cute

• e i g h t •

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮

╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯

The day had been exhausting to say the least. Kids were a handful naturally but they were made twice as worse when they were high on energy. Being excited to practice and play soccer was great, of course it was, but sometimes Jimin just couldn't keep up - especially when the kids either got into fights or simply decided they'd rather be climbing trees. Their parents usually went off to the clubhouse to catch up and gossip with other parentsand so Jimin was almost always left to deal with them on his own.

Sometimes he loved his job and other times he regretted everything. Usually it was the first option but today it was the latter.

The boy entered the apartment with a heavy sigh, throwing his keys on the nearby kitchen counter and hurriedly shrugging his jacket off to hang it on the rack right by the front door. He rushed through the living area and went directly to his room, quickly closing the door behind him.

Yoongi had been quietly watching from above his laptop screen. He had gone unnoticed, most likely because of his silent and motionless presence. From what he'd just seen, Yoongi concluded that Jimin's day must not have gone well. He closed his laptop and placed it down on the coffee table, slowly sitting up on the couch. He stretched his arms and legs out before getting up and heading down the hallway.

All was silent through the apartment with the exception of the occasional car passing by outside and so it was easy to hear through the bedroom door some childish songs playing.

Yoongi froze on the spot, suddenly hit with panic as he realised Jimin had gone into little space. Sure, he was accepting of the concept, but he had absolutely no idea how to look after the boy. He didn't even know if he wanted to. It seemed kind of weird to go along with the childlike antics. Taehyung had informed him of a few things but nothing to actually get him ready for the real situation.

Perhaps he should just leave and let Jimin do his own thing? Yeah, that seemed the best idea.

Just as Yoongi turned on his heel and took one step back to the living room the bedroom door opened. Jimin, who had an already soft and innocent look, seemed twice as adorable as he already was. Was that even possible? Maybe it was the doe eyes or the star decorated pyjamas he wore that were a size too big.

"Why were you at my door?" Jimin asked, tilting his head to the side, "do you want to pway?"

Yoongi hated baby talk but something about the way Jimin pronounced 'play' didn't make him cringe that much.

"No, I was just-"

The older boy was about to give an explanation but a frown fell over the little's lips.

"You don't want to pway with me?" Jimin asked, his eyes beginning to gleam with sadness at Yoongi's blunt decline. The older was absolutely clueless at the moment. He didn't know what to say, what to do, he didn't know what things would and wouldn't upset the boy in little space. Really, Yoongi was still finding difficulty in getting familiar with the idea of seeing Jimin act in such a way. He was not prepared to say the least.

"Uh – I," Yoongi realised that he couldn't just flat out say 'no' considering that seemed to upset Jimin. He didn't have a lot of experience with kids but he did know that sometimes they could be fragile.

Jimin ran into the hallway, grabbed the man's hand and pulled him into the bedroom where nursery rhymes were playing.

"Wook at my co – co . . . colourings," Jimin struggled a little on the last word and Yoongi realised that the boy must have trouble pronouncing his 'L's'. Sometimes, at least, because he'd heard the boy say things like 'pillow' in the past. That thought just further confused him.

"Colourings?" Yoongi repeated.

"Yeah, this is for Jinnie because he he – helps me," Jimin picked up a colouring of a girl sat in a bunch of flowers. It was definitely no masterpiece but it wasn't particularly ugly. At least the boy had somewhat of an understanding of what colours go together.

Yoongi looked from the paper to the proudly smiling boy, "helps you with what?"

"With saying stuffs," Jimin said as he plopped down on the ground, returning to his picture with a handful of multiple crayons. He picked one out of his hand and used it before putting it back, while still holding them all.

"That's nice of him," Yoongi surprised himself at how much softer his tone sounded as he sat down on the floor next to Jimin.

"Yeah!" Jimin smiled, "you sh – should make somefing for someone."

The little pushed over his colouring book, wordlessly offering for Yoongi to rip-out a page and make a 'thank-you' picture. But Yoongi had only six friends, none of which he wanted to thank at the moment. Especially not with a colouring page.

But he decided to pick up a crayon anyways.

Yoongi ripped out a relatively simple picture of a cat, getting to work on carefully colouring it black with a mixture of orange and white through its fur. He often found himself scrolling through cat pictures online after getting distracted, initially searching for a reference image to write about. Sometimes he thought it would be nice to have a pet but then he thought about having to clean up its mess and going out to buy things for it - it just seemed too much effort for a man who spends most of his time inside and on the couch.

"That l – looks so good!" Jimin exclaimed as he looked at Yoongi's picture, "who's it for?"

Yoongi twirled the black crayon between his fingers as he looked down at the picture, taking a few seconds to question why he was even sitting here doing this.

He picked up the paper and held it out to the little boy.

"For you."

woah hey there just popping in to shamelessly promote the story i just published called 'young' - if you maybe want to check it out that would be nice :)