After food prep, I tagged along with the zookeeper to feed Sleepy. In the wild, sloths eat leaves, twigs, and buds, but in the zoo (or at least ours) they were also fed with fruits. It smelled horrible but Sleepy ate it with her slow movements. While she ate, I got the perfect view of the new little addition she was carrying.

"The baby is getting so big," I said.

The zookeeper dumped the remainder of the food in Sleepy's bowl. "Yes, before we know it, he'll be roaming around on his own."

I reached through the fence and patted Sleepy's fur, cooing words about her beauty. her habitat was small. Just a square of dirt and a medium-sized tree for her to hang on. The hut's roof looked like it was about to cave in. I'd have to let Seokjin know.

My phone buzzed with a text from Sangmoon: I'm going to be late.

My brother had dropped me off at the zoo that morning. Even though he didn't use it most of the time, we still shared a car. I didn't feel like I could buy my own until my lottery money officially came in. That was too big of a purchase for me to make without seeing the evidence that this money existed I still felt that at any moment the lottery would call and say. Never mind, that number you thought was a two was really a five so you don't get the money after all.

How late? I texted back.

Maybe another thirty minutes . . . or more. I'm looking at beachside apartments.

Did it really take that long to look at an apartment? Good thing I was in my favorite place.

"How did I know you'd still be here?"

Jimin was walking up the path toward us. He had his video camera out and was pointing it at Sleepy and her baby.

"I'm waiting for my brother," I said.

"I was talking to the sloth," Jimin said.

I was sitting on the ground so I hit his leg and he laughed.

"How come you haven't left yet?" I asked.

"I wanted to get some footage of the zoo. I never know when I might need it for filler material in a short film."

"Sleepy should be the star, not filler."

"That is an opinion only you have, I believe."

I smiled, stood, and wiped off the back of my jeans.

"Hold this." Jimin handed me this camera and went to a large tree in the middle of the walkway. He pulled on a lower branch.

"What are you doing?"

"The view up here will be great."

"You're really going to climb a tree?"

"The things I do for my art, right?" He swung himself up into the tree and climbed to the next branch, then reached down for his camera.

I placed it in his hand. He strapped it around his chest, then reached his hand down again.

I looked around to see if he had left something on the ground that I hadn't seen.

"No. You," he said.

"Me?"

"Yes, come up here. The view is amazing."

"Oh, that's okay. My brother is almost here."

"He is?"

"No, not really."

Jimin laughed. "Come on." His hand was still extended.

"Okay, fine. If I fall and break my arm, that's on you."

 I clasped my hand around his and he helped me climb to the branch where he sat. His back was leaned up against the trunk and I sat sideways in front of him. I took in the view. I could see our resident jaguar and the tropical snakes enclosure in the distance. Jimin had turned his camera back on and was pointing it me. I held up my hand, but he gently moved it aside and then asked, "Suzy, why do you love animals so much?"

I avoided looking at the camera and instead stared off into the distance at one of the many monkeys. "Doesn't everybody?"

He laughed. "No."

"I don't know. Why does anybody love anything? I guess it's just a feeling. Something that makes me want to act, to learn, to do more, to be better. That's how I feel when I look at animals. I want to know everything about them, learn how to help them. Does that make sense?"

Jimin lowered the camera a little and was looking over the top of it instead of through the screen. "Perfect sense."

"What about you? Why do you like filmmaking?"

"Same. It's one of the only things I get excited about. The thing that motivates me to do."

I smiled. "Exactly."

He pushed a button on his camera, turning it off, and then put his finger to his lips. He was looking at something over my shoulder, so I followed his gaze. Namjoon was walking up the path straight toward our tree. I pulled my feet up onto the branch so they were no longer dangling and inched closer to Jimin. My right shoulder now touched his chest.

I thought for sure he was coming to yell at us about climbing trees. But he walked right under us and continued along the path. I let out the breath I'd been holding and Jimin gave a quiet laugh.

"You're determined to make Namjoon hate me," I whispered.

"Determined is a strong word."

I smiled and my phone buzzed in my pocket. As I moved to pull it out of my pocket, I lost my balance. Jimin put his arm around my shoulder, steadying me.

"Thank you," I said, my heart galloping from the near fall.

"I can't have you breaking an arm or you'd never trust me again."

"This is true." Now that I was stable, I pulled out my phone and sighed at the new text from Sangmoon.

"What's wrong?" Jimin asked.

"My brother needs another hour before he can come get me," I replied, rolling my eyes.

Jimin smiled sympathetically. "Do you need a ride home?"

"Yes, please."

☘ 𝔏𝔬𝔱𝔱𝔬 𝔏𝔬𝔳𝔢 ☘

Jimin drove an older blue KIA. Inside, there were empty water bottles in cupholders and a couple pamphlets on the ground. As I buckled my seatbelt, I couldn't help but notice the pamphlet by my foot.

"So you went to film camp this year?" I asked as Jimin drove out of the zoo parking lot.

"No. I was looking into it but in the end it was too expensive," Jimin said, frowning at the road.

"Your parents don't support your art?" I asked as we came to a stoplight.

"Meaning, don't pay for it?"

"Yes."

"No, they don't."

"And what about the encouraging kind of support?"

"They don't think any of my films are going to pay the bills. But they're happy to watch them."

"I want to watch them."

"What? Oh no. They're all works in progress. I don't really show them to anyone." I'd never ever seen a side of Jimin that wasn't all confident ... until now.

I smiled at his stammering. "So you're a filmmaker who doesn't want an audience?"

He laughed. "Right now. Yes."

"Well, when you're ready, I'm here." I cringed. I always seemed to realized too late how things sounded after they came out of my mouth. I backtracked. "For watching films. Your films, I mean."

We were approaching my house. Jimin pulled up at the curb and turned to me, flashing a quick smile. "I knew what you meant. And thanks."