Work Text:
When you work at a grocery store at 3am, there's not a lot going on. Sometimes, some college boys would enter to buy some booze; old men would search for cigarettes and energy drinks to keep working until some unholy hour.
And of course, there's Park Jimin.
Min Yoongi doesn't have a lot of friends. He doesn't like interacting with massive amounts of people and that's exactly the reason why he started working in the night shift at the local grocery store. First days went uneventful. In the first week, he was finally able to finish reading Naruto after months. Simply because no one went to the shop at those hours.
He was getting paid for reading Naruto. Fucking amazing.
That was until one cold night, at exactly 2:30am, a black haired boy entered the shop. Yoongi bowed at him and kept organizing the counter.
"Isn't it boring?" Yoongi jumped backwards clutching his chest.
"God, you almost fucking killed me."
The boy was now resting his chin on his hand, smiling. Yoongi was starting to feeling slightly annoyed.
"That's not a way to treat a customer."
Yoongi realized that the black haired shorty didn't have anything in his hands to buy. He was technically not a customer. Technically.
"Are you looking for anything?" He said dodging away the intense eye contact the other was giving him.
"Isn't it lonely working here? I would be very, very bored."
Yoongi just tried to ignore the boy for the following three hours.
"No offense, but what are you still doing here?" Yoongi was now fully annoyed and also very sleepy, which was making things worse than they already seem.
"Oh, I was just passing by and it seemed like you really needed a friend to talk to."
"Passing by at 2:30am?"
"Yes."
Yoongi wasn't much of a talker so he simply decided to ignore the weird guy and do his job. Meanwhile, the other kept rambling over trivial things, telling him about his friends at college and his guy at dance class that was driving him crazy. The more the boy talked, the more he wanted to go home-- back to his silent and warm home and just sleep.
6:00 am. It was the end of his shift and the outsider was currently resting his head in the counte. He fell asleep about an hour ago.
Yoongi changed to his normal clothes and shook his shoulder quite harshly.
"My shift is over."
"Oh, fuck. Sorry I was supposed to keep you entertained."
"Just go."
Yoongi checked out when the other employee replaced him and just walked straight home. He desperately wanted to take a shower.
"Is he always like that?" The black haired boy asked the other employee, who only nodded. "Good thing I like challenges," he said to himself and walked out the street with a crazy bed head and a smile on his face.
-
"You're not being serious," Yoongi mumbled. It was way too late for this shit.
"Yo! I forgot to introduce myself yesterday; I'm Park Jimin."
"What are you doing here?"
He tried not to groan. He really, really tried and his mom would be very proud of him, but this was just too much for his introvert self.
"...So I told Seokjin, ‘Hyung, that dinner was really tasty.’ And I swear he almost started crying. You would like Seokjin, hyung. He's very quiet and likes food more than people."
"Hey. Seriously, can't you just go home?"
"But I like it here..."
Yoongi groaned. He swears he fucking tried.
-
It has been two entire weeks since Park Jimin entered his life and he was still as uncomfortable as ever. Maybe.
"Tell me, hyung, do you have friends? You never talk about your friends or anything at all, actually."
"Do you always enter stores at 2:30am to make friends?"
"Taehyung says I'm a pretty social butterfly," Jimin says smiling.
"I would not be surprised if you suddenly started talking to the wall, seriously."
Jimin started laughing, like, really laughing and Yoongi was so tired. It was so late, he suddenly started laughing too.
"Oh my god! You have feelings!!"
They laughed like idiots for at least five minutes, eyes disappearing into crescents.
That day after his shift Yoongi found himself laying in his bed after a nice shower while thinking about Jimin’s eye-smile and how cute it was.
-
"Hey, hyung, do you want some ramen?" Jimin shouted from the back of the store. He held two cups in the air for Yoongi to see.
And that's how Jimin and Yoongi ended up behind the counter side by side, eating ramen at 4:30am.
It has been a month and a half and Jimin has been going to the shop every single fucking day without fail, from 2am till 6am. Yoongi still thought it was annoying as hell but slowly, he found out that it was fun hanging out with someone, even if he wasthe one doing all the talk. It was starting to be less annoying each time.
Jimin even decided it was a good time to exchange numbers, which made him a present nuisance in his life almost 24/7.
"Do you have friends, I mean, besides me?"
"Of course, I have."
"You never talk about them."
"It's because I don't go to every strange to talk about my life. I don't like to tell people about me... I don't think they care."
"Well, I'm not a stranger anymore and I care; believe me."
And Jimin was right. He might have more contact with Yoongi than his actual friends. And that's starting to become an issue in Yoongi's head. He tends to overthink.
"My best friend name is Namjoon. He's an underground rapper. I have known him for my whole life."
Jimin was smiling, inviting him to keep talking.
"I haven't seen him in a while."
"What else? Where are you from? Do you have any other job?"
Yoongi was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable but Jimin's expression was just so open. He was truly willing to listen to whatever Yoongi has to offer and that was just a lot.
"I'm from Daegu but moved to Seoul some years ago. I'm working in little studio as a producer during the day, but it's not enough to pay the bills."
"Thank you."
Suddenly, Yoongi felt a hand rest over his and Jimin's gaze was so warm.
"For what?"
"Opening to me."
Yoongi learned that day that there was nothing wrong in letting the dark-haired boy enter his life a little bit more. He was sure Jimin wasn't going to hurt him. He was sure Jimin cared enough.
-
"Hey, what do you think about going to my house after your shift ends? We can eat what Jin-hyung cooked earlier."
"It's that okay with you?"
"If course! I really like your company, hyung"
Yoongi didn't realize he was grinning like an idiot until some seconds later when Jimin pointed it. He wasn't really ashamed of himself anymore. It had been almost three months since he meet the crazy social butterfly and yes, it has become easier to smile lately.
-
Jimin's apartment was literally a three-minute walk from the store- a pretty and tiny place, just like Jimin himself.
"Make yourself at home, I'll go warm up the food."
Yoongi felt his eyelids get heavier and heavier within minutes. Jimin was still in the kitchen and in his defense, the couch was really comfortable (even more than his own), with a warm feeling in his chest he let himself close his eyes.
Minutes later, Jimin walked into the room with plates in each hand, ready to start rambling again about something he remembered in the kitchen. It was about Taehyung and the dance class when he stopped at the scene developing in front of him. He immediately put the plates away in the kitchen counter and took a photo of the cute boy sleeping so comfortably. Jimin snuggled unto his side and unconsciously one of Yoongi's arms rounded his shoulders.
Jimin had never felt better in someone's arms before.
--
It was Tuesday, 3:30am to be exact and Yoongi was starting to over think.
Why wasn’t Jimin there? Was he tired of him already? Was it because he was a pain in the ass?
The youngest boy had been in the store at 2 o'clock every single fucking day for almost four months and now Yoongi was starting to freak out.
4:30am and it was enough.
He decided to close the store for a moment. He would walk to Jimin's room only to check and then he would come back. 'Good plan,' he internally patted himself in the back.
The walk was quick and he was fucking freezing. He knocked on the door once, twice- only to find out that it was open and Yoongi swears he is going to kick Jimin in that pretty ass for being so careless.
"Jimin? Are you here?"
He walked over the kitchen where everything was in place, then the tiny living room (grateful for the warmth). Still, the boy was nowhere to be seen.
"Jimin?"
He opened the room door and there was a bump on the bed. Jimin had told him once in one of those nights when he just talked and talked without really focusing in anything that he was used to sleep rolled into himself, like a tiny burrito.
Yoongi came closer and saw the sleepy face of the boy he had grown to like in such a little amount of time, face flushed and sweaty.
"Jimin... Oh god, you're burning."
Yoongi went to the bathroom for a wet cloth and came back to the whiny man who was sitting on the bed.
"Why didn't you tell me anything? I was so worried and you left your fucking door open, Park Jimin. I swear... You're going to be the death of me"
Jimin weakly smiled.
"I knew you were going to come, so I left open... Hyung-"
"I appreciate that but what if I didn't come? It's so dangerous... Please don't do it anymore-"
"Hyung, I like you," Jimin interrupted, eyes closed. "I have liked you for so long, I knew you were going to come. You have a big heart, hyung, under that grumpy façade."
Yoongi was so red. He was seriously contemplating the fact that he was going to blow up. His body was so warm, he felt like he belonged there.
"Fuck... Jimin," he whispered. "Fuck, I like you too."
And the boy just smiled, nearly giving Yoongi another seizure.
"I'm glad," Jimin said, sleepily reaching for Yoongi's hand from the wet cloth around his neck. He intertwined their fingers. "I'm so glad, hyung. I don't want you to be alone anymore."