"How about you get in my car, I'll drive us there, and then I'll drop you off back here to pick up your car tomorrow," Lisa said.

Namjoon hesitated before saying, "All right. Let me just call home and make sure Mark's good for staying the night." Namjoon hit the call button and held the phone up to his ear.

After one ring, though, he ended the call.

I'll just text him instead, he decided. I don't want to disturb them or have them yell at me for interrupting their movie or whatever.

So Namjoon went to his messages and sent a quick text to Mark just saying that he'd be back tomorrow morning, and Mark of course replied with several threats and warnings about treating his sister right, and Namjoon just rolled his eyes and tucked his phone back in his pocket.

*** 

Jimin heard the phone ring and ran into Namjoon's room to answer it. "Dad?" he asked, sitting down against the wall.

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. "J-jimin? Jimin, is that you?"

Jimin blinked. "Yes? Who is this?"

"Jimin, this is...this is your mom. I'm your mom. Do you...do you remember me?"

Jimin thought back to his memories before The Incident, but his mind kept coming back to the memory of his blocks hitting the floor. Then he remembered the silhouette of a woman, the woman on the other end of the phone, but he couldn't remember her face. "Not really," he admitted, his eyes wide as he pressed the phone closer to his ear to hear what she had to say.

"I...I see. Well...I was just calling to tell your dad something...can you give the phone to him?"

"Dad's not home right now," Jimin said, biting his lip.

"Oh," the woman said, sounding surprised. Jimin thought it made sense; Namjoon didn't go out very often at all. "Well..." There was a momentary pause as she tried to decide whether to just hang up or use the time she had. "How...how are you, Jimin?"

"I'm fine," Jimin said automatically before sinking a bit lower into the ground. He fell into silence.

"Jimin, can I talk to you for a little bit? Is that all right with you?"

Jimin tensed before nodding even though he knew she couldn't see him. "Okay."

"But, Jimin, you can't tell them that it was me who called, all right?"

"Why not?" Jimin asked, frowning, confused.

"Because...because they don't want to hear from me, all right? Your dad doesn't want me contacting you kids. He doesn't want me contacting him, either, but...well...just don't tell them, okay? Just tell them it was your dad checking up on you, all right?"

Jimin made a noncommittal sound. "Okay..."

"How is everyone doing?" the woman asked, trying to set Jimin at ease, but the question only made him more anxious.

"They're...We're...We're...we're fine." His voice was unsteady.

"Jimin?"

"We're not fine." He paused. "We're not fine. We're not...They're not...I'm not...fine."

"Tell me what's wrong, sweetie." The world sweetie sounded weird coming from her. Foreign. But not unwelcomed.

"Jin talks to himself. Well, not to himself. To me. Only, not to me. He...he has this imaginary version of me, a better version of me, and he tells that version everything even though I'm right here now and he can talk to me instead but instead he chooses that version over me even though I'm real and I'm alive and I'm back home...

"And Yoongi gets in trouble a lot. He was in suspension the other day, and it wasn't his first time. He has friends, but they can't stop him, and I know that he's only being bad because people expect him to be bad. If people just trusted Yoongi, he wouldn't do bad things, I don't think...but because they've all made up their minds already, he doesn't see the point in trying to be different, in trying to be good, so he doesn't bother. He just gives them what they want, only it hurts him so much more than it will ever hurt them...

"And Hobi...I don't know how to help Hobi...He can't eat. I don't know why, exactly, but when he's at school, he's supposed to eat his lunch, only he can't...it makes him sick...and then the other kids, they make fun of him, and that makes it worse...He has a friend, Wonpil, that's always there for him, but Hobi told him to leave because Hobi feels like he's holding Wonpil back, only Wonpil doesn't care about that, only...only I think he got mad at Hobi, and they haven't made up yet and it's so hard for me to look at Hobi now and not realize how thin he looks and how little he eats at dinner and it scares me so much...

"And Tae...he's always tried to be older somehow, to protect me and Kookie...but it's really hard on him, having to look out for us. And he feels guilty because he wasn't there that day, the day I......he feels guilty still, and it makes me feel guilty, because I don't know how I'm supposed to make him feel better or how to thank him for helping find me or anything...I don't want to cause him any more trouble because if I were stronger, none of this would have happened...I don't know...I just feel like...I have so much to live up to...for his sake...and I feel like I can't fill that hole, not now, not ever...and I feel so bad for hurting him and ruining his relationship with Kookie, even though they fixed it...it's all my fault...

"And Kookie...Kookie...there is so much to say about Kookie...I made him miserable when we were kids because I took all the attention, and even when I was gone, he still felt unloved because he thought everyone blamed him, and maybe some of them did, only he didn't deserve to feel like he was unwanted...and then...he told me a lot of things...hurtful things...saying he blamed me for everything...and even now, I can't help but think that maybe he was right...and if he was right about one thing, maybe he was right about all of them...and I don't know how I'm supposed to live with myself knowing that everything is my fault, that it's always been my fault...why do they love me if I ruin everything?

"But...there's more...I just...I can't live up to their expectations. It's too much. I'm not the old Jimin. I'm just me, but I don't know if they see that. They said that they love me, but do they meant the old me, or me me? Why would they love me? But it's not just that, there are other things I can't do...like how I can't seem to catch up to Kookie and Tae. They're off at school, and I'm stuck at home, trying to learn, trying to make myself smarter, but every time I get something wrong, it all just feels so hopeless, so pointless...I don't even know if I want to go to school...but I hate being alone, feeling like the odd one out, like everyone else is part of some secret club that I'm not allowed into. I want to be with them, but I just feel like there's so much that I can't just ignore...We're all pretending like it never happened, like the last five years didn't exist, but they did, and I can't just ignore them, even if everyone else wants to."

Jimin was crying, but he felt better somehow. "I'm sorry, I have to go," he whispered, tired after rambling for several minutes on end. Then he hung up the phone and return to the other room.

"Who was it?" Hobi asked.

"It was Dad," Jimin answered because that's what she told him to answer.

"Why were you crying?" Tae asked,  and Jimin struggled to come up with an excuse.

"I accidentally flipped off the light switch and it scared me," he mumbled, and Tae only waited a few seconds before tickling him, and then they were all tickling and tumbling and wrestling, and the conversation he'd had on the phone just minutes ago fell out of his mind.

Because now Jimin was free. He wasn't the only keeper of the secrets.

Someone else knew the secrets now.