["you bitch just how much time do you need?!" Jin, who is usually utterly cautious about his language around his dongsaengs, honks his car horn and shouts as he waits outside his own house. He was late for the only thing he takes seriously in his life, his work.

"sorry! just one more minute!" replies the person who recently started caring a lot about the way he looks when he makes drinks and food at his work.

"ok i'm going with this. nope, dont overthink. not gonna overthink." jungkook gives himself a pep talk before, finally, after trying all of Jin's colognes, he picks the bottle that looks the most attractive. Before he could smell its scent and rethink his life choices for the nth time, he closes his eyes and applies the cologne immediately. He pauses and a grimace appears on his face. "this... is the worst of them all" he sighs when he finally gets a whiff of what he just wore.

jin honks.

"fuck it" he mutters and leaves the house. 

"why do you always buy shitty stuff?" jungkook asks as he takes the passenger seat.

"you still have the audacity to complain????"

"sorry about that but all of your colognes are shit," jungkook says and puts on some music. He turns the volume up before Jin could start nagging.

"then dont use them!" Jin yells.

after some minutes of listening to music in silence, Jin speaks, "most of them were gifts".

"you sure have a lot of fans for no reason"

"excuse me for being attractive AF"

"does the F in your AF stand for what it usually does or is it censored?"

Jin rolls his eyes.

5:23pm

With full concentration, Jungkook chops some veggies for the dish he is about to prepare. He had been busy all day preparing delicacies for people; the number of customers had indeed increased after Tae's little visit.

Jungkook focuses his eyes on the vegetables, he looks out for every little detail and makes sure the knife cuts those veggies in perfect angles. Some seconds later, he hears the kitchen door open and close.

He was too focused to take his eyes off of his work and look at one of his hyungs so he got caught off guard when-

"Hi"

-he heard your voice.

His brain and hand couldn't coordinate when he immediately looked up to respond to you, which is why-

"HOLY SHIT!"

- your eyes widened and you shouted looking at the blood that oozed out of his finger the moment you greeted him and he almost chopped it off.

For a second he halts, not knowing what just happened. He looks at you with his shooketh eyes while you look at him with your horrified ones. "don't commit finger suicide in front of me like that! wash it at least!" you exclaim.

He jolts as a stinging pain rushes through his left index finger. After washing it, he takes a box out of the cupboard below the sink and fishes a band aid out of it. He applies it on his finger and continues with his work.

You stand there with your arms crossed, shifting your weight from one leg to another, analyzing the weird behavior of the dude in front of your eyes who awkwardly chops vegetables without lifting his head even once.

"Hoseok said you wanted to see me"

The noise of knife hitting the chopping board suddenly stops. He finally looks up as his brows furrow in doubt. "uh..." he looks for words to say and when he finally starts to speak something about him forgetting what he had called you for, realization hits you and you go, "oh," as if you've experienced an epiphany. Another long "oh," a comparatively low pitched sound depicting that you have concluded something, comes out when you point a finger at the door, then at Jungkook and yourself.

"he..." you pause as you think of decent words to express your thoughts "... is trying to play cupid again, isn't he?" you end with a snicker.

"I told him to stop" Jungkook chuckles and scratches his head in embarrassment. "he's pretty stubborn"

"is he?" you laugh.

that's when you notice the red band aid on his finger.

it wasn't red before.

"jungkook?"

"yeah?"

"unless that's ketchup, i think your finger needs more first aid"

he looks at his injury and laughs it off with a, "oh it's prolly nothing."

"sure, it's just blood dripping out of the band aid, nothing much. it's normal for cuts to bleed excessively till the extent of covering the patients hand" you joke... except the concept's sarcasm is something that could easily be misinterpreted as a medical fact since this place is not your med school, which is why,

"really?" Jungkook asks, totally intrigued.

you pass a sweet sarcastic smile and say, "no."

doubt slowly appears on his face and he looks confused.

you ask him to take the band aid off so you could take a look. you ask him to wash the blood off of his hand before examining the cut. you gently press your finger on one side of the cut and notice him tighten his lips to conceal the pain.

"dude"

your surprised tone earns you a puppy dog-eyed look from him.

"you might wanna get it stitched"

his brows rise up and his innocent doe eyes appear.

you tell him that you're no doctor but it's pretty vivid that the cut goes deep, from skin towards the muscle. you ask him to consult a doctor as soon as possible to which he replies, "sure, will see someone after work," getting 'the look' from you.

You walk out to inform the guys about their friend bleeding to death in the kitchen which is how you gather terrified jimin and hoseok who panic around looking for a dead body or something.

"the hell you want me to do??! kiss it better????" Jimin, after losing his mind overthinking worst case scenarios, says in exasperation as he finds out about jungkook cutting his finger.

"it's a deep cut!" you retaliate.

"true" hoseok nods with his arms crossed, zoning out as he stares at small crimson patches on the floor. "see!?  the creep agrees!" you say, pointing at Hoseok.

A few seconds later, Jin enters and gasps loudly, his eyeballs almost escapes his skull as he looks at the floor.

"I know right!" you say referring to the deep cut on the chef's finger.

"Clean it before it leaves a stain!!" Jin rushes towards the cupboard near the sink to get a mop.

You doubt whether he knows its blood or not but you choose not to question him. You look around at the guys who don't seem surprised at all.

Jung Hoseok finally snaps out of his world and panics. A shiver runs down his spine and he shakes his head. He grabs jungkook's arm, utters "let's get you stitched", and takes him out of the room only to return. "actually, how bout Y/n-

"nope" you cross your arms and state, confident about your prediction of Hoseok's next move.

the room goes silent for some seconds.

"i-i was gonna ask you to take over the bar"

"oh sure, you were," you grab an apron and march out of the room towards the bar, walking past him who was holding the door with one hand and jungkook with the other. Jungkook whispers to hoseok to ask him to stay here and let him go alone. "it's just a finger, that too the left one. I can drive with one hand and I'd still drive better than you," the younger justifies his request by providing a valid reason.

Hoseok holds back his exasperation, puts his hands on his waist and says with a smile, "I am trying to make your life easier here, buddy."

You wrap the apron around your waist and take your position at the bar and Jung Hoseok appears again. "just wanted to let you know that your skills are limited to margaritas which is not even close to enough to meet most customers' needs," he rests a hand on the counter and says with a smug look on his face.

You poke the inside of your cheek and squint a glare at him.

the glaring continues as his smug smile gets bigger.

Silence engulfs the atmosphere as you drive Jungkook to a hospital.

Hoseok could not leave his position as after Jungkook, he is the only skilled bartender. Jin or, apparently, Yoongi can take over the kitchen as they are great chefs. Both of them have their own unique finesse when they cook, so either of them could fit well for the time Jungkook's out.

You reach the hospital some minutes later. Jungkook follows you like a child, looking around the place he just entered, as you get in and ask for an appointment in the emergency room. You find your way towards the emergency room with Jungkook following you and take a seat in the waiting area outside the doctor's clinic just like the receptionist had asked you to.

As you wait, your right leg start fidgeting and you grab a lot of attention for shaking it continuously for minutes. When you notice, you cross your left leg over it, put both your hands on your lap and straighten your back to sit properly. Some seconds later your left foot starts to shake. "you okay?" whispers jungkoook. You reply with a "yeah" and tell him it's just your bad habit before excusing yourself to go out for a minute.

'Shit, I gotta do all the talking now,' Jungkook's brain panics.

He creates a script in his head consisting of all the words he's gonna say to the doctor to explain whatever the hell went wrong with his finger. He goes through the script multiple times and memorizes answers to the questions the doctor could possibly ask. His gaze constantly lands on the entrance as he anticipates your arrival.

7:13pm

Jungkook comes out of the procedure room and finds you scrolling through your phone while sitting on one of the seats in the waiting area.

"i'm done," he looks down at you and mutters in a deadpan tone.

(#throwback to all the im dones in the history of his existence.)

"how do you feel?"

"stupid"

"what-" you laugh at his serious face.

"i just witnessed my skin getting sewed like a piece of cloth... gross"

"you had the option of closing your eyes though"

"i was busy figuring out if the anesthesia injection hurt more or my injury"

your small conversations last till you leave the emergency room to get whatever he was prescribed by the doctor.

7:25pm

You leave the hospital and get in the car. Like a responsible driver, you wear your seatbelt before turning the ignition on.

Jungkook opens the door and stops as he notices a small carton on his seat.

"oops my bad," you take the carton and place it in the back seat.

you wait for him to get in the car but he doesn't budge.

"u need help with your finger to get in?-

"you're drunk," he immediately replies.

"what-oh that," you chuckle looking at the small carton in the backseat. "that's just white claw"

small carton of beer with three out of six cans left in it.

responsible is your second name.

you look at him again, waiting for a response to why he wont come in.

He just closes the door and walks away.

seconds or milliseconds later he appears on your side of car and opens the door.

"you shouldn't drive when you're drunk," he states with an innocent face.

"dude" you give him a cocky look, putting your left elbow on the steering wheel so you could lean on it as you face jungkook, ready to flex, "i had wine for lunch and a can of beer after college, still managed to drive us both here in total sanity, you can trust me."

his eyes took a proper oval shape, not the kind of oval you had expected. they had a tint of fear rather amuse in them. he paused, not the astonishing pause you looked forward to but rather the pause one takes to process a freak show.

Jungkook's overthinking switch had just turned itself on. He couldn't help but wonder if you drink and drive often which worried him a lot.

a lot.

he would probably have nightmares now.

"it's just 5% alcohol man," you respond to his reaction.

"it's alcohol," he smiles, gathering himself up.

it had been almost thirty minutes since you drank so you could do a lot of critical thinking and empathize with the person not wanting to die on road. although you're hella confident about you being sober and sane enough to drive, you leave and take jungkook's place to respect his concerns.

"thank you," he says before starting the car.

7:37pm

You sip a can of white claw (coz why not?) as you look out the window at a peaceful night, at people going back to their safe places, to their homes, to their warm hugs and comfort zones.

You look at carefree teenagers dancing their twenty-first-century-problems away as they take the moment to enjoy their Friday nights.

You look at the lights, they seem to flicker. Some just turned on while others just turned off. Some flicker just coz they're supposed to while others do coz they couldn't afford to.

Everything looks so relieved as if the whole area's about to go to sleep.

You finally tear your eyes away and focus them on the road in front of you coz the world outside had started to look better for everyone. The grass is always greener on the other side, you tell yourself. The world is not always what it looks like.

"by the way," you speak when a thought strikes your mind, "why the hell did i have to tag along when you can drive perfectly with an injured finger"

silence.

"for moral support i guess"

"moral support," you let out a sarcastic chuckle, "yeah right"

"to be honest, it's coz jin wouldn't have liked my blood on his steering wheel"

"now that makes more sense"

after some more minutes of silent drive, your guts which are on cloud 9 coz of the alcohol ask as you look out the window again,

"do you like me or something?"

and he crashes the car and you die.

just kidding.

Jungkook couldn't be more thankful to the absence of sunlight for hiding his red ears.

"what?" he laughs. "where did that come from?"

the dude could literally hear his heart beat. he has mastered the art of masking his panic attacks.

"just investigating hoseok's missions. i mean, why would he be so passionate about setting you up with me? and it's not only him, others seem to be on high alert whenever I'm around"

"wow, that's very observant of you"

"being a woman in this testosterone rich world teaches you a lot of survival skills"

you take another sip to stop your mind from realizing how every single day somewhere someone has to suffer for having a vagina.

"well if you like me, you have an elite taste my boy," you say as you finish your can, "and if you don't, good for you."

"eh... I'd say it's more of a them problem," jungkook says frankly, wanting to sound cool af. "you know that weird shit people do with their favourite characters in movies and stuff... what's it called sailing?"

"the fuck?"

"i know right, there's a word that people use when they like a friendly coordination of two human beings"

you give him a furrowed-brow look before confirming,

"ship?"

"yeah"

you burst out laughing.

"friendly coordination of two human beings," you snicker, "that's some high level creativity, well played."

"learned all the censoring from Jin"]

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