Chapter Text
“Now, Haeyeon, you be sure to behave for your dad, okay? He can use all the help he can get,” Hoseok whispers to the little girl in front of him. It’s his last day babysitting her, and he’s doing his best not to cry as he says his goodbyes. Still, his eyes are a little misty and his voice a little thick. He’s an emotional guy, and this is kind of ripping his heart to pieces.
He’s been babysitting Haeyeon since she and her father moved in upstairs from him. She was only three back then, and Jungkook had been an absolute wreck. Her ponytails were always lopsided, and she often had her dresses on backwards. Occasionally her shoes were on the wrong feet as well. Jungkook was doing well if he managed to get her supper cleaned off her face before Hoseok arrived, and Hoseok was always left in charge of pajamas and brushing teeth and bedtime stories.
“I will,” Haeyeon promises, and she hugs Hoseok around his neck so tight that if she weren’t just seven years old it might actually hurt.
“Don’t you have something for Hoseok?” Jungkook asks. Haeyeon gasps and pulls back from the hug. It’s too soon for Hoseok. He wants to cling to her a moment longer, but she’s already rushing down the hallway to her bedroom.
Hoseok and Jungkook both wince as they hear the room being torn apart in search of whatever gift she has for her babysitter. A cabinet door slams, and something topples over. Then she’s tearing back up the hall, bare feet slapping against the hardwood.
“It’s a picture I drew!” she announces excitedly. “See, there’s me and Shinji.” She points at a purple blob meant to represent her floppy-eared puppy. “And that’s Daddy, and that’s you!”
Hoseok in the drawing is bright orange with a red heart for his lips and rainbow hair, and he’s comically tall compared to Jungkook.
“Haeyeon, this is beautiful. I’ll keep it forever.”
“And then you’ll never forget me!” she shouts. “Never never ever!”
It’s true. Hoseok won’t forget Haeyeon or any of the other children he’s cared for over the years. He knows the name of every student that’s ever stepped foot in his classroom, the endless parade of seven to eight year olds that he’s helped prepare for third grade.
“That’s right. I’ll put it on my cabinet at school with the fruit magnets you painted.” Hoseok sighs and looks at Jungkook who seems a bit antsy. “You must have a lot more packing to do.”
“Oh, not really. The movers will do all that. But I really should get her in bed. It’s gonna be a long day tomorrow, and I don’t want her getting cranky while we’re on the road.”
Haeyeon will probably sleep for most of the trip, Hoseok thinks, but he doesn’t bother telling Jungkook. He knows Jungkook is just ready for the whole goodbye thing to end, so he bends down for one more hug from Haeyeon.
He smells her honey apple kids shampoo as her ponytail covers his face. He hates that he knows that scent will always remind him of her. She’ll be hundreds of miles away in a few days, and he’ll be all alone in his apartment again.
When Hoseok finally lets go Haeyeon beams up at him, waving wildly and telling him, “See you soon, Uncle Hobi.”
No one corrects her. She knows the truth. They’ll probably never see each other again.
“Bye, kiddo,” he says, and he turns to exit the apartment, making his way down the stairs and into his own apartment before he finally breaks down.
“So, they’re gone, huh?” Jimin asks as he looks at Haeyeon’s picture. It’s stuck to the side of the filing cabinet with the fruit magnets, just as Hoseok promised.
“Yep. They’re probably settling into their new home by now. I never asked Jungkook if he had to start work right away. I hope he’s arranged for someone to watch her.”
“I’m sure he has, Hoseok. He’s a good dad,” Taehyung assures him, but it doesn’t relieve Hoseok’s concern. He knows Jungkook is a good dad. It’s just that Hoseok has spent the past four years picking up the slack, and he’s not sure how well Jungkook will be able to handle it on his own.
“So, if you’re not babysitting tonight, that means you can come out with us after work, right?” Jimin wiggles his eyebrows, and the grin on his face is that unsettling, up-to-something one that always makes Hoseok a little scared.
“I mean, I’m free, yeah, but I don’t know if I’m up to it tonight. Maybe in a week or so.”
“Oh, come on. You’re just going to sit around your apartment and sigh every time you see something that reminds you of Haeyeon.”
That’s probably true, but Hoseok won’t give Jimin the satisfaction of knowing that.
“It’s not like that. I have like fifty dramas to catch up on. There are a bunch of new recipes I want to try. And… I probably shouldn’t be spending money going out with you guys when I’ve just lost my second job.”
“Oh.” It’s Taehyung, who up until Hoseok’s last statement looked like he was ready to argue with Hoseok and drag him out with them whether he liked it or not. “That makes sense. Want some company?”
Jimin whines a little, protesting quietly at the idea of spending a night in when they could be out having fun.
“No, that’s okay. I’m fine on my own. Just let me know if you hear of anyone in need of a babysitter. I could use the money, and it’s pretty much all I’m qualified to do.”
Taehyung nods, and Jimin sighs and comes around the desk to give Hoseok a hug.
“I really wish you’d reconsider. We just want a night out with you before you end up stuck with some other rugrat. But I get it. Let us know if you change your mind.”
Taehyung takes Jimin’s hand and leads him out of the classroom, telling Hoseok that he’s got car duty today. “Someone’s gotta open all those doors.”
“Heejun, where did your homework go?” Namjoon yells up the stairs, backpack in hand as he searches the contents of the bag for the worksheet he ‘helped’ Heejun complete the night before.
“I don’t know. I’m trying to- Hey! Come back here and brush your teeth!” Heejun hollers as Gahyeon and Jeonghwa run past the bathroom and nearly tumble down the stairs. “Check the kitchen, dad.”
Heejun disappears back into the bathroom to put toothpaste on toothbrushes, and Namjoon follows the twins to the kitchen to continue his search.
“You two need to listen to your brother,” he tells them as he shuffles papers around on the counter. There’s a stack of bills he needs to pay and another stack he needs to file away as well as two field trip permission slips to sign and an emergency contact form that needs updating, but Namjoon doesn’t see Heejun’s homework anywhere. When he turns to check the breakfast table he finally finds it under a cereal bowl, splattered with milk.
The girls are gone again, but he can hear them giggling upstairs, Heejun growling something at them over the sound of running water. As he climbs the stairs he sees them, Gahyeon standing on the bathroom counter, face no more than two inches from the mirror, and Heejun trying to remove toothpaste from Jeonghwa’s hair with a rag. He decides not to bother them since they’re at least brushing their teeth.
He stops in the doorway of the boys’ room, spying Keonhee sitting on the floor with his shoes in front of him. He’s pulling a sock off for probably the fifth time, trying desperately to get the seam straight across his toes. Namjoon checks his watch. They need to be pulling out of the driveway in four minutes.
“Let’s just wear sandals today, huh bub?” Namjoon suggests when Keonhee screams and throws the sock across the room. Namjoon pulls the sandals out of the closet and puts the trainers back in the pile, and Keonhee sighs as he shoves his feet into them and buckles the straps.
With Heejun’s homework packed up and the girls’ teeth brushed and Keonhee no longer barefoot, Namjoon tells everyone to pile into the van. He trusts Keonhee to buckle himself, but the twins are just six. Heejun straps Jeonghwa into her carseat while Namjoon takes care of Gahyeon, and then he slides the door shut and climbs into the driver seat as Heejun crawls over Keonhee to get to his seat.
“Everyone ready?” he asks, not bothering to wait for an answer before he starts backing out of the driveway. They’re already five minutes behind schedule, as usual. Namjoon just hopes traffic isn’t too bad this morning.
They’re about halfway to the school when Namjoon glances in the rearview mirror to tell Jeonghwa to stop singing so loud and realizes she’s loud because her mouth is right beside his ear. She’s escaped her carseat. He almost slams on the breaks, but he thinks better of it, knowing it will only throw her into the dashboard headfirst. Instead he pulls over in the first parking lot he sees and slides the door back open to buckle her into her seat again. By the time they’re pulling onto the road Namjoon is exhausted and sweating through his t-shirt.
Drop-off is chaos even with just one child, but Namjoon has four. None of them are unbuckled before the teachers and parent volunteers open the door to escort the kids into the school. Keonhee forgets his backpack and has to come running back for it, and Heejun doesn’t even bother to tell Namjoon goodbye. Namjoon sighs in relief once the door shuts behind them and he can drive off.
It’s not that he doesn’t love and appreciate his kids, it’s just that since his divorce he’s had to do everything all alone. He didn’t even go through an adjustment period of split custody before his ex took some crazy modelling job that pays an insane amount of money but keeps him out of the country for months at a time. It’s all Namjoon, all the time, and while it’s rewarding work, it wears Namjoon the fuck out.
Even now, with the kids off at school and his shift at work not starting until after noon, Namjoon has so much to do. He moves laundry over, starting a new load in the washer and dryer and carrying a basketful of clean clothes up the stairs, but he immediately forgets to fold it and put it away when he remembers the breakfast dishes on the table. The milk left in the bowls will smell if he doesn’t at least rinse them out, so he goes back down to gather up the dishes and put them in the sink. Then he realizes the living room looks like the toy box exploded and starts throwing things back into tubs. There’s supposed to be one tub for each kid, but Namjoon doesn’t have the energy to remember which toy belongs to which kid, much less which tub is whose.
He still needs to shower before work, and when he glances at the clock over the stove it’s already nearly ten. So, he hurries back up to the only full bathroom in the house to make himself presentable.
The bathroom sink is covered in toothpaste, the floor a carpet of damp towels and bathrobes. He steps over everything, ignoring the open bottle of bubblegum flavored mouthwash turned over on the counter, and does his best to let the hot spray of the shower relax him.
Behind the shower curtain he can pretend the mess doesn’t exist, that his kids aren’t sometimes destructive little monsters with the energy of a squirrel on caffeine. But then he’s clean, and he pulls the curtain aside to reveal the disaster that is his home and really just wants to go back to bed and sleep for the next decade.
Namjoon wraps himself in the only dry towel left in the bathroom and makes his way to his bedroom, which is no more clean than the rest of the house. There’s a Dora the Explorer DVD automatically playing and replaying on his TV, his sheets are halfway on the floor, stuffed animals and tiny nightgowns are thrown all over the mattress, and his own laundry basket is overflowing with clothes that need to be washed. He doesn’t have time for any of it. He gets dressed as quickly as he can and rushes out the door, hoping he won’t be late to work again.
The phone in Taehyung’s hand rings and rings before going to voicemail once again, and he finally leaves a message this time.
“Mr. Kim, this is Mr. Kim from Prairie Elementary.” He glances through the glass door at the four kids sitting in plastic chairs in the lobby. Two of them are his own students, the other two their older brothers. The oldest one in particular seems to have an attitude. His arms are crossed, his eyebrows pulled together, and he keeps kicking his feet angrily. “I have your children here in the office waiting to be picked up. Please call me back and come collect them. The office closes at four.”
When he steps back into the lobby the kids all look up at him expectantly.
“Is Dad coming to get us?” the one with the attitude asks, and he rolls his eyes when Taehyung tells him that his father didn’t answer the call. “He’s probably in a meeting again.”
“Who usually picks you up?”
“The babysister,” Gahyeon replies, grinning up at Taehyung. “She’s so cool. She lets us watch big kid cartoons.”
“It’s babysitter,” the middle boy corrects her. “And she’s not very cool. She’s messy.”
“I see,” Taehyung says. “Has she ever been late before?”
“No,” the oldest boy answers. “She might be the last one to get here, but she always comes.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll be here until someone arrives to pick you up, and Gahyeon and Jeonghwa can tell you, I’m the coolest teacher at this school.”
Jeonghwa smiles and nods and starts gushing to her siblings about how fun Taehyung’s class is. Nevermind that Gahyeon is in the same class, she listens along in awe like she’s never met Taehyung in her life.
When four o’clock rolls around, the secretary shoos them out, insisting that it’s time to close the office, and Taehyung takes the kids around to the back of the building to let them play on the playground for a bit. He knows Gahyeon loves the monkey bars and Jeonghwa likes to see how high she can get the swing to go, but the middle boy just sits on one of the teacher benches off to the side while the oldest runs between the girls telling them to be careful. It’s clear the oldest boy is filling in for an absent parent, trying to take care of the little ones to take some of the burden off of his dad, and that saddens Taehyung. No kid should have their childhood taken away from them like that.
“Keonhee, don’t you want to go play? You could swing with Jeonghwa,” Taehyung suggests.
“There’s mud under the swing.”
“What about the slide?”
“There’s mud at the end of the slide.”
“I bet Gahyeon would race you across the monkey bars.”
“There’s-”
“Mud under the monkey bars,” Taehyung finishes for him. “You don’t like getting messy, huh?”
“Mess has to be cleaned,” Keonhee mumbles.
“He doesn’t like to take a bath,” Heejun comes over to explain. “He’s very particular about things. It takes a long time to get everything right.”
“Things like what?” Taehyung asks.
“Things,” Heejun shrugs, and he runs off to catch Gahyeon just as she falls off the monkey bars. She knocks them both on their behinds before giggling and climbing back up the ladder while Heejun stands much more stiffly to brush himself off.
Their father doesn’t show up until close to five, and he’s an absolute wreck. His tie is askew, his shirt untucked, he has spiky rage hair, and he’s panicked as he rounds the corner of the school building only to find he can’t get into the playground because the gate is locked. Taehyung tells the kids to keep playing while he talks to their dad.
“I see you finally got my message, Mr. Kim,” Taehyung says as he swipes his staff card to open the gate.
“Yeah, I’m sorry,” Namjoon says, running his fingers through his hair. “The babysitter just up and quit on me. She left me a message this afternoon, too, but I’ve been in meetings all day. I didn’t get to check my voicemail until about half an hour ago and I’m missing another meeting to be here right now. Are they ready to go? I need to get them home and head back to the office before I miss even more meetings.”
“You’re just going to take them home and leave them there alone?” Taehyung asks, horrified. Sure, Heejun seems pretty mature for his age, and clearly he’s used to helping care for his little brother and sisters, but he’s only nine years old. He can’t be left with them unsupervised at this age.
“Oh, oh no, they won’t be alone. My neighbor said she’ll come over and cook them supper and everything while I’m at work, but she doesn’t have a car so I have to bring them home myself,” Namjoon explains. “No idea what I’m gonna do for the rest of the week, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out. Does this school have an aftercare program?”
“Yeah, we do, but enrollment closes after the second week of each semester. You wouldn’t be able to get them in until next school year.”
The fingers slide through his hair again, only this time he grabs a fistful in each hand and tugs. That explains the rage hair, Taehyung thinks. He kind of feels bad for the guy. He must really be in over his head with the four of them, and twin six year olds are never easy to deal with. Gahyeon and Jeonghwa are a joy to teach, but Taehyung can only imagine what they’re like at home, ganging up on their dad and wreaking havoc on the house. And Keonhee… he seems to need special attention. It reminds Taehyung a bit of how Hoseok had described Jungkook, and suddenly Taehyung knows how to help Namjoon.
“Listen, I have a friend who babysits, and he happens to be free right after school every weekday. As long as you’re not needing someone for weekends…”
“No, no. I’m off on weekends. Every weekday?”
“Yep. He’s available as soon as school is out.”
“And you think he’d be able to handle all four of them?”
Taehyung laughs. “Well, he’s a teacher here, so I certainly hope he can handle four at once. Otherwise the twenty-six in his class would walk all over him. Let me get your number again. I’ll have him call you.”
“Yeah, please. This would literally save my life.” Namjoon hands over a business card. “My cell number is written on the back, and tell him if I don’t answer he can leave a message. I always return my calls eventually.”
“When you’re not in meetings,” Taehyung comments, prompting Namjoon to check his watch. He swears under his breath, and Taehyung calls the kids over to grab their stuff.
Taehyung calls Hoseok as soon as Namjoon drives out of the parking lot.
“Seok? I think I found you another babysitting gig.”