Body And Soul

42. Lonely Shoulder

Obstacle was a word that Yoongi had eliminated from his vocabulary a long time ago. That was - however - before he had been trapped in the body of a cat.

As Yoongi sat in the hallway outside the recording studio at Taehyung's house, he wrinkled his little cat nose in disgust. Since he wasn't a human he couldn't open the door and he knew they purposefully shut it to keep him out. Yoongi got up from where he was sitting, rubbing his side against the door so he could try to flatten an ear against it to hear what was being discussed within. When Yoongi first arrived at the house, he had briefly been able to glimpse the brightly cartoonish looking trio of Taehyung and another young man - who he assumed was Jungkook - along with a woman. None of them had really looked his way as they went up the stairs. Yoongi had tried to follow them, but it had taken him a moment to navigate his new body up the stairs. When he got upstairs, he arrived just in time to see them all disappearing behind the door of the recording studio. Even Namjoon - a man that spent most of the time running into the backs of the others from his gawking about at Taehyung's mansion - was invited into the fold. Yoongi knew that something was going on and hated being out of the loop.

'I may be a cat, but I'm the one that is supposed to fix this album so it goes out on time,' thought Yoongi as he let out a small hiss of disgust under his breath when he realized that he couldn't hear anything against the door even with his ear against it.

Wandering back down the stairs carefully so as not to break a leg, he decided to spend his time wandering about Taehyung's place. Though he knew Taehyung's parents well from their omnipresence at the label, he had never actually met Taehyung before or been to his place. Yoongi took his time strolling around and exploring every nook and cranny. He figured that he had nothing better to do. Eventually his wandering led him into the living room where the cat man was sitting still for the first time since he had been placed in Yoongi's body; eyes fixated on the television. Yoongi was surprised that the others had left the cat man unattended. They must have thought it safe with all the doors locked.

As Yoongi entered the room, he noticed that some sort of cheesy animal movie was on the television. It depicted some sort of stray cat that was obviously wandering along some shoulder of a road looking lost and alone. Yoongi walked over to get a better look at the movie playing to try to ease his own boredom. When he looked over at the cat man, he was surprised to see tears silently trickling down his face. Yoongi stood there, watching him curiously. The tears were slowly rolling down the cat man's cheeks as if in slow motion and he didn't move either hand to try to wipe them away. The cat man's glassy eyes were still watching the screen and the cat's struggle as cars continued to race past it.

'Why are you crying?' Yoongi wondered as he moved to walk right past the front of him, causing the cat man to break his gaze with the television to look at him.

They both stared at each other for a moment, neither able to communicate with the other with anything other than their gaze. A gaze was often times enough; acting as a mirror that led straight to one's soul.

'Is he scared or is this movie bothering him?' thought Yoongi before immediately following that thought up with, 'Don't tell me I'm sympathizing with the cat.'

As if able to read Yoongi's thought, the cat man quickly flicked a hand at the screen where the cat had opted to lay down in the tall unmowed grass of the shoulder as a car pulled up a few feet away. That quick flick confirmed Yoongi's thoughts.

Yoongi couldn't say that he too hadn't felt feelings of abandonment over the years. He was known as cold and calculating at times because that was how he could get the job done effectively. He had been working towards success his whole life because that was when he found self worth in himself. Those feelings stemmed all the way back to his childhood. Since Yoongi could remember, his parents had become too busy with their own lives that they never had time for him. Yoongi grew up constantly wanting to show them his worth. He wanted them to pay him the time of day so he worked hard to be the best he could be in order to gain their attention. However, nothing seemed to work and all his hard work led him to create a persona he felt the need to upkeep. Yoongi felt like he always seemed to wait on the shoulder of his parent's lives, waiting for them to pull over from their busy lives to pick him up again like the abandoned child he was, but that day never came.

With the tears laying in still rivers on the cat man's face, Yoongi jumped up onto his lap and tried to gently use one of his paws to bat them away without scratching his face. The cat man turned his eyes to watch him; an unfamiliar being with a familiar expression in his eyes.

'It's okay,' thought Yoongi as he eventually brought his paw away. He settled down on the cat man's lap.

Yoongi looked at the screen to see that the car that had pulled onto the shoulder had had a breakdown; a moment of inevitable vehicular vulnerability. While an older man jacked the car up to try to change the tire, a young child was watching. His fascination soon turned from his father's handiwork to the cat that was still lying hidden in the tall grass. The boy noticed the cat's eyes, wandering over to it. The boy crouched down in front of the cat and tried to talk to it to coax it out of hiding. The cat was hesitant to go towards something new and unknown.

Eventually though the cat relented and walked towards the open, outstretched hand of the boy. A smile sprung across the boy's face as his fingers ran through its fur. As Yoongi watched the sappy scene, he felt something unfamiliar on his back. He froze for a moment before turning his head to see that the cat man was trying to mimic what was on the screen. The cat man was looking down at Yoongi; a soft grin on his lips. Despite himself, Yoongi felt a purr leaving his lips.

Even though the situation they found themselves in was unfamiliar, there was a silent understanding and comfort that passed between the two of them. They would be able to make it if they stuck together.

The longer Yoongi sat there, the more he realized that - like the car in the movie - we all reach a breaking point sometime in our lives. When that happens, it pays to pull over and take a proper look at - not only the problem - but your surrounding life as well. In doing so, one might find another abandoned soul or kindred spirit that could make your next journey that much better and help you realize you were never truly alone.