ydu (aftrparty remix) - opia

Yoongi showed up a half hour early on his first Thursday night of working at Youth & Impulse. You were wiping down some tables to prepare for the rush of older people that were to come at around 6:30; the first official launch of "Senior Tea and Piano Night."

You looked up as the doorbell rang, and smiled as you made eye contact with Yoongi. He looked different today as opposed to how he looked on the day of the interview. His blonde hair, while still mildly curly and a bit unruly, looked much more uniform that it had the first time the both of you had met. He was wearing black slacks and a white button-down shirt, and dress shoes to match.

"You clean up nicely," You teased him, but regretted it instantly. While you were quite a joking and playful person, you still barely knew Yoongi, and you weren't sure what his sense of humor was like. You bit your tongue, hoping that things wouldn't become awkward.

"To be fair, the only other time you've seen me is when I had just finished walking through a thunderstorm," Yoongi smirked, catching you so off guard with his sassy response that you couldn't suppress your laughter.

"Fair enough," you chuckled, picking up the cleaning spray and dirty rag before making your way back over to the front counter. The cafe only had a few customers, but you knew that a bunch more were soon to be on their way.

"Another vanilla latte today?" You offered. Yoongi stuffed his hands in his pockets, the face of his watch catching the light that was bleeding through the large windows.

"Hmm," he perused your offer as his eyes floated on the room.

"C'mon, don't resist the call of caffeine," you taunted him, and he gave in. You giggled as you began to prepare the drink.

"How much is it? I'm paying for it this time," Yoongi started, but you shook your head.

"Employees are allowed 2 free coffees per shift," you said stubbornly, and he threw his hands up jokingly.

"Fine, I surrender. And I want a fancy leaf design on the top."

"I can do that," you chuckled, beginning to strategically pour the steamed milk into the espresso in order to complete the design that Yoongi had requested. He stood close, leaning over the counter to watch how you made it, in complete awe the whole time. You felt your cheeks heat up in embarrassment at the intense attention from someone else. Yoongi didn't notice how your face had flushed; if he had noticed, he didn't say anything about it.

"Ta-Da," You said, hands almost shaking slightly as you passed the cup to Yoongi. 

"Thank you. A+ leaf design right here. Love it," he smiled at you, and it actually seemed genuine. You blushed a bit more.

"So, are you nervous for tonight? When's the last time you were up in front of a crowd?" You said quickly, changing the subject as you began cleaning up the counter in order to surpass the remaining embarrassment that you had just experienced. You weren't sure why you felt so flustered; you really needed to go out and meet people more often.

"I have some butterflies in my stomach, but I feel good about it. I'm actually really excited to play tonight. It's been years since I last played in a more formal setting like this one," he explained as you continued to clean up.

"Oh, what other kinds of places have you performed at?" You began to ask, but Stevens appeared from the back room, interrupting the conversation.

"Min Yoongi! How are ya?" Stevens was already greeting Yoongi like he was an old friend. Again, your uncle was incredibly informal.

"I'm okay, Sir. How are you?"

"I'm absolutely fantastic!" Stevens exclaimed, giving both you and Yoongi 2 thumbs up before making his way around the cafe to talk to some of the current guests. Yoongi slowly turned his head and looked back at you, raising one eyebrow.

"He gets really excited whenever we launch new concepts here," you shrugged, explaining your Uncle's slightly odd behavior.

"That's understandable," Yoongi laughed, finally able to take a drink of the latte you had made him. His eyes were wandering curiously around the cafe as he drank, and you carefully watched him out of the corner of your eye. On the surface, he was quite pleasant; a bit shy sometimes and easily uncomfortable, but still overall, he was pleasant. However, you couldn't help but feel as if there was something else there, that maybe that exterior appearance wasn't all there was to Yoongi. There were so many things about him that you were curious about, but he was still practically a stranger. You couldn't ask him all of the intrusive questions you wanted to, and that was one thing that was bothering you.

It bothered you that not knowing things about him bothered you. It bothered you that you were so curious about someone you barely knew, and it bothered you that you couldn't have your questions answered.

You looked at Yoongi again, his profile facing you. He had foam on his upper lip again and was still looking around, seemingly lost in his thoughts about something.

You looked for too long.

He turned back toward you, and you quickly looked elsewhere, hoping that your random bit of staring at him wasn't too obvious.

"Isn't it about time to start?" He asked, and you were relieved that he hadn't noticed your gaze.

"Almost," you nodded, shaking your head at yourself as you walked to the supply closet.

|||||

Yoongi began playing on the piano at 6:30 pm, just as a delightful amount of people began to stream into the cafe. The age demographic was quite consistent in that it truly did seem to be mostly older people; mostly older women. They would swoon over Yoongi as they waited to be served their tea, and you overheard several comments about him, most of which not being about his piano playing. You had to bite your lip numerous times to avoid obnoxiously laughing in front of your customers.

"That boy would be great for my granddaughter. Cherie, sneak a peek and see if he's got a wedding ring on!" You overheard one older lady say to her friend as you were bringing walnut brownies to the table of people behind them.

That comment stuck inside of your head as you were at the counter, pouring cups of coffee. It was there while you were boxing up Green Tea mini cakes. It was especially there whenever you had a free moment to sneak a glance at Yoongi who, despite having the sheet music displayed in front of him, knew the pieces well enough to close his eyes while playing. The way his forehead would become scrunched up and his lips would purse as you literally watched him feel the music he was playing moved you in a way you had never been moved before. He was so engaging to watch that you became slightly resentful of customers who would come up the counter, forcing you to direct your attention to something other than him.

Someone else wondering aloud whether or not Yoongi had a wedding ring on made you curious about it as well. You knew he wasn't married; you had seen his hands. But, you did wonder if he was in a relationship or not. Was he slightly lonely like you were? Or did he already have someone to spend time with, or to go home to? You weren't sure, and it wasn't something that had dawned on you before overhearing that one conversation.

Regardless, it was a great night for the cafe. An incredible amount of revenue was brought in, and you truly believed that between Stevens's clever marketing, and the addition of someone as talented as Yoongi was the reason Youth & Impulse had turned over such a big profit. The success of the night was exciting, and not only just to you.

"That was great! Yoongi, you were great!" Stevens exclaimed as he finally flipped the sign on the door to say Closed.

It was half-past nine, and business remained going on for longer than expected.

"Thank you so much! I really enjoyed it," Yoongi said, showing off his gummy smile.

The three of you cleaned up the cafe together, even though Yoongi wasn't technically required to stay and help per his job description. He fell into the flow of cleaning easily and without being asked, even helping to mop the floor.

"I'm starving!" You complained, slumping against the counter after you had just finished cleaning every last tea and coffee mug that had been used that night. You sighed as you tried to picture what you had in the mini-fridge in your dorm. The only thing you could think of was half a box of cheap popsicles that your roommate had bought when her younger brother came to visit.

"Do you have food at home?" Stevens asked, eyes narrowing at you. He knew you had a bad habit of not grocery shopping often enough.

"Does half a box of popsicles count as food?" You replied, grimacing slightly. Yoongi chuckled from across the room.

"Min Yoongi," Stevens called out.

"Sir?"

"Do you have anywhere to be right now?"

"No, Sir."

"Do you mind taking this poor girl to the 7-eleven down the street and getting her some food?" Stevens's request sounded so casual, but it caught you so off guard.

"Yoongi doesn't need to do that. I can go myself," you said through gritted teeth, embarrassed that Stevens was making it seem like you weren't capable of going alone.

"Your mom would punch me in the face if she found out I let you walk around the city alone at night," Stevens argued.

"I do that at University all of the time," You crossed your arms.

"Yeah, but you're not my responsibility while you're on campus."

"Maybe so, but still, I'm old enough to-"

"I don't mind taking her," Yoongi intervened smoothly, his hands back in his pockets.

"But-" You started.

"Really, I don't mind. I'm hungry too," He insisted, and you knew that you couldn't reject the offer again without making things more awkward than they already were.

"Okay," you agreed reluctantly.

"You two go ahead and go. I'll close down," Stevens said, waving the both of you off.

"Goodnight, Sir," Yoongi said politely as he began to make his way toward the door.

"See you on Monday, Yoongi! Bye Y/N."

You grabbed your jacket from the coat rack, slipping it on slowly as Yoongi opened the door, waiting. The both of you began to walk down the sidewalk, a comfortable distance apart.

"You said before that you work at a convenience store, right?" You said, hoping that if you made conversation, the nervous feeling in your stomach would go away.

"Yup. I work at a 7-Eleven actually. It's always weird to go to one outside of work now."

"What's it like to work somewhere like that?" You were going to avoid a period of awkward silence at all costs.

"It's pretty boring honestly. I shouldn't complain, though. It's not a hard job and it's decent pay," he explained. "What else do you do when you're not at the cafe?"

"Well, I'm a full-time University student and that keeps me pretty busy. To be honest, I don't really do much else aside from studying and making endless cups of coffee," you shrugged.

"That's cool, though," Yoongi replied earnestly.

"Really? I thought it made me seem pretty lame."

"I mean you work hard and you can make a mean cup of coffee. What's lame about that?" Yoongi asked honestly, and you couldn't come up with a decent answer. Luckily, the front of 7-Eleven was now right in front of you both. He swung the door open, allowing you to go inside first.

The two of you sat in the window seating together, having cup noodles and vanilla cokes. You made a mental note of how much Yoongi liked vanilla.

There wasn't much conversation over your 6 dollars and 38 cent meal, but the more time you spent in Yoongi's presence, the more relaxed you felt. You weren't so sure why you were nervous about spending time with him in the first place.

Perhaps it was the fact that he was someone new that you were letting into your life. Perhaps it was because you looked at Yoongi and saw a huge mystery that you desperately wanted to untangle. Perhaps it was because he intrigued you in a dangerously infuriating way, and you were scared to find out what was behind all of the smoke and mirrors of him.

Either way, while looking at Yoongi that night in the fluorescent white lighting of 7-Eleven, you were sure of at least one thing; You wanted to know Min Yoongi. You didn't just want to know his name, or his appearance, or his piano playing. You wanted more than that.

You wanted to know the minute details about him; his favorite color, his hometown, his favorite thing in the world, his least favorite thing in the world, the details about his family. You wanted to know it all.

Min Yoongi had appeared like a complicated math equation before you, and you were determined on solving it.