16; Sleepover pt. III

'Twinkie...?'

The orange-haired kid asked; a tiny mountain of goods underneath him and chocolate wrappers everywhere in the bushes. In fact, the pile of bush he was perched on – belly down – seemingly flattened underneath him, which created a comfortable makeshift bed of sorts.

Taking in these details, the undercover officer couldn't help but notice that the student looked far too comfortable for someone who was casually strolling into his neighbour's backyard.

'Where did you get all this stuff from...?' Jimin asked, staring in disbelief at the messy remains of the cake treat all over his mouth.

He had a hard time believing it... but somehow the kid ate worse than Jongdae did. The thought of the former's sugar-dusted donuts coming to mind with cringing clarity.

'I told you already, didn't I? I live right next door.'

'And what does that have to do with being able to stash an unlimited supply of junk food in your clothes, huh?'

Taehyung rolled his eyes; an unopened Twinkie in his hand that he gestured to Jimin who only stared at the thing like it was some sort of dead animal.

'Do you want it or not?'

After a moment of inspecting the item, Jimin had no choice but to accept the offer. Any other reaction may have been perceived too sceptically. And Officer Park wasn't willing to take that chance, considering how many close calls he'd made this evening already with Kim Taehyung.

After handing over the cake treat, the student quickly returned to his comfortable position on the bed of mulch. The officer beside him sat criss-cross apple sauce; the both of them in direct view of Moon Jihye's second-story room where the occasional sound of giggles could be heard pouring out.

How Park Jimin landed himself in such a predicament was thanks to a ridiculous misconception he couldn't believe he was subject to in the first place. An action movie fanatic? He couldn't even believe the amount of absurdity he was involved in over the last hour! He actually didn't know whether to blame himself or that blasted gnome, really. And thinking back on the events, his mind wandered to what happened just moments ago when he'd planned on making his big escape.

'Can I come with you?'

Jimin stared at him like he was stupid. He couldn't believe his ears. More so, he couldn't believe what he was seeing then. Along with the unbelievable question the kid just asked, why on earth did he suddenly take on the look of a kindergärtner who'd just been offered free ice-cream?

If anything, just moments prior he looked about ready to attack. Incredibly on-edge and eager to see the officer leave, yet it seemed as if that wary side of him was long gone.

'No,' Jimin responded with a level amount of authority; a hand out in front of him for exaggeration.

'You can't.'

'But why not?' the kid pressed to his dismay; leaves crunching under his feet softly as he began approaching anyway.

'Because... uh...'

Dang. Jimin was running out of excuses and he knew it. There was only so much lying he could pull off before he was certain he'd jeopardize himself with the nonsense coming out of his mouth. But just as he searched for something appropriate relating to the garden gnome once more, the younger boy cut him off with a startling assumption.

'I know what you're really here for,' he said, but before the officer's panic could escalate at the knowing smile on Taehyung's face, his lips spread into a boxy grin.

'You're here for the girls, duh!'

Jimin could have face-palmed now that he recalled how preposterous of a reason that was. The girls? Over his dead body! But realizing how convinced the chap looked by this presumption, Jimin realized it worked to his advantage. And shortly after, he nodded vigorously.

'Y-yeah, totally,' he said, now mentally patting the kid on the back who vibrated with excitement at his agreement.

'Hold on, I know a great spot for this.'

Perhaps on any other occasion, Officer Park Jimin would have taken the kid into custody for a handful of things: trespassing of private property, secretly spying on his female neighbour, and overall suspicious activity. Hell, the boy even had his own little comfy regular hideout in the girl's backyard! If it wasn't enough evidence of the kid's miscreant behaviour, then certainly the amount of mess he was making while chomping on popcorn, cake, and crisps simultaneously was.

In fact, Jimin was so intently staring at the boy who took on the unsightly imagery of a stuffed walrus that he didn't catch the question asked.

'… For?'

The officer blinked. His mind beading back into reality as he watched Taehyung fiddle with the bright yellow wrapping of a Twinkie.

'I'm sorry, come again?'

Taehyung popped the last morsel of cake into his mouth and dusted his hands; his head lolling in Jimin's direction and his slanted eyes twinkling curiously. It was amazing how from a bloated seal, he now took on the image of one of the girls up in that room, probably lounging with their legs crossed behind them in the air and hands comfortably cupping their faces.

'I said, who did you come here for?'

Ah, and entertaining the boy was no joke! Jimin had no idea why he was forced to multi-task conversing with the kid as well as keeping a close eye on his surroundings, and felt strands of his hair threaten to fall out in frustration. Then again, without the boy’s help he probably wouldn’t have been able to find such a convenient spot in the girl’s yard, and most likely would have wound up breaking a handful of resident garden gnomes instead.

‘Um…,’ he answered, scratching the back of his neck that stung with sweat. ‘Nobody, really.’

‘Don’t lie!’ Taehyung’s deep voice boomed, startling the officer who shot him a surprised look. Realizing he just shouted that out, he quickly ducked his head with an apologetic weave of the eyebrows; orange bangs falling into his eyes from under the dark hoodie he wore.

‘I-I mean… I promise I won’t tell anyone,’ his eyes shimmered earnestly. ‘OK, how about this? If you tell me who you’re here for, I’ll tell you who I’m here for. Sounds good, right?’

It was amazing to think then – as Jimin stared at the boy with a look of undeniable scepticism – that just moments ago when he caught the kid loitering around the yard, he was as vicious as an adder. Even at school he oozed unapproachable pheromones that were hard to miss and pulled off every sort of closed body language tactic he knew, yet within a matter of minutes, that tense kid turned into an entirely different person of sorts.

Jimin was certain he spent more or less an hour with the boy ever since their encounter in the yard and; so far; he appeared to be your regular neighbourhood teen. The withdrawn, ghostly aura he exuded at the school was now reduced to that of an astonishingly sociable one. As if he were a different person entirely off school grounds.

‘Well... if you insist,’ the officer responded; the tip of his tongue peeking out between his lips as he stared in deep thought at the window above, hoping his answer would temporarily entertain the boy.

‘I’m here for Woon.’

Taehyung’s eyes popped open at the sound of the name. ‘Woon…? You mean…’

Realizing his blunder, Jimin's eyes widened with panic. ‘Uh—I-I mean Song! Yeah, Song!’

The kid’s shoulders dropped visibly upon hearing the correction and a relieved sigh escaped his lips. ‘Ah, for a second there I thought you were going to say Moon…’

That was close, the officer wiped a stray bead of sweat from his temples. Too close. If perhaps the student still retained his inimical façade, Jimin was certain he wouldn’t have been able to avoid the error that slipped out that easily. It was far too dangerous for him to even lie! Unsure of how much more he could take of his clumsy blunders, Jimin shifted his attention towards the window on the second floor. A series of loud giggles and excited shouts wavered from within, and it sounded like they were playing a game of sorts. The officer couldn’t help the amused smirk that split on his lips at even the thought of the possibility.

Perhaps revenge really was the sweetest honey ever made. He could only imagine the fullmetal RoboCop being subject to all kinds of ghastly feminine activity, and regretted not having any visual feed to accompany the bubbly sounds. Ah, if only he could bear witness to the girlish torture she was forced to participate in!

He turned his attention to Taehyung who was now occupied with colour coding a handful of sugar-coated chocolates in his hand, of course, with the exception of glancing up occasionally into the girl’s room. Jimin placed a hand on his cheek and shrunk to a similar position on the floor, realizing that this was in fact a lot more convenient than he imagined. He laid on his belly, stifling a yawn and rubbing at his eyes with his free hand.

‘So what about you?’ he asked; his voice now a trained whisper as he kept his eyes fixated on the kid who seemed startled by his sudden question.

‘You didn’t tell me who you came here for.’

Taehyung’s mouth fell open and a completely blank look replaced his initial one of concentration. The bizarre expression actually looked like something that suited the combination of his face structure and choppy hair. After a moment of remaining listless, the boy's tongue stuck out playfully between his lips and he looked up at the officer, frowning sheepishly.

‘Shoot. I was hoping you’d forget about that.’

‘Hey, you’re the one who made the deal!’ Jimin