"Have all of our current cases been resolved?" Lisa asked, spinning around in her chair to look at Jaebum, who gave her a sullen look.
"And by that, you mean did I check everything out and fill out the paperwork for them?" he crossed his eyes, and Lisa just fluttered her eyelashes.
"So you did?" she asked hopefully, and he sighed, rolling his eyes because he couldn't really stay mad at her.
"I got most of it. There's a little left for you to finish up. Sign on the line, stuff like that."
"Fill me in on the cases," she said, bringing her chair over to his desk to skim the reports.
He scooted over as he flipped through the first file. "A few weeks ago, two masked teenagers tried their first home invasion in an upper middle class suburban neighborhood. They had guns, six chambers each, loaded with blanks, and they had voice scramblers incorporated into their masks. The plan was to scare them into submission and have one guy guard them in the family room while the other raided the parents' bedroom for jewelry, cash, you name it. Supposedly, they were after the wife's diamond bracelet, but the assumption is that there were ready to grab anything small and easy to transport."
"So what went wrong?" Lisa asked, scanning the paragraphs of the written report. "You said nobody was injured during the invasion, right?"
"Right. While the second guy was searching the bedroom, the first guy took their cell phones and held them at gunpoint. At some point, the family's dog came into the room, and the daughter was afraid that the first guy would shoot the dog, so she asked if she could hang onto him. The guy said okay, and she held him neck to the couch by his collar. I'm not sure if she figured it out then or if it had been her plan, but the dog has one of those collars they're making now that send an emergency transmission to the nearest medical help facility for animals. It's usually activated by dogs hit by a strong voltage of electric fence or something like that, but apparently it can be activated manually by pressing the button on the inside of the collar. The daughter hit the button, and ten minutes later, there were two vets or...animal EMT's - whatever you call them - knocking on the door. So the two guys panicked and fled out the back door, leaving the family unharmed."
"Did they get anything from the bedroom?"
Jaebum nodded, flipping the page. "They got the bracelet, among other items that had been left out in the open."
"And? Did you recover the stolen property?"
"I'm getting there," Jaebum said, smirking. "So I read over the family's statements, and it made me think. Masks made sense. No criminal wants to be picked out of a line-up. But voice scramblers, for a low-level suburban home invasion? That seemed a bit like overkill. Which made me wonder if the two suspects were worried that the victims would recognize their voices."
"So the family hypothetically knew their assailants?"
Jaebum nodded. "Added to the fact that the assailants never asked for directions to any rooms..."
"So they knew the layout of the house?"
Jaebum nodded. "And for a low budget operation, the most plausible explanation is that the assailants knew the layout of the house because they lived in an identical one."
"They lived in the neighborhood?"
Jaebum nodded. "It made sense. The wife was probably wearing the bracelet out and about. Maybe the two boys saw it or heard about her bragging or something. However it happened, they found out that she had it. They knew the family, knew their schedule. Knew the layout of the house. If something went wrong, they had a safe haven nearby. The only thing I didn't understand was, if they knew the family's schedule, why wait until they're all home to attack?" Jaebum looked at Lisa, crossing his arms smugly as he answered his own question. "Because they were in school during the day."
Lisa grinned. "I've got such a smart partner. So? You ran the kids down? Got the stolen property back?"
Jaebum harumphed. "Spoiling the ending, aren't we? But yes, the bracelet is sitting back on the wife's wrist as we speak. Although I believe I encouraged her to just sell the damn thing and convert it to cash."
"Way to go, Jaebum." She smiled and picked up the second folder. "Now tell me about the dog that ruined a neighbor's vegetable garden."
Jaebum sighed, losing his air of smugness as he leaned back in his chair and massaged the bridge of his nose. "Not much to tell. Dog slipped under the fence and dug up a couple of carrots and a head of lettuce before the neighbor came out and threatened to plant the dog six feet under."
"So, what'd you do?"
"I told the dog's owner that they needed to get that fence fixed and that I couldn't take action against the neighbor based off a mere threat without any action to back it up. It was an annoying case, no doubt why they shoved it on our desks."
"And?" Lisa asked, standing up and flipping to the third folder. "What of the domestic abuse phone call? Did you track down the origin of the complaint?"
"Yeah, but she said it was an accident."
Lisa gave Jaebum a look. "How do you accidentally call the police on your significant other?"
Jaebum sighed. "I don't know. Maybe they just yelled and she felt threatened. Either way, she denied that there was a problem, and without anything more to go on, I had to drop the case. We'll file it away and hang onto it in case she calls back, but assuming that she doesn't, the case is closed. Wasn't a case to begin with, really."
"How did you contact her? By phone? Or did you trace the number to her address and make a personal visit?"
"Phone. I called the number back. You know that we don't have the resources right now to be tracing down numbers for cases that have no supporting evidence, Lisa. So I tried calling first and she picked up. Told me it was all a mistake, that she was fine, that she's sorry she wasted our time. Then she politely asked me not to use her phone number again - something about the phone company and getting charged for going over her minutes - and then she hung up. Thirty, forty second call."
Lisa sighed. "Well, if she's telling the truth, then I guess that's good, right? If there was just a mistake?"
Jaebum stared at the folder. "If she's telling the truth. But...I don't think it would be a bad idea to keep the file close."
Lisa nodded. "Will do. Thanks for covering for me this past week."
He nodded, turning to look at her. "Are you all finished moving into his place?"
She nodded, looking down with a small smile on her face. "I just put the apartment up for sale last night. I'm glad to be out of it. Too quiet for me."
Jaebum nodded slowly, still staring at her intensely. "How are you doing, Lisa?"
She looked up at him in surprise. "I'm fi-" she started to say automatically before really processing the question, and her smile reshaped her lips. "I'm good. Really."
He exhaled softly before nodding. "I'm glad to hear that, Lisa. It's been long enough."
She chuckled. "Stop worrying about me, Jaebum. It's weird."
He huffed and abruptly spun his chair to face his desk once more. "Whatever. Go sign the papers and have them filed. You owe me one. Or three."
She smiled and took the files, looking over the details as she signed and verified a few statements. Something in one of the cases tickled her memory, but she couldn't remember exactly what it was that bothered her. Still, as instructed, she filed the folders in their hard copy archive system after scanning them into the computer and filing the digital copies in their online archive. As for the third folder, she left it in the top drawer of her desk. She'd hang onto it for a few weeks and, if no new information came up, she'd file it with the others.
***
"You fought with Yoongi?" Tae asked, eyes wide.
Jimin nodded, shrugging slightly, but he didn't seem too bothered. If anything, he'd been glad to get it off his chest. "They're j-just so hypocritical s-sometimes," he said. "It's all If y-you have any p-problems, tell us about them s-so we can h-help you and so y-you don't have t-to keep it all b-bottled inside, and then when I want to say something, it's all I d-don't want to hear about y-your problems right n-now."
"You know that was just 98% Yoongi being a bitch because he was tired, right?" Tae asked, crossing his arms, and Jimin nodded.
"Y-Yeah, probably. But I n-needed to say it at s-some point. I'll apologize t-to him today."
Jungkook laughed, nudging Tae's shoulder with his own. "When you two were fighting, it went on for weeks, and Jimin can't stay mad at Yoongi for one day."
Tae rolled his eyes, nudging Jungkook's shoulder harder. "It's cause they live together, idiot."
Jimin just smiled at them. "I m-miss living with you g-guys."
Jungkook blinked, surprised that Jimin had brought it up since it had been one of those topics that nobody dared mention. "We miss you too. All of you. It sucks that they split custody. But we'll be 18 soon, right? And then we can live wherever we want with whoever we want."
"Yeah b-but this is the end of our c-childhood," Jimin said, tilting his head. "A-And I'd hate to t-turn into an adult w-without you t-two with me."
Tae laughed, his voice deep. "Sorry to break it to you, Jimin, but one of us is already on the road to adulthood."
Jungkook looked over at Jimin with remorseful eyes. "That's right. I'm sorry to say, but I've been shaving for a year and I didn't even tell you."
"I'm talking about me, not you!" Tae said, glaring at Jungkook. "My voice! It's changing! Because of puberty!"
"Yeah, well, I'm going through puberty too," Jungkook argued. "Remember? The notification on my phone?"
"W-What's going on?" Jimin asked, blinking, and they turned to him.
"We're trying to figure out who started puberty first," Tae said.
"It was definitely me," Jungkook piped up anxiously, his eyebrows raised.
"No, it was me," Tae said before looking back at Jimin. "Well? Which one of us started puberty earlier?"
Jimin blinked once, twice. "Ummm...T-Tae?"'
"Yeah?"
"What is...What is p-puberty?"
Tae looked at Jungkook. Jungkook looked at Tae. They both looked at Jimin.
"Holy shit, Jimin, did no one tell you-" Jungkook began in awe, only to be interrupted by Tae.
"Nobody told you?" Tae asked in wonder.
Both Tae and Jungkook went back to staring at each other, whispering.
"Are we supposed to tell him?" Jungkook whispered, and Tae shook his head before hesitating.
"Do we have to?"
"If we don't, who will?" Jungkook asked before shivering. "What if...what if he has questions...about his body..."
Tae similarly shivered at the awkwardness of the subject before looking over at Jimin. "Jimin...puberty is when...your body...goes through...changes...and..."
"I was k-kidding," Jimin said, his lips slowly parting into a grin before he started giggling.
Tae slumped down in his seat, sweating lightly, and Jungkook exhaled before joining in Jimin's laughter.
"That was horrifying," Tae muttered, and Jimin just grinned.
"I g-got you," he said, and Tae just nodded in defeat.
"Yes, you definitely did. Please never mention this moment again. If you could wipe it from your memory, that would help me out a lot."
Jungkook just laughed before putting an arm around Tae and slapping his arm lightly.
Jimin smiled at them. He wondered what it would have felt like if Jungkook had put an arm around him.
But then Jimin didn't have to wonder any more.
"Jimin, come over on this side," Jungkook invited, grinning as he had already started moving Jimin's lunch to their side of the bench. "You're so far away!"
Jimin hesitated in disbelief for a second before quickly standing up and hurrying around the bench. Then he paused before sitting down delicately on Jungkook's left. Almost immediately, Jungkook's other arm curled around his shoulder, pulling him in tightly to Jungkook's side.
"It's weird to think about you growing up," Jungkook said with a small giggle. "About the three of us growing up."
"I still remember the time Jimin tried to take Jin's lunch just because he wanted the extra cookie," Tae said, snorting, and Jimin laughed.
"Remember w-when Yoongi cut your hair, K-Kookie?" Jimin asked, and Jungkook groaned lightly.
"I remember Tae scaring the hell out of all of our babysitters," Jungkook said with a fond smile. "Even Mark. Have you realized that he makes sure to never be alone in a room with you?"
Tae just rolled his eyes. "Scary? He hasn't seen anything yet."
The three of them told stories for the rest of the lunch hour - about times from their youth, funny stories about their other siblings, even some questions that went unanswered.
"Is that shoe our yours still stuck cemented into the sidewalk somewhere?" Jungkook asked, turning to Tae, who gave Jungkook a look.
"That's sort of how cement works."
"Kookie, I h-have a question," Jimin said, and Jungkook looked over with a smile.
"Sure thing, Jimin. What's up?"
"Did you r-really start shaving?"
some maknae line gifs for you all
also idk what this is but i needed to post it
and this is just precious - jimshook