June 12th, 2017.17:27 KST

Kris parked his car at the roadside. His eyes were wandering at the house on his left. He took a deep breath before walked out. “Here come troubles.” He sighed. He walked to the front door and knocked. Few rustles were heard before the door was opened forcefully, revealing a boy around six years old with a ball on his grip.

“Who are you ajushi?” the boy asked.

“I’m-“

“Luhan. I tell you not to open the door to stranger. Go inside.”

The Luhan-boy then ran inside, leaving the door opened.

A man appeared a few seconds later. Kris stared at the man unbelievingly. There, Junmyeon, with his nest hairs, whole body covered with whitish, dusty substances suspected as flour, was staring back at him.

“What’s with you? You look funny.” Kris chuckled. He peeked inside of the house. There was like a war had happened and flour bombs had been disposed in the house. Should I walk in or should I run? Kris debated. He hesitantly took a step in. However, after a few steps, Kris abruptly stopped. He turned back to the front door. This was not a house. This was a war zone. Ten kids sprawled on the floor in a midst of whitish flour, playing, spraying, and throwing it like snow at everything in their sights. Kris definitely wanted to flee but he was stopped by a hand grabbing tightly on his arm. He looked at the owner with terrified eyes. “There’s no turning back buddy,” Junmyeon grinned. He shut the front door with his free hand and pushed his friend towards the living room where the kids, no, the small devils, were.

Without having a chance to open his mouth to protest, Kris felt his whole face was covered with flour. He looked down to find the culprit, only to find a 2 years old boy giggling with both his little hands still full with flour. “Snowing. It’s snowing.” He giggled while throwing the flour to the air. The white flour hit his face and the giggles continued.

Kris dumfounded. Should he mad? But the kid was too cute. “Whoa. What did you just do Kris? You make him smile.” Junmyeon stated with his overdramatically look. That kid was the maknae, Sehun. Sehun was not friendly with strangers. Junmyeon himself needed to take a month before that kid opened up to him. If he met strangers, Sehun would just put his unamused face. It was so hard to get close to this kid. He preferred to be alone, playing by himself even when he was in the middle of kids around his age. But when he was home together with his brothers, Sehun turned into a bubbly kid, especially to his favorite brother, Luhan. It was surprise to see that kid smiled at Kris on their first meeting. But Sehun was being Sehun. That kid was unpredictable.

“Baekhyun, Jongdae, stop bully Chanyeol.” Junmyeon shouted. Kris turned his attention to the three boys. Two smaller boys were sitting on the back of the tallest boy among the three, pinning him to the floor. The two boys covered their victim with abundant flour, throwing it directly to his face, making the poor boy violently coughed. Junmyeon rushed to the boys, grabbing the two troublesomes’ arm to make them stand. He scolded the boys and put his most stern face but Kris just scoffed. It did not scary at all.

“Okay kids. Stop playing for a while. I want to introduce my friend. Kids, this is Kris. Me and him will take care of you this week. So be nice. Kris, the kids. Uhm- You already met Luhan at the front door. The boy ‘s clinging to him is the maknae, Sehun. Those troublesomes; Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Jongdae. That chubby cheeks hamster is the eldest, Minseok.” Junmyeon was stopped with a shout of I am not fat from the said boy.

“No you’re not. I said you’re chubby. Not fat.” The boy puffed his cheeks to protest. Yeah. They are absolutely, extremely chubby cheeks. Kris thought. A boy around three crawled to Junmyeon, tugging his pants to gain his attention.

“Here…” Junmyeon picked the boy up in his arms. “…is Zitao. The three there are Kyungsoo, Jongin and Yixing,” he continued. Kris was dumbfounded. How could he remember all these names?

“Whoa. That’s a really long introduction. Don’t worry. You will remember them eventually.” He patted his friend’s shoulder.

“Okay kids. Let’s take bath now. Chanyeol, Jongdae, Baekhyun, Luhan, Yixing, Minseok, go to Kris. Take the bathroom upstairs. I will take Zitao, Sehun, Jongin and Kyungsoo. Now move.” Junmyeon ushered the boys to their respective bathroom. Kris hesitantly took his steps to where the older boys were. Something’s wrong. He thought. Something’s really, really wrong.
​​​​

19:06 KST

After bathing, the older boys ran to their rooms to put on their clothes. The younger boys were still downstairs. Maybe Junmyeon had finished bathing them. The sound of opening theme song of Pororo was heard from downstairs. A minute later, rush footsteps echoed, the boys were rushing down the stairs to watch the president of the kids, Mr. Pororo.

Kris was left alone in the bathroom. He was soaked from head to toe. The kids were really out of control. Kris sighed. He cleaned the bathroom floor from bubbles left by the boys before he heard multiple knocks on the bathroom door. Kris turned his back and there was Junmyeon with his wide grin. The latter stretched his arm to give Kris a towel.
 

“You know this gonna happen, don’t you?” Kris asked him, snatching the towel from the latter. Instead of answering the question, Junmyeon’s grin just got wider. Of course he did.

20:10 KST

After watching cartoon, one after another, and getting the kids eat their dinner, Kris and Junmyeon put them to sleep. And once again, Kris was responsible for the older boys while Junmyeon got the younger ones. Kris protested for the unfair treatment but after unable to detach the maknae from Junmyeon, he gave up. Junmyeon put the three maknaes, Zitao, Jongin and Sehun plus Kyungsoo to sleep while Kris got the rest.
 

He instructed the kids to get into their own rooms. Minseok and Luhan shared a room together. They slept on their respective beds after 10 minutes Kris pursuing Luhan to stop jumping on his bed. It got worse when the eldest followed his same age brother and Kris got to take another 5 minutes before they gave up and slept.
 

The next room was the worst. There were beagle lines as what Junmyeon labeled them, and Yixing. The three kids ran all over the room, jumping, running, bumping into each other. The giggling got louder and louder. Only Yixing sat silently on his bed, waiting for his bed time while watching his brothers. He giggled sometimes when the three troublesomes put their silly acts.
 

Kris sighed. He lost count of the number of him sighing just for today. He thought this was the most for his entire life.
 

After they got tired running, the three boys plopped on Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s shared queen bed. Baekhyun laid his head on Chanyeol’s stomach while Jongdae settled himself on the latter. There was a human pile now.
 

Kris walked to the bed and picked Jongdae up before he put the kid on his own bed, the one he shared with Yixing. Kris laid his head on his pillow, besides a pair of teddy bears. Jongdae immediately snuggled the bears, hugging them tightly before he drifted to sleep.

Wow, that was fast. Kris thought. He turned to the next boy. Yixing draped their shared baby blue blanket on his brother, tucking him to the warm before he got into his own dreamland. The boy mumbled a soft goodnight to Kris. Kris smiled. This kid was really cute.
 

Baekhyun and Chanyeol were already gone even before Jongdae. They were both hugging tightly their own Rilakuma plushies. Chanyeol’s was in a bee suit while Baekhyun’s was in pink. There were other plushies on their bed, all abandoned on the bed headrest.
 

Kris walked out of the door. He turned off the main light after turning on the night light for the kids. After carefully closed their bedroom door, Kris walked down the stairs to the living room. He found Junmyeon on the couch with the maknae in his hug. The little kid’s head was on his shoulder. The eyes were closed. Junmyeon rocked him softly sideway, lullabied him to sleep. The light was dim. Only soft noises were heard from the TV.

Kris dropped himself next to his friend. He watched the latter with the maknae. Junmyeon was surely had a caring and lovely dad’s material. He was good with kid. Kris had no doubt on him. The peaceful scene was really pleasant but Kris had another idea.
 

He poked the maknae’s left exposed cheek multiple times. The little kid whined due to the disturbance. Felling the youngest fussed in his arms, Junmyeon immediately slapped his friend. “Ouch,” Kris retreated, rubbing his now red arm.
 

Kris dropped his head on the armrest. He stretched his whole body to the fullest, draping his long legs on his friend’s lap but cautiously not to touch the maknae. He closed his tired eyes. His energy had depleted to zero. What worst was this was only the first day.

After a while, he felt Junmyeon pushed his legs off him and walked away. Junmyeon put the maknae on his crib. He shared the room with Kyungsoo, Jongin and Tao. Kyungsoo and Jongin were on their shared twin bed while Tao was asleep on his single bed across them. Sehun’s crib was located at the end of the beds.
 

After he made sure the kids were all asleep, Junmyeon closed the bedroom door. He then went to his friend who was already sleepy on the couch. He plopped down onto the single couch.
 

“I think we have to share bed.”
 

Kris immediately straightened himself with a loud Hell No!
 

“They have only one guest room you know. And there’s only one bed. Where do you think you can sleep? With the kids? There’s no enough room for you with your lanky limbs. We cant invade the parent's room.” Junmyeon asked.

“…”

“I know you hate the couch.”

“You can go home you know. Your house is just next to this.”

“Ok then. Are you sure you can handle the kids when they get up tomorrow?” Junmyeon wriggled his eyebrows.

“…”

“Fine! But let put barrier. You sleep on your side. I sleep on mine.”

“Geez. As if I do want to sleep with you.” Junmyeon protested. He went to the said bedroom to get ready for sleep while Kris trailed behind him.