Jinyoung doesn't drink the suspicious energy drink he gets for free until he reaches home and stares at the bread knife he prepares on his table when he left this morning with only one thought in his mind. It's as if everything that's holding him back is gone now, his mother's face, his father's voice, his brother's future. They're all gone now; all that's left is him.

He can say that he's tired but more than tired, he feels indifferent now. The world is filthy but what's filthier are the humans living in it, destroying it, creating wars and divisions, and ultimately killing themselves and their families. Humans are selfish, dangerous, sad, and insane. For Jinyoung, he has lived his entire life trying to keep himself in a distance from these dirty creatures but not anymore. He can touch and kiss them, he doesn't care. He just doesn't care anymore.

He surprises himself when he doesn't throw the bottle on the first garbage can he sees after he left the shop, after he decides to buy a box of printed band-aids and some imported but cheap banana chips because he feels strange taking something out but not paying for anything.

He thinks he's going to throw the strange bottle the stranger guy gave him but he doesn't. As a matter of fact, it safely reaches his apartment place along with the box of printed band-aids and banana chips. It jiggles around the plastic bag, as if it demands some special attention, which Jinyoung gives, as he cannot simply ignore the fact that someone made it for him.

Jinyoung stares from the bread knife to the odd energy drink. From the bread knife to the odd energy drink again. And from the bread knife to the odd energy drink again. He glares at both objects like he is giving them a sermon for messing with his brain. He is supposed to cut his wrists now but the rainbow-colored font on the bottle is screaming at him and for the first time since what seems like forever, he wants to scream back.

That's saying a lot because since his mother confronted him about not giving enough money for his younger brother and it takes everything in him to stop himself from yelling on his mother's face that he is giving everything and there is nothing left for him anymore, he doesn't speak much anymore. He won't even speak to his colleagues and boss, if that won't break his daily routine. If he kills himself, he doesn't want anything extraordinary or spectacular because he thinks sometimes, people die in the most ordinary times and no one ever notices.

Now he wants to scream at an energy drink.

Cursing, barely opening his dried mouth, he opens the cap and is surprised when it clicks like it's sealed before. He raises a brow and stares at the bottle some more. Jinyoung is not an idiot of course; he knows the guy just made this but it's interesting because he just didn't make this. He actually put more effort than Jinyoung thinks.

He figures it could be poison. Although he can't think of making too much of an enemy out of anybody in his life for someone to go through all this trouble to kill him. Anybody could just come to his apartment and stab him forty time in a forty different angles. Poison is good if it doesn't feel too painful; it would disrupt his purpose of dying in the most ordinary way.

The energy drink is talking again and just so it would shut up, Jinyoung completely opens it and drinks it straight. He can't quite put how it tastes. He figures before it should take as weird as the bottle and the guy who gave it to him but it doesn't. Surprisingly, it takes okay. It doesn't taste like ordinary juice, that's what he first thought it would be when he sees its pinkish liquid. It could pomegranate or something, he thinks, but it's not juice.

Jinyoung looks at the bottle again and reads the messy words around it. When the energy drink touches the pit of his empty stomach, he feels hunger and he realizes he can't even remember when he last ate. He stands up and picks up the bottle, supposing he should throw it away. It's empty now, useless.

But instead of throwing it away, he stares at it again and has second thoughts. Heaving a sigh, he places it with his half-empty bottles of condiments before reaching for his stock of instant noodles, grabbing two, returning to grab another one, and cooks for the first time again in a couple of weeks.

He doesn't have a damn clue how he survives two weeks without proper food. He doesn't pay any attention to the bread knife on his table anymore.

The next day, he comes back to that shop in the red district and the guy is already standing behind the cash register. He automatically greets when Jinyoung opens the door but his smile widens when he sees it's him.

"Hi, you came back."

"Do you have my energy drink?"

He supposes once would have been enough. Surely, this guy is not that free to do something ridiculous as that energy drink he gave him yesterday so Jinyoung is ready to leave when the guy tells him that there is nothing anymore but when the guy reaches something below the cash register, he finds himself walking towards him and curiously waiting if it's the same weird bottle from yesterday or if he improved it.

He improved it, he notices. The name of the energy drink, still the screaming SOMETHING THAT CAN GIVE ME STRENGTH TO LIVE ANOTHER DAY ENERGY DRINK!!! is not as strangely placed, like the person who made it pushed every letter together even if none of the letters wants to be together. The letters look more organized and probably because it looks more organized, it doesn't look as strange as yesterday.

"Is it still free?" Jinyoung looks at the guy and he studies his expression. It's peaceful and he wonders how it is so peaceful when he is working at the only shop in the red district that doesn't look like a brothel. He wonders what he does, he wonders why he is so different.

"Yes,"Youngjae nods, smiling brightly at him.

He goes home with two rolls of tissues and one dozen of eggs jiggling inside a plastic bag with his energy drink. It tastes the same as before and he only eats two packages of instant noodles that night.

On his fourth visit, he asks if there are other flavors.

On his fifth visit, the energy drink is not the same pinkish one he drank three times already. It's the weird color of green, the same shade as moss and he almost doesn't drink it. Fortunately, he does. He can't quite put what it is but he can taste a bit of lemon and some herbs he doesn't know the name. It tastes clean and pure, probably as clean and pure as the person's heart who made it.

On his sixth visit, he asks how long their shop’s promo for energy drinks is.

"Promo?" Youngjae looks at him, confused.

"How long can I get this energy drink for free?"

“Ah," his smile finds its way back to his face and stranger than his lips, his eyes sparkle like they are also smiling at him. Jinyoung has to look away. “It's only until tomorrow, sir."

He slightly flinches when he calls him sir. No one calls him sir, even the younger employees and interns at work don't call him sir. Perhaps because he obliges them not to. There is something superior in sir and not once in his life has he felt superior to anybody, not even to this one person who calls him sir.

"Jinyoung."

The guy looks shocked.

"My name is Jinyoung."

Youngjae's smile is like a virus. It goes away for a couple or so of seconds like it completely left but finds itself returning to its host again, like for some reason, it is made to stay there. His face breaks into a huge smile and he opens his mouth to introduce himself, too.

"You're Youngjae, I know." Jinyoung interrupts him though.

On his seventh visit, there are seven bottles in front of him, all neatly arranged in a box made perfectly for the bottles. The name of the energy drink SOMETHING THAT CAN GIVE ME STRENGTH TO LIVE ANOTHER DAY ENERGY DRINK!!! is still as loud on the lid of the box.

"This is the complete set," Youngjae slightly pushes the box forward towards him, smiling. “It already has seven different flavors and..."

"Do you want to go to the beach?"

He surprises Youngjae. He also surprises himself.

"What?"

Traveling is also one of those few reasons that are stopping him from saying quits to this world. He feels like in this huge place, there are many places that might be far from the filthy places and filthier people. He has given up in traveling until today.

Jinyoung takes a deep breath and repeats himself, "Do you want to go to the beach?" Perhaps someplace farther can be in different time, when they both know each other a little better other than the guy who asks for an energy drink that doesn't exist and the guy who makes the energy drink that doesn't exist exist. "This Saturday?"

Youngjae looks disappointed. “I - I can't," he mutters.

He supposes he should have stopped himself from looking more disappointed than him. He doesn't want to look even more pathetic than how he feels.

“I have duty on Saturdays," he suddenly says. "How about this Sunday?"

Jinyoung probably breaks into a grin so huge it almost rips his face into two, like his face is not used to something so close to a genuine smile. But it doesn't rip, it doesn't feel unnatural after two seconds. It does feel a little something that he missed, that his faced missed and slightly, it feels like a virus that is meant to be there.

a/n i wrote extras longer than the first parts ;-;