Coffee Love #9 - JiTae
Word Count: 4,805

Date in Chapter: 2016 November 28

Note: This is Jitae’s one year anniversary~! Other couples are also present, but this chapter is heavily Jitae focused! Also with Junghoon Focus. (Warning for hints to ual content at the very end.)

Jungkook’s POV

        When Jungkook had decided to get Jihoon a horse for his birthday, Jungkook was sure that he would want to keep it at the stable. He was sure of that because it would be close that way. They could go out there on the weekends to take care of them and ride together, and Jihoon would be able to see the horse all the time.

However, after discussing it for some time, Jihoon decided that he’d actually like to keep the horses on the farm. When he brings up the prices of renting space at the stable plus the amount it costs to feed and take care of them, which is more when they have someone else do it, compared to the free of charge horse care they could have if Jihoon sent them home, Jungkook couldn’t really argue. The two don’t actually have a lot of money to just be throwing around, so taking care of the horses as cheaply as possible would be best for them. Jihoon points out that it would be cheaper to visit Busan every weekend than to keep the horses in the stables and pay for their care as well.

Jihoon’s dad was supposed to come up and get the horses over the weekend, but he couldn’t actually make it up to the city until today. He came alone—not bringing Jihoon’s mother with him, and he invited Jungkook and Jihoon to go out to breakfast with him before going to the stables to pick up the horses.

Today is the day that Jungkook and Jihoon are supposed to tell Jihoon’s dad about their engagement, but, little does Jihoon know, Jungkook already told him. He had to. He wasn’t going to ask Jihoon to marry him without asking for his father’s permission first.

Jihoon doesn’t even suggest his favorite breakfast place when his father asks where they should go, probably knowing that he doesn’t want a western-style breakfast. He far too proud of his Korean roots to break from many Korean traditions, so Jihoon, instead, suggests a more traditional Korean restaurant where they can have a more Korean-style breakfast.

When they arrive at the restaurant, and get out of their cars, Jihoon immediately rushes to Jungkook’s side, taking the younger’s hand in his own. He shoves his free hand, the one with the ring on it, in his own jacket pocket—probably because it’s ing cold out here, but most likely in an attempt to keep his father from seeing the ring. Jungkook doesn’t even get a chance to bite back a smile before it spreads on his face. Jihoon is too ing cute.

Once they are seated, Jungkook next to Jihoon and his father across from him, and the waters are brought to them, Jihoon proceeds to speak. “So…um…J-Jungkook…” Jihoon is always really cute when he gets nervous because it almost never happens. He’s always so confident and cool, and he’s definitely the stronger one in the relationship. There aren’t a lot of things that can make him shake, but he’s still not comfortable being really open in his and Jungkook’s relationship in front of his father. “He…uhm…” He nudges Jungkook when the younger one doesn’t say anything or help him out.

Jungkook looks at his boyfriend. “What?” He asks, and Jihoon sort of points at his father with his eyes. He thinks he’s being subtle, but he’s not really being that at all. “Oh,” Jungkook says, pretending to have just gotten the hint. “Hyung said yes.” He says directly to Jihoon’s father, and he makes sure to smile right afterwards. It’s a conscious effort because he doesn’t want Mr. Lee to think that he’s being hesitant about the decision.

“Oh, I see.” His father says. Jungkook doesn’t know him well enough yet to read all of his tones, but he’s sure that there was only slight disappointment mixed in with those words.

When Jungkook looks back at his fiancé, he can see the confusion on Jihoon’s face. He is so lost. “I thought we…” Jihoon’s voice is quiet. “I thought we agreed to tell him together.”

It takes every ounce of strength in Jungkook to not kiss Jihoon’s cheek right now, another conscious effort that he’s making to bring a better impression of him to Jihoon’s father. It’s not that he minds his father seeing them kiss. It’s that a public restaurant isn’t the place for that. “Hyung, do you seriously think I was going to ask you to marry me without asking your father’s permission first?” Jungkook questions the smaller one, raising an eyebrow at him.

Jihoon looks at his dad then, still confused. “And you gave him permission?”

“No,” His father’s deadpan honesty reminds Jungkook so much of Yoongi, and Jihoon can be like that sometimes, too. It’s cute when Jihoon does it.

“But…you said…” Jihoon turns to Jungkook.

“I said I wasn’t going to ask you without asking for permission first.” Jungkook points out. “I never said I needed it. I was going to ask you either way. I just asked him first out of courtesy.”

Jihoon sighs. “You’re impossible.” He says, and it only makes Jungkook’s smile wider.

“Would you love me if I wasn’t?” Jungkook asks.

“Yes.” Jihoon’s reply comes easily, and Jungkook’s smile falls a little. “Just not as much as I do now.”

Jungkook leans toward Jihoon, forgetting about his father’s existence until he hears the man clear his throat, and he leans back into his own space before their lips can even touch. “Not at the table, please.” Is all Mr. Lee says, and he and Jungkook both go into a laughing fit when Jihoon pushes Jungkook so hard it almost knocks the younger one out of his chair.

Yoongi’s POV

        “Look who I brought!” Yoongi hears Hoseok’s voice at the office door, and he sees his husband holding Kijung as he walks in. The baby is sleeping, which explains why, although Hoseok used his high-pitched voice that he does just to be an obnoxious little , his volume was much lower than usual when he said it.

“Did you kidnap him?” Yoongi asks, but he can’t hide the affection on his face. He loves seeing Hoseok with Kijung because he really seems like a proud father. Kijung is, after all, his baby. Besides, now that he’s six months old, he actually looks a little bit like Hoseok. There are features of Bomi as well, but he has Hoseok’s smile.

“Bomi noona asked if I could watch him today.” Hoseok says, stepping further into Yoongi’s office. He sets Kijung’s cradle on Yoongi’s desk, and he smiles at Yoongi. “He has a little baby cold, so she couldn’t take him to the daycare. I figured I might as well, since we don’t get to spend a lot of time with him.”

Yoongi frowns, and he feels the baby’s forehead. It’s a little hot, but not as much as he had imagined. “Why don’t you ask the girls if you can watch him everyday?” Yoongi asks. “I mean, daycare is no place for a six-month old baby. Besides, they wouldn’t have to pay you, and it’d save them some money.”

Hoseok shrugs. “Sometimes I go to the studio in the morning to work on choreography,” Hoseok says. “I think the loud music would bother him. I definitely know it wouldn’t be good on his little ears.”

“So bring him here when you go to dance,” Yoongi suggests. “It’s on your way to the studio anyway, and I wouldn’t mind watching him for a couple of hours while you work. He’s a good baby, and he doesn’t cry too much, so he wouldn’t really bother me.”

Hoseok smiles at Yoongi before looking at Kijung. “Really? You’d do that?” He asks.

“Yeah,” Yoongi says. “I mean, you clearly want to spend more time with him, and I think it’d give both of us some experience before we have our own baby.”

“I love you.” Hoseok says, and it’s especially sweet because it catches Yoongi off guard.

“I love you, too.” Yoongi returns, smiling.

Seokjin’s POV

        By now, it’s really no secret to anyone who knows Seokjin at all that Seokjin hates messes. It’s his least favorite part of running the cafe. Most of the time customers are really good about cleaning up after themselves—throwing their disposables away and putting their dirty dishes in the bins. Then there are days like today, where Seokjin has to go in after every other customer to clear the mess on the table they left behind. During his honeymoon with Namjoon in Colorado, he learned about tipping culture in America, and he sure wished that was a thing here in Korea, too. It would make cleaning up these cups so much more worth it.

A strong pair of hands around his waist makes the cafe owner nearly jump out of his skin, and he drops the cups he had gathered, breaking of them. He’s entirely unimpressed to see Namjoon standing behind him when he turns around, a cheeky, but apologetic grin on his face. “Sorry, Hyung.” Namjoon says, and he kneels down to pick up the broken cup and its few shattered pieces. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to surprise you a little.”

Even when Namjoon isn’t actually the one breaking anything at all, he still has a knack at breaking everything in his presence. He’s like the embodiment of bad luck, and it follows him wherever he may go. Seokjin takes the cup and other pieces from Namjoon’s hands, and he wraps his arms around his husband’s waist, resting his forehead on Namjoon’s shoulder. Normally, he wouldn’t act like this while he’s still on the clock, but his day has just been really stressful, and he needs some kind of comfort. “What are you doing here? You normally call first.” Seokjin tells him, his voice mostly muffled in Namjoon’s chest.

“I have some guys up there doing some work on the studio, construction stuff, you know, so I closed up and let everyone go home today. It was too distracting.” Seokjin only remembers Namjoon saying something about the work he was planning on having done when Namjoon reminds him just then. “Do you need any help here?”

Seokjin’s grip around Namjoon’s waist as he looks up at the younger one. “What?” He asks, not really sure if he heard Namjoon correctly.

“I’m done working for the day,” Namjoon says. “And you’re clearly stressed.” He always knows best. “So if you need an extra hand—”

“That’s really sweet of you,” Seokjin says, burying his face in Namjoon’s chest again, this time to hide his smile. “But you don’t have any experience.” It’s more than that, though. Seokjin is sure that Namjoon would be able to have every cup and coffee machine in the shop broken before their shift ever ended.

“I’m willing to learn.” Namjoon says.

“But you don’t have a uniform.” Seokjin argues.

“You aren’t going to be paying me either.” Namjoon points out. “I’m just a volunteer.”

Seokjin has never been really good at refusing his overly romantic husband’s requests, and he gives in this time as well. “All right,” He says. “But you’re going to have to eat with me first. I haven’t had my break yet.”

“Deal.” Namjoon says, kissing Seokjin’s forehead. “You go clock out, boss, and I’ll be waiting right here.”

Jimin’s POV

        It was a hard choice of whether to go to work today or skip out and enjoy the entire day for his and Taehyung’s one year anniversary. Since Taehyung mentioned he had a presentation he couldn’t miss, Jimin decided not to skip work as well. That was until lunch time, anyway. Before even going on break, Jimin found Yongguk somewhere around the office, and he told him that he wasn’t feeling well.

Yongguk knew better. He knew why Jimin was requesting to go home, but he agreed to letting him anyway, saying that he’d want to have his and Daehyun’s anniversary off, so he let Jimin go.

Jimin decided to leave around lunch time because Taehyung’s class that he had the presentation for, the one he couldn’t skip, was in the morning. Jimin decides to leave work early, head to the flower shop across the street to pick up some roses, and go pick Taehyung up from the school when it was time for that class to end.

So far his plan had been working out. He got a free pass out of work, and he was already in the flower shop. Jimin knows that roses are a basic symbol of love and such, but he just doesn’t think that’s what he wants to give to Taehyung. In the year that they’ve been together, he hadn’t given Taehyung any flowers for anything, and the only time Taehyung gave Jimin flowers was for his graduation ceremony.

Near the entrance of the flower shop is a catalogue that tells you the meaning of the different sorts of flowers, and the perfect time to buy them. Since it’s the end of November right now, buying any flowers is a little more expensive than what they would be in early spring or even late summer, but Jimin doesn’t care. He’ll spend one hundred extra dollars on a single flower for Taehyung if he has to.

Flipping through the book, he eventually makes it to the section that talks about roses and all the different sorts of roses there are. If there’s something more fitting than a simple red rose, that’s really what Jimin wants to get for his best friend to boyfriend. He flips through the pages. There are pink roses and white roses and the artificial black and blue roses. Then Jimin finds yellow roses, representative of friendship, it says. That’s still not quite right. As he turns one more page, he discovers a yellow rose that has red tips. The photo in the catalogue looks beautiful, and so Jimin begins reading up on them.

As he gets into the reading, he yelps and turns around when he feels a pair of arms around his waist and someone mouthing at his ear. Despite the familiarity of the touch, it freaks Jimin’s out, and his heart is still racing even when he sees Taehyung standing right in front of him. “You ing scared me,” Jimin snaps, shoving Taehyung’s chest, but the taller one only barely stumbles backward. “What the hell are you doing here, anyway?”

Taehyung shrugs, stepping closer to Jimin than he was even before Jimin pushed him back. “My class was over, so I figured I would come by here and pick you up some flowers before stealing you from the office and keeping you to myself.” Taehyung says.

“Yeah?” Jimin questions. “Well, you’re not allowed to by me flowers,” He says, poking Taehyung hard in the chest. “Because I was going to get you flowers.” He pokes Taehyung a few more times.

“But you don’t know which kind?” Taehyung asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I just…” Jimin doesn’t even know what to say to that. “I mean, flowers have meanings, don’t they? I didn’t want to get the wrong ones.”

Taehyung smiles, and he kisses Jimin’s nose. “Well, come on, then. Let’s pick out our flowers together.” He says.

Jimin allows Taehyung to take his hand, but he takes the lead when he sees the yellow flowers wit the red tips just like the ones in the catalogs. “I think these are our flowers.” Jimin says.

“And why’s that?” Taehyung asks, fond.

“Well because the yellow flower represents friendship.” Jimin says. “And the red means love and passion and stuff, so…I think it really matches us.”

“Then lets buy these flowers,” Taehyung says.

Jungkook’s POV

        After breakfast with Jihoon’s father and saying goodbye to the horses, a late lunch date with Jihoon alone, and a stroll downtown, it was already the evening, and Jungkook decided that it was a good time to contact his brother so that he could tell him about his and Jihoon’s engagement now that Jihoon knows that his father knows about it.

Telling Rome, for Jungkook, is going to be a lot like telling Jihoon’s father was for Jihoon. Scary. Rome is one of the people Jungkook respects the most, and he just knows that he’s going to think that Jungkook is making a stupid decision by asking Jihoon to marry him so quickly.

When he called his brother to ask if he was free from work, he told him that he was, but he he was at Yoongi and Hoseok’s place. He’s always at Yoongi and Hoseok’s place when he has the time. He never comes to Jungkook and Jihoon’s place. The only time he had ever been there was to help them move in after moving out of their old apartment building. Jungkook feels like his brother is forgetting about him, and he hates it.

Still, he goes to Yoonseok’s place to see his brother anyway, because they still have to tell Hoseok, too. Yoongi promised that he wouldn’t tell him, and Jungkook believes that he hasn’t.

The four of them are there when Jungkook and Jihoon arrive, and Jungkook glares at his brother when he finds him sitting on the couch with Jiwoo and Hoseok. Yoongi seems to take notice, and he pats Jungkook on the shoulder as he walks them inside. “Hoseok had Kijung earlier, and Jojo noona wanted to see him.” He explains as if trying to save Rome’s .

“I wanted to see Kijung.” Jihoon whines as he and Jungkook go to sit down in the living room floor.

Jungkook can tell that Rome and Jiwoo are here a lot because Pistachio isn’t even barking at them or trying to attack Rome. If they’ve been here enough for that dog to get used to them and like Rome, then they’ve been here too much compared to how little they’ve seen Jungkook over the past months.

“I wanted to tell you something, but I don’t even think I want to now.” Jungkook says, and he rests his cheek on Jihoon’s shoulder. “I mean, you probably don’t care anyway.”

“Jungkook,” Jihoon says, giggling. “Don’t be such a baby.”

“You’d understand if you had an older brother.” Jungkook whispers to Jihoon. Of course Jihoon does have an older brother, but it’s different for him. He didn’t grow up with Yoongi, and they are close now, yeah, but they don’t have to close bond that Jungkook and Rome always had.

“What did you want to talk about?” Rome asks. He moves from the couch to sit cross-legged on the floor with Jungkook and Jihoon.

“Nothing.” Jungkook refuses to tell him. “You can’t just pretend you care all of a sudden and expect me to forgive you.”

Jungkook doesn’t know why he’s acting like this. It’s probably because he’s pissed of at his brother for not spending much time with him these days, but it’s also probably because he’s just afraid about how Rome will react to the engagement.

“Kookie.” Rome says, but Jungkook doesn’t look at him. They now have the attention of everyone in the room, and Jungkook just wants to go back to the safety of his own apartment where he and Jihoon are the only two people in the world. “Jeon Jungkook.”

Jungkook gives in and lifts his head from his fiancé’s shoulder, and he looks at his brother. Rome is looking at him with that concerned look he gives Jungkook anytime he knows Jungkook is feeling a little down. Rome is well-aware of how emotionally sensitive Jungkook is, which is why he’s usually careful not to hurt Jungkook’s feelings.

“Talk to me.” Rome says when Jungkook doesn’t say anything.

“Jihoon hyung and I are engaged now.” Jungkook mumbles quickly before turning to bury his face in Jihoon’s shoulder again.

The initial reaction isn’t exactly what Jungkook expected at all. The only thing he gets after admitting his engagement with Jihoon to his brother is silence. From everyone. A few awkward seconds into the silence, Hoseok and Jiwoo both say that they should give them some space, and Hoseok pulls Yoongi along with them. Jihoon doesn’t go anywhere. He stays right there with Jungkook, holding Jungkook’s hand.

“Jungkook, you’re only 19.” Rome finally speaks a few moments after everyone is out of the room. “There’s no need—”

“Why does it matter?” Jungkook snaps, lifting his head again to look at his brother. He didn’t tell his brother before hand because he knew that Rome would try to talk him out of it. Jungkook has always been sensitive to his brother’s opinions, so he would probably let Rome talk him out of it. Even now, just telling Rome, he’s already beginning to regret his decision to ask Jihoon in the first place. “Why does my age matter so much? Why can’t I just do what I want and not have you to tell me that I’m being an idiot?”

“I never said you were an idiot.” Rome points out. “And the fact that you don’t know why your age matters so much is only more reason as to why it’s a little too soon for you to be rushing into this. Believe me, you will understand when you get older.”

“I’m an adult now.” Jungkook reminds his brother. “I’m not living with you anymore, and I’m perfectly capable of making my own decisions. There’s nothing you understand that I don’t. We’re both adults.”

“Mom and dad are both adults, too.” Rome points out. “Do you believe that you know just as much as them, too?”

“That’s…” Jungkook sighs. He can’t argue with Rome. He sees his point, and he knows that he’s right. “So what? You think I should wait to ask Jihoon to marry me?” When Jungkook asks that, Jihoon’s grip on his hand tightens.

“No,” Rome says. “If you take it back now, it’ll be an even dumber decision than having asked in the first place.”

“Then what do you want me to do?” Jungkook asks.

“I just want you to be sure of this decision and not regret it later.” Rome says, placing a hand on his younger brother’s knee.

“I’m sure this is what I want…what we both want.” Jungkook says, only hoping that it’s true for Jihoon, too. “So I won’t regret it.”

“My sweet, baby brother,” Rome says, and he pulls Jungkook into a hug. “You have got a lot to learn about life.”

Jimin’s POV

        After their little coincidental meeting at the flower shop, Jimin and Taehyung had a bought some of the yellow roses like Jimin wanted, and Taehyung decided that they should go out to the park. Going to the park is something they’ve always loved doing together, especially during the colder months when there’s less people out there.

Taehyung decided that they should make it more fun this time. Instead of just walking around the park and talking, they should make a game out of it. Jimin’s not very good at coming up with fun and adventurous things like Taehyung is, so he doesn’t have any good ideas at first. Taehyung, however, is full of ideas, good and bad.

“I’ve got an idea.” Taehyung says as they walk around, hand-in-hand. “It feels like we know everything about each other because we’ve been friends for so long, but there’s actually a lot that we don’t know. So…”

“You want to get to know me better?” Jimin asks, raising an eyebrow at his best friend. At this time, that seems impossible. He and Taehyung have been together for too long for there to be any secrets between them. It’s their one year anniversary, but it feels like it’s been so much longer than that. “And how do you propose we do that?”

“Easy,” Taehyung says. “Let’s go home. We need to put the flowers in a vase, anyway, if we don’t want them to die too quickly.”

Jimin doesn’t even protests. He leaves with Taehyung, mostly curious about what the younger one has in mind.

They go back to the apartment, and Taehyung carries Jimin through the door, bridal style, before setting him down on the couch. He leaves Jimin by himself in the living room while he goes back to get something from the bedroom, and he returns with a few shopping bags that Jimin can only wonder when he had time to buy them. “We’re going to make a small scrapbook of our year as we talk about this.” He says, and Jimin smiles when Taehyung begins pulling all of the items out. He got one scrapbook for them both to fill up, but there’s an endless amount of supplies there for them to use.

“Okay,” Jimin says, grabbing the stack of pictures that Taehyung lays down, and Jimin can’t believe he even got some of these printed—some of them being quite inappropriate. They were supposed to be saved away on Taehyung’s phone where they were save from the eyes of other people, but he went and got them all printed out at the store. “Since I don’t know what you have in mind, you start.”

“Well, it’s been a whole year now.” Taehyung says. “What is your favorite thing that we did in that time?”

Jimin nibbles his lip as he thinks about it, smiling when he finds the picture that he tried to take of himself kissing Taehyung on the cheek, but Taehyung wanted to be the one to kiss Jimin on the cheek, so they ended up just kissing instead it. Even though they kiss all the time, it was a little awkward when it had happened, but they both ended up laughing about it at the time, and it easily became one of Jimin’s photos of them together. “I don’t know,” Jimin says. “There’s a lot that we did that I liked. I guess…if I had to choose…I would say that time when we went hiking with your brother and Yongguk hyung, and I fell and scraped my knee pretty badly. And you carried me on your back all the way to the car.”

“That’s not a good thing for you,” Taehyung says. “You can’t choose something where you got hurt.”

“It’s not that,” Jimin says. “It’s exhausting to take care of you sometimes. You’re so needy and demanding, and…I like it when you’re the one who has to take care of me.”

“Okay, ouch.” Taehyung says, gripping his chest with fake hurt. “I guess my favorite time was when you graduated. I liked…being your special…being…your person…the one that…”

Jimin laughs, unable to hide his amusement at Taehyung’s poor choice of words. It doesn’t happen all the time, but there are just moments when Taehyung doesn’t know which words to use to express himself properly, and those are actually Jimin’s favorite moments. “Taehyung,” Jimin says. “I know.”

They continue talking as they put their scrap book together. They don’t really learn anything about each other that they didn’t already know before, not personality or history wise, anyway. Jimin does, however, learn about things that Taehyung likes that he never says that he likes. He learns that Taehyung, although he’s good at mooching off of people, actually likes it when Jimin doesn’t even get him a gift for special holidays like this and just spends time with him instead. He learns that Taehyung likes Jimin best when he’s fatter and doesn’t stress out so much about his body, which that should have been obvious to him, but it wasn’t. He learns that Taehyung likes Jimin’s clinginess and that his favorite display of affection with Jimin is kissing, too. Those are the kinds of things that they learn about each other, but it’s enough for Jimin.

“Ice cream time!” Taehyung says when they are both sitting on the couch after finishing up the scrapbook. He rushes off to the kitchen and comes back with a single popsicle. “We have to go buy more ice cream. We’re out.”

“That’s okay,” Jimin says as Taehyung opens it up and sits on the couch with him. “You can have it. I don’t—”

Jimin is cut off when Taehyung suddenly pushes the popsicle against his lips, and he on the tip a little before turning to look at Taehyung. Suddenly, Taehyung’s expression is a lot darker, more lustful, like he wants to ravish Jimin right there.

“Pretend this ice cream is my ,” Taehyung says, pressing the ice cream to Jimin’s lips again. “And show me how you’d do it.”

Despite being put on the spot light like that, and despite Jimin’s cheeks turning a deep red, he entertains Taehyung, doing exactly what he said.