Taehyung didn’t really need any extra pocket money - but he was the type of guy who had a hard time saving his allowance. It’s not that he never had any, and it wasn’t like he couldn’t save up for something, it’s just that he tended to have exactly the amount of money he needed, when he needed it. If something expensive that he wanted came along, he would save enough of his money from his part-time modeling job to purchase it, and promptly make his wallet quite depleted. If he was hungry, he had enough for a hamburger, but then he would be broke for the next few days. This kind of spending habit was completely baffling to Yoongi, who was a professional hoarder when it came to money. Jin teased once that Yoongi probably had dragon blood from some distant ancestor, and would be quite content to sleep on a pile of his riches forever, if it were possible.

Interestingly enough, this was one of the reasons Taehyung admired Yoongi, in his own soft schoolboy way, and he usually whined about how he wished he could save as well as the elder, to which the latter suggested that Tae work occasionally in the shop on ty pay, so as to ‘teach the true value of money’ to the boy.

“You finally sound like the old man you dress like,” Taehyung effused without hesitation, but his eyes sparkled with interest. That was how he ended up working the desk one beautiful spring weekend, in the middle of a dead afternoon. And Taehyung was bored out of his mind. He yawned, stretching out his long arms and shaking his right foot, which had fallen asleep. Jin was out on a delivery at the moment, so there wasn’t anything fun to do except sit in the dim, chilly flower shop and watch people outside enjoy the lovely warm weather without him. Just behind him, tucked along the back wall behind the front desk, was a small doorway with a curtain made out of wooden beads hung across it, leading to the ‘preparation room’ - which was more of a slightly wide hallway that held two long folding tables and led to the street out back where the truck usually waited for deliveries. He could hear scuffling sounds as things were being moved and dragged around.

He sighed, stood up and stumbled on his tingly foot inside to where Yoongi was knelt on the ground and had his hands buried wrist-deep in potting soil, carefully mixing the special fertilizer with a precise measuring of the sort that could only be done with years of experience. As it was the only activity in the otherwise dead shop ( Well, technically, flowers are busy breathing, Taehyung thought absently, but watching them was only entertaining for the first hour or two) he went over to watch Yoongi work.

“Is that new?” Taehyung asked, crouching at his side and pushing back the bandana that held his mouse-brown hair away from his eyes.

“Yeah, it had a lot of good reviews online,” Yoongi kept his eyes trained on the fertilizer, taking in the pungent scent and the all-too familiar sensation of earth slipping between his fingers. The ph balance he needed for the rarer and more tropical flowers they were ordering for Valentine’s Day was precarious in a less experienced hand, but he hadn’t spent years of his life researching for nothing.

“Hand me those tablets,” he gestured to the package at Tae’s feet, his tone distracted. Taehyung held them out, his free hand poking into the soil in one of the pots, making a fingertip-sized indentation.

“Ya, don't compact the dirt too much,” Yoongi’s words were surprisingly gentle, like a mother quietly chiding her child, but they were sharp enough to make Taehyung’s hand stop instantly.

They sat in silence for a few minutes as Yoongi mixed together the soil. In the corner of his eye he saw Taehyung sitting quietly, watching him like an obedient child. Without a word exchanged, he held out the trowel in his hand to Tae and pushed the container of half-mixed soil towards him. Taehyung took the trowel and mixed it around, leaving Yoongi free to turn his attention towards preparing the seedlings for transplanting.

Over the last couple of years, Yoongi had noticed that despite seeming like a hyper kid most of the time, Taehyung had a lot of quieter moments. He sometimes looked like he had totally closed in on himself inside his own head, wrapped up in some thought that, complex or simplistic, had still garnered his full attention. When that happened, his brothers always seemed to suddenly back off and give Taehyung the space and silence needed to work through whatever mysteries were being turned over in his head, and after awhile, Yoongi had picked up the habit, too. Therefore it was Taehyung who broke their half an hour of silence first.

“You like flowers a lot, don’t you?” His voice sounded like that of a man coming back out of a deep sleep, more energized and ready to move onto the next conversation.

“Mm? Yeah, I do.” Yoongi mumbled.

“Why is that? Do you just like looking at them?”

Yoongi let out a long “Hmm” sound, distracted as he was by measuring the tiny hole he had just dug with the knuckles of one finger. Placing the delicate green plant into the new pot, he waited for Taehyung to drop a couple half-trowels full of freshly mixed soil. “I like taking care of things that don’t talk back, I guess.” There was always more to it than that, he supposed. But Yoongi wasn’t sure how to - or if he should - articulate those wandering thoughts. “It feels good, to make them revive and last even one more day, you know? It’s a little addicting, trying to figure out how to make each one last as long as possible, as brightly as possible.”

Taehyung sat back on his heels, wiping his fingertips on his pants, and considered for a moment. “I kind of didn’t expect that answer.”

To that, Yoongi chuckled a little, because Taehyung looked positively puzzled, like a beagle that had just lost what it was hunting down. “Did you expect me to say ‘because I like making people smile with pretty flowers?’” He lifted one leaf of the baby seedling he was holding, like it was waving a greeting at Taehyung.

“No.” Taehyung frown, and a beat passed. “Well, maybe. Kinda.”

“Outside of movies, people smile more at their phones than flowers. But I do think it makes us feel a little better, a little happier. Maybe because we can still sort of sense them giving us oxygen or something. And having something alive that’s there, but fleeting without consequence.” He shook his head. Despite not doing anything in particular to cause it, Taehyung always made him start to talk too deeply, and he had to reel himself back in. Especially since at that moment, a bad recording of Hoseok (one of their recent regulars) screeching resounded from the front door of the shop, the microphone crackling at the overblown sound.

“A customer’s here,” Yoongi stood up, wiping his hands on the backs of his jeans as Taehyung had done. He indicated with his head toward the front, “You go take care of it, I’ll clean up here and be right out.”

“Okay,” Taehyung stepped out, where a boy was standing just inside the door, staring up at the little black box that was their door alarm with confusion. “Um, can I help you?”

The boy jumped a little, turning around to look at Taehyung and-- were those tears on his face? Taehyung’s mouth opened a little in surprise.

“Jimin?”

“Taehyung?” The boy exhaled, looking devastated, running a hand through his pink hair. One would think that it would mess up the delicately styled-look of the boy’s thick bangs, but anyone who knew Jimin - and Taehyung knew Jimin very well - knew that such laws of physics didn’t apply to someone like Park Jimin. “You work here?” 

“Uh, yeah, kinda? My brother owns it.”

“ Co -owns it,” Yoongi snapped, stepping out from behind the beads, the slight rain-like sound they created accompanying his stony expression of mild irritation. He set the emptied seedling containers in a mostly-neat stack on the shelf below the counter, then stood up to meet Jimin’s eyes. He had been about to ask ‘Can we help you?’ but upon seeing the tear stains trailing down both the boy’s unbelievably round cheeks, he decided to pass this one off to Taehyung for today. “I’m gonna go check the orders for tomorrow, I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”

Taehyung rolled his eyes, pouting a little at Yoongi’s quick escape, then turned back to Jimin, who to his surprise was now biting his lip to stop it from quivering. “Um, are you okay?”

“I’m fine . God, I d-didn’t think you would be working here,” Jimin pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes, as if trying to squeeze away all traces of crying. His voice was thick, “I just...I need some flowers.”

“Okay.” He waited for a beat for Jimin to continue, and when he didn’t, he added, “Um. Do you know what kind you want?”

“Rhododendrons,” Jimin mumbled, finally lowing his hands from his eyes and setting his jaw. “I usually get them at the shop closer to my house, but they’re closed for a family emergency. I usually get these like, purple and whitish ones?”

“Okay, I think we have those over here,” Taehyung stepped over to one of the displays, looking through them. Unfortunately for them both, Hoseok had come over to visit the shop the other day and offered to help out by labeling flowers with Yoongi - and it wasn’t until later that they had realized Hoseok had the worst handwriting imaginable. “Um, I think this is it?”

“Taehyung, those are sweetpeas. Even I know that. The ones I want are like, the petals are little ruffly skirts, and they’re shaped kind of like a trumpet?”

“That could describe practically every flower in here,” Taehyung groaned, looking up at his friend. “What do you even need these for?”

“I just do, all right?!” Jimin’s defensive growl made Taehyung look up with a confused and slightly wounded expression.

“Fine, whatever. You’re annoying when you get all proud and uppity.” Taehyung knew he should have tried to act more professional with Jimin, since he was a customer for all intents and purposes, but he couldn’t help the red-hot flare of anger in his belly when JImin got testy. He was always trying to prove himself and Taehyung never understood why. “It’s not like we’re friends and I can help you out or anything. It’s not like I care about you and can’t stand this whole ‘I’m a manly man’ image or whatever it is you call it.”

Jimin’s fists clenched at his sides, pressing his lips together in a tight line as Taehyung crossed his arms for his chest. “I’m here for funeral flowers, okay?!” he snapped.

“Hey, what’s going on up here?” Yoongi poked his head around the door to the basement, his face pale from the cold down below, and his brows furrowed. “Tae?”

The boys were staring at each other over the sweetpeas, Taehyung with a look of surprised guilt and Jimin with pain.

“Sorry, we’re just looking for the rhododendrons.”

Yoongi narrowed his eyes. “They’re in the basement chiller cabinet, since they don’t seem to be as popular this time of year.”

“Oh...well,” Taehyung shoved his hands in his pockets and slipped across the room. “I’ll go get them, then. You said purple and white?”

“Yeah…” Jimin’s voice was more of a sniffle. When Taehyung had left the room, Yoongi gestured Jimin over closer.

“Hey, you okay? What happened?”

Jimin’s face crumpled a little more when he met Yoongi’s eyes. “It’s nothing, Tae-Tae and I were just arguing, that’s all.. It’s probably all my fault.”

“Not necessarily,” was Yoongi’s non-committal reply. It was his half-hearted attempt at being reassuring without taking sides.

“It’s just...she died this morning, and I had no warning.” Jimin stared down at the floor. A clattering noise came from the basement, as Taehyung took the stairs two at a time, reappearing with his arms full of rhododendrons. “Well, she’d been sick a long time, you know? She’s never been very healthy, but we had her on a special diet and everything…”

“Mm..” Yoongi prompted Jimin to continue, setting a hand on the boy’s shoulder and squeezing a little. He remembered when his grandmother had died, how the whole family had been a weeping mess for days. He had never been much of a crier, but even still, he didn’t like seeing one of Taehyung’s friends crying.

Jimin his lips, rubbing a fist at the last trace of tears that had finally stopped escaping. “The vet said it was probably a heart attack that killed her, but I feel so terrible. I know it’s stupid, but I’m really gonna miss her…”

“Well, that’s understa--” Yoongi stopped, blinked twice. “Did you say ‘vet’?”

Instantly, Jimin’s cheeks flushed, and he shoved Yoongi’s arm off. “I told you it was stupid. Don’t laugh at me!”

“Your pet died and that’s who you’re buying funeral flowers for?”

“They were her favorite, okay?!” Jimin growled, his face unbelievably red.Yoongi wanted to laugh, but he couldn’t. Not when the boy looked ready to cry again. So Yoongi just gave a little nod and stepped behind the counter. That was when he noticed Taehyung still standing at the basement entrance, his face darkened and his mouth slack in surprise.

“Kongju’s dead?!” Taehyung whispered, in the smallest, most childlike voice Yoongi had ever heard him speak in. Jimin looked up from where he had been staring at the countertop and met Taehyung’s eyes, giving a nod. In the next moment, Taehyung had strode over to Jimin’s side and embraced him in a tight hug, the rhododendrons pressed up against Jimin’s back and mussing his hair. “I’m sorry,” Taehyung mumbled to Jimin.

“Thanks…” Jimin managed, rubbing at his eyes with his sleeve and sending Taehyung a sad little smile. Taehyung turned to Yoongi, who was looking mildly confused, and then pulled his phone out.

“Look, Kongju was really cute, hyung! She was the fluffiest cat you’ve ever seen.”

Yoongi leaned forward to peer at the photo, taken some hot summer day, judging by the seated Jimin in the photo, with a larger than life pile of gray fur and fatness that vaguely resembled a cat sitting in his lap. Well, rather than sitting, it was more like burying Jimin. The boy’s arms reached around to encircle the creature, and he had the softest expression on his face, burying his cheek in her fur. The cat Kongju herself looked bored at best, her eyes narrow with laziness and turning her face off to the side and away from the camera.

“Wasn’t she really pretty?” Taehyung asked, his eyes shimmering. “Jimin always spoiled her, that’s probably why she was so fat. She was 12 kilos!”

“12 kilos?” Yoongi’s eyes widened.

“Yeah, she had digestive problems though, so we had to buy her special cat food. She got sick a lot.”

“Wait a second…” Yoongi leaned back, away from Taehyung’s phone, and looked at Jimin with realization. “You said your cat liked rhododendrons?”

“Um, yeah, actually. My mom brought some home one day from work, and Kongju really liked them, so I bought her some when it was a s-special occasion or something...like last week was her birthday, so, I bought her a bouquet of them, and...”

“Did she ever eat the flowers?"

“Huh?” Jimin seemed surprised by the sharpness of Yoongi’s tone, sensing something was wrong. Tentatively, he nodded, “Y-yeah, she liked to eat the petals sometimes.”

Yoongi sighed, sitting back into the stool behind the counter and rubbing the bridge of his nose between two fingers.

“Rhododendrons,” he said slowly, deliberately, “Are poisonous to cats.”

Jimin’s eyes widened. Taehyung in a breath and mumbled, “Jimin…”

“Usually it just makes them vomit or something like that, but...I can’t imagine it was good for Kongju to eat them semi-regularly, either.”

Jimin didn’t say anything at first, his expression dead as he slowly knelt down on the ground, hugging his knees.

“I killed my cat.”

Yoongi and Taehyung met gazes, and Yoongi sighed, his shoulders slumping. “Well, um...we don’t know that… It’s probably just what made her sick, that’s all…”

In reply, Jimin let out a long sound, burying his face into his hands, which were covered by the sleeves of his sweater. “I killed my cat by letting her eat stupid flowers until she had diarrhea to death!”

Taehyung, who was kneeling at Jimin’s side with one hand on his friend’s sleeve, suddenly found the edges of his mouth twitching. After a snort of poorly hid amusement alerted the pink-haired boy, he looked up with a question in his eyes.

“I’m...I’m sorry, it’s just...you would be the guy who bought special-diet cat food for your poisoned and dying pet…”

That was all Taehyung managed before falling into snorts of full-body laughter. Yoongi frowned over the countertop, about to scold Taehyung until he saw that Jimin’s shoulders were starting to shake with laughter. Jimin let out another long groan, throwing his head back and laughing. Taehyung slapped him heavily on the shoulder, his mouth spread wide in a grin as they tears streamed out of both their eyes - a mingling of tears from both mourning and laughter simultaneously. Their continued mirth continued until they had somehow tumbled all over each other and were sprawled out on the floor of the shop, holding onto each other.

“You’re so mean to me!” Jimin squeaked, his face prettily flushed across both cheeks. “She was so cute when she ate them, though!”

“Yeah,” Taehyung laughed, as Jimin smacked lightly at him. That was when Seokjin got back from his delivery, his entrance accompanied by the sound of Hoseok’s scream once again.

“Um..? Are you guys okay?”

The two boys were two overwhelmed by their giggle fits to proper explain, so Yoongi took it upon himself to fill Jin in. When he’d finished, the eldest nodded a little, a smile on his lips, bending to look at the photo Taehyung still had of the cat. Yoongi, now losing his patience, was grateful when Jin said he’d take care of Jimin’s flowers, if Yoongi would load up the truck with the next delivery. He slipped out quietly, and Jin held out his hands for the boys to take, easily pulling them up and off the ground.

“Try not to feel too bad,” he reassured Jimin, patting him on the shoulder. “You didn’t know, but now you do.”

“I guess,” Jimin sighed. He leaned heavily on the counter, his laughter and crying having worn him out. “I just wish I could apologize to Kongju...she was such a good cat, she didn’t deserve what I put her through…”

“Well,” Jin twitched one edge of his lips up, contemplating. Taehyung suddenly let out a rapturous ‘Ahh!’ sound, clasping his hands together in front of his face. Jimin looked between the two brothers, not sure what had happened.

“Jin is gonna do your bouquet!” Taehyung cooed, “He’s been teaching me a little of it, too!”

“Teaching? Huh? Tae, you didn’t even know what a sweetpea was…”

“We haven’t gotten to the S’s yet,” Taehyung said matter-of-factly, with a roll of his eyes. “But he doesn’t do it for everyone, just the special bouquets, so listen.”

Jin was busy looking at the list of their available flowers, running one long finger down the scrawled names with a thoughtful hum. A smile twitched across his face a few times, and Taehyung stared at his brother like he was doing some sort of magic.

At last, Jin walked over to the chiller cabinets and started pulling different flowers from different cases, setting them on the counter in a pile of gold, white and a plethora of purples. The boys leaned in close as Jin held up each flower in turn.

“Michaelmas daisies,” he held up the light purple-petaled daisies with the sun-like yellow center, “say ‘farewell,’ Sweetpeas for ‘Thank you for a lovely time,’” he held up the reddish purple and white buds, stringing them into the pile.

“I told you you wanted sweetpeas!” Taehyung crowed, and Jimin elbowed him to shush him.

“Buttercups for ‘childishness,’” Jin smirked, threading the tiny golden flowers in among the previous ones. They looked like tiny glowing jewelry for the others. “And finally, purple hyacinths for ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘sorrow.’ I think that will tell Kongju how you feel.” He rolled the flowers into plastic wrapping and tied it gently. “Although, I’m willing to bet she already knew.”

“Thanks,” Jimin whispered, suddenly quite serious as he looked down at the very royal-colored bouquet. “I think she’d love it…”

“Just don’t tell Yoongi, it’s Jin’s secret talent,” Taehyung said conspiratorially, placing a finger to his lips. “And let me come with you to give them to Kongju. I’ll miss her, too.”

“I’m going now, actually…” Jimin hugged the flowers to his chest. Taehyung looked over at Jin, silently asking for approval, and got a soft smile and a nod.

“I’ll let you off for the afternoon, but be back to help close up, all right?”

“Roger!” Taehyung saluted, wrapping his arm around Jimin’s shoulder as the two of them walked out together, Hoseok’s scream the last remaining sound in the shop for the afternoon. Jin hummed cheerfully as he went to clear away the bits of petals and leaves that had fallen off and littered the counter, not realizing that Yoongi was tucked just inside the preparation room, his arms crossed and a curious expression on his face as he watched his partner work.