Single Father • Namjoon + BTS!Kids

lxxxiii.

Jin impatiently sat through his class before sighing in relief as the bell rang and the other students spilled out out the classroom, heading toward the cafeteria. He supposed that he should think of them as his classmates, but it was hard to think of them as his anything. They were two separate entities, in no way related. It wasn't a good thing, it wasn't a bad thing, it was just how things were.

After the last kid had trickled out, letting the door shut behind him, Jin let a smile cross his face as he pulled out his lunch bag. "What do we have today?" he asked, tapping the toe of his shoe against the ground. "That reminds me, I forgot to tell you. I tried making scrambled eggs the other day, only they turned out sort of pale and watery and they didn't taste very good at all so I didn't tell anyone. I didn't want you guys to taste them and think I'm a bad cook." Jin laughed nervously. "I just need time to get it right, you know. I need to practice. That's all. So when I make scrambled eggs that taste good, you'll be the first to know, and I'll let you have the first bite. Okay? Is that all right? I'm sorry for hiding it from you. I just didn't want, well, I didn't want to let you down. But later, okay? I just need more time. Oh, sorry. One second," Jin said, pausing his dialogue to take a bite out of his sandwich.

He had just opened his mouth to start speaking again when the door opened.

"Hey."

Jin stared at the newcomer. "Um...hi," he said, looking away before looking back at him. "Um...do you want something?"

"Not really," the boy said, pulling out a chair and sitting in it backwards so his chin rested on the top, his arms crossed.

"Then...why are you here?" Jin asked, frowning slightly.

"Do I need a reason to be here?" the boy asked, shrugging.

"I think so?"

"Well, maybe I'm just here for the pleasure of your company," the boy responded, and Jin hesitated. He didn't know how to deal with this sort of situation.

"Oh...um...well...I'm not...I don't...why me?" Jin finally asked, raising his eyebrows. "Aren't there kids in your class that you want to sit with?"

The boy tilted his head to the left and then to the right. "I mean, they're all right, but they're kind of boring."

"Well, I'm boring too," Jin said, mainly in an attempt to get the boy to leave him alone.

"I don't think so," the boy said, smirking. "You're more interesting than the other kids by far. All they want to do is talk about stupid things, like who likes who and stupid stuff like that. Who cares?" He shrugged.

"What makes you think I don't talk about stuff like that?" Jin asked defensively. He felt uncomfortable around the boy. Not uncomfortable in a bad way, just...unfamiliar.

The boy scoffed. "Who would you even tell? Your brother?"

Jin frowned, and the boy sat up quickly, holding up his hands.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I just- you're not like everyone else. You're interesting. You're not, I don't know. Fake. All the other kids seem fake. You seem..." The boy tilted his head, staring at Jin so intensely that Jin felt pressured into swallowing. "Real."

"Of course I'm real," Jin said softly, laying his palms down on the desk. "Why wouldn't I be real?"

The other boy laughed, and Jin realized that he didn't hate the sound of laughter, although it was still odd that anyone was laughing in response to something that he had said. "I don't know. I don't know what I mean or how to say it. You're just-" The boy shrugged, his mischievous smirk coming back to grace his thin lips. "You're interesting. I kind of like it."

Jin shrugged, ducking his head down as he picked up his juice box. "Well, okay," he mumbled. "But it doesn't really matter to me."

The boy leaned forward on his chair so that the two legs closest to the front of the room rose up. "Well, if it doesn't matter to you, then I guess you don't mind if I sit with you while you eat your lunch from now on."

Jin looked up without trying to seem as though he really cared what the boy had to say. "Don't you have to eat lunch?"

The boy laughed again. "I do. This just isn't my lunch period."

Jin's eyes widened. "Are you skipping class?" he asked, somewhat horrified at the thought even though he was stuck outside in the hallway a fair amount of times anyway.

The boy held up a hand as if to say so-so. "It's my gym hour. I have a doctor's note that says I can't participate in physical activity." His sneaky grin told Jin that it might not be quite the case.

"Did a doctor sign it?" Jin asked, his brows furrowed. He didn't quite understand this new fellow.

The boy laughed. "No. I had my dad write it and fake a signature."

Jin leaned forward, shocked. "Your dad did that? Why?"

The boy leaned forward as well as if to tell a secret. "Because I told my dad that I didn't feel comfortable changing into my gym uniform in front of all my classmates because I have low self esteem about my body, and he agreed to get me out of gym." The boy leaned back, grinning. "He's kind of a softie. But he also said that he hated gym back when he was in school, so I think that's part of it too."

"Ah." Jin looked down, knowing that Namjoon would probably never let him skip gym. "You're lucky."

"I guess, but I didn't realize that it would be so boring to wander around school by myself. Until I met you, that is. When I walked in on you talking  with you brother. What's his name?"

Jin blinked. Nobody else had ever cared to know more. They'd all stopped as soon as they'd heard that he had been caught talking to nobody. Some of them had stopped approaching him even sooner for reasons Jin wasn't sure of. He'd stopped wondering about it a long time ago. "Jimin," he said finally. "His name is Jimin." Jin smiled fondly down at his lunch, thinking of his brother. "He's younger than me by three years. He's pretty short, too. And he's sort of quiet. But he's really sweet and you sort of just want to hug him all the time."

The boy smiled. "That's nice. I wish I had a younger brother like that."

"Oh? Do you have any brothers?"

The boy sighed. "One. But he's..." The boy tilted his head. "He's not like yours. He's sort of...saucy, if I had to say anything about him. Or like...I don't know. He can be a disrespectful little brat, but he's got the face of an angel so he always gets away with it."

The bell rang and the boy sighed, letting the front legs of his chair hit the ground. "I've gotta go, but I'll be back tomorrow."

Jin shrugged, but less because he was against the idea and more because he was afraid to invest in the hope that he'd actually made a friend that he could rely on to relieve his loneliness. "All right."

"Say it."

"What?" Jin looked up, startled.

"My name. You haven't said it once this whole time. Say it so I know that you know it."

"Well, you didn't say my name either," Jin said, but he couldn't actually remember if that was true.

"Jin," the boy said shortly before crossing his arms. "Well?"

"J..." Jin hesitated, still scared to give wings to the hope that was flying inside of his heart. "Jooheon."

Jooheon smirked. "Don't wear it out," he said before walking over to the door. "See you tomorrow, Jin."

The door shut after him, and Jin smiled at the closed door. "See you tomorrow, Jooheon."

He opened his mouth, about to tell Jimin everything about what had just happened, but he shut his mouth. He would tell his invisible Jimin eventually. Later. Maybe tomorrow.

Or maybe not.

Maybe...

Maybe he didn't need his invisible Jimin anymore?