When Taehyung accepted the job at the local animal shelter, he wasn’t prepared at all for what it meant to work at a place that, by law, couldn’t turn away any animals that were brought to their door steps. He had gone into this prepared for lots of kitten kisses and puppy love. What he wasn’t prepared for were hordes of animals being brought here shortly after the holiday season because they were spontaneous gifts to children who didn’t actually want a pet, they just asked for a turtle because they wanted a real life Donatello, only to find out that real turtles can’t do backflips and aren’t black belts.

Other than the days where they have to ‘clear space’ in the shelter—that was the term that Taehyung created for his own sake because he couldn’t bare to say what they were actually doing—Taehyung actually loved his job. It was the most rewarding job he had ever had, and it definitely beat bagging thousands of groceries a day at their local Hy-Vee. It was rewarding when their cats and dogs, and any other animals, actually found good homes. It was so rewarding to watch abused animals come out stronger when they were done with their rehabilitation training.

Taehyung was busy mopping the floors, headphones in with his warm music for cold days playlist going, as today had reached the record lows for the month, and Taehyung was bundled up in his sweater indoors. He must have been too into the music, or had the volume up too loud, because he felt a quick, but somewhat gentle slap to the back of his head. He pulled one earphone out and turned around to see Hoseok, the manager of the shelter, standing behind him, holding a small piece of notepaper.

“I need you to run by Petco and pick some things up before we close,” Hoseok said, handing the list to Taehyung.

Usually, regular employees weren’t selected to run such important errands, but Taehyung had been working for this place for over a year now, and he liked to think that Hoseok considered him a good friend and permanent employee by now.

Taehyung grinned and took the list from his boss. “I would be happy to, boss.” He said, flashing his pearly whites. Petco runs were another one of his favorite parts of the job. Not only were their dog biscuits delicious, but Taehyung had started developing a little crush on the boy who always worked the register on days that Taehyung was ordered to go there. Not to mention — he got paid for the mileage, so that was always a little bit extra on his check that he could look forward to.

Taehyung grabbed his keys from where they were on the key rack, and he took off after hopping into his car. On the way, he actually took a look at the list. It seemed like they were in need of a lot of supplies this week. It had been a while since Hoseok sent him out with such an extensive list. Normally Hoseok would be the one do the shopping when they needed this much stuff, so Taehyung knew that he must have had a lot of other things he needed to take care of before closing up for the day.

The Petco in their city wasn’t located too far from the shelter where Taehyung worked, and it was one of the biggest Taehyung had ever seen in his life. It was Taehyung’s favorite place to shop for his little dog that he had in his apartment, and it definitely beat the over-priced, locally-owned pet supplies store that existed in his small-town hometown.

Taehyung was disappointed, when he got to the register, to see, not Namjoon, but a boy much shorter than him. This boy was so short that Taehyung might have missed him if it wasn’t for the long line that he had to wait in. Taehyung had never seen him before, and he definitely wasn’t hot like Namjoon, but at least he was still cute. “This is going to be tax exempt for the shelter,” Taehyung said before he began putting his stuff up on the counter.

“Okay, just a second,” The boy said, and he looked at the computer screen for a moment, as if he was trying to remember how to do tax exempt transactions—he was definitely new. Either way, Taehyung took this as the perfect opportunity to take a look at his nametag.

“So, Jimin,” Taehyung said as he started placing his supplies onto the counter. “Does Namjoon not work today?”

“Uhm, no,” Jimin said after a while, probably after he finally figured out what he was supposed to be doing. He started ringing up what Taehyung had piled onto the counter. “He quit. Yesterday was his last day, and I was hired to take his place.”

Taehyung was crushed. He thought that he and Namjoon were building a fairly decent bond, so why didn’t the other tell him that he was planning on leaving?

“Oh,” The disappointment was clear in Taehyung’s voice. He cleared his throat, trying to sound brighter. He didn’t want to upset the new boy. “Would that make this your first day?”

There was something about the way Jimin giggled that assured Taehyung that seeing his face regularly was going to be far from a disappointment. “Of course not,” Jimin said, a small smile playing at his lips. “Wouldn’t that be odd for them to stick me by myself on my first day? Namjoon trained me before he left.”

“Oh,” Taehyung didn’t sound so disappointed this time. If Namjoon trained him, that meant that he learned from none other than the best. “He was nice. It’s going to be weird not seeing him when I come here, but I have a feeling that we’ll get along.”

“I hope so,” Jimin said, and he leaned over the counter to scan the bags of dog food that Taehyung had in the cart. He had gotten so carried away talking to the new boy that he hadn’t realized all of his items were already rang up.

“, I’m sorry,” Taehyung said, and he lifted one of the bags up to make it easier on Jimin to reach them. He was definitely a lot shorter than Namjoon, who would have reached across the counter without a problem. It was almost cute seeing Jimin try, and part of Taehyung wanted to be a and not help him out just so he could watch the cute struggle.

“Thanks,” Jimin said, and he shot the barcode with his gun.

“I have three of these,” Taehyung told him, “Two of these,” He said, lifting another bag, “And one of these.”

“Your total is 136.42,” Jimin said once he was done scanning all the items.

“Okay,” Taehyung said, and he pulled out his copy of the shelter’s debit card. Since he went shopping for them so frequently, Hoseok opted to just giving him a copy of the store card so that they wouldn’t have to switch back and forth so much. It was a decision he came to after arriving at Petco without the debit card because he had forgotten that Taehyung was the last person with it, and he had to call Taehyung at the shelter to bring the card to him.

“Which...animal shelter do you work for?” Jimin asked.

That’s right. It had been so long since Taehyung purchased from a new person, he had forgotten that ‘the shelter’ wasn’t specific enough. There were many shelters all over their college town. “Oh, it’s, uh, the city shelter,” Taehyung told him.

“Right…” Jimin said, tapping his computer screen. “That’s the kill shelter, right?” He eyed Taehyung suspiciously. “You don’t seem like the type that would work at one of those…”

“It’s not as bad as you think,” Taehyung stated before realizing how those words would sound to someone who might not have known what working at a kill shelter was all about. He registered it when Jimin rose an eyebrow at him. “I mean—I don’t mean killing the animals. I just mean working at the shelter. It’s—” Taehyung sighed. There wasn’t really any way he could save himself at the moment. “It when we have to clear space, but other than that, it’s nice.”

“Right,” Jimin said. He ripped Taehyung’s receipt off from the printer and handed it to him, his cute smile and interest in this conversation gone in a flash. “You have a great day.”