taste buds | kim seokjin [bts] a.u

dish 9 ;; pajeon

minah took a deep breath, she was stood outside apartment number 215 with a steaming bowl of kimchi fried rice in her hands. "you just have to press the doorbell, minah," she told herself, her hand inching towards the buzzer, but every time she was two centimetres away from it, her hand would retreat. the fried rice was beginning to lose it's steam and that's when minah decided it was fight or flight. she lifted her hand and at the speed of lightning pressed the buzzer. instinctively, she took a few steps back and started taking deep breaths when she heard footsteps.

seokjin, on the other hand, had just left the shower and slipped his bathrobe on when his doorbell rang. he ruffled his dripping hair with a towel as he walked towards the door, wondering who it could be. the doorbell rang only once, so he thought the person may have left and instead of looking through the eye hole, seokjin pulled the door open.

minah's eyes widened until they couldn't widen anymore, her mouth coming ajar at the sight of her model opening the door to apartment 215. seokjin's brows furrowed, his eyes landing on the bokkeumbap he had made just a few hours earlier, until he realised that minah was in her night shirt and pants, with fluffy slippers on. minah was frozen, a part of her feeling sudden embarrassment and the other part feeling sad that her neighbour was nowhere near what minah had initially thought of. she stood in one place, her eyes never leaving seokjin. but he looks kinda hot in a bathrobe. minah's eyes widened even further at her thoughts and she prayed for seokjin to break the silence. he did, but with a small laugh.

"minah-sshi?" he laughed even harder as everything began to fall into place; the fashion he was gifted at 5am, minah always rushing out of work for dinner, how he was never able to bump into his neighbour because they had very different timings. it all made sense, but all seokjin could do was laugh. he was laughing because he was relieved that his neighbour was somebody he could get along with and not a mean ahjumma or a lady with a family.

minah watched seokjin's hysteria, gulping. his laugh is cute though... unconsciously, she began to follow with his laughter, but at a more nervous pace. "d-do you live here?" she questioned, before mentally banging her head against the wall for asking a question that had such an obvious answer.

seokjin nodded, pointing to the door of apartment 214, "and you, live there?"

minah nodded slowly, her eyes lowering to the fried rice in her hands. she slowly brought the bowl down and hid it behind her back, away from seokjin's eyes, even though it was too late. "did my cute neighbour bring me some kimchi bokkeumbap?" minah's head jerked up at the sudden compliment. "we're not in a working environment, so I can use your name freely, now right?"

"i'll..." minah started, taking a step backwards, "just go back..." but seokjin was quick to stop her on her feet.

"you're not planning to eat that bokkeumbap all on your own, are you?" he widened the door for minah to see and smiled at her warmly. "let's get to know each other better; i'm kim seokjin, and you?" seokjin extended a hand out for minah and she slowly took hold of it,

"park minah."

***

that morning, minah shot up from her bed, slapping her head lightly to convince herself it was all just a dream, but when she left her apartment in a hurry and entered the elevator, seokjin was coming towards her. minah's eyes widened and she quickly pushed the parking lot button a few more times so that the elevator doors would close at a faster speed, leaving seokjin behind.

minah avoided seokjin throughout the shoot, not because she was upset about being neighbours with him, but it was because she still hadn't come to terms with the fact that her model was the one sending her homemade meals. "what were the odds?" she mumbled to herself, before looking through the shots taken by the photographer. seokjin, on the other hand, understood that minah may have felt a bit overwhelmed and decided to give her some space for the time being.

once the shoot was completed, minah found herself driving back to her apartment for dinner. it had become a habit and even though she thought seokjin might stop sending her the meals, minah shrugged. "i'll just make something for myself to eat." when she left the elevator, the walk down the hallway seemed never-ending, her eyes finding their way to apartment 215. the memory of last night flooding in, minah let out a small laugh. "why am i so nervous around him?" she asked herself with a sigh. "he's just kim seokjin, my neighbour, the model who works for me." minah was pondering over the whole situation in front of her neighbour's door when she heard the elevator doors. she scrambled to her own apartment door and quickly stepped in, hoping that seokjin didn't catch a glance at her by 215.

minah flopped down onto her sofa after changing and took her phone out to see a few messages from her father. she tapped them slowly, rolling her eyes.

park minah, why is it that i have to hear from haeyoung about how the photoshoots are working out, and not you?

i understand you don't want to talk to me, but this is about business. how many times have I told you to keep your personal life separate from your business life?

if you're going to carry on acting so childishly towards me, i'll have to make a trip to seoul myself.

"what–" minah sat upright at the last message, biting her lip in annoyance. she fought the urge to reply with something extremely disrespectful and simply sent him a text saying "i'll handle it all myself." after that, minah threw her phone across the couch and almost had a heart attack when her doorbell rang.

outside her door was the dish tray.

but this time, with seokjin holding it upright, a bright smile on his face.

"i made you some dinner," he chirped, holding the tray out towards minah. "i gave you the whole day to think things through, and it seems like you haven't eaten yet, so i'll take the silence as an invite to come in." seokjin helped himself inside minah's apartment but minah was still stood by the door, frozen. her heart was beating rapidly up until seokjin called her name from inside.

"c–coming!" she yelled, closing the door behind her.

seokjin took a seat comfortably on her couch and patted the space next to him, so minah obliged, looking down at the dish tray, which had two plates full of food. "since we've finally met each other, neighbour to neighbour, i thought it would be nice to eat dinner with you," seokjin explained, handing minah her plate full of savoury pancakes. she gulped, her taste buds beginning to water at the sight. "i made a mix of haemul pancakes (seafood and green onion) and the usual vegetable one."

minah picked up her chopsticks and cut into a piece before slowly turning her head away from seokjin to eat the slice. resisting the urge to moan - something she would do very often when eating seokjin's food - minah chewed down on the pancake, her eyes fluttering close in joy. "you know," seokjin started, breaking her concentration away from her little food-gasm. "a girl that eats well is very attractive."

less than two seconds after those words had left seokjin's mouth, minah choked on air, her heartbeat beginning to rise wildly as she reached for a glass of water. seokjin chuckled, watching minah's every nervous move. he was used to women being nervous around him, because of his looks, but he had never come across a woman quite like minah, who drew him in with her skittish gestures and unpredictable reactions.