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Light filtered through the floor to ceiling windows, causing shadows to stretch across the room. Outside of the apartment seagulls squawked and the chatter from the beginnings of the crowd at Hauendae beach could be heard. It would’ve been a perfect morning if it weren’t for two things. Jimin wasn’t home from his business trip, and Jeongguk had just broken his glasses.
It wouldn’t be a big deal usually, however in true Jeongguk fashion he broke his glasses at the worst possible moment. Had this happened say even two weeks ago Jeongguk would still have contacts he could wear, but unfortunately, he had just run out and hadn’t had time to go get his new prescription so he could order a new set. And it wasn’t like he could close the coffee shop for the day because he couldn’t see and had to go the optometrist. No, he needed that money after spending a lot of it on an engagement ring on Jimin. An engagement ring that was now currently residing at the bottom of his underwear drawer.
He was screwed.
Jeongguk sighed and cursed under his breath as he stared at the broken frame in his hand. The part around the lens had snapped, causing his glasses lens to fall out and land somewhere on his white sheets. Jeongguk had half a mind to not look for it, knowing that he probably won’t find it until the most inopportune moment (i.e, trying to have sex with Jimin). It was the small nagging voice in the back of his mind that sounded an awful lot like Jimin that made him pat his hand around on the bedding until he found the clear plastic.
“Haha,” Jeongguk hissed in victory once he eventually managed to find it, a grin on his face as he held up the lens reverently. “Gotcha, you jerk.”
His victory was short lived, however, due to the sound of Jeongguk’s ringtone- Russian Roulette- cutting through the otherwise silent room, causing him to jump in surprise and drop the lens. “Fudge.” Jeongguk muttered before picking up his phone, glanced at the caller ID, and clicked ‘accept’. “Hi love.”
“Hi baby,” the raspy voice said on the other end of the line before chuckling. “Just calling to tell you that I’m about to board in like 5 minutes. Sorry for bothering, but doesn’t the shop open soon? I thought you were going to be at work. Isn’t the inspector is coming today?”
“The… inspector?” Jeongguk said, scratching his head.
“The person who is supposed to check your shop today?”
“OH GOD!” Jeongguk shouted, frantically pushing the cover off of his body and rolling out of bed. His feet hit the cold hardwood with a loud thump, and he started to frantically push down his sweatpants and boxers while holding his phone to his ear with his other. “Uhm, okay, er, thanks for reminding me Jiminie.”
He heard Jimin chuckle before saying, “Anytime baby. I have to go now, see you later. I love you.”
“I love you too. Bye!” Jeongguk said frantically before hitting the red ‘end’ button and stepping out of his sweats and boxers that were bunched by his ankles.
He ran around the apartment like a chicken with its head cut off, throwing on clothes, and frantically pulling them off when they didn’t match before trying on another pant or shirt. His hands shook as he tried to button his shirt and he could hear the frantic beating of his heart. He didn’t even bother checking the armpits of his shirt, knowing that it’d be drenched in sweat.
A comb was hastily tugged through the messy waves and half-curls that was his hair, his favorite lip balm (cocoanut. Also happed to be Jimin’s favorite on him) was applied to his lips, and his vanilla perfume was spritzed and rubbed into his body. He hastily ran out of the door, the laces of his brown dress shoes hastily tied and tucked into the sides.
Jeongguk made it down to the end of the hall when he remembered he forgot his phone, and once he retrieved that the nagging feeling that he was forgetting something was still present. It wasn’t until he was nearly to the main road did, he remember that he didn’t have his wallet. But even as he ran back to from his apartment, sweat clinging to his brow and his hair a mess, the nagging feeling remained.
The walk to his shop wasn’t long, fortunately. He jogged most of it, wary of his surroundings due to his limited vision, his legs beginning to burn and chest heaving when he arrived. He was nowhere near out of shape, not by a long shot, but he still was a bit too winded for his liking. Plus, he loved feeling big and muscular and also loved the feeling of being soaked in sweat and his muscles burning after a long session at the gym.
Maybe he could get Jimin to do a couples gym class with him.
Jeongguk mentally filed that information away for later and reached into his pocket for his keys only to grab empty air.
His keys.
“Dang it!” Jeongguk shouted, not caring if he received odd looks.
Just yet another thing that could go wrong today.
He leaned against the wall of the shop and slid down so that he was sitting and buried his face in his hands. The overhand of the roof provided some shade, but the bright sun still shone on him. With how his luck was going today, he wouldn’t be surprised if he earned a sun burn too.
I’m so screwed, Jeongguk thought How am I supposed to explain this to the inspector if they get here before I can get in?
He quietly mulled over his options on how he could actually get in. Jeongguk checked his watch and noted the time and realized that Seokjin was supposed to be clocking in in half an hour.
Thirty minutes sooner than if he ran back to his apartment and grabbed his keys and ran back.
Frantically, Jeongguk pulled out his phone and sent Seokjin a message to hurry up, not caring to explain exactly why he had to. All he got back was a thumbs up emoji and a question mark. He turned off his phone and began to softly hit it against his thigh while he looked around. What he was looking for, he didn’t quite know. All he did know was that anxiety boiled in his gut and his palms were too shaky to just be the adrenaline wearing off from his run.
What-ifs ran around his mind like horses on a racetrack and were competing to see who could win at making him the most anxious.
What if the inspector comes here before I’ve finished opening up the shop?
Worse, what if the inspector comes before Seokjin is here and finds me on the ground?
Oh god…
“No, Jeongguk,” Jeongguk said to himself. “Don’t keep thinking and send yourself into a tizzy. It’s not worth it.”
And so, he waited, watching the passersby laughing and smiling, some of them with their arms full of beach supplies. Seagulls continued to squawk overhead, reminding Jeongguk of Jimin, especially when his boyfriend got mad. He waited patiently- or so he told himself- and kept an eye on his watch as the time slowly creeped towards 9:30 AM. The sun continued to rise, turning the cloud-scarce sky a brilliant blue. It was beautiful outside and Jeongguk hoped that the new few days would be this beautiful so he and Jimin could go on a date, and so that he could do something else for Jimin.
Distantly, he thought of the ring box that was sitting beneath his underwear.
He had several places he could propose to Jimin. Like their apartment, the coffee shop, maybe at a dinner date, but none of them screamed them. The answer lay to his left in the form of the grey ocean gliding over the warm sand, but Jeongguk was too stuck in his own thoughts to notice.
The rumbling of his stomach broke him out of his thoughts. Jeongguk grumbled, and a small frown appeared on his face. In his rush to get to the coffee shop he had forgotten about breakfast too. He really didn’t want to waste the time or the money to run and get something from the convenience store down the street.
And, of course, the usual crate with the chips and water he always left out for passing tourists were not perched on the usual display outside. “Can anything go right?” Jeongguk said under his breath, glaring at the sidewalk before him.
To say the least, the next 20 minutes was horrible as Jeongguk tried not to give into his hunger knowing that he could eat soon and as he also tried to calm his racing thoughts.
A bead of sweat trickled down from his temple to the collar of his shirt. Jeongguk wiped it away while also accidentally making contact with a pedestrian. He gave him a strange look which Jeongguk answered with a thin smile, hoping that the man didn’t question why he was sitting in front of a restaurant sweating to death. Sometime within the past half hour the temperature shot up to reflect the summer season.
The man fortunately continued on with his business leaving Jeongguk with an open view to the intersection where he could barely make out a familiar tall, broad shouldered silhouette if he squinted hard enough. “Hyung!” he shouted, rapidly standing up and waving his arms.
Jin crossed the intersection when the light turned green and once he reached the sidewalk on the other side he noticed Jeongguk waving at him. His brow cocked and a frown made his lips downturn. Jeongguk shook his head in response and motioned for Jin to hurry up.
When Jin reached him, he was slightly out of breath. “Do I even want to know?” Jin asked breathlessly as he pulled out his set of keys and started to unlock the front door.
“You really don’t.”
Jin nodded and opened the door, scooting over so that a sweaty Jeongguk could pass through. The second the cool air of the AC hit him it felt like heaven. Jeongguk spread his arms and stood under the vent, letting the cool air wash over him. “Jimin’s coming home today,” Jeongguk supplied to fill the silence.
He received a noncommittal noise in return. Jeongguk turned and saw that Jin was putting away his bag. “I’m going to propose to him soon.”
“YOU’RE WHAT?” Jin yelled, slamming his employee locker closed and moving so that he was in front of Jeongguk.
“I told you I got the ring already,” Jeongguk said, shrugging his shoulders. “Only logical next step is to propose.”
“Yeah, but it’s still a shock!” Jin protested. “Oh my, my Jeonggukie is going to get married.” He added wistfully, his eyes glossy with fake tears. “You’re making your hyung feel so old.”
Jeongguk snorted at Jin’s dramatics. “You know, it’s never too late to put that acting degree to good use, hyung. Better do it soon before your memory starts to go.”
That earned him a slap on the shoulder. “At least I lost the keys to the restaurant I literally own,” Jin snapped back, stepping away from Jeongguk and back to the employee lockers.
“Lost and forgot are two very different things, hyung.”
Jeongguk could practically hear Jin roll his eyes. “You were still irresponsible, and you should receive consequences.” Jin lectured.
“I think nearly starving and sweating to death was enough, thank you though,” Jeongguk replied brightly before walking away from the vent and to behind the counter.
His hand ran over the dark wood of the bar as he noted to wipe down the counters. “Jin-hyung? Can you bring a rag? I want to wipe down the counters again before the inspector comes.” he yelled, wandering into the storeroom, and pulling out the crate of chips for outside.
“The inspector? Jeongguk, he isn’t coming until next week,” Jin called back.
Jeongguk bit his lip so that Jin wouldn’t hear him curse at the world.
The day was slow and boring, and two hours after opening the most Jeongguk had done was scrounge up a very old pair of glasses that he had for some reason still in his office (that had been the highlight of his day so far) and chase off a few seagulls from the chip bag and water crate. Normally they didn’t go after the chips, but today seemed different. One of them even stole a bag from a customer, which was what tipped Jeongguk over the edge.
The second he finished profusely apologizing to the lady, he ran inside and called Yoongi, Jin’s boyfriend-but-not-quite. “Hyung,” Jeongguk started out in a cute voice. “Do you possibly have a spare crab cage that I could borrow?”
“Are you finally going to try and stuff Jin into one?” Yoongi asked, his voice monotonous.
“Maybe…”
“Jeongguk.”
“Seagulls keep stealing my damn chips and I want to try and trap it so I can move it somewhere else.”
“Oh Jeonggukie,” Yoongi sighed.
“Hey, hyung, I will gladly try and stick Jin-hyung into it once I get that damn seagull.” Jeongguk promised almost seriously.
“How do you know it’s the same seagull? Jin told me about how you broke your glasses by the way.”
“I’M GOING TO STRANGLE YOU, HYUNG!” Jeongguk shouted towards the barista station where Jin was currently reading a magazine and sipping on a smoothie he had somehow procured. When he had bumped into the door frame going in and out of his office with Jin getting the whole show, Jin had quickly figured him out. “Sorry, hyung.” Jeongguk apologized to Yoongi. “And f.y.i I found some of my old glasses so I can half see right now.”
Just like Jin had done earlier, Jeongguk could practically hear Yoongi roll his eyes over the phone. They really were made for each other.
Eventually Yoongi agreed and Jeongguk hung up. He was bored for all of 10 seconds before yet another seagull swooped down and stole a bag of chips from yet another unsuspecting patron’s hands.
“I. Have. Had it.” Jeongguk seethed as he stomped out the side door and to the front of the building. Before he turned the corner he put on his shiniest, customer winning smile and strode out to the customer. He bowed and apologized profusely, promising her a coupon next time she came once he handed her another bag of chips.
He could not wait until Yoongi arrived.
Soon (but not soon enough) Yoongi arrived, giant crab cage in tow.
Jeongguk let out a nervous giggle when Yoongi warned him that the cage should not even have a scratch on it when Jeongguk gave it back. And he would give it back intact or else no meals for him for life.
Needless to say, Jeongguk hesitantly accepted. He thanked Yoongi for giving him the crab cage and for being a fisher so that he had the cage in the first place, and he received a hand through his hair in response.
The rest of the morning passed by uneventfully. Even the usual lunch rush wasn’t as bad as it usually was, and once that passed the coffee shop was empty again. Jeongguk bid Jin goodbye as he snuck outside, twine in hand that he had stolen from the backroom, the crab cage already propped up against the wall of the restaurant. Jeongguk snuck around to the front and dragged the crate containing the chip bags to the side. It took several tries due to his blurry vision and slowly growing headache from wearing the wrong prescription, but Jeongguk finally managed to tie the crab cage to the string and have it hanging over the crate.
The rope was taut in his hand as he scrambled behind the backdoor, waiting for the seagull to swoop by.
And so, the waiting game began.
It was nearly half an hour before the seagull came swooping by and by that time Jeongguk’s hand had decided to start cramping. Jeongguk watched as the blurry seagull landed on the crate.
He hissed and let the rope go, watching as the crate fell down, the hole going over the seagull perfectly as it trapped the bird in the crate. The seagull gave an indignant, human-esque squawk while Jeongguk whooped with joy due to finally catching the pesky bird.
“Jin-hyung! I caught it!” Jeongguk shouted as he turned his back on the seagull and crate. He heard a loud thumb from behind, and he turned mid-shout to see a silver haired man on the ground, his legs half stuck in the metal cage.
He was screwed.
“Is that really any way to greet your boyfriend, Jeonggukie?” Jimin asked while glaring at Jeongguk from where he laid on the ground. Even with his limited vision Jeongguk could still tell what Jimin was feeling.
He was so, utterly screwed.
“Hi Jiminie,” Jeongguk said timidly. He smiled shyly hoping that it’d show that he wasn’t worth being annoyed at, but all it did was have Jimin give him The Look.
The Look was something that Jimin spent all of his life perfecting. It was the perfect combination of “Seriously?” and “I don’t want to hear it” all contained in a stare. Jeongguk could count on one hand how many times he’d been subjected to The Look- it was usually only reserved for his stupid mess ups and was usually followed by Jimin’s fingers combing through his hair and a fond kiss to his forehead but being that his boyfriend was currently half stuck in a cage, Jeongguk figured that his post-The Look reward would have to wait.
“Do I even want to know?” Jimin asked.
“Funnily enough, Jin-hyung asked me the same exact thing when he arrived this morning.” Jeongguk mused.
“Oh, Jeonggukie,” Jimin sighed. “Help me out of this please so that I can strangle you.” He added with a smile.
Jeongguk gulped and frantically ran forward to help Jimin’s legs become unstuck.
The second Jeongguk freed Jimin he was being attacked by kisses. “Jimin,” Jeongguk moaned against Jimin’s mouth. “N-not right here. People might see.”
Jimin nodded and stepped back (right after he pressed one more kiss to Jeongguk’s swollen lips). He reached out for Jeongguk’s hand which Jeongguk gladly wrapped around Jimin’s much smaller one. Jeongguk’s thumb brushed over the back of Jimin’s hand absentmindedly as he looked over his future-fiancé. “You look beautiful.” Jeongguk whispered. “And I missed you a lot.”
“You look beautiful too and I missed you more.”
“Not as beautiful as you and I definitely missed you more.”
“You probably can barely see me.” Jimin teased, his free hand reaching up to adjust Jeongguk’s old glasses. “These are an old pair, Jeonggukie. What happened to your other pair?”
Jeongguk looked down at his shoes before he admitted “I broke them…”
Jimin sighed and ran a hand through Jeongguk’s dark waves. “Clumsy baby. At least it wasn’t during sex this time.”
That earned Jimin an eyeroll. Jeongguk went in for another kiss, stepping closer to Jimin and pulling their intertwined hands close to his chest, but was interrupted by the sound of someone slurping.
“Hyung!” Jeongguk exclaimed, dropping Jimin’s hands and covering his reddening face.
Jin continued to slurp down his noodles as if nothing had happened. “Your lunch break is over,” he told Jeongguk.
Jeongguk cocked an eyebrow. He swore he still had another 10 minutes for his lunch break. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and confirmed that yes, he did still have 10 more minutes until his break was over. He glanced over at Jimin whose face was red then back at Jin who had a knowing smile on his face. “Hyung, what’s going on?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Jimin said, a hint of a smile peeking through his otherwise neutral face. “Just go inside Jeonggukie. I bought something for you and it’s on the counter.”
“How? Didn’t you just get here?” Jeongguk said, confused how Jimin had dropped something off when he just arrived.
“I gave it to Jin before I left and when he told me how you were going to spend your lunch break, I told him to set it out for you.” Jimin replied, clearly choosing his words carefully.
“So, you intentionally got yourself trapped?” Jeongguk questioned as he slipped into the backroom.
“Trust me. Getting trapped was not the plan,” Jimin said grimly.
Jeongguk pushed open the door to the main part of the coffee shop and that’s when he saw it. A bouquet of roses and a little red box, the velvet outside bright against the dark countertop. “J-Jimin,” Jeongguk replied breathlessly. “Oh my god.”
Jimin walked over to the ring box, grabbed it, and sunk to one knee while opening it. “Jeonggukie, the love of my life and my dearest friend, will you marry me?”
“Yeah,” Jeonggukie whispered, tears welling in his eyes as his face turned red, before adding “You’re spending too much time in America.”
Jimin chuckled and stood up and said “I did grow up there” before pulling Jeongguk close to him and kissing him deeply. Somewhere within the shop Jeongguk heard Jin’s cheering but chose to ignore his precious hyung. Jimin pulled away and looked at Jeongguk through his lashes. They stood there, looking at each other as if it were the first time, they were seeing each other.
It was Jeongguk who broke the silence. “I had a ring for you. In my underwear drawer.”
“I know.”
“I was going to propose to you on the beach.”
“You can still do so, love.”
Jeongguk giggled before leaning in for yet another kiss. “I wish I could see you clearly currently.”
“Oh Jeonggukie, I’m sure I’m red.”
The day had started out horribly, but Jeongguk would never change how it ended with him slowly rocking between Jimin’s legs, exchanging languid kisses as the setting sun dimly lit their room, the small diamond in his ring catching the light every once in a while.