UNIVERSE / BTS.

53: self confident / 2seokgguk

the car stopped abruptly, and hoseok saw dorm 7 of the local college. the two were quick to get out and run in, seokjin sending a quick "what number?" text to yugyeom, who responded with a simple "22". racing up two flights of stairs, hoseok could already hear jeongguk's loud crying, his heart breaking.

"kunpimook bhuwakal, open this goddamn door you thai stick!" seokjin yelled, knocking on the door loudly. it was answered by a sheepish red haired bambam, who dodged to avoid seokjin storming in. "where is he?" hoseok asked, calmer than his counterpart.

"living room. jinyoung's been trying to calm him with some stuffies, doesn't work," bambam said, biting his lip. "sorry, but gguk had nowhere else to go–"

"it's alright," hoseok assured, before taking seokjin's arm and walking into the living room, where, sure enough, a crying jeongguk was sat on park jinyoung's lap, rubbing at his eyes with fists and occasionally saying things that were unintelligible due to his sobs. stuffed animals surrounded them, and jinyoung glanced up with a face that said "help me". seokjin went into full caregiver mode. "ggukie, baby," he cooed, causing the little to look up curiously, the caregiver kneeling down and holding his arms out. "it's alright, daddy's here."

jeongguk pushed himself off jinyoung and shuffled over to seokjin, wrapping his arms around seokjin's neck and burying his face in his neck. "d-daddy," he hiccupped, still crying, and seokjin stroked his back gently, silently thanking jinyoung. "b-bammie an' gyeomie took ggukie home after dance 'cause ggukie went little. d-don' be mad." his words were muffled due to seokjin's shirt, but seokjin could hear him. jeongguk had clearly assumed he'd be mad, probably because he'd barged in yelling.

"we know, little prince," hoseok said, sitting down beside seokjin, and jeongguk looked up. hoseok was holding a pacifier in his hands– the perfect thing to calm jeongguk down– and the little's eyes went like dinner plates. "gyeomie told us, we're not mad. you want this?" he asked in the voice he always used with the kids at his daycare, because it always made them happy. jeongguk nodded, and hoseok gave him the paci, the youngest quickly calming in seokjin's arms.

"thanks so much for taking care of him, hyung." hoseok said to jinyoung, who smiled.

"ah, it's fine. yugyeom and bambam had no clue; i deal with a little at home as well, he can get just like gguk," he laughed at the indignant shouts from the '97 liners. "what? you're both children yourselves!"

"yeah, but we bought gguk home rather than letting him fend for himself!" yugyeom defended, arms crossed. "who else would've?"

"you should've texted seokjin or hoseok to tell them," jinyoung said, standing up. "remember when you took care of youngjae and he ended up with scraped knees and a bloody nose!?"

"that was one time!"

"guys, quit," hoseok said, looking at jeongguk, who looked like he'd quickly fall asleep at this rate. "thanks for taking care of him. we'll take him home now." he stroked jeongguk's hair, before seokjin carefully stood up, hands under the little's bum and making sure he was secure. bambam cooed at the sight of jeongguk suckling softly on a pacifier, feuding with jinyoung forgotten.

"alright, we'll see you around," yugyeom smiled. "hey... make sure gguk doesn't go too hard on himself. he... he wasn't good, earlier today at the studio, kept blaming himself for not being able to do the dance routine. he, um, didn't eat lunch. or at least bam didn't see him eat."

seokjin furrowed his brow in confusion. "does that happen a lot?" he asked bambam, careful to keep his voice down, lest he woke up the little, who was starting to feel very heavy in his arms. bambam nodded sadly.

"yeah... the last week, he hasn't eaten with minghao and i," he admitted. "he didn't even accept our offer to go get his favourite tacos when it was ming's birthday. said he was dieting."