Chapter Text
The first kid that came into Jinyoung and Jaebum's life was one part expected and two parts abrupt. The social worker that had been assigned to them, Eve, had told them a few weeks ago that they were at the top of the waiting list, finally, and that the next kid to come into the system would most likely go to the couple. However, they were expecting a heads up longer than 24 hours.
The call came in at 8 P.M. on a Thursday night. Jaebum and Jinyoung had been cleaning up after a late dinner, when the phone had rung. Jaebum had answered the phone in the living room, leaving Jinyoung to try and overhear what he could as he finished up the dishes in the kitchen. Jinyoung was beginning to become worried as Jaebum took longer than normal on the phone. Before he could go after the other, he came back into the kitchen, a huge grin on his face, but wringing his hands anxiously. "What? Who was it?" Jinyoung asked, turning the water off and drying his hands.
"It was Eve. They have a placement for us!" He explained excitedly, and Jinyoung's heart leaped in excitement and anxiety.
"Really? That's awesome news!" Jinyoung clapped his hands together, "How long do we have? Are they a boy or a girl? Oh my god, do you know anything about the placement? What put them in the system? How old are they? Do I need to go out and get diapers or something? What was their old fami--"
"Honey, you're rambling. Calm down for a moment so I can actually answer your questions!" Jaebum interrupted, Jinyoung took a deep breath and became quiet, looking at him expectantly.
"I didn't get a lot of information out of Eve, she seemed flustered. It sounds like it was an unexpected entrance to the system, and not a good one either. Eve seemed pretty urgent and asked if we would be able to have the child placed tomorrow afternoon." Jinyoung gasped, but didn't speak, "Their name is Youngjae, he just turned four, and his family moved from Korea right before he was born, which is why she's so adamant on placing him with us. He doesn't speak any English, and they're floundering a little bit finding somewhere to place him. She didn’t say much over the phone, said she was going to call back sometime tomorrow morning to give details, just that it was a case of child neglect and that tonight is his last night in the hospital. They need somewhere to place him my tomorrow evening.”
It was silent for a moment as Jinyoung let the information sink in. “We’re finally going to be foster parents,” He whispers, grinning to himself, and then looks up at Jaebum, “You told her we’d take him, right?”
“I told her that I’d have to run it by you one last time, but that we had been ready for months and would be more than happy to have him placed with us.” Jaebum wraps an arm around Jinyoung’s shoulders, pulling him into his side.
“God, I can’t believe it’s finally happening!” Jinyoung covers his face with his hands happily, “I can’t wait to meet him! I just hope he’ll be happy here.”
“You and I both know you’ll do anything in the world to make sure that happens.” Jaebum laughs happily, “Why don’t we turn in early tonight? That way we can wake up early and be ready for Eve’s call.”
Jinyoung agrees, and the two find themselves upstairs in their room and asleep in no time.
-
The knock on their front door came at about 4:50 PM the next day. Jinyoung had to physically restrain himself from literally running to answer the door. Jaebum was downstairs and by his side so quickly, though, that he knew that he had run.
Pulling the door open, his heart jumps at the sight. There’s a small boy in Eve’s arms, his own small ones wrapped around her neck. There are bruises littering up his arms, disappearing under the short sleeves of the t-shirt he was wearing. He had a small backpack secured tightly in his right hand, dangling behind Eve, and looked much younger than four years old. Had Jinyoung not known the boy’s age, he would have figured him to be as young as a small 3-year-old (or maybe a large 2-year-old.)
“Hi,” Eve says to the couple, in English. “This is Youngjae,”
She turns so that the two can see the younger’s face. Youngjae looks at the two scrutinizing them, before turning his head and hiding in Eve’s neck. “He’s so cute!” Jaebum whispers, and Eve grins, before turning her attention to Youngjae.
“Hey, buddy,” She says quietly and slowly, “These people are going to take care of you for a little while okay? They’re going to be really nice to you and help you.” She says before setting him down on the ground, and helping him put his backpack actually on his back.
He looks up at her confused. Eve smiles gently at him, before looking helplessly at the couple, “You still speak Korean, right?” She sighs deeply in relief when they nod, “I’m almost positive he hasn’t understood a single word I’ve said to him since he’s entered my care, and I feel so bad just leaving him here without him knowing why.”
“Don’t worry,” Jinyoung says, “We’ll explain it to him. We’ll make sure he’s fine, okay?”
As Jinyoung talks to Eve, Jaebum crouches down to be face to face with Youngjae, who still looks confused as to why he was sat down. “Hello,” He says in Korean, and Youngjae’s eyes widen comically. “My name’s Jaebum, what’s your name?” He asks, trying to get the younger boy to talk to him.
Youngjae looks hesitant, but it’s clear he understood Jaebum which is a good sign. “Youngjae.” He whispers quietly.
“Youngjae? That’s a cool name!” Youngjae smiles a little, “We’re going to watch you for a little while, is that okay?”
Youngjae seems scared, now, which makes total sense. He must be so confused as to what’s happened and why he’s not with his parents right now. He looks up at Eve, points to her and says, “Eve.”
She ruffles his hair, “I have to go.” She explains, hugging him, and pulling away.
He looks at her, even more confused now, “Eve.” He says again, clearly understanding that she responds to that.
She smiles sadly, but knows not to drag this out any longer than it needs to and waves as she begins to walk down the steps to her car.
Youngjae goes to follow, but Jinyoung scoops him up into his arms. The boy whines loudly, reaching toward Eve, who gets into her car. She smiles at Youngjae one last time. “Eve!” He says again, tears filling his eyes.
“Hey, hey.” Jinyoung bounces the boy gently, trying to soothe him as Jaebum stands up, “It’s alright, you’re going to be fine with us.”
Youngjae shakes his head as the car begins to pull away and the couple takes him inside. When the front door closes, and it’s clear that Eve is not coming back to take Youngjae with her, he bursts into tears.
Jinyoung’s heart breaks at the sight. He doesn’t know what to do to calm the boy down, who’s obviously terrified. “Honey, please calm down,” He says softly, bouncing him gently, still, and rubbing his back as best as he could with the backpack.
Despite the boy’s fear, he seems to want the comfort, and wraps his arms around Jinyoung’s neck as he cries into it. Jinyoung looks at Jaebum, eyes begging him for help. “Should I grab the blanket we got?” Jaebum asks.
Jinyoung thinks for a minute, “No, grab the teddy bear instead. It seems like he needs something to actually hold onto.”
Jaebum nods, before disappearing upstairs to the room they had put together. Jinyoung sits on the couch, and continues to comfort the young child with soft words and back rubs. Jinyoung is pretty sure that Youngjae is crying just to cry now, which is okay. He’s sure with all that’s happened over the past week that the boy’s in need of just crying and letting out all those emotions.
Youngjae’s parents were never good to him. They were neglectful and aggressive. There had been multiple calls of worry from their neighbors to the police, worried that Youngjae wasn’t being treated right. However, whenever police would show up, the parents would be gone, or there would be no sign of any child in the house.
But one too many calls turned into a search warrant, and finding the young child in a closet, bruises all over his body, hair dirty and greasy, matted to his forehead. The child was way too skinny, shivering in a tattered t-shirt and shorts. His parents were taken into custody instantly, and Youngjae was taken to the hospital after he passed out when the police tried to get him to walk to the car.
The doctors had explained that the young child was severely malnourished and had varying degrees of injuries from being pushed or hit by his parents. He had stayed in the hospital for four days and three nights as they tried desperately to get him to a less, near-death weight. When he had begun to put on weight, color coming back to his skin, and his injuries had begun to heal, they decided it was time for him to leave the hospital and find a place to stay.
They weren’t able to find any relatives that lived in the country, and they searched for hours. And after a few more hours of struggling trying to talk to a representative in Korea for their foster care system, they weren’t able to find anyone there either. It was like his parents had come out of nowhere, had a baby, and had no records of anyone else existing in their lineage.
So Youngjae was placed into Eve’s care on the third day he was in the hospital. Eve knew after the first meeting that he would have to be placed with someone who knew Korean, and blessed whatever being was out there that she had Jinyoung and Jaebum waiting for a placement.
Youngjae had been through a lot, and Jinyoung and Jaebum knew that it wouldn’t be easy to care for him and gain his trust. They knew that they were going to do whatever it took to achieve that, though.
Youngjae seemed to finally be calming down. His sobs had lightened, and he had taken his face out of Jinyoung’s, now wet, neck. Jaebum appeared again with a small teddy bear in his hands.
Jinyoung turned Youngjae so he could look at both of them. “Hey, look what Jaebum has!” He says, faking excitement for the child.
Youngjae looks at Jaebum and the toy he has in his hands. It looks like he wants the toy but doesn’t know how to ask for it, and whines as he sniffles. “Do you want the teddy bear, Youngjae?” Jaebum asks.
Youngjae looks at him, suspicious. “If you want the toy, you can have it.” Jinyoung explains gently.
Youngjae looks up at Jinyoung, eyes wide, “Mine?” He asks quietly.
Jaebum places the teddy bear in Youngjae’s lap. Youngjae doesn’t go to pick it up yet, seems scared to. “It’s yours, sweetie. You can hold it if you want to. We’re not going to take it away from you.” Jinyoung says slowly.
Youngjae hesitantly picks up the bear, feeling the soft fur and blue eyes. He hugs the bear tightly to his chest, a few more tears falling down his face. He doesn’t start sobbing again, so Jinyoung wipes the tears away, and hugs the boy, rocking back and forth. “There you go, everything is going to be fine. You’re safe with us.”
After a few moments of silence, Jaebum thinks it’s okay to approach the boy again, “The teddy bear’s really cool, do you want to name him, Youngjae?” He asks.
Youngjae, who hadn’t loosened his hold on the toy, looks at Jaebum confused. “Name?” He asks.
“Yeah!” Jaebum agrees, “My name’s Jaebum, and his name is Jinyoung, and your’s is Youngjae! The teddy bear needs a name too, or else he’ll feel left out.”
Youngjae looks heartbroken at the idea of the toy feeling left out. But what could he name the bear? He didn’t want to mess it up.
“You can name him whatever you want! It’ll be special, just for you.” Jinyoung says.
“I…” He pauses, “Eve.” He decides finally. “His name is Eve.”
Jaebum grins, fighting back the tears that built up behind his eyes. Youngjae was obviously seeing the toy as a safe thing now, and Eve was a safe person for him. It made sense for him to want to name his bear after the only person he had encountered that had been nice and showed him affection. And they weren’t going to make him change it, obviously.
“Eve it is, then! Are you and Eve hungry?” Jinyoung asks.
Youngjae looks at the bear, and is quiet for a moment, “Eve is… Eve is hungry.”
Jaebum furrows his eyebrows, before brushing it away, “Okay! We’ll get Eve some food then, are you hungry too, Youngjae?” He asks, trying to prompt the boy to eat something too.
Youngjae looks at Jaebum, and nods hesitantly. “Why don’t you go with Jaebum and he’ll make you and Eve something to eat. And then we can go look at your room and anything else in the house that you want to look at.” Jinyoung offers.
Youngjae looks conflicted. “My room?”
“Mmhmm. We put it together just for you! But we need to get you and Eve food before we can go look at it.” Jaebum stands up, and offers his hand to Youngjae.
“Come on!” Jaebum says excitedly, “We can make whatever you want!”
Youngjae slides off of Jinyoung’s lap carefully, taking Jaebum’s hand, silently. Jinyoung watches as Jaebum leads the young child into the kitchen. It’s an image of adorable domesticity, and his heart feels full. Youngjae seems incredibly sweet, and you bet your ass that Jinyoung is going to work his own ass off to make Youngjae feel comfortable enough in their home to play and run and laugh as he wants. He wasn’t ever going to stop assuring the boy that he was safe here, and that everything was going to be okay with him and Jaebum.
Because it was. Everything was going to be okay. Jinyoung and Jaebum both would die before they let anything bad happen to Youngjae, or any other kid that was placed in their home.
-
Bed time seemed to create ten new hurdles to the one they had just jumped over. They had been expecting things to be hard, but there were things that the hadn’t been expecting.
Things such as Youngjae’s small screaming fit as they tried to get him to take a bath and had to take Eve away. He only stopped screaming when they allowed Eve to sit on the edge of the bathtub, praying that the bear wouldn’t fall into the water, not wanting to deal with having to put the toy in the dryer, taking it away from Youngjae for even longer. He had only had the toy for a short amount of time, but it seemed that the bear was the first possession that Youngjae had that was purely his, and Youngjae was already fiercely protective over it. It seemed like the bear calmed Youngjae down, and Youngjae didn’t want to let go of it. They hoped it wouldn’t create a problem in the future, but for now, they weren’t going to try and do anything about it.
Youngjae was mostly docile during his bath. He allowed Jaebum to wash his hair and only whined at the feeling of the water being poured over his head.
Putting Youngjae actually in bed was a problem in itself. Every time they laid the boy down and tucked him in, he sat right back up, whining. “Youngjae, it’s time to sleep! Aren’t you tired? Eve is tired.” Jinyoung explains, pointing to where Eve was still tucked into the blankets.
“Dark!” Youngjae firmly said, shaking his head.
“Do you not like the dark, Youngjae?” Jaebum asked, and Youngjae shook his head faster.
It made sense, and the two were surprised they hadn’t thought of the possibility of him being scared earlier. They had found him in a closet, and it didn’t seem like it had been the boy’s first time in their either. The dark meant danger and pain to the child, and in a new place, especially, it wasn’t surprising for him to be afraid of it.
Thankfully, Jinyoung had thought, a month ago, that whatever child they were placed with might be scared of the dark, and had bought a small nightlight. It was in one of the dresser drawers, and he praised himself on thinking so far ahead. “Would you go to sleep if it wasn’t quite so dark?” Jinyoung asks.
Youngjae contemplates this. It was obvious that he was tired, and if plugging in a nightlight was all it would take for the young boy to fall asleep, then that was a small price to pay. It was quiet for another moment before, “Yes.”
“I have something that might help!” Jinyoung excitedly gets out the nightlight from the dresser, and opens it. He plugs it into the outlet next to Youngjae’s bed, and the room is illuminated in a light glow.
Youngjae gasps, “See? It’s not dark anymore!” Jaebum tickles Youngjaes tummy slightly for emphasis, and Youngjae allows the couple to tuck him into bed without sitting up again.
“If you need anything, we’re right down the hall. And we mean anything. If you need a drink, or you’re hungry, or scared, or even if you just want a hug, you can come to us, and we’ll help you with whatever it is you need or want, okay?” Jaebum asks as they stand up.
Youngjae yawns, and then nods. “Okay,” He whispers, already falling asleep, Jinyoung flips on the baby monitor that they had invested in, and they leave the room quietly.
In the hallway, Jinyoung and Jaebum high fived each other lightly. Day one had officially been conquered with the least amount of tears and obstacles as they could have possibly hoped for. Tomorrow had its own pressing matters, but they were all problems for tomorrow.
For now, the couple was more than happy to fall into their own bed and sleep for twelve hours.
Their sleeping was short lived, however, when Jaebum wakes up around 3 AM to the sound of sobbing coming from the baby monitor. He shakes Jinyoung’s arm, “Youngjae!” He whispers when Jinyoung wakes up, before jumping up and rushing out of the room.
Jinyoung takes a moment to register what had happened as he recognizes the sound of sobbing, before jumping up and running after Jaebum.
Jaebum opens the door slowly, and gently, not wanting to scare Youngjae anymore.
Youngjae was sitting up on the bed, Eve wrapped up in his arms tightly as he cries. “I’m bad,” He cries to the bear, “Going to hurt. Going to be sent away.”
Jaebum’s (and Jinyoung’s, who had entered the room) heart breaks. “Youngjae?” He asks gently, alerting the child of his presence.
The child jumps, looking at Jaebum with wide, watery eyes, before crying harder. “S-sorry!” He cries, “Didn’t mean to! Please don’t hurt!”
Jaebum sits on the edge of the bed, “Youngjae, honey, what’s wrong? We’re not going to hurt you! I promise. We’ll never hurt you, ever.”
Youngjae sobs, and then sniffles, “I’m s-sorry.” He repeats, hugging Eve to himself, tighter.
“For what, sweetie?” Jinyoung asks, walking over to the bed.
“I…” He sobs again, “Accident.”
It took a moment for the meaning of the words to register, but when it did, Jaebum and Jinyoung seemed to turn on autopilot. “Oh, honey, it’s okay! We’re not mad at you. We’d never be mad at you for something like this.” Jinyoung takes on the role of comforter.
“Do you want to change your pajamas and get cleaned up? You can sleep in our bed after, and we’ll clean your bed up tomorrow. How does that sound?” Jaebum asks.
Youngjae sniffles, shocked by the fact that there wasn’t any yelling or hitting when he told them what he had done. He was surprised by everything the two did, from the gentle words to the gentle touches to the teddy bear they had given him and the nightlight. He didn’t know how to respond to it all. “Okay…” He sniffles again.
Jaebum helps Youngjae out of the wet bed sheets and grabs a pair of pajamas out of the small pile of clothes that he and Jinyoung had bought over the past few months. The pajamas were a size four, but with how tiny the four year old was, it wasn’t likely that they would fit right. But it didn’t matter now, it was important for Jaebum to get Youngjae into clean clothes and make sure that he understood that they weren’t mad at him and weren’t going to punish him for wetting the bed.
He brought the small boy into the bathroom, and helped him out of his clothes. Jinyoung stopped by the room a moment after, grabbing the clothes and putting them on top of the pile of cloth in the basket he was holding. He had stripped the bed of the sheets and blankets and was going to run a load of laundry now, before they started to dry and smell.
Jaebum thought about running a bath for Youngjae but wasn’t sure if the boy was up for it. “Do you want a bath, honey, or just a wipe down?” He asks, not knowing if this is what he was meant to do, but not wanting to keep the child awake any longer.
“Eve?” He asks, holding out the bear ever-so-slightly, before squishing it back to his chest.
“Okay, we’ll just do a wipe down, then, that way you can keep holding onto Eve, okay?” He explains.
Youngjae just nods, okay with whatever, as long as they weren’t mad at him and he didn’t have to give up Eve.
Jaebum wets down a washcloth with warm water before helping the four year old get clean. When he deemed him clean enough for what they could achieve this late at night, he helped him into the new pajamas, which were much too big. They would work for now.
When he was clean and comfortable, Jaebum took his hand and led him to his and Jinyoung’s room. “Alright, come on, I’ll help you up onto the bed, and then we’ll all go back to sleep because it’s very late. Okay?”
Youngjae nods, and yawns. He allows Jaebum to lift him up and place him on the bed. When he was set down completely, Youngjae looks at Eve, eyes watering a little as he holds out the bear to Jaebum. “Huh? Why are you giving me Eve, honey?”
“Bad.” Youngjae emphasizes the word with a small shake of the bear. “Bad.” He repeats.
Jaebum’s heart breaks once again, he wasn’t sure how much more of this he could handle. “Oh honey, no!” He says, pushing the bear back towards Youngjae’s chest. “You weren’t bad. Having accidents is normal okay, sometimes it just happens. It’s not bad because no one got hurt, right? We’re all okay. You’re not hurt, I’m not hurt, and Jinyoung’s not hurt. We got you clean and we’re going to clean your clothes and the sheets and it’ll be like it never happened.”
Youngjae still seemed confused, but held on tightly to Eve when he realized that they weren’t going to take the bear away from him. “We’ll never take Eve away from you, honey. Eve is yours now, alright? We need you to keep him safe!” Jinyoung makes his presence known from where he had been standing in the door.
“Safe?” He asks.
“Yeah!” Jaebum jumps on this too, “The world can be dangerous for bears like Eve. Eve needs someone strong like you, Youngjae, to keep him safe. Do you think you could do that?”
Youngjae looks at Eve, and then up at Jaebum and Jinyoung, “I can do it!” He says determined.
“We believe in you!” Jinyoung says, “But it’s time for bed now, okay?”
Youngjae yawns, as if on cue. He allows Jinyoung and Jaebum help him under the covers in the middle of the bed.
They get in on either side of him, allowing Youngjae as much distance as he wants. Youngjae was already asleep by the time they got comfortable, however, and both men sighed in relief.
Day one down, for real this time. Tomorrow was a new day, and they were going to kick it’s butt.