Here's the thing: Seokjin knows that they'd simply starve if if weren't for him. Those kids deem their dreams more important than anything else, even more important than food (a concept Seokjin will never understand since making food is his dream, and he's living it), so somebody really has to feed them, right?

But that is still no excuse for this... mess.

"YAH! Min Yoongi! Jung Hoseok! What the ever-loving f- frick!"

Yoongi, lying on one of the wooden tables of Seokjin's little takeaway restaurant (that still isn't wiped down gross gross gROSS), just grunts. His eyes are closed and Seokjin can't even see him breathing.

"Chill out, hyung", Hoseok's tired voice says from god knows where, "we're gonna clean like an hour before opening."

Seokjin takes in a deep breath before screaming: "OPENING IS IN FIVE MINUTES YOU LAZY A- OH YES YOU LAZY S, GET THE UP AND CLEAN UP THIS PLACE!"

Suddenly, there's Hoseok in the middle of the room, flailing around with his long limbs. ", Yoongi hyung, get up get up!"

The owner of the restaurant just sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. Why exactly did he allow his two helps to actually live in his tiny restaurant? Of course, both of them are roaming Seoul when they don't have a shift, looking for gigs they could do, or people who are interested in their music at all, but more often than not, they are completely unsuccessful. They'd come home - well, they'd return to the restaurant - pennyless, hopeless, and too tired to clean up the mess they've made.

They are the most useless helps Seokjin has ever had, but he knows he will keep them as long as he knows they can't afford a meal on their own. Over the span of the last few months, he's come to love them.

There's still no movement from the thin man whose roots are showing rather drastically under his bleached blond hair. "As if somebody would actually come by right at opening time."

Suddenly, someone is knocking against the semi-clean glass door that is the entrance of the shabby restaurant.

"Haha, is Yoongi-hyung still sleeping? Yoooooongi-hyung, open up!", a sunny voice shouts cheerfully. Yoongi shoots up so quickly he loses his vision for a few seconds, which he curses since that means losing time he could spend melting in front of Park Jimin's smile. Hoseok snickers in the background.

"Does that kid even know other people are working here as well?", Seokjin grumbles good-naturedly while Yoongi runs over to the door without a word, but a huge gummy smile.

“Hi Jiminnie, how are you? That useless kid is still making trouble?“, Yoongi says in that unnaturally chipper voice he uses for Jimin, gesturing towards a beaten-up Taehyung who’s sullenly standing behind Jimin.

“As if you’re more useful...“, Seokjin whispers under his breath, but Jimin doesn’t seem to notice since his attention is solely on Yoongi.

“Aah, you know Taehyung, always causing trouble for the greater good...“

Every second day, Jimin would visit the restaurant while dragging Tae with him. Park Jimin finished school a year ago and wanted to go to university right after to study modern dance, but his grandmother fell ill. His parents were struggling financially anyway, so Jimin postponed university to care for his grandmother and make some money he gets from the neighbourhood association. He has always been a model child, a model student, and everybody dotes on him – no wonder, regarding his cute face with his even cuter smile. The neighbourhood is paying him a bit to “watch out“ and “discipline his dongsaengs“.

Hoseok snickers. “You are the nicest vigilante ever, always taking the biggest troublemaker out for dinner.“

“Is it wrong to be nice?“, Yoongi attacks rather aggressively, and Hoseok laughs even louder.

“You didn’t know what the word ‘nice’ even meant before meeting your Jiminnie, hyung.“

Yoongi, suddenly agitated, makes an X-sign with his arms, indicating Hoseok should shut up. Everyone can see it clearly (and start snickering) except Jimin, who now turns to Taehyung.

“So, who did you beat up today, oh biggest superhero of our time?“ Jimin crosses his arms and tries to look authoritarian, which fails spectacularly since Taehyung, albeit one year younger, is already a lot taller and less, well, cutely chubby-faced than his hyung.

“Someone laughed at Jungkookie and because of his hyung and no one should be allowed to do that!“ Taehyung says full of conviction.

Taehyung and Jimin have been friends forever and grew up in the same neigbourhood, the very one in which Jin opened his restaurant two years ago. Jimin tries to take advantage of his (often laughed at) position to look out for his best friend, but Tae doesn’t listen to what Jimin has to say at all. Driven by some very peculiar but completely innocent sense of justice, he wants to do the right thing. Which is, in Taehyung’s mind, becoming a superhero.

Jin goes to his spot behind the counter and starts preparing the food since he knows what everyone wants anyway. Hoseok and Yoongi also begin to clean the place and Jimin and Tae sit down at the table on which Yoongi has just been lying (not very incidentally the cleanest one of them all).

Familiar. It’s what they always do.

“Look, kid, someday you will find someone who’s stronger or, since you’re not too strong, crazier than you, and they will beat your for good“, Yoongi says with a ragged mop in his hand. “Save yourself the pain, and save Jimin the work of getting you outta there, why don’t you.“

“But I’m training hard, Yoongi hyung!“, Tae exclaims. “I’m doing 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups and 100 squads daily! And I run 10 kilometres every morning! I am going to be a superhero!“

Hoseok stops stocking the tables with clean chopsticks and looks up. “Tae, please tell me you didn’t get this from that anime.“

Tae doesn’t even look embarrassed. “So what, I’m gonna be the strongest!“

“Yeah, you can do that right after your detention, mister.“

Everyone turns around to the entrance to see Namjoon, Taehyung’s teacher, and Jungkook, his little brother, come in.

“But teacher, I didn’t do anything!“

“You were initiating a fight on school grounds, how’s that not anything?“

Namjoon and Jungkook sit down at their usual table with Jimin and Tae, the latter currently whining about Teacher Kim being unfair. Jin waves from behind the counter. “For you guys also the same as always?“

“Yes, hyung, and can you give me a bit more beef? I’m gonna go training later!“, Jungkook says. “By the way, hyung, you really don’t need to beat up these stupid idiots for me. I can do this on my own!“

Jungkook is used to being bothered by others, since his brother is a teacher at their school and all. He really doesn’t care though since he knows he has his friends. He’s one year younger than Tae, and two years younger than Jimin, but has always tagged along the two during his childhood.

“Aw, we know you can do that, Jungkookie“, Jimin coos and reaches out to ruffle the younger’s hair, which he begrudgingly accepts.

Taehyung bites his lip and looks at Jungkook. “Soon, I will be out of school, too, and what will you do then?“

Hoseok and Yoongi look at each other with a smirk. Everyone knows Taehyung wants to be a superhero because of some stupid promise he gave Jungkook as a child and which the latter has probably forgotten.

Taehyung on the other hand would never forget something that has to do with Jungkook.

“Yoongi hyung, Hoseok hyung, how are your songs going?“, Namjoon asks. Similarly to Jimin, Namjoon has opted for a stable life for the sake of his family. His little brother is way more talented in everything, be it singing or dancing. Namjoon is only good at rap and that seemed too uncertain a future for him. Maybe later, when he knows his brother is taken care of.

Yoongi sighs deeply. “We have a lot of good ones, and Hobi is even choreographing some of them, but no one wants to see us perform...“

Hoseok clicks his tongue. “We’re still looking for opportunities every day. Thank God for our Jinnie hyung really, without him we’d just die on the streets.“

“At least I am being paid back with kind words, although I would prefer your labour“, Seokjin answers as he emerges from the back with steaming pots of bibimbap and kimchi stew.

Yoongi just drops his mop and takes the vacant seat right next to Jimin, who, of course, speaks up: “But look how clean the place now is! I think Yoongi has done a great job with the floor.“ He flashes his favourite hyung a blinding smile and Yoongi manages to look like he’s gonna pass out only for a second, and smiles back his gummy smile. Namjoon and Hoseok are silently pretending to throw up and Tae and Jungkook giggle.

“Ugh, just stop playing around and eat, kids!“ Seokjin sits down at the head of the table and, contrary to his harsh words, he smiles at all of them fondly.

It’s like this every second day... no, every day, he thinks. When has this become every day? But he is not complaining. Everyone is digging in, and Jin savours the silence, knowing it will be gone in two minutes. He is just glad his food is good enough to shut them up for a moment.

On his right, there’s Namjoon, smiling at his food like it is the most precious thing in the world. Next to him is Jungkook, who’s holding his chopsticks weirdly; he’s flexing, Jin realizes and suppresses his laughter when he sees that Taehyung across the table is staring at Jungkook’s arm, mouth ajar and expression blank. He catches Hoseok’s gleeful eyes from the other end of the table, who also tries not to laugh at their two youngest. Of course, Jimin and Yoongi don’t notice this at all, sitting next to each other between Tae and Jin himself – Yoongi lowly asking Jimin if the food tastes good (of course it does, Seokjin thinks for a second), looking at the chubby-faced boy who actually should be an adult as if he were the world. Jimin answers that it’s good as always and that he loves this restaurant, although it is abundantly clear that Jimin doesn’t love this restaurant just because of its food. Jin shakes his head, wondering when those two would finally come around.

But yes, Jin also loves this restaurant. And he loves the people in it, as well, all munching on his food he made for them.

For his family.