Christy’s POV

“Hey, how about we watch some cartoons before we go to bed?” I ask the kids as I sit down on the couch. “Do you guys want to watch something?”

“Cartoon,” Jinyoung says climbing on the couch next to me and Minjin does the same thing.

“What kind of cartoon?” I chuckle as I turn on the television. “Do you guys want to watch Pokémon? You guys like that, right?”

“Pokémon!” Jinyoung happily says as I turn it on.

In the middle of the show, though, I hear the door open raising my suspicions. “Hey, I’ll be right back,” I say looking at Minjin and Jinyoung, but they’re both not paying any attention to me and just keep staring at the television.

Right when I’m about to round the corner to see who just entered, a figure jumps out at me causing me to jump and yell in response…only for me to figure out that it’s Onew and hit him in return. “What was that for?” he whispered as he rubs his arm where I hit him.

“What was the reason you needed to jump out at me? I thought we were going to get robbed or murdered.”

“I wanted to surprise you.”

“Well you certainly did that,” I sigh as Minjin and Jinyoung appear from the doorway.

“Eomma!” Minjin yells.

“What? Is something wrong?” I ask leaning down to hug her.

“We heard you yell,” she says as she looks at me. She looks so upset, but it’s so adorable at the same time, her sad face.

“Eomma is fine,” I say with a bright smile. “Look who’s home.”

“Appa!” Jinyoung yells as he runs over to Onew.

“Jinyoungie!” Onew says as he picks Jinyoung up into his arms. “How have you been? Have you been good for your mother?” Jinyoung excitedly nods his head. “I knew you would be. How about you Minjin? Have you been a good girl?”

“The best,” Minjin says with a smile as I carry her in my arms.

“Good,” Onew says as we walk to the living room.

“Hey, where are the other guys?” I ask looking around.

“They said that they were going to go out for a little bit,” Onew says shrugging his shoulders. “They said that you and I haven’t had some alone time for a little bit so they decided to give us some.”

“Oh, okay then,” I say. “Minjin, Jinyoung, should we get some ice cream?”

“Ice cream?” they both ask.

“I’ll go out and buy some,” I tell them with a smile.

“I can go,” Onew says.

“No need,” I say shaking my head. “I can.”

“But it’s getting late,” he worriedly says as he looks out the window.

“It’s not like it’s pitch black, plus the store isn’t that far away either. The kids have missed you, right?” I ask Minjin as I put her on the couch. “Don’t you want appa to stay with you?”

“I want eomma to, too,” she says.

“I’m going to get ice cream and I’ll be back,” I say with a smile. “You guys can watch a movie or something.”

“Alright,” Onew says. “Be safe.”

“I will, don’t worry,” I chuckle as I head towards the door and throw my shoes and a jacket on.

I’m happy that Onew is able to come home before the kids go to bed. I can’t remember the last time he was home to put them to bed, but I guess that that’s just the life of an idol. Still, though, I can’t help but wish that sometimes he was able to share some of these precious moments. Jinyoung and Minjin are only going to be this age once and he’s missing out on some of the special moments before they become teenagers and adults.

Even though he’s not there, I’m happy that he’s fulfilling his dream, even if it is just a dream that suddenly and randomly appeared one day. I’m happy he’s doing something he loves because as long as he’s happy I’m happy and we’ll continue being a happy family together.

Onew’s POV

“Do you guys want to watch something?” I ask as I grab the remote and start surfing through the channels. “Do you guys have a show that you like or something? Huh?” I turn to look at them and wonder why they’re not answering me and I see that they’re both staring at me. “Is there something strange on me?” I wonder.

“Appa is home,” Jinyoung says with a smile.

“Appa is home tonight,” I say smiling right back.

“Appa, I see you on the TV sometimes,” Minjin says as she looks in that direction.

“Do you? Is appa cool?”

“Really!” Jinyoung chimes in. “But we can’t tell people that appa is our appa…”

“I know,” I sigh as I pat him on the head. “Don’t worry, though, appa knows that he’s your appa. It’s alright if other people don’t know. It can be like our little secret.”

“Secret,” Minjin says smiling at the word. “A secret with appa.”

“And eomma and Nicole and Changmin,” I sigh. “And the rest of the uncles. They all know that I’m your appa, so people know.”

“Why is appa on TV?” Jinyoung asks.

“Oh…um…” I say as I think about how I should explain it to them. They’re probably too young to know what an idol is and even if they did, they probably wouldn’t think that I’m one simply because I’m their father. It would be strange to think of it that way. If I tell them that I just sing and dance on stage…maybe that would be a better way to tell them.

“It’s because appa sings and dances, right?” Minjin asks looking at me with her big eyes.

“Yes, because I sing and dance on stage. Thank you, Minjin. How is school going for you guys? Is it fun? Do you guys make a lot of friends?”

“A lot,” Jinyoung says expanding his arms to show how many.

“Wow! That’s really a lot. You probably have more friends than appa,” I say with a proud smile. “Hey, guys, eomma’s birthday is in a month. Do you want to throw her a party?”

“A party?” they both curiously ask.

“You know, a birthday party. Remember? We threw you one last year,” I say chuckling at the memory. That was quite an adventurous birthday party. “The samchoons and Nicole-imo could come along with grandpa and grandma.”

“Could our friends come?” Jinyoung asks.

“Not to this one, when we have your birthday party on your birthday,” I say lightly tapping him on the nose. “Ah, you’re so cute.” At that moment I hear the door open and put a finger up to my lips to tell them that it’s a secret and it seems like they understand because they don’t immediately say something about it when Christy enters the room. I have no idea what they’ll do when I’m not here, though.

“I’ve brought ice cream!” Christy says placing the bag down on the table.

“Ice cream!” I happily say. “Minjin, Jinyoung, which one do you guys want?”

Minjin, Jinyoung, Christy, and I settle ourselves on the couch and watch the television for a little bit until Minjin and Jinyoung begin to fall asleep. I guess Christy let them stay up past their normal bedtime since I came back. Thinking about it, I don’t even know their normal bedtime. What time do the kids go to bed?

“They look so cute, don’t they?” I ask Christy as I wrap my arms around her as we’re standing in the doorway watching them sleep.

“They always look cute,” she chuckles. “We should let them sleep.”

I nod my head and silently follow behind Christy as she leaves the room, but stop her before she can go into ours. “Hey,” I say catching up to her and hug her from the back again. “Do you think we should make a little sibling for Jinyoung and Minjin?”

“What are you talking about?” Christy asks in slight embarrassment. “They have one another.”

“Yeah, but another kid,” I say with a chuckle. “Do you think we should have another kid? The twins are already five.”

“But your career, how in the world would we be able to have another kid right now?”

“I’m sure that we’ll be able to get everything worked out,” I say as I lean my head on her shoulder. “I’m sure I’ll be able to make it work in the future so that we’re able to go out as a family.”

“But another kid—” Christy begins before I interrupt her sentence by turning her around and kissing her on the lips.

Christy’s POV

“Minjin, Jinyoung,” I whisper as I go into their room. “It’s time to go to school today.”

“Why are you waking them up?” Onew whispers as he appears behind me.

“Because it’s time for them to go to school,” I chuckle.

“How about we ditch school today?”

“Don’t you have to go to practice today?”

“I think I’m feeling a little under the weather,” Onew says as he obviously fake coughs.

“Yah, I know you’re not sick,” I say hitting him in the arm. “You shouldn’t skip out on practice and the kids shouldn’t skip school. What type of lesson is that teaching them?”

“That it’s okay to hang out with their father once in a while?” he asks shrugging his shoulders. “Look, I know I haven’t been around very often lately and I miss the kids and I know that they miss me, I’m their father. I want to spend some time with them.”

“But skipping school is bad…” I say.

“I’ll call into the school and call a favor. I’ll also call in a favor from the guys.”

“Speaking of,” I say looking down the hall and seeing their closed doors, “where are they?”

“They spent the night at a dorm. They figured they didn’t want to come back,” Onew chuckles. “But wake up the kids and tell them that we’re going to go to the amusement park today.”

I look at Onew for a second before responding. I don’t know why, but looking at him wanting to do something family oriented feels kind of…strange. I guess it’s just because he has been working so much with SHINee that he hasn’t been home and we haven’t been able to go anywhere as a family. So then maybe it would be nice to go out as a family for once, even if it does mean that he skips practice and the kids skip school.

“But, Onew,” I carefully say, “won’t you get in trouble if they find out that you skipped practice? Don’t you have more performances coming up?”

“They won’t find out, they won’t find out,” Onew says shaking his head. “Now quickly wake up the kids and I’ll go make a few phone calls then we can head out, alright?” I nod my head and go closer to Minjin and Jinyoung’s bed to wake them up to get ready for our adventurous day out.

“Are you guys excited?” I ask Minjin and Jinyoung from the kitchen. The two are happily watching television in the living room while I’m getting some of their snacks together since I know that they’ll get hungry while we’re there.

“Eomma, is appa really going with us?” Jinyoung asks.

“He’s really going with us,” I say nodding my head with a big smile. “But remember, you can’t tell anyone that you didn’t go to school today because you went to the amusement park. Tell them that you were sick, alright?”

“Why are we telling a lie?” Minjin asks.

“Um…” I hesitantly begin as I attempt to think of some good reason as to why the kids are lying. I don’t want them to think that lying is a good thing and that they should do it all the time.

“So you can spend some time with appa,” Onew says walking into the living room and sits right down between Minjin and Jinyoung.

“Now I’ll be done in a second guys and then we can head out to the amusement park and have some fun today, alright?” I ask them.

“Yay!” all three of them yell in unison and I can’t stop myself from chuckling at them.

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How will the time at the amusement park be spent? Will Onew be found out about skipping practice? 

Here's Chapter 10. Hope you enjoyed :D

And here is another update after the longest time! I'm sorry for making you all wait! Thank you for sticking with this even though it takes me forever to update, haha.

Have a good morning, good afternoon, or good night. See you soon :)