Chapter Text
"I'm sorry, but I realized that I can't take care of a child." Her fake smile sickened the orphanage head. She obviously just came here to flirt with him. Showing his gentle smile, he wouldn't let his disgust show. The returned orphan stood behind him, watching the woman try her best to impress Jin one last time. He knew Jin didn't like her, he could hear it in the elder's voice.
"It's because I'm single, my boyfriend has just broken up with me when ah...." She paused and looked behind Jin at the small child.
"Jungkook" Jin stated in a rather irritated tone.
"Yes, Jungkook, well the break up showed me that I can't take care of a child all by myself... Of course, if there would be someone who loved kids as much as I do, and would be willing to take care of him with me..." She trailed off leaving an obvious hint. The 5-year-old child who had been in foster care his whole life so far heard Jin apologize to the woman before she was sent out of the room. He caught the small frown on the woman's face and glare sent his way.
"I'm sorry Jungkook, I should have realized sooner." Jin turned to the five-year-old who just nodded, he didn't understand why Jin was so sad, he had barely gotten a grasp of the situation. Jin held out his arms, a small gesture that never failed to put a smile on the toddler's face, and took Jungkook into his arms. "It's okay, though, you get to stay with me more"
Jungkook, the youngest orphan and the one who had been there the longest. Originally, the orphanage was for older kids, but Jungkook had been brought there when he was only a little over a year old and Jin couldn't just leave him to another orphanage. The older kids at the orphanage don't bother him, some take care of him when Jin is busy with papers, mostly the girls. Since Jungkook didn't come with any extra set of clothes, Jin had made clothes for him out of his old ones.
"I wanna stay with Jin," Jungkook said softly, playing with the cloth of Jin's pink shirt.
"Aw, Jungkook, I'm sure that there will be someone out there who will take you, don't give up hope just yet." Patting the child's back, he set him down in his bed.
Despite what Jin said, Jungkook watched new people come in, old people leave, and the new people left too. Sometimes someone would come back and play with him, asking weird questions like "You didn't get adopted yet?" Then they would leave and never come back when he asked Jin about it, the Orphanage head said that they were just visiting and confirming. Jungkook didn't know what confirming meant but he knew that it would happen a lot.
2 years passed and Jungkook was asked to be adopted. Jin had been overjoyed but the boy now 7 years of age had become passive so he went along with the family without a word. He had only done this one other time, he would go to a house, stay for a week, and then come back to see if they still wanted him or not.
He entered the house quietly, head down. There were two older brothers he had now. Or so that's what it's supposed to feel like. The living room was lit up by a chandler hanging by chains from the white ceiling. The white LED lights cast over the brown felt couches and expensive glass tables. Jungkook was scared he would break something so he stood, watching the family chat together while walking to the table.
"Hoseok go get him and make him feel welcome, Taehyung is going to help me fix the table." The nice woman who came in asking for Jungkook said. As if on cue, the spiky haired boy came closer to him and crouched down to his height. Intimidated, Jungkook stepped back against the door. Hoseok just came closer with a gentle smile, making Jungkook feel a little more at ease.
"Hey there little Jungkookie! How about you come and eat with us? We're family now right?" The older man held out his hand. Jungkook took it hesitantly and his 'brother' brought him to the table where Taehyung, his other older brother, was setting plates down.
"Taehyung, give him the animal plate." The mothers voice wavered since she laughed.
"But-"
"Here I found another one," Hoseok said, giving Jungkook a plate with a bunny face on it. He stared down at the bunny face and the separated places for food and watched it be covered by Mashed potatoes, fries, and ketchup.
When dinner ended Taehyung was the one to bring him to his room since he was complaining about washing dishes and how 'Hoseok should do it because I didn't get to talk to Jungkook yet.'
Taehyung was definitely excited about showing Jungkook around. The small 7-year-old was practically being dragged around the big house going from room to room. He had to admit, he was having fun. When they finished the tour, Taehyung carried him on his back and pretended they were venturing into the forest. Hoseok was a tiger.
"Rawr!" He screamed, making Jungkook squeal and pull at Taehyung's shoulders to direct him to a different place. The mother watched happily, at first, she was scared that Jungkook wouldn't open up and she would have to give him back at the end of the week, but as she tucked the little kid into bed she was happy everything worked out.
It didn't stay like that the whole week, though, her divorced husband came busting through the door one day, wearing a leather jacket and baggy jeans, Jungkook thought he looked like one of those bad guys in the movies he liked to watch with Taehyung and Hoseok. Jungkook was brought to another room by Hoseok and Taehyung and he realized this was not a movie.
"Stay here till we come and get you okay?" Taehyung said it was the first time Jungkook had ever seen him so serious. The 7-year-old nodded and sat in the corner of the room, hidden. Hoseok smiled at him before leaving the room. Jungkook heard the faint click of the door locking.
Confused, the child listened to muffled screaming. He watched the door, wondering what they were talking about. He heard Taehyung and Hoseok's voices.
Glass broke, more screams, furniture was being torn and more screams erupted. Finally, a door slammed and the last thing that could be heard was sobbing. Jungkook was still confused and scared. What had happened out there?
An hour of complete silence passed before Jungkook heard the door unlock and a calm Taehyung came through the door, holding a few bags with his stuff in it.
"Jungkookie," His older brother said, forcing a smile on his face, "I- you-" the 7-year-old watched the smile on the other's face falter.
"Jungkook, you have to leave," Hoseok said walking through the door along with the woman he learned to call mom. The family he thought was perfect was now standing before him telling him to leave.
"No." He said quietly, tears threatened to fall from his eyes. He didn't want to leave and he didn't understand why he had to.
"Jungkook, it's for the best, we already called Jin to come and take you. Do you remember that man that came earlier?" The woman came closer in an attempt to calm the now crying boy.
"He's a very bad man and he can hurt you if you stay here, so you have to leave, we'll come and visit okay? I promise we will visit." She hugged him gently. Taehyung smiled sadly, he had grown very attached to the dark haired boy and it was sad to go and see him leave, but he knew it was for the best and he needed to leave right when Jin got here.
Hoseok wiped a tear away from his eyes as the thought the same as Taehyung. He knew that if his father had seen Jungkook he wouldn't hesitate to leave a purple mark on all of their faces, he bet he wouldn't even stop there. The sooner Jungkook left, the safer he would be.
When the small boy finally left the room he realized that the damage he had heard was nothing compared to the damage he was seeing. The whole living room was trashed as if an elephant had just gone through it.
There was broken glass everywhere he looked. He didn't recognize the coffee table that now lay in pieces and in the middle was a dead flower sitting in a puddle of water. Jungkook was sure that the man who came through was the cause of all of it.
Hoseok was carrying him. Jungkook watched his face twist in discomfort. He looked at his arms and noticed that there were scratches on them. Some of them were still bleeding. Taking a closer look at his older brother's face, he saw a small purple mark forming on his right cheek.
Tearing up a little more, he hid his face in Hoseok's neck and held onto his shirt tightly. A knock was heard and everyone flinched. Quietly, Taehyung walked over to the locked door and peeked out.
"Good." Taehyung let out a breath of relief and opened the door to reveal the familiar orphanage head who looked up from his phone to the chaos left in the room.
"What happened?! Is Jungkook okay?" Carefully stepping around the broken glass on the floor, Jin made his way to the shaking orphan.
"It's okay Jungkook, don't cry..." Jin pat the small boys back and looked up at the mother, concern filled his eyes. "What happened here?"
"My divorced husband id abusive and he's going to be coming here more often, I do not want him anywhere near Jungkook, the poor boy is already crying over seeing this and it's not even the worse part. As much as I want to keep him here, it's not safe for him and he has to leave. Please take him quickly, I don't know when that bas- man, is going to come back."
Jungkook turned in Jin's arms to look at the lady who had been so nice to him this past week. Tears streamed down his cheeks and she reached out to brush them away with her thumb. Sniffling, Jungkook touched her hand and squeezed it with his small ones.
"Thank you for taking him for this small amount of time, and thank you for thinking about him and keeping him safe, we will be taking our leave after I put his belongings in the car, you can come and visit anytime, you don't even have to pay the visiting fee." He smiled kindly to the whole family.
"Bye Jungkookie," Taehyung said, holding out his arms for a hug. Jungkook began to sob but reached out towards the orange haired male anyways. Jin let them have a moment while he took Jungkook's stuff to the car. Hoseok joined the two and the mother joined as well. When it was time to bring Jungkook back to the orphanage, the boy had cried himself to sleep and the family was in tears, waving goodbye to the orphanage owner and the small child.