Once I was safely up in my bedroom with forty five minutes to spare before work started, I engaged in a full on back-and-forth dialogue with myself.

I first asked myself whether or not I had a crush on Jimin.

That one, though I wished it wasn't, was easy to answer. I certainly had a crush on Jimin.

The second question I asked was whether or not the crush was a phase or a...promising romantic mental commitment.

I wasn't so sure how to answer that one.

The only other time in my life I'd had a crush on someone was when I was nine years old, and she had been...well, female. She was my assistant and helped me read and understand brail. She always held my hand when we would walk around at school together, and I was always a little nervous to be close to her and my hands started to sweat and clam up.

When I told my mom about my crush seven years prior, it had helped to relieve a lot of stress. Eventually I learned my teacher's assistant was married and I got over it pretty quickly.

This was a very similar situation with two major differences: 1) Jimin was a friend who was just a few years older than me. 2) Jimin was a boy.

The third question I asked myself was: Am I gay?

I took a very slow, deep breath and decided I was just thinking too hard. I would wait a couple of weeks, maybe. I would see if it was a phase, if I still had a weird thing for Jimin, and I would see if I really...liked boys.

Satisfied, I nodded to myself and moved to unlock my phone. I had four missed calls, three of those from Jimin. The fourth was from Seokjin so I decided to call back the person I was less emotionally involved in.

"Hey, do you want a ride to work?" Seokjin picked up on the second ring.

"Uh...yeah, that would be great, actually. Thanks hyung."

"No problem. I'll pick you up in like forty minutes."

"Okay." Then I hung up.

Well, that ended quickly.

Jimin could wait until I got to work for an explanation, right? But wouldn't it be easier to think of an excuse without having to look at his face? Of course it would. I called him.

He picked up before the phone could finish its first ring. "Jungkook? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Jimin," I said, taking a deep breath and preparing to be as vague yet still friendly as possible. "I...something happened and I needed to be alone. Seokjin is driving me to work."

The other line was silent as I sat on the edge of the bed kicking my legs, watching the darkness of my jeans disappear and reappear in my field of vision.

"Jimin?"

"What? Oh, nothing, sorry, I..." there was a pause. "I'll see you then, I guess."

I squeezed my eyes shut at the way his words stung. The confusion, guilt, and sympathy were all evident in just a few of his words. "Bye."

I hung up the phone and went to get ready for work.

...

Seokjin picked me up at 4:15. I told my mom I was hanging out at his house and went out to the driveway to find him leaning over his seat to brush some food wrappers off the passenger's seat for me. "This isn't my mess, I swear. Namjoon is a monster when it comes to cleaning."

"It's fine," I said with a weak chuckle. I was feeling a little more nervous than I was willing to let on. While I got along great with Seokjin and Jimin (though getting along with Jimin had several meanings with different connotations), Hoseok, Yoongi, Taehyung, and Namjoon were still basically strangers to me. My biggest fear was making a complete idiot out of myself in front of all of them.

The supermarket was a cute little building on the corner of "Jimin's street and Hoseok's street," according to Seokjin, and it supposedly served as a center for all of their activities as friends. I followed Seokjin nervously out of the car and through the "employees only" parking lot, which was bigger than the customer parking lot. "It's so small," I said to him as I observed the dark brown bricks of its walls closer. 

"It's cozy," he agreed. "I love it."

Hoseok stood by the door with his arms outstretched and a pleasantly red shirt clutched loosely in his long fingers. A sparkly grin shone on his handsome face, as usual. "Welcome, Jeon Jungkookie, to Jimin's Market."

I blinked and stared around at the dozens of colors filling the room. Every shelf was b with unique, odd, and quite possibly foreign foods. I wanted to feast my eyes on every bit of the room forever. "It's called Jimin's Market?" I asked, taking the uniform from him with a bow.

"It's called Jimin's Market," Hoseok confirmed, gripping my shoulders gently and leading me around. "We have a bunch of regular customers but it's rare for new people to come, so it's really comfortable in here."

I was anxiously searching along the aisles for Jimin at that point, but I remembered to nod along as Hoseok gave me the grand tour. "So...where's everyone else?"

"Yoongi went to go pick up Taehyung. Jimin and Namjoon are outside taking out the trash," Hoseok answered. "Seokjin is going to be the cashier for the first shift, so you're going to have to part with our oldest hyung for a while."

"I'll survive," I said confidently, and Hoseok beamed.

"You sure will. You'll be mopping with Yoongi for now. Don't forget to put up the caution, wet floor signs," he reminded me. "Yoongi almost murdered Namjoon when he forgot it once."

"Noted," I said dryly, when the back door of the place swung open and Namjoon came swaggering into the room. Jimin stood like a tiny kid beside Namjoon's shoulder, swirling a lollipop between his lips like he was purposely trying to seduce me. His eyes swiveled over and met mine, widening slightly when he noticed me.

I swallowed very hard, felt myself blush, turned to see if Hoseok had noticed, and found myself staring straight into his suspicious eyes.

"Hey, Jungkook," Namjoon said, casually patting my shoulder as he passed. "Remember caution wet floor signs."

I laughed out loud at the amount they were nailing that rule into my head. "Yoongi must have forgotten a lot."

"It wasn't pretty,' Namjoon called behind him, approaching the shelf near the back of the building. "Jimin, what does your mom want me shelfing today?"

"Everything you can," Jimin responded, and I whirled back around, shocked by how close he was.

Hoseok slung an arm casually around Jimin's shoulders and faced me, twirling his fingers casually through the younger boy's hair.

I wondered wildly if he knew how much that pissed me off, so I took a deep breath and said nothing.

"How are you, Jungkookie?" Jimin asked, frowning slightly. I could tell he wanted to say more but didn't want to reveal anything - or ask me to reveal anything - in front of Hoseok, though I was already taking a liking to the older boy.

"I'm fine," I said with a smile that was only somewhat forced. "How are you?"

Jimin opened his mouth to speak again and turned his head to look at Hoseok, who was now innocently rubbing his forehead up against Jimin's delightfully muscular shoulders. "Uh...I'm being violated."

"You love me," Hoseok said pointedly, aiming kissy lips at Jimin before striding away with his back hunched like it always was.

I chuckled out loud and a