Single Father • Namjoon + BTS!Kids

xliv.

"So, what do you kids want to do?" Mark asked, smiling somewhat tensely.

Namjoon had asked him to babysit on account of having his last two sitters walk out without interest in ever coming back. Five minutes into his babysitting shift, Mark kind of understood why.

"Is he supposed to be watching that?" Mark asked anxiously, flicking his eyes over to Taehyung, who was sitting inside a blanket fort in front of the TV, which was playing a horror movie marathon.

Mark wasn't sure which scared him more: that Taehyung had known the channel by heart, or that he watched it with absolutely no expression, keeping a perfectly blank face.

Until Mark heard a dark laugh coming from inside the blankets.

The oldest one - Mark was struggling to tell them all apart even though Namjoon talked about them nonstop at work and really whenever else Mark talked to him - blinked, looking over to Taehyung. "Well..." Jin thought for a moment before smiling sweetly. "Yes...?" he said, blinking innocently.

Mark just sighed, skeptical. "Well..." He cleared his throat, trying to catch Taehyung's attention. "Um, hey...once this movie is over, the TV goes off, all right? You got me?"

A head poked out of the blankets. The boy didn't say anything, just blinked a few times before ducking back into the fort.

Mark had never been so terrified of a 4-year-old.

Is this what Yugyeom and Kunpimook are going to be like in a year or two?

Can I stop them from growing up?

Is that an option?

"Is this normal behavior?" Mark whispered to Jin.

Jin just smiled sweetly. "Yes...?"

Mark glared at the oldest child. "I see what you're doing, and I'm not buying it."

Jin just tilted his head, his eyes wide, his lashes dark, and his smile perfectly innocent. "What am I doing? I'm sorry, Mark-ahjussi."

"Aigoo! I'm not an ahjussi! I'm still so young!"

"Okay, Mark-hyung." Jin smiled sweetly.

"...Damn it," Mark muttered. The kid was too cute.

"Daddy says that sometimes," Jin said. "What does that mean?"

"It means...Don't tell your dad I said that," Mark said awkwardly, swallowing. His own kids had already heard him say a lot of worse things, and he knew it was bad parenting of him, but sometimes it was funny, hearing his own words come out of a 3-year-old's mouth.

Not that a 3-year-old should be saying the things he says.

"What do you guys want to eat for dinner?" Mark asked after a second, feeling uncomfortable. He'd felt like he'd gotten the hang of parenting down having been a dad for three years, but he'd never babysat a kid before, let along six.

Let alone six normal children, because these kids definitely weren't normal.

As though to prove his thoughts, the blanket fort immediately collapsed as the kid struggled to climb out. "Dinosaur chicken nuggets!" he yelled, clawing his way out desperately and sitting on top of the blanket nest, panting, as though he were playing a one-man game of King of the Hill.

"No, we had those yesterday," Jin said, crossing his arms.

Mark watched to see what would happen, placing bets in his head.

That creepy kid is going to win for sure-

"Oh. Okay, hyung." The smaller kid sat back down on his blankets, turning back to face the TV, while the older child just smiled serenely.