Jin stood on the porch, holding Ara's hand after ringing the doorbell. He heard movement and loud noises from inside the house before the door opened to reveal Namjoon. "Hey, come on in~" Namjoon stepped to the side to let the father and daughter in before closing the door behind them. "Sorry about the mess, I tried cleaning up a bit..." Jin initially froze in shock at the state of the living room, but quickly covered it up so as not to seem rude. The room was a mess, to say the least, with toys covering almost every inch of the floor and furniture, and three young children spread out across the space. Eonjin was chewing on some paper, which Namjoon quickly stepped in and removed the paper from her hands and mouth, scooping her into his arms to keep her out of trouble. Jeonggyu had a wooden alphabet puzzle in front of him and was loudly squealing every time he put a piece in the correct spot. Taehyung had managed to hide himself away in the far corner behind the couch, Jin had barely seen him at first, and was quietly lining his plastic dinosaurs up along the wall. "I got kind of distracted, though." Jin's gaze shot from the disaster of a room to the face of the younger male, and he finally noticed a different kind of stress in the way the man held himself than the typical stress he was used to seeing in his eyes. "It's been kind of an eventful day."
Jin smiled softly at Namjoon. "Well, the good thing about me being early is that I can help you out until the others get here, if you want."
Namjoon returned the smile. "I'd like that~" Namjoon set Eonjin back down on her playmat in the middle of the room and began picking up stray toys to put in their rightful places.
Jin managed to convince Ara to help too, and the three of them placed blocks back in their boxes and carried stuffed animals back to their rightful owners' rooms. The floor and furniture gradually became more visible as they worked, and everything was going smoothly until Taehyung started screaming. "No, no, no!"
Both adults quickly looked to the corner and saw that Ara had picked up a few of his dinosaurs. "But we're supposed to clean!" The young girl insisted, not having any understanding of why Taehyung was upset.
Namjoon was quick to move to Taehyung's side to attempt to calm him down while Jin spoke to Ara. "Ara, I know you're just being helpful, and that is so nice of you, but Taehyung is playing with those right now." Jin explained to his daughter. "Let's give them back to him now."
Ara gently set the toys in her hands back on the floor in front of Taehyung, pouting as she saw the younger boy still crying and screaming, occasionally hitting Namjoon as the man tried to comfort him. "I didn't mean to make him cry." Guilt was written all over her features over the whole ordeal.
"I know you didn't," Jin lightly stroked her hair, "why don't you get your coloring books and crayons out of your backpack and see if Jeonggyu wants to color with you?" Once the five-year-old had run off, Jin looked back over at the father and son, seeing that Namjoon had gotten Taehyung's attention back on the dinosaurs. The four-year-old was still sobbing, but he had moved to put the dinosaurs back in their rightful places. "I'm guessing this is kind of what you meant by eventful day."
Namjoon shrugged, watching Taehyung adjust the dinosaurs so that they were all facing the same direction, the boy's sobs slowly decreasing in volume. "Partially...we got the results of Taehyung's testing today." Namjoon had told the other members of the club about Taehyung's testing at the previous meeting, and from the tone of Namjoon's voice now, he had a guess as to how that went. "He is on the spectrum, and you'll actually probably get to see him a lot from now on. He's starting at Wings on Monday and he's going to get occupational and speech therapy." Another small smile appeared on Jin's face as he chose not to inform Namjoon that he only worked with the toddlers at the center. "I'm just not sure how I didn't see it when he was younger. I mean, I have a degree in psychology, you'd think I'd be able to tell that my own son is autistic." It was obvious that Namjoon was beating himself up over not realizing his son needed help and getting him that help at an earlier age.
Jin stayed quiet for a bit before speaking. "You said that up until your wife...passed, she was in charge of household stuff, right? Like routines and everything." Jin recalled from one of the times Namjoon had shared at one of their first meetings, and the younger male nodded. "That could be why. If you think about it, Taehyung's world has probably been tilted for the past couple of months with such a drastic change in primary caregiver and the loss of the routine that he was so attuned to, it probably triggered his symptoms into becoming more noticeable." Namjoon didn't respond, but it was obvious from his body language that he appreciated Jin's explanation. "And even though you didn't realize it a year or two ago, you did now, and you didn't ignore it like a lot of parents would have. There are so many people not getting diagnosed until adolescence or adulthood all because their parents either ignored the signs or desperately wanted their child to be typical, so from the way I see it, you're doing a pretty good job providing for Taehyung."
A small smile appeared on Namjoon's face. "Thank you, but this is probably going to be my peak moment. I'm clueless when it comes to routines and schedules. We've been living off of takeout and frozen dinners, and I'm lucky if all three kids get to school in completely clean clothes with their hair and teeth brushed." Namjoon laughed at himself, glancing over Jin's shoulder to make sure Eonjin was okay on her playmat with her plastic blocks.
"I can help you with that." Jin offered. "I've helped a few parents create routines for their children after they've been diagnosed."
Namjoon looked at Jin in disbelief. "Really? You would do that?"
Jin nodded. "I mean, I have more experience in creating routines for toddlers, but I think I can manage one for Taehyung. I could even come over and show you how to navigate it if you want."
"That would be great!" Namjoon realized he sounded too eager, so he toned down his excitement. "Next Friday I told my classes to have a study day and I was planning on staying home with the kids and attempt to come up with something that could resemble a routine. Does that work for you?"
"Yeah, I'll text you once I get the basics down and let you know what time I'll come over." Jin smiled at Namjoon, feeling a tingle in his stomach. "I should go check on Ara." He excused himself and stood up, walking across the living room to where his daughter was happily coloring in a picture of an apple.
~~~
The next evening, Yoongi drove over to his ex's apartment to drop Hoseok off before going grocery shopping for the week. He told Dawon to stay in the car as he would only be a few minutes before walking the five-year-old up to the third floor. "Mommy!" Hoseok wrapped his arms around Chaekyung's legs as soon as she opened the door. "I missed you!"
"I missed you too, baby!" She ruffled her son's hair before looking up at Yoongi, confused as to why he was still standing in her doorway.
"We need to talk~" He said curtly, arms crossed over his chest.
"Hobi, go put your stuff away in your room." The five-year-old boy bounded to his room as Chaekyung looked up at her ex. "What do you want?"
"I want to know why our son called my daughter a bitch yesterday." Chaekyung just crossed her arms, not saying a word. "What have you been telling him that would even make him think to say that?"
Chaekyung shrugged. "Maybe he's realizing that she's a manipulative little brat." Yoongi had to take a deep breath and run his hand through his hair to keep himself from yelling. "It's true, Yoongi! She has you wrapped around her finger! You spend every waking second doting on her and ignoring Hoseok, and that's why our relationship didn't work."
"Oh my god~" Yoongi muttered under his breath before looking back at Chaekyung. "Dawon has epilepsy, that's why I 'dote' on her so much, I never ignore Hoseok, I always make time for him. Our relationship didn't work because of how horribly you refused to accept Dawon. I told you on our very first date that I had a daughter, the first time I brought you home to meet her, I told you about her disability, I told you constantly throughout our relationship that Dawon is the most important person in my life, Hoseok being the only other person to be of equal importance, and you claimed that you understood that. Instead I came home from work one day to Hoseok telling me that Dawon had been shaking again and that you were too busy pretending she didn't exist for the sake of your friends, because you couldn't bear to admit that your boyfriend had a child from another woman, to take care of her during and after a seizure!"
"And again, you ignored the two of us that night~" Chaekyung shot back. "You couldn't even say 'hi' or ask how our day was before you were rushing out the door with Dawon in your arms, and you weren't even home to tuck Hoseok into bed."
"Because my daughter could have died!" Yoongi was extremely frustrated by this point. "I didn't know how long her seizure had lasted, I didn't know if she had hit her head, I didn't know anything, so I had to take her to the hospital to make sure everything was okay. And if it were Hoseok that were in that position, I would have done the same thing."
"Would you really?" It was obvious Chaekyung didn't believe him.
Yoongi scoffed. "I don't understand what your problem is with Dawon-"
"My problem is that you act like she holds the world in the palm of her hand when she's just the result of a drunken night with a crack whore!" That was an extremely low blow, especially because Chaekyung knew of Yoongi's regret over his choices during his high school years.
Yoongi took a deep breath but failed at fully calming himself down before responding. "And Hoseok is the result of me making a stupid to decision to have a relationship with a selfish cunt." Chaekyung's eyes widened as if she couldn't believe that Yoongi had just said that to her. "But that doesn't mean I love him any less, and I'm not gonna love Dawon any less just because I was an idiot when I was 16."
"Stop yelling at each other!" The two tensed up and turned to see Hoseok standing a few feet away from them, tears in his eyes. "Stop fighting!"
It was as if a switch flipped in Yoongi, as he immediately calmed down and looked at his son with guilt in his eyes over upsetting him so badly. "Hobi, I'm-" He couldn't even get his apology out before Hoseok was running back to his room and slamming the door.
He wanted to go after him and attempt to comfort him, but Chaekyung stood in his way. "You need to leave now~" She didn't wait for a response before closing the door in his face.
When he was back in the car and driving towards the grocery store with Dawon, the nine-year-old spoke. "Did I tell you that I got invited to a sleepover?"
Yoongi nearly slammed on the brakes at the announcement but managed to compose himself before doing so. "No, you didn't, Bug~"
Yoongi could see Dawon nodding in the rearview mirror. "Seoyeon invited me to her birthday party and it's a sleepover and it's this Friday." Dawon explained. "The invitation is in my backpack. Can I go?"
Yoongi had a lot of worries about Dawon spending the night at someone else's house, most of which revolved around the possibility of her having a seizure at the party. But a large part of him just wanted his little girl to be happy, so instead of saying no like he wanted to, he said, "I want to see the invitation and talk to her parents first, but yes, you can go."
A/N: Thank you for 1k views!!