41. Fish Fight

"What is taking Jin so long? It's a shed. It's not like he could have lost the book in there..." muttered Jimin who - with the help of Hobi and Namjoon - had managed to get the cat man to get his fingers off the window. The evidence of his fingers having been plastered there remained though; traces of his fingerprints glinting in the afternoon sunlight.

"He might have gotten caught by his parents and dragged back to work," said Namjoon as he moved towards the restaurant. "Let me check."

As soon as Namjoon opened the door to the restaurant, the fragrance of fish in the air became a thousand times stronger. Jimin watched as the cat in Yoongi's body lurched forward to try to race into the restaurant while there was an opening. A loud hiss of disapproval could be heard from Yoongi in the cat's body at that action. Jimin tried to react right off, throwing himself at the back of the cat man to tackle him to the ground. A few patrons inside saw Jimin's ungraceful tackle and turned to look at him like he was the one with the problem. Jimin chose to ignore the looks his way, hoping that none of the patrons would dig out their phones for a picture as he kept his arms about the cat man as they laid tangled on the ground together, keeping him close to his chest.

"Stop it! You're a man right now so you need to act like it," he whispered harshly in the cat man's ear even though he knew that trying to reason with him was more than likely futile.

In response, the cat man let out a half human half cat sound of disapproval, trying to get free of Jimin's hold by scratching with his fingers at Jimin's arm.

"Thank goodness for this man's perfectly manicured nails," muttered Jimin softly with a sigh of relief.

Namjoon - who had opened the door to check for Jin and accidentally opened it to the chaos that followed - closed the door before turning to look at Jimin and the cat in Yoongi's body as they laid on the ground together like a human pretzel.

"Jin's back at work. I can see him trying to escape, but he's currently under the watchful eye of his father."

"So what do we do in the meantime?" asked Hobi.

Yoongi the cat looked at Namjoon with a look of expectation himself.

'Come on. You numbskulls can't leave me stuck like this,' thought Yoongi before looking over at Jimin holding his cat filled body down. 'My pride has already been wounded enough in the last few minutes to last a lifetime.'

Of course - being a cat - Yoongi couldn't say any of this out loud. Namjoon finally took a deep breath before replying.

"Do you think you can get him to the shed for now?"

"Do I think I can what now?" Jimin asked in slight exasperation.

The cat seemed to be realizing with each passing second how much stronger it was in a man's body, twisting and turning so much that Jimin felt his muscles straining to keep him held down. Jimin had to resort to throwing a leg over him to try to keep him to the ground in a move that would have put some wrestling moves to shame. 

"We can help you," reassured Namjoon as he nodded towards Hobi to include him in the 'we'. "Until Jin can get away again, we need to make sure he doesn't get away or cause a scene."

"Think it might be too late for the cause a scene part," said Jimin, "But we can try."

"Once we get him to the shed, I'll bring him some fish to try to settle him. Hopefully it'll only be for a few hours."

'A few hours,' thought Yoongi in despair. He wanted his body back now. He was completely confused by the conversation he had overheard and never expected to be caught in the crossfire. He began to worry that he would be stuck like this forever.

Yoongi followed after them as Namjoon walked over to Jimin, helping to haul the struggling man to his feet. Namjoon pinned the cat man between himself and Jimin as they each kept their hold about him and led him back towards the alley where the shed was. Hobi took up the rear to make sure that he was ready if the cat man suddenly decided to try and lurch free. By the time they made it to the cramped shed where they had sat with Jungkook and Taehyung what felt like forever ago, they managed to get the cat man inside. He didn't like being in the darkened cramped interior, trying to lurch several times for the exit. Yoongi the cat sat outside, watching the transaction with a shake of his head.

"I feel like we're kidnapping in a way," said Hobi as he stood by the door to the shed to prevent the cat man from exiting while Jimin was inside trying to get him to sit; Namjoon having quickly disappeared to enter the restaurant through the back entrance to try to get some fish to settle him.

"I suppose we are in a way," said Jimin as he turned to look at Hobi before his attention was immediately returned back to the cat man. "Sit you savage beast!"

'Idiots,' thought Yoongi. 'No wonder they can't get the album completed.'

Yoongi couldn't help but to wonder if a body swap had occurred and that was what was making the latest album stall out. After all, the snippets of conversation he had heard before his switch with the cat hadn't made a lot of sense. Yoongi wondered if Taehyung too had switched places with some animal.

As Jimin worked on trying to settle the cat man, he could hear his phone ringing from inside his pocket. Digging out the phone, he noticed that it was Taehyung calling. No doubt he was calling for an update about the question he was sent to ask Jin. Gripping his phone with one hand, Jimin pressed 'answer', tucking the phone between his shoulder and ear.

"What's up, Tae? Did you have a safe trip back?"

"I did," said Taehyung. "I thought I'd call to see how you were doing."

"No that's not why you called so lets be honest. You're wondering if Hobi and I asked Jin that question about the abandoned baby, aren't you?"

"Well yes. Obviously."

"We asked him but he didn't know anything. Apparently his parents never told him about it," said Jimin.

Before Jimin could say anything more, the cat man tried one more vain break for the door. In doing so, he knocked over a part of the makeshift table Jin had set up. Taehyung could hear the ruckus from the other end of the phone.

"Are you okay, Jimin?"

"Yeah...yeah, I'm...SIT!" Jimin snapped, grabbing the cat man by the wrist and tugging him roughly down into a sitting position on the floor. Jimin pushed his back against one of the chest freezers, holding him there with one hand as he readjusted his cell phone with the other so that he could still talk to Taehyung.

"What's going on?" asked Taehyung.

"It's a long story," said Jimin, "But basically...you know Yoongi?"

"Of course. You mentioned the label was sending him. He's with you?"

"Well, sort of."

"What do you mean sort of?"

"I mean...Jin accidentally made Yoongi and an alley cat switch bodies."

There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment as Taehyung tried to process the new information that he had just been given.

"You...you aren't kidding, right?"

"No! Why would I kid? I'm currently trying to keep cat man seated because he keeps wanting to run into the fish restaurant."

"How did that happen though?"

"Like I said, you can blame Hobi's psychic Jin. Jin was trying to figure out a way for you and Jungkook to switch back before your soul purpose and - while practicing - accidentally did it."

"Well can't he accidentally undo it?"

"He's trapped working right now - so even if he can - it'll be a few hours."

"Bring him to my place in the meantime," said Taehyung. "Jungkook and Laylin are here. The three of us can help you monitor the situation until Jin is able to fix it."

"I had a hard enough time getting him into the shed," said Jimin, "But I'll try. It might be a bit though. Just please have some fish on hand."

"I will see what I can do. Do I dare ask where Yoongi the cat is?"

Jimin turned to look over his shoulder to see Yoongi the cat sitting near Hobi's feet in the entryway to the shed. It was obvious that he had been listening to Jimin's end of the conversation.

"He's sitting by Hobi in the doorway. He's not the happiest camper about all this."

"I'm sure he's not," said Taehyung with a sigh. "How did everything get so complicated?"

"I blame you," said Jimin instantly. "It's always your fault."

"It's not always my fault," said Taehyung in defense, "And even if it was, you're the one that made the foolish choice to stick around and be my best friend."

"What on earth was I thinking?" asked Jimin with a slight smirk and a laugh. "I'm gonna have to go now, Tae. Cat man is getting his seven hundredth wind apparently. Hopefully we'll be by your place soon."

"We'll be ready for him. Hopefully," said Taehyung as he hung up.

Jimin managed to put the phone down after hanging up so that he could go back to placing his full attention on the cat man. Yoongi was still sitting by Hobi in the doorway, trying to piece everything together in his mind.

'Who is Jungkook?' Yoongi thought. 'And is it really true that he switched bodies with Taehyung? Could that be the reason Taehyung is behind on his album?'

Whatever the case may be, Yoongi knew that he would have time to ponder that later. Right now he had to help Jimin in dealing with the cat man. Seeing that Jimin was still having a hard time holding the cat in his body down, Yoongi trotted into the shed to stand beside Jimin. Jimin looked over at Yoongi the cat for a moment before switching his gaze back to the man.

'Fool,' thought Yoongi. 'Even though this is partly your fault, I can't be mad at you right now because I need your help to switch me back.'

Yoongi moved to jump up onto the chest of the cat man. The cat man froze then, narrowing his eyes so that they locked with Yoongi the cat's. Yoongi barred his teeth, raising his back a bit to look like a disgruntled cat and before letting out a brassy meow to go with it. The cat man immediately backed down as if understanding that, whimpering slightly as Yoongi settled himself again. By the time Namjoon came back out to the shed where they were with two fish platters in his hands, Yoongi had settled himself down onto the floor of the shed by the cat man's feet so that he could shoot him necessary glares once in a while to keep him in line.

"I feel like I missed something," said Namjoon.

Yoongi heard his own stomach rumble at the sight of the fish. He wondered when this cat had last eaten. Namjoon - being considerate - put a fish platter down in front of Yoongi before holding the other one out towards the cat man. The cat man didn't know how to hold the plate, so Jimin had to hold it while he shoved his face in it; trying to figure out how to use its fingers to hold the fish still so he could savor every last bite.

"All you missed is Taehyung finding out," said Jimin as he looked away from the cat man to Namjoon. "Feel like helping me trying to relocate cat man here after this?"

"I feel like I don't have a choice in the matter," said Namjoon.

"You're right," replied Jimin. "You don't."

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