Chapter Text
Seokjin’s meeting couldn’t have gone worse.
He knew sometimes the company simply couldn’t postpone them and that they had to attend them, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.
He’d accepted a role a few months ago, and then told the company and the film crew to find another actor since his and Namjoon’s son had been born and he wanted to be at home with their baby. He’d explicitly told the company that he couldn’t take the role anymore and to give it to someone else. He knew full well the meeting would be them trying to convince him to keep it.
Namjoon and Seokjin weren’t out to the public, so he couldn’t tell this director that was the reason he didn’t want the role anymore so he just had to play it like something else important had come up. The director had tried to almost guilt trip Seokjin into taking the role to the point Minjae had to step in and tell Seokjin to think about it for himself.
They didn’t come to any actual conclusion in the meeting, but Minjae asked for an answer by the end of the week. Seokjin was pretty confident that he wasn’t going to take the role. He didn’t want to be in England, hours away when he had a new baby at home. If the role required him to remain in Korea then he’d probably accept it openly, but he didn’t want to risk anything.
Thankfully, Namjoon was in the living room with Chanwoo when Seokjin returned home, talking to their son about anything he could think of. Namjoon liked walking around the house with Chanwoo when the baby got fussy.
“How was the meeting?” Namjoon asked as Seokjin made his way to the couch to sit beside him. Seokjin just sighed and rested his head on his husband’s shoulder. “That bad?”
“They still want me to take the role after I told them to give it to someone else. I wanted this job when they were still filming here, but they changed it to a whole other country,” Seokjin complained, looking down at Chanwoo. He really didn’t want to leave his family alone right now, he wanted to be around them.
“They really want you to take the role?”
“Yeah. They started saying that it would be my fault if the movie ends up failing if I don’t take it, or that they specifically asked me for a reason. Plus I know Minjae’s willing to put money into backing it,” he sighed.
“Do you want this role?” Namjoon asked as he carefully passed Chanwoo over to Seokjin after seeing how much the other man clearly wanted to hold the baby.
“I wanted it when it was still here.”
“Pretend it’s still being filmed here then. Do you want that role?” Seokjin remained silent. Namjoon had always been so supportive of Seokjin and his career, he never wanted anything to hold him back; even if it was something as important as them. “If you want that role, take it.”
“What about you guys?” Seokjin whispered.
“We’ll be okay. It’ll only be a month or two, right? It’ll all be okay. You get to do your job, and I can still call you every day so you can see Chanwoo and we can talk. You’ve gone abroad for movies before,” Namjoon reminded.
“When we didn’t have a baby. They’re just forcing me to take this role even though I’ve told them so many times I don’t want it.”
“That’ll happen after you get nominated for an Oscar. You’re sought after.”
The previous year, Seokjin had been nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. He hadn’t won, which had bummed him out a bit, but with the added fame from simply attending boosting his career, he didn’t feel like he had any right to complain.
“Jin. Take the role,” Namjoon said sweetly, kissing his temple. “We’ll all be okay here. We’ll call, we’ll have contact. And worst comes the worst, I’ll just fly out there and bring Chanwoo.”
Seokjin never liked asking Namjoon to fly anywhere with him. Not because he didn’t like Namjoon coming with him, he just felt bad dragging him and the rest of the family around from country to country by association.
“You’re really okay with me going?” Seokjin asked, his eyes brightening up a little bit.
“I’m okay with you going. I promise, babe,” Namjoon whispered.
Unbeknownst to them, Haneul had been listening in to the entire conversation from the staircase. Once the topic had changed, he rushed up to his bedroom and frantically pulled his phone from his pocket. He knew that the rest of his siblings would be on their afternoon break.
haneul: guys fucking guess what
junseo: idk but pls dont actually make us guess
haneul: fine
haneul: appas going to england for a few months for a role
micha: WHAT
yujin: UR SRS??
yeonjun: whats the big deal hes done it before
junseo: idk maybe the baby brother we have
yeonjun: OH RIGHT
micha: haneul how do u even know this
haneul: he went to a meeting this morning and he just got home
haneul: so he was speaking to dad right
junseo: were u eavesdropping them
haneul: yes i was
haneul: anyway appa was like ‘ugh idk if i should even go’
haneul: so dad was like ‘yo if u wanna go then go we can call n stuff’
yujin: aw well thats nice of him at least
micha: wait so hes really going?
haneul: mhm
haneul: see its a good thing i dropped out u guys get all this amazing gossip
Back at school, Micha frankly couldn’t believe what she was reading. She knew that Seokjin was purposefully taking time off to look after Chanwoo, and she was shocked that Namjoon was actually okay with letting Seokjin leave. She wasn’t completely against the idea, but she couldn’t help feeling a little uneasy about it.
She mustn’t have realised everyone was on their way back to class because after a few moments, she felt a tap on her shoulder that snapped her out of her thoughts. When she snapped her head up to look at whoever was stood there, one of Yeonjun’s friends was standing over her. Kai, if she remembered correctly.
“You okay?” He asked, smiling down at her in a way that was laced with concern.
“Yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry,” she reassured, returning the smile. Micha didn’t have a reason to hide away from Kai, all of Yeonjun’s friends knew about Namjoon and Seokjin since they’d known them since they were all children. She just didn’t want him to worry unnecessarily.
“You sure? You seem a bit distracted.”
“I’m fine. I promise, I need to get to class now,” she added, nodding politely at him.
“Hold on, can I ask you something first?” He spoke hurriedly, placing a hand on her shoulder before quickly retracting it. She curiously raised her eyebrows at him. “I’ve been having some trouble with school lately, and Yeonjun-hyung says you’re smart, so…”
“Do you want me to tutor you?” She asked, her eyes going wide.
“Sort of. You got moved up an entire year because you were so smart. And you’re my friend’s sister, so it’s not like we don’t know each other,” Kai explained, quickly checking his watch.
“Ask Yeonjun for my number, text me later, we really need to get to class.”
“Right, okay. I’ll text you later, Micha,” he smiled, waving at her as he started walking in the opposite direction to his next class. Thankfully, the conversation distracted her a little bit from the news Haneul had given her.
–
“Are you actually okay with Jin going away for a few months?” Yoongi’s voice sounded through Namjoon’s phone. Everyone else was busy getting ready for school and Seokjin was packing his bags for his flight, giving Namjoon enough time to speak to his friend.
“Of course I’m fine with it, he’s been away before,” Namjoon answered with a shrug of his shoulders. He didn’t tend to go away for work often, and when it happened it was only ever a month or two. This was nothing he hadn’t already dealt with before.
“Obviously. It’s just that you guys have a baby together now. You’re really okay with him not being there?”
“If this is a dig about my cooking, I’ll have you know I’m getting better,” Namjoon defended as he paced around his bedroom. He really wasn’t that scared about Seokjin leaving for England, he was fine with it. There were no problems he could think of other than Seokjin potentially missing any milestones, but he wasn’t too sure how many milestones could occur in the first five months of life.
“This isn’t about your cooking. It’s about Jin going to another country and him not being there.”
“Yoongi, I’m the one who pushed him to take it. He didn’t want to go, but I don’t want him to start rejecting work.”
“Joon, just th-”
At that moment, Namjoon heard Yujin calling out for him, his voice coming from the bedroom under his own.
“Yoongi, I’m sorry, I have to go. Yujin needs me, I’ll call you back.”
Namjoon dashed down to Yujin’s bedroom to see the teenager still curled up in bed, his duvet nearly pulled over his head. He tended to get sick quite easily and something as simple as a common cold could knock him out for days on end, so this wasn’t a sight Namjoon wasn’t used to seeing. They’d taken him to a doctor when he was younger, and the answer was simply that he experienced sickness more extremely than the rest of them.
“What’s wrong?” Namjoon asked gently, making his way to crouch next to Yujin’s bed.
“I don’t know. I just feel really sick,” he mumbled, pushing his face against his dark blue pillow. Namjoon held the back of his hand against his head, noting that Yujin did have an increased temperature. “What time do we have to leave?”
“Are you sure you’re fit to go in?”
“It’s my first year of high school. I have to go in,” Yujin sighed, pushing himself upright and then instantly hissing in pain.
“Yujin, do you want to see a doctor?” Namjoon panicked, rubbing his son’s back to try and calm him down.
“No, it’s probably just a cold again. I can go to school, I just wanted to tell you I don’t feel great.”
Yujin looked a whole lot paler than he usually did, almost shaking from the effort of keeping himself upright. Namjoon helped him lay back down, making sure the duvet was properly covering him. Yujin always tried to play down how sick he felt, and Namjoon wasn’t going to let it slide this time.
“You’re not going to school. I’ll ask Junseo to get your work for you, okay?” Namjoon offered to which Yujin weakly accepted. “Stay here.”
“Wasn’t gonna move anyway.”
Namjoon quickly checked the kitchen, grabbing Yujin a glass of water and some painkillers before returning to his room and leaving them on his nightstand.
“Okay, I’ll be here today if you need me. I’ll just be taking your Appa to the airport then I’ll come straight back home. And Haneul’s staying either way, okay?”
“Mhm. My head hurts,” Yujin complained, reaching out for the painkillers and water with his eyes screwed shut. Namjoon helped him, making sure he took the tablets before he laid back down to rest.
“Will you call me down if you feel any worse?”
“I will. Promise. Can you call my school, please?”
“Of course I will. Get some rest, okay?”
Yujin almost started falling asleep the second the words left Namjoon’s mouth, curling up under the duvet as his breathing evened out. Seokjin was waiting outside in the hallway when Namjoon left, almost exclaiming from surprise.
“Is he okay?” Seokjin asked, peeking his head into the teenager’s bedroom, biting the inside of his cheek. Namjoon grabbed his hand to reassure him.
“He’s not feeling great. He’s gonna stay here today. If he gets any worse then I’ll take him to a doctor,” Namjoon soothed as the family cat, Narae, slipped into Yujin’s room to settle at the foot of his bed. “I’ll update you. Don’t worry.”
“I can’t help it,” Seokjin chuckled a little as he hugged Namjoon and rested against his shoulder. “Promise you’ll call?”
“I promise. Just let me know if you can’t pick up, I know how long the days you work are. Ready to go?”
“Yeah, I said goodbye to the kids. I said goodbye to Yujin too but I thought he was just tired.” Namjoon could detect the worry in his husband’s voice, loud and proud no matter how much he was trying to cover it up.
“He gets like this every time he’s sick. But I promise you that he’ll be okay. Don’t worry about him.”
Seokjin eventually let Namjoon drag him to the airport. He said goodbye to the kids again just before they left, giving them each a hug before he climbed into the car. Over the years, Namjoon had learned to drive so there was no problem with him driving Seokjin to the airport then returning home.
Namjoon asked Seokjin questions about the movie the whole way to the airport. Like usual, Seokjin didn’t give him much information. He wasn’t being secretive to annoy Namjoon, he just hated giving Namjoon spoilers to his movies and liked it when he saw the movie for the first time like everyone else did. That didn’t stop Namjoon enquiring about all of the movies, however with a mischievous smile on his face that made his dimples pop out.
They’d agreed to have Namjoon say goodbye to Seokjin in the car with Chanwoo. Since Seokjin’s increase in fame, there was always the worry that there would be someone waiting to take photos of them together, and they weren’t quite ready to expose their relationship. Namjoon reached into the backseat and unbuckled Chanwoo, passing him to Seokjin so he could properly say bye.
“Can you take good care of everyone for me, Chanwoo?” Seokjin asked in a high pitched voice. Chanwoo babbled a little bit, reaching a tiny hand out for him as if he wanted to hold onto him but he wasn’t quite sure how to do it yet. “I promise you I’ll be back soon, so be good for your Dad for me.”
“He will be, he always is,” Namjoon whispered. Compared to some nightmare stories that Namjoon had heard about newborns, Chanwoo was rather calm in comparison, which they were both incredibly grateful for. “I’m gonna miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too, but it’s only two months. Then I’m coming back home.” Seokjin seemed reluctant to leave for a moment, halting when he moved to return Chanwoo to his car seat after giving the baby a hug. For a moment, Namjoon almost considered begging Seokjin to stay. He couldn’t, though. He knew Seokjin would drop the movie and stay with him, and Namjoon didn’t want to hold his career back.
“I’ll call you, I promise,” Namjoon whispered as he pulled Seokjin in for a hug. “I hope everything goes well there.”
“Shit, I hope so too. Because I’m not staying there longer than I have to,” Seokjin joked. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Namjoon echoed, his heart aching a little in his chest. “You need to go, you’ll miss your flight.”
“I know,” he sighed sadly yet made no move to let go of his husband. “I’m gonna go now.”
“Okay,” Namjoon sniffed, trying to stop his tears before Seokjin saw them. It didn’t happen in time, and Seokjin wiped them away with his thumb. He gave Namjoon a soft kiss before pulling him back in for another hug. “Love you.”
“I love you,” Seokjin repeated before letting go of Namjoon and stepping out of the car.
Namjoon watched from the window as Seokjin made his way to the airport, waving to him as he walked through the doors. Normally, due to fears of photographers on every corner, Seokjin wouldn’t wave back. He did this time, smiling at Namjoon as he did so and mouthing yet another ‘I love you’.