Single Father • Namjoon + BTS!Kids

cxlvii.

"I think you're s-supposed to-"

"I know what I'm doing," Tae snapped, staring intensely at the glass beaker through his lab goggles.

Meanwhile, Jungkook was playing with his latex glove.

"So now you're supposed t-to-"

"I know," Tae interrupted again, mixing chemicals and setting them aside before turning to the Bunsen burner. "Let's turn this bad boy on, shall we?"

"Should have brought marshmallows," Jungkook mumbled regretfully as Tae turned the gas valve knob.

"Is it supposed to be parallel or perpendicular?" Tae asked to no one in particular, and when no one came up with an immediate answer, he shrugged. "Okay, I think it's on. Now...Jimin, where's the flint?"

"Here," Jimin said, handing over the flint to Tae.

"Here goes nothing," Tae said, trying to use the flint to ignite the flame, but nothing happened. He paused and adjusted the knob before rolling his eyes. "Shit, we didn't connect the burner to the valve. Where's the rubber tubing thing?"

Jimin handed over the necessary part, and Tae gave him a look.

"You're supposed to be in charge of the instructions and the equipment, Jimin," Tae scolded as he attached the tubing.

"W-Well, actually, Jungkook was in charge of the equipment b-but he never does anything."

Tae sighed, looking over at their triplet, who had blown up the latex glove by inflating it with his own breath and was trying to tie a knot at the bottom to make a balloon. "Right, so you're on equipment duty now."

"Okay," Jimin agreed as Tae finished connecting the tubing.

"All right, now let's light this baby up." Tae used the flint and, after several unsuccessful tries, a flame appeared atop the burner. "That's what I'm talking about. Now let's put that magnesium whatever it was in the flame."

Jimin handed it over while he was skimming the instructions. "Wait a s-sec, Tae, I need to finish reading this s-step-"

"The instructions are written for unconscious four-year-olds," Tae said. "I'm pretty sure three fourteen-year-olds can handle this. All we're doing it watching the metal's reaction to heat. How hard is that? Do we really need four pages of instructions to tell us how to do it? No."

Jimin's protests fell on deaf ears, and in the end, he gave up. The three of them all stared at the burner as Tae used tongs to suspend the thin strip of metal over the flame.

Everything was fine until it started glowing, a little, then a lot, then-

"My eyes," Jimin mumbled, shutting them.

"Maybe we weren't supposed to look," Jungkook agreed, seeing bright and dark spots in his vision.

Tae's vision was also severely affected. "Well, Jimin was in charge of the instructions, so it's his fault that he didn't inform us."

***

Their teacher found out rather quickly that they'd all failed to read the lab safety warnings about how you were not supposed to look at the magnesium compound when it was reacting because it could temporarily damage your eyesight.

So, the three were sent to the principal's office, both to rest their eyes and as punishment for endangering their safety.

"There's this one spot in my vision," Jungkook said. "It sort of looks like a frog."

"My head h-hurts," Jimin said instead.

Tae paused to think. "Well, we failed the lab but we got out of class so I'd say it's about even."