Pathways

Epilogue Part II

"The God of love lives in a state of need."

Plato

Seoul, one week later

The living room was a mess.

Jimin couldn't remember the last time when the apartment had been so crowded with people and... stuff. Furthermore, since he and Yoongi changed part of the layout of the room, it looked completely different.

Their old bed had taken the place of the couch in the living room and was now against a wall. It would have created more space if Tae and Jungkook didn't own so many boxes. He started believing nothing was in them except other smaller boxes because everywhere he looked the cardboard sprung, multiplied, and stacked itself in minor towers.

Plus, Namjoon had been right. Jungkook owned an excessive amount of cables for an excessive amount of devices and, weirdly enough, seemed to actually use all of them when working. Factory workers had their big machines, Jungkook had his wires, and his main line of production was moving art. By then, Jimin was astonished at how much of indie films consisted of dubious working arrangements.

He couldn't believe Tae was that one that needed less space, but, to compensate, the small coffee table on which Tae's laptop sat was unusable because it was filled with trash, paper, two lighters, a Juul, five magazines, a book and probably a speck of God if one searched hard enough.

If flight rates for extra luggage wouldn't have been so high, Jimin was sure they would have brought back everything, even the potted plants Tae watered from time to time but weren't his. Regardless of the inconvenience, neither he or Yoongi regretted inviting them to crash at their place until they found something to rent that they both liked.

Even with the agitation in the room, Tae, Jungkook and Hobi were scanning the internet for rentals, talking loudly between themselves while Jin inspected various alcohol bottles for the number of calories. He was on a diet and he was crazy enough to believe he would have only one glass once the food was ready.

Jimin was supervising the rice but he was actually just tapping his fingers on the counter, smiling each time any of them smiled. He noticed he sometimes liked to take pictures with his eyes for his internal memory wall because there was no more space between all the layers of happiness inside his house.

As if Jungkook's work station wasn't enough, Yoongi had his own desk in the room, almost pushing into the bathroom door. In front of it were two chairs that always needed to be rolled into the dormitory or kitchen area whenever Namjoon stayed the night and slept on the air mattress. The hyung had momentarily moved back into his parents' place in Ilsan until the apartment he wanted was vacated. Jin hyung had struck him the deal. It was beneficial to know an award-winning actor in Seoul. Unfortunately, Jin had no matches for the maknaes.

Thankfully, Hoseok was living with his girlfriend. An ex idol trainee that always introduced herself as Sara although she never got to use the name because she never debuted. Sara was a better dancer than she was a singer and she was the only person for which Hoseok bent his "don't date somebody from the dance crew" rule. It would have been crazy not to break it with their chemistry anyway.

"Jimin-ah, I'm hungry!" Hoseok shouted from the floor where he sprawled himself at Jin's feet.

"Go downstairs and get the meat then..." he shouted back which made Yoongi and Namjoon raise their voices to hear each other over the ruckus.

"Aigoo, this sounds really good. This part here," Namjoon mumbled.

"Which?" said Yoongi as he stopped the project from playing through. "This?" he clicked on an effect.