delivery girl

Very quickly, Taehyung became part of your life but mostly your garden. He said there was something in the air around your cabin that made him feel at ease and that he wished he had ventured up to the old Kang place years ago to experience the easy level of relaxation that he always felt tending to your rapidly improving garden.

“Do you think there would be anything about the Kang’s at the town library? Local news articles and stuff?” You questioned one late morning as you drove through town with Taehyung in your passenger seat.

The evening before, Taehyung had wound up at your cabin after wandering through the woods and mountain, foraging and picking herbs a friend had asked him to supply. You thought he was crazy for walking all that way and refused to let him leave until you fed him a good meal which led to the pair of you falling asleep on your couch in front of the fire after giggling away the night together.

So, you were taking him home, or at least to his store as he had to open up for the half-day of business.

“Hmm maybe, my friend will know, his family owns the library.” He patted the satchel on his lap signalling that he was talking about the same friend that he walked for hours to pick herbs for. 

“I thought I shouldn’t ask around about the Kang’s?” You made an uncertain expression. “Hoseok said as much.” 

“Yeah but, Joon is cool, he’s interested about it all too so he’d be willing to help.” 

“Okay, I trust you on that.” You soon pulled up in front of Taehyung’s store where a few local farmers were already waiting impatiently. 

“Oops,” Taehyung smiled sheepishly at them through the windscreen while they glared harmlessly at him. 

“Will you deliver this for me?” He asked holding out his satchel. “And ask about the Kang’s.” 

“Sure, where to?” 

“The owner of Kim’s Oddities.” 

“Oh! Really?” He nodded, smiling widely.

“He told me you met, said Yoongi made you follow him.” You nodded with a heavy exhale making him giggle. “You really are special, Y/N. Yoongi does not like people.” 

“So I’ve heard.” You took the satchel from his hands allowing him to get out of the truck. 

“Get some sleep tonight, Tae. No wandering around the woods again.” 

“I won’t, at least not tonight.” He giggled and waved, blowing you a dramatic kiss as he unlocked the door to his shop. A giggle of your own let your lips before you reversed from your spot and drove the few minutes to Kim’s Oddities.

Namjoon was serving someone very familiar when you entered the store, satchel hanging limply from your left shoulder. 

“Y/N!” Namjoon greeted with a bright smile. Hoseok turned and watched as you approached the counter and stood beside him with a reasonable distance between you both but he did little more than nod politely in greeting.

“Haven’t seen you in a long time!” 

“We met once,” You pointed out with an amused smile. 

“True but Tae talks of you so much that I feel like we know each other better.” 

“That’s why I’m here, got some herbs for you,” You patted the satchel. Namjoon’s eyes dropped to take in the movement before lighting up at the sight of the bulging bag. 

“Come through, Yoongi’s outback, I’ll join you in a sec.” 

You just nodded and gave Hoseok a parting glance before walking to the back wall where a door stood beside the counter. 

You opened it and walked into what looked like a miniature apartment. 

There was a little kitchen area to the left with counters covered in herbs in various states of drying and bowls of mysterious concoctions. 

In the centre was a dining table with four mismatched chairs. 

Directly in front of you- the right-hand section of the room- stood stacks of wooden shelves and racks with more hanging herbs and bottles of more mysterious liquids and concoctions. But right at the back of the room stood proud, a large semi-circular fire pit fit snug against the wall, its smoke heading up a grand chimney. On the fire, nestled directly in amongst the flames laid what you could honestly only describe as a dragon egg much like you had seen in fantasy movies and tv shows. It was certainly an interesting decoration.

You didn’t spot the fluffy white feline until you got close to the fire that you could peer over the padded bench facing it to find the cat curled up on the cushions. He was already peering up at you. 

“So, Yoongi, huh?” You spoke, holding your hand out to him.

 After a short moment of nothing happening, he got up and stretched before lifting up onto his back legs to rest his front paws on the back of the seating and headbutted your palm.

“Good to see you too, little one.” You happily stroked his head, smiling to yourself as his purr slowly met your ears. 

“Huh, never seen him like that,” Namjoon mused appearing out of nowhere beside you. You prided yourself on the fact that you didn’t flinch, well barely at least. 

“So, these herbs?” You pulled off the satchel to hand them over, watching as he wandered off with it over to the table. 

“You’re not even going to ask what I want them for?” 

“Do you want me to?” 

“I don’t mind,” He chuckled. “Just that most city folk that come to my shop ask what it is exactly I sell and seeing as you are close with Tae, close enough to be his delivery girl today, I figured you’d have a few questions about the goods you handed over.”

“I honestly don’t care.” You admitted with a shrug, fingers scratching at Yoongi’s head when he nudged you seeing as you had stopped your petting.

“You could’ve just handed me poisonous plants and you don’t care?” 

“Never occurred to me. I don’t see either Taehyung or yourself being into such sinister hobbies.” Namjoon observed you for a second before turning his attention back to pulling herbs from the bag. 

“Trust your instincts a lot then?” 

“I’ve been told they’re pretty good.” 

“Well, you’re right about us at least, can’t vouch for much else.” He laughed.

Yoongi took all of your attention for almost ten minutes before you left him to join Namjoon at the table, standing with your hands on the back of a dark stained wooden chair while he perched on a stool and started to sort and tie little bunches of herbs.

“So you must know that I live in the Kang cabin by now, right?” He stopped what he was doing for half a second before continuing to tie with a nod and hum of confirmation. “I hear it’s a mixed bag, Hoseok doesn’t trust me because of it but Tae is willing to help me out with it all.” 

“With what, exactly? You’re obviously not referring to the fact he’s helping you grow your own vegetables.”

“Why exactly I own the deed to the land.” Namjoon stopped entirely then and put down the tinted purple stems in his hand to look up at you, giving you his full attention. He was definitely intrigued, that much was clear. 

“How exactly did you come to own it?” 

“It was given to me.” 

“By?” You only stared at him and he sighed heavily. “Y/N, if you don’t answer these things, how do you expect people to trust you?” 

“I’m not interested in people’s trust, Namjoon. Trust doesn’t mean an awful lot to me these days. I just want to know what happened and how the deed wound up in China.” 

“China?” His eyebrows raised in surprise. “It was in China?” 

“That is where I’m from, yeah.” He hummed thoughtfully for a few seconds before getting up and walking over to the kettle. 

“Sit, let’s talk.” He spoke, back to you as he filled the kettle and put it on to boil. 

“Don’t you have work to do?” 

“I do but this is much more interesting. I’ve been wondering what happened to the deed since my family moved here. I love mysteries and to have one so local, I’ve been chasing answers for a decade, Y/N.” 

For only a second, you thought it over before sitting down on the chair and waiting, picking up different herbs to smell them curiously.

“Do you have any allergies or strong dislikes to tastes?” Namjoon questioned as he moved around jars in a cupboard directly eye level with himself.

“Not that I’m aware of.” 

“Sweet,” You watched his back as he moved around but you couldn’t see what he was doing until he turned with a mug in each hand. He placed one in front of you so you leant forward to sniff at it. 

“Smells really nice, kind of like…” You looked around the table until you found a sprig and sniffed it gently. “This.” 

“Lavender.” He pointed out, a smile on his lips, happy that you could differentiate between new scents enough to match one from his table to your tea. 

“Isn’t that a flower? You can consume it?” He hummed, nodding to both questions. “Well, okay.” You picked up your drink and sniffed once more before cautiously sipping at it as to not burn yourself. 

“This is really good, even if I’m drinking it too hot.” You mused putting your mug down. Namjoon laughed and you smiled lightly. 

“Thanks, it’s my own blend. I make all my own teas. Different flavours have different purposes after all.” 

“Isn’t lavender good for relaxation purposes? And headaches?” 

“Yes,” Another light chuckle. “I figure we could both be relaxed for this potentially intense conversation.” 

“Good idea.” 

“So, can I ask again who exactly gave you the deed?” You hesitated, fingers fiddling with different herbs and flowers, picking them up mindlessly into a little bundle. Namjoon watched intently, wondering which sprigs and stems you’d pick. 

“My parents, or at least who raised me that way only to decide a few months ago they no longer want me in their lives and told me they were forced into adopting me when I was young.” Your grip tightened a little before relaxing and placing down the little bundle. Namjoon immediately leant forward to pick it up and place it in a little mesh baggie before tying it closed. 

“Why’d you do that?” 

“The bundle you just made has many uses but I think your subconscious picked these herbs as together they can work to connect to missing things.” 

“That sounds a lot more hoodoo than I accept, Namjoon.” 

“Well then it just smells nice, hang it on your bedpost.” He suggested, handing the baggie to you. You didn’t believe in the “meaning” the bundle held but it did smell nice so you slipped it into your jacket pocket without argument. 

“Did something happen, for them to kick you aside like that?” 

“I don’t see how this relates to the Kang’s.” 

“Never know unless we try it.” But you read past his careless shrug and saw that he was digging for information. The purpose behind his interest wasn’t clear though unfortunately.

“That’s bullshit. Let’s stay on track.” 

With a sigh, he gave in realising it would not be easy to pull one over on you.

“Any idea of how your parents got the deed?” 

“None.” 

“How about why they gave it to you?”

“They said this is where I should be, where I should’ve always been.” 

“At the cabin?” You only shrugged, unaware of the details yourself. 

You had been too heartbroken to question the couple that raised you for details at the time.

“It’s strange because I know they didn’t have any family, I’ve read all the documents and articles on the Kang’s over and over in hopes of figuring out what happened to the deed.” 

“So you know how they died, right?” He nodded. “Tell me.” 

“They were murdered and everything about it screamed that it was a personal attack. They knew whoever killed them.”

*

Your chat with Namjoon gave you a lot but also near to nothing to think about. The Kang’s had been brutally murdered by someone they knew, someone that held a personal and very severe grudge against them. You knew that even within official government documents, they had no relatives as Taehyung had stated. 

You did not question how exactly Namjoon had come to read such documents but honestly, you didn’t much care, you just wanted all the information possible.

But in the end, Namjoon hadn’t led you any closer to discovering how or why the deed found its way across countries to wind up in your hands twenty years after it went missing.

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