single- the neighbourhood

~YOUR POV~

You sat across from Stevens at the table, hands around your glass of iced coffee.

"What do you look so sad for? Aren't you excited about Youth & Impulse reopening after a whole month?" Stevens frowned, disappointed at your clear lack of enthusiasm. You took a drink of your coffee, not willing to meet his eyes. Normally, you would've been ecstatic for the reopening of the café, but after what happened with Yoongi on Monday night...Not so much.

"Did something happen?" Stevens raised an eyebrow.

"I'm fine," you lied, but from the expression on his face, you weren't confident that he was buying your paper-thin words. He could see right through you.

"Did something happen between you and Yoongi by chance?" the specific mention of Yoongi's name made your chest hurt as you replayed Monday night's events over and over within your mind. It was Friday now, and you and Yoongi hadn't had a single bit of interaction. You had tried to call him once on Wednesday, but he didn't answer and didn't ever call you back.

You were angry at his immaturity and pettiness on that front; after leaving you like that on Monday, the least he could do was return your calls. You didn't really care that he was upset, you two had already established that letting problems fester never made them go away, it only made them worse. Not to mention, you were worried about him and how things went with Bang PD. For all you knew, he could've gotten fired!

He was ignoring you, and you had absolutely no idea where you stood with him. Was that a breakup on Monday? A "maybe we should take a break"? Or something else? You had no idea, and it was eating you up inside. Yoongi was just so quick to blame everything on you, and that hurt. You were more confused than ever...Did you even want to keep seeing him anymore?

"Y/N?" Stevens was snapping his fingers in front of your face as you had zoned out completely. "You don't seem okay."

"Yoongi and I got in a huge fight on Monday, and I haven't talked to him since," you said quietly, pushing your coffee away from you. You had lost your appetite.

"I see...Wanna talk about it?" Stevens offered but you shook your head.

"No thanks."

"In that case, I hate to ask you to do this, but I need you to call him and let him know about the reopening. The piano job is still his if he wants it," Stevens replied and you couldn't help but grow frustrated with him.

"Why do I have to do it? You're his boss, not me. I don't want to call him again," you said firmly.

"Why not?"

"Because he's probably just going to keep ignoring me, and I don't feel like dealing with that."

"If he doesn't answer, then leave a voicemail. You should try to work this out with him because leaving it alone won't do you any good," Stevens slipped into his "parenting" mode and you sighed out of agitation.

"Stevens, you know I love and respect you, but please don't give me relationship advice."

He eyed you for a moment, "You really think that I haven't noticed that way you look at him?

You sighed again, a hand massaging your temples as you felt a throbbing headache coming on. "What's your point?"

"Don't throw away your relationship with him because of one fight."

"You don't have a clue what it's like to date someone like him. This isn't just a typical couples' spat. There's a lot more to it than that," you argued.

"Maybe so. But, I still think you're going to regret it if you let everything fall apart so easily. But, hey. It's your life, not mine. Do what you want," Stevens shrugged before getting up and leaving to take inventory.

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-Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system. Please record your message after the tone.-

H-Hey Yoon...Yoongi. I'm just calling to let you know that Youth & Impulse will be reopening this Tuesday. I-um, I...Stevens wanted me to let you know that the job is still yours if you want it.

...

I...I miss you.

Call me.

But he didn't call.

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~YOONGI'S POV~

"Yoongi can we do one more run-through on your verse that comes after Jin's?" Namjoon asked without taking his eyes off the computer screen. Yoongi and Jin were in front of the microphone; it was their first time to record with Jin after meeting him a few days prior. Namjoon was at the computer, and Hoseok was lying on the couch icing his ankle which he rolled in dance practice earlier that day.

Yoongi glanced at his watch, "I have to go. Can we do it tomorrow?" Jin sighed a breath of relief, clearly tired. He got up from his spot and plopped down on a chair beside Hoseok, reaching for a banana milk out of the mini fridge.

"Okay. Where are you off to?" Namjoon asked nonchalantly.

"Work."

Namjoon raised an eyebrow.

"Youth & Impulse is reopening tonight."

Namjoon nodded his head slowly, "But you still haven't made up with Y/N yet, right?"

"Yep."

"So...What are you planning to do about that?"

"Who's Y/N?" Jin called out curiously, poking a straw through the banana milk container.

"Yoongi's girlfriend," Hoseok replied through a mouthful of Skittles.

Yoongi stood up, grabbing his backpack from the corner. "I have to go change my clothes. I'll see you guys in the morning."

He wasn't about to get into yet another argument with Namjoon about the way he was treating you. He didn't want to be lectured. He didn't want to hear it. Namjoon didn't know how Yoongi felt; not even close. The only reason Namjoon even knew that Yoongi and you were on the outs was that Hoseok had asked why you stopped coming to hang out during the recording sessions. And Yoongi's reply was that the two of you had stopped talking for now. Hoseok and Namjoon both were able to piece together that it likely had something to do with the graduation dinner fiasco.

"Oh okay. Bye," Hoseok and Jin both waved. Namjoon didn't say anything else.

Yoongi changed into his nice work clothes, and it almost felt a bit strange. It'd been a whole month since he last played at Youth & Impulse. Playing there and spending time with you there had become such a second nature to him, and being without it for this long made him feel strangely sad and weird on the inside.

But now that he had it back, he couldn't help but think about how it just wouldn't be the same. Gone were the times where the two of you faced no problems. Gone were the times when he could freely walk around the city with you, eating ice cream or going for ramen without fear of someone intruding on it. Gone were the times when his world only consisted of you, and the café, and Stevens, and playing piano for old people.

Things will change with time.

And that they did.

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~YOUR POV~

You stood behind the counter, going back and forth between tossing unconvincing fake smiles to Stevens and checking the time. Yoongi had never called you back, so you had absolutely no idea if he was going to show up or not, and that made you incredibly anxious.

You knew that Stevens was right, that you would regret letting your relationship die without even trying to sort through the problems again first. Truth was, you and Yoongi needed to fight, you needed to talk things out. But, that couldn't happen unless he stopped ignoring your calls and showed up for work. It would be easy for him to just drop off the face of the planet and never have contact with you again, but you hoped and prayed that he was a better person than that.

By 6:25, 5 minutes before "Senior Tea and Piano Nights" officially start, you were starting to lose hope in him showing up at all.

You wiped down the tables with more intensity than was necessary to get the job just so you would have something to keep you busy. It was no use though, you still glanced over at the door every few seconds, hoping for a sight of him.

"Hey, those tables are clean, you know?" Stevens called out from the kitchen entryway. "Do something more useful with your time, please? We open in 5," he chuckled and you sighed, picking up the cleaning supplies and making your way back to the front counter. You checked your watch again. 6:27.

He wasn't coming.

You put the cleaning products back in the supply closet, and just as you were turning back to the front of the store, the front doorbell was ringing.

And there he was, entering the store just as you had watched him do countless times before. Except now, he had no jacket to take off and hang up, and his sleeves were rolled up a bit higher than normal. He was back in the nice pants and white button-down shirt attire, his hair looked like it had actually been combed, and he was lacking makeup.

This was Youth & Impulse Yoongi, the one you originally fell in love with.

He walked up the counter, taking what seemed like forever before he was finally standing in front of you. You waited for him to speak first, wondering what kind of mood he was in, how he was planning to approach the situation.

What he ended up saying was something that you had heard countless times on countless other days. But for some reason, today, it caught you off guard.

"Think I could get a latte?" His voice was lower than usual, almost a bit rough sounding. You figured he had just gotten done rapping, likely recording with Namjoon.

You only hesitated for a short moment before nodding, moving to start making his drink. He stayed there, right in front of the counter as you made it, but he didn't say anything else so you didn't either. This tension that was between the two of you was something new, something that you didn't like.

You created the leaf design on top that he was always a fan of before passing him the drink, getting a soft "Thanks," in reply. And with that, it was time for Senior Tea and Piano Night to begin, and Yoongi was taking his mug and sitting down at the piano.

Word had easily gotten around about the reopening of Youth & Impulse after Stevens's accident, and the place was packed a mere 20 minutes later. You were busy getting everyone their drinks and desserts; busy enough that you successfully were able to tune out the sound of his playing, at least for a little while.

Your emotions were all confused in your head and the last thing you wanted was to hear some super emotional piano piece from Yoongi to confuse you anymore. Watching him play that piano was what made you initially become fascinated by him, and watching him play it now was bound to make all of those feelings resurface.

Once the rush calmed down, however, you couldn't exactly avoid the sounds of the soft melodies that floated away from those black and white keys. You found yourself with your head resting on your elbow, watching him intently like you had many times before. You found yourself comparing the way he behaved while rapping onstage with Namjoon and the way he looked while playing calmly by himself. It was almost like they were two different people.

There was Suga the rapper, the one who dressed in dark clothing and sang about dark things and got into fights with people.

Then there was Min Yoongi, the one who dressed in white, played the piano gracefully, walked you home at night, was gentle in every way...

You couldn't ignore the fact that you were seeing a whole more "Suga" these days than you were seeing "Yoongi."

By the time the place cleared out that night, it was clear that neither one of you were entirely sure what to do. He stayed to help clean up just like he always used to do, but he didn't speak a single time while doing so. Perhaps the hesitation came from the fact that you both realized that if you spoke, it would likely turn into a screaming match. Maybe you both were scared to talk about real life, and to admit the truth. Maybe you were scared the truth was something that you didn't want to hear.

Because maybe Yoongi was right...Maybe the two of you weren't so good for each other after all.

"Y/N," he called out suddenly. Stevens had left to take out the trash, and it was just the two of you left in the store.

You were so confused on how you felt about the whole thing that you weren't even sure if you were mad anymore. "Yeah?"

"Take a walk with me?"

"N-Now?"

"I shouldn't wait any longer," he shifted uncomfortably, tossing the dirty rag on the table.

"Any longer for what?" you asked hesitantly, nervous and missing him and angry and confused all at the same time. He was literally driving you crazy. Your mind was more jumbled than it had ever been.

He looked you dead in the eyes, but he didn't say anything for a few moments. It was likely mere seconds in which he was mute, but it felt like lifetimes to you. The waiting was going to drive you crazy too.

"Are you intentionally trying to play mind-games with me?" you asked, eyes narrowing at him.

He shook his head no, but still didn't reply with words. So you sat there, waiting, almost challenging him with an equal amount of silence.

"Did you just come here to mess with me? Huh? You leave me completely hanging on Monday night, then ignore my calls all week, and now you're here, but you're refusing to speak. Wow, Yoongi, that's real mature of you. Honestly, I really can't believe you're-" and then you were interrupted by three quiet words from Yoongi. Words that didn't fit the mood nor the vibe of the situation. Words that were unexpected and out of place. Nonetheless, they were words that shut you up.

"I love you."