Chapter Text
The lawyers have fought it all out, and now it's just a waiting game for paperwork for him to put his stamp on. Well, his digital signature, anyway. Hobi hasn't used his stamp since he bought his apartment.
Everything is a waiting game. They're waiting for paperwork, they're waiting for their vacation, they're waiting for Little Hope. They're waiting to get back to sea level so they all stop having headaches. Taehyung and Yoongi hyung are both taking home a lot of beef, though.
"One day I'm gonna sleep through the night again," Hobi grouches to Joon, who rolls his eyes.
"Not until Little Hope is at least five, I bet," he says.
But when Hobi says, "I can't believe you just cursed me like that when you're supposed to be my friend and my leader," Joon gives him a pear-date-cashew-ginger snack (no more chocolate, since now it makes his heartburn worse), and then replies:
"Maybe you'll get some sleep when I babysit for you."
So all is forgiven, except now Hobi is thinking about the future, and whether he'll ever be able to sleep through the night again, or if he'll have to wake up to check on Little Hope and make sure she's still breathing the way Yoongi hyung had done with Tang for the first few months.
He cannot think about what's going to happen if Tangie hates his new sibling. Hobi misses his own cats, but they've been living with his parents for years -- they won't care about a new baby the way Tangie will.
Hobi is supposed to walk around but in reality spends most of his free time either lying down feeling miserable, or floating in pools feeling slightly less miserable. It doesn't matter what time of day or night Hobi goes to a pool: Jaehyang hyungnim goes with him.
Hobi mentions it during breakfast, and is told by Joon: "He's certified by the Korea Lifesaving Association."
"He's the world champion in the 200 meter Super Lifesaver event!" says Jiminie, and hands Hobi a snack. "Little Hope looks hungry, hyung!"
Hobi literally has a forkful of eggs in his hand on its way to his mouth when he takes the pear-date-cashew snack from Jiminie.
"There is no way that's a real thing," says Hobi, and then he's watching a YouTube video of Jaehyang hyungnim swimming 70 meters underwater holding a mannikin and not coming up for breath even once in almost two minutes.
They leave for Korea tonight, to hopefully, if there are no problems or delays, touch down in Korea early in the morning, before the airport is really full of people. Only, Seokjinnie warns them, there's every chance Hybe will leak their schedule, which is an ongoing problem. They're going to make life as hard for all of them as they can -- even after they sign the paperwork and their relationship is terminated.
It will never really be fully terminated, since Hybe owns so much IP and does so much with their trademarks and copyrights, and distributes their music, and on and on. And they will be finishing out the tour, which is a Hybe production -- venue contracts and the tour insurance is all through Hybe, so even though tour is easy profit, it would be prohibitively expensive to break off from Hybe for the final five months.
Before Hobi got pregnant -- or, rather, before he found out he was pregnant -- they had been talking about extending the tour to the end of 2027. There's no way that's going to happen now; no one has said so but no one has mentioned a tour extension since the pregnancy announcement, plus their relationship with Hybe is supposed to be terminated 31 March. But that just means another comeback on their own terms, and a tour for 2028.
It's going to be weird to tour with a baby. Maybe with two babies if Taehyung has his way and he adopts, although Jiminie and Jeonggukie have been looking at him with extreme concern, like they are either worried about him personally or maybe worried Hybe will try to exert influence with the Korean government to block Taehyungie from getting a baby. Tae will be such a good father, though. Life would have been so much easier if Taehyungie had been the one with the hidden positive carrier test, and Hobi had been negative. Not better, though. Because then Hobi and Yoongi hyung wouldn't be meeting Little Hope soon. Just... easier... Easier for Hobi, anyway.
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Anyway, he's waiting. Waiting for Little Hope, waiting to be touched, waiting to get on the plane to go home to Korea, waiting to separate his life from Hybe, waiting. Waiting. Waiting to be fucking finished with this awful fucking heartburn that's been dogging him for days now, worse than at any other time, and the back ache that's stuck around for more than a day already that isn't soothed by floating in water or hot compresses, and the way one of Little Hope's feet is pressed against his ribs and the other is pressed so hard against his stomach that he can see her foot through his skin.
Waiting.
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Hyung is finally touching him. It's the same as what has been happening since they got back together, gentle kissing, hyung's hand resting softly on Hobi's throat. But this time there's intent.
It's not perfect -- Hobi has cramps in his back all the way up to his shoulders and down his legs, and Little Hope is so fucking huge that Yoongi hyung has to contort himself around her, and they're on a fucking airplane, two seats that pull out into beds next to each other.
But. It's perfect.
Until something hurts. Like really hurts, like the way round ligament pain used to hurt, like the way it hurt when Hobi sprained his ankle so badly he thought he'd broken it, like the way it hurt -- actually, he doesn't get hurt like this usually, he can't even think of one other time. The pain is all consuming, it's all he can feel --
"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," chants hyung, and Hobi can't find the breath to tell him to shut up.
And he doesn't say that once he can take a deep breath either -- instead he howls, "Owwww!" and doesn't care what his brothers think is happening between them if they can overhear.
-- and then it's over.
Hobi relaxes every muscle very carefully, lets himself slump back with his eyes closed. Deep breaths through his nose. He was supposed to have gotten a breathing coach for this part, and he never did, and he kept changing the subject when his brothers brought it up. Nurse Hwa had looked at him knowingly, but hadn't pressed the issue after warning him, "You'll regret it."
He regrets it.
But he hadn't wanted another stranger around, and he doesn't regret that.
Finally he opens his eyes and says, "Hyung, I think I'm in fucking labor."
Now that the pain has faded back to -- oh... to cramps... just like the past few days. Damn. He isn't sure what he feels, although he's definitely annoyed at his promised seven orgasms being interrupted.
"Is it..." Yoongi hyung looks like he's grasping for words. "Uh..."
Hobi frowns. "I don't think it was one of the fake ones. Are they supposed to hurt so much?"
"I think it better have been fake if you don't want to give birth on an airplane," says hyung, starting to look frantic. "Shit, shit, shit, let me get Jackie. But I don't want to -- where is she?"
"Just open the door and call for her. Or call hyung, she'll be with him." Hobi feels more and more calm as more time goes on. He really wants an orgasm. He wants hyung to touch his dick. He wants to feel hyung inside him, one more time just them before they have another member of their family to think about.
Hyung is bustling around, opening the door, calling for Nurse Hwa, when another contraction hits. Or whatever this is. Like... a spasming of a tight band around him. He hates it. He wants to apologize to his mother for having done this to her, although he will lecture Little Hope forever if he ever tries that.
"What!?" shrieks Seokjinnie hyung from outside the room. "We have thirty hours left until we get to Korea! He can't be in labor for thirty hours!"
Hobi wants to yell that he has to be, because he's not giving birth to this child either in the air or when they stop in Ethiopia to refuel. This child will be born in Korea! There are no other options!
But he can't yell, he can't get a breath, the band around him is tight again. Once it loosens, he does yell:
"This sucks!"
He's definitely louder than whatever Seokjinnie is screaming about, because everyone comes in and then he's surrounded by his brothers, Nurse Hwa, and Jaehyang hyungnim. When he blinks tears out of his eyes, he sees managernim and Gael and Bart hovering in the doorway, and behind them the other managers and Jaehyang hyungnim's assistant and Jaysen from PR.
Are they all going to stand here and watch this kid be born?
Thank god for Nurse Hwa.
"Okay, everyone out," she says briskly. "Dad, you stay; Leadernim, you can stay if you want. Everyone else, get going and we'll update you in a few minutes."
"Me too?" asks Jinnie hyung cutely, making his eyes big.
"And even me?" asks Taehyung, even more cutely than Jin hyung.
"None of that works on me. Get gone, boys," Nurse Hwa says firmly, and ushers everyone out and shuts the door.
Hyung cackles, and when Hobi looks over at him, he says, "Joonie left too. Coward."
"I would leave," grumps Hobi. He rubs at his belly. "I'm so tired of always being on my side."
"Hm," says Nurse Hwa. She's looking at her phone. "Yoongi, please go to the other side."
Hyung raises his eyebrows at Hobi, but walks around and sits down on the other extended chair so he's at Hobi's back. Nurse Hwa pushes his shirt up so she can see his belly and then puts her hand on Little Hope. It's warm and soft and dry, and she doesn't have any calluses. Hobi doesn't think he's ever noticed before that she bites her nails.
Yoongi hyung rubs his shoulders and his neck while they wait, Nurse Hwa watching her phone and them watching Nurse Hwa. Hobi is trying to prepare himself for the next wave of pain, but the longer it doesn't come, the less prepared he feels. It's always worse when things that hurt are a surprise.
"Hm," Nurse Hwa says again, and then there it is.
"Owww," he groans, and curls up tightly like a pillbug. "Ow, I hate it."
"Nice," Nurse Hwa says once the pain subsides. "Excellent. You may actually have a thirty-hour labor, Hoseok. That's a ten second contraction and they're eighteen minutes apart. That's basically nothing."
"Nothing," repeats hyung flatly.
"In terms of having a baby? Yes, nothing," she tells him, not changing her tone or expression at all. "We're not going to start to worry until they're five minutes apart and at least 50 seconds long. That's really the best indicator with a first baby, especially with a carrier who has a --"
Hyung and Hobi chorus with her: "Testosterone based endocrine system."
She rolls her eyes at them. "Second babies are notoriously unreliable, they can go pretty quickly or take a long time. Third babies are even worse, they can just pop out with barely any notice and a lot of them are several weeks early."
Hyung growls in his throat, and Hobi sighs. He takes hyung's hand off his neck and puts it on his pelvis, on that muscle that always hurts. "Rub," he orders. Then he looks at Nurse Hwa. "What about fourth babies?"
She cracks a smile, a little crooked one. He wonders if that's the smile she gives Seokjinnie hyung when he says something genuinely funny or affectionate.
"Your fourth baby will magically appear in your arms one day when you're least expecting it," she says wryly. "You'll be walking through the grocery store and then you'll be holding a baby, and your other three kids will say, 'Daddy, what's that?' and you'll have to explain it."
"Namjoonie will explain it," says Hobi confidently, and hyung laughs loudly, all his upset seemingly gone.
"I'm going back to my book," she tells them. "If they start to get worse or a lot closer together, call for me. Drink a lot, try to have a bowel movement but don't push. Walk around a lot, do not have any orgasms."
"What? No!" Hobi had not meant to say that -- it had just slipped out. Damn.
"Orgasms bring on labor and will make Little Hope come more quickly," Nurse Hwa says, opening the door. "Control yourself until at least after you're in Korea, if that's where you want her to be born. But no penetration without birth control unless you want another one of these next September."
"I don't think you can get pregnant again that quickly," says Hobi dubiously.
"You can get pregnant again that quickly?" asks Taehyung, popping up. "Hyung! Do it! Another baby right away!"
"Ooh, another baby?" asks Jiminie. He hangs himself off Taehyung's shoulders, and barely moves when Nurse Hwa sighs and pushes past them to leave the room. "Hyungies should definitely have another baby really quickly."
Jeonggukie butts in, Seokjinnie riding on his back: "What if you have seven babies all in a row? A baby for each of us!"
"Oh my god," mumbles hyung. He puts his forehead against Hobi's shoulder and hides from their maknaes. Hobi doesn't mind, though, because Yoongi hyung is still rubbing the muscle that hurts.
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He does get to give birth in Korea. Barely. His contractions are 64 seconds long and three minutes apart when security sweeps him off the plane and into the airport's medical center, which is not meant for newborn babies. They don't have any equipment in case things go wrong, or any painkillers, which Hobi would literally burn down the world for right now.
Plus BigHit did leak their location, which means a bunch of ARMY filling the airport, getting pictures of him panting and groaning and being pushed in a wheelchair across the entire fucking terminal. There's no way they'll be able to get all the photos and videos off the internet. When he can think again, he will try to resign himself to being some kind of pregnancy meme.
They probably should have just stayed on the plane.
But. Little Hope is born, and Nurse Hwa hands her right to her dad, positioning his hands just like she had on their practice doll. Little Hope's skin is dark gold against Yoongi's pink. Every time Hobi blinks, something else is different: She's crying, she's being weighed. She's naked with a blanket over her, and Yoongi's shirtless. Yoongi rocks in the wooden chair with her. Hobi's thirsty, then he's sipping from a cup with a straw. Nurse Hwa and two assistants finally finish doing all kinds of things Hobi doesn't want to know about to the lower half of his body.
Little Hope is in his arms, relaxed and sleepy on his bare chest.
It is the matter of a single glance to see she does have Yoongi's nose and chin, and Hoseok's ears, and Hoseok's mom's curly hair. When she yawns and blinks open her her dark eyes to look at him, he tears up. He didn't cry through the whole birth, the pain, whatever, he didn't need to cry. But she's so beautiful.
When Hobi looks over at Yoongi, he's staring at her open eyes too. Then hyung looks up and their eyes lock.
"Fuck," says Yoongi unsteadily. "Hoseok ah. It's a baby. She's really here." Then he starts to cry.
Little Hope doesn't cry, just yawns again and closes her eyes, rubs her face against Hobi's breast, smacks her lips together.
She's perfect.
"She's perfect," Yoongi hyung sobs, and puts a hand on her back. She's so big, but hyung's hand is bigger, and covers her whole back. Hobi can't look away. She's here, she's really here, and she's theirs, and they're a family, all three of them.
Then the door opens, and Hobi hears Nurse Hwa lecture exasperatedly, "I said to leave them alone!" but it's too late, all Hobi's brothers are coming in to see the baby, everyone in surgical masks with paper gowns over their airplane clothes. Taehyung is wearing some kind of surgical cap with sunglasses perched on top. Backwards.
They all admire Little Hope properly and correctly, cooing over how perfect she is, and how much she looks like them smushed together, and what a strong cry she has. Hobi wishes they weren't in a fucking airport, but at least they are all together. All seven of them.
All eight of them.
Seokjinnie thinks it would be funny to take a picture of her swaddled in a blanket and pressed against Hobi so no one can see her face. Joon thinks that would be incredibly annoying since it would prompt "approximately six hundred and fifty thousand conspiracy theories that she's a hoax, hyung," which Certified Chaos Gremlin Jiminie thinks would be funny, Jeonggukie thinks is confusing ("Why, though? Why would anyone think that?"), and Taehyung agrees with Joon would be annoying and disrupt the balance of Little Hope's first few days ("...and I think the moon would disapprove").
Yoongi hyung says, "No pictures anywhere until our parents have seen her," and that's that.
Eventually, though, they agree they do want pictures of this moment. So Jeonggukie takes beautiful pictures of her curled up with Yoongi hyung and Hobi, both of them looking shitty and tired with swollen eyes and messy hair, while she looks absolutely perfect.
"Hyung's cheeks!" says Jiminie gleefully, but does not specify which hyung.
(It's Yoongi, it's clearly Yoongi, her cheeks are like the fluffiest mandu, moreso than regular baby cheeks. Hobi doesn't say anything, though, because Jiminie is clearly having fun with his teasing.)
Their parents and siblings are all thrilled with Little Hope, although less than thrilled that she doesn't have a name yet, and even less thrilled when they find out that Hobi gave birth in an airport. All of them except Yoongi's mother, who has the best reaction of them all, somehow, when she sniffs and says, "Obviously a truly respectful citizen wouldn't be born outside Korea."
"You hear that, dumpling face? You're a respectful citizen," Hobi says softly to her, and then Yoongi's mom snaps, "Dumpling Face is not an appropriate name," and the moment is gone.
They don't tell the parents that it's Taehyung who ends up naming her when he says, "Come to Tete appa, my little hope, my sweet wish, my beautiful universe."
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BTS @bangtan_official.bangtan.bsky.com 3h
Welcome to the world, Jung Yeonwoo
You are our beautiful universe.
ALT TEXT: Bangtan's beloved j-hope and SUGA sit pressed together on a small grey couch in their home. SUGA's arm is around j-hope, while j-hope is holding their child, 정연우 . In this picture, Yeonwoo is 7 hours old and has just been given her first bath by SUGA. Yeonwoo is wrapped in Bottega Veneta's baby alpaca blanket in "Volcanic" (don't try this at home! This blanket is not machine washable!). j-hope is wearing the new Louis Vuitton LV Carries loungewear line; SUGA is wearing a BTS x Adidas x 7 tracksuit and CKJK slippers. j-hope's necklace is from Fred, part of their classic birth jewelry -- yes, it was a gift from mathyung Jin! This picture was taken for you by Jung Kook, who says hi, and that you can still call the baby Little Hope no matter what Yoongi hyung tells you.
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1 April 2027
Hello, this is HYBE. Today we're sad to announce that HYBE and BTS are parting ways. After their phenomenal career as artists with BigHit, we have mutually decided that the new direction of their music and choices in their personal lives mean our trajectories no longer align. We wish BTS the best in their future endeavors and will always respect their dedication to helping bring K-Pop to the world wide stage.
HYBE is proud to nurture, guide, and support talent, and will continue to do so with the other artists in the HYBE family. We lead by our principals now more than ever, and will continue to enhance our content quality and fan experiences within our core business area of Music. In 2019, HYBE's revenue relied over 95% on the business of BTS -- now we have 14 music labels within a stable revenue model that does not depend on any single artist, and we will continue to be driven by a deep understanding of our artists and fans.
Please continue to support us and the talented HYBE artists who create for you.
Thank you.
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1 April 2027
Hello, this is BANGTAN! We are excited to share with you that we are taking the next step in our creative growth as a band.
Borahae Creative Group is the new agency that will be representing BTS: owned by BTS with decisions made by BTS about BTS -- for ARMY. We have released a report explaining the construction of the company with introductions to everyone from our C-suite to the janitor who works hard to keep our offices clean. Together, with everyone working to one goal, and prioritizing creativity, respect, ethical behavior, and care for each other, BTS will remain at the forefront of the K-music industry, both domestic and international.
It was a long and difficult process to move into this phase of BTS. We will never forget the people who helped make BTS what we are today, and we are grateful for all the consideration we have been shown to get us to this point.
ARMY, we do this for us, but we also do this for you. To make the music that you love and we love, we need to feel supported and safe, or we cannot bring you the authenticity we strive for. We hope you will continue to support us as we work hard to be with you for the rest of your lives and ours.
We purple you, ARMY. Fighting!
Love,
RM
Jin
SUGA
j-hope
Jimin
V
Jung Kook
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EPILOGUE:
Yeonwoo is a good baby, perfect in every way, screams very loudly when she's upset, has lots of explosive baby poo, pisses on each member at least once, doesn't like to fly but does enjoy the chaos of being on tour -- and really loves her noise cancelling headphones. She has very specific feelings about clothing textures and the weight of blankets, does not like socks, and is obsessed with her Abeoji's (and her Jiminie appa's) long hair. She does call all the other members appa interchangeably, and when her first younger sister is born in 2030, she is really excited to be the big sister and can often be found explaining stars and planets to a wide-eyed baby. Her best friend is the kid Taehyung adopts who is about 14 months older than she is, who also loves stars and planets and calls all the members appa.
There are more kids for the people who want them, and weddings for the people who want them, and happiness for everyone whether or not they want it or feel like they deserve it, and everyone (including Nurse Hwa and Jaehyang hyung and all the rest) lives a wonderful and fulfilling life the exact way ARMY would want for them.
And, of course, Borahae Creative Group Ltd. is a huge success because somewhere in some universe being caring and ethical wins out, and they remain committed to art and music and creative fulfillment, and stay a private company and are never beholden to shareholders or the selfishness of continuous growth. 🫶