Pluto Rooms | Jikook

_.

Jimin is painting his fingernails an electric violet color on the edge of his porch one morning when his phone rings. The blaring orchestral rendition of Brittney Spears' Toxic makes him jump, and his brush finger spazzes. A streak of nail polish runs messily along the side of his middle finger. Wonderful! Now who had to interrupt my nail painting...

"Hello?" Jimin answers the phone, setting the violet nail polish bottle down carefully. He pouts at his hapless finger, holding it up in the late spring sunshine. Through the speaker, the voice is just as warm as the spring surrounding him, reminding Jimin of a blooming flower bush.

"Hi Jimin! This is Jinyoung. How are you?"

Jimin watches as ant marches past his porch doormat. How am I? That question...so vague. So open. Should Jimin say he's great since he hasn't seen Jinyoung at the bar the last few nights? Or should he lie and say he's doing poor because of the same reason? 

He decides to play it safe. "I'm okay. Could be better--I was painting my nails and just smeared it everywhere when you called, haha."

"Oh gosh! I'm sorry for interrupting." Jinyoung chuckles nervously. The twittering laugh is deep, breathy...like a car rolling down a fresh spring street. Jimin can almost smell the airy lilac detergent on Jinyoung's clothes and see the puckering flower blossoms under his tongue. 

"Its not your fault! Hah...I'm just a klutz. Maybe bartending wasn't the best job for me." Jimin tries to joke, hoping to keep the conversation light. If Jinyoung turns them down the serious path...Jimin is going to become uncomfortable very fast. 

"No! Not at all. You're an amazing bartender." Jinyoung pauses. Jimin stares out into the street in front of the duplex, where a few cars whistle by. "Anyway, I'm sorry I haven't been able to make it to Radon as often. I've been organizing piles of paperwork for the attorney I'm assisting. He has a huge case coming up, and I'm new at the whole thing so it's taking extra time."

"Don't worry about Radon." Please don't come back to Radon. Forget about me. "You focus on your ambition. Plus, Radon is kind of overrated in my opinion--but don't tell my boss I said that, hah."

The ant finishes its morning march down Jimin's porch, disappearing into the bushes lining the side of the duplex. Jimin puts the phone on speaker, hoping to finish painting his nails while talking to Jinyoung.

"Your secret is safe with me!" Jimin can picture Jinyoung smiling into the speaker, his overly white teeth glimmering in the sunshine pouring inside the windows of some law firm. "Haha. But back to what I wanted to talk about...I know during the first date you kind of got sick, so I wanted to make it up to you with a second date. I thought maybe I could take you out for lunch one of these days?"

"Oh." Jimin fucks up on the paint job of his pinky, getting polish on the porch step. Cursing internally, he attempts to wipe off the excess paint with his other hand. "Um..."

"I understand if you are busy..." Jinyoung trails off. To Jimin, the dying hope in the latter's voice totally doesn't sound like he'll 'understand' if Jimin is busy. Jinyoung is one to go for what he wants--the kind who patiently sits and waits for the mailman to come, to check if their magazine subscription of Law Monthly came. 

"No, I'll do it--go out to lunch with you."

Jimin knows he shouldn't be doing this to himself, but he can't help it. This must be his subconscious realist side coming out--deciding what's best for him in a world where he already doesn't feel accepted. When am I going to get another openly gay suitor who is nice enough and is willing to fight for me? It's kind of a rare thing. I have to be less guarded, like Hoseok said.