Fic // TVXQ // Our Little Princess #3
Title: Our Little Princess
Author: catachrestical
Keywords: Bandfic; hints of JaeHo and YooSu; some original characters.
Rating: PG13 for few language mishaps.
Disclaimer: I don't own them; this ain't for profit. Please don't sue me.
Notes: Kids. TVXQ. Attempts on crack/drama/fluff.
First version beta'd by janeberryblue; current version re-beta'd by bellasurus ♥
Thanks for reading :)
*
→ previous: #1 | #2
Our Little Princess
Chapter 3: You Are My Sunshine.
Sunshine; noun.
1. The light or the direct rays from the sun.
2. The warmth given by the sun's rays.
3. A location or surface on which the sun's rays fall.
ChangMin let out an inhuman growl and buried his face deeper under the pillow-a sweet, sweet pile of goose feathers encased in a linen sheet softer than a lover's caress. He loved his pillow.
He hated sunshine.
Goddamn sunshine.
Evil sunshine, the enemy of the entire human population. Forget atom bombs, incurable diseases, and psychotic fundamentalists. Sunshine must be sued.
Or, the rational part of his brain said, he could sue the four devils who left him high and dry in this hellhole known as The Bed under the Window Which Gets The Most Sunlight in Human History.
...
Oh, dammit.
ChangMin growled one last time and sat up, his back to the burning rays. He couldn't even get a decent sleep in his week off? What kind of bullshit was this? And they wondered why he always hogged YooChun's bed (he didn't do it last night because they were all so tired and he didn't have the energy to fight with YooChun). Why he loved sleeping across (instead of aligned with) his bed. Why he was always so grouchy in the morning (before breakfast, that was).
For the love of kimchi.
ChangMin walked out of the empty bedroom with a huff. It was ten in the morning, a holiday, and five hours of sleep, no matter how much he was used to it, didn't agree with his mood. Stalking towards the kitchen, he hoped-prayed-one of his band mates had cooked a decent breakfast that didn't include any kind of low-fat anything. He'd even eat JunSu's cooking. He was that hungry.
Halfway across the living room, ChangMin stopped, blinked, and moved three steps backwards.
Before his very eyes stood four fidgety grown men and one unimpressed little girl. They were gathered around one sniffling toddler on the coffee table.
YunHo looked at JaeJoong. JaeJoong looked at YooChun. YooChun looked at JunSu. Junsu looked at Kaneko.
Kane glared at YunHo. "His diapewl is diwlty."
"I know."
"Change it."
Pause. "All right." YunHo turned to YooChun. "YooChunnie, go."
YooChun looked supremely betrayed.
"What! Why?"
"Just do it."
"But... hyung!" he whimpered, and then he turned to JunSu. "Su-ah~?" Big watery puppy dog eyes guaranteed to make fangirls contract three kinds of seizures.
Alas, as x ≠ y; JunSu ≠ fangirl.
"What? No way," JunSu crossed his hands in front of him in a universal gesture of 'What? No freaking way.' "Hyung, why don't you do it?" He nudged JaeJoong.
"I don't know how to," JaeJoong was quick to answer. He turned back to YunHo, but apparently no amount of adorable head tilting was enough to make YunHo inch closer to smelly pants Akira.
ChangMin cleared his throat.
Five heads turned to ChangMin.
He could almost hear the wheels turning in their heads. There were two ways of which the TVXQ household dealt with urgent, pressing matters. The first was for serious problems, usually involving their future as a group: problem arises, discuss problem, let YunHo-hyung do the speaking.
The second way was also for serious problems, but not involving their future as a group: problem arises, see ChangMin, leave ChangMin to deal with problem. If complications arise (i.e. ChangMin refuses to deal with problem), threaten ChangMin with no dinner.
Therefore, from aforementioned theories, we could safely assume that this was what went on in the four older brains of the house: wet diaper, ChangMin, ChangMin awake, ChangMin available, leave ChangMin to change wet diaper. Precisely in that order. Oh, yeah-if ChangMin refuses to change diaper, no breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
ChangMin shrugged. "Okay, but I want extra bacon and three eggs. Scrambled. And JaeJoong-hyung has to cook."
Obviously, no one expected this answer. While his hyung-deul were busy processing this, ChangMin swooped in on Akira and brought him to the nearest bathroom.
"Kane... Kaneko, right? Do you have clean diapers?"
"Ah! Yes!" Kane left the four stooges and hurried to her Hello Kitty backpack. She was at ChangMin's side in a matter of seconds. So were the four hyung-deul-at ChangMin's side, not with a pack of diapers. The bathroom was quickly becoming a very crowded place.
In less than two minutes, ChangMin had disposed of the dirty diaper, washed, powdered, and put on a new diaper on little Akira-a feat no other men apparently dared to attempt. ChangMin picked up the toddler and grinned at him. "Feels good to be clean, doesn't it?" he cooed. Akira giggled.
"Are you sure he's not your secret child?"
ChangMin looked at YunHo and frowned. "Of course not. I do have two little sisters, though," he added, grinning.
*
[ YunHo // Three hours and a phone-call later ]
I looked up from the newspaper when I felt the couch dipping beside me.
"All taken care of. They're going to send the papers today. And fire the guy who left the kids unattended in front of our door." There was an odd strain in YooChun's voice-subtle, but difficult to miss, especially since he was one of the happier ones in the house... when he wasn't composing. Or brooding. Or thinking about his family-never mind. YooChun was one of the sadder ones in the house, even with the amount of crazies he pulled off together with JunSu.
Allow me to explain. There were three kids in our house: YooChun, the corrupt big brother (sensitive at times); JunSu, the pure middle brother (mischievous at times); and ChangMin, the mature little brother (bullied at times). I, as the leader, was supposed to be the dedicated father (owned at times) and JaeJoong was supposedly my helpful, agreeable companion.
Bag of crap. JaeJoong was too lenient--or any other time he wasn't lenient, he was worse than YooChun and JunSu combined.
...
Right. Strain in YooChun's voice.
"Anything wrong?"
"Nah."
I arched my eyebrows. "Try again."
No answer.
"You can either tell me or I'll get JunSu to pry it from you."
Here comes the trademark... no trademark pout. What? There was something serious going on here. YooChun was like this only when he was thinking about his family.
"Dongsaeng, are you all right?"
He chuckled a little. It was sad, but it was still a chuckle. "I'm only a couple months younger, you know."
"You're still younger."
"I know, but do you need to rub it in?" He pouted.
"Do you want to be older?" I deadpanned, staring right back at him.
YooChun blinked-a flicker of contemplation. "No," he said, after a beat. "Because I don't want to be leader, and we don't want JaeJoong to be leader."
Oh, kids. What would you guys do without me?
"I heard that, you know."
I looked up and returned JaeJoong's smile as he seated himself on his usual spot beside me. "And I take offense... nah, I couldn't agree more with you. What's up?"
"Nothing."
"Trying to make YooChun confess," I corrected.
JaeJoong blinked. "Should we get JunSu?"
"No," YooChun finally relented. He sagged onto the couch and stared up at the ceiling for a couple of seconds. His long, heavy sigh was laden with something that made JaeJoong and I trade odd looks. It was a sigh commonly used by someone daydreaming... or someone with a very bad digestive system. It was even more confusing because we were sure that YooChun was neither in love nor constipated.
"It's about the kids."
"All right, I'll go get JunSu and ChangMin." JaeJoong stood up, which earned an indignant 'eh' from YooChun.
"But I told you!" He protested, "Besides, who's going to watch the kids?"
"Yeah-but it's something we need to talk about as a group. I'm sure Kane can watch Akira for a while."
When JaeJoong disappeared to the game room, I turned my head and gave YooChun a knowing glance. He returned my look with a defensive one of his own.
"What? I moved to America at twelve and got shipped back here five years later. My parents-I had family issues."
"YooChunnie..." I started.
"I can relate." He said again, as if he needed to stress that point.
"I didn't say anything."
"You didn't have to." He chewed on his bottom lip and looked away.
Couldn't argue with that, really.
*
[ YooChun // A minute of unnecessary silence and two confused faces later ]
Couldn't blame YunHo-hyung for wondering, really.
I was never known to be the fidgety one in the group-that was JunSu's job (although, to be fair, he never seemed to be able to stay still, anxious or not)-but considering this was the second time I brought up the subject about the kids... Yeah. One(s) tended to wonder.
"So?" Leader-hyung started, apparently bothered with the long, unnecessary silence.
"So." I didn't really know how to start the discussion.
"So I'm stealing your crackers," ChangMin said, leaning over to grab my box of biscuits, "Oh, don't mind me. You guys can proceed with your conversation of conjunctions."
Smartass.
"Is it about Kane and Akira?"
I glanced at JunSu briefly and nodded, not really all that surprised with his perceptiveness. JunSu was like a mosaic to me; like the ones you see in church windows. The splash of colors beautiful in the noisiest way possible, but at the same time possessing a certain inner calm that was almost creepy. JunSu was pretty damn difficult to comprehend and you were bound to find something new every time you looked a little closer.
I learned long time ago not to do any guesswork on his thoughts and actions.
"You're worried about them?" He asked again.
"Should've called him from the beginning," YunHo-hyung remarked dryly. "Could've saved us a lot of time."
"I don't understand the problem, though," JaeJoong said, putting his chin on YunHo's right shoulder, a frown marring his features. "Like YunHo said, we're all decent people. None of us has problems with kids. Their parents have trust funds set up for them. We can take care of them." He almost sounded defensive. Almost. I kind of understood where JaeJoong was coming from, though. YunHo-hyung and he obviously had some sort of special bond with the kids since their time in Japan.
"No, no." I held up my hands before he could say anything more. "It wasn't that I had problems with them."
"This is just a temporary situation. I mean, we're keeping them only until we find a decent family who would adopt both of them together."
He sure sounded like he wasn't in a hurry to do that. I quickly nodded.
"I'm sure we can adjust to this situation." I gave him a pointed look. "But can they?"
*
[ ChangMin // Six hours and a long day later ]
"Nii-san?"
The little green alien on the screen stopped in the middle of rolling a big pile of unidentified objects as I hit the pause button. I rolled the lollipop in my mouth and smiled at Kaneko. She'd taken to calling everyone 'nii-san' (except for YooChun-hyung-I think she was still sore for what he said about her lisp). We'd need to work on giving everyone specifics, though, since every time she said 'nii-san', the only one not answering was YooChunnie.
"Hey, kid. Why aren't you asleep?" I patted the floor beside me. "It's late, you know. Kids should be asleep by now."
She took a seat and craned her neck up to look at me. "Then why awl you not asleep?"
...
"Because I'm not a child anymore. Has YooChun-hyung been telling you things?"
She stared at me blankly.
Right.
"Never mind. Couldn't sleep? Is the mattress uncomfortable?" I could understand. We spent the whole day moving stuff out of the game room so Kane and Akira had a place to sleep. It was just logical since the room was located right across our bedroom-in case of emergencies. Anyhow, we hadn't had the time to go buy furniture for the room yet, so we had to make makeshift futons for the kids.
Kane shook her head. "Kane can sleep on hawd places. Kane, mommy, and daddy went camping many times..." and then she went very, very silent and I felt like hitting myself for bringing up a subject that reminded her of her parents.
See, YooChun-hyung was right. We knew nothing about taking care of kids, especially kids like Kane who had gone through a lot of crap at such a young age. Imagine yourself knowing, somehow, that you wouldn't be able to meet your parents again, but was never really told about it until after a couple days of being in limbo. Imagine yourself being shipped from one relative's house to another, knowing you weren't wanted. Imagine yourself being shipped to another country to live with people you almost knew nothing about.
Imagine yourself five-and-a-half years old and alone when all that happened.
"Come on. I'm going to stay with you until you fall asleep." I stood up and shut down my PlayStation. I had enough of little green aliens for tonight. The theme song was the nerve-grating, grew-on-you-after-some-time kind of jingle ("ka~ta~ma~ri~ DA~MA~CY~"), which made it even more annoying.
Kane quietly took my hand and followed me to her room. Once she was under her blanket, I did a quick check on Akira (sleeping like the dead), tucked Kane in and sat at her side, leaning against the wall.
"Can you play my music box?"
I followed her line of sight and noticed a tiny box-barely as large as her palms-near the Hello Kitty backpack. I picked it up and examined it for a little while. It was the kind of music box which required no battery; you just needed to turn the little crank handle they had on the side. The carton case was slightly battered, a sign of having been clutched and played a lot.
"The Mighty... Mini Music Box," I murmured, reading the yellow faded words printed on the pink box. Behind it there were a list of love songs ("Unchained Melody," "Romeo and Juliet," "My Heart Will Go On"?). I turned the handle slowly.
A familiar melody filled the room. It was soft with a fantasy-like xylophonic timbre universal to classic music boxes across the world. I felt like I'd heard this melody somewhere-I could even hum along to it-and I knew it was either a Disney tune or a part of a children's song.
"Mommy used to play it and sing me to sleep."
"I don't know the lyrics," I said with an apologetic tone. Kane seemed a little disappointed, but she didn't say anything.
So I kept turning the handle.
When I looked at her again, a minute later, she was fast asleep. I smiled a little and put down the music box beside her pillow. One last quick check on Akira and I was tiptoeing out of the room, stealth-ninja style.
*
[ You Are My Sunshine ]
Sunshine; noun.
1. Radiant cheerfulness; geniality.
2. A source of cheerfulness.
There was a knock on the door. YooChun didn't take his eyes from his computer as he said a rather muffled 'come-in'.
"Hyung?"
He looked up then, because 'hyung' was definitely not the name used by the other two occupants of the workroom.
"Oi, Min. What's up? Wanna cook instant ramen together?"
ChangMin sat down on the seat beside YooChun-YunHo's seat-and shook his head. "Later. I'm just wondering if you know this song... you know, since you lived in America for some time and all that." He started humming a tune.
"It's an old song." YooChun frowned a little, trying to remember the title of the oh-so-familiar melody. "I think the title is ... Sunshine? You Are My Sunshine. Yeah, that's it. Why?"
ChangMin blinked. Sunshine. Interesting. He shook his head.
"Just curious. I found out about that song a couple minutes ago. Do you know how to sing it?"
"Well, um..." YooChun rubbed the bridge of his nose, concentrating, trying to dig up a corpse of a memory which wasn't complete in the first place. "I only knew some parts. The part you hummed to me."
"It's okay! Sing it, sing it~"
"O ... kay." YooChun, a little taken aback by ChangMin's enthusiasm, cleared his throat. Once. Twice. Then a smooth baritone filled the room.
"That's about all," YooChun finished, still a little curious of ChangMin's randomness. ChangMin nodded and hopped off YunHo's seat.
"Okay. Thank you, Hyung! I'm going to sleep now."
"Uh." That was all? No midnight snack? "...All right. Good night."
"Good night~ don't stay up too late, now. You might get sick!" ChangMin added before closing the door with a soft click. YooChun just shrugged and went back to his e-mail.
ChangMin walked back to their bedroom with a little bounce in his steps, humming.
(You are my sunshine, my only sunshine~
You make me happy when skies are gray.
You'll never know, dear, how much I love you...)
He peeked into the kids' room once again before changing course to his bedroom.
(Please don't take my sunshine away.)
ChangMin decided he wasn't going to hate this sunshine.
*
(...
He was going to hog YooChun's bed, though)
*
Author: catachrestical
Keywords: Bandfic; hints of JaeHo and YooSu; some original characters.
Rating: PG13 for few language mishaps.
Disclaimer: I don't own them; this ain't for profit. Please don't sue me.
Notes: Kids. TVXQ. Attempts on crack/drama/fluff.
First version beta'd by janeberryblue; current version re-beta'd by bellasurus ♥
Thanks for reading :)
*
→ previous: #1 | #2
Our Little Princess
Chapter 3: You Are My Sunshine.
Sunshine; noun.
1. The light or the direct rays from the sun.
2. The warmth given by the sun's rays.
3. A location or surface on which the sun's rays fall.
ChangMin let out an inhuman growl and buried his face deeper under the pillow-a sweet, sweet pile of goose feathers encased in a linen sheet softer than a lover's caress. He loved his pillow.
He hated sunshine.
Goddamn sunshine.
Evil sunshine, the enemy of the entire human population. Forget atom bombs, incurable diseases, and psychotic fundamentalists. Sunshine must be sued.
Or, the rational part of his brain said, he could sue the four devils who left him high and dry in this hellhole known as The Bed under the Window Which Gets The Most Sunlight in Human History.
...
Oh, dammit.
ChangMin growled one last time and sat up, his back to the burning rays. He couldn't even get a decent sleep in his week off? What kind of bullshit was this? And they wondered why he always hogged YooChun's bed (he didn't do it last night because they were all so tired and he didn't have the energy to fight with YooChun). Why he loved sleeping across (instead of aligned with) his bed. Why he was always so grouchy in the morning (before breakfast, that was).
For the love of kimchi.
ChangMin walked out of the empty bedroom with a huff. It was ten in the morning, a holiday, and five hours of sleep, no matter how much he was used to it, didn't agree with his mood. Stalking towards the kitchen, he hoped-prayed-one of his band mates had cooked a decent breakfast that didn't include any kind of low-fat anything. He'd even eat JunSu's cooking. He was that hungry.
Halfway across the living room, ChangMin stopped, blinked, and moved three steps backwards.
Before his very eyes stood four fidgety grown men and one unimpressed little girl. They were gathered around one sniffling toddler on the coffee table.
YunHo looked at JaeJoong. JaeJoong looked at YooChun. YooChun looked at JunSu. Junsu looked at Kaneko.
Kane glared at YunHo. "His diapewl is diwlty."
"I know."
"Change it."
Pause. "All right." YunHo turned to YooChun. "YooChunnie, go."
YooChun looked supremely betrayed.
"What! Why?"
"Just do it."
"But... hyung!" he whimpered, and then he turned to JunSu. "Su-ah~?" Big watery puppy dog eyes guaranteed to make fangirls contract three kinds of seizures.
Alas, as x ≠ y; JunSu ≠ fangirl.
"What? No way," JunSu crossed his hands in front of him in a universal gesture of 'What? No freaking way.' "Hyung, why don't you do it?" He nudged JaeJoong.
"I don't know how to," JaeJoong was quick to answer. He turned back to YunHo, but apparently no amount of adorable head tilting was enough to make YunHo inch closer to smelly pants Akira.
ChangMin cleared his throat.
Five heads turned to ChangMin.
He could almost hear the wheels turning in their heads. There were two ways of which the TVXQ household dealt with urgent, pressing matters. The first was for serious problems, usually involving their future as a group: problem arises, discuss problem, let YunHo-hyung do the speaking.
The second way was also for serious problems, but not involving their future as a group: problem arises, see ChangMin, leave ChangMin to deal with problem. If complications arise (i.e. ChangMin refuses to deal with problem), threaten ChangMin with no dinner.
Therefore, from aforementioned theories, we could safely assume that this was what went on in the four older brains of the house: wet diaper, ChangMin, ChangMin awake, ChangMin available, leave ChangMin to change wet diaper. Precisely in that order. Oh, yeah-if ChangMin refuses to change diaper, no breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
ChangMin shrugged. "Okay, but I want extra bacon and three eggs. Scrambled. And JaeJoong-hyung has to cook."
Obviously, no one expected this answer. While his hyung-deul were busy processing this, ChangMin swooped in on Akira and brought him to the nearest bathroom.
"Kane... Kaneko, right? Do you have clean diapers?"
"Ah! Yes!" Kane left the four stooges and hurried to her Hello Kitty backpack. She was at ChangMin's side in a matter of seconds. So were the four hyung-deul-at ChangMin's side, not with a pack of diapers. The bathroom was quickly becoming a very crowded place.
In less than two minutes, ChangMin had disposed of the dirty diaper, washed, powdered, and put on a new diaper on little Akira-a feat no other men apparently dared to attempt. ChangMin picked up the toddler and grinned at him. "Feels good to be clean, doesn't it?" he cooed. Akira giggled.
"Are you sure he's not your secret child?"
ChangMin looked at YunHo and frowned. "Of course not. I do have two little sisters, though," he added, grinning.
*
[ YunHo // Three hours and a phone-call later ]
I looked up from the newspaper when I felt the couch dipping beside me.
"All taken care of. They're going to send the papers today. And fire the guy who left the kids unattended in front of our door." There was an odd strain in YooChun's voice-subtle, but difficult to miss, especially since he was one of the happier ones in the house... when he wasn't composing. Or brooding. Or thinking about his family-never mind. YooChun was one of the sadder ones in the house, even with the amount of crazies he pulled off together with JunSu.
Allow me to explain. There were three kids in our house: YooChun, the corrupt big brother (sensitive at times); JunSu, the pure middle brother (mischievous at times); and ChangMin, the mature little brother (bullied at times). I, as the leader, was supposed to be the dedicated father (owned at times) and JaeJoong was supposedly my helpful, agreeable companion.
Bag of crap. JaeJoong was too lenient--or any other time he wasn't lenient, he was worse than YooChun and JunSu combined.
...
Right. Strain in YooChun's voice.
"Anything wrong?"
"Nah."
I arched my eyebrows. "Try again."
No answer.
"You can either tell me or I'll get JunSu to pry it from you."
Here comes the trademark... no trademark pout. What? There was something serious going on here. YooChun was like this only when he was thinking about his family.
"Dongsaeng, are you all right?"
He chuckled a little. It was sad, but it was still a chuckle. "I'm only a couple months younger, you know."
"You're still younger."
"I know, but do you need to rub it in?" He pouted.
"Do you want to be older?" I deadpanned, staring right back at him.
YooChun blinked-a flicker of contemplation. "No," he said, after a beat. "Because I don't want to be leader, and we don't want JaeJoong to be leader."
Oh, kids. What would you guys do without me?
"I heard that, you know."
I looked up and returned JaeJoong's smile as he seated himself on his usual spot beside me. "And I take offense... nah, I couldn't agree more with you. What's up?"
"Nothing."
"Trying to make YooChun confess," I corrected.
JaeJoong blinked. "Should we get JunSu?"
"No," YooChun finally relented. He sagged onto the couch and stared up at the ceiling for a couple of seconds. His long, heavy sigh was laden with something that made JaeJoong and I trade odd looks. It was a sigh commonly used by someone daydreaming... or someone with a very bad digestive system. It was even more confusing because we were sure that YooChun was neither in love nor constipated.
"It's about the kids."
"All right, I'll go get JunSu and ChangMin." JaeJoong stood up, which earned an indignant 'eh' from YooChun.
"But I told you!" He protested, "Besides, who's going to watch the kids?"
"Yeah-but it's something we need to talk about as a group. I'm sure Kane can watch Akira for a while."
When JaeJoong disappeared to the game room, I turned my head and gave YooChun a knowing glance. He returned my look with a defensive one of his own.
"What? I moved to America at twelve and got shipped back here five years later. My parents-I had family issues."
"YooChunnie..." I started.
"I can relate." He said again, as if he needed to stress that point.
"I didn't say anything."
"You didn't have to." He chewed on his bottom lip and looked away.
Couldn't argue with that, really.
*
[ YooChun // A minute of unnecessary silence and two confused faces later ]
Couldn't blame YunHo-hyung for wondering, really.
I was never known to be the fidgety one in the group-that was JunSu's job (although, to be fair, he never seemed to be able to stay still, anxious or not)-but considering this was the second time I brought up the subject about the kids... Yeah. One(s) tended to wonder.
"So?" Leader-hyung started, apparently bothered with the long, unnecessary silence.
"So." I didn't really know how to start the discussion.
"So I'm stealing your crackers," ChangMin said, leaning over to grab my box of biscuits, "Oh, don't mind me. You guys can proceed with your conversation of conjunctions."
Smartass.
"Is it about Kane and Akira?"
I glanced at JunSu briefly and nodded, not really all that surprised with his perceptiveness. JunSu was like a mosaic to me; like the ones you see in church windows. The splash of colors beautiful in the noisiest way possible, but at the same time possessing a certain inner calm that was almost creepy. JunSu was pretty damn difficult to comprehend and you were bound to find something new every time you looked a little closer.
I learned long time ago not to do any guesswork on his thoughts and actions.
"You're worried about them?" He asked again.
"Should've called him from the beginning," YunHo-hyung remarked dryly. "Could've saved us a lot of time."
"I don't understand the problem, though," JaeJoong said, putting his chin on YunHo's right shoulder, a frown marring his features. "Like YunHo said, we're all decent people. None of us has problems with kids. Their parents have trust funds set up for them. We can take care of them." He almost sounded defensive. Almost. I kind of understood where JaeJoong was coming from, though. YunHo-hyung and he obviously had some sort of special bond with the kids since their time in Japan.
"No, no." I held up my hands before he could say anything more. "It wasn't that I had problems with them."
"This is just a temporary situation. I mean, we're keeping them only until we find a decent family who would adopt both of them together."
He sure sounded like he wasn't in a hurry to do that. I quickly nodded.
"I'm sure we can adjust to this situation." I gave him a pointed look. "But can they?"
*
[ ChangMin // Six hours and a long day later ]
"Nii-san?"
The little green alien on the screen stopped in the middle of rolling a big pile of unidentified objects as I hit the pause button. I rolled the lollipop in my mouth and smiled at Kaneko. She'd taken to calling everyone 'nii-san' (except for YooChun-hyung-I think she was still sore for what he said about her lisp). We'd need to work on giving everyone specifics, though, since every time she said 'nii-san', the only one not answering was YooChunnie.
"Hey, kid. Why aren't you asleep?" I patted the floor beside me. "It's late, you know. Kids should be asleep by now."
She took a seat and craned her neck up to look at me. "Then why awl you not asleep?"
...
"Because I'm not a child anymore. Has YooChun-hyung been telling you things?"
She stared at me blankly.
Right.
"Never mind. Couldn't sleep? Is the mattress uncomfortable?" I could understand. We spent the whole day moving stuff out of the game room so Kane and Akira had a place to sleep. It was just logical since the room was located right across our bedroom-in case of emergencies. Anyhow, we hadn't had the time to go buy furniture for the room yet, so we had to make makeshift futons for the kids.
Kane shook her head. "Kane can sleep on hawd places. Kane, mommy, and daddy went camping many times..." and then she went very, very silent and I felt like hitting myself for bringing up a subject that reminded her of her parents.
See, YooChun-hyung was right. We knew nothing about taking care of kids, especially kids like Kane who had gone through a lot of crap at such a young age. Imagine yourself knowing, somehow, that you wouldn't be able to meet your parents again, but was never really told about it until after a couple days of being in limbo. Imagine yourself being shipped from one relative's house to another, knowing you weren't wanted. Imagine yourself being shipped to another country to live with people you almost knew nothing about.
Imagine yourself five-and-a-half years old and alone when all that happened.
"Come on. I'm going to stay with you until you fall asleep." I stood up and shut down my PlayStation. I had enough of little green aliens for tonight. The theme song was the nerve-grating, grew-on-you-after-some-time kind of jingle ("ka~ta~ma~ri~ DA~MA~CY~"), which made it even more annoying.
Kane quietly took my hand and followed me to her room. Once she was under her blanket, I did a quick check on Akira (sleeping like the dead), tucked Kane in and sat at her side, leaning against the wall.
"Can you play my music box?"
I followed her line of sight and noticed a tiny box-barely as large as her palms-near the Hello Kitty backpack. I picked it up and examined it for a little while. It was the kind of music box which required no battery; you just needed to turn the little crank handle they had on the side. The carton case was slightly battered, a sign of having been clutched and played a lot.
"The Mighty... Mini Music Box," I murmured, reading the yellow faded words printed on the pink box. Behind it there were a list of love songs ("Unchained Melody," "Romeo and Juliet," "My Heart Will Go On"?). I turned the handle slowly.
A familiar melody filled the room. It was soft with a fantasy-like xylophonic timbre universal to classic music boxes across the world. I felt like I'd heard this melody somewhere-I could even hum along to it-and I knew it was either a Disney tune or a part of a children's song.
"Mommy used to play it and sing me to sleep."
"I don't know the lyrics," I said with an apologetic tone. Kane seemed a little disappointed, but she didn't say anything.
So I kept turning the handle.
When I looked at her again, a minute later, she was fast asleep. I smiled a little and put down the music box beside her pillow. One last quick check on Akira and I was tiptoeing out of the room, stealth-ninja style.
*
[ You Are My Sunshine ]
Sunshine; noun.
1. Radiant cheerfulness; geniality.
2. A source of cheerfulness.
There was a knock on the door. YooChun didn't take his eyes from his computer as he said a rather muffled 'come-in'.
"Hyung?"
He looked up then, because 'hyung' was definitely not the name used by the other two occupants of the workroom.
"Oi, Min. What's up? Wanna cook instant ramen together?"
ChangMin sat down on the seat beside YooChun-YunHo's seat-and shook his head. "Later. I'm just wondering if you know this song... you know, since you lived in America for some time and all that." He started humming a tune.
"It's an old song." YooChun frowned a little, trying to remember the title of the oh-so-familiar melody. "I think the title is ... Sunshine? You Are My Sunshine. Yeah, that's it. Why?"
ChangMin blinked. Sunshine. Interesting. He shook his head.
"Just curious. I found out about that song a couple minutes ago. Do you know how to sing it?"
"Well, um..." YooChun rubbed the bridge of his nose, concentrating, trying to dig up a corpse of a memory which wasn't complete in the first place. "I only knew some parts. The part you hummed to me."
"It's okay! Sing it, sing it~"
"O ... kay." YooChun, a little taken aback by ChangMin's enthusiasm, cleared his throat. Once. Twice. Then a smooth baritone filled the room.
"That's about all," YooChun finished, still a little curious of ChangMin's randomness. ChangMin nodded and hopped off YunHo's seat.
"Okay. Thank you, Hyung! I'm going to sleep now."
"Uh." That was all? No midnight snack? "...All right. Good night."
"Good night~ don't stay up too late, now. You might get sick!" ChangMin added before closing the door with a soft click. YooChun just shrugged and went back to his e-mail.
ChangMin walked back to their bedroom with a little bounce in his steps, humming.
(You are my sunshine, my only sunshine~
You make me happy when skies are gray.
You'll never know, dear, how much I love you...)
He peeked into the kids' room once again before changing course to his bedroom.
(Please don't take my sunshine away.)
ChangMin decided he wasn't going to hate this sunshine.
*
(...
He was going to hog YooChun's bed, though)
*