Chapter Text
The feeling of heavy November air was something no one was able to escape. Breathing in this air was not the most pleasurable thing, but what are humans supposed to do, die?
The preparations for Christmas were up and running. Every retail store had "the best Christmas sales". Every kid wanted to visit the fake Santa in the mall. All of this was guaranteed to happen next year. And year after that. You get the idea.
Yoongi was exhausted. Christmas was a month away, but that didn't concern universities. He was on his way back to the dorm after 4-hour long study/research session. He knew investigative journalism was not going to be fun and easy, but the essays he had to write were taking forever. Hours of research, finding if the sources are reliable, connecting the dots and writing... it was super unamusing.
Why did he even want to study that? He couldn't remember. And he didn't particularly care. Not knowing what he wants to do, it is so much easier to go with the flow. Do what the people want you to do is way painless than finding your passion. Yoongi was slowly rolling down the streets, not going straight to his dorm. His headphones were playing his nighttime playlist as he was looking around. This route was nothing unfamiliar for him, he has walked here for more than a hundred times. But something about the street was calming. Maybe the poorly lit corners, the absence of people or the moon?
His phone buzzed. Yoongi stopped and looked at the notification:
Namjoon: hey yoongs, are you coming back to the dorm tonight?
You: Yes Joon, I am on my way. See you
He put his phone back to his hoodie pocket, skipping a few songs from the playlist. The dorm was not far away, maybe another ten minutes on foot. He frequently took a shortcut, there was this not frequently visited park that he liked. In this park was old and abandoned carousel, and he liked the look of it. Yoongi has walked around the carousel so many times he stopped counting. But when he walked around this time, he noticed a cubic shaped machine. Was it there all the time? Curiosity getting the best of him, he decided to go in and investigate. After a closer look, he realized: it is a photo booth.
"That's weird," he thought to himself. "Did I missed it every time I was here?" The machine looked old, nobody obviously was taking care of it. Above the curtain leading to the small space was a big red sign "WELCOME". Looked really repulsive.
" I wonder if it still works."
He drew aside the curtain and stepped into the small room. It was nothing ordinary, a regular photo booth. A place to sit and across from that was a black screen and a camera. Insides of the booth were mostly champagne colour with red accents, it reminded him of a cheap replica of a theatre interior.
He sat down on the stool and turned his attention to the screen. It was black, maybe not even working properly anymore. He pressed the "start" button, expecting a menu to appear. But instead, there was just a big sign saying: PAY
"Well, this is a straightforward machine."
Yoongi reached for his wallet, hardly finding enough coins to put into the machine. But after he paid the amount written under the ridiculous PAY sign, the photo booth began to shake. It caught him off guard, so he fell down on his knees. "What the hell?"
Then he heard it. "Click," the machine stopped shaking. Yoongi stood up, making sure his clothes weren't dirty from the fall.
He looked around and noticed a small long piece of paper fell to the compartment where the photos were supposed to fell out. He frowned. Why would pictures fall out when the machine did not take any pictures of him?
He reached out for the set of pictures. And it took his breath away.
Not that the photos were special. But the person on those photos...
Yoongi was looking at the most beautiful human being he has ever seen.
A young man, maybe in his 20s, dark hair and dark eyes. On these pictures, he was pulling down his shirt. And on the last photo, he was shirtless.
Yoongi was blushing. Who was this person? Why didn't he take the pictures? Was he an angel?
He stood there, in the small room of a photobooth, studying the photos. There was something off about them. Sure, the man was astounding, but there was something in his expression... Yoongi couldn't quite catch what was it.
He noticed something written on the bottom of the last picture. "Jiminie, 24.12.2014"
He blinked twice in disbelief. The pictures were in the machine for four years? Why? What does it mean?
"Jiminie," he said out loud and smiled. It sounded nice.
His admiring of the pictures was interrupted when his phone started buzzing like crazy. He looked at the screen.
"Oh, Joon."
Yoongi picked up the call: "Hey Joonie, what do you need?"
"Are you okay? You texted me 20 minutes ago that you are going back."
"I am," he assured him, "I just wanted to take a look at something. Don't worry, I am really going now. For real."
"Okay, see you then."
The call ended and Yoongi quickly showed his phone and the photo set to his pocket. Without any other delay, he hurried home.
The photobooth again became abandoned.