Single Father • Namjoon + BTS!Kids - Chapter 116: Chapter 116

Jungkook grinned, slipping his phone into his back pocket. He frequently changed Yoongi's name in their chat between on and off to remind him when it was okay to mess with Yoongi. If it was "on," then it meant that Jungkook hadn't teased him since the last time, which made him fair game.
If it was "off," then it meant that Jungkook had yet to be scolded (or flicked, or whatever else Yoongi felt in the mood to do to remind him that messing with Yoongi was a bad decision) and meant that he shouldn't press his luck and mess with Yoongi until the last bad decision had faded.
But since Jungkook would be seeing Yoongi tonight, he'd most likely change the name back pretty quickly (although maybe making him mad on their dinner day wasn't the best idea since the offense had yet to wear off).
***
The doorbell rang, and Jungkook ran to get it, leaving Taehyung to finish putting plates on the table and Jin to put finishing touches on whatever he was cooking.
Jungkook threw open the door. "Jimin!"
"J-J-Jungkook!" Jimin yelled back, Jungkook waiting patiently for Jimin to get his name out, and then Jungkook gave him a hug and dragged him inside. Oddly enough, since their family had been split, Jungkook and Jimin had managed to grow even closer, which made everyone happy given their rough past.
"Ouch," Hobi said, clutching his chest as he followed. "No love. The disrespect," he said in wounded English, and Jungkook giggled, rolling his eyes.
"Bring your head over here" was all Yoongi had to say, tugging his stiff collar as he entered the house of his childhood. Dressing up was also part of the arrangement, and Yoongi hated it.
"After dinner, hyung," Jungkook pleaded over his shoulder. "Otherwise I'll have a headache the whole night."
Yoongi glared but relented, collapsing on the couch instead. "Where is-"
"Yoongi-hyung!" Taehyung yelled, jumping over the couch in one huge bound and landing sprawled across Yoongi's legs.
"Would you take it down like a hundred notches," Yoongi snapped, but Tae just laughed. Like Jungkook, he enjoyed lightly abusing Yoongi since he was the most fun to get a reaction out of.
"I FEEL IGNORED!" Hobi yelled, and Jin walked into the living room, untying his apron as he looked left to right, scanning the room.
"Hey, where's Hobi?" Jin asked, cocking his head to the side. "Is he not coming tonight?"
"NOT FUNNY HYUNG!" Hobi yelled, but Jin just laughed.
"Now you know what it's like," Jin said, but Hobi was already jumping onto his back and pulling at his hair, leading to strangled yelps that sounded sort of like windshield wipers.
"Boys," came a soft warning from the door, and Hobi immediately got off of Jin while Yoongi pushed Tae off of him and Jimin hesitantly let go of Jungkook's hand. "Come on, now. You know how to act."
Tae walked toward the kitchen, making a face with his back to their mom so she couldn't see as Jin stifled a giggle and followed him.
Jungkook just took in his other siblings' tense facial expressions, the slight bitterness. Of course Tae and Jin could laugh it off. They only spent one day and two nights a week with their mom. Not the other three.
"Dinner's ready!" Jin called, and everybody made their way to the kitchen, their mom and step-dad following after shutting the door.
After everyone had been seated, Namjoon came out from his room, shutting the door softly and smiling at his children, all together as usual for Friday nights. It was another part of The Deal; they had to have one common meal a week with the entire family. Friday was the chosen night because, also part of The Deal, they exchanged children. Jungkook, Tae, and Jin would go home with their mom and spent Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning there, while Jimin, Hobi, and Yoongi would do the same but with Namjoon.
Jungkook didn't mind so so so much since their step-dad, as a high-level employee at his workplace, was usually at the office the majority of Saturday as well and didn't get back til late at night, but Jungkook would have like a day where all of his siblings were at the same place. High school didn't really count because they only saw each other in passing and all had different lunch hours.
Maybe if we all joined the same club-
"Jin, would you like to say grace?" Namjoon asked, turning to his oldest son, who nodded and bowed his head before saying a short prayer over the meal.
Then dinner officially began.
"So, how is school going?" Namjoon asked, turning towards his three long-lost sons with a genuine smile that only held a little bit of pain.
"It's whatever," Yoongi said, shrugging as he started piling food onto his plate. "Did you let Jin dump the whole salt container in again?" he asked before even taking a bite, and Jin scoffed from the other side of the table.
"It's fun," Hobi said, smiling widely. He always felt the pressure to represent the other two in a positive manner since Yoongi was constantly being an angsty, hormonal teenager and Jimin was quiet and submissive. "Jimin came to our dance club this week!"
Namjoon craned his neck to look at Jimin, who was farthest away from him. The table arrangements were the same every week, with three siblings on each side of the table (Jin, Taehyung, and Jungkook on one side and the other three facing them) with Namjoon at the head of the table and his ex-wife and her husband across from him. Sitting closest to Namjoon's left was Jin, then Taehyung, then Jungkook. Mainly because Jungkook likely to make funny faces at Jimin during dinner and try to shock him into laughing and spitting out his food, but also because Namjoon didn't want Jin too close to his mother. He remembered how she'd wanted him, and he couldn't afford to lose another child.
On his right, Yoongi sat closest, then Hobi, then Jimin. Hobi was usually in the middle of them, as he provided balance, but their seating arrangements had been chosen by their mom. Namjoon thought it had something to do with control. He'd noticed how they'd used a tighter leash with Jimin, metaphorically speaking, while Yoongi was an entity out of their control and therefore difficult to reign in.
Namjoon didn't like it, but he wasn't petty enough to alter the arrangement.
Jungkook, meanwhile, struck again, and Jimin coughed, trying not to spit out his vegetables while hiding his smile with his napkin, putting it in front of his mouth.
"So, Jimin? How'd you like dance club with Hobi?" Namjoon asked, and Jimin rotated his head to look at Namjoon, taking a second to swallow before wincing at the thought of his answer.
"I t-t-tripped," he mumbled, and Taehyung laughed while Hobi put a hand on Jimin's shoulder.
"It wasn't that bad-"
"I knocked d-d-down the k-kids in my r-row, D-Dad. They f-fell like d-d-dominoes," Jimin said, groaning and holding his face in his hands while even Hobi couldn't help but laugh.
"Jimin," came a sharp voice, and Jimin swallowed, looking down as their step-dad spoke.
Jimin fell silent, resuming eating, and Namjoon gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to pick up his cutting knife and throw it across the table because of course that would present a bad role model to his children but how he wanted to-
"How was your week, Dad?" Hobi asked, as the table had fallen silent.
Namjoon sighed before smiling. "It went well. There's something I want to talk with you guys about, but it can wait."
Hobi blinked but nodded, smiling.
"Oh, that's right. I actually ran into Minhyuk - Lee Minhyuk, Jooheon and Hyungwon's dad? - at the grocery store earlier this week." Namjoon said, and Jin tensed while Jimin looked over, unconsciously smiling while letting his fork dangle in midair. "You still see Hyungwon in school, right, Jimin?"
Jimin opened his mouth to speak but glance to his right before shutting his mouth and nodding instead.
Namjoon looked over at Jin. "What about you? I haven't seen Jooheon lately. What's it been, a year or two? He must be busy, right? With college applications and all that?"
"I don't know," Jin said, shrugging and looking down at his plate, and even though he'd made the food and was proud of it, it no longer looked appetizing. "How should I know? I'm too busy with football. I don't really see him around that much, is all."
"That's a lie, you two are in the same cl-" Tae began to rat out, but Jin covered his mouth with a napkin.
"Gosh, Tae, learn to chew and swallow before talking," Jin said as an excuse. "You're disgusting."
Tae glared at Jin and stuck his tongue out, still not having swallowed, and Jin made a disgusted face back at him while their mom cleared her throat, smiling. "How is school going, Jungkook?"
He shrugged. "It's fine."
"Oh." She looked one child down the line. "Taehyung?"
"It's fine," Tae said, not even looking up as he resumed eating.
"Jin?"
"It's fine," he said, also taking a bite.
None of them had really warmed up to her. In fact, Hobi was the only child who really treated her like a mom. The others only saw her one or two days a week and just didn't bother to put in the effort, and Yoongi just plain didn't care, still holding onto his anger, while Jimin still felt betrayed every time he saw her, knowing that it was his fault - as well as hers - that he was living apart from his family, his real family.
She sighed, her eyes downcast, and the table once again fell into silence with the exception of the occasional quips from the kids as they teased each other, all except Jimin, who remained silent despite Hobi and Jungkook's worried glances.
Dinner ended, as usual, with their step-dad saying the most words he ever did, "It's 8:00. Time to go."
He stood up, nodding vaguely as thanks for the meal before his wife stood up, smiling tensely at the three children to her right. "All packed up for the weekend?"
Three heads nodded as they stood up and went to grab their bags from their room.
When they came back, Tae hugged Jimin hard. "You better not ignore my messages any more," Tae said anxiously, still toeing the line around Jimin since the whole letters-in-the-locker incident was only newly resolved.
"Mm." Jimin nodded before sliding out of Tae's grip.
Jungkook ruffled Jimin's head as, even though he was younger, he was taller than Jimin and had the advantage of height. "See you Sunday!" he said, and again, Jimin nodded.
Jin came over and pinched Jimin's cheeks. "Don't let Hobi and Yoongi bully you too much! Also, I changed the sheets on the bed so they're all fresh, and I washed the blankets as well, so don't worry about all of that."
Tae, Jungkook, and Jin repeated their short goodbyes with Hobi and Yoongi, although with considerably less touchiness concerning the latter, before heading out the door with waves and yelled, "Goodbyes!" to Namjoon.
Only after the door closed did Yoongi jump up and run toward the front of the house only to see the car leaving through the window. "I was supposed to flick him! That cunning little bast-"
"Yoongi," Namjoon said, crossing his arms.
"Bastard," Yoongi said, and Namjoon gave him a look. "What?"
"I told you not to swear!"
"Um, no, you said Yoongi, not Don't swear. I'm supposed to finish my words, right? Otherwise you'll send me off the speech therapy with Jimin." Yoongi realized how harsh his words sounded a second too late before turning to Jimin. "Hey, I'm sorry-"
Jimin waved his hands, indicating that Yoongi was fine, but that seemed to piss Yoongi off even more.
"You can talk now, damn it."
"Yoongi!"
"What?"
"Don't swear!"
"Oh, all right, now that you've given me proper instructions, I'll try to consider them." Yoongi turned back to Jimin while Namjoon just sighed, think that he only got to spend time with Yoongi over the weekend and that he'd rather endure his bad behavior then ruin their time together. "Now, what was that Jimin?"
"It's f-f-fine, hyung."
"Better," Yoongi said, ruffling his hair. "But I'm still sorry."
"Ok-kay, hyung."
"All right, I'll clear the table and do the dishes, so why don't you guys grab your things, put them in your room and get settled in?" Namjoon suggested, and the three of them grabbed their backpacks and headed to their room. It was the same one the other three occupied; while they were gone, Yoongi took Jin's bed, Hobi took Taehyung's, and Jimin took Jungkook's. It made them feel closer, somehow, even though they weren't there.
***
In the car, Jungkook took his phone back out.
user's name changed to yoONgi
He grinned to himself.