graveyard shift // pjm [completed]

cool ranch doritos

Nearly 24 hours after his strange encounter with the beautiful girl in monkey pajamas, Jimin found himself in the same position; slouched over a dirty counter, exhausted, and definitely not getting minimum wage.

Tonight was a Friday night, meaning a bit more customers came trickling in at the later hours. A group of boisterous young boys came in around 9 pm, making a mess of the candy aisle. Jimin left the counter to pick up the boxes strewn on the floor. While bent over retrieving the merchandise, the overhead bell rang above the door.

Jimin sprang up and ran back to the counter, making sure that the customer would not think it was unattended. Forgetting to put the candy back in it's right place, he haphazardly threw it on the ground behind the desk. He looked up to see nobody.

He sighed in disappointment, realizing he must've made the customer turn away, after seeing no one was at the counter.

He dropped to the floor to pick up the boxes he stupidly threw. When he stood back up, he was met with a body standing right in front of the counter.

He screamed loudly and dropped the candy boxes again. His eyes focused on a girl sporting a black tank top and grey loose shorts. The girl from last night.

He clutched his chest as he saw her stifle a laugh.

"You scared the shit out of me!" He gasped and covered his mouth, realising he swore in front of a customer. He apologized profusely, and the ethereal goddess in front of him just shook her head.

"That's okay," she said while finally releasing the giggles in her stomach. "Is all of that yours?" She asked, referring to the multiple boxes of candy on the floor for the third time.

"Oh, uh- no, these boys came in and the aisle was a mess so I picked the boxes up but then I heard you come in- well I didn't know it was you when you came in, I just heard the bell ring, and so I ran to the counter cause I didn't want to miss the customer, then I thought they left but I guess you didn't and then you scared me." He blushed after hearing himself ramble like an idiot.

"Got it. So, I'll have this please," She held out her item for him to scan, her eyes dancing with amusement as she watched Jimin suffer in his adorable humiliation.

A bag of Doritos laid before him.

And not just any kind of Doritos.

The Cool Ranch kind.

Jimin stared at it for a moment. He looked up at her.

"Really?" He asked, amused for the second night in a row. "Why do you come all the way here just to buy one thing? Why don't you buy like 3 and just eat one each night?" Jimin surprised himself with his sudden confidence to talk to this beautiful girl. He internally congratulated himself as he looked at the girl more intently.

"Because....it's not fun that way. Eliminates the element of surprise." She smirked, and Jimin swore he saw her wink at him. "Besides, it's not like it's a far walk, I live right next door, in the apartment complex." She explained, her tone sounding like she's explained this one too many times before.

"Oh." Was all that Jimin said. He couldn't find anything else to say.

Sometimes beautiful people to that to you.

"Now that you mention it, I'll also take one of those candy boxes you so gracefully dropped." The girl beamed, and Jimin had to take a moment to admire her smile. Her smile was grand, but also had a genuineness that Jimin had never seen in anyone before. And that intrigued him.

Jimin felt the heat in his cheeks.

"I get scared easily!" He tried defending himself.

"Do I really look that scary without makeup?" Her smile widened even larger, if that was even possible.

"No! Not at all! I meant I was just scared by you, as in, when you came up to me, I, I just didn't see you and it's not because of your face or anything like that at all! It was just-"

"I'm kidding. You're fun to mess with." She chuckled as she scooted her items closer to him, signaling that the conversation was almost over.

Jimin rang up the items and put them in a bag for her, his hands shaking throughout the whole process.

"See you tomorrow, Jimin." She said, peering at his nametag nonchalantly.

He called out goodbye before realizing he should have asked her name. The door closed behind her, and he watched the ends of her hair swing over her shoulder as she turned the corner and left.

Even though she was out of view for now, she still was never out of Jimin's brain. He couldn't stop smiling the whole shift.

And he hoped that never changed.