Dare I say he was even jealous of me.”
Jimin starts to giggle, and Seokjin just has to laugh alone. So far, so good. No inappropriate advances yet.
“Glad to hear that. I’ve been told I have that effect on others.”
“Like, I see why you went into underwear modelling. It’s absolutely your thing.”
“Well…” If only Jimin knew how stressful it was. How strict his diet is, and how much he needs to work out to maintain his physique. He’s been slacking off a bit lately, as the stress of his narration job going to sh*t has made him reluctant to do any of that. But once that’s settled, his agency is going to put pressure on him again. “Thanks. I think we focus too much on my job, you never tell me about yours.”
“Because being an accountant is so boring! Everyone and their mom can be one, and ugh where is the stupid code!”
Seokjin tears his eyes away from the puzzle he just finished to see Jimin stomping around the room.
“Hey, Jimin, what’s got you so bothered?”
“I found this chest,” Jimin points at the object sitting on top of the desk he went to earlier “but it’s locked! I need a four-digit code to get it open, but I can’t find it anywhere. All I can find is more puzzles!”
“Okay, wait, how about we exchange our work? You can finish this puzzle for me, and I’ll look for your code, how does that sound?”
He nods, so Seokjin gets to his feet and begins to survey the rest of the room, while Jimin takes his place in front of the nearly-solved puzzle. Jimin was right, wherever he looks, he’s greeted with padlocks and random sh*t that would probably make sense if he could arrange them properly. A part of him wishes he could bring along a couple more friends with him, since Jimin wanted some alone time, he didn’t consider anyone else.
Seokjin is distracted by his surroundings as he meanders through the room. A little too much, because he doesn’t notice the desk in his way, and knocks his right knee onto the steel legs of a table, letting out a loud cry of agony.
“Ah f*ck!” He grabs his knee, as if that’s going to lessen the pain.
“Are you okay?” Jimin cries out, his voice shaking.
“Yeah, I’m fine, I think I need a minute.” He slowly sinks to the floor, wincing the entire time. Rolling up his leg of his trousers reveals the damage, and he squirms at the nasty bruise on the side of his knee. It’s not huge, but it is dark, and he’s going to need some makeup to cover it up before his shoot next weekend.
“O—okay, take your time.”
Why is Jimin stuttering like this? Seokjin swears he didn’t sound this scared when they started the room. He swivels his head back, and sees Jimin with his head down, focusing a little too much on the article. Is he really reading it, or is something up?
“Jimin, are you fine? You look spooked.”
He waves off Seokjin’s concerns, but it’s not enough. Why do their dates start off so well, and then he gets all standoffish for no reason? He can’t figure if it’s a problem with himself, or if Jimin has some deeper issues.
Well, if he doesn’t wanna talk about it, Seokjin won’t push him. He’s going to wait until Jimin feels comfortable to tell him, if he ever does.
For now, all he can do is deal with his bruise. The coldest thing near Seokjin is the steel table that caused the pain. He wants to kick and curse at it, but that will just hurt him even more. So, he presses the bruised part against the cold metal, hoping it works even a little like an ice pack.
It’s boring as hell, and he would much rather spend his time watching paint dry. That’s not an option, so he looks around to see if he can spot anything from his new vantage point. Initially, it feels futile, but then he spots a framed picture perched on a nearby bureau. There’s a bunch of other stuff there, but the blurry photo inside the frame catches his attention.
With some difficulty, Seokjin gets to his feet, and drags himself up to it. From up close, there’s nothing special about the picture, it’s just a blurry haze of smoke with some swirling pattern traced out in black. It probably means something, but he hasn’t gotten far enough into the game to know yet.
Seokjin doubts they would throw a red herring in this, so he investigates it further. He flips it around, and undoes the latch on the back. It springs open to reveal the back of the picture, which has some text written on it, and a little code on the bottom right. A four-digit one, to be precise.
“Hey, Jimin!” Seokjin looks back to see he’s back at the chest, fiddling with it. Perfect. “Look what I have!”
Jimin’s head snaps up, his eyes furrowed as Seokjin limps over to him with the picture, frame and all. “What is that?”
“The possible solution to your problem.” he points at the number in the corner. “See, it’s a four-digit code. 2-8-0-7, try it out.”
“Alright, wait.” As Jimin spins the numbers on the combination lock, Seokjin notices that the symbol engraved on the lid matches the pattern on the picture.
“I got it!” Jimin exclaims, and nearly rips the lid off the hinges as he flips it open. Inside the velvet lining is a singular red key.
“Ah, f*ck.” Seokjin genuinely thought he made a massive breakthrough, but all he got was one measly little key? When there’s a million others to be found? At this rate, it’s going to take them a whole day to solve this.
Jimin is much more efficient, as he picks up the key, and rushes over to a locked cabinet. On the other side of the room. Christ.
If Seokjin’s knee could talk, it would scream at him for moving around this so much. But Jimin is just zooming all around the place, and he really doesn’t want to be so far away from him. Like, isn’t the whole point of this to be stuck together? How are they meant to do that so far apart?
So he staggers over to Jimin for hopefully the last time, and sits down. A red padlock lays discarded on the floor, as Jimin surveys the open cabinet. He picks a wooden box, and takes a seat opposite to Seokjin.
There’s a sliding block puzzle on top where it looks like the goal is to get a red block out from the frame by sliding around the blocks. Jimin busies himself with it as Seokjin tries to read the poem on the back of the picture but it confuses him. There’s some random drivel about how the mugunghwa flower blooms twice in spring, the haebaragi calls the sun five times in summer — blah blah he doesn’t care. He’s more concerned about why his date is trying so hard to avoid him.
He really wants to ask Jimin what his deal is, and figures there’s a couple of different ways to go about it. Seokjin ends up picking the nicest way he can in the moment, “Did I do anything?”
“Huh?”
“You’ve been avoiding me the entire time today! Okay, well, not the entire time, but just after I hit my knee. What happened? Did you get the ick?” He laughs a bit at the last part in an attempt to lighten the mood.
It seems to make Jimin even more upset as his shoulders droop. “I didn’t get the ick.”
“Then why are you avoiding me?”
“I’m not avoiding you.”
“Jimin, please be serious, you’re not even making eye contact with me right now.”
“I’m just solving this puzzle right now.”
Seokjin closes his eyes, and takes a deep, deep breath. He really needs to cool down before he says this part, or else he will sound like an asshole.
“Listen, this isn’t the first time I’ve gone on a date — I know the signs when someone isn’t interested anymore. It’s fine if you have a problem with me, I don’t like it when you pretend there isn’t one. Just tell me you’re sick of me, and we no longer need to see each other. Don't leave me hanging like this.”
Jimin slides around a couple of blocks, and mutters, “I don’t have a problem with you, I’m the problem.”
“…I’m sorry, what?”
“I’m not avoiding you because I hate you.” His voice cracks a bit as he speaks. “Quite the opposite.”
“You like me too much?”
“Yeah.” Another lazy push of a block. “You’re so funny, amazing, and good at this communications thing. Then there’s me. All I do is make you anxious, push your boundaries, and make you uncomfortable. Like you keep drawing the line at your job, telling me you don’t wanna discuss it, but I keep bringing it up. And I feel like half of our conversations are just you worrying over me. We’re just getting to know each other, and I make you act like my therapist. I hate it, you deserve better.”
Oh god. That’s his deal? “Jesus, Jimin, no! Why are you putting yourself down so much? I don’t hate that you keep bringing up the modelling… I get it. It’s not like you get to meet someone who does that very often. I can see you trying to be respectful. I’ve dealt with some very pushy assholes who actually didn’t care. You’re not like that, you’re just curious. Now, do I love it? No, but I don’t hate it either.”
“You’re doing the thing again. You’re trying to make me feel better.”
“Because I really like you, Jimin. I don’t want to see you so upset.”
He slowly raises his head to meet his eyes with Seokjin’s. “Really?”
“If you actually annoyed me, I would not have replied to your texts. I’d just tell you after the first date that things were fun, I enjoyed it but maybe it won’t work out, then end it there. I don’t force myself to hang out with people I don’t like.”
“Oh…”
“I just don’t get why you’ll be so fine when we meet up, then you get spooked all of a sudden! What’s that about?”
“I—” he hacks out a cough, then says, “It just hits me who you are, and I get so intimidated. Like, you’re the Kim Seokjin. You’re kind of like a celebrity — I noticed the receptionist kid recognised you. I’m sure that happens to you a lot. Meanwhile, I’m just a measly old accountant, what would you want to do with me?”
“Well, it doesn’t happen a lot.” Seokjin corrects him. “Sometimes. Not that frequent of an occurrence. But why would your job matter to me? You think just because I’m a model, I wanna hang out with other models too? Nah, I have a hard time getting along with most of them, they’re not exactly very fun to talk to. Our interests don’t usually align, and they don’t usually make the effort to hear out something different. I cannot think of a single person I have worked with who would willingly hear me explain the MapleStory lore. Even my roommate complains about it, and I’ve known him since we were babies. You’re miles above all of them.”
“Wow, really? I didn’t know that… well, now I just feel like an idiot.” Jimin lets out an awkward laugh. “You’re just so cool, I don’t know how to act around you. It’s kind of like an explosion of fireworks, there’s too much to look at so you just ignore the entire thing because it’s so overstimulating.”
Seokjin feels like the breath has been knocked out of his lungs. It’s probably the most beautiful thing anyone has ever told him.
“Thank you, Jimin. That was so lovely. I cannot believe you just dropped that poetry on me and thought I wouldn’t love you. Be serious.”
Blush rises to Jimin’s cheeks, and he ducks his head down to poke around on the puzzle again. Seokjin watches him slide around the same block back and forth eight times in a row, before stepping in.
“I think you’re too distracted for this,” he puts his hand on top of Jimin’s. “Maybe you can take a break, and return to this later. How’s that?”
Jimin nods, and sets the box aside. He ducks back into the cabinet, and brings back another box, stamped with the type of floral wallpaper you expect to see on your grandma’s upholstery.
“Maybe I can give this a shot?” He sits down right next to Seokjin, pressing their shoulders together.
Seokjin looks over at the box, which reminds him of a combination lock, but with pictures of flowers instead.
“Ah, I shouldn’t have picked this.” Jimin grumbles. “I don’t even know where to start!”
“You wanna try a different one?”
“No.” He rests his head on Seokjin’s shoulder. “I’m tired of puzzles.”
“I’d help, but I don’t know how to solve them.”
“You did way more than me so far!”
“Eh, it was barely anything.”
“And there’s still so much left.” Jimin sighs. “I wish we could bring backup with us. Like my roommate, ugh I really should have invited Taehyung to this. He’s such a wiz with puzzles. I’m sure he’d finish the sliding puzzle by now.”
“Same. I have a co-worker, Namjoon, who’s the god of escape rooms. Our CEO hosted a corporate event for all of us, and he was the only one who even tried. The rest of us just f*cked around.”
“Is that how they do things in the modelling world?”
f*ck, Seokjin forgot he didn’t tell Jimin about the narration job yet. Not like he can correct it now, and it’s not relevant to the story either. “Yeah. It was a 30-people room, and the son of a bitch did most of it alone. We didn’t get out, but it was still impressive.”
“Hm… wait, didn’t you say you’ve never done an escape room before.”
“I don’t count that one time, because I did absolutely nothing.” He remembers spending the whole time making bets with Hoseok on who could make their CEO get flustered first. Seokjin was sure he had it in the bag, as he had his signature seductive voice locked and ready, but Hoseok was Min Yoongi’s biggest weakness. His penalty of doing aegyo in front of the whole team at their afterparty is the reason why he no longer does bets even as a joke.
“So we’re screwed?” Jimin asks.
“Depends on how you see it. In terms of spending one-on-one time with you, I think we’re doing amazing. Isn’t that the whole point of it?”
“If you look at it in that way…”
“I’m having fun! Except for this,” he shakes his bruised leg. “I don’t like this.”
“Oh, wait, I didn’t see how bad your injury was before!” Jimin gasps as he takes a look at the damage. “You’ve been walking around with this for so long?”
“It’s okay, it doesn't even hurt that much.” Seokjin lies. “I can move around and sh*t.”
“Are you sure? Because I was going to kiss it better if it did hurt.”
“On second thought, it’s actually killing me from inside out.”
“That’s what I like to hear.”
Jimin gets on his knees and crawls closer to it. He puckers his lips in an ‘O’ and blows on it gently, before leaning forward, and planting a kiss on the bruise. It sends a chill up Seokjin’s spine, but a nice one. One that makes him feel loved and appreciated. It’s been a while since he’s felt that.
When Jimin turns back at him, his blonde hair falls over his face, a sweet smile curls on his lips — and Seokjin thinks he’s looking at an angel sent from above. It knocks his breath out, and he doesn’t know what to do with himself at that moment.
“You feel better?” Jimin asks, and he nods.
“Way better. Thank you, Jimin-ah.”
“Oh! Jimin-ah… are we close enough for it?”
“You kissed my pain away, I think we are.”
“Glad to hear that, Seokjin-ah.”
He has to resist the urge to kick his feet at that. Seokjin-ah, how lovely. How long has it been since he’s been called that? Years, probably.
Seokjin wants to stay like this forever, but Jimin’s gaze flicks to the side, and sours. He follows the line of vision, and sees it’s on the damned box.
“I cannot believe I’m being bested by a stupid box.” Jimin complains.
Before he can do anything else, Seokjin reaches over, and takes a look at it himself. There’s four buttons on it, each with a picture of a flower on it; mugunghwa, haebaragi, jangmi, and the school’s namesake, saengsacho. He goes back to the poem he found on the back of the picture. It’s only four lines, and each line mentions a different flower. The same flowers on the button.
“The mugunghwa blooms twice in spring…” Seokjin mutters under his breath as he presses on the corresponding button two times. “The haebaragi calls the sun five times in summer…” Five taps on the haebaragi. “The jangmi wilts nine times… the saengsacho dies once.”
One last press on the saengsacho, and the box springs open.
For a moment, the two of them sit in silence, trying to process what just happened.
Then Jimin breaks it by asking, “How the hell did you figure that out?”
“I… don’t know?”
They peek into the box, and find it stuffed with pages. Seokjin pulls one out, and starts to read. “Looks like a diary entry.”
Jimin picks out another one at random, and says, “Hey, I recognise this name! It’s one of the people who was killed in the fire, I read her name in that newspaper clipping.”
Seokjin discards his page, and whines, “Do you want to try your hand at solving this, or—?”
“Please no, I’m tired. This room is stressing me out so bad I don’t want to do it anymore. Not that I’m contributing anything of value.”
“Oh stop it, Jimin, you are helping. But still, should I tell them we’re done? You’re sure?”
“Yeah… besides, your knee looks pretty busted, I think you should go home and put an ice pack on it.”
“True.” Seokjin huffs down at his stupid injury. “Alright, then, game master-nim!” He calls out. “Can you hear me?”
A voice crackles out from hidden speakers. “Yes.”
Jimin yelps, and looks around. “Wait, have they been monitoring us the whole time?”
“Uh-huh, these rooms are always crawling with cameras and mics. How else are we supposed to ask for hints?” Back to the game master, he says, “Hi, I think you can see I hurt my knee really badly, and my…” he glances at Jimin with a sly smile before saying, “…boyfriend and are struggling to solve this alone. I believe we’re done for the day.”
“You want to end the game here?” The game master asks, and Seokjin nods.
“We’ll be back again with more friends! But today just isn’t the vibe.”
“Okay, the game has been terminated.” A loud buzzer sounds. “Do you see the vines up ahead? The exit door is there, I’ve opened it for you and you’re free to leave.”
“f*cking finally. Jimin-ah, help me up, please.”
Jimin scrambles to his feet, and Seokjin holds his hands up. He takes hold of Seokjin’s wrists, then yanks him up.
“Can you walk, Seokjin-ah?”
“I can.”
“If you need you can lean on me for help, it’s fine.”
Seokjin waves him away. “Jimin-ah, you’re so sweet, but I can walk.” He needs to drag his right leg as he moves, but he can do it by himself.
The two of them make their way over to the unlocked door, walk through a small hallway, and find themselves back in the lobby where they started. Without a word, Jimin picks up his bag and Seokjin’s phone in exchange for the plastic tag, then exit the building, out into the fresh air and sunlight on their skins.
At last, they’ve made it out. They barely did anything to deserve it, but that’s secondary.
“I can finally breathe.” Seokjin says.
“Same, I was starting to get claustrophobic.”
“Hm, yeah. I’ll call my ride now, Jimin-ah, how are you going home?”
“I think I’ll just take the bus.”
“Oh, okay.”
He unlocks his phone, and dials Jungkook, who picks up at the last ringtone.
“Jeez, what do you want, hyung?” He asks, all grumpy.
“Pick me up, we’re done with the room.”
“No f*cking way you finished an hour-long room this early. Did you beg them to let you out?”
“I didn’t have to beg, I asked nicely. Can you stop bitching and get over here? I hurt my knee and I need to ice it.”
“Who hurts their knee doing an escape room?”
Seokjin’s patience is starting to wear thin, and he has no intention of screaming at Jungkook in front of Jimin, so he takes a second to collect himself first before saying, “Life is a slu*t, and sometimes it f*cks me over, Jungkook. Please stop being a brat and pick me up.”
“Damn, chill, hyung! I’ll be there, okay? I was stalling for a bit, because I was busy doing some other sh*t.”
“You can bang whoever you’re with later, this is more important. Get here quick.” Then he hangs up. He notices Jimin is staring up at him, and apologises, “Sorry, that’s just how I have to talk to my roommate, he’s kinda very annoying.”
“Oh, I’m not looking at you because of that. I, uh, wanted to discuss what happened earlier. In the escape room.”
“What about it?”
“You called me your boyfriend!” Jimin blurts out, then clamps his mouth shut.
“Ah, I did. Wait, were you uncomfortable with that?”
He shakes his head. “N—no. If anything, I thought it was the most insane thing I ever heard. Good insane. You see me as your boyfriend already?”
“I’ve never had anyone outside of my partners call me ‘Seokjin-ah’. I assumed that’s what you were going for.”
“Woah. That’s the fastest I ever got a date to call me that.”
“I guess being locked up in an escape room together for twenty minutes does things to a person.” Seokjin muses. “But I probably should have asked before springing it on you. I thought it would be funny at the time.”
“It was amazing.” Jimin breathes out. “I like it. Calling you my boyfriend.”
“Hm.”
“You…you know something else boyfriends do?”
“What?”
“They kiss. On the lips.”
Seokjin raises his eyebrows. “Is that so?”
“Yeah…” Jimin looks up at him through lowered lashes, his gaze transfixed on Seokjin’s lips.
A part of him wants to play with Jimin, pretend like he doesn’t understand what he’s asking for. Or he could just go along with it.
The second option sounds better.
As Seokjin ducks down, Jimin goes on his tiptoes, and they press their lips together, eyes closing. Seokjin tilts his face to the side, his hand gripping Jimin’s jaw to pull him closer, breathing him in. Their lips part at the same time, their tongues sliding over each other’s.
Jimin reaches up to wrap his arm around Seokjin’s waist, and Seokjin—
HONK!
—is interrupted.
He breaks off the kiss, to see his beloved car, and the bane of his existence at the driver’s seat, with the windows rolled down.
“PDA alert.” Jungkook announces, and honks the horn again.
“Rich coming from you.” Seokjin snaps as he stumbles over to the car. He opens the door, and just before he gets into the passenger seat, he waves at Jimin. “Bye, Jimin-ah.”
“Bye, Seokjin-ah — wait! Don’t go yet!”
Seokjin watches him run over, and stops next to him. “I was going to ask you for your number! So we can directly call each other instead of just texting on that app.” Jimin holds out his phone, and Seokjin accepts it, typing in his number.
He returns it, saying, “There you go, that’s me. Give me a call on it when you’re free.”
‘Okay. I’ll see you again soon!”
“You too.” Seokjin dives to give Jimin a quick peck on the lips, then gets in.
Jungkook hits the gas, and Seokjin watches Jimin from the side mirror, slowly waving at him. Smirking, he leans back into his seat, and hoists up his leg.
“So, hyung,” Jungkook starts. “I take it that today’s date went well?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Jeez, you’re so in love.” He snickers.
Seokjin turns towards him to tell him off, but he sees something very interesting on his neck. “Jungkook, are those hickeys?”
“They might be.”
“I cannot believe you were actually f*cking someone while I was away. I was in there for like, twenty minutes, at most. How did you find someone within that time?”
“Oh, you remember the pretty boy I f*cked last week?”
“The surfer-looking one you made breakfast for?”
“Yeah, after I dropped you, I saw he texted me because he was bored and lonely at home. I couldn’t leave him alone when he needed me! So I went over, and y’know, did what I had to do.”
“Wow, you actually went back to a one night stand? Are you two boyfriends now?”
“I think so. But I guess I can say the same for you and Jimin as well.”
“Yeah.” Seokjin smiles to himself, dopey and dreamy. “I guess you can.”
➽──────────────❥
Jimin is extremely antsy during his entire bus ride, dying to go home to Taehyung. When he’s dropped off at his stop, he runs back to his apartment, and nearly crashes through the door.
“Kim Taehyung!” He screeches, and sees his roommate on the living room couch. “Oh my god, you’re right here, listen.” Jimin nearly leaps to the empty spot next to him. “Turn off the TV, this is very important.”
“Yeah, wait.” He mutes the television, then diverts all his attention to Jimin. “Okay, go.”
“Today was the best and the worst date ever! Best because Seokjin called me his boyfriend! And we kissed! We kissed, Taehyung, we kissed!”
“Oh my god, let’s go!” Taehyung squeals. “You’re dating the sexy underwear model.”
“With an even sexier voice.”
“God, yes. Today has been a win for me too, actually. I called CEO-nim because I had nothing to do without you.”
“Aw, and did he come over?”
“He did! But he got an emergency call and had to leave early. He still managed to work enough of his magic on me.”
“What do you mean?” Jimin asks. In response, Taehyung looks down, and Jimin follows. He scowls at the bunched up towel under his ass, and then sees something peeking out from inside it. “Wait. Are you sitting on an ice pack?”
“CEO-nim has a big dick, and he really likes using it.”
Jimin is about to pop a vein, but he holds it in. “Cool. Anyway, speaking of ice packs… let me explain why this was the worst date too.”
“Right, I was wondering that.”
“Seokjin hit his knee, and got injured. Big bruise on it, that’s why we ended the game early so he could get home to ice it.”
“It’s the worst date because he got hurt?”
“No, because he moaned really loud when he got hurt, and I got turned on.”
“What the—” Taehyung sputters, unable to process this. “What?! Please tell me you just got hot and bothered and it wasn’t like an actual boner.”
Jimin decides not to answer that, finding the lint on his sleeves much more interesting.
“You did not get a boner from hearing a man cry out in pain. There’s no way.”
“In my defence, he sounded very hot.”
“You’re beyond help. How is Seokjin going to handle all of you?”
“He loves me, we can work out.”
“Okay.” Taehyung doesn’t look convinced at all, but moves on. “Did you at least get his number?”
“I did! But I didn’t give him mine, so I suppose I should call him.”
“Put him on loudspeaker, I wanna hear him speak.”
“Hold up.” Jimin immediately saved Seokjin’s number to his contacts after he typed it in, but he didn’t want to use his name. He types in the contact name, and dials it.
Taehyung eyes the name, and snorts. “You have his number saved as ‘boyfriend’?”
“Well, is he not my boyfriend?”
“He is, but isn’t that a—”
Jimin stops him with a raise of his hands, as he notices Seokjin has picked up. “Hi, Seokjin-ah.”
“Oh, Jimin-ah! I presume this is your number?”
“Yep. Unless you’re talking to other people who also call you Seokjin-ah?”
“I’d never do that to you!” Seokjin says sincerely. “Since you can’t see it, I have my hand on my chest right now. Just imagine it.”
“”I’m imagining it.” Jimin promises. “You look beautiful.”
“I know, I always do! Anyway, it was nice talking to you, I’m gonna go take a nap. My leg is killing me. Bye!”
“Okay, take care. Wait, before you hang up, I want to say one last thing!”
“Go ahead.”
“Are you free next weekend?”
“Like on Saturday? Because no, I actually have work. But I’ll be free on Sunday! Is that cool?”
‘Yes, it is. So, can we meet up then?”
‘Of course, honey. I’ll see you next week. Bye.”
Now, Seokjin hangs up, but Jimin stares down at his phone. Honey. Seokjin called him honey , that’s so insane.
While Jimin tries to process that, Taehyung leans over. “So, I heard his voice.”
‘Oh!” That’s enough to break him out of his reverie. “Now what do you think? Does he sound like my audiobooks?”
“I haven’t listened to any, can you play something for me?”
“Sure, wait.” Jimin pulls up his audiobook app, and plays the last one he was listening to. Unfortunately for him, he pauses halfway through Chapter 5 of Blackened Roses , right in the middle of a sex scene.
Taehyung is subjected to lewd moans, and it earns Jimin a dirty look from him.
“I don’t know if I should feel more scandalised by the fact that you unironically like this, or that your boyfriend does this for a living.”
“So it sounds like him?”
“I hear the resemblance, yes.” A loud, breathy whine sounds, and Taehyung hits the pause button. “Enough of that, my point has been made. Did you really have to play that particular scene, though?”
“Sorry, that’s just where I stopped.” He apologises. Jimin was actually listening to it last in the escape room lobby, while waiting for Seokjin. So when Seokjin snuck up on him… he was mortified. Thankfully his screen was blanked out, and he tried his best to hide his screen when turning off the audiobook. Jimin’s pretty sure that Seokjin didn’t notice anything, which is better off for both of them.
“Cool, I see. But wait, you’re already planning a third date with him? That’s crazy, do you have a place in mind?”
When he was listening to the audiobook in the lobby, he came across a particular scene, one of his favourites. It’s something he’s always wanted to do, and what better time than the third date?
“Yeah, I have a place in mind.” He smiles slowly, getting turned on at the mere thought of recreating it with Seokjin.
➽──────────────❥
Seokjin cuts the call with Jimin, and is immediately subjected to Jungkook screeching, “You two are so cute!”
“Don’t eavesdrop, it’s rude.”
“Hyung, I’m sitting right next to you.”
“Well, maybe you should have left.”
“You’re literally in my room? Why would I leave?”
“Eh, can’t argue with that.” Seokjin goes back to snuggling the giant Hello Kitty plushie on Jungkook’s bed, an ice pack taped to his knee.
“But, hyung, I’m serious.”
Seokjin looks to the side, where Jungkook is sincerely typing away at his laptop, his eyes locked to the screen.
“Serious about what?”
“That you two sound cute. You’re definitely in love with him.”
“I guess I am.”
“Well, do you wanna give that picnic scene a shot again?”
“Sure.” Seokjin pulls up the file from his phone, and flips through to find page 39 once more. “Alright, let’s see how this goes.”
He starts to narrate Nawoo and Gwanghyeon’s little picnic date; Gwanghyeon brings strawberry jam and Nawoo judges him for it, they make little sandwiches with the jam and drink wine while reminiscing about the good old days.
It’s a bit of a longer scene, but Seokjin is so caught up with reading it that he loses himself in the words. Maybe he’s even enjoying it a bit.
At one point, it’s like he’s stopped reading about Gwanghyeon and Nawoo, and they’ve been replaced by him and Jimin. They’re the ones laying on the picnic blanket now, with their fingers tangled in each other’s hairs as they giggle. It fills his heart with affection, warmth running through his veins in waves.
He gets to the last few lines of the scene, which ends with Seokjin — sorry, Gwanghyeon — falling asleep in Nawoo’s arms. A couple of concluding words, and the scene is wrapped up on a sweet note.
When he looks up, he sees Jungkook grinning at him from ear to ear.
“Hyung, you’re so f*cking back.”
“Was that good?”
“Good? It was amazing!”
“Oh my f*cking god, I did it!” He leaps out to hug Jungkook. “I’m so f*cking back!”
“That’s literally what I said — ow, hyung, you’re hurting me.”
“Sofry.” Seokjin lets go of him, and ruffles his hair instead. “I got too caught up in the moment.”
“It’s okay hyung, I get it.”
“Wait, wait, I just remembered I don’t have any modelling gigs until next week!” The original plan was to spend his free time practising, but that’s no longer needed. “I need to text Hoseok.”
He switches to his messaging app, and types up a text asking him to set up five recording sessions from next Monday to Friday. As he’s doing that, he thinks about his modelling gig on Saturday (which upsets him) and his date with Jimin on Sunday (which fills him up with joy).
That’s only if he doesn’t think about it for too long. The longer he dwells on it, the more he’s reminded that this is going to be their 3rd date, and that’s the one where things always start to fall apart with his partners. It’s always the same damn thing, there hasn’t been a single time it didn’t happen.
For now, all he can do is hope that Jimin won’t be like the others, that he won’t let Seokjin down and love him for who he is.
➽──────────────❥
Jimin has never really understood all the fanfare people have for cars. As far he’s concerned, it's just a hunk of metal with four wheels that gets him from point A to point B — so what? A bus can do the same too, and no one loses their minds over it.
Everything changed when he saw Seokjin’s car. Sleek, black, expensive-looking — that’s all he understood of it. And he was completely obsessed.
That was one of the main reasons why Jimin chose a drive-in theatre as the location for their third date, as a car was integral. And he really wanted to be in that car, alone with Seokjin.
Sure, he hasn’t seen Seokjin actually drive it yet, so Jimin didn’t know if the car belonged to him, or if he even knew how to drive. Still, he felt like it was a risk worth taking, and when Seokjin immediately agreed to the plan, Jimin had high hopes.
And by god did it pay off. Jimin held his breath when he saw the absolute stunner pull up to his front door, and almost passed out when the window lowered to reveal Seokjin in the driver’s seat.
“Hey, honey.” Seokjin winked. “Don’t just stand there, come in.”
After climbing into the passenger seat, Jimin asked while fastening his seatbelt, “So, can I ask whose car this really is? I’ve seen three people behind the wheel by now, and I have no idea whose it is.”
“It’s actually mine. The first person you saw was a chauffeur, and the second was my roommate. I just gave them the keys those two times.”
“Oh wow.” Jimin squeaked, starting to get turned on. “Good to know.”
“Anything else you wanna ask me before we go?”
“Actually, I wanted to ask you about these seats! They’re so nice, what are they? Leather?”
“They used to be, but they were too much upkeep for me, so I switched them out for Alcantara. A lot easier to take care of, and it handles stains really well. That’s going to be great for today, if we accidentally spill our food, don’t you think?”
Jimin found it funny that Seokjin said that, because as far as he had told Seokjin, spilling food should not be a big issue. But the other part Jimin was planning… it would definitely be a bigger concern. As Seokjin hit the gas, Jimin wondered if he was aware of what Jimin was thinking of. Why else would he bring up the stains like that out of the blue?
He doesn’t have to keep thinking about it for too long anymore, because they’re at the theatre now, and are making themselves cozy in the backseat.
They lowered the front seat down to the max, leaving their front view free of any obstacles. Seokjin suggested they do it, so that they could watch the movie clearly. Jimin almost stopped him to tell him that that’s not what they’re really here to do, but figured it was better to ease into it rather than spring it on to him, so he went along with it. He even entertained Seokjin’s request to load up food, and watched him get two massive bowls of popcorn.
Seokjin is absolutely digging into his popcorn, eyes turned entirely to the movie. Meanwhile, Jimin pokes at his bowl, uninterested. This isn’t exactly how he imagined all of this to go down.
But there’s still hope. He makes himself eat a handful of popcorn first, then he sets the bowl aside to the floor.
With his arms free, Jimin wraps himself around Seokjin. Not facing any resistance, he rests his head on the crook of Seokjin’s neck, burrowing in. Seokjin huffs softly, and adjusts his arms to drape them over Jimin’s shoulders. He takes that as a signal to go a little further, and drop a kiss on his neck.
Seokjin lets out a breathy giggle, and pulls him closer. Content, Jimin drops more kisses upwards, along the column of his neck, until he reaches his ear. He playfully nips at the lobe, then whispers, “Seokjin-ah, look at me.”
“What’s up?”
“I wanna give you something.”
“Oh?”
“But you gotta look at me for it.”
“I see. Is the ‘thing’ you want to give me a kiss, by any chance?”
“Maybe. You’ll have to look at me to know.”
“Alright, honey.”
Seokjin turns his head to the side, and meets Jimin’s lips. He’s reciprocating the kiss at least, but not with the energy Jimin wants.
“Hey, Seokjin-ah, can you move the popcorn?” Jimin mumbles against his mouth. “Can’t kiss you properly.”
He draws back to answer, “I’m still eating it! I can’t watch the movie if I’m not eating something.”
“Screw the movie, look at me instead.”
“Oh, okay.”
With the popcorn out of the way, Jimin can throw his leg over his lap. Seokjin’s hands do an awkward tango over the outline of Jimin’s body.
“Hey, Seokjin-ah, is everything alright? Do you want to stop?”
“Wait? nah, I’m fine, we can keep going. I just… haven’t done something like this in a while.” He answers, settling his hands on Jimin’s shoulders.
He seemed fine during the escape room, what happened over the week. This is so unbelievable, Jimin used to be the one panicking and losing his breath around Seokjin. How did their roles switch?
Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Jimin resumes kissing him once more with renewed vigour, while Seokjin is just… sort of there. He already confirmed he wants to continue this, so why is he acting so distant?
Maybe he needs Jimin to take a little more initiative. Now that Jimin thinks back on it, he was the one who asked Seokjin for the kiss after the escape room. Perhaps he misunderstood how much Seokjin was into this, but he can fix that.
Jimin knew how the night was going to go down, so he came prepared with his outfit. He reached up to unbutton his cardigan, one button at a time, to reveal the muscle tee he wore underneath. The plan was to have Seokjin undress him, but that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Seokjin does lift his hands to let him take the cardigan off, before returning to their old spot. It’s not huge, but Jimin thinks of it as a step in the right direction.
To take it up a notch, Jimin shifts himself on top of Seokjin’s lap, so that he’s straddling Seokjin. Jimin slowly grinds his hips, and Seokjin groans. He takes it as a sign to deepen the kiss, but just as he does that, Seokjin pushes him off.
“Okay, that was nice, Jimin-ah. But I’m missing too much of the movie, so if you could just…”
“D—do you not want to kiss me?” Jimin sputters, completely baffled at this reaction. He’s never had anyone reject him like this. Especially not when he’s been on their laps. Seokjin has set a new precedent, and he has no idea what to do about it.
“That’s not what I said. I just want to watch a movie, I’ve heard good reviews.”
“You do realise we’re not actually here for the movie, don’t you?”
Seokjin tilts his head to the side. “No, that’s exactly why I thought we were here. You didn’t mention there was anything else to it.”
“If it was about the movie, I’d take you to a proper theatre! No one goes to drive-in theatres to watch anything!”
“Then why do they come here?”
Jimin is about to explode. He looks so innocent about this, like he’s never had any experience with this stuff.
But he knows that’s not the truth.
“You literally read Blackened Roses , they say it right there: people only go to drive-in theatres to have sex! There’s almost half of a chapter dedicated to that—” Jimin starts to rant, then stops. The weight of what he’s said hits him in the face when he sees the way Seokjin’s eyes widen.
“What did you just say to me?”
sh*t. sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, Seokjin isn’t supposed to know that Jimin knows. Maybe there’s still a way out of this.
“N—n—nothing.” He gulps. “Absolutely nothing at all.”
“Lies. Why did you mention that book, and say I read it?”
“That’s not important anymore. I’ll let you go back to your movie.” Jimin attempts to slide off his lap, but Seokjin grabs his waist.
“I’m not letting you get away that easily. Answer my question, Jimin-ah.”
“Uh, I confused you with someone else.”
“Hmmm, you don’t sound confident. Do you want to try again, or do you want to keep lying in my face?”
Seokjin is onto him, isn’t he? Jimin is so screwed, he can’t see any more ways out of this. For the past two weeks, he did everything to conceal this information from Seokjin. Looks like his days of lying have come to an end.
“I know you don’t just do modelling.” Jimin says, his voice shaking. “You do audiobook narration too. Some really steamy ones. And you go by Cheongbajin. Blackened Roses is just one of the many, many audiobooks you’ve done.”
The silence that follows is soul-crushing. Jimin thinks he’s about to suffocate, and even considers asking Seokjin to roll down the windows.
Seokjin’s definitely not doing that now, because he’s a little busy staring at Jimin, pinning him with his gaze. For a second, Jimin believes that he’s being judged. Maybe Seokjin isn’t Cheongbajin, maybe he’s got the wrong guy. He’s never read the book, but he knows about the content in it, and thinks Jimin is weird for ever listening to it.
Then finally Seokjin asks, “How did you figure it out?”
“Hold on — you are Cheongbajin.”
“One and the same. But I never told you about it. Did you stalk me? Is that how you know?”
“I… well, you sound identical to Cheongbajin. I listen to a lot of his narration. So when I heard you speak, I made the connection, and I realised you were him.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Our first date.”
“F— you knew for two weeks? And didn’t say anything?”
“I figured you’d be mad!” Jimin sees the rage burning in Seokjin’s eyes. “Like right now! You’re pissed at me.”
“No, I’m pissed at myself. I use a different name for narration, so I can be low-key about it. Never crossed my mind that people could recognise me through my voice too. Ugh, what the f*ck do I do now?”
“Uh… if it helps, I’m just a perv, and I listen to your audiobooks a lot. Like a concerning amount, my roommate is worried for me. Not everyone is like me, I think you’re good.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Seokjin mutters. “Now that the cat’s out of the bag, I don’t have to pretend like I don’t know what you’re planning. We’re literally in a drive-in theatre on the third date — all the signs point to the same place.”
Jimin is slightly confused by how disappointed Seokjin sounds. “Uh, so you know I want to sleep with you.”
“Unfortunately, yes. I expected this, but I didn’t think you’d also expose my narration job.”
“Wait, roll that back. What do you mean by ‘unfortunately’? Why is that a bad thing?”
“Because the third date is when everyone wants to f*ck.” Seokjin grumbles. “I hate it.”
“You hate having sex on the third date.”
“I hate having sex,” he says bluntly.
“You hate having sex? But you read steamy audiobooks!”
“This is why I don’t talk about it.” Seokjin rolls his eyes. “The number of times I‘ve had to hear this sh*t. My preferences don’t dictate the type of content I do — the biggest scaredy cat at my studio does horror stories, and we have a former hikikomori who records epic adventure novels from his house. No one questions them, but somehow I’m a weirdo. For the record, I usually get the smut novels because I’m the only one who can get through them without getting all hot and bothered.”
“Oh.” Well, that gives some insight on why he made it a point to never mention it. “I’m sorry for saying that, I didn’t realise.”
“Not important anymore. We’re not going to work out, either way. Put your clothes back on, I’m taking you home.”
“Taking…me…home…?” Jimin blinks at him. Is he hearing this right? “I thought we sorted things out! We aren’t going back to making out?”
“That’s not what you really want, though. You admitted it yourself. The end goal is to f*ck. Do I have that right?”
“Yes—”
“Then that’s it. I don’t want to do that. The kisses are just foreplay, you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment. Let’s just end this here before we both get hurt even more.”
“End this here…? Seokjin-ah, are you breaking up with me?!”
“I am. We want different things from each other, there’s no point in this anymore. I’ve seen this play out a million other times. I tell my partners I don’t want to f*ck them, either they break up with me immediately, or let it play out. The second one hurts more, because we get close, but after a time they can’t get past my aversion. I’m doing this for our own good.”
“I’m not like them, we don’t need to have sex!” Jimin screams in panic. “Please, please, don’t break up with me over this. We’re going to be different, I know it.”
“We won’t be. Your body calls for another body. It’s alright, it’s natural, a lot of people are like that. Most people are, only a handful are weird like me.” Seokjin lets out a scoff. “You can say no tonight, but what about next week? Another month down the line? You’ll be miserable as f*ck, and screaming at me later over this. I also told myself it would be different this time around, but I was so wrong.”
“I…” Jimin has to fight for him, convince Seokjin that it isn’t important, but breaks down into tears. “I… I love you… I could never hate you…”
“I don’t doubt that honey. I love you too.” Seokjin croons at him. “I didn’t want to admit this, but I should: I originally started dating you over selfish reasons: it was because of my audiobook work. I was stuck on the romance scenes, since it’s been too long I’ve been in love, and I forgot what that was like.
“So I ventured back into the dating scene, and it worked a little too well — I spent this entire week at the studio to record all the romantic parts I was f*cking up before. Whenever I thought of you, I was nailing my lines perfectly. You’re such a lovely memory for me, Jimin, I don’t want to sour it. I know this makes me sound selfish, but I want to cling to our good memories. Not even just for work, but for myself too.”
Tears pool in Jimin’s eyes, aching to pour out. “You’re so lovely to me too, Seokjin-ah. And I also had selfish reasons for being with you. I thought you hated me after our first date, and called it quits, but I was obsessed with the way your voice made my body feel. That’s why I made you narrate the MapleStory lore to me that time.
“Yet as time went on… it went from lust to love. I enjoyed your presence, loved how comfortable I felt with you. You’re such a warm presence for me, I don’t remember the last time I felt so safe around someone. I really want to be with you Seokjin, no matter how much you insist I won’t. It’s a different thing if you don’t like me, but I love you.”
Seokjin goes silent at first, preferring to stare at Jimin blankly. Jimin breathes hard as he waits for Seokjin’s response.
At last, he says, “Those are some sweet words, Jimin. I appreciate them. It still doesn’t solve the problem: you clearly like having sex. You’re saying all this now, but will you stick by them in the future? You’re going to be so unsatisfied with me.”
“Can I be honest with you? Even when I was dating other people, sex with them wasn’t always satisfying. Nine out of ten times, your narrations did more for me than their hands on my dick.”
“Is that so?” Seokjin perks up. “I really have that effect on you?”
“Remember when we were in the escape room and you moaned really loud? I got an instant boner from that. That’s why I wasn’t making eye contact with you.”
“I moaned… you mean after I hit my knee?”
Jimin was really hoping he wouldn’t bring that up. “Yeah…”
“Wow, you really are a perv.”
“Everyone keeps saying that.” Jimin complains. “Guess I can’t blame you for it. But yeah, that’s what your voice does for me.”
“Hm, and you really want us to work so… do you want to try something with me?”
At last. Seokjin’s words are like a splash of cool water to his face, some much needed relief after this disagreement. “Please, I’ll try anything with you.”
“Now, I’ve never done this before, so I don’t know how it will go.” Seokjin warns him at first. “But I was wondering if I could try pretending to have sex instead of actually doing it. You said my voice has given you better results than doing it physically, so why don’t we lean into it?”
““You want to walk me through it?”
“More like I moan while you like, hump the air or something. I can do it on command, anyway. Watch.” Seokjin closes his eyes, his lips part, and he lets out the whiniest moan Jimin has ever heard. It’s high-pitched, and he draws it out just long enough for Jimin to go hard.
“Oh wow.” He whispers, his erection pressing uncomfortably in his pants.
“Did that work?” Seokjin asks, his eyes fluttering open. Jimin nods enthusiastically, and Seokjin smirks. “Amazing. Let’s get started then.”
“Wait, wait, I gotta cover up!” Jimin reaches to the side to get his discarded cardigan. “I don’t think you’d like getting come all over you.”
“I would not.” He agrees. “Thanks for looking out for me.”
“No problem.” Jimin finds the condom he packed into the front pocket. He adjusts himself so that he’s resting his knees on top of Seokjin’s thighs, increasing the gap between them. Then he bites on the edge of the condom to hold on to it as he unbuttons his jeans to take out his hard-on. Ripping off the foil, he unrolls the plastic sheath over his dick. It feels weird doing all this when Seokjin is staring at him with wide eyes.
“Do you hate this?” Jimin just has to ask.
“Not as much as I thought I would.” He pauses for a brief second, then adds, “You have a nice dick.”
“Thanks. Now, I really liked your air humping idea, but I’ve got a better plan.”
“Which is…?”
“I think you should close your eyes, and just go with my rhythm.”
Seokjin doesn’t look completely sold on it, so Jimin reassures him, “I’m not going to touch you. The most I’ll do is maybe hold your shoulder, that’s it. Is that fine?”
He gives a silent thumbs up, and that’s all the motivation he needs to go. “Okay, close your eyes, and relax.”
As Seokjin’s eyes close, Jimin grips Seokjin’s shoulder with one hand, uses the other to wrap around his covered co*ck, and starts to stroke along the length of it. The first stroke moves him forward in Seokjin’s direction, pushing Seokjin into the seat. This is met with a loud moan directly in Jimin’s ear. Perfect.
Jimin starts off slow, to get Seokjin accustomed to the movement. He pretends to grind on Seokjin, and sees how well he is at timing his moans to the action. Jimin quickly finds that he’s a natural at it, as Seokjin lets out a low whine every time he gets closer. Content with the results, Jimin feels confident in upping the pace, jerking off in his fist with more vigour.
This entire experience isn’t too different from what Jimin has done before. He’s masturbat*d to Seokjin’s moans plenty of times in the past, as he put on the sex scenes from the audiobooks, and let his hands do their thing. As he mentioned to Seokjin, this was his most preferred way of getting pleasure, as most of his sexual partners have done nothing for him.
If he can be real, his biggest concern was that Seokjin wouldn’t be good at sex. Making nice noises with your mouth is one thing, but actually being a decent sexual partner is a different. Most people have been letdowns, as they were more focussed on their pleasure over Jimin’s. The only person who has never been a letdown for him is Jimin himself. If Seokjin turned out to be terrible at sex, he probably would have pitched this exact idea at some point. During this session, Jimin discovers that the next best thing after hearing Seokjin’s audiobook moans is having him do it right by his ear. It keeps him grounded, and is free of all the distortion from his earphones. No way would some terrible bed technique make him ditch Seokjin, something that a lot of Jimin’s exes can’t relate to.
After a good ten minutes of jerking off, Jimin hits the climax — a lot faster than usual — and tightens his grip on Seokjin when the wave washes over him. He lets out his own moans (which sound a lot closer to grunts) as he comes inside the condom, filling up the plastic casing. His legs go weak and he no longer has the energy to do anything, so he lowers his head, and leans on Seokjin. A pair of arms wrap around his waist, holding his mildly trembling body as he empties himself.
After the last of his come drips out, he sinks fully on Seokjin, panting hard. Jimin’s sweat-slicked skin is all sticky, grossing him out. But Seokjin is ready with a barge of tissue papers, which he uses to dab the sweat off of Jimin’s skin.
“Did you like that?” Seokjin asks.
“Yeah… what about you? Were you uncomfortable?”
“Not really. I imagined I was at an amusem*nt park ride, and it helped.”
“So now do you think we can work out?”
Seokjin crumples up a wet tissue, and tosses it to the side. “You know what? I think we can. This feels like a good compromise for both of us.”
“Told you we were going to work out!”
“Hm. Could you please move to the side a bit? I can feel your dick on me, and it’s weird.”
“Oh, sorry, sorry.” Jimin plops to the seat next to him, and starts unrolling the condom, doing his best to not spill any on Seokjin’s seats. As he does it, he’s reminded of something he was told earlier. “Hey, when you mentioned the spill-proof seats, what was that about?”
“I just wanted to see your reaction.” He confesses. “Had a feeling it would excite you, and it did.”
“Are they really as spill-proof as you claim?”
“They are! But I need to send them in for professional cleaning. One time my roommate went crazy with a bucket of chicken wings here, and got sauce everywhere. They got all the stains out, but it was such a pain to send it for cleaning in the first place. Please try not to spill anything on purpose.”
“Noted for next time.” Jimin winks at him, and Seokjin laughs it off.
“Cute. Do you have your condom off? Give it to me, I’ll dispose of it.”
Jimin hands it over, and watches Seokjin gingerly stuff it into a plastic bag full of damp tissues. He ties the whole thing with a knot, and puts it down. “I’ll take care of all of that when I get home.”
“Nice.” Jimin starts dressing himself again, starting with his pants. A sudden question pops into his mind, and he needs the answer right now. “Oh, I was going to ask you! Why Cheongbajin? It sounds like a typo.”
“I’m so glad you asked me this!” Seokjin claps in excitement. “I love explaining the meaning behind it! It’s cheongbaji combined with Jin. Cheongbaji in English are called jeans, and the last syllable of my name is Jin. So we combined jeans — cheongbaji — with Jin, which sounds similar. That’s how you get Cheongbajin. Bajin, Bajin!” He chirps.
“Oh, that’s so smart! Now that you say it, it’s so obvious. How did I not see it before?”
“My coworker came up with it! Bless you, Namjoon.” Seokjin beats on his chest. “But I feel so sad when you say it should have been obvious. It makes me think I need a new name. Something more random. So surprising that no one has called me out on this before.”
“It’s not surprising, I just felt that I should have figured it out because I knew the name belonged to you. The average person would not get it, ever. And don’t change the name, it’s so iconic.”
“Hah, sure.”
“I’m serious!” Jimin wears his cardigan, and sees that movie is still going on. While buttoning it up, he says, “Oh, I’ve bothered you enough. I’m sorry I made you miss so much of the movie, I’ll shut up now.”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t care about the movie.” Seokjin turns his head to the side, a smile following closely. “I only said that to stall you, nothing more. I don’t even know the name of this damn movie, let alone the plot.”
“So… what does that mean?”
“Can we kiss again?” He requests. “Please? I really liked doing that. I only stopped you because I didn’t want it to end in sex. We sorted that out, but I still want my kisses.”
“Aw, you’re so cute.” Jimin crinkles his nose at him.
“I might hate sex, but I love my cuddles.”
“You’re just a sappy romantic at heart.” He sighs lovingly at Seokjin. “I adore that so much. Past the horniness, I have a romantic side too.”
“I appreciate hearing that so much you have no idea. Now,” Seokjin spreads his arms, “come to me.”
Jimin snuggles into them, and kisses Seokjin. They go slow and sensual, taking their time to explore the curve of the other’s lips, breathing each other in.
In between kisses, Jimin whispers, “I love you, Seokjin. I’m so happy I found you.”
“I’m so happy I found you too.” Is Seokjin’s breathy reply.
As the end credits roll, they melt into one another with their hearts full of love, and mind free of the burden of secrets.
