Chapter 12

By the time that they were finished with their coffees and a little bit of small talk here and there, Yoongi saw that he had spent just under an hour in Jimin's company and yet it felt like mere minutes to him. There was just something about listening to him talking about the upcoming performance night, about watching him talk, that arrested his attention.

Yoongi did his own fair share of talking too, explaining about how his applied music classes varied from learning by the ear to learning an instrument to supplement his composition and ensemble classes; and how his focus for his photography class was just to work on his techniques for the year and build up his skills. As he spoke he shifted his attention from Jimin to the window, at the cup in front of him and back again, and every time that he did he saw that Jimin was watching him just as intently as he watched him. When it came to leaving the café he made sure to get the door first to hold it for him.

"I can drop you off, if you want?" Yoongi offered as he cocked his head in the direction of his bike. "Uh, wherever that is of course."

"I've never been on a bike before," Jimin said as he stepped onto the sidewalk eyed the vehicle with that same interest as earlier.

"Wanna try it out, huh?"

"…OK," he said after a moment of thought. "OK, it looks kind of cool." For some reason Yoongi found himself smiling at this as he pulled his keys free and walked along the sidewalk to get to the vehicle. He unlocked the seat storage and pulled it up before realizing that the only had a single helmet on him.

"Uh, you wear it," Yoongi said as he held the helmet out to him. "Next time I'll make sure to pack a spare."

"Next time?" Jimin asked as he accepted the helmet from him. He studied the front for a few seconds before lifting his gaze to look at him and Yoongi saw something glinting away in his eyes.

"There'll be a next time," Yoongi said with a smirk, and yet despite sounding very confident about it he found himself suddenly doubting that burst of cockiness. Jimin laughed and yet he still felt the most pressing urge to blurt something out and cover his ass. "There'll be a next time, right?"

"Yes," Jimin said as he turned his attention back to the helmet. "There will be a next time."

Yoongi had to take the helmet out of his hands because Jimin seemed uncertain how to put it on, turning it this way and that rather than try and pull it in place. He made sure that the buckles were hanging loose and then he held it over his head and pulled it in place. The young man made a funny noise that was muffled by the helmet and Yoongi pulled it on snugly before reaching down to do the buckle. Just as he did Jimin also reached up to attempt it, so his fingers brushed against his wrists. The contact was almost electric and Yoongi slipped the buckles together, hearing the loud snapping sound to let him know it was secure.

"There, done," he said as he knocked his knuckles against the side of the helmet. Jimin's shoulders went up at this and then he reached up to touch the helmet. The clash of his gold nails against the black plastic was fantastic.

"Where to, huh?" As he climbed onto the bike the other student gave him the address of his block. "Oh yeah, I know that street. It's around Namsan Tower, right? Just guide me if I go a little off target, yeah?"

Jimin made a noise as he shifted to climb onto the back, his knees knocking against his thighs as he tried to get comfortable. After a moment he moved to loosely wrap his arms around his waist and Yoongi felt his helmeted chin settling on his shoulder.

"Hold on tight, alright?"

Yoongi couldn't recall his first time riding on a motorbike because he had been riding one since he had been riding on since he had gotten his first level license at sixteen. From there he had worked his way up from the low allowance of 100 cc to get to 150, and then all the way up to his current bikes 350 cc. But the one thing that he knew was that the experience didn't really change that much over time. He had friends that loved riding it, like Namjoon and Seokjin, to friends that hated it like Hoseok. Even after four years of sharing the back Hoseok still told him that he always felt like he was going to fall off and he climbed off the bike pale and wobbly legged. Jimin might hate the feeling too, and for a moment he felt his arms tightening around his waist as he switched gears and started picking up speed. But as the seconds turned to minutes Jimin seemed to loosen that tightness, a sign that he might just be getting comfortable.

Though Yoongi knew the name of the street roughly he did require some directions from Jimin to get to the block, for he ended up straying a little too far from the target. It was rather funny listening to his muffled voice through the helmet as he was used to riding solo or with a silent partner on the back, but it was an experience that he would happily repeat over and over if possible. They ended passing Namdaemun market, somewhere that Yoongi made a mental note to visit at some point in the future, and when they finally got to the block he pulled up to the curb just beside the side entrance door. Yoongi didn't kill the engine but rather dropped the gears and pulled the clutch lever out to halfway to stall the engine so that Jimin could climb off the back. The young man moved to remove the helmet himself, golden nails scrabbling at the buckle so he could pop it open and pull it off, and as he did Yoongi couldn't help but stare at his face.

The act of pulling the helmet free dragged his hair back off his face, revealing his brow perfectly. There were no stray locks of black falling over it to slightly obscure his eyebrows, and as he pulled it completely off he scrunched his face up slightly from the effort. His face looked a little flushed from being trapped inside the padded contraption and Jimin reached up to try and fix his hair with a grin.

"It's hard to breathe in that thing, huh?" he joked, running his hand through his hair and knocking a few locks forward.

"You should wear it back more often," Yoongi suggested in a quiet voice as he held the helmet out to him again. At his words Jimin studied him silently, blinking slowly as he processed his words. He accepted the helmet but didn't put it on just yet, just in case he wanted to talk. Jimin turned his head to study the block of concrete and then he looked back at him.

"See you soon, right?" Jimin said as he moved to hover by the door.

"I hope so," Yoongi replied as he lifted the helmet up and pulled it on.

Whilst he secured it in place he didn't move to unlock the door using the keypad and so he lifted his hand to give him one of his characteristic waves. Yoongi pulled the clutch lever out again so that he could twist the throttle and pull back into the road as he returned it. When he got to the end of the street, waiting for the slow roll of traffic to break so he could curve onto the next road, he spared a quick glance back to see that Jimin was just disappearing inside the building. So he drove down a few blocks before stopping the bike again so he could finally have a cigarette, which he had been craving more the best part of half an hour now. He killed his bike so that he could sit with his boots resting on the curb and his back to the traffic; cigarette stick bobbing between his pursed lips as he thought about Jimin had said to him.

"There will be a next time."