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“Come on, get up! You’re gonna be late for class”“Five minutes more mommy” Jimin got hit by a pillow taking him out of his sleeping state.“You are 22 already, when will you stop calling me that when I wake you up” His best friend Taehyung groaned from above before leaving the room.Jimin smiled like a child and screamed back to him “Never!” He finally got out of bed and went to the bathroom, took a quick shower and headed to the kitchen where Tae was already having breakfast.“So what’s your schedule for today?” Tae asked as he shoved a spoon full of cereals into his mouth. Jimin made a disgusted face at the sight, but his bff was just like that. “I have classes all morning and later I have to go to the lab to start my project.”“Shit, already? I thought you had time till February” Taehyung replied surprised. Jimin just hummed in agreement, his tutor had told him to not worry at the beginning of the course, but few weeks later came to him with the news. “My tutor said I need to start now ‘cause some freaking scientist genius is going to do some research at the uni and apparently can help me”“Didn’t know studying microscopic worms was THAT interesting really” said Tae with a smirk, Jimin hit him playfully cause he knew that deep down his friend cared about his studies and the fact that he could tell his final project involved parasites was the proof. Ok, he may not know what a C.elegans was, but he loved him nevertheless. “And what about you? Still trying to design the perfect chair?” Jimin laughed while asking, since he knew chairs were his best friend's little obsession. “I already finished my classes, just have to focus in the design of this new lamp my group have been working on” something changed in Taehyung’s eyes when he continued “you know how we work with different kinds of engineers….there is this cute programmer in the team...”Jimin opened his eyes widely and screamed “I knew something was up with you! You never stay that long when doing group projects” Tae laughed, his cheeks turning a bit pink “Yeah, he’s a year younger and he’s so cute Chim, you should see him”Jimin smiled happy to see his best friend so excited “Then you should ask him out, I’m sure he’ll say yes to a cutie like you”Taehyung laughed and nodded “Yeah, I think I will when we submit it this week. I need to get going now, see you tonight Chim”. And with that Jimin was left alone, but with no time to lose he got his backpack and headed to campus. “Hey Hobi, you won me this time. Hope it wasn’t hard to keep this seat free” Jimin said as he seated next to his classmate. Hoseok smiled and raising an eyebrow looked around them. “Jimin are you fucking serious? We’ve been the only ones to seat in first row for the last four years” Jimin displayed his eyesmile and cutely said “What do you expect from the eternal class president? I can’t just stop pretending I pay attention during classes, people need to keep believing we are some kind of ultrasmart boys”Hoseok rolled his eyes and smiled, but he had to agree, every teacher made an exception for them if they needed it and the rest of the class thought they studied like crazy.“I bet everyone would be shocked if they had seen their little class president last saturday getting wasted and dancing like you always end up”Jimin faked a hurt expression and putting his hand over his heart said “I can not believe this onslaught, everyone loves my dancing and for your information I was not drunk, the ground lines kept moving” With that Hoseok laughed throwing his head back and Jimin smirked.The professor entered the hall and with that the class begun. “I hope the slides are enough to pass cause I’ve spent the whole time finishing that toxicology paper” Jimin sighed. “Same, I was looking for maths exercises for the kids I tutor. I really hope Mr. Brown didn’t see or he’ll think I’m an idiot”. Jimin laughed with his friend and they got to the cafeteria. “I am so not ready for the lab work today” Jimin said, Hoseok was preparing his project within the same field but didn’t have to start yet. “Don’t worry man, you’ll make it work and end up with flying colors as always.” Jimin muttered a thank you and they got their lunches. After saying goodbye to Hobi, Jimin got ready to meet his tutor and get the information he needed to begin. Charlotte was already at the lab, four years of tutoring made them quite close even if she was still her professor. She was looking to some petri dishes through the microscope and didn’t notice Jimin until he was close. “Oh my! You scared me sweety”“Hey Charlotte, how are the little ones growing?” She smiled widely, her love for biology and researching was endearing and one of the reasons why Jimin had decided to choose her as her project director. “They are looking really good, you did a nice work last week. Oh, remember the guy I told you about? He’ll be coming through the afternoon to see the installations and you can meet him then”Jimin nodded and got to work, it’s not that he wasn’t excited to meet this researcher, but his mind had too many things going on with the classes and everything that he could not put more interest into that. Around a couple of hours later, when he had finished preparing the material for following experiments someone entered the lab. It was not rare to have people getting in and out of the lab so he didn’t pay attention. Instead kept focusing on cleaning the extraction hood; he mentally cursed his short height, cause he couldn’t reach properly the upper area. Giving up, he threw the dirty papers to the absorbent contaminated bin and suddenly heard someone clearing his throat. Jimin turned around to face the most beautiful men he had ever seen. The man was around his height, dark hair and beautiful pale skin. The stranger was looking at him with a smirk plastered in his face and his arms crossed over his chest. Jimin became then really aware of his appearance, he was wearing the long ass lab coat, nitrile blue gloves and the stupid goggles he was obliged to wear over his own fucking glasses. His blond hair was a mess, cause that’s what spending 3 hours a day in a lab makes to you, and sure as hell he had the biggest eye bags in history. As if it wasn’t enough the gorgeous stranger was dressed up impeccably; with dark slacks, a white button up and expensive looking shoes.
“I believe you haven’t properly cleaned that hood. You can get contamination in the next investigator’s cultures if you’re not careful” the stranger had a raspy voice that made Jimin insides melt.
“I’m the only one that uses it, I’ll take the risk” Jimin replied trying to keep his voice steady. The other seemed about to say something but then Charlotte appeared and exclaimed:
“Oh my two boys already met, doctorate Min this is the student I was telling you about, he’s Park Jimin”
Jimin looked him in the eye and smiled a bit, the man hold his gaze and then smiled widely showing his gums “Nice to meet you, I’ll see you around Mr Park”
Jimin blinked in trance and when he came back to his senses the two had left him alone.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“So you’re telling me the guy that’s gonna help you on your final project is a hot scientist? Do they even exist?” Tae asked laughing, he was having so much fun over his best friend’s mental breakdown. Jimin hid his face in the pillow.“You don’t understand it, he was so handsome. Like out of a fucking magazine, and I was there staring with my hair, face and everything looking like a mess.”“That didn’t prevent him to flirt over cleaning whatever you were cleaning”Jimin pushed his head up to comment “The extraction hood. And he was not flirting!”Tae woke up and laughing said “Yeah whatever helps you sleep Chim”“Don’t laugh it’s not funny!! I don’t know why I told you about it” Jimin groaned. He had spent the past few hours replaying in his head the encounter with that Min guy from the previous day. He didn’t seem as old as Charlotte had pictured him, he wished he knew his full name to search for his information. Not that he was a stalker but hey, every little helps. The sound of his phone made him sit up. ‘Hey Jimin, still up for the meeting? - Hobi x “Oh, shit I totally forgot it” JImin quickly got changed and with a loud goodbye to Taehyung he was leaving the apartment. He arrived 15 minutes later to the cafeteria, Hoseok was already there with their other classmate Lora and waved to him when he saw Jimin.“I’m sorry guys I totally forgot we had the meeting today”“It’s ok class prez, you have too much going on in your head” Lora said kindly, she was a really nice girl and Jimin was glad they could count on her for this never-ending class project.“Thanks Lora, but before drowning in this stupid treasure search of genes I need my first caffeine daily dose”“I swear to god one day you’re gonna die of stomach ulcer with the amounts of coffee you intake” Hoseok mocked “and I wished it were a treasure search, at least we’d have a price or something, not just getting nuts looking for a damn gene”“C’mon boys, be more positive”Jimin approached the counter and asked for his usual iced americano. While waiting he took a look at his phone and answered some silly text Tae had sent him. Smiling a bit he didn’t notice the man walking past behind him and almost crashed when he was going back to their table.“Be careful more where you walk Mr Park”He didn’t have to look to recognise that deep voice, and again he mentally cursed. ‘Why do I always have to look this messy?’.“Mr Min, hey. Fancy seeing you here haha” ‘Why am I this awkward?’The older man raised an eyebrow trying to hide a smirk.“Well this is the closest cafeteria to the Sciences building in campus so..”“Right yeah, that’s true” Jimin murmured mortified “I’m meeting some classmates for a group task. Pharmacogenetics is killing us and we don’t have a clue how to find the stupid gene that makes our patient respond bad to her treatment” ‘Why am I telling him anything? I’m just rambling, oh my god shut up Park’“That seems pretty complicated if you ask me. I won’t steal more of your time then, see you around Mr Park” “So I’ve been thinking maybe we should check again the bunch of genes we didn’t bother to check at the beginning” Hoseok was saying when Jimin went back.Lora hummed in agreement “That’s our best shot cause even if we still have plenty of budget to do tons of PCR** we can’t just try anything without having some evidence. I’ll look to the Risperidone related genes”“Hey Chim, you alright?” Jimin looked to his friend and blankly nodded “Yeah I just saw Mr Min, you know the researcher I told you about?”“Wow I’ve heard he’s super smart” Lora said with curious eyes “and pretty hot too”“Oh you have no idea, he’s gorgeous” Jimin commented “anyways he’s so out of our league that we should focus on finishing this before the deadline takes over us”
“You ok Chim? You seemed a bit out at the cafeteria” Hoseok asked gently“Don’t worry Hobi, it’s just that I’ve been thinking about something lately”Hoseok hummed lightly as to prove he was listening and encouraging Jimin to continue.“You know I haven’t been with anyone in a serious relationship since Conor, and that was years ago. Yeah last year was quite wild but I was doing an exchange abroad of course it had to be wild” he chuckled “but sometimes I feel really lonely, like I just want someone to hold me”Hoseok sighed and put an arm over JImin’s shoulders giving him some kind of comfort
“I’m sorry to hear that bud, I thought you had something going on with that guy you met last year. Was it John his name?”“Yeah, John...we just fooled around a bit, he wasn’t that into me after all and long-distance wasn’t an option. We still chat from time to time, he was really sweet and I didn’t want to lose his friendship”“I know this is going to sound cliche but it’s the truth. You are amazing my friend, you’re intelligent, funny, a sweetheart and you have a booty to die for”Jimin went red of embarrassment and covered his face “oh my god shut up Hobi”“You know it’s true, anyone would be lucky to have you” Jimin took his hands off his face to look at his friend. Hoseok’s smile was kind and endearing.“Thank you Hobi, you know I love you right?”“Of course you dumbass” Hoseok rolled his eyes “I love you too”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“I’m going to kill Charlotte for good this time”
“What is it this time?” Hoseok replied his eyes never leaving the binocular loupe “Has she forgotten you had lab scheduled for today?”
Jimin seated in the stool next to his friend and sighing said
“Exactly, and now i can’t begin the experiment till next week and everything is going to be delayed”
Jimin ran his fingers through his hair exasperatedly “I need five days straight to perform the longevity experiment correctly and now I’ll have to wait till next monday and hope she doesn’t forget this time. What do I do now Hobi? This whole week is going to be wasted”
“I thought you still had many papers to finish and prepare for the next class presidents’ meeting among all the crazy things you always get involved into” Hoseok pointed out.
“Well of course I do” Jimin groaned “Why do I always put myself in so many compromises?”
“‘Cause that’s you, you’re too kind for your own good. But if you are invested on spending time in the lab why don’t you help me count this stupids worms. I need to pass 25 to each petri plate and I’m going blind”
Jimin chuckled lightly and compiled to help his friend “At least I can practice with your
c.elegans**
before I work with mine. How many plates did you say you need?”
“I didn’t” his friend whined” and I still need 10 more.”
“And that was the last one! Jesus Hobi we’re gonna get blind after this year is over”
“Yes but I’ll recover my sight meanwhile you’ll be stuck here doing your thesis”
His friend was trying to make him laugh but the reality behind those words always managed to hit Jimin.
“I always forget you won’t be here with me next year” Jimin said nostalgic
“You’ll get to feel how spending last course without you felt” Hobi said with a hint of sarcasm and continued throwing a hand to his head theatrically “It was so hard missing you, nobody wanted to seat next to me”
Jimin started laughing in the way he always did, throwing his head back and nearly crying.
The two friends were busy in their own space bringing up memories to notice the person entering the laboratory.
“Oh god Hobi, and remember that time you changed your hair so suddenly nobody recognize you at first?”
“You know too well the best part of that was that bitch's reaction”
”Oh my god I had almost forgot” Jimin was surely crying now “her face” he approached his friend and mimicked “Wow Hoseokie, I love your hair. Now you look….like you have personality or something you know?”
“Oh Chrishell, you mean I didn’t have a personality before?”
Both burst into laughter nearly hugging each other.
Someone cleared its throat behind them, and both turned to face them.
“Sorry to interrupt boys, but I had made a reservation to use the extraction hood and Mr’s Jung reservation was supposed to end an hour ago”
“Well, I’m sorry it took me ages to finish but who the hell are you?” Hoseok replied harsly putting his bitch-resting face on, when moments like this came Jimin was glad to know Hobi and not suffer his bad temper.
“Hobi don’t” Jimin tried to silence his friend feeling a bit mortified.
“I am Min Yoongi” Hoseok’s face turned into one of surprise and fear “and you boys are using the university facilities out of your scheduled time.” The older man’s face was inscrutable, like the other times Jimin had seen him, but the glint in his eyes now was harder. He was looking Hoseok straight in the eye.
“I’m so sorry Mr. Min” Jimin tried to ease the tension “we’ll get going now and leave you to work” Yoongi’s gaze turned to Jimin and lost his hardness.
“No, it’s okey. Sometimes I get a bit caught in my scientist side. Sorry if I sounded rude. We’ll see each other around boys.”
“What the actual fuck just happened” Hoseok exclaimed once they had left their lab coats and abandoned the place “I feel like I can breath again now”
“This is so embarrassing, I knew I made a bad impression to Mr Min but you outbade me”
“You said he’s hot but Jesus Christ he’s gorgeous”
“Says the straight of the two”
“Well I am, but that doesn’t mean I can’t state facts. Even with the damned lab coat he looked stunning. How are you gonna survive spending time alone with him?”
“That’s the thing, I don’t think I’ll be able to” Jimin sighed “the next six months are gonna be long”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Jimin opened the door to his dorm, took off his shoes and dropped his bag to the floor. Only after he had cracked his stiff neck he heard the voices coming from the living room. ‘Oh shit ’Taehyung had company. He slowly entered the room and found his best friend laughing to something a cute boy had said. Both were seating on the couch each on either side but leaning to the other.“Hey there” Jimin said to make himself present since none of them had noticed his entrance. “Chiiiiim” Taehyung exclaimed happily and jumped from the couch he was sitting with the stranger “You came earlier than I thought” “In fact I’m late, lab took longer than I expected” Jimin commented with a grin in his face and an arched eyebrow. “Oh” His friend’s face was starting to turn a bit red as well as the other’s boy and Jimin was living for it “I didn’t realize time was going by so fast” “Oh shit, it really is late” the boy said looking at his phone “I should get going Tae” he stood up and took his bag. When he was about to exit he turned around and asked shyly “Text me?” “Of course Kookie” Taehyung replied with a dreamy face, and the boy left.Jimin couldn’t hide his smirk any longer “Sooo….Kookie? Is that cutie the lil boy you’ve been thirsting after?” “Oh come one Chim it’s not like that!” Seeing his always so confident best friend like this was a sacred pleasure for Jimin and he was going to enjoy it till it lasted. “He’s just so cute you know? I just wanna squish his little cheeks” “I really hope you’re talking about his face cause he looked like an overgrown highschooler” “I’m gonna kill you Park Jimin” Jimin escaped his friend’s fist by inches and run to his room laughing. “You’ll have to tell me all the details later, but now I really need a hot shower to relax” “Yeah you do that before I throw my ‘Lord of the Rings’ dagger to you” Later both best friends were having dinner on the small isle of their kitchen. “I guess you finished that project already?” Jimin asked his hair still wet from the shower. “Yeah, the moment we submitted it I asked him if he wanted to play some games” Taehyung answered with a soft smile on his face “Jungkook is just as nerdy as me” “I’m so happy for you Tae, at least one of us is not gonna die alone” Rolling his eyes Taehyung replied “don’t be so dramatic, you’ll find someone. You’re just too busy right now.” “I guess you’re right, and if I thought I had no time now it’s gonna be a nightmare with the beginning of the project next weeks” his friend tapped him on the back in a comforting way and started cleaning up the plates. “But good news is I’ve found Mr Min’s name and I’m gonna do some good stalking. Wanna help?” “I’m offended you need to ask” “And that’s all for today” Mr Min said in his low voice “If you have any questions you can send me an email later or ask tomorrow. I know now seems like a lot to take in but the moment you get to it it’ll be easy” “I really hope so Mr Min, or else my head will explode” Jimin took his nitrile gloves off and threw them to the ‘contaminated absorbents’ bin. The older man laughed a bit and commented “I know that feeling, but you’re quite smart. You’ll be fine. I expect you here at 9 sharp tomorrow” and with that he left the laboratory. Jimin approached to his locker to take his bag and went to class. Hoseok was already waiting for him by the door and his face screamed gossip. “Soooo…how did your first day with mister gorgeous go?” Jimin laughed softly and rolled his eyes “He’s just like any other teacher Hobi” “Oh come on” he was whispering now since the old Legislation professor had entered the classroom “at least tell me there has been some kind of contact...skinship!” “We are wearing gloves the whole time how you expect there to be any kind of skinship?!” “Dunno, it was reasonable in my mind” “I swear to God you’re incredible” “I know” Hoseok replied with a wink and the class begun. “Shit almost forgot it!” Hoseok exclaimed when they were leaving the campus, Jimin looked at him with a questioning face “tomorrow is the day we’re participating on that trial” “Please tell me you’re actually joking” His voice came out whining. “Sorry my friend” “Jesus Lord and Saviour give me patience” “Morning Mr Park, ready to start working?” Mr Min asked him and Jimin could only think how effortlessly good he looked when himself was feeling like a dead corpse. So instead of replying with an actual answer he just nodded and put his gloves and goggles.“That’s it, now you take the juglone and hope to have catched enough worms to keep the experiment going” Jimin replied with a hum and continued to pipette the transparent liquids over the petri plates. When he considered they were cleaned enough he looked at them through the binocular loupe, but the little fucking worms were still there mocking him. “Fucking fuck” he muttered under his breath “could you little creatures help at least?” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to try calm himself. “Hey Park, don’t be so hard on yourself, it wasn’t that bad for your first time” Jimin opened his eyes to look at Min Gorgeous Yoongi and bit his tongue to avoid getting a worst image than the one he was picturing right that moment. “You look specially stressed today Mr Park” the elder commented “you’re usually all smiles and good words” “Well I can’t help it, it’s already 11 in the morning, I woke 4 hours ago and I still haven’t had my first daily coffee….I don’t function good without coffee” “If you needed to take a break for that you should’ve just said it” Mr Min said amused “coffee is a gift from the heavens and nobody should be deprived from it” “Oh that’s the thing” Jimin was starting to feel heated “I would have preferred to arrive late here than missing my precious Colombian coffee cup with just the right amount of soya milk to mask the bitter and enjoy the real taste of coffee” Mr Min seemed about to say something but Jimin continued his rant “But no, of course I had to sing myself up for some stupid clinical trial about how the consumption of caffeine can affect you blood pressure and you cannot intake any damned coffee before the measures are being taken. And of fucking course my appointment had to be after a whole morning of doing experiments and I don’t even know if I’ll be able to eat since later I have three classes straight and also …” “Park, slow down” “…so many assignments still to finish but the end of semester party committee wants to gather within the week at god knows what time they'll propose...” “PARK!” Jimin blinked startled when the older man raised his voice, only then did he notice where he was and to whom he had been ranting “Oh god Mr Min, I’m sorry” “Park stop, you seriously need to relax a bit” the scientist was looking at him with apologetic eyes and when he squeezed his shoulder did Jimin notice the older man was touching him and all his stupid mind could think was ‘Oh shit, could this count as skinship?’