The city that composed the Port of JYP seemed to Yoongi to have a rapturous split right down the middle of it. From the gate to the square everything was calm and peaceful with old stone roads and buildings painted in jewel tones. He avoided the heavy traffic on the roads, all of the carts and carriages carrying goods and people had been slowing him down immensely on his way to the central hub. It was easier to walk through the narrow alleyways with a very clean Vermillion in tow.

It was claustrophobic but the young mail currier couldn't help smiling as he dragged his feet across un-even cobbles. One hand on Vern, one on the shoulder strap of his significantly less-filthy backpack. JB , the owner of GOT SevInn had insisted upon washing most of Yoongi's belongings. Even his shirt and pants were clean for the first time in months. The young Innkeeper apparently didn't have the same appreciation for dirt that most mail people did.

Finally the alleyways opened. A rush of air greeting the mail man where his feet stopped. Fresh air seemed so hard to come by with the tightly packed buildings. The smells of food and heat from ovens had been all fine and good but the salt air that rose now was worth every penny Yoongi had ever earned. His eyes took in the paved open space, and the rusting iron tables that were scattered about until they landed on the fountain.

Everyone in the world knew about that fountain. It wasn't anything structurally impressive. No great artist had carved a human form, or made an intricately detailed ship out of glass or silver. It had been built by simple men, stone by stone.

As the story went, each time a ship made land every member of its crew added a stone from their homeland, no matter how small, until it towered and glistened like the sun itself with exotic gemstones. A beacon in the distance for weary sea farers. The pumps and tubes that had glistening sea water spilling out of the cracks like a natural waterfall had been added much later.

It was even bigger than he had ever imagined it, and looked like the patchwork quilts people often left as gifts for the Heart.

His progress through the square was suddenly slowed, the urgency he'd felt in getting there evaporated like smoke on the not so distant mountains.

“Shall we sit?” he asked, but Vern was already way ahead of him, flopped down on the dirty ground smiling like this was the best day ever, because to a sheepdog, everyday was the best day ever.

There were some whistles from the men surrounding the hub, a little bit of clatter to start out but it diffused as Yoongi sat down in a rusted metal chair. He deflated into it, melted into mush as the spray from the fountain misted his sun-soaked skin.

Beyond the fountain and the subdued mid afternoon bustle of the central mail hub he could hear the ruckus in the fish markets and dared not even venture a guess about the great calamity that was likely coming from the docks. Everything beyond him, out in the market areas was a little more broken down. Tarps and canvases covered made roofs over stalls.

“Hey kid!” Cracked like glass across the wide expanse, effectively shattering his silence and a good portion of his cheerful mood.

When he turned his head the mint haired mail man knew there was ice in his glare. It was surprising, even to him, that he managed a fairly cordial, “Yes sir?”

The voice on the other end of his rage belonged to an older man standing behind grey stone counter of the central mail hub. The building behind the counter was old and twisted up; gnarled and built, seemingly, of old shipwreck salvage in places. The man peering out had beady black eyes, a big forehead, and a naturally upturned nose that reminded Yoongi a little bit of a short snouted dog he had met once. “Pssst I'm, JYP,” the stranger whispered obnoxiously loudly.

It was clear what this odd person had said as he raked a hand through his greasy, thinning black hair but the mailman still let a baffled “What?” slip through his teeth. Because...what?

“JYP,” the stranger whispered again, cleared his throat and offered, “It's me,” at a normal tone followed by another raspy whisper of “JYP.”

The many who had declared himself JYP cleared his throat again and took a normal tone, “I haven't seen you around before.”

“I'm one of Heechul's kids,” the currier explained.

A shrill whistle pierced the air, floating over the crashing water of the fountain “You're a long way from home, greenie.”

Yoongi chuckled bitterly in response “Was that about my hair or how experienced you think I am?”

“If you're looking for contracts to take you back up the river, there's nothing left.” The older man completely ignored the question and just continued on with his tirade, “There's nothing on the main roads for up north either. You might be out of luck entirely. I hope you have a nice place to stay for the week.”

The mint haired man was finally annoyed enough to stand, letting metal scraped across stone with a screech. “If I wanted to go back up the river I wouldn't need a contract to get me there,” the younger man said.

“A mailman who'd wander without pay,” JYP chuckled, “that's one I've never heard before.”
 

With a deep drag of salt air that turned into a sigh the younger man smirked and walked up to the polished counter. “Since you're so concerned about my financial well being why don't you show me what you've got up front?”

In a peculiar display of sudden concern wherein the man behind the counter contorted himself to gaze around at the empty square with suspicion written across his brow. This of course made Yoongi curious so he craned his neck and looked around as well. When he looked back a neatly tied up parcel had appeared in front of his folded arms.

“I assumed by the hair and stature that you're the Yoongi that Heechul sent this for.”

With wide eyes and skepticism the mint mail currier unfolded himself to put his hands on the counter. How on earth would Heechul know where he was headed.

“There's a letter too,” the older man offered in the confusion, handing it to Yoongi so respectfully that he wasn't sure what to do with himself.

It started with I was so glad to hear that you made it alive and safely to the other side, which made the smaller man tear up a little despite himself. When he scanned the contents of it as quickly as possible he gathered that Heechul had gotten word from Youngguk of TS of his progress towards the coast. The parcel contained a camera it said. So naturally he ripped it open to check. Sure enough it was the kind that his mother had often used for people when they came to see the Heart. The kind that shot out self developing Polaroids. It didn't seem like a practical thing to carry on his way so he picked the discarded letter up and continued reading it as he rolled the plastic object in his free hand.

The last paragraph was where is soul sank deep into the rocks beneath his feet not because it hurt but because it took the weight of his choice out from under him and that was the only thing holding him bound.

Yoongi, most of us don't get to go on big wild adventures. You made the chance for yourself. Don't waste it. Don't come home to stay home. Don't come home at all until you're ready. See the world. Love the people. Do what the rest of us are afraid to do. Just try send pictures back when you can. If you need film cartridges just ask at the counter. I've sent some to every place I could think to.

~Big Space Commissioner Heenim

P.S. I've always wanted to go North on the high road. I hope you'll think of me while you're there.

After a good minute of feeling weightless and confused he looked up at the black haired, pug-nosed commissioner before him with a new respect “Do you have anything that'll take me farther North on the high road?” he asked.

With a smile that made his eyes disappear the man looked behind him and yelled out “BLOCK B,” and then he reached under the counter to pull out a contract. “This'll take you up the steppe to the mountain ridge. They'll have stuff to send you farther inward to YG. I think You'll like YG.”

He winked as he pushed it forward with one hand and tossed the wrapping paper for the parcel with the other. “It's been under the counter for three weeks, no one wants to take it because the timeframe is a little tight. Four months.”

Yoongi wasn't even listening really, he was reading and before he'd even reached the bottom to see how much money he'd earn he pulled a pen from his pocket and signed. The ink pad was offered to him silently and he put his thumb print beside his name.

JYP, whose name was Jinyoung by the way—it was on the contract, passed him a total of thirteen letters and six small packages in one medium sized mail bag. The bag he traded back in and put the mail in the bags he already had. Mail bags, he had noticed, get in the way a lot. And there was no dog sided saddle bag option. Despite vern being the size of a small horse he was not. Yoongi decided he should talk to Heechul about dog sized saddle bags in his next letter.

With all that in tow the walk through the fish market was a slow crawl. Well...it would have been anyway. The market was heavy laden with merchants of all kinds. There were, quite possibly, more people than fish. Everything was filled to bursting like a balloon ready to pop. Vermillion was ecstatic but also very unhappy. Despite his inability to keep his slobbering tongue in his mouth that dopey sheepdog still knew better than to snatch anything off of the many ice covered tables in the two block grid they were pushing through. Passers-by kept giving the panting horse-dog sideways glares despite the fact that there were strays eating the cast off everywhere.

It also bordered on smelling too much like the ocean. Salt air was one thing but briny, slimy fish were entirely another and they were everywhere. The mint haired mail man had never been to the ocean before but he imagined that it smelled a lot like the stuff that came out of it. Just like the rivers.

Yoongi made it to one of the old public docks sometime around late afternoon. The sun was over the water casting a blazing glitter of a glare off the waves as they rippled. It was too deep for them to crash there except on the poles that held the wooden walkways. It was almost hard to look at. Boards creaked in angry protest beneath his weight and sharp sheepdog nails made dull clacking sounds.

A handful of other people were milling about but no one paid him any mind. He did fit in a little with the bags in hand. Everyone seemed to be carrying something.

He was about half way down when, like a heavenly chorus three irate sailors screamed out “JIMIN!” in rapid succession. This, of course, veered him off course...which, truthfully was just the end of the long boardwalk anyway so just about anything could have done it. But Yoongi was a moth to a flame every-time he heard the name Jimin. Maybe he didn't have a soulmate but he could help Hobi in his companion quest right?

The ship Yoongi approached was fairly small in comparison to the massive creatures around him. In fact it was barely twice the size of Mark and Jackson's little fishing boat and there was nothing of note about it. It sported a plain mast not a wildly carved mahogany one and the bow bore no decrative merperson. Plain in every sense of the word. Surely it couldn't be built for more than ten men. Two of whom were out on the deck sighing and piling plain rope. Because everything deserved the word plain.

Or it had until, the little mail currier yelled, “Excuse me, but is your Jimin looking for a Hoseok?” over the creaking and the groaning and the sloshing of water.

The two men turned around and suddenly it was clear that the ship could be as plain as it wanted to be.

“Sorry what did you ask?” The one with big brown eyes and deep red hair asked back in a voice that somehow matched the salt in the air. His jawline was square and defined and his shoulders were generous in width. He was wearing en enormous grew coat that swept the deck and looked wholly unfit for sailing but it was gorgeous.

“Is your Jimin looking for a Hosoek?” Yoongi asked back.

The man took a step forward, probably to hear better. Solitary jungle wandering mailmen are not the loudest of creatures. That step forward didn't go so well though. It was like watching a kitten try to walk along the edge of a fish tank; even the most practiced delicacy had its limits and one day that cat would fall in. The stranger took a nosedive and caught himself on the edge of the deck's railing with a sharp “oof” as he smacked into the side of the vessel.

The other, presumably younger, erupted into a violent gale of laughter that echoed so loudly Yoongi wondered if Jackson would ask him about it later.

As he settled down he flipped his ocean blue hair into a hard left part and ran a hand along his rounded jawline. "Wonjun why do you even have that thing? It's so impractical."

"Because I look amazing in it," the red haired man huffed out as he pulled himself up struggling against the bulk of his jacket.

"Yeah, when you're standing still. The rest of the time you look like a child who has stolen his father's coat.”

Yoongi decided right then and there that he liked this person. This person was very sassy. That asside he raised his hand and shouted, “Excuse me!” again.

Both men turned back sharply.

“I heard you scream for a Jimin?”

“Yeah, cutie” the blue haired one without a name winked when he called back, “We've got one.”

And then he turned his head over his shoulder and spat out, “JIMIN SOME MAILMAN WANTS TO KNOW IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A HOSEOK!”

There was a loud metallic sound like chains rattling as they slammed into solid wood. A shock of orange hair emerged from bellow deck. The person attached to it had a blazingly bright smile that enveloped his eyes and caught the sun off the waves. His skin was a gentle sailors tan. He looked like daylight on the high sea and he was running down the ramp right towards Yoongi screaming “Hoseok did you finally find me?!”

No way. There was NO way this was happening. The mailman had no time get out of the way. He was just faced the choice to either jump into the ocean or been awkwardly embraced by his brother's probably soulmate?

Oh but it was better than that. He almost got kissed. Yoongi reeled back so fast he tripped on his own feet and ended up bent backwards over his solid table of a sheepdog. It clearly would have been slobbery and gross and probably would have felt a little like that time that Namjoon and he had kissed him on a dare when they were kids.

Jungkook had been furious for weeks, and where Jungkook's fury was mostly silent Hobi's would be wrathful and whiny which were two thing's the mint haired mailman didn't want in his life.

“Not me,” Yoongi explained at the hurt shock on the strange Jimin's strong face. “My brother.”

“I'm Yoongi,” he added after a thick pause. “Hoseok is my younger brother. He lives in a town called The Heart.”

In the apparent ruckus a thundering crowed had begun to gather. Or at least spectate from the surrounding vessels.

The blue haired man came speeding down the ramp and grabbed Jimin by the arm; pulling the smaller man back. “I am terribly sorry mister mailman,” he said, “Our Jimin is a little...enthusiastic.”

After another pause the much taller man offered out and hand and said “Suwoong, by the way. Youngest member of the crew.” Which was not a thing most people admitted to openly but this character was owning it.

Yoongi took that hand and straightened himself. His grey four legged companion made a sighing noise and shook himself off in the salt air.

“Come on in,” Suwoong offered, “This isn't the kind of place you want a lot of wandering ears.”

He was young and inexperienced so he followed the ushering crew member up the ramp, across a short expanse of debris ridden deck and into the cabin. In retrospect he probably would have been wiser not to go inside like that. Not because anything bad happened but because caution was advisable in situations like that. Yoongi was usually a skeptical individual, but the full weight of finding a Jimin that was looking for a Hoseok had taken over the part of his brain that would usually tell him that it was a bad idea to follow a group of strangers onto their ship.

The cabin was the only above deck room. It was small and stuffy and wooden. Everything in it was wooden. From the benches to the table to the uncomfortable looking bunk that was off to the far left.

It turned out that the ship was called the Boy's Republic; it's five regular crew members and its Jimin, who was a cabin boy of sorts, were...well...to be honest they were pirates. Not really the good kind of pirate either, but not irredeemably evil either. They were mail men of sorts too. The laws governing international waters were so murky that pirates were some of the only people that could take mail contracts across it. Yoongi added it to his list of things to try.

Not the piracy, the mail across the sea thing. It sounded like fun. And he lacked a loyalty contract so technically he could.

The mint-haired mailman was introduced to the members of the crew one by one. They promptly launched into a discussion about whether or not to let Jimin out of his four year crew term while they were still introducing themselves. It was had to keep up but the gist of it seemed to be that Jimin was only on year two and behind on paying his boarding fees at that. There was a lot of arguing about money.

“I hate this city,” Sunwoo scoffed his auburn hair was distracting against the soft lines of his face, “Everytime we make port we find someone's soulmate.”

“Mark was an awful pirate,” Suwoong snorted.

“But he was a good fisherman,” OneJunn—the sort of bumbling, very sweet, probably not well suited to be a pirate, captain countered.

“He was on year three and just as behind and Jimin is and we let him go,” Minsu pointed out.

“Jackson paid for him,” Onejunn said, “Can you pay for him?”

All eyes turned to Yoongi and he shrugged, “You haven't given me a number.”

Suwoong snorted, Minsu rolled his eyes and Jimin ran a hand through is striking orange locks, “If you have to ask for a number you probably cant.”

With a billowing sigh that pushed out the mint haired man's lips he took to considering his options. Which might seem absurd since he had just met this man, but it was for his brother. His brother who he loved more than anything else on that planet. This Jimin belonged with Hoseok.

A thousand thoughts crossed his mind in the rumbling quiet until finally one stuck. A moderately crazy one, but one that could work.

“If you mailed him at my brother's expense you would probably get a little more than he owes,” Yoongi said.

There was a room-wide shrug and whisper.

“I am a person,” Jimin huffed.

“You're an object under contract,” Yoongi pointed out.

“The rules do state that any object under contract can be mailed,” Onejunn expanded, “And at a standard parcel rate we would probably get about a third over what you owe to pay out the contract.”

“Especially if you send him the long way,” Yoongi added with a smirk, because who wouldn't want to see the world?

That's how the incredible mint-haired mail man wound up filling out his first and only large parcel contract at the city center mail hub in the Port of JYP.

“Wait?! You're not taking me?” Jimin asked in a panic when he realized what was going on.

“He's got places to be,” Mister Jinyoung said.

The little mail man got a funny look from the commissioner when he asked for a piece of paper and wide tip pen but it was given to him at no extra charge. So he wrote “THIS JIMIN IS FOR YOU HOSEOK” on the paper and shoved it into Jimin's chest.

“Take a picture of us commissioner,” Yoongi smiled.

With the fountain in the background, Vern standing between them and the crew of The Boys Republic trying to stick their fingers in the frame they took the first picture with that brand new camera. Jinyoung was even kind enough to take a picture of Jimin, Yoongi, and the whole crew. For them of course.

The goodbyes were shockingly touching for pirates. Promises to keep in touch were exchanged with hugs and the mint-haired currier even got some "glad we got to meet you's". He wrote to Onejunn about their adventures quite often there after. They landed at the port fairly regularly after the apparently devastating loss of two consecutive crew members to it. As Yoongi understood it they were under an unofficial contract with Jinyoung.

It turned out this Jimin was the incarnation of sunshine and the embodiment of sweet candy but he also had a very bitter inside where the tortures of leaving home alone to seek out his soulmate lived.

~~~~

Sorry for the long hiatus everyone. I had a novel to finish before I could devote my hear to this fic the way it deserves. I hope you enjoy this much delayed update and stick around for more. Also you should all go check out Boy's Republic they deserve more love and the rappers are literal fire. Comments make me a better writer. 

Much love

~RFL