Misfortune Kookie

2. Slice of Life

Taehyung walked down the sidewalk as he left the apartment building, weaving his way through the steady stream of afternoon traffic. He kept thinking about all the challenges he had lost to Jungkook. Taehyung wasn't overly competitive, but he hated feeling like he was bad at everything. He moved his hands in front of his face as he looked at the pads of his fingers to see the slight imprint of the controller buttons there.

"How is it fair that he is good at everything?" muttered Taehyung. "Why can't he lose just once?"

Taehyung was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he wasn't paying attention to where his feet were leading him. As he was bringing his hands away from his face, he ended up bumping headlong into a person as they left a nearby shop.

"I'm sorry," apologized Taehyung immediately as he looked up to see that the person he had bumped into was holding some sort of pizza box in their hands. Thankfully they had managed to hold it up and away from Taehyung so he hadn't ruined it.

Pizza sounded just as good as any other alternative tonight, so Taehyung turned to look the way of the pizza parlor. The 'Slice of Life' pizza parlor was situated between two mammoth buildings in such a way that it looked as if it were about to be squished. Through the display window where a semi-fritzing green and red 'Open' sign hung, he could see that the interior only had room for two tables. Taehyung didn't let any of this deter him though. Instead he moved to walk towards it and entered.

A small bell rang out as he entered the restaurant; his feet sticking slightly to the black and white tiles as he made his way towards the front counter. A soda cooler off to his right hummed loudly as he reached the front counter to see no one in sight. If Taehyung was honest with himself, the entire place was quiet aside from the soda cooler.

"Hello?" Taehyung called out, leaning sideways a bit to see if he could see into the kitchen. "Anyone here?"

Just when Taehyung was thinking about leaving, someone popped up from behind the front counter. Surprised by the sudden appearance, Taehyung let out a semi-shrill scream and jumped backwards with his hands curled up in front of his chest incase he had to defend himself. The middle-aged man that had appeared from behind the counter chuckled at Taehyung's scared reaction.

"I'm sorry young man. I didn't mean to frighten you," said the man. "Are you here to place an order?"

Taehyung nodded as he tried to slow the rapid beating of his heart. The man immediately produced an order pad from the pocket of the flour covered apron he was wearing, flipping to a new page in order to write down Taehyung's pizza order.

"Two supreme pizzas coming right up!" the man said with a chipper voice after Taehyung had ordered, disappearing out back into the kitchen.

As Taehyung stood there waiting, he cast his eyes about the place again to observe it in greater detail. It was then that his eyes landed on an odd glass jar on the counter. When he had first come inside, he had thought that it was a tip jar of some sort. However, now he could see that it held fortune cookies.

"You can take some if you want," said the man as he suddenly appeared behind the counter, scaring Taehyung for a second time. This time Taehyung stumbled backwards into a table behind him at the scare.

'This man is too good at jump scares,' thought Taehyung as he looked at the man.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to jump you again," continued the man.

"It's fine. I was just distracted is all."

"Mmm...it's easy for us to get distracted by our own thoughts," remarked the man as he set the two pizza boxes on the counter.

After setting the pizza boxes down, the man grabbed up the jar of fortune cookies nearby that Taehyung had been looking at earlier.

"Take some fortune cookies for the road," said the man. "Good luck may be in store for you."

"I could use it," mumbled Taehyung as he stuck his hand in the fortune cookie jar. He grabbed five cookies so they could all have one before thanking the man one more time as he paid for his food.

When Taehyung arrived back at the apartment with the pizza, he kicked the door shut with his foot and put the pizza down on the kitchen island.

"Food is served," he said as he toed his shoes off by the door.

Yoongi jumped awake from where he had fallen to sleep in the arm chair while Jungkook, Namjoon, and Jimin got up from the couch they had been sitting on. Taehyung placed the five fortune cookies on top of the pizza box as the four trailed out into the kitchen.

"Pizza and fortune cookies?" asked Yoongi with an arched brow.

Taehyung shrugged as he leaned against a nearby counter.

"Don't ask me. They were there and I thought some of us could use a little good luck around here."

Jungkook's ear tips turned red at Taehyung's comment as he bowed his head and moved to get out the paper plates. Namjoon tsked at the comment, walking over to Taehyung and swatting him on the back of the head.

"Be nice to Jungkook," admonished Namjoon.

"Yeah. It's not his fault he is good at everything," piped up Jimin, shying back into the living room when he saw Taehyung glare his way. Jimin pointed a finger at him as he added, "You stay over there and don't even think about slapping me again."

Jungkook put the paper plates down and stood off to the side near the fridge as Namjoon moved to open the pizza box. Namjoon then turned to nudge the guilty looking Jungkook closer to take a slice. Namjoon watched Jungkook take his pizza slice and nibble at it off to the side.

The five of them didn't talk very much while they were eating due to Taehyung being lost in his thoughts and Jungkook acting like he had committed some sort of horrible crime. Namjoon decided that the best way to break the ice was to eat the fortune cookies after and share their fortunes out loud with one another. Jimin offered to go first, but as he cracked open his cookie, he frowned at the slip inside.

"Mine is blank," said Jimin. He threw the blank slip onto the table by the pizza box before shoving the cookie halves into his mouth. "It's defective, but still delicious."

Namjoon chuckled, rolling his eyes as he watched Yoongi snap his fortune cookie in half.

"Mine is also defective," said Yoongi; the five of them watching as another blank slip of paper flitted down to rest on the counter.

Namjoon frowned as he snapped his open too; another blank slip of paper being added to the slowly growing pile.

"I bet Jungkook's the only one with a fortune," muttered Taehyung as he snapped his cookie open, looking at the blank slip of paper inside.

Jungkook undid the plastic about his fortune cookie, snapping his in half to pull the slip from it. Even from where he was standing, Taehyung could see the tiny blue writing on the slip of paper.

"Well, what's it say?" asked Taehyung as he crossed his arms across his chest.

"Good luck is fleeting. Best friends are what you are needing."

"What kind of idiotic mumbo jumbo is that?" asked Jimin.

"It's about what I'd expect from a pizza place fortune cookie," commented Yoongi as Jungkook put the slip of paper on the table.