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Jeongin was nursing on the bottle Changbin was feeding him, he was on the verge of falling asleep, he looked so comfortable tight against his foster father. Changbin was having his relaxing time of the day with the 3 weeks old. Sadly their little bounding time together was cut short by the ringtone of his phone. He was getting a call from the kids' elementary school.
He sighed when Jeongin started to cry again but his heart was tightening as he answered the phone, hoping he wouldn't need to go get Felix from the hospital this time. He hoped he wouldn't have to call Chan and keep him from another meeting. He hoped his sons were fine.
But he knew something was wrong for the school to call. And even if after meeting her way too often he befriended with the school directress, Park Daran, it didn't necessarily mean that he was happy to get a call from her in the middle of the afternoon.
"Hey Changbin-ah."
"Hello Daran-ssi. What's happening? Is Felix alright?"
"He is fine, but can you come? Hyunjin bit a kid from Minho's class during recess and we had to call his parents so we're gonna have a parents meeting."
"Wait, wait a minute, he bit like biting, you mean?"
"He did. And he refuses to talk since then. I got him with me.", the woman told him on the phone.
The kids were in a rather small elementary school not far from home. But it hadn't taken more than a few weeks for the 3 younger kids to make a name for themselves once they had started school here. And now, they were into their second year of primary school and Changbin had been called by the school more time than any other parent would be called during the 6 years of elementary school altogether.
"I'm coming right away, just let me put Jeongin in the car and consider us here in 15 minutes."
"Sure thing.", the woman answered.
Changbin wrapped the 3 weeks old in a blanket and he put him in the car seat next to him. He sent a text about the situation to Chan and started the van.
When he arrived at school he clicked Jeongin's carseat on the stroller base and walked up to the main office with the sleeping baby. He found the way there way too easily as he knew it by heart. Hyunjin was sitting there, rocking back and forth as he sat on the little chair they kept in front of the office for time out.
On the other chair there was a much bigger child with a very visible bite mark on his cheek and an ice pouch stuck to his face. The nurse was watching over both of them as it had happened before when Hyunjin got into a fight with a classmate.
"Hey Jinnie. I'm here now."
Hyunjin looked over at him, his face was red and his cheeks were wet but no sound of his was trespassing in the silence of the room.
"Oh baby."
"Appa.", he croaked, ready to start to cry again.
"Appa's here."
"We go home?", he whispered.
"In a bit, we need to have a talk before. I've heard that you got yourself in trouble today so we're gonna knock on Mrs. Park's door and we're gonna talk together with her, that little friend of Minho and his parents once they're here."
"Not Hyung's friend."
"He is Minho's classmate."
Hyunjin mumbled something that Changbin didn't understand but the boy was definitely upset and the father wasn't sure he wanted to know what was said.
"Come on, let's knock on Mrs. Park's door."
Hyunjin stood up without another word. To Changbin's dismay Hyunjin actually liked to see the director. She was always kind to him even when everything screamed that he was the bad one in every situation.
"Hey Hyunjin-ah."
Hyunjin shyly waved to the lady sitting behind her desk. He was still swallowing his tears back.
"Do you want to tell me what happened now that you're calm?"
"Yeohan was mean."
"How so?"
"He said mean things to hyung and I don't like it."
"Can you tell me what it is?"
Hyunjin eyed over Changbin and shook his head no.
"Are you sure?"
"Appa says no bad words. Especially not these words."
"He was saying bad things to you? Maybe you can tell me about it without repeating his words."
"He said bad things.", Hyunjin shrugged as he rocked on his feet.
"Alright I guess we can end it there then. But you can't bite or fight, it's not allowed. You'll have to apologize."
"I won't."
"You have to, Hyunjin, it's not something I can allow you."
"I won't, I won't!", the kid started to cry out.
Changbin could see the lady in front of them starting to tense but he couldn't really jump in considering the situation. Hyunjin hadn’t started this thing and considering he preferred not repeating what the other had said it meant that those words had been harsh.
Hyunjin was crying now, and it was past the stage of little sniffles and tears running down. The kid was stomping his feet on the ground, he kept repeating "I won't" even though his words were muffled by this cries. It looked exactly the way it did when Hyunjin was about to throw a tantrum. Changbin knew that he was about to crumble on the floor any second and roll himself there.
"Hey, baby, Hyunjin, Hyunjin, look at me. Appa's gonna take you and hold you tight, you can put your hands over your ears if you want."
Hyunjin kept trying to escape the touch, kicking his knees onto Changbin's stomach, but the man could take it. Recently Jisung's physical therapist had told the couple to try this when Hyunjin started to have those kinds of "tantrums", that ultimately pressure would keep the kid calm.
Of course, it's at this time that the parents of the little Yeohan came in. Hyunjin was overwhelmed and he was in his "goblin form", screaming and pulling on his hair instead of plugging his ears the way Changbin had told him to do.
"He'll calm in a minute.", Changbin said as he squeezed Hyunjin a little tighter in his arms.
He knew it looked bad on the outside, he knew because he'd looked over Hyunjin more than once thinking those were the behaviour of a bad child. But it was his kid so he knew it wasn't the case.
"Changbin-ah, you should step out until I explained the situation to Mrs. and Mr. Na."
The man nodded, he wondered how to manage with Jeongin in his stroller. He wished Chan was here. He knew that with Chan it would have been different ... easier. The man just knew how to calm Hyunjin and it didn't work quite the same with Changbin.
"I'll keep an eye on the baby, just go outside for a minute.", she said with an awkward smile.
They stepped out and Changbin released his hold on the child that automatically laid on the floor, screaming and banging his heels on the floor, his small fists pulling on his hair.
Changbin wanted to go get Jeongin and to go to the car. He'd strap Hyunjin in his car seat to stop the kid from hurting himself, he would start the car to drown the screams and calm the child, he'd then put the CD in the player. It was a compilation of his works that Hyunjin liked the best, it'd make him rock slowly in the back seat once he'd get the hold on the rhythm.
Changbin thoughts would probably rocket in his head: What didn't he do right? Why couldn't he calm the child he called his? Was he such a bad father? What was so wrong with Hyunjin? Did he need another family? Would other parents be better for him? Should they renounce adopting him?
And as tears would grow in his eyes he'd remind himself of the child that came into his house just over a year and a half ago. The poor thing was so small, all bruised, his legs in casts. He was hurt.
It took him a few seconds to compose himself. He had to help Hyunjin whatever it meant. So he grabbed his phone, called Chan, hoping he wouldn't cut up an important meeting.
"Hi Binnie."
"Hum, hello hyung, could you sing please? Sing Hyunjin's song. Please, he is, hum, having a bad time and he won't calm and we're at school.", he said before finishing softly, "the other parents came in looking at me as if I wasn't a good father because Hyunjin is you know having a bad time."
"You're an excellent father, Changbin-ah, you don't have to feel bad. Let me sing for Jinnie, hum?"
The man put the speaker on, put the phone next to Hyunjin and they listened to Chan singing, once, twice … Hyunjin was singing along during the 3rd time and by the 5th time he was somewhat calm. Calm enough to climb on Changbin's lap and bury his reddened face in the man's neck.
"So what happened?", Chan asked.
"Minho's classmate insulted him and Hyunjin bit the kid."
"Well it wasn't good to do that, Hyunjin but you were trying to protect your brother and I am proud of you for that. You just didn't do it right but you weren't bad for protecting your hyung."
"Hum.", the kid agreed.
"Now, Changbin-ah, maybe you could ask Minho what happened."
Of course Minho, Minho was the victim of those bad words Yeohan said. Changbin didn't even think of bringing him in, he felt dumb.
Changbin carried his son inside the office, holding him as close as possible against his chest.
At least an hour had passed since he arrived at school.
"Alright, do you think Hyunjin would be ready to apologize?", Daran asked. "You've been outside for quite some time."
"No, he won't. He has had enough of a hard time already, that's enough of a punishment. Could we bring Minho in? I think some bad words have been said to him and Hyunjin simply decided to defend his brother."
"By biting my son's cheek?", the child's mother asked, visibly offended.
"If that was his only way to express himself at the moment, yes, he definitely bit your son. But you know what? I have 5 sons at home and I know that Hyunjin doesn't fight without a good reason. Now I'll go get Minho and we'll talk together since Hyunjin is exhausted."
"After such a tantrum …", she mumbled.
"Wouldn't you be offended if no one listened to you and forced you to apologize to your aggressor?"
"Aggressor? Are you calling my Yeohan an aggressor?"
"Yes I am, now excuse me for a minute.", Changbin said. "Do you mind keeping an eye on Jeongin for a second, Daran-ssi?"
Changbin went to his oldest son's classroom. He knocked on the door as well as he could without loosening his hold on Hyunjin.
"Excuse me, I came to get Minho, Lee Minho."
"Oh, I wasn't aware of you coming to get him early today?"
"Well, it was unplanned, it's about the situation with Na Yeohan earlier in the afternoon, we'll be in Daran-ssi's office for a little while."
"Appa!", the 8 year old boy chimed when his teacher called told him that Changbin was here
Changbin brought Minho with him, by now Hyunjin was dozing off in his arms, exhausted from earlier.
"Did I do something wrong, Appa?", he anxiously asked.
"No baby, we just need to talk about what happened earlier, Hyunjin bit Yeohan and we need to know what it's all about because Hyunjin had a very bad tantrum over it and now Yeohan's mom and dad are mad at Hyunjin and I."
It took them 15 more minutes to calm the situation down. Minho's explanations were clear, Yeohan had had an homophobic behavior, called Minho names he shouldn't even be pronuncing, especially because he probably didn't know the meaning of those words. Hyunjin had asked Chan for the meaning of those words not so long ago so he knew it was very bad. It was clear that the younger one had been deeply offended by Yeohan's words and since Minho didn't react, Hyunjin reacted for his brother.
Yeohan was expelled for 2 days as well as Hyunjin. On top of that he had to write 20 lines about not biting people while Yeohan had 40 on not using such words to talk to a classmate (as they had a 10 lines per school year rule).
After the couple and their son left and since it was the last period of the day already, Changbin stayed in the office with Hyunjin sleeping in his arms. Minho went back to his classroom to finish his school day.
When Jeongin woke up, Daran helped Changbin out, she took care of the baby since Changbin's arms were full of his second oldest.
"I'm really sorry for all of that.", Changbin said.
"It's alright, it's Hyunjin.", she answered with a smile, she really had a soft spot for the 7 years old.
"Yeah but still, it shouldn't be alright. I just don't really know what to do when he reacts like that."
"Well it wasn't alright, he got a punishment for what he did."
"I'm talking about the tantrum, just because he wouldn't apologize, it's ... a bit much, isn't it?"
Changbin looked over the desk, the lady was holding a bottle to Jeongin's lips and the 3 weeks old was sucking on the nipple softly.
"Well, I've seen that in other kids and I don't think it was a tantrum. You know, I thought about something but I am not an expert and I am not sure at all, I just want you to be open minded."
"Sure, tell me."
"I know some other parents would be offended but well, have you thought about maybe getting Hyunjin looked over for autism?"
"Autism?"