bangtan family

Shopping

Since most shopping trips with the Kim family lasted no more than thirty minutes, and occurred within a span of two to five days, Jungkook and Taehyung were a bit bewildered when they were in the mall for a little longer.

Summer was now close to over, and the past few months were filled with Yoongi and Ryan visiting each other with adult supervision, Areum coming over to take care of Hoseok and Jimin, Taehyung taking long naps and staying up late dancing in his room half-naked, and Jungkook entertaining Tae with enthusiastic claps and gurgles if appreciation, and getting better and better at walking and holding onto the side of the bed, trying his best to squat and stand up back again in his own little dance.

Now, Seokjin was making them all do back to school shopping three weeks early, not surprisingly.

Yoongi kept his phone in his pocket, it vibrating every two minutes but him trying not to pay attention to it until he was in the safety of his bedroom or a bathroom stall.

"This is cute!" Jimin said, holding up a shirt. He meant it would look cute on Jungkook. Jimin had been making a huge fuss over the youngest recently, and since Jungkook slept and was given timeout in the cot Jimin used to own, Jimin would often just sit in front of Jungkook, muttering quietly, "I was born first, okay? I was sleeping in that bed before you. Don't yell at me - I let you have my old bed. I could still sleep in it if I wanted."

Jimin was also pretty annoyed because compared to Jungkook, he was the smallest baby ever. Namjoon would pull Jimin into his lap and coo and cluck, saying that's what made Jimin Jimin, but Jimin was still bothered.

"It's too small for you, Babe," Jin said, looking down at the shirt Jimin held up.

"But Babe is small . . . " Jimin mumbled.

"I know you are, Chim," Seokjin said, kissing his nose while he knelt down. "You're the tiniest baby I have, and I love you. I could buy that for Kookie and then design an outfit just like it for you and bring it over to the tailor shop, is that okay?"

Jimin smiled broadly and nodded.

Yoongi and Jimin were the two kids who Namjoon and Seokjin were scared were born premature even though they were on time, or weren't growing properly. Yoongi as a baby lived just snuggling with his parents, and he would only like them, too. Having a babysitter would be useless, so Seokjin would take Yoongi everywhere, grocery shopping, to the tailor's, to his friends' houses. He was luckily far from fussy, just staying quiet as long as he could see one of his parents in the room. When in public, he wouldn't make much noise other than a snore.

When he turned three, he started actually walking, without going on his knees and crawling instead. Yoongi even then obediently stuck to his parents, and while they thought having a kid was this easy, they figured they could handle another.

And they could, even though it got harder.

Yoongi wasn't fond of feeling the baby kick until he did, shocked for a second with his tiny cheek pressed to his mom's bulging belly, and then looking up with the cutest smile. "Baby brother?" Yoongi whispered, as if it were a magical phrase.

That was just three weeks before Hoseok was born. When Hoseok was born, he was bigger than Yoongi was, but still pretty small. It didn't take long for him to start being fussy, much, much fussier and noisier than Yoongi was. He loved his parents more than anybody, but he also loved meeting new people. While Yoongi's face would have crumpled up slowly when he realized he wasn't in his mother or father's arms, Hoseok would willingly reach out to be held by anybody. If there was a gorilla with rabies in front of Seokjin, Hoseok would reach his once flabby arms out and squirm to be held by it.

Jimin was a mixture of both, like a bipolar baby.

And then, Taehyung was strange. Taehyung wouldn't like to be not cuddled, but when he wasn't, he'd wrap his arms around himself, rocking back and forth, and refusing to let anyone pick him up. His favorite toy was a purple block. Not the other blocks, just that one single purple block. He hated the other blocks. And it wasn't just the color purple or the shape, he needed that specific block. His parents brought him to numerous psychology doctors out of concern.

Jungkook was like a teddy bear, too affectionate to let go of his mom or dad, and always holding onto the person feeding him's hand when the spoon went into his mouth, and when the bottle nipple's between his lips. He loved hugs, and he had the sweetest smile, dimples from Namjoon and lips from Seokjin, the perfect combo. Jungkook also loved eating, but he very rarely gained weight. Jungkook barely got bigger horizontally, just growing the tiniest amount taller at a time.

Namjoon carefully applied a sample of red lipstick to his lips, and then pressed his lips firmly to Seokjin's cheek.

Jimin squealed with laughter. "Mama,  you have lipstick on your cheek!"

Seokjin pretended to be mad at Namjoon, but then kissed him.

"Ooh, Eomma, can I buy this?" Yoongi held up a huge eyeshadow pallet. "I saw on a video that you can use eyeshadow for brow-filling, contour, and look, this could be used as highlight."

Seokjin took the eyeshadow pallet and peered at it for a second.

"Sure. I need some new makeup, too," Seokjin shrugged, placing the pallet in the basket. "Good eye, Sugar!"

Yoongi grinned, and then slunk off for a moment to look at the text Ryan had sent him.

"Ma, ma, ma," Jungkook squeaked, one syllable coming out every time Namjoon bounced him.

"Careful, he could burp out his whole bottle," Seokjin said, stroking Jungkook's back. "Should we go get something to eat?"

"I vote yes," Hoseok said, grinning. He had a big breakfast, but he's been eating a lot more lately, because he was growing rapidly. It pleased Seokjin to see his small son liking to eat more.

"I want Iron plate," Yoongi said, putting a tube of lip gloss into the basket.

Seokjin picked it up and examined the brand. Kyra.

"Tae is way too little to eat from an iron plate. We could go to this restaurant close to the grocery store," Seokjin said. "They have kids meals as well as iron plates. Tae could get some fried tofu with soup and rice."

Tae clapped his hands on Namjoon's hip, and Jungkook tried catching one of the hands.

"Everyone seems to be fine with this idea," Seokjin said, taking Jungkook and rubbing his little pot belly.