The Pilot || MinJoon

Chapter 38

After trying (and failing) to dissuade Jimin from heading to Gangbuk-gu, Yoongi felt that the only way to keep his friend from doing anything stupid is by personally driving him to the location. Jin volunteered to go with them, wanting to be there to see if his best friend is okay, so all three piled into Yoongi's black Tesla Model 3, which, as everyone pointed out, wouldn't attract so much attention, compared to Jimin's Lamborghini.

"Can't we go any faster?" Jimin asks, exasperated at Yoongi's overly careful driving.

"Yah, don't push it," the blonde grumbles while making their way towards north-east of the city center. "We're in a convoy with cops right in front of us, Jimin-ah, and I'm not about to start speeding right now."

"He's right," Jin chimes in from the backseat. "Don't worry, it's just a short drive to Gangbuk-gu. We'll be there in a couple of minutes."

Yoongi's surprised that the cops allowed them to be there at all, but Jimin swore that he would stay put in the car while they rescued Namjoon. And since the CEO made sure to point out that it was them, and not the police, who got all the evidence to track down the hideout and the perpetrators, the cops had no choice but to grudgingly give the CEO permission to be part of the convoy. Taehyung, Jungkook, and Hoseok stayed behind to give one of the officers all the evidence that they managed to get, and the hacker told Yoongi that he'll call if he detects movement outside the hideout, just in case the kidnappers decide to transfer Namjoon to another location before they can get to Gangbuk-gu.

Jimin looks out the window, eyes blurry with tears as he fidgets with the Cartier bracelet on his arm. For the past few hours, all he could think about is Namjoon. Is he safe? Is he hurt? Did they at least give him food or water? He won't be able to forgive himself if something happens to him.

Sensing Jimin's distress, Jin taps the CEO on the shoulder. "Hey, Jimin-ah, do you wanna know how Namjoon learned sign language?"

Jimin hastily wipes away his tears and perks up a little, remembering that this was one thing that he didn't know about his boyfriend. "Oh... yes, hyung. I was wondering about that."

Jin leans back and grins as he meets Jimin's eyes in the rearview mirror. "Well, you know Joon-ah has this habit of collecting bonsai plants, right?"

"Yes," Jimin replies, recalling that his boyfriend bought two more last week  to add to his collection of plant babies. 

"Well, Namjoon-ah has this habit of giving bonsai plants to elderly people who are staying at this Ilsan hospice, right?" Jin says. "So one day, he went there to give one of the grandpas a bonsai, and the old man didn't say a word. Joon-ah thought that he offended him somehow until one of the caregivers explained that the man actually suffered hearing loss when he was just a teenager. Well, Namjoon thought that it would be nice if he knew basic sign language, so he took this online class and forced me to learn it with him."

Yoongi snorts. "Really? Why'd you go along with it?" 

"He convinced me by telling me that it might come in handy if one of us was in trouble or something like that," Jin replies with a smile. "But I knew he wanted to learn it because he wanted to have a way to communicate with the harabeoji in the hospice."

Endeared, Jimin smiles at the thought of a teenage Namjoon studying sign language, imagining him having this intense, focused look on his face that he finds so attractive.

"Back in the day, we also used it to tell each other if we wanted to leave a campus party early, or something dumb like that," Jin continues. "Didn't know that it would be so useful today, though. I'm really glad he asked me to study with him."