02; Morning ritual

'Who does she think she iszzz, hah...!??' the young officer boomed, slamming the emptied shot of vodka on the polished bar top.

'Does she even know who I am? Huh? Duzzzzs sheeee!?' he continued, scowling at something on the table his blonde colleague beside him couldn't see.

'I've been around here lllllllllonger than she has—I mean—she just transferred a year ago... monthsszz maybe... and suddenly she's trampling over my pride like she owns me or something...! Yah, wae!?'

Namjoon watched as his drunken friend began drawing tiny imaginary circles into the mirror-like surface of the bar table they sat at, and took a slow swig of his beer. The chap had been horribly distraught ever since he'd left him in the office earlier, only to discover at the end of their shift that the reason for it all was not Jongdae this time, but the infamous Woon. He was surprised to see Jimin more startled than anything at first and the man remained relatively level-headed throughout the rest of the day...

Until of course, he decided to get drunk with the blonde at the bar. And a drunken Park Jimin was as sensitive as a landmine.

'Am I some kind of magnet...? Magnet for danger? Doomed, she said—she said I was doomed, I—does it look like I'm climbing Mount Everest with a spoon? Am I really that...'

'Jimin,' Namjoon said crisply with the accompaniment of a hand on his friend's shoulder, which took the younger man a moment to respond to.

'You are not doomed as long as you don't get shot again, OK? Just... I don't know. Just give it some time. Give yourself time.'

'She just stripped me bare...,' he said with narrowed eyes, now brandishing an imaginary dagger in his loose fist over the bar top. 'And stuck the knife in, man. Women, man, womennn.'

Namjoon sighed after taking another sip of his beer at the comment. 'The bane of man.'

'She looked so... so...'

'Reptilian? I feel you, man. You should see her chatting to mister cop of the month, it's friggin' hilarious how he tries so...'

Jimin's scowl turned into a confused frown. 'So cute.'

The blonde almost spat out his drink at the unexpected words out of his mouth, and at this point he knew the younger man was beyond drunk. Perhaps delirious. It was the last thing he expected to hear. In fact, all he imagined was the chap spouting ridicules about her or continuing with his disbelieving insults, but what ensued was even more terrifying.

'And then there's this eyebrow thing she does—like—I cannooooooot believe how cute that is.'

Namjoon cleared his throat awkwardly and flattened out a handful of colourful bills over the bar table. 'Yeah—uh—I think we should get going, Jimmy. Can you walk?'

'This thing, this...,' he pressed the top of his eyebrows with his fingers, forcing them together in a stiff line comically. 'It's there for like a split second whenever she says something reaaaaaaally serious, and—'

Namjoon rolled his eyes as he tugged the younger one's arm over his shoulders and moved him off the barstool; all the while Jimin describing with horrible accuracy Woon Kyungja's very expressionless expressions. The blonde didn't bother taking what he heard out of the younger cop's mouth to heart considering he was after all completely stoned thanks to his earlier reckless consumption of shots, and after successfully getting him to his apartment, left quietly... well, it wasn't like Jimin would remember anything anyway. Nevertheless, Namjoon found his weird chants about aloe Vera pretty amusing, even though he was certain the chap was knocked out cold.

The young officer woke the following morning with a headache equivalent to that of a mini earthquake wrecking the contents of his cranium. He winced as he came to, grabbing his head with both hands as if to support the heavy weight within to get up, and cursed quietly at his poor state. What on earth did he possibly do last night? The last time he recalled waking up to such a killer headache was the one time he'd been shoved face-first into a steel shelf of burritos during a Mexican-style hold up—

'Ow ow owww!' he cried, sliding out of bed with movements as painfully slow as a sloth's.

He had successfully managed a sitting position at the corner of the bed when he spotted his phone vibrating madly on the night stand. Reluctantly peeling away a single hand from the side of his pulsing head, he reached for the mobile and groaned.

'Hello...?'

'Rise and shine, lover boy!' he immediately recognized Namjoon's voice and at the booming greeting, he pulled the receiver away from his ear with a pained flinch.

'Dude, have mercy! My poor brain...,' he brought the phone back to his ear, now massaging his forehead with his free hand.

'What the hell happened last night?'

'Let's see...,' the blonde paused thoughtfully. 'Apart from letting the entire world in on what a witch Officer Woon is with your drunken babbling, let's just say nothing much.'

Jimin groaned audibly and threw his head back in shame. 'What have I done...!'

'Actually, what you should be asking me is what's the time. I'm surprised you're awake. I thought you'd still be hammered.'

'Hm?' Jimin glanced at the digital clock on his bedside, frowning. 'Oh man, it's 7.'

'Yep. I've got some errands to run, but just thought I'd give you a wake up call before then. Make sure you take some aspirin.'

'Yeah, yeah...,' Jimin drew his palm over his face, squeezing his eyes. 'Thanks.'

He returned the phone to the night stand and after another moment of massaging his temples, Jimin got out of bed. He yawned, approaching the rectangular kitchen where sunlight flooded into with squinting eyes and a scrunched up nose. He'd been worried about what on earth he probably babbled about last night in his drunken daze and felt a pang of shame at how foolish he must have looked… but the more he lingered in the kitchen, he noticed a missing accessory. He stared at the corner beside the back door and cocked an eyebrow curiously.

'Pepper?' he called, moving his head around in search for the said individual.

He hadn't seen her in bed with him when he woke up, and finding the sheets beside him cleanly straightened and meticulously set, he began to wonder where she was at such early hours of the morning.

'Pepper? You there?'

Jimin stepped out into the small living room still curiously in search of Pepper, and the moment he did, he noticed shuffling at the front door. A small ray of light came in with her and she approached him with small, fast steps, to which Jimin cooed at as he knelt to the floor with open arms.

'Hey girl,' he said, lifting the black cat in his arms lovingly, however the feline responded to his show of affection with a stiff tail and ears flattening backwards.

'Yah, I've missed you...!' Jimin continued, oblivious of her dissatisfied reaction to human contact. 'Where were you this--ouch!'

The young man yelped as the scrawny black cat clawed into his hands with the accompaniment of a wriggle that made him drop her to the floor. She landed on her feet expertly and sat, looking up at him with wide, authoritative eyes Jimin couldn't even believe a cat was capable of.

'Seriously, what kind of cat are you? Cats are supposed to be loving and cuddly, not this temperamental...!'

Pepper responded to his disbelief with a slow wag of her thin tail and followed behind Jimin as he re-entere