What We Used To Be and Will Be

Chapter 24

The Chosen one... (Part 3/3)

They should have been out the door, on their way to the supermarket that is so well hidden from the outside world that only those living in the neighbourhood would know of. However, the baby was not cooperating in the least, not when his pacifier was at stake.

There, at the doorstep, Yoongi had been wrestling with Jungkook into settling to leave the house without his pacifier but the rapper should have known better that it was going to be a mission impossible.

"Sorry, bunny. I can't have you leaving the house with a pacifier in your mouth. You are too cute and innocent for the evil people in this cruel world to see this side of you. Only hyungie can see such an adorable side of you. So, be good. Give hyungie your pacifier now, okay?"

"Hmph!" The baby puffed out his cheeks in disagreement, arms crossed, turned his head around and refused to meet the gaze of his hyung.

Taehyung rolled his eyes upon hearing Yoongi trying to reason with the baby using his genius logic. How is Yoongi hyung going to survive without me?

"There you go. Problem solved!" Taehyung chimed when he walked towards the duo and slipped on a mask onto the baby's face, right over the pacifier. Anyone with hawk eyes could still see past the black fabric and notice the subtle movement of the pacifier bobbing up and down if they paid enough attention but that was not going to stop the baby from suckling on it happily for finally having his way.

"Yeah, right." Yoongi hissed without any malice, secretly thankful for his dongsaeng to rescue him out of his predicament. "Now, baby boy. You can keep your pacifier on, but you do not take your mask down. Do I make myself very clear?" Yoongi turned his attention to the baby and spoke in a stern tone to show that he was not joking about letting the world see Jungkook in his vulnerable state of mind.

"Pwomise!" Jungkook raised his left gloved arm sturdily and muffled behind his pacifier and irritably, the mask.

"Are we good to go now?"

Jungkook nodded his head excitedly and made grabby hands towards Jimin, only to have his request of being held to be turned down. "Sorry, Kookie. Not right now. We are going to big boy place, so you have to walk on your own." Jungkook furrowed his brows and looked as though he was about to throw into another fit of tantrum before Jimin quickly added in, "B-But, we can definitely hold hands!"

Jungkook stared at Jimin's outstretched hands, contemplated for a moment before he grabbed it and tugged the elder out the door, right when they heard Jin and Hoseok shouting their "byes" and "baby, have fun and behave yourself".

Although Jungkook was getting slightly more coherent and expressive as compared to the past few days, it was still evident from the baby's body language and speech that his headspace still straddles between age two and three. He had stumbled a few times on their way to the supermarket, but no accidents happened, seeing that his two youngest hyungs were always hovering over him, ready to catch him anytime. Yoongi strolled behind his three dongsaengs leisurely as he observed and watched over them fondly while the trio laughed mindlessly, without any fear of the world since they were well-protected in the highly secured neighbourhood where many other political and influential figures were also staying around.

What a relief that Jungkook's mood had lightened up since they witnessed the minor hysterical breakdown of the baby when Namjoon had to leave earlier.

When a sudden gush of cool air hit his face, Yoongi knew that they had entered the supermarket.

The 95-liners were quick to grab a shopping cart and attempted to head towards the tidbits section when they felt a pull at the back of their collars.

"Where do you guys think you are going? We should get the necessities first. Let's go."

Without pausing for a beat, Yoongi took over the shopping cart and urged Jungkook to follow him. "Come on, baby. Let's go buy some of the food that your Appa wants". Jungkook just tilt his head, looking confusedly between the rapper and his two youngest hyungs, had a silent conversation with himself before shrugging his shoulders and trailed behind the rapper. Jimin and Taehyung could not do anything but tagged along, pouts evident on their lips.

Yoongi tried to reason with himself that he had purposefully slowed his pace solely because the baby could not walk too fast with his uncoordinated steps since he was still young in his headspace, while in actual fact, he was enjoying the bemused look on Jungkook's face. This was the baby's first trip to a supermarket afterall.

Finally, they came to the frozen food section where Yoongi was tasked by his hyung to buy some meat. As they turned to the seafood corner, Jungkook tugged the sleeve of Yoongi's hoodie, looked at the elder and spoke timidly.

"Chicken, pwease?"

"Oh, no. Baby, they don't sell chicken here."

"Lamb, pwease?"

"No, baby. Lamb is not in this cor—"

"Pork, pwease?"

"Baby, we will have to walk further down for tha—"

"Beef, pwease?"

"Bunny, this is the seafo—"

"Hmph! Bad market! Kookie's food no have! Kookie no wike!"

Yoongi chuckled as he looked at the baby with a fond look, shaking his head as he took in the sight of the puffy face on Jungkook. Meanwhile, Jimin and Taehyung tried to hide their grins while they cooed over the baby.

"Now, Jungkookie. All your favourite food are in this supermarket, but just at different corners. We will slowly get to them and buy for you, okay?"

"Yeah, cheer up, baby! We will buy you some snacks or toys later too, if you behave."

If only Jungkook was a bunny, the three hyungs swore they would be able to see the bunny ears perked up in glee. Jungkook nodded his head enthusiastically while he did small claps with his sweater paws.

After a dreadful ten minutes of the baby whining impatiently for his hyung to finish with the food purchase, they finally made their ways towards the snack sections. Well, that was their original plan. They definitely did not expect the baby to notice it, seeing that the three hyungs had resolutely tried to speed through their ways, a desperate attempt to skip the two specific rows that would probably burn a hole in their wallet unnecessarily.

But, nope. Lady Luck was definitely not on their side.

Jungkook's eyes sparkled and glistened in excitement when he saw shelves upon shelves of stuffed toys lined up next to the candy's aisle. His heads turned left and right as he entered the connecting aisle, mouth agape while he stared in fascination.

Turning around to face his three hyungs that were obviously dreading this very moment, the baby squealed, "STUFFIES! CANDIES!"

His two youngest hyungs had tried to resist falling into the temptations of fulfilling the baby's desire but failed miserably, seeing that they had actually went to get a new shopping cart and started filling it up with all the various candies and stuffies that the baby had been beckoning them to take it off the shelves.

Unable to contain himself anymore, Yoongi called out to his three dongsaengs.

"Yah, yah, yah. Why you guys taking so many things? All these are not necessary at all." The rapper started picking up random objects in the cart and motioned around, "We still have these sweets at home and there is already a stuffed bunny that Jin-hyung bought last week."

Right when Jimin wanted to protest, a soft whimper escaped the baby.

"B-but, Kookie wikes it."

If there was one thing that Yoongi regretted doing, that is looking at his baby bunny. That little rascal had actually dared to use his killer move – conjuring up the most delicate puppy eyes, tears shimmering and mouth pouting pitifully.

The next thing was what caused Yoongi to finally finally break his resolution.

"Papa, pweaseeeee......"

Well, needless to say. Yoongi almost bought the entire store out again.