#and yes she is management but shes built different id die for this woman shes the best and omg

[clownboy-yeehonk]

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[bangtanxfics-blog]

A Long Time Coming | PT 4.

Word Count: 2552.

Genre: Fluff, some tension in there too.

Summary: The tension grows as Jungkook and y/n spend more and more time together. Y/N is quickly coming to realize that he isn’t the kid she once knew any more.

“We’ve missed you here, your mother always showed me the pictures you sent from all your trips, such beautiful places, I bet it was a wonderful experience!” Mrs. Jeon said, quickly reminding me of why I loved spending time with this family so much. She had always been such a kind woman, no wonder her kids were just the same.

“Where exactly did you go?” Jungkook asked with genuine interest clear in the way he sat back and placed his eyes fully on me. Something about his heavy stare had me struggling to find my words, and for a second I felt shy to have all of their eyes on me.

“Uh, I spent a month in China, a month in South Africa, a month in my home country, a month in Costa Rica, a month in Spain and a month in Germany.” I begin. “It was… unforgettable, honestly. Getting to learn so much about all those cultures, and of course visiting my family and learning more about where I come from, I think that was my favorite part, actually.” Talking about my trip made me feel like less of a mess, if I'm being honest. I don't regret traveling instead of diving into the work field straight away, but sharing my experiences with other people and seeing their eyes widen with wonder gave me a sense of validation I didn't even know I needed. So I was welcoming it with every question that they asked me.

“Wow, that sounds so cool, really. I don't think I've ever been to a place other than Korea for longer than two weeks.” said Jungkook, scratching his jaw.

“Oh, come on! You've been to so many cool places, though!” I say, in complete disbelief of him of all people being amazed by my trip.

“Yeah but I'm always working, there's always a camera. I don't mind it, and I still have fun and they are still experiences that I cherish and genuinely enjoy. But it's still work, even if we’re relaxing and doing nothing but being ourselves. And when we’re on tour all I see are airports, venues and hotel rooms, so.” And honestly, if he puts it like that, I feel bad for assuming his experiences were the same to mine just because we’ve been to some of the same places. He was right, our lives were far too different. “Germany is so cool, though.” he says, a comforting smile being thrown my way as he doesn't let the conversation die when he noticed I was growing uncomfortable and self conscious. I don't know if that was his intention or not, but the smile came right on time to make one of my own appear.

“It really is.”

And just like that we stayed there speaking for a few more minutes until his mother excused herself to go to her Zumba class and left the boys and I alone to watch a movie.

“Joosun is coming to join us!” Junghyun exclaimed, and just as he said it I got a text from her saying the same thing.

“Yes! This is a proper reunion now!” I say excitedly. From the corner of my eye, I watch Jungkook play with a loose thread around the hole of his knee-ripped black jeans.

He looks so good, and I’ll allow myself to say that only once before I remember who he is. But it's the truth. He has changed a lot physically, he's built, and his tanned skin glistens with the sunlight coming from the windows, his hair is perfectly styled even if it's messy and I can tell he didn't do anything with it today. But he's a beautiful boy, and I don't realize how long I'd been looking at him until his head turns to look at me and our eyes meet. Once again, I feel like someone just kicked the air out of my lungs, but we don't look away for a few seconds, and my heart begins to pick up the pace of its beating, and my palms feel clammy all of a sudden and somebody please tell him to stop looking at me because I don't think I can look away now that he's smiling sweetly at me and I find myself smiling back.

My phone starts to ring from the coffee table and I thank the heavens that someone broke me out of that trance because I was still breathless and my hands felt a little weak as I picked up after excusing myself to the guys.

“Hello?” I ask, cursing myself because thanks to my Jungkook-induced nerves I hadn't even checked the caller ID before answering the call.

“Is this Miss y/fullname’s phone number?” the unfamiliar voice said.

“Yes, that's me, who is this?” I ask in the most polite and formal way that the Korean language allows me to.

“You called us yesterday asking for a job, and we said we had filled all of our vacant positions recently.” she started, definitely grabbing my interest now that I knew it was about a job. I remember exactly the call she's referring to, she's calling from a very fancy restaurant in town that was looking for waitresses. It wasn't what I wanted to be doing with my life, but it was something. And I needed something until I could get the job that I truly wanted, so to say that I was interested was an understatement. “Well, one of our new waitresses had an accident last night, she's okay but she won't be able to work here any more, so she called us to say she's quitting. We read the resume you e-mailed us, and we were impressed with your working experience. You worked as a waitress in South Africa, Costa Rica, Spain and Germany, is that correct?” the woman asked.

“Yes, it was only for a month since I was on a trip, but I wanted to truly experience each culture, and working there was part of that, definitely.” I catch the Jeon brothers looking at me strangely, their eyes screaming how curious they were to figure out who I was talking to.

“That's impressive, and I'm sure you acquired skills that was can find very useful here since we receive customers from all over the world. How many languages do you speak?” she asked.

“Three, I speak Korean, English and Spanish.” I say confidently, her words clearly giving me the self assurance that I needed to know that I was probably going to get a job.

“Well, I can't give you the job without an interview face to face, but I'd say things are looking up in your favor, if you ask me.” she expressed with a soft chuckle. “So, could you possibly make it here tomorrow at nine o’clock for the interview? Come dressed in all black, if you get the job you'll probably begin your training straight away.” she says.

“That sounds perfect, yes, I will see you there. Thank you so much, this means so much to me.” I suck up  to her a little because, okay, I really need the job.

“It's no problem, just don't disappoint me.” she warns and I bow instinctively even though I know she can't see me which makes the boys laugh once I finally finish the call.

“Oh my god, guys, I think I just probably got a job.”

“Probably?” asks Junghyun.

“I have to show up tomorrow for an interview, but the lady said I have big chances of getting it because of my work experience and because I speak multiple languages.” I explain.

“That's amazing, congratulations, noona.” Jungkook speaks from beside me, and I finally turn to look at him after he almost left me breathless a few minutes ago, and it's the same effect, his bunny smile on full display as his eyes bury themselves into mine and he just stays there, looking into my eyes and I just smile, looking down and feeling my cheeks heat up all of a sudden.

“Thanks, Jungkookie.” when I look up again, he's the one looking down and blushing, a shy smile etched onto his face and he looks so goddamn cute I feel like I'm losing my mind. This is Jungkook, my best friend’s little brother, the little boy I grew up with, the same boy who confessed to me when he was far too young and who I rejected. But now he was here, and he was making me feel things I never in a million years expected to feel for him.

Someone knocks on the door and I instantly know who it is, excitement filling my body as I turn to look at Junghyun who is getting up to go open it. I stand up immediately and I see my best friend running up to me right after greeting her fiancé with a short kiss.

“Oh my god, you're finally here!” she blurts out, holding me tight as I do the same with her, a chuckle leaving me as my emotional ass self feels tears beginning to form in my eyes. “I missed you so much, I need my dose of female energy every once in a while.” she said teasingly when we pulled away.

“Hey, am I not good enough company?” her fiancé complains jokingly.

“Most of the time, yes. But you know, girls can be more rational, and sometimes I need that.” she tries to explain mockingly, making all of us laugh except Junghyun who pouts as he throws an arm over her shoulder and brings her down onto the couch to sit with us as she greets Jungkook and I try my best to avoid his stare. “So, what are we going to watch?” Joosun asks.

“We don't know yet, how about I make some popcorn while you choose?” I offer, and they all nod in agreement before I'm getting up and walking into the familiar kitchen.

As I'm setting everything up, I feel a presence in the room, making me turn around to see who it is, only to find Jungkook digging into the fridge to retrieve a can of coke. I gulp. Why does he have this effect in me? I have to remain calm, he can't do this to me, and more importantly I can't let him know that he's doing this to me.

“Would it be awkward if I said you look really good, noona?” his sweet yet mature voice says, and I almost choke on air. Stop, Jeon Jungkook. I want to tell him to stop messing with my head, but I can't do so without giving myself away so I keep it in, and instead manage to form a smile and look over at him through my thick eyelashes.

I don't look Asian at all, and that has created a lot of conflict within me, not having anyone I could relate to here, nobody who looked like me, and nobody to tell me I didn't have to fit the strict beauty standards set here. I had always been insecure, but I'd made a point to hide it. In a way, I think Jungkook was one of the few people who noticed, since he would always compliment me and wait for my answer as if he wasn't sure I believed it. It was something he did when we used to know each other, and apparently that hadn't changed either. Perhaps he was still the same boy from before, after all.

“No, it wouldn't be awkward, Jungkookie. It's flattering, thank you.” I tell him with honesty in my voice and the smile on my face doesn't let up even as I'm moving around the kitchen making popcorn.

“Don't I look good to you, noona?” he asks again, repeating the honorific title that I know isn't intended to make me feel this way, I honestly don't think he can help himself but to speak in honorifics. It's cute. He's cute. And why the hell would he ask this when he knows he's painfully attractive?

“I don't think that's an appropriate question, Jungkook-ah.” I protect myself.

“Then is it not appropriate of me to say you're pretty?” he asks, tilting his head once I lift myself up onto the counter and I watch him walk over to stand right in front of me, making my breath falter. “If it made you uncomfortable I won't say it again, I guess… I don't really get to compliment you anymore since we don't really know each other.” His eyes never left mine and I don't remember the last time I was this affected by someone’s presence.

“It's not that, Jungkookie. It didn't make me feel uncomfortable, I'm just… I'm not as straightforward as you.” I tell him, trying to pick my words carefully.

“I think that's cute, noona.” And there goes my heart making twists and turns and I think it's going to jump right out of my chest. God, he's so fucking adorable it hurts.

“You can say I'm pretty.” I give in, gulping and hoping he won't notice the way I can't even look him in the eye without feeling like my face is being set on fire. “And I can admit that you're handsome, Jungkookie.”

The smile that appeared on his face was so pure that it had my cheeks heating up anyway, and I instinctively brought my hands up to cover them from his intense gaze.

“I can't believe I said that.” I tell him, eliciting the softest of chuckles from him. His eyes crinkled, sinking into his cheeks and disappearing behind them as he smiled brightly and then looked away with a loud ‘Aishhh’.

“You're so cute, y/n-noona. Don't cover up, here, let me help you with that popcorn.” he says, finally moving from his stance right in front of me to take out a big bowl from one of the cupboards.

And just like that, we finished the popcorn and brought it into the living room, me dying of laughter thanks to some silly thing Jungkook had said to me, and him laughing because apparently my laugh was funnier than the joke itself. We sat down on the couch side by side and passed the popcorn along with our friends who were looking at us in a suspicious way that I couldn't yet decipher.

But still, everything about this morning felt just right, spending time with people I hadn't seen in a long time, people who were very much dear to me. And now that things were apparently looking up for me since that call I received, I decided I wasn't going to just jump into conclusions so fast. I'm young, I have time, and I need to learn not to let the smallest inconveniences get to me and break my self esteem.

Looking around with a smile, I leaned back into my seat on the couch until my head hit the backrest and I realized just how happy I was in that moment. I look over at Jungkook, but he was already looking at me, soft smiles on our faces. Yes, I was definitely happy.

[themoneybuff-blog]

Money story: Small acts of kindness create social capital

This guest post from Christine Hughey is part of the money stories feature at Get Rich Slowly. Some stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success or failure. These stories feature folks from all stages of financial maturity. I met Christine in January when I attended Camp FI in Florida. Christine is starting a new Nashville food tour company, so when I spent a week there in April, naturally I let her show me around. It was awesome! In this article, she shares how small acts of kindness have proven to be worth more than she ever imagined. Im about to share something that completely changed my life yet its something that I didnt know much about until a few years ago. Its a concept called social capital, and I believe that it can change your life too (and make you wealthier in the process). Now, if youve been reading Get Rich Slowly for a long time, you might have seen J.D. write about social capital in the past. He too is a big believer in its power. But many of you have probably never heard of the idea. What is social capital?

According to Wikipedia: Social capital is a form of economic and cultural capital in which social networks are central; transactions are marked by reciprocity, trust, and cooperation; and market agents produce goods and services not mainly for themselves, but for a common good. [] Social capital has been used to explain the improved performance of diverse groups, the growth of entrepreneurial firms, superior managerial performance, enhanced supply chain relations, the value derived from strategic alliances, and the evolution of communities. Theres a lot of jargon in that definition, but what it really comes down to is this: Social capital is all about networking (in a non-slimy way) and about giving without the expectation of return. Although its not tangible, social capital is very real and very powerful. Its also very valuable. That said, I dont see social capital discussed much on personal finance and financial independence blogs. I imagine thats because its hard to assign an actual dollar value to it. How do you assign a dollar value to helping somebody move? How do you quantify the savings when your neighbor mows your lawn for you all summer? Whats the price tag on growing flower, fruits, or vegetables, then giving them to your friends and family? In the world of personal finance, we tend to look at numbers first. Social capital doesnt work in that way. Social capital is about creating value and creating a positive impact among your social network, whether that value and network are small (like on a neighborhood level) or large (like volunteering time for a larger project). Social Capital in Real Life Social capital might make more sense (and seem less abstract) if we look at a real-life example. My husband was the one that really taught me about social capital. Jack and I came from drastically different backgrounds, and we did very different things for work. While I worked a full-time salary engineering job, he worked as a gig-style man for hire entrepreneur. When we first started dating, I noticed that he was often doing strange favors for people. He owned a truck so he would get calls to help everyone and their friends move. Ill never forget the time that he got a call from his best friend Robert asking if he could help Roberts co-worker move a washer and dryer. Sure enough, early on a Saturday morning Jack was off moving some womans washer and dryer to a temporary home. A week later, he got another call to move the washer and dryer into the womans new permanent home. I consider myself a very nice person, but I couldnt believe how much time, effort, and gas Jack spent moving the same washer and dryer to multiple locations for someone he didnt even know. But as a result, that random woman is now one of our very good friends, and Jack will be DJing her wedding this fall. Other great things have come from Jacks act of kindness. Robert hired Jack to manage the audio for some of the numerous music festivals that he puts on here in town. Amberly, (the random woman) helped support and promote a new DJ gig that Jack started in 2015. Shes one of his biggest supporters to date. What now seems like a super small gesture led to over a thousand dollars worth of income for us when we really needed it. Social Capital from the Garden Heres another example. I grow cut flowers for bouquets. When I was young, my dad didnt believe in purchasing cut flowers because they die quickly. It seemed like a waste of money to him, so we never had them in our house. While we were dating, Jack learned that I love cut flowers. Every couple of weeks, hed buy me a new bouquet so that Id almost always have beautiful cut flowers in my house. It was an incredibly special gesture since flowers were something that I would only purchase for myself on rare occasions. After we were married, our financial world hit the fan. After two job losses, our income fell by 80%. Naturally, there was no room in our budget for cut flowers. When things finally settled down and we bought a fixer-upper home, cut flowers still werent in the budget. I missed them, so I decided to grow my own. Being an engineer, I decided to conduct some tests to see which varieties were worth the cost. My first test for an investment of about $20 consisted of four different flowers, but only the cosmos and zinnias were successful. Although not every variety grew, I enjoyed tending the flowers and watching them grow. And, of course, it was awesome having fresh flowers in my house again. Plus, I had so many flowers that I made bouquets and gave a bunch away to friends.

Last year was the second year of my flower-growing experiment. I planted more seed varieties and added lily and dahlia bulbs to the mix. I had an explosion of flowers for five months out of the year. I was completely in love! I started giving flowers to more and more people: neighbors, friends, colleagues. At the time, I worked as a tour guide for a company here in Nashville. My tours required taking groups of people into very busy restaurants in the downtown area. Getting quick service of our food and drinks was critical to the success of my tours. I was so appreciative of the bartenders and servers that would help me and my tours that Id bring bouquets of my homegrown flowers to them on my Sundays off. I didnt realize it at the time, but we were all building social capital. When the restaurant folks helped me, I was grateful. When I gave them flowers, they were grateful. All of us were building a sort of invisible wealth that comes from a network of reciprocity. The Rewards of Social Capital Earlier this year, I started my own food tour company in Nashville. Its a scary thing launching out on your own! How do you build a business from scratch? Fortunately, the bartenders and servers that I gave flowers to have become my biggest cheerleaders. Theyve taken my tours, left glowing online reviews, and recommended me to the customers in their restaurants. Theyve put my card on the wall of honor reserved for the best companies in town.

This scary time in my life is a little less scary because of social capital. In the past, when I was performing the small act of kindness of delivering flowers, I wasnt expecting anything in return. I was just grateful for the help theyd given me already. I never imagined thered be any kind of financial gain. But in the end, there has been. Just because something cant be documented in our net worth doesnt mean that its without monetary value. Those flowers have been converted into real dollars today. More than that, theyve created traction for increased business in the future. When you own your own business, your reputation is everything. (Your reputation can make or break you in a community-centered city like Nashville.) When you go the extra mile, whether moving a washer and dryer for a stranger, or giving flowers for no special reason, you create a positive impact. You build social capital. While writing this article, Jack and I did the math. We calculate that the social capital weve fostered in Nashville has brought us over $10,000 of direct value to our lives in the past year. Thats huge for a household with an income of $65,000. (Plus, since the value doesnt come to us as dollars, theres no tax on it.) When you take a love of gardening (or writing or social media or whatever) and you spread your gifts to your neighborhood and community, your generosity will come back manyfold in ways that mean more than money. These seemingly small acts of kindness create social capital that can bring value to your life down the road. Someday when youre looking for a job, or trying to start a business, those first few tough months and years will be so much easier when you have your community behind you. Take some time to build social capital while building wealth, and watch how it improves your life. J.D.s note: Heres another way Christine has built social capital. In April, I visited Nashville to attend a blogging retreat. (Yes, really.) Christine invited me and my buddies to join her Nashville food tour. While that didnt pan out my colleagues were up late drinking the night before haha! she did take the time to share some of her favorite food with me while also extolling the virtues of her city (and its hockey team). It was a fun (and delicious) experience, one that I hear theyve shared with other friends. Social capital has been huge in my life. Seriously, I believe its been almost as valuable to me as monetary capital. And its just as valuable to Christine. https://www.getrichslowly.org/kindness-creates-social-capital/