Six of a Kind

이십팔: Jungkook's Diagnosis

happy birthday NerdyCookie01 and merry christmas/happy holidays everyone :)

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It was the day of Jungkook's last assessment for his behaviour. The past five sessions had taken a pretty big toll on Namjoon. It felt like the psychologist was sapping every single last fibre of his energy, constantly going over each and every minute detail of Jungkook's personality and laying them out flat to imply they were part of his condition. Jungkook's behaviour had picked up with each session, but he never spoke to the psychologist. He mainly just scooped the dolls out of the toy bucket and played on the floor, his back turned to the desk. Sometimes he tried to chat to Namjoon, though it was over nonsense things. Although no piece of paper had been handed to Namjoon, they both knew the result.

It was early October. The sextuplets' birthday was just in a week. Namjoon had spent his time well getting a party organised, making sure he picked a party venue that could accommodate Jimin's needs. He had no idea how much longer Jimin was going to be under sedation for. He was told the waiting list for his surgery was going to be at least 6 months. Only 2 of those months had passed so far.

He had also settled the boys into a longer school day. They were no longer in nursery. They had moved to the reception class in September. Jungkook struggled massively with the change in his routine, and he felt totally exhausted after spending the whole day having to sit for ages and socialising. He missed Jennie. He didn't like his new teacher very much. She was called Ms. Yeon, and although she was kind, she didn't take to Jungkook's tantrums well, and being told off only made him worse. He missed his hood hood more than ever, and he wasn't even allowed to play during the day. He had to sit and remember which way the letter E went.

It was exhausting for Namjoon. He had picked up more hours from work, so he wasn't struggling as badly as he had been, but with Jimin's numerous appointments, and Jungkook's assessments, he was still running very thin with money. The school day gave him a much needed break to work, and tidy up the house, so he felt like his head was screwed on tighter, but at the same time, time was slipping away from him. In the blink of an eye, his babies had completed their first year at school, they were becoming more independent, and developing clear personalities.

That, however, brought a new level of rebellion he didn't realise he had been missing. Although Taehyung hadn't sworn at him since, he had continued to act up. He threw more screaming tantrums, cried when he wasn't getting his way, lashed out at his brother, and threw food on the floor if it wasn't what he wanted. The years of being suppressed under all of the disabilities the whole family faced was catching up to him.

Taehyung wasn't the only one acting up, however. Although Taehyung had become very rude when he wanted too, the others had changed, too. Hoseok had become more quiet and anxious. He had a loud voice, but visibly flinched at other loud sounds. He had taken to bed wetting again, and started complaining of headaches when someone was getting more attention than him. Hoseok really was getting headaches, but the problem was that Namjoon didn't believe him.

Yoongi's tummy regularly went funny, though he had no full flares of his ulcerative colitis, he had diarrhoea often, and sometimes didn't tell his dad in time. He had gone quiet, too, and struggled to sleep at night. It resulted in him falling asleep during the day when he came home from school.

Seokjin had taken to removing his hearing aids when he wasn't in the mood to talk. He would pout angrily at Namjoon and pull the receivers off his head, and turn his back. It looked funny, but it hurt Namjoon's feelings a little. It was already hard to communicate with Seokjin. At first, it seemed like he was picking up language easily and hearing perfectly, but it now seemed like Seokjin had hit a brick wall. He often misheard words to words similar, and couldn't hear Namjoon calling him if he was in a different room. If his back was turned, he heard sound, but couldn't register what it meant. Namjoon had taken up some online sign language and taught it to Seokjin as a kind of peace offering, for blocking his rights to the language he deserved to know. It had perked Seokjin up a little, especially when his brothers picked it up and used it with him, but he still didn't give the same bread smile he used to. He looked exhausted behind his thick glasses.