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By the time they had made their rounds on the playground and Ryeowook had tried each one of the things to his heart’s content, Leeteuk wasn’t surprised when he looked at his watch and found that there was only an hour left until they were supposed to pick up the twins.

“Wookie, are you hungry? I brought some pear if you want some,” he told the toddler who was sitting in the sandbox and currently throwing little handfuls of sand on Kiki to bury her. When she was out of sight he would begin to dig and when he found her he would gleefully show Leeteuk the ‘treasure’ he had found; this had repeated itself three times already and Ryeowook’s joy over finding the giraffe did not diminish even the slightest from time to time.

“Wookie nom!” the toddler exclaimed and clapped his hands before pulling Kiki out of the sand again.

Leeteuk dug into the bag and managed to find a wet wipe, beckoning Ryeowook to come over. Once the boy had toddled his way over to the grass, Leeteuk took his hands and wiped them as clean as he could, causing the toddler to giggle.

“Tickles!” Ryeowook squealed, squirming on the spot before plopping down on his behind on the grass beside Leeteuk once his hands were freed. Leeteuk handed him a piece of pear from the plastic container he had brought and the boy happily started munching on it before he suddenly started to cough violently, spitting out the pear.

“What happened? Are you okay, bunny?” Leeteuk asked frantically, patting the toddler’s back in case he had gotten something stuck in his throat.

“’Wadr,” Ryeowook whimpered once he stopped coughing and pointed at the pear. “Wookie OWWIE!” he yelled. His face was red with anger and he couldn’t understand why no one had done anything even though he told them again and again that his throat hurt and it wasn’t fun at all.

“Shh, come here, let’s try the medicine, okay?” Leeteuk said soothingly, picking the toddler up and placing him in the hollow between his crossed legs. He quickly found the bag with the medicine; luckily there was a small measuring cup on top of the lid and so he poured some of the medicine in the small cup after skimming the side of the box to make sure he didn’t accidentally give Ryeowook too much cough syrup. “Here, this should help,” Leeteuk said, trying to coax the toddler into drinking the medicine. The toddler just whimpered and squeezed his lips shut, shaking his head in refusal. “It’s banana,” he reminded him softly. That seemed to do the trick; Ryeowook drank it slowly before whimpering again and pressing his face into Leeteuk’s chest. “Shh, it’s okay. It’ll get better now,” Leeteuk promised, holding him close. He quickly packed the things back into the diaper bag and then got up to get ready to go. He tried to put Ryeowook in the stroller again but the boy started crying every time and in the end, he decided to just carry him instead. He looked around one last time to make sure he had cleaned up after them and that they weren’t leaving anything behind. He decided that backtracking the route they had taken that morning was probably the smartest thing to do since he really didn’t know this part of town very well.

“Hae, Hyuk, over here,” Leeteuk called once he spotted the twins, waving at them when they walked out of the classroom. He felt worry well up in him when they were close enough for him to see their expressions; Hyukjae seemed sad whereas Donghae seemed angry. “Did you have a nice day?” he asked, taking their backpacks and putting them into the stroller; there was no reason for the twins to carry them when Ryeowook was still on his arm and the stroller was empty. He received no answer. “Were the other kids nice?” Still no answer. “Did you do anything funny?”

“No. I want to go home,” Hyukjae mumbled finally before he and Donghae began walking towards the exit without waiting for Leeteuk to catch up.

Leeteuk looked after them with a very worried expression for a second before he pushed the stroller towards them to follow their lead. He wondered if something had happened today to cause the twins to act like that or if it was just nerves and a lot of new impressions in a very short time that affected them negatively. He would definitely have to try to talk to them once they got home and he had put Ryeowook down for his nap.

“When’s appa coming home?” Hyukjae asked as he took off his shoes in the hallway, leaving his backpack on the floor.

“In an hour or so, he will pick Siwon up from school. I think Uncle Henry will be coming home with him,” Leeteuk answered, hoping to get some more information out of the twins before then. The twins just nodded and headed to their room, leaving a highly worried Leeteuk behind.

“Goodnight Wookie, sleep tight,” he whispered, the toddler’s hair one last time when he was certain he was asleep. He then made his way towards the twins’ room, hoping he might be able to talk to them about their day. When he reached the door, he heard hushed voices and he decided to just wait for a minute to see if they were talking about anything that might have happened to upset them today.

“But Hae, appa said we should tell him if the other kids were mean to us!” Hyukjae insisted in a hushed whisper, sadness apparent in his voice.

“Appa also said to tell the teacher and the teacher did nothing!” Donghae hissed angrily.

“But that big boy ruined my drawing and said I was a freak,” Hyukjae argued weakly.

Leeteuk was certain the older twin was crying now and he quickly knocked on the door before entering the room. “Hey, guys. Did someone bully you today?” he asked in a serious tone. Bullying was not something to be taken lightly and if someone had indeed bullied the twins today, it was certainly a matter he and Kangin would have to discuss so they could figure out what to do to help the boys.

Hyukjae looked like he was about to burst into tears for real any second while Donghae looked extremely angry.

“Go away, we don’t need you!” he yelled at Leeteuk. “It’s all you fault!”

“What happened? What’s my fault?” Leeteuk asked in confusion. Was he the reason why some kid had been mean to the twins in school today? And why hadn’t the teacher done something if they had told him?

“It’s your fault a big boy spilled glue all over Hyukkie’s drawing and called him a freak! Everything was fine until you came and then you ruined everything!” Donghae shouted, lashing out and punching Leeteuk’s arm with his fist.

“What is going on in here?” Kangin yelled, bursting into the room. He had only just entered the house when he heard Donghae screaming and had taken the stairs two at a time to reach the twins’ rooms to make sure everyone was okay, catching only the tail end of Donghae’s accusation and the sound of the punch.

“You are a weirdo!” Donghae yelled at Leeteuk, ignoring his appa until Kangin was in front of him.

He grabbed Donghae’s arms firmly and held him in place, looking at him sternly. “Do not, and I repeat, do not hit other people or call them names like that. I raised you better than this,” he said in an angry voice, finding his son’s behaviour completely unacceptable. “Either you tell me what happened right now or