If this chapter is (STILL) rated M, trust me, there's nothing worth the goddamn rating.

Dongho was starting to regret his decision.

Dongho really didn’t know what came over him when he signed them up for Kindergarten. Minhyun and Minki were still too young! (Never mind that they were at the right age to attend Kindergarten) And what if something bad happened to both of them? His guilt will never live it down! And neither will his dead sister. He could already see his sister’s face haunting him in his dreams, yelling: “Dongho! How could you let this happen to my babies?” whilst trying to gouge his eyes out.

“Uncle Jongup, what’s uncle Dongho doing?”

Maybe it wasn’t too late to cancel their registration. Maybe he could go there without Minhyun and Minki and tell the nice owner that he changed his mind and the twins will not attend Kindergarten.

“Don’t worry about it Minki, he’s just nervous.”

But then again, he already paid for their uniforms as well as their school fees. No matter how discounted they were, they still left a rather large gap in Dongho’s bank account. As much as he would like to cancel the registration, he didn’t think they have a ‘money back guarantee’ policy.

“Nervous about what, uncle?”

But—but if he just let them go to Kindergarten, something bad could happen to them! What if they get kidnapped? What if their teacher is a erted e that only took the job because he wanted to get off on small children? What if they got in a fight? What if no one likes them and they got isolated? What if they got bullied?

“Nervous about your first day of school, Minhyun.”

“Why is he nervous about us?”

“He’s just being paranoid about you two, that’s all.”

“What’s pa-ruh-noyd?”

“It’s what your uncle’s doing right now.”

Dongho paid no attention to their conversation, instead focusing on pacing around their living room as a million and one scenarios of what could go wrong played in his head. It wasn’t until Jongup placed a hand on his shoulder did he snap out of his fretting.

“Dongho,” Jongup said slowly, “The twins are going to be fine. Nothing’s going to happen to them. Now let’s get going before the twins, and us, are late for classes.”

Dongho was about to protest, but Jongup was quick to cut him off, “And I’m not going to hear about the one thousand reasons why you think they won’t be safe.”

Dongho shut his mouth. Satisfied, Jongup turned to the already dressed up and ready to go twins, escorting them out the door with a “Come on kids, uncle Jello’s waiting downstairs.” Dongho sighed before grabbing his backpack and following them out the door, not forgetting to lock it before trudging down the stairs.

When they reached the bottom floor, they were greeted with the sight of Junhong pacing back and forth in the reception area.

“What took you so long?” Junhong snapped, “You’ve been up there for more than half an hour and I’m going to be late for school if we don’t go now!”

“Uncle Jello!” the twins shouted, hurtling themselves onto the tall teen.

“Hey there,” Junhong smiled, ruffling their hair, “How come you took so long?”

“Uncle Dongho was pa…pa-ruh…” Minki struggled.

“Paranoid,” Jongup finished, hoisting Minki up in his arms, “It’s your own fault anyways, Zelo. You could have just gone to school instead of waiting up for us.”

“Yeah, Junhong,” Dongho interrupted, “Your school’s not in the same direction as the Kindergarten.”

“I wanted to walk the twins to school,” Junhong scoffed, securing his skateboard under his arm, “You two aren’t the only ones excited about today.”

Dongho hoisted Minhyun up in his arms and the group made their way to the Kindergarten—with Junhong speeding ahead and yelling “Hurry up” when Dongho and Jongup couldn’t catch up. They finally made it to the Kindergarten in record time, Dongho and Jongup slightly winded from carrying two four-year-olds while trying to catch up with a speeding 16-year-old. They both gently set the twins on the ground.

“Have fun in school,” Junhong hugged the twins, ruffling their hair once more for good measure. He got on his skateboard and began gliding down the road, yelling out “Bye!” as his figure began getting farther and farther.

“Bye, uncle Jello!” The twins yelled after him, waving their arms frantically.

“Why is he in such a hurry? He never cared this much about being late to school,” Dongho whispered to Jongup.

“He heard a rumor that his homeroom teacher is going to be Mr. Ju,” Jongup whispered back, “You remember Mr. Ju, right? Scary face, permanent scowl and harsh punishments? Yeah, that Mr. Ju.”

Dongho shivered, he had been on the receiving end of Mr. Ju’s punishments once, and that had been an unpleasant experience. Jongup nodded once he knew his friend understood whom he meant.

After a while, Dongho let his gaze wander around the gate. Parents were dropping off their children and waving them off. And he saw the owner, Park Choongjae, busily greet the parents and assuring them that their children were in good hands, while ushering the children inside the school grounds.

“Ah,” Choongjae exclaimed when his eyes met Dongho’s stare, “There you are!”

“Hello, Mr. Park,” Dongho smiled, bowing in respect.

The group approached Choongjae, who had been ushering another child through the gate. “You’re right on time,” Choongjae smiled, “I almost thought you decided against enrolling the twins to school.”

Dongho smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck.

“And the twins look good in their uniform,” Choongjae knelt down to be on eye-level with the twins, “How are you today Minhyun and Minki?”

“Fine,” the twins answered in unison, smiling shyly.

“Are you two excited for your first day of school?”

“Yep!”

“By the way, Mr. Park,” Jongup asked, “Are you going to be teaching the twins?”

“Oh no, I won’t be teaching their class.”

“What?” Dongho said, a worried frown etched on his face. He had been hoping Choongjae would be the one to teach the kids. Dongho liked the older man, he was kind, and he could trust the man to take good care of the twins. But the new prospect of a stranger taking care of the twins scared Dongho.

Choongjae, who noticed Dongho’s worried expression, laughed, “Don’t worry, their teacher is as nice as nice can be. Quite young in my opinion, but he had taken care of kids before and had done a very good job from what I heard. He’ll take care of Minhyun and Minki well.”

“Right, okay…” Dongho was unconvinced, but before he could voice in any protest, Jongup interrupted him.

“By the way, I think it’s getting quite late and we have lectures to attend,” Jongup elbowed Dongho, “We should say our goodbyes and be on our way, right Dongho?”

Dongho checked his watch and indeed it was getting late, if they didn’t go quickly they were going to be late for their lecture. Dongho turned to the twins, who were staring up at him, and knelt down to give them a hug.

“Be careful alright,” Dongho said, “Don’t talk to strangers other than your friends and teachers. Play nice with everyone, okay? And don’t go off outside school, alright?”

“We will, uncle!” Minki chirped, “Don’t be pa…pa-ruh—”

“Paranoid,” Minhyun interjected, smiling cheekily to his younger twin.

“I was about to say that, Minhyun!”

“And get along with each other,” Dongho added, ruffling their hair, “I’ll see you after school, okay?”

Jongup gave the twins a quick hug, “Have fun in school.”

“Bye Minhyun, bye Minki,” Dongho waved, walking  “And bye Mr. Park.”

“Bye uncle Dongho and uncle Jongup!” The twins yelled, waving their arms. Choongjae gave them a smile and a small wave before ushering the twins inside. Dongho let out a sigh as soon as the twins were out of earshot. Jongup lightly punched him on the arm.

“Stop worrying, they’ll be fine,” Jongup said, adjusting the strap of his messenger bag.

“I know, but I just can’t help but worry,” Dongho mumbled.

“You’re really starting to act like their dad,” Jongup commented absentmindedly, “Always fretting over them and stuff.”

Dongho nearly stopped in his tracks. It was true. he really was starting to act like their father. But had he wanted to be a father figure to them? He was quite content being like a kind of uncle to them, did he want to take his role in their lives a step farther? Dongho shook his head. He was getting too far ahead with this. He should just forget it, for now.

“Hey, so you’re coming back to work right?” Jongup asked, “Himchan-hyung is running us ragged with you not coming and all. And you know how we’re understaffed and all.”

“Yeah sure, just find me a babysitter for the twins and I’ll go back to work.”

“Finally! I thought we were going to die if we didn’t get extra help soon! You should’ve told me you just needed a babysitter for them. I would’ve gotten you a good one so you could’ve come back to work earlier.”

“First Kindergartens and now babysitters. Next you’ll recommend a pediatrician for the twins.”

“For your information, I do know a good one. Just give me a call if the twins ever get sick.”

---Minhyun&Minki---

“Hi, my name’s Minhyun.”

“And I’m Minki.”

“We’re twins,” the two finished in unison, smiling to their teacher and classmates.

“Nice to meet you, Minhyun and Minki,” the teacher, a young man in his twenties, said, smiling brightly.

The children followed their teacher’s response in tandem as Minhyun and Minki sat back down. The class sat in a circle on the carpet as the teachers asked the children to introduce themselves to the whole class.

“Okay, next,” the teacher motioned to the boy sitting next to Minki, “Come on, don’t be shy now, tell us your name.”

The boy reluctantly stood up, his gaze set firmly on the ground, “Hi everyone,” he mumbled, almost inaudibly, “My name is Jonghyun.”

“I’m sorry, could you speak a little louder, sweetie?” The teacher coaxed the timid boy.

The boy, Jonghyun, repeated what he said in a louder voice and quickly sat back down. The teacher said his response, and the class also followed what he said. Minki stared at Jonghyun, who still had his gaze set on the ground, the entire time before looking away when the teacher announced they were going to do some arts and crafts.

“I have five sheets of coloring paper,” the teacher smiled, holding up the sheets in one hand and crayons in the other, “I want you guys to color them in. But since I only have five papers, I need you to make a group of three people, okay? When you already have a group you can get a sheet of paper and a couple of boxes of crayons.”

The kids went in frenzy, trying to be in the same group as their friends, and coming up to the teacher once they do have a group of three. Or, for some of them, coming up to ask the teacher how much were three people.

Minki wasted no time in linking his arm through Minhyun’s grinning at the older twin. Out of the corner of his eye, Minki saw Jonghyun not moving from his previous spot and drawing strange patterns on the ground. Minki felt slightly sorry for the boy, so he decided to tug Minhyun along with him as they approached Jonghyun.

“Hey,” Jonghyun looked up at Minki, who was smiling brightly, “Do you want to be with us?”

Jonghyun blinked in confusion, before hanging his head low in embarrassment and stuttering out “O-Oh no, I-I—I don’t know…”

“Why not?” Minki asked, “We don’t mind, and we need one more person to make three. Or…” Minki paused, “You, me and Jonghyun makes three, right Minhyun?”

“Yes it does,” Minhyun nodded.

“Right, so you should join us, Jonghyun.”

“Well…” Jonghyun hesitated, finally letting his gaze meet the twins’, “If you really don’t mind…”

“Of course not,” Minhyun interjected, “We need three people to get the coloring paper, and so we need you.”

“Yeah, now come on, I want to color now!”

Minki hooked his arm under Jonghyun’s and dragged the boy to where the teacher was. The teacher smiled and gave them their coloring paper and three boxes of crayons for each of them. Minhyun dragged his twin and Jonghyun to a corner of the classroom relatively far away from the other groups.

“Let’s get started!” Minhyun exclaimed excitedly, spreading the coloring paper on the floor and giving Minki and Jonghyun a box of crayons each.

The group stared at the picture of a chicken for a while, before deciding which parts should be what color. (“I think the head should be pink!” “Why pink, Minki?” “I like pink, what do you think Jonghyun?” “I…I don’t know, it’s up to you…”)

After a moment of deciding—more like arguing for Minhyun and Minki while Jonghyun quietly listened—they decided to color the chicken orange and make the one half of the background pink and the other half yellow. They set about to work immediately, focusing on coloring in the picture.

“Wow,” Minki said after a minute of coloring, “You’re really good at coloring, Jonghyun.”

Jonghyun hung his head to hide his embarrassment, “N-no, you’re better Minki.”

“Don’t lie, his is bad and messy,” Minhyun scoffed, scrunching up his nose.

“Like yours is any better, Minhyun!” Minki retorted, sticking out his tongue.

The two argued for a little more while Jonghyun decided to get back to coloring, ignoring their banters. It wasn’t until Minhyun poked his cheek did he realize that they had been calling his name and he had spaced out.

“I-I’m sorry,” Jonghyun stuttered, “What did you say?”

“We were asking you why you’re so quiet,” Minhyun said.

“Yeah,” Minki chimed in, “And you need to smile more. I bet you look nice smiling.”

Jonghyun felt his cheeks heat up, “Uh…”

“I know! Hey Minhyun,” Minki leant over to his twin and whispered something to Minhyun. Minhyun’s lips twitched into a smile at his twin’s suggestion, turning to face Minki and giving the younger twin a smile and a nod.

Jonghyun, while usually perfectly fine with being out of the loop, was slightly worried when the twins suddenly crawled over to him. “Uh, what are you doing—”

“Tickle fight!” The twins yelled in unison and pounced on Jonghyun. Jonghyun struggled to get them off of him as they started to tickle his sides.

“W-what are you doing—” Jonghyun was cut off when he released a high-pitched squeal, followed by his laughter, “S-stop it,” Jonghyun could barely get any word in as he erupted in laughter, the twins giggling as well. It wasn’t after a while did the twins decided to stop torturing the boy and they crawled off of Jonghyun. Jonghyun slowly sat up, still breathless from laughing and a smile still etched on his face.

“What are you three up to?” the teacher said, looming over the three kids.

“We were trying to make him smile,” Minhyun smiled innocently, pointing at Jonghyun.

The teacher took one look at Jonghyun before laughing himself, “I see, I’d say you two did a good job then. He looks better smiling.” The teacher patted Minhyun and Minki on the head before walking off to check on the other students.

Once the teacher was out of sight, Minki turned to Jonghyun, “See, you look nice when you smile.”

Jonghyun was still trying to catch his breath. “Don’t,” he breathed out, still grinning, “Do that again, please.”

“Why? You looked like you liked it,” Minhyun smiled mischievously.

Jonghyun shook his head, “You two are strange.”

Minki beamed, “Well you should get used to it now that you’re our friend.”

Jonghyun’s eyes widened dramatically, staring at the twins in disbelief, “F-friends?”

“Yeah, friends,” Minhyun said, before suddenly frowning, “Unless you don’t want to be our friend.”

“N-no,” Jonghyun shook his head quickly, “I-I would like to be your friend.” Jonghyun beamed, giving the twins the biggest grin he could muster, “I would like that a lot.”

---Dongho---

“So Yongguk-hyung sort of snapped and said: ‘Well, if you hate our services so much why don’t you just f—’” Jongup paused, “You’re not listening are you, Dongho?”

Dongho was, in fact, listening to what his friend was saying. It was just that his mind was preoccupied with other thoughts to fully respond to his friend. “Oh no, I’m listening,” Dongho muttered, “What was Yongguk-hyung about to say?”

“Professor Kim’s lecture didn’t kill your brain too much, did it?” Jongup sighed.

Dongho glared at his friend, “No it didn’t. I actually understood most of the things in Professor Kim’s lecture.”

“Then what’re you so deep in thought about?” Jongup made a face, “No don’t tell me, are you still worrying about the twins’ teacher?”

Dongho didn’t say anything, because Jongup had definitely hit the bull’s eye. Jongup sighed, shaking his head in disbelief. Really, all Dongho ever thought about lately were the twins.

“I told you a million times that they’re going to be fine, and they are going to be fine.”

“Well I still worry…” Dongho mumbled.

“No, you don’t have to worry, because they’ll be fine. When we reach the Kindergarten, I will prove to you that they are fine and you’re just being paranoid. And here we are! Where are the twins so that I can prove to you that they’re fine?”

Dongho paused. They really were already in the Kindergarten. He could see Choongjae by the gates, waving each and every student off along with their parents. He was just finished with saying goodbye to the last family when Dongho and Jongup approached him.

Choongjae smiled at them, “Good afternoon, you two.”

Dongho and Jongup returned the greeting. Jongup then said “Where’s the twins?”

“They’re in their classroom right now waiting for you two to arrive. Don’t worry, their teacher is there as well,” Choongjae replied, “I was hoping to introduce him to you two actually, or at least to Dongho to ease his worries.”

Jongup let out a laugh and Dongho smiled sheepishly. Choongjae then motioned for them to follow him inside, which the two did wordlessly. They passed a row of classes before they made a stop at what seems to be the twins’ class.

Choongjae opened the door and let the two younger men inside first. Dongho looked around the room and spotted three children playing in a corner of the room, two of them being Minhyun and Minki.

“Minhyun, Minki!” the twins’ head snapped towards the direction of the sound and they smiled when they saw Dongho and Jongup standing by the door. They stood up and ran at full speed towards the two.

“Uncle Dongho! Uncle Jongup!”

The two readily caught the twins in their arms, hugging them in greeting. “How was your day?” Dongho asked the twins.

“Great!” Minki beamed, “We made a new friend!”

“Oh?” Jongup said, looking towards the unfamiliar child’s direction, “Is that your new friend?”

“Yep! Come here, Jonghyun!” Minhyun yelled to the unfamiliar boy.

The boy, Jonghyun, seemed to be slightly uncomfortable with the presence of Dongho and Jongup. But he then decided to stand up and pad over to where the group was, head hanging low and gaze never once meeting with Dongho or Jongup’s.

“This is Jonghyun,” Minki introduced his new friend, “He’s a little quiet but he’s really nice!”

“Well hello there Jonghyun,” Jongup knelt down and smiled, “My name is Jongup, and that’s Dongho. Dongho is Minhyun and Minki’s uncle, and I’m his friend. We came to take them home.”

“Oh,” Jonghyun mumbled, “Your parents aren’t the ones picking you up?”

Dongho could feel the atmosphere turn drastically tense, Minhyun and Minki weren’t smiling anymore, and Jongup looked more than a little uneasy. Dongho was about to interject to alleviate the tense atmosphere when Jonghyun spoke up again.

“Just like me then,” Jonghyun smiled, “I’m going home with Aron-hyung because my parents can’t pick me up.”

Minhyun and Minki’s smiles returned a little, and the tense atmosphere disappeared at least for a little bit. Dongho nearly jumped when Choongjae suddenly spoke, “Speaking of Aron, I wonder where he is.”

Dongho had completely forgotten that Choongjae was also in the room, although the older man seemed more preoccupied in wondering where this ‘Aron’ was. Dongho was surprised when the door burst open to reveal another person.

“Sorry I took so long kids! I hope you haven’t done any—”

The newcomer paused when he saw a group of people, along with his boss, in the classroom. He blinked in surprise, before smiling awkwardly and offering the group a little wave, “Er, hi there.”

“Aron-hyung,” Jonghyun said softly, walking up to the newcomer.

The newcomer, Aron, smiled and patted Jonghyun on the head before turning to Jongup and Dongho, “So, you guys are here to pick up Minhyun and Minki?”

“Yes,” Choongjae answered, “This is Dongho, the one I told you about. And the other one is his friend.”

Aron seemed to eye Dongho and Jongup warily before giving them a smile and a polite bow, “My name is Kwak Youngmin,” he introduced himself, “But please call me Aron. It’s a pleasure to meet you two.”

Dongho seemed to be assessing Aron, eyeing him from head to toe before returning the gesture, “My name is Kang Dongho, and this is my friend Moon Jongup. It’s a pleasure to meet you as well.”

“Aron is the twins’ teacher,” Choongjae said, “He’s excellent with kids and has had some prior experience with handling a group of kids. Your twins are safe in his hands.”

Aron grinned, “That’s right! Your precious Minhyun and Minki are safe, don’t worry, I won’t let anything bad happen to them!”

Dongho was still skeptical, but Aron’s easy-going smile helped him relax for at least a bit, “Well I do hope they are.”

“Just ask the kids what they think of me. What do you think of me kids?” Aron asked the twins.

The twins looked at Aron, then at each other and began whispering something into each other’s ears. After a while, Minhyun looked up and said, rather bluntly, “We think you’re kind of weird.”

The sight of Aron’s (overly dramatic) crushed face sent the twins into a fit of giggles, Jonghyun laughing as well. Aron shook his head, chuckling as he did so, “Your kids are really something.”

Dongho laughed good-heartedly, stopping once he checked his watch, “Well as much as we would like to stay and talk, we really should be going home.”

“Oh yes, of course, let me you out,” Choongjae kindly offered.

“See you tomorrow, Minki, Minhyun,” Aron waved them off.

“See you tomorrow,” Jonghyun echoed in a softer voice.

The twins waved back and the group made their way towards the gate. Jongup then turned to Dongho and whispered, “What do you think of the teacher? Looks a little young, doesn’t he?”

Dongho pursed his lips in thought before whispering back, “Yeah, doesn’t look any older than the both of us.”

“Do you think he’s going to be a good teacher for the twins?”

Dongho paused for a moment, before shrugging, “Only time will tell.”

And the chapter 2 re-upload is done. With some minor setbacks. (How the heck did I press the M-rate button?) Real updates will start soon, so look forward to it! I will delve deeper into one of the major conflicts of this story. Which I hope would not be forgotten as I write this story...

Thank you to those who took the time to read this! ^^ I really appreciate it!