Since meeting Seri at the coffee shop two days earlier, Jungkook haven't had mustered the courage to send her a message. He had picked up his phone a couple times, typed out a few messages, ranging from the casual 'hi' up to a more straight forward dinner invite. He didn't send any of them.

"If you glance at your phone one more time, I swear, I'll throw it out the sea." They're by the cafe balcony overlooking the water and Seokjin sips his iced coffee lazily, voice so syrupy that Jungkook wouldn't have guessed he was actually threatening him if he hadn't heard him correctly.

He knows he'd been a terrible company. Seokjin works for one of the cafe's suppliers. He dropped by the café to discuss about the tangerine supply, but Jungkook's attention was barely there the entire conversation. Gauging Seokjin's expression, he's unsure whether he's supposed to put on a worried face or a delighted one. They weren't talking about a shortage were they?

"Are you waiting for a call or something?" Seokjin asks, patronizing the younger's behavior considering he hadn't been focusing on the earlier subject matter anyway.

"Kind of?"

Seokjin raises an eyebrow. Although Jungkook has been in the island for just a little over a month, he's struck quite an uncanny friendship with the older. He's the first person to ever lend a hand when Jungkook first moved in to his new apartment. Seokjin took advantage of the fact that they live in the same neighborhood and initially manhandled Jungkook on his dayoff to help the hanyeo halmeoni who lived a few blocks down from his apartment dry her persimmons. Jungkook's thankful he did. The haenyo halmeoni often sends him side dishes and she saves him a portion of her catch on good days. Later he learned Seokjin did the 'manhandling' on purpose. It's called mutualism, he had said, she needed the company. Plus, your ramen dinners were quite pitiful, I knew she could give you an upgrade. Despite being the annoying hyung he is, he is the first (if not the only) person in the entire island Jungkook would seek advice from.

"I mean, not really. I want to text her first, but I don't know what to say."

"Oh, a girl problem. I see," Seokjin replies, not bothering to hide his amusement. "Have you tried saying 'hey'? It's popular these days, look it up, it means-"

"I know what it means, hyung. I just- I'm..." Jungkook falters. He's not sure why he's making it seem like texting Seri is harder than it really is. But for what it's worth, 'hey' was one of his failed attempts at initiating a conversation.

"I mean, what's the worst that could happen? She doesn't reply?" Seokjin purses his lips in mock thought and continues, "Which is actually convenient, you know? You won't have to think of witty replies just to impress her." He offers a self-satisfied grin.

Jungkook scrunches his eyebrows. "You at pep talks."

"I know, but I'm damn good at picking out quality tangerines. And speaking of, that's what I'm actually here for, not some preschool girl dilemma," he retorts in that a-matter-of-factly tone he uses when he thinks Jungkook said or did something stupid.

Just then, Jungkook's phone lights up. There's an incoming call and the screen displays 'Seri' in bold. His eyes flitter between Seokjin and his phone.

"Go ahead. So her name's-" Seokjin squints, delighted at the interruption and quick to gather torture material. Jungkook grabs the phone out of his line of vision, but not quick enough because the older lets out an ecstatic cackle. "Seri. Jungkook's new crush is named Se-"

"Stop it, hyung." Jungkook lifts a finger to his lips and looks at his phone meaningfully. "Fine," Seokjin responds, but the wicked glimmer in his eyes remain.

"Hi," Jungkook finally says, holding the phone onto his left ear while cringing at how awfully high pitched his voice sounded. He clears his throat, keeping his eyes on Seokjin. The older simply shrugs, dramatically sipping his coffee.

"Hi," she gushes, like his voice was some sort of relief. He can hear her ragged breathing on the other end of the line. "Are you busy?" she asks.

"Not really," he answers, "I just got off a meeting." At that, Seokjin just rolls his eyes.

"Good. Uhm, I need to ask you for a favor, but you have to swear you won't laugh."

"Okay?" he says slowly, "I swear I won't laugh. What is it?"

"So," she begins, trepidation seeping through the reciever, "I got a little lost while I was running an errand. I got distracted and ended up following a trail. I'm guessing went off a little to far from the trail?"

Jungkook lets out a chuckle.

"You swore you won't laugh," she whines. Jungkook clears his throat. "I'm sorry. Go on," he urges.

"Now I'm not sure how far I am from the market. I've been circling for half an hour now but I can't seem to find the way back. I can't seem to access the internet so my GPS isn't working either.

Stifling his amusement, he asks, "Where did you say you were?"

"I guess I kinda implied I don't know?" she replies, tone half worried, half annoyed. It doesn't bother him at all. The image of her looking like a lost puppy is endearing and it makes him smile.

"Well then, can you tell me what you see around you?"

"I think I saw something that looked like a farm. Actually, I think that stone is a signage. Let me just check on it." There's a momentary pause and he hears her footsteps in the background. He hears her halt and she starts reading the sign to herself. With hesitation, she relays it to him out loud.

"Oh, I know where that is. Go find some shade and wait for me," he instructs, already up on his feet, the metal of his chair scraping loudly on the cement as he does. "Don't hestitate to call me if something funny happens, you hear me?"

It takes her a moment to respond.

"Jungkook."

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

And it almost knocks the wind out of him. His heart races. "Sure. You're welcome."

He pockets his phone and is about to apologize to Seokjin, but his hyung waves a hand off and says, "Go get her, Romeo." Wriggling his eyebrows, he takes another obnoxiously loud sip from his coffee.

Other days, he would have strangled Seokjin. Today, he just grins.

 

 

 

 

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A/N: So I rewrote the chapter becaue I didn't like the one I posted yesterday. This one is marginally better than yesterday's (fingers-crossed). Stay gorgeous, people!