Home | NamJin | YoonMin | TaeKook | Hope

2

Jin stepped out of his best friend’s home. He snuggled his sweatshirt closer to his body trying to adjust his eyes to the fog and darkness. He opened his phone and wondered if he should call a cab. ‘Ah! Fuck it!’ Jin said to himself as he pulled his earphones out and started walking the distance to his home.
‘Home’ What a funny word! Did anyone actually have a home? He wondered. Or was everyone just on a journey trying to find some semblance of peace and home?

The stars shimmering and the empty road soaked wet with the raindrops make him content and restless at the same time.
‘I must be going mad.’ he thought and moved forward taking in the dissipated small stores now closed for hours, the sparse cars that moved and the bright neon signs that once sparked with such brightness now dull. As soon as he crossed the main road to go to another part of the city, the light got brighter with each step. The scraped paint replaced the shining tiles, beautiful gardens and porches - and yet Jin felt trapped as soon as he stepped into his complex.

The Guard at the reception stood up to greet him and the security outside the lift pressed the number to his floor as he approached. Jin soon reached his floor and punched in his code - 250940 - the telephone number from the home where he had lived with his parents before they had moved abroad, permanently. Jin looked around his apartment, kicking the clothes on the floor lying around and making his way across the ramen packets to his bedroom. Throwing his laptop, work bag and clothes to another side, Jin made space for himself to sleep. He checked his phone - the article he had written on the different sides of his city had been published. His social media was abuzz with comments. Well, they will have to wait, Jin thought and chugged his sleeping pill with the water from the disposable bottle. The sun was about to come up by the time his body had relaxed enough to sleep.

Unknown to the man who had finally slept, a man, a few miles away, was on the verge of waking up.

***

‘Wake up Kookie! You have practice baby.’ Kim Namjoon said to his cousin Jeon Jungkook as the alarm beeped at 4.
‘Umm.. 5 minutes more hyung!’ The man addressed as Kookie replied.
The tall, slim gentleman of the two woke up and tucked the sheet for his younger brother to sleep for five more minutes as he freshened up. When he came out, Kookie was sitting on the bed rubbing his eyes.
‘Good Morning Sunshine!’ Namjoon chirped from the other side of the room.
‘I am not sunshine Joonie Hyung!’ Kook pouted.
‘You are Darling! See, the sun won’t come up till you wake up.’ Joonie laughed.
‘Humph. I am not a baby.’ Kookie whined making his way to the washroom.
Namjoon smiled at the receding figure of his brother, looking at the skies to thank them for the gift of another day as he went to the kitchen to make coffee for himself and a banana for his brother before he started his exercise.

By the time Jungkook came out, Namjoon had settled on the balcony looking at the horizon as he enjoyed his coffee. Jungkook scoffed down his banana and started stretching.
‘When will you close the shop today hyung?’ Jungkook asked his brother as he put his entire weight on his left knee and bent down.
‘The usual.’ Joon replied.
‘Hmm.. I will come by lunchtime so you can come back then. I will close the shop today. I only have practice, no classes.’ Jungkook ventured.
‘Aniyo! If you don’t have classes go meet with your friends or do something young people do these days.’ Namjoon shrugged.
‘You would know what young people do if you ever left the shop, hyung!’ Jungkook spoke through his jumps.
‘Hmm.. So, it’s decided. You will go meet your friends or make friends, do young people things and come back and tell me.’ Namjoon said as he closed his hands around the cup of coffee that was now empty.
‘Why are you so stubborn?’ Jungkook huffed and Namjoon got up from his plastic chair and ruffled Kook’s hair as he went inside.
Namjoon started making lunch that he would need to pack for Jungkook in his tiffin box and that he would warm and ear in his shop during the day. After he was done with the lunch he started cooking Jungkook’s favorite chicken while he could hear Jungkook shadow boxing. Jungkook would need the carbs at night, Joon thought.

By the time Namjoon was done, the sun was coming up and Jungkook had gone for a run before leaving for his college. Joon packed his box, made his smoothie, added peanut butter as a snack and hoped his stubborn brother would remember to eat them on time.

Namjoon took a shower and opened his laptop, he needed to answer some distributors and request some specific books his customers had requested him to stock.

Before the clock struck eight, both the brothers had left the home in different directions.

Joon could see the shutters of his shop and opened it soon after. He pulled out the magazine stand and started dusting the entire shop. He rearranged some new books that had come in last evening and he had not gotten the time to organize and a few that had been misplaced by the customers. Joon also wanted to change the placement of a few sections of his books and that would take him more than two hours.

So, that’s how he spent the next two hours, moving fiction with literary fiction, partition literature, translation literature, and then moving on to fantasy and thriller and placing them all on one huge shelf. Well, he would need to re-organize non fiction too. But that would have to be for later, as he could see a few customers piling in.

Joon started his normal routine. Greeting the customers. Recommending one book to one or helping them find a specific book the other time. Sometimes, giving them a review of some book or talking about another that was yet to be released. By the time he felt hungry and ready to eat, it was already lunchtime. It was two. Half the day had already passed.

In a different part of the city, a man started shuffling in his sheets and was waking up, grouchy at the sunlight that had woken him up. Finally, he opened his eyes. Opening his laptop to check if he had some specific feature to cover if he would have to find the subject. His day had just gotten started.