TARGET.

☉ TWELVE ☉

It was a funny thing, Yugyeom thought, how Target was not listed as the first thing under the official definition for "hell."

He took back what he said about Target not being so bad, because in truth and in fact, it was.

Today marked a full month of Yugyeom working there, and he had learned the hard way that he should never ever, not even for a second, think that Target was or could be a nice place to be employed.

The first real disappointment came when he got his bi-weekly paycheck of sixty thousand won, which was hardly enough. Sure, he literally did the bare minimum at work, but he didn't expect to get to get the bare minimum in return.

The second upset was that he now had to work on Saturdays, which would have been fine if the other six had to do so as well.

They didn't.

For the past two Saturdays, they've been coming into the store, claiming that they missed Yugyeom but really just wanting to tease him about being at work because they all had nothing better to do.

The final straw was when his parents left him almost overnight at the store because his grandmother had come over for a surprise visit.

Actually, he could understand that. His grandmother was a handful.

    The real final straw was when JYP switched him from working in Electronics to being an all-rounder, which meant that he had to assist customers with every aspect of the store, as well as fill in for Jaebum or Jinyoung at the cash register whenever they got tired... and by tired, they meant they were just being fucking lazy.

"Youngjae, can I have a price check on this, please?"

    Throwing all that fuck-shit aside, compared to what had been happening throughout the month, this Thursday had been fairly normal for Yugyeom. Nothing odd had happened. Nobody's kid got stuck in the toilet, nobody came in asking for anal beads, nothing got stuck in the air conditioning; absolutely nothing had happened so far.

    "Fuck off, Yugioh."

    Never mind.

    "Excuse me?" Yugyeom said, eyebrows raised in surprise as Youngjae snapped at him.

    "Did I stutter?" Youngjae replied with a frown.

    "Did something happen?" Yugyeom asked, clearly confused as to why Youngjae, of all people, was being a bitch to him at this time.

After a moment of the two staring at each other, Youngjae finally sighed, and Yugyeom immediately knew what was going on.

"Is it Jaebum again?"

Over the past month, there had been a few incidents where Jaebum would unintentionally upset Youngjae, and the word unintentionally is used because, for who knows what reason, Youngjae still hadn't told the other about his feelings towards him.

    "Is it that obvious?" Youngjae sighed out, dropping his shoulders and his facial expression simultaneously. Yugyeom only nodded before setting the item he had tried to get a price check on - a hulk mask that some annoying kid in aisle three was asking about - down on the counter.

    "What happened this time?" Yugyeom asked, although by now he was tired of hearing all of Youngjae's stupid stories.

    "I was helping him restock some skin care products and he somehow ended up telling me that I was like the brother he never had and I just- ugh!"

    Yugyeom nodded in fake understanding. "Well, consider this," he said before picking up the mask. "Give me a price check on this thing."

    Youngjae just scoffed before swiping the mask out of the other's hand. "You're so mean." He typed something into a nearby computer. "Jinyoung is rubbing off on you."

   That made Yugyeom breath out a laugh. For some reason, Jinyoung hadn't been all that mean anymore. Well, not to Yugyeom, at least. "Nah," Yugyeom said, shaking his head.

    "Yeah, well, you're no help to my situation," Youngjae retorted before handing the mask back over to the taller. "Nine thousand won."

    "No, I've already tried to help you," he replied, pushing the mask aside on the counter. "We've all tried to help you, but you refuse to listen to us and tell him how you feel."

    "Tell who how you feel?"

    Both boys jumped suddenly as Jaebum appeared, seemingly out of thin air.

    "My mother!" Youngjae replied quickly. "I need to tell me mother how I really feel about her new boyfriend." He then stepped out from behind the desk. "Yes, in fact I'll do it right now. Gotta blast, bye!" Then he was gone, leaving the desk unattended.

Rolling his eyes, Yugyeom shook his head.

"Does he know that I know that he likes me?"

Yugyeom's eyes went wide as Jaebum suddenly said that, and he whipped his head to the side to look at him. "You knew?"

"Of course I knew, do you think I'm fucking stupid?" Jaebum asked.

"I mean, sometimes I think you're kinda dumb- ow!" Yugyeom frowned and rubbed the area on his arm that Jaebum had just slapped.

"I've known Youngjae for four years, how was I not supposed to notice that he likes me?" the older said, folding his arms over his chest. "I'm just waiting until he grows some balls and finally admits it."

Yugyeom narrowed his eyes at the older. "Yah, you're so cruel, Jaebum."

"Not cruel," the older sighed out, "just really fucking patient." Then he suddenly smacked Yugyeom upside the head. "And I thought I told you that you need to show some damn respect and use "hyung" when talking to us!"

"I'm gonna get a damn concussion before I can even do that if you keep hitting me-"

"Hey, have you guys seen Jackson?" a voice suddenly said, making both of them turn to look. Mark was nearby, making his way over to them with a worried expression.

"No," Yugyeom answered. "Hyung," he added after receiving a glare from Jaebum.

"Well, if you see him, tell him I'm looking for him," Mark said. "Something really bad happened and he needs to know."

Before Yugyeom or Jaebum could ask any questions, Mark was already walking away, leaving the two of them to look at each other in confusion because this seemed pretty serious...

...and since when does anything serious ever happen at Target?

____

Hi this book is alive