jin - 28, yoongi - 27, hobi - 26, jimin - 25, taehyung - 25, jungkook - 25

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"Dad?" Jimin asked, hesitating in the door frame, the door standing ajar. When he'd first started living with Namjoon, he'd been woken up at 6 every morning, but now he got up around 5:45 so he'd be awake when Namjoon got up. It was just routine now; he didn't even need to set an alarm anymore. He still did, though.

A groan from the bed indicated that Namjoon was awake, and Jimin crossed the room, standing next to Namjoon's bedside and putting an arm beneath his lower back to help him sit up straight. "Morning, Dad. How are you feeling?"

"I have to go to work," Namjoon said, looking around the room, eyes slightly clouded. "Where's my uniform?"

One thing Jimin had learned was that it was always easier to just go along with it. "I'll get it, Dad. One second," Jimin said, leaning Namjoon back against the headboard, making sure there was a pillow to support his back before grabbing the clothes he'd folded last night on the dresser. He helped his dad get changed, putting the old clothes in the hamper. It was almost full; he'd have to do the laundry later today. "All right, let's go get some breakfast, yeah?"

He followed Namjoon out of the bedroom, keeping a loose grasp on his lower back and right forearm, and when they got into the kitchen, Jimin let go of Namjoon for a second to ease out a chair from the table. Then he helped Namjoon sit down before pushing the chair back in and heading into the kitchen.

It was weird, Jimin thought, that he'd been the one to spend the least amount of time in this house as a child, and yet now he was here the most.

He began cooking. He wasn't Jin, that was for sure, but he could make simple things. Only Namjoon couldn't stomach scrambled eggs any more, so Jimin had switched to making omelets instead. They were messy, but at least Namjoon could eat them.

Jimin finished up, loading up one plate with an omelet before cutting it into small, bite-sized pieces. He took the plate over to the table, slipping into the seat on Namjoon's right and setting the plate down between them. Then he helped feed Namjoon, spearing a piece with the fork and holding it up to Namjoon's mouth, left hand upturned to guide the food in. Once Namjoon finished a bite, Jimin would get another piece and repeat the process. The plate was almost empty before Namjoon waved his hand to indicate that he was full, and Jimin nodded, getting up and pulling Namjoon's chair out enough to help him up. Then Jimin guided Namjoon over to the living room couch and sat him down, propping him up with pillows on either side and tucking a blanket around him so he wouldn't get too cold.

"What do you want to watch today, Dad?" Jimin asked as he turned on the TV, but it wasn't really that much of a question. The TV came on to the same channel it was always on because they rarely bothered changing it. Jimin wasn't much of a TV person, and Namjoon didn't have much preference. Besides, this was the only thing they liked watching much at all.

"This is fine," Namjoon answered as expected, and Jimin hovered over the couch, remote in hand, as the commercial ran its course before a familiar face filled the screen.

"Good morning everyone, and welcome to Jin's Kitchen!" announced the bright face of Jimin's oldest brother. Jimin set the remote down, but his eyes stayed on the screen as the channel began playing a preview of the episode.

"On today's episode of Jin's Kitchen," the narrator began, and the image cut to a clip of Jin standing next to a contestant, eyebrows raised and spoon in hand.

"I'm sorry, was the prompt a tasteless watery soup?" Jin asked, lips pursed in displeasure.

Another clip showed Jin testing a different contestant's entry, Jin pinching his mouth shut in concentration before looking over at the camera. "Well, we've got first place for trying to poison me. Someone give this contestant a medal. And then get me an ambulance."

A final clip showed Jin leaning over a contestant's counter, his focused gaze scanning over her face. "It's too dry, sweetie. What it needs is something to really bring out the moisture."

The contestant's eyes widened in confusion. "The soup?"

"No," Jin said, eyes flicking toward the camera in annoyance as if to say, Can you believe this? "Your face. It's too dry. Try something in one of the Neutrogena or Cetaphil lines."

A brief musical motif ended the preview, and the show returned to commercial break.

"Dad, I'm going to put the remote right here, okay?" Jimin said, setting the remote down on the table in front of Namjoon. A memory flashed in his mind abruptly of when he and Jungkook had been fighting after he'd been brought home, Jungkook shoving him back, Jimin's head hitting the table, blood saturating the carpet.

But the blood was gone now. The carpet was clean, the table was unblemished.

Still, the memory made Jimin uneasy, and he stood up quickly, heading back to the kitchen. He washed the dishes from breakfast after boxing up any leftovers. He wasn't hungry enough to make an omelet for himself. He'd eat later.

Instead, he cleared off a spot at the table for himself and began reviewing some of the documents he'd been sent the other day. There were so many decisions he had to make, but there was no one else to make them.

Jimin made small notes on a pad next to his laptop, questions he had and a few notes he needed to bring up later. Every now and then, he'd look up at Jin's face on the TV and just watch him for a few minutes. He could really use Jin. He didn't want to bother him, though. Jin was busy with his career. He could handle this.

He could handle this, and Dad, and the house.

He paused his research to pull up the manuscript his boss had sent him. The first thing his eyes wandered to was the due date, at which he sighed. But he knew he was lucky to have this job. It let him work from home and helped him pay the bills. The work wasn't something he loved, something he'd ever pictured himself doing. If he were being honest with himself, then he'd always secretly thought that he'd like being a singer. But he'd quit his singing lessons during college and had never resumed them, and it was altogether too late now to go back.

He began skimming the manuscript – it looked like your everyday fantasy trilogy, which made him cringe – but he paused as he heard the familiar song come on the TV that meant Jin's show was over for the day.

"We'll see you next week," Jin said with a smile that promised excitement and challenge, "on Jin's Kitchen. Until then, happy cooking!" He flashed the camera two thumbs-up, and the credits began scrolling up from the bottom of the screen.

Jin was dating an actress who had starred in a recent drama, Jimin was pretty sure. Jin hadn't said anything himself, but Jimin had heard it from one of the others. He couldn't remember her name, but he'd looked her up to find that she was beautiful and extremely talented. Jin was handsome and talented as well, so they seemed to make a good pair. Jin hadn't invited her to any family events as of yet, though; Jimin had a feeling that he kept his work life separate from his family.

He got up and picked up the remote from the table, going to their taped episodes and playing yesterday's. Even the DVR was relatively empty; dozens of old episodes of Jin's Kitchen and a handful of Jeopardy episodes for when Namjoon was feeling well.

Jimin had just hit play when he felt a hand lock around his wrist, and he looked over, startled, to see Namjoon staring at him. "Dad? What is it?"

"Where's Lisa?" Namjoon asked, frowning before looking around himself for a second as though expecting her to have materialized by now. He looked back at Jimin, his grip on Jimin's wrist tightening. "Where is she?"

Jimin swallowed, trying to pull away slightly, but Namjoon's grip didn't loosen. "She's..." Another memory flashed into his mind, an old one from just after it had all started going wrong. "She's busy, Dad."

Namjoon stared at him hard for another second before his hand loosened, and Jimin took half a step back, rubbing his wrist behind his back.

"Why don't you watch your show?" Jimin asked, hesitating before moving closer to grab the remote and increasing the volume several notches.

Namjoon looked back at the TV, but his frown didn't quite disappear.

Jimin took a deep breath before turning back to the kitchen. He looked at the two bowls outside on the porch, one for food and one for water. Both were still full.

He stood there for a second, just trying to have a moment of peace and be still, before sitting back down and making some calls.

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published 05/20/20 (mm/dd/yy)

welcome to the beginning of the end, friends :)