Come Be My Teacher

makeshift mechanic

"i think... i think i should just hire a real mechanic, mister richie."

seokjin rolled his eyes and gave no reply, his attention acutely fixated on the broken down car before him. it had almost been an hour now of him checking and tapping the different parts of the vehicle's bonnet. the whole thing seemed pretty hopeless to daphne but jin wouldn't hear of it.

"...or not." daphne continued after a moment of silence, "would you like some water or something? you've been at this for at least fifty minutes now."

"do you have sparkling water?" he returned, briefly turning his head to look at her as he set the wrench down on the ground beneath him.

daphne let out a slight scoff, shaking her head at him, "no, i do not have sparkling water. i'm sure you can manage filtered tap water though."

"honestly daphne, i rather die of thirst... first, you accuse me of incompetence and now you offer me unsafe water?! is this how you exploit cheap labour, miss summers?" he asked feigning offence and dramatically bringing his hand to his chest, staining his white t-shirt with some form of oil in the process.

"accept my apologies, mister richie." she joked before noticing the new stain on his otherwise white shirt.

"what, why are you looking at me like that?" seokjin asked, following her eyes and looking down at his stained shirt, "oh...i'll have to throw this out." he muttered to himself.

daphne thought for a second before raising her hand and signalling to jin to follow her inside. seokjin let out a short huff as he walked behind daphne into the kitchen.

"sit on that stool and take your shirt off." she instructed, pointing at one of her barstools before stepping out of her kitchen.

jin furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, but began to raise the hem of his shirt.

"did you wash your hands?"

"...oh." seokjin replied, letting go of his shirt and looking down at his dirty hands. 'how am i gonna get off this stool without getting something else dirty' he thought to himself.

noticing the look of contemplation on his face, daphne walked up to him and pressed her foot against the lever of the barstool, "don't worry, i'll help." she told him.

"you're... gonna strip me?" seokjin asked as he felt the stool lower with each press daphne gave the lever.

"no? i mean, that wasn't the plan-"

"you might as well since you're already here." seokjin said, shifting slightly to face daphne as he raised his arms up.

'oh, he's serious.' she thought as she mindlessly stepped closer to him, now standing between his legs. "are you sure?" she asked him, gingerly reaching out for the hem of his shirt.

"come on, daph. my arms are gonna fall off if you keep me waiting like this."

she nodded quietly and gently tugged on the hem, slowly pulling off his shirt for him while trying her best to avoid looking down at the skin of his midriff that peeked out between the hem of his wifebeater and the waistband of his dark blue jeans.

"my eyes are up here, pervert." jin teased when he noticed daphne's eyes drifting back to his exposed skin.

"you wish." she retorted quickly, pulling his shirt over his head and laying it on the counter. he gave her a small smile, somewhat pleased to see that she was getting flustered by something so trivial.

"you know, sitting here without my shirt on almost feels humiliating." seokjin let out after a short moment of silence, maintaining eye contact with the woman before him.