Work Text:
Jungkook was homesick.
Not like, literally homesick, but like, he missed his home.
He sat at his desk, paperwork astray from its folder and glanced at the clock. He sighed and sat back in his chair, twenty minutes left. Twenty minutes 'till he can leave work.
Endurance. He can do it. He wasn't given the name Golden for no reason. He gathered his paperwork and read over it again. Motivation? If he finishes early, he can leave early, and if he leaves early, he can finally see his daughter and husband.
Yes, twenty-six year old Jeon Jungkook misses his twenty-eight year old husband, Park Jimin, and his six year old daughter, Jihyun.
As soon as he dotted his last period and signed his name, the clock struck seven and he could feel the weight lift off of his shoulders as he rolled the stress built up over hours of being hunched over out of them.
He just has a walk and a drive left. You can do it Jeon Jungkook.
Jungkook sets his coat onto the couch as he walks into an empty apartment, clean and gloomy. The only thing astray was the coat he just set down and the trash that was about to overflow from the takeout he's had every night for four days.
He sighed and loosened his tie as he walked to his room, the sigh growing heavy until it evolved into a groan, and then a grunt as he plopped himself onto his bed. He laid there sprawled for about five minutes until the initial post-work laziness of wanting to do nothing but turn into a rock wore off. And when it did, he hopped up and prepared himself for the night (gorging himself with another box of takeout from the fridge, changing into sweats, and then settling down on the couch to watch a movie).
He scrolled for a movie to watch, not really paying attention to his choices and only killing time.
From his side, Still Lonely by Seventeen rang from his phone (a fitting theme song for this week, he thinks).
On the screen, a picture of when Jimin still had orange hair, hair falling forward in front of his forehead and grazing the top of his sunglasses as he gave an open-mouthed smile, his one crooked front tooth on display. A selfie taken from a high angle to show off how much taller he was holding his two year old daughter's hand.
He scrambled to pick up, almost dropping his phone twice before being able to hold his phone steady. "Papa!" The first thing he heard every time he picked up the phone this week so far and he still couldn't find himself getting tired of it.
Jimin and Jihyun were both smiling up at him through the camera. Jungkook remembers when Jimin came home with pink hair. Jihyun wanted so badly to match him and when they said no she sulked for a week. It damn near broke their hearts.
"Papa, today, Appa almost lost our luggage."
"Yah... way to throw me under the bus." Jimin said with a pout.
Jungkook laughed when Jihyun giggled, scrunching his eyes at how adorable his daughter was. Home.
"Appa is a little slow, isn't he, Jiji?"
"Jungkook!" Jungkook smiled. He loved when Jimin said his name... even if he was getting in trouble.
Jihyun gave a dragged out 'yes' and elongated nods before continuing on. "When we walk and Appa holds my hand, I feel like I'm dragging him along."
Jimin feigned an offended gasp. "I'm hanging up." But when he extended his hand he received two childish cries of refusal. "That's what I thought."
Behind Jimin there were people bustling about. Someone tapped Jimin on his shoulder, some poor intern that was sent by a higher up in case it was trouble to interrupt his session with Jungkook. If it were Jungkook, he probably would've been peeved, but this is Jimin. Jimin the ever-patient angel. He answered the question and sent the intern off with a smile.
It was like Jimin was character from a manhwa and Jungkook kept feeling like the main protagonist. He kept thinking, 'how on earth did he end up with someone so perfect?' And then there are scenes like the one he's staring at, where the sun is sitting right above Jimin's head as he readjusts Jihyun's black hair and he thinks it was highly improbable that Jimin chose him. And then he felt disgusted cause he just thought of himself as a manhwa character. (An accurate description though)
"Have you eaten?" Jimin tends to get caught up in his work but at least he has Jihyun there to remind him to eat. "You need to eat so that you can grow big and strong like Papa." Jihyun giggled.
"Mmm. We just had some jjajangmyeon for lunch. Jihyun had a bath after too. Did you have dinner? You're not eating takeout again, right?"
"...No. I also had jjajangmyeon."
"...Jungkook." A bit of stress left his body.
"Even I didn't believe you, Papa."
Jungkook planted his face into the cushion in his arms. "If you brought me with you I could've had jjajangmyeon too..."
"Oh hoh! Maybe if you saved up your personal days you could've been here with us, yeah?"
Jihyun tapped her little hands on Jimin's wrist. When she caught his attention, she leaned her head up to whisper something in Jimin's ear. Jimin lowered his head a bit to accommodate when she couldn't reach. The thing about Jihyun, when she goes to whisper something in someone's ear, she tends to put her mouth against the ear. It's really quite endearing to watch. Jimin's face scrunched up at how cute his daughter is, but also at the fact that it tickled.
"Seokjin-hyung." Jimin waved his work partner and beloved mom-friend over.
Jimin pointed the camera to Jihyun and Seokjin as she repeated her actions. Jin stood and held his hand out for her to take. They walked away, and it was almost comical the way he towered in height compared to her.
"Bathroom." Jimin explained with the camera pointed back at him. "Your daughter is so polite."
"She gets it from me." Jimin rolled his eyes at his husband. Jungkook smiled at that. "I miss you."
"It's only been four days."
"It's been four long days."
"There's only two days left and then we're coming back, okay?"
"That's like a week and a half to a dog."
"Well, you're not a dog, are you?"
Jungkook watched as Jimin fixed his hair, pushing it one way and then another only to have it fall back into its original place. "I miss you." He repeated.
Jimin's expression softened and he leaned back against his chair. "I miss you too, Jungkook." Lucky. He was so lucky to have Jimin and Jihyun.
"And I miss Jihyun too."
"She misses you too." A beat later there was a crash and Jimin's eyes widened in panic. "I have to go." There was sadness in his voice.
"Okay bye," was all he could say before Jimin kissed his camera and hung up. "See you soon," he sighed to no one.
Jungkook hit his remote and a random french movie played. He couldn't understand it but he couldn't even care. He would just lay on the couch and stare at the ceiling until he fell asleep anyway. Five minutes into the movie, Jungkook got up to take the trash out.
Two more days until he's home.