Chapter 04: Seven

The two little girls ran around happily in the yard, playing tag with one another. They had been together since birth, and their bonds are almost unbreakable. After running around for a while, the two of them sit down together, exhausted, but happy.

"Taengoo, I love you." The girl on the right said, with a sweet smile on her face.

"I love you too." The other replied, patting the girl on the head.

"So, let's have a lot of kids in future!"

"Why?"

"My parents always say that having children is a pleasure. So Taengoo, when we grow up, let's have a lot of children, okay?"

"Mm. Okay!"

"Taeyeon-unnie." This does not sound like her friend's voice, but it is indeed familiar. The short girl opens her eyes and saw the little girl with a Keroro plush standing beside her bed.

"What's it, Seo?" The short girl asked, thinking about the dream that she had. It's just a dream...

"Hyoyeon-unnie refuses to get up.. And no one else cares.."

Taeyeon sits up and looked out of the window. The sun is already up, and all the kids are awake. But the house is quiet, probably because the lack of choding-ness of the one that refuses to get out of bed. She got out of her bed and walked to the kids' room, with the little one following behind closely. All the beds are empty, except one. The short girl nudged the little girl, but she did not respond.

"... Is it because I scolded you yesterday?" Taeyeon asked, the hair of the little girl. The little girl kept quiet and nodded. She sighed, and carries the girl up, hugging her. "It's because you are at the wrong, Hyo. You should not bully Seo so much.."

"But... It's because I love her..." The little girl frowned, as she puts her arms around the neck of the short girl.

"I know. But your way of showing it is not right. You should know that Yuri and Yoona care for their younger sister, right?"

"Yoona cares for that shikshin more." The little girl grumbled, letting go of the neck of the short girl.
Taeyeon sighed. The girl is right. That doe-eye girl really do cares that shikshin more than she cares for her younger sister. "After what I told you yesterday, I assume that you know what to do, right?"

"Yes." Hyoyeon nodded. The short girl puts the little girl down, beside the one that had been standing her since just now. "ACK? You are here?!" Hyoyeon exclaimed, after seeing Seohyun. Seohyun nodded and smiled, before giving Hyoyeon a hug, with the Keroro plush in between. Hyoyeon got slightly annoyed and threw the doll aside, before hugging Seohyun again. "That thing is in the way."

"But Keroro wants a hug too." Seohyun pouted. Taeyeon let out a short laugh as she picks the doll up and give it back to the girl. The two little kids ran out of the room, hand in hand, and the house got noisy again. Suddenly, someone started crying again, but Taeyeon knew that it is nothing serious, as she can easily identify the one who is crying. The shikshin. Probably because she is hungry again, and wants her breakfast. The short girl walked out of the room and went into the kitchen to prepare their breakfast. After taking out the necessary items from the refrigerator and cupboard, she lays the plates down neatly and call for the kids.

"Wait a minute. Did you kids brush your teeth?" She asked, before the shikshin could put the bread into . Seohyun nodded, before shaking her head while pointing to the rest.

"Ahh.. Knew it." Taeyeon face-palmed herself, before realising that the shikshin had finished a piece of bread already. "Choi Sooyoung! Go brush your teeth before you start eating!"

After saying that she pushed the kids into the bathroom and gave them their brushes, before taking hers for herself. With Seohyun standing outside the bathroom, the group of them started to brush their teeth. Hyoyeon shoved hers into Seohyun's mouth playfully, when Taeyeon is not looking.

"Unnie!" Seohyun cried, before smacking Hyoyeon gently on her shoulder. The shikshin tries to run away after a short while but she got caught by the doe-eye girl, who ended up helping her to brush her teeth. The blonde girl fell asleep while brushing her teeth, and Tiffany had to pull out the brush from carefully, not wanting to hurt the girl. And the tanned girl, is still alone, brushing her teeth quietly.

How the heck did she do that..? Taeyeon stared at the sleeping girl, amazed by her sleeping skill. After around five minutes, the whole group is done. The first one to get to the table is of course the shikshin, followed by the doe-eye girl. Without waiting for the others, the two started to feast on their portion, which is twice of what is given to the others.

.....

The short girl press the power button of her laptop and plugged in the USB port of the black tablet. Since tomorrow is Monday, she had to finish up the incomplete work of hers by today so that she would be able to hand it in tomorrow. She had been working on this for a few weeks, as it is quite a big project given to her to work on it on her own. She had to draw up to thirty new characters for the boss to choose from, and in the end, they would be using only two for the project. That is what irritates her. Her boss always demand them to come up with a lot of ideas and characters, but in the end, he only uses one or two of all of those that they come up with. Many quit their jobs because of that, but the short girl stayed, because drawing has always been something that she is good at and something that she enjoys doing. And this job is the one that pay the most out of all those that require drawing as a skill. With those seven kids, she cannot afford to change to a lower paying one, especially when there are two shikshins in the house. She has seven more characters to go, but nothing is coming to her. She had ran out of ideas.

"Unnie, what are you doing?" Just when she was fretting about what to draw for the last seven characters, a voice interrupted her thoughts. She looked down and saw Hyoyeon standing there, with Seohyun behind her.

"Working. I see that you're doing better?" Taeyeon patted the two kids with a smile. Hyoyeon gave her a mischievous grin and she snatched away Seohyun's Keroro immediately, running out. Seohyun gave chase of course. The short girl sighed. "I should not have said that, I suppose." And an idea struck her. She knew what she can draw for the next seven characters now. She picks up her laptop, along with the tablet and got out of the room, and sat down on the sofa. She put the two things on the coffee table and starts drawing. She is going to draw them in pairs, since they are always together. First up, the shikshins. She drew two girls that look very much like the two girls who are eating, sitting together and eating. Second, a blonde girl lying on the lap of the other girl, who is smiling, showing off her beautiful eye-smile. Third, the two who are currently running around, and the the one in front with a Keroro doll in her hand. Lastly, the lonely tanned girl. After nearly two hours, she managed to finish drawing the seven of them, and now she has to colour them.

"Why do these people look like us, unnie?" The tanned girl sits down beside her and looked at all the drawings.

"It does?" The short girl asked, smiling.

"Yea. Those two are the shikshins, aren't they? That is Sica and Fany, Hyo and Seo. And the last one is me. Just right, seven of them and seven of us." The tanned girl pointed to each picture, before turning around to look at the short girl again.

"Well, these are my characters, created to be just like you. Of course they look like all of you. Do you like it?"

"Yea! It's nice." The tanned girl replied, giving the short girl a big grin. Taeyeon smiled, and the hair of the tanned girl.