the end of april brings calmer, warmer weather. the spring showers have begun to fade. it’s nice, warm weather, nothing like the blinding heat of summer. jungkook opens the window in their bedroom to let in some fresh air. outside, the sky is blue.

“yoongi,” he says thoughtfully from his position, “should we go to the beach this weekend?”

“you want to go to incheon?”

“eurwangni beach,” jungkook reiterates. “i kind of miss busan, right now. we could go on sunday, when everyone has the day off...”

“busan beaches are awful,” yoongi grumbles. he’s biased; daegu is where it’s at.

jungkook notices as much. “they’ve got a better social scene than anyplace else,” he points out, pulling up the curtains. “anyways, what do you say? do you want to go?”

yoongi just hauls their comforter over his head. “you know i can never say no to you.”

“funny, because you say it a lot,” jungkook teases. when he comes back to bed, yoongi skirts his fingers up jungkook’s side just to hear him yelp.

/

on sunday morning, their house is packed. namjoon is texting someone on the couch - possibly his girlfriend - seokjin is sleepily trying to slap himself awake, and jimin is having an awful rap battle with taehyung while running his fingers through hoseok’s hair as latter lies down on jimin’s lap, legs thrown over the arm of the couch. hayoung is sort of sluggish and wide-eyed, because she had to be woken up early to make sure they could get to where they needed to go on time.

yoongi is counting all their bags one more time, making sure that they have everything. he checks his wallet to make sure there’s enough money, and then he looks at all the sports equipment jimin has brought. there’s a bag full of snacks and hayoung’s food, as well as her baby bag, and then yoongi and jungkook’s duffle bag, hoseok and jimin’s bag, taehyung’s bag, so on and so forth... yoongi pulls at the collar of his white shirt, feeling a little warm already.

jungkook comes in with towels and the beach umbrella he bought two days ago; it has, unironically, an iron-man pattern. yoongi did not have the strength to say anything about it. he’s also got the picnic basket. when seokjin sees it, he calls out tiredly, “i already brought food for us, magnae. no worries.”

“oh really, hyung? i made stuff yesterday, too...”

“where is the cooler?” taehyung asks, looking around them all. “we need water and soda and ice cream in there!”

“ice cream!” jimin repeats, whooping.

“just put it all in, more food the better,” yoongi pats him.

“did you pack the sunscreen?” jungkook asks as he’s checking the cooler.

“yeah.”

“the sunglasses?”

“mhm. did you put my books in there?”

“hyung, can you please not take your books?” jimin whines, “we’re going to have fun! you’re not an old man that reads and smokes cigars on the roadside!”

“no way in hell am i playing beach volleyball with you guys, or whatever stupid game you’re gonna come up with,” yoongi says incredulously. “do you know how fast i sunburn? i’ll probably bring along my guitar or something.”

“how is all of this going to fit in the car?” jungkook asks, looking at the mess of things at their feet.

“we can fit all of our stuff in our car, and all of those people’s things will go in their car. simple.”

seokjin rubs at his eyes. “i don’t have my truck anymore, yoongi-ah, i don’t know if it’ll all fit.”

“we’re only going to take taehyung with us, so it won’t be a big deal to put stuff in the extra space, yoongi.”

“wait, why is only taehyung going with you?”

yoongi gives seokjin a raised eyebrow. “are you kidding me? the beach is like, two hours away. you’re crazy if you think i’m spending that much time in a confined space with park jimin and jung hoseok. you can take ‘em. namjoon can control those brats.”

namjoon looks up at the sound of his name. “hm?”

jimin pouts. “so we’re going with the kim parents instead of the min-jeon parents?”

hoseok, from his lap, shakes with laughter.

seokjin takes a moment to compose a sleepy glare and pinches jimin on the cheek, hard, causing him to cry out and rub his injured face. he’s grinning though, so yoongi just ignores him. there are some things you can’t handle; park jimin is one of them. namjoon goes back to his phone, wholly and utterly used to the people around him calling him a dad, and jungkook sets the basket on top of everything else. it’s like they’re moving away, with all the stuff they have.

“alright, namjoon-hyung,” jungkook calls, “help me put our stuff in our car, please?”

“sure thing,” namjoon replies, and taehyung jumps up from where he was sitting cross-legged on the couch. “i call shotgun! let me help you, jungkookie - “ he takes his duffle bag and hayoung’s baby bag, proceeding to follow namjoon down the stairs. jungkook stares after him in bewilderment before shaking his head.

“i hope he knows sitting shotgun means that he won’t be able to talk to the baby all that much,” yoongi says, amused.

“he’s staying up front with you and dealing with your awful sense of direction. i’ll be napping in the backseat, thanks.”

“no fair, you drive, you have more patience for taehyung.”

jungkook frowns. “no, why else do i have you around? i’m sleeping in the car. you drive.”

“jungkook, babe, c’mon - “

“oh my god,” jimin sighs in exasperation, “i’ll drive.”

“no,” both jungkook and yoongi snap at him.

in the end, yoongi is the one left with the responsibility of driving. taehyung realizes that he won’t be able to play with hayoung from the front seat and comes across a dilemma, standing in front of the passenger seat door with trepidation. jimin and hoseok have already gotten into seokjin’s car; the cooler is in the backseat with them. eventually jungkook pushes taehyung out of the way after strapping hayoung in her car seat. she’s burbling now, clapping her hands and playing with her cap. taehyung lights up and sits in the back with glee.

“i have never seen him willingly give up the shotgun seat before,” jungkook mutters. “aah, now i can’t nap in peace anymore...yoongi, don’t bother me while i’m sleeping, okay?”

“you need to man the gps because you didn’t want to drive,” yoongi says ruthlessly. jungkook huffs at him. “what? i want to nap too, okay. half of my entire life is sleeping.”

“yoongi,” jungkook whines. he takes up the gps anyway and puts in the address. sometimes the map itself can be weird, with glitches, and someone always has to keep an eye on it to read make sure they’re not going off course.

taehyung stars playing with hayoung right away; jungkook notices him taking out his phone just as yoongi gets on the road to follow seokjin’s car. he leans against hayoung and makes a duck face; she copies him, looking up at the camera with wide eyes.

“hyung,” jungkook starts, not really sure if he wants to know, “what are you doing?”

“taking selfies,” taehyung beams. “i’m gonna take like a hundred and send them to jimin; he’s gonna be so jealous. hayoungie, smile again for uncle tae!”

“ta!” she exclaims, and he gets it straight on camera. “ta ta ta!”

“yes, uncle tae. tae!”

“ta!”

“close enough,” taehyung acquiesces. “uncle taehyung wins first! yoongi-hyung, i’m switching the camera now, okay? ah, look here at hayoungie’s parents, pretty jeon jungkook and his lowly chauffeur min yoongi!”

“what was that?” yoongi grumbles, jungkook covering his mouth to hide a laugh in the passenger’s seat.

“nothing, hyung!” taehyung says loudly, giving them a bright smile. “so, jungkookie, what do you plan to do at the beach today?”

jungkook is opening up his phone as well, probably to text seokjin or namjoon. “i want to swim, and then play volleyball, and then make sand castles with hana. it’s going to be her first time at the beach, did you know?”

“whoa, really?!?” taehyung bounces up and down in his seat. “good thing jimin brought along his camera, we definitely have to film all of that!”

despite himself, yoongi smiles. “can you imagine her walking in the sand for the first time?” hayoung, who has just gotten the hold of running on hard wood, and flat floors, wobbling in confusion at the squishy sand underneath her feet. “she might try to put it in , actually.”

“yoongi is going to stay on the towel, under the umbrella, and not move,” jungkook predicts accurately. “him and seokjin-hyung. the 30 year olds.”

“i’m allergic to sun,” yoongi says flatly.

“then hyung, why are you going along?”

“he’s not serious,” jungkook pushes yoongi on the shoulder a little, but yoongi thinks about why he’s going; it may have entirely to do with the way jungkook’s shoulders lit up by the silhouette of light, his smile sun-kissed and open, the wind through his hair and his laughter free like the sea breeze. he’d taste like ocean salt and ice cream the next time yoongi would kiss him, probably, his fingers pruny from the water. he thinks of jungkook lying on the sand, at ease with the sound of the sea in his ears. that’s why he’s going.

yoongi clears his throat when he realizes that the car has gone silent, and that both taehyung and jungkook are staring at him. he scowls. “what?”

“come back from whatever fantasy you were in, yet?” taehyung asks, gleeful.

“i was not - “

“you had that face on, hyung,” taehyung cuts him off, “i know that face. your reasons are dirty, aren’t they, you erted old man.”

“hyung,” jungkook warns, meaningfully looking at hayoung in her car seat next to him. “besides, i’m sure that’s not why - he was probably just spacing out.” yes, yoongi would agree if jungkook didn’t sound so goddamn amused. “your ears are pink, yoongi.”

yoongi turns on the radio.

/

it takes two hours in total to arrive, the day beginning to properly shine once they get there. taehyung had spent one half of the car ride making awful noises to please hayoung and taking videos to send to jimin; the other half, he had knocked out, citing that he stayed up last night watching anime and he needed his bed rest. hayoung had spent most of the car ride making questions in her little baby language and flailing her legs. jungkook spoke to her intermittently between sipping his bottle of water and looking at the gps.

taehyung jerks awake as soon as yoongi parks, the halting of the car bringing him back to the real world. he plasters his face against the window and blinks at the blue sea visible from the horizon.

“i feel like i have two kids,” yoongi grimaces, watching taehyung gape in awe.

jungkook drags them all outside, holding hayoung in his arms. he’s wearing a simple button up with the sleeves rolled up and swimming shorts. yoongi and taehyung begin dragging their stuff to a nice spot on the beach. the second time they come back for the last and final haul, jungkook is talking to jimin about something and seokjin is taking out all the luggage he’s brought with him.

they choose a spot nearby the water, in the middle of the quieter part of the beach and the noisier part with all the people. jungkook, yoongi, and hayoung get their own umbrella, and their own towels to sit on; hoseok, jimin, and taehyung share another, namjoon and seokjin taking the last. jimin sets his stuff down and immediately runs for the water, hoseok yelling and following after him.

yoongi looks up from where he’s situated himself nicely on the floor. “what’s up with them?”

“they got themselves ready in the car, way before we even made it here,” seokjin informs them. “a person could forget that hoseok is twenty-nine.”

“age is only a number, hyung,” namjoon says gravely. he smiles - with dimples - when seokjin flicks him on the forehead.

“ah, that reminds me,” hayoung is put in yoongi’s hands as jungkook goes searching in her baby bag. he takes out two bottles; a small bottle of sunscreen for children, and another for adults. “gotta stay safe. c’mere.”

yoongi ends up slathering sunscreen over his arms, his neck, his face, his legs and feet. “what about your chest?” jungkook asks, fingers flickering over yoongi’s shoulder. “not planning to take your shirt off?”

“there is something vaguely flirty about your tone right now, jeon jungkook,” yoongi says, delighted. he leans forward and nuzzles his nose against jungkook’s cheek. “i like it.”

“ew,” taehyung pretend-retches from behind them.

yoongi rolls his eyes as jungkook works on himself, fingers working deftly over his calves, his ankles, his wrists. yoongi isn’t watching, he really isn’t, especially because all his husband is doing is putting on goddamn sunscreen but he looks so - jungkook doesn’t bother to put any past his thighs and his collarbones, places where the sun might accidentally reach. then he wipes his hands and reaches for the baby bottle; everyone else has finished lathering and have gone straight for the water.

carefully, jungkook applies sunscreen all over hayoung’s body as she squirms in yoongi’s hold. it takes two grown men to finally get her to show her tummy in front of everyone long enough to rub in sunscreen, as well gift her with raspberries to the stomach from jungkook and a session of her toes being eaten vicariously by yoongi. jungkook finishes it off by handing yoongi a sunhat, which is then put on hayoung’s head, ribbons tied underneath her chin so it won’t fall.

“buh?” she asks, hands reaching up to tug it off.

“no, baby,” jungkook pulls down her fists, “we have to keep that on, okay?”

“buh,” she repeats, a little indignant.

she forgets about it later, though, when yoongi lets her go play in the sand around them; jungkook, surprisingly, hasn’t left to join the others, simply leaning back against his hands on their towel, the umbrella giving them plenty of shade. his toes dig into the sad once in awhile, and he giggles to himself about it. yoongi’s long since pulled out a book and started a new chapter, but he can’t help but look over from his beach chair to where jungkook is lying on the ground, the apples of his cheeks already flushed.

he seems content to watch hayoung move around and play, gently navigating her hands whenever they tend to put the sand in . hayoung brought along a bucket and a shovel with the intention of making sand castles, but now she only bangs the shovel against the bucket and manages to get a couple of grain into it. she proudly shows jungkook what she dug up, and he gasps over in surprise. it’s usually a piece of plastic or some kind of throwaway gum wrapper, but sometimes she get seashells. jungkook swiftly takes those away from her hands whenever she finds them, afraid of their jagged edges cutting her hands.

she attempts - many times - to get the hat off of her head with little success when she does remember. after the fourth or fifth try she gives up and with the cutest little grumpy face yoongi has ever seen in his life, she starts playing with her toes.

jungkook snaps a picture of it, laughing. “she takes after you already.”

yoongi gives him a grumpy face too.

“you should go ahead and hang with the others,” yoongi nods his head toward where jimin and taehyung are setting up the net for beach volleyball. seokjin has already had enough of the beach, deciding to settle down on his beach blanket next to yoongi and lie down. he looks like he’s ready to take a nap. yoongi hopes that the crabs don’t get to him. namjoon is trying to swim with hoseok, who is slowly moving his hands around in an attempt to get him to go faster. namjoon looks dubious, sure he’s going to drown himself.

jungkook his head to the side. “why? want to get rid of me?” yoongi gives him a blank look. “i feel fine here, yoongi.”

“but i know you want to be hyperactive,” yoongi grumbles. “seriously, i don’t mind watching her. just go, have fun.”

jungkook bites his lip, looking over the horizon. it’s starting to get close to noon time, and there are other people around filling up the beach. they’ll have to open up the portable grill and start making food soon, before the entire place is filled with the sounds and movements of others.

“i wanted to have fun with my husband,” jungkook finally says, dragging his finger through the sand. hayoung sees it and follows, awed. “i packed...i packed hayoung a swimsuit. mom bought it for her in busan, and then i thought maybe we could go to the beach to just...”

so jungkook wanted to go on the beach to spend time with - with their family. of course. yoongi feels like he’s been smacked between the eyes; this is a family vacation, oh, oh. he’s an idiot.

to make up for the sudden silence, he rubs the back of his head. “all these years and i’m still a when it comes to these things.” sometimes, he really is.

jungkook’s mouth curls up in a smile. he leans his head on yoongi’s knee, body almost falling over completely because of how low the beach chair is. he moves hayoung so she’s out of the sand and on the towel, placing a bucket of sand on the floor in front of her to amuse her. “i didn’t want to seem pushy. it’s great that all the hyungs are here, but...i wanted to be here to with you and hana.”

“since when are you not pushy?” yoongi scoffs, earning himself a pinch. “alright, but i’m still not going in the water. i’d look like a drowned rat with this hair.”

yoongi picks up hayoung first, holding her in his arms. she’s barefoot and tickled pink, giggling when her hat hits yoongi’s head. jungkook brings along a towel tucked around yoongi’s neck in case they need it, and they immediately set their sights on taking a calm walk around the shoreline. passing by jimin and taehyung is a treat, because they’ve found other people to play with them in their game of impromptu beach volleyball. yoongi moves up toward the higher banks so that the ball won’t accidentally hit them; jungkook remains close, waving with both hands.

jimin and taehyung both pause to wave back; jimin’s orange hair is a bright beacon in between them all. there are four girls and two other guys that have joined them, evening out the team. namjoon and hoseok are still working on the swimming; namjoon, with his own lightly dyed hair, actually looks like a drowned rat. yoongi wishes he could take a picture.

“where are you going, jungkookie?” jimin shouts, cupping his hands around his mouth.

“i’m going for a walk,” jungkook yells back. “i’ll play later, okay?”

“good,” jimin grins, “i need you on my team to beat taehyung!”

“that just means you can’t beat me by yourself!”

“you wanna go, kim taehyung?!”

with a kick of his heels in the squishy sand, jungkook walks closer and closer to yoongi, even though yoongi is still waiting on the higher, drier sand. jungkook blinks up at him for a second. “say, hayoungie, do you want to walk with daddy?”

“i can carry her the entire way,” yoongi boasts, bouncing her in his arms.

jungkook rolls his eyes. “i’m sure you can, but i think she likes the sand. look, she keeps looking down.”

“hm, there might be debris, though,” yoongi points out.

“maybe from this far should be okay?” there is a good distance from the waves, constantly moving in and out across the shore. “c’mon, let her live a little, superdad.”

yoongi sets her down a little and she takes to the sand like a fish does to water. hayoung enjoys the way her toes disappear beneath the golden spread. often, she’ll kick up a big billow of it just to feel it underneath her, laughing all the while. each one of her hands is intertwined with one of her parents’.

“be careful of seashells, hana,” jungkook reminds her, pushing one aside with his feet.

“yeah,” she says thoughtfully.

“i’m burning,” yoongi says, just to get jungkook’s attention on him for a second. “it’s like, a hundred degrees.”

jungkook laughs loudly. “you’re such an exaggeration. all of you is just an exaggeration, yoongi.”

“that’s a mean thing to say to your lover,” yoongi runs a hand through his hair. it’s actually quite nice outside, noon already passing without a second glance. “do you have no consideration for my feelings anymore? am i just another - “

“stop quoting bad music, oh my god,” jungkook’s face dusts itself with pink, however. he reaches over to push yoongi slightly. the older grins, knowing that when jungkook does that, it means he’s at least the tiniest bit affected.

“i can quote even more awful things,” he begins, pulling hayoung away from a paper sticking out of the ground. “like...why are fish so stressed, nowadays?”

“i’m going to regret this.”

“because of current events.”

“that was awful,” jungkook gapes. “did you get that from jimin hyung or namjoon hyung?”

“namjoon,” yoongi snickers. “he was texting them to me last night. i don’t know what the hell he was doing but there were so many - “

“stop, i don’t want to know - “

“i could go on for like, an entire year. that’s how many there were.”

“hana-ya,” jungkook croons suddenly, “let’s move far away from your papa, okay? we’ll leave him with his awful jokes and his teasing all by himself.”

“papa,” hayoung repeats, looking up at both of them with wide eyes. her cheeks are round and chubby; yoongi melts at the sight. jungkook does too, if by the way he makes a little wounded noise is any consolation.

“the princess has spoken,” yoongi declares, “and she says that papa shall stay. too bad for you.”

jungkook argues, “she said papa because i just said papa - “

“doesn’t matter, the princess’ word is law.”

“you’re going to spoil her so much, oh my god,” jungkook says under his breath, but it’s not like it’s untrue; yoongi already spoils her a lot.

looking behind them, they see the images of their friends as tiny specs in the distance. they’ve come so far that this part of the beach has rocks littering the shore, jagged and black like obsidian, rising out of the water. they stagnantly stay in between the waves crashing against them mercilessly, beautifully glinting in the sun. there’s a woman posing on one of the rocks, wearing only a white shift, for a man who is taking pictures of her. another couple is nearby, simple watching the sea in silence, their faces shaded by a parasol as they sit haphazardly on the sand. this part of the beach is quiet, because the rocks can be dangerous for families - children can run and accidentally trip, or go in too close to the tide.

yoongi wishes he had taken the camera he knew for a fact jungkook packed. it would have made for such a pretty picture, the sight of the water gleaming. now, he continues to walk, holding hayoung’s chubby hand firmly in his own.

jungkook always looks happy and at home with the sea. he grew up around busan beaches and sunny days, so yoongi supposes it only makes sense that he looks so natural here, but it always manages to take his breath away. the beach is so far from seoul.

“when she gets older, we should teach her how to swim,” jungkook says, raising his hands so hayoung can temporarily be lifted in the air; yoongi follows the pattern and moves with jungkook. “i think she’ll love it.”

“i’m hungry,” yoongi sighs, patting at his stomach, changing the subject completely. jungkook looks down at it incredulously. “what? i’ve been hungry since the drive here.”

“you can go for days without eating, you can go a couple of minutes,” the younger argues.

“your dad is so mean to me,” the blonde grumbles.

“let’s go to the sea!” jungkook exclaims, pulling all of them gently. “hana, do you want to feel the water? say water.”

“wata,” she repeats dutifully, clambering up jungkook’s leg and holding onto his shorts. she tugs at them, wanting his attention. “dada, no.” she makes motions to be picked up, so jungkook indulges her. when in his arms, she snuggles against his neck and coos.

it’s unbearably, unnecessarily, awfully, terribly, existential-crisis worthy cute. jungkook turns to him, confused, and yoongi grimaces while clutching at his shirt. “don’t do that, you know i can’t be attacked like this anymore.”

jungkook rolls his eyes and dips hayoung’s feet in the water. she shrieks and kicks her heels, splashing water all over jungkook’s calves.

“yoongi, you come in the water too,” he beams brightly, but yoongi just scoffs. “what? i’ll get you in the water sooner or later, you’ll see!”

“yeah, whatever,” yoongi rebuts, grabbing a handful of sand and deciding that it’s a good time to stuff it down jungkook’s collar.

“what the hell - “ jungkook yells, voice high pitched, and yoongi laughs and moves out of hand’s reach. as he’s walking backward away from his husband and daughter, he hears jungkook scream, “i’m going to get you, min yoongi, just you watch.”