Jin ran a hand through his hair, trying to chase whatever thought had just appeared at the top of his mind. It was hard keeping track of things these days, even with him taking some time off work. There was just so much to get done.

Speaking of.

Yoongi slipped through the front door, Hoseok following him closely, and they halted when they saw Jin waiting to meet them.

"Hey," he said, giving his best attempt at a smile, which fluttered before fading. "Sorry to call you guys here for this. I know it's not something any of us were looking forward to."

Yoongi just shrugged, looking away. "We were going to have to do it eventually anyway. Let's rip off the band aid already."

Jin nodded, eyes falling to the ground. It was growing increasingly difficult for him to face his brothers. He didn't know how to support them. It was hard to meet their eyes with this perpetual doubt weighing down his stomach, fear that he wasn't handling everything okay, fear that he wasn't properly honoring their memory, fear that he wasn't good at whatever exactly it was that he was supposed to be doing.

But nobody had trained him on how to manage the deaths of his brothers. There was no instruction book, no "best practices." He was just playing it all by ear, and he couldn't dispel the nagging feeling that he wasn't doing a good enough job.

"You're good to watch Dad for today?" Jin asked, dragging his eyes up to meet Hoseok's.

He didn't think he'd ever given Hoseok enough credit, but over the past few days, he'd really started to realize how strong Hoseok was.

His brother nodded at him, a small but sad smile hovering on his lips. "We'll be good here. Plus, we've got Lisa. You guys go and..." He let out a breath. "Take your time. Whatever you need."

Jin thanked him quietly before grabbing his car keys off the dresser – he was in some in-between state, splitting his time between his own apartment and his childhood home, and now his things were arbitrarily strewn about both – and nodding for Yoongi to follow him out to his car. Jin slid into the driver seat and inserted the key into the ignition but didn't start the engine just yet, instead looking over at Yoongi in the passenger seat. He was staring dead ahead, jaw clenched, hands resting in his lap but tensed as though he were fighting between control and helplessness.

"How are you holding up?" Jin asked softly.

Yoongi didn't even look over. "Drive."

He nodded, feeling rejected but trying not to let on, and he double-checked that both he and Yoongi had their seatbelts on before he slowly reversed out of the driveway. He still didn't believe that Taehyung hadn't buckled his seatbelt; either he'd managed to get it off but couldn't escape the car, or...or...

He shook his head, looking out over the empty road ahead of them. He didn't want to think about the car accident any more than he already had. The fire, just starting to break out. Jimin, limp in the passenger seat. Taehyung, frantically jabbing at the eject button for the seat belt, screaming as the flames grew nearer-

Jin shook his head more firmly this time, trying to swallow but unable to since his throat was dry, and the car swerved ever so slightly in its own lane in time with his head.

Yoongi looked over, gripping the passenger armrest, completely pale, but Jin just flicked his eyes over in what he hoped was a reassuring look.

They rode the rest of the way in silence.

"Shouldn't we have brought boxes or something?" Yoongi muttered as the elevator doors shut and Jin hit the button for Taehyung's floor.

"Next time," Jin said, feeling drained just from the short drive over. Every time he got in a car now, he couldn't help but reimagine the accident. He had started to avoid traveling when possible, but this wasn't something they could put off much longer. "For today, I just figured we could..." He let out a breath as the doors opened back up. "Just, sort through things a little. See what's what."

Yoongi didn't say anything, but he followed Jin to Taehyung's apartment and waited while Jin inserted one of the spare keys Taehyung had distributed among them when he'd first moved into his own place. Jin shouldered the door open and took a step inside but immediately took two steps back, knocking into Yoongi, who grabbed Jin's shoulder to stabilize himself.

"What the hell," Yoongi snapped, only Jin was paying more attention to the girl who was sitting cross-legged in Taehyung's kitchen.

"Um, can we help you?" Jin asked hesitantly, and she scrambled to her feet, one hand against the kitchen cupboard for balance.

"You're not Taehyung," she said, frowning, and Yoongi shouldered his way past Jin to see what was going on.

He scanned her quickly, noting the suspicious lump in the kangaroo pocket of her sweatshirt, before crossing his arms. "We could say the same to you."

They stared at each other in silence before Jin cleared his throat. "We're Taehyung's brothers," he introduced, fishing for her to explain her connection to Taehyung and why exactly she had been sitting in his kitchen.

But before she could say anything, Yoongi had already spoken. "Did you break in?" he asked flat-out, and the girl's jaw dropped as though the idea insulted her.

"What? No, I didn't break in." She glared at Yoongi as she held up something shiny in her right hand, a brass key hanging off a pink lanyard. "Taehyung gave me a key."

Jin looked over at Yoongi, a question in his eyes and in the upward tilt of his eyebrows. He'd never heard about Taehyung having a girlfriend, but Taehyung had always kept his personal life private from the others. If anyone would have known about a girlfriend, it would have been Jimin or Jungkook, but he didn't want to bother Jungkook by asking and he couldn't exactly check with Jimin.

Jimin, limp in the passenger seat.

Jin gave his head another shake.

As expected, Yoongi just gave a small shrug, his eyes still colored by distrust as he looked back over at the girl.

"Are you..." Jin hesitated, feeling somewhat awkward at having to ask. "Are you Taehyung's girlfriend?"

If possible, her gape grew bigger. "Girlfriend? No, no no no, we're neighbors," she said, pointing to the wall that Jin assumed bordered her apartment. "Taehyung asked me to watch his dog for a night, but I haven't seen him in a few days and I-"

"Dog?" Jin interrupted, sending Yoongi another look.

The girl stared at Jin, eyes narrowing as she crossed her arms. "Are you really his brothers?" she asked, looking back and forth between the two of them. "If you two are lying and you're trying to steal something, I'll call the cops." As if to lend validity to her statement, she pulled out a cell phone from her purse and clutched it firmly in her left hand.

"No, we're really Taehyung's brothers, it's just-" Jin's voice faltered as another wave of regret rolled over him. Even if Taehyung didn't talk much about what was going on in his life, shouldn't Jin have tried harder? "He didn't...share much about his private life."

She watched him with suspicious eyes, but at least she didn't make any move to call the cops. "Well, if you two are really his brothers, then can you tell me where he's been? I haven't heard from him in about a week, and I don't mind checking on his dog, but he didn't say anything about being gone this long, and I just..." Her eyes dipped down to the floor as her fingers dug into her sides. "I'm a little worried," she admitted, lips pinched as though the words had slipped past her lips with great reluctance.

"Taehyung is-"

Jin cleared his throat loudly, cutting Yoongi off before he bluntly dropped the news. He gave Yoongi a small glare before turning back to the girl. "I'm sorry, Miss- what's your name?" he asked with a small wince.

"Mirae," she said, her words short and guarded.

"Mirae. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but Taehyung isn't coming home," Jin said, trying to keep his words soft. He didn't know who or what exactly this person meant to Taehyung, but just the fact that she was here meant she deserved the common decency of truth delivered in a gentle manner. Distantly, he wondered just how well she knew Taehyung, what memories she had of him that they didn't, who he'd been to her.

Mirae huffed, arms tightening as her lips dipped down into a small scowl. "Did he hop on a plane to avoid his editor? I told him how stupid that would be, it's not like the US doesn't have telephones or cell reception, but-"

"No," Jin cut in, rubbing at the back of his neck. "He's...gone, Mirae."

Mirae's eyes were thick with confusion for a moment, and all of a sudden, the fog cleared as comprehension shone forth. Her arms loosened, and her right hand slipped out of its hold and fell to her side. "He..." She blinked a few times, reigning in whatever feelings the news had evoked, and she lifted her chin slightly in an effort to keep her composure. "How?"

"Car accident," Yoongi chipped in gruffly, not looking at Mirae or Jin or anyone in particular.

"We're here to sort through his belongings," Jin explained, feeling responsible for the slight shaking of Mirae's hands. Just more guilt for him to swallow. "If...if there's anything of his that you...you know...anything special, just let me know and I'll see what I can do," he offered, partially to satisfy the guilty twist of his stomach but also because he knew they couldn't keep all of Taehyung's things and he wanted to give as much as he could to people who actually understood the value.

She nodded but didn't make any immediate requests, her eyes tracing the kitchen tiling instead.

"And I'm sorry to ask this, but would it be too much trouble to watch his dog for a few more days?" Jin asked, biting at the inside of his lip because the last thing he wanted to do was drag more people into this mess. But he already had so much to do. He didn't have the time to care for a dog right now. Yoongi might be able to take the dog in since he already had Microwave, but there was a big difference between a highly trained service dog and whatever exactly Taehyung had picked up.

"Of course, it's no trouble at all," Mirae said, looking up at Jin to give him a forced smile. "For however long you need. If it's okay with you though, could I keep the dog at my place? I just thought it might be more convenient and might make things easier if you guys are going to be going through all of his stuff..."

"Absolutely, that's fine. Thank you again," Jin said before hesitating and asking the obvious question. "So...where is the dog?"

"Oh," Mirae said before looking down at the pocket of her sweatshirt. "He's, uh, napping. In my pocket."

Jin blinked. "How small of a dog is he?"

"He's a puppy," Mirae said, giving Jin a look. "He's still pretty small," she said, looking back down at her pocket with softer eyes than she'd shown Jin. "Aren't you, Tannie?"

"Taehyung named his dog Tan?" Yoongi asked with a disinterested expression.

"No, his full name is Yeontan," Mirae clarified, looking up at Yoongi for a second. "And Taehyung didn't exactly name him, he just picked him up off the street."

"That-"

"-sounds exactly like Taehyung," Yoongi finished for Jin with a roll of his eyes.

"Well, I'm going to take Tannie back to my apartment," Mirae said, putting her left hand in her pocket to rub circles into the puppy's fur. A small, contented whine could be heard as a result. "I'll come back to grab his food and stuff later, but...for now, we'll get out of your hair," Mirae said, shoving her phone in her pants pocket and hanging the lanyard around her neck to leave herself with a free hand. "If you need anything, I'm the next apartment over," she said, once again pointing in the direction, and Jin nodded.

He thanked Mirae once more before she was out of the apartment, and then it was just Jin and Yoongi and a whole lot of his dead brother's belongings.

"Where do we even start?" Yoongi mumbled, looking around, and Jin followed his gaze. The kitchen was cleaner than Jin had expected it to be, in all honesty; everything was put away besides a single bowl in the dry rack. The other half of the room was occupied by a small sofa, table, and in the back corner, Taehyung's drawing station.

Yoongi walked over to it as though he found it difficult to look away, and Jin watched as he took in whatever current piece was sitting on the desk before lifting it up with delicate fingers and flipping through some of the pages underneath.

"What are we supposed to do with all of this stuff?" he asked, and Jin took a deep breath.

"I- let's not...let's leave those for now," Jin said, unable to properly communicate the difficulty he'd have in giving away the remnants of Taehyung's incredible talent.

"Fine," Yoongi snapped, letting the pages fall to the desk.

Jin flinched even though he knew that he wasn't really the intended target for Yoongi's anger and frustration; it was more than likely that Yoongi's sharp tone was for himself more than anyone else, as were his questions.

"Let's try the kitchen for now," Jin suggested gently because that felt like the least intimate part of Taehyung's apartment. Everybody had bowls and plates and utensils, so they didn't really feel as uniquely special as something like his drawings.

Jin could handle a few bowls (he hoped).

Wordlessly, Yoongi joined him in removing dishes from their cupboards and setting them in neat stacks on the counter. They worked on opposite ends of the kitchen, emptying one cupboard after another until they had a stack of bowls, a stack of plates, a dozen or so glasses, and a whole pile of miscellaneous kitchenware and assorted utensils. Jin had also come across a large bag of dogfood, and he set it by the door for Mirae to pick up later.

Then they went through the fridge, throwing out anything near or past expiry and consolidating all the viable goods on the top shelf.

"You don't really think you can donate half a tub of butter to Goodwill, do you?" Yoongi asked dryly, and Jin narrowed his eyes at his brother before setting the tub with the rest.

"Well it seems a waste to just throw it out. Maybe Mirae can use it, I don't know."

"Yeah, I'm sure half a tub of butter will be an appropriate thank you for taking in Taehyung's rescued street mongrel."

Jin ignored him and continued with his work, grabbing all the kitchen towels and folding them into a tidy stack.

He didn't know how they'd ever get through the whole apartment, not when they were already arguing over the contents of the fridge. And even though Jimin only had one room instead of an entire apartment, he didn't think that was going to be any easier.

They stopped cleaning for the day when Jin got a call from Hoseok saying that he'd found Toaster.

--

published 07/07/21 (mm/dd/yy)

2629 words