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Jin sat down on the couch.  And looked up to notice the two boxes he’d retrieved from the studios.  He had never opened them.  Maybe he should now.  While he gave the guys a taste of their own medicine.

Were any of them distressed by his desertion?

He shrugged his shoulders and grinned.  They’d get over it.  

He reached over and picked up one of the boxes.  He wasn’t even sure which was which.  He unwrapped it and opened it.  He was surprised to find something inside.  He reached in and pulled out a pumpkin-colored apron.  He chuckled.  Did somebody think orange was his favorite color?

It was not.

But he put the apron on anyway.  Then, as a new force of habit, he turned the box over and found a letter on it.  

E.

Hmm.

He set it down and lifted the lid off the other one after pulling off its pumpkin paper.  He glanced down into the box and pulled out a brand-new kitchen towel.  An orange one.  It matched the apron.  Now he was snickering.  He flipped the box upside down and found another letter.

L.

Obviously, el wasn’t a word.  Unless he was looking for Spanish words.  

El studio?

That wasn’t quite right.  And even if it had been, it wouldn’t have been helpful.  It would mean the same thing as studio.  

Le was French.  Not English.  Once again, it meant the.  Still not helpful.  Perhaps he needed to put all eight letters together to find the clue.

E, I, O, U.

This sounded like a children’s alphabet game.  Who can name all the vowels?  

His lips quirked.

D, L, S, T.

DETOILUS.  De-toil us?

Jin laughed.  Were the boys suggesting that they all worked too hard? 

He frowned as his brain worked on the puzzle.  After a couple of minutes, his eyebrows flew up in victory.

SOLITUDE!

Ha.  Very funny, guys.  Solitude is exactly what you gave me today.

Suddenly, his words of three days ago echoed back to him.

“Can you all just go somewhere else for a while?!  I need some solitude!”  

They’d been driving him nuts that day.  Even Namjoon.

Now he grimaced.  On his birthday, they had given him what he’d ask for.  

Ironic.  

Today, all he’d wanted was his friends to be present.  And now they were, and he was ignoring them.

Suddenly, he wondered what was in the other six boxes.  He knew they weren’t empty.  They’d weighed too much to be void of an object.  He jumped up and headed for the kitchen.  But the pumpkin boxes were nowhere to be seen.  Their larger counterparts were still lined up on the island.

Jin’s eyebrows were assaulting the heavens again.  “Where are they?”

“Where are what?” Namjoon asked.

“The pumpkins.”

“Huh?” Hobi reacted.

“What pumpkins?” Tae asked, equally confused.

“The boxes.  The orange ones.”

“Oh.  Those?” Yoongi asked.

“We thought you didn’t want them anymore,” Jimin murmured mischievously.

Jin narrowed his eyes as he caught his gaze.  “Where are they?” he asked testily.

Jungkook coughed again.

Jin’s eyes flew to his face.

“I think I need some more banana milk.”  Jungkook headed for the fridge and opened the door.  Revealing six orange boxes hidden within.

Jin frowned.  What on earth was going on here?  “Have you all lost your minds?”

“Well, you did tell us to get lost,” Yoongi murmured dryly.