Work Text:
x o x
Taehyung loved his job. It might be an unpopular opinion, but he enjoyed making sandwiches. Maybe it was something about the tranquil atmosphere in the Subway that he worked at: the soft hum of the air conditioner, the jingle of the bell that sounded when someone opened the door, the small area of heat given off by the toaster, or maybe that one bird that always flew by the window because it made a nest in the B of the Subway sign.
No... those don't sound right.
"Congrats, Taehyung. Employee of the month. Again," came the voice of a very unenthusiastic Min Yoongi, Taehyung's manager.
Oh yes, that must be why. Taehyung loved being number one. It's kind of ridiculous, but yes. He'll admit it. He gets his daily ego boost from looking at the certificate on the wall with his name on it, proclaiming him the best employee at this establishment. It's kind of sad that he relies on his job at fast food to give himself self-confidence, but hey. Different strokes for different folks.
"What would this place do without me, Yoongi?" he says dreamily, resting his gloved hands on top of the counter.
"We would just hire another employee," Yoongi says, exasperated. "In fact, now that we're getting more customers from the lunch rush, you could use some help, right?"
Taehyung does not need more help. He's been at this Subway for a full year now, and he's never had issues running both the sandwich station and the register. They've never had enough customers simultaneously to ever cause a problem for Taehyung's sub-making superpowers. (Yes, superpowers, because that's how good at sub-making he is.)
And on top of that, he only works here three days a week. As far as he knows, the other employees that take all the other shifts do fine doing solo shifts, also. It's up to Taehyung, as honorary employee of the month, to stick up for the other employees' dignity.
x o x
Fuck dignity. This ridiculous.
Taehyung is currently working the register, all the while throwing in a glare at Jeon fucking Jeongguk. Apparently, the new sandwich maker.
He's so slow at folding the meat, and once or twice he cut the bread a bit too harshly and ripped it. Taehyung knows he could do so much better, and he really just wants to show up Jeongguk, with his perfectly-parted hair, and sculpted biceps--
He walks away from the register.
"Jeongguk," he whispers, and suddenly an idea pops into his head when he sees a group of two men ready to order next. "I bet I can make a sub faster than you."
Jeongguk looks over at him, and gives him his best shit-eating smirk. Challenge accepted.
While Jeongguk's in the middle of wrapping his current sandwich, Taehyung goes to ask what bread the two gentlemen want, and he gets their little competition all set up.
Jeongguk finishes ringing up at the register, and he goes to Taehyung's side, giving him a small nod before he starts taking the first man's order. Begin.
God, the guy that Taehyung got is really indecisive. Ham--oh wait, no. Scratch that. Do roast beef instead. Swiss? No, don't do swiss.
Jeongguk is already to the dressings by the time Taehyung makes it to the vegetables, and by that time the race is already concluded because holy hell this guy cannot decide on whether he should do spinach or lettuce.
Even having time to bag a cookie as Jeongguk works the register, Taehyung still hasn't made it past the veggies.
Once Taehyung finally finishes in second, Jeongguk simply gives him a huge smile, nose crinkling and everything. Taehyung wanted to take the race seriously, but with a smile like that, he can't help but forget about it for just a second.
"It was an unbalanced test. Not fair if you ask me, but I'll let it slide," he jokes, and even gives a small smile back.
"Fair enough, fair enough. Until next time, though, I'm still the champion for now."
Receding back to his post at the register, he watches Jeongguk move with a new purpose, even though there's only one person in line at a time. Fine. This guy might be pretty okay... I guess.
x o x
Well... Taehyung didn't like Jeongguk much anymore.
The construction for the new highway nearby had just finished. Taehyung isn't a mathematician, but at least he knows that new highway plus food equals a horde of people flooding to Subway during the lunch rush.
Taehyung's arms are flailing like crazy, reaching for the turkey here, placing tomatoes there, and wrapping sandwiches everywhere. Yoongi has taken to the cash register to help out while Taehyung's pride in his sub-making is torn to shreds.
Oh, not to mention the new hire, Jeon Jeongguk.
In comparison to Taehyung, Jeongguk looks like a seasoned sandwich pro. Calm hands fold that turkey like it ain't no problem, while attentive, big brown eyes expertly differentiate provalone from parmesan. Somehow in the midst of this chaos, Jeongguk retains a perfect smile at the customers' impatient faces.
Taehyung has never dealt with customers as angry as these in his whole Subway career. Entirely because Taehyung always made perfect sandwiches. Now, however...
"Oh... meatball? I thought you said coleslaw!"
Needless to say, it was not going well. But Jeongguk... he was damn near perfect. Which, of course, was not okay in Taehyung's book. At all.
Now... listen. Taehyung has never considered himself a confrontational person. If someone raised a fist at him, he would probably burst into tears on the spot. That doesn't stop him from sneakily sabotaging Jeongguk, though. That employee of the month award is mine, bitch.
Sneaking a glance at a distracted Yoongi working the register, and Jeongguk working with a new customer, he spots his chance. He makes his move, and just before the timer on the toaster can go off, he presses cancel and restarts the minute-long toasting period. Before Jeongguk can turn around to get a new loaf of bread for the customer, Taehyung easily steps back into his place next to the vegetables.
After glancing at the toaster back few times, he repeats his process once it counts down to about ten seconds left. Thankfully they own multiple toasters, so even as Taehyung is cooking up that turkey-swiss sub extra toasty, Jeongguk is still able to access another toaster for more incoming orders.
Occupied by frantically slapping lettuce on the current sandwich, he almost doesn't notice the peculiar smoky scent. What kind of meat has that smell? He muses to himself. Last time I checked, our smoked roast beef doesn't even come close to that smell, even when the sandwich gets toasted--
Shit.
That must be a damn powerful toaster because he only reset the timer three times in total! He only wanted to blacken the edges of the bread just a little bit, maybe make the cheese an oozing mess, but he didn't expect for the fucking sandwich to spontaneously combust.
He has half a mind to feel bad for the customer he kept waiting for three minutes extra, but if he's honest, he's more focused on the flames licking at the inside of the toaster. At the consecutive gasping from all the customers in line, everyone is fleeing the radius around the oven, all except one person.
Jeongguk has long since registered the situation at hand, and has already jumped into action. Snatching the fire extinguisher nearby on the wall, he readies himself before he gently opens the sandwich toaster, and jumping back. Wielding that bright red extinguisher, Jeongguk reminds Taehyung of a fireman, bravely facing danger. That's kinda hot. Wait, no, fuck. Focus on the blazing dangerous inferno, here. Get out of its way. Let Jeongguk play hero and get himself hurt if he really wants to. I'm not apart of that.
Except, he doesn't get hurt. In fact, he does turn out to be the hero, when he easily puts out the small fire. Small fire. Why was everyone suddenly applauding Jeongguk? It wasn't that big of a deal. In fact, Jeongguk was running the toasting station. It was his fault, right? Right?
x o x
Later, when they closed for the day immediately after that incident and had someone to come look at the oven that malfunctioned, Taehyung actually felt some remorse. Jeongguk didn't look very shaken, but Taehyung was.
He unintentionally started a fire, but in which he intentionally tried to sabotage Jeongguk. He felt kind of guilty, and can't help but think of what could have happened had it been more out of control. Luckily, they had star employee Jeon Jeongguk to save the day. (At least, that's what Yoongi is calling Jeongguk now. Star employee. Gag.)
Taehyung makes a decision. For the sake of his smokin' hot co-worker--wait, no. That's not right. Shut up. He tells himself that it was out of pity for the poor toaster he set on fire, but who knows.
"Hey... guys. Listen, I was the one who actual--"
"Say, Jeongguk, I should make you employee of the month!" Yoongi says, even patting Jeongguk on the back, and Taehyung is seething. It was Jeongguk's station. He isn't employee-of-the-month material. So what? He put out a tiny fire. Big deal. I even started the fire--well--it was an accident. But that's besides the point.
x o x
Once Yoongi gives them the OK to leave the restaurant, Jeongguk finds a forlorn Taehyung sitting in his car (a Toyota Prius, which was practically his baby), staring ahead at nothing until he's startled by a knock on his window.
"What're you doing? Yoongi let us leave about ten minutes ago already," Jeongguk asks as Taehyung rolls down his window. On low volume, he faintly hears 'I Want To Know What Love Is' by Foreigner playing on Taehyung's radio. God, what's gotten into him?
Taehyung looks to his left, and is immediately greeted by the I'M A STAR! sticker resting upon Jeongguk's chest (upon his firm, muscular pectoral), and sneers at him.
"Hmm. I'm not sure. Though I'm pretty upset. Maybe Mr. Number One can save me, hmm?!" he exclaims out the window, and is greeted by innocent, bulging eyes. Taehyung really doesn't know what has gotten into him. He meant to make a sassy comment, sure, but that came out meaner than he intended it to be. He just saw the sticker Yoongi usually gave to him as employee of the month not on himself, but on Jeongguk, and he saw red. Or maybe he saw blue. Because he usually doesn't yell at people like that, and now he's really guilty, and fuck, he might be crying--
"Shit, Taehyung--what? What's wrong? Why are you crying? Was it... was it the fire? I know that was pretty stressful, but--"
"No, you--you piece of moldy mozzarella!" (Taehyung might have picked up a few good ol' sandwich insults from Yoongi, thanks Yoongi.) he exclaims, and he manages to calm down enough to shove a finger and point at Jeongguk's sticker, along with a quiet sniffle. Stop crying in front of Jeongguk over a sticker, Taehyung. Get a grip. This is humiliating.
Jeongguk seems to get the message (or at least he thinks he does, who the hell sobs over a sticker?) and says disbelievingly, "Oh, this thing? What... why are you upset over it?"
"I set the fire Jeongguk! Me! I'm the reason you got employee of the month!"
Jeongguk stares back at Taehyung dumbly, and totally misses the whole point. Taehyung wanted Jeongguk to be mad, to be equally upset because Taehyung had control over who got employee of the month. Taehyung tried to sabotage Jeongguk's perfect sandwich. Taehyung probably almost hurt Jeongguk, too. Because instead, he just takes the sticker off his uniform, and holds it out to Taehyung.
"If you really want it, you can have it. I didn't realize employee of the month was such a meaningful thing to you. Sorry."
God, it wasn't Jeongguk's fault, why was he apologizing? Stop it. You're supposed to be an evil sandwich-making machine, not this sweet, caring, cute--
"Um... do you want it?" Jeongguk quietly asks, albeit a bit bewildered. Taehyung simply reaches out of the window, takes the sticker, and promptly rips it in half.
He shakes his head, "Nah. You're right. That whole... employee of the month thing is kind of stupid," he says, and gives a shy smile up at Jeongguk, who is still standing outside of his car. "You walk to work, right? I can give you a ride home, if you want."
"Ah... sure. Why not? Thanks," he says, and rounds the car to get into the passenger side. As Taehyung puts in Jeongguk's apartment address into his GPS and starts to drive out of the parking lot, Jeongguk looks at Taehyung with a serious face.
"You know... you're right. I think that employee of the month stuff is a bunch of... bologna."
Taehyung laughs the whole ride home.
x o x