The winter had opened Jimin’s eyes a little. He waited until Christmas and all its attendant ceremonies passed before he tracked Jin down in the apartment’s lounge one night. It was late, quite a few hours after dinner, but Jin was still reading messages on his phone, comfortably settled against the couch pillows with a tray of chocolates on his lap. Every so often, he would eat one, his fingers clean, wipe them on a napkin and continue scrolling.

 

He watched him do it three times before moving, mouth curving into a smile. “Hyung,” he murmured as he sunk down on the far side of the couch on the armrest. “You have some time?”

 

Jin blinked up at him. “Jimin-ah? Sit on the couch proper, you’re not a savage – is something wrong?”

 

Jimin wanted to roll his eyes, but slid down to the couch level instead, curling his legs up. “I wanted to speak to you about getting a job. Or I’d like to help more around the complex at least.”

 

“Ah,” Jin said quietly.  “What’s moving you to this?”

 

“You’re doing all the work of taking care of me,” Jimin explained. “You pay for my clothes and my food, and you’re giving me lessons, and the only thing I do is scrub the bathroom and wash the dishes. I wasn’t thinking of going to work in a grocery mart or something, just maybe a bit around the complex. Like, being a babysitter for an evening, or running little errands. Most of them can’t make it to the 7-Eleven without some serious illusion spells. Or I can fix some of the things like a handyman? I’m not saying that you don’t keep the place well, but I’m good with my hands.”

 

“Is it about money?” Jin asked curiously. “I’m not hard off for money at all. My family’s been saving for a long time, and I get a ridiculous stipend from the court. Do you… do you feel useless?”

 

Jimin’s fingers wrung together a little. “A little,” he admitted. “I could do more. I eat too much here, I’m starting to get fat, hyung…”

 

“Don’t,” Jin said sternly. “You know how I feel about you thinking lies about yourself. You’re not fat at all. Of all the habits this new world has taught you, body issues should not be one of them.”

 

Jimin coloured with mortification. His body image was something they had perennial arguments over after he had gotten used to the new standards, and if he didn’t tread carefully Jin would get all autocratic about it. “I’m not getting enough exercise at the moment, hyung,” he tried. “And I wanted… I wanted to see if I could take dance lessons somewhere. I really, really enjoyed that at Christmas, and I’ll need money for that.”

 

Jin blinked. “Oh. Well.” His teeth showed as he grinned. “You were a hit at Christmas, right? It’s not something I’m very good at, but it’s true that you seem to have a gift. Have you looked to see how much lessons are, and what kind you want?”

 

Jimin nodded eagerly and scooted closer. “I was watching dances on that place you sent me… I was thinking pole, or exotic?”

 

“Jimin-ah!” Jin squawked. “What are you saying even?”

 

Giggling, Jimin held up his hands. “I’m kidding! Geez, hyung, if you think I want to see anything like that after that talk you gave me you’re mad. No, I was looking at contemporary, or perhaps even hip-hop? The prices vary though, depending on how often I want to go.”

 

“Aish,” Jin muttered, reaching to pinch his cheeks in revenge. “You’ll have to go at least three to four times a week if you really want to be good at it, and we’ll have to make you a place you can dance here as well… hm. I could pay for a semester’s worth of dance lessons perhaps, and in turn you could fix up the little things around here, and talk to our neighbours and run errands for them? I’ll know if you slack though!”

 

It was Jimin’s turn to look affronted. “Hyung, I would never!”

 

Jin’s smile gentled. “I know. You’re a good boy, Jimin-ah. Now, you know how to send me messages on your phone still, right? Go and look up the class schedules and send me the links, and we can decide tomorrow. Do you want a chocolate?”

 

“No hyung, those are your Christmas chocolates from Namjoon-hyung, right? For all I know he found another species of poop to call a delicacy.”

 

Jin whacked him on the side of one thigh. “Disrespectful! These are delicious.”

 

Jimin smirked at him, ducking the second blow to get a hug in. “I know,” he teased. “But they’re yours. You enjoy them, okay? I can make you something to drink? And by that I mean I can put water into the machine and put the little pot thing in so that it makes it, not me.”

 

Relaxed again, Jin hugged him lightly before nodding. “Some of the light green ones, okay?”

 

``````````````````````````````````````````````

 

Jimin knocked gently at the intricate lacquered door, only moving it to an open position when he heard the rolling grunt from inside. Namjoon-hyung was in his haetae form, sprawling out over a pile of pillows as things floated in front of him in the air. Having learnt from experience, he waited until the ink was down and capped before he scooted inside, giving him a little bow. They had become shallower over the months they had known each other, until it was just a small genuflection before he dived for the pile of pillows as well. One wouldn’t think that a lion covered with scales would be warm, but his mentor was surprisingly comfortable and snuggly.

 

“Thanks for seeing me so quickly, Namjoon-hyung,” he said happily. “I know you must be busy.”

 

Not at all, Namjoon’s words reached his mind. They were fainter this side, because his shield was getting stronger – the dance really helped there, getting him into the meditative state needed. How are you doing, and how is Jin-hyung?

 

Jimin curled around a pillow. “I’m doing fine, thank you. I’m just rushing around because everyone wants to get their Seollal preparations out of the way. Jin-hyung’s doing well as well, I’m watching him for you, don’t worry.” Seconds later, giggling at the tickle of a haetae paw in his ribs, he turned a little more serious. “It’s his consulting time at the moment. It’s about him that I wanted to speak to you. I just took a quick break from preparing the bonfire. No running away, I promise.”

 

Alright then. What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?

 

“It’s going to be Seollal soon,” Jimin murmured. “I know it’s going to be a big thing here in the court, and Tae’s leaving to visit his grandmother on that day, I think, but Jin-hyung doesn’t have any family that I know of, and I don’t have any family either, and… and…” His voice pinched off.

 

And? The prompt was very gentle.

 

“And I was hoping that he wouldn’t mind if I made my bows to him after we bowed to the shrines,” Jimin rushed. “We’re always joking around and calling him eomma, but he really does take care of me like a mom, and I feel like he’s my elder brother. I love him and I want to do it, but I don’t want to offend him, and I haven’t scraped up the courage to ask him if he’s travelling as well.”

 

The embarrassed outburst settled into the air between them, and Namjoon let it mature, doing him the honour of actually thinking about it, before he rumbled with a leonine sigh. Jin-hyung would be over the moon if you were to perform Sebae with him. He doesn’t have any family either. He generally spends the day getting ready for any possible requests for reconciliation. Do you know how to do Sebae bows?

 

Jimin nibbled at his lower lip, relief a warm flame in the pit of his stomach. “Yeah, Tae showed me, like how he does it for his mother and how she does it for hers, and then Bomi-ssi offered me some pointers during dance class. Are you… um, are you going with Tae and his mother?”

 

No, it’s a very private time for them. Between the two ladies they can protect themselves very well.

 

“Do you… do you want to come and celebrate it with us?” Jimin asked hesitantly. “I mean, if Jin-hyung is my mom you’re pretty much being my dad, and you’re old enough for the… ow!”

 

In this shape I have four paws to smack you with, not just two, Namjoon reminded him grumpily.

 

“I’m being serious. Come and celebrate it with us, please?”

 

Are you sure this isn’t just because you want some extra Sebae money? I’m not that much of a soft touch, you know.

 

Jimin barely managed not to snort. “You’re the ultimate soft touch, hyung. And no, I really want you there. I’m sure that Jin-hyung wouldn’t mind either. Come on, please. You know how much he likes to cook, and it’ll be nice to have you there for charye at least.”

 

I’ll… think about it, Namjoon finally said. If that was all you wanted to ask, I do have a few things to do before the queen leaves, and if Tae learns that you’re here without saying hi, we’d never keep the roof on the palace.

 

Jimin scrambled up straight, aware that pushing wouldn’t really help. “I’ll go and say hi,” he promised. “And… ah, I’m almost done with the third-level study guides that you gave me, I should be ready for the exam in a few weeks? Alright… bye!”

 

He rushed from the chambers just in case Namjoon turned into a real parent and pressed the next series of guides on him then and there, and scooted quickly through the palace, bowing and genuflecting, greeting and waiting for officials to pass on his way to Tae’s quarters. He didn’t feel so at odds with the court anymore; his senses had adapted enough to be able to deal with everyone but Tae’s mother, and they were sharp enough to lead him to his friend, who was not in his room but seated on the roof of one of the distant pavilions, apparently idly juggling persimmons that he got who-knows-where.

 

“Hey,” he grunted as he pulled himself up on the roof with a quick curl of effort. Working at the complex on top of four hours of dance every day hadn’t really made him as thin as he wanted to be, given the current beauty standards, but it had sweated a bit of muscle onto his frame at least, and his arms had a bit of definition forming. “I thought you’d be packing, or did they kick you out of your room?”

 

“Jiminie?” Tae asked as he straightened, happiness blooming on his expression. “I thought you said that you had to work today, get ready for Seollal? And yeah, they kicked me out. Why are you here?”

 

Jimin threw himself down next to Tae with a slight clatter of tiles, focusing his attention on the blue-blue Bukhansan sky instead. “I’m just taking quick break, I wanted to ask Namjoon-hyung something. And if you behaved yourself and stopped pulling faces at people when they’re not supposed to see you, or stop stealing their keys and pet animals, or hitting on all the cute guys…”

 

Tae pouted, tossing himself around fitfully until he could rest his head on Jimin’s stomach. “That’s boring,” he pointed out. “And I didn’t steal that puppy, she followed me herself!”

 

“Tae,” Jimin said wearily. “You were carrying her off ‘to free her from her slave masters’. You were invisible at the time. All they saw was their puppy floating off. Do you know how quickly I had to talk to cover that up?”

 

“Don’t bore me with the facts,” Tae replied airily. “Facts don’t count around gumiho. You should know that by now. And I wasn’t hitting on all the…” He silenced as Jimin sat up a little to glare at him. “I was just smelling him, you know. He smelled really good too, almost like you. I just… lost my grip on my invisibility for a few moments.”

 

Jimin returned his gaze to the sky. “And the time when you decided that turning into an impromptu salesman was acceptable? I’m still having nightmares about your epic rant about flavoured versus unflavoured.” One hand lifted to card gently through Taehyung’s hair, gently separating the strands of russet silk. As beautiful as it was, he still sometimes wondered what it had looked like when Tae was still the traditional white. “I didn’t come here to argue. I’m going to miss you. Bow to your grandmother for me too, okay?”

 

Tae remained silent for a long while. “Jiminie, do you think I’m ever going to be going there one day with my mate and my children?” he asked, voice smaller, a little more hesitant.

 

Hearing that vocal lessening, feeling the tenseness in the frame against his, was something that Jimin absolutely hated. Taehyung was meant to be sunshine and mischievousness and in-your-face, not this quiet creature that trembled because everyone at the court was a giant and judged only on the basis of power. “Yes,” he said firmly. “I know for a fact that you’ll get to do that one day, and you’ll have a kit just as cute as Soomi.”

 

Tae turned into the caress to rest on his side, brilliant brown eyes closing. “I’m so lonely, Jiminie. No one is going to want someone that can barely keep their second tail around. When you came… and now, if we go to the shrine my grandmother is going to start asking questions again about it.”

 

The subtext ached at Jimin’s heart. He knew that for a few weeks, Tae had had a crush on him, because he was there and friendly even if not really available. Now, well, he wanted to reassure Taehyung even though he didn’t know his own feelings anymore. “Can you hear my heart beat like that?” he finally asked.

 

“Yes..?”

 

“I know that you will find someone whose heartbeat matches with yours one day, and the sound of it will be so loud and strong that it’ll thunder away all of your doubts. I know because that is what my heart is telling me. Nogo would never not make someone for you. And you should cheer up, okay? I brought you something that you’re going to like.”

 

Tae blinked and sat up. “You did?” he asked testily. “Why didn’t you say so in the beginning?”

 

Jimin rolled his eyes and straightened as well, digging through his pockets to pull out his phone. Seconds later, as he saw Tae’s eyes round at the music video, grin turning unholy, he nearly giggled.

 

Five minutes later, the none-too-gentle strains of Ylvis’ ‘What Does The Fox Say?’ was Tae’s new anthem.

---

1. Education is supremely important in South Korea, and there are tons of stories about students wrecking themselves to get into good schools and universities. Whilst home schooling is not strictly recognised, it’s not prohibited either, and very often the method of choice for those with less than mundane origins. Jimin, who knows practically nothing of the world he’s in, really can’t go to a local school at all, so poor Namjoon is stuck with a class of two.
2. Namjoon is just as intelligent in this story as he is in real life, which is apparently very intelligent. A man with dimples and that level of intelligence is a very dangerous man indeed…
3. I’ve seen some videos of BTS where people comment that Jin can’t dance, understandably not always to be mean. Others mean it though, which is a part of fan culture I hate. To those people I say that he could stand there in a sack and wiggle, and I’d still find it hot. Perhaps he’s not as technically trained as the others, but he’s still adorable.
4. Jimin finally masters the Keurig. It’s still the only appliance Jin will let him touch.
5. Nogo means 'Ancient Lady' and is one of the names of a mother goddess in Korean Muism.