baby (standalone)
there's a handsome and greasy appa, a very caring umma, a mature twelve year old, a beautiful second oldest son, the twin, plus three chinese tourists with two five year olds and finally an ice cream man.
(basically, everyone is here).
a/n: 6, 636 words.
was gonna draw the babies but realised can't do the chibi style.
also, the title. troolololololololol.
p.s. lj cut is being weird. click the title or the 'bomb a comment' button dude.
also, all thanks to aurora-noona this fic now have a kaihun/xiuhan four square love chibi drawing damn straight.
“umma, why is baekhyunnie bringing his sea creatures book?”
kyungsoo looks up from the colourful tupperwares on the kitchen table, each one of them is full with his kids’ favourite snacks. he smiles as he continues filling the biggest container with his homemade kimbap.
“he told me last night he’s going to collect seashells,” kyungsoo answers, “he needs the book to identify their names-oh wait, yeobo, does your ipad have that kind of application? take a picture and voila you get a lot of information?”
“not that i know of,” joonmyun washes his hands and helps his wife to pack the tupperwares into a picnic basket. “besides, a day without touching my ipad is good for him. your son is not playing outside enough, umma.”
“you’re right,” kyungsoo sighs. “well at least he’s our scholar.”
joonmyun nods proudly.
there’s a loud and very distinctive footsteps, followed by a cheerful, “father, mother! good morning!” it’s chanyeol, their second oldest son, beaming sunshine and rainbow as he enters the kitchen and gives his parents a hug.
“good morning, chanyeolla, are you ready to go to the beach today?” kyungsoo strokes chanyeol’s brunette locks, making a mental note to take chanyeol to the barber because the straight hair already reaches chanyeol’s nape.
“yes, mother!” thanks to the playlist of mainstream and indie international bands on kyungsoo’s ipod, chanyeol becomes so interested in drums, guitar, and the language. currently he’s taking extra courses after school, and he will have a national elementary school drummer competition in two months.
joonmyun silently watches as kyungsoo asks chanyeol (in english) whether he’s taken a shower or not (he did) and the whereabouts of his baekhyunnie-hyung and his twin little brothers.
“baekhyunnie-hyung is showering. jongin and sehun are still sleeping,” chanyeol offers to wake them up, and bolts off upstairs humming a song from one direction.
both joonmyun and kyungsoo can’t help but to chuckle at chanyeol’s hyperactivity.
“remind me to bring him to the barber,” kyungsoo feeds his husband a piece of kimbap. “good?”
“always,” joonmyun chews, smiling. “but chanyeol looks so cute with a long hair.”
“the last time i brought him to the mall, a talent seeker asked for ‘this pretty girl’s age’,” kyungsoo rolls his eyes, “he thought chanyeol was a girl, perfectly fit for the role of his agency’s upcoming children clothes print-ad.”
joonmyun laughs, “really? why didn’t you accept it?”
“kim joonmyun,” kyungsoo puts his hands on his hips, “i’m not letting my already androgynous looking son to crossdress in such early age!”
joonmyun mocks a surrender, “i get it, umma. forgive me?” he takes kyungsoo’s right hand.
kyungsoo huffs, glares at joonmyun some more, but a nanosecond later he pounces on the older man to lock their lips; it’s been too long. they’re both busy with their jobs and joonmyun was away in tokyo for two weeks.
“i miss you too,” joonmyun smiles, tightening his hold on kyungsoo’s waist. “let’s have fun today~”
▲ ▼
sehun is whining from the middle seat, complaining that chanyeolla-noona annoys him too much.
“appa!” sehun struggles with the seatbelt, seemingly wanting to, what, hop onto joonmyun’s lap who is currently driving. “appa, bad chanyeolla-noona!”
“chanyeol-ah, please,” joonmyun glances to the rearview mirror, “don’t waste your energy yet, save it to play on the beach!” joonmyun reaches behind to pinch sehun’s thigh. “and how many times should appa tell sehunnie? chanyeolla is your hyung. so don’t be mad at chanyeolla-hyung, ne?” and then the youngest smiles shyly and nods.
chanyeol grins, ruffles sehun’s hair for the last time before he changes his operation: annoy the life out of my bro target to his baekhyunnie-hyung.
baekhyun groans after a series of poking to his stomach, “go bother jongin for once!” and then he goes back concentrating to the sea creatures book, ignoring chanyeol’s pout.
“but jonginnie is not cute at all! he doesn’t whine like sehunna and he doesn’t punch me like hyung do!” chanyeol huffs, a trait he inherits from kyungsoo. “umma, i’m so boring!”
kyungsoo giggles, “it’s i am bored, not i am boring, because that means you are boring, chanyeolla. you’re not, are you? you’re umma’s happy virus, right?”
chanyeol’s giggle is also similar to his umma’s.
joonmyun laughs, and then he turns his attention to the second youngest, jongin, who looks out to the window with his usual blank expression.
“omo where’s jongin?” joonmyun asks his family with a gasp. “did we leave him?!” he feigns a panicked tone and that makes jongin frown. in between his siblings’ and umma’s snickering, jongin answers,
“i’m here, appa,” and he doesn’t even smile the slightest.
“ouch, where have you been?” joonmyun winks at jongin via the rearview mirror, who in the end just smirks and gives his appa a mocking thumb up. jongin is surely the manliest among the other three but he’s a little bit too impassive at times.
“how’s your ballet class, jonginnie?” kyungsoo turns his body to smile at jongin. because he and joonmyun were quite concerned about jongin’s future ability to show his emotions, they enrolled the black haired five year old to a dance academy.
so far, jongin is the best ballerino there, and after the family watched his first recital, sehun had asked to join his jonginnie-hyung.
“issokei, umma.” jongin answers shortly.
“how about your hip hop class?” (chanyeol shouts a, “yo yo!” in the background, a sign that he’s listening to his younger brother’s story).
jongin nods, blinks, and adds, “sehunna wants to learn popping.”
“well, you should teach him!” kyungsoo smiles encouragingly; the twin is tight, sehun never fails to want everything that jongin have, but jongin never says anything about it-not an objection or a consent towards sehun’s behavior. sehun himself is not yet to understand about the serious future impact for his clinginess; it’s either he’ll become too dependent to his jonginnie-hyung or it’s jongin who will be too overprotective to his sehunna.
“sehunna wants jongin-hyung to teach him, right?” joonmyun pipes in right away.
sehun doesn’t talk much, but he whines a lot, and sometimes he smiles his pretty eyesmile, and that’s better than jongin’s chronic poker face.
like right now, sehun shows his pretty eyesmile to confirm that yes; he wants to learn popping together with his older twin-and chanyeol coos while baekhyun smiles, his eyes have stopped moving although they are still glued to his book.
“kkamjong promise?” sehun eagerly asks jongin with a recently made nickname due to jongin’s darker skin.
jongin holds out his pinky, and sehun doesn’t let go until they arrive at the beach.
▲ ▼
they get a nice spot where joonmyun and kyungsoo can laze around with the children still in their line of sight.
“babies, let’s apply sunblock first!” kyungsoo pours a good amount on his children’s tiny palms. he inspects them spreading the lotion to their arms and legs, and giggles when jongin finally asks if he can go shirtless.
“of course! come here,” kyungsoo helps jongin to take off his decepticon tee and applies the lotion all over jongin’s upper body. sehun watches while sucking on his little thumb, but whines at the bitter taste.
“aigooo, go to appa and wash your hand with water, all of you!” kyungsoo pats jongin’s belly. “use hand sanitizer before you guys want to eat something later, understand?” his children chorus a yes.
after the busy parents are done with their children’s preparation, joonmyun says that he’s so going to get a tan today. he takes off his polo shirt and wriggles his eyebrows at kyungsoo as a request to help applying the sunblock. kyungsoo slaps his husband’s chest.
“appa, umma, i am about to explore,” baekhyun gives them a salute, ready with his goggles. “chanyeol-ah, don’t follow me,” he kicks the sand near chanyeol’s ankles as a warning.
“aw!” chanyeol pouts, but nodding nonetheless. joonmyun stretches chanyeol’s cheeks and explains that baekhyun needs to be alone sometimes as jongin and sehun are pulling out the sand castle equipments from their matching transformers backpack.
“chanyeolla-hyung, wanna play with sehunna?” sehun tugs at chanyeol’s plain pink tee, smiling his pretty eyesmile, probably feeling bad for his dejected hyung.
“yaaay!” chanyeol crushes sehun in a bear hug, leading them a couple of meters away from their parents’ nice spot. sehun comes back a moment later, still smiling prettily, grabbing jongin’s hand and saying, “c’mon, jonginnie!”
jongin beams.
▲ ▼
baekhyun loves chanyeol, his younger by two years brother, but he’s been determined to collect his own seashells after he watched a documentary of a little girl in australia showing off her impressive seashells collection. she spoke like a pro, too, about them, and baekhyun googled her and got her home’s address. he wants to share stories with her; being pen-pals seem great. or email-pals. ugh, seashells are just so cool! no one is collecting it in his class so that means he’ll be the first to! plus, he likes it so so so much when taeyeon-songsaenim compliments him.
firstly, he scans the area for any small seashells, gathering them on his goggles and then going back to his parents to put them on a small jar. he’s been coming back and forth thrice. on his fourth time, he catches his parents kissing, lying on their sides, with appa’s hand inside of umma’s t-shirt and umma giggling-breathing like a kitten.
“my eyes,” baekhyun crouches next to umma to get a new small jar and umma gasps, sitting up, his hair is a mess. “umma, my brothers are right there. how could you,” baekhyun smiles slyly. “if you and appa are going to make babies again, try to have a girl this time or chanyeol is going to be jongin and sehun’s permanent noona.”
“kim baekhyun!” kyungsoo flushes. “appa! what have you done to my baekhyun!”
joonmyun hides his amused smile-because honestly? baekhyun’s got a point! also, his sense of humor is so priceless for a twelve year old!
“umma, calm down. and how is this my fault?” he leans against kyungsoo’s body to ruffle baekhyun’s hair. “so you’re saying you want to have a new dongsaeng? preferably a girl? i’ll work on it.” baekhyun does a fistbump with him while kyungsoo covers his own ears with his hands, shaking his head fervently.
baekhyun leaves again as his umma wails about his career, already picturing how would his baby sister look like if she’s ever going to born.
▲ ▼
chanyeol’s superiority doesn’t last as long as he imagines him to be jongin and sehun’s awesomest hyung (and to slowly convince them that he’s indeed, their hyung, not noona) because suddenly an...oval-shaped ball is crushing his carefully built sandcastle.
he tastes sand on his tongue as he yells to the direction of two boys approaching them, “YAH!”
sehun is pouting, looking upset. jongin remains indifferent, but he lets sehun to hold his hand again.
the two approaching boys are showing their sorry expressions, and the taller one has...dark yellow hair like those foreigners on television and chanyeol’s heart is screaming dugeun dugeun as they start to talk in a hushed language and then the shorter one with the deepest dimple on his cheeks is pushing the taller boy to, uh, what did he say?
“WHAT?!” before chanyeol can restrain himself he’s raising his voice to the taaaaaaall boy. he must be a real foreigner!
chanyeol is yelling in english, by the way. his instinct tells him to.
“easy there, missy,” the foreigner smirks and his friend is cooing secretively while waving his hands at jongin and sehun like he never sees a pair of twins before.
“i said, i’m sorry.” oh, the foreigner is apologizing. good. chanyeol crosses his arms. “now can we please have our football back?” he’s bowing a little bit, holding out his right hand, posing like a man in ancient outfit on television about to ask a woman also in ancient outfit for a dance-but instead of smiling charmingly, the foreigner keeps on smirking and chanyeol decides he doesn’t find it convincing.
so he takes the weird, oval ball, smiles to the foreigner and acts as if he’s returning it willingly. when the foreigner reaches for it, chanyeol tosses the weird ball away to the sea.
“hey!” the foreigner glares but chanyeol just fakes a gasp, complete with wonder girls’ sohee ‘omona’ pose. the dimple boy is laughing openly now, patting the foreigner’s shoulders as he goes to fetch the weird ball.
“evil girl,” the foreigner mutters under his breath as he turns to leave, but chanyeol’s pointy ears are sharp so before he can think twice, he throws a handful of sand to the foreigner’s shirtless and freckled back, screaming,
“I’M NOT A GIRL!”
the foreigner clenches his fists and strides menacingly like an angry terminator to chanyeol, and chanyeol whimpers when the termi-foreigner tugs at the end of his bob cut hair, leering,
“are you sure? this is telling me otherwise.” what is he talking about chanyeol’s english is not that-and then the foreigner picks at chanyeol’s pink t-shirt, his eyes are raking down to chanyeol’s very short black shorts.
chanyeol blushes.
“boys don’t wear pink and hotpants to the beach. look at you. you’re too pretty to be a boy,” the foreigner snorts, “do you even understand what i’m saying?”
“kris, 我们去,” the dimple boy is back, smiling genuinely at chanyeol. he says in his accented english, “we’re very sorry. your brothers are so cute. have a nice day!” he drags the foreigner away, but the foreigner walks backward in order to smirk some more at chanyeol, who, to cover his redredred face, does a mehrong.
the foreigner laughs and chanyeol smiles shyly, still staring at where the foreigner boy playing catch with the weird ball until sehun whines loudly that he wants appa.
jongin makes a heart with his tiny fingers, wriggling his eyebrows exactly the way appa does, when chanyeol puts the sand castle building equipments to the transformers’ backpacks. chanyeol is so stunned at how cute jongin acts he violently stretches jongin’s cheeks. sehun wails that chanyeolla-noona can’t hurt jonginnie and chanyeol lets the maknae to call him noona, just this once.
baekhyun finds a necklace underwater.
the pendant has a somehow familiar symbol. it looks cool with the black chain. baekhyun is aware of the idea of taking what’s not his, but who knows, right? maybe the necklace is meant to be found, maybe someone dropped it a year ago and the necklace has been wandering around the sea for months and maybe it is from japan? or russia? he puts it around his neck and continues diving. he sets his eyes on a ponderous ark just now.
“victory!” he shouts as he emerges, with the small shell on his palm.
he shudders though, as if he’s being watched.
maybe it’s because of his loud celebration that he attracts people so whatever. he walks back to his parents’ spot to have lunch.
▲ ▼
sehun is fed by appa, while jongin eats clumsily on his own. umma is listening to chanyeolla-noona’s blabbering about the handsome yellow haired boy who ruined the sand castle from before, and baekhyunnie-hyung is glancing every now and then to their surrounding, frowning like whenever he reads his thick books.
as appa fills the violet tupperware with more food, sehun hears squealing from the two boys not too far from where he’s sitting; and he is instantly fascinated with the one who has the chubbiest cheeks ever exists on kim sehun’s five years of living. the cheeks bounce and they’re so round like tennis balls when the boy smiles cutely because his friend just kisses his nose. the chubby boy is so squishy like sehun’s favorite white teddy bear and now sehun is pouting because he misses mister tedted so bad. ugh!
“what is it, sehunnie?” appa offers him to drink, gently cupping sehun’s chin to prevent the mineral water from dripping out of his tiny mouth.
“sehunna wants mister tedted!” sehun flails his arms, actually referring to the chubby boy and not his doll. “appa!” he climbs to appa’s lap, making a fuss.
“umma, is it sehun’s nap time?” appa asks and sehun whines that he doesn’t want to sleep no no no! he wants mister tedted a.k.a that chubby boy!
jongin follows sehun’s not so secretive glance to the chubby boy, his gaze collides with the chubby boy’s friend-who narrows his big doe eyes at him.
“sehunna wants him?” jongin points to the oblivious chubby boy, and after receiving a slight, tearful nod from his little brother jongin gets up, ignoring umma’s concerned calling and proceeding to walk confidently towards sehun’s new infatuation.
“annyeong,” jongin starts, monotonously, also ignoring the glaring pretty-but-sehun-is-still-prettier boy. he takes the chubby boy’s pudgy hands, “my name is kim jongin. my brother wants you.”
the chubby boy tilts his head, gaping for a second while staring at jongin (whoa, cute, jongin thinks), and then he finally smiles and nods enthusiastically.
“my name is kim minseok!” the chubby boy lets jongin to pull him to his feet. “nice to meet you!”
jongin smiles.
“yah, what are you doing? minseokkie is mine!” minseok’s friend kicks his shin.
jongin shakes his head, shielding minseok away from the pretty boy.
“no. minseok is sehun’s.”
“sehun?! my name is lu han you-” the pretty boy lurches forward, his blunt nails are clawing jongin’s bare arms and chest. jongin soon fights back by hitting lu han’s stomach. minseok yelps, he runs to a snoring glasses hyung who doesn’t budge even as minseok repeatedly shakes the hyung’s body to wake up to help help help!
jongin growls, umma’s faint yelling is not stopping him from squeezing and grabbing every inch of lu han’s skin. lu han himself, despite being pretty, packs a good aim with his fists.
“that’s enough,” it’s appa. he easily parts them by their skinny armpits, shaking his head disappointedly at jongin as he kneels in front of him. and then appa smiles handsomely to lu han and minseok. he gently wipes the tears off of minseok’s pinkish face.
“what’s going on here?” he asks jongin, rubbing comforting circles on jongin’s left wrist. jongin shrugs, because there’s a lump on his throat; he fails to get what sehun wants.
lu han is helping, more or less, by telling appa, “he wants to take minseok away from me, ahjusshi!” complete with an accusing finger. jongin’s face twitches.
“why would you do tha-”
“ahjusshi, jongin wanna play with minseok,” minseok sniffs from behind lu han, and lu han gasps in disbelief. appa chuckles and pinches minseok’s chin.
“is that so, minseok-ah?” minseok bites his bottom lip, smiling shyly.
“and what’s your name, fighter?” appa asks lu han, patting lu han’s butt. lu han answers appa with a grumble. “lu han? that’s a very cool name!” appa smiles. “now, lu han-ah, jongin is going to apologize, but you have to apologize to him, too. he just wants to play with minseok. it’s more fun to have a lot of friends, right? please don’t fight again.” appa does his weird aegyo he often does to umma whenever umma is mad at him. apparently it works for lu han, too, because lu han is grinning so wide and poking at appa’s dimple.
“don’t touch my appa.” jongin shoves lu han’s hand off of appa’s face. lu han hisses, and appa scolds him for doing so.
jongin doesn’t understand.
▲ ▼
done playing with minseok’s cheeks and taking selcas with lu han using umma’s cellphone, baekhyun is off again to explore.
about five minutes later, chanyeol is following him.
“what?” baekhyun lazily asks his brother.
“what?” chanyeol parrots him. but at baekhyun’s glare chanyeol pouts and waves the ten thousand won’s bill on his hand.
“umma said to buy ice creams.”
oh.
“let’s go then,” baekhyun takes away the money because he’s more responsible than ten year old chanyeol. they walk side by side in silence, that is, until chanyeol clutches his arm tightly and giggles/gasps/fanboying over a tall foreigner boy queueing at the ice cream stall.
baekhyun grins, “do you like him?”
“what? ewww!” but chanyeol’s eyes are twinkling. “he’s so rude, remember? he thought i’m a girl!”
“you like him rude,” baekhyun comments, “what’s his name?”
“how should i know!”
“well ask him.”
“no way!”
“fine,” baekhyun wrenches his arm off of chanyeol’s clutch, and races him to queue behind the foreigner. he taps the foreigner’s shoulders, interrupting the tall boy’s conversation with a dimple boy and...a scary looking, black haired boy.
chanyeol hides behind baekhyun. but it’s no use, since they’re the same height despite that baekhyun is older by two years.
“isn’t it evil girl,” the foreigner smirks, and just then he notices baekhyun. “oh. your boyfriend?”
baekhyun sighs. they’re so in love with each other.
“no, dude. i’m his brother. my name is kim baekhyun, this is chanyeol,” baekhyun’s grin gets wider at the way the foreigner furrows his bushy eyebrows, like maybe he’s reciting chanyeol’s name in his mind.
“aaaaand he’s a boy. trust me.”
the foreigner laughs. the dimple boy is high five-ing him.
“nice to meet you, bacon, i’m kris. this is my cousin yixing and zi-” kris pauses as zi-who whispers something at him, his dark eyes are focusing on baekhyun’s neck.
baekhyun shudders.
“may i?” kris doesn’t wait for baekhyun’s permission and chanyeol yelps at the size of kris’ hand gently untucking the necklace from baekhyun’s red dragon’s t-shirt.
the three boys are conversing in chinese and everything clicks.
“i’m sorry, is this yours?” baekhyun takes off the necklace and smiles to zi-who. “found it under the sea. here, it’s a taurus sign, right?”
kris takes it and says that zitao doesn’t really speak english. he helps zitao to wear the necklace again.
“thanks,” he holds up his fist and baekhyun bumps it with his. then, as yixing flirts with the ice cream man to order, kris taunts chanyeol some more about his hair and his face, and baekhyun stealthily stepping aside to give his brother a privacy of first love.
zitao is suddenly standing next to him, giving him the creep.
“s-sorry,” zitao stutters in english. he looks like a lost puppy. baekhyun smiles at him and pats his hand to reassure that it’s perfectly fine to-
“eh,” baekhyun blinks when zitao opens his palm and presenting the necklace to him. when did he take it off? “for me?”
“yes,” aw!
“thanks a lot,” baekhyun wears it again then, patting the pendant on his chest. “i’m a taurus, too.”
zitao is just like an open book. he giggles shyly and covers his mouth with the back of his hand.
yixing makes a kissy face to the flustered ice cream man, nudging zitao to take his strawberry cone and smiles at baekhyun before he goes to kris and chanyeol; who are now...thisclose to...kiss?
by the way, chanyeol is supposed to help him bringing the ice creams back.
“yah! chanyeol-ah!” baekhyun screams with his pre-pubescent voice. “i only have two hands!” he ignores his flailing brother to greet the still flustered ice cream man.
“annyeonghaseyo, hyung,” well, he looks young, maybe a part timer. “two vanillas, three chocolates, one vanilla chocolate chip, one vanilla soda, and one mocca.”
the ice cream man answers with a high pitched voice, “w-wait, can you repeat it? wait. here, let me write it down. oh my god that kid is a criminal.”
baekhyun laughs. “i think he’s chinese? what did he say to you...” he squints to read the nametag, “jongdae-hyung?”
jongdae-hyung takes a piece of paper and a pen, sniffing.
“i dunno. some cheap english pick up lines from movies. like, does it hurt? when you fell from heav-wait! why am i telling you this?!”
“eyyy hyung. don’t you know kids are growing up much faster these days?” baekhyun snorts as he chimes the order. when jongdae-hyung prepares the ice creams, baekhyun finds chanyeol is apparently busy chasing after kris, shouting about his hair; with yixing holding two cones now, also watching them in amusement.
kris is handsome, alright, but he’s kinda lame, in baekhyun's totally humble opinion; like, classic move, huh? planting sticky ice cream to your love interest’s hair?
“jongdae-hyung, here’s the money. i’ll take the ready ones to my parents then i’ll come back. my brother's got a new boyfriend and he's being useless.” jongdae-hyung nods, grimacing at baekhyun’s unfortunate state, and handing the three chocolate cones.
baekhyun jumps because zitao is still standing quietly next to him.
“zitao h-help?” zitao smiles, and why did baekhyun even think zitao is scary? he’s sooooooooooooo adorable!
“you’re the best!” baekhyun urges jongdae-hyung to hurry up.
sehun wants to bite minseokkie’s cheeks.
but. lu han.
“kkamjong-ah,” sehun whines, shaking his twin brother’s body. jongin has been lying down for a while now, ignoring everyone else ever since lu han and minseok are joining their family.
“kkamjong-ah, hu hu hu~” sehun doesn’t like it when jongin doesn’t pay attention to him so he pretends to cry. it works like a charm, like usual, because jongin is instantly apologizing.
“kkamjong-ah, lu han is scary!” he whispers, still rubbing his tearless eyes for a show. “sehunna wants to play with minseokkie hu hu hu~” he’s not exaggerating! because lu han is monopolizing cute minseok and appa and umma are too absorbed on coddling over their new friends.
jongin crosses his arms.
sehun pouts because usually jongin will take immediate action.
“kkamjong-ah dun love sehunna anymore?” now that thought is way scarier than lu han’s perfectly hidden snarl earlier.
jongin stays silent and he stares at appa playing rock-paper-scissor-ttakbam with lu han instead.
“kkamjo-”
“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!” jongin roars. sehun flinches, drops his vanilla chocolate chip ice cream, and then he sobs pitifully, calling for appa.
“kim jongin!” umma puts minseok off of his lap to hug sehun. “why did you yell to your brother?!”
jongin looks away. he didn’t mean to make sehun cry.
“kim jongin answer your umma,” appa says with his scary voice just like whenever chanyeol-noona is being uncontrollable, but he still has lu han on his arms.
“kim jongin.”
jongin doesn’t respond.
sehun cries harder.
▲ ▼
“isn’t that your brother?”
chanyeol turns his head to look at where kris is pointing at.
and kris kisses his cheek. his tall nose (everything about him is either tall or gigantic) collides heavily with chanyeol’s soft skin. it hurts.
“yah!” chanyeol’s whole face burns, but then he smiles giddily when kris squeezes their entwined hands.
“that looks serious,” kris comments, looking at appa holding jongin on his arms, seemingly trying his best to coax jongin to talk to him.
chanyeol nods mutely, his chest feels heavy at the sight. appa is tired, he knows from appa’s carefully concealed heave of sigh because he’s the one, most of the time, being in jongin’s position. but jongin is different. he’s not ‘kim chanyeol’.
he’s not loud.
jongin looks angry. that’s for sure. whenever his lips are formed in a thin line and his thumbs are rubbing against his index fingers, that means jongin is angry.
with himself.
“hey,” kris flicks his forehead, “you wanna go there?”
“ah...” chanyeol smiles despite his conflicted mind; he wants to go to appa and help him, but he still wants to play with kris, especially after knowing that kris is from canada and only visits south korea because his uncle and aunt from beijing (yixing’s parents) are taking him here on a holiday. tonight kris will fly back to beijing, and suddenly chanyeol wants to cry.
he likes kris very much.
“why are you like, crying?” kris laughs heartlessly at chanyeol’s watering eyes. “you’re such a girl.”
“pabo,” chanyeol wrenches off his hand of kris’ hold and hastily wipes at his face while walking away. kris calls his name, but chanyeol runs to appa’s direction, doesn’t look back.
years later, he will regret it.
▲ ▼
baekhyun learns that zitao is ten years old, and kris and yixing are twelve. kris who lives in canada is on a summer break, so he visits yixing and zitao on beijing, and yixing’s parents are taking the cousins to south korea for a holiday.
with difficulties, he manages to ask when will zitao fly back to beijing, and zitao writes on the sand 19:10 pm.
“today?! do you have an email?” baekhyun’s gut is telling him not to lose a precious friend.
zitao tilts his head.
“i have an idea,” baekhyun tells zitao to wait on their special spot while he runs back to his backpack (he brought his notebook and pencil case), noticing that appa, jongin, lu han, and minseok are missing.
“umma,” baekhyun also grabs one of his small and full with seashells jars. “umma, where are appa and jongin?” umma has his trendy sunglasses perched on his nose, and sehun is sleeping on his lap.
“what?” umma’s chin is quivering, and his voice breaks.
baekhyun drops his backpack and immediately takes umma’s hands.
“umma, what’s going on?” umma shakes his head, sniffing.
“are you sure?” baekhyun moves his hands to touch umma’s cheeks. “do you need anything?”
“i’ll be okay, baekhyun-ah,” kyungsoo strokes baekhyun’s left wrist. “but come back here soon after you’ve done playing, hmmm?”
baekhyun lightly clicks his tongue. zitao is waiting. he’s leaving. but. umma.
“go,” umma pats his back. “i’m fine.”
baekhyun reluctantly nods, from the corner of his eyes he sees chanyeol is talking with appa and jongin. he gives umma a bear hug, and he runs back just in time as kris and yixing are helping zitao to stand up.
“zitao! wait!” baekhyun speeds up his legs. “i have something for you!”
the three cousins are frowning. right. english.
“wait,” baekhyun smiles as zitao smiles. he never likes running. he prefers badminton or table tennis. ugh. “wait, here,” he's heaving because of his poor, unfit lungs. he likes reading and browsing the internet the best.
“please keep it, zitao-yah, a friendship token from me.”
zitao gasps cutely, asking kris and yixing if he can really take baekhyun’s seashells jar using the chinese language. kris nods briefly while yixing wriggles his eyebrows, signaling something that might be the exact opposite of innocence.
“gege!” zitao pounces on baekhyun, and his skin is warm and when he kisses baekhyun’s left cheek his eyes are sparkling like the sea and baekhyun thinks zitao is the most beautiful person on earth, like, taeyeon-sonsaengnim who?
“wait!” baekhyun wakes up from his reverie, hurriedly writing his home address and rips off the paper from his notebook, telling zitao to send him a letter. and to kris and yixing to help zitao to create an email account. yixing easily agrees and then he’s narrowing his eyes, glancing to the ice cream stall a couple of feet away, while kris asks if he can email baekhyun.
“what why?” baekhyun asks back as he writes down his email address. “i can teach chanyeol to make one for himself, you know?”
kris just smirks and says that he will explain it later via email. he holds up his fist for the last time and baekhyun shrugs, colliding his fist against kris’, and zitao hugs him again. baekhyun pinches zitao’s cheeks and he bids goodbye at yixing, who doesn’t even bother to look at him; too busy admiring jongdae-hyung the ice cream man from afar.
▲ ▼
joonmyun, sometimes, declares himself as the best dad in the world.
he doesn’t have a favorite, it’s bad for his children’s mentality while growing up, but he’s willing to admit that jongin is the most difficult of them all.
“jongin is not going to tell appa anything?” he pokes jongin’s tummy. jongin is ticklish. “hmmm?” he nuzzles jongin’s ear but jongin just keeps on building a sandy pyramid.
joonmyun reads it on one of kyungsoo’s parenting 101 books, that it is important to never never never sigh in front of your children because that action will leave a bad impression in your children’s mind; it will make your children to think that they’re a disappointment.
right now, joonmyun fights not to, and wonders if jongin even realizes it.
he takes a deep breath, swallows, and steals a quick refugee at where his family is gathering, baekhyun and chanyeol are on kyungsoo’s sides, probably telling jokes, and any minute now sehun should be awakened by his hyungs’ antics.
kyungsoo looks up after he giggles to whatever that chanyeol is spouting about, and their eyes meet.
joonmyun offers a smile, kyungsoo smiles too, and soon his children are smiling at him. a burst of happiness is flooding joonmyun’s system, and he lifts jongin’s chin and says,
“jongin-ah, look,” he lets his family to see that he uses jongin’s arms to make a heart, like a puppet master. jongin grins timidly at his family’s encouraging reaction, and he finally stands up and blows kisses to each of his hyungs. especially to his worrying umma.
it’s a progress.
but then, suddenly, a flash of something akin to fear is reflected on jongin’s eyes, just before he steps on joonmyun’s lap and hugs him tight; clawing his tiny fingers to joonmyun’s bare skin.
“jongin-ah?” joonmyun pulls at jongin’s waist but jongin won’t budge. “hey, it’s okay, don’t be scared.” because clearly, jongin finds something is so frightening at two in the afternoon.
“jongin-ah?”
“ahjusshi!” that’s a mix of lu han and minseok’s voice. they’ve changed their clothes and a teenage boy wearing thick glasses is trailing behind them, with a huge backpack on his shoulders.
“ahjusshi!” lu han smiles brightly, holding minseok’s pudgy hand like always. they’re just so cute together!
“ahjusshi we’re going home,” lu han leans to kiss joonmyun on the cheek which jongin doesn’t occupy, while minseok kisses him square on the lips.
joonmyun laughs at how lu han stomps his foot at his best friend's action.
“whyyyyy?” joonmyun speaks with his aegyo, ruffling lu han’s hair. “it was nice playing with you two! see you again, okay? who’s that hyung?”
“annyeonghaseyo, ahjusshi,” the glasses boy bows at him, “i’m their, uh, friend? i just got my first paycheck so i took them here. thank you for playing with them. i was dead tired.”
“well, work harder, young man!” joonmyun likes the boy’s awkward charm. “oh, jongin-ah, say goodbye to lu han and minseok.”
jongin practically chokes joonmyun by now.
lu han and minseok exchange a glance.
joonmyun smiles nervously at the two kids just as minseok walks to face jongin, and a second later joonmyun hears a smooching sound.
jongin slumps to joonmyun’s lap, holding his left cheek, blushing, and his eyes are so wide. oh how joonmyun wishes he has his cellphone with him!
“jonginnie bai bai!” minseok pats jongin’s hair and giggles on his way to hold lu han’s hand again. lu han, looking apologetic himself, takes out a bag of melon flavored marshmallow from his donald duck’s shorts and gives it to jongin. joonmyun encourages jongin to take the gift, but jongin shakes his head and lu han pouts slightly.
“okay thank you lu han-ah,” joonmyun decides to speak in behalf of jongin as he takes the gift. he’s got a hunch of what’s been happening. “go say goodbye to sehunnie over there?”
lu han and minseok nod and leave, with the glasses boy obediently following them.
▲ ▼
“umma, i think i need to spend more time with jongin,” joonmyun says as kyungsoo is tucked safely next to him on their king sized bed. “he was jealous with lu han.”
kyungsoo doesn’t answer for a moment, and when he does, he voices it out carefully, “took you long enough.”
“i know, right?” joonmyun strokes kyungsoo’s left hip. he continues with a secretive tone, “was i too affectionate with that pretty kid?”
“you acted like you were in love with him,” kyungsoo pinches joonmyun’s nose. “thank god i’m not five.”
“oh you,” joonmyun presses a quick kiss to kyungsoo’s minty lips, wriggling his eyebrows when they pull apart. “sooooooo today was fun! heard chanyeol met his first love.”
kyungsoo laughs out loud at that and then he covers his mouth, embarrassed by his own cuteness. “chanyeol is heartbroken! the foreigner boy made him cry. our chanyeol cried, yeobo, can you believe that?!”
ah. everything clicks.
“is that why his eyes were red when he asked if i needed a help?” joonmyun chuckles, knowing too well that chanyeol is the sweetest ten year old ever exists. “while he was having a heartbreak? i must be a saint on my previous life...”
kyungsoo fakes a scoff, but nodding his agreement nonetheless. chanyeol is never a selfish kid.
“we still need to learn a lot,” kyungsoo pushes joonmyun to lie on his back, and he shifts to rest his head on joonmyun’s firm chest. joonmyun inhales his wife’s coconut shampooed hair. it’s calming him.
“yeobo?” kyungsoo whispers, tracing patterns on joonmyun’s battered white t-shirt.
“yes?”
“should we give it a try?”
“hm?”
“a-about baekhyun’s idea earlier?”
joonmyun frowns to the ceiling. he crosses his arms behind his head.
“sorry, what?”
“nevermind. what do you want for breakfast?”
“you.” joonmyun is in the mood of being greasy tonight. it’s late, but whatever. teasing kyungsoo is one of his very powerful antidotes anyway. he waits for a very kim kyungsoo flustered retort.
but he gets none.
“umma?”
kyungsoo bites the center of his chest, hard, and plasters his whole body on top of joonmyun, mumbling something about joonmyun and insensitive and bastard and then nothing. joonmyun shrugs and hugs kyungsoo so his wife won’t fall, and closes his eyes.
what a day, indeed.
t h e e n d (?)
(basically, everyone is here).
a/n: 6, 636 words.
was gonna draw the babies but realised can't do the chibi style.
also, the title. troolololololololol.
p.s. lj cut is being weird. click the title or the 'bomb a comment' button dude.
also, all thanks to aurora-noona this fic now have a kaihun/xiuhan four square love chibi drawing damn straight.
“umma, why is baekhyunnie bringing his sea creatures book?”
kyungsoo looks up from the colourful tupperwares on the kitchen table, each one of them is full with his kids’ favourite snacks. he smiles as he continues filling the biggest container with his homemade kimbap.
“he told me last night he’s going to collect seashells,” kyungsoo answers, “he needs the book to identify their names-oh wait, yeobo, does your ipad have that kind of application? take a picture and voila you get a lot of information?”
“not that i know of,” joonmyun washes his hands and helps his wife to pack the tupperwares into a picnic basket. “besides, a day without touching my ipad is good for him. your son is not playing outside enough, umma.”
“you’re right,” kyungsoo sighs. “well at least he’s our scholar.”
joonmyun nods proudly.
there’s a loud and very distinctive footsteps, followed by a cheerful, “father, mother! good morning!” it’s chanyeol, their second oldest son, beaming sunshine and rainbow as he enters the kitchen and gives his parents a hug.
“good morning, chanyeolla, are you ready to go to the beach today?” kyungsoo strokes chanyeol’s brunette locks, making a mental note to take chanyeol to the barber because the straight hair already reaches chanyeol’s nape.
“yes, mother!” thanks to the playlist of mainstream and indie international bands on kyungsoo’s ipod, chanyeol becomes so interested in drums, guitar, and the language. currently he’s taking extra courses after school, and he will have a national elementary school drummer competition in two months.
joonmyun silently watches as kyungsoo asks chanyeol (in english) whether he’s taken a shower or not (he did) and the whereabouts of his baekhyunnie-hyung and his twin little brothers.
“baekhyunnie-hyung is showering. jongin and sehun are still sleeping,” chanyeol offers to wake them up, and bolts off upstairs humming a song from one direction.
both joonmyun and kyungsoo can’t help but to chuckle at chanyeol’s hyperactivity.
“remind me to bring him to the barber,” kyungsoo feeds his husband a piece of kimbap. “good?”
“always,” joonmyun chews, smiling. “but chanyeol looks so cute with a long hair.”
“the last time i brought him to the mall, a talent seeker asked for ‘this pretty girl’s age’,” kyungsoo rolls his eyes, “he thought chanyeol was a girl, perfectly fit for the role of his agency’s upcoming children clothes print-ad.”
joonmyun laughs, “really? why didn’t you accept it?”
“kim joonmyun,” kyungsoo puts his hands on his hips, “i’m not letting my already androgynous looking son to crossdress in such early age!”
joonmyun mocks a surrender, “i get it, umma. forgive me?” he takes kyungsoo’s right hand.
kyungsoo huffs, glares at joonmyun some more, but a nanosecond later he pounces on the older man to lock their lips; it’s been too long. they’re both busy with their jobs and joonmyun was away in tokyo for two weeks.
“i miss you too,” joonmyun smiles, tightening his hold on kyungsoo’s waist. “let’s have fun today~”
▲ ▼
sehun is whining from the middle seat, complaining that chanyeolla-noona annoys him too much.
“appa!” sehun struggles with the seatbelt, seemingly wanting to, what, hop onto joonmyun’s lap who is currently driving. “appa, bad chanyeolla-noona!”
“chanyeol-ah, please,” joonmyun glances to the rearview mirror, “don’t waste your energy yet, save it to play on the beach!” joonmyun reaches behind to pinch sehun’s thigh. “and how many times should appa tell sehunnie? chanyeolla is your hyung. so don’t be mad at chanyeolla-hyung, ne?” and then the youngest smiles shyly and nods.
chanyeol grins, ruffles sehun’s hair for the last time before he changes his operation: annoy the life out of my bro target to his baekhyunnie-hyung.
baekhyun groans after a series of poking to his stomach, “go bother jongin for once!” and then he goes back concentrating to the sea creatures book, ignoring chanyeol’s pout.
“but jonginnie is not cute at all! he doesn’t whine like sehunna and he doesn’t punch me like hyung do!” chanyeol huffs, a trait he inherits from kyungsoo. “umma, i’m so boring!”
kyungsoo giggles, “it’s i am bored, not i am boring, because that means you are boring, chanyeolla. you’re not, are you? you’re umma’s happy virus, right?”
chanyeol’s giggle is also similar to his umma’s.
joonmyun laughs, and then he turns his attention to the second youngest, jongin, who looks out to the window with his usual blank expression.
“omo where’s jongin?” joonmyun asks his family with a gasp. “did we leave him?!” he feigns a panicked tone and that makes jongin frown. in between his siblings’ and umma’s snickering, jongin answers,
“i’m here, appa,” and he doesn’t even smile the slightest.
“ouch, where have you been?” joonmyun winks at jongin via the rearview mirror, who in the end just smirks and gives his appa a mocking thumb up. jongin is surely the manliest among the other three but he’s a little bit too impassive at times.
“how’s your ballet class, jonginnie?” kyungsoo turns his body to smile at jongin. because he and joonmyun were quite concerned about jongin’s future ability to show his emotions, they enrolled the black haired five year old to a dance academy.
so far, jongin is the best ballerino there, and after the family watched his first recital, sehun had asked to join his jonginnie-hyung.
“issokei, umma.” jongin answers shortly.
“how about your hip hop class?” (chanyeol shouts a, “yo yo!” in the background, a sign that he’s listening to his younger brother’s story).
jongin nods, blinks, and adds, “sehunna wants to learn popping.”
“well, you should teach him!” kyungsoo smiles encouragingly; the twin is tight, sehun never fails to want everything that jongin have, but jongin never says anything about it-not an objection or a consent towards sehun’s behavior. sehun himself is not yet to understand about the serious future impact for his clinginess; it’s either he’ll become too dependent to his jonginnie-hyung or it’s jongin who will be too overprotective to his sehunna.
“sehunna wants jongin-hyung to teach him, right?” joonmyun pipes in right away.
sehun doesn’t talk much, but he whines a lot, and sometimes he smiles his pretty eyesmile, and that’s better than jongin’s chronic poker face.
like right now, sehun shows his pretty eyesmile to confirm that yes; he wants to learn popping together with his older twin-and chanyeol coos while baekhyun smiles, his eyes have stopped moving although they are still glued to his book.
“kkamjong promise?” sehun eagerly asks jongin with a recently made nickname due to jongin’s darker skin.
jongin holds out his pinky, and sehun doesn’t let go until they arrive at the beach.
▲ ▼
they get a nice spot where joonmyun and kyungsoo can laze around with the children still in their line of sight.
“babies, let’s apply sunblock first!” kyungsoo pours a good amount on his children’s tiny palms. he inspects them spreading the lotion to their arms and legs, and giggles when jongin finally asks if he can go shirtless.
“of course! come here,” kyungsoo helps jongin to take off his decepticon tee and applies the lotion all over jongin’s upper body. sehun watches while sucking on his little thumb, but whines at the bitter taste.
“aigooo, go to appa and wash your hand with water, all of you!” kyungsoo pats jongin’s belly. “use hand sanitizer before you guys want to eat something later, understand?” his children chorus a yes.
after the busy parents are done with their children’s preparation, joonmyun says that he’s so going to get a tan today. he takes off his polo shirt and wriggles his eyebrows at kyungsoo as a request to help applying the sunblock. kyungsoo slaps his husband’s chest.
“appa, umma, i am about to explore,” baekhyun gives them a salute, ready with his goggles. “chanyeol-ah, don’t follow me,” he kicks the sand near chanyeol’s ankles as a warning.
“aw!” chanyeol pouts, but nodding nonetheless. joonmyun stretches chanyeol’s cheeks and explains that baekhyun needs to be alone sometimes as jongin and sehun are pulling out the sand castle equipments from their matching transformers backpack.
“chanyeolla-hyung, wanna play with sehunna?” sehun tugs at chanyeol’s plain pink tee, smiling his pretty eyesmile, probably feeling bad for his dejected hyung.
“yaaay!” chanyeol crushes sehun in a bear hug, leading them a couple of meters away from their parents’ nice spot. sehun comes back a moment later, still smiling prettily, grabbing jongin’s hand and saying, “c’mon, jonginnie!”
jongin beams.
▲ ▼
baekhyun loves chanyeol, his younger by two years brother, but he’s been determined to collect his own seashells after he watched a documentary of a little girl in australia showing off her impressive seashells collection. she spoke like a pro, too, about them, and baekhyun googled her and got her home’s address. he wants to share stories with her; being pen-pals seem great. or email-pals. ugh, seashells are just so cool! no one is collecting it in his class so that means he’ll be the first to! plus, he likes it so so so much when taeyeon-songsaenim compliments him.
firstly, he scans the area for any small seashells, gathering them on his goggles and then going back to his parents to put them on a small jar. he’s been coming back and forth thrice. on his fourth time, he catches his parents kissing, lying on their sides, with appa’s hand inside of umma’s t-shirt and umma giggling-breathing like a kitten.
“my eyes,” baekhyun crouches next to umma to get a new small jar and umma gasps, sitting up, his hair is a mess. “umma, my brothers are right there. how could you,” baekhyun smiles slyly. “if you and appa are going to make babies again, try to have a girl this time or chanyeol is going to be jongin and sehun’s permanent noona.”
“kim baekhyun!” kyungsoo flushes. “appa! what have you done to my baekhyun!”
joonmyun hides his amused smile-because honestly? baekhyun’s got a point! also, his sense of humor is so priceless for a twelve year old!
“umma, calm down. and how is this my fault?” he leans against kyungsoo’s body to ruffle baekhyun’s hair. “so you’re saying you want to have a new dongsaeng? preferably a girl? i’ll work on it.” baekhyun does a fistbump with him while kyungsoo covers his own ears with his hands, shaking his head fervently.
baekhyun leaves again as his umma wails about his career, already picturing how would his baby sister look like if she’s ever going to born.
▲ ▼
chanyeol’s superiority doesn’t last as long as he imagines him to be jongin and sehun’s awesomest hyung (and to slowly convince them that he’s indeed, their hyung, not noona) because suddenly an...oval-shaped ball is crushing his carefully built sandcastle.
he tastes sand on his tongue as he yells to the direction of two boys approaching them, “YAH!”
sehun is pouting, looking upset. jongin remains indifferent, but he lets sehun to hold his hand again.
the two approaching boys are showing their sorry expressions, and the taller one has...dark yellow hair like those foreigners on television and chanyeol’s heart is screaming dugeun dugeun as they start to talk in a hushed language and then the shorter one with the deepest dimple on his cheeks is pushing the taller boy to, uh, what did he say?
“WHAT?!” before chanyeol can restrain himself he’s raising his voice to the taaaaaaall boy. he must be a real foreigner!
chanyeol is yelling in english, by the way. his instinct tells him to.
“easy there, missy,” the foreigner smirks and his friend is cooing secretively while waving his hands at jongin and sehun like he never sees a pair of twins before.
“i said, i’m sorry.” oh, the foreigner is apologizing. good. chanyeol crosses his arms. “now can we please have our football back?” he’s bowing a little bit, holding out his right hand, posing like a man in ancient outfit on television about to ask a woman also in ancient outfit for a dance-but instead of smiling charmingly, the foreigner keeps on smirking and chanyeol decides he doesn’t find it convincing.
so he takes the weird, oval ball, smiles to the foreigner and acts as if he’s returning it willingly. when the foreigner reaches for it, chanyeol tosses the weird ball away to the sea.
“hey!” the foreigner glares but chanyeol just fakes a gasp, complete with wonder girls’ sohee ‘omona’ pose. the dimple boy is laughing openly now, patting the foreigner’s shoulders as he goes to fetch the weird ball.
“evil girl,” the foreigner mutters under his breath as he turns to leave, but chanyeol’s pointy ears are sharp so before he can think twice, he throws a handful of sand to the foreigner’s shirtless and freckled back, screaming,
“I’M NOT A GIRL!”
the foreigner clenches his fists and strides menacingly like an angry terminator to chanyeol, and chanyeol whimpers when the termi-foreigner tugs at the end of his bob cut hair, leering,
“are you sure? this is telling me otherwise.” what is he talking about chanyeol’s english is not that-and then the foreigner picks at chanyeol’s pink t-shirt, his eyes are raking down to chanyeol’s very short black shorts.
chanyeol blushes.
“boys don’t wear pink and hotpants to the beach. look at you. you’re too pretty to be a boy,” the foreigner snorts, “do you even understand what i’m saying?”
“kris, 我们去,” the dimple boy is back, smiling genuinely at chanyeol. he says in his accented english, “we’re very sorry. your brothers are so cute. have a nice day!” he drags the foreigner away, but the foreigner walks backward in order to smirk some more at chanyeol, who, to cover his redredred face, does a mehrong.
the foreigner laughs and chanyeol smiles shyly, still staring at where the foreigner boy playing catch with the weird ball until sehun whines loudly that he wants appa.
jongin makes a heart with his tiny fingers, wriggling his eyebrows exactly the way appa does, when chanyeol puts the sand castle building equipments to the transformers’ backpacks. chanyeol is so stunned at how cute jongin acts he violently stretches jongin’s cheeks. sehun wails that chanyeolla-noona can’t hurt jonginnie and chanyeol lets the maknae to call him noona, just this once.
baekhyun finds a necklace underwater.
the pendant has a somehow familiar symbol. it looks cool with the black chain. baekhyun is aware of the idea of taking what’s not his, but who knows, right? maybe the necklace is meant to be found, maybe someone dropped it a year ago and the necklace has been wandering around the sea for months and maybe it is from japan? or russia? he puts it around his neck and continues diving. he sets his eyes on a ponderous ark just now.
“victory!” he shouts as he emerges, with the small shell on his palm.
he shudders though, as if he’s being watched.
maybe it’s because of his loud celebration that he attracts people so whatever. he walks back to his parents’ spot to have lunch.
▲ ▼
sehun is fed by appa, while jongin eats clumsily on his own. umma is listening to chanyeolla-noona’s blabbering about the handsome yellow haired boy who ruined the sand castle from before, and baekhyunnie-hyung is glancing every now and then to their surrounding, frowning like whenever he reads his thick books.
as appa fills the violet tupperware with more food, sehun hears squealing from the two boys not too far from where he’s sitting; and he is instantly fascinated with the one who has the chubbiest cheeks ever exists on kim sehun’s five years of living. the cheeks bounce and they’re so round like tennis balls when the boy smiles cutely because his friend just kisses his nose. the chubby boy is so squishy like sehun’s favorite white teddy bear and now sehun is pouting because he misses mister tedted so bad. ugh!
“what is it, sehunnie?” appa offers him to drink, gently cupping sehun’s chin to prevent the mineral water from dripping out of his tiny mouth.
“sehunna wants mister tedted!” sehun flails his arms, actually referring to the chubby boy and not his doll. “appa!” he climbs to appa’s lap, making a fuss.
“umma, is it sehun’s nap time?” appa asks and sehun whines that he doesn’t want to sleep no no no! he wants mister tedted a.k.a that chubby boy!
jongin follows sehun’s not so secretive glance to the chubby boy, his gaze collides with the chubby boy’s friend-who narrows his big doe eyes at him.
“sehunna wants him?” jongin points to the oblivious chubby boy, and after receiving a slight, tearful nod from his little brother jongin gets up, ignoring umma’s concerned calling and proceeding to walk confidently towards sehun’s new infatuation.
“annyeong,” jongin starts, monotonously, also ignoring the glaring pretty-but-sehun-is-still-prettier boy. he takes the chubby boy’s pudgy hands, “my name is kim jongin. my brother wants you.”
the chubby boy tilts his head, gaping for a second while staring at jongin (whoa, cute, jongin thinks), and then he finally smiles and nods enthusiastically.
“my name is kim minseok!” the chubby boy lets jongin to pull him to his feet. “nice to meet you!”
jongin smiles.
“yah, what are you doing? minseokkie is mine!” minseok’s friend kicks his shin.
jongin shakes his head, shielding minseok away from the pretty boy.
“no. minseok is sehun’s.”
“sehun?! my name is lu han you-” the pretty boy lurches forward, his blunt nails are clawing jongin’s bare arms and chest. jongin soon fights back by hitting lu han’s stomach. minseok yelps, he runs to a snoring glasses hyung who doesn’t budge even as minseok repeatedly shakes the hyung’s body to wake up to help help help!
jongin growls, umma’s faint yelling is not stopping him from squeezing and grabbing every inch of lu han’s skin. lu han himself, despite being pretty, packs a good aim with his fists.
“that’s enough,” it’s appa. he easily parts them by their skinny armpits, shaking his head disappointedly at jongin as he kneels in front of him. and then appa smiles handsomely to lu han and minseok. he gently wipes the tears off of minseok’s pinkish face.
“what’s going on here?” he asks jongin, rubbing comforting circles on jongin’s left wrist. jongin shrugs, because there’s a lump on his throat; he fails to get what sehun wants.
lu han is helping, more or less, by telling appa, “he wants to take minseok away from me, ahjusshi!” complete with an accusing finger. jongin’s face twitches.
“why would you do tha-”
“ahjusshi, jongin wanna play with minseok,” minseok sniffs from behind lu han, and lu han gasps in disbelief. appa chuckles and pinches minseok’s chin.
“is that so, minseok-ah?” minseok bites his bottom lip, smiling shyly.
“and what’s your name, fighter?” appa asks lu han, patting lu han’s butt. lu han answers appa with a grumble. “lu han? that’s a very cool name!” appa smiles. “now, lu han-ah, jongin is going to apologize, but you have to apologize to him, too. he just wants to play with minseok. it’s more fun to have a lot of friends, right? please don’t fight again.” appa does his weird aegyo he often does to umma whenever umma is mad at him. apparently it works for lu han, too, because lu han is grinning so wide and poking at appa’s dimple.
“don’t touch my appa.” jongin shoves lu han’s hand off of appa’s face. lu han hisses, and appa scolds him for doing so.
jongin doesn’t understand.
▲ ▼
done playing with minseok’s cheeks and taking selcas with lu han using umma’s cellphone, baekhyun is off again to explore.
about five minutes later, chanyeol is following him.
“what?” baekhyun lazily asks his brother.
“what?” chanyeol parrots him. but at baekhyun’s glare chanyeol pouts and waves the ten thousand won’s bill on his hand.
“umma said to buy ice creams.”
oh.
“let’s go then,” baekhyun takes away the money because he’s more responsible than ten year old chanyeol. they walk side by side in silence, that is, until chanyeol clutches his arm tightly and giggles/gasps/fanboying over a tall foreigner boy queueing at the ice cream stall.
baekhyun grins, “do you like him?”
“what? ewww!” but chanyeol’s eyes are twinkling. “he’s so rude, remember? he thought i’m a girl!”
“you like him rude,” baekhyun comments, “what’s his name?”
“how should i know!”
“well ask him.”
“no way!”
“fine,” baekhyun wrenches his arm off of chanyeol’s clutch, and races him to queue behind the foreigner. he taps the foreigner’s shoulders, interrupting the tall boy’s conversation with a dimple boy and...a scary looking, black haired boy.
chanyeol hides behind baekhyun. but it’s no use, since they’re the same height despite that baekhyun is older by two years.
“isn’t it evil girl,” the foreigner smirks, and just then he notices baekhyun. “oh. your boyfriend?”
baekhyun sighs. they’re so in love with each other.
“no, dude. i’m his brother. my name is kim baekhyun, this is chanyeol,” baekhyun’s grin gets wider at the way the foreigner furrows his bushy eyebrows, like maybe he’s reciting chanyeol’s name in his mind.
“aaaaand he’s a boy. trust me.”
the foreigner laughs. the dimple boy is high five-ing him.
“nice to meet you, bacon, i’m kris. this is my cousin yixing and zi-” kris pauses as zi-who whispers something at him, his dark eyes are focusing on baekhyun’s neck.
baekhyun shudders.
“may i?” kris doesn’t wait for baekhyun’s permission and chanyeol yelps at the size of kris’ hand gently untucking the necklace from baekhyun’s red dragon’s t-shirt.
the three boys are conversing in chinese and everything clicks.
“i’m sorry, is this yours?” baekhyun takes off the necklace and smiles to zi-who. “found it under the sea. here, it’s a taurus sign, right?”
kris takes it and says that zitao doesn’t really speak english. he helps zitao to wear the necklace again.
“thanks,” he holds up his fist and baekhyun bumps it with his. then, as yixing flirts with the ice cream man to order, kris taunts chanyeol some more about his hair and his face, and baekhyun stealthily stepping aside to give his brother a privacy of first love.
zitao is suddenly standing next to him, giving him the creep.
“s-sorry,” zitao stutters in english. he looks like a lost puppy. baekhyun smiles at him and pats his hand to reassure that it’s perfectly fine to-
“eh,” baekhyun blinks when zitao opens his palm and presenting the necklace to him. when did he take it off? “for me?”
“yes,” aw!
“thanks a lot,” baekhyun wears it again then, patting the pendant on his chest. “i’m a taurus, too.”
zitao is just like an open book. he giggles shyly and covers his mouth with the back of his hand.
yixing makes a kissy face to the flustered ice cream man, nudging zitao to take his strawberry cone and smiles at baekhyun before he goes to kris and chanyeol; who are now...thisclose to...kiss?
by the way, chanyeol is supposed to help him bringing the ice creams back.
“yah! chanyeol-ah!” baekhyun screams with his pre-pubescent voice. “i only have two hands!” he ignores his flailing brother to greet the still flustered ice cream man.
“annyeonghaseyo, hyung,” well, he looks young, maybe a part timer. “two vanillas, three chocolates, one vanilla chocolate chip, one vanilla soda, and one mocca.”
the ice cream man answers with a high pitched voice, “w-wait, can you repeat it? wait. here, let me write it down. oh my god that kid is a criminal.”
baekhyun laughs. “i think he’s chinese? what did he say to you...” he squints to read the nametag, “jongdae-hyung?”
jongdae-hyung takes a piece of paper and a pen, sniffing.
“i dunno. some cheap english pick up lines from movies. like, does it hurt? when you fell from heav-wait! why am i telling you this?!”
“eyyy hyung. don’t you know kids are growing up much faster these days?” baekhyun snorts as he chimes the order. when jongdae-hyung prepares the ice creams, baekhyun finds chanyeol is apparently busy chasing after kris, shouting about his hair; with yixing holding two cones now, also watching them in amusement.
kris is handsome, alright, but he’s kinda lame, in baekhyun's totally humble opinion; like, classic move, huh? planting sticky ice cream to your love interest’s hair?
“jongdae-hyung, here’s the money. i’ll take the ready ones to my parents then i’ll come back. my brother's got a new boyfriend and he's being useless.” jongdae-hyung nods, grimacing at baekhyun’s unfortunate state, and handing the three chocolate cones.
baekhyun jumps because zitao is still standing quietly next to him.
“zitao h-help?” zitao smiles, and why did baekhyun even think zitao is scary? he’s sooooooooooooo adorable!
“you’re the best!” baekhyun urges jongdae-hyung to hurry up.
sehun wants to bite minseokkie’s cheeks.
but. lu han.
“kkamjong-ah,” sehun whines, shaking his twin brother’s body. jongin has been lying down for a while now, ignoring everyone else ever since lu han and minseok are joining their family.
“kkamjong-ah, hu hu hu~” sehun doesn’t like it when jongin doesn’t pay attention to him so he pretends to cry. it works like a charm, like usual, because jongin is instantly apologizing.
“kkamjong-ah, lu han is scary!” he whispers, still rubbing his tearless eyes for a show. “sehunna wants to play with minseokkie hu hu hu~” he’s not exaggerating! because lu han is monopolizing cute minseok and appa and umma are too absorbed on coddling over their new friends.
jongin crosses his arms.
sehun pouts because usually jongin will take immediate action.
“kkamjong-ah dun love sehunna anymore?” now that thought is way scarier than lu han’s perfectly hidden snarl earlier.
jongin stays silent and he stares at appa playing rock-paper-scissor-ttakbam with lu han instead.
“kkamjo-”
“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!” jongin roars. sehun flinches, drops his vanilla chocolate chip ice cream, and then he sobs pitifully, calling for appa.
“kim jongin!” umma puts minseok off of his lap to hug sehun. “why did you yell to your brother?!”
jongin looks away. he didn’t mean to make sehun cry.
“kim jongin answer your umma,” appa says with his scary voice just like whenever chanyeol-noona is being uncontrollable, but he still has lu han on his arms.
“kim jongin.”
jongin doesn’t respond.
sehun cries harder.
▲ ▼
“isn’t that your brother?”
chanyeol turns his head to look at where kris is pointing at.
and kris kisses his cheek. his tall nose (everything about him is either tall or gigantic) collides heavily with chanyeol’s soft skin. it hurts.
“yah!” chanyeol’s whole face burns, but then he smiles giddily when kris squeezes their entwined hands.
“that looks serious,” kris comments, looking at appa holding jongin on his arms, seemingly trying his best to coax jongin to talk to him.
chanyeol nods mutely, his chest feels heavy at the sight. appa is tired, he knows from appa’s carefully concealed heave of sigh because he’s the one, most of the time, being in jongin’s position. but jongin is different. he’s not ‘kim chanyeol’.
he’s not loud.
jongin looks angry. that’s for sure. whenever his lips are formed in a thin line and his thumbs are rubbing against his index fingers, that means jongin is angry.
with himself.
“hey,” kris flicks his forehead, “you wanna go there?”
“ah...” chanyeol smiles despite his conflicted mind; he wants to go to appa and help him, but he still wants to play with kris, especially after knowing that kris is from canada and only visits south korea because his uncle and aunt from beijing (yixing’s parents) are taking him here on a holiday. tonight kris will fly back to beijing, and suddenly chanyeol wants to cry.
he likes kris very much.
“why are you like, crying?” kris laughs heartlessly at chanyeol’s watering eyes. “you’re such a girl.”
“pabo,” chanyeol wrenches off his hand of kris’ hold and hastily wipes at his face while walking away. kris calls his name, but chanyeol runs to appa’s direction, doesn’t look back.
years later, he will regret it.
▲ ▼
baekhyun learns that zitao is ten years old, and kris and yixing are twelve. kris who lives in canada is on a summer break, so he visits yixing and zitao on beijing, and yixing’s parents are taking the cousins to south korea for a holiday.
with difficulties, he manages to ask when will zitao fly back to beijing, and zitao writes on the sand 19:10 pm.
“today?! do you have an email?” baekhyun’s gut is telling him not to lose a precious friend.
zitao tilts his head.
“i have an idea,” baekhyun tells zitao to wait on their special spot while he runs back to his backpack (he brought his notebook and pencil case), noticing that appa, jongin, lu han, and minseok are missing.
“umma,” baekhyun also grabs one of his small and full with seashells jars. “umma, where are appa and jongin?” umma has his trendy sunglasses perched on his nose, and sehun is sleeping on his lap.
“what?” umma’s chin is quivering, and his voice breaks.
baekhyun drops his backpack and immediately takes umma’s hands.
“umma, what’s going on?” umma shakes his head, sniffing.
“are you sure?” baekhyun moves his hands to touch umma’s cheeks. “do you need anything?”
“i’ll be okay, baekhyun-ah,” kyungsoo strokes baekhyun’s left wrist. “but come back here soon after you’ve done playing, hmmm?”
baekhyun lightly clicks his tongue. zitao is waiting. he’s leaving. but. umma.
“go,” umma pats his back. “i’m fine.”
baekhyun reluctantly nods, from the corner of his eyes he sees chanyeol is talking with appa and jongin. he gives umma a bear hug, and he runs back just in time as kris and yixing are helping zitao to stand up.
“zitao! wait!” baekhyun speeds up his legs. “i have something for you!”
the three cousins are frowning. right. english.
“wait,” baekhyun smiles as zitao smiles. he never likes running. he prefers badminton or table tennis. ugh. “wait, here,” he's heaving because of his poor, unfit lungs. he likes reading and browsing the internet the best.
“please keep it, zitao-yah, a friendship token from me.”
zitao gasps cutely, asking kris and yixing if he can really take baekhyun’s seashells jar using the chinese language. kris nods briefly while yixing wriggles his eyebrows, signaling something that might be the exact opposite of innocence.
“gege!” zitao pounces on baekhyun, and his skin is warm and when he kisses baekhyun’s left cheek his eyes are sparkling like the sea and baekhyun thinks zitao is the most beautiful person on earth, like, taeyeon-sonsaengnim who?
“wait!” baekhyun wakes up from his reverie, hurriedly writing his home address and rips off the paper from his notebook, telling zitao to send him a letter. and to kris and yixing to help zitao to create an email account. yixing easily agrees and then he’s narrowing his eyes, glancing to the ice cream stall a couple of feet away, while kris asks if he can email baekhyun.
“what why?” baekhyun asks back as he writes down his email address. “i can teach chanyeol to make one for himself, you know?”
kris just smirks and says that he will explain it later via email. he holds up his fist for the last time and baekhyun shrugs, colliding his fist against kris’, and zitao hugs him again. baekhyun pinches zitao’s cheeks and he bids goodbye at yixing, who doesn’t even bother to look at him; too busy admiring jongdae-hyung the ice cream man from afar.
▲ ▼
joonmyun, sometimes, declares himself as the best dad in the world.
he doesn’t have a favorite, it’s bad for his children’s mentality while growing up, but he’s willing to admit that jongin is the most difficult of them all.
“jongin is not going to tell appa anything?” he pokes jongin’s tummy. jongin is ticklish. “hmmm?” he nuzzles jongin’s ear but jongin just keeps on building a sandy pyramid.
joonmyun reads it on one of kyungsoo’s parenting 101 books, that it is important to never never never sigh in front of your children because that action will leave a bad impression in your children’s mind; it will make your children to think that they’re a disappointment.
right now, joonmyun fights not to, and wonders if jongin even realizes it.
he takes a deep breath, swallows, and steals a quick refugee at where his family is gathering, baekhyun and chanyeol are on kyungsoo’s sides, probably telling jokes, and any minute now sehun should be awakened by his hyungs’ antics.
kyungsoo looks up after he giggles to whatever that chanyeol is spouting about, and their eyes meet.
joonmyun offers a smile, kyungsoo smiles too, and soon his children are smiling at him. a burst of happiness is flooding joonmyun’s system, and he lifts jongin’s chin and says,
“jongin-ah, look,” he lets his family to see that he uses jongin’s arms to make a heart, like a puppet master. jongin grins timidly at his family’s encouraging reaction, and he finally stands up and blows kisses to each of his hyungs. especially to his worrying umma.
it’s a progress.
but then, suddenly, a flash of something akin to fear is reflected on jongin’s eyes, just before he steps on joonmyun’s lap and hugs him tight; clawing his tiny fingers to joonmyun’s bare skin.
“jongin-ah?” joonmyun pulls at jongin’s waist but jongin won’t budge. “hey, it’s okay, don’t be scared.” because clearly, jongin finds something is so frightening at two in the afternoon.
“jongin-ah?”
“ahjusshi!” that’s a mix of lu han and minseok’s voice. they’ve changed their clothes and a teenage boy wearing thick glasses is trailing behind them, with a huge backpack on his shoulders.
“ahjusshi!” lu han smiles brightly, holding minseok’s pudgy hand like always. they’re just so cute together!
“ahjusshi we’re going home,” lu han leans to kiss joonmyun on the cheek which jongin doesn’t occupy, while minseok kisses him square on the lips.
joonmyun laughs at how lu han stomps his foot at his best friend's action.
“whyyyyy?” joonmyun speaks with his aegyo, ruffling lu han’s hair. “it was nice playing with you two! see you again, okay? who’s that hyung?”
“annyeonghaseyo, ahjusshi,” the glasses boy bows at him, “i’m their, uh, friend? i just got my first paycheck so i took them here. thank you for playing with them. i was dead tired.”
“well, work harder, young man!” joonmyun likes the boy’s awkward charm. “oh, jongin-ah, say goodbye to lu han and minseok.”
jongin practically chokes joonmyun by now.
lu han and minseok exchange a glance.
joonmyun smiles nervously at the two kids just as minseok walks to face jongin, and a second later joonmyun hears a smooching sound.
jongin slumps to joonmyun’s lap, holding his left cheek, blushing, and his eyes are so wide. oh how joonmyun wishes he has his cellphone with him!
“jonginnie bai bai!” minseok pats jongin’s hair and giggles on his way to hold lu han’s hand again. lu han, looking apologetic himself, takes out a bag of melon flavored marshmallow from his donald duck’s shorts and gives it to jongin. joonmyun encourages jongin to take the gift, but jongin shakes his head and lu han pouts slightly.
“okay thank you lu han-ah,” joonmyun decides to speak in behalf of jongin as he takes the gift. he’s got a hunch of what’s been happening. “go say goodbye to sehunnie over there?”
lu han and minseok nod and leave, with the glasses boy obediently following them.
▲ ▼
“umma, i think i need to spend more time with jongin,” joonmyun says as kyungsoo is tucked safely next to him on their king sized bed. “he was jealous with lu han.”
kyungsoo doesn’t answer for a moment, and when he does, he voices it out carefully, “took you long enough.”
“i know, right?” joonmyun strokes kyungsoo’s left hip. he continues with a secretive tone, “was i too affectionate with that pretty kid?”
“you acted like you were in love with him,” kyungsoo pinches joonmyun’s nose. “thank god i’m not five.”
“oh you,” joonmyun presses a quick kiss to kyungsoo’s minty lips, wriggling his eyebrows when they pull apart. “sooooooo today was fun! heard chanyeol met his first love.”
kyungsoo laughs out loud at that and then he covers his mouth, embarrassed by his own cuteness. “chanyeol is heartbroken! the foreigner boy made him cry. our chanyeol cried, yeobo, can you believe that?!”
ah. everything clicks.
“is that why his eyes were red when he asked if i needed a help?” joonmyun chuckles, knowing too well that chanyeol is the sweetest ten year old ever exists. “while he was having a heartbreak? i must be a saint on my previous life...”
kyungsoo fakes a scoff, but nodding his agreement nonetheless. chanyeol is never a selfish kid.
“we still need to learn a lot,” kyungsoo pushes joonmyun to lie on his back, and he shifts to rest his head on joonmyun’s firm chest. joonmyun inhales his wife’s coconut shampooed hair. it’s calming him.
“yeobo?” kyungsoo whispers, tracing patterns on joonmyun’s battered white t-shirt.
“yes?”
“should we give it a try?”
“hm?”
“a-about baekhyun’s idea earlier?”
joonmyun frowns to the ceiling. he crosses his arms behind his head.
“sorry, what?”
“nevermind. what do you want for breakfast?”
“you.” joonmyun is in the mood of being greasy tonight. it’s late, but whatever. teasing kyungsoo is one of his very powerful antidotes anyway. he waits for a very kim kyungsoo flustered retort.
but he gets none.
“umma?”
kyungsoo bites the center of his chest, hard, and plasters his whole body on top of joonmyun, mumbling something about joonmyun and insensitive and bastard and then nothing. joonmyun shrugs and hugs kyungsoo so his wife won’t fall, and closes his eyes.
what a day, indeed.
t h e e n d (?)