Namjoon entered the preschool classroom, still a little tense from his encounter with her earlier and more than ready to get all of his kids and go home, the one place that he knew that she would never be.

Usually, he would walk in and immediately be swarmed by the triplets as they clung to his legs and torso, but that wasn't the case today.

Probably because Tae isn't here.

Namjoon looked around and spotted Jungkook sitting in a circle with a bunch of girls, but when he saw Namjoon, he clambered to his feet and ran to him.

"Daddy!" he shouted, hugging Namjoon, and Namjoon smiled, rubbing Jungkook's back.

I have to enjoy this now before they all become teenagers and decide that they hate me.

"Daddydaddydaddydaddy, guesswhatguesswhatguesswhatguesswhat?" Jungkook asked, bouncing up and down and waiting eagerly for Namjoon to say "what."

"How about this: we grab Jimin, and then you tell me in the car on the ride home," Namjoon said, smiling, because if Jungkook started a story, he wouldn't move until he finished it, and sometimes the stories could be long. And incomprehensible.

"Okay, okay!" Jungkook said, putting his hands over his mouth and smiling at Namjoon, who melted a little bit.

Why are you so cute today?

"All right, now where's Jimin?" Namjoon asked, but after looking around, he couldn't find the little mochi. "Jimin!" he called out. "Jimin!"

But nobody came running up to them.

***

Jungkook was sitting in the circle. They were playing a new game this time, a game called "favorites." The idea was simply that someone started by picking a category, and everyone named their favorite thing in the category, and whoever had the best answer chose the next category.

Ice cream had been the obvious first choice, and Nayeon had the winning answer with "all of them."

Then had been all the standard questions: color, season, number, etc.

But finally, there was a hard question.

"Who's your favorite sibling?" Jisoo asked, grinning.

Jungkook hesitated when it got to him. "All...of them?"

The girls just laughed. "You can't do that this time," Jisoo said. "You have to answer the question!"

Jungkook turned to look at Jimin, who was playing with the blocks, only Jongup and Hyukk were harassing him again.

"Aw, I feel so bad for Jimin," one of the girls said, and Jungkook frowned, clenching down on his jaw.

"He's so cute though!"

Can't they see how weak he is, how he never stands up for himself? Without Tae, he can't do anything. Jungkook's dark thoughts filled his mind until he felt himself tense with anger. He loved Jimin, he really did, but sometimes Jimin was so frustrating. Jungkook was the youngest, but they all treated Jimin like he was the youngest. It wasn't fair. Everybody babied Jimin and spoiled him just because he couldn't stop crying all the time. Jungkook was tough and didn't cry, but all he got was a pat on the back. It wasn't fair.

Sometimes, Jungkook really didn't like Jimin.

He knew that since Tae was gone, he was supposed to watch out for Jimin, especially around Jongup and Hyukk, but he felt angry. Shouldn't Jimin be watching over me?

So Jungkook turned back to face the circle. "Any of them except for Jimin," he announced as his answer, and the girls gasped.

"Jungkook, that's so mean!" one of them said, but then they started laughing as though they couldn't help it, and Jungkook smiled.

The game kept going, but Jungkook started to feel guilty.

Maybe I shouldn't have said that. What if Jimin overheard? He would probably cry...

But when Jungkook thought of Jimin crying again and getting all the attention from his hyungs and his dad, Jungkook frowned and focused back on the girls in the circle and the game they were playing.

Even when he heard Jimin crying because Jongup and Hyukk had knocked his blocks over again.

Even when he heard Jimin call his name.

Even when he heard Jimin call Taehyung's name even though he wasn't there.

Even when he couldn't hear the crying or Jimin's voice anymore.

And when Jungkook turned around, Jimin was gone.

***

"I don't care about your school policy! What I care about is my kid! Where the hell is he?!" Namjoon yelled, and the preschool teacher glared at him.

"Sir, please watch your language-"

"I'll watch my language when you learn how to watch my children!" Namjoon left the classroom, holding hands with Jungkook, who had been silent, and once they in the silent hallway, Namjoon let go of Jungkook's hand and closed his eyes, resting his forehead against the hall and taking deep breaths. "I'm sorry, Kookie," he said, his eyes still shut. "I'm sorry I yelled."

"It's okay, Daddy," Jungkook said, and even though he knew he was supposed to be scared, he felt secretly happy inside because Namjoon was focusing just on him. He felt special. Loved. "Can I tell you my special thing now?" he asked, not understanding the situation and eager to spend more time with his dad.

"Not now, Jungkook," Namjoon said, opening his eyes. "I'm sorry, baby. But we have to find Jimin. He must have wandered out-"

"It's always about Jimin!" Jungkook yelled suddenly, his eyes prickling, and Namjoon turned to stare at him, shocked. Jungkook never yelled. "Everybody's always worrying about Jimin! What about me, Daddy?!" Jungkook froze as he felt tears on his cheek, but then he looked up at Namjoon. "See, Daddy? Now I'm crying just like Jimin. Aren't you going to hug me now and tell me that you love me?"

Namjoon hesitated. He was torn between comforting Jungkook and asking him to please reschedule his tantrum because Jimin was missing and he was terrified. "Baby..." Namjoon forced himself to take a deep breath. Jimin went missing before, remember? At the amusement park. But he waited at one place because he knew we'd find him. We found him then, and we'll find him now. Don't worry so much, Namjoon. He's probably just enjoying a longer recess. "Baby, I don't know what made you think that, but I love all of you, okay? It's not all about Jimin. I'll give you more hugs if that's what you want. I just didn't know you liked them," Namjoon said, squeezing Jungkook in his arms. "And I'm only worried about Jimin right now because we can't find him. Once we do, we'll all get buckled up in the car, go home, and have fun, okay? I'll even let you choose what we get to do. But we have to find Jimin before we can leave, all right?"

Jungkook sighed and sniffled before nodding. "All right Daddy."

Namjoon smiled. "Good boy. Now let's go find Jimin."

***

Namjoon was worried for the first fifteen minutes of their search, but that was unavoidable worry with the assured certainty that they would find him.

After half an hour, however, Namjoon was paralyzed with fear because that certainty had vanished.

Shit. I left the kids in the car...They must be worried.

Who am I kidding, worried?

I'm fucking terrified.

Still, Namjoon had searched everywhere with Jungkook, and the only thing he was certain of was that Jimin wasn't in the preschool.

Maybe he just wandered off and went into the woods or something.

Namjoon forced himself to exhale to prevent himself from running off into the woods. "Let's go back to the car," he said to Jungkook after having stared at a white brick in the wall for three minutes while his brain had frozen all of his muscles, locked in horror.

Jungkook still didn't seem to understand the severity of the situation and just skipped on ahead of Namjoon.

Once they got to the car, Namjoon got in the driver's seat and stared at the windshield until a voice broke him out of his trance.

"Daddy?"

"Yes, Jin?" he asked, his own voice thin and foreign to his ears. He sounded old. Scared.

"Where's Jimin?"

Namjoon couldn't look at Jin, couldn't let Jin see the battles playing out behind Namjoon's eyes.

But that's when Namjoon spotted a small, crumpled-up piece of paper.

"I don't know," Namjoon whispered, and without a second thought, he picked up his phone and called the number.