He’s a bad influence and Jimin knows it better than anyone else.

Jimin has seen him too many times wearing a leather jacket, his dark brown hair styled in a mess, a cigarette that always dangles from his lips which are curved in a lopsided smirk that Jimin begrudgingly admits he finds very attractive.

But he is a bad influence and Jimin must stay away,

He remembers his mother always warning him right from when he was a small child that he should stay away from troublemakers at all costs.

“Jimin-ah,” she would say. “You are a nice kid. Don’t mingle with the bad kind”

Jimin follows that advice to this day and that’s why even though he finds the leather jacket wearing boy with his perfect hair, cigarette and boy oh boy that attractive little smirk he stays away because he knows it's better this way.

But it only takes so much time for the other boy to notice Jimin looking at him from the bus stop but look away in a flash when their eyes meet and naturally he’s curious because what is a good boy like that doing here?

Jimin looks out of place among the graffiti-covered walls and the cussing teenage boys with their hands always wrapped around a beer can and one clutching a cigarette.

Jimin isn’t like them and he stands out with his bubblegum pink hair and naturally, the other boy is curious about him.

It only takes him long enough to start a conversation.

“Hi,” Jimin hears the boy say and for a second Jimin thinks that he is hearing voices or is the boy actually speaking to him.

He blinks slowly and looks at the boy.

“Uh,” he says.

“You dropped this,” is all the boy says handing Jimin 5,000 wons.

Jimin blinks again before taking the money and he mumbles incoherent thanks and the boy just nods as he walks away.

Jimin’s bus comes and he gets in and buys a ticket and takes a seat in the far back as he counts the money that he earned through tips.

He finds he has a 10,000 won instead of a 5000 and he realizes that he never did drop his money on the ground.

Jimin is left wondering why the guy gave him money that wasn’t even his.

The next day as soon as Jimin gets off his shift he walks to the bus stop his pocket heavy with the extra 5,000 won that the boy had given him, that he hopes to return to the boy if he sees him.

And he does, the boy is lying across the lap of some girl sitting on the bench blowing out smoke and laughing along with the other kids around him.

Jimin almost walks away but he turns back and walks up to him.

They all stop laughing as Jimin clears his throat.

“I…want to uh give you back your money,” he says to Jungkook who sits up removing the cigarette.

“My money?” he asks and Jimin melts because he has never heard a voice that sweet.

“Uh yes,”

The boy looks at him and then takes the money from Jimin’s hands before shoving it in the back of his jeans pocket.

“Why are you returning it back?” the boy asks.

“Because it isn’t mine,” Jimin simply answers.

The boy doesn’t say anything and Jimin takes it as a cue to leave and so he does and walks to the bus stop not looking back and when he finally does their eyes meet for a brief second before he sees the boy putting the cigarette up to his mouth and taking a huge puff while lying back down on the girl’s lap.

Jimin looks away too and sees his bus coming. He gets in and pays for his ticket and then once again takes the last seat on the bus his mind only thinking about the boy with the leather jacket.

Jimin’s mother told him a lot about bad people.

She told him to not mingle to stay away from all those who are bad and Jimin never questioned her.

But now he wonders what bad means?

He would consider someone like the boy who gave him those extra 5,000 won as bad because he smoked cigarettes and by the looks of it didn’t bother to go to college but yet Jimin finds himself held by him in a secure way as he dabs on Jimin’s cut with a little cotton pad.

Jimin hisses

“Stay still,” he says in a low voice and Jimin does staring at him. He has warm brown eyes. But what intrigues Jimin are the other boy’s piercings on his ear.

He stares at them in a longing way as he remembers begging his mother to let him get one.

She said no, of course.

“You are fixed up,” the boy says distracting Jimin. He sees the boy getting up and Jimin finds himself staring at his before he mentally curses himself and decides to look around instead.

For someone who looks that intimidating the boy’s house doesn’t match him in any way.

The walls are a pretty baby blue color and there are plushies everywhere. Jimin would have never thought someone like that boy would have a room full of soft toys.

“You should be more careful,” Jimin hears the boy’s voice.

“I…,” Jimin said. “What happened again?”

“You fell face first on the ground,”

“Oh,”

“I saw you and you were unconscious and you hurt your head,” he continues. “So I thought I’ll get you somewhere safe,”

“Oh…uh…thank you,” Jimin says.

“You don’t feel dizzy, do you?” the boy asks.

Jimin shakes his head no.

“Can I uh get some water?”

“Sure,” the boy says disappearing in the kitchen. He returns with a glass of water and gives it to Jimin who gulps it down in one go.

For a few seconds after that, they stay silent.

“I think I should go now,” Jimin says. “Thank you for helping me”

“Are you sure you can get home?”

“Uh yeah I’ll…I’ll get the bus,” Jimin stutters.

“I can drop you,” the boy says.

“No, no it’s fine,” Jimin says. “You’ve done enough already”

“It’s no big deal,” the boy says. “I’ll just get you home safe”

Jimin ponders over the offer for a second before giving in.

“All…all right,” he says.

The boy smiles at Jimin.

“Let’s go then,”

Jimin nods setting the glass down and stands up following the boy outside. The boy locks the door and they head to the boy’s truck.

The boy holds the door open for Jimin who gets in. The boy gets in and starts the truck.

Jimin tells him the name of his street and the boy just nods his hand already on the radio.

“Do you mind?” he asks.

Jimin shakes his head no.

Soon the sound of a slow soft song fills Jimin’s ears and he finds himself liking the music.

“The Smiths,” he hears the boy voice. “It’s called Asleep if you were wondering”

Jimin just nods as he listens and is a little happy when the boy puts it on loop.

A few minutes later they are near Jimin’s street and the boy stops the car.

“Thank you so much for the ride uh…,” Jimin says.

“Jungkook,” the boy smiles.

“Oh thanks, Jungkook,” Jimin says.

“It’s no problem…”

“Jimin,” Jimin says.

The boy smiles again and for the first time in the day, Jimin smiles back at him.

He then gets off the car and gives the boy a small wave as he drives away and Jimin walks to his home with a little smile on his face.

That night he falls asleep listening to a Smiths album.

Jimin considers himself lucky that he works for someone like Seokjin.

Seokjin isn’t too pushy and actually understands that Jimin has studying to do and the pay is quite okay, so Jimin doesn’t mind.

The days can be slow, the diners a little too rude.

Jimin remembers once a woman had thrown a glass of water on his shirt because her noodles weren’t hot enough. At least Seokjin understood it wasn’t his fault. But sometimes he gets lucky and gets some good tips.

And today was a particularly slow day until he sees a group of people walk in and to his surprise, it’s Jungkook and friends.

It had been two weeks since Jungkook had helped Jimin and the boy has been on and off of Jimin’s mind and Jimin is completely in love with The Smiths thanks to him.

But now he has a job to do.

Jimin walks up to them with a notepad and pen.

“Order,” he asks with a smile.

“Hotdogs,” he hears a loud voice.

“Taehyung shut up,” he hears another voice. “No hot dogs,”

“Hyung,” the brown haired boy named Taehyung whines but he is ignored by everyone.

“We are getting five cheeseburgers and fries,” Jungkook says.

Jimin jots it down.

“Anything else?” he asks.

“No thank you,” he smiles.

Jimin nods before walking away. He gives the ticket to Seokjin who seems very glad by the sudden business.

Jimin feels sorry because Seokjin works so hard in the diner.

Jimin returns and finds Jungkook and his friends laughing when suddenly Jungkook meets his eyes and he gives Jimin a smile. Jimin smiles back and then he is called by Seokjin to take the orders away and Jimin does as he is told and brings them to the table.

“Thank you,” Jungkook says and Jimin smiles leaving the table and joining Seokjin in the kitchen.

“Are we closing up after they leave?” Jimin asks.

“Yeah, I guess,” Seokjin sighs. “I don’t think anyone is gonna show up at this time”

Jimin nods and returns to the counter where he sees Jungkook and his friends eating and Jimin’s heart feels heavy.

He doesn’t even remember the last time he sat down with ‘friends’ and had a meal. Well, he never had friends, to begin with, expect for a boy until 7th grade who left school and gave Jimin his number so they could talk but Jimin lost it and now he’s alone. He is quite frankly used to it but sometimes he does wish he could have friends like everyone else does.

Jungkook and his friends finish up their meal and Jimin clears out their table.

When they leave, there is a huge tip for Jimin almost as much as their bill.

That night for the first time in days Jimin eats something else than ramen.

3 days pass until Jimin sees Jungkook again.

He is standing at the bus stop waiting for his bus when he feels a tap on his shoulder, Jimin takes out his earphone and sees Jungkook.

“Hey,” Jungkook says.

“Uh um hi,” Jimin says.

“How have you been doing?” Jungkook says. “Um I mean your head is it okay?”

“Yeah, I am fine,” Jimin says.

“Oh, I am glad to know,” Jungkook says and smiles.

Jimin smiles back and they stand there awkwardly until Jimin speaks up which shocks both of them even more so Jimin himself.

“I have been listening to The Smiths,”

“Have you?” Jungkook asks a little surprised.

“Uh yeah they’re great,” Jimin says.

“Yeah, they are,”

Just then Jimin’s bus comes.

“Uh, I’ll see you later then,”

Jungkook nods.

“Yeah, bye,”

Jimin gets in and puts on The Smiths again while thinking about Jungkook.

It’s days later and Jungkook has a habit of showing up at the diner but now he’s alone and he gets a chicken sandwich most of the time and he shows up at the closing time almost always and the more Jungkook comes to the diner the more Jimin gets to know him.

For example, Jungkook loathes mustard with a passion and he literally can’t live without ketchup, he always wears leather jackets and that his favorite band is Nirvana and he likes to sing which shocks Jimin the most because he never imagined Jungkook the kind of singing.

When he leaves and Jimin starts clearing all the tables he hears Seokjin.

“He comes here a lot,” Seokjin says.

“Uh yeah,”

“I wonder why,”

“To eat?” Jimin says as if stating the obvious.

“Are you sure?”

“I guess so,”

“He talks to you a lot,” Seokjin says. “Are you guys friends?”

“Uh yeah, sort of,” Jimin says. “He helped me once when I fell down and fainted”

“Oh,” is all Seokjin says as he puts the rag away and removes the apron.

“Why are you asking hyung?” Jimin asks.

“Oh nothing,” Seokjin says.

Jimin doesn’t answer but he senses that Seokjin was definitely acting weirder than usual.

They leave the diner together and Jimin gets the bus home and to his disappointment, he doesn’t see Jungkook today so he puts on The Smiths and gets lost in his thoughts already.

Over the next few days, Jimin listens to Nirvana and he falls in love again and makes a mental note to tell Jungkook that he has an excellent music taste when they meet but it’s been over two weeks and Jungkook hasn’t shown up.

Jimin feels stupid already because he was looking forward to seeing a stranger for whatever reason and he actually thought they were friends and he was being completely silly because of course, they weren’t. Jungkook just came to the diner because he liked the food, it had nothing to do with Jimin and Jimin feels like kicking himself because he builds up hopes over something that never existed.

So he just takes the orders of the few people that did come to the diner, clean the tables and then listen to Nirvana and The Smiths whenever he could as he tried not to get too sad because Seokjin has been giving him weird looks over the past two days and Jimin knows the question will start anytime. In some ways, Seokjin is like the older brother that Jimin never had.

One of such nights when Jimin is cleaning tables again he hears the jingle of the bell of the door and Jimin glances up at the clock and it’s almost 7:30 pm and almost nobody ever comes to the diner this late.

Jimin turns back to look and the sight he sees is a surprise for him.

It’s Jungkook,

When Jimin looks at him Jungkook smiles.

Jimin’s heart warms because Jungkook is just like he remembers him sitting here exactly three weeks ago talking about ketchup but he looks so different.

It’s hard to miss the swollen eye and torn lip and the bandages wrapped around Jungkook’s knuckles but he is still wearing his signature leather jacket and has a smirk on his face as he sits down.

“Can I get a sandwich now or is it too late,”

“I’ll tell hyung,” is all Jimin says as he leaves and goes to the kitchen where Seokjin is busy cleaning the kitchen. Even though it’s past their closing time Jimin knows that Seokjin would cook for Jimin because business has been particularly slow and Seokjin could do with some extra money.

“Hyung, a sandwich,” Jimin says.

“We have a customer?” Seokjin asks as he sets down the brush and Jimin nods.

‘Is it your friend?” he asks.

“Huh,”

“I don’t remember his name,”

“Jungkook,”

“Yeah, him,” Jimin says.

Seokjin just nods.

“I’ll get you that sandwich,” Seokjin says as he begins and Jimin leaves to find a lone Jungkook observing the décor of the little diner.

A few minutes later Seokjin calls Jimin back for the sandwich and Jimin takes back to Jungkook who smiles at Jimin and just as Jimin almost leaves he hears Jungkook’s small voice.

“Can you sit with me?”

Jimin stops thinking for a second. He is done with cleaning and his shift technically already ended an