The Arrangement | Taejin ✔️

Forty-Two

This is such a long chapter that I am sure the errors are endless. Good luck reading your way through them. 

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Jin was on the bed with his finger caressing Jimin's hair, with his head resting on his lap.

"Appa?"

"Yes, baby?"

"Jimin tired."

Jin gently ran his fingers behind Jimin's ear and asked, "Do you want to sleep with Appa or in your bed tonight?"

Jimin moved onto his stomach to smile at his Appa, "With you."

Jin had already known the answer, so he was not surprised. He gestured for his son to move to the other side of the bed while smiling broadly. "You are welcome to sleep here."

Jimin shuffled to the spot and said, "Thank you," before crawling under the blanket.

"Sure," Jin said as he tucked himself under the covers to get ready for sleep.

"Appa?"

"Yes, baby."

"You no say good night."

"I am sorry, I was going to."

"Oh, when?"

Jin snorted, "Now. Good night, Jimin. I love you."

"Good night, Appa. Love you."

Jin stared at his son's closed eyes as he slowly drifted off to sleep. The ease with which Jimin fell asleep always amazed him.

He tilted his head to the side of the bed to shut off the light next to his bed, but as soon as he did so, a thought sprung into his head, and he quickly turned the light back on. After repositioning himself to sit on the bed, he reached for his phone and dialed the number associated with Taehyung's contact.

Taehyung finally picked up the phone after it had rang a few times. "Hi, Seokjin."

When Jin heard the tone that Taehyung had used when he answered the phone, he got nervous to talk, but after taking a big breath, he did it anyway and then said. "Hey, how are you?"

"I am fine, Seokjin."

"Oh. Okay. I know we couldn't finish our conversation earlier, but I still wanted to thank you for the kind presents you sent me, so I decided to call you. Even though they were unexpected, I found them to be considerate. I've been meaning to call you since earlier to say thanks, but I had to prepare stuff with the nannies for the babies tomorrow and lost track of time." Jin explained as he toyed with a loose thread on the blanket.

"Very happy to hear you like them! I can't say that I know what you like, given you never told me. Using the internet helped me narrow down my options, and I also saw from visiting your mother's house that Italy is a destination of interest for you. I was planning to take you there, but then I remembered you had yoga friends and would much rather hang out with them."

Jin sighed, "Taehyung-"

"I am sorry," Taehyung added quickly before Jin could continue.

After taking a deep breath, he added, "It's tough for me to do this, Jin. I devoted a lot of consideration to what I wrote on the card and wanted you to know that it came from the depths of my heart. Please take someone else with you when you go to Italy. It'll be challenging for me, but being apart is challenging, too, and I believe that through suffering, I am growing. I'm sorry for the times when I wasn't attentive to you or your emotions. I imagine you've been through much more pain than I have."