Jungkook

"Hey." Pacing into the small room with the matchmaker seated behind her desk, Jungkook threw himself past the doorway with a raging sense of betrayal climbing up his throat. Pointing a finger at the composed woman who splayed her slender fingers across a sheet of paper, Jungkook huffed out a heavy breath as he stared at Jiwoo with intentions of confrontation. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Jiwoo raised her eyebrows, before lifting her hand and gesturing to the beige armchair in front of her. Jungkook only rolled his eyes in response. "I'm not sitting down. You're lucky I'm still here, that I even came back."

"Jungkook. Please."

"For fucks sake-"

She stared blankly at the taller, who clenched his jaw as he took a seat in the chair. Jiwoo lifted the paper from her desk, eyed the contents, then swiftly held it out to Jungkook. He frowned and lifted his gaze from the paper to the woman, who had her brow peaked in lazy patience. Scowling, he grabbed the sheet of paper and scanned the page, only to again feel his anger rise up his trachea:

Instantly, the hot-headed 22-year old threw the paper back onto her desk as he tried to ignore the sudden hotness spewing from his insides. "That's the last thing I want to see right now-"

"Jungkook." The matchmaker raised her eyebrow as she carefully pulled back the sheet of paper with a delicate finger, and Jungkook found the strength to suppress his irritation as he endured her cool gaze. Grumbling, he propped his chin up and looked away. "Jungkook," she repeated.

"What?"

"Can you face me when we speak?"

"Why? Can't you hear me either way?"

"Aren't you a fully grown adult who's been taught proper etiquette?" Jungkook swallowed, and turned to face the woman. He immediately regretted doing so, because she was holding up the profile, and he could only sit there burning holes into the paper with a fiery glare. "Thank you."

"...what were you saying?"

Jiwoo sighed, her hold on he sheet of paper unmoving. "Jungkook...what happened?"

He frowned at her, her ignorance lighting his irritation once more. "Are you serious? Didn't I specifically say that men were off limits?"

"I don't recall you making that statement."

"Obviously I didn't say that exactly! I said that I wanted to meet a woman, not a man!"

"You used the word 'prefer' to describe your preference in gender, which insinuates that while you might favor a certain gender, other's are not completely 'off limits'."

"Hey-"

"And," she cut him off, "you even implied that you wouldn't mind being intimate with a male as long as he was to your liking."

Jungkook sneered at her, folding his arms. "Precisely. I cannot and will not engage in a romantic relationship with another man. I'm not gay."

"So you would have intercourse with another man, which is the stimulant for wanting to reproduce your own offspring, and yet you hate the idea of simply wanting to get to know them?"

"Just hand me that sheet and I can get to know him just fine."

Jiwoo's gaze hardened, and Jungkook immediately felt the impace of her icy stare. "Jungkook, you're missing the point."

He looked away. "How am I?"

"I've gotten to know you over the past couple of weeks, and I know that by nature you're upfront, straightforward, yet righteous."

"...what's your point."

She interlocked her fingers, resting her chin just above her knuckles. "You don't lie."

"And?"

"You're attracted to him."

For a second, Jungkook felt his heart throb in his chest and a surge of something in his stomach. "You've got to be shitting me."

"Oh I'm not. This is my chosen profession, Jungkook, and I've become quite good at reading people. You're refusing to even look at me."

"..." The younger clicked his tongue, before swinging his head over to his right to face the matchmaker in front of him.

"Jungkook, are you physically attracted to this person?" She repeated, gesturing to Jimin's profile in hand.

Jungkook, for the most part, had a pretty good poker face. The only people who could generally see through his lies were his parents, brother, and his grandma. Not even Tae could see past his facade on most occasions. And yet this woman...The way she eyed Jungkook with those slender eyes had him glued to the spot, wanting to break free of their locked gaze and yet strangely intrigued by those threatening, dark irises which begged him to remain put. The thudding of his heart was soft, but significant enough for Jungkook to look to his left out the window, to hide his gradually heating cheeks.

"No."

Then she smiled, a coy thing. "I see."

Opening her drawer and gently placing Jimin's profile inside, she lent back in her chair, with that same smile of confidence playing on her lips. "If that's how you feel then if you'd like, I can get to work on pairing you with someone else."

He squinted at her. "...sure."

"Preferably, female?"

"Yeah." Why was she still grinning from ear to ear? Did she know something that he didn't? He went to stand, then turned to leave her room before she called out to him.

"Oh, and Jungkook?"

"Yeah?"

"Enjoy your day work."

"Um, okay? Thanks...you too."

He closed the door behind him, and paced out the tiny building. Something about that last comment came off as kinda eerie, but Jungkook chose to ignore it. At least the worst was over and done with. His brief encounter with the pink haired boy was no doubt a mistake on Jiwoo's part, and soon it would be fixed. He'd finally get laid by the brunette beauty in mind, leave the whole matchmaking thing behind and go back to freelancing.

Of course, he would never admit to that overly confident woman that he had been in fact...microscopically...maybe slightly aware of Jimin's appearance, but there was no use dwelling on that now. Jungkook never had to see him, and he was sure Jimin was glad to never have to meet the 22-year old ever again.

So things played out how he wanted...?

***
Days later

"Man the weather today is awful."

Taehyung leaned over his desk as he stared out the window. Jungkook raised his eyes from his work to watch the heavy downpour from outside his office, and he heftily sighed. Too right.

"So what's good Kook?" his friend implied.

Jungkook tapped the bottom of his handouts and turned to his friend, how had leant his elbow atop his shoulder. "Another meeting."

"Now?"

"Yeah. We're promoting a new line of fragrance for some kpop idol."

"Ooo really? Which one?"

"Lisa, from BlackPink."

Taehyung gaped. "No way?! I love those girls!"

They both paced out the office, with the handout tucked beneath Jungkook's arm. "Really? I haven't heard their music."

"Oh they're super famous! They're gradually making their way to America after multiple tours from Russia to Indonesia."

"How do you know all of this?" he asked, as they stopped outside the elevator.

"Me and Hobi listen to them all the time, although it was Hobi who got me into them."

"R-right. So how are sales going?"

The elevator doors opened, and both men stepped inside. Taehyung pressed the button to the top floor to the conference rooms, before shoving his hands into his trouser pockets. "Not too bad, I've actually got a meeting with a client upstairs who's wanting to buy one of our beauty lines."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, no kidding. It'll be a great deal if we can form a partnership with this company, since it's so indie yet popular with our main target audiences."

"Wow...that sounds great. Hopefully it'll become a hit."

"So...Kook..."

He sighed, watching as the fluorescent lights flashed and as floors rose in number. "Don't start. I don't want to talk about it."

"You didn't even know what I was about to-"

"No, the date did not go well."

Taehyung closed his mouth, before turning back to his friend with a frown, and his head cocked to the side. "Really."

"Yes really. She set me up with a guy."

"Really!"

Jungkook rolled his eyes. "I know...shocking."

"Hold on a minute, Jungkook, are you bisexual?"

"What the-" the younger almost dropped his briefcase when momentarily the oxygen depleted in almost every area of his brain, as he tried to come to terms with the words that had left his friend's mouth. "Are you an idiot now?"

Taehyung shrugged his shoulders. "What? Her intuition is always spot on, so some part of you must be slightly into guys."

"You trust the intuition of some stranger over your best friend of almost 5 years?"

The elevator doors swung open, and both men stepped out before making their way down the navy blue carpeted hallways. "Hey, when you're on the verge of coming out you might not realize what other people can see better than yourself. I didn't consider dating a guy until Jiwoo suggested it. Now look at where I am." Taehyung grinned, his eyes love-strucken as he widely gestured with open palms.

Excruciatingly Jungkook closed his eyes. A flash of an image of the pink haired man rode across his mind, before he hastily dissolved it from his memory. "Sure Tae, whatever you say."

"Don't be sarcastic with your senior!"

"See ya for lunch?"

Taehyung sighed, scratching the back of his head. "Yeah Kook. Don't think too hard about it, just do what you usually do."

"Which is."

"Fuck anything that you find appealing."

"You know, one day I'm going to murder you in every way possible-"

Sticking his tongue out, the older skipped around the corner. Jungkook pinched his nose-bridge with his thumb and forefinger, before entering one of the main conference rooms. The room was packed with the other project managers and members, and he grabbed a coffee from the tray as he strode in. Once the others noticed his entrance, they immediately took their seats. Jungkook passed the handouts to the person adjacent to him, who then went on to pass the sheets around the table.

"Is everyone that's supposed to be here present?" Jungkook eyed the people seated before him, and an empty chair to his right caught it eye. "Who's missing?"

A female coworker spoke up quietly. "The product designer is running late because of the weather."

"Right, we'll start ahead of him and he can just read from the handout."

He handed his memory drive to the technician sat at the computer, and clapped his hands together as he gained the room's attention.

"So as you are all aware, our company is planning on teaming up with the idol group BLACKPINK, to promote merchandise and a new perfume line in both of our names. The project should instigate both their popularity and ours, as well as build further brand-customer relationships, introduce new products and increase brand awareness but also generate interest, win customers and increase sales. Any queries so far? No?"

The projector lit up, and Jungkook stepped to his right when his powerpoint displayed across the white wall. "As you can see, BlackPink is a major worldwide group consisting of 4 members. Lisa, the one in the middle, is our focus, and hopefully by creating this fragrance for her we'll also be able to expand our target audience from a slightly more mature age to a somewhat younger age rang-"

Creaaaaak...click!

He was abruptly cut off when the door to the conference room was opened, then shut. Eyeing the small man dressed without his blazer or tie, who was also soaked to the skin from the rainy weather, Jungkook paused momentarily when the newcomer shuffled past the chairs and to the empty space next to him. His attire was messy, disorganised, and a few project members cleared their throats as the man brushed by them in his wet clothing.

The flash of pink hair spiked a chord of recognition in him, and Jungkook found his eyes widening and his eyebrows cascading downward as he set his gaze onto the late newcomer who took the seat to his right.

And immediately, the pink haired man gasped in shock after settling into his seat, once he raised his eyes to meet the almost bulging eyes of the manager.

"You...!"

"You!"

i'm so sorry it's taken so long to publish this chapter!! i've had major a inspiration block but ive finally finished it!

and no im not dead goddammit!