Single Father • Namjoon + BTS!Kids - Chapter 73: Chapter 73

"Jimin," Lisa greeted warmly, crouching down and patting Jimin's head before looking up at Namjoon. "Thanks for bringing him in," she said, her voice soft.
Namjoon, his left hand together with Tae's and his right hand together with Kookie's, nodded, avoiding her eyes. "Just- be quick, please. It's Christmas Eve and I want to spend time with my family."
Lisa nodded. "I'll do my best." She turned, taming Jimin's hand, and took a few steps towards the interrogation room.
"And- be gentle with him, please. This is hard for him," Namjoon added, and Lisa looked at him over her shoulder.
"I know, Namjoon." Then Lisa took Jimin away.
"What's she going to ask him?" Jungkook asked, biting his lip.
"Just a few questions," Namjoon answered vaguely, and Tae pursed his lips.
"What if she makes Jimin cry?" Tae asked, and Jungkook laughed.
"If? When."
They both laughed but as soon as they realized the other was laughing as well, they cut off. The silence wasn't hostile, just somewhat uncomfortable, foreign, like they were just getting to know each other again.
It was a start. Or at least, Namjoon really hoped so.
Namjoon let the two of them go and mess with Lisa's desk like they'd formed a habit of doing over the past few years during their frequent trips to the police station.
Namjoon just began pacing, wondering if Jimin was all right and hoping so.
***
"Jimin, before we begin - is your head all right?"
Jimin reached up and tentatively felt the back of his head, wincing slightly before nodding.
"What happened, Jimin?"
He was quiet.
"Jimin, you can tell me anything. You know that, right? I'm a police officer. I'm here to help you," Lisa said. She didn't really think Namjoon was the kind of guy to hit his child, especially not since Jimin had been gone for 5 years, but she couldn't just ignore that Jimin had come in with a head injury and was trying to not talk about it.
"I tripped," Jimin said, avoiding eye contact. "And I hit the table. That's it." He looked up suddenly. "Can you just ask the questions now?" he asked, and Lisa frowned, worried.
Namjoon didn't do this, right?
But then why is Jimin lying about it?
Who is he covering for?
Sighing, Lisa decided to just get the questions out of the way, and she'd try to find an answer to the source of the injury as she went.
"All right, let's get started," she said, taking out a notepad, and Jimin swallowed. "Do you remember how it happened?"
"How what happened?"
"How you were abducted?" Lisa bit her lip. "I'm sorry, I know this is a sensitive topic, but it's important that we figure everything out, all right? It's like a mystery, and we need your help to solve it."
Jimin nodded, looking down and playing with his fingers. He didn't really like thinking about it. It had been a part of his "old" life, the part that his "mother" had convinced him was all a dream.
Or a nightmare.
"I was in class, playing with the blocks by myself...and I remember...getting hungry because it was almost snack time...only my teacher said we were going to play a game of hide and seek...she said she had found the best spot and that she'd show me if I wanted. I wasn't sure...but she asked me if I wanted to win...she said that Tae would be proud of me...so I said okay...and I followed her into the closet...she had one of those rolling cart things that teachers have, only it was empty...she told me that I could hide inside of there and that it would be cramped but that I could fit...so...I got inside...and she said to stay there, that I had to be quiet, that I couldn't make any noise or else they'd find me and I would lose...I remember being really hungry...I wanted to come out and have snack with everyone...but she said no, that I had to stay..It felt like a long time that I was in there...but then she came in and said that I had almost won but that there was still someone looking for me and she was going to help me. She said they were going to check the closet, and that she was going to move me where they couldn't find me...But I said I didn't want to play anymore...But she said to just be quiet, that it was almost over...and then she zipped it up so no one could see me...and when she unzipped it, I got out, only it was in a place I'd never seen. It was a house. Her house." Jimin was staring at his hands, looking completely zoned out, caught in a blank stare. "And I remember asking her if...if I'd won, and she smiled and she said yes, I won. And I asked her what the prize was, and she said she'd tell me tomorrow. I asked her where Daddy was and she said that he was playing hide and seek too, only he was it, and she couldn't let him find me. I said I wanted to go home, but she just told me that it was time for bed. They already had a room for me. And when I woke up, they both pretended that we were a family, and when I said I wanted to go home, she pretended to be confused and said that I was home. I was really confused, but they kept telling me every day until I just started to believe it I guess." Jimin looked up at Lisa, clearly shaken and disturbed. "Can I go now?"
Lisa finished writing, trying not to show her shock at his story, and looked up. "I'm sorry, Jimin, but that was just the first question. Just a few more, all right?"
Jimin squirmed in his seat but nodded.
"Can you tell me how you lived for the past 5 years in her house? Like did you go to school, were you allowed outside, did you have any friends, that sort of thing."
Jimin looked back down at his hands before looking over at the door.
"Jimin, I know this isn't fun for you, but please try to answer the questions."
He looked down once more. "No, I didn't go to school. I wasn't supposed to go outside, so M- she home-schooled me. Only one time I did go outside, and Da- he found me, and he dragged me back in and gave me a beating and locked me in my room. He said it was dangerous outside and that it was for my own safety."
"Was that the only time he beat you?"
Jimin shrugged. "There were a few other times, but that was  the worst. He got angry sometimes. That's when it would happen. But when he wasn't upset, he was okay. He would apologize."
Lisa tightened her lips but kept writing. "What about friends? Any social interaction?"
"I wasn't allowed to leave the house. How was I supposed to make friends?"
Lisa looked up. "So, the only people you saw for 5 years-"
"Were M- were them. Yeah. That was it." Jimin looked back toward the door.
"Jimin?"
"Yes?"
"Is there anything else you can tell us about living there? Anything you remember that might be important? Or just anything you want to tell me?"
Jimin looked down, stilling. "It wasn't horrible. I think- I think they really loved me. I know I was just a replacement, but they really treated me like their son. They bought me Christmas presents and baked a cake on my birthday. She tucked me in at night after reading me a story. He taught me how to play chess. They took pictures of me and framed them on the wall." He looked up, and Lisa found that she hadn't been writing what he'd said down, so transfixed in his words. "I really thought they were my parents for a while. And I think they started to think that I was really their son. Only..." He stopped.
"Only what, Jimin?"
"Only, I remember hearing them say something. It was the first night, the day she took me."
"What did they say?"
"They said...they said, He has six. He won't miss one. That's what they said." Jimin's eyes seemed to pierce Lisa's. "Can I go now? I want to go."
Lisa nodded slowly, and Jimin got up, leaving and going back to his family.
Lisa sighed, closing her notepad. What Jimin had said had scared her to a degree, that three people could buy so deeply into a lie that it became their reality.
***
Namjoon stopped pacing as he saw Jimin running towards him, latching onto him and hugging tightly, although he wasn't crying.
Namjoon rubbed his back and hugged him, trying to make him feel that he wasn't alone, but as Lisa came into the room, he let go of Jimin, sensing that she needed to talk, and Jimin went over to Tae and Kookie.
"Well?" Namjoon asked, and Lisa frowned.
"What happened to Jimin's head?" she asked point blank, and Namjoon blinked.
"Jungkook and Jimin were fighting, and Jungkook pushed Jimin off the couch and he hit the table. But he's fine, I just took him to the hospital and they wrapped him up and checked for serious injury but they said it's just a small cut, nothing more. And I already talked to Jungkook. Why?"
Lisa shrugged, not wanting to say that she'd had to suspect Namjoon as part of her job. "Nothing much. Just that Song Chul hit Jimin a few times," she said. "Once for going outside and I don't know how many other separate occasions. Be careful with him, all right? He may have some lingering issues because of that."
Namjoon frowned, both in anger toward Chul and sadness toward Jimin. "All right. Did he say anything else?"
Lisa hesitated. She didn't know how much she owed to Namjoon to tell him and how much she shouldn't tell him out of sympathy. Finally, she decided what to say. "He gave me some information, but none of it is so important that you need to hear it all right now. One thing you might want to know, however, is that he was home-schooled and that he didn't have any social interaction, so shoving him straight into school might not be a good decision." She waited for Namjoon to nod before she forced a smile. "All right, now go home and enjoy the holiday."
Namjoon sighed, nodding. "Thanks Lisa." He hesitated. "You'll be celebrating with Mark, right?"
She shook her head. "I'm working tomorrow. But I might stop in to see BamBam and Yugyeom after."
Namjoon nodded , scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. "Right, right. Well...Merry Christmas, I guess."
The two nodded, and Namjoon collected his kids and left.
Lisa sighed, sitting down in her chair and staring at her desk.
She wasn't working tomorrow. She had lied, sensing that Namjoon was on the verge of inviting her over, but she didn't want to intrude. He deserved a Christmas with his family and only his family. Lisa didn't want to be an eighth wheel.
Maybe she'd go over to Mark's, though, now that she'd suggested it to Namjoon. See her nephews, cute little kids that they were.
Yeah, maybe she'd do that.
She grabbed her coat, ready to go home when she saw what the kids had done to her desk. They'd taken out her sticky notes again, and Jungkook had used fourteen separate sticky notes to write out MERRY CHRISTMAS!, one character per note. She knew they were Jungkook's because there was a little bunny on each one. Tae had also left her something, dumping all paper clips out of their holder and making a paper clip Christmas tree.
She smiled and decided to leave them there so she'd see them when she walked in next time.
She had just gotten up to leave when she saw one other sticky note, pushed out of the way, like it was hiding, reluctant to be both written and read.
She picked it up.
Thank you Lisa for finding me.
She smiled and decided to take that one home with her to her apartment. Jimin's quiet thank you was the best Christmas present she'd gotten in the past 5 years.
No, it was the best Christmas present she'd gotten in her entire life.