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once every fortnight, the kim household had a house chore day, where they clean in the morning before they went out in the afternoon.
in the morning, as usual, they were seated at the dining table for breakfast. this morning, it was pancakes with syrup and cut fruit. jeongguk's bowl had more fruit than pancakes but he was just as happy, grabbing onto the syrup sweet fruit with his bare hands and smacking his lips happily.
"do you like it?" yoongi asked as he chuckled, ruffling jeongguk's hair. "eat up because we have a big day ahead of us."
seokjin and yoongi usually took turns in terms of who got to eat and who had to help jeongguk eat. this time, yoongi was tasked with looking after jeongguk, so when seokjin and jeongguk were done, seokjin brought jeongguk with him to do laundry so yoongi could eat his breakfast in peace.
"these are dirty clothes," seokjin said as he motioned at the laundry hamper and basket. "do you want to help me bring these to the laundry?"
jeongguk nodded, and while seokjin carried the hamper with him to the laundry, jeongguk trailed along behind him, pushing the basket along in front of him. when they reached the laundry room, he watched seokjin load some clothes from the hamper into the washing machine, and he started grabbing and throwing the clothes from the basket into the washing machine as well.
"careful, you have to put them in slowly or they'll fall onto the floor," seokjin reminded, motioning at some clothes that fell because it was a bit heavier and jeongguk's throw wasn't strong enough to get them into the machine.
"ahh," jeongguk made a small noise and bent down to pick up the fallen clothes and put them in the machine.
"good boy, ggukie," seokjin said with a smile, patting jeongguk's head while jeongguk grinned proudly and butted his head against seokjin's hand for more pets.
once the machine was on, seokjin brought jeongguk to the kitchen and dropped him off with yoongi who was washing the dishes. he had to go clean the bathroom and he didn't want jeongguk to be exposed to the strong cleaning chemical or bleach smell.
he sat next to the sink and watched as yoongi washed the dishes, scrubbing them with a sponge and rinsing off the soapy suds.
"da!" jeongguk exclaimed, reaching towards the sponge.
"oh, do you want to try?" yoongi asked.
jeongguk nodded, and so yoongi handed him his plastic bowl that he used that morning and the sponge. he held onto jeongguk's hand to show him how to scrub the bowl, and jeongguk scrubbed the bowl with such concentration that yoongi wished he had his camera with him.
"now you put it under the water to wash it off," yoongi said, turning the tap on a little so the water pressure wasn't too strong.
jeongguk moved the bowl towards the water and it still fell down because he wasn't holding it strong enough, while his eyes widened in surprise, not expecting water to cause that much pressure. he got down onto his stomach, reached down for his bowl in the sink, and held it with both hands under the water.
yoongi quickly wiped his hands on a tea towel and grabbed his phone to take a quick picture of the scene, before he taught jeongguk to turn the bowl upside down to rinse the bottom part as well.
after the dishes were done, yoongi wiped down the counter and the dining table, and then went to the living room, bringing jeongguk with him. he set jeongguk down on the couch, and turned the tv on, changing it to a classical music channel.
jeongguk sat down quietly, looking at the orchestra on the screen, while yoongi took a wet cloth and started wiping down the shelves and the cupboards. they used to use a duster back then, but since jeongguk was born, they changed to using a wet cloth that they can wash and reuse so the dust didn't get everywhere.
"da!" jeongguk exclaimed, and yoongi turned to look at him curiously. jeongguk lifted his tiny fist and started making swiping gestures with his hand.
yoongi chuckled. "do you want to help?"
jeongguk nodded.
"aw, such a good boy," yoongi cooed. he took a clean cloth and wetted it with water, then handed it to jeongguk. he helped jeongguk steady himself against the coffee table and showed him how to wipe the table.
"be careful, okay?" yoongi warned. "when you're done, let me know, don't do anything else."
"da," jeongguk said. yoongi hoped it was an agreement. he went back to wiping the shelves and watched jeongguk out of the corner of his eyes. jeongguk wiped the glass table and started circling around it so he could wipe all around the table.
yoongi was done around the same time jeongguk was done, and he came over to wipe the centre of the table that jeongguk couldn't reach. he then put the cloths in a separate basket where they kept all the towels (except for bath towels) and mats that needed washing.
the washing machine was done, and jeongguk helped pull the washed clothes from the machine and into the laundry basket, before yoongi put them in the dryer.
"well, that's that. we can fold them when we come back," yoongi said to jeongguk. "let's get changed, shall we? and then we'll see if appa is done."
the two went back to their bedroom to change. yoongi put on a baby blue t-shirt and a pair of denim shorts on jeongguk, and put jeongguk on the bed while he changed to a button down shirt and a pair of jeans. he brought jeongguk back out to the living room and turned on the classical music channel again.
"be a good boy and stay here for a while, okay?" yoongi said as he kissed jeongguk's forehead. "i'll check up and see if appa is done."
"da," jeongguk made another noise, and yoongi hoped it was of agreement again.
seokjin came out of the bathroom not long after, his hands smelling like a mixture of bleach and floral-scented hand soap.
"aw, my cute baby," seokjin cooed as he kissed jeongguk's cheek. "are you ready to go out today?"
"da!" jeongguk exclaimed excitedly.
seokjin chuckled. "well, let me get changed real quick," he said. "oh, i better turn on the roomba now before i forget."
another thing that changed when jeongguk was born was their vacuum cleaner. they used to have a normal bagless vacuum cleaner, but jeongguk was afraid of the noise and would cry whenever he heard it, so they decided to change it to a roomba which was quieter.
he turned the roomba on and went to change. he wasn't too worried that it would get in their way of getting ready to go out because the roomba was set to clean the kitchen first.
moments later, yoongi came into the room looking around.
"what's wrong?" seokjin asked.
"where's jeonggukie?"
"isn't he in the living room? he was still there earlier," seokjin asked, frowning in worry.
the two walked back out to the living room, then paused when they heard loud patting noises and jeongguk's 'noo' and 'eh'.
"um, was that from the kitchen?"
the two went to the kitchen and found jeongguk kneeling on the roomba, patting it repeatedly and saying 'noo' before pointing at another direction, as if telling it where it was supposed to go next.
"how do you handle this everyday?" seokjin asked yoongi who was busy recording the scene. "he's too cute for his own good."
"practice makes perfect, now hush."
yoongi recorded a short video which he shared in the group chat, and seokjin picked jeongguk up from the roomba once yoongi was finished recording.
"it's okay, baby, mr. roomba knows where to go next," seokjin said as he pressed jeongguk close to his side. "now, shall we go?"
"let me just get his snack first," yoongi said, walking to the fridge to get the container of fruit he had prepared earlier before doing the dishes while jeongguk cheered at the mention of snacks.
they went to a local playground, and had lunch at a nearby garden cafe. after lunch, seokjin laid down on the grass while jeongguk was sprawled on his chest while they both napped, and yoongi sat next to them, reading, enjoying the rare peace and quiet.
jeongguk played some more afterwards, his batteries fully recharged after the nap, and they went back home shortly before dinner time. seokjin went to prepare dinner while yoongi took the clothes from the dryer and put them in the living room to fold the clothes on the coffee table.
jeongguk wanted to help but his arms were too short and still a little clumsy so he mostly watched as yoongi folded the clothes.
"there, we're done," yoongi announced. "be a good boy and wait here for a bit, okay? i'm going to return the basket now."
yoongi went to the bathroom to put the hamper and basket back, and when he returned, jeongguk was nowhere to be seen, and one of the clothes stacks was missing as well.
"ggukie?" yoongi called out.
"da!" jeongguk called back from the bedroom.
yoongi walked over curiously, and at that moment, he thought he was being too arrogant earlier when he told seokjin that practice made perfect. it didn't. he still couldn't handle jeongguk's cuteness, he just got better at hiding it sometimes.
jeongguk was hunched over a bottom drawer, the only one he could reach, and was putting the clothes in it slowly and pressing down on it to make more clothes fit. somehow he knew which clothes belonged to who, and put them in the correct spots.
that night, jeongguk got an extra piece of chocolate as a treat. seokjin looked at yoongi curiously but yoongi refused to comment.