#naraedx

“i’m taking chi for her playdate!” minjae announces, to an audience of exactly no one — except for chamchi herself, who’s lounging on the couch, looking somewhat unimpressed with his yelling — though he directs his words towards the direction of junhee’s room, who may or may not be too lost in his studying to hear him.

“come here, my little baby.” he’s not yelling anymore, though his pitch is a lot higher — jae can’t help but talk to chi in a baby voice, not when she’s this cute. his grin is wide as he scoops her up into his arm, and she lets him, all too used to him constantly carrying her around after all these years. “are you excited, chichi?” he murmurs, kissing the top of her head as he moves over to the door, exchanging his slippers for his sneakers — they’re old, thoroughly worn out, but he’s not going far, so they’ll do. he shoots a quick glance at the coat rack, but decides he doesn’t need a jacket, as the walk over to narae’s building is only a minute at most.

making sure he covers chamchi’s ears, he yells out a “bye, babe!” to his boyfriend, before exiting their apartment. it’s almost funny, how much more careful he is when he’s carrying chamchi — normally, he’d slam the door behind him, but while she’s in his arms, he settles for gently kicking it shut behind him.

chamchi is purring as they walk, jae absentmindedly scratching her favorite spot. it’s been almost two weeks since the last playdate with suki, and honestly? jae missed it.

(so maybe he’s far more excited about this cat playdate than his actual cat is, but whatever — he’s just being a good dad!)

it’s not long before they arrive at narae’s apartment, jae announcing his presence with two quick raps on the door. chamchi is nearly asleep in his arms, and he can’t help but smile at how peaceful he looks. that’s his literal daughter.

it's jimin's first actual scheduled job since being on sick leave. it almost feels new coming back into the labs to supervise.. can you call it that? she was just gonna shake hands with someone she has never seen before and sit on a chair in the corner of the room- okay she is being dramatic, usually she stands next to the supervisor and keep a good eye on the other mutagen she is paired with. she used to chat, a bit too much maybe. used to be that good she could sit on her phone and be quiet on the side if she didn't feel like it. she had regulars who she would train with, but she knew she wouldn't be meeting with a regular this time around.

jimin had read the file, briefly, remembered the majority of it, but she hadn't exactly fully studied narae- well, keeper, if they were going by work names. god, work.. it feels so weird waiting in the designated space.

the space being buttfuck nowhere. they are in some patch of land on the outskirts of district x and jimin thinks no human or mutagen has been here in recent years.

she isn't exactly pacing, the grass is tall enough if she started pacing it would make too much noise. she is just shifting her weight, from one foot to the other, teeth nibbling on her bottom lip nervously. the look she gets from the supervisor of the day makes her shoulder drop, maybe invisibility would have been a great ability. she sighs, softly, but she hears something- someone move on her right and she turns around.

she's pretty-

and the thought gets instantly wiped out of jimin's brain as their supervisor speaks and welcomes the other. despite this being her bread and butter, c tier guardian amp's main playground, she feels so out of place. six months shouldn't feel that bad, that distant. maybe if they were actually within the comfortable walls of the training facility, she would have felt better.

yet, she takes a deep breath and steps closer when called.

"this is amp, she's here to help you our while we supervise your progress with her ability active." he says and jimin is quick to extend her hand. she's not had a proper sync in a while, a proper connection with someone. it's nothing huge, there is no actual change for her. she makes contact with narae, a nice firm handshake and jimin's eyes flash an icy blue, blink it and you miss it type of thing. there is a short rush, on both ends, a quick spike in heart rate, but it's gone before you can think too much about it. "she'll just help balance out some stuff, you don't need to think about it too much." he keeps talking and she does her best to smile bow politely as she pulls her hand away.