by PetitPau

Something was off. I could feel it in my guts as I boarded the bus home. The feeling only worsened over the duration of the journey. 

I bit my lips. I had wanted to see Sookie this evening. I wanted to wish her mother a sound recovery. I pulled the phone from my pocket. Other than the five missed calls from an unknown number, there were also two from Mr Yu. I sighed. Perhaps Jimin had watched his TV series too loud again. Oh well, I would be dealing with this once I got home. 

I dialled Sookie's number, hoping she wouldn't hold a grudge and pick up my call. At first, it didn't seem very promising. The phone rang and rang, and just when I was about to give up—

—"Yoongi?"

"Sookie, hi. I'm just calling to apologise for this afternoon. I hope your mother is feeling better."

Sookie sighed. "It wasn't nice, Yoongi. You sounded like a proper arsehole boss."

"I know. I didn't mean to. I… I have no excuse for what I said. It was plainly and simply put the most horrible thing I could have done."

"You're right. You shouldn't have. You should have been there for me. You should have offered your support. You should have offered to come over!"

"I couldn't have come. I was working, and afterwards I had…"

"You should have offered! I would have said no. I would have told you to not worry and remain at work. I would have encouraged you to go to your interview. But you should have offered to come over nevertheless!"

"But where is the point? I really couldn't and you know that."

"THAT'S WHY I WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU NOT TO WORRY!"

"But…" where was the fucking logic in this? "So, I was supposed to offer to come over although I was chained to my desk, and you would have declined my offer for this very reason…"

"You finally get it."

"But where is the point?"

"It's about being compassionate, Yoongi!"

"Since when is it compassionate to be unreasonable?" I already had a headache. I didn't need this stupid game of charade on top of it. 

"Let's talk about it once we both calmed down." Sookie said. "I'm not in a frame of mind to be reasonable right now. Mum is getting worse. She might need to go back to hospital."

"Oh, shit! I'm so sorry to hear. I wanna come and see you. I do."

"I know, Yoongs, I know…" she paused, sighed. "But there is your job and there is your interview and there is Jimin… I know you have enough obligations as it is…" 

"You're…being reasonable now." I hoped I hadn't said the wrong thing.

Sookie laughed. "Somehow, being mad at you calmed me down."

I nodded. That was a sentiment I understood. I, too, had the bad habit of lashing out at people when things got too much. "You can do that all you like… just… don't expect me to be a mind reader. I sometimes don't even understand my own."

Somehow, this made Sookie laugh, and I was relieved to hear the sound. "Are we good?" I asked.

"We're good," Sookie affirmed. 

"I'll see you on Friday," I promised. "After work."

"Great! I haven't seen you all week. I miss you."

"Miss you, too."

I hung up, but somehow the bad feeling in my stomach didn't evaporate. It was like a foreboding of some sorts. Did something happen to Jimin? Did he try to do laundry again and confused the doors? No, he had been fine the last two times he went into the basement by himself. 

I rang Joon. 

"Hello Yoongs, sorry for having gone awol. I'll make up for it on the weekend, I promise."

"Is okay, was busy myself. How are you? All good?"

"Yeah, we got some new leads at the investigation. But what's more important, I spoke to the kid."

"How's dear little druggie rich kid doing?"

"I think I got through to him. He has agreed to try therapy again. I'm currently trying to get him on a job placement programme."

Joon and his endless perseverance. "Fuck, how do you have the patience for this? I could never…"

Joon laughed, "says the guy who sings the In the Soop theme song on repeat every morning to get Jimin through his shower."

"Hey, it works," I laughed. "I rather sing cheesy songs than suffer through wet shower tantrums. And no one has to hear me."

"I know your apartment, hyung. Believe me. All of your neighbours hear you."

"Only the annoying ones. That's fine. I like the idea of making their ears bleed every morning. Perhaps, I should tell Jimin he needs to shower twice a day from now on."

"Perhaps try not to annoy your neighbours too much," Joon said. "I agree they're idiots, but maybe you should have someone in your block that has your back. Someone Jimin can reach out to. Just in case, you know."

"What case?"

"I don't know. I just think it's important to be on good terms with at least one of your neighbours. Even if it's for a stupid reason like running out of milk one night or needing a cup of washing powder."

"Only you would worry about those things."

"I don't need to worry. My neighbour is this lovely elderly lady who bakes cookies."

"I know. I still can't believe you got her and I got Mr Weselsky."

"He's a special kind of cuckoo," Joon agreed. "Does he still make those train sounds when he is hoovering the hallway?"

"No one has hoovered that hallway in months. It looks disgusting. Anyway, I'm glad to hear you're good. I'm seeing some old friends on Friday. Come along."

"I'll be there."

I hung up, then signalled the bus to stop. The bad feeling in my stomach hadn't diminished, but at least I was now only five walking minutes away from home. 

The first thing I noted were the flashing lights outside my apartment complex. Two police cars were parked outside, and Mr Yu and Mr Weselsky were talking to one of the officers. Some other people from my apartment complex stood clustered around, watching the scene. 

I turned to the lady whom I thought lived on the third floor, "do you have any idea what's going on here?"

She turned, shrugged her shoulders. "I just arrived here myself a few moments ago, but I overheard someone saying that the freak from floor six went completely bonkers."

As far as I was concerned, the 'freak from floor six' was currently conversing with the police and Mr Yu, but then it clicked and I understood to whom she was referring to. 

"My brother is no freak," I barked and legged it inside. 

"Sir, you cannot enter," a police officer extended his arms but I slipped past him. "Just did," I yelled back, rushing upstairs and taking two to three steps at a time. 

I could already hear a loud and familiar caterwauling coming from the upper level. High pitched, short wails, that usually came in combination with fast rocking and head banging. Jimin was in utter distress. Shit. 

"Sir!" Another police officer tried to prevent me from getting on my floor. 

"You gotta let me pass," I tried to shout, but was too out of breath, so my words came out like a snake-like hiss. "This is my brother."

The bulky policeman crossed his arms. "This is a police investigation, and I need you to keep out."

"What the fuck are you investigating? This is my disabled, distraught brother. I'm his keeper. Let me through."

"I'm sorry, sir," the officer folded his arms, not looking sorry in the slightest. "But I'm only following orders."

"Well," I folded my arms as well, blood boiling through my body and I could feel the vein on my forehead pulsing. "I'm only following commons sense." I tried to squeeze past him, but he was built like a doorframe. 

"Sir," he barked. "I need you to stand back or I'm going to arrest you, too!"

Arrest me, too? What the…

That moment, two more officers came stomping down the corridor. Between them they were dragging my still crying and bucking brother by one elbow each. He had lost his helmet, and his hair was an utter disarray. There was a large, bald and bleeding spot at his temple, where he seemed to have ripped out some of his hair. Blood was drooling from a fresh wound on his forehead and his eyes were almost swollen shut from too many tears. And if all of this wasn't bad enough, those fuckers had… "What the fuck! Take those fucking handcuffs of him, you crazy flock of baboons."

The officers pretended not to have heard me, and tried to push past. I stopped their path as good as I could, "Fuck no! Let him go!" 

"Step aside, sir," watch-dog officer barked, and grabbed me by the shoulder. I shook him off, but the others had already slipped past. "Jimin," I yelled after them, but my brother didn't turn. He was too deep in dismay to notice anything around him. I followed them down the stairs, ready to manhandle my brother out of this. "How the fuck is this legal? This is abduction! You think you can get away with any shit because you wear a fucking uniform, but you're wrong! I have a right to demand to see your ID."

We were almost outside the building now where the gathered crowd was watching. No one uttered a single word.

One officer pushed Jimin onto the backseat of one of the cars while the other turned around, shoved his ID under my nose. "Officer Kim Sunmin. I've been called for a noise complaint and a disturbance, and I'm arresting the culprit. I'm only here to do my job, sir."

"Fucking doing your job," I grumbled.

"This guy is a danger to the whole neighbourhood. He attacked me. In my own home. I've been saying so for months…I've been living in fear for months… This man clearly is unhinged. He attacked me. For no reason." Mr Weseslky screeched, with pointed finger from behind Mr Yu's back. If anyone looked utterly unhinged, it was him. 

"My brother is attacking no one," I screeched back, ready to pummel this awful man into oblivion. "This man is a clown! Just look at him." I turned to my landlord. "Mr Yu, I've been paying  increased rent to have my brother stay with me. You know he is not dangerous. He is… is special needs. You've seen the documents yourself."

"Mr Min, I can't have a whole complex of people living in fear because of one single tenant."

"The whole fucking complex living in fear?" My voice went up several octaves as I pointed to the motley crowd of people who came to watch the scene. "Those motherloving banana-mush brains? They're not scared. They're here because they think this is fucking evening entertainment." My voice was giving up on me. In a desperate attempt, I rushed to the police car, tried to open the backdoor and get my brother out, but I found myself detained. I kicked with all my might, but the dude who had me in a tight lock was twice my size. 

Meanwhile, the car with Jimin in it drove off. I could only watch, unable to fully comprehend what I just witnessed. This wasn't real. None of this could really have happened. This wasn't the nineteen-hundreds. No one arrested mentally disabled people these days because of some outside-the-norm behaviour.

"I'm going to let you go," the wardrobe of a man behind me announced, "but I need you to remain calm. We're only doing our jobs here. Perhaps, you go and speak to your lawyer."

Yeah, because I have one of those at hand. "I'm going to report you. All of you. Show me your fucking ID. I have a right to see it."

The officers complied with my request, and I took a fucking photo of it. This went straight to Joon with the note that I'd be filing a formal complaint in a few.

My phone vibrated only a moment later with an incoming call.

"Those fucking idiots arrested Jimin," I barked into the device. "I don't know which precinct they took him to because none of those toolboxes told me a single thing. But they handcuffed my brother and shoved him in a police car. For…I don't know…crying in the corridor."

The idiots pretended not to notice my tirade but instead climbed into the second police car, and drove off as well. Only Mr Yu and Mr Weselsky remained, the latter wearing a pleased expression on his face. 

"How dare you?" I barked at the two of them, and Mr Weselsky took a step back. Yeah…sorry, but if you're afraid of unhinged behaviour, you arrested the wrong brother, sweetheart.

"And you! I've had it enough with your shit! You should be reported to the police. That building is one big health hazard with all its faults, and you know it."

I turned back to my neighbour. "Perhaps next time, you try to be afraid of loose wires, mouldy walls, and cockroaches. Unlike a rather child-like twenty-five year-old who needs to use his fingers to be able to count to four, these can indeed be dangerous."

Before either man answered, I stomped off. 

"Wow… hyung, slow down a second, will you. So, Jimin got arrested just now? Because your neighbour complained about him?" Joon, who had been witness to my outburst via phone, summed up. 

"Exactly that."

"Okay… go for a run around the block or two…"

"What the fuck, Joon?"

"There is no point antagonising your neighbour or landlord any further right now. So go for a walk to cool down. Meanwhile, I'll enquire about Jimin. I will let you know as soon as I know more. And that's an order!" He finished, then hung up on me. I huffed. I wanted nothing more than pummel this train-loving-shit-brained fool of a neighbour into the ground. But deep down, I knew Joon was right. 

Shit, I really had to learn to tame myself and solve those issues like an adult, didn't I? 

I followed Joon's advice and jogged down the street. Fuck my life. Fuck trying to set a good example. Fuck trying to quit. I needed a bloody fucking cigarette right now. I marched to the large convenience store near the motorway, secretly hoping I would bump into the awful manager while I was there. While I successfully refrained myself from physically harming my neighbour, I needed to leash out at someone. And preferably, at someone who is deserving of the treatment. 

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