Chapter 2 : Seven Samurai

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Kim Jongin had a lot of interests. Even as he kept saying that he was a boring person, Chanyeol was always there to chirp how smart, curious and brilliant his best friend was. And curious, he really was. Jongin had a thirst for knowledge that had him hide behind books ever since he was a kid. He liked to learn a lot of things about very different subjects.

He had learned about astronomy in different books and magazines, a few months ago. There had also been a time when he couldn't keep himself from watching wildlife documentaries, and he could keep a serious conversation about tropical animals by now. He kept finding enthusiasm upon very various topics.

It had been quite natural for him to read a good amount of books about the origins of tea and tea ceremony, once he had discovered how much he liked it. Chanyeol constantly about the fact that he could open his own tea shop by now and hire his precious Taemin in it. Jongin kept rolling his eyes and shaking his head as if he was exasperated by his best friend's antics, but the blush on his ears betrayed him. Maybe that was a really nice little dream.

There was something in particular that got Jongin exceptionally passionate about; languages. He had learned English in high school, and had taken upon learning Chinese by himself when he was 16. If he were to be asked, there were at least ten other languages that Jongin would love to learn, but he didn't exactly have time for any of those. By now, his Chinese skills were rather impressive and that was also thanks to his very good friend, Zhang Yixing. They had met online, through blogs of common interests, and when Jongin had understood that behind that common English username, was a Chinese boy, he had been overexcited. He soon asked him to help him out with his self-educated study. After a while, Yixing had wanted to learn Korean too, and they both shared lessons and tips. They even met, once or twice, when Yixing had come to Seoul for holidays or business.

At 21, once again through his blog, Jongin had met another friend. When they exchanged their real names, Jongin had laughed a lot before immediately switching to speak Korean. It turned out Kyungsoo wasn't able to read Korean. His friend was born in France, from two Korean parents. He could speak Korean quite correctly, but never bothered himself with learning how to read and write, so exchanging through computers from two different sides of the planet, left them to communicate in English.

As their friendship strengthened to lengths Jongin would have never imagined, he found himself eager to learn French.

Kyungsoo was everything Chanyeol was not, and could make up for the small parts where his best friend never truly understood Jongin. Kyungsoo was quiet, calm, always offered the best advices, and had this aura that made Jongin feel safe. He had very simple and modest dreams, but shared a lot of Jongin's passions, especially about books.

Kyungsoo even knew about Jongin liking men. It hadn't come up in the conversation so easily, but when it did, Jongin realized he felt comfortable enough to be honest. Kyungsoo was often a bit worried for him, asking if it wasn't too difficult to live with, in Korea, saying it was such a pity because in his own country, it was a lot more okay. Not perfect, but somewhat okay. That made Jongin dream about living in France a few times.

Of course, Kyungsoo had learned all about Taemin. When he had tried to cheer for his friend and coax him into asking the seller out, Jongin had to remind him how badly homouality was looked upon in here. And trying to flirt with Taemin could seriously offend the man and he wasn't sure what would happen and he really didn't want to never be able to go back to the tea shop, and thus, never see him again. And Jongin couldn't trust himself to be subtle. He had no idea how to do things like that correctly, so he'd rather do nothing and sigh internally every time he got to see the lovely smile of Lee Taemin.

Chanyeol barged into Jongin's room, making the poor boy jump on his bed and drop his book on the floor. But Chanyeol didn't seem to notice, or if he did, he didn't mind, nor apologize. Instead he stood in the doorway and opened his arms wide.

"I have seen the gorgeous tea shop's seller!" he yelled.

Jongin visibly winced at the outburst and sat on his bed, picking up his abused volume of “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” from the floor. He turned an anxious frown to Chanyeol as he waited for more explanations. But it didn't come and he had to resign himself to ask.

"So?" he inquired, in a short breath.

Chanyeol grinned at him and came closer to sit on the edge of his bed.

"He's really handsome."

Jongin had a giddy smile. That was something about Chanyeol he was so grateful for. His best friend had never been ashamed with him; he truly had never judged Jongin for liking men, and he was never awkward to admit when he thought a man was good-looking. Park Chanyeol was far above shame. He simply admitted stuff, ever so easily it was disarming. And so very comforting for Jongin.

"I know, right," came Jongin's tiny voice.

"I want you to date him so badly now. He really is nice. You'd be cute and all! I'm sure we'd be friends, him and I."

Jongin's hand gripped his sweater laying on his bed and he shoved it to Chanyeol's face with a grunt.

"Yeah, tell me about it."

His voice was bitter.

"I mentioned you," Chanyeol continued, matter-of-factly.

That got Jongin to freeze and turn, very slowly, to his friend. His eyes went cold and scared.

"What did you just say?"

"Well, I hadn't any good reason to come to the shop and I couldn't just admit to his face that I was there to check him out, you know..."

Jongin splinted his eyes, greeting his teeth as he felt anger and stress boil up in his stomach.

"I asked you one thing, Park Chanyeol. I specifically asked you to not mention me under any circumstance!"

Chanyeol threw his hands in the air defensively, backing away just enough to be out of Jongin's reach in case the man decided to go for his throat.

"Yeah yeah, I know, but I didn't think it through. So he was there, asking if he could help, so I said I came here to buy a gift for a friend..."

Jongin stopped and relaxed just a little bit. If Chanyeol mentioned him that way, it was safe. Taemin couldn't even make the link between the two of them. It really was okay.

"You could have said that you only came to see, you know. And not spend money. Not every person who enters a shop comes out with something."

Chanyeol stayed silent for a moment.

"As I said, I didn't think it through..."

He got up and went out of the room to pick up a bag he had left by the door. As he came back, he gave it to Jongin with a smile.

"Here we go, that's for you. One more tea for your expending collection."

Jongin rubbed his neck shyly as he thanked him, and looked inside the bag to see which tea Chanyeol got him.

"As you can imagine," Chanyeol started to explain, "I was completely lost in front of all those teas, you know. So I told him I didn't know a lot and you were the one to buy all the teas and I don't even know which one you like and which ones you hate and all. So then he took one and told me it's a classic, very loved by their customers but I said you come here so often you probably have it already if it's so classic and he looked a bit confused. So I was like, you know, telling him you really really like tea and you're a loyal customer in there and I described you a bit... Like you know, saying stuff like “yeah he's tall, dark hair, dark skin, always pouty, comes at least once a week” and boy, his face lightened up! I swear! I really think he recognized you. He was like “oh yeah, I think I know who this is" and I was "wow cool" and he was like “yeah”..."

All the colors drained from Jongin's face as he listened to his best friend in this world's long betrayal. Chanyeol even had the nerves to be all joyful as he narrated how he put a knife right into his back. Jongin was so shocked that he couldn't even interrupt him and he stood there, petrified, taking in the depth of how Chanyeol ruined his life.

"So then," Chanyeol went on, oblivious to his best friend's horror, "he was laughing, saying something like “if it's the person I think about, you'll have trouble finding a tea he didn't buy already” and I was like “man, I really think that's him because he could open his own tea shop by now” and he was laughing some more. He's really cool. Also... you love the way he laughs, don't you? I thought it was so cute, I could just picture you dying in there."

Jongin's heart suddenly broke. He even forgot his anger for a moment, because it was too painful. He had never seen Taemin laugh and what Chanyeol was speaking of was something Jongin didn't know of. And it suddenly felt so unfair, how easy it was for Chanyeol to make people like him and laugh with him, when he, on the other side, just stood there nervously and only got professional smiles from the person he had a crush on for more than three months.

"Anyway, we talked a bit and he said there was one tea that he thought you didn't buy yet and that you could like, judging your previous purchases and oh... I was rubbing my hands together because he totally remembers you. That's good, right? I mean, for all we know, he could like you too. So I got you the tea and I think if you really don't have it and you like it, you should ask him out because that would mean he totally remembered your purchases perfectly for three months and he wouldn't do that for just anyone now, would he? I mean, do you remember every purchase of your customers? Even the ones that come regularly... I don't think so. I think that's a clue! He likes you, period."

Chanyeol finally shut up and looked over to Jongin's devastated face. His smile disappeared into a frown and he shook his hand slowly before his friend's eyes.

"Jongin? You okay?" He asked in a worried tone.

Jongin's heart was hammering in his chest. He didn't even now how he was feeling in that moment, because there were so many conflicted emotions screaming in his head, but none of them was particularly good.

"I-... I asked you not to mention me," he accused, his face dark with disappointment.

Chanyeol gave him that guilty look, with a timid smile, that he always used to get himself out of troubles.

"Yeah but-... I was a bit nervous and in the end, it turned out quite great, don't you think?"

Somehow, imagining Chanyeol being nervous was laughable.

"I never heard him laugh," Jongin continued, this time with a much sadder voice. "And by that, I mean I never made him laugh."

Chanyeol bit his bottom lip and looked truly remorseful this time.

"Thanks for the tea," Jongin sighed before putting the bag aside. "Can you leave me alone now?"

He didn't look back at his friend and let himself fall on his bed, his face turned towards the wall. He wasn't one to scream at people, it was rare for him to get angry to the point of yelling. And in the end, all of that made him more sorry for himself than anything else. Chanyeol saw that in the way he curled up on his blanket, and culpability hit him.

"Jongin, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-... I didn't want to hurt you. I thought I was doing something good."

Jongin closed his eyes, sighing heavily. He knew Chanyeol wouldn't leave. His friend kneeled on the ground in front of the bed and his big hand came to rub against Jongin's back in a soothing caress.

"I'm really sorry. I only wanted to help."

It took only twenty minutes for Jongin to forgive Chanyeol, because he wasn't able to stay upset with him longer than that. Despite the intense jealousy he still felt upon the fact that Chanyeol had seem to get closer to Taemin in ten minutes than he had been able to in three months, he was forced to realize that his best friend didn't ruin his life that much. Jongin hang on to the fact that Taemin seemed to remember him, and he had felt dizzy when he had seen that he didn't have the tea Chanyeol got him. It was a wonderful tea; a green and black tea blend with marigold flowers and vanilla pods called “Monks tea”.

Jongin had even found a small sticky note attached to the bag where he could read “a fantastic tea for mornings” with a strange “6v6” emoji.

"Oh, it's you... Welcome."

Taemin gave him one of his large, sunny smile that still got Jongin's throat to go dry and painful. His crush hadn't go down in the least. It had only gone worse, with each passing week, just as Jongin had feared.

"Hey," he only answered.

"What can I help you with today?"

His tone was always lighthearted, a bit cheeky.

Jongin had spent the last five days wondering how he laughed.

He stayed silent, his eyes going over the shelves of tea as he bit his bottom lip. He did came here today with a mission, sort of.

"I got a customer a few days ago," Taemin suddenly mused.

Jongin's eyes fell back on him and his beautiful seller was staring at him with mischief.

"He came here for a friend, and he bought a tea called “Monks tea”."

That was the tea Chanyeol had gotten him. There was a challenge in Taemin's voice, a silent question, and Jongin felt a sparkle of mischief crackle in his belly.

"Really?" Jongin asked nonchalantly. His eyes went back to the teas and he searched for a moment before pointing a container above Taemin's head. "This one?"

Taemin's smile faltered a bit with disappointment. Jongin couldn't help but wonder if his pout meant anything at all.

"I really liked it," Jongin suddenly confessed with a smirk.

Taemin blinked, and his lips broke into another smile.

"I knew it, I knew it was for you!"

Jongin really wanted to ask him out on a date. He so wanted to talk to him about things other than tea. Tea certainly was a good subject, but after a while, it just wasn't enough anymore.

Jongin kept going back to the same questions. Could he find a way to engage in another conversation with Taemin? How could he bring their small talks into something new without being weird? If only he was as comfortable with people as Chanyeol.

"You surely grew to be very fond of tea in a few months. I'm very proud."

"You're proud of me?" Jongin repeated with surprise.

Taemin had a sly smile.

"I'm proud of myself. You came in there not knowing anything about tea and I got you hooked up enough that you keep coming back. I did a good job with you, didn't I?"

Jongin hoped he wasn't blushing right now, because that would be very embarrassing. Taemin did got him hooked up. The desire to just kiss that smug face of his was making Jongin fidget.

"Yeah, you sure did."

Taemin tilted his head, his expression going back to serious and professional. He was a bit taken aback by the lack of playfulness in Jongin's tone.

"So, what do you want today? I'm sorry to say that we didn't get anything new since last time. I'm not sure there's any tea left in my store that you haven't smelled yet and either bought or disliked."

"Well, actually, I'm here for a friend," Jongin said with an impish smirk.

Taemin squinted at him a bit as he crossed his arms on his chest.

"Oh, really? Is he tall, dark hair, dark skin, always pouty, handsome, and comes here at least once a week?"

Jongin smiled widely, his nose scrunching a bit as he shook his head.

"That's how your friend described you," Taemin added, his hand coming to rub his neck.

Jongin was so absorbed in the fact that Taemin was biting his bottom lip that he completely missed the red tint at the tip of the seller's ears.

There was also the fact that Taemin just called him handsome. It might only be Chanyeol's words being repeated, but he said it nonetheless and Jongin's heart was very busy trying to waltz out of his chest.

"I'm really buying a gift," Jongin assured. "I have a friend abroad and he likes tea too, so we're doing like-... a swap? He'll be sending me teas from his country, and I send him some nice stuff from here."

A very soft smile appeared on Taemin's face.

"That's such a nice idea," he whispered. "Do you have any ideas which teas you want to send him?"

"I may have one or two ideas, but I was counting on your good advices."

Taemin straightened up, rubbing his hands.

"What does he like?"

"Well, he likes flavored teas too, so I thought about sending that green tea with goji berries and lemongrass. But I'd also like to send him some very traditional things... Like the brown rice tea."

He knew it was Taemin's favorite. He had read it on the shop's website and when he had come to buy it, the man couldn't stop chirping that it was excellent and that he really hoped Jongin would like it. He had been so excited about sharing his most loved tea, Jongin just had to admit that he was completely and irredeemably smitten.

Without any surprise, Taemin's whole face lightened up when he heard him.

"That's some really great choices. I totally agree with you."

"If you have any other idea, I'm listening. I thought a package with three or four different teas would be nice, so that he can try various things and if he doesn't like one, it's not too sad."

Taemin nodded eagerly before turning to his wall of teas, humming to himself.

"Where does your friend come from, if you don't mind me asking? So I know what kind of teas he might know of or not."

Jongin didn't mind at all. Taemin could ask him whatever he wanted, really. Jongin wouldn't mind anything.

"He's from France."

Taemin's eyes widened a bit, but he stayed silent and nodded to himself, turning back to his teas.

"I'd say you could try to send him some ginseng tea, it's strong but so very Korean, if you want to go for traditional teas. And then add another sweet flavored green tea like the Seven Samurai. It's the one with pineapple, mango, papaya, coconut and cocoa beans."

"That's perfect," Jongin agreed promptly.

Of course it was. Taemin had the best ideas.

His seller winked at him. And then started to prepare the four bags of tea with expertise. He weighed each one very carefully and stopped as he put the labels on.

"Does your friend understand Korean? If not you should write him a note with the translations, at least for the brewing time and such."

Kyungsoo had slowly managed to convince himself to learn how to read Korean, but he was still too lazy to do it properly.

"He struggles a bit with reading, I think I'll just write him a translation. Thanks."

Taemin nodded and finished storing the tea containers back before he made Jongin pay for his order. Taemin put everything for Jongin in a shopping bag, and stopped himself just as he was about to give it to the man, slowly blinking and looking at his customer with hesitation.

"So...," he murmured, "you said you were doing a swap with him, right? You're going to get some French teas?"

Jongin wasn't sure how to interpret the waver in Taemin's eyes, but as soon as he approved, he could see the envy painted over his face.

"You're so lucky," Taemin pouted. "There are a lot of very nice brands of tea in France. Please savor them."

Jongin wanted to text Kyungsoo right away and ask him to send every damn tea in the whole country so he could offer them to Taemin, but that would probably be very weird.

"Oh, really? Do you have any recommendation? Something specific I should ask for...?" he still tentatively inquired.

"I don't know so many to be honest with you. I got some occasions to taste one or two brands already, when I go to specific tearooms, and I mostly read about them... But if I may say... there's-... there's really one tea I got to drink once in a French tearoom in Busan and I think it was probably the best tea I ever had. I think you'd like it too, it's a very sweet flavored tea with an Oolong base and flowers."

No matter what this tea was, Jongin would beg Kyungsoo to find it if it was the last thing he'd do in his life.

"I can't say the name correctly," Taemin continued with a shy smile, "but if you're interested, I can find it back and write it for you? You don't have to, of course. It's just-... well. It was a nice tea. I'm sure you'll get some really nice teas anyway."

"Please, write me the name," Jongin stammered with a little bow.

Taemin nodded and laughed. He laughed. It was a very tiny laugh, but it was there for Jongin to hear and witness. Taemin's hand immediately came to cover his mouth in shyness and he started to fumble around on his counter for a pen and a paper.

Meanwhile, Jongin wanted to bounce everywhere because he got to hear Taemin's laughter.

Taemin got his hands on something to write on and pondered for a moment, bitting his bottom lip before he took his phone out of his pocket.

"Sorry, I want to be sure...," he murmured and Jongin waved his hand as to say he could wait.

It took a few minutes for Taemin to find back that famous tea. He was frowning and sighing and he kept apologizing to Jongin. He was even starting to blush with discomfort and Jongin wasn't sure what to do to help.

"Ah! It's this one! I got it!" Taemin finally exclaimed before he wrote down the information.

He put the note in Jongin's shopping bag and finally hold it out for him to take.

"Thank you a lot for your purchases. I hope to see you soon again."

When he went home after work that night, the first thing Jongin did was to text Kyungsoo and beg him to find two bags of the “Jardin du Luxembourg” tea. He made sure to write down the brand with it and send enough emojis so that his friend would understand how super important it was. He even told him he could pay for it because he really needed two bags. He didn't know yet how he would manage to offer it to Taemin without dying of embarrassment, but making his crush happy was more important than surviving an anxiety crisis. He'd find a way later.

Kyungsoo answered fast enough, explaining it was no trouble at all because he had a shop of that brand in his city and he could go the next day and Jongin felt like hugging him a lot.

"You're the absolute best person in this world," he texted with a giddy smile.

After that, Jongin went out of his room and yelled for Chanyeol to know that he was going to take a shower. He only got a loud grunt in response before he locked himself in the bathroom. As he was undressing, he kept replaying in his head everything that happened with Taemin, when he had been to his shop that morning. They had talked so much! They even went just a tiny bit more personal, thanks to that wonderful person, Do Kyungsoo.

But as he was smiling to himself in the mirror, Jongin felt something bothering him. He was thinking back on that very precious, fantastic moment when Taemin had called him handsome. There was so much hope in his tiny heart, that maybe, Taemin really did mean that word. Even if it still wouldn't imply that Taemin was gay and interested, it would mean so much to Jongin's poor neglected heart. After all, Chanyeol himself always admitted when other guys were good-looking. It didn't mean he was going to date them.

Suddenly, Jongin halted in his movements. He went back to the door, unlocked it, threw it open, and yelled for his roommate.

"Chanyeol-ah!"

There was a loud bang, then a curse, then a lot of noises and another door opened. Chanyeol came to him with a frown on his face, taking in the sight of Jongin in his boxer, only one leg still in his pants.

"What is it, idiot?"

Jongin pleated his eyes at him.

"What did you said to Taemin, exactly?"

"What do you mean?" came Chanyeol's annoyed sigh. "I'm studying hard right now, my brain is all mushy, be specific."

"When you went to see him, and described me for him to recognize me. What were your exact words?"

Chanyeol's eyes widened and his eyebrows rose on his forehead.

"Waah. You bother me for that? 'you serious?"

"Chanyeol, please!"

"Okay, okay...," Chanyeol grunted. "I told you already though. I don't remember it exactly now. I said you were tall with black hair, I guess. And I said you always look pouty, because that's true you know, your resting face is whiny. That's because of your mouth, you always look like you're sulking. And also I said you're tanned. Like, your skin."

Jongin nodded as Chanyeol reviewed his words. When his friend was done and looking at him with exasperation again, Jongin's breath was caught up in his throat.

"That's it?" he asked.

His voice was more acute than usual.

"Hum? Ah yeah, I also mentioned that you went there like, all the time. I think you see him more than you see me those days."

Jongin was internally screaming to the rhythm of his heart bouncing against his ribcage.

"So hum-... you didn't-... Did you say something like-..."

"Form sentences, please."

"Did you call me handsome?"

Chanyeol scowled, and took a few seconds to think, before he shook his head.

"No."

Jongin's face broke into the largest smile Chanyeol had ever seen him make.

"Thank you!" he shouted before he slammed the door shut and started to dance alone in their bathroom.

Chanyeol stood there for a moment, before he rubbed his eyes.

"Weirdo...," he sighed as he went back into his room.

Jongin finished undressing, his hips never stopping to go left and right with the excitement of such good news. Taemin did call him handsome by himself. It might mean nothing in the end, but he still did it.

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Hi everyone!

I hope you're all doing okay. I'd like to thank you all for subscribing to this story, for the few upvotes I already got and for your precious comments. I hope you liked this 2nd chapter & that it held up to your expectations (๑>ᴗ<๑) you can always share some thoughts with me down there.
I wish you all a very good week & I'll see you next wednesday!

FYI : "Seven Samurai" - one of the teas Jongin buys for Kyungsoo- is a wonderful, delightful tea from the lithuanian brand "Gurman's". (it's one of my favorite tea ever, yup)