The Meaning of Family: The Collections

Jungkook's 1st Birthday

Request:
"When kookie is a baby! :))"

Notes:
Namjin are not dating yet and the boys are still in foster care

Ages of the Characters:
Jin - 22
Namjoon - 21
Yoongi - 5
Hoseok - 4
Jimin - 2
Taehyung - 2
Jungkook - 12 months

Jin pulled into his church's parking lot, parking in a spot in front of the activities building. It was around time for Jungkook's mid-afternoon nap, and it showed from how the birthday boy was asleep in his car seat. "Come on, boys~" Jin whispered to Yoongi and Hoseok, gesturing for them to climb out of the van before carefully unbuckling Jungkook from his car seat without waking him up.

They walked into the building where Jin's mother was sitting at a table, filling mason jars up with flowers and placing them on each table as the centerpiece. "There's the birthday boy!" She exclaimed as she saw the family of four enter, getting up to greet them.

Yoongi was quick to shush her, his finger pressed to his lips. "He's sleeping!" He whisper yelled, giving her a cute glare.

"Oh, I'm sorry~" She whispered an apology to the five-year-old before looking back up at Jin. "Good thing I went ahead and set up a pack and play for him." She pointed to the corner where it was set up, and Jin thanked her before going over to lay the sleeping infant down. "You two don't look ready for a cowboy party yet!" Yoongi and Hoseok giggled as she took them by the hands and led them over to a stack of cowboy hats, letting them search through them and pick the ones they wanted to wear.

After he was sure Jungkook was good and still asleep, Jin made his way over to what would be the food table and began to arrange it, his mom joining him soon after. "Thank you so much for planning all this out." As much as Jin was excited to celebrate the infant's first birthday, he had been busy with lesson planning for his preschool class since the official school year had started and the idea of planning out a birthday had been causing him extreme amounts of stress.

"Oh, it was my pleasure, honey~" Jin's mother smiled at him as she checked on the baked beans she had brought in one of her crock pots. "I haven't gotten to plan a birthday party since your first birthday."

Jin gave his mom an unamused look. "I'm pretty sure I had other birthday parties.

"Yeah, but you only ever wanted Super Mario parties, so I just reused the same decorations every year. It's not the same as having a new theme every year." His mom pouted slightly as she began to arrange the cupcakes around Jungkook's smash cake.

"Well if I have the boys long enough then you can help plan all of their birthdays to come." Jin promised, looking up when he heard Jungkook babbling and seeing that he was standing up in his playpen, holding onto the side of it as Hoseok and Yoongi looked at him through the mesh. "Looks like the birthday boy's awake."

By the time Jin had changed his diaper and placed a special birthday cowboy hat on the boy's head, guests had started to arrive, and the party started. Once all the guests were there, and Jin was undressing Jungkook to save his clothes from the inevitable mess that would come from the smash cake, Yoongi and Hoseok had started to pout. "What's wrong with you two?"

"Joonie was supposed to come." Yoongi said, crossing his arms over his chest as his pout deepened.

Jin sighed, propping Jungkook, who was now stripped down to just his diaper, on his hip. "Joonie came over for dinner last night to celebrate Kookie's birthday, remember? We had spaghetti and he brought Tae Tae over and you played with him."

Hoseok was the one who responded, also still pouting. "We wanted him to come to the party too."

Jin reached out and ruffled their hair, one after the other. "Joonie had to work today. Maybe he'll stop by soon, though, okay?" The boys nodded and, after being nudged, moved to go sit near Jungkook's highchair, passing by Jin's mother who had obviously overheard the conversation.

"Who's Joonie?" She had a slight smirk on her face, and Jin already knew what she was thinking. Before he could shut down her assumptions, she was voicing them. "Do you have a man in your life that you haven't told your mother about?"

Jin adjusted his grip on Jungkook, who was fisting Jin's shirt in his tiny fists. "Namjoon is the boys' case worker."

"Are you sure that's all he is?" She raised her eyebrow. "I don't know many social workers that would come over for dinner, even if it is a child's birthday."

Jin could feel a blush rising up his cheeks but played it off as if he weren't flustered. "Like I said, Namjoon is the boys' case worker." Jin rushed out as he walked past his mother to carry Jungkook over to his highchair.

"You didn't deny it~" Jin's mother sang out, but overall dropped it after that, excitement over Jungkook about to eat his cake taking over.

Once Jungkook was strapped into his highchair, Jin brought over his cake, a small, round chocolate cake with white icing, red icing acting as a border, and set it in front of him. The first notes of Happy Birthday had barely left the mouths of the guests before Jungkook plunged his hand directly into the middle of the cake, bringing the sugary goodness straight to his mouth and staining his cheeks red.