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The guys had decided that this year for Christmas, they wanted to do something to give back to the community and so they had all been brainstorming ideas. They were in the practice room wrapping up learning some new choreography for an end of the year performance, when Namjoon had a brilliant idea.
“What if we go visit a children’s hospital as our special project?” he suggested as they passed around water bottles, trying to catch their breath.
“That’s a great idea Joonie-hyung! What if we prepared a few songs and did a sort of Christmas caroling thing through the halls?” Jimin asked.
“Ooh! And we can wear ugly sweaters!” Taehyung started bouncing with excitement at the thought.
“And what if we brought small gifts for them? Like plushies for the kids,” Yoongi added in.
“I bet if we spoke with the company, we could probably get some BT21 plushies to take them. I’d suggest candies too, but some of the kids might not be able to have them due to their illnesses,” Jin pondered.
“I love it! Let’s make some babies happy for Christmas,” Hoseok practically squealed with excitement.
Jungkook giggled at the way his hyungs were starting to get excited. “That sounds like a lovely thing to do. I’m in.”
The next few days were a whirlwind of planning and organizing with a local children’s ward in Seoul. The boys wanted to get permission to come in and brighten up the lives of the sick children. When Jin had spoken with the makers of BT21 and once he’d explained what they wanted to do, they had overnighted boxes and boxes of plushies for them to take with them. They had sent so many that each of the boys would have to carry a giant box or bag full of plushies with them. Taehyung and Jimin had been finding ugly sweaters for them to wear with the help of a couple of the stylist noonas. Jungkook, Namjoon, Hoseok, and Yoongi holed up in the studios to choose the songs they would sing. They had picked a few and even wrote some raps for Yoongi, Hoseok and Namjoon. While Hoseok would be fine to sing, Yoongi and Namjoon were convinced that if they sang it would ruin everything. Since they’d be singing while on the go for the most part, Jungkook had suggested that most of the songs should be done acapella. They practiced a little but didn’t overdo it, because they mostly wanted to focus on the kids.
The childrens’ ward they had chosen was primarily kids under the age of ten, so they arrived at 5:30 pm. The kids would have finished dinner, but it would be early enough that it wouldn’t affect their sleep schedule. They began at the beginning of one hallway, singing and rapping, but also stopping in rooms to meet some of the kids and their families. They gave all the kids they came across the plushies they’d brought. Yoongi had surprised everyone by picking up a bunch of gift cards to give to the parents of the children to help with anything they needed.
Out of all the memories they made that night, there was one little girl Namjoon would never forget. She couldn’t have been older than 3, but as sick as she was with a feeding tube, she still had the biggest smile. She was so shy with most of the others, but when Namjoon walked in the room with a Koya plushie, she lit up like the moon in the night sky. She squeezed the plushie before lifting her tiny arms up and begging Namjoon to pick her up. When her parents said it was okay, he lifted her up and she hugged him so tightly. After the hug, he was smiling at her softly, and she put both her hands on his cheeks and just held his face so gently before kissing his nose. While they were chatting with her parents, the little girl snuggled into his arms. He hadn’t even noticed that she’d fallen asleep with her forehead snuggled against his neck until Jungkook cooed at them before snapping a photo. Namjoon’s heart squeezed when it was time to move on to the next child. He laid her gently in her bed, kissing her forehead and tucking her in like she was his own baby.
As they walked out to go to the next room, her mother had stopped him. “Thank you so much for the joy you brought my baby tonight. She’s usually so shy; you saw her with the others. You will be an amazing father one day, Namjoon-ssi.”
Namjoon was warm inside the rest of the night. When they left the ward and were in the car on the way home, Namjoon couldn’t help the smile on his face. He couldn’t stop thinking about how natural it felt for him to hold that precious baby girl while she slept. When he woke up the next morning, he found a copy of the photo that Jungkook had taken of him holding her on his bedside table. He tucked that photo in his wallet. Whenever he was beginning to feel stressed or down, warn thin, or just not quite himself, he would pull that photo out and it would remind him of that moment and he would feel a little peace and happiness wash over him at the memory.