Chapter Text
It was a dark summer night in Liguria. The sun had just disappeared beyond the horizon, giving way to the pale glow of the moon.
School had just let out for the summer, which meant Yoongi was stuck helping his father on the family's fishing boat for the next three months while all of his friends got to spend their vacation having fun together.
He was finally heading home after a long day spent gutting the fish his father had caught. The warm glow of the streetlamps gave the medieval village he lived in a nostalgic charm.
The warm Italian evenings were far more bearable thanks to the gentle breeze that drifted through the needles of the maritime pine trees.
He was exhausted, barely able to keep his eyes open, when something caught his attention.
The café where he and his friends spent most of their time was empty, and a woman and a boy were carrying boxes inside.
Yoongi's phone suddenly began to vibrate.
"Who the fuck is calling me at midnight?"
Of course, it was Namjoon. Who else could it be?
Kim Namjoon was the leader of their group. He was the tallest and probably the only genuinely smart one among them, which made it a shame that he wasted his potential skipping school and hanging out with a bunch of idiots like the rest of them.
Their gang was fairly big. Besides the tall guy, there was Seokjin, the group's mom; Taehyung, who was honestly too dumb to have an actual role; Hoseok, the funny one; and Jungkook, the youngest of them all.
"Hey, Yoongi hyung, wanna hang out? Everyone else is coming too. We were thinking of having a bonfire on the beach."
Summer had only just begun, and Yoongi wanted nothing more than to rest and recover from the exhausting school year. Yet those idiots were already asking him to go out.
Still, the bonfire idea wasn't bad. They'd spend the whole night laughing and freestyle rapping.
Music was their greatest passion, after all, and it was the very thing that had brought the group together.
"I'm coming."
Just before hanging up, he heard his friends' excited cheers echoing through the phone's speaker.
He had no idea how an annoying asshole like him had somehow managed to have friends.
The truth was, Hoseok had dragged him into the group. They'd known each other since kindergarten, and Hoseok had practically forced him to join.
As much as Yoongi hated admitting it, those guys were the best thing that had ever happened to him. They literally saved his life.
At least, they had been... before a boy with full rosy lips barged into his life and aggressively shattered the little peace he had.
As he walked through the narrow streets of Finalborgo, his mind wandered.
He had to avoid at all costs that one narrow alley. Too much bad memories.
He had failed the school year. By now, school felt completely meaningless to him. Then again, it wasn't much different for Jin, considering it was already the second time he'd been held back.
After the summer, they should have been starting their fourth year of high school. Instead, the youngest, Jungkook, would be starting high school for the first time.
Deep down, Yoongi hoped Kookie wouldn't end up following in his hyungs' footsteps. A bright kid like him deserved a future full of opportunities.
Streetlight after streetlight, he got closer to the beach. In the distance, he could already see the bright glow of the bonfire the others had lit.
Tonight, he had no intention of sleeping.
Otherwise, his thoughts would swallow him whole, just like they always did.
Yoongi finally reached the beach.
Hoseok immediately started shouting, and the others sprinted toward him.
He barely had time to set his bag down before Namjoon and Jungkook lifted him off the ground and started carrying him toward the ocean.
"What the fuck are you doing? Put me down!"
He struggled with all his strength.
"Hyung, you're pathetic. You're never getting free with those tiny arms of yours."
Yoongi had never been athletic. Jungkook, on the other hand, despite being the youngest, was by far the strongest of them all.
"One... two... three!"
A loud splash echoed through the night as Yoongi hit the water.
They all knew he hated being in the sea, and the expression on his face made the whole thing ten times funnier.
Almost at the same time, everyone turned to look at Taehyung.
He immediately took off running, screaming like a headless chicken.
Yoongi couldn't help laughing as he watched Taehyung suffer the exact same fate.
Moments later, everyone jumped into the water together.
None of them had thought to put on swimsuits beforehand, so when they climbed back onto the beach, they were absolutely soaked.
And of course, no bonfire was complete without alcohol.
Yoongi knew his alcohol tolerance was embarrassingly low, but he still decided to drink a few beers too many.
At that point, he simply didn't care anymore.
---
"Jin hyung, where'd you get all this alcohol?"
"From the bar on the corner. It's under new management now. There's a guy around our age working there, along with who I think is his mom. He seemed pretty nice. We kind of owe him one after he sold us beer even though we're all underage."
So that was who Yoongi had seen earlier that evening—the new waiter at the bar.
The night went on with laughter, freestyle battles, songs about girls, and endless complaints about school.
Bottle after bottle, Yoongi's vision became blurrier.
The words started pouring out of his mouth without restraint.
It was finally his turn to rap.
"Yoongi! Yoongi! Yoongi!"
The others were hyping him up.
He smirked and started rapping.
Whenever Yoongi got into his flow, he was unstoppable.
The others always teased him, saying that no one else had "tongue technology" quite like his.
"We all know who won," the leader exclaimed.
Everyone turned to look at Yoongi, who was so drunk that he barely understood what was happening anymore.
---
Later that night, they decided to head home, change into dry clothes, grab their bikes, and go exploring the abandoned buildings next to the beach parking lot.
The route was always the same. As much as Yoongi loved that little town, it could feel suffocating at times.
Everyone knew everyone—except for the new guy, who had apparently just moved there to help his mother run the bar.
Considering he'd sold them alcohol despite them being underage, it was only a matter of time before he ended up hanging out with them.
Jin hyung would make sure of that.
By the time Yoongi got home, it was already two in the morning, and his parents had been asleep for hours.
As he climbed the stairs to his room, he nearly tripped a couple of times.
He was completely soaked.
After changing out of his wet clothes, he opened the window and hung them on the clothesline that stretched between his window and the one across the narrow alley.
As he finished hanging them up, the window opposite has opened.
A boy who looked about his age stepped into view.
The first thing Yoongi noticed was his full, rosy lips. He had broken eye contact almost immediately—far too quickly to notice much else.
Yoongi hated looking people in the eyes. Still, he was incredibly observant, and he couldn't help noticing the apron the boy had hung out to dry. It had the logo of the same bar where Jin hyung had bought the alcohol.
So that was the famous waiter.
And he had moved into the house directly across from Yoongi's—the one that had stood empty for as long as anyone could remember.