MISSING PIECE || JIKOOK ✅

Epilogue.

JIMIN POV

Min's first day of Kindergarten was a beautiful early fall day
in September.

Jungkook and I took him to school together, seventeen-months-old Dalsu safely
strapped into his car seat
in the back of the car.

Dalsu loved the car.

He liked to look out the
window and point at things
as we drove.

When we stopped in front of
the school after only a few minutes, he was disappointed and started to whine until I
took him out of his seat.

He only liked to be in the
car while it was moving.

Standing still bored him, apparently.

"It's okay, baby." I tried to soothe him as I got out of
the car.

"We're going to see your big brother off now."

"You like your big
brother, don't you?"

Dalsu focused his brown
eyes on Minjin as I spoke.

He understood the word 'brother'.

He still had trouble
pronouncing it but he knew
who his family was.

"Minnie." he said, stretching
his hand in Min's direction.

"That's right, Min."

Min, sweet as always, reached
up and shook Dalsu's hand.

He wasn't as crazy about
babies as Jih was but he'd adjusted to Dalsu's arrival
pretty quickly.

In fact, he'd grown by leaps
and bounds over the past
year and not just in height.

Gone was the shy boy who barely spoke the first day I
met him, replaced by a lively young boy ready to tackle his first year of school.

"No crying, okay?" Min said
to his baby brother now.

"Be a good baby."

Dalsu said something unintelligible in response
but Min nodded as if he
understood.

"Ready to go?" Jungkook
asked, pointing at the school
in front of us, a large brick building that housed the kindergarten as well as the elementary school.

Minjin pulled on the straps of
his bright red super-hero
themed school bag.

"I'm ready."

"Okay then." I said and
then I noticed something.

The flap of Min's school bag
lifted and sank back down.

The movement was small
but definitely unusual.

I'd helped him pack it last
night and then placed his
lunch inside this morning.

I knew exactly what was in
that bag and none of it
should move.

Had something crawled in?

"Son, wait a second."

"What's wrong?" He asked
while Jungkook shot me the same confused look I saw mirrored on my son's face.

"Let me see your
bag." I said to the boy.

"Why papa?"

"Just want to check some
thing."

"Okay." Reluctantly, he took
the bag of his shoulders and handed it to me.

"Here, take Dalsu." I said to Jungkook.