you may play the song while reading this chapter ^^

it was sunday: the most awaited day in a week to spend the whole day with family and relax yourselves physically and emotionally from the responsibilities of working adults life. a day you got to enjoy playing with your kids, eat homemade cooking all days, and be all lovey-dovey with your partners. and it'd always been like that for namjoon, he knew very well he was very much spoiled.

that was why when today was a bit different, there was part of him that felt reluctant with the things occurring. but he was not the namjoon if he couldn't overcome any obstacles that came to his life. but at least, he got to try...

"do you really have to go...?" namjoon hugged jin's waist pleadingly. "you can still postpone the meeting, like, who on earth wants to have a meetup on sundays?" should he try taehyung's puppy eyes? or was his face capable to produce--what's it called nowadays--aegyo?

jin sighed and rolled his eyes. "you already know I'm a day away from deadlines and my editor wants me to redo some parts. at the same time a publishing house wants to meet me and it's very important I can't miss it, joonie." with his cute fingers, he tried to lessen the grips namjoon had on him halfheartedly because he knew his spouse could easily overpower him physically; that was why it was more useful to counterattack namjoon's whims with diplomatic discussions and reasonable debates.

namjoon changed his tactics, though. he turned his head to the guy with the same pitiful fate as him today. speak of the devil, he could see jeongguk clinging to a nonchalant taehyung who was fixing some milks and food for their jeonghoon. he gave the younger alpha signs with his mouth to strengthen his resolution.

jeongguk who got him tightened his grips on his omega. "tae... you know you're not responsible to go with jin hyung, right? me and jeonghoonie need you..." he gave his best to pout as adorable as possible. much to his giddiness, he could feel taehyung's heartbeat picking up.

"jeonggukie, I'll only be gone for a few hours as jin hyung's substitute manager. I've prepared everything jeonghoon will need today, so don't worry, ok?" taehyung stroked jeongguk's head tenderly and giving him an encouraging smile before continuing the things he was doing. jeongguk sent the most deadpanned face he could to namjoon.

namjoon tried harder, "jin, you know what happened the last time you left me with soyoung, right?" yup, it was a disaster. in one day, namjoon had successfully burned the kitchen, broken a few of his daughter's toys, messed up the bathroom, and made the girl cried. it wasn't because soyoung didn't love his dad, on the contrary she loved him very dearly; her dad was just such a crazily clumsy dork who was awkward in normal house chores and other different reasons.

jin cooed and squished namjoon's cheeks, a glint of murderous intent flashed in a split second on his eyes. "aren't you a very independent man? surely my namjoonie wouldn't doubt my trust of him learning basic house chores from his mistakes, hm?"

a shiver ran down namjoon's spines from seeing the sweet, saccharine smile on jin's face.

"I didn't ban you from the kitchen for your own sakes, namjoon," the omega said more seriously, his smile softening into a gentle expression. "besides, it'll be great to spend some quality time with our daughter. there's still option to have takeout's, jeongguk will be there to help you, and you can still call yoongi or hoseok if it gets too much to handle."

namjoon finally relented, "yeah, you're right."

"that's my boy," jin grinned, kissing namjoon's cheek lovingly. "I'll be back before you know it, okay? all the things you need are already prepared and you'll get used to it in no time."

and thus, after jin and taehyung quietly left the house, namjoon and jeongguk immediately started their planning for the day before soyoung and jeonghoon wake up.

"so... breakfast," namjoon said.

"yeah," jeongguk nodded. "you make the cereals for the kids and I'll make us some toasts."

"right. then we take turns taking a bath with the kids. what should we do after that?"

jeongguk hummed thoughtfully, "we must distract them from thinking about their moms. it's honestly a crime to distance a mom from their kid but it'll be disasters once they ask us about jin or tae."

"I know," namjoon frowned as he tried to think hard. both alphas sat across from each other on the dining table, having a very serious conversation as if they were discussing about world domination. "we'll give them toys and books, and when they're bored let's put on ponyo."

"or tayo."

"and totoro."

"yeah."

"oh! hey," namjoon suddenly straightened up on his seat, eyes opened widely. "we forgot about something... when they're too engrossed in playing, we should--"

"--take pictures!" jeongguk exclaimed in high spirit. this was the most exciting thing to wait about, and they couldn't mess it up so he restrained namjoon from almost bumping his fist to the table from his overwhelming excitement. "let's start from their sleeping poses."

both alphas tiptoed to the kids' rooms, each taking several photos from different angles of jeonghoon and soyoung sleeping. fortunately for jeongguk, jeonghoon was a heavy sleeper so he got quite lots photos; but soyoung was a different case. just a minute into sneaking some photos, the girl opened her eyes and stared confusedly at his father like a deer caught in the headlights. namjoon the dork put up his hands in the air in reflex that made him even more suspicious.

soyoung whined, rubbing her eyes softly from sleepiness. "appa, what are you doing?" her bob hair was in disarray that it created an image of a small baby lion on the girl. she was too adorable.

namjoon schooled his expressions, instead he beamed warmly and gathered his daughter in his arms, "good morning, soyoungie. did you have a good sleep?"

the girl melted in her dad's arms, she hid her face on namjoon's chest. "good morning... I slept well," soyoung said, ever politely. "what about appa?" this child was just too sweet, namjoon thought inwardly.

"I slept well, too," namjoon said. he picked up his daughter and brought her outside the bedroom. "jeongguk samchon and jeonghoonie are here. does soyoungie want to have breakfast?" soyoung gave a small nod and namjoon put her down on her baby chair.

a moment later, jeongguk joined them with a very sleepy jeonghoon in his hold. once the food had been distributed on the table, the kids had been very much awake and energetic. jeonghoon, such a free spirit, giggled cheerily and asked lots of questions to everyone in the room about the most random things; while soyoung entertained the boy by answering what she knew.

"what is that?" jeonghoon asked.

"that's macrowive," answered soyoung. namjoon and jeongguk snickered as they made the breakfast.

"no, baby, it's microwave," namjoon corrected.

"alright, kids," jeongguk said, standing beside namjoon right in front of the kids tensely. "for the next few hours... please be nice to us..." then both of the alphas bowed formally to ask the kids for cooperation. the kids innocently blinked and continued eating their breakfast.

taehyung and jin had taught their children to eat by themselves, so the breakfast went quite peacefully, except when jeonghoon whined to have more bananas only for soyoung to offer a few slices of her own to the younger boy's plate like the good big sister she was.

after right 30 minutes as planned, everyone finished their food and soon took off to bath. with a handful of tips from jeongguk, the baths were finally done without much damages.

---

like how young jeongguk was, jeonghoon was a very energetic kid. their baths were filled with the kid's laughter. he was easily distracted but once he focused on something, he wouldn't let go and just kept doing it until he eventually got bored of it.

even after they'd sat on namjoon's wide sofa with his favourite cartoon turned on the tv, jeonghoon still energetically chattered, pulled his dad to play, or ran in circles around them. usually, if the kid was tired, he would always call for taehyung like a phone needed to be charged. and since taehyung was nowhere to be seen, jeongguk had to do something to preserve his kid's energy.

like a bulb suddenly popping out from his head, he excused himself to his apartment next door to grab a few new toys he and taehyung had bought to jeonghoon. they had meant to give the kid those when jeonghoon was a bit older, but perhaps now could be the right time. if it didn't work, jeongguk could distract jeonghoon in other ways.

back to namjoon's house, jeongguk presented some puzzles, kids' riddle books, and a rubric. upon seeing his dad's arrival, jeonghoon immediately ran to his sides. the kid adorably gasped in happiness when jeongguk sat down and told him how to play with those. much to jeongguk's surprise, his kid caught to it fast. jeonghoon still couldn't solve the rubric but he finished his first puzzle in less than a minute. like a proud father he was, jeongguk picked jeonghoon up and swirled him in circles. now the duo were busy doing some puzzles and riddles from the books.

on the other hand, soyoung gave little to no interest with those toys. after getting bored watching the cartoon, she stood staring at jeonghoon playing with his dad for a while before stopping in disinterest. the girl then went to her dad, only to pull him to the direction of namjoon's piano.

namjoon had always loved music since he was young. for him, music worked as distractions whenever he felt stressed with his studies and life in general, but he never planned to go pro or have a job in that field like yoongi. he could admit he was pretty skilled in playing instruments, although his forte and recent interest were rap songs and hip hop now so he seldom played the piano anymore added with how busy his work was. but in those times he was playing, sometimes he could catch the interested expression soyoung gave out when she saw him play.

the little girl pointed namjoon to the keys, and the latter obediently sat on the chair.

"ah, you want me to play, soyoungie?" namjoon smiled as her daughter sat herself next to namjoon. "what do you think should I play?"

"can you play one of them, appa?" soyoung meant the classical music books namjoon had owned since he was young that were stacked neatly under the piano chair. sometimes he played them to reminisce his younger time or to practice his fingers from having not played for long.

"sure, baby, pick anything you want," namjoon patiently waited as soyoung sorted out the books one by one before choosing a pink covered one. the alpha chuckled at his daughter's choice. it was a collection of chopin's nocturnes--one of namjoon's favourite composers of all time. he contemplated on choosing between his favourites: nocturne op. 55 no. 2, op. 48 no. 1, or op. 9 no.2. from his own experience, he would say that op. 9 no.2 would be the easiest while op. 48 no. 1 would be the hardest. so, since he would like to show off in front his daughter but at the same time playing it safe and cool, he decided to choose a slow tempo, restrained one: nocturne op. 55 no. 2.

after playing a few bars, soyoung seemed to pick up the song and felt familiar with the melodies. she swayed on her seats and smiled very sweetly at namjoon. feeling a bit daring, namjoon sped up the tempo and sharpened the intonation of his forte on the second phase. and that was where everything suddenly went downhill.

soyoung looked at him confusedly before frowning at namjoon's playing. "appa, stop," she pleaded, small hands tenderly fisted on namjoon's shirt. "play again, please."

bewildered by the sudden request, namjoon complied and played a few bars from where he stopped. using his previous interpretations, he played again with the same fierceness. it was the climax and he felt like adding some kind of momentum there.

but much to his shock, soyoung's eyes turned glassy and her hands trembled. having no idea of what's the cause of her sudden dampened mood, namjoon panicked. "o-oh, soyoungie, what's wrong? did I do something wrong? please don't cry," namjoon stroked soyoung's hair. his daughter very rarely cried so it was like a slap on the face for him. had he really been a terrible dad?? oh, God.

little soyoung hiccupped as she held her cry. "appa didn't play like I wanted to. it shouldn't be like that, please play right," soyoung whimpered. namjoon hastily did as asked, but soyoung only got more upset; even jeongguk and jeonghoon had stopped playing and now tried to lift soyoung's mood. once the girl was sad, it'd happen for a long time, which meant disaster coming.

"hey, I think we should call yoongi hyung," jeongguk suggested worriedly, after namjoon told him the reason soyoung got upset. "he's good at piano, right? he might help cheering her up." he couldn't play classical piano very well, so they were pretty much helpless now.

fortunately, yoongi was free and immediately went to namjoon's after receiving their call of help full with pleading and panicking tones. yoongi was a musician, and a very talented pianist. jeongguk and namjoon were stupefied when he saw how yoongi offered a very warm smile to soyoung and jeonghoon, very different than when his usual expression they saw daily.

"ah, you want to hear this song, huh, little girl?" yoongi skillfully played a few scales to warm up his fingers. "what do you imagine when you hear this song? for me, I feel like walking in a beautiful flower meadow alone. it's foggy and tranquil, but I feel calm there."

soyoung perked up at yoongi's words. she hummed in thought and let out a small smile, much to namjoon's relief. "yeah," the girl simply said, but expression excited.

"I'm gonna play now," yoongi said, he restrained his emotions to let out such monotone, uniform melodies that produced sentimentality portraying a mysterious and nostalgic feels. yoongi played with such fluidity that everyone couldn't stop listening to it. he brought just the right amount of tension and thrills that it sounded so perfect on the ears. soyoung closed her eyes and swayed lightly to the andante beats while occasionally stared at yoongi's moving hands beautifully playing the piano.

silence had blanketed the room for more than five minutes, everyone listening to the beautiful song played by yoongi with such ease. until the song ended, all of them were still in a daze where it felt like yoongi just bought them into the deepest memories of serene places they missed the most.

soyoung then giggled gleefully and threw her arms around yoongi. "that's how I wanted it! thank you yoongi samchon," soyoung said sincerely. "I want to play like you..." she stared at the piano keys longingly, as if it could magically gave her skills to play as good as yoongi right away.

the men stared at each other in expression of mixed surprise and bemusement. yoongi cleared his throat before giving his A+ parenting smile. "sure, soyoung-ah. I think you'll master it very soon," he said, ruffling the girl's hair. "don't be afraid and try playing by yourself first." at his instruction, soyoung started pressing different keys on the piano to match the song she just heard.

"namjoon," yoongi started seriously. "I think you need to find a teacher for your daughter."

"oh, damn, I smell prodigy coming," jeongguk laughed.

still in bewilderment, namjoon scratched his head. he and jin loved music but they weren't skilled enough to be called as pros. "uh... can't you teach her, hyung?"

"I can teach her the basics and stuff, but I'm not a professional pianist. I think you should consider a teacher if soyoung wants to learn even more," yoongi thoughtfully said. "I can sense she has the potentials, but it's totally up to you, though." they looked at soyoung seriously picking up some melodies clumsily on the piano, while jeonghoon innocently played with the piano's pedals.

jeongguk whistled, "it'll be awesome to have a family duet. I'll wait til jeonghoon starts giving attention to any musical instruments."

"yeah, for now please be her teacher, yoongi," namjoon said. "you're surprisingly very good with kids, I can trust you with that. the teacher things can be decided until we see it later. anyway, I owe you one, man. I'm so glad I decided to call you."

yoongi snickered, "anytime."

they decided to call hoseok for lunch, and the cheerful alpha came bringing lots of food his wife had cooked very deliciously. eventually, this sunday had turned out to be one of the most enjoyable for them, and it became the story of how namjoon and jeongguk found the solutions to calm their kids down when their mates were away and to have quality times together.

To be continued

I still have agendas for the next few chapters, but please do leave me a comment if you have any ideas you'd like me to write!