Normal, Abnormal or Paranormal


Jungkook enters Jin's apartment and finds him playing Uno with Tae and Jimin. "Hey, can I play?" he asks, smiling. Finally, something fun and normal.

"Sure," Jin replies as he reshuffles the cards. As Jungkook goes to sit down, he sees the snacks and grabs some chips.

Tae asks, "Does anybody want a drink?" They all agree, and Tae goes into the kitchen and comes back with soda for them and banana milk for Jungkook. Trust Jin-hyung to stock everyone's favorite drinks.

Jungkook smiles as he opens the banana milk. "I'll never get tired of this." He takes a couple of swallows and sighs with contentment.

"Okay, let's play!" He excitedly claps his hands as Jin deals the cards.

As they have fun, laughing and snacking, Namjoon is with the maintenance man in his apartment.

Namjoon is standing at the bathroom threshold, watching him check the pipes under the sink.

"Is everything okay? It's just the pressure in the pipes, right?" he asks, leaning down to look under the bathroom sink as the maintenance man tightens the water line.

"Yeah, everything is fine. Sometimes, with new plumbing, there could be air in the line. In such a large building, it may take a while to work its way out, but when it does, it can cause pressure on the valves, making the water turn on. It's no big deal. Just let a small trickle of water run all night to ensure all the air is out of line for your apartment."

"Thank you, Mr. Hoke."

Namjoon moves as the older man shimmies out from under the sink. He smiles at the maintenance man and feels a sense of relief, knowing that what is happening is nothing paranormal—just air trapped in the line, just as he thought.

Next on his work order was to check the lightning system in Mr. Jung's apartment. Mr. Hoke told Namjoon where he was headed and told him that if he needed anything, he should let him know.

"Can I go with you? I know Hobi was really worried about the lights flicking off and on. He's scared of them causing a fire."

"Sure, you can come along. It's probably a loose light bulb or just a wire that needs tightening. It happens a lot in a building of this size during renovation. People get in a hurry and rush things." He grabs his tool bag and follows Namjoon to the door, and they leave for Hobi's apartment on the next floor.

As they wait for the elevator, Mr. Hoke says, "It's not like back in my younger days, we did things right the first time. Nowadays, it's all about how fast and cheaply you can get the job done and collect your money."

Namjoon nods, and on the way to Hobi's, he listens politely to the man reminiscing about his younger days. Namjoon quickly comes to like Mr. Hoke and his no-nonsense outlook on life and pride in his work.

Once they reach Hobi's apartment, he greets them with his sunshine smile. "Hello Jooni."

He extends his hand to shake hands with the man beside Namjoon. "Hello, I'm J-Hope, but you can call me Hobi."

Mr. Hoke shakes his hand and smiles, but before he can introduce himself, Namjoon speaks up.

"Hobi, this is Mr. Hoke, our maintenance man. Tell him about your lights." Namjoon is eager to hear that the light issue Hobi was having can be logically and scientifically explained, just like his water pressure issue.

"Hello, Mr. Hoke. Several lights last night kept flickering. It was very unnerving. My last apartment did the same thing and it was a faulty wire that was smoldering behind the wall. If Kooki—um, Jungkook— hadn't been horsing around with Tae and accidentally broke the sheetrock, we wouldn't have found it."

Hobi's whole body shivers, remembering. "My place was trying to catch fire, and I didn't even know it."

Feeling sympathy for Hobi's fear of fire, Mr. Hoke tries to reassure him. "Don't worry anymore, Mr. Jung. It's more than likely just a loose wire or bulb. Show me which one had you worried and I'll start there and check them all for your peace of mind."

"Thank you so much. It's this wall fixture over here." Hobi says, leading him to a built-in light fixture near the front door. 

"It started here, and then several flickered as the night went on."

Mr. Hoke pulls some tools out of his bag and puts them in his utility belt. "Where is your electrical box, Mr. Jung? I want to flip the switch to cut off the lights in this area before I go poking around. I'd rather not have a shocking experience if you know what I mean?" He grins at his pun.

Namjoon and Hobi both laugh as Hobi leads him to the electric panel.

While Mr. Hoke works, Namjoon and Hobi decide to sit in the living room and wait for him to finish.

Namjoon tells Hobi what was causing his water to turn on and off and that it was nothing paranormal. He doesn't mention what happened in the security office because he had already explained that to his own satisfaction.

"I was so glad to hear there was a logical reason for it. Mr. Hoke said to let the water trickle at night to let the air out of the line. An easy, simple fix."

"That's great. I hope it's something simple going on with the lights. I don't like the otherworldly paranormal stuff the others want to believe in."

Hobi admits to Namjoon, "When it comes to the paranormal, I'm a true scaredy cat."

Just then, the lights go off and on several times, and Hobi grabs Namjoon's arm, gripping it tightly in fear. His eyes rapidly looked around the room.

Mr. Hoke pokes his head around the corner. "That's just me checking the light before moving on to the others. I may do it a few more times before I'm done." Then, his head disappears back around the corner.

"You can let go now, hyung. He made the lights go off and on." Namjoon is trying to pry Hobi's fingers from his arm.

"Oh, sorry." He lets go and stands up, starting to pace. "That was silly of me. I'm truly sorry." Namjoon notices that Hobi's hands are trembling.

"It's okay, Mr. Hoke will fix it. Don't worry." He tries to comfort Hobi with his words.

Hobi seems less anxious and sits back down. Namjoon tries to occupy Hobi's mind by discussing crabs he's found on the beach—one of Namjoon's favorite subjects.

Shortly, the lights are on again, and Mr. Hoke enters the living room.

Namjoon and Hobi both sit on the edge of the couch, waiting.

"Several of your wall lights are dimmer controlled, and someone put LED light bulbs in them. As a matter of fact, all of your light bulbs are LED. That is good, except when the light is connected to a dimmer switch. As the blub heats up, it starts to flicker because the mechanics of a dimmer switch aren't made for that kind of light bulb. It's a known fire hazard to use LED in light fixtures that are on dimmer switches. Good thing you called me in."

Hobi is in shock, thinking his apartment could have caught fire. Namjoon asks, "What do we do? It's so hard to find regular light bulbs now that LED bulbs are mandated everywhere."

"Don't worry. I removed the two bulbs and will bring you some correct LED dimmer lightbulbs tomorrow. I don't have any right now, I'm sorry. I will have to special order more for you to keep on hand."

Hobi finally lets everything sink in, and Namjoon hears him sigh. "So it was just a wrong light bulb?" asks Hobi with his hand over his heart in relief.

"Yep, that's all. As I said, I don't have any correct LED bulbs here. I'll have to bring them tomorrow."

Hobi is so relieved; for one, it's just a wrong bulb; two, it doesn't have anything to do with paranormal stuff; and three, there won't be a fire threat.

"Thank you, Mr. Hoke. I really appreciate it, and tomorrow is fine." Hobi sounds so pleased and shakes Mr. Hoke's hand.

"Okay, well, I have some other things to check into. Call me anytime you need me." He puts his things in his bag, and Hobi walks him to the door.

"Thanks again." Says Hobi.

"You're welcome, Mr. Jung. Have a good day."

Hobi closes the door behind him and releases a loud sigh. "I feel so much better now."

He smiles at Namjoon and then says, "I feel so good. I feel like dancing. Come with me to the dance studio."

Namjoon lets Hobi pull him up from the couch, and he readily agrees to go to the dance studio, if for nothing other than to make his hyung happy.

As Hobi closes the door and they make their way to the dance studio, all the lights in Hobi's apartment begin wildly flickering, and maniacal laughter echoes through the apartment.


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