Single Father • Namjoon + BTS!Kids

cxxix.

"Yoongi, let's do something fun!" Hobi suggested, sitting up and staring at Yoongi eagerly.

"No."

"Please?" Hobi asked (begged). "It's so boring and quiet with Jimin gone."

Yoongi sighed. Jimin had gone home with Hyungwon. Although rare, it wasn't the first time Jimin had hung out with a friend after school, but it was the first time their mom had allowed him to skip speech therapy for it. Yoongi thought that it meant something, like that she realized that it wasn't working, that maybe that was just how Jimin was, and it wasn't a horrible thing to just let him be him.

Or maybe he was just imagining things. Ever since he'd (rather humiliatingly) went to his mom for girl advice, he'd started questioning himself. He felt like he was suddenly trying to throw her in a good light somehow. Everything she did was out of love or something. But he knew she wasn't perfect. That said, he knew by now that she wasn't being insincere. But he didn't know where to draw the line.

Just then, Yoongi's phone rang, and he waited a beat before picking it up. "Yeah?"

"H-Hi hyung," came Jimin's breathless voice from the other end, accompanied immediately by giggles and whispers, probably between him and Hyungwon.

"Jimin," Yoongi said by way of greeting. "When do you want Mom to pick you up?"

Hobi stared at him, and Yoongi cursed himself for the slip, but every time he said it, it became more natural. He wasn't sure if that was a bad thing. He wanted it to be, wanted to resist the change that was happening, but...

"Um, actually ab-bout that..." A pause before Jimin's hopeful voice resumed. "C-Can you ask M-Mom if I can s-stay the night?"

Yoongi blinked, his eyes widening. "Jimin, it's a school night."

"Please? P-Pretty Please?"

Yoongi sighed before tossing his phone to Hobi and getting up. "Talk to him for a minute, I have to check with...her about it."

Hobi stared at Yoongi for a second before nodding and putting the phone up to his ear. "Hey, Jiminie! It's your favorite hyung! How are you? Do you miss me? Are you having fun? But not too much fun, right?"

Yoongi just rolled his eyes and went into the kitchen, where he saw her at the counter, working on making dinner. "Hey...M-Mom?"

She turned around quickly, too quickly, and had to put a hand on the counter to stabilize herself. "Oh, Yoongi. Sorry, you startled me. What's the matter?"

"Well, Jimin wanted to see if he could stay the night at the Lee's house."

She hesitated. "Well, you all have school tomorrow, right?"

Yoongi nodded and shrugged. "That's what I told him, but he wanted me to ask."

She paused once more, looking thoughtful. "Well...is he happy? Is he having fun?"

Yoongi blinked, shocked. "Um...yeah, yeah, I think so. He was laughing."

"And does he have his school stuff with him?"

Yoongi nodded. "Yeah. And if he needs something, he can probably borrow it from Hyungwon, although they're different sizes, but...he should be fine."

She pursed her lips before nodding slowly. "Well...it's all right with me, just this once, because he hasn't gone out in a while...but tell him not to stay up all night playing video games because he'd better not fall asleep in class tomorrow, all right?"

Yoongi nodded, and she smiled before turning back around. Yoongi waited an extra moment as though he had something to add, but he didn't know what he wanted to say, so he went back to their room and took his phone from Hobi mid-sentence.