The weekend passed quickly and quietly. Namjoon drove the boys back to their mom's house, and they were silent the whole way, most due to Yoongi's influence,

Namjoon had known that they would be upset, but he didn't know that they'd got to the lengths of shunning him. It made him unbearably sad, but he kept silent as well.

When he pulled up in the driveway, Yoongi and the others got of out the car, used to the routine, and Namjoon sighed before following a second later.

Before Yoongi could even knock, the door opened, and their mom smiled at them. "'Hi-"

"Hi, Mom," Yoongi bit out sharply, solely for the purpose of hurting Namjoon.

He sensed Namjoon flinched behind him, and Yoongi knew he'd been successful, but he didn't feel happy. Frustrated, he went into the house, breezing past his confused mother, and Hobi paused before following.

Jimin turned as if to say goodbye but a muffled command from Yoongi had Jimin turning back away, and he disappeared inside.

As soon as they out of his sight, Namjoon let his forced smile drop.

"Hi," hi ex-wife said uncomfortably.

And that's when Lisa joined Namjoon. "Sorry, I dropped something in the car," she said to Namjoon, shaking her head of of irritation. "Aw, did Yoongi and the others already leave? I wanted a hug goodbye."

Namjoon's ex-wife stared at Lisa. By some strange twist of fate, the two had never come face-to-face. Lisa usually worked Friday nights, and she usually didn't come over until after the exchange had been made.

Which meant this was their first time meeting each other.

Which meant this was Lisa's first time seeing the woman she'd replaced.

Which meant this was Namjoon's ex-wife's first time seeing the woman who had replaced her.

"Hi, I'm Lisa," Lisa introduced straightforwardly, holding out a hand, and the woman hesitated before taking it and shaking lightly.

"I'm-"

The boisterous yelling of children saved Namjoon's ex from having to introduce herself.

I'm the kids' mother?

I'm Namjoon's ex-wife?

I'm the one who left?

"Dad!" Kookie yelled, running up to the door with Tae trailing half a step behind and Jin pulling up the rear.

Lisa coughed pointedly, and Kookie gave a guilty grin before batting his eyelashes at her. "Lisa!" he exclaimed with exaggerated enthusiasm.

Tae pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Father, Lisa," he said in a deep voice, and Lisa's head shot back as she stared at him.

"Well, that's new," she mumbled, caught off guard.

Kookie grinned. "He's trying really hard right now. You should have heard him cracking all weekend-"

Tae elbowed Kookie just under the rib cage, and he shut up with a soft "oof."

"All right, are we all ready to go?" Lisa asked, ruffling Tae's hair, a habit she couldn't stop because it was so damn soft and fluffy, and Kookie nodded, Jin following them out to the car.

Namjoon's ex-wife watched from the doorway as they got in and left.

Her children didn't say bye to her.

Her other children didn't even say hello to her, except for Yoongi, but for the wrong reason.

And watching them interact with Lisa, her replacement.

She forced a smile for the audience that wasn't watching, the audience that would have hated her anyway, and shut the door.

***

The next day, everything went back to normal. Hobi got up early to wake up Yoongi and Jimin before taking a twenty-minute shower, followed by Yoongi pushing Jimin out of the way to get the last of the hot water, followed by Jimin taking a cold shower and shivering for the next three hours despite wearing two layers.

They got on the bus, and when they got to school, Jimin was surrounded by snatched away by Jongup, who walked with Jimin to their first class, as Hobi and Yoongi went their separate ways to their classrooms.

When Yoongi got to class, he sighed heavily. He'd just remembered that he had detention after school from punching the kid last week, as his punishment had been delayed to the next week to give him time to reflect on his behavior. That, or because the teacher monitoring detention had scheduled a hair appointment for last week and couldn't make it. Yoongi couldn't remember. All their reasons sounded like bullshit to him anyways.

School passed by in a blur for him, and before he knew it, he was back in the familiar room, staring at the clock and wishing it could move faster.

He needed to get home.

He needed to make sure everything was okay.

Quickly, he pulled out his phone.

read

"No phones in detention," the teacher said, taking his phone out of Yoongi's hands before he could send the second message, and he scowled, clenching his fists under the desk, but before the teacher left, he saw a notification flick across his home screen.

Yoongi sighed, leaning back in his chair.

Maybe everything would be okay?

He hesitated before going back to staring at the clock.

***

Hobi sighed before sliding his phone into his pocket, feeling his chest tighten. He was on the bus, riding home with Jimin, and had already suspected that Yoongi was detained.

Maybe everything would be okay?

He frowned, his chest still uncomfortably tense.

***

He went inside, the house, Jimin following closely behind, and they made a beeline for their room, Hobi darting into the kitchen for a half a second along the way.

After they had shut the door, Hobi exhaled. "He's on the phone. A conference call or whatever. It looks like a long conversation. Yoongi should be home before then."

Jimin nodded, looking down at the ground as he took off his backpack and set it down slowly.

"It'll be fine," Hobi said again. "You'll be fine, okay?"

Jimin just pursed his lips. "If you say so, hyung."

Hobi sighed. "Look, I know I'm not Yoongi, but...I'll take care of you, okay? Don't I always take care of you?"

Jimin just nodded, but he heard his name being called, and he paused before exiting the room.

"Jimin?" his mom asked from the kitchen, and Jimin slowly moved into the kitchen. "I have to cancel your tutoring today to pick up Yoongi from detention, okay?"

"A-all right," he said, not at all upset because he didn't like the tutoring sessions anyway. They confused his stutter with an inability to use reasoning and logic skills, and Jimin didn't appreciate it one bit.

"Tell your brother that there's food leftover in the fridge, all right? You two can warm up whatever you want."

"O-okay, I'll t-tell him."

She nodded hesitantly before hurrying to grab her keys, and then she hopped in her car and left.

Maybe everything would be okay?

***

Yoongi hurried into the house to hear words he'd been dreading.

"IF YOU CAN'T TALK PROPERLY THEN DON'T TALK AT ALL!"

"Y-yes-"

"WHAT DID I JUST SAY?"

"I'm s-sorr-"

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOU TALK EVER AGAIN!"

Yoongi ran through the house and into the dining room to see his step-dad, standing next to a table covered in paperwork from his job, Jimin standing in front of him, curled over slightly, his very spine apologetic in nature. Hobi was hovering in the kitchen, looking hesitant and regretful. Yoongi walked past him.

"You don't talk to Jimin like that," Yoongi snapped, and Jimin turned quickly, his eyes wet, but he wiped them quickly.

"Y-Yoon-"

"JIMIN!"

Jimin swallowed and fell silent.

"Stop yelling at Jimin!" Yoongi yelled at his step-dad, who took a step closer to Jimin.

"Then maybe he should learn how to speak!"

"He knows how to, and he's perfect the way he is!" Yoongi spat back, pulling Jimin back towards him by grabbing his shoulder and pushing him toward Hobi while still keeping a hand on him.

"He's an embarrassment is what he is! Fourteen years old and he can't even talk!"

Yoongi felt Jimin sink a little lower, and it really pissed him off. "You don't even care enough to be embarrassed!"

Those words were apparently the wrong ones to say because their step-father got scarily quiet. "I don't care? I don't care about the important business calls I have to make hearing him stuttering and squawking away in the background? I don't care about the money I send every week for his tutoring and his therapy and his speech programs to try to fix him?"

Yoongi wanted to scream that they didn't fucking need to be fixed, that they were kids, that they had problems which just made them like every other kid out there, but their mom stepped into the kitchen at that moment, pale, her hands tense.

"Honey? What's going on?" she asked.

Yoongi didn't know if she hadn't heard their screaming match or if she was feigning ignorance to keep the peace.

There was a long moment in which Yoongi waited desperately for it all to unravel at once.

For the man in front of him to tell his wife how he thought of Jimin as an unfortunate statistic of unplanned pregnancies that should have been prevented, how he thought of Jimin as a waste of money and a humiliation to the family.

But the tense man just jerked his chair out roughly and sat back down, shuffling his papers around as though that would solve the dysfunction that clung to the walls of the house and the roof about their heads.

And, ever the peace-keeper, she just smiled nervously, and Yoongi ignored her as he dragged Hobi and Jimin to their shared room.

It was just like before.

She hadn't left them, this time, but she wasn't there for them, either.