"If you're looking for me to hate you, Park Jimin, you're going to have to try harder than that."

To say that those words stuck in his brain was an understatement.

They were imprinted there. Firmly, painfully imprinted. And it threw Jimin way off course, so much that it was so, so obvious to Namjoon, but unfortunately for Namjoon his friend was obstinately insisting nothing was wrong. But, Namjoon trusted if things got bad enough, and that if he really wanted the help, Jimin would go to him.

But in the meantime Jimin silently suffered the constant replaying of those words.

This was even worse than what the pastel boy had said to him before, that time when Jimin had pushed him against the wall and dug his nails into the boy's cheeks. Though that wasn't to say that still didn't bother him. Because it did. It definitely did.

Just...everything about the pastel boy bothered him.

The next Saturday Jimin walked to The Golden Spoon alone early in the morning, scowling every step of the way as he kept his head facing down, hands buried in the pockets of his leather jacket as always. It was windy today. Extra windy, extra chilly. Jimin always hated the cold - rather, he hated being outdoors in the cold. He didn't mind it as much when he was inside where it was warm, or where he could sit down with a nice, delicious hot beverage to balance out the chills still bouncing around in his body. And right now, that was exactly what he was going to do.

But again, his morning would be a bit of a disappointment if he'd have to order his Wake-up Call without cream and sugar.

He was in luck. Entering the coffeeshop, Jimin took a brief scan around and found that only several customers were here at the moment. None of them were students from his school, and none of them paid any mind to Jimin. So Jimin approached the counter to make his order.

"Ah, Park Jimin, back again~"

Of course Taehyung was working today.

"Not in the mood. You know what I want. Just shut up and make it. Extra cream and sugar."

Taking exact change out of his wallet and slapping it on the counter, Jimin stormed over to the receiving end and took out his phone to kill time as he waited. Same scene Taehyung was used to, except even the barista, who only shared brief interactions with the boy, could tell something was off about Jimin today.

He finished preparing the drink and carried it carefully over to where he handed it to Jimin. And Jimin promptly turned away and went to claim a seat in the small booth on the far end of the coffeeshop. There, he sat down and took a moment to hold his head in his hands before taking the first sip of his drink. Taehyung saw that out of the corner of eye right before he greeted his next customer. He smiled, took their order, then prepared it, bringing it over to the receiving end of the counter where the customer picked it up, thanked him, and left.

Meanwhile Jimin was continuing to brood over his Wake-up Call, having taken off the lid so that it could cool faster. It was scalding hot right now, and had he the energy, Jimin might have yelled out a complaint to Taehyung just for the sake of doing so. But he was too distracted.

"Something wrong with the coffee, Jimin?"

"Actually, yes, it's too hot-"

Jimin blinked. Taehyung was sitting across from him at the booth.

"What the f-..." Jerking his head back, Jimin narrowed his eyes at the boy whose expression was bright enough to blind him. He reminded Jimin of that redheaded kid from school. "What are you doin' here?? You're on your shift, aren't you??"

"Actually, I'm on my break now," Taehyung said, rolling up the sleeve of his shirt to check his watch. "I've got fifteen minutes. I'm just gonna sit here. That okay?"

"No," Jimin replied bluntly, "not okay. Go somewhere else. You guys' 'rush hour' doesn't start for another hour or so. Go use one of the empty tables."

"No fun. I'm gonna stay here."

"Go, or I'll get you fired."

"Good luck with that. My coworkers and manager adore me."

Jimin rolled his eyes and took a careful sip of his coffee. "I'm sure they do."

"Yup!" Taehyung beamed. "So, like, while I'm here, could I ask what's wrong?"

"You already did. I said coffee's too hot."

"Oh, no, I meant besides that. You're acting different."

Jimin didn't answer him. He hoped that Taehyung would take a hint. Not so. Or maybe, he took the hint, but threw it away.

"Ah, does it have anything to do with the boy who came here last week? The one with the mint-hair. Yoongi. You seemed weird that day, too. Really weird. Like, you even left your coffee behind to run after him, and you never leave your coffee-"

"It's got nothing to do with that brat!"

Raising his voice was unintentional, however being there only three other customers in the shop at the time, Jimin was able to quickly shake off his embarrassment.

But at that moment the 'brat' himself entered the shop. Jimin froze. Yoongi looked around, eyes happening upon Taehyung and Jimin in that small booth by the window, and Taehyung, making eye contact, enthusiastically raised his hand to wave as he called out, "Yoongi, come join us!"

At the barista's overly friendly greeting, Yoongi couldn't help but crack a smile - Jimin had his head turned towards the window at this point - and waved back, then made his way up to the counter to place his order.

Then to Jimin's utter dismay, the pastel boy did as Taehyung suggested.

A few seconds later and he was sitting beside the barista, across from Jimin.

And Jimin glared at Taehyung like the boy was at the number one spot on his hit list.

"Hi, Jimin."

Oh, he did not just say 'hi' to me. "What are you doing here?"

Yoongi responded by taking a slow sip of his coffee.

"Does that answer your question?"

Jimin scoffed, turning once again to look out the window. And as if this activated a switch that made the orange-haired boy invisible, Yoongi casually shifted his attention over to Taehyung.

"You look cute again today, Taehyung."

A cough crawled its way up Jimin's throat. But it was ignored.

"Really??" The barista gave a shy chuckle and scratched his cheek.

"Mhm. I really like your shirt. I love Spirited Away."

"Oh my gosh, me, too! It was one of my favorite movies as a kid. That, and Howl's Moving Castle."

"What about My Neighbor Totoro?"

"I don't think I've watched that one."

"Really? Well, you should. It's a classic."

"Well, okay then." Taehyung giggled. "I'll put it on my to-do list."

Jimin honestly didn't know why he hadn't left. Maybe it was his stubbornness having taken control again, reminding him that this was the seat he had chosen first, and that he shouldn't have to be the one to relocate. They were. Except they didn't. Until, that is, the moment Taehyung looked down at his watch and realized fifteen minutes had oh-so-quickly passed by, and that he had to return to the register. So he did.

But the pastel boy stayed. And with his head still facing the window, Jimin took this moment to say something he hoped would get a reaction out of Yoongi.

"I know you're gay, pastel boy. You can't deny the rumors."

"I've never once denied them, though."

At this, Jimin choked on his coffee, and he immediately regretted taking a drink to begin with. Luckily he managed to recover quickly; however, Yoongi, as usual, was unfazed to an aggravating degree.

"If I were trying to hide it, do you really think I would've called a boy cute in front of you? Two times?"

He had a point. He certainly had a point, and that just made the cat's grip on Jimin's tongue even tighter. So since no words came out, all Jimin could do was stare menacingly at Yoongi.

"And what are you gonna do with this information now that you have it, I might add?" Yoongi asked, sass dripping from his voice. "You could go around telling people, but good luck finding someone who doesn't already know."

It was like he knew he had won. But Jimin hated that, and he didn't want to admit it even to himself. So again, he just continued to glare at Yoongi. However it was only seconds after that that Jimin felt his forehead start to ache, and so he loosened the tight muscles on his brow, reaching his hand up to massage his temples. He groaned.

"I really don't like you, pastel boy."

"Mhm." Sip. "You've made that clear."

"I've got a headache now. It's your fault."

"Is that it? Or too many things on your mind? Ya know, stress is one of the most common causes of he-"

"Yeah, I know," Jimin hissed. "It's your fault. You're the one stressing me out."

"Really? I'm significant enough to you that I'd cause you stress?"

"Significant??"

Yoongi's phrasing of that question seemed to strike Jimin's head and thus worsen the headache, as did Jimin's immediate reaction, which was reforming the scowl he had just managed to stow away. Narrowing his eyes at the mint-haired boy, Jimin scoffed harshly.

"You're not significant," he declared. "Not to me. I couldn't care less about you."

Yoongi gave a casual nod. "I see. Well, then why do you let me stress you out?"

"I don't let you!"

"Sounds to me like you do."

"You cocky bastard..."

"Not being cocky. Just sayin'." Yoongi shrugged. "If I'm so insignificant, you wouldn't be going out of your way all the time just to pick on me, and you certainly wouldn't be letting me cross your mind to the point where it gives you headaches."

"You never cross my mind."

"Funny. Then who's the brat you were talking about right before I walked in the shop?"

"Quite narcissistic of you to think the word 'brat' solely refers to you."

Yoongi cracked a smile. A tiny one, but now that he was looking at Yoongi and not away from him, Jimin could see it this time, and he really didn't like it.

"This is fun."

A twig snapped in Jimin's head. He raised an eyebrow.

"Fun?"

"Yeah." Yoongi's smile grew just a tad. "Having an actual conversation for a change. It's different. But fun. You agree, don't you?"

"On no plane of reality," Jimin countered, ignoring the slight warmth in his cheeks. Well, he tried to. He stopped to hold his temples between his fingers again. "Ugh...just stop it..."

"Stop what?"

"Talking to me. I hate it."

"...but just last week you were demanding me to. Color me a bit puzzled, Park Jimin. What is it you want?"

He didn't respond this time. Not with a scoff, nor a biting remark to try to make the pastel boy feel insulted. Jimin suddenly felt exhausted, enough to admit, this time, that Yoongi got him good.

Slowly Jimin pushed his coffee aside to lay his head on the table.

"I don't know."

He breathed out.

"I don't know what I want."