"Break the borders of your corrupt mind, knock on the door above the sky, flip over the world where only the weak cry. A boy's cry..."

~Can't Bring Me Down-EXO

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When Yoongi brought Kyung-mi back to Jin and Namjoon's apartment, because he didn't have money to blow on a restaurant or even a hotdog from a street vendor, he thought Jin would be upset he brought her by without prior warning, but instead was received with hugs--at least Kyung-mi was.

"Kyung-mi~!" Seokjin squeaked, hugging Kyung-mi excitedly, seeming to not see Yoongi at all, "Yaah, kid, what are you doing over here? Does your mom know where you are?"

Even Namjoon waved from the living room couch, his smile gummy and his dimples showing when he saw Kyung-mi.

"Since when do you two even know her??" Yoongi asked.

Jin looked almost offended, "Who do you think got you that place to stay that night? Who do you think I asked to get their little shed?" Jin smiled at Kyung-mi, kneeling down a little bit, "How do you feel right now, kid?"

Yoongi wanted to roll his eyes, but ended up too interested in the exchange between Jin and Kyung-mi. Seokjin was speaking a little slow, not really that much noticeably so, just enough that he seemed calm and his voice might even induce calm.

Jin cared about her a lot, not romantically, like a brother, like a father. Caring as always, but a certain kind of care.

"I'm okay, Oppa, just a little hungry." Kyung-mi smiled at Jin, who was probably over worrying about nothing.

Jin looked appalled at the very thought, and chances were, he was, Jin was like a food critic in a way, he didn't like food, he adored it so much not being fed was a crime. Yoongi had heard enough little 10 second arguments between Jin and Namjoon to pick that much up.

"Oh, poor baby, we've got to get some food in you, you know what happens to people who don't eat well?" Jin said already on his way to the kitchen, and he doesn't wait for an answer before yelling from the kitchen, "Mind becomes evil's playground!!"

Kyung-mi smiled softly and Yoongi leaned over to see it better, his mouth becoming a straight line as he looked. He wasn't sure he knew this Kyung-mi well. Wasn't sure this was the same Kyung-mi who had almost killed her adopted brother, started a fire in the house, climbed to the roof with me and almost fell off. Who was this Kyung-mi? This genuinely happy Kyung-mi?

"Kyung-mi!" Namjoon called from across the room, "I started a Sudoku and don't know where I went wrong, help me?"

For all the talking Namjoon did, all the philosophy, Yoongi knew damn well he wasn't dumb, he could figure out a Sudoku, so when Kyung-mi took a step toward Namjoon, Yoongi held her back, his arm around her waist.

Kyung-mi looked up at him, her cheeks a light pink and her eyes confused.

Yoongi sighed, "If you know Namjoon, we both know he doesn't need your help so why bother..." he said, and even he could hear the unsure tone in his voice now.

He could even feel Namjoon smiling cheekily from across the room without looking. "If we both know Squirtle, then we both know he doesn't even know what he's doing."

Yoongi really hated how fucking right he was at this moment. He had mostly acted without thinking. He pulled his arm away from her, sticking his hand in his pocket instead. Dumb Namjoon...

~~~

Jin cooked like the wind, whipping up Ssam with a side of rice and serving it out to them all, as they sat in Jin and Namjoon's living room, everything pretty quiet, Yoongi wasn't sure if it was because they all had food in their mouths, or just because there wasn't much to say.

He didn't know what to say to them, he hadn't carried on a normal conversation in such a long time, he didn't know where to start. He didn't really talk with Jae-hwa, she ordered, and he pretended. Thus far he'd only argued with Jin and Namjoon and they had handed him life lessons. With Kyung-mi....Well....With Kyung-mi....It was weird with Kyung-mi, but he'd had the most casual conversation with her, though at the moment he was clueless as to what to say to her, since she knew Jin and Namjoon it wasn't like there was introductions to do.

"Uhm..." Yoongi started, poking at his food, trying to think of something casual to say that was light hearted and didn't pick at anyone, "Everyone gets lazy eating Ssam, right?" He said, looking around at each of them, earning a few confused looks.

Although he seemed to have Jin's full attention, even if he just sat, his mouth full of food and his cheeks like a chipmunk's.

"Uhm...." Yoongi looked down at his plate of food, "Let me show you how to eat Ssam really fast..." He had never felt so weird, dipping the meat in sauce, "First, you dip the meat, and then--." He put it in him mouth, stuffing his cheeks with Ssam.

They stared at him probably unsure what drugs he was on to be doing this--then Kyung-mi laughed.

Her laugh was bubbly and he wouldn't say high pitched, he wouldn't even say cute, it was dorky as fuck, and he spent a fair minute just staring at her wondering how the hell he'd broken her--because she sounded like he had poked a hole in her lungs, and then after that, she went on a sort of 'silent' laugh, her mouth still open, her eyes closed tight, and her body still moving like she was laughing.

"Uhm...." Yoongi said, looking at her, "It wasn't that fu--."

Then Jin started laughing, sounding like someone running a sponge on a window--really fucking scrubbing too.

Namjoon gave two chuckles. Literally two. Which was probably equal to the exact amount of fucks he gave about Yoongi's Ssam trick, then he leaned toward Yoongi, "That has to be the softest version of Yoongi I've seen yet, I'm proud of you."

Yoongi tilted his head a bit, not sure how to take that. I have to be tough to survive don't I? Why are you proud of me? "So what, grandpa?"

Namjoon gave him a look, "Squirtle, you're not fooling me with that smile on your face."

He hadn't noticed it, but now he felt it, the way his lips were curving up a bit, the way his cheeks hurt a bit from not smiling for so long. I am smiling...he's right.... He didn't remember when he had started though. Maybe at Kyung-mi's ridiculous laugh, maybe at Jin's, maybe just now, but he was smiling genuinely and it felt really good. He couldn't remember the last time he smiled like that.

"Now, wait, wait, I know one, I've been saving it all week...!" Jin said between his squeaky, honking laughter.

Kyung-mi shrieked, putting her hands up and reaching over to Jin, "No-o-o-o! don't do it...!" She said, still laughing her little unattractive laugh.

Jin cleared his throat, clearly ignoring her plea for whatever he was going to do, then calmed himself down enough to stop laughing, though he couldn't get the smile off his face, "So, the other day, I saw two guys walk into a bar," Jin paused, almost laughing, "The third ducked."

Kyung-mi suppressed her laugh, then went right back to her ridiculous laugh.

"Oh, jeez, Seokjin, why?" Namjoon said, trying to stay serious, but ending up laughing too.

Yoongi looked back and forth between all of them, looking at them one after the other and frowned, "I don't get it...?" he said, genuinely confused as to what was so funny.

His question invoked a new wave of laughter, and he looked among them all, even more confused. There was something about that was very obvious, but he couldn't grasp what it was, and strangely enough, the expression he was wearing wasn't that of someone who was all that confused, not of someone all that frustrated either, he still had a smile on his face.

Why doesn't this frustrate me? Why aren't I angry? Isn't that usually how I am?

What did Namjoon say? That he was being soft? Wasn't that being weak? He didn't feel weak at all. At least not obviously so. It felt good...

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A/N:

lol i luv dad jokes XD

now, before anyone gets ruffled, I would have written if I could and updated earlier, but I write on my laptop, and my laptop was not working, and I accidentally got the wrong charger for it,  so had to fix it, and wait for a new charger and return the other one, and it took a while, and most of this chapter was written last month but yeah, life hates me, and i keep all my writing on my laptop, so of course it brokee

just my luck lmao

i have no luck

I'm negative in luck

I'm not even kidding, last week i almost died XDDD

also, next chapter i might put yoongi through hell, idk yet but you know how I am so ;)

~Neri~ (imagine if you didn't read the authors note and weren't prepared for the evil, like, imagine the painful surprise O.O)