Jimin sat across from me, his elbows resting on the table between us, the smile on his face causing his eyes to crinkle.
"What are you smiling at?" I question. Bringing my americano to my lips, I take a sip as I wait for his answer.
He chuckles, the action causing his shoulders to shake slightly.
"You."
"Me?" I respond,not fully understanding his answer. "Why on Earth would you be smiling at me?"
The light-hearted look from Jimin's face disappears, leaving a shockingly serious expression in its place.
"Yoongi," Jimin breathes, leaning further forward across the table, taking my free hand in both of his own. His brown eyes meet mine, the intensity with which he's looking at me makes me feel like I could melt into a puddle in the middle of this coffee shop. I gulp, anxious to hear the rest of what he has to say.
Jimin opens his mouth to speak, but no words come out. Instead a shrill ringing comes out, the sound getting louder as Jimin continues to speak. Covering my ears, I try to block out the noise, but it's to no avail.
Jimin brings his hand up to cradle my cheek, his lips mouthing my name but the blaring noise takes place of where his voice should be coming out.
I open my eyes, confused with the scene around me. Bright, white lights were flashing all though the room, the alarm still shattering my ear drums. I shake my head, trying to clear away to fog left behind after my nap. I look around, noticing that the world had once again faded back to its shades of gray.
I wonder where Jimin moved to.
Then it dawns on me.
Fire alarm. I have to get out of here.
I scramble to my feet, my feet getting tangled in the blanket and almost tripping me in my hurry. I slip on my shoes and coat before hurrying into the hallway, my color starting to return to me. I look down the hallway, seeing Taehyung trying to usher Jungkook and Jimin down the hallway. The two boys were not taking him seriously at all, instead they continued to banter and move at a turtle's pace towards the stairs. Walking up behind them, I flick Jimin in the back of the head.
"Get a move on boys. I'm not going to burn to death because you guys feel like being rebellious against Taehyung today," I grumble, still cranky from being woken up.
"This is all Tae's fault anyway," Jungkook mumbles, picking up his pace despite his words.
I look at Taehyung, whose face was starting to turn red. I decided that now was not the time to worry about this, I could do that once I was safely out of the building. I pushed past the trio, taking the lead as they followed silently behind me.
As I pushed the lobby doors open, the cool night air rushed in to meet me, making me glad that I had remembered to grab my coat. I walked down the stairs and moved to stand off to the side of the large group of occupants that had also had to evacuate their apartments due to the alarm, the three boys still following along behind me.
Once I had determined we were a safe distance away, I turned towards my neighbors.
"So does someone want to explain to me what just happened?" I leveled Taehyung with an accusatory stare causing the taller man to shrink back from me.
Jimin laughed before lightly punching Taehyung in the shoulder. At the sound of his laugh, an image of him sitting across from me in my dream popped into my head.
"What happened? Taehyung tried to make dinner, that's what happened." Jungkook stated, his words causing color to rise into Taehyung's cheeks.
I stared at the shade, unable to stop myself.
Red. What a fascinating color.
Luckily, Taehyung didn't seem to notice that I was staring at his cheeks. If he did, he didn't say anything about it. Instead, he moved to defend himself.
"I was just following the recipe!" He brought his phone out of his pocket and lit up the screen, a recipe showing up. Jimin started to giggle while Jungkook tried to hold back his own laughter.
"Then what went wrong?"
Jimin doubled over, his loud laughs shaking his whole body.
"Wha-What went wrong?" He placed a hand on Taehyung's shoulder, trying to get his laughter under control. "The recipe calls for alcohol. You know, you put it in, it flames, and if you do it right it'll burn out?" I nod. "Well someone didn't do it right." He gave Taehyung a pointed look. "And then he panicked. When we came in, there was smoke everywhere, the alarm was going off, and Taehyung was just screaming."
At Jimin's explanation, Jungkook lost any chance of holding in his laughter. Once his laughs had subsided to nothing but a few giggles, he wiped his eyes and looked at his friend.
"You know you can't cook Tae." The words should have sounded harsh, but Jungkook's tone was soft as he spoke to the man beside him. "You could have asked for help."
"I just wanted to make something nice," Taehyung mumbled, dropping his eyes to the ground. Jungkook wrapped his arms around his shoulders, trying to comfort the older man.
Soon they had slipped into their own world and I recalled what Jimin had once said to me about them being a couple. Or an almost couple.
"Get a room you guys," Jimin teased, neither one of them paid him any attention. They were far too interested in each other for that.
Jimin sighed and turned to me, shrugging his shoulders.
"See what I'm talking about? I'm a third wheel all the time." He motioned to his roommates, who only had eyes for each other. "What am I gonna do about them, Hyung?"
"I think it's cute. Just keep pushing them together. It worked with Namjoon and Jin."
At the mention of the couple, Jimin's eyes lit up.
"About that… Remember how Namjoon said that Jin had a surprise for him? What do you think it was?"
Honestly I was a little surprised that Jimin even remembered as he had been acting so out of it earlier.
"Who knows. Knowing those sentimental fools, it's probably something way over the top."
I knew my friends, and sensible they were not. They balanced each other out nicely. Seok-jin the calm to Namjoon's flurry of unintentional destruction. But neither of them knew when something was a bit over the top.
Jimin's eyes shined and I could only imagine what images his mind was conjuring up. He gasped, grabbing my arm.
"Yoongi," he breathed, "What if Seok-jin proposes to Namjoon? Aw! I love weddings. Do you think they would invite me?"
"Woah, slow down there. There will be no wedding invitation talk just yet. They just started admitting that they're going out, there's no way that Jin would propose to Namjoon. He's more practical than that."
Jimin's excitement deflated at my words, bringing him back down to reality with the rest of us.
"I guess you're right," he mumbled.
"Of course I am. I'm always right." I raise my arms to gesture towards myself. "I mean, have you met me?"
Jimin laughs at me, the light sound filling the air around us. His eyes meet mine and a small smile lifts the corners of his plump lips.
"Yeah, I have met you. And I'm glad I did," he confesses.
It was strange how his words never failed to leave me flustered. Hearing his words, I felt heat creeping up my neck. I knew my cheeks would be turning red soon. I had wanted to hide my reactions from Jimin, but there was no way to do so out here in the open.
As if answering my prayers, the fire department came out of the building at that moment, capturing the attention of everyone me, even Jimin. They stated that the building was clear and we could all go back to our lives.
As people filed away inside, Taehyung and Jungkook moved to talk to the building manager, Jimin and I trailing behind them.
I could see that the building manager was scolding Taehyung by the look on the young man's face. Once he was done, he took his leave and left Taehyung standing there, looking dejected while Jungkook tried to soothe him.
"So what did he say?" Jimin asked.
Taehyung looked up at his friend, his eyes glossy.
"He says we're lucky the whole building didn't burn down. He's not kicking us out, but we do have to pay for the repair costs. Looks like our kitchen will be out of commission for a while."
Jimin nodded, "So what are we going to do for food. I for one am starving. Should we go somewhere?"
"You guys can eat at my place," I offered, not even thinking over the consequences first. 3 pairs turned to stare at me and I felt the weight of my offer resting on my shoulders.
What did I just do? I can't cook for 4 people, I don't even want to cook for myself. Maybe I can call Jin, him and Namjoon should be done by now. Or at least I hope so.
"Are you sure, Yoongi-hyung?" Taehyung asked, his voice coming out quietly.
"Yeah, it should be fine. I'll call Seok-jin and Namjoon to invite them as well. Seok-jin loves cooking for people, anyway."
The boys nodded and gave me privacy as I stepped away to call Seok-jin.
I found his contact in my phone, a picture of him and Namjoon popping up on the screen as I hit the call button. I placed the phone to my ear, praying that he would answer. The phone rang a few times and I felt my hopes plummeting, until he finally answered.
"Hello," he answered, his voice sounding far away, letting me know I was on speaker phone.
"Seok-jin, it's Yoongi. I didn't mean to wake you. I know you and Namjoon had plans tonight. If you guys are done, do you mind coming over? I could use your help with…. Something."
"Something?" He inquired, pushing me for more answers.
"Well the kitchen in Jimin's apartment is kind of out of order, so I offered to let them eat at my place. Problem is: I can't cook for that many people. Do you mind coming and helping me?"
"Ohhhhh, Jimin, huh?" I hear Namjoon's voice pipe up from the background.
"Shush Namjoon, this has nothing to do with that," I answer.
"Mhm. I've never heard of you inviting people over, Yoongi. You must like Jimin quite a lot," Jin teased, following Namjoon's lead.
"I don't like him," I deny.
"Whatever you say, Yoongi. We just finished up our date, so we'll be there soon. We were gonna come see you anyway."
"Awesome, thanks guys. See you soon," I hang up the phone and turn towards the boys, who turn to face me when they hear me approaching.
"Namjoon and Seok-jin are coming and should be here soon."
They nod at me as I walk past them, Jimin falling in step beside me as I make my way back inside. I see Jimin looking at me. Suspicious, I glance over at him.
"What are you looking at?" I ask.
"Nothing…" he giggles.
"Just spit it out, Jimin."
"It's just… your pajamas… they're so cute." He chuckles. "I never pegged you as a pink kind of person."
"Seok-jin got them for me," I mumble. "They're comfortable."
Jimin lets the conversation drop as we climb the stairs, the whispers of Jungkook and Taehyung echoing around us as they walk behind us.
"Jimin just called him cute.." Taehyung whispered.
"I'm right here, Tae. I heard it too." Jungkook points out.
"Yoongi-hyung blushed. Maybe he likes Jimin back," Taehyung observed.
I wasn't sure if they knew that we could hear every word they said, but I didn't speak up to stop them and neither did Jimin.
"As if, he's probably just pitying him. If you ask me, I think he's more into Hoseok than anyone. I saw them in the hallway before we left. They were holding hands, Tae."
Taehyung gasps. "Poor Jimin. He can't compete with that ball of sunshine."
I look over to Jimin and see a strained smile on his face. Desperate to get home faster and end this conversation, I sped up my steps. Jimin rushed to match my pace, refusing to be left behind.
As we approached our floor, the smell of smoke got stronger. I crinkle my nose in disgust, hoping the smell wouldn't make it's way into my apartment.
I open the door to my apartment, relieved to smell fresh air instead of smoke. The trio walked in behind, the last two observing my apartment. Jimin had already been here, so he knew what it looked like. Taehyung had only seen the entry way. Now that they stood in my living room, they took in my lack of decorations and the monochrome color scheme of the place.
"It's….nice," Jungkook commented.
"I see you're a big fan of monochrome," Taehyung adds, picking up one of my gray pillows from the couch.
I tried to hold back the laughter that his words brought out, but a small chuckle still escaped my lips.
"No, not really," I say, letting the subject drop.
I had purposely chosen my furniture so that it was all monochrome. When Namjoon asked about it, I told him it was so I knew it all matched. That was only part of the truth. The other reason that I chose my color scheme was so I could, even if it was just while I was at home, pretend that I was seeing the colors as they should be. Now that I could actually see the colors around me, I realized how sad my apartment actually looked.
Jimin quickly came to my defense.
"It may look a little plain out here, but his studio is crazy. That's obviously where he puts most of his personality."
He wasn't wrong. If I was honest, I barely ever used the living room. If I wasn't in my bedroom, I was in my studio. The rest of my apartment just looked plain in comparison because I didn't spend any time in it.
Jungkook's eyes lit up at the mention of my studio.
"Studio? Can we see it?"
"I appreciate your excitement, but no." His face fell at my denial. "Sorry guys, I just don't usually let people in there. This one," I gesture to Jimin, "only saw it because I was careless."
Jungkook nodded, understanding showing on his face.
"Other than that, make yourselves at home."
Jungkook and Tae wasted no time settling onto my couch, flipping through the channels until they find an anime to watch. I resumed my spot by the wall, Jimin sliding down to sit next to me as we settle in to wait for the rest of our party to arrive.