seokjin wrung his hands together as the three of them waited for their food. he couldn't look at the woman, whose first name he didn't even know, straight in the eye.

mia huffed at his, "fine. i'll go play at the little playground like the kid i am. meanwhile, talk to each other, you babies."

indigo chuckled at the little girl as she ran towards the slides. she cleared her throat, making jin look up. "yeah, yeah. i know this is super awkward, but let's try to make it less awkward. hi, i'm indigo."

what a beautiful name.

jin stared at her outstretched hand and blinked before quickly shaking it, already getting used to the softness of her hands compared to his rough ones. "seokjin, as i told you this morning, but you can call me jin."

she nodded, before flipping his hand over. "why are your hands so stiff and tough? do you not use moisturizer every morning and night?"

his eyes widened at indigo tracing her finger on the calloused lines of his hand. before he could get too comfortable, he slowly backed his hand away from hers, clearing his throat while scratching the back of his neck. "i forget to."

furrowing her eyebrows, she scolded him, "you have to take care of yourself properly, jin."

he slowly nodded, "i will."

indigo realized that her motherly/teacher-ly instincts had kicked in as she gave an embarrassed chuckle. "sorry. i have no say in what you do in your life. i'm just weird like that. sorry."

chuckling, jin asked, "do you always apologize a lot?"

"yeah, sorry about that."

they sat in silence for a few minutes until their food finally came. they told mia to come over and eat, but she just took her food and went back to play.

"how old are you?" indigo decided to ask.

indigo swallowed her bite, "21. what about you?"

"24. so you like boys who sing?"

she choked on her drink, coughing it off. "damn. why you gotta slide like that?"

jin shrugged, raising an eyebrow. "so?"

uncomfortable with the question, indigo bit her lip, making jin unconsciously look at them. "um i guess? it was just a random question mia had asked me one day, but i guess it's attractive if a guy can sing. but why do i have to tell you this?"

shrugging again, jin chewed on his sandwich, "you didn't have to."

indigo rolled her eyes as they wandered back to mia playing in the indoor playground. she sighed, giving a sad smile. "it's hard to grow up without a motherly figure, but she seems to be doing just fine."

jin stopped himself from having another bite, and put the sandwich down. looking at her also, "you know she wasn't always like that- all happy go lucky."

confused, indigo looked at jin. "what do you mean?"

smiling at her, jin offered it as gratitude. "her father said she would always never talk at home and would always cry herself to sleep. but when they moved here and enrolled her into your class, it all stopped. she'd smile more."

indigo smiled to herself with red cheeks, her gaze on her lap. "what do you mean?"

"i think you took over as her motherly figure."

-

jin entered his room with a smile on his face, replaying the memories of today. he wanted to see indigo again and felt giddy as if he was an elementary school kid acquiring a crush.

he just wanted to get to know her.

shaking his head of these thoughts, he told himself, no matter what, you can't fall in love with her. keep this relationship strictly platonic, or you'll get hurt.

after jin finished brushing his teeth and giving himself a talk, he was about about to turn of the lights in the bathroom when his eyes caught on something in the corner of the cabinet.

lotion.

jin sighed and squirted some on his hands. and the whole time he was repeating to himself,

i'm not doing it because indigo told me to; i'm doing it because it's important to take care of myself.