Pluto Rooms | Jikook

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"Mkay, Melonboy. Done with the soup bowl."

A hardly recognizable clink hits Jimin's ears after a few moments of listening to various pitched slurps. Pluto must have set the soup bowl down on some hard surface. As if rejuvenated by the soup's healing powers, the restless SpongeBob doppelganger skids over the marble floor of the waiting room towards the door leading to the 1st level.

"Let's gogo to the first dodo~" Pluto chimes with a lip smack.

Jimin doesn't pay too much mind to the way Pluto speaks to him. Sure, it's strange, but he's witnessed a lot stranger at Radon--the 'hip' bar he works for. 

Despite the bar's questionable name--(radon is, in fact, a carcinogenic & radioactive gas found in the ground that harms more than it helps the human body when in contact for prolonged periods of time)--the young crowd adores the neon lighting and dim interior of the bar. It makes for busy happy hours, which means Jimin gets tipped up a storm.

It also means he gets hit on more, which doesn't help his nerves one singular bit when the flirters in question are female.

"You comin, Melon?"

"Yep. Yes. Affirmative."

Jimin moves his character forward with a flick of his thumb on the front arrow of his controller. The legs of his pawn kick out more jerky than Pluto's do, but he finds the slight visual bounce that indicates walking more preferable to the creepy sliding that Pluto does.

When they arrive at the door with the 1, Pluto lifts up his hand. The yellow phalanges wiggle around almost expectantly towards him. In his headphones, Jimin hears a sigh.

"You gonna give me a good luck high five before we go into this, Melon?" The yellow hand circles in the air, like a mysterious hand washing cars. Jimin hesitantly raises his arm and reaches forward. They complete their digital high five with a happy yes out of Pluto97 and an awkward silence from Melonaju.

"Now, uh...are you ready to open the door, Pluto?"

Jimin waits for a response but doesn't get one. Instead, Pluto skids to the handle, taps it once, and shies away. The black, creepy eyes of his failed Nickelodeon character face Jimin. 

Through Jimin's headphones, a tight inhale can be heard.

"Actualllyyyy...changed my mind bowl. Ladies first."

Mind bowl? Ladies?!

Jimin's heart falters for a moment in worry and aversion. He is not a woman...or a lady. He knows it's supposed to be a joke, but to him it hits a hard spot. Being called that hurts him more than Pluto knows--it taps into the side of himself that he really despises.

That he fears.

"U-ugh...whatever, Pluto. I'll do it then."

Jimin opens the door in the game before he can have second thoughts or think too deeply about Pluto's comment. The door creaks open. Both Pluto97 and Melonaju peer in curiously. 

Bright ceiling-length lights buzz, illuminating a relatively small classroom. Two wooden desks face a clean chalkboard. Nothing else is in the room.

"A classroom? Are you afraid of taking notes, Melon?"

Jimin scoffs. "No, and by the way I'm not even in school right now-"
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WELCOME PLUTO97.

WELCOME MELONAJU.

BEFORE YOU COMMENCE THE 10 WEEK CHALLENGE IN THE BUDDYSHIP, YOU WILL BE BRIEFED ON THE ALTERED BUDDY EXPERIENCE AND HOW IT WILL WORK.
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