49. Shady Transaction

Wedged under a bench, Yoongi looked towards the fountain that was a fixture at the center of the park. He was trying to not pay attention to the collage of chewed bubblegum that was above his head; his eyes instead focused on Taehyung's mother as she paced back and forth in front of the fountain. It was obvious that she was waiting for someone. He was hoping whoever this person was showed up soon.

As Yoongi continued to stay there and wait for something to happen, a pigeon cooed in the air and flew down to land on the pavement in front of his face.

'Beat it,' Yoongi thought.

The pigeon just cocked its head off to the side before it came closer. Yoongi half wondered if the idiotic bird was going to try to eat some of the cemented gum above him. Whatever the reason for the pigeon's forward progression, Yoongi wasn't having any of it. He reached out a paw and swatted at the pigeon, causing it to coo and fly off into the air.

As the pigeon flew off, it decided to take a dump right in front of him. Wonderful. Yoongi felt like he was going to throw up. He had to control his gag reflex as his eyes caught sight of a darkly dressed man walking towards Taehyung's mother, pausing when he was standing directly in front of her.

"Do you have my payment?" he asked. "You know my services don't come cheap."

"I forwarded it to you electronically," she said.

The man seemed to want to double check that as he dug out his cell phone and checked the screen. Even though the man was half turned from him, Yoongi swore he could see the man smirk.

"This must be really urgent considering the amount," said the man as he re-pocketed his phone.

"It is urgent," insisted Taehyung's mother. "I need to get a very important message across. Scare a certain someone into line."

"I will do as you say," he said, "I take it you want confirmation the same way as usual?"

"Yes, but I'm also sure I'll know."

'What in the world is going on?' thought Yoongi as he watched the darkly dressed man walk off.

Soon Taehyung's mother was left alone at the fountain once more. She was watching after the man as he left before digging out her phone again. She seemed to be looking through some notifications. Before Yoongi even realized it, Jimin rushed into the park out of seemingly nowhere. He looked slightly disheveled; one of his pants legs shoved up to his knee while the other was still pulled down. Yoongi saw that Jimin's gaze was sweeping through the park and that he wasn't really paying attention as Taehyung's mother walked over to him.

"Jimin?"

Jimin turned to face her with surprise painted on his face.

"Oh! Ms. Kim! I wasn't expecting to run into you!"

"I wasn't expecting to run into you either," she replied as she looked at Jimin. "What are you doing here?"

"Just...taking in the fresh air," said Jimin with a smile.

As he stood in front of Taehyung's mother, he looked past her shoulder to see Yoongi curled up under the bench looking at him. Jimin's eyes widened but he quickly played it off so that it wouldn't be noticeable.

"If you'll excuse me, I have to go," said Jimin.

Taehyung's mother wasn't bothered by Jimin's odd behavior, merely shrugging her shoulders and walking off on him. Jimin turned to watch her leave, half chuckling when he saw Hobi almost run headlong into her on his mad dash into the park after having managed to park the car. He muttered a quick 'sorry' when she looked up from her phone to glare at him. He was soon standing where Jimin had been as Jimin walked over to the bench Yoongi was still under. Jimin bent down, reaching out his hands to grab him. He was thankful that Yoongi didn't try to hiss and scratch at him as he was picked up.

"Where have you been?" asked Jimin as he looked down at Yoongi in his arms. "We've been looking everywhere for you."

"I swear...you have a death wish..." panted Hobi as Jimin walked back over to him with Yoongi in his arms. "What in the world were you thinking running blindly through traffic like that?!"

"Again, it was safer than that embankment on the side of the road you had me go down," said Jimin.

'You idiots went looking for me down an embankment?' thought Yoongi.

"Where is Yoongles?" asked Jimin as he looked at Hobi who was glaring at him.

"I kept him in the car," said Hobi as the two of them moved to start walking back towards it with Yoongi. 

When the three of them reached the car a minute or so later, Yoongles was still sitting in the backseat. He was looking out the window at a person that had stopped near it and was trying to talk to him through the glass.

Jimin and Hobi both inwardly cursed. It was Taehyung's mother; the woman that sent Yoongi to take care of the situation to begin with.

- - -

Taehyung stayed on the couch with Jungkook for the longest time. There was some sort of program playing on the television, but neither of them knew what it was. Jungkook had fallen to sleep with his head against Taehyung's shoulder. It hadn't taken very long for Jungkook to fall asleep, seeming to be exhausted from the grief. By the time Jungkook passed out, Laylin had gotten off the phone with his mother and let Taehyung know that she was on the way. Even though Taehyung could feel himself getting sleepy too as he kept Jungkook close to him, he knew that he had to stay awake to try to help.

Taehyung turned his head towards the kitchen where he could still hear Laylin working. It was obvious to him that she was working on preparing something. Taehyung gently shifted so that Jungkook was lying with his head against the couch before going out to the kitchen where Laylin was. The kitchen island was littered this time by whatever Laylin was doing. She had a recipe card by the stove and was narrowing her gaze down at it with a sigh.

"What are you trying to do?" asked Taehyung.

Laylin hadn't heard him enter the kitchen, jumping about a foot in the air as she turned to face him.

"I'm trying to prepare a nice dinner for Jungkook's mother since she's driving all the way out here," said Laylin, "But I'm not doing a very good job."

"May I help?" asked Taehyung as he moved to look at the recipe card before she gave him any sort of answer.

"You don't have to."

"I want to," he said.

Laylin stood back as she watched him begin to look through the containers that were laid out on the counter to try to figure out what step he needed to do.

"You're different than I thought you would be," said Laylin.

"I'm assuming you mean more than just the body swap?" he said with a smirk, causing Laylin to chuckle.

"Yes, I mean more than just that. You're very down to earth. You're a lot more like Jungkook than I ever realized."

"How so?" he asked, genuinely curious especially now that he knew they were brothers.

"You both have the same big heart," she said with a faint blush to her cheeks.

Taehyung felt his own cheeks heat up. No one had ever told him that sort of thing before, and it meant a lot to him.

"Thank you, Laylin," he said, "Thank you for those words and for being in Jungkook's life. I'm glad my little brother was in good hands all along."

After that, the two of them fell into a cooking routine as if they had been doing it for years. They both executed the steps for the casserole without getting in each other's way. By the time a knock came at the apartment door, they had just put the casserole in the oven and finished cleaning everything up. Jungkook began to groggily wake up from his nap on the couch when he heard the knock. Taehyung entered the room to go open the door as Jungkook turned his half-lidded gaze towards him.

"Who's that?..." he asked.

"Family," Taehyung replied as he tugged open the door.

The remnants of sleep all but vanished as Jungkook saw his mother standing in the doorway.

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