AFFINITY.

twenty

Yoongi breathed in deeply, trying desperately to calm himself as he looked as his customer with what little patience he had left.

"It's a Roberious Root, therefore it comes from the root of the Roberious Fern," Yoongi said hoping to God his voice wasn't too strained.

"But were from the plant does it come from?" The woman asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously at the root in Yoongi's hand.

"The root," Yoongi said for the twentieth time, his patience grumbling into nothing as he woman one more gave the root a suspicious look.

"And from part of the root does it come?" She asked, head tilting to the side before she looked back up Yoongi. She looked like she was sure Yoongi was trying to fool her into buying the wrong thing. Not that Yoongi got why. She asked for a Roberious Root, Yoongi showed her one and then she had proceeded to ask where the root was from.

Yoongi had been trying to explain to her that the damn root was in fact a root for the past eight minutes.

And yes, Yoongi was counting because this had to be a new record of stupidity.

"The part of the fern that is under the earth," Yoongi sighed, fighting like hell not to roll his eyes. This was why he hated working the counter. And of course this silly woman chose today of all days. Yoongi had gotten yet another pile of worry mail from about seventy distant relatives, a request to prove that the garden was doing okay from his uncle and to top it all off Yoongi was more sleep deprived than usual.

Also, the Midnats Sutsko was dropping leaves again, but Yoongi was not thinking about that!

"Hmm," the witch said, sending Yoongi another doubting look. "I guess, I'll take it then. Even if it looks suspiciously like a branch," she added looking like she was far from convinced.

"I can assure you it's a root," Yoongi said with a smile so fake he swore his cheeks had to be cracking under the pressure. "Would you like it wrapped?" he asked, voice so saccharine it hurt his own ears.

"Yes, since you ask," the Witch said beginning to fumble after her wallet as Yoongi tersely wrapped the fucking root and showed it into the bag. He painfully forced his face back into a fake smile again as the Witch handed him the money and only when the idiot left could Yoongi breathe again, the fake smile falling into a deadly glare.

"Fucking idiot," Yoongi huffed as he but the case of Roberious roots back under the counter where it could avoid the little sunlight that reached the back part of the store. Yoongi sank back into his chair, legs practically wobbling under him. He was so tired he could barely believe it. It wasn't that he hadn't tried to sleep, but lately even if he was exhausted beyond belief he just couldn't relax. His heart was beating a mile a minute and he couldn't get his own head to shut up for just two seconds so he could fall asleep.

Yoongi was being worn down to his bone.

There was so much to do now it was summer, flowers to pick, fruit to harvest, fields to weed. It was like whenever Yoongi finished one take a hundred more appeared. He was running himself haggard and while the others tried to help it just wasn't cutting it anymore. It had been manageable when she had still been here, but Yoongi wasn't going down that road again. He wasn't risking his family like that again. Not for having someone to manage the garden with him. Yoongi could handle it all himself.

He had to.

Yoongi groaned, feeling his eyes closing on their own. He couldn't believe how tired he was. Sure, he knew he could ask the others to take on more work, but it didn't feel fair. Namjoon had finals to take care off – sure, it wasn't like Namjoon needed to study much and one of the exams he kept failing on purpose, but it was common curtesy to give people space before finals. Hoseok and Jimin had Jungkook to moon over and Yoongi was not interrupting whatever the trio was up to. He had seen how Jimin looked at his boyfriends and Yoongi was not walking in on anything weird, like deflowering sessions or whatever the trio had been doing. He didn't need Jungkook to weed flower pots that desperately.