family . tbz

二十八

a perfect day to overcome your fears

~

ah the beach, jacob hasn't taken the kids there in years! there was something about having to pack essentials for all ten kids, keeping a lookout for all ten kids, worrying about the safety of all ten kids (a majority of them not knowing how to properly swim), and the whereabouts of all ten kids, that just didn't sit right with him.

especially now with sangyeon away on his three month long business trip, why it had to be so long, jacob's guess would be as good as anyone else's.

anyways, now the eleven of them were at the beach. jacob had set up a spot under the shade of a big umbrella (provided by the beach) with a big picnic blanket, two baskets of food and a basket of supplies: towels, sunblock, band aids, water bottles, swimming goggles etc.

he sat under the shade with ten little pairs of slippers situated on the very end of the picnic blanket as he watched the ten little ones run around in the sand, splashing water at one another and turning each other into sand mermaids.

under the shade also lay haknyeon. he was scared to even get at least ten meters near to where the ocean met the land and had opted to just rest in the shade beside his mama. it was understandable since haknyeon had really really bad memories of being at the beach.

jacob was just looking out into the horizon and basking in the sunlight when he heard a scream, more specifically, jaehyun's scream.

jacob looked towards the sound worriedly and saw some of the boys (eric, changmin and sunwoo) trying to drag their hyung into the ocean to play with them.

jacob got up from his spot and kissed haknyeon's cheek, promising he would return shortly before he rushed over to the four. he could see that jaehyun was crying as he approached them.

"boys, what's going on?"

jaehyun immediately latched onto jacob as he sobbed, the three younger boys at a complete loss at what to do or say.

jacob held the crying ten year old in his arms as he explained to the younger three that his hyung was scared of the water. the three completely understood and all voiced a 'sorry hyung!' before kissing his shoulder abs then running off to play somewhere else.

after jaehyun had calmed down and regained himself.  he tugged at jacob's white shirt, looking down like he was embarrassed at himself. he pointed at the water and looked up to jacob with a mix of nervousness, fear and oddly enough, determination.

jacob understood what the boy meant and he held jaehyun's hand in his, taking one step by one step, helping jaehyun slowly inch closer to the shore.

jaehyun hugged jacob's arm like his life depended on it, tensing up and almost jumping upwards as he felt the wet sand beneath his feet.

jacob stopped walking and kneeled down to jaehyun's height. the boy had his eyes tightly shut as he felt the tiniest layer of ocean water brush over his feet. jacob rubbed his arms as he whispered words of encouragement to the boy, telling him that it was alright to open his eyes and that jacob was right there.

the boy opened his eyes, letting out a breath as he took in his surroundings and looked down at the water washing little bits of sand between his toes.

he looked at his mama and nodded his head, taking one step closer to the ocean and jacob scooting back slightly so that he had space to walk forward.

this routine of inching towards the water step by step continued until jaehyun was just a little more than ankle deep into the water. he shook his head violently, refusing to move any further than where he was currently at.

jacob smiled proudly at his son and commended him for being so brave, brave enough to face his fears to this extent.

jacob then got up and lead the boy out of the water, bringing him back to the safety of the hot and dry sand.

"i did it...i-i went into the water mama i did it..!"

jacob laughed and nodded at his son, unleashing a shower of compliments at the boy as they made their way back to the shade of the big umbrella. he gave him a ham and cheese sandwich to munch on.

jacob thought that it might be a good idea to also help overcome haknyeon's fear of the beach. he knows that he probably wouldn't be able to reach the sea this visit, but he was going to try to at least get him to touch the wet sand.

"would you like to explore with me, pumpkin?"

jacob said as he held out a hand to haknyeon. haknyeon shook his head and stayed in his place, but lifted his hands up to be carried by jacob anyways.

jacob shook his head and picked up the younger. he made sure that jaehyun was okay staying by himself before carefully stepping out into the sunlight with the wary boy in his arms.

first jacob walked into the middle of the beach and sat down in the sand with haknyeon on his lap. jacob had his arms wrapped around the boy as he grabbed a handful of sand and brought it close to haknyeon, a small trail of sand escaping from the palm of his hands and trickled down jacob's calf.

jacob slowly moved the hand of sand closer to haknyeon, the little trail now just falling onto haknyeon's knee.

haknyeon stared curiously as the sand in jacob's hand and carefully lifted a finder to poke the pile of sand in jacob's hand. he giggled at its soft texture and looked up at his mama, asking him for another pile of sand.

jacob cooed at the younger as he used his hands to scoop another handful, this time, deliberately letting the sand steadily fall onto haknyeon's legs, allowing the eight year old to get used to the feeling of the sand on his legs.

once the boy was more comfortable with the feeling of the sand, jacob carefully shifted their positions to place haknyeon in the sand, between jacob's legs.

haknyeon stared at the sand, before inching his body to touch the sand, he placed an entire palm into the sand, carefully grabbing a handful of his own and lifting it up, watching the sand fall back onto the ground in excitement.

closer they went, until they reached the point were the sand was just starting to get wet. jacob repeated the process once again. first by having the boy sat in his lap and holding up the wet sand to him, showing him that it was safe, letting him touch the sand to stimulate his senses and remove any thoughts of it being dangerous. then placing the boy into the sand itself and letting him get used to the feeling.

the furthest he could get to, which surprised jacob himself, was to the point where the water just about tickled the sole of his feet. haknyeon wouldn't go past that point, still a huge win in jacob's eyes though.

"alright, let's go back now, hmm?"

~

^ i apologise if there was not really much mention of the other members in this chapter, i wanted to make it an ot12 at first but, i hope you don't mind it being hyunjae and haknyeon centred!

^ also, can you believe i only resumed writing a week ago and still managed to forget to upload on a wednesday

^ also also, the next request chapter should be up in the next few days or so :)

^ i hope you guys have a wonderful day/night!