Alone With Six [BTS kids] (hiatus)

11th part

Later that evening after everyone of the children had gone to bed, Seokjin walked into the children's bedroom with hushed steps, sitting down on the downer part of one of the the bunkbeds. "Yoongi." He whispered, stretching a hand out and putting it lightly on his oldest son's shoulder. Making sure that he wouldn't wake him up if he was already sleeping. "Yes daddy?" The boy asked with a small, sleep filled voice as he turn around to face his father. "How was school?" Seokjin asked him again, stroking the young boy's black hair. "You alreday asked me that." The boy told confused, slightly leaning into the touch of his father's hand. "Yeah, but you gave two answers. At first you said you didn't like it, but then you added it was probably because your brothers weren't there. What do you really feel bub?" The father asked, feeling the boy stir underneath his hand.  

"Both were true." The boy mumbled, shifting his eyes from his father to his pillow. "I didn't like school." He said quietly, now refusing to look up at Seokjin who was still petting his hair, and eyed his pillow instead. "B-but, I didn't lie," He defended a little bit louder. "I would've liked it a lot better if Hoseokie or Namjoonie were there." He said, getting a quiet hum from his father. "Honey, I am sorry." Seokjin said, voice apologetic as he layed down in the bed next to Yoongi, who quickly scooted to the side to give him some room. "What!? Why?!" The boy yelled, before quickly slapping his hands to his mouth remembering that his brothers were all asleep. "It's okay Yoongi." Seokjin reassured him before he continued. "I am sorry for ruining your big day. First days of school are a big deal and I know you were very excited for it Yoongi and I am sorry that you were late." When he finished talking, he could feel his son's body start to shake a bit before he released a quiet sob. The boy didn't say anything more, but he moved closer to his daddy, cuddling up to his side while softly crying, comforted by Seokjin's touches and hushed words. When the cries turned to heavy breaths, Seokjin carefully got up and tucked his oldest son into his comforters, kissing his head one final time before he exited the room.

What the two didn't know though, was that one of the other children had been awake too. Listening in on their conversation, and feeling his heart break at his older brother's tears.

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The next morning it was even harder to get the sleepy boys out of their beds than it had been the day before. Whining chants of excuses and complaints such as: "But daddy it's cold." "Daddy I'm sleepy." Daddy I don't want to." Filled the cramped bedroom and the single father sighed. "Boys come on, we don't want Yoongi to be late again." He told strictly, looking at the curled up ball with fluffy black hair, that was laying in the bunkbed. "But daddy, hyung ain't up either." Hoseok told sassily, pointing a finger at his brother in the bed. "I know that Hoseok-ah. But he should be." The last part of his sentence was told in a stricter tone than the other. Despite this, none of the boys moved. "Fine, if you guys hurry up and get dressed I will make pancakes for breakfast." Seokjin told in defeat. As soon as the words left his mouth, all the boys were on the floor next to their beds, ready to scoot into the bathroom to get dressed.

"Yay pancakes!" The twins both yelled happily while looking at each other, that was until they remembered their fight. When they did so, both boys instantly tore their eyes away from one and other and crossed their arms. Seokjin sighed at this. He knew he needed to have another talk with them. He had hoped what he said yesterday would've settled more with the twins over a good night of sleep, but unfortunately that didn't seem to have happened.

The adult left the bedroom, and headed downstairs to the kitchen. He had already made the batter in advance, knowing that he was probably going to need it to wake up the many sleepyheads. Seokjin was more of a moring person so he knew that their love for sleeping was something they had gotten from their mother. The man sighed as he pulled out a frying pan and turned the stove on.

There were times when he missed Songhee. He missed her messy cooking, her comforting words, her bright smile, he missed the girl he had gotten to love and most of all, he missed having a mother to his children. He missed her, but he had never regretted what he had done that day. She had agreed to the adoption. She had wanted it, and officaily, Namjoon togehter with their other sons, were rightfully their childen. Still, she mistreaded the poor boy. Seokjin had noticed the way she seemed to ignore the boy, refusing him the things she would give her other sons with no hesitation. He had tried confronting her about it multiple times, but every time he did, she had refused his suspisions saying that she just wasn't used to having him around yet. The day when she had punched the boy, had been the final drop. The words he had said weren't just uttered in the heat of the moment words, they were all he had built up over time watching his wife's unfair treatment towards their adopted son.

He flipped the first pancake with a sad smile. Everything had become harder after she had left him though. Of course it would. The twins had still been so young that they needed breast milk when she had left them. Seokjin had needed to buy the expensive toddler milk replacement. All of the children needed an adult to watch them at almost every passing moment and the one adult to make sure that happened, was him. To say the job as a single parent to six children was draining, would be an understatement, and adding in all the hours he had spent in court to finalize the process of their divorce, it had been the most exhausting period of Seokjin's life. Not once during this period had his ex wife helped him, she hadn't contacted him, talked to him, she had not even looked at him. He knew that she wasn't someone he should miss. She had even been able to get away with paying less than half the amount of child support that the law stated, because her defender had told that: "The adopted son had been brought in without her consent and was a violation to her opinions and rights."

He felt bitter when he had finished the fourth pancake and he cursed himself for once again thinking about the woman that he had once loved, the woman that as soon as the divorce papers were filed, were in the arms of another man. It sucked, Seokjin could say nothing else than that. Yes, she had left behind the greatest treasure in the world, one that Seokjin would've never exchanged for anything, but she had also left him with a huge debt and a wage of roughly 2000 dollars a month to pay taxes, rent and to feed himself and the six children.  Even though he was working full time and was working eight hours every day, it was still barley enough for them to get by.

He looked at the growing stack of pancakes, meals like these were rare to them. He tried to never let their lack of money show, but every time he shopped he always had to buy the cheapest solutions. He also couldn't afford to buy anything  more than the items that were absolutely necessary for them to get by.

The worst thing was, that couldn't remember the last time he bought any new toys for the boys, or anything new for them at all. He should wish he was able to buy them more stuff. No, they weren't necessities, but it still felt like a basic need he couldn't cover for his children. He sighed, putting the final part of the batter into the frying pan.

There was one thing that definitely was good about all six of the boys being the same gender, though. That was that there was usually never a problem with them sharing clothes or the younger ones getting the ones that the older's had grown too big for. A current problem was that Yoongi was a bit too short for his age (something that worried Seokjin a lot more than what he let on) and Hoseok and Namjoon had soon both surpassed him in height. This meant that he would soon have to take them shopping for new clothes. This was one reason why he would need to, another one was that some of the twins' clothes started ripping and had multiple holes in them. He wasn't shocked at that. The clothes had been passed down from four older siblings and the twins were probably the most active of the lot, always running around and chasing each other, tripping and falling, but getting back up and continuing like nothing happened.
Seokjin chuckled at the thought that appeared in his head. The image of his two youngest sons running around in socks where one of their toes were sticking out.

Soon the stack of pancakes was finished and only moments after, the children all came running into the kitchen. It was clear that it today had been Yoongi who had taken on the task to dress his youngest siblings. Mostly because all the clothes were the right way round, but Seokjin also knew because the oldest had a small proud smile on his lips. "Wow daddy, you really made pancakes!" Hoseok yelled, when he saw the pancakes, his eyes growing wide at the sight in front of them. "Of course I did. You thought I wouldn't?" The father chuckled back, putting plates on the table and placing one pancake on each. "Now dig in, we have to leave soon." All six children nodded with bright smiles on their eyes, then they ran over and sat down on the chairs to start eating their pancakes.