Owning a store is a lot harder than one thinks. There is the accounting, taking the inventory, customer satisfaction, and of course the staff. But Ji Hyeon Moon always wanted to own a store, specifically a small bakery. She never wanted a large one like Starbucks, since she believed they were too commercial. So she and her best friend started with a clothing shop that had closed down and worked on making their dream come true. Her friend, Gi Yong Lee, had studied at a culinary school so she would work in the kitchen with some other employees, while Ji Hyeon took care of the money and inventory.

Normally Gi Yong would lock up the place before they closed, but tonight Ji Hyeon decided she would do it. As she was cleaning up the kitchen, the door bell rang.

Argh, nobody is supposed be out this late. Why would they come in here? Oh my gosh, what if it’s a murderer? Eep! Ji Hyeon thought. She can be very, very paranoid late at night.

Oh whatever, it’s probably just an pregnant woman who is craving something. she thought, wiping her hands as she walked to the front. But when she got there, there was no woman with a round stomach instead there was nothing. She looked around and saw no one. “Huh,” she whispered.

“Excuse me! I wanna buy something, pwease.” A small voice said from behind the counter. She leaned over it to find six small boys standing there, one of them looking up at her with pleading eyes. Ji Hyeon could not stop staring at them. Each one of them looked like little angels, cherubs, in fact.

“Oh sure, yeah. What can I get ya?” she asked with a smile.

“Um, I wanna chocolate chip cookie, pwease and a grape juice, too.” The tallest one said.

“Okay, but can I ask you something?” ,two of the others looked up at her, “where is your mother?” Once she finished her question all of them looked up at her, but nothing came out. So she walked around the counter and came face to face with them. They were all about the same height, except for the one who asked for the order. They looked like they were around the same age, about seven or eight.

“We don’t really know, miss. We just woke up like this earlier today and we have been trying to get something to eat!” The shortest of them said; he sort of resembled a panda and looked like he had a lot of character.

“Well then, uh, I guess….” Her sentence drifted off as she thought about what she was going to do with them. She obviously couldn’t leave them out there to die, that would be evil. Maybe I should take them in?

“Miss, are you alright?” One of them walked up to her and placed his hand on her cheek. He started rubbing it, hoping she would come back to them. Instead, her face heated up in his hand as she started blushing. He touched her as if she was a princess and he was her prince.

“Ah, yeah, I’m okay. I was wondering if you wanted to stay with me until we get this whole thing settle, if that’s okay with you?” she asked, a little shyly.

They shared some looks and then the one with the chubbiest cheeks asked “If we do, does that make you our mommy?”

“uh…. I guess so?” she said a little unsure.

“Yay, mommy, mommy, can I have some ice cream?”

“Can I have some candy?”

“Can we go play around the store?”

All these questions were being fired at her as they ran to her and tackled her. “Ack, ok boys, can we all stand up for a second so that I can get something for you to eat?” she asked softly as they clamped onto her body.

They all stood up, but surprisingly they were still gripping her, jumping up and down. But before they could do what they wanted, she made them stop jumping around like cute little monkeys and had them stand in front of her.

“Before, we do anything else, I need to know your names. I will tell you my name, it’s Moon Ji Hyeon, but you can call me Mommy.”

“My name is Junsu, I'm the oldest, I'm eight" he held up his hands to show his age. " This here is Junho, he's kind of shy" he poked the boy next to him, who returned his gesture with a tiny glare, then he gave Ji Hyeon a smile, making his eyes almost disappear and his face become brighter.

"Oh that's okay. What's your name?" she looked at the one who asked if she was their mommy, the one with the chubbiest cheeks. "My name is Wooyoung and I like to dance," he said with a smile as his cheeks puffed out when he did so. Next was the one who had touched her cheek, the prince " Hello, my name is Nichkhun. It's nice to meet you," Wow, he's so polite. He really could be a prince, she pondered. The second to last said " I'm Taecyeon, and I'm the tallest. This is Chansung, he's the baby." she looked at the two and she would have thought that hey were about the same age since Chansung was just a few centimeters shorter than Taecyeon.

"Well, it's nice to meet you all" she turned and looked at Taecyeon "and you asked for a cookie and a grape juice, so I will get that for you," she poked his nose and he scrunched it up like a little puppy.

"Can I has some too, pwease?" Chansung asked with a sweet voice, "Me too?" Junho asked soon after.

"Why don't I just get all of you some cookies and I'll grab some juice boxes and you can pick out what you want?" she asked looking at them, then at her watch. Oh gosh, it's so late already.

She picked up Chansung and took Wooyoung's hand and told the rest of them to walk ahead of her and go behind the counter. Then, she took them to the staff lounge and put Chansung on the couch. Taecyeon, Junsu, and Nichkhun got up on the couch with no help at all, but Wooyoung and Junho needed some help. She went to the storage room and got a few juice boxes, a few grape and apple ones. Then she went to the kitchen and got some cookies that she was originally going to put away. When she brought them back to the boys, Taecyeon and junho were jumping up and down on the couch while the rest were trying to get them to sit back down. She stood there for a few seconds before she moved towards them. Her hands were full and when she finally got their attention, Taecyeon and Junho sat down and looked at her as if they were completely innocent.

"Ah, I see we have some troublemakers? Well, you boys better learn quick because I don't like troublemakers a lot, okay?" she said specifically towards Junho and Taecyeon, then towards all of them. "Yes, mommy," they said quietly.

"Okay, now come and get two cookies and a juice box. I'm going to finish cleaning up the store, and then I will take you to my apartment."

With that being said, she walked out of the lounge and cleaned up the counters. Then she went back to her office and tidied up her desk. She switched off the light and made her way back to the lounge. When she got there, they were all sleeping on top of each other; Chansung had his head on Junsu's lap, Wooyoung had his head on Nichkhun's shoulder and Junho had his leg on Taecyeon's lap who had his head rested on the arm of the couch. They really do look like little cherubs, she thought. But I have to wake them up, so I can get them to bed. She sighed and walked over to the couch and touched Junsu on the shoulder.

"Hey there, sleepy head. C'mon wake up." she whispered as Junsu started moving around and mumbled incoherent words. By doing this, he woke up Chansung, who opened his eyes slowly and said "Mommy, I wanna sleep some more."

"You can sleep a little more when we get home, okay? Junsu, can you wake the others for me?" she asked him quietly.

In a few minutes, all of them were awake, except for Chansung, who had fallen asleep in Ji Hyeon's arms. Then she led them out to her car and unlocked it. It was a small Jeep, but it had enough seats for all of them to fit in. Her apartment was about 20 minutes away from the bakery, so by the time she got there, they had all fallen asleep again. This time she woke Nichkhun up, so that he could wake everyone else up. and grumbling all the way up the stairs, the boys got to her door and stood there until she moved past their zombie-like bodies. Her apartment was of decent size,; she had 3 rooms, 2 bathrooms, a nice kitchen and a balcony. She made the boys sit on her couch while she got out the air mattress she kept just in case. Two of them would have to sleep in the guest room, while two would sleep on the air mattress, and two in her bed.

Instead of waking up one of them to wake up the rest, she put Taecyeon and Junsu into the guest room, while Wooyoung and Nichkhun slept on the air mattress. The last two slept in her bed. She brushed her teeth and changed into a large t-shirt and shorts. 'Oh gosh, I'm going to have to buy some more groceries, buy some clothes for these boys too. Ah, so this is what parenthood is like. Goodness!' She thought to herself before her eyes closed and she drifted off to sleep.