DMF one-shot: One Yoongi-less Afternoon

[a/n: There’s no particular chronology to this one-shot, so feel free to imagine this anytime after the airport pickup timeline.]

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Whistling to himself as he hops out of The Cacao Crushers, Jimin congratulates himself for a hard day’s work. Business at the café was good today. Hoseok had clocked off early to run some after-work errands for Aunt Miseon. Nonetheless, Jimin, Taehyung and the two other full-timers managed to hold the fort pretty well. They should probably look into hiring more part-timers though, not that the summer vacation was starting.

As a reward for himself, Jimin decides he’ll take a nice, self-healing stroll around Hyehwa district’s narrow alleys lined with eclectic shopfronts. One of Chrysanthemum’s earlier advice to Jimin was to spend some time with himself, after all.

So he hops into an ice cream parlor for a chocolate cone, browses around a cool indie record storw that Yoongi would definitely love, and then walks down a park where he spots a sleeping calico cat that looks like Yoongi.

It’s weird. Ever since he’d started taking more time for himself, Jimin realizes he actually prefers to be around people than alone. Not that being alone is a bad thing — having no on to talk to is the killer for him. He has too many things to gush about and nobody to do it with. If Yoongi were here, it would have been a 100% nicer to walk along a park while they go about their usual ping-pong of verbal wit.

Maybe Jimin’s gotten too used to having Yoongi around him often. He didn’t come to the café today because of band rehearsals, and funnily enough his absence actually makes Jimin wonder about him more than usual.

Yoongi-less afternoons are so dull.

On Jimin’s walk back to his neighborhood, he passes by an accessories store and pauses in front of one of its outdoor stands.

Small rubber hairties. 1 Pack for ₩2,000.

“Oh?” Jimin digs his hands into the bottom of his little bag, grinning in victory when a couple of 500-won coins jingle against his fingers — winnings from Yoongi’s own pocket, courtesy of their proximity rule. Hah!

Jimin feels his shoulder straighten back, proud of himself for not having to use his own money. This way, he gets to save! At the same time, if he gets hairties for Yoongi, then his hyung won’t have such a hard time seeing through those thick bangs and Jimin gets to see his sprout hairstyle more often. Win-win.

(Of course, the other logical option would be to advise Yoongi to trim his hair, but Jimin isn’t immune to how much better the guy looks with longer hair. The mullet was already too big of a loss.)

“Heee.” Humming cheerfully, Jimin picks out a box of black rubber bands and steps inside the shop.