3 months later~
JK, Hanbin and Taeji's birthdays have passed. JK is 23, Hanbin is 7, Taeji is 8.
It's like late fall so I would say November? Since I made it seem like it was spring or summer in the other chapters.
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Jungkook watched Chanwoo obnoxiously scream at one of his friends as he wiggled his hand out of Jungkook's grasp. Jungkook barely got to say bye to him as the chubby three-year-old ran towards the daycare area of the elementary school where his friend was jumping up and down beside a teacher.
Jungkook waited until his youngest son was with the teacher before turning to face Hanbin who was standing close to him with his arms wrapped around his chest, clutching his backpack straps so tight that his hands turned a pale pink. He kept glancing around as if someone would jump out and hurt him. Jungkook reached down to stroke his hair but he quickly retracted his hand, knowing Hanbin would just move away.
Jungkook could tell how scared the boy was being around all these kids and adults who had basically forgotten. It's about four months since he's even thought about school but his doctor thought it would be a good idea to put him back into public school and if he couldn't handle it, then he'd be permanently homeschooled. Until now, he's been on a "home-bound" schedule with the school, receiving online instruction from his teachers and help from Jungkook when needed along with other online schooling programs so Jungkook was happy that his seven-year-old was finally getting back into school. He hoped this would help him somehow considering how isolated he's been over the months. He didn't even talk to Minjae or Yunah much, only Chanwoo.
"It's just like how you left," Jungkook said as they made their way towards his old classroom. The school had wanted to put him in a special needs class but Jungkook refused. "And they're going to work with you to help you get used to everything again."
Hanbin didn't respond but Jungkook knew he was listening. The seven-year-old just stared down at the tiled floor in the hallways, bumping up against Jungkook to keep from running into rowdy children.
Once they made it to his classroom, Jungkook re-explained to Hanbin's teacher how Hanbin acted and to promise him that she will alert him if anyone is teasing or bullying his son. She reassured Hanbin was in good hands and promised to keep and extra eye on him.
Before Jungkook left, he had to remind himself that he couldn't hug and kiss Hanbin like he was used to but instead, he watched the teacher guide the seven-year-old to his new desk which had a respectful space around it before bending down and talking to him. Hanbin stared at her hands that were placed atop his desk and didn't look anywhere else.
Leaving made Jungkook nervous but he tried to convince himself that this was good for his son.
As he made his way towards his car, Jungkook pulled his phone out of his pocket. Every morning when he checked his notifications, he hoped to see Minsun's name on the headlines stating that he's been caught and was in police custody or finally behind bars but he was always met with disappointment. Minsun basically fell off the face of the earth but private investigators were still searching for him even harder than they were before now that he has a kidnapping and human trafficking charges hanging over his head along with his former charges, they weren't going to let him go any time soon.
But Jungkook was paranoid despite the police telling him that there was an extremely low possibility that Minsun would be bold enough to try and kidnap Hanbin again especially at school. Plus Hanbin was smart. He was shutting people out as a protection mechanism so there was no way he'd willingly leave with someone and there was no way someone could get him without other people seeing.
Jungkook looked back at the school. He watched two resource officers separate and walk towards opposite ends of the schools. Several teachers, lunch ladies, and two janitors entered the school chatting with each other or looking as though they didn't want to be there. The school was packed with kids and adults. Hanbin's classroom had fifteen kids and a great teacher. Hanbin would be okay.
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"I didn't think you'd actually come in," Taehyung said with a smile as he fixed his tie and flicked his hair around, staring at himself in the mirror in the living room. "Glad you did though, my girls missed you."
"Clearly your house missed me too, do you not clean?" Jungkook joked as he picked up one of Taehyung's ties from the couch.
"Hardly," Taehyung laughed, "you don't want to know why that's there."
"Oh..." Jungkook dropped it, "scandalous."
The two have surprisingly gotten closer over the months. Taehyung had proven himself to be a good confident for Jungkook as he didn't want to bother Jimin and Namjoon with his stressful problems since the two had to worry about having their second child. Jimin already got his house shot and broken into thanks to Jungkook, he couldn't burden the older male with his problems anymore besides the occasional request for a baby sitter for Chanwoo.
So Jungkook took Taehyung's request to keep him updated and they began talking more often after that. Taehyung was no longer the asshole Jungkook once worked for and he seemingly became a whole different person that Jungkook really needed during this hard time.
Taehyung didn't mind either. He was surprised with himself, really. Normally, he'd be pissed off if someone called him at two in the morning wanting to talk about their personal problems when he had to get up early that morning to work - hell, even if he didn't have to get up, he didn't want to hear it. But, surprisingly, he couldn't get mad at Jungkook and he would tiredly listen until the younger man was finished talking and then he would talk and give Jungkook the best responses he could. He wouldn't give him stupid, half-assed, one-worded responses like he'd give Seokjin or Saejun or someone else, he gave actual therapeutic responses that made him want to go back to school and get a Psy.D.
Seokjin had given Taehyung his unwanted opinion, stating that the younger man had developed undetected feelings for his employee. It made sense when Taehyung thought about it but he decided to leave the matter alone for the time being as Jungkook had other things to worry about.
But if he was developing feelings for Jungkook, he wondered if Jungkook would reciprocate those feelings. He knew the younger male was into guys - his exact sexuality uncertain. Taehyung himself was bisexual, everyone besides the public knew. His fans have only ever seen him with women, but he's been with a few men in his life.
Then again the real question was, does he have feelings for Jungkook or was he just being a really good person for a change?
"Taeji no longer takes dancing class, she got in a little dispute with this other little girl in her class," Taehyung sighed, "Yunah still takes art. She really misses you and your boys. I think she's still a little sad about Hanbin not wanting to talk to her but I've tried to explain to the best of my ability."
Jungkook nodded. "She'll understand eventually, maybe not now."
Taehyung hummed in agreement as he started messing with his tie again. Jungkook walked towards the closet that held the vacuum and other cleaning equipment, plugging his earbuds into his phone and choosing a song to start his cleaning off with.
"I gotta go now, looking at stuff for that hotel," Taehyung called out to Jungkook. "If you have to leave, be sure to text me."
"I will," the younger male said with a nod, "and good luck."
Taehyung was opening up his first hotel. He's been wanting to do it for a while and his financial advisor finally said now was a good time to start thinking about doing it. He already hired a business broker to contact investors and now he had to start making his plan and looking at land.
Taehyung paused as he stepped out of the door, hand still on the doorknob. He turned to face Jungkook who was about to press the button on his earbud wire to resume his music. Jungkook gave him a questionable look.
"If you're not suddenly gone before lunch," Taehyung moved his head around and hummed as though he was actually tossing his words around in his head. "I'll be at my main office by then, I can order for two of whatever the hell I'm buying - probably Subway - and tell Saejun to go get it."
"You want me to eat lunch with you?"
"Yeah sure, why not?"
It was Jungkook's turn to hum, subconsciously twirling his earbud wire around his finger as he deeply thought about it. What if one of his nosy employees saw him eating with Taehyung and took a picture and posted it out of context? He's already had enough close calls with the nosy, privacy-invading media, he didn't want to be part of a ridiculous scandal with Kim Taehyung.
"Okay," Jungkook decided despite his thoughts, "just text me, I'll be sure to text you just in case I can't."
Taehyung gave him a thumbs up before quickly disappearing outside, closing the door behind him. He was a smiling fool. Maybe he did have feelings for Jungkook, but as he said before, he wasn't going to act on them. The younger male had other things to deal with and dating a celebrity wasn't something he was going to put on Jungkook.
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Word Count: 1655
Am I rushing his feelings? I feel like I'm rushing his feelings...
Was it a good idea to send Hanbin to school?
I'm trying to push Hoseok in somewhere. I've been wanting to put him in since I published the second C/A. I've had so many ideas for him but none of them fit as I continued writing. Once I push Hoseok in this book, Yoongi might pop up or he'll be mentioned but there isn't gonna be Yoonseok. Keep in mind that not adding Yoonseok is going against my religion but I'm trying to broaden my shipping and I'm very aware that I'm sinning and I will go to Sope hell for this 😔