Suga in My Coffee

3. Confectioners

Suga’s POV

When we left the coffee shop, I could feel Taehyung’s gaze burning a hole through my back. I tried to ignore him because I knew exactly what he was thinking, but by the time we had reached our company, I was fed up.

“What, Taehyung?” I questioned, releasing a tired breath.

V hesitated before he spoke, testing the waters of the conversation that we all knew was coming, “Hyung, why’d you lie to Niah-noona? Do you actually have free time today?”

At this point, Hoseok decided to speak up too, “TaeTae’s right. We have a full schedule for the rest of the week. You probably won’t be able to make it back by 6.”

I sighed out loud. They weren’t exactly wrong. Our schedule was jam packed for the day, and I had told Niah that I had free time. To be honest, I barely knew what that was these days. I sighed again, thinking about all the work I just forced on myself.

“We have an hour for dinner.” I replied, pushing our company’s front door open. The both of them just followed me quietly, and I was glad about that. It was probably a stupid choice to sacrifice my dinner for a girl I barely knew, but since I had already said that I would do it, I definitely was.

“Hyung, I’ll try to save you some food later,” Taehyung patted me on the back with a warm smile before heading off to the practice room. J-Hope chuckled and followed him with a wave over his shoulder. I smirked as I returned the gesture, happy for the small bit of support. Between a large lunch and the help of my groupmates, maybe I wouldn’t miss dinner so much.

The rest of my day flew by in a blur of meetings and performances. We had a radio show and a photoshoot just before lunch, then a meeting with our styling team to brainstorm our looks for a new concept. As each hour ticked by, I found myself losing focus more and more. By 5 pm, it took actual effort for me to pay attention to anything other than the time.

“Suga-hyung, are you alright?” Namjoon’s voice broke my staring contest with the clock and I stood up instantly, giving up completely on work. I started gathering all my belongings together quickly.

“I’ll be back later!” I said, not even waiting for a reply. I had to change clothes and get to the coffee shop before Niah got off of work. I found suitable clothes from our PUMA sponsored photoshoot and changed into them, just as my nerves started to kick in. As I dressed, my mind started to attack me with a million and one questions: What if Niah had gotten off earlier? What if she didn’t actually want me to come back? What if she asked me to talk to her in English?

I took a breath and tried to force all of that to the back of my mind.

‘It’s not a big deal,’ I told myself, but that didn’t make my anxiety go away. I put on my face mask just before heading back out of our company building, hoping this didn’t all blow up in my face.

Niah’s POV

At fifteen till 6, I gave up on work. There was no way I could help any customers and I had already ruined two orders. My boss could tell something was up with me.

“Niah-ssi, since we’ve slowed down for the day, you can go home a little early today.”

I cheered internally, but smiled all the same, “Thank you so much!” I practically flew from behind the counter, my heart fluttering in my chest as I changed out of my uniform.

I was going to play basketball with Min Yoongi.

I didn’t even know how good (or bad) Suga was at basketball, and honestly, I didn’t care. I knew he was insanely busy, and still he had offered to sacrifice his precious time for me. It made me feel like I was floating, and I felt incredibly lucky.

“Do you have a date or something?”

I spun as my coworker poked her head into the room, grinning at me, “A date?”

“There’s a guy stand outside our shop. He keeps looking at the door, but I don’t think he’s going to come in.”

If I wasn’t already rushing to get dressed, I certainly was now. I quickly put my braids up and out of the way, grabbed my basketball out of my locker and slammed it shut, “Thank you for all your hard work!” I shouted in my coworkers direction before running towards the door.

I took a deep breath, and pushed it open, the sounds of the city around me filling my ears. Suga turned, his eyes brightening when he saw me, and I tried not to swoon. No man should look so good. He looked laid-back in fashionable sweats and a PUMA hoodie and I felt like a commoner in front of him in my university issued T-Shirt and a pair of black joggers.

When I finally reached him, we both smiled at each other for a moment. I finally looked away when I realized I was staring and cleared my throat, “You made it.”

Suga gave me a little smirk that sent my heart into overdrive, “Yeah, and you got off of work early.”

I laughed sheepishly, “We were starting to get a little slower than usual, so I was allowed to leave early today.”

Suga nodded and inclined his head in the direction of the basketball court, “Ready?”

In my mind, I wanted to tell him no, if only so I could stare at him longer. I shook the thought from my mind and nodded slowly, allowing him to take the lead. At first, neither of us spoke. My eyes trailed over his shoulders and back as he walked ahead of me, his baseball cap pulled down as low as possible, which I assumed was for security reasons. As we walked, I could feel the usual glances from the people around us. I was still keeping my eyes on him though. I nearly ran into his back when he stopped walking to finally look back at me.

“Ah!” I said, holding my hands up and unknowingly pressing my palms softly into his back. Suga turned around fully, his gaze hard to read as he caught my wrist.

“Walk beside me,” he said simply, tugging on my wrist a bit and I nodded, closing the short distance between the two of us. Once in my position, I smiled reassuringly and we continued down the sidewalk, side-by-side.

“Niah-ssi, how long have you been in South Korea?” His voice was a bit muffled behind the face mask but I could hear him well enough. I was glad to just hear his voice.

“Nearly a year. I’m taking one summer class now, so I’ve been able to work more.” I held the ball closer to my body as we crossed the street, cheering internally when I saw that the basketball court was empty.

“How long have you played basketball?”

“For as long as I can remember. My Dad says it was my first word too!”

Suga chuckled at my joke, and I was on cloud nine. Was it possible to be this happy from another person’s laughter? I needed to get a hold of myself, and fast. We stepped onto the empty court and picked a corner to set all our stuff in. Since I was already in my joggers, I was set, but Suga pulled off his hoodie to reveal a plain white T-shirt underneath. He tossed it in the direction of our belongings and slipped the cap back on his head.

I began to dribble the ball as he approached me, “You know that’s going to come off, right?”

The corner of his lips turned upward in a smirk, recognizing the challenge in my voice immediately, “It’ll stay.”

I just laughed and tossed the ball in his direction.

Suga’s POV

I missed this. I missed the feeling of the ball in my hands, and the way my arms stretched when I made a shot. Though I hated being sweaty, I didn’t mind it while playing basketball. Niah was a great player and I could see why she played at the university. At first, I was distracted by her… everything. She could play well and she was graceful with every step. I realized I wasn’t paying attention when instead of stealing the ball from me, she stole my hat.

“I told you it would come off!” She said, placing the cap on her head and snatching the ball from me while I stood there in surprise. She spun on her heel and fired off a clean three-point shot, teasingly sticking her tongue out at me when she heard the ball swish into the hoop.

I groaned in frustration, glad that my face mask was still in tack to cover my smile. With my pride on the line, I forced myself to pay attention. We played for about 30 minutes, with me only scoring 3 more shots than she had.

“You have a weak spot on your left side,” I observed, while Niah dug around in her bag for something. She came back to me with a bottle of water, which I accepted gratefully.

“And you think too much,” she replied, plopping down onto the court beside me with a smile. I smiled back, having thrown my mask aside sometime in the middle of our game.

“Why do you say that?”

“There’s a delay before you take a shot… Like you’re weighing all your options. It’s pretty… hmmm, I’m not sure how to say this word in Korean,” she frowned, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket. She spoke to an app on her phone in English, and then held it up for me to hear the computerized voice say the word she didn’t know.

“ ‘Meticulous’?” I repeated, glancing at the written Google translation for the word she'd been trying to use. She nodded and slipped her phone back in her pocket. “It’s just how I play.”

“You play really well.”

The praise was unexpected but I welcomed it. I drank down a few more swallows of water, before Niah held up her phone again. She pointed at the clock that read 6:45 pm, “...You have to go soon, right?”

I leaned back against the cool ground, closing my eyes to block out her question. I definitely needed to go. We had another scheduled event at 8 and if I didn’t get back soon, the others would start to ask questions.

But I didn’t want to go.

I frowned as I considered that thought. I really wasn’t ready to leave. I had enjoyed myself with Niah, playing a sport that I loved. Since we both loved basketball, it made me wonder what else we had in common. What type of music did she like? Did she enjoy Korean food or did she make American food at home? More questions filled my mind, but I held them all back. I had to get back to the company.

Beside me, Niah took a deep breath and released it slowly. As I opened my eyes to look at her, I realized that she was a lot nearer to me than I thought. Her beautiful brown eyes looked into mine and I couldn’t look away.

“Thank you for today. I know you’re really busy-”

“Not that busy,” I interjected, and she gave me a doubtful glance before continuing her speech.

“I know you’re busy, so we won’t be able to do this again.” She said, with such a finality that I immediately sat up. I opened my mouth to speak, but Niah shook her head, holding up a hand to hold me off, “I can’t let you sacrifice your precious few minutes of spare time. That wouldn’t be fair of me.”

I felt a sinking feel in my stomach. This was not going the way I had thought it would.

“Niah-ssi, I’ll decide what to do with my time.” I told her, then grimaced as the words came out much harsher than I had intended. Niah looked at me warily, and I gave her a small smile, “If you treat me badly, I’ll stop ordering coffee from the shop.”

Niah laughed loudly, breaking the tension between us, “Oh my goodness, did you just threaten me? I wonder how the Internet would feel if they found out BTS’ Min Yoongi threatened innocent cafe girls!”

My full, real name on her lips made my heartbeat accelerate. There was something about the way she said it; her American accent making my name sound like something amazing. I caught myself staring at and had to physically force my gaze elsewhere by standing up. I felt her eyes follow me as I walked over to gather my belongings and distract myself.

“Good luck with the rest of your schedule today,” Niah called after me, standing up as well. She walked over and grabbed her items too, waving at me as she slung her bag over her shoulder, “And don’t forget to eat.”

I nodded and waved back, knowing that if I didn’t leave soon, I would never get back to work. I had gotten as far as the gate before I heard her voice calling after me.

“Oh! Suga-ssi!”

I turned to find Niah running back towards me, with my baseball cap in her hand. She reached me quickly and before I could grab it, set the cap back on my head.

“See you!” She said cheerfully, running back in the direction she had come. I blinked as a piece of paper fell into my eyes, sticking from the bill of my cap. I pulled the cap off, removing the little note. It was a username for something. I stared at the note for a moment longer, feeling a smile spread across my face as I put the paper in my pocket and headed back towards Big Hit.

It looks like Niah had actually won our game today.

End Chapter 3

A/n: Just chugging along! Thanks for leaving comments, y’all!