Single Father • Namjoon + BTS!Kids

lxxi.

School resumed as usual for five of Namjoon's six sons. Jin went back to the 7th grade, Yoongi the 6th, Hobi the 5th, and Tae and Jungkook the 4th. This meant that Jin was alone in junior high while the rest were in the same middle school. Yoongi always walked to their classrooms at the end of the day to collect all the children, acting grumpy and in a rush, but he always waited patiently for them to gather all of their belongings and finish talking with their friends. Then he would give a nod to the side, they'd take the hint, and they'd all walk out to the car together.

Jimin, meanwhile, was stuck at home with nothing to do. Namjoon felt bad about it, but he trusted what Lisa had told him, and he didn't feel safe putting Jimin back into public school right off the bat. He didn't want to throw Jimin to the wolves of social anxiety and forced interaction, not just yet.

There was also the issue of measuring Jimin's level of education. Namjoon obviously wanted to put Jimin in the same class as Tae and Jungkook for his own safety, but nobody was quite sure if Jimin was educated to that level since nobody knew exactly to what extent Song Eungi had been teaching him.

Which meant Namjoon had to hire a tutor to come to their house and work with Jimin in the mornings while Namjoon caught up on his sleep. The tutor, a young woman named Miryo who looked to be in her mid-twenties, would arrive at 9 and work with Jimin until noon, when Jimin would wake Namjoon up to make lunch. Then Namjoon would spend time with Jimin until it was time to pick the other children up from school.

After a week, Namjoon pulled Miryo aside after being woken up by Jimin, managing to talk to her before she left. "Yes, Jimin - go check the refrigerator and decide what you want for lunch," he instructed, and Jimin hurried off to the kitchen while Namjoon turned to Miryo, dropping his volume. "So? What does it look like?"

"He's on track," Miryo said after a long second, and Namjoon sighed in relief.

"That's good, right?" he asked, just to reassure himself, because Miryo was leaving a long hanging pause that he didn't particularly appreciate. "He's fine, right?"

Miryo rocked her head back and forth from side to side, not giving anything away. "He's on track holistically, but there are certain areas that fall out of that average benchmark."

"Like what?" Namjoon asked, worried again. He had a feeling like he'd always be worried for his kids, but even if he ended up graying before he was forty, he'd rather worry a little bit than mess something up.

"Well...his English is below par," she said, chewing her gum and blowing a small bubble.

"How far below are we talking?"

She pursed her lips. "His English is about that of a second grade level. About two or three years behind his peers. That's going to be hard for him, Mr. Kim."

"Call me Namjoon," he answered automatically, before blinking and leaning forward slightly. "But is it so awful that he can't return to his correct grade?"

She shrugged. "It all depends on what you want for him. If you want him to be top of his class, yeah, I'd say that's a significant problem. But every student struggles in at least one area more so than the other subjects. For him, it's English. Probably because his previous teacher didn't know much about it either and could only instruct him in the basics."

Namjoon took in a deep breath. "You said there were multiple areas with abnormal scores?"

She nodded. "Reading. Unlike his English, his reading level is actually ahead of his grade. He's reading at about a 9th grade level, Mr.- Namjoon. That's good. Very good. He has a good knack for pronunciation. I think he enjoys something about the vocal aspect of reading aloud. It can be associated with music, to a degree. That's where I think his strong suit is - language, music, the arts. The STEM subjects - science, mathematics, that sort of thing - he seems to demonstrate greater difficulty and less adaptability to. But with some extra tutoring, we should be able to get him up to speed."

Namjoon nodded before sucking his bottom lip in under his front teeth. "So...about his schooling..."

"I think he would be all right in a fourth grade class," she said with some hesitance. "But not right away. Let's get him caught up a little more in those trouble areas before we put him back in the system. From an educational standpoint. Mentally...I can't quite measure his social readiness, Namjoon. That's something you would need a psychologist for."

"A psychologist?" Namjoon asked, frowning. "What for?"

"To gauge how developed Jimin is mentally and emotionally, to see how stable he is."

"He's perfectly developed!"

"Namjoon, you told me the other day that he still believes in Santa," Miryo said, lowering her voice. She didn't want to be the one to break it to Jimin.

"So?!"

"So sure it's cute, but he's nine years old, Namjoon. I think you need to have someone talk to Jimin to see how much of that is just conditioned beliefs and how much is a lack of proper mature development."

Namjoon rubbed at his face, stressed, as Jimin came running over to him with a large smile on his face, a smile that seemed too big to be contained between his cheeks.

"Dad, can we have leftover pasta? I found some in the fridge," he said, grinning, looking to Namjoon like the perfect angel that he was. "Pretty please please?"

Miryo gave Namjoon a pointed look, and he frowned at her before he turned and left. It wasn't that he didn't like her; in truth, he did. She had an appealing directness and honesty that he admired.

It was simply that he was stuck with a hard situation. He loved Jimin all the more because he was cute and adorable, but what if those were signs that he wasn't developing as quickly as he was supposed to be?

What if something was wrong with Jimin, and the things Namjoon loved about him the most - his tiny hands, his chubby cheeks, his innocence - were symptoms of something gone wrong?

so we should be hitting 100k within the next day :) thank you so much to everyone! i couldn't think of any way to commemorate this except with a face reveal since a few people have brought that up. not sure if i'm going to or not, but if i do, it will be on the next q&a, which is for me, the author...so yeah
as always, let me know if you have any chapter requests for scenes. can't promise i will be able to do them but it might give me something to work with
happy new year :) (soon)