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“Defiant behavior and tantrums are very normal in this age range. His headspace limits his ability to control his verbal, physical, and emotional skills. So he will be easily frustrated.”
So far they were four days into their week long break and Jimin was regressing every night. Hoseok would spend the day with him shopping, or going to the practice room to work on some choreography and by the time yoongi would come home from the studio Jimin would be screaming his head off and refusing any help from his caregivers.
“It wouldn't be so bad if he would just tell us what he wants.”
“And when he does finally tell us he’s hungry or tired he expects us to fix it right away he has no patience.”
“The offer still stands to send him to a facility, I know you guys want to help him but if it's too much…”
“That's not what we want, we just worry we aren't doing enough for him.” Yoongi cuts in.
“We're exhausted, but there are moments when he finally settles down and cuddles up to us and it just…..feels right.”
“I’m here to help anytime you need, remember to take care of yourselves and i'll check back in soon, hopefully your little one is awake for our next appointment.”
After getting off the call the two went to check on their baby. Yoongi had tried several times to bond with the little but unlike his big self jimin had rejected him at every turn.
“So it's my turn to go to the studio today, are you sure you don't want me to take him with?”
“No, as long as you come home before bed he should be fine spending the day with me.”
“Love you baby, I’ll be home no later than nine.” Hoseok said, placing a quick kiss on Yoongi's lips before grabbing his bag and heading out the door.
The doctor had spoken to Yoongi about the importance of setting a routine for Jimin to help him adjust to his headspace.
Two hours later Yoongi had cleaned up around the dorm, prepped jimin’s breakfast, and was just sitting down to work on some lyrics when he heard a soft cry coming from down the hall.
Rushing to jimins room he opened the door to find him sitting up in his bed.
“Jimin” yoongi called out to him as he cautiously approached the bed.
Jimin’s eyes were closed as he continued to whimper, Yoongi wasn’t sure if he was having some sort of bad dream and if he should wake him.
Deciding he couldn’t just let him cry, Yoongi sat at the edge of the bed and placed a hand on his back. Jimin’s eyes snapped open and Yoongi knew in that instant that he was dealing with little jimin.
“Love, did you have a bad dream?”
The little nodded his head, sniffling. “Minnie scared all alone,want Hyungie to hold me.”
Shit, Yoongi had yet to be left alone with jimin when he was little, luckily he seemed to be in his oldest headspace of about 5 years old. Hopefully he would understand that Hoseok had gone to work today without him.
“I can hold you love, and then you can eat the food hyung made for you.” Yoongi opened his arms for the little.
“Want Hyungie please.” Jimin said, wiping the tears from his eyes.
How to handle this situation, Yoongi knew the moment he told the little Hoseok was at work he would cry, and Yoongi couldn't call Hoseok to come home because he needed to work. Yoongi would have to deal with this on his own, he just needed a little time to show Jimin that he too could take care of him. So he would do what his parents did to him when he was younger.
“Hyungie isn't home right now….but but he told me that if you get washed up and eat all your breakfast he will have a surprise for you.”
“Prize for minnie?” Yoongi couldn't help but coo at the big smile on the littles face as he wiped away the last of his tears.
“That’s right love, and he said if you don’t cry all day he will let you stay up late and and…” yoongi tried to think of what would be enticing to the little, so far they had not experienced a happy baby so yoongi was maybe a bit to excited about earning their babies first smile.
'And hyungie take minnie to dance?’ the little offered
“Oh yeah of course he will, he said he loves dancing with you! But remember you have to be a very extra special good boy for me while we wait for hyungie to come home.”
“Minnie be good boy.” Jimin said, throwing himself into Yoongi's arms for the first time.
Yoongi had seen Hoseok carry Jimin around the dorm, so he decided to give it a try. Hoisting Jimin up,they were off to the bathroom to start their morning.
“Minnie done seeeee.” the little opened wide to show his mouth was empty after finishing his breakfast.
“Okay, good.” Yoongi said not bothering to look up from his own plate.
Sensing the little hesitating as he stood up, Yoongi looked up.
“Yah! What happened now.” Jimin’s face was twisting in that way it did when he was working himself up to cry.
“Are you still hungry?”
Jimin said nothing.
“Want a drink?”
He continued to stare.
“Aish! Why is it always a guessing game with you.”
Jimin was in his older headspace so Yoongi didn't understand why he wouldn't just say what he wanted. Racking his brain he tried to think of what to do next. This wasn’t like all the other times Jimin was little, they would feed him,help him settle down for sleep which usually meant hoseok chasing him around the house and holding him until he cried himself to sleep. Yoongi couldn’t very well put him back to bed he had only just woken up.
Caregiving book tip 101: Your little’s language skills might not be developed enough to clearly indicate what they want in headspace. Try giving a few simple options for them to choose from.
Looking around the dorm, Yoongi contemplated what a five year old might do at home all day.
“Hyung needs to finish up some work so would you like to watch tv on the couch or maybe play on your phone.”
“Phone.”
“Great, go play on your phone, if you need anything tell me.”
When the little ran off to his room, Yoongi was quite proud of himself. He was totally gonna rub it into Hoseok that he had not only gotten the littles first smile he had also gone the longest without having him cry.
His gloating was short lived when he received a notification on his phone an hour later.
BTS HAS STARTED A VLIVE!
Jimin on vlive holding up a picture of hoseok from his room.
“Hyungie come home.”
Jimin hugged the photo to his chest
“Minnie wait hyungie dance wif him”
Yoongi’s phone lit up as hoseok tried to facetime him, he was rushing to jimin’s room before the little could say too much. Stopping at the door, Yoongi tried waving his arms to get Jimin's attention.
“Give hyung the phone Love.” he whispered, holding his hand out.
“No it minnie phone.”
He could tell by his speech that Jimin was already slipping into a younger headspace and with Yoongi’s luck it was only a matter of time before the waterworks kicked in. As his phone rang again yoongi got an idea as he looked at the picture of hoseok flashing across his screen.
Answering the facetime and turning the volume all the way down before hoseok could yell at him he turned the phone to jimin.
“Look baby”
“Hyungie!’ the little beamed, quickly putting his own phone on the bed and rushing to yoongi.
While he was distracted yoongi quickly powered off jimin's phone after ending the live making sure he wasn’t seen.
Yoongi turned up the volume as Jimin chatted away at the muted phone.
“Brush teeth, and eat all gone.”
“And and i have scary sleep, want hyungie but i wait.”
“I good boy right dada?”
Yoongi froze as Jimin looked up at him to confirm he had been a good boy to hoseok. At that moment it occurred to yoongi that since this all started jimin had never referred to him by any sort of name, hoseok was hyungie that was clear but the little had never really called yoongi anything. It was always he and hoseok who would say “hyung”.
“Prize please.” the little said sitting himself on yoongi’s lap holding the phone up to his face.
“Ugh….yes…yes you were good.”
“Hyungie home now?”
“I have to work a little bit longer, baby.”
Whimpering, the little looked up at yoongie again, who was still trying to process what he heard.
“Yoons you doing all right over there? I've got another meeting but..”
“Um yeah, we’ll see you when you get home hoba.”
“Okay, well no more phone maybe, and baby,”
“Yes?” Jimin and Yoongi answered at the same time.
“Cute!!” hoseok cooed at his phone.
“Aish hoba, get back to work.” Yoongi chuckled before ending the call.
When Hoseok enters the dorm later he finds Jimin sitting at Yoongi's feet watching some anime while Yoongi works on his laptop. Hoseok can’t help but feel a little jealous.
“How was he?” he asked, leaning in for a kiss.
“Hyungie!”
“Hi baby! Did you miss me.” hoseok settled on the floor to embrace the little.
“No.”
“Aigoo this kid! Well maybe I should just keep this surprise all to myself.” hoseok teased waving a bag in front of the little.
“Prize time now?” Jimin asked, looking up at yoongi.
“I promised you would get one if you were a good boy.”
“B-but minnie cry,”
After they had gotten off the phone with hobi the little had thrown a bit of a tantrum during lunch. He had refused to eat and nearly knocked his food to the ground when yoongi tried to feed him. He had wanted hoseok to feed him and cried when yoongi told him hoseok wouldn't be home until after dinner. Years of living together as a band had given yoongi the insight to what a sleepy frustrated jimin looked like so he wasn't holding the tears against him. This was the longest he had spent in headspace and also the first time without Hoseok to care for him.
“It's okay love, remember how you used your words to tell me you were tired.”
The little nodded his head. When yoongi had finally let jimin get up from the table realizing that he wasn't going to eat, jimin rushed into his arms pressing his tear soaked face into yoongi’s chest and simply said. “Tired dada.”
“Open hyungie”
As their break was nearing the end, Hoseok had thought about what everyday life would look like now that Jimin was slipping daily. He still had no memory when he left his headspace and the process of dropping into his little space was often very stressful and chaotic for him. Yoongi was insistent that they keep this hidden from the group,not just because they didn’t even know how to begin explaining all of this but because they had to protect Jimin since he couldn’t protect himself. If the company knew about this it would be grounds to not renew his contract along with the others.
“Pretty” the little said, pulling out the necklace from the box.
“Hyungie wants to show you something very special,”
Hoseok clasped the necklace around the littles neck before opening the small circle locket. They still didn’t know what exactly caused Jimin to slip but they did notice the thought of being alone scared him deeply.
“Hyungie,Minnie and dada!” The little one pointed out each of them as he looked at the small locket's photo.
“Good job baby, hyungie wanted you to have this so even when you’re not with us you can look at this and know we will always be here for you.”
“Minnie wanna stay with you” he whimpered, snuggling deeper into hoseok's lap while reaching a hand out to grip yoongi’s leg as he sat above them.
“Minnie sowrry he cry dada, I be good now!”
Yoongi came to sit on the floor with them, wiping away the little tear on Jimin's face.
“Don’t cry love.”
“Aish hoba you don’t cry either”
“I’m not.”
He was. Yoongi wrapped his arm around Hobi, securing Jimin in the middle. They sat for a bit in silence, Jimin's suckling on his thumb the only sound in the quiet dorm.
“We should do something about that.”
Hoseok said, looking down at Jimin who had surely slipped well into his baby space. Limbs loose and eyes wandering around the room.
“Aren’t pacifiers bad for his teeth?”
“Can’t be any worse than him sucking a million little germs into his mouth, I bet you didn’t even remember to wash his hands today.”
“Hey I took care of him all day with very little incident, not to brag but he smiled like three times today and only cried once.” Yoongi said smugly
“Yeah you only bribed him, let him go on live to millions of people and skip not only lunch but dinner.”
“Just admit you’re salty he called me dada.”
Rolling his eyes, Hoseok pushed Yoongi's arm off of him.
“Maybe just a little bit”