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12

"Where's your place?" Hoseok asked as they drove.

"Turn down here." Taehyung nodded, and the limo passed by a bunch of fancy looking mansions.

"Whoa...which one's yours?" Jungkook asked.

"Farther down."

The limo drove on, and the mansions faded from view, the lush lawns turning into dead weeds and dirt patches. A small run down shack with boarded up windows and a hole in the wall stood alone, a dark forest behind it.

"Here we are!" Taehyung sang, climbing out of the limo. "Tetanus sweet tetanus."

Jungkook and Hoseok shared a look, following much slower.

Cassie took one look at the house and rolled up the windows.

"Tae...do you really live here?" Jungkook asked as the half rotted door permanently stayed open.

"It's not as bad as it looks." Taehyung said, stepping inside the musty air of the shack. "Rent is free!"

"There's rats!" Hoseok shrieked, jumping onto Jungkook's back.

"Oh that's just Puno, he don't do nothin'." Taehyung cooed, squatting down and holding his finger out for the large rat to sniff.

The rat bit him.

"Taehyung!" Jungkook exclaimed. "That thing probably has rabies! You need to go to the doctors right now!"

"Nah, he's clean." Taehyung smiled, then frowned, studying the blood drop that rolled down his finger from the wound. "I think."

"That's it." Hoseok shuddered, sliding off Jungkook's back. "I'm pulling my bratty rich kid card out- we aren't staying in this moldy, disease central shack of rabid animals! Get back in the limo, we're going to a five star hotel!"

"First a hospital." Jungkook reminded him, grabbing Taehyung's arm and marching him out of the shack.

"Wait, I don't get McHealth benefits until I work there for 20 years first!" Taehyung protested. "I'm totally fine, my lungs are used to the dust and all my cuts are only mildly infecte-

"I'm paying." Hoseok said.

Taehyung relaxed. "Oh, okay. Yeah, let's go, I think my liver just shut down."

-

After a full checkup, Taehyung was deemed okay, since the rat didn't have rabies.

"Cas, please take us to the best hotel in this area." Hoseok sighed as they got back inside the car.

"Tae, please explain now." Jungkook faced the boy as the limo drove. "You moved here and lived in that awful place and worked at a terrible minimum wage job just so you could keep an eye on Namjoon?"

Taehyung sipped from the water bottle he had been given. "Of course, I had to. After the trial and Namjoon had to watch Yoongi get taken away, I knew I had to stay by his side and be there for him. Seokjin's parents dragged him to some camp, Cho swooped in on a vulnerable Jimin, Hoseok got a business girlfriend, and you...you just straight up left. Namjoon couldn't have no one, I had to be there for him. But his parents didn't want any of us anywhere near him. The whole thing was treated like a scandal after the local news aired it, and they moved away to try and escape the bad press. I found out they were putting him in Sannamdong University, so I tried to get a job there so I could be close to him, but my qualifications weren't enough, so I settled for the fast food place across the street, where I could at least still be close enough. I had to make sure he didn't...didn't do something drastic, you know. I wake up early and watch him get dropped off by his parents, and stay late to watch him get picked up. He's there all day, I think they made him enroll in so many classes that he wouldn't have time to think about us or Yoongi. I think they're trying to distract him, permanently."

"Oh...Tae..." Jungkook hugged him tightly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to leave, I don't know what the me of this alternate reality was thinking."

"The what who now?"

"Nothing," Jungkook pulled back. "So he's okay then? Namjoon is alive and well?"

"Yeah, from the looks of it. I haven't been able to speak to him, and if his mom sees me or any one of us she'll make Namjoon move even farther away again- maybe all the way to Europe!"

"We gotta find a way to talk to him." Hoseok mused. "We need him."

"For what?" Taehyung was confused.

"For us. For our family. Jinnie, Jimin, Hobi, you, Namjoon, me, Yoongi, and the alters- even Agust. We belong together." Jungkook stated firmly.

Hoseok and Taehyung frowned.

"Uh...I agree up until you said Agust. That fucking asshole is not part of my family." Hoseok shook his head.

"Yeah, what the fuck are you saying, Goo? He's the reason we lost, he's the reason Yoongi was taken away from us!" Taehyung insisted.

"I know, but trust me, he's not a bad guy. Well, he can change." Jungkook could see they weren't believing him. "Okay, whatever, we'll get to that later. Let's just focus on Namjoon for now,"

"Agreed." Hoseok stretched his legs. "Let's eat and sleep, and then tomorrow we can form a game plan."

"Operation get the band back together!" Taehyung cheered and he and Hoseok giggled.

Jungkook watched them with a smile, glad to see a small sliver of normality, even if it was just for a brief second.

That smile faded, however, when he realized that since Namjoon was at school, the one who was in the hospital was Yoongi.

And all the alters.

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I know technically Taehyung should have all the diseases ever from living in that shack for a month but I can't have him die- I'm not that mean skskskks

so im pulling fanfic logic and he just happens to be perfectly fine uwu