The chime of the front door rang loudly in your ears, startling you as if you hadn't already heard the same sound a million times before.

Except this time it felt like an omen...

OF DEATH!

Dramatic?

Always..

You turned onto your knees, lifting your head up above the counter ever so slightly so you could take a peak at whoever just came in.

Please don't be Mr.742.. Please don't be Mr.742!

As your eyes fixated on the stunningly handsome boy who had walked through the door, you felt a desperate amount of relief wash over you.

That was until your brain made the connection that while it may not be your masked 'Genius'...

It certainly was Taemin.

Sh*t!

You ducked back down again, attempting to squeeze yourself into the tiny cupboard filled with coffee filters as if it could possibly help you.

"Yah! Don't be so pathetic!" Ji-eun tutted at you, kicking you in the shin and making you yelp. "Stand up would you!"

You were fairly set on living the rest of eternity in the tiny crevasse below the front counter, before you could hear someone conspicuously clearing their throat above you, the sound of it making you cringe.

Slowly and defeatedly getting to your feet, surely looking about as pathetic as you felt, you met Taemin's eyes.

"Hey Y/N! There you are!" He said with a bright smile, a hint of confusion no where to be found despite the fact he had just watched you peel yourself off the café floor.

"Uh- hey Taemin, how's it going?" you stuttered out, reaching behind your head to fix your hair anxiously.

Wait.

Why is he even here..?

"I just came by to see how you were doing. You were dodging me all weekend and I was worried..."

You instantly felt guilty as he locked eyes with you, his bottom lip jutted out slightly resembling a puppy that had just been kicked.

"A-Ahh... I'm really sorry about that," you started, your mind racing to come up with a good excuse. "I was just uh- super hungover and slept through the entire weekend."

"Oh yeah, she was totally out of it. I couldn't get in touch with her either!" Ji-eun interjected, making you want to plant a kiss right on her gorgeous and helpful face.

At this Taemin nodded, seemingly accepting the blatant lie at face value.

This boy is seriously too good for me...

"Well... um, if you're sure you're okay. I was just really worried an......"

Without meaning to, your mind quickly tuned itself away from whatever Taemin had to say, your attention immediately fixating on the door behind him.

The triggering sound of the door chime rang through your mind like the echo of a nightmare, feeling all the color drain from your face when a familiar figure came into view from behind Taemin.

Mr.742.

Frozen at the sight of him, you couldn't move.

You wanted to run.

No, you needed to run.

You were just about to make a move for it when a hand waved in front of your face, dragging your attention reluctantly back to Taemin.

"Huh? W-What?" you stuttered, leaning over slightly to see if you could catch a glimpse of the mirage of Mr. 742 you had just seen only seconds before.

But Taemin was prepared for that, leaning in sync with you and blocking your view.

"Hello? Earth to Y/N? Are you okay?" He asked, clearly concerned about you now that you were completely spacing out in front of him.

"S-Sorry, I-uh- I just-"

"I asked how you got home that night?" Taemin said a little more bluntly, the half-smile that was still on his face making his statement be seen as clearly out of concern rather than annoyance.

"I- um, I can't remember, but uh- I think by taxi?" you stuttered out unconvincingly, your brain barely functioning at the knowledge that the figure standing directly behind Taemin was most definitely Mr. 742...

And he could hear everything you were saying.

"Taxi? Oh... well I could have taken you home, you know. All you had to do was wait at the karaoke bar for me and I would ha-"

"-She was fine. I took her home."

The intrusion of another voice entering the conversation instantly made your heart drop into the pit of your stomach. your mind still unable to compute what the f*ck was happening before you.

"Excuse me?" Taemin reacted, turning to show your masked 'Genius' in full view.

Oh sh*t.

Why does he always have to look so mysteriously hot...

"I said she was fine, I took her home myself," Not 'Yoongi' repeated, stepping forward to now stand beside Taemin.

Although both of them technically stood around the same height, you had never seen Taemin look so boyish and small before, his demeanor far less intimidating than that of Mr. 742.

And to say that Taemin was visibly taken aback by the sudden intrusion would be the understatement of the century.

You knew that whatever was going to come next wasn't going to be pretty, and just silently prayed that they could both pay for their drinks and leave peacefully without a fight breaking out.

You wanted to slap yourself back into reality; the notion that not only one boy, but TWO, were showing even the slightest interest in you baffled you beyond what you could even begin to explain.

After a moment of rummaging through his jean pockets for loose change without any care to any of his surroundings, Mr. 742 slammed his change down on the front counter.

"Your drink's on me, Pretty Boy," he said, sending Taemin what you could only imagine to be an amused smirk, before immediately turning his attention back onto you. "I didn't know you had a younger brother."

What the hell is happening?!

This masked a**hole is going to start a war inside my own workplace!

The god damn audacity...

Where do you even learn to be so inadvertently confrontational like that?

"What? I'm not her brother, I'm her boyf-" Taemin cut short in a panicked fluster, very obviously unamused by the situation unfolding. "Y/N, who is this guy?"

But at Taemin's last comment, you froze, your words and voice seemingly abandoning you.

"'This guy', is the one that made sure this drunken idiot made it home in one piece last Friday..." Mr. 742 interjected once again, sliding his glasses down his nose just so he could fire a teasing wink in your direction, "Not that it's any of your business."

At your masked genius's bold conversation flip, Taemin was floored.

"I-uh-who?" Taemin stuttered, his head now darting between Mr. 742 and you, waiting for any kind of reasonable explanation.

The pressure now reaching its tipping point, your eyes sheepishly locked onto Mr. 742's in a panic, which proved to be less than helpful, because even beneath his mask and glasses, you could tell he was thoroughly enjoying this.

Although, curiously, there was a hint of question behind Mr.742's playful demeanor as well.

They both wanted an answer as to who the other was.

Nothing left to lose, you decided to answer them at the same time.

"He's my-uh friend...?" you finally muttered out, instantly wanting to slap yourself for your pathetic choice of words.

"Friend?!" Mr. 742 and Taemin half-shouted in unison, the surprise in both of their tones rendering you utterly confused.

Is that.. not what we are?

"U-Uh yeah?" You stuttered out pathetically.

"Well, does your 'friend' have a name?" Taemin suddenly piped up, puffing out his chest like a proud peacock in a, for lack of a better term, pathetic attempt at appearing more manly.

The display of confidence somehow didn't suit the usually kind, humble and courteous boy.

"Again, that's none of your busines-"

"I-I don't know-"

The sentence knot caused by you and Mr.742 blurting out completely different answers at the same time seemed to entertain Taemin.

"Oh?" He said after a pause, with a smile appearing on his face. "So you don't know his name? You mustn't be that close then."

You could feel Mr.742's anger boiling over before he even began to speak.

"She knows me just fine.." he snapped, taking a calculated step towards Taemin.

"Is that so?" Taemin raised an eyebrow at Mr.742, before turning his gaze to you with a concerned expression. "Y/N you really shouldn't trust people so easily... You don't even know his name, we live in a dangerous world you know..."

The scoff that came out of Mr.742 was by far the most frustrated you'd ever heard anyone be in all your life.

"She doesn't need you to mansplain how the world works, and for the record I would never hurt her! Just who the hell do you th-"

"OKAY BOYS!" Ji-eun's voice interjected, cutting through the aggressive atmosphere like a knife. "Taemin I'll make you a coffee on the house, why don't you take a seat so we can continue down the line of customers, hmm?."

Thank GOD for this beautiful woman

"R-Right..." Taemin quietly uttered out, eyeing you with his signature puppy-dog eyes. "You'll...uh-text me later then?"

You nodded at him and gave him the warmest smile you could muster.

Admittedly, you felt guilty for inadvertently putting him in that situation...

And the sarcastic 'hmph' that came out of Mr.742 made you want to smack him.

How could one guy be so damn rude?

"Well, that was annoying" Not 'Yoongi' muttered under his breath, before turning to face you directly, "How are you feeling anyways? Hungover still?"

From living through the last few minutes of anxiety ridden hell, you really weren't in the mood for his bad boy demeanor.

And Taemin bringing up the fact you didn't know his name yet was bothering you to no foreseeable end.

"I'm fine," You said sternly, grabbing a cup and pouring the coffee into it with a little more aggression than you had intended originally, before sliding it in front of him with zero formalities. "Here."

Mr. 742 stood there, staring at you wide-eyed.

Speechless it seemed.

For once in his life.

"A-Are you okay?" He spoke, voice devoid of all sarcasm now.

"Mhmm" You half-as*ed, trying to not show how much you were effected by the confrontation.

"Look.." He said quietly, taking his sunglasses off and pinching his nose, "I promise I'm going to tell you my name... I just..."

You couldn't help but sigh defeatedly as he trailed off from whatever excuse he was about to give when his phone began to ring, the look of clear disappointment spread across all of your features.

'You just'...

Don't trust me?

Or is this all just some joke to you...

"Whatever, I need to get back to work anyways.." you uttered back, gesturing at the customer who had just walked into the café to come forward and place their order.

You could tell that he was struggling internally over whether to answer his phone or not, the mood inside the café falling more heavy as each second passed.

You tried so desperately to block out his stares as he continued to stand beside the front counter awkwardly, that by the time he eventually left, you'd hardly even noticed.

-----

Hi Angels!

How is everyone?

I have returned. Ugh. 

I just wanted to come out and say yes, I know. I've been pretty useless with keeping the ball rolling with this and I'm super upset with myself about that. This year has been whack and I'd like for things to hurry up and get better already, not just for myself but for everyone out there that's also having it rough. 

Just taking everything one step at a time, so bear with me. I'm sorry 😭

Anyways, I hope you like this new update! It turned into a bit of a roller coaster, right? I'd really love to hear your thoughts on how and where everything is going... Like... what do you think will happen next? As always I love to read all of your hilarious comments, ideas, theories and feedbacks, so please let me know! 👀

I hope everyone has been doing okay. The world is on fire, but lets all try to stick together and get through this!

And for all my American friends, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! 

Sending out lots of love and hugs to you all, where ever you are on this tiny messed up planet. 

Love you all, 
Katie 💜💜💜