STRAWBERRY FIELDS|| BTS

thirteen

He had visited the gas station conveniences store quite a bit after their first trip.
He always went with his brother and Taehyung, the two getting on well with each other, despite Hoseok never letting the younger live down the fact that he didn't like sour cream and mushrooms.

"Yeah well Jimin doesn't seem to like it either" Taehyung mentioned once, sipping on some water, the cheap, thin plastic crinkling with every move. Hoseok then rambled to Jimin all night about "how does he even dare, to use my own brother against me in this argument. You out of all people to ask about sour cream and mushrooms".
Jimin has giggled at the statement back then.

Their little hang outs became a sort of routine for them. Every Thursday after school, they'd escape to the bright lights of the convenience store, judging some people from behind the glass, pointing out cars they'd might want in the future, watching the staff members work.
A particular staff member was clumsy, and the three of them had a subconscious fear of the dude blowing the gas station up. But their fears weren't justified with anything, and rather created for comical relief.

Today they watched him stumble upon a bucket of water and spill it on the concrete. They watched him scowl and shake his head, and they predicted that he probably questioned what the bucket was doing there, on the corner of a gas tank, out of all places. He scratched the back of his head and after picking the bucket up and placing it in a more suitable location, went back to attending the cars.

The little bell above the door rang as a tall, wide shouldered person came in.
Jimin quickly recognised him as Seokjin and pointed out to Taehyung, who without hesitation ushered (or rather screamed) for him to sit with him.

"I didn't peg you to be the type of person to hang out at the convenience store" commented Taehyung, tossing his empty water bottle into the bin without a miss.
Seokjin shrugged and asked if he wasn't allowed to enjoy these little cheap shops as much as they did.
Jimin made sure to tell him it was ok for him to be here. Hoseok asked wether he liked sour cream and mushrooms flavoured crisps.
The conversation on different crisps flavours rose from the mist again, and Jimin listened with pretend interest- frankly he was still watching the clumsy boy stumble around the cars, and bowing to every customer that passed through him. He had bleached hair hidden under a baseball cap.

"–at your other school Jimin?" The words flowed into his ear, he shifted his focus to the voice who asked. A sprinkle of confusion on his face as he was brought back into reality. He asked if he could repeat the question.
"I said, what happened at your other school, I mean I know I'm not better, but people don't change school in the middle of exam season if they can help it" Seokjin asked, a smile sort of on his face; Jimin couldn't really tell.
Jimin glanced at his brother for help, but the elder just shrugged. He understood him, he was a bad liar- and if he tried to explain his way out of it, it'd be evident that it wasn't the truth. But that didn't mean Jimin was any better at lying.
"Uh...stuff..happened."
Seokjin told him it was ok if he was bullied and didn't want to remember.
"I wasn't bullied" at least not in the previous school before this one. But he didn't tell him the details.
He turned his head to look out the window, watching a costumer stepping out their car and shoving their clumsy worker, he appeared to be shouting but he couldn't hear him from inside the store. He didn't notice that Seokjin has left, until the man had raised his hand to slap the clumsy worker, but was stopped by the broad shouldered hyung.
"Ahh, Seokjin the hero. What a wonderful story" exclaimed Taehyung as he rolled his eyes and began to get up, the lights of the store flickering on and off.
"I thought they fixed the lights already" he commented, he looked behind at his seat for anything that he could have left behind, the lights flickering on and off, on and off.

Taehyung walked out to join Seokjin outside, the four people now talking about something, the man bright red in the face and Seokjin standing rather protectively between him and the worker. Taehyung looked rather odd, just standing there on the side. But the boy was there for the drama, he didn't care how awkward he looked standing off to the side, staring at the rude man complaining about the unwanted fingerprints on his car. His car was no Rolls&Royce, so to him the argument the man tried to provide was invalid.

The lights flickered on and off, on and off.
The till man scowled as he realised the lights wouldn't stop acting up any time soon, and tried to find a quick solution. Although it was only 4:30pm outside, the dark clouds made it seem much later. It would be grim in here if he'd turn the lights off.

The lights flickered on and off, on and off- as Taehyung looked back towards Jimin, raising his hand to wave him over and go home.

Jimin felt hands cover his eyes.