Chapter 5

The students gathered on the ground floor for a short prayer. Yoongi groaned internally.

Why are there so many prayers?

His eyes scanned the room. Students were holding their rosaries, their fingers moving from bead to bead as the prayers changed.

"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you..." they recited with bowed heads. Soon, Yoongi felt a stick hit his head. He almost stood up to shout at whoever did it but realized it was the nun.

"Bow your head low, boy," she said sternly, her eyes bulging.

Such a bitch.

With his head bowed, Yoongi still peeked when the students stopped praying. He saw Jimin go to the podium, where a mic stand was set up.

Jimin raised his hand, looking at a piece of paper on the podium, and began to chant. The chant sounded like a song, with a piano playing in the background.

"Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto, sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen."

(Translation: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.)

Yoongi, again, was caught fanboying. He noticed that Jimin had an angelic voice. If voices could kill, he would be dead by now, clutching his heart.

****

Finally, it was Saturday. Yoongi could rest in his bed for HOURS, not caring what was going on in the outside world. This was his safe place. SLEEPING was his safe place, and no one could make him get up—

"Hey, Yoongi! I was just calling to say that your rent is due."

With that, the 19-year-old jolted up.

"I only have 100 dollars. The rent is like, 200," Yoongi wondered, then an idea came to him.

"I have to go to work today," he said, dialing a number.

"Hey, noona. Can I come to the café right now? I'm short on money," he said, putting his hand in his pocket.

"Really? That's a big help actually. We have lots of customers right now, and Mom and I can barely serve them. You should hurry, though; there are lots of people in line."

As soon as Minji said that, Yoongi muttered a thank you and ended the phone call. He wore a white t-shirt and joggers, then headed out of the apartment.

When he arrived, he put his apron on. Jimin was taking orders at the counter, while Yoongi prepared them.

"Hi, Jimin-oppa! I want one tall American latte and a hot one like you~," the girl said in an annoying voice.

Yoongi made a scrunched face. "Yoongi, one tall—"

"I heard it," Yoongi said, annoyed.

"Pft, sassy AF."

"Shut up."

Yoongi called Jimin as soon as he was done preparing the order. "Thanks, Jiminie!"

"Yay, my turn! Hi, Jimin-oppa!" another girl said excitedly.

"Pft, now I know why customers are lining up. There's a freaking tourist spot they're visiting," Minji said to Yoongi with crossed arms.

"Pft, you tell me. By the way, why did you all decide to build a café? Is this your only source of income?" Yoongi asked, scratching the back of his head.

"Pft, haha. No! Our dad has multiple companies. Jimin right there owns his own house, not too far away from here. This is just a sideline since Mom wants to work. You see, Mom grew up in a poor family—"

"Two espressos!" Jimin shouted as Yoongi prepared them while Minji was speaking.

"That's why she's not used to staying in the house all day. She really needed to let out all her sweat," Minji said, helping Yoongi prepare.

"Really? Wow, you and Jimin must be living beautifully then."

"Eh, now? Yes. But when we were young, we were really poor. We stayed in an apartment that could barely fit the four of us. When Jimin was 8, he joined modeling, we earned money, and Dad used that money to start a business. And here we are!" she said, smiling proudly at her dongsaeng while he was taking orders.

"Pst, don't tell him I told you this story. He'll kill me," she said, whispering to Yoongi. "The reason why he gets so scared of thunder and lightning? It's because he got hit by lightning. In fact, if you could see him topless, he has a big scar on his back where the lightning struck him." Yoongi widened his eyes.

"That must have been so hard for him."

"True. He nearly died because of it. We considered it a miracle when he lived. We really saw the monitor screen with a faint line, but when the doctors defibrillated him, he opened his eyes," she said while putting the espresso in the cup and handing it to Jimin.

When they turned their heads to the line of people, it had already gotten longer, to the point that people had to wait outside.

Minji and Yoongi could only smile awkwardly when Jimin turned his head toward them. "Aih, you two are such big gossips."

Yoongi chuckled and went back to work. He was really curious about Jimin.

****

It was a cold Monday and Yoongi was stressed. Usually, if he was this stressed and cold, he wanted to light a cigarette. But where? It was break time and there were lots of students roaming the area. A-not-so-great idea came to his mind.

The rooftop.

Before you could scream and scold him, he did his research. He had asked Jennie for the perfect place to smoke, and the young girl answered with the one place that had gotten Yoongi kicked out of his former school: the rooftop. Students rarely went there, and you could easily hide your cigarette when you heard someone enter since the door was rusty and made a loud noise.

He found himself lighting a cigarette. It was black with a blue dot on the filter, indicating that it had a minty flavor when popped. He quickly popped it and lit his cigarette, inhaling deeply.

"This tastes so good," he said, taking another drag.

"What tastes good?" Yoongi felt his blood rush to his head.

This is it, goodbye college.

He turned his head slowly.

"Oh, it's you." He let out a sigh of relief, realizing it was only Jimin.

"You're smoking? Again? I thought you quit," Jimin said with furrowed brows and angry eyes.

"How did you know I smoke?"

"Your brother told me."

"Why do you even care? You're always barging into my life. Cut it out, will you?" As soon as Yoongi said that, Jimin snatched the cigarette from his hand. "Jimin, hand it over."

"No, this is bad for you."

"Please, Jimin? I'm really stressed. I need this. I can't figure out how to pay for my tuition, I can't get my clearance signed without paying it, and I can't take our midterms," Yoongi pleaded with tired eyes.

Jimin sighed. "You could have easily asked me for money, Yoongi. It's okay if you don't pay me back."

"That's bullshit. I can't just ask for money like that."

"You can, because you're my friend, Yoongi. Friends do that."

"No."

"Fine, give me one cigarette then."

Yoongi widened his eyes. "Bitch, no. I paid for these with my hard-earned money."

"I'll buy you a new pack. The original ones, not your crafted ones," Jimin said, laughing, which made Yoongi scoff and finally give in.

Jimin handed the cigarette back to Yoongi while he lit a new one for himself.

Yoongi put his cigarette into his mouth, while Jimin leaned in, making Yoongi widen his eyes.

"W-what are you doing?"

"Lighting my cigarette?"

Jimin lit his cigarette from Yoongi's. "You could have asked for my lighter, you idiot! We look like a couple here!"

Jimin smiled as he backed away. "Hehe, I liked it that way."

"I didn't know you smoked?"

"When life fucks you up, light a cigarette and all will be well."

"Your quote is not motivating, but cancerous, Jimin."

"But seriously though, Yoongs. You shouldn't smoke when you're stressed. You can just ask me for some money, I can give it to you."

"Shut up. If I could make someone my sugar daddy, I would let them."

"Did you mean sugar mommy?"

Yoongi cursed at himself.

"U-uh."

"Are you telling me that you're gay, Yoongi?"

"H-hey! You're the one who's gay since you lit your cigarette like couples do in movies!" Yoongi retorted.

"Heh, did it work?"

"What?"

"Did it make your heart scream for me?"

"Shut the hell up, fag."

Look who's talking, Yoongi. Great one, now you sound like a homophobic asshole.

---

Hi! Glad to see you made it this far! Do you like this book? Leave a comment for me to be more motivated! Hehe