"Jin?"

"Yes, Yoongi?"

"Where's Daddy?"

Jin swallowed. I'm sure I just didn't see his car. If I just keep looking, I'm sure I'll see it.

But he didn't.

"I..." I don't know, Yoongi. "I'm sure he'll be here soon, Yoongi. You know how he's always running late without us keeping him on time."

"But he's never late to pick us up."

I'm sorry, Yoongi. I don't know what to tell you...I'm scared myself. "I-it'll be fine, Yoongi. He's on his way right now. I just know it."

But five minutes later, they were still standing there, holding hands, and no familiar car had pulled up.

"...and so I was like, watch me! And then I took my shirt off and-" Wonho was saying, laughing alongside Kihyun, who looked thoroughly unamused. "Oh, hey, Yoongi and boy with Yoongi," Wonho said, stopping and looking over at them. "Who is he?"

"He's Jin, my hyung," Yoongi said, and Jin raised his eyebrows.

"Favorite hyung. Show some respect, brat."

"Stomach."

"Turtle."

"Flower."

"It's not an insult if I like to be called it."

Yoongi just rolled his eyes. "Hyung, meet Wonho and Kihyun. They're the kids in my class that I told you about."

Jin smiled. "You guys are friends with Yoongi, right?"

Wonho nodded, grinning. "Yoongi's our favorite!"

Yoongi looked at the ground awkwardly, but he was smiling slightly. "Uh, thanks..."

Kihyun smiled. "Yep."

Jin smiled down at Yoongi, proud of him for making friends. One day, that'll happen to me too.

Daddy will be here.

Any minute now.

***

Jimin, Taehyung, and Jungkook were three of the last five kids sitting in their class. At first, it had been fun. Hyukk and Jongup had already been picked up, so the triplets were able to play with whatever toys they wanted.

But after five minutes, they'd grown tired of the blocks and had put them away. Then they'd gotten bored of the action figures and the puzzles and the coloring books.

Soon, there were only two other kids besides themselves left, two girls that apparently liked Jungkook because they kept looking over at him and giggling.

"When's Daddy going to get here?" Jungkook asked, tugging on Jimin's sleeve since he was the oldest of the three.

"I don't know," Jimin said.

"He'll be here soon," Tae said, tickling Jungkook's neck. "You know how all the ladies like to treat Daddy funny. They're probably making kissy faces at him."

Jungkook laughed. "Daddy's probably scared right now," he said. "He doesn't like that."

They laughed for a second before cutting off when Jimin said, "I'm scared."

There was a moment of silence before Jungkook nodded. "Me too."

Tae put his arms around both of them. By this point, the other two girls had been picked up, and it was just them left. The teacher had already stayed after the amount of time it had taken the long finger on the clock to go around halfway, and she hadn't been able to stay any longer. They were alone. "It's okay. We have each other. And Daddy will be here soon. Any minute now."

***

Hobi stood in front of the school building.

He watched the people he thought to be his friends leave, one by one.

He waved goodbye to him.

They didn't wave back, but they hadn't really seen him, so he guessed that it was okay.

He clutched the strings on his backpack.

He was alone, like always, but this was worse somehow.

He was waiting for something that he wasn't sure would come.

And he was hungry, because he hadn't gotten to eat lunch today.

He'd forgotten - yet again - to save any for himself.

His stomach rumbled.

It'll be fine. Daddy will come and take me home and I can get something from the fridge.

It rumbled again. It hurt. Bad.

Daddy will be here.

Any minute now.

***

"What are you guys waiting for anyway?" Wonho asked, tilting his head, and his hair flopped into his forehead, displaying his big ear.

"Our Daddy's coming to pick us up," Jin explained before looking back toward the parking lot. "He'll be here any minute now." He swallowed. "Any minute now."

Wonho gave Jin a sympathetic smile before brightening as he looked over at Kihyun. "Hey, our dad's already here. He won't mind dropping you guys off at your house."

Jin gave a tight smile that he didn't really mean. "Thanks, but it's not just us. Hobi goes to kindergarten and my three youngest brothers are in preschool."

"Oh," Wonho said, but he didn't really process the words. "That's fine. Our dad is super nice."

Jin swallowed, looking back out at the parking lot yet again. "I don't know...what if Daddy comes while your dad is driving us home?"

"It's fine. Our dad works at the same place as your dad, only during the day. They have each other's numbers so we'll just send him a message."

"Oh. All right then," Jin said, checking the parking lot one last time before looking over at Wonho. "Then...I guess...if it's okay."

Wonho grinned. "Of course it's okay!" He led them out to a fairly nondescript car and leaned in the window. "DAD! YOONGI AND HIS BROTHER AND THEIR BROTHERS NEED RIDES HOME! IS THAT OKAY?!" he yelled, just to be extra.

Shownu blinked, showing no reaction to his son's volume. "Yes, son. That's fine. Just make sure everybody wears their seat belt, okay? Safety first. Check yourself before you wreck your self."

Wonho turned around and rolled his eyes at Jin. "See? It's fine," he said grinning before jumping in the front seat. "I call shotgun!"

"You can't call it after you steal it idiot," Kihyun snapped before getting in back and gesturing for Yoongi and Jin to follow him.

"Where do your brothers go to school?" Shownu asked softly, and Jin looked up, nervous.

He looks kind of scary. "U-um, Hobi goes to the kindergarten and the others go to the preschool."

Shownu nodded. "I think I know where you're talking about."

Then he started driving.

Wonho, meanwhile, took his phone and found Namjoon in the contacts, sending him a brief text.

"Did you let Namjoon know that we're taking them home?" Shownu asked.

Wonho just grinned. "Uh huh!"

***

"I'm sorry, kids. I took a wrong turn. I'm going to stop at the preschool first, all right?" Shownu asked, and Jin nodded.

"That's fine," he said. Maybe he's not so scary after all.

When Shownu pulled up to the preschool, Jin unbuckled as fast as he could and ran out of the car and into the building, searching for his brothers' classroom and barging in.

"Pardon the intr-" he started to say, but then he realized that there was nobody there with the exception of three little boys sitting in a circle and leaning on each other. "Jiminie! Tae! Kookie!"

They all jumped up, yelling and clamoring for Jin's attention and clinging to him like the desperate, scared children they were.

"Okay, okay, I'll explain later but Yoongi's friends' dad is giving us a ride home," Jin explained as he led them out to the car and helped them all inside. "There aren't going to be enough seats so Kookie can share with me and Tae can share with Jimin. Yoongi, you'll sit with Hobi when he gets in."

Shownu watched with a small smile as all the kids got situated. He was impressed with Jin, but kids kind of scared him despite his own two being so weird. "Are you all buckled in?"

"Yep," Jin answered for all of them after personally checking all of their seat belts.

"Jin is like the mom," Kihyun said, smirking as Shownu started driving.

Jin just swallowed. "I guess."

Is Daddy doing what Mommy did?

Is he too busy for us now?

Is he leaving us too?

***

They pulled up to kindergarten a full hour after the actual school had ended to find a little boy crouched down on the sidewalk. Once again, Jin got out, and when he got to Hobi, he bent down and rubbed Hobi's hair.

"Hobi, your hyung is here for you," Jin cooed softly. "I'm going to bring you home, okay?"

Hobi looked up, and Jin was surprised to see his face streaked in tears. He flung his arms around Jin's neck, and Jin hugged back, shocked. "I thought- I thought you all left me," Hobi cried. "I thought you forgot about me because I'm not you or Yoongi or Jimin or Tae or Kookie. I'm just me. I thought I was alone."

"Oh, Hobi..." Jin didn't know what to say. "That's silly, okay? That's just silly. We'd never forget about you, so don't say that, okay? Tell me that it's silly so I know that you understand."

Hobi sniffled, his voice choking up. "I-it's s-silly."

"That's right. Now come on, this other nice daddy is driving us home, okay?"

Hobi nodded and let Jin lead him by the hand to the car, where he climbed in. Yoongi instantly noticed Hobi's tears and scooched over, patting his seat, and Hobi sat down next to him before burying his face in Yoongi's shoulder.

Yoongi didn't mind, just let him do what he needed to as Yoongi carefully fastened the seat belt around Hobi.

"Is that everyone?" Shownu asked, and Jin nodded.

"That's everyone."

"All right, can you tell me where you live? Or directions?" Shownu asked, and Jin leaned forward to tell him.

***

Twenty minutes later, they were parked in front of a familiar house.

"This is it!" Jin said excitedly, and all of his other siblings seemed to sense his excitement and caught on.

They all unbuckled their seat belts and clamored out of the car before Jin made them stop, turn, and bow.

"Thank you very much, Wonho and Kihyun's dad," Jin said, and his brothers mimicked him. Then they ran to the door and knocked.

A few minutes later, Namjoon opened the door, one eye still shut. "Wha- Jin? Yoongi? All of you? Wait, what's going on?" Namjoon's eyes widened. "Oh, shi- shoot, what time is..." he muttered, checking his pockets for his phone, but he'd left it on his bedside table when he'd been woken by the banging on the door. "Oh, no, I totally forgot-"

"It's okay, Wonho's daddy dropped us off," Jin said as he went inside, followed by the other five.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry- Hobi? Were you crying?"

Hobi looked away quickly. "No!" he denied immediately, embarrassed at having been caught. "I wasn't!"

Namjoon felt absolutely horrible. "I'm so sorry..."

I forgot to pick up my kids.

Oh my gosh...

OH MY GOSH.

Someone could have taken them!

He rubbed his eyes in self-loathing. "I'm so sorry, babies, I just-" He cut off to sneeze.

"Aw, Daddy's sick!" Jin said before grabbing Namjoon's hand and leading him to Namjoon's bedroom. "You need to lie down. Yoongi?"

"Yeah?"

"Turn on the oven."

"I don't know how to do that."

"Fine, you watch Daddy." Jin looked down at Namjoon sternly. "You need to rest. I'll make you some dinner."

Namjoon went to talk but Jin shushed him.

"No! You're not resting!"

Namjoon quickly pretended to close his eyes before Jin believed him and left his room. Then Namjoon picked up his phone, wondering exactly how long his kids had been stuck waiting at school.

Over an hour.

I'm such a horrible parent...

He paused, noticing that he had one new message.

🦊🙉🐠🐄🐡🐃🦀🦐🐐🍀🌱🐖🐉🌺✨🌸🔥☄️🍓🥖🍇🥐🍏🥒🍶🍢🍻🍙🌮🎱🎤🎲⚓️📞💿📡💳🔭⚖️🗡💵🛏🎀📅📬💞✒️🔆✔️👍🏻🙏🏻❤️💢🌚 hiiiiiiii this is wonhoooooooooo :DDD let's be friend

Whoops

Fries*

No

Dang

Fried*

No wait that's wrong

I didn't meant that

Mean*

I didn't mean I'm mean

Okay

Okay wait

I can do this

F R I E N D S*

Fries*

Nope

The other one

Okay I'm done

:)

Oh and we have your kids :)