“That is a very pretty cupcake, baobei,” Hangeng praised as Sungmin shoved a pink cupcake drowning in sprinkles in his face enthusiastically.

“What about these, Minnie? Shouldn’t they have sprinkles too?” Heechul asked and indicated a group of cupcakes that had yet to be exposed to the toddler’s decorating skills.

“Appa help!” Sungmin squealed and flailed, making some of the sprinkles from the cupcake he still held fall of.

“Let’s put this down and get started then,” Hangeng laughed, taking the cupcake from the boy’s grip to prevent it from being completely squished. He sat Sungmin down on the chair he had been standing on and stood behind him, letting the toddler control the sprinkle container.

“Those are so cute, Yeye,” Heechul praised as he looked at the turtle cupcakes Yesung had managed to create. They were messy and it was hard to tell that some of them were turtles and not hippos, but it was evident that Yesung had out all his concentration in making them.

“It’s hard to paint on a cake, umma,” Yesung pouted, unhappy with the result of the cupcake he was currently making. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t do one that was as pretty as uncle Teukie’s.

“I know, sweetie. But you are doing such a good job. I can’t wait to taste them!” Heechul assured, trying to lift his oldest son’s confidence.

“Do you really mean that?” Yesung asked hesitantly, not sure if his umma was just saying that because he was his umma or because he meant it.

“Yes. And I want to tell you a secret. Come closer,” Heechul motioned with his hand and smiled secretively. Eeteuk looked at the pair from the other side of the counter and smiled at them, whistling loudly so Yesung would think he wasn’t listening.

“I think your cupcakes are a lot prettier than the one uncle Teukie made,” Heechul whispered behind his hand, making Yesung break out into a huge smile.

“I’ll make one for you, umma!” Yesung promised and immediately grabbed the decorating bag with newfound resolve and began making a special umma turtle on one of the cupcakes. Heechul smiled fondly at his son and moved to the other side of the counter.

“Did everything go well?” Eeteuk asked; he was sure things had none gone disastrous since Hangeng and Heechul stepped out of the room together, but he was still worried for his friend.

“Yes, we are fine. We agreed to work out a plan that will allow me to get back to work. We don’t know yet whether I will work and Hannie will stay home, or if we will both work, but on a schedule that allows one of use to always be home,” Heechul informed with a content smile, casting a glance at his husband and youngest son who were still busy putting sprinkles all over the kitchen in an attempt to decorate the pink cupcakes. “Do you need help setting the table?”

“I don’t think there are that many plates in this cottage, so I was thinking we would just use napkin plates,” Eeteuk admitted while going through one of the cupboards to find the napkins, before handing them to Heechul. The latter took them and sat them on the table, only to come back and search for mugs as Eeteuk started the coffee machine.

“I did the umma turtle, umma!” Yesung yelled proudly and flailed his arms, managing to squeeze some of the frosting from the decorating bag in his hand onto the floor in the process. Heechul picked up a napkin on his way to over to see the result and quickly cleaned the frosting from the floor before straightening up to see the result.

“Wow, that is so beautiful, Yesung. You really have a talent!” Heechul praised and kissed his son’s hair.

“That’s because you are the most beautiful umma in the world,” Yesung replied, flailing again, this time without the decorating bag that Heechul had gently taken from him a second before.

“Thank you, sweetie,” Heechul grinned. “Can you go get the others so we can taste these wonderful cup cakes?”

“Yes!” Yesung yelled and bolted into the living room to announce that it was now officially cup cake time.

Once the cup cakes were eaten, Key and Jonghyun went home and the chaos of trying to prepare the extra fold-out beds so the extra guests would have somewhere to sleep broke loose.

“Donghae, Hyukjae, calm down right now and stop running around like that! Somebody will get hurt,” Kangin scolded while trying to fold out the bed, which so far had not moved an inch from the original position it was in. The twins giggled and zoomed into the room they shared with Siwon, closely followed by the other kids.

“That is bound to go wrong,” Heechul muttered, busy putting clean covers on pillows and duvets. “Let’s just hope nothing serious happens.”

“Yeah,” Hangeng agreed, leaning over to place a kiss at Heechul’s shoulder before going back to the task of trying to find pyjamases and tooth brushes in the messily packed bag; Heechul hadn’t exactly been thinking about packing thi