JIMIN’S POV

With the BTS album set and ready to go, I didn’t have much to do before the release and the announcement of the tour. While I was still working on my own album, the president had taken me aside and told me to stop fiddling, to let things be.

“Your songs are good, Jimin. Stop being finicky. Go home, be with your family. Soon, you’re going to be away a lot.”

So, I’d been home at night. Cooking dinner, hanging with the kids. Haru was going through an artistic phase and spent most of her time scribbling away at her newly christened art table. Sun Jae had started to crawl, the big boy. My wife spent a lot of time crouching around the apartment, cooing his name with outstretched arms to try to get him to come to her. He often would crawl right up to her legs and she’d catch him in her arms and roll onto her back, holding him up and peppering his laughing face with kisses.

It was my favorite thing to watch.

“Daddy, what are you makin’ for dinner?” Haru’s curious little face peered around the edge of the kitchen archway.

“Curry.”

“Ugh,” Haru rolled her eyes. “I don’t like curry.”

“You don’t have to eat.”

“I wan’ spaghetti.”

“You ate spaghetti for lunch.” Her mother reminded her. She came into the kitchen with Sun Jae on her hip. “Why don’t you just try the curry? It’s got chicken in it.”

“And peppers.” I added.

My wife shot me a confused glance. “What kind of curry has peppers in it?”

“Uh, Thai curry. Duh.”

“Oh. Well, it smells good. When will it be done?”

“Like, ten minutes. Haru, did you put your paints away? You have to make sure to put the lids on or else the paint will dry up.”

Haru sighed and trudged off to properly put her art supplies away.

“That girl has such an attitude.”

“Mmhmm,” Her mother, her spitting image of attitude, agreed.

“I love it, though.”

She rolled her eyes. “You love everything Haru does. You’re so obsessed with her.”

I shrugged. “She’s adorable. Sue me.”

My wife plopped down in a chair and lifted her shirt for Sun Jae to nurse. He looked around at me before latching on.

“Don’t you feel like he’s growing up way too fast? He’s seven months already.”

“Time is flying by,” I agreed. “Makes me sad.”

“How long is BTS on tour for?”

“Just a month, this time. Doing an Asian tour. The world tour will probably be in October, after my solo tour.”

She leaned down and pressed a kiss to Sun Jae’s forehead. “Will you be away that entire time?”

“No…we’ve got a few shows around the country in the beginning. Maybe like…a week here? And then our ending show is in Seoul. I think we’ll have a couple of days off in between traveling and the last show, so I’ll hopefully be home.”

“So…album release in March, tour starts in April?”

“Yeah, it’s sooner than usual this time. President wanted to get my album out before the world tour.”

“It’s a busy year for you, Chim.”

I shot her a quick, searching glance. “Yeah, it is. You still thinking of coming with me on tour?”

“On your tour, or on all the tours?”

“On my tour. I think it’d be tough for you guys to come on the BTS tour. There’s just so many of us traveling at once.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

There was a brief pause.

“So…what are you thinking? About my tour?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna come.” She tapped her finger against her lips, pondering. “I’m gonna come for a week or two on BTS’ tour, too. Do some interviews, get a feel for the backstage life. Oh, you know, I’ll bring a photographer, too.”

“Now, there’s a thought. What would we do with the kids and the pets?”

Yukon lumbered into the kitchen and pushed his nose against my palm. Hollis, from his usual spot on top of the refrigerator, hissed at him.

My wife yawned and Sun Jae unlatched to stare at her in bemusement. “Definitely take Sun Jae, since I’m still feeding. Ah, maybe I can wean him by then.”

“He won’t yet be a year.”

“Well, I’ll take him. I’ll miss him too much if I’m away from him for that long.”

“I’d like it if he could come.” I chimed in quietly. “I miss him, too.”

“Haru can spend the week with your parents?” She suggested, raising her eyebrows at me. “Or my parents.”

“Not your parents.”

She sighed. “Jimin. They’re her grandparents, too, you know.”

“Yeah, but I’d rather she doesn’t spend a concentrated amount of time with them without our supervision. Your parents hate me. I don’t want my daughter in that kind of an environment.”

My wife pushed a stray curl out of her face, mouth tugging down into a pout. “They’re my parents, Jimin. They raised me and I turned out fine.”

I said nothing, just let a pointed silence fill the room.

“I turned out fine.” She said again, an edge to her voice. “I’m a good mom, Jimin.”

“I never questioned your parenting skills. But…I’m pretty sure your parents are the reason you have intimacy issues.”

She scoffed. “I don’t have intimacy issues!”

“I don’t wanna fight with you.”

“Then don’t start a fight, Jimin.”

I turned off the stove with an impatient flick of my wrist.

“I’m just saying. Your parents hate me; that’s the truth. The last time you saw them they set you up on date. Haru isn’t spending time with them because they’re going to poison her against me.”

“They’re not, Jimin. They’re only trying to poison me against you.”

Ignoring her, I popped the top on the rice cooker and spooned some rice into a bowl, then ladled some curry over it.

“Here.” I set it down on the table in front of her, then tossed her a spoon. It clattered against the wood and she looked up at me in surprise, but I plucked Hollis from on top of the fridge and cradled him in my arms.

“Haru, dinner!” I called into the living room. Hollis meowed in outrage and batted at my face.

“’M not hungry.”

I poked my head back into the kitchen. “I’m gonna leave this one to you. I’m not hungry, either.”

My wife made her exasperation clear through a long-suffering sigh and a roll of her eyes.

“Jimin, don’t be petty.”

“Haru’s not staying with your parents. That’s final.”

“Okay, first of all, don’t order me around. Second, I just suggested it in case your parents couldn’t take her. I’m not insisting that she stays with them, but you can’t just ban her from ever staying with my parents.” She paused to take a bite of her food. “Listen, I’m not my parents’ biggest fan, but they’re not gonna up Haru. She loves you, so, so much. Also, we can’t protect her from my parents’ opinion of you forever. She’s gonna find out someday.”

“I’d rather that day be much later in the future.”

“Well, let’s not argue about something hypothetical. Let’s not fight over my parents, again, okay?”

I sulked in the bedroom with the cats while the rest of my family ate dinner. I wanted to eat; I’d made one of my favorite meals, but I didn’t want to be around my wife. Just feeling petty.

A small knock sounded on the door, and then Haru pulled it open and crawled inside, panting like a dog. Yukon trotted in next to her, his tongue also sticking out.

“Dada. Dada, Dada,” Haru called to me in her special baby voice. She loved to mimic what she thought a baby sounded like, which was impressively bad, considering she had a baby brother to take as an example.

“Are you a baby or a puppy?”

“I’m a baby puppy.”

“Ah. A new fusion creature, eh?”

“Mhm.”

Haru clambered onto the bed and laid down on my lap. Maya rubbed her face against Haru’s cheek, but Hollis retreated under the bed.

I heard excited little huffs coming from the hallway and, sure enough, Sun Jae crawled into the room with a wide smile on his face. My wife followed behind him, hovering to make sure he didn’t topple over.

Sun Jae crawled over to the foot of the bed and shouted incoherently until his mother picked him and placed him carefully next to me. Maya’s tail flicked his face and he sneezed, adorably.

“Mama, you come up, too,” Haru whined. “Come here, Mama.”

She sat down on the bed next to me and played with Sun Jae’s dark tuft of hair.

“Did you know it’s almost bath time?” She asked Haru. Haru grumbled and buried her face in my shirt.

“And bedtime.” I added.

“I wanna watch a movie! I wanna watch Belle.”

“We can watch Beauty and the Beast, if you take a bath first,” I kissed the top of her curls. “Okay?”

“’Kay.”

Haru scampered off to get undressed and my wife and I exchanged looks.

“Sun Jae needs a bath, too. Let’s just do it together.” She said.

“Fine.”

HER POV

Haru could get a little wild in the tub, and Sun Jae could get a little angry at her. His angry cries were the cutest cries! Perhaps I was a delusional mother, but his little tantrums could be very adorable. I liked seeing him sticking up for himself when Haru . She could be a bit of a brat to him, with pinching and pulling his hair. She also liked to him, which was odd. Four year olds were so strange.

“Mama! I don’t wanta take a bath. I don’t wanta take a bath with Sun Jae.”

“I know, baby. But it’s a siblings bath! It’s a special bath!”

“A special bath?”

“Yeah, baby. We’re gonna put bubbles in and Daddy’s gonna sing songs while we wash your hair!”

“Is it a shampoo day?” Haru cocked her head at me and brushed her fingers through her curls.

We only shampooed Haru’s hair once a week. Curls didn’t require the same shampoo method that straight hair did, so we used a sulfate free shampoo once a week, then cleansed with a botanical conditioner the rest of the time. I did the same with my hair. I’d tried to convince Jimin to use a botanical conditioner to try and nurse his poor, overly dyed hair back to health, but he said it made his hair feel greasy. Nourished was the correct word, but hey. At least he had good skincare habits.

Jimin crouched down and gingerly placed Sun Jae in the tub.

“Sun Jae is nakeeeeey.” Haru sang. “I’m gonna be nakey, too.”

“Yup,” Jimin kissed the top of Sun Jae’s head. “Come on, little girl. Get yourself in this bathtub.”

Haru threw her clothes off haphazardly, and her underwear landed on my head. She burst into delighted, devious giggles while Jimin stifled a laugh. Sun Jae laughed, too, as he always did when people laughed.

“Gross.” I plucked the underwear off of my head and tossed it into the laundry basket. Haru kissed my forehead and called me “underpants head.”

While I lathered up Haru’s hair, Jimin squirted some baby shampoo on Sun Jae’s locks. Our baby had straight hair, but it could grow in curly later on.

“Mama, I wanna get married.”

“That’s nice, baby.”

“I wanna marry Uncle Jin.”

“I know, baby.”

“I miss him. We should see him sometime.”

Jimin cleared his throat. “Uncle Jin is gonna stop by tonight, actually. He needs to borrow something.”

I turned to Jimin in surprise. “What does he need to borrow?”

“Um…some tapes.”

“Tapes?” I repeated incredulously.

“Yeah. For his weddings. Home videos of BTS.”

“Jimin, it’s been at least fifteen years since anyone used video cassettes. Tell me a more believable lie.” I playfully shoved him with my shoulder.

He giggled. “I’m not lying. Jungkook and Yoongi went through a phase where they used this really old camcorder and took videos of all of us. Kookie is, like, fourteen in all of them.”

“That’s so cute! Why do you have them?”

“I am one of the most responsible people in the group. Besides Jin. But Jin didn’t want to take them because he was moving at the time, or something? Anyway, they’ve been in a box in our storage unit for a while.”

“Our storage unit?”

“Yeah, like, our apartment storage unit. In the basement? Baby, I know you knew about this.”

“I didn’t. For real, I didn’t!”

Jimin grinned at me and leaned in to kiss my forehead.

“Mama! What was your wedding like?”

“Ah, let’s see,” Jimin leaned back on his heels and smiled. “Mama wore a beautiful dress and some high heels, even though she was pregnant with you. Uncle Jin was the best man.”

“Daddy cried when I walked down the aisle.”

“Daddy, you cried?!” Haru gasped.

“Yup. Cause Mama just looked so beautiful in her wedding dress.”

“Mama, I was in your belly, right?”

“Yeah, baby girl. You were.”

Haru heaved a sigh and dropped her arms into the tub with a splash. Sun Jae whipped his head around in surprise, eyes wide.

“I wish I could remember bein’ there.”

“Most kids don’t attend their parents’ weddings.” Jimin replied. “Although that’s very cute of you.”

“Why don’t they attend?”

“Most of the time, they’re not alive. They haven’t been born yet.”

The doorbell rang. Jimin had his hands full with Sun Jae, so he winked at me.

“Get the door, would ya, babe?”

“Yeah, okay.”

Jin stood at the door, looking soft and sweet with mussed hair and round, wire-rimmed glasses. He had on a pink turtleneck and light wash skinny jeans, paired with white Adidas. He looked absolutely adorable.

“Hey, sunshine.” He leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Good to see you.”

“You, too. We’re just giving the kids a bath. Wanna come in and say hi?”

“Yeah.”

He followed me into the bathroom, face breaking into a smile when Haru shrieked at the sight of him.

“Uncle Jin! Uncle Jin, you’re here! You’re here!”

“Hey, little love! I missed you!”

She leaned over the rim of the tub to whisper conspiratorially. “I don’t have any clothes on, Uncle Jin.”

“Well, I think the present I brought you could do something to remedy that.”

Haru clapped her hands over in excitement. “You brought me a present? Is it a unicorn?”

Jin gasped. “How did you know? Are you…are you magic?”

“No!” She giggled in delight. “I’m not magic! Are you magic, Uncle Jin?”

He shrugged. “Maybe, baby. Maybe I am.”

Jimin picked Sun Jae out of the tub, toweled him down, and put a new diaper on him. He pulled on Jimin’s hair with a giggle.

“Love you.” Jimin whispered, then kissed his cheeks, belly, and chubby little toes. He gently dried Sun Jae’s wet hair, then gestured to Jin. “Seokjin, wanna hang out with my baby? He’s really cute.”

“Yeah.” Jin replied with the softest smile. “I do. Thanks, Jiminie.”

“Nooo.” Haru whined. “I wan’ Uncle Jin to play with me.”

“Sunflower, Sun Jae wants to get to know Uncle Jin, too.” Jimin patted her head. “Go see Mama.”

Her lower lip stuck out in the biggest pout I’d ever seen. Jin took hold of her hand and kissed it.

“Hey, sweetheart. I’m here to hang out with you, too, okay? There’s enough of me to go around.”

Haru threw herself against him in a giant hug, almost toppling Sun Jae from his arms. She was definitely off to a good start with the sharing.

Jimin went down to the basement and left Jin and I on the couch with the kids. Our knees brushed, but I moved mine away almost immediately. Jimin must have felt better about our relationship if he was fine with Jin and I being alone together. Or he thought that we couldn’t do anything with the kids around.

“Mama, I’m cold. I want my pajamas.”

“Go pick some out!”

“Actually, Haru, I have a little surprise for you.” Jin pulled out a paper bag from the side of the couch. “This is for you!”

“Right, unicorns!” Haru snatched the bag out of his hands and rifled through it.

“Haru! You don’t grab a gift out of someone’s hands without saying thank you first.”

Jin waved his hand with an indulgent smile. “It’s fine, sweetheart. I’m just glad she’s excited.”

“You didn’t have to get her a gift, you know.”

“I know. I like to. Besides, it’s been a while since I’ve seen her.”

“Unicorn pajamas!” Haru screeched. She pulled the shirt over her head, and Jin helped her put the arms through the shirt. “Uncle Jin, I love these!”

“I love you, princess!” Jin kissed the top of her head.

I had missed this. I was glad I could spend fifteen minutes with Jin without feeling awkward or wistful. Or anything else besides friendship.

“Hey, I’m back,” Jimin eased into the apartment, holding a dilapidated cardboard box. “Jinnie, I found all of them.”

“Jimin! That’s awesome. Should we watch them?”

“Yes. Luckily for you, my wife refuses to get rid of the videotapes from her childhood and we are one of the few families in Korea with a VHS player.”

“Um, you should be grateful to me. We can watch me in my childhood glory at any time.”

“Yeah, because we all wanna see that,” Jimin rolled his eyes.

Jin leaned forward, elbows on his knees and a small twitch of a smile. “My interest is piqued. Tell me, were you anything like Haru?”

“Twins. Carbon copies. Clones, even,” my husband muttered as he fiddled with the tapes. “Haru just looks like me. She has none of my personality.”

I disagreed with this conclusion. “She gets her love of performance from you. And her love of cuddling.”

Jimin pushed a tape into the slot and the screen on the television went fuzzy, then a video played.

A very young and rather short Jungkook walked into the living room of Bangtan’s first dorm room. Jimin and Jin were cuddling on the couch under a blanket. In the frame, Taehyung placed his head in Jimin’s lap; Jimin carded his fingers through Taehyung’s hair. Namjoon strode in, humming a little tune.

“That’s Uncle Joonie!” Haru pointed as she jumped into Jin’s lap.

“Yeah, and look, there’s Uncle Yoongi and Uncle Hoseokie coming in.”

“Mama! Why aren’t you there?”

“Daddy and Mama hadn’t met yet,” Jimin answered her. “Jeez, look how young I am. You too, Jin.”

“I like Namjoon’s hair,” Jin replied with a thoughtful purse of his lips. “That blonde mohawk did him a lot of favors.”

“Jimin, I like your black hair. And your seriously chubby cheeks,” I smiled at him and he came and sat down next to me on the couch, our thighs pressed together.

“I love you,” he whispered into my ear. Feeling a little tingly and rather affectionate, I kissed his cheek. I wished Jin weren’t around so I could send Haru to her room to play and make out with Jimin on the couch.

Jimin kissed me quietly, casually. Jin cleared his throat and tugged at the collar of his turtleneck. I didn’t feel particularly comfortable kissing in front of Jin, and Jimin knew that. He just didn’t care. Marking his territory or just stubbornly demonstrative?

Haru yawned hugely. I glanced at the clock and realized that it was close to her bedtime. “Daddy, I wan’ to take a nap.”

Jimin broke away from me and grinned at her. “I’ll do you one better and tuck you into bed for the night.”

She clung to his hand as he walked her to her bedroom, both of them yawning.

Jin turned to me. “You gonna teach me how to be a good parent?”

“You’ll be an excellent father, Jin,” I patted his knee and instantly regretted it. Casually touching him felt inappropriate.

He nodded, then placed his hand on the knee I’d just patted.

“I want to be a good father,” he mumbled. “I want my child to grow up in a loving family.”

“Do you think you can love Anjali?”

Jin lifted his head, pretty eyes gazing into mine. He shrugged. “I want to try. I like her, you know. She’s a quality person, and she’s put up with a lot of from me. I don’t deserve her.”

“You deserve to be happy,” I said. “You deserve that kind of love.”

“I just wish I could reciprocate it,” Jin replied, quietly. “She deserves love, too.”

He took my hand in his and squeezed it, very gently.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

I bent my head, eyes focused on our interlocked hands. “For what?”

“For being easy to love.”

He kissed my cheek, the softest of kisses, then turned away, clearing his throat. I watched the blush burn on the back of his neck and his ears.

My hand was still clasped in his. I tugged it away and wiped it on my pants, as if to remove all traces of his touch.

“Jin, please just stop already.”

He looked down at his empty hand, crestfallen. “Sorry.”

“I thought we were past this,” I murmured. “Thought you were at a point where we could be friends.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be at that point.”

Jimin stepped out into the hallway, smiling fondly into Haru’s room as he eased the door closed. Sun Jae let out a little yelp when he spotted him and clumsily crawled over to his father.

“Haru was sad we didn’t watch Beauty and the Beast. I felt bad, but I didn’t realize how late it’d gotten.”

Jimin crouched down and scooped up Sun Jae. “Baby, you wanna feed him and then I’ll put him to sleep?”

“Sure. Can you get me my cover?”

Jimin squeezed in between me and Jin on the couch and hooked the cover over my neck so that it hid Sun Jae nursing under the cloth.

“How many home videos do we have left?”

“Oh, about seven,” Jin replied. “I’m not sure which ones I’ll use in the wedding video.”

“When are you guys getting married?” Jimin asked. He rested his hand on my thigh, squeezing gently.

Jin sighed. “We’re having our Korean wedding in a few weeks. And then, like two weeks after that is our Indian wedding. We have to get it done before she starts to show.”

“Yeah, I remember that feeling,” Jimin shook his head. “Glad that’s over.”

“Her parents are moving back to India. Her dad is retiring, so it’s really perfect timing for her that we’re getting married.”

“Is she going to become a Korean citizen?”

Jin shrugged. “You know how hard that is. I don’t know if it’s worth it. I mean, she’s already got a job and a place to live. It’s not like she’ll get deported.”

“And if she does, for some reason?”

“I guess we’ll just move to India? I haven’t thought about it. She’s not going to get deported.”

“Yeah, but her visa might not get renewed or something like that,” Jimin continued.

Jin cut him off. “Then we’ll just move. It’s not like I can’t come back here for work.”

“Yeah, but you’d be away from her a lot,” I pointed out. “And your baby.”

He smiled to myself. “My baby. That has a nice ring to it.”

Jimin patted his shoulder. “You’re gonna love being a dad. I love being a dad.”

On the television screen, Jimin and Jungkook were arm wrestling. Jimin won, easily, time and time again. Jimin chuckled to himself.

“Back when I was the muscle pig and Jungkook was prepubescent.”

Jin came on the screen, laden down with dishes. Taehyung and Namjoon sprang up to help him set the food down on the table and everyone sat down to enjoy Jin’s home cooking.

“Oh, I remember this,” Jin rested his head against Jimin’s shoulder. Jimin his hair, looking so fond.

“Yeah,” he said softly, “it was my birthday. You made all that food for me and then we had cake.”

“How old were you?” I peered closer to see if I could determine Jimin’s age.

“Uh...eighteen, I think. Maybe seventeen?”

“You were young,” Jin sighed. “So young and so cute.”

“I’m still so cute.”

Sun Jae unlatched and I handed him to Jimin with a kiss and a smile. Jin swooped in and kissed Sun Jae’s chubby cheek.

When Jimin went off to put Sun Jae to sleep, Jin put an arm around my shoulders and kissed my temple.

“You look happy, sunshine.”

“I am, Jinnie. I am.”

Jin left soon after that. Jimin and I snuggled into bed together, bundled up in each other’s clothes.

“That was nice, wasn’t it?” Jimin hummed into my hair.

“Yeah. It was really nice.”

“Nice to be friends with Jin again. He seems better, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, a lot better. I think he’s finally starting to let himself be happy.”

“He’s gonna be a good dad. I hope he and Anjali are happy together. I want him to fall in love with her.”

“Me too.”

Jimin kissed my forehead. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pulled him close.

“Today was a good day. A really good day.”

“I’m sorry for fighting with you about your parents,” Jimin traced my lips with the tip of his finger.

“I’m sorry I have weird parents who hate you,” I kissed his nose. “But I love you and Haru and Sun Jae love you, and that’s all that matters, right?”

Jimin smiled at me, the sweetest, softest, closed-lip smile. “Yeah, baby. That’s all that matters.”