"you can call me if you need help with anything, okay?" sujeon says, patting the elder son's shoulder gently and glances at the younger one, who hasn't spared him a glance yet, just holding his sister in his arms and responding to her little talks once in a while.

that makes sujeon sigh, stroking lily's hair which earns him a look from the girl as she smiles at him, for she knew his name is dad. he forces a smile for her too, and turns to find where jungkook is. the boy had cried a lot when they brought sunhee in the casket, refused to let go of her until jimin and taehyung held him back, hugging him tightly. sujeon felt bad for the kids, both jungkook and lily for he had seen how they were always around their mother, on her lap, playing with her, kissing her and hugging her.

jungkook's father, jaesung was here too. he came last night and left as soon as the burial was done like many other people. he only stopped to give jungkook a hug and carry lily for a while to not look like he was one heck of a father in the eyes of the guests that showed up. sujeon was bothered by the man being so fake and utterly adamant about his behaviour towards the kids, his own kids. yes, sujeon wasn't a great father either but at least he wasn't as bad as jaesung.

and now observing the way jungkook keeps looking over at his hyungs, who have to check on him once in a while, bothers sujeon a little. he clears his throat, taking lily from taehyung's arms and places her down on her feet, "go to jungkook for sometime," he smiles at the little girl, patting her back encouragingly as she nods, holding her headband in her hand and skips her way to jungkook.

"what is it?" taehyung mutters, finally looking at his father.

"relax," sujeon says, glancing at the younger kids and then at his sons, "i might come off wrong, but this needs to be said. have you thought about what to do after this?"

"what are you trying to say?" jimin frowns, following the father's eyes back towards jungkook who's sitting quietly, numb in his place while hoseok and namjoon try to talk to him and lily.

"i'm saying that jungkook and lily are very young to live without their mom," he states more clearly this time, "it's gonna be very hard for them. just look at the boy. he needs someone to take care of him like sunhee and help him get through the pain,"

"and?" taehyung arches a brow, crossing his arms on the chest, ready to snap back at one wrong word from his father.

"and that's something his father should be doing, taehyung. you both love him and his sister, that's great. but you can't take care of them for the rest of your lives. jaesung should come get his kids, so you can focus on your lives instead,"

"like you focused on your life?" taehyung spits, "jaesung should take his responsibility of being a father like you did, right? jimin was two and i was barely walking when you cheated on mom. you weren't so concerned about us or mom when you left. why bother now?"

"taehyung!"

"dad," jimin speaks up, shaking his head, "please don't. this is not the time or place to be talking about this. and no, that doesn't mean that you can say whatever you feel like. if you ask me, i honestly wouldn't let jungkook and lily go with jaesung, even if he came back for them. me and tae are capable of taking care of ourselves and our younger siblings, you don't need to medel in about that,"

taehyung nods in agreement, maintaining an eye contact with his father, "thanks for coming. you should go now, your wife and kids must be waiting," sujeon glares at him, but he never responds further, turning away as he's about to head to where lily and jungkook were. but to his surprise, he finds jungkook already standing nearby, tears in his eyes, holding lily's hand.

taehyung sighs softly, glaring at his father one last time before approaching the younger siblings. he carries lily up in his arms and holds jungkook's hand, taking them towards the exit. "taehyung doesn't understand what i'm trying to say. you guys are being emotional right now, jimin. you need to be practical an—"

"thank you for coming," jimin ignores his words, walking away as well and heaves out a deep breath, worried that jungkook might've heard them. following taehyung out towards the car, as the guests have already left and the ceremony was over around five hours ago, jimin catches the sight of jin and the rest of the boys (their cousins) smiling at him weakly for they too seem to read taehyung's pissed expression after talking to their father.

"is everything okay with your dad?" yoongi asks.

jimin sighs, shaking his head subtly and gestures the elder to get in the car. yoongi doesn't ask anything more, understanding that everything is still very sensitive and jimin might not be ready to spill everything at once, especially when jungkook and lily are around. the boys get settled in the car, jin on the driver's seat, yoongi next to him on the passenger's, hoseok, namjoon and jimin in the middle and taehyung at the very back with lily and jungkook.

it's awkwardly quiet inside the car as jin starts driving towards the mansion. jungkook looks out of the window, rubbing his eyes as he takes a deep breath, which draws attention from his brothers. "uh, jin hyung?" taehyung calls, getting a glance from the eldest male, "can we stop here for a minute?" he asks, gesturing towards lily and jungkook in the most subtle way possible, so jin pulls over in front of a convenience store, acknowledging that the kids must be hungry for real.

"come on, kook, lily," yoongi tries, opening the door as he gets out and waits for the two. although jungkook just shakes his head, turning away and leans closer to the window, staring outside with his moistened eyes.

"jungkook," jimin calls softly, "go with yoongi hyung. you don't want some snacks? we might get home late if the traffic's too bad,"

"no," jungkook mumbles, sniffling lightly and closes his eyes.

"aren't you hungry?"

"no,"

"it's okay, let him be," yoongi says, patting jimin's shoulder through the window and nods assuringly that he'll get something for him to eat anyway, just in case he changed his mind in sometime. jimin gives a smile as yoongi heads inside the store, returning soon with a plastic bag of jungkook and lily's favourite snacks.

just as the boys had thought, the traffic gets pretty bad and they're still standing midst cars even after half an hour of waiting. jungkook fell asleep and so did lily for a while, but then she woke up complaining that she's hungry. now she's sitting by the window, being the only person who doesn't let the atmosphere inside the car get too gloomy, for she keeps talking and showing everything that fascinated her around or casually pointing at a cute baby in the car next to theirs, or sometimes offering her chocolate cookies to the boys.

"sit down, princess," taehyung says, placing his hand on her waist to make her sit. however lily shakes her head, taking a step towards him and climbs on his lap, staring at jungkook. the boy's fast asleep, leaning onto taehyung comfortably as the elder shifted him a little to avoid getting his head bumped into the window.

"koo, wake up," lily shakes him by the shoulder, showing the pack of cookies in front of his sleeping eyes, "koo, look, lily have' cookie,"

"let him sleep," taehyung says, making lily sit away, getting a pout from her as she crawls back towards jungkook, "no, lily. he's tired, let him sleep okay?"

"mm'no," lily frowns at taehyung, hitting his chest for trying keep her away from a peacefully sleeping jungkook.

"hey, c'mere," jimin voices out, holding out his arms for lily which she quickly accepts, forgetting that waking jungkook is more important. she sits with jimin, eyes still focused on jungkook and mouth busy sucking on her thumb. "don't do that," jimin says, taking her hand down and wipes the corner of her mouth where she has got the melted chocochips.

"why we no' goin' home?"

"we're going home," jimin pats her back.

a soft uncomfortable whimper, gains attention from the boys, making their heads turn to the back where taehyung moves a little, glancing at jungkook who looks uncomfortable in his sleep. his brows scrunch and sweat forms on his forehead, moving in the seat, mumbling something under his breath. taehyung rubs his back, pulling him straight, "hey, kook, are you okay?" he asks, stroking the younger's hair as jungkook gradually wakes up, looking around as though gathering that whatever he saw was a dream, and they were still in the car in reality.

his eyes fill with tears instantly, leaning in taehyung's arms and breaks into a sob, hugging him tightly. "i miss mom..." he mumbles, making taehyung sigh softly as he hugs jungkook tightly, stroking his back to provide some comfort, while his eyes move to jimin's concerned ones. he's watching jungkook with a helpless gaze, holding lily in his own arms and heaves out a soft breath, patting her back when she tries to move and look at the back.

jungkook rubs his eyes, looking up at taehyung and then briefly at jimin, "nobody had a problem with me and lily when mom was here... but now she's gone an-and me and lily have become a burden?" jungkook sniffles, rubbing his eyes, staring at taehyung who has tears threatening to fall from his eyes as well, "i don't wanna go with dad... with anyone. i wanna stay with you. i- i'll listen to you and jimin hyung always, i promise. i'll do my homework and go to school everyday, i won't bother anyone, hyung... please don't send me and lily with dad..."

taehyung hugs him tightly, crying silently and shakes his head, "you're not going anywhere," he hushes out to the younger brother, lowering his head in jungkook's hair, "you'll stay with us, okay? nobody's taking you or lily anywhere,"

jimin nibbles on his lip, rubbing his eyes to get rid of the tears as he lets go of lily for a moment, taking a deep breath to help himself not cry after hearing jungkook's words. that's what he feared the most, and his father who definitely didn't spend a braincell thinking, has made his uncertainty come true. he glances at hoseok, who's next to him, nodding for him to take lily for a while.

the girl watches the brothers with worried eyes, confused too, for she doesn't understand what's making them upset. she looks over to hoseok, then namjoon, getting nothing helpful for an answer and leans forward, watching jungkook in taehyung's arms, while the elder is also shedding tears. even jimin is trying not to cry, staring out of the window quietly, his hands laced together, trembling lightly under all the pain and pressure.

"oppa..." lily mumbles, trying to get down from hoseok's lap and whines he doesn't let her.

"sit here, lily. you can go to oppa later," namjoon tries to convince her, holding her hand and bringing the pack of cookies back to her attention. however none of it works as she starts crying, seeing her brothers crying and especially because namjoon and hoseok won't let her go to jimin. she hits them with her hands and kicks her legs to free herself, shifting towards jimin, who already lifts her up to bring her on his lap.

"shh, quiet," he says to lily, cradling her in his arms and leans down closer to her face, kissing her forehead that calms her down almost instantly. her hand reaches out to grab his face, looking at him with her confused, round eyes.

"why you' so sad, oppa? koo and taetae is so sad. what happen' ?" jimin shakes his head subtly, and lily pouts, "oppa don't cwy... lily and koo will stayin' here— uhm with you and taetae,"

her words surprise the boys more than they could've thought, for none of them saw the possibility of her actually paying attention to what jungkook said, let alone remembering it. a tear slips from jimin's eye as he hugs her tightly, kissing the side of her head a few times, "i won't let you go anywhere," he whispers, pulling away to cup lily's face and places a soft peck on her lips, "everything will be fine soon. jiminie oppa and tae oppa will take care of everything. we'll make sure that lily and jungkookie don't miss mamma too much,"

"yeah," taehyung clears his throat, "jimin's right. it's gonna be okay eventually," he says, pulling away from jungkook and wipes the tears from his face, "don't cry. just trust your hyungs, and don't listen to what some people have to say. they have no idea how important you are to your hyungs,"

jungkook rubs his eyes, leaning back against the seat and looks at jimin, who gives him an assuring nod as well, letting lily down and smiles, "go to kookie. he must be missing you now," he says, lifting her off to place her on taehyung's side, "and share your cookies with him, okay?"

"mm," lily nods once, showing jungkook the crumbled pack of chocolate cookies that she has been holding in her hand for a while now, having sweat forming in her palms.

"c'mere," taehyung makes her sit beside the boy, himself shifting a little so the younger siblings can be together while he closes his eyes, leaning back.

"tae, are you okay?" namjoon asks.

"yeah, just a headache. i actually couldn't sleep at night, and then today..." he shrugs his shoulders, "but i'm fine. it'll go away,"

"you should take a pain killer later," yoongi suggests.

"-and koo, you don' cwy," lily says in between, speaking to jungkook but loud enough for everyone to hear her comforting her brother. she places the cookies on the seat, getting up and sits on jungkook's lap, facing him, then leans forward to peck his lips while he still has his mouth full, munching on the cookies just like her, "you' so p'eech'ous. lily love you so much, koo— no' bein' sad, okay?"

jungkook smiles softly, nodding his head, giving her a hug and kisses her cheek, "thanks, lily. i love you too,"

_________

a/n- life is boring these days 😞😞 i don't really have anything to say, just take care of yourself and thanks for reading— oh that reminds me of!!!! thank you for 3k views on the book! it's just been the begining and 3k already is a big deal. so thanks a lot for that. please keep showing your love and support (don't be a silent reader and please vote and comment) love you all <333 byeee 🐥✨