Under the wide eyed stares of both Gongchan and Hongbin; Taekwoon patted down his person in search for his wallet; hastily pulling it out to show his identification to first Gongchan and then Hongbin.

                “FBI?”  Gongchan asked.

                Taekwoon’s eyes widened and looked back at his wallet to realize he had shown the wrong side of the fold. 

                “Sir, I don’t know what you think we did wrong, but I assure you we received all these animals legally.” 

                Taekwoon shook his head, lifting his hand with it for added effort.  He flipped his wallet, his identification showing this time instead of his badge.

                “Mr. Jung?”  Hongbin asked him.  Taekwoon nodded, almost sighing with relief.  “Again sir, I assure you…” Taekwoon shook his head violently again, pressing his fingers to his forehead in exasperation.

                “Taekwoon are you back here?”  Hyuk’s head popped around the curtain, quizzical look on his face when he beheld his partner standing between two zoo workers looking thoroughly panicked.  Still Taekwoon had never felt more relieved to see his partner.  And he had been held captive a number of times.  He hopped his sharp look at him was enough for Hyuk to know he needed his help.

                “Are you with him sir?”  Hongbin asked Hyuk. 

                “Yeah, we work together.”  Hyuk smiled coming closer.

                “Good, look we are trying to tell him that we have done nothing wrong.”  Hyuk’s eyes swerved to him, quizzical eyebrow high.  Hongbin still explaining to him that they had gotten the animals through a preserve and it was perfectly legal, not noticing that Hyuk had stopped listening to him.

                ‘What’s going on Taekwoon?’  He signed to him.

                Taekwoon deflated with relief.  ‘I accidently showed them the wrong side of my wallet when they asked for my name.  Now they think that they’re in trouble and I panicked before trying to see if they knew sign language.’

                ‘Really Taekwoon?’

                ‘Look, it wasn’t my plan, I just wanted to give the fox back.’

                ‘And you didn’t expect them to talk to you?’

                ‘I never expected them to ask questions.  A thank you, yes, but not asking for my name or anything.’

                ‘What do I get for helping you?’

                ‘A good whooping for expecting to get anything.’

                Hyuk scoffed at him, cutting Hongbin off who was still in mid rant of where each animal had come from, eyes closed.

                “Sir, honestly we don’t think you are doing anything wrong.”  Hyuk smiled at Hongbin.

                “Then why would the FBI be here?”  Gongchan asked, arms crossed.

                “It’s is a simple misunderstanding.  We are here for the show, the fox curled up in my partner’s lap and he came to return it.  He didn’t expect you guys to bother asking for his name, so he didn’t let any of us know he was leaving.”  Hyuk gave a small smile.  “He showed you his badge by mistake.”

                “He could have just told us his name; he didn’t have to flash his badge like some self-important weirdo.”  Hongbin sighed.

                Taekwoon was fuming, he was used to being spoken about like he wasn’t there, that was fine.  But this Hongbin fellow didn’t even know him. 

                “Um, he can’t talk sir.”  Hyuk rubbed the back of his neck, seeing Taekwoon’s hard stare at the fox handler.  Taekwoon shook his head, he was done with this.  He shoved pass Hongbin and Hyuk and left the hallway.  He would watch the show and then he was going home, this was enough socializing to get him out of at least the next three outings.

 

~V~

                Hongbin watched the tall man slip by the curtain, bottom lip pulled between his teeth, cheeks burning.

                “Don’t worry about it sir.  He’s used to being misunderstood a lot.”  The man’s partner smiled at him and then gave him a thumbs up.  “The rest of the team are super excited for the show, good luck!”  Hyuk then left, following the same path as the tall, silent stranger.

                “Wow, that must be difficult.”

                “What must be difficult?”

                “Being law enforcement and not being able to speak.”  Gongchan snickered.  “Isn’t it common in movies for the cop to yell at the criminal to stop?”

                “That’s not very nice Gongchan.”

                “Well you weren’t very nice either.”

                Hongbin opened his mouth in rebuttal but he instead did a very good imitation of a fish out of water as the last thing he said before Mr. Jung left played through his head.  There was a small whimper from his arms where Jun was looking up at him and Hongbin couldn’t help but bury his head into the fox’s fur in shame. 

                “Well his partner did say he gets misunderstood a lot.  He probably wasn’t that angry.”

                “I called him a self-important weirdo, Gongchan.  I said that about a cop who brought Jun back to me, after I practically feel him up in a hallway.  I called him a weirdo.”  Hongbin pouted.

                “Bin, you still have a show to do.  Dwell on your mistakes later, go make people happy to see baby animals now.”  Gongchan patted his shoulder and sauntered off, letting the rest of the crew know that Jun had been returned and they can resume getting the rest of the animals prepared for the show.

                “I’m such a jerk Jun.”  Hongbin pouted, glancing back at the curtain before he continued down the hallway.

 

~V~

 

                “And then he panicked and showed them the wrong side of his wallet.”

                “He flashed his badge?”  There was cackling laughter.  “Oh dear lord I wish I had been there to see it.”

                Taekwoon huffed, leaning once again against the stadium seating as they waited for the show to begin.  Fuming as Hyuk recounted his tale behind the curtain.

                “Wait, it wasn’t even the best part!”  Hyuk giggled and leaned closer to Haekyeon.  “The caretaker of the animals called Taekwoon a self-important weirdo!”  Wonshik, Haekyeon and Hyuk proceeded to break down into fits of loud laughter drawing the attention of the patrons around them.  Taekwoon was fed up, he reached through his team lead and smacked Hyuk hard upside the head.  “Ow!  Taekwoon!”

                Taekwoon shrugged, ignoring Hyuk’s small threat of never translating for him again.  They went back to whispering about which animals they were excited to see.  Taekwoon closed his eyes, his mind replaying a certain scene.  Short brown hair and big eyes with his warm hand on his thigh. 

                Taekwoon’s eyes popped open, sitting forward quickly, trying to rid his mind of the image. 

                “Ladies and Gentleman!  Please direct your attention to the front of the stage as the critter crew presents: Tiny Predators!”  Cheers took place all around the small compound as there was a small procession of all the animals they would be seeing today and learning about throughout the show.  Taekwoon tried not to focus too hard on the man leading the procession.  Hongbin was leading the stage with a small bear cub tumbling at his side, adorable for everyone paying attention as Hongbin would walk a little, the bear would tumble into his legs, and then look up at Hongbin as if to say ‘what?’ 

 

~V~

 

                Hongbin smiled and Kodi the bear cub kept up with his tumbles, he was probably one the more trained of the cubs.  Hongbin lead the procession around, smiling at all the kids that were as close to the wall as they could possibly be, all pointing and yelling over their shoulder at parents that were smiling exhaustedly.  On the trip back to the backstage area Hongbin noticed him.  Taekwoon was sitting close to the wall, and what looked like three adult children next to him all pointing excitedly at the stage and yelling to each other.

                ‘That must be the rest of his co-workers.’  Hongbin thought, watching Taekwoon as he followed the stage procession.  Kodi tumbled a little too far ahead of him, causing the small cub to be extremely confused when he went to chase after his feet, only to not find them where he thought they would be.  It took just a moment before Kodi looked behind him, running excitedly on paws just slightly too big for him towards Hongbin’s feet.  There was a brief moment, when Hongbin smiled to the crowd that he glimpsed something.  Taekwoon, the stoic silent man, was smiling.  Eyes lit up as Kodi tumbled into Hongbin’s foot. 

                Hongbin continued on, shell shocked, he was pretty sure there was an awe expression on his stage cause as he passed Gongchan with a hopping otter he was given a questioning look. ‘Stunning,’ his brain supplied.  That smile was stunning, it was very small, but…Hongbin blinked as he lifted Kodi to begin the program; that had to have been the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.  All the other workers continuing behind the stage.

                “Thank you everyone!  We here at the zoo are happy to be able to put this program on for you!  I’m Hongbin, the main caretaker of all the animals you will meet today.  And this is Kodi!”  Hongbin lifted the black bear cub in his arms.  “Now Kodi is a black bear cub…”  Hongbin smiled as the kids pressed closer to the wall. 

~V~

                “That was awesome!”  Haekyeon smiled as he bounced around Wonshik.  “I never knew all those facts!  And getting to touch the otter!  My little heart!”

                “Are you five Haekyeon?”  Wonshik grumbled as his arm was grabbed.

                “You hush; you were just as excited when he came by with the little wolf cub.”

                “At least wolves are cooler.”

                “But otters cuddle!”

                “Of course you pick the one animal that likes to cuddle.”

                “Did you not listen to Hongbin?  As baby’s lots of animals like to cuddle.  Then when they’re adults they still cuddle for warmth.”  Hyuk said with a finger in the air, his small smug smirk had Taekwoon snorting.

                “Don’t you dare pretend you didn’t like watching the baby animals Taekwoon!”  Haekyeon slapped his shoulder.

                ‘Not pretending, they were cute.  Now if you excuse me, I’m going home.’  Taekwoon waved good bye to emphasize his want to leave.

                “Now hold on a minute, we still need to see the rest of the zoo!”  Haekyeon frowned.

                “He’s probably tired Leader.”  Hyuk smiled, trying alleviate the situation.  “This is the longest he’s been out for a while.”

                “Don’t you dare go cover for him.”  Haekyeon placed his hands on his hips and stared up at Taekwoon.

                ‘I’m going home Haekyeon.’  Taekwoon signed.

                “No, you are staying at least till after lunch.”  Haekyeon stomped his foot.  Taekwoon held in a snort as Wonshik slapped his forehead at the sight.

                ‘I’m not hungry.’

                “Oh no sir, don’t you dare lie to me.”  Taekwoon rolled his eyes.  “Coffee, I will buy you coffee, right now.”  Taekwoon raised his eyebrow at the team leader.  “I will buy you coffee all day if I have to!”  Haekyeon sighed.  “Please Taekwoon, I don’t like when you lock yourself away from the world.  Just for today and I will leave you alone for the rest of the week.”

                Taekwoon stared at his pouting team leader, noticing Wonshik had taken a step closer, hand rubbing up and down the leaders back.

                ‘Fine, but you owe me.’  Haekyeon smiled at him, clapping out of happiness.

                “Alright, let’s go to the Africa section.  We can see the lions!”  Haekyeon bounded away, happy with Hyuk following at a skipping pace.

                “Thanks Taekwoon.”  Wonshik said, giving the taller man a smile.  Taekwoon nodded, keeping his face carefully blank.  “He really does worry about you, you know.”  Taekwoon nodded again.  “We all kind of worry about you.”  Taekwoon nodded again.  “You stopped listening to me haven’t you?”  Taekwoon was half way through a nod before he glared at Wonshik.  “Well, let’s go see some lions so I can watch my boyfriend gush over how cool they all look.”  Wonshik started pulling on Taekwoon’s arm, letting go as Taekwoon rolled his eyes and took his own steps.

                “Mr. Jung!”  Taekwoon stopped, looking back over his shoulder and nearly gagging in surprise.  He grabbed Wonshik by the sleeve of his jacket as Hongbin waved and ran over to them.  “Mr. Jung, I’m happy I could catch you.  Do you mind if we talk really quick?”