The last evening of the summer holiday soon arrived and the twins spent the evening strangely subdued and quiet. Kangin asked Leeteuk to tuck Ryeowook in, intending to try to talk to the twins to see if there was any way he could ease their worries. He had a feeling their quietness was due to nervousness over the fact that tomorrow was the first day of school.

“Wook no sleep,” the toddler whined as Leeteuk placed him in his crib. He immediately stood up, hands on the bars, and looked at Leeteuk with wide, imploring eyes.

“You have to sleep now, Wookie. We have an exciting day tomorrow,” Leeteuk coaxed, lifting the toddler by his armpits and gently laying him down in the crib again.

“But Wookie owwie,” the toddler insisted, pointing at his throat again.

Leeteuk frowned at this; Ryeowook had been complaining about his throat a lot recently. “We’ll get you some medicine tomorrow, okay? Then it’ll stop hurting,” Leeteuk promised as he the toddler’s soft hair, thinking it was probably a very insistent cold and that some cold medicine would be able to soothe the hurt.

Ryeowook whimpered but leaned into Leeteuk’s caress, his eyes slowly sliding shut when Leeteuk began humming a soft lullaby. The nanny smiled softly, remaining where he was even after the toddler had fallen asleep. There was something infinitely calming over watching the sleeping boy, his chest rising and falling steadily and his face serene.

“Teuk? The twins said they won’t tell me what is wrong before you are there,” Kangin said from the door opening, voice soft. He had been there for about a minute and his heart swelled with the knowledge that Leeteuk loved his sons as much as he did. He smiled softly when Leeteuk turned to look at him.

“Wookie keeps complaining about his throat so I was thinking about going to the drugstore tomorrow after we’ve taken the kids to school,” he said quietly, looking down at Ryeowook one last time to make sure he was still asleep before going to the doorway where Kangin was.

“Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. I can show you where the drugstore is before I go to work. I’ve cleared most of my schedule tomorrow morning so I can see the twins off properly and make sure they are okay, so I should have time to at least point you in the right direction,” he said, not blind to the hint of longing in Leeteuk’s gaze when he looked at Ryeowook. He didn’t say anything about it though, not entirely sure how to deal with what he saw. He knew Leeteuk had wanted to be a parent himself one day and he guessed his sons calling Leeteuk umma kind of brought that desire to the surface. He could only hope that Leeteuk wouldn’t leave to follow that desire any time soon since that would be absolutely devastating to the kids.

Leeteuk returned the smile, trying to hide the conflicting emotions he held inside. He wanted so badly to be a part of this family for real and not just a part of it because he was paid for it. He had tried to keep some kind of professional and emotional distance to the kids so it would hurt less if he was to leave suddenly. After all, they were not his sons, no matter how desperately he wanted them to be. It was safe to say that he had failed massively and lost his heart completely to the boys. But he didn’t know if it was only to four of the boys or of the fifth counted as well despite no longer being a boy. He had caught himself daydreaming while cooking today. In his daydream, he was a housewife in this house with all that title included. He had blushed once he realised the nature of his fleeting thoughts and almost felt as if he had cheated on Zhoumi even though they were not officially together. He broke out of his thoughts and entered the twins’ room behind Kangin.

“Hey, what’s up guys?” he asked, sitting down on the edge of Donghae’s bed where Hyukjae and Donghae were curled up together. Kangin stood at the foot of the bed keeping quiet for now. It seemed as if the twins needed an umma instead of an appa in this situation.

“What if the other kids are mean?” Donghae whimpered. He seemed to be the one out of the twins who was most worried about starting school which surprised both Kangin and Leeteuk.

“I’m sure the other kids are nice. You are going to make a lot of new friends,” Leeteuk soothed, running his hand through the younger twin’s hair. He felt glad that Donghae finally tried to word what he felt instead of lashing out on him or his brothers in anger. Donghae just whimpered again and hid his face under the blanket.

“If anybody is mean to you, you should tell the teacher, okay? He is there to help you,” Leeteuk assured him, trying to get the twin to look up from under the blanket. There was no reaction.

“If the teacher is mean too, we’ll just get appa to beat him up, okay?” he joked, smiling when he was rewarded with a watery giggle from under the blanket. Hyukjae laughed as well, seemingly cured of his fright after Leeteuk’s assurances. Donghae peeked over the top of the blanket, looking at Leeteuk with wide, glistening eyes.

“It’s okay to be scared, sweetie, but I’m sure everything is going to be fine and that you are going to love it,” he assured him. Donghae lifted his arms from under the blanket, silently demanding a hug. Leeteuk scooted closer so he could hug the little boy, reaching out to include Hyukjae in the hug when the older twin tugged his arm and whined because he wanted a hug too. “You are going to have so much fun that you don’t want to come home when Wookie and I come to pick you up again,” he chuckled before letting go of the twins. “You should try to sleep now,” he said softly, kissing each boy on the forehead.

“Goodnight umma, goodnight appa,” Hyukjae yawned before turning to his side and snuggling closer to the wall.

“Do you promise that you will come and pick us up again?” Donghae asked in a small voice.

“I promise,” Leeteuk replied softly. Donghae nodded slowly before lying down and snuggling up to his twin.

Getting the kids up and ready to go the next morning went relatively smoothly. Hyukjae didn’t like the tie that was a part of his school uniform but Kangin managed to convince him to wear it when he reminded the older twin that he wore a tie every day to the office. Leeteuk made sure to pack a diaper bag as he was planning to go to the park with Ryeowook once they had dropped the older boys off at school and Kangin had shown him where the drugstore was. Since it was the first day of school, the twins would have a rather short day so Leeteuk planned on picking them up directly from the park as there would be more than enough time to get Ryeowook home in t