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"Here it is,"Seokjin said with difficulty as he climbed down the attic steps with the heavy box filling his arms. Almost slipping at the last step, Seokjin stumbled to the living room, leaving the attic ladder down. Setting the box down on the coffee table, he plopped down on the couch in front of it opening the dusty container,"It's been a while."
Carefully lifting up the delicate leather bound book, dusting it off with his hand. Seokjin let his fingers trace the faint letters still inscribed on the cover spelling out 'The Bulletproof Family'. There was still the faint ink spot where Jungkook wanted to officially stamp the book with his finger print. Taking in a deep breath, Seokjin opened the book as it fought him, crackling as he pushed past the page resistance.
"You're about to learn all about the family who's bulletproof,"Seokjin read out loud as his hand smoothed out the old aged pages,"A family who won't be brought down be anything. Our bond is inseparable so just try us. You won't win since we have a mother who cares for us, a papa who loves us despite being bad at showing his true emotions, a brother who never stops smiling, one who can break anything you give him, another who doesn't seem like he's from earth, we've got a cutie who just wants love, and last but not least we have our golden littlest brother. No matter what you throw at us, we are bulletproof."
Seokjin let out small spurts of laughter as he read the introduction to our family, knowing by the differentiating handwriting they each wrote their own description. Taehyung had wanted to write 'another who's not from earth' but somehow he had talked his son out of it, though Seokjin had to admit, he wondered himself if he had come from earth or outer space. Turning the page, it revealed all of the adoption papers that Seokjin and Yoongi had signed together, each paired with a picture of the new addition to the family. Each picture of their babies made Seokjin tear up thinking of how much they've grown.
"Namjoon always had a deep dimple,"Seokjin muttered touching it in the photograph,"And Hoseok's smile, it was always the brightest."
Flipping to the pages where his children were in their teen years, Seokjin couldn't help but smile wider. A picture of Jungkook prepared in his yellow uniform with his backpack, ready to head off to high school. Seokjin remembered that day, he had cried seeing his last baby leave the house for high school. Yoongi had helped him by mocking their youngest son, grabbing a backpack and putting it on while holding up a thumbs up while smiling widely. Those two pictures were pasted side to side, labeled "My baby's all grown up" along with "My husband mocking our baby". A few more pages and Seokjin got to a labeled section. "My lazy ass husband-".
The first picture had Yoongi had made all of the kids carry him as he looked like he was sleeping, Taehyung had even knelt on the ground to keep Yoongi up. It had been named "My lazy ass husband makes our kids carry him". The next photo had a picture of Seokjin carrying Yoongi without difficulty but still with a judgmental look aimed towards his husband, Seokjin had named it "My lazy ass husband makes ME carry him". As the section went on, it consisted of pictures of Yoongi being carried around or sleeping, but something so simple as Yoongi sleeping made Seokjin smile,"That lazy man."
Every page that past Seokjin's time brought out a nostalgic feeling from him, the atmosphere seeming brighter than it had been that morning in the quiet and empty house. The next section in the book was "(Failed) Family Photos". Explained by it's name, it had family pictures that Seokjin had tried to arrange.
The first one had Seokjin being the only serious member of the family, standing straight up while looking at the camera with his hands in front of him. Everyone else behind him had decided to joke around. Yoongi having a half smirk on his lips while making a flicking motion at the back of Seokjin's head, Hoseok pointing a finger gun towards his father, Namjoon wearing shades and a hoodie while having his hands on his hips as if trying to signify that he had given up with his chaotic family, Jimin in the picture was staring intently at Namjoon while Taehyung posed strangely, copying his brother Hoseok with the finger gun, and the youngest had jumped away from his family, balancing himself on one leg,"My weird dysfunctional family."
Shaking his head, Seokjin turned the page to the next group picture. All of them were equally as chaotic as the first, if not more. But then he got to the last picture in the section. Each of them wearing the same matching striped suit, their ties each done my Seokjin himself that morning, looking at the camera with smiling faces. None of them goofing off, none of them posing strangely, each of them looking at the camera with a smile. "We finally did it" was written beneath the picture in Seokjin's neat writing but it was surrounding with more phrases. "Mom we did it for you!", "You wanted a good family photo", "Look at dad and Jimin! They closed their eyes!". Each in different writing, showing that his kids had somehow gotten into the family scrapbook.
Seokjin was ready to the book at that but something caught his eye. A piece of paper sticking out of the back that didn't blend in with the scrapbook paper. Turning to where it was stuck, Seokjin carefully picked up the folded letter before opening it.
"Seokjinnie, are you doing well?"Seokjin asked himself as he read the letter out loud,"How far in the future are you reading this? 5 years? 10? Did you find someone else? How are the kids? These are the questions that are going through my mind, but most importantly, are you happy? There's so much that I want to say, so much that I need to say. First, I love you, I might have been bad at showing you but I loved you more than anyone."
Seokjin continued reading the letter, each word causing his chest to tighten as it became difficult to breath. His fingers trembled, trying to hold the letter steady enough for him to still be able to read it. His entire body trembling as he neared the end, ready to read the parting words.
"But most importantly, Seokjin, don't stop taking pictures. Pictures are the best way to remember happy memories, and I want you to be happy. Taking those pictures, they made you so happy every time you would come back from having them developed and rush right to the bedroom and put it in the scrapbook. So keep making memories, if not for you, for me. Because when you see me again, I want you to tell me all about them. I love you, with all my heart. I'll see you one day, your husband Yoongi."
Everything went still in the quiet house that only held one person. Until Seokjin felt something wet his his balled hand that had crinkled the last letter his husband wrote for him. Looking down at his hand to see what had hit him, another droplet fell onto it. Only when the droplets came raining down did Seokjin realize that he had started crying and at that point, he couldn't stop. The once silent house was now filled with Seokjin's sobs as he held the letter to his chest, staying like that until his tears ran dry and he composed himself enough to grab his phone and call a few numbers. Soon the rings turned into five familiar voices,"Mom?"
"Hi kids,"Seokjin smiled as he spoke, hoping that the tears didn't show in his voice as he still struggled to wipe his cheeks dry,"How have you been?"
"Jimin showed up at my house yesterday!"Jungkook whined through the other end of the phone as Jimin's voice rang after his in defiance. It continued on to be a yelling battle of all the siblings on who got to talk to their mother who had been laughing at their silliness.
"Hey hey hey,"Seokjin finally intervened causing all of them to become silent so they could listen to their mother speak,"How about we go take a family picture? Like how we used to when you were younger?"
The choruses of 'yes!' and 'I said it first!' rang through the group call before they began planning it out. After everything had been settled and they said their goodbyes Seokjin looked at the last family picture they had taken once more as one of his fingers moved across the printed image, his finger finally finding it's destination at Yoongi's smiling face. His hand stayed there as he just stared at that smile that he missed so much,"I love you too."
"I named it 'We're still bulletproof',"Seokjin said as he had the scrapbook in his lap, turned to the newest photo that had been added,"But it's not the same without you. They miss you honey. They left a space open for you in the photo, right next to me."
Seokjin touched Yoongi's gravestone with a sad but fond smile as he set the extra copy of the photo next to the bouquet of flowers he had bought his husband. Their childrens' smiling faces shone through the photograph as they surrounding Seokjin but there was still an empty space next to him, that space could only be filled by Yoongi. Seokjin smiled through the tears that had fallen against his will as he kissed his fingers and set them on the picture of his husband smiling that had been crafted onto the gravestone.
"I'll see you one day. And when I do, I'll tell you all about it."