THE LIFEGUARD ✔️vk

EPILOGUE

The water splashes a little, as a tiny figure plops in from the concrete edges of the pool.

"Yes, yes my baby—come on, you can do it." Jeongukk encourages, watching as the baby slowly paddles toward him with his swimming vest on.

When he makes it to Jeongukk, he's giggling, and the man takes to lifting him from his armpits and pressing kisses to both of his cheeks. "I knew it, you have the Jeon genes."

"Oh my gosh, he's one." Taehyung comments from the side, sipping on his lemonade.

"Silence peasant!" He replies as he uses one arm to push himself out of the pool and the other arm to hold his son.

Taehyung scoffs in offense, kicking him in the shin as he passes by.

Jeongukk pays no attention.

"My fish baby." He holds him up once again, as if he is baby Sumba in The Lion King.

"Let me guess, he's your fish baby because he can swim." Taehyung raises his eyebrows.

Jeongukk does an impression of the correct answer buzzer and the other laughs.

"Haneul, daddy's so proud of you." He says, plopping him down on a chair so that he can dry him with a towel. He opens his mouth in a smile, clapping his hands. "I think you deserve a new toy."

"Hm, you want daddy to buy you a new remote control car?"

Haneul continues clapping. "Da-da!"

"Yep, that's me!" He lightly pinches his nose. "Oh, how about three? Do you want three?"

"Guk, he doesn't even play with anything besides that McDonalds toy we bought, and Oongi." Oongi was the stuffed cat toy, Jeongukks cousin Yoongi bought him. Somehow Haneul began calling it Oongi because every time it popped up, the two of them began talking about Yoongi.

Jeongukk made a gesture with his hand. "It's fine. He's a good boy."

Although Taehyung rolled his eyes, he couldn't help but be fond of the sight in front of him.

...

Taehyung placed Haneul in his crib, but not before pressing a light kiss on his head. "Goodnight my baby. I love you." He smiled at his sleepy son, his long eyelashes fanning his face as he slept.

He watched him for a little while, brushing his hair out of his eyes, and then he was walking over to his bed where Jeongukk laid silently on.

Taehyung assumed he was asleep as well, but as soon as he got under the covers a warm arm was wrapping around his waist.

"Gonna go to bed?" Jeongukk questioned from his spot on Taehyungs shoulder. Often, Taehyung would spent time reading or watching a movie with his earphones in while the two of them were sound asleep. He was a night owl like that.

But tonight he wasn't feeling like it.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go to bed." He smiled, admiring Jeongukk doing something as boring as yawning.

"Nice. I wanna cuddle you." The brunette said snuggling even closer to the other.

Taehyung giggled as he pressed a few kisses to his neck.

And then they were silent for a few moments, letting the sound of soft giggling die down.

"Tae." Jeongukk whispered, and the other wondered if he were whispering to avoid waking up Haneul or for another reason.

He hummed.

"Are you happy here, with me? With us?"

Taehyung thought it was the most ridiculous question he's ever heard.

"I know we aren't rich or anything, and we both survive off of like 3 hours of sleep on the average. But I don't care about any of that. I love my life with the two of you. I don't think I've ever been as happy as I am right now. Like—I'm so happy. I thank God everyday that I get to have you guys. I couldn't ask for anything better. I can't believe this is my life."

The blonde smiled, listening to his rambling with fond eyes. And that's when he realized he wasn't speaking out of a place of insecurity. He was speaking out of love.

"The other day I was just watching Haneul coloring a coloring book page with the same red crayon for twenty minutes straight, and all I could think about was—wow, that's my son. I love my son.

"And then I looked over at you, and you're always so beautiful, even when you're lying on the couch doing nothing but eating chips. And I'm like, that's my husband—and he's so awesome, and I'm in love with him.

And it's just—I can't believe it, Tae. I'm just so happy."

By the end of his "speech" Taehyung was on the verge of tears but managed to maintain his composure.

He cleared his throat.

"Gukkie, you're so cute."

Jeongukk looked down at him.

Although his parents relationship wasn't the best, even from the start, Taehyung never once felt that way about him and Jeongukks relationship. He never worried they'd "turn out like them." They simply were just themselves.

Him and Jeongukk. That's how it's always been.

And although his mom hasn't really come around, even if he doesn't want Haneul to go without a Grandma, he's happy with his life.

He's happy with his dad coming over every now and then to spoil Haneul with unnecessary gifts, give him extra snacks, and argue with Jeongukk about which football team is going to win when their teams are playing against each other.

He's happy that Jeongukk's parents stopped going on so many business trips when Jeongukk graduated from high school and apologized to him for not being there for him all the time.

He's happy they come around.

He's happy.

"I feel the exact same way." He looked up, smiling.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Aa!" They heard a voice exclaim, and it didn't take much for them to realize it was their smiley and very awake baby standing up at his crib.

The two of them exchanged glances before Jeongukk was up and walking towards Haneul.

"Come on, Han. Let's go lie down with da-da."

"Da-da!" He exclaimed again, as Jeongukk picked him up.

Taehyung held his hands out as Jeongukk brought the baby back to their bed, and he handed him over happily.

The blonde settled on his side, stroking Haneul's hair with his fingers.

The other went back to his previous potion, spooning Taehyung.

They all had big smiles on their faces.

"Goodnight my babies."

"Goodnight." Taehyung replied.

With his son in his arms, and his husband snuggling into his back he knew this was the happy life he was always meant to live.

He really did agree with everything Jeongukk said. The love he felt for the both of them was overwhelming.

He couldn't ask for anything better.

...

That's the end end guys 😭 I'm gonna miss them.
I updated so slow this year my goodness— Tomorrow is literally New Years Eve.

Thank you guys so much for reading and commenting on this! It means the world to us.

I appreciate it a lot, really.

<3 Zara