A Little Slice of Heaven [Namjin]

Chapter Twenty-Five: An Exercise in Patience

AN: There's more left than I thought. I keep saying 3 more chapters. Don't believe me; it's a lie. There's probably 5 or 6.

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Yoongi glanced up from the rack of lamb he was plating, watching Jimin slip through the room toward Hoseok. The pink-haired man stuck out like a light house beacon on a foggy beach; whenever he entered the kitchens, Yoongi's eyes instantly found him.

He knew that the rumors had already started, thanks to Hanbin's ill-timed arrival earlier that evening. Technically, the sous chef hadn't seen anything questionable. Yoongi had insisted on wearing Jimin's pink and black headband again - if only to irritate Hoseok - and the younger was merely adjusting it for him.

The fact that they were in incredibly close proximity to each other, and that Yoongi had his hands resting lightly on Jimin's waist, shouldn't have been cause to think there was something going on between them. Jimin liked to be touched, that was all.

If Yoongi allowed his brain to quit beating around the bush, he would have admitted that he had been a second away from kissing his best friend. The thought left his stomach feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

He blamed all the damn lovey-dovey shit going on around him. What was once just a group of six close friends had morphed into a group of seven, five of which had found partners within a week of each other.

Tae and Jungkook were in that disgusting honeymoon phase. Group texts involving the two of them usually involved some heavy flirting that really needed to be taken to a private chat.

Hoseok kept talking loudly and excitedly to anyone who would listen about his upcoming date with Dasom. Yoongi was slightly amused to see money changing hands as some of the staff realized the bubbly man was not, as suspected, banging their boss.

And then there were the lovebirds sitting out in his dinning room right then. As soon as Jimin announced that Seokjin and Namjoon had arrived, Yoongi took a peek into the restaurant to see for himself. The way they gazed at each other over their meals left no mistake in the chef's mind that Namjoon wasn't toying with his hyung's affections; those two saps were head-over-heels for one another.

Being constantly surrounded by people who were so goddamned happy in their love lives had to be the reason Yoongi, who had sworn to never date, was starting to entertain the thought. But why his brain had chosen Jimin was something he had yet to fully figure out. Thankfully, he had been a chef for so long that his actual job took very little concentration so he had been able to devote a portion of his evening to sorting through the mystery.

He had easily eliminated the fact that Jimin was the only one of their friends left that wasn't seeing anyone. There was no way in the known universe that Yoongi would ever see Jimin as a last choice for anything.

If he was being fully honest with himself, he was surprised that Jimin was still single. Cheongug was a haven for the non-heteronormative. There were plenty of men around that would have found Jimin alluring. Even subtracting those that would be turned off by the acrobat's gender fluidity, the pink-haired man would have had plenty of suitors.

Jimin had been on Jeju for about three years, if Yoongi's memory served him correctly. In all that time, the younger man had never had a boyfriend, remaining as single as Yoongi. Of the original six, they were the only ones who hadn't dated anyone in the time they'd been a posse.

It had always seemed a little odd to Yoongi, considering how much of a sexual creature Jimin was. With the exception of the Jongwoon disaster, Jimin had never hidden anything from the older. Yoongi knew about all of Jimin's past relationships when he'd lived on the mainland. They'd discussed the attraction rating of actors while watching movies, snuggled on one of their couches. He knew for a fact that Jimin was no blushing virgin, given some of the stories the younger had told him of his high school days.