jimin is 21 years old; jungkook is 18 years old.

____

"nooooo!" aera whines, kicking her legs back and forth surpringly matching the rhythm of her arms moving in the air in the same frustrated fashion. her lips are puckered into a pout and eyes holding a thin but noticable layer of tears, which makes the brother sigh.

he leans on the counter, resting his elbows either side of the little girl and hands on her back, "why princess? oppa has to go to work, please try to understand."

"i'll go with oppa!" she huffs, wrapping her arms around his neck, giving him a tight hug that says she won't let go at anything less than an a day off from the brother.

"what will you do there? we'll be busy with the wor-"

"i'll sit quietly like a good girl. but- but i wanna goooo!"

jimin inhales deeply, glancing to his side where the elders are sitting, chuckling at the child whining and trying her best to convince the brother to take her to work with him today since he couldn't have a day off. when yoongi and jin give nods of approval, smiling at jimin, he sighs and looks back at his sister, "are you sure you wanna go?" he asks and aera nods instantly.

"do you promise to be a good girl?"

"yes, promise!"

"alright," he smiles at last, seeing aera cheering as he agreed and cups his face, squeezing his cheeks between her tiny hands, making his soft lips pucker out cutely to which she leans forward and pecks quickly. all the sadness vanishes in a second and is replaced by her happy giggles, which makes jimin chuckle fondly and kiss her forehead.

"so riri's going office with us hm?" yoongi smiles, keeping his cup away as he's done with the coffee and glances at the little girl who nods excitedly. "well, that is great, we have a lot of work these days, maybe riri can help us out?"

"no, i'll sit quietly like a good girl." she says, shaking her head, making the elders laugh.

"she's just like jungkook when it comes to doing some work."

"did you say something?" the youngest boy looks at him, "i heard my name."

"no, just have your breakfast. you had to meet up with your friends right?"

"don't worry, i'm on time." the boy grins, gulping his cereals down and looks at the elder, his smile fading away hesitantly. "uhm hyung, y'know my car has been breaking down a lot lately and now i think it's time to change it..."

"no," jimin shakes his head, going back to making a smoothie for aera as he decides it would be better to ignore jungkook's never ending wishes, especially when it comes to cars and motorcycles.

"hyung, i'm not lying, it did break down that day and i got late because of that."

"take it for servicing." the elder brother says, glancing at him, "you're not changing that car in just three months, jungkook."

"but-"

"no buts. i don't get what you do with your cars that each of them don't last more than six months. stop wasting the money if you can't handle those expensive cars."

"no! the last one was fine-" jungkook gasps, choking on his cereals as he realised he wasn't supposed to say that. "i mean, it did have some problem... but that wasn't because of me!"

"you're not getting a new car. no further discussion."

"hyun-"

"no," jimin sighs, pouring the smoothie in a cup and hands it to aera, smiling at her, "my riri is a good girl, unlike jungkookie who keeps getting his cars damaged, right princess?"

"yes," aera nods, "i don't hurt my car."

"yeah," jimin chuckles, turning to jungkook who shakes his head, going through his phone now that his brother refused to buy him a new car. "how about we give him riri's car? it wouldn't need that much space and maintenance, and he can change the car when he's bored."

"hyung!" jungkook whines, making jimin laugh.

"no! not my car, oppa. he will break it."

"even your sister doesn't want to give her car to you." taehyung snickers, smacking the younger's head, making him hiss in annoyance and stand up.

"i'm going, have fun y'all!" he exasperates.

"don't crash the car!" jimin shouts.

"crash the car!" aera repeats, making the boys laugh at her miserable attempt.

"okayy!" jungkook responds, laughing from the door, before finally leaving the house.

"it's don't," jimin sighs, "crash the car, aera."

"don't crash the car." aera nods, giggling at him and stands up on her chair, extending her arm out for jimin, "let's go office, oppa."

"yeah, we'll leave in half an hour." he nods, placing her down on the floor, "let's get you ready first."

"i'll wear the pink pants and! and that white shirt." she says, holding his hand as they head upstairs while the rest of the boys too get done with their breakfast.

jimin collects aera's clothes and towel, putting it on the bed which has aera thinking for a moment as she realised she supposed to take a shower now. her feet step back, creating a safe distance from the elder brother and climbs on the bed, leaning against the headboard.

"come here, don't even think you'll get away without showering."

"no" she shakes her head, throwing a cushion at him and quickly moves back.

"listen to me, aera. do you wanna go with me or not?"

"yes, but no shower..."

"you have to, baby. you don't wanna stink do you?" he says softly, climbing on the bed slowly while talking to her, standing on his knees, "-and to be a good girl, riri will take a shower. come on, water is fun right?"

"no" she huffs, pushing his hand away as she doesn't fall for his trick, making him sigh.

"please kiddo, we're getting late. come on, i'll bathe you quickly, then i have to get ready too." he says, grabbing her hand swiftly and pulls her towards him, ignoring the whiny cries from the little girl as he enters the bathroom, making her stand in the bathtub.

"noooo!" aera cries, hitting his arm away and stomps her foot on the wet bottom of the tub as it's already filling up with water.

"don't do that, aera." jimin scolds, giving her a strict gaze that makes her stop and stare at him. her lips slowly pucker out and eyes pooling with tears, earning a deep sigh from him, "don't cry, and just please co-operate hm?"

"no co-pate... you're bad..." the five-year-old mumbles, rubbing her eyes.

"i'm not bad. you have to get ready and for that you need to take a shower." he states, ignoring her tears for a while, being well familiar that if he gives in right now, there's no way aera would shower, and develop a habit of emotionally blackmailing the brothers like this.

...

"finally," jimin breathes out, fixing his blazer and hair once before turning around and sighs, noticing aera still sitting with a pout on her lips. "ah i'm sorry, princess. don't be upset, bathing is a good thing."

"no..." she turns away, rubbing her eyes with her tiny hands balled into fists. "you scolded riri..."

"i'm sorry for that, honey. we were getting late an- okay, no fine, i'm sorry." he sighs, kneeling down near the sister and cups her face, wiping away the wet stains of tears from her soft cheeks and smiles at her, "now please don't be mad at oppa. you know he loves riri right?"

"yeah, but... why shower?"

"okay we won't shower more today, happy?"

"promise?"

"yes, promise. now let's go, everyone must be waiting for us."

aera nods, following him downstairs and to the car where the rest of the boys are already waiting. jimin buckles her in the booster seat, sitting in the front with jin who takes the driver's seat while namjoon and yoongi come in the other car.

"aera are you listening or not?" jimin sighs, glancing back at the little girl who seems less interested in his voice spelling out what she needs to do and not do while she's in the premises of the company.

"mm?" aera looks at him, "are we here? open this, please."

"did you hear what i said?"

"yes?" she nods slowly, giggling at him which makes him sigh and step out of the car with jin chuckling as well. he opens the back door, unbuckling aera from the booster seat and makes her stand on the ground, crouching in front her, he says, "listen, there's some things i want you to follow. will you do it?"

aera nods once, still not paying enough attention to his words as she's more excited to go in his office. she steps near him, holding his hand and points towards the big entrance of the building where employees can be seen going in for their working is starting now, "let's go, oppa."

"i'm asking something, aera."

"yes, now let's goooo!"

"aera, stop being a bad girl, or i'll buckle you in your seat and leave you here in the car."

"nooo!" aera pouts, staring at him with puppy eyes, "i'll be good girl. don't leave me in the car..."

"promise?"

"promise,"

"good. so listen, riri won't go anywhere without telling oppa. and if you do need to go anywhere, make sure to tell me or any of the oppas hm? and last be a good girl, means no crying, no whining, and behave. got it?"

"don't leave oppa, and be a good girl. okay!"

"yeah," jimin sighs, giving up and holds her hand, heading inside the building with jin holding his laugh in somehow, seeing aera looking around with her round, dreamy eyes, admiring the huge place and lots of people that she rarely gets to see as the boys don't have time to take her out that often.

aera gasps, watching the people bowing to jimin, jin, yoongi and namjoon, and most of them smiling and cooing at aera who smiles at the few familiar faces which happens to be jimin's manager, the reception lady and another middle aged lady talking on the phone nearby.

they take the elevator followed by the manager, the secretary and the assistant managers, which make up a lot of adults in the elevator for aera as she looks small and almost disappears among the tall beings. her eyes glance up, brows knitting together along with the lips forming a pout as she tugs on her brother's coat, raising her arms up.

jimin carries her up and pats her back as they step out of the elevator, and yoongi motions his hand for their men to leave. aera stares at the group, bowing to her oppas and her since she is in jimin's arms before taking their leave. she smiles at the manager, waving at him and chimes out, "bye-bye!"

manager lee smiles back, laughing silently as he waves back at the child, making jimin and the boys chuckle. he places her down on her feet and smiles, seeing her not standing still even for a second and goes around the office, studying all the things including jimin's desk, the lower drawers of the shelves, then climbes on the dark brown, executive chair behind the desk.

"look at her," the boys turn to look at the five-year-old on hearing namjoon's voice chuckling as he nodded in her direction.

"adorable," jin cooes.

"ri, what are you doing princess?" yoongi asks, grabbing her attention and makes her look up from the fountain pen signed with jimin's name and the company's title on top.

"nothing," she shakes her head and looks over to the door where a knock is heard. jimin responds and the a girl comes in, placing four cups of coffee on the table and leaves quietly. "oppa? this is boss place?" she asks, pointing at the chair she's standing on.

the boys laugh at the question, and yoongi nods, "well, yeah. do you who is the boss?"

"no," aera shakes her head.

"jiminie oppa," he chuckles, making the child gasp and stare at jimin with wide eyes.

"oppa is boss?"

"yeah," jimin smiles, taking a sip from his cup and speaks, "but my riri is the senior boss."

"what is that?" she asks, leaning back on the chair as she realises it spins and tries to move it around. jimin stands near her, turning the chair and makes her giggle when it spins about the hinge. "wow! this is my favourite chair!"

"senior boss means... well, someone who is the boss of the boss."

aera frowns at yoongi failing miserably to understand the concept and gives up, standing on the chair as she leans on the back, looking out of the huge glass wall. her lips curve up into a smile, pointing outside, "we live there!"

jimin chuckles and changes the direction of her hand so it's now pointing more to the left and says, "we live there."

"oh and where is my school?"

"uhm there?" he points in the same direction, gesturing a little farther this time.

"and where is-"

a knock interrupts the girl, making her turn to the door which opens and a girl comes in once one of the boys have ordered them to enter. she bows at the four boys and sends a warm smile to the little girl who just stares at her with her curious doe eyes.

"miss maya, i hope manager lee gave you the log for today?" jimin says.

"yes sir, he did." the girl nods.

"great, hand it over to sooyeong, i have an even more important task for you."

"...yes sir?"

"this is aera, you might already know. and if not, then i'll introduce her to you," he says, patting his sister's head and gestures towards the secretary, "say hello to miss maya."

"hello miss maya," aera says, still standing on the ceo's chair and waves at her, making her smile, "i'm riri... i'm five years old."

"what is your name again?" yoongi says.

"riri" aera grins, jumping down from the chair and goes to him, raising her arms, "up,"

yoongi carries her and points at miss maya, "tell her your correct name."

"i'm riri...?" aera tilts her head, "jeon riri."

"then who is aera?" namjoon says.

"me," she points af herself. "i'm jeon aera, nice to meet you."

"nice to meet you too," maya smiles, "i'm kang maya."

aera nods with a smile and jin speaks to the girl further, explaining her the task of taking care of aera while they're busy with work. the girl nods, assuring the four that the child won't have a problem any time she's here. yoongi places aera on her feet and pats her head, gesturing her to go with miss maya.

aera pouts, shaking her head and quickly sticks closer to his legs, "no, don't sending riri away..."

"oppa has to work, princess. miss maya will take care of you. she's very nice y'know?" jimin says crouching in front of his sister who hugs him tightly. he rubs her back and pulls away, "listen, it's a mission for my baby, will you do it?"

"mission?" aera looks at him, and he nods.

"yeah, oppa will be doing some work and riri has to be a good girl and stay with miss maya okay?" he says, "and if you do that, you can get a milkshake."

"yes," aera nods quickly.

"great, so you'll go with miss maya?"

"yes, oppa." she smiles and glances at the said girl, holding out her hand for her to hold. "let's go miss maya."

"yeah, let's go." maya smiles fondly, almost squealing at the cuteness overflowing from the little girl and even from the four strict workaholics.

a few hours pass with both maya and aera getting along well, the assistant often found herself smiling and chuckling with the little girl whenever she would tell her another story about what she likes and what she doesn't like. things were going pretty smoothly till now, aera sat in the cafeteria while maya ordered the milkshake for the child.

"noona!" aera calls, making the girl turn around, laughing at how the five-year-old kept messing up noona and unnie since she heard a younger intern greeting her as noona.

"unnie," she corrects her, pinching aera's cheek and hands her the milkshake, "hold it carefully, don't drop it okay?"

aera nods with a wide smile, eyes staring at the cup, shimmering with eagerness. she sits on the chair next to maya, sipping from the straw and watching around cafeteria where a lot of people are entering now. a group of three girls approach near the table, their heels clicking louder until they're standing quite fairly next to aera's chair.

"hello little one," one of the girls voice out, pulling out a chair and takes a seat smiling at aera, "what's your name?"

"riri," aera says after gulping her milkshake down, "jeon riri,"

"aera," maya reminds and aera nods quickly.

"jeon aera," she tells this time, "who are you?"

the girl smiles before answering, "i'm claire. and i was thinking if you wanna be friends with me? i have  chocolate for you," she says, holding out a chocolate for aera. a confident smile plays on her lips, having a strong feeling that the kid will obviously be weak for chocolates. however when aera shakes her head as a no, and turns away from her, the smile drops into an offended scowl.

"you don't wanna be friends?" another girl asks.

"you stranger," aera shrugs, "oppa said no talking to you,"

"ah right, your oppa..." the previous girl smiles, "do you know his number? will you tell me?"

"claire, you cannot do that. leave." maya says.

"oh just shut up. do you think we don't know what you're trying to do? acting all nice and innocent while you're using this child to get close to mr jeon."

"wow, still shocking how you think all crap." maya shakes her head, earning a glare from the other girls, "now, please leave."

"bitch, just wait and wa-"

"you bitch," aera stands up on her chair, huffing at claire. she leans forward to keep the milkshake cup on the table before facing claire properly, but ends up dropping the cup on the girl's feet, having the milkshake spilled on her legs.

"yah! you brat!" claire shrieks, stepping away as she glances at her ruined shoes and stockings, then sends a sharp glare at the five-year-old.

"oops..." aera gasps.

the cafeteria falls silent as a few footsteps are heard, grabbing attention from the people. aera jumps down from her chair, letting out a whine as claire reaches forward to grab her hand. "oppa-" she stops, bumping into a tall figure and looks up, breaking into a smile instantly as she raises her arms up, seeing jimin standing there.

the girls gasp in surprise, bowing a few times and apologise for the fuss. jimin nods briefly, turning to maya and speaks, "what is all this?"

"i-i'm sorry sir, claire just-"

"i came to be friends with aera, but she spilled her drink on me. maya taught her all this, she's-"

"did i ask you?" jimin says, making claire shut her mouth. "that's what i thought."

"manager lee," yoongi calls the man, having him appear behind him like a genie out of nowhere, "clear her cheques, she's leaving."

"yes sir," the manager nods.

"n-no... sir, i'm really sorry, i didn't-"

"that's it, leave." jimin says, gesturing his free arm towards the exit. a tear drops from the girl's eye as she looks down, quietly obeying the ceo's words.

the boys sigh deeply, glancing at aera and then at maya who looks scared as well, considering it might become her last day of work after getting the ceo's sister in trouble with some employees. however jin tells her to go, moreover thanks her for taking care of aera while they were busy. the girl bows hastily, thanking them back before taking her leave.

jimin follows the elders to the elevator, carrying aera in his arms while she's busy fiddling with the chains dangling from his earrings. he places her on her feet, taking her hand instead as he sighs, watching her pouting at him to show her discontentment with his decision of not carrying her.

they walk out of the elavator and aera whines, stomping her foot on the floor, "up!"

"don't do that, you have to walk." jimin states, earning another disheartened whine from the five-year-old as she crouches down this time, refusing to get up until he carries her. "aera atop behaving like that. get up, we don't have time." he scolds, regretting it instantly for it only makes the kid sob.

"carry her if she wants that," jin nudges him, "your employees are looking."

"she cursed," jimin reminds the elder, straightening his coat and steps away, glancing at his sister, "sit and cry here if you want, no one will talk to bad kids."

aera cries louder, glaring at him and stands up, stomping towards jin, who sighs deeply, patting her head but doesn't carry her yet.

"please carry on with your work," jimin says, turning around and walks to his office.

"oppa..."

he sighs softly, walking a little slow as he confirms that aera's watching him indeed. his eyes glance back over his shoulder, seeing her following with her hands balled into fists, rubbing the tears away from her eyes. he doesn't worry about her getting lost for jin and the other two are coming with her as well, but none of them saying anything to comfort her.

aera opens the door with difficulty and enters in, looking straight at the desk where jimin is sitting on his chair, opening the laptop to start working. she pouts, tears still rolling down her cheeks as she makes her way to him, "oppa..."

when he doesn't respond and keeps focusing on his laptop, aera shakes his arm. the elder boys sigh, exchanging glances and jin speaks again, "jimin-ah, listen to her at least. she's crying,"

"okay, what is it?" he turns his chair to face aera and sits with his arms crossed on his chest, showing no sign of softness for the girl. she sniffles softly, looking at him and breaks into another sob, taking a step forward and extends her arms out for a hug. "do you wanna tell me something or not?"

"sorry..." aera mumbles, "oppa don't be mad at riri, i'm sorry..."

"for what?"

"because... uhm because i don't listen- listening to oppa,"

jimin sighs, shaking his head and points at the corner by the window, "hold your ears and stand there."

"no..." aera whimpers, "i'm sorry,"

"go,"

aera looks down as she makes her way to the corner, her lower lip puckered out into a pout and tears flowing from her eyes. she sniffs frequently, standing alone which earns pitiful looks from jin and namjoon.

the boys head out for their work, to their separate offices leaving jimin alone with his sister who is taking her time out. after fifteen minutes, jimin turns around on his chair, glancing at aera who is still crying quietly.

"c'mere," he calls, putting the file in his hand away, earning a glance from the five-year-old who rubs her eyes and goes to him. "what did you do wrong?"

"not listen to you..." she repeats from earlier and jimin takes a deep breath, once again reminding himself that she's just five years old and doesn't even know the concept of cursing.

"anything else?" he still asks, surprised when aera nods.

"i was being bad girl... i'm sorry,"

jimin nods slowly, making her stand in front of him as he holds her hands and leans down to face her, resting his elbows on his knees, "i told you the very first thing in the morning that you have to behave if you're going with me. but i feel so sad, that aera didn't do that."

"no..." she pouts, "aera do that..."

"then why were you whining and throwing tantrums outside?"

"oppa don't carry me up..."

"oppa's upset now, what to do?"

"don't be upset," she tells him, almost crying which makes jimin smile a little but he hides it quite well and shrugs, pulling himself back.

"go and sit on the couch, no more talking."

"oppa no..." aera looks at him, standing on her tippy-toes and makes him face her, "don't be sad,"

jimin breaks into a smile, finally giving up and brings her in his lap, leaning down to kiss her cheek after wiping off her tears. "my baby cried a lot today," he sighs, "why do you do like this?"

"because you don't carry me," she says, sitting properly and looks at him, "you're bad oppa,"

"really? i was thinking of getting milkshakes for us. but bad oppas don't get-"

"no, you're good oppa! i was joking with you." aera says staring at him intently and nods to put more emphasis on her words, making jimin chuckle.

he orders her a milkshake giving an ipad to let her play for a while until it's evening and time to go home. jimin looks up from his laptop a few minutes later hearing aera giggling and another voice with her, and realises she called jungkook and is now face timing him while drinking her milkshake.

______________

a/n- does this ring a bell? a little familiar? 🤭 remember when y/n went to the company with jimin in the first book? you can read that too, idk which chapter it is. (if anyone knows, you can comment here so that those who haven't read that cn go and enjoy it too.)

ps: we've reached 50k views guyssss!!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩🎉🎉🎉🎉🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 thank you so much, i love you all. let's look forward to more, we have a long way to go right? srsly, thanks alot ✨

anyway, please vote if you liked the chapter. comment all you want, let me know what you think. and well, take care ❣️

_____

4.3K words