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Min Yoongi has never liked parties.
Even as a kid, he was never a fan of big birthday parties. And later, as a teenager, he avoided going to parties all together. It helped that he was introverted, and seen as a nerd – he didn’t even get invited, so he never had to go through the trouble of making up excuses.
He got lucky that the man he fell in love with in university was just as introverted as him, and from then on out they always avoided parties together. Even their wedding was a small affair.
So yeah, Min Yoongi has never liked parties.
But there is one person he would make an exception for.
Though right now, he’s thoroughly regretting that decision.
“Hyung, stop blowing up balloons and just tell me how many packages of butter we need for that damn cake receipt,” Yoongi shouts exasperatedly, trying to be heard over the sounds Seokjin’s exaggerated loud breaths, Jungkook’s laughter and the kids party time playlist Seokjin has found on spotify and put on full blast immediately.
Seokjin puts down the balloon he has currently been blowing up, and glares at Yoongi.
“Yah, don’t scream at me,” he chides, “it’s not my fault that you still haven’t gone grocery-shopping when the party is today!”
“I haven’t gone shopping yet because every time I asked you what you needed over the past three days, you didn’t reply,” Yoongi complains. He’s aware that his voice is taking on a whiny quality, and that it’s a little bit embarrassing to whine while their three – correction, four year old son is in the room, but still.
There’s a birthday party set to start in four hours, and the food he and Seokjin have been planning to make will take at least two hours to prepare, and Yoongi is stressed.
He’s allowed to whine a little.
“Don’t try to pin this all on me,” Seokjin sniffles and points the slowly deflating balloon menacingly at Yoongi. “You just have bad time management!”
Yoongi gasps, appalled. “How dare you?”
Seokjin just shrugs and does an evil smile. To get his revenge, Yoongi takes a few steps forward and picks up Jungkook, whisking him away from where he was sitting on the ground next to Seokjin.
He regrets it quickly, because Jungkook has been growing a lot recently, and he’s starting to get too big to hold for a long period of time. But he still loves being held, and well. Who is Yoongi to refute him anything?
Except- he’s really wishing he could refute him that party, right now.
“Jungkookie,” Yoongi singsongs, looking at his son with a pout, who looks back delightedly, “do you even want to have a birthday party? Wouldn’t you much rather have a quiet day in with your two appas?”
“Yah,” Seokjin interferes, “don’t try to sweettalk him out of his own birthday party! I already blew up all of those balloons and got all the other decoration! If we cancel, what am I supposed to do with this sh…tuff?”
Yoongi opens his mouth to reply, to tell Seokjin that he could just store it or whatever, it’s not that hard, when Jungkook takes a deep breath.
“I want,” he begins, his voice all grave and important, and both Yoongi and Seokjin immediately fall silent, looking at him expectantly, “I want to have a birthday party!”
Seokjin claps his hands, going back to blowing up his balloon all satisfied, and Yoongi sighs. He sets Jungkook back onto his own two feet and then looks down at him with big eyes.
“Are you sure, baby?”
With a bright grin, Jungkook nods.
Yoongi sighs once more, then ruffles the kid’s hair, who makes a noise of complaint, which is the main reason Yoongi did it in the first place.
“Fine,” he mumbles then. “You’ll get your party. Of course you’ll get your party.” Then, he turns back towards Seokjin.
“Now, please tell me how much damn butter we need!”
Once the grocery list is finally complete, after Seokjin notices Yoongi’s rising desperation and sets aside his balloons long enough to help him finish it, Yoongi is almost grateful that he gets to flee the apartment for a little bit.
Grocery shopping is always calming, in his opinion, and Yoongi definitely needs calming. Though, once he’s in the store, he also notices that it’s quite boring to do on his own. Over the past few years, he and Seokjin have developed the routine of turning their grocery run into a family trip, all three of them going together to the nearest supermarket every weekend.
Now, in the familiar store all by himself, Yoongi feels kind of lonely.
He shakes that feeling off when he realises that he is a man in his thirties (only since this march, but still), and that this is just a damn shopping trip.
Once he has pulled himself together, he takes out the grocery list with a huff, and starts making his way through the store, determined to be quick so that they’ll have enough time for the cooking and baking.
He gets it done in record time, if he can say so himself, and leaves the supermarket with a satisfied grin on his face, congratulating himself on a job well done. Seokjin will most definitely be surprised to see him come back so soon.
“What took you so long?” is Seokjin’s greeting once Yoongi steps through the front door. And even though he’s the love of his life, Yoongi wants to strangle him a little bit.
“Excuse me?” he gasps instead, glaring at Seokjin while carrying grocery bags into the kitchen, “I spent less than thirty minutes in the store! That was the quickest it could go!”
Seokjin hesitates, squinting at Yoongi, then at the clock. He hmphs.
“Well, it felt longer,” he says then and shrugs, turning away to go back to decorating, as if he hadn’t just offended Yoongi down to his very core.
At least Jungkook seems happy to see him.
“Appa,” he calls out, rushing towards Yoongi and stopping in front of him with big eyes, “did you bring me sweets?”
Or, well. Apparently he’s not happy to see Yoongi, per se.
Sighing, Yoongi shakes his head and starts unpacking the groceries.
“No, baby, no sweets for you that you can eat right now. But,” he continues before Jungkook’s lower lip can start wobbling, “you’ll have your chocolate cake later, which is even better than normal sweets, isn’t it?”
Jungkook considers that for a moment, his round eyes huge and flitting from side to side, as if he’s trying to literally read his own thoughts.
“I guess it is,” he decides finally, and Yoongi smiles.
“Great,” he says. And then – “hey, Kook-ah, do you want to help me cook later? You can knead the meat! You always like that, don’t you?”
Jungkook nods enthusiastically, shouting “yes, yes, yes!”
Yoongi laughs, and hears Seokjin chime in from the living room. For some reason, their son truly loves kneading meat, and dough, and everything else that needs kneading, punching his little fists into it over and over again. He throws a frighteningly good punch, for a four-year-old.
Soon, all three of them are in the kitchen – Yoongi and Jungkook preparing the main dishes, while Seokjin gets to work on the cake.
“Don’t forget that the bowl of not-spicy-bulgogi has to be enough for both Jungkookie and Taehyung,” Seokjin reminds Yoongi, and Yoongi nods absentmindedly.
“I know, I know,” he assures his husband. Then, with a grin, he adds, “do you think Taehyung will be offended that he’ll get the baby bowl?”
“Either deeply offended, or absolutely delighted,” Seokjin answers with a laugh. “It’ll depend on how much we tease him about it.”
“I’ll definitely tease him a lot,” Yoongi points out. Still laughing, Seokjin agrees.
“I don’t see what’s so funny,” Jungkook suddenly pipes up, and both Yoongi and Seokjin turn to him with surprised faces.
“What do you mean, baby?” Seokjin asks.
“I think there’s nothing shameful with Taetae-hyung eating out of my bowl as well! Or do appas think that my food is lesser? The food you’re giving your own son?”
Shocked, Yoongi looks at Seokjin, hoping to convey with his eyes what the fuck are we supposed to say to that??
Seokjin’s own eyes say back I have absolutely no idea, we raised that boy to be too smart!
Finally, Yoongi turns back towards Jungkook and smiles carefully.
“Kookie baby, of course that’s not what we think, we uhm … we just like to tease your Taetae-hyung, you know?”
Jungkook stares back, and Yoongi squirms. He shouldn’t feel this scrutinized under the gaze of his own son, a human so small that Yoongi could still pick him up and throw him across the room if he wanted to. Somehow, the stare is terrifying, though.
But then Jungkook blinks and his face transforms, and suddenly he’s grinning widely and giggling.
“Haha, I got you! I was just teasing as well, appas!”
Yoongi gapes, and he knows he must look stupid but he can’t help it, and his only consolation is that glancing over towards Seokjin reveals him looking just as dumbfounded.
What the fuck, Yoongi mouthes once Seokjin’s eyes meet his, did we raise an actual genius?
Seokjin shrugs, then wipes the surprise off his face – even after all these years, Yoongi still gets whiplash sometimes at how well Seokjin is able to control his face, how good of an actor he is – and looks at Jungkook with a gleeful expression.
“My my Kookie,” he coos, “I’m so proud of you! You really got us there for a moment!” He reaches up a hand for a high five, and Jungkook slaps into it delightedly.
“Yeah, Kook-ah,” Yoongi chimes in as well, “good one!”
Jungkook giggles, thoroughly satisfied, and then goes back to kneading the meat. Yoongi takes that as indication to tend to his own cooking again as well, and gets back to the cutting board with one last eye waggle in Seokjin’s direction.
They finish the meal preparations just in time, with fifteen minutes to spare before the guests are set to arrive.
Seokjin does one last sweep of the apartment, to make sure everything is clean and properly decorated, then shoos Jungkook into his room to get him into his party outfit while ordering Yoongi to get dressed as well.
Yoongi complies, putting on nice jeans and a dress shirt and even styling his hair.
All the while, he hears the laughter of his son and husband from the next room as they’re apparently starting a fight over getting dressed.
Yoongi smiles as well, slightly. Then he sits down at the foot of his bed and closes his eyes, breathing in and out deeply.
He loves his son, and loves how much he’s looking forward to this birthday celebration, but goddammit. He hates parties.
He can hear Seokjin and Jungkook finish their fight and walk back into the living room.
“Kookie baby, wait for a second while I go check on your appa, yeah?”
Yoongi looks up just when the door to their bedroom clicks open. Seokjin smiles gently when their eyes meet.
“Thought I’d find you here,” he says quietly, then walks over towards Yoongi with two long steps and sits down next to him.
Immediately, Yoongi leans into his side.
“I don’t like parties,” he mumbles, and Seokjin chuckles, reaching for one of his hands and softly interlacing their fingers, their wedding bands knocking together.
“Yoongi-yah, it’s not even really a party,” he replies, “we’re just calling it that for Kookie’s sake. But it’s only four other people, and they’re our good friends, are they not? We’ve even had a get-together with this exact combination once before.”
“I know, it’s stupid,” Yoongi grumbles. Seokjin presses a kiss to the crown of his hair.
“It’s not stupid,” he argues, “it’s just not necessary. I know you’re feeling apprehensive right now but I’m telling you, you’ll have a good time once they arrive. And don’t forget, we’re doing this for Jungkookie. Our son, who’s four years old now.”
Yoongi lets out a quiet laugh.
“God, four years. That’s so old!” He looks up at Seokjin. “Hyung, how did four years already pass?”
Seokjin shrugs with a smile. “I don’t know, I’m as shocked by the passage of time as you are. We’re both thirty, now.”
Yoongi makes a noise that’s a mix between a laugh and a whine, but before he can complain about Seokjin bringing their ages into it – he doesn’t need reminders, thank you very much, he already thinks about it himself way too often – they’re interrupted by the sound of a doorbell.
Almost immediately, incessant knocks come from their door before Jungkook pokes his head inside.
“Can I please open the door?” he asks, eyes huge and round, and of course, both Seokjin and Yoongi are weak for that.
“You can, baby,” Seokjin allows before standing up and reaching out a hand to pull Yoongi up as well while Jungkook bolts away.
“Come on, Yoongichi,” Seokjin says to Yoongi, “let’s get this party started.”
Yoongi groans loudly, but lets himself be pulled into the living room nonetheless, where Jungkook is already jumping around Hoseok, as always the first one to arrive, in excitement.
In the end, Seokjin is right of course, as he always is.
(Don’t tell Seokjin he said that.)
Yoongi does have a good time, and it doesn’t feel like a party at any point in time, even with the kids party time playlist on.
It’s simply a nice get-together with their friends, to celebrate the birth of their son.
And said son enjoys the party even more than Yoongi does, though that’s most likely because of the gifts he receives. Still – a happy Jungkook means a successful birthday party.
(He gets a set of toy cooking utensils from Namjoon – “I thought I could play with him with those sometimes, considering those are the only frying pans and knives I’m allowed to touch myself,” he explains with a bashful laugh.
Hoseok gifts him pages upon pages of fake tattoo stickers, which delight Jungkook to no end, but make Yoongi shiver in apprehension. He can already imagine the looks of all the uptight parents at the playground they’ll get when they arrive with their son having a full sleeve of tattoos.
Jimin and Taehyung have bought Jungkook a karaoke machine full with children’s songs, and … well, Yoongi guesses there’ll be quite a few sleepless nights and noise complaints from neighbours ahead of them.)
Either way – Jungkook is happy, so Yoongi is happy as well.
Later that night, after their friends have left again and the dishes are clean and Jungkook has finally calmed down enough to go to sleep, Yoongi lies in bed blissfully, happy to be in his favourite place in the world.
He and Seokjin are both reading their respective books, no words spoken, no sounds to be heard except for the occasional rustle of the pages as they’re being flipped.
After a few minutes though, Seokjin snaps his book shut and puts it away. Yoongi looks at him with his eyebrows raised.
“You wanna go to sleep?”
Seokjin shakes his head, then changes his mind and nods, and then just rolls his head around a few times.
Yoongi rolls his eyes and keeps his lips from twitching – such childish behaviour might amuse Jungkook, not him.
“I do want to go to sleep,” Seokjin explains then, “but first I wanted to talk for a second.”
“Urgh, talking,” Yoongi huffs, but lays his own book down on the nightstand obediently. “What about?”
“Nothing much,” Seokjin says lightly, with a little smile. “You enjoyed today, didn’t you?”
Yoongi nods, seeing no use in denying it.
“Yeah, I did. Seeing Jungkookie that happy was nice. I guess it’s not too bad to celebrate the birth of someone you love.”
“I’m glad you said that,” Seokjin grins, and Yoongi’s eyes widen. Somehow, he knows what’s about to come before Seokjin even has to open his mouth.
“Because I’ve been thinking about throwing a little party for my own birthday in two months. Considering I am someone you love, you should have no objections, right?”
Yoongi blinks at Seokjin, who is grinning widely, looking way too gleeful. Then, he lets his head fall back onto his pillow with a groan.
“Fuck.”
See – here’s the thing.
Min Yoongi has never liked parties.
But when they’re for the celebration of his two favourite people … well, he guesses he can’t say anything against them, then.