Taehyung got off the elevator, still on the phone with his editor, although ninety percent of their conversation was her nagging at him for various deadlines and him rolling his eyes at the ceiling.

"Yes, I promise I'll have it by then," Taehyung said for the fourth time. "Have I ever missed a deadline before?" He listened to the tinny sound of argument on the other end. "Okay, that doesn't exactly count-"

Taehyung half-listened to her response as he saw his neighbor popping her head out the door and looking at him expectantly. He sighed harshly, putting a hand over his phone so their conversation wouldn't seep through to his editor. "What is it, Mirae?"

"So I met this guy-"

"Big surprise," Taehyung said with a raised eyebrow.

She ignored him, tossing her hair over her shoulder and tucking a strand behind her ear with fingernails adorned in a different nail polish from last week. "-who said he was your brother," she said, a small smirk forming on her lips.

"Okay, yes, I have a family," Taehyung deadpanned, rolling his eyes. "Not exactly news to me, Mirae."

"Well? Don't you want to know what happened?"

Taehyung gave her a pointed glance. "Not particularly."

"Why? Are you afraid something might've happened?"

"Not in the slightest," Taehyung said, shifting his weight to his other foot. "None of my brothers are stupid enough or desperate enough to think that you make even half-decent company."

Instead of getting upset, Mirae just chuckled and blew on her fingernails as though encouraging the already-set paint to dry. "I don't know, he looked pretty gullible. He was such a sweet boy, too. Even helped me carry my groceries in."

"Sounds like Jimin," Taehyung said. The only other brother he'd had plans with today was Yoongi, and he highly doubted that Yoongi would have circled back to his apartment for one, and that he would have volunteered to assist Mirae for two.

"Jimin?" she repeated, pulling out her phone and scrolling through something. After a moment, her eyes narrowed and she huffed out a breath. "There's no Jimin in my contacts, what the hell."

Taehyung laughed without restraint. "Not even Jimin fell for your act. Not a surprise since your eyebrows are looking a little ragged and you used the wrong shade of lip gloss for your color palette." He tilted his head slightly, making his eyes bigger so he seemed sympathetic. "What's wrong, Mirae? Life as a seductress not going so well for you?"

"Says the guy who's dressed like his blind grandmother picked his outfit," Mirae shot back.

"Skank."

"Clown."

The two stared at each other, Taehyung in restrained amusement and Mirae in indignation, before she took a step back and slammed the door.

Taehyung just gave a small exhalation through his nose, about to put the phone back up to his ear when he noticed the supply closet door on the opposite wall from his apartment slowly creaking open.

"Is she gone?" came a soft whisper.

Taehyung grinned, pausing for just a second to put the phone up to his ear – his editor still rambling on about something without ever having realized that he'd stopped listening long ago - and say, "I'll call you back later," before jogging over to the closet and opening the door to find Jimin hunched between several stacks of towels and cleaning supplies. "Let me guess, after meeting Mirae, you wanted to drink a gallon of bleach?"

Jimin looked up at him in absolute confusion. "Taehyung, what the heck is going on? Who is she? And she said she didn't know you but then why were you two-"

"Let's discuss it in my apartment," Taehyung said, cutting Jimin off as he held out a hand and pulled Jimin to his feet. Jimin, who had been squatting in there for almost an hour, nearly fell over as the blood began to circulate.

--

"So you met Mirae," Taehyung commented lightly as he rummaged through the kitchen. He hadn't expected Jimin to show up early and therefore hadn't yet purchased groceries, but he was trying to see if he still needed to run out to grab stuff for dinner or if they could make do with what he already had.

"I did," Jimin said, frowning. He was sitting on the couch, watching as Taehyung fiddled around. "She said that she didn't know you, but that she knows almost everyone on your floor."

Taehyung laughed at that before planting his hands on the counter to look at Jimin and make sure he was paying attention. "She knows everyone, all right. Intimately."

Jimin stared at him.

"She's probably slept with half the tenants," Taehyung clarified, and Jimin's confusion turned to revulsion. "Which is also why she tried to get chummy with you. Can you tell me what exactly happened?"

"She came into the elevator, and I offered to help her with groceries. Then she tried to keep me in her apartment by offering coffee and tea, and when that didn't work, she started talking about you and how she'd basically never met you," Jimin recounted slowly before adding, "which is apparently a lie since you two seemed to be quite familiar with each other..."

"She's a menace," Taehyung said, shaking his head as he went back to searching the fridge. "When I told her I wasn't in the slightest interested, she took it upon herself to annoy me as much as possible." Taehyung cast Jimin a side glance. "She said something about her phone contacts...did you give her my number?"

Jimin shook his head obediently. "No, I told her I didn't have my phone and couldn't remember it. Then I pretended to put mine in but didn't."

"Good boy," Taehyung congratulated with a grin. "Last thing I need is her calling me at midnight saying that she's lonely." He shut the fridge and stretched his arms behind his back. "By the way, why didn't you let me know you were coming over early? I mean, it's fine, but I would have picked up stuff on the way. Also," Taehyung said, pausing mid-stretch to look over at Jimin skeptically. "You have a key to my place, why were you hiding in the supply closet?"

"Jin came over and basically kicked me out," Jimin recalled, groaning as he laid back on the couch. "It was all I could do to escape with my wallet."

"Your wallet?" Taehyung repeated, stroking his chin before a grin lit up his face. "Want to order in then?"

--

An hour later, takeout boxes were scattered about the table, and they were both too full to eat another bite.

"All right," Taehyung said abruptly, clapping his hands together once as he sprang to his feet. "Is my model all ready to go?"

Jimin winced as though he'd forgotten about their agreement entirely. "Why couldn't we have done it before we ate? Now I'm going to look swollen."

Despite his initial complaints, Jimin complied, allowing Taehyung to instruct him or, if necessary, guide him into the correct position. Then Taehyung would use his phone to take a few photos from different angles before going on to the next pose.

Eventually, he gave Jimin the okay to take a break, and Jimin collapsed back on the couch, sprawled across its length as though he'd expended great energy by simply staying still.

Taehyung, meanwhile, picked up a drawing pad and cast furtive glances over at Jimin, beginning to sketch out his frame. "So? How are things?" he asked as he guided the pencil across the page. "With you, and Toaster, and...and Dad?"

Jimin sighed and shifted slightly, but not enough to throw off Taehyung's sketch. He easily ignored the first part of Taehyung's question and simply addressed the latter two. "Toaster is still missing. It's been two weeks now...I don't know, Taehyung. Maybe she's not coming back," he said, and Taehyung paused to really look at Jimin's expression and see if he was okay.

Jimin had been taking care of Toaster for about ten years now. There'd only ever been one other scare, a few years ago when Toaster had slipped out the back door, but she'd been waiting to get back in the next morning. Taehyung knew because Jimin had called him in hysterics when she'd been gone, then called him to apologize for freaking out the next day.

"She'll turn up," Taehyung said, not because it was what he believed but because he felt like it was what Jimin needed to hear. "What about Dad?"

"He's all right, I guess. I don't think he's processed Lisa's accident, though."

Taehyung nodded, expecting as much. She'd been with their family for twenty years in one role or another. First as just a policewoman, then as Namjoon's girlfriend. They'd never gotten married – they had both claimed that it was too much pomp and circumstance – but they were devoted to one another. It wasn't the romance to end all romances or a tale of two souls that had been crafted perfectly for one another. But they loved each other, and that was enough. She had been like an aunt to them all those years, and it had been hard to handle her temporary absence.

Namjoon had been doing fairly well before the incident, but after it, the change was largely noticeable. Bouts of confusion, fatigue, inactivity...On the occasions when Taehyung had visited, it had felt like Namjoon was half his dad and half a stranger. He remembered, back when they were kids, how Namjoon had fallen apart when Jimin had been missing. He'd barely been functioning; it was as though his mind had shut down, and he couldn't focus on other people or obligations. Taehyung thought his behavior was sort of similar to then, only he'd hoped that he'd get over it once Lisa came home. Namjoon had gotten better before, after all. Only Jimin had come back, and Lisa...Time would tell.

"But," Jimin said, sitting up abruptly and forcing Taehyung to flip over the sketchpad so his drawing was facedown on his desk. "I saw your interview in the magazine! What's it like to be famous?"

"Ah, yes, the article," Taehyung said, gesturing vaguely in the air as though there were too many articles to differentiate it from. In reality, this was the first time he'd ever been interviewed and certainly the first time he – and not his art – had ended up in a magazine. Still, taking in the awe on Jimin's face, Taehyung launched into the story of his newly-earned fame, and when Jimin flipped back into a reclined position on the couch, he picked up his sketchpad and continued where he'd left off.

--

published 07/15/20 (mm/dd/yy)