“Y/N! I got the job!” Hoseok shouts as he checks his email on his phone while the two of you were sitting on the couch of your living room on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

“At the hospital?!”

“Yup!”

“Is that where you ran off to the other day?” You narrow your eyes as you remember spending over twenty minutes scouring the lab looking for him, only to get weird looks from the other researchers.

“Oh you mean the day you met Dr. Jeon?”

“Yeah.”

“Actually, I met a really cute guy, and he may or may not be the reason I eventually decided to apply for the internship” Hoseok giggles a little as he leans his head back on the couch. “He’s a med student, so I was asking him about med school applications, writing memorable personal statements, MCAT stuff, and interview tips…. as an excuse to get his number” Hoseok looks at you with a sly grin, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Well look at you, pouncing on every opportunity that comes your way” You smile and shake your head, not surprised at all, since Hoseok has always been the proactive type, always optimistic and full of energy.

“He seemed disinterested at first, but as I kept bombarding him with questions, I realized that he wasn’t annoyed at all and that his personality is just really laid back.” Hoseok says as he pops a rice cracker into his mouth. “You know, if you find a boyfriend, we could go on a double date or something.” He says, with a mouth full of food.

“Not happening” You say, as you roll your eyes and start nibbling on a rice cracker as well.

“Hey, what about Dr. Jeon?” He says, suddenly perking up at the thought. “I’m pretty sure he’s still single. I mean with how busy his work life is, he probably doesn’t have time to-“

“Jung Hoseok! He’s researching cognitive perception and consciousness, aka THE central mysteries of human life. Stop acting like he’s not way out of my league AND my professor.” You cut him off before he finishes, appalled that he could even speak of such impossible things.

Even though the thought has inevitably crossed your mind several times, especially after that embarrassing session with a Taehyung. But you tried to not think about it, wanting to concentrate on actually completing the experiment and keeping your relationship with Jungkook on more professional terms.

“He’s only 4 years older than you, and you’re not going to be his student forever. Plus, he’s the hottest guy I’ve ever seen and on top of that he’s currently one of the smartest people on the planet” Hoseok continues his persuasive antics.

“Yes, I totally agree with you on that, which is exactly why he’s not an option and never will be”

“You don’t know that!”

“I can’t with this conversation with you anymore.”

You cover your ears, pretending like you can’t hear a single thing Hoseok is trying to say. You remove your hands when you’re certain his mouth isn’t moving anymore. He makes a sad face and you attempt to offer some consolation.

“You’ll have just as much fun on a normal date. Trust me.”

...

Culturing cells is a hundred times harder than it sounds. It requires much more precision than the lab manual actually says, and you have to wait around hours at a time for the culture to incubate, only to find out that nine times out of ten, you would end up with a bad batch, there was always something had gotten contaminated. But as hard as culturing normal cells were, they were absolutely nothing compared to deriving retinal ganglion cells from neural stem cells.

Environmental factors can completely change the developmental pathway of neural stem cells on the molecular level.

Jungkook’s warning voice rings in your head as you frown at the petri dish, crawling with cells that most definitely were not retinal ganglion neurons.

You groan, realizing that you’ve just wasted another day at the lab and a good amount of the stem cells Jungkook had ordered a week ago. You knew this was bad because that is expensive and the new funding hasn’t come in yet.

You were about to go to Jungkook’s office to tell him the bad news, but one of the other researchers in the lab tells you he didn’t come in today.

“I’m not sure if he’s on call for surgery or just making his hospital rounds” The guy in the white lab coat who was modeling some complicated looking graph on his computer says.

You quickly thank him and walk back to your bench. No wonder I haven’t seen Dr. Jeon all day. You think to yourself as you pack all your belongings into your backpack and prepare to catch the bus home. There was nothing more you could do, since there wasn’t enough time to start the experiment over and Jungkook wasn’t there.

Just as you were opening the door to leave, you accidentally bump into someone who was trying to enter.

“Oh sorry”

You hear the person apologize, but it’s the sound of his notably familiar voice that makes you stop momentarily.

“Yoongi?” You look up at the wavy raven-haired male who’s now wearing blue scrubs.

“Y/N?” He reacts in an equally surprised way, and honestly this is the first time you’ve seen this much emotion on his face.

“You work at this hospital?” You ask, eyeing his blue scrubs and the packet of pills in his hand.

“Uh, yeah… third year med student”

You nod, month forming an “o” in realization.

“And you’re….?” He waits for you to explain.

“I’m doing research under Dr. Jeon”

“So that application WAS yours…huh. And this whole time I thought it was just someone with the same name.” Yoongi is half mumbling to himself now. “Is he in his office?” He asks when he remembers why he was walking into the cognitive neuroscience lab in the first place.

“I heard he’s playing the surgeon role today.” You say casually, in an attempt to sound friendly.

Yoongi furrows his eyebrows. “That can’t be. Dr. Lee just told me he took Jeon’s shift.”A concerned expression washes over Yoongi’s face, and you can feel something’s not right.

He pulls out his cellphone and calls who you assume to be Jungkook. You watch as Yoongi holds the phone next to his ear, waiting for someone to pick up on the other end. After a few minutes of muffled ringing, he hangs up and shakes his head.

He squeezes the packet of pills in his hand and bites his lip. You try to make sense of the anxious look in his eyes and see that he’s more than just worried. And for someone as expressionless as Yoongi to actually look this distressed, you can only imagine how bad this could be.

“Y/N, can you do me a favor?” It was almost like he forgot you were still there a moment ago, but he’s looking at you now.

You nod, a little too frantically. Although you had no idea what was going on, this whole situation was making you feel uneasy.

“Can you go to Jeon’s place and check to see if he’s ok?”

Your eyes widen, and you find it hard to fully interpret the words coming out of the med student’s mouth.

“M-me? G-go t-to….. Dr. J-jeon’s house..?” It briefly crosses your mind that you probably sound like a retard right about now, the way you were stuttering and struggling to form a coherent sentence, but that’s just a side thought as your mind runs through every thing that sounded wrong about the idea that Yoongi just proposed.

“Please, I just need to know he’s not going to do something stupid, and I have a surgery to assist in an hour, so I’ve got my hands tied here”

You don’t know if it’s the desperate pleading look in Yoongi’s eyes or your own concern for Jungkook that gives you the audacity to nod and say “ok”, but before you know it, Yoongi is writing down the address and patting you on the shoulder thanking you before running down the hall.

The rest of what happens all comes as a blur, and quite literally too. It was pouring outside, and of course, you didn’t have an umbrella because you didn’t check your weather app this morning, thinking it most likely won’t rain. fml.

Rain water is dripping into your eyes as you squint to see the buses listed on the sign at the bus stop, but say screw it and call for a taxi after wasting almost fifteen minutes waiting for Bus #7.

You attempt to dry yourself in the taxi, but all of your efforts were in vain. Your t-shirt and jeans were soaked through, and you prayed that water hadn’t flooded your backpack because you did not have the money to buy a new laptop.

When you arrive at Jungkook’s apartment building, the rush of cool air greets you as the sliding doors to the lobby automatically open upon sensing your motion. Your clothes were sticking to your skin, and you looked like a complete mess walking into the extravagant elevator with gold tinted mirrors and intricately designed patterning.

You squeeze your hands into fists and knock on the cream colored door. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

You hear the lock on the door click and….

“Yoongi, I suggest you focus on you own-“

Jungkook stops when he sees you, completely soaked from the rain, standing in the hallway to his apartment.

“Y/N?”

You feel your heart almost jump out of your throat as you try to organize your thoughts and explain the situation.

“G-good afternoon, Dr. Jeon. Yoongi asked me to check up on-“

Jungkook puts his hand up, signaling for you to explain no more.

“What are you, Yoongi 2.0 now?” The hostile tone in his voice is something you’re not familiar with. Granted you’ve only interacted with him a couple of times in lab, but he was always seemed at least approachable despite maybe lacking the sort of friendliness most professors you’ve met in the past had. There was an apparent tiredness in his eyes, his hair isn’t perfectly groomed like it normally is, and the dark expression on his face sends a shiver of fear and tension down your neck.

“He’s really worried. Maybe you can just call him back and I’ll-“

He waves your words off, like it’s some trivial matter that doesn’t deserve his attention.

You notice that the casual way he was dressed made him look much younger. His oversized white t-shirt and grey sweat pants hung loosely on his lean figure, and his chocolate bangs were covering his forehead as opposed to it’s normal slightly parted position. If you were only judging by appearance at that particular moment, you would’ve never guessed he was a famous MD-PhD neurosurgeon. In fact, he looked like any other college graduate…only a ten times more handsome.

“I’m sorry I bothered you. I guess… I’ll go now.” You say in a defeated manner, hanging your head low and slowly backing away from the door. He’s probably not in the mood to be bothered. I’ll just tell Yoongi he was tired.

Just as you turn and begin walking back towards the elevator, Jungkook’s voice stops you dead in your tracks.

“You’re going to catch a cold”

You turn around slowly and see that he hasn’t closed the door but is instead looking a you.

…

If someone had told you, you would be sitting in Dr. Jeon Jungkook’s luxurious apartment, drinking the tea Dr. Jeon Jungkook had personally made, chatting with him about non-lab related stuff, and wearing his clothes, you would’ve waved it off thinking they were downright insane. But at that moment, it was the exact situation you found yourself in.

After he had invited you in casually like it was the most normal event that could’ve happened, his previous hostility had completely vanished. He showed you to his lavish bathroom that was attached to his equally as extravagant master bedroom and handed you a shirt and a pair of shorts. Although they were “clothes he hasn’t worn since undergrad”, they still draped over you like sheets, and the whole situation was awkward as hell. But you’d be lying to yourself if you said you didn’t enjoy what was happening.

You peak out of the bathroom, looking to see if Jungkook was there, but only hearing the faint sounds of closing cupboards drift in from what was probably the kitchen. The cream colored carpeting was smooth, not even showing traces of lines that vacuum cleaners usually leave. Almost every thing in the bedroom was neutral toned. The large king sized bed located in the center of the room had black and white sheets; there was a dresser on one side of the room, directly across from the large window overlooking the city, but what caught your eye was the painting hanging above the dresser. It was an illustration of a view from a balcony, a scene of another city moments after a thunderstorm. The entire piece of artwork had a cool-toned tinge to it and although it was strange, it gave you a familiar feeling you couldn’t quite explain.

Walking out of the bedroom, you make your way to the living room you had passed earlier when you first stepped foot into the apartment. Sitting on the long white couch, you continue to look around, not knowing what else you could possible do. It felt like you were treading on thin ice, not wanting to suddenly do something to make Jungkook regret inviting you in and being concerned for your health (but he was a doctor after all, so it’s expected right?).

There were millions of butterflies madly fluttering in your gut, and you almost jump out of your skin when Jungkook walks in from the kitchen with two cups of freshly brewed tea.

“Your clothes should be washed and dried in an hour or so,” He says as he places the cups on the black coffee table in front of you.

“Oh, uh..thank you, Dr. Jeon” You mutter, a little too softly to even sound professional anymore.

“Jungkook” He says. Make you look up at him in astonishment. “We’re not in lab.” He adds as he casually leans back on the couch.

You don’t respond, because you don’t know how at this point, so instead, you begin looking around the room again, hoping that maybe you’ll think of something natural to say. You’re eyes are slowly sweeping across the walls until they land on something that draws your attention once again.

“What artist is that by?” You ask, curiosity getting the better of you as your eyes are still glued on another cool-toned painting that looks to be the same style of artwork as the one you saw earlier in the bedroom, only this time, it was a scene of a lake surrounded by weeping willow trees.

“I painted that,” Jungkook answers.

“You paint?”

He nods.

“Is it a distortion of somewhere you’ve been?” The cool-toned nature of the painting is drawing your interest.

“It’s not a place in real life” He says, taking a sip of his tea. You mimic him and do the same as he continues to explain. “They are places I see in my dreams.” He pauses, as if not wanting to go into more details. “It’s nothing really, just a way to kill time.”

“It’s pretty”

He doesn’t respond, but instead changes the topic.

“Did Yoongi tell you about my condition?”

“No”

“I’m not as invincible as most people think” He looks down at his cup and fiddles with the handle. You watch his Adam’s apply bobble up and down as he swallows, clearly feeling uncomfortable exposing this about himself, but nevertheless, his words come out firm and resolute.

“Are you seeking treatment?” You ask, careful not to push him further than he wants to go.

He nods. “I don’t think it’ll do much, but as you can tell, Yoongi’s doesn’t give up.” He sighs. “I just didn’t have the motivation to get out of bed today, but he should’ve known I wasn’t going to do anything stupid. ”

You stay silent, drinking more of your tea and wondering how such a respected doctorate could have such vulnerable side to him. (But everyone does, right?)

And it’s at that moment, when your looking at the casually dressed Jungkook, sitting next to you, shoulders slumped and eyes staring at his cup of tea, that you realize that he maybe isn’t as daunting as you made yourself believe. Seeing the dark circles under his eyes that you hadn’t noticed before reminds you of how draining it must be to put on such a strong image all the time and that maybe he also needs a shoulder to lean on just like everyone else.

.......