Single Dads Club | ym & nj

Chapter 6

Jin stood on the porch, holding Ara's hand after ringing the doorbell. He heard movement and loud noises from inside the house before the door opened to reveal Namjoon. "Hey, come on in~" Namjoon stepped to the side to let the father and daughter in before closing the door behind them. "Sorry about the mess, I tried cleaning up a bit..." Jin initially froze in shock at the state of the living room, but quickly covered it up so as not to seem rude. The room was a mess, to say the least, with toys covering almost every inch of the floor and furniture, and three young children spread out across the space. Eonjin was chewing on some paper, which Namjoon quickly stepped in and removed the paper from her hands and mouth, scooping her into his arms to keep her out of trouble. Jeonggyu had a wooden alphabet puzzle in front of him and was loudly squealing every time he put a piece in the correct spot. Taehyung had managed to hide himself away in the far corner behind the couch, Jin had barely seen him at first, and was quietly lining his plastic dinosaurs up along the wall. "I got kind of distracted, though." Jin's gaze shot from the disaster of a room to the face of the younger male, and he finally noticed a different kind of stress in the way the man held himself than the typical stress he was used to seeing in his eyes. "It's been kind of an eventful day."

Jin smiled softly at Namjoon. "Well, the good thing about me being early is that I can help you out until the others get here, if you want."

Namjoon returned the smile. "I'd like that~" Namjoon set Eonjin back down on her playmat in the middle of the room and began picking up stray toys to put in their rightful places.

Jin managed to convince Ara to help too, and the three of them placed blocks back in their boxes and carried stuffed animals back to their rightful owners' rooms. The floor and furniture gradually became more visible as they worked, and everything was going smoothly until Taehyung started screaming. "No, no, no!"

Both adults quickly looked to the corner and saw that Ara had picked up a few of his dinosaurs. "But we're supposed to clean!" The young girl insisted, not having any understanding of why Taehyung was upset.

Namjoon was quick to move to Taehyung's side to attempt to calm him down while Jin spoke to Ara. "Ara, I know you're just being helpful, and that is so nice of you, but Taehyung is playing with those right now." Jin explained to his daughter. "Let's give them back to him now."

Ara gently set the toys in her hands back on the floor in front of Taehyung, pouting as she saw the younger boy still crying and screaming, occasionally hitting Namjoon as the man tried to comfort him. "I didn't mean to make him cry." Guilt was written all over her features over the whole ordeal.

"I know you didn't," Jin lightly stroked her hair, "why don't you get your coloring books and crayons out of your backpack and see if Jeonggyu wants to color with you?" Once the five-year-old had run off, Jin looked back over at the father and son, seeing that Namjoon had gotten Taehyung's attention back on the dinosaurs. The four-year-old was still sobbing, but he had moved to put the dinosaurs back in their rightful places. "I'm guessing this is kind of what you meant by eventful day."

Namjoon shrugged, watching Taehyung adjust the dinosaurs so that they were all facing the same direction, the boy's sobs slowly decreasing in volume. "Partially...we got the results of Taehyung's testing today." Namjoon had told the other members of the club about Taehyung's testing at the previous meeting, and from the tone of Namjoon's voice now, he had a guess as to how that went. "He is on the spectrum, and you'll actually probably get to see him a lot from now on. He's starting at Wings on Monday and he's going to get occupational and speech therapy." Another small smile appeared on Jin's face as he chose not to inform Namjoon that he only worked with the toddlers at the center. "I'm just not sure how I didn't see it when he was younger. I mean, I have a degree in psychology, you'd think I'd be able to tell that my own son is autistic." It was obvious that Namjoon was beating himself up over not realizing his son needed help and getting him that help at an earlier age.