June 13th, 2017. 08:30 KST

The next morning Kris woke up by the loud voices of the kids. He aimlessly swayed his long arm to the bedside next to him only to find it empty. He’s already awake? Kris yawned. With one eye closed, he peeked to check on the alarm clock at the bedside. It was only 8.30 in the morning. It was still early. Too early. Kris closed his eyes, slowly drifting back to his dreamland before sprinting upright when he heard Junmyeon was calling or in other word, shouting his name.

Still sleepy, Kris walked out of the room. He found the latter at the kitchen with four kids on the toll. Sehun, Tao and Jongin were on their highchairs. Sehun and Tao were playing by themselves, pretend to shoot each other with their hand guns. Their dramatic shooting scene was accompanied by loud giggles which what Kris heard when he was in the bedroom. Jongin was drowsy, trying hard to stay awake but failing each time. In the end, he dropped his head on the desk and slept. That left Kyungsoo. That little kid trailed behind Junmyeon, following him wherever he went while trying to help him preparing breakfast for the family. Looking at the scene, it was like a chick following a mother hen.

“Why they’re so early?” Kris rubbed his sleepy eyes. Junmyeon was stirring something in a pot while he gave Kyungsoo a task to wipe the dining table. With the table was double, triple his size, it took him a lot of his efforts. He huffed and stopped multiple times to catch his breath.

“Sehun is a natural alarm you know. I’m surprise you don’t hear that,” Junmyeon stated.  Kris went to the dining table, taking a seat beside Tao when the two kids were shooting him with loud bangs. And once again, Kris dumbfounded. He froze. What should he do? After seeing both boys were on verge of tears, Kris immediately played along, bumping his head on the table, pretending to be dead. Loud giggles echoed through the kitchen. Both boys were excited seeing the giant was playing along thus they shoot him again, again, again and again. Okay. This needs to stop. Kris mumbled in his thought. Luckily, his friend came to the rescue.

“Kris,” Junmyeon called. “What?” Kris turned to him, trying to ignore the bang, bang, bang from the boys.

“Wake up the others.”

Kris frowned. “Why me?”

“You’re free.”

“No, I’m not. I’m playing with these boys,” Kris tried to find excuse.

“No. You’re not. They’re playing by themselves. You are no needed there.”

Kris turned his attention to the kids next to him. They were shouting each other and playing by themselves, completely ignored the giant.

Kris frustratedly stomped upstairs to wake the older boys. He knocked on Minseok and Luhan’s door only to be left unanswered. He opened the door.
Minseok was rubbing his sleep off, slowly crawling out of his bed while Luhan was still asleep. “Luhan, wake up.” The boy was completely buried down with his fluffy blanket. Only his bang was visible. “Wake him up while I go wake up the rest.” Kris instructed Minseok. But Minseok just stare at him. “I don’t want to. He will not wake up.” The kid protested. Luhan was the laziest. It was so hard to wake him up. That kid would sleep even the ground was shaken by 9.0 scales. Junmyeon always complained to him about Luhan. Kris sighed. “Just wake him up. Do whatever you need.” He told the eldest boy. Minseok’s frown immediately turned to mischievous grin. Kris shrugged. He walked out of the room and went to the next. He did not want to know what Minseok would do to Luhan.

Kris opened the door next to Minseok and Luhan’s bedroom. Yixing was on the bed, slowly opened his eyes and greeted Kris with his cute dimple smile. He then woke Jongdae up with little shake. The little boy yawned widely, blinking off his sleepy eyes.

Kris went to the next bed to theirs. Chanyeol was still asleep with his mouth hanging open and his long limbs stretched like a starfish. Baekhyun slept on his stomach. The snuggled plushies last night were now on the floor. Kris shake two of the triplet a little, waking them up. Yixing and Jongdae were already on their way downstairs.

Baekhyun and Chanyeol opened their eyes slowly. Still in drowsy state, Baekhyun got up of the bed and threw himself to Kris. He wrapped his arms across Kris’ neck and buried his head on Kris’ shoulder, demanding to be carried. Kris picked up the kid. His other free hand was occupied with Chanyeol as he was guiding the little boy out of the room, trying to avoid that kid from bumping into wall.

As they were walking out, a loud thud was heard. Kris immediately checked on Minseok and Luhan’s room. “He kicks me.” On the verge of tears, Luhan complained. The culprit was grinning on Luhan’s bed. “What? You said do whatever it need.” Minseok grinned. He then immediately sprinted out of the bedroom. He accidently bumped into Chanyeol. Both boys were wincing due to the collision. Still in his drowsy state, Chanyeol rubbed his face multiple times while Minseok already ran downstairs.

“Luhan come on. Junmyeon hyung already make your breakfast. Let’s eat.” Kris left Chanyeol’s arms to pick up the elder on the floor. He ushered him out of the room. Kris then pick Chanyeol’s arm back and guided all the boys to their brothers.