The Earthquake of 2016 | A BTS Story

Area 1: Flower Shop

...twenty years later...

Park Jimin danced along to his bouncy music as he searched the shelf of flowers, looking for any Mexican Petunia's, his favorite flower.

Jimin turned a corner and bumped into someone, immediately taking his earbuds out. "I'm so sorry!" He bowed and looked up.

"Oh, hi!" A male with brown hair smiled at him. Jimin tried to recall the face, but he couldn't. He just moved to Ilsan, he had no clue who this man was. "It is okay that you bumped into me, it happens all the time." He moved his hands out to shrug. Jimin felt awkward. "Okay, have a good day." He smiled and slipped past him, sighing in relief. A strong urge to just scream hit him, but he was an adult now, he learned to control his ADHD. Continuing to look, the flower shop door dinged as a sign someone else walked in. Always perking up at any sound, Jimin turned to look.

A man, that looked around mid-twenties entered with another man, both having natural brown hair. "Welcome!" The cashier smiled at them, and the man smiled and bowed slightly to him. Jimin was confused why he didn't speak back.

Resisting the urge to say hi, Jimin forgot what he was looking for. Staring at a pretty yellow flower, he thought maybe that was the one he was looking for.

"Mexican Petunia, Jimin-ah." The owner smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Oh, thank you hyung!" Jimin snapped as he remembered. He was a daily visitor, and built a nice relationship with the owner. Every time he entered, he told the owner what he was looking for. He knew Jimin had ADHD, so whenever Jimin looked puzzled the owner reminded him what he wanted.

"They're right here." He grabbed a purple flower and handed a bouquet to him. Jimin rocked on his heals, containing his excitement. "Thank you so much, hyung!" Jimin squealed louder than anticipated. "Sorry-" "Keep it low, Jimin-ah." The owner scolded him lightly, noticing how a young male behind him flinched. Jimin bowed and continued looking for another flower that would look good with purple.

Circling the store four times, in total there were nine people counting the owner and cashier in the small flower shop. Jimin had a thing with counting, he had to count everything. At first in his teenager years he thought his doctor mis-diagnosed him with ADHD rather than OCD, but the doctor was right, as always. Maybe it was because he was just curious...

Placing his earbuds back in to get bursts of energy out through dancing, he danced around some customers until he accidentally hit one in the head. It was a paler boy with black hair. "I'm so sorry, sir!" Jimin gulped. He looked scary. He rubbed his head in pain. "It's fine, kid, you gotta get some things out..." He mumbled to him. "You gotta enjoy life while you can..."

It was questionable, but Jimin just felt overwhelmed that he was making a big mess, interrupting two shopper's experiences. Muttering an apology, he went to check out, waiting for the male he bumped into the first time to finish counting his money. He looked like he was having a difficult time.

"What was the number, again?" He asked, rather slowly. Analyzing him, he had to be younger than thirty, so Jimin was confused. "Six twenty-four." The female cashier repeated. The male nodded, and looked back down at his bills. It was extremely hard for Jimin to be patient, but maybe the male had a disability with counting.

"One, two- oh, that's a five." He awkwardly handed the three bills to the cashier. He seemed nervous. The black haired male stood behind Jimin now, a line of three forming.

"Here is your change, have a nice day." She handed him some coins and a receipt, placing his flowers in a bag with care. "You are very pretty." He added on, losing track of what he was supposed to do after. She laughed shyly. "Thank you..." She looked at him, bashful.

The man stood there for another minute, staring at the wall which was weird and made everyone, especially the cashier, awkward. "Oh, yeah, I can leave now, bye!" He waved, grabbing his flowers and making a few steps towards the door.

"Hi!" Jimin jumped in front of the counter and placed his flowers down. "Good morning, Jimin oppa." She giggled and scanned the tag on the stems. "I remembered the prices, I got it." He dug into his wallet for three forty-six.

Suddenly, the ground started to shake. Looking down, Jimin's phone signal went dead and things started to fall from the nearby shelves, glass crashing as it came in contact with the ground. Feeling vibrations run up Jimin's spine, his heart skipped a beat or two. There was a loud BOOM! from outside, and turning towards the entrance/exit, the first male was looking down at the floor as it split apart.

"EARTHQUAKE!" Jimin dove for the male and pulled him closer to the yellow flowers, just as the earth ripped through the shop, tearing the floor apart like an angry monster. Shelves of flowers slid down the slope and fell into the earth. Jimin watched in horror as the gap widened outside in the streets, car horns blaring as they drove right into the cracks of the earth, and Jimin could see fire and lava at the bottom.

Buildings outside started to crumble and collapse, and Jimin held onto the stranger for dear life, scared he would never get home to his gecko, Rick. Loud rumbles, horns, sirens, and screams could be heard outside the shop as all glass shattered, cutting Jimin's face as it blasted across the store.

The concrete outside cracked and crumbled into the broken earth, a huge split in the flower shop. If Jimin had backed up, he would've fallen into the earth and died instantly. The rip across the store branched off to the left, taking the counter into its void. "SEHYUN!" Jimin screamed, as the cashier disappeared, the earth taking in the whole right half of the store. With no shelves or counters, Jimin only saw six other people around the walls of the store. The man with black hair was staring in shock at the gap in the earth, and a middle-aged man was cuddled into the far corner of the store on the floor, crying into his knees. Jimin realized they were all boys.

Closing his eyes he pushed his face into the stranger's chest, and the stranger hugged him back, their bodies against the frames of the windows that shattered.