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“Fourth time’s a charm,” Seokjin chimes in English while Yoonji openly stares across the mall cafeteria. Kim Namjoon is struggling with a heavy lunch tray, trying to find a seat during the busy lunch hour. Or maybe he’s taking his break with Jungkook again, the two of them practically inseparable ever since the kid got hired at the GNC health food store down their hallway. Namjoon knows how to negotiate a deal, especially since literally every other employee in the mall wants to trade for his Record House employee discount. She really should have applied there instead of letting Seokjin talk her into taking extra shifts at the boba stand.
Oh well. At least the outfit is cute—according to Hobi, who always had a thing for colourful aprons like the bright purple one she’s wearing now. ‘It goes well with your hair,’ she said, even though Yoonji’s never really considered orange and purple to be complimentary colours.
“I don’t think that’s how that phrase goes,” she complains, fiddling with the straw on a boba tea she ‘absolutely didn’t steal from the company, oppa’.
Seokjin rolls his eyes. “Sorry for trying to be supportive. You’ve really let this whole rejection thing go your head.”
“It’s not something I’m used to.” Across the crowd, Namjoon nearly drops his fountain drink in a poor Ajumma’s hair. Yoonji sighs. “Why won’t he say yes?” she muses, to no one, but of course Seokjin has to reply:
“There’s a first time for everything. Besides, men are idiots. Forget about him, Yoonji-yah! If you want a boyfriend so badly, just date me instead!”
“You’re a man too, oppa.”
“I’m not like other guys.” He throws up a finger heart.
Yoonji sticks out her tongue. “You don’t even like girls.”
“No, but you do, so it probably balances out somewhere.”
“What would Taehyungie say if I stole you away?”
A beat. “He’d give us an erotic painting for our anniversary. Though, admittedly, he’d make us pose for it.”
“I don’t think the risk is worth the reward.”
“You’re probably right,” Seokjin agrees. He’s already finished his Happy Meal, and now he’s painstakingly building the Transformer toy that came with it, holding the pieces so close to his face that he’s cross-eyed. He’ll ask for help eventually, but now he asks, “What’s your plan this time? Unbuttoning your blouse? Accidentally tripping in front of him? Just asking him out like a normal person?”
“I did do that,” Yoonji reminds her best friend, “and he said no.”
“In fairness, he was working at the time.”
It was just over five months ago, right after Namjoon showed up at the CD store Yoonji frequented during her own precious break-times. Half the employees at that sausage-fest were imbeciles (and still are), but the selection is still better than anywhere else in the mall, and it’s not like she needed help using the listening station.
She was two and a half minutes into the latest Heize release when she felt someone looming over her shoulder.
‘Can I help you find anything?’ Namjoon asked once she took the oversized headphones off. He was wide-eyed and clearly terrified for his first day on the job. His hands waved as he continued to stammer, ‘Not that you look like you need help! You obviously have great taste in music. I just… sorry. Never mind, I’ll let you listen. You should check out track four before you go, it’s really, uh… it’s great.’
(He was also tall and muscly and didn’t give her immediate misogynist vibes, which is still a rarity when she walks into that store.)
The idea came before she could think it through. ‘I’m good. What’s your name, new guy?’
‘Kim Namjoon,’ he introduced himself robotically, then blinked in confusion. ‘Sorry, I… I haven’t met everyone yet. Do you work here too?’ He gasped. ‘Oh god, are you a manager?! I’m so—’
‘It’s okay, I’m not your boss,’ Yoonji told him, chuckling more than she normally did with strangers. She pointed to the logo on her apron. ‘We’re over by the Uni-qlo. Drop by sometime, I’ll let you try the new tapioca flavour for free.’
‘Thanks. Maybe I will.’ Namjoon smiled, and it was so genuine that Yoonji almost felt bad about her plan.
Not bad enough to keep from saying, ‘I’ll let you have my number, too, if you ask nicely.’
Namjoon actually choked, which was impressive considering he wasn’t eating anything at the time. ‘I—uh—why?!’
‘Why not?’
‘Isn’t that, like, an HR violation or something?’
Yoonji heard herself giggle before she could stop it. ‘We don’t work at the same store. We can go out if we want to.’
‘Right, well…’ Namjoon cleared his throat. ‘I don’t even know your name.’
‘Min Yoonji,’ she offered, holding out her hand. ‘And you know I sell boba and have great taste in music. What’s not to like?’
It wasn’t her best move, but hey, she wasn’t used to doing this with guys who didn’t make her want to throw up in her mouth immediately upon speaking to them. Unfortunately, she also wasn’t used to doing this with guys who possessed a fraction of a brain.
‘Hold on,’ Namjoon realized, and she knew right away her scheme had failed. ‘You’re flirting for my discount! You’re Tapioca Girl!”
Damn this stupid mall and its stupid gossip. But Namjoon was right: Yoonji has made quite a name for herself on the second floor, giving out fake numbers left and right for the slightest chance at saving won.
She’s not used to rejection from CD shop boys, but at the time, she took it in stride. ‘You can’t blame a girl for trying,’ she teased, and Namjoon… laughed. Not a mean laugh, like she’d heard before, but a laugh like they were both in on the joke.
Now that she knows him better, she’s pretty sure Kim Namjoon doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. So it’s no surprise that he simply told her, ‘Yoonji-ssi, how about I just point you toward the GIRIBOY album that came out yesterday and we pretend this never happened?’
And that’s what they did.
“He wasn’t working during Hobi’s birthday party. Or when I saw him on the train last week!” In fairness, that last one wasn’t much of a seduction attempt. Yoonji noticed Namjoon’s silver hair on the subway and sat down next to him before he so much as looked up. Once he did notice that he wasn’t actually alone with his cell phone, they started talking, and he told Yoonji how he normally rode his bike to work but somebody stole it during his last shift.
‘They probably need it more than I do,’ he acquiesced, and if Yoonji’s initial flirtation hadn’t grown by now into a full-on crush, she would have left it at that.
Unfortunately, she’s had the distinct pleasure of getting to know Kim Namjoon over the last few months. He’s smart and ballsy and talks to himself when he’s tired. He’s kind and annoying and swears in English as though no one can understand him.
‘You’re the best of us, Namjoon-ah,’ she told him, and he blushed. ‘Whoever gets stuck with you is the luckiest person in the world.’
‘Aish, noona, why do you say such cheesy things?’
She just… likes him. Okay? Sure, a CD store discount is nice as a treat, but she’s running out of room on her shelves anyway (says Jimin, who’s already threatened not to help her pack when they eventually stop living together) (‘You know, like, when we’re in our forties.’). And Namjoon is worth a lot more than a measly twenty percent off! He’s worth…
“A bike,” she says, deadpan.
Seokjin looks up from his plastic toy. “Pardon?”
“I bought Namjoon a bike.”
The problem with having Seokjin as a best friend is that his laugh is the furthest thing from indistinct. Most of the people in the cafeteria have already turned their way, including Namjoon (who did eventually find Jungkook’s table). Even Hobi shoots them a look from the Noodle Shop, more curious than actually annoyed. “You did what, Yoonjichi?”
She tucks her chin into her facemask, hiding as much as she can while still trying to come off superior. “His bike was stolen. I bought him a new one. Well, I bought him a voucher for a new one.”
Her brother knows a guy, who knows a guy, whose friend gave her a good deal. And it’s nice to do generous things for others sometimes, even if Yoonji does have a bit of an ulterior motive.
“Okay…” Seokjin trails off, then seems to accept the whole thing. “You bought him a bike. Are you going to give it to him?”
“Of course I’m going to give it to him!”
“Okay. When are you going to give it to him?”
It’s been a week. The voucher is burning a hole in her purple apron. Seokjin is staring so hard he’s about to burn a hole in her forehead. “No time like the present, right?” She stands.
“God, wait, let me film this for Taehyung!” Seokjin searches for his cell as she walks away. “This is better than his dramas!”
It’s a big mall but it has a small cafeteria, so it’s only a few strides before Yoonji reaches Namjoon and Jungkook’s table, standing awkwardly next to them while they try to eat. After a few moments of silence, she clears her throat. Namjoon is too invested in his fried rice to notice, but he does have the decency to jump when Jungkook exclaims, “Oh, hi noona!”
“Hi, Jungkook-ah,” she replies easily, brushing a strand of long hair off his face. They’ve only known the kid for the last few weeks, but already she and Seokjin have already decided to adopt him (along with the rest of the mall). Everybody loves Jungkook. “Busy today?”
“I like it when it’s busy,” he says, still chewing his food. He swallows. “I sold fourteen pounds of protein powder to a customer today, my commission this week is going to be crazy!”
“I’m proud of you,” Yoonji tells him (far more honestly than she’s comfortable with) and turns her attention to Namjoon. “Hey, I, uh… I wanted to talk to you.”
Namjoon gets that look on his face. One she recognizes from a month ago, when Hobi turned twenty-five and decided to invite the entire mall to her basement apartment to celebrate.
So many people showed up that the party migrated out to the street, pissing off all the neighbours but scaring them out of calling the cops. Jimin and Hobi did some kind of interpretive dance to Taehyung’s honestly pretty terrible trumpet playing while Seokjin and Jungkook raced laps around the block. Leaving Yoonji and Namjoon sitting on the steps of the apartment building pretending they weren’t associated with the rest of the festivities.
It’s not like they stopped talking after the first time they met. Namjoon did, in fact, try the new tapioca flavour, and Yoonji didn’t even make him pay for it (much to Seokjin’s annoyance). And she did actually buy the GIRIBOY album, which they chatted about during their breaks. And then the new Epik High. And the new Suran…
He’s easy to talk to, Kim Namjoon. Too easy, maybe, since Yoonji seldom spares more than five words a day for her acquaintances. Namjoon listens so intently, takes time to ponder his replies, doesn’t just wait for pulls in the conversation in which to present his pretty solid takes.
It still shocks her how this Adonis of a guy can also be a bumbling sweetheart, but no one expects a girl half their size to dominate the underground rap scene, so she respects duality.
(Namjoon came to the show once. He sat in the back with a bewildered look on his face and cheered louder than anyone when she took first place. He’s never brought it up specifically, but he often asks about her writing, her music. Shared quietly that he was no stranger to the scene himself in Ilsan, even showed her some of his songs. She’d kill to battle him, but she’s too scared to lose her winning streak.)
‘Did you meet at the mall?’ he asked as they made polite conversation about the birthday, both of them a bit tipsy and a lot exhausted from the first half of the party.
Yoonji shook her head. ‘You mean Hobi? Yeah, we dated actually.’
What they actually did was a lot more vulgar, and only lasted, like, a week before Yoonji woke up to find Hobi and Jimin falling in love at the breakfast table. Ah well. She always saw Hobi as more of a friend, anyway. And there’s no way she could separate the two dancers now.
A gulp. ‘Oh, I didn’t know…’ Namjoon trailed off. Chose his next words carefully. ‘Yeah. I date guys, too.’
‘You’re gay?’ It would be disappointing, but at least she’d get over the non-rejection.
‘Not exactly.’ He shifted, eyes darting at the hoard of people around them as though Hobi didn’t have an incredible radar for befriending non-assholes. ‘I’m. You know. Bi.’
‘Me too.’
‘Oh!’ He turned to her and smiled, that big delighted one she’s come to like so much. ‘That’s great! Thanks for sharing that with me.’
‘My pleasure.’
(It’s humiliating to fall for a guy who looks and acts like a Disney prince, but she’s accepted her basic fate.)
‘You know, Joon-ah,’ she said back then, ‘I really do like you.’ Okay, maybe it was the alcohol giving her courage to say it, but that was mostly Jimin’s fault, the party animal.
Namjoon elbowed her so gently she almost burst into tears. ‘You like my discount a lot more than you like me.’
‘No.’ She leaned into him, a little heavier than she normally would sober. ‘I mean, that would be a bonus, but I’d like you even if you quit that job altogether. I’d like you if you did pretty much anything, as long as I got to be around while you did it.’
‘You hitting on me again, noona?’
‘Is it working?’
He coughed. Probably from the chilly February air. ‘All this for a measly twenty-percent on songs you can hear for free on YouTube.’
‘Actually, I prefer Spotify. Now quit side-stepping! I have to ask you something.’
‘I’m not side-stepping. I’m being a respectable employee—’
‘Namjoon-ah.’
They’d known each other for four months at that point. Spoken comfortably for at least half of that. But Namjoon suddenly turned to Yoonji as though she was a stranger, some red-haired black widow come to take his heart. Then, the bewildered look in his eyes softened while his tongue slowly peeked out to lick his lips.
‘What do you want to know, Yoonji?’
She kissed him.
He kissed back.
They left the party together.
The next time Yoonji saw him was on the train a few days ago. Namjoon had taken time off work to visit his parents in Ilsan, and then she took time to visit Holly in Daegu, and soon it had been three whole weeks without any communication apart from texting Soundcloud links to one another, complaining over how long they had to wait between new Epik High albums.
They didn’t talk about Hobi’s party, or the things they did after leaving it.
Yoonji thought about it every day.
“My break’s over,” Jungkook clearly lied, piling leftover food into his arms as he made his own escape. “See you tomorrow night, noona?”
Jimin invited everyone to their modern dance recital. Yoonji’s pretty sure they’d hang her if she missed it. “Of course. And lamb skewers after the show.”
With a golden smile, Jungkook scampered off, leaving Yoonji and Namjoon alone.
“Want to sit down?” Namjoon offered, but Yoonji is already taking over Jungkook’s spot, heart racing. “You said you wanted to talk?”
“Is that okay?”
“Definitely,” says Namjoon, but the slightly terrified look in his eyes says otherwise. He swallows. “He doesn’t know, by the way! At least, I didn’t tell him.”
He’s referring to the things they did in Yoonji’s bed. And her kitchen afterward. And her shower the next morning. She chuckles. “Jimin knows.” She wasn’t about to leave her own roommate in the dark, and Jimin has a way of finding out these things regardless. They’re always threatening to set up cameras around the flat.
Namjoon makes a face. “I take it back. In that case, everyone in this entire building knows.”
“Almost certainly.” Yoonji paws at her apron, clutching to keep her fingernails out of her mouth. She wants to bite her nails so badly she might explode, but Hobi’s watching, so that’s not an option. God, this mall is weird. “I actually got you a present.”
There’s another face. “My birthday’s in September.”
He’s infuriating. What does she see in him? “...It’s for Chuseok.”
“That’s also in September.”
“Just—!” Yoonji huffs before finally reaching into her pocket and retrieving the bike shop voucher. She holds it out. “I know the owner. Sort of. The bikes are second-hand and probably stolen, but hey, maybe you’ll find yours in there. So.” She rattles the voucher. “There. Take it.”
Slowly, Namjoon does. “You bought me a bike?” he mumbles after several moments, staring at the slip of paper like it might grow wings and fly away.
Yoonji shrugs. “Subway is expensive.”
“It’s literally not.” He blinks at her. “Did you actually pay for this?”
“Believe it or not, some men are impervious to my charms. Thankfully,” she winks, “the bike shop owner wasn’t. Gave it to me for half-off.”
“You. Bought me a bike.”
“I’m very passionate about protecting the environment. Besides, you’re always waxing poetic about how much better biking is than driving.”
“That’s because I can’t drive.”
“That’s so embarrassing for you. Why would you even tell me that?” They’re both laughing. Yoonji is pretty sure Namjoon’s in shock. Or maybe she is. “Just take it, okay? See if they have anything tall enough for your spider-legs.”
Namjoon slips the voucher into his own pocket, patting it to show it’s safe and sound. “I don’t get it,” he admits. “You’re the one always hunting for freebies. What have I done to seduce you into treating me like this?”
He walked right into that one. “You know exactly what you did.”
“Oh. Right.”
Namjoon’s skin is the perfect shade of honey, but Yoonji likes it best a little pink. Flushed. It takes everything in her not to lick her lips when Namjoon blushes. “Namjoon-ah,” she flirts, braver than she feels, “why do you keep rejecting me?”
He doesn’t leave her waiting. “I’m pretty sure I haven’t. It’s not like you seriously… you know… want someone like me.”
“What’s wrong with you?” She’s asking as much as she’s admonishing, and he seems to understand that.
Sheepish, he answers, “I’m a mess. I have no idea what I’m doing with my life, or with my music. I’m a grown man making minimum wage.”
“Welcome to the real world. We’re all grown, and we’re all making minimum wage. Why do you think I’m such a cheapskate, huh?”
“Yeah, but you’re amazing. You’re a crazy rapper, you’re gonna be massive. I’m just the guy who’s gonna sell your albums to teenagers at the mall.”
“Okay,” Yoonji concurs. “Be the guy who sells my albums. Then be the guy who rides his bike to my apartment and gives Jimin more to gossip over.” She doesn’t add that it won’t last long. That’s she’s stalked his Soundcloud and he’s a thousand times more talented than he lets on. That when she hears his songs on the radio one day, she hopes he wrote them about her.
Something shifts. “You’re actually serious,” Namjoon realizes. “You’re actually… what? Asking me out or something?”
“Is it gonna work this time?”
Namjoon takes a moment, and then another, and really seems to consider it. Which Yoonji’s glad about, actually, since she doesn’t want him to agree to date her simply because she bought him a present. She already promised to be Jungkook’s Sugar Mama, and sure that’s only to make Hobi and Jimin jealous, but it doesn’t mean she can say no to those puppy eyes.
Finally, Namjoon says, “Technically, I do get a Friends and Family discount.”
“Huh?” Yoonji feels her head dip to the side, ginger bangs falling in her eyes.
Namjoon brushes them away. (Her heart skips at least two beats.) “If you’re gonna be my girlfriend, that means you aren’t eligible for either.”
She puffs out her cheeks and blows out, making Namjoon smile. “That’s a pretty shit deal.”
“Take it or leave it, Tapioca.”
“Fine. But you can kiss your free boba goodbye.”
“It’s okay,” Namjoon acquiesces. “I’ll be busy kissing something else.”
It’s a terrible line, and Yoonji has no idea what she ever saw in Kim Namjoon.
(She kisses him back anyway.)
There’s a first time for everything, she thinks.