namjoon was sitting in his seat, reading like he did every day before class.

he always got to class early, having to sit and wait for jimin until he arrived.

it wasn't so bad, though, because people would usually just be off talking in their own friend groups and not pay any mind to namjoon.

but today was different.

today, namjoon was pulled away from his book by- what he assumed was a women's voice talking to him.

he looked up and immediately met eyes with a pretty girl smiling down at him.

he was a bit confused why she was talking to him, but he tried his best to act as normal as he could, regardless.

"hi!" she said, brightly, "you're namjoon, right?"

namjoon just nodded, feeling completely uncomfortable talking to the stranger.

"um... well... i'm areum."

namjoon's brows furrowed, knowing he recognized the name and trying to remember where he had heard it.

and then, it suddenly hit him.

she was the girl that jimin seemed to have a liking for.

and namjoon immediately had even less interest in talking to her at the realization.

"oh..," he said, struggling to form any type of coherent sentence, "h-hi."

"you're probably really confused right now," she said, beginning to ramble on, "sorry. i... i just... i noticed you when you answered that question in class yesterday and you just... you seemed really nice and i thought maybe you'd want to hang out sometime or something..."

namjoon just looked at her, a surprised look on his face.

is she asking me out?

namjoon had never been asked out before.

his immediate reaction was to say no and run out of the classroom, but he knew he couldn't do that.

so, he thought it over for a minute, seriously considering the date.

there would be no way he could really go out with someone, especially a girl. he was too weird... too awkward.

but, right before he went to turn the girl down, he stopped to consider his options.

jimin was straight. very straight, as far as namjoon knew and there was no way in hell anything could come out of it. 

maybe... maybe if he just tried going out with a girl it wouldn't be so bad. maybe he could make it work.

and, if all else failed, he could at least use the chance to try and move on from jimin.

he only realized how long he was taking to respond when the girl spoke up.

"you know what... i shouldn't have asked. you don't know me and-"

namjoon interrupted her.

"no!"

she looked confused.

"no?"

"i mean... i'll go. when?"

she looked a bit surprised, smiling.

"well... are you free tonight? we could go to one of the bars on campus and get some food."

namjoon felt anxiety fill him as he thought about having to make conversation with some random girl for an hour.

"y-yeah. uh... that sounds good."

the girl grabbed out a piece of paper from her back pocket and handed it to him.

"this is my number," she said, "we can figure out where to meet and stuff later."

"uh... yeah. okay," namjoon said, his hand shaking as he grabbed the paper.

"well... i'll see you tonight, then," she said, smiling and giving him a wave as she headed back to her friends.

as soon as she left, namjoon noticed jimin walking over to him, a cute smile on his face.

he felt butterflies fill his stomach, immediately looking down at the floor in front of him, trying to calm himself.

"hey!" jimin said, sitting down beside him.

"hey," namjoon said, slouching back in his seat.

jimin noticed the off look on joon's face and immediately began questioning him.

"what's wrong?" jimin asked, knowing something was up.

"nothing."

jimin looked down at joon's hand and noticed he was holding onto a scrap piece of paper.

without giving it another thought, jimin snatched the paper from his hand.

namjoon gasped, immediately trying to get it back, but it was too late.

jimin had already seen what was on it.

"what's this?" jimin asked.

"like i said... it's nothing," namjoon said, taking the paper back from the boy.

"that's not nothing!" jimin said, "that's a paper with a phone number on it! what happened?"

namjoon looked down at the paper, with a sigh.

"this girl just... gave it to me."

"girl? what girl?"

"uh... it... it was areum."

jimin's jaw dropped slightly.

"areum gave you her number?"

"yeah..," namjoon said, "and she uhm..."

"what?"

"she asked me out tonight."

jimin just looked at him with a straight face for a moment, eventually breaking out in a little laugh.

"so... did you tell her you're not interested?"

namjoon just stayed silent, not wanting to answer the question.

jimin's face turned more serious as namjoon wasn't answering as fast as he thought he would.

"joon? what did you tell her?" jimin asked, an unreadable expression on his face.

namjoon just shrugged his shoulders.

"i just... i said i would hang out with her later at some bar."

jimin's lips parted, looking shocked.

"why do you look so surprised? you're the one who said i should talk to her," namjoon said.

jimin just sat back in his seat, staring at aruem across the room.

"i just... i thought you said you weren't interested in her."

"well... i wasn't, but-"

namjoon looked over at jimin, confused by how weird he was acting.

"look... i didn't think you'd have a problem with it. if you want to ask her out... i don't care. i won't go on the date if you don't want me to," namjoon said, mentally cringing at the idea of jimin going out with her.

jimin just slouched back in his seat, shaking his head.

"i... no," he said, with a sigh, "i don't want to go out with her. i told you to talk to her and you did. you should go. you'll have fun."

namjoon could tell jimin was still a little upset, figuring he was probably just trying to be a good friend and let namjoon go out with her, even though jimin liked her.

only if jimin knew that namjoon didn't give a single shit about going out with that girl.

he was too busy fantasizing about a certain boy that he'd much rather go out with instead.

______________________________

oop joonies got it bad 😔💗

also here's some gifs of namjoon that radiate his energy in this story lmao