Single Father • Namjoon + BTS!Kids

lxxix.

"Tell me what's wrong," Yoongi demanded.

He didn't understand what was going on, but when they'd all gotten back from school, he'd seen Jimin's slightly red eyes and had dragged him back to his room before anyone else could see Jimin and ask what was wrong.

Currently, they were sitting in Yoongi's bed, Yoongi with his arms crossed, and Jimin with his head hanging down.

"Spit it out," Yoongi said, and Jimin sniffled.

"I just..." He bit his lip before looking up at Yoongi. "I think I broke Lala. I touched him and one of his petals fell off. I think I killed him..."

Yoongi stared at Jimin for a long moment before closing his eyes and shaking his head. "First of all, no, you didn't kill Jin's stupid flower, and second, I know that's not all of what's up. Forget about the flower. What's really going on?"

Jimin was silent for a long moment. "Yoongi...can I give you a hug?"

Yoongi opened his mouth, but Jimin beat him to it.

"Right, sorry, I forgot you don't like to be hugged...sorry, forget about it," Jimin mumbled, turning slightly and preparing to go down the ladder, but Yoongi uncrossed his arms and reached forward, wrapping his arms around Jimin's rib cage and pulling him close.

Jimin let out a soft noise of surprise but didn't say anything for a moment, content to just rest his chin on Yoongi's shoulder. After a few minutes, Jimin pulled back. "Yoongi," he whimpered before hugging Yoongi again, resting his head in Yoongi's chest as Yoongi pulled Jimin into his lap.

"I know you all love me," Jimin mumbled, and Yoongi instinctively tightened his arms around Jimin. "I know that, but...I'm not...I'm not the same as I was...I'm different...I've changed, grown up a little bit...I'm not four anymore...but you all treat me like I'm the same, like I'm four, like nothing happened...but it did happen, it did, Yoongi...and I-"

Yoongi cut him off, hesitantly rubbing Jimin's back. He wasn't used to being in the comforting role since almost everybody he knew either feared him or didn't like him. But Jimin had always seen through Yoongi's tough exterior, his hard outer shell, to the boy underneath. He had never needed to put up false fronts for Jimin because Jimin would see through them anyway. Jimin didn't care if Yoongi was mean or if he looked scary. To Jimin, Yoongi was just his precious hyung.

"Jimin, we all love you. You. Whoever you are, whoever you want to be," Yoongi said succinctly, not one for heartfelt words, and even finding the few that he had found took considerable effort. "So stop being stupid. Besides, if you were four years old, you would only get one cookie as a snack, but now you get two."

Jimin was startled into laughing, and Yoongi felt the vibrations travel from his chest to his heart, vibrations which faded as Jimin slowly pulled away, a hesitant smile on his face. "Thanks, hyung."

Yoongi put on a tough grimace before nodding and ruffling Jimin's hair, keeping his expression neutral even though he wanted to smile at his dongsaeng. "Is that all that you were wasting your tears on? Or was there something else?"

Jimin sank down guiltily. "It's nothing big, but..."

"If you were crying about it, then it was something big to you."

"Well..." Jimin looked up from under his dark lashes. "I just...I'm trying so hard to catch up in my studies, but I just can't understand English no matter how hard I try. Miryo left early today because I got too frustrated. She said she might stop coming, but that it's up to me. I just have to try harder, but...hyung, I just..." Jimin shook his head. "No matter how hard I try, it just hurts my head, and none of it makes any sense."

"English is not a barrier when you're as cute as you are," Yoongi said, lightly flicking Jimin's forehead. "So just give up."

Jimin laughed, a sound that had been absent for years, and Yoongi felt himself yearning to force more laughter out of Jimin. "Aren't you supposed to be a good hyung and tell me to try harder?"

Yoongi rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. "You've got other hyungs to be good hyungs. I'm a bad hyung. And I'm telling you that you can't obsess over something that you can't do. Just focus on the rest. Nobody's perfect at everything."

"But, hyung, you're perfect at everything."

"Correct," Yoongi answered automatically. "But not everybody is a genius like me."

"Oh." Jimin nodded his head automatically.

"So? Anything else?" Yoongi asked, and Jimin laughed, his eyes disappearing momentarily.

"Hyung, you're bad at giving advice," Jimin said. "I know that I need to keep working at English if I want to go back to school with Tae and Kookie." He opened his eyes, but his smile remained. "But thanks, hyung. I feel better now," Jimin said before giving Yoongi a bright smile and climbing down the ladder, exiting his room and leaving Yoongi alone.

It's true that I give bad advice, but maybe that's not what I was trying to do.

Maybe I just wanted you to cheer up, and you did, so I did something good, right?

That's a new feeling.

***

Yoongi went into the kitchen a few minutes later to join the others for snack and saw Jin sitting at the table, laughing with Jimin.

"Oh, yeah. I killed one of Lala's petals," Yoongi said smoothly. "Whoops."

Jin looked up, shocked and horrified. "Yoongi!! You're not even supposed to go by Lala after what you've already done to him!"

Yoongi shrugged, ignoring Jin's fussing as he got out of his chair and ran over to Lala to check that he was all right, and as Jin ran towards Lala, Yoongi caught Jimin's eye and smirked.

Jimin returned his smirk with a dazzling smile and turned around in his seat to hug Yoongi over the chair, whispering, "Thanks, hyung."

Yoongi smiled since Jimin couldn't see his face.

As Jin turned around, however, Yoongi put on a blank expression and gently pushed Jimin off him. "Eww," Yoongi said. "Don't cling to me."

Jimin, as always, saw through his mask and smiled at his hyung, and Yoongi quickly left the kitchen, not fast enough to miss Jin saying, "Aww, you can give me as many hugs as you like, Jiminie!"

I'll never beat Jin, Yoongi thought as he went back to his room, climbing back up to his bed and staring at the ceiling. He's so hopelessly open with his feelings and words.

But then again, who did Jimin turn to? Who cheered him up?

Yoongi let a slow smile form on his face.

That's enough for me.

greek translation is out! thanks to A_Spring_Day - please check out her profile for the translation :)