"dude, jungkook, you okay?" namjoon asked right after their last customer exited the parlor, worriedly observing as jungkook practically tossed the tattoo gun to the side and slumped back in his chair with his head hung low. "jungkook," namjoon called out again as he stepped out from before the counter and walked over to the other tattooist.

"m'fine," jungkook murmured, yet it was obvious to namjoon that he was anything but fine.

"did something bad happen?" the older started, a large frown slowly gracing his features. "you've been like this ever since you got back from—"

"like what?" jungkook cut him off, snapping his head up with narrowed blazing eyes.

the purple-haired male remained unfazed by jungkook's strong gaze and shrugged. "like you just got dumped by your significant other or something," he replied.

jungkook froze at that.

"whatever, it's not that big of a deal anyways," he then grumbled while running a hand down the front of his face. "you don't need to worry 'bout my dramatics, hyung. trust me, i'm fine."

"if you say so, jungkook," namjoon murmured before turning back to the counter to finish tidying up as the shop was nearing it's closing time of the day.

with a sigh, jungkook pushed himself up from the chair in order to help the elder clean the parlor up but was interrupted by the chime of a bell, announcing the presence of a new customer.

he groaned. "i'm sorry but we're about to close—"

"jungkook-ssi!"

jungkook whipped his head around with a confused expression which instantly dispersed when he saw yugyeom striding over to him with a small wave.

"yugyeom-ssi, good evening," jungkook greeted with a soft smile, catching namjoon's greasy wink from the corner of his peripheral vision. "what brings you here?"

"ah, well my boss told me to give you this since he couldn't leave work yet," yugyeom began, reaching inside his briefcase to fish out an envelope, handing it to jungkook who accepted it with hesitation. before the ravenet could question him about the envelope, yugyeom continued, "oh, he also told you to not open it until you get home."

"why would mr. kim give me this?" jungkook muttered while practically glaring down at the envelope in his hand, his tone dropping to a low growl at taehyung's alias.

"he said it's a form of his apology but i wasn't sure what he meant by that," yugyeom answered.

an apology?

"well, thanks for bringing this to me, yugyeom-ssi," jungkook spoke with a grin. "a-and, uh, i was just wondering if you're interested in getting dinner with me?"

a faint hue of pink appeared on yugyeom's cheeks but he politely shook his head in declination. "maybe another time, jungkook-ssi. sadly, i still have a lot of work to do at home. but i'll definitely take you up on that offer some other day!"

"marvelous." jungkook beamed, happily exchanging farewells with the brunet accountant as he watched the other gracefully leave the parlor.

"what was that?" namjoon queried with an amused look as soon as yugyeom departed. "was it just me or is the great jeon jungkook lovestruck?"

jungkook smirked at the purple-haired male. "maybe, maybe not," he simply responded as namjoon decided to drop the conversation with a playful roll of his eyes and returned to cleaning.

that was when jungkook remembered the envelope in his hold.

delicately peeling back the flap of the envelope, he reached in to pull out what seemed to be a folded letter and — an audible gasp slipped out from between the young tattooist's lips — several bills that added up to 500,000 won.

beyond shocked, jungkook carefully unfolded the letter with trembling fingers and let his widened eyes skim over the words written across the page in extremely neat handwriting.

to: jeon jungkook,

forgive me for our unfortunate encounter this afternoon. there was a reason i had to do that — one that is not necessary for me to share. but quite frankly, i don't care if you hate me even more now because of that.

i'm aware that i am a coward, but i try not to be a complete bastard. so, here is my attempt at an apology which i can't be bothered if you accept or not. please make good use of this money, and don't think about giving this back to me or yugyeom or whoever.

furthermore, don't come to the office building ever again for both of our sakes.

signed, kim taehyung
CEO of kim corporation.

a/n: 500,000WON = around 450USD.