TaeMin: Fuera De Servicio

1

 The man behind the register is crying.

Jimin isn't sure what it is he's said, but the man with the nametag Taehyung is clearly struggling not bawling his eyes out.

"A-Are you okay?" Jimin asks, and Taehyung sniffs, covering his mouth and nodding. "What's wrong, why're you crying?"

"B-Because...," Taehyung mumbles, and then looks down. "You said you h-hope I have a n-nice day."

What?

"Do people...not usually say that?" Jimin asks. It's a normal enough phrase.

The situation had been relatively normal.

Jimin walked into the store, then contemplated whether or not he should get something to eat first. Spying the in-store café, he shuffled past the Starbucks and towards the counter, leaning over and looking for anyone in sight. Of which there was none.

"Taehyung!" someone shouted, and there was a long pause before someone was jogging and shouting back, "Thank you!"

Jimin smiled wide and wiggled his fingers in greeting.

"Hi, sorry about that," the so-called Taehyung huffed, clicking things on the register. "I'm the only one back here right now."

"No, it's okay!" Jimin assured, because, well, duh. It was totally okay, he was sure there were about ten things for Taehyung to juggle behind the counter. "Just wasn't sure if you were open or not."

"Oh, we are, it's okay," Taehyung nodded. "What can I get you?" Jimin pursed his lips and looked up at the menu board above him. Now that he'd thought about it, he could probably buy some chips in the store as a snack instead.

"Ooh, uh... Can I get an Icee...thing?" Jimin asked, looking down and pointing at the cup display.

"Sure, which size?"

"Mm... Medium." Taehyung shuffled a cup and a lid out and slid it across the counter, then bit his lip.

"There's, uh, just no refills on the Icee, okay?" Taehyung said cautiously, and Jimin nodded, understanding.

"No worries, I get it," Jimin assured, and Taehyung punched in something on the register.

"Anything else?"

"No, I think that'll do it for me today."

"Okay, it'll be $2.17," Taehyung said, and Jimin nodded, pulling out a debit card and putting it in the chip reader. "Oh, sir, other way."

"Oh, yeah, thanks," Jimin laughed, flipping his card the other way, and Taehyung let out a nervous chuckle. "So, how's your day been so far?"

"Good, and yours?" Taehyung replied quickly, and Jimin could tell it was a sort of automated response.

"Pretty good. Getting an Icee, going to buy chips... Eventful day." Jimin smiled heartily as he waited for the card reader to go to the next screen. Taehyung smiled, thankfully. "Has your day been long?"

"No, I've only been here for about an hour," Taehyung replied. "It's been really slow, though, so..."

"Oh, yeah, I know the feeling. One hour just feels like five hours, huh?"

"Ha, yeah."

"It'll probably speed up later, though, huh?" Jimin went to put in his pin number for his card as Taehyung rocked on his feet back and forth.

"Maybe, but it's Thursday, and all the kids are back in school. It'll be more busy on the weekends, I'm sure." Taehyung gave a worker's smile and Jimin nodded in agreement.

"Do you work weekends?" he ended up asking, and Taehyung seemed so surprised at the inquiry.

"Well, this weekend, I'm off on the Saturday. but I work the Sunday."

"Ooh, what fun." Jimin laughed as he took out his card. "I'll cheer for you, then. I'll come back on Sunday and give you moral support all day."

Taehyung had the most shocked look Jimin had ever seen, but he didn't let it faze him too much. He had an Icee to fill, anyways.

"Do you need a receipt?" Taehyung asked carefully, and Jimin shook his head.

"No, no thanks, but thank you," Jimin nodded.

"Thank you." Jimin smiled wide and gave a finger heart to lighten up the mood a little.

Then the phrase.

"Well, I hope you have a really good day, okay?"

Then Taehyung had started crying.

Which brings Jimin to now.

"Hey, Taehyung...," Jimin hums, abandoning his Icee and tapping his shoulder, making him look up. "Really, don't cry, okay? I'm sorry people are mean to you, I didn't think people were like that." Taehyung heaves a big sniff and rubs his eyes, shaking his head.

"It's okay, I just...," he huffs. "Sorry, I shouldn't be...talking about other customers-"

"You mean the ones who treat you like shit?" Jimin guesses, and continues, "The ones who are so impatient and picky that it's impossible to please them? The ones who don't say please or thank you or even care about how you're feeling?"

Hesitantly, Taehyung nods.

"Be honest," Jimin says. "When's the last time someone asked you how you were?"

It takes a minute for Taehyung to answer.

"Well, an older man asked me...," Taehyung says quietly.

"Okay, let me rephrase: When's the last time someone asked and actually cared about your answer?"

It takes Taehyung a lot longer before he answers.

"That's...pretty much just you." He sighs, "It just sounded so genuine, like someone actually cared about if I was feeling okay, and not many people are very caring about it. They just want me to give them food and shut up." He crosses his arms. "It doesn't help when someone speaks Spanish, then gets impatient when I take too long to understand them." He throws his hands up in the air, "I mean, I know what dos palomitas de grandes means, oh, but then they don't mean grande, they mean unas palomitas de llevar a casa like I'm supposed to know they mean extra grande and I just-"

"Okay," Jimin stops him with a laugh. "Half of that run-on sentence I didn't catch because I don't speak Spanish, but I'm sure you were saying it all right." Taehyung shuts his mouth. "Hey, this might be weird, but... Can I give you my number or something?"

"You- What?" Taehyung says after a few moments, and Jimin chuckles.

"Can you print out a blank receipt?"

Taehyung, hesitantly, does so, and hands it off to Jimin with a pen, and Jimin scrawls his name and number before sliding it back.

"When work gets to be too much, go ahead and complain about it to me," Jimin tells him. "I've been in your shoes before." Jimin stands back up and grabs his Icee. "And I really do hope you have a nice day, okay?"

Taehyung nods as he plucks the paper and pen, and Jimin walks over to the Icee machine, gets his drink, and is into the store with a wave goodbye.

Taehyung can tell the rest of his day is going to be okay.