His Hope

"Are you done too?" Jinyoung asks Min-Jae who is cleaning up the table with him.

They're inside the board room where the team had just finished their weekly meeting. After the head had dismissed the members, him and Min-Jae went in to tidy up the room again by stacking the folders which they've distributed to each of the members just before the meeting started an hour and a half ago. 

Min-Jae who had picked up the last folder, nodded at him. "Done! Let's head back?" 

"Let's go." Jinyoung answers and they both walked their out of the board room and towards their office situated right beside it.

It was past 3 pm when Jinyoung had a visitor. Min-Jae was the first one to notice, and gestured for him to look at the open door where he sees his cousin Yugyeom, peeking his head in while holding his car keys. "Hi, hyung!"

Jinyoung's brows arched up, surprised by the sudden visit. It's been over two weeks since he started training in their company and this will be the first time one of his cousins visited him. Well, he's not counting that one encounter with Mark since, the older didn't actually go there to visit him. They just literally bumped into each other in the elevator although Jinyoung very much preferred it didn't happen.

"Yugyeom? What brought you here?" 

Yugyeom's mom is working here of course as one of the directress as well as his other aunts but it's rare for his cousins to even think of dropping by since they basically didn't want anything to do with the company just yet. So he wonders why Yugyeom thought of dropping by.

"Can I come in?" Yugyeom asks first and Jinyoung nods for him to do just that.

Min-Jae got on his feet and offered Yugyeom a seat. "Would you like something to drink?"

"Nah, I'm fine." his cousin only waved his hand at his colleague and smiles before sitting down.

"Min-Jae..." Jinyoung shakes his head at the latter, gesturing for him to go back to his desk. "You don't need to do anything. I got this."

"Oh. Is he your officemate? Or.. your co-intern?"

"This is Kim Min-Jae and yes, he's an intern here too. We actually go to the same university, you know?"

Yugyeom wasn't aware of that, judging by his reaction. "Oh really? Nice meeting you, Kim Min-Jae-ssi" And now his cousin is lending his hand out to Min-Jae who hesitantly takes it and they both shook each other's hands.

When Yugyeom was seated again, Jinyoung repeats his question. "So? What did bring you here? You went here alone?"

His cousin nodded. "Youngjae hyung still has class and Jackson hyung is also training at the Im's." Jinyoung nods at this too, still waiting for the younger's answer to his first question. "I just went here to talk to mom about how I want to celebrate my birthday."

Right. He's reminded that Yugyeom's birthday is next week.

"Mom wants me to celebrate it at home with family and relatives but I want to go somewhere else, preferably to the beach and celebrate with friends."

"Aunt will not agree to that."

"But she did."

"She did?" Jinyoung asked, surprised by it.

"That's why I went here to ask her. She's too busy to let me take too much of her time by insisting what I want so in order for me to leave so she could do her job in peace, she just let me have things the way I want them. Pretty clever, huh?"

Looking at how his cousin smiled smugly at him, Jinyoung could see how proud Yugyeom was with how he accomplished things. Jinyoung shook his head at this. "You're really such a brat."

"Well at least I'll celebrate my birthday with a beach party. That would be freakin' fun!" 

Jinyoung once again shakes his head at the younger. "Now that you got what you want, you'll be leaving then?"

"Yup! I still have to meet with Jungkook since I need to tell the guy that he's invited to my party. It's been days since I last saw him, I'll remind him just in case he forgets to prepare a gift for me."

Hearing Jungkook's name being mentioned, Jinyoung was also reminded of how sudden it was for him to discontinue his internship under the Jeons. It was his father's wanting and not his, of course. Yet still, Jinyoung feels bad for not being able to at least talk to Jungkook all the more to Seokjin about this change. His dad told him that the school's dean already talked to the Jeons regarding this in his behalf, but still, Jinyoung knows he should have at least tried to contact either of the siblings.

Jinyoung might've spent a longer time up in his head than he should have, that's why he wasn't able to notice that Yugyeom was talking about heading out not until he saw him getting up from his seat. "Oh. You're leaving now?"

"Yeah. I asked Jungkook to meet up at 3:30."

"Oh." This didn't give Jinyoung time to think about his idea too much. "Can I go with you?"

Though his brows were creased, Yugyeom still answers him. "Well, it's not like you can't but... why?"

"I just want to see Jungkook too since... I wasn't able to talk to him personally about me continuing my internship here."

It seems like his cousin understands this and just nods. "Okay, then. Let's go?"

"I'll just tell Ji-Hoon that I'll head out early today. You can wait for me in the lounge." Jinyoung tells the younger.

They arrived earlier at the cafe where Yugyeom said he'd be meeting Jungkook. Jinyoung picked the table near the entrance of the cafe, so they could see when Seokjin parks his car. Jungkook told Yugyeom that his hyung will be driving him to the cafe.

Just as they ordered their drinks, Jinyoung saw Seokjin's car which is already familiar to him. They saw Jungkook stepping out of the car and the guy immediately saw him and Yugyeom. The younger waved at them and seemed to call his hyung. When Seokjin peeked from the window, Jinyoung smiled at him too. After a minute, both Seokjin and Jungkook reached their table.

"Jinyoung hyung!" Jungkook said the second he reached his side. The younger quickly hugged him. "I missed you!"

Jinyoung could only smile as he hugs the younger back. It really brings a certain warmth to his heart, when Jungkook acts like this towards him. Jungkook really treats him like his older brother. He then heard Yugyeom scoffing.

"I was the one who you're supposed to meet today, yet it's my cousin you're hugging."

This made Jungkook break their hug but still send him a quick and sweet smile before turning to his own bestfriend. "Stop whining if you only want a hug too." And then the two were hugging. Just as Jungkook pulled a bit back, he curled his lips up at Yugyeom. "You see this is why Bambam always thinks I'm a threat to your relationship. Just tell me if you're in love with me, Gyeom-ah."

"I want to puke." Yugyeom says as a joke before pulling his best friend to sit right beside him. Those two are adorable to watch. Their type of friendship is too, Jinyoung smiles at the thought.

"Sit down too, hyung." Jungkook then tells Seokjin who was left standing by their table.

There's still a vacant chair beside him so Jinyoung gestured to it for the older to sit on. With a brief nod, he invites Seokjin to sit down with them. When the older did, Yugyeom asked him what he wants to drink and stands to order it for him. That left Jinyoung with the two siblings. Jungkook was the first to speak.

"How have you been, hyung?"

"I'm good. Well, I continued my internship at our company since, that's what dad wanted me to do." Jinyoung fiddled with his fingers before glancing at Seokjin. "I actually want to apologize about that. Sorry if I wasn't able to tell you about it personally. It was just very sudden and dad didn't give me the chance to inform you about it... hyung." 

Seokjin didn't look like he was disappointed, like Jinyoung thought he would be. Instead, the older gave him an understanding look and nod. "That's okay, Jinyoung. The dean informed us about it anyway. And I do understand why your dad wanted that since, if I were in his place, I'd do just as same."

Jinyoung could only sigh at that. "I wish I'd understand too. But thinking that this is still about the rivalry, makes it hard for me to understand his decision."

"Who knows?" Seokjin then says, getting his attention. "Maybe it's something more than that.."

That's when Yugyeom returned to their table, holding Seokjin's drink. His cousin gave the drink to Seokjin and starts a new conversation, one which is not of any relation to what him and Seokjin was talking about earlier. As what Yugyeom had planned in mind, he invited Jungkook and Seokjin to celebrate his birthday with him next week. In the conversation, Jinyoung learned that his cousin wants to go to this beach in Mokpo and bring his cousins and friends with him. After telling forcing Jungkook to prepare a gift for him and reminding threatening him that if he forgets, their friendship will be over... the four of them parted ways. 

Yugyeom offers to drive him back home and while they were in the car, Jinyoung remembers to tell something to his cousin. "Gyeom-ah? Does Aunt know that the Jeons will go with us to Mokpo?"

"I have yet to tell them, actually."

"Actually... I'd rather want you to not tell her." Jinyoung says, making Yugyeom frown and ask why. "Our family isn't really in good terms with the Jeons,."

"Hyung, that's only in terms of business."

"Look, you knew that dad made me quit from my internship at the Jeons, right? I just don't think dad will like it if he knew that the Jeon siblings are going to be there with us." He heard Yugyeom heaving a deep sigh, but Jinyoung keeps on insisting. "I'm not asking you to lie. Just don't tell them unless they ask. Can you do that for me, Yugyeom?"

Thankful