Pluto Rooms | Jikook

The Only Way Out Is Through the...Perfume Department

The next day, Jimin is at Radon. Minding his own business. Cleaning up booths fast, ordering around the other employees with practiced efficiency, smiling brightly at customers, and meaning every inch of his smile. 

He doesn't find their petty requests as annoying as usual, doesn't see their flirting with him as disgusting. After finally releasing a large monster off of his chest yesterday, Jimin feels a lot better. He's quick to get people drinks, and the various bargoers treat him well tonight--one old lady even tells him you're shining honey! What's your skincare routine? To which Jimin replies that he is undeniably, head-over-heels in love.

His coworkers seem to pick up on it too. 

"You high on something tonight, Jimin?" Soobin asks while he maneuvers around the purple-haired male with a drink platter of Bloody Mary's. The elder shakes his head, snorting.

"Definitely not." Unless love counts. Jimin chuckles, pocketing a few drink slips. He lumbers over to the whiskeys, grabbing a thick bottle of brownish red liquid. "I'm just happy."

Soobin rolls his eyes, probably thinking 'this dude was just complaining to me about having to work the weekend and here he is all bubbly. The hell?'

So Jimin steps in with a better explanation, following behind his coworker to disperse the whiskey order at a table of older men. "My boy is in Seoul, that's why."

Soobin hands out the Bloody Mary's to a group of girls all giggling about something. Jimin catches a few stray words--Instagram! and Hot!--before rolling his eyes. Aesthetics, isn't everyone too worried about aesthetics these days? Shouldn't they be more worried about the inner machinations of individuals versus their smoothened output profiles? There's more to people than the outside of them.

Jimin doesn't doubt that Yoon Gyuri's Instagram account is probably the cleanest thing ever. Full of pictures of her black dog, her OOTDs, her pristine hairstyles, her selfies--all angled perfectly and snapped to perfection. 

If he could do a bit of editing to make the account match the heartless person behind it, he'd post images of shit, blurry photos of snakes (Gyuri doesn't deserve high quality photos on her account) and inspirational quotes with incorrect grammar that aren't really that inspiring like: You got out of bed today, get out their!

"Jung--wait, his name is Jungkook, right? Okay, good. He's in Seoul?"

Wiping away the mental image of Gyuri's more accurate Instagram profile, Jimin nods. "Yup! Isn't it great? It's ironic, how the weekend I couldn't make it to Busan, he manages to come to Seoul...it's like fate wanted us to be together."

"Funny how things work, right?" Soobin runs off from Jimin as he takes more orders, fanning himself as he goes along. 

It's a hot one in Seoul tonight, but Jimin hasn't noticed the sweat beading at his forehead since his head has been in the clouds. Now though, the tiny trickle of sweat against his cheek starts to bother him.

He fingers the shell of the emergency button on his "locket" necklace. Hoseok brought them home yesterday, after Jungkook had left with Eunmi. 'Here, Jimin...' Hobi was despressed, sulking, and tired out from crying. 'Take this. Jinyoung gave five of them to me. Apparently when one person presses it, the others all go off. They have trackers built in too, so that the alarm can be traced.'

"Excuse me, sir?" A young boy taps at his shoulder, and Jimin turns. His hand quickly leaves the safety necklace. "There's um...an accident in the men's bathroom...in the farthest stall from the door. Just thought you might want to know."

Before Jimin can respond, the boy scrunches his nose and flees. Great. Just what I needed to ruin my night. It better not be another overflow because someone tried to flush their condoms again. That was nasty.