Always With You | BTS (Kids)

10

[Time skip]
Two years later

Boys' current ages
Jin - 10
Yoongi - 9
Hobi, Namjoon - 8
Jimin, Tae - 7
Jungkook - 5

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Jungkook watched as all six of his brothers stepped out of the kindergarten gates and into elementary school. Two years ago, he had been to Hobi and Namjoon's kindergarten graduation ceremony, along with his brothers. He had watched them receive their certificates and scrolls, wearing mini graduation gowns designed for children. And again a year ago, he had seen Jimin and Tae graduate. Now, he was the only one left in kindergarten. The only catch was this: for both years, Wooseong failed to turn up for any of his twins' graduation ceremonies, and Jin had to play the role of the parent when the teacher called out for the moms and dads in the audience to present their own sons or daughters with the graduation scroll. But Wooseong did apologise to his boys, explaining to them that he was caught up at work, and the boys, being the sweet children they were, forgave their father without complaint.

Next year...it will be my turn. Jungkook consoled himself.

Once his brothers disappeared from the view, Jungkook turned his attention back to his own work. Now that he was five, Jungkook had grown up significantly more. He no longer relied on Hobi to take off his coat and shoes for him (of course he couldn't, Hobi is in elementary school now), and he could also hang his jacket on his peg by himself.

"Hi Jungkook!" Siha greeted his friend cheerfully. Jungkook waved back and waited for Siha to do the same routine before they entered the classroom together. It was no longer just playing with toys now. The children have begun learning the alphabet and sentence structure, learning to do basic arithmetic and on top of all, pick up a form of art. Jungkook decided to follow in Hobi's footsteps and pick up hip-hop dance, while Siha, the calmer and gentler one, chose to do visual art.

Wooseong had mellowed down a little over the two years. Instead of beating the life out of his boys when they asked him to sign them up for extra classes, Wooseong agreed to let them learn music or dance or whatever they wanted. But there was a deal: they had to bring perfect scores for all their midterm and final term quizzes. Jin had picked up acting classes, and as promised, he had been faithfully bringing perfect report cards every term. Yoongi on the other hand, began piano classes, and had also brought home faultless report cards.

"Now, children." A familiar voice rang out in the classroom. It was Miss Yerin. "You may choose your crayons and paints. Each of you have a template, and you may decorate your own family trees."

Indeed, two years ago, Jimin and Tae had done a family tree together in kindergarten. Now that Jungkook had also turned five, it was his turn to make a family tree too, as part of a Family Education Programme.

"Come on, it'll be fun. Let's make it together!" Siha exclaimed excitedly, picking out bright yellow and green pastels from the art supplies box. Jungkook nonchalantly reached for the dark blue paint.

Siha eyed him. "Don't you want to use yellow too? You like yellow colour. Here, you can use my paints."

"I don't want to use yellow for my family tree." Jungkook said firmly. When they began pasting photographs, Jungkook took out seven photos from his little bag. He carefully spread glue on them and pressed them down firmly on his template. The two boxes right at the top remained blank. While Siha decorated his paper with bright red cars and big yellow trucks, Jungkook only wrote each of his brothers' name with paint and a brush, in his best handwriting.

"Where's the photos of your mom and dad?" Siha asked. While Jungkook stopped pasting photos after he had filled up the row of seven, Siha was still internally debating with himself over which picture of his mom and dad looked best. Jungkook didn't have a single picture of his parents with him.