Today was Yoongi’s 6th birthday. And just like on Hoseok’s birthday, Namjoon and Seokjin found themselves in the kitchen mixing pancake batter with white chocolate morsels in it this time. Of course Seokjin retaliated, stating that breakfast was supposed to be healthy , but Namjoon brought back that old excuse that he knew Seokjin just couldn’t deny. “Baby… It’s his birthday.”

So, with a deep sigh, he allowed it. Again.

However, unlike Hoseok’s birthday where Hoseok was the one to wake them up, Namjoon and Seokjin woke up first. There was no doubt that Hoseok was also awake and was just waiting in his room for Yoongi so he could be the first to wish his older brother a happy birthday.

But it was a Saturday. Yoongi never woke up early on weekends. “You sure Yoongi doesn’t have a job we don’t know about, Jinnie Bear?” Namjoon laughed one day. “The boy sleeps like he’s the one caring for two kids.”

Jin could only shrug his shoulders because he had no idea why Yoongi was always so tired. Even on his own birthday, he still didn’t manage to wake up early. Looking at the time, it was already ten o’clock in the morning. He wondered aloud if he should wake Yoongi up. He didn’t want his sleep schedule to get messed up.

But honestly, he doubted that it would anyway. Yoongi would probably sleep for an entire day if his Dads would let him.

“Namjoon, why do you have the stove on so high?” Seokjin groaned as he turned the knob down himself. “The pancakes are gonna scorch like that.”

“I know how to make pancakes, Jin.”

“You also know how to burn a house down, Namjoon, so I’m gonna make sure do it right.”

Namjoon rolled his eyes. Jin was always insulting his cooking. Yeah, he admits it, he’s pretty bad at cooking, but he could manage a simple pancake recipe. Him and his older brothers ate it all the time when they were younger in America so he at least wanted to be responsible for the pancakes since Jin was in charge of cooking everything else.

He also wanted to prove that he didn’t need Seokjin’s help all of the time. So he was grateful when there was a series of hard knocks on the front door and Jin quickly ran to answer the door. Expecting only a few knocks, like usual, the knocking only persisted as the person on the other side of the door began making an entire beat out of the sounds. It was a song that Seokjin instantly recognized the song as one of G-Dragon’s newer songs.

That could be only one person.

“Jiyong!” Seokjin smiled opening the front door and pulling the slightly shorter male into his embrace. It took him a moment or two actually realize Jiyong when he opened the door because his hair was freshly dyed. He couldn’t help but be slightly taken aback by the bright orange color of his hair.

“Seokjin!” Jiyong greeted in return as he moved into the house. “That’s gotta be my brother in the kitchen. Because I smell our famous pancakes!” Jiyong sniffed dramatically and rubbed his hands together. Seokjin laughed as he heard Namjoon yell “You know it!” in response.

Jin honestly must’ve been staring pretty hard at Jiyong’s hair because he didn’t even notice Heechul coming up the porch stairs and almost shut the door in his face. “He looks like a cheeto, I know. I laughed at him as soon as I picked him up from the airport,” Heechul chuckled, placing a light kiss on Jin’s cheek in greeting.

“It’s not ugly ,” Jin reassured. “I’m just surprised that it’s so… bright.” After letting Heechul in, Jin closed and locked the front door before following Heechul into the kitchen. He was proud to see that Namjoon hadn’t gotten distracted by the presence of his brothers and was still closely watching the pancakes in the pan while he conversed with Jiyong.

“Where’s the birthday boy? I flew all the way out here for him and Hoseok,” Jiyong said looking around.

“Yoongi’s sleeping,” Namjoon said, pouring the last of the pancake batter into the skillet.

“Well wake him up.”

“No, Ji. He’ll probably get-”

“UNCLE JIYONG!” The screeching yell was so loud that both Seokjin and Namjoon both were ready to instinctively drop everything and dart towards the boys’ room. A yell was almost always an indication that something was wrong. But after a quick second, it dawned on them that Hobi was just being… Hobi.

“HOSEOK!” Jiyong yelled with the same amount of enthusiasm as Hoseok rushed into his arms clad in his favorite superhero pajamas. Seokjin hoped Yoongi wasn’t disturbed by the yelling. “Where’s the birthday boy at?”

“He’s still sleeping,” Hoseok pouted. The pout didn’t last long as Jiyong snuggled the boy close to his chest and kissed his face all over. “Well that's okay. I missed you, Hobi.”

“I missed you more, Uncle Jiyong.”

“Wow, you weren’t that excited to see me last week when I came,” Heechul said bitterly. “I’m so hurt, Hoseok.”

“Shut up, Heechul,” Jiyong laughed, kissing Hoseok’s forehead a few more times endearingly. “He misses me.”

“Uncle Jiyong. What happened to your hair?” Hoseok asked with a curious pout to his lips as he twirled the tips of Jiyong’s hair between his small fingers.

“He ate too many Cheetos while he was on tour,” Namjoon commented to which Jin chuckled. “Now his hair is orange.”

“And your dad hit his head one too many times as a child and that’s why he’s so clumsy and stupid,” Jiyong shot back.

“Tell that to my high IQ” Namjoon said. Right after, there was a thump to the back of his head. “Stop cursing around Hoseok,” Seokjin scolded. “Now hurry up and get that pancake before it burns.” As Namjoon put the last pancake on the plate, Jin pulled out a few forks and the boys’ favorite syrup that took him three different store visits to find.

“Joonie, can you go get Yoongi out of bed while I set the table?” Seokjin questioned. Still sulky about the hit to the back of his head (which hurt by the way), Namjoon uttered a “fine” before moving to the hallway leading to the rooms.

“Whipped,” Heechul called after him. When Namjoon was sure that Hoseok wasn’t looking at him, he quickly threw up the middle finger and mouthed, “ you.” While Namjoon did that, Jin left Jiyong and Heechul with Hoseok while he moved into the dining room. Placing the plate of perfectly stacked pancakes onto the center of the table, Seokjin was startled by a sudden vibration in the pocket of his pajama pants. He wondered if it was Junmyeon informing him that he was outside. But Kris and Junmyeon weren’t supposed to be here until after breakfast.

It could also be Jeonghan calling because he’d told Jin the day before that he had bought Yoongi a gift and wanted to give it to him personally.

Expecting the caller ID to say Hannie when he pulled the phone from his pocket, he was surprised to see that it was in fact the children’s clinic calling him. He sat the syrup down onto the table and answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Hello! Is this Kim Seokjin?” A pleasant, and quite familiar, female voice exclaimed.

“Yes, this is Seokjin.”

“Hi! This is Dr. Im, Yoongi’s nutritionist.”

“Oh! Hello, how is your morning going?” Seokjin greeted. In all honesty, Jin couldn’t care less about how her morning was going; he was only worried about why Dr. Im was calling her when they’d just had Yoongi’s follow up appointment a few days ago. And if the matter was about Yoongi in the first place.

“It’s going fine actually. I was calling because I was having a conversation with a few of my colleagues here at the clinic while going through Yoongi’s files We discussed his symptoms and we don’t believe that he has an eating disorder… Yet.”

Jin was actually feeling hopeful before she added that last word. Yet… What is that even supposed to mean? “Can you explain please?” Jin sighed leaning some of his weight onto the back of one of the chairs. He was suddenly hard to even stand on his own two feet.

“Yoongi’s symptoms are leading more towards social anxiety than an eating disorder. However, we’re lucky to have caught this so early because that anxiety could lead to body dysmorphia and later on anorexia nervosa or bulimia. We don’t want that.”

Jin could breathe a little more now. It was pleasing to hear that this wasn’t an eating disorder. While anxiety was definitely something to take seriously, he felt more comfortable dealing with anxiety because his sister also had very severe anxiety when they were younger. Sometimes she wouldn’t even leave the house, afraid that someone would judge her. He felt more prepared for this.

“If you would like, I could make Yoongi an appointment right now to the pediatric psychiatric unit which is one the first floor of the clinic. I’m already logged into the clinic’s system.”

“I would really appreciate it. Can I have your earliest appointment on Wednesday?”

“Got it… Your appointment is for 8:30.”

“Thank you so much,” Jin sighed, suddenly feeling uneasy. He didn’t like having to take Yoongi to the clinic so many times. It would only make him think that something was wrong with him and that was the last thing Seokjin wanted for Yoongi. Especially if he had social anxiety.

“Of course. And tell Yoongi to have an amazing birthday. I see that it’s today.”

“I will. Thank you for the call. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Jin hung up the call and collapsed into one of the chairs. He could hear Yoongi groaning from all of the love he was receiving from his two uncles and brother when he just woke up. It made Seokjin smile. His little boys deserved the world, the stars, and everything beyond that. It broke his heart to know that Yoongi was struggling with anxiety.

Burying his face in his hands, he took a few breaths. He and Namjoon could talk about this later. Today was Yoongi’s special day and he needed to be happy today because if he wasn’t, Hoseok and Yoongi would definitely notice. They were incredibly perceptive to their fathers’ feelings.

“Jinnie?” Namjoon called. Jin quickly picked his head up to look at Namjoon who was looking worriedly down at him from across the dining table. “What’s wrong? Who called?”

“That was Dr. Im.” Namjoon’s face dropped as he quickly rounded the table to sit in the chair next to Seokjin.

“Did she say that he needed any medication? What disorder is it?” Namjoon whispered, taking Jin’s hands within his own.

“No. Actually, she said that she doesn’t think Yoongi has an eating disorder. They think it’s more social anxiety.”

“Well… that’s better, right? In America, anxiety is one of the most diagnosed disorders every year. With experience, we know how to take better care of him,” Namjoon said hopefully. He raised one hand to softly caress Jin’s cheek.

“I’m just scared for him,” Seokjin sighed, his voice almost a whisper. He was trying with all of his strength not to cry with Yoongi and Hoseok in the other room.

“I am too. But Yoongi will be okay. We’ll take him to a therapist who will help him live with this anxiety and help us care for him too. Okay? Now stop crying.” Namjoon ran his thumbs across Jin’s cheeks as he sniffed. “We have to eat now or the pancakes will get cold. And I damned sure don’t want any cold pancakes and neither does Yoongi on his birthday.”

Jin giggled and raised his hand to slap Namjoon once again for using profanity but Namjoon grabbed his wrist before he could. “It’s not a curse word, and the kids can’t even hear me.” With a quick kiss to Jin’s lips, Namjoon stood and called everyone into the dining room.

Eating pancakes was as messy and eventful as it always was, especially with Jiyong and Heechul here. It only took about ten minutes for Yoongi to wake up and get out of his usual grumpy state when he was woken up by someone other than himself which was a good thing considering the fact that Kris arrived with their kids and a birthday cake not too long afterwards. Jin frowned when he didn’t see Junmyeon along with them.

“He got a call right before he left home,” Kris said, carrying the considerably large cake to the dining room and putting it carefully on the dining table. “It seemed urgent but he left so quickly that I didn’t even have time to ask him what was going on.”

“Do you think everything is okay?”

“I’m sure everything is perfectly fine. Junmyeon usually over exaggerates situations so don’t worry too much.”

With the reassurance, Seokjin decided that Kris was right. Junmyeon was just naturally worried about everything and tended to make things seem like more than usual. But why did he have such a bad feeling about this. “I get it. It’s hard not to worry, but that’s just what we, dads, learn to do when you get kids,” Kris chuckled. Jin laughed along because once again, he was right.

Just like he had planned for Hoseok’s birthday, Jin thought it would be a good idea to sit in the living room and do karaoke. Everyone would have fun and the house wouldn’t get too messy that Seokjin would have to stay up until the early hours of the morning cleaning up the house like he’d done last time.

It was nice for a while. Luhan, Yixing, and Minseok singing their favorite girl group songs- well Junmyeon’s favorite songs. Kris commented that he should stop letting Junmyeon pick the music on the way to bring the kids to school every morning.

They were able to witness Jiyong turn into G-Dragon right there in front of everyone while he rapped along to a few of his own songs with his brothers. Everyone else found it particularly funny to watch Namjoon rap. They knew he wrote songs for Big Hit and occasionally rapped, but, gosh, Jin and Kris couldn’t breathe because they were laughing so hard.

Seokjin got to sing Lion Heart by Girl’s Generation with Kris only to die of laughter again from witnessing Kris’ horrible voice, wishing Junmyeon were here to see. The rest of the song went by without anyone singing, just everyone laughing.

The best part of the day had to be when Yoongi and Hoseok’s turn came. With the information about Yoongi they’d received earlier, Namjoon and Seokjin shared a worried glance with one another as Seokjin’s heart clenched. If Yoongi in fact did have social anxiety, this wouldn’t help do anything more than send him into a panic attack. On his sixth birthday.

So with a loving hand on his shoulder from Namjoon and a quick kiss to the cheek from Jin, they quickly reassured Yoongi that if he didn’t want to have a turn then that was okay and Appa or Daddy could go instead. Yoongi sighed before looking to Hoseok who was bouncing up on his toes as he asked Yixing what song he should pick. To which the boy only brokenly spoke that “I… no know.” When Hobi gasped and used to remote to click on the song Ice Cream Cake, Yoongi smiled. “I want to try to do it…”

“Are you sure, Buddy?” Namjoon reassured, running a large hand through Yoongi’s dark hair.

“Mhm.”

“Okay then, love,” Seokjin said, moving with Namjoon to sit back on the couch as they started the song. While the melody began to play, Hoseok smiled and grabbed for Yoongi’s hand before interlocking their fingers. Letting him know that he’d be right there. If they were going to be judged, they’d be judged together. Namjoon reached for Seokjin’s hand to do the exact same as they smiled at their songs.

However, the fun turned into a catastrophe when Jeonghan arrived at the front door with a set of action figures for Yoongi and a big bag of candy. “You said that there was gonna be a lot of kids here today so I figured that I should bring some candy for them,” Jeonghan said, pushing the box and a bag of candy into Seokjin’s arms with a bright smile that was slightly mischievous.

“Candy? Are you trying to kill me?”

“A little bit,” Jeonghan smiled. “Well I only came to pass by because I have to get back home. Wish Yoongi a happy birthday for me, would you?”

“Of course. I’ll see you Monday,” Seokjin called to Jeonghan as he rushed back to his truck. Pushing the door closed with his hip, Jin placed the action figures in Namjoon’s hands who happened to be standing behind him.

“Who was that?”

“Jeonghan. He works at the restaurant with me.”

“Oh, he looks a bit familiar,” Namjoon pondered while following Jin back into the living room where everyone was watching Heechul sing some song that Seokjin recognized but couldn’t put a name to.

“Candy!” Namjoon yelled. Of course all of the kids reacted with a loud gasp, but Seokjin chuckled when Jiyong, Heechul, and Kris reacted the same way too. With a chuckled, Jin overturned the bag and allowed all of the candy to flow out and onto the floor so everyone can have whatever they liked.

“Jin, I think your phone is ringing,” Heechul said, gesturing towards the dining room where, indeed, there was the faint, familiar melody of Jin’s phone resounding. Maneuvering around the bodies on the floor, Seokjin made it to the dining room, seeing that it was Junmyeon.

“Hello? Where are you, Junnie?”

“I just pulled up in front of your house. We need to talk about something important. It’s about Bora and it can’t wait, Jin.”

Seokjin frowned. He hadn’t heard from their sister, Bora, in a few months. She was always so busy that Jin never really tried to contact her. “Is everything okay?”

“Jin, I really just need you meet me outside. Please. I don’t wanna talk about this around them.” Junmyeon’s voice was rushed and quiet. The tension in this room was completely juxtaposing the lighthearted atmosphere in the living room as the room filled with the euphonious sound of laughter.

“I’m coming.”