We might die

Chapter 12

Either way, Yoongi is glad that his team trusts each other enough to pull this fucking shit off without a hitch, and honestly it's kind of crazy thinking about it because if even one tiny thing hadn't go as planned they'd be done for, but so far it has been surprisingly smooth and everything has gone swimmingly, pun not intended, but the lake is still a super bad idea and he doesn't know how long he can hold his breath for and why is the opening so damn far away?

He tilts his head up, noticing that light seems to be coming from above. About time. Swim on without getting a breath for like ten meters more and he's pretty much sure he's going to die for real.

Turning to Jimin, who is by his side, Yoongi gestures upwards, right as Jimin lets out a huge stream of bubbles and shoots Yoongi a look of utter panic.

Shit. Jimin had been underwater longer than Yoongi, and he probably hadn't even gotten a proper breath beforehand since they had been so busy dunking each other. Yoongi instinctively reaches out to the younger boy, who makes a cut-throat gesture with one hand, eyes wide in distress. It is enough for Yoongi to completely forget all of his own breathing problems. He pulls Jimin towards him, covering his nose and mouth with one hand to keep him from inhaling water, and kicks madly towards where he assumes the opening is. It has to be there, because if the opening isn't there Jimin will drown, he is spasming and writhing in Yoongi's grasp and they hadn't come so far just for Jimin to drown—

Then strong arms are pulling them up, and all of a sudden Yoongi finds himself crumpled in the embrace of a melodramatically screaming Hoseok, gasping like he had been rapping non-stop for three hours. Within a few quick breaths his blurry thoughts clears up, and he immediately whirls around to check if Jimin is okay. He is. He is vomiting lake water all over Taehyung, who is carefully swiping Jimin's wet bangs out of his face, but he is alive and that's what mattered.

He is alive. They are alive, they all are, and finally they are together. Yoongi feels wet and miserable and he's shaking like no tomorrow even though Hoseok is warm and nice, but it's okay because they are all alive and they actually really managed to do this shit and he didn't disappoint Namjoon and he's so fucking tired and he's ready to cry from relief.

Or he's already crying, maybe, judging from how Hoseok is whispering soothing words into his neck, his own eyes rimmed with red. Jungkook hovers over them, and he has tears in his fawn eyes too as he murmurs gently, "hyung let me take this collar off for you so they won't be able to blow you up with it anymore."

He somehow manages to say it in the tone of a doctor who's being like "sir let me take this appendix out of you so it won't hurt you anymore", and Yoongi has to bite back laughter.

Jimin is still coughing and dragging in desperate gulps of air, eyes scrunched shut, lips purple and trembling, but Yoongi can't get to him and he doesn't think he should right now because Taehyung is already hugging Jimin like he was his entire world, and Yoongi thinks that out of all the various degrees of vulnerability he had seen Taehyung in, he had never seen him as lost as this.

Then Seokjin waltzes in wearing a pink apron. "I bring food!" he announces triumphantly. "Jimin, waffle?"

Jimin pauses from gasping and exclaims "yes please!" because apparently Jin's waffles are more important than breathing.

"Why do I not get a waffle?" Yoongi grouches.

"You had two muffins yesterday," Seokjin explains primly. "Jimin-ah hadn't eaten real food for two days so I'm going to feed him real food, thank you very much."

"Oh yeah, the bread they put in our backpacks..." Jungkook groans. "Even Namjoon-hyung could make better bread than that." He begins working on Jimin's collar while the latter is distracted with the promise of waffles after he finishes replenishing his starved lungs with oxygen.

Seokjin coughs. "Well, speaking of Namjoon..."

"Yeah." Yoongi clears his throat. "Speaking of Namjoon... well, as you all know now, it's because of Namjoon that we're here and alive, so—"

"Actually I don't," Jimin pipes up, voice raspy from all the coughing he had been doing. "I don't know, I don't know anything, I mean... besides Jin-hyung's note that Tae showed me on the tree..."

"You have a lot of catching up to do then, Jiminie." Hoseok beams. He clambers over just to flick Jimin on the forehead.

"It's crazy to think that," Yoongi muses, finally free to lean against the comforting stone wall now that he isn't entangled with Hoseok, "that Jimin-ah literally knew nothing but the basics, and he still came up with a plan to get Taehyung and Jungkook to fake-die, then came over to the lake to fight me anyway."

"Yeah, like, how trusting can you get?" Hoseok shakes his head, ruffling Jimin's wet hair teasingly.

"I... just..."

"The audience, I bet they all think Taehyung's the trusting one," Yoongi drawls. "He bought all my lies, and led Jungkook to me."

"But isn't he really trusting, though?" Seokjin points out. "Before you could sneak the note into his hands, I mean. That was the part Hoseokie and I was most worried about. Once you get the note to him he would know about the plan and it would be all right, but before that... You'd have to get his trust before that. If he had been any less trusting, he could have run away from you, or killed you then and there. We were so worried. It was like the crucial part of the whole plan."

Yoongi shrugs. "I wasn't worried. Taehyung just kind of instinctively knows things so he would know I had good intentions."

"I can't believe," Seokjin mutters fondly, "that our entire plan wouldn't have worked if Taehyung hadn't had good instincts."

"I can't believe," Yoongi mutters, fondly as well, "that this entire plan wouldn't have existed if Namjoon hadn't been the god of destruction and walked into a wall."

Everyone snorts, except for Jimin who whispers forlornly "I still don't understand?" as he munches on a waffle.

"Hyung, please explain to Jimin-ah, I'm too tired to, like, use my brain," Yoongi says. Seokjin straightens up.

"Of course!" he chirps brightly. "I even made a powerpoint for this."

Yoongi groans. "You didn't."

"I totally did."

"Did you use cute little sushi bulletpoints?"

"You know me so well!"

"We're roommates, you dumbass."

Seokjin just grins, cheeks full of waffle. "Anyway, I'll explain to Jimin. You go get dry clothes, wash up a bit. The exciting stuff's gonna start soon."