There's a boy sitting on the bench across the street.
He's been there for too long. Yoongi knows this because he's been outside for more than an hour now, in the sweltering heat, trying to tear down the old displays on the shop window and put up the newer ones that Seokjin printed recently. It should have been an easy job, but some fool (Kim Taehyung) had plastered the posters to the window with way too much efficiency, and it's hell trying to get them down and clean up the ugly stains they've left behind.
And all this time, the boy has stayed there. There's a large cup in his hand - something that might have been ice cream once but now he trusts will resemble glop.
Something about him looks familiar. Yoongi doesn't dwell on it. He's learned not to - it makes things harder for him when he realizes what does because then he can never look away.
He decides to wait until he's done with the window. And then, if he's still there, Yoongi can maybe do something about it.
He scrubs at the glass with their improvised cleaning liquid - hand soap poured into water - and scratches the bits that don't come off with his nails. The wet paper and dirt cake under them, and it's overall disgusting, but Yoongi has had to clean up worse messes in this store and it doesn't really bother him anymore.
Seokjin's store isn't very popular. It's tucked too far into a side street, away from the main road. The only people who use it are the ones who don't live too far off. It's better this way for customer relations - Yoongi knows most of their customers by name and can ask them about their children and dogs and cats when they stop by - but it isn't too great for their finances. Too many times the store has nearly had to close down. Too many times Yoongi has had his salary docked. But they're still standing somehow. They still make it out of slumps with just enough ground to stand on.
When the windows are clean enough to not look outright terrible, he pulls out the new flyers. They're advertising what the always do, but in better colours - special offers, birthday specials, and anything you want, we can get for you. It's all in pastel, with elegant letters - Seokjin doesn't like flashy. He says everything about it rings false.
Everything is about trust, he's said, over and over again. We want people to think of this as home.
He tries his best to stick the flyers up straight, no ends crooked. When he's done, he glances over his shoulder.
The boy is still there, twirling the cup in his hands.
Yoongi sighs. He wipes his hands on his work overcoat, and then lifts the hem up, bending lower to dab at the sweat on his forehead. It's too humid to be sitting outside for so long. He should tell the boy to knock it off and go somewhere with more shade.
He crosses the empty street easily. Vehicles are rare and far apart.
"Hey," he says, stopping in front of the bench.
The boy looks up, startled. "Hi?"
"If whatever is in that cup is making you that miserable, maybe you shouldn't be having it."
The boy frowns. "Milkshake," he says, like that was the part that mattered. "I...uh. It's expensive."
"...you want to have it because it's expensive?"
"I want to have it because I like it," the boy insists. His eyes are too big for his face, too expressive. They pull at something at the back of Yoongi's mind, but he doesn't let himself think about it. "It's just...also expensive. I can't usually afford it."
"Today's a special day, then?" Yoongi asks, but it comes out a bit dry. It doesn't seem likely with how miserable he looks, but who knows. Maybe he got his pay check and didn't know what to do with it, and is now starting to realize that he could have saved it for something better.
