Chapter Four

Jin looked up from the table of food that he had set out. Eun-Jeong was in her high chair, already being fed her dinner. He would be giving her a few things to munch on while he ate with the others. He heard the front door open and the voicing calling out to him. “Well Eun-Jeong looks like you are about to meet my friends and bandmates,” he told her as he gave her the last of her food. Jin stood up and went to the sink to quickly wash her bowl before getting the pans from the stove where they were simmering gently to keep them warm. He kept his back to the door into the kitchen slash dining area, so when they entered he wouldn’t have to see their faces when they saw Eun-Jeong for the first time.

The voices got louder as they came closer. As soon as they entered it went silent. Jin closed his eyes, wondering what their expressions were. “Hyung?” was Yoongi’s questioning voice.

Jin picked up one of the pans, gloves on his hands and brought it over to the table. “NOo now,” he told them, “let’s have something to eat before we talk about this,” he said softly.

The others gave a confused nod as they all sat around the table. Dishing out food for themselves and each other they began to eat. Jin would occasionally feed Eun-Jeong a little of the food, “Here you go,” he murmured as she chewed on the piece of carrot he had given her.

“What’s her name?” Yoongi asked as he watched his hyung take care of the child.

“Eun-Jeong,” Jin answered softly. He could sense that the others all wanted to know what was going on and why she was there.

Jin looked up as Yoongi fed her a little off his own plate, “Come on Eun-Jeong, try this,” he said, a little smile on his face. The others watched in fascination as Yoongi and Jin kept feeding her little bits of their own meal.

“You’re pretty good with her,” Jin said softly, a little smile on his face.

Yoongi gave a nod, “I’ve had practice, I’d often babysit before I was scouted by Big Hit,” he answered softly, “You know I did a lot of odd jobs to help my family out, babysitting was one of the easy ones that I could do and watch over a lot of them,” he gave a shrug, it wasn't that much of a big deal, he could handle kids easily enough.

Jin nodded, “I didn’t know that,” he murmured.

“Not something that people would believe,” he snorted. He knew what people thought of him, that he was cold and heartless just because he always looked serious. Most forgot that there was also another side to him.

Jin chuckled, “Yeah, though, I don’t know about that you could handle babies as well as little kids,” he said with a sly glance to the two youngest of their group.

“Hey!” Jungkook and Taehyung protested as the others laughed lightly.

Conversation picked up a little more, though each of them kept looking at Jin and Eun-Jeong. When dinner was over Jin hesitate even more as he started to clean up. He didn’t know how he was going to tell them what was going on. If it was only for the night, it would be fine. The others except for Yoongi went into the living room to wait for Jin to come and tell them what is going on. Though it had been Yoongi to send them there. He freezes when he heard Eun-Jeong start to cry. He turned around and goes over to her.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, though he isn’t really expecting an answer from her.

Yoongi gives a small chuckle, “I think she needs to be changed.”

“Changed?” he blinks and then it dawns on him, “Oh… Erm…Yeah.”

“Let me guess, you’ve never changed a nappy in your life,” he sighed and shook his head, though there was an amused smile on his face as he got up from the table and picked Eun-Jeong up, “Where is everything?” he then asks, wondering where Jin had put everything the little girl would need, “And you’re coming with me, you need to learn how to do this, as I won't do it all the time for you.”

Jin nodded, “Yeah, sure, and it's all in our bedroom. I’ve put it all on my side so you don't have to worry about anything take up the room on your side,” he answered him as the two made their way to their shared bedroom.

Yoongi shook his head at the pile of things that were now on Jin’s side of the room, “You could have put some on mine, I wouldn’t have minded,” he told him as he went over to Jin’s bed and laid the crying baby down, “Sush, it’s okay, we’re going to get you all cleaned up,” Yoongi said soothingly, tickling the tiny tummy a little to try and distract her from the wet feeling she had from her nappy.

Jin went over and grabbed the nappies and wipes. He watched as Yoongi took them and with practised ease he was able to change her, “That doesn’t look too hard,” he murmured, feeling a little confident that he would be able to do it himself next time.

“It isn’t when you get the hang of it, but sometimes they like to wiggle at this age and will often try and crawl away. You’ll need to have a toy to distract them to make sure they don't when that happens. You really don’t want a trail of poop all over the place if they do,” he muttered, a slightly dark look on his face, his eye twitching a bit.

“I take it that happened to you before?” he asked him, doing his best to swallow the laugh that was bubbling up inside him.

Yoongi nodded, “Yeah, the second time I had to change a kid, they decided to rush off. It was everywhere, on him, their sibling and all over the floor. He bum shuffled all over the place before I could grab him.”

Jin nodded, laughing at the image his mind had painted for him. Eun-Jeong had stopped crying and was looking up at the two of them, curious as to who they were, “Suppose I better explain what is going on,” he said softly, looking back at the baby girl.

“Would help,” Yoongi agreed as he watched Jin pick the baby up and settle her in his arms. She looked a little tired and was yawning even though she was reaching out towards Jin’s face.

They arrived in the living room and Jin went over to an empty chair and sat down. Yoongi sitting nearby. “So,” Jin began as he looked at Eun-Jeong and then to the others, “This is Eun-Jeong she is nine months old and she is the only child of my cousin, Yun-Hee” he started to explain.

“The one whose husband has passed away?” Taehyung asked gently, watching the baby as she babbled and reached towards Jin’s face.

Jin nodded, “Yes. Yun-Hee can’t take care of her at the moment. And there is no one else in the family that is able to take her in. So it’s up to me to do so. Since we don't really want her to go to social services.” It was the simple explanation. There was no need to complicate it and tell about his family not being able to. He was the one that would be looking after her.

“How long?” Namjoon asked him, frowning as he hadn't heard a time frame.

Jin winced and looked down at Eun-Jeong, wiggling his fingers, he let her grab them and play with them for a bit before he answered, “They are thinking it might take a couple of months before she is ready to take Eun-Jeong back,” he admitted, “but don’t worry. I know it would be hard to have her here. I know how busy we are preparing for the comeback, and I know I’m going to have my work cut out for me, trying to look after her and practice and everything else that we have on top, but I’ll keep up with everything, I promise,” he began to rush as he could see the variations of shock on the others faces. He needed to reassure them that he would be the only one to look after her, that they didn’t have anything they needed to worry about.

“I’ll say,” Yoongi muttered, not really happy with the added stress that Jin was now going to be undertaking the care of a baby, “It’s not easy watching over a baby,” he added, glancing towards him.

“I know, I’m lost on what I should be doing as well. All I can do is do my best,” Jin sighed heavily, looking back and then glancing down at the baby in his arms that was patting his cheek, a large grin on her face as she babbled nonsense at him.

“Family is important though,” Yoongi then said as he looked at his hyung and the baby.

Jin nodded in agreement, a tiny smile on his face, “It is, but you are all my family as well, and this is… this is going to be hard.” He still hasn't mentioned that he would be leaving to them. He didn’t think it would be a good idea to say anything until he had put Eun-Jeong to bed. He didn’t want her to be around the explosion that he was expecting to happen.

“Can I?” Jimin asked, getting up and walking over, holding out his arms to take her, a hopeful look on his face, “She’s adorable,” he said as Jin let the young dancer take the little girl into his arms, “Hello little one,” he greeted as he went and sat down, sitting her on his lap facing him.

Eun-Jeong looked at the stranger and babbled as she began to look around, “Babababa!” she cried out, bottom lip wobbling as she tried to find a familiar face. To the baby girl, this was another stranger that had been around her and she was starting to feel overwhelmed.

“It’s okay,” Jimin said softly, bouncing her a little.

Jungkook looked at her and moved a little further away, “I’ve never been near a baby before,” he murmured, looking wearily at the child in his friend's lap.

“Don’t think many of us have,” Namjoon rolled his eyes, as he got up and went to sit near Jimin.

Taehyung did the same and sat on Jimin’s other side, “Hello Eun-Jeong, welcome to our home. I hope you are going to be okay here. We can get really noisy sometimes, and be really careful of Namjoon-hyung he has a tendency to break things. And try not to wake Yoongi-hyung up, he likes to sleep,” he said, giving the baby girl a little run down of everyone.

“Though I know one thing for sure,” Jimin said as he added to what Taehyung had been saying, “Jin-hyung will take really good care of you. He’s the best,” he grinned, tickling under her chin.

Jin smiled a little, “I’m going to wash up, her toys are in the playpen,” he told them as he headed into the kitchen.

He needed to breathe, he needed to tell them that he was going away for a while. He would still be practising with them. But he also needed to make sure that Bang PD and Sejin-hyung knew what was going on as well. He had so much to do, but his mind was still reeling from the sudden change. He stood there, for a moment in the middle of the kitchen and just stared at the mess in front of him.

“You okay?” Yoongi asked as he walked in behind him.

“I… I don't really know,” he said, giving an honest answer as he shook himself a little and went towards the table and began to pick things up and took them towards the sink.

Yoongi watched for a few seconds before joining him and helping to clean up. Jin and Yoongi put away the leftovers and threw the food from the plates. Jin was working almost automatically. Not really seeing what he was doing. Yoongi could tell that there was more on his mind that what he had already told them. “So,” Yoongi began as he glanced to the other as Jin started to wash up. Taking the plate from him when it was done, he began to dry it and put it away, “Try and tell me what you are feeling at the moment hyung?” he asked him, he didn’t want to see him bottle the feelings up like he normally did.

“I’m feeling, lost?” he guessed, he didn’t know what was going on in his head, something was. “It's a large change and I don’t want things to change at the moment.”

“Change can be a good thing. I know that this doesn’t seem like it to you at the moment, because it is a big one,” Yoongi nodded, “I can understand that,” he smiled softly.

“Yeah, I should do her milk,” he said a few moments later, looking at the time, “She’ll be drinking that and then she needs to go to bed.”

“Hmm,” Yoongi nodded, taking another plate and drying it. Putting it away he mentioned, “I can make the milk up if you want?”

“No… no, it’s alright, I should do it. I should get used to this myself,” he said with a small smile. There was something hidden in Jin’s voice with those words and it put Yoongi on edge.

Yoongi nodded and watched him finished the washing up quickly. He cleaned and dried his hands. Yoongi remained there drying the dishes that had been used and putting them away as Jin made up a bottle of milk for Eun-Jeong and set it down to cool. Jin looked sad about something, and Yoongi wondered what it could be. He had tried to talk to him, but he hadn’t been able to get anything out of him. Maybe he should have asked him bluntly why he was sad instead of asking about how he was feeling.