Chapter Text
“Min Jungkook, you get back here right now!”
The father of the 8 year old sighed, his sleeves rolled up and his shirt wet at the hem. Bathing his son was hard work, especially since he was such an active child. “I’ll give you 5 seconds to come back, if you do, then I’ll give you candy.” he called out, bribing his kid.
Loud footsteps came thundering back to the bathroom, and the 8 year old arrived with a large smile on his face, practically fully naked except for his underpants. “Candy?” he repeated, and the man nodded, holding up some shorts and a t-shirt.
“That’s right, candy. Be a good boy for Papa and get dressed, alright?” With vigorous nodding, the boy took the clothes from his dad’s hands and pulled them on, even going as far as climbing a stool to face the mirror and comb his hair.
Min Yoongi, a single father struggling to balance work and his child all at once. Originally, his hobbies were being a composer and rapper before Jungkook was born, but after meeting his wife, he took a sudden interest in teaching, and before he knew it, four years had passed and he had the degrees to do so. His wife, previously girlfriend, had waited just for him to accomplish his dreams, so he proposed to her.
They got married at the age of 22, and a few months later, had a beautiful healthy baby boy named Jungkook.
Things were well. His wife, named Hwayeon, took great care of Jungkook while he went to work, a music teacher at the local high school. They weren’t the richest, but still lived well and had a good amount of money to spare.
But as the days went on, Jungkook getting older and older, given more responsibilities to do, Yoongi and Hwayeon slowly broke apart. It started with small arguments, mainly about useless things such as leaving garbage on the table and not doing the dishes. Those slowly escalated to full blown yelling, calling each other useless and threatening a divorce. Jungkook had no idea that this was happening, most of the time he was deeply asleep, or at a friend’s house happily playing.
In the end, the two decided to break it, their relationship just barely hanging by threads. In just a week, Hwayeon had moved out to her own apartment, Yoongi taking custody of Jungkook. The poor boy had no idea that his parents didn’t love each other anymore, but did take notice on how he didn’t see his mom that often.
For the sake of Jungkook, the two made sure that they would meet up at least every week and try to have a family outing, just so that Jungkook wouldn’t suspect much. The air was always relatively tense, and if Jungkook ran to go play, they would barely say a thing to each other.
At first, Yoongi hated it. He didn’t like that he was lying to Jungkook, and he missed Hwayeon’s presence in their household. Slowly, but surely, those feelings went away, replaced with relief, yet loneliness. It felt better without all the arguing, less burden on his shoulders to maintain a steady household.
He did feel lonely sometimes, wishing that he had someone to love other than Jungkook. He loved his little boy more than anything in the world, and would do anything to make him happy. So even if it mean that he had to endure an afternoon with his ex, as long as Jungkook enjoyed his time obliviously, then it was bearable.
“Papa, I’m all done!” Jungkook called out, tugging on Yoongi’s sleeve. He had managed to style his hair into a part, curling it so that it was bouncy and light when poked. His plain white t-shirt lightly contrasted with his grey shorts, and he had finished the look with black ankle socks.
“Wow, my Jungkook is so stylish! You could become a model one day!” Yoongi gushed, fixing a few strands of hair so that they wouldn’t fall into his son’s eyes.
“Papa, you should get dressed too!” Jungkook exclaimed, grabbing his dad’s thumb and dragging him along to their bedroom and right in front of his closet. “I’ll be waiting~” With that, he skipped out of the room, probably going to watch some TV.
With a sigh, Yoongi looked at his clothing options. A lot of the things he had were dark and dull, but recently had a few more colours to the mix, thanks to his lovely son’s choices.
'Maybe…’
Picking out a white t-shirt as well, Yoongi found some grey skinny jeans and pulled them on, haphazardly taking a random pair of socks and hoping that they would match.
“It’s time to play matching-father-and-son look today.” he grumbled to himself. Jungkook absolutely adored it when they were matching, and it had been awhile since they last did it. Why not make his day better?
Walking out of the bedroom, he was greeted by his son holding up a large piece of clothing, a matching one on his torso. “Papa, Kumamon?”
Ah yes, Kumamon. Not only was it Yoongi’s favourite character, but it was Jungkook’s as well. He guessed that it rubbed off on him. “Why not?” he smiled. “Thank you.” Taking the large hoodie, he was surprised it still fit him, even though he had bought the thing at least 5 years ago.
Then again, he hadn’t grown whatsoever, only standing at a mere 174 centimeters.
Quickly grabbing a bag to shove all the things he needed, just his phone, wallet, extra clothes incase Jungkook made a mess of himself, and some things that weren’t much of importance, but had made their way into his normal schedule.
“Papa, Mr. Rabbit won’t fit in my pack!” Jungkook’s call for help made their way to Yoongi’s ears, and he walked over to see what the problem was.
In the living room, there sat Jungkook on the couch, trying to fit a stuffed toy rabbit in his small backpack, a simple bracelet dangling from his small wrist. Jungkook just thought it was a nice accessory that matched with his dad’s, but in reality, it was for his safety. Inside held a chip that would tell the location of Jungkook to Yoongi’s phone, meaning that if he ever got lost, as long as he had the bracelet on, then he would be found.
Yoongi had also trained him to press the small button that was on the side whenever he needed help, which sent a notification to Yoongi’s phone so that he would know instantly. Technology was really helpful these days.
“Well, what else do you have in there?” Yoongi asked, going over to carefully take out Mr. Rabbit to peer into the bag.
A small bottle of water, some snacks, and a small plushie of a cat named Chessie. It just took some quick thinking, and in no time, Mr. Rabbit fit snugly into the pack, his head as well as Chessie’s sticking out on Jungkook’s request, ‘so they could breathe’.
“All done?” he asked.
Jungkook just crossed his arms, feigning a pout as he looked away from his dad. “You didn’t give me my candy yet!” he complained, but his face brightened up when Yoongi took out a lollipop from his pocket. He was about to take it from his hands when it was lifted high above his head, making it so that he was unable to reach it.
“What do we say?”
“Thank you!”
“Good boy.” Giving it to him, a small smile appeared on Yoongi’s face, seeing the happiness made him happy as well. “Well then, let’s get going. Jimin isn’t going to be waiting forever.”
“Chim!”
“Kookie!”
Two small boys, both around the age of 8, ran towards each other, managing to not collide and instead gave each other a warm embrace.
“Who’d know that Min Yoongi would do matching looks with his son?”
He looked up and scowled slightly, but let a smile cover his face soon afterwards. “Jin, Namjoon, nice to see that you guys are doing well.”
“I could say the same to you, Yoongi. There’s two of us and one of you, surely you have more work to do.” Jin commented. “God, are those dark circles under your eyes? They’re getting worse.” he muttered.
“Have you been getting enough sleep lately? You aren’t staying up to compose again, are you?” Namjoon asked, a concerned look on his face while he kept an eye on their boys by glancing over at them every once in awhile.
“Why don’t we sit down first, then we explain. We’re blocking the entrance after all.” Grabbing Jungkook’s hand, he led the two boys to a free table, Jin and Namjoon trailing behind.
Kim Seokjin and Kim Namjoon, a practically perfect couple with their beautiful adopted child, Jimin. Yoongi had been friends with Namjoon for quite a long time now, since they were in high school, and had met Jin when the two started dating. Both Jimin and Jungkook were close in age, so the two of them played well with each other.
Jin was definitely the most motherly when it came to the three of them, he had even helped Yoongi and his wife when they first started off, as if he were a pro. He knew if the baby was crying because it wanted food, sleep, or comfort with ease, and had no troubles when it came to diaper changing.
As for Namjoon, he was pretty clumsy, and Jin didn’t trust him with Jimin until he was sure that if the child was accidentally dropped, he wouldn’t be injured. Somehow, it came to the fact that Namjoon was clumsy as can be normally, but was actually somewhat normal when it came to handling Jimin. He knew how to discipline him well, making sure that he knew what was right and wrong. He too had taught Yoongi some tricks.
First of all, kids cafes were the fucking bomb. You could leave your kid to play in the play area, provided they weren’t going to be an idiot and jump off some equipment, and you could spend some time to relax, despite how loud the area was.
“Don’t be too loud, okay?” Jin warned, and the two kids nodded, running off to play. Today, the cafe was relatively quiet, most of the kids seemed to be somewhere else that day, leaving it just to the three adults, as well as a few small families.
“So, mind telling us about your lovely eye bags?” Jin sarcastically started, gesturing to the way Yoongi was more tired than usual.
“First off, no I wasn’t composing Joon, I don’t have the time for that. Jungkook’s been having a lot of nightmares lately, and I’m not sure why. He wakes up constantly during the night, and it takes me at least 30 minutes just to calm him down. Do you think there’s something wrong?” he asked the couple, rubbing his eyes. Now that he was out of the house and away from Jungkook’s presence, he realized that he was pretty tired.
“Hmm, Jimin was like that too, but it passed off pretty quickly. How long has this been happening for?” Namjoon asked.
“I dunno, maybe a month by now? He’s going to be starting school in a few months, and I want him to get enough sleep so that he won’t fall asleep in class. At this rate, it won’t go well.” Yoongi sighed, resting his head on his arms. Jungkook was so active, even though he didn’t get much sleep on some nights. It wouldn’t be long until he would get tired and want a nap. Sure, naps were great, but he didn’t want Jungkook to rely on them so much, so he slowly took him away from said naps so that he could retain a proper sleeping schedule.
“Ooh, that doesn’t sound good. Jimin’s only lasted for a week, maybe you should go and see a doctor just in case. What about work?” Jin asked, steering away from the topic of Jungkook to Yoongi’s own life.
“Still looking. I’ve got one offer on a local high school as a math teacher, and another as a Literature teacher.”
Namjoon scoffed. “You, teaching Lit? I can’t even imagine that.”
“I know right?”
“Then again, your lyrics were pretty damn great.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me. “Big cars, big house and big rings”? What was I even thinking?” Yoongi slammed his head on the table again, this time due to embarrassment.
“Hey, if you just ignore that time, everything else is great!”
“Yeah yeah, whatever. I’d rather teach math, as much as I’d prefer music. High schoolers don’t care about shit when it comes to music.” he grumbled, and was hit on the arm by Jin.
“Language, you’re in a place where children are everywhere. Parents are going to be so mad at you if they overheard.” he scolded, looking around for any prying eyes or ears. Luckily for him, the few families that were here were far away from their table, oblivious to what happened.
“I’ll see if I can make an appeal, if not then I’ll go for the math route and hope I get seniors.” Yoongi continued, taking out a small notebook from his bag and flipping to the most recent page, adding that to his list.
Inside held many things, such as ‘find a babysitter’ and ‘buy groceries’. The rest were scratched out, indicating that they had already been done and that he didn’t need to worry about it.
‘Right, a babysitter.’
“Hey, do you guys have any recommendations on babysitters? I need one, just for the two months before school starts so that I can focus on the school work and stuff.” he asked, and the couple went into deep thought.
“Now that I think of it, isn’t Taehyung a babysitter?” Namjoon asked Jin, and he nodded.
“Sorry, Tae-who?”
“Right, Taehyung’s an old friend of Jin’s. He’s taken the babysitting route for now, though he wanted to become a teacher for elementary students. We could give you his contacts, if you want.” Namjoon explained, pulling his phone to find said contacts.
“Yes please.” Yoongi mumbled, a bit too sleepy to realize what he was doing. In just a few seconds, his own phone lit up with a notification from Namjoon, which consisted of a phone number, email, and website. “Thanks.” he mumbled once more.
“Yoongi, are you sure you don’t need help? We could take Jungkook in for a sleepover today to let you have some rest.” Jin suggested, clearly concerned about his friend’s state.
“I mean, if it doesn’t bother you. I’d love to catch up on some well needed rest at the moment.”
“We’d love to. Let’s gather the kids then.”
All three of them stood up and walked over to the play area, where they called the two kids over. “Jungkook-ah, do you wanna stay at Jiminie’s place for a sleepover?” Yoongi asked, and the boy vigorously nodded.
“Really? Did you hear that Chim?” he yelled out, and Jimin nodded.
“Yeah! Thanks papa, daddy!” the little marshmallow exclaimed, embracing his dads in a large hug.
“I’ll drop him off at your place at around 8 pm?” Yoongi asked. The time was currently 11:30, and he still had some things to do with Jungkook.
“Sure. If you want more rest, just come earlier. He can have dinner with us.”
“Did Uncle Jin say dinner? He makes the best dinner ever Papa, way better than yours!”
Namjoon burst out laughing, seeing the slight scowl on Yoongi’s face. “Wow, no shame whatsoever. He’s just like you when we were teens.”
“I sure hope he won’t be like me when he’s older.” Yoongi mumbled, handing Jungkook his bag so that he could put it on. “Say bye bye now, you’ll see them later.” he said to Jungkook, and the boy excitedly waved to the trio.
“Bye bye Chim, Uncle Jin and Uncle Joon!” he cheered, before taking his dad’s hand and leaving the kids cafe. “Now what, Papa?” he asked.
“We go and have lunch, and then some shopping.”
After a nice healthy lunch and some successful shopping, Yoongi got Jungkook ready for his sleepover with Jimin back at home.
“Papa, did you pack Mr. Rabbit and Chessie?” the boy called out, and Yoongi yelled right back.
“Of course!”
He was currently picking out some pyjamas and clothes for the next day, letting the boy bring whatever other items he wanted. “Hm hm hm, it won’t be complete without Alice and Hattie. Red can’t come because she’s mean.” Jungkook muttered to himself, picking up a girl with blonde hair and a man with a stylish top hat and checkered suit.
Ever since Yoongi had read Alice in Wonderland to Jungkook, he had a strange passion for it. With the plushies he had plus a few more he had recently got, he named them all variations of the character names, excluding Alice.
With the two plushies in hand, Jungkook ran over to where Yoongi was and promptly shoved both of them into his bag. “Oh, are you bring Alice and Hattie with you?” Yoongi asked, sweeping a hand through his hair to move it out of his eyes.
“Yup! We’re gonna have a tea party with Jiminie.”
“I see. Seeing how we’re all done, why don’t we head off now?”
“Yeah!”
Exiting the house, it was a quick drive to the Kims’ place, Jungkook humming a song as he happily danced in his booster seat. The boy had insisted that he carry his bag, leaving it dangling off the ground by just an inch as he walked to the apartment door and rang the intercom.
“Yoongi, is that you?” Jin’s voice rang out through the speaker. “I’ll be there~”
The door opened momentarily afterwards, and Jin, wearing his baby blue apron, ushered Jungkook inside. “Do you wanna come in for a bit of tea?” he asked, but Yoongi shook his head.
“Nah, I should be fine. I’m gonna get into contact with that babysitter you recommended, and have some rest for once. If anything happens, just call. And if Jungkook has a nightmare, put on a music box tune and if you can, put some vanilla scent in the air. It’ll remind him of Hwayeon.” he explained, slightly grimacing at the name of his ex-wife.
“Alright. I’m sure I have a vanilla scented candle lying around, I’ll resort to that if it happens. Get some rest, alright? See you tomorrow.”
“See ya.”
After waving goodbye to Jungkook, Yoongi left for home in silence, not bothering to turn on the radio for today. He wanted to stay calm and have no disruptions so that he could rest easy. Stopping by a restaurant, he ordered some tteokbokki for home.
As soon as he got home, he went right into his office and settled down. Sitting at his desk, he turned on his laptop and went straight to his emails, going through them before preparing a response to the school, and another to the babysitter Jin and Namjoon recommended to him.
‘Dear Incheon Nonhyeon High,
I am thankful for your offer to be a math or literature teacher. I would like to ask if there are any positions in music, as that is what my main focus is. If not, then I’d gladly take your open position as a
Yoongi stopped to think. Would he prefer to be a math teacher, or be a literature teacher? Sure, math was easy and he could probably handle it, but with literature, he would probably find many hidden meanings and be an even better teacher.
‘ ...If not, then I’d gladly take your open position as a Literature teacher. I hope I meet both your standards, as well as the students. We have already discussed about my schedule, and I thank you for understanding. I’m sorry I couldn’t be a full time teacher, but with my son, it’ll be hard. If something changes and I have the time, then I’d gladly become full time.
Once again, thank you.
Min Yoongi’
With a sigh, he quickly proofread it before sending it, going to his next email.
‘ Hello, I’m a single father who was recommended your babysitting services by a friend, and would like to know if you are free to meet up with me sometime soon. I have a eight year old son who’s quite energetic, but lately I don’t have the time to look after him as I try to prepare for my job.
Please tell me when you are free so that we can set a time and date.
Sincerely, Min Yoongi. ’
And with that, he hit send before even realizing it.
‘Good going Yoongi, you send an email without even seeing what the dude is like. Didn’t Namjoon send me his website?’ he thought to himself. Pulling out his phone, he checked the link and put it into a new tab.
The website was pretty generic, but was decorated with pastel mint green and white borders.
“Kim Taehyung, aged 27, great with children, can handle most times depending on what they are.” he read to himself, finishing off his tteokbokki. “Email for more information.”
‘Well, I’ve already done that.’
Yoongi was decently satisfied with the information that the website gave, but he still needed some convincing. Was he really that good with children? Or was he just giving lies?
Ping!
“What the hell.” Yoongi muttered, checking his phone to see that he already got an email back from this Taehyung fellow.
‘ Hello there, Yoongi-ssi!
I’m glad you’ve taken interest in my services. Your current situation is understandable, the age of eight is when they get a bit more rowdy than normal.
I’m free any day this week, does Wednesday sound good for you, maybe around 1 pm? You can choose the place.
Also, may I ask who recommended me to you?”
From, Kim Taehyung. ’
Yoongi could sense a good vibe coming from Taehyung, even though it was just an email. The fact that he had instantly given him input from his message on Jungkook’s rowdy behaviour meant that he knew his stuff.
‘ Hello again, Taehyung.
The one who recommended me was my friend, Kim Seokjin and Kim Namjoon. Have you heard of them before?
Wednesday is good. Is it okay if we meet at a cat cafe? My son has been wanting to go to one for a long time.’
‘We should go to a cat cafe, so that Chessie can meet some other cats like him! God Min Jungkook, why are you so adorable.’
‘ Oh, that’s totally fine! I know a great one, let me link you to their page so that you can make a reservation.
Ah, so it was Seokjin hyung. Honestly, I should have known. They’re one of my closest friends.
Did they give you my number? It would be easier to text you rather than email, not that I don’t like it.’
‘Oh they did alright. I’ll send a test text over.’
‘When the fuck did our conversation go from formal to casual anyways?’ Yoongi thought to himself, opening his texting app and sending a message to Taehyung.
[Yoongi]
Hey there, it’s Min Yoongi, the one who emailed you.
[Taehyung]
Hello there Yoongi-ssi!
Thank you once again for taking interest in my services.
As for the cat cafe, why not try Cat’s Attic Cafe?
It has many branches, so there should be one close to where you live.
Not that I’d know. OvO
Search it up when you have the time!
It’s recommended you make a reservation
And the entry fee is usually just to order a drink
There are a few rules, so you might wanna take a look at them and run through them with your kid
Speaking of which, what’s his name?
Damn, Taehyung talked a lot.
[Yoongi]
His name is Jungkook.
[Taehyung]
That’s a nice name.
Sorry to cut our time short, but I’ve gotta go.
I’ll see you and Jungkook on Wednesday then?
[Yoongi]
Yup.
I can already tell that you’re a great babysitter.
[Taehyung]
Flattery doesn’t get you far~
But in all seriousness, thanks.
I can assure you that Jungkook will love me.
Bye!
Peering at the time, though it was only 9 pm, Yoongi was pretty tired, so he went to get ready for bed. After his long shower, he was met by a few messages from Jin.
[Jin]
The kids are in bed now.
Jungkook was fine at first, but started shivering and whimpering a bit later even though he was covered up
I lit the candle and placed it in Jimin’s room, he calmed down pretty quickly
Just hoping it’ll be enough to stop the nightmares for today
You should really go check it out.
Get some good rest today, alright?
See you tomorrow~
Sighing again, Yoongi made a mental note to buy vanilla scented candles from now on, hoping that Jin’s trick would work each time. He had already scheduled an appointment to check out Jungkook’s nightmares on Tuesday, and because they were meeting up with Taehyung on Wednesday, it would cheer up the boy from that dreaded appointment.
Yoongi hoped he could get some sleep, even with all of these worries.