Ⓔarly Saturday morning Taehyung had to get ready for his first job for opening the diner. Of course before his promotion he never had such responsibility, but now he had early, middle, and late shifts. Today was early, which meant opening the store, and tomorrow was late, which meant closing it and leaving the keys in a secret place Seokjin taught him as he had school the day after, and had no chance of giving the keys back to his boss.

The blond boy sloppily made his way towards the diner; he barely had gotten any sleep as he kept on thinking about Jungkook from yesterday. He didn’t know why. It’s not like anything special happened. But after Jungkook said he might come by the diner this weekend, Taehyung wasn’t sure what he exactly hoped for.

A part of him definitely didn’t want him to come and see how much he actually at the job, but the other part wanted to see him. Having to wait until Monday was too long for Taehyung. He really wanted to see Jungkook.

As the boy arrived at the diner, he carefully unlocked and opened the door, turning on the lights, making sure the coffee maker and other machines were on and ready to use; he cleaned the tables, chairs, the floor and the counters, and soon enough the diner was ready to open. He made his way to the entrance door and flipped the sign as it now read OPEN.

About half an hour later customers came and went. Some stayed with their laptops and work, others ordered and went, whilst the rest sat down with friends or colleagues.

“I’ll have a black coffee with sugar and a waffle,” one ordered, which was one of the easiest orders Taehyung knew of, and luckily a lot of male adults liked this order. Most of the women liked ice coffee and ice cream, and Taehyung had to admit he was still struggling a big with the ice cubes, mixer, and scooping the ice cream.

“Excuse me, but this coffee is absolutely terrible,” said a customer behind Taehyung as he was in the middle of scooping out some ice cream for a lady who just ordered.

Immediately he turned around, red all over his face, ready to apologise and ask if he wanted a new one and he’d simply explain he must’ve made a mistake. But as soon as he spotted the mischievous grin on the customer, he let out a sigh. Surprisingly, it was a relieved one; at least it wasn’t a complaint.

“Hoseok, what are you doing?” Taehyung whined, still feeling his heart in his throat from fear. “You scared me.”

Hoseok laughed evilly. “That’s the point genius,” he teased and entered behind the counter, beside Taehyung.

“What are you doing?” he asked, panicking. “You’re not allowed back here!”

His friend rolled his eyes. “It’s almost painful to see your struggle,” he said, “and it’s irritating.” He finished the ice cream Taehyung had struggled with and handed it over to the lady, who was slightly irritated by having to wait some extra because of the unwelcomed non-worker.

“Come on, get out,” Taehyung said as he forced him outside, blocking his way of trying to get inside again. “Hoseok, you’re not a worker here. If anyone else spotted you behind here with me, I could possibly get fired,” he told him sternly so his friend would finally understand.

“I should apply so I can help you then,” he grinned.

“Taehyung sighed. “Absolutely not,” he glared.

“What about Jungkook?” he suddenly asked. “You wouldn’t mind him working with you.”

Hoseok knew he had hit the right button. Taehyung was a blushing mess; he couldn’t even find the right words to answer, or defend himself. He completely froze in his spot. Why did Hoseok ask him that?

“Wh - why do you think that?” he stuttered, obviously trying to escape, but Hoseok had no intentions to let him.

“Come on, I can tell you look at the two of us differently,” Hoseok said, sounding more irritated than he thought he was. “I’m the annoying friend you’d rather escape from, whilst Jungkook is someone you don’t mind having around.”

Taehyung, for the first time, felt guilty. Was Hoseok hurt that he barely spent time with him? Did he want him to treasure their friendship more? Even if the blond male didn’t show it too much, he had always been glad Hoseok wanted to be his friend. Thanks to him, Taehyung wasn’t the loner at school no one would dare approaching.

“I’m sorry,” Taehyung apologised, “do you think I treat you unfairly? If so, I’m really sorry. It’s just that…” Taehyung didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t say that he was in love with Jungkook. A boy.

“Taehyung, you know I’m your friend, right?”

“Aren’t you my best friend?”

Hoseok’s eyes widen. Did Taehyung just admit their friendship isn’t just some classmate level? “I thought you kind of hated me,” he muttered, feeling sad all of sudden. Taehyung always ignored, glared, and avoided him, but Hoseok didn’t really think of how hard it may be on the blond one. Did he ever consider his feelings? He only jumped to conclusions that he didn’t like him, and tried his best to change that, but if that wasn’t the case to start with, then what was his effort for?

“I don’t hate you Hoseok,” Taehyung said, “I care about you, although you’re annoying most of the time. But I do like having you around.”

Hoseok couldn’t help but to grin at what he just heard. Taehyung had never said such things to him before, and it made him happy. “But you never really open up to me. When I think about it, I don’t know much about you, except that you work here and where you live, but you told me to never come. I haven’t even met your family.”

Hoseok was right: Taehyung was a terrible friend. He always avoided telling stuff about himself to Hoseok, but it was mostly because he was afraid Hoseok would one day stop being his friend, and then his secrets were spilled. “I’m just afraid to tell you stuff.”

Hoseok frowned at his remark. “Why? I tell you stuff about me all the time.”

Taehyung nodded. “I know, and that’s when I feel worse… I’m afraid you’ll leave me one day. Or even maybe because of my secrets.”

Suddenly, Hoseok attacked Taehyung with a hug, ignoring the looks of the customers inside the diner. Taehyung was surely glad no one was ordering right now. “Taehyung-ah, I won’t leave you and stop being your friend. And certainly not because of your secrets. Don’t ever think that again, okay?”

Taehyung was on the edge of crying, but he managed to bite his lower lip to prevent to do so. “Thank you.” He had to softly push Hoseok away to dry his tears in his eyes, which his friend happened to see.

“Tae, are you crying?” he teased as a smirk appeared on his face.

Taehyung turned his back towards him. “Shut up.” He took his moment to calm down and to not cry anymore. “I treasure our friendship, and to show you how grateful I am, and that I trust you, I’ll tell you my biggest secret.” Hoseok seemed excited enough to jump and giggled uncontrollably. “But if you leave, I swear to god I’ll beat you down.”

Hoseok chuckled excitedly. “I already told you, I won’t!”

“I’m gay.”

“I’m gay,” Taehyung admitted. He had always been afraid of telling anyone.

He studied Hoseok’s facial expression to judge his reaction, but he seemed to still be waiting for Taehyung’s secret.

“Well?” he asked, still excited. “Aren’t you going to tell me your secret?”

Taehyung frowned at him. “I just did.”

“What, that you’re gay?” he asked. “I already knew that.”

“What? How?”

“I could just tell. I was already ninety percent sure before I befriended you when we were freshmen at school,” he explained softly. But it still made Taehyung panic. Had he been so obvious others could tell? How many people did know? Who suspected him? Don’t tell me Jungkook also knows… “Tell me another secret, since I already knew that one.”

Taehyung shook his head. “No. Besides, I have work to do.” Luckily, more customers entered and ordered, which made Taehyung busier.

“Hey! That’s not fair!”

Taehyung sighed. “I don’t care. How could I know you already knew that?”

“Already knew what?”