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"WHA'S THE MATTER, TAE? the coffee boy take your job, or what?"
taehyung hadn't noticed that he'd walked straight past namjoon's office until he heard the familiar voice drone from a few feet behind him. he backtracked until he could peek his head into the room, seeing a mildly-offended namjoon sitting with his legs kicked up on the desk.
"hey, namjoon," taehyung greeted, grinning, leaning against the doorway.
"sit'yer self down," namjoon said in response, jerking his head in the direction of the seat in front of him. taehyung obliged, making sure not to shift any of namjoon's papers as he did.
his best friend's workspace wasn't organized in the least; perhaps, in namjoon's mind, there was some sort of order in the overflowing amount of important-looking documents strewn about his shiny mahogany wood desk, but to anyone else, it looked like the aftermaths of a fearsome battle of paperwork.
his name plate protruded from the mess, reading kim namjoon, general manager, jeon industries.
namjoon was smart, almost too smart to be just some office guy cooped up in a twenty-by-twenty reading and signing papers, reading and signing papers.
but he liked the repetition. "job security," namjoon would say, winking. "the less you complain, the more they like ya."
namjoon, with an iq of 148 and an affinity for watermelon-flavored lollipops (though he'd settle, begrudgingly, for cherry), was taehyung's closest friend, and his only confidante.
"ooh, are those doritos?" namjoon said, eyebrows raised, staring pointedly at the bag of nacho cheese flavored chips in taehyung's hands. smiling, taehyung opened the bag and offered them to his hyung, who grabbed a few between his thumb and index finger, trying not to spill crumbs on the papers beneath him.
crunching loudly for a few seconds, namjoon announced, "it is wednesday, my dude."
taehyung stared at him strangely, tilting his head. "and?"
"which means," namjoon continued, eyebrow raised, "that it's nearly the weekend, which means no work. which means free time."
"i don't follow."
namjoon rolled his eyes. "what i'm sayin' is that you should come hang out with me an' the guys this weekend."
taehyung gave him a pained smile. "the 'guys'?"
hanging out with the guys consisted of steely-eyed min yoongi trying to slide him his mixtape, and awkward jung hoseok with his loud, loud, loud horse laugh.
regardless to say that he didn't exactly have the most pleasurable experiences with them, even though namjoon insisted that he had a great time. taehyung still couldn't look at a fish in the eye anymore, though.
"yes," namjoon insisted, leaning towards taehyung. "listen, kid, you and i both know you don't get out often-"
taehyung frowned. "hey."
"and everyone is wary of changes," namjoon said in a compassionate, almost fatherly tone. "but dude, there's this really cool bar named cypher that just opened up on a street not too far from here-"
"hyung, bars aren't really my thing," taehyung tried to say, observing the ridges of his dorito sheepishly as the elder stared at him incredulously.
"tae," he said, "you're over nineteen, aren't you?"
taehyung huffed. "i'm twenty-two."
"exactly. so you're fine," namjoon said, satisfied, leaning back on his chair.
taehyung licked his lips. "i might be busy this weekend, anyway."
"uh-huh," namjoon drawled, "and i'm an exotic dancer. tae, the only way you'd be busy is if you worked overtime."
taehyung stayed silent.
"i'm doin' ya a favor, friend," namjoon explained, plucking a red lollipop from a cup on his desk. "you're twenty-two and your only friend is practically your boss."
"you're not my boss."
"practically, i said." namjoon flicked the wrapper in taehyung's direction. "wouldn't it be fun to laugh, to drink, to get some? maybe?"
taehyung smiled a bit at namjoon's joke, but shook his head. "i don't think so, hyung," he said, picking up the wrapper and getting up from the chair to throw away their trash.
he could sense the exasperation in namjoon's sigh from behind him, but chose to ignore it.
"i'll talk to you later, hyung, lunch break is almost over," taehyung said, but namjoon told him to stop.
turning, he looked back to namjoon, almost shivering when he saw the dark look on his friend's face.
"tae," he said, taking his legs off the desk. "i'm lettin' you do what ya want. you're your own self, whatever. but you gotta - you gotta live a little, man. you only got one life, one heart-" he pointed at his own with his lollipop, "and you only get one chance. don't waste it."
taehyung swallowed and nodded before exiting the dark encompassment of namjoon's office.
Δ
wanted to elaborate a little on namjoon & taehyung's relationship along w/ namjoon's personality haha, since he's going to be fairly relevant in this fic
but yes i wanted to get ch 2 up before too long hh
