Chapter Text

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grocery shopping is not at all as easy as how jin described it to be. it has nothing to do with trying to find the items, it is more like comparing brands and costs and each item with its neighbor. how is he supposed to know if jin’s guests would appreciate pork or beef more? If this wine tasted finer than the other? if this watermelon was better than the one on top of it? he dimly recalls jin saying something about the weight and juice, but it isn’t like yoongi to worship every word his hyung utters. that is namjoon’s job.

just as he is contemplating a package of pork’s quality and cost, a YEEHAW resounds through the otherwise empty aisle followed by a deafening crash. yoongi, who has never been one to handle surprises, jumps at the sound and twirls around, finding himself staring at two guys - one standing frozen with a mixture of shock and amusement while the other gawks straight at yoongi with the expression of a deer watching headlights. they are probably younger than him, freshmen or sophomores, and the ebbing need to help in politeness faded away.

"you...are you alright?" yoongi asks hesitantly, not sure of what to do in such a situation. the standing one’s eyes light up when he catches sight of yoongi and something seems to register in his head.

”yoongi hyung! what a coincidence!” he skips over to yoongi and clamps his hands over his hyung’s shoulders so familiarly that yoongi wonders if he has slept through another episode of his own life again. yoongi usually has that stuff figured out, the waking up and sleeping. it is a cycle he has gone through starting a few years ago, around the time when jihoon ran. every few months or so (it was inconsistent to the point that jin and namjoon had gotten used to seeing the sight of finding him lying unconscious on the ground when he was perfectly fine the day before), yoongi’s mind would slip off somewhere else. an alternate universe with a completely different reality where his parents had accepted all of him in the first place and jihoon was still alive. a place where he didn’t wake up everyday feeling the guilty weight dripping off his shoulders before lighting a cigarette to blow away the emotions. it would last for days, weeks, months, completely unpredictable.

and then he’d be back, squinting in the sunlight and reaching for a cup of coffee as though resuming his life like there was no interruption.

”i’m sorry but, who are you again?” yoongi frowns, flicking off the boy’s large hands.

”your one and only kim taehyung, also known as the beloved, possibly-namjin’s-offspring taetae.” when yoongi’s only response is a blank stare, tae slouches from his tadah pose and clears his throat theatrically. “don’t you remember last week’s dinner at hoseok’s place, jin’s best bud?”

yoongi certainly does not remember jin having any “best buds” other than namjoon, hoseok, and himself since middle school. what he does recollect from that night is a tall, lanky guy mumbling some nonsense, completely whipped as his eyes flitted around nervously and wearing just about nothing except a pair of briefs and socks. and then a few minutes later he had walked in on the same guy in the bathroom, jumping up and down with a dongsaeng yoongi recognized as the prodigy jungkook as they screamed out lyrics from a playlist of trot songs mixed with big bang hits.

slowly putting the pieces together, yoongi nods and drawls out taehyung’s name as an experiment. taehyung claps his hands together like an excited kid and suddenly seems to remember his friend because he turns around and flounces back to help him up.

yoongi is not one to believe in fate. so he doesn't call it fate when his eyes meet amazing abs’ - the same beautiful creature he ed friday night drunk and out of his mind, and the one that ran out on him from the motel which, if yoongi thought about it, was the entire reason why he was here at the grocery store in the first place.

”why are you here?” he finally blurts out, immediately regretting his actions. it wasn't the first time he'd felt like a fool in front of this hot-to-no-extent male.

”grocery shopping.” amazing abs says just as taehyung gasps an “ohmygosh my favorite hyung #4 and best bud #1 know each other?!”

he pulls the two close together and introduces amazing abs as park jimin. of course. he's unbelievably hot and has such an adorable name.

”park jimin.” yoongi rolls his name off his tongue lethargically, the same thing he did with taehyung’s name except managing to make it sound so different. it was something he had mastered after plenty of attempts at pick up lines in his freshman year.

jimin flushes, and his reaction satisfies yoongi, effectively boosting his confidence.

taehyung notices this exchange and wiggles his eyebrows suggestively at jimin, leaning in and stage whispering, “this is the part where you recover quickly, flashing those rows of perfect white teeth and offering your number without hesitation.”

jimin is as red as a tomato by the time he snatches taehyung’s wrist and pulls him away, throwing one last uneasy glance backwards before disappearing.

and for the second time, yoongi is left dazed and staring at the empty spot jimin was standing at only seconds ago, until-

”hey! did you knock all that over?” a fuming manager interrupts yoongi’s daydreaming, jutting a crooked finger at the mess of tomato soup cans. “do you have any idea how long it took to pile it up perfectly?”

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박지민

jimin wants to die. it doesn't help that tae is simply skipping beside him, humming sunset glow distractedly.

“yknow, there are studies that show that sleeping is good for a woman’s health,” tae states out of nowhere. “maybe i should do that too.”

”well you aren't a woman are you?” jimin sneers. as though just noticing his friend’s dark mood, tae frowns and stops, concerned gaze searching jimin’s face.

“what's wrong?” he asks. jimin gapes at him.

that night, jimin doesn’t share his pizza and ignores tae’s texts and calls.