“Underline” Speaking English

“Normal” speaking Korean

Part X

“Wheee! Higher!” Saki said happily as she was pushed back and forth on the swing by Kyung. The park really wasn’t that far away from the mall as he had said and it wasn’t that full either because despite it being highly clammy there were dark clouds above them which suggested the threat of more rain. But for a little while they would be fine so no one was overly worrying.

 

“If you go any higher,” the dancer said, reaching his arms up to push the girl again, “You’ll fall off Saki.”

 

The girl just giggled, “No I won’t! I’ll be fine! Higher!”

 

Sunwoo shook his head, “It’s a good thing she didn’t eat those sweets. She would be sick otherwise.”

 

“Bet you did it to your sibs when you used to take them to the park though,” Sang said with a grin, “I know I used to do it with mine.”

 

“Deliberately make them sick?” Sunwoo rolled his eyes, “Why am I not surprised by that?”

 

Sang shook his head, “I didn’t deliberately make them sick. I used to just push them higher on the swings and run around with them,” turning he raised an eye brow, “Kinda like Jin and Jae are doing right now.”

 

Sunwoo frowned and turned to look at the pair, who were indeed running around the playground though oddly it was Jin chasing Jae. “Hoi, you two, what’s wrong?”

 

“He’s got my iPod!” Jin said, taking a dive over the slide to try and grab the other but just missing as Jae spun around and ran towards the swing set, “Give it back Jae!”

 

“Kyung-hyung!” Jae cheerfully yelled, diving to hide behind the eldest of the group and not paying attention to what was going on otherwise, “Jinney’s being-” There was a yelp as Jae was suddenly blindsided by Saki and the swing which caught him on the side and sent him to the ground with a crash.

 

Kyung spun around quickly, ducking out of the way of the returning swing, “Jae? Are you okay?”

 

“Owiee!” Jae said before finding Jin on top of him, scrabbling for his iPod, “Nah! Get off!”

 

“Give me my iPod back first!” Jin said, scrabbling, “You’re not that hurt!”

 

“I’ve just been hit by a swing! Stop tickling me babo!!” Jae tried to scramble away but didn’t manage it in the slightest as the other was being determined.

 

“Oppa Jin!” Saki said, being plonked down on the ground by Kyung, “Don’t be mean to Oppa Jae!” Harmlessly she barrelled into Jin from the side and attempted to push him off. Jin just grinned and flopped to the side, managing to snag his iPod first and rolled so that he could hoist the little girl up who giggled, “Nah! No fair Saki! You teamed up on me.”

 

Sang shook his head, so glad that he had brought his proper camera with him as he was getting a load of nice photos, his Cyworld account was going to be overflowing with them. Something which he was looking forward to.

 

~~~

 

‘Forgotten your password?’ the little box appeared on the screen in front of Bradley and he sighed, shaking his head, “Dang, though it would be that one.”

 

“What?” Jongki looked up from his phone, blinking in surprise at the other’s comments.

 

Bradley smiled, “Forgot my Cyworld account password again. Resetting it now. Thought that I had set it to my usual one but obviously not.”

 

Jongki shook his head, “What is it with you and technology?”

 

“It’s still just mainly phones,” Bradley replied, tapping away at the keyboard to get access to his e-mails to reset the password to the account, “Computers I’m fine with when I remember the passwords that I have for accounts. Right, here we go...” lightly he blinked, “One hundred and twenty two messages? Didn’t you guys kinda click after I didn’t reply to the first one?”

 

Jongki smiled, “They were probably worried about you.”

 

“So were you,” Bradley said with a grin, “fifteen messages alone.”

 

The Leader grimaced a little, “That was probably when Kiyeol was having a panic attack bless him. Why didn’t you access your account? There’s plenty of cafes and stuff.”

 

“You try working two jobs and looking after a daughter,” Bradley said, clicking through the messages one by one and briefly reading them, “Makes a day of rehearsals and performance look like nothing in comparison.”

 

Jongki felt inclined to argue but decided that realistically it wouldn’t be worth it and instead returned to his phone and his ever favourite twitter account. He didn’t care that Bradley had borrowed his laptop, the other had stuff to catch up on and he was half-heartedly trying to find somewhere else to go after tonight once they got the flat sorted tomorrow. That argument hadn’t even started because Bradley had uttered the word ‘Iseul’ and everything was put to a stop.

 

“I’ll take your word on that,” Jongki said in reply, shifting so that he was half-leaning against the other, “You going to call your family soon?”

 

In response, the elder dug his elbow into the others back, “Yes Umma, but Davey will be working right now and he’s the one that I’ll need to talk to.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Danny works in Japan and Mum will just get too flustered,” Bradley grinned, “I would try Dad but he has worse phone gremlins than me.”

 

Jongki sighed and shook his head, “Just as long as you do call them today. They must be worried if they’re contacting me.”

 

Bradley made a confirmation noise, clearly more interested in whatever he was looking at and not wanting to talk any further for the time being. They lapsed happily into comfortable silence once again and just continued doing what they had been before.

 

~~~

 

“That’s cheating Oppa Sang!” Saki yelled, pointing up at the tree which Sang had obviously clambered up whilst they were playing a very random version of hide and seek which had been devised by Kiyeol, “You can’t hide up there!”

 

“Why not,” Sang said, swinging his legs back and forth, “It’s a good hiding place!”

 

“But Saki can’t climb up there so no fair,” the little girl pouted before letting out a yelp which Sunwoo scooped her up, “Wah! That’s cheating too!”

 

Sunwoo grinned, “You’re team is getting it way to easy, I’ve got ya and I’m taking you back to base.” He said, happily holding onto the wriggling girl above the ground, “You're going to be the first captured Saki!”

 

Making his way towards Home Base, Sunwoo couldn’t help but grin as he held Saki up high, spotting Jae trying to drag Kyung down the slide so that he could be officially counted as being captured. Kiyeol certainly came up with some strange games but the maknae currently had his hands full trying to avoid running into Jinseok which was no easy feat in the slightest. Chuckling he clambered up the intricate Wendy house with attached slide and groaned when the little girl caught hold of one of the railings, “Now that is cheating, let go Saki!”

 

“No! Oppa’s cheating so Saki can cheat!” the girl cheered but it didn’t take overly long for him to dislodge the girl by tickling her and he shifted her to his shoulders when he got to the start of the slide where Jae and Kyung were still fighting on.

 

“Oh c’mon Jae, hurry up and get pups down the slide will ya!” Sunwoo said with a chuckle, “I’ve got one firmly captured here and-”

 

Before he could say another word though, Kyung managed to half shove Jae away from him but in the ensuring panic as he didn’t want the other to fall and hurt himself, both boys ended up tumbling down the slide and landed in a heap in the bottom. Right in the middle of a very large and soggy mud puddle. Sunwoo immediately burst out laughing whereas Jae yelled before making a grab at Kyung who had taken the opportunity to leap up. Jin and Kiyeol came around the corner at the same time, collided with Kyung, sent the pair of them crashing down into the puddle once again only with the maknae being dragged on top as well.

 

Sang was laughing so hard that the misjudged his footing and came tumbling out of the tree, much to Saki’s amusement and Sunwoo laughed just all the more. “You two at this game!”

 

“Capture Saki!” came a general cry from somewhere in the midst of mud stained boys and Sunwoo just giggled.

 

“Right, but I ain’t going to end up looking like you lot!” he yelled happily before running to the opposite slide which was bigger, longer and steeper with Saki squealing about how it wasn’t fair and Oppa Sunny was cheating. Plonking himself down on the bigger slide, shifting Saki onto his lap so that she wouldn’t get hurt, Sunwoo was pleased to know that he would be the first to capture one of the other team members and set off down the slide.

 

Just unfortunately he hadn’t counted on there being an even bigger and slightly deeper and most certainly muddier puddle at the bottom of the bigger slide which usually had a little sand pit run off area around it. Sunwoo tried to grab the edge to stop them going into it but all it resulted in was him twisting onto his side into the very soggy mud and getting covered. Saki had enough sense to clamber the opposite direction but still landed on her bottom in the icky sticky mud. “Pah!” Sunwoo said, trying to pull himself upright but slipping back down, “Whose crazy idea was this anyway?!” he wailed.

 

Saki giggled at him before picking up a clump of mud and throwing it at him, “That’s what you get for cheating, Oppa Sun!” she giggled all the more when he caught hold of her and smushed against her, “Oppa’s! Help, I’m getting attacked by a mud monster!”

 

“Rawr,” Sunwoo went, continuing to playfully wrestle with the girl despite the sheer amount of laughter that came directed at him. For once he didn’t care though, strangely, this was just way too much fun.

 

~~~

 

The ending song for Count Duckular sang out brightly from Bradley’s rather old style phone, sounding a little on the tinny side but still recognisable and the red head shoved Jongki out of the way to make a grab for his bag and pull the device out. He didn’t look at the caller ID as he clicked to answer, “Hello Davy.”

 

Moving the phone away from his ear, a very loud yelling of ‘Bradley Eun, where the hell have you been?’ was heard before he placed it back and sighed, “I’m sorry Davy, things haven’t been good as of late.”

 

“Now you choose to tell me ya big – correction little - stupid lug,” Davy sighed a little on the other end of the phone, “Why didn’t you tell me that things had gone crazy for you?”

 

“I didn’t want to be a hassle,” Bradley admitted, shifting uncomfortably and seemingly forgetting that his best friend was only a few feet away from him, thankfully though Jongki’s understanding of English wasn’t that great, “Plus I was pretty much on top of things the last time I talked to you.”

 

“Are you and Saki okay now though, Bear Bear?” Davy sounded concerned which was a pretty normal situation but it still somehow felt a little odd.

 

Bradley smiled a little at hearing that really old nickname, “For tonight we are, Jongki and the others are putting up with us again but...the manager comes back tomorrow and-”

 

“Do you want to come home?” Davy didn’t need to hear the excuses that were going to come from his little brother, “We’ve got enough space and believe you me, Mom is already just about to start having kittens over this.”

 

For a few seconds Bradley paused, glanced at Jongki and then sighed, “If it’s not any-”

 

There was a ruckus on the other end of the line, clearly Davy hadn’t counted on the fact that his mother would be watching him like a hawk to know when he was calling Bradley and the phone sounded a bit crazy for a moment but Davy obviously won out and sighed, “Bear, the day you’re a burden or a hassle Satan will be going to work in a snowplough.”

 

“He technically already does,” Bradley said cheekily.

 

“Don’t get smart, young man,” Davy said in characteristic style, “We won’t be able to pick you up till tomorrow evening, and around six or seven, will that be okay?”

 

A sense of dread passed through the younger brother and he glanced towards Jongki, “What time will Iseul get here tomorrow?”

 

Jongki shook his head, “Hopefully late, but no guarantees. Why?”

 

“Davy’s going to pick me and Saki up about six or seven.”

 

“That’s going to push it,” Jongki frowned, knowing that their manager could land virtually any time after midday.

 

Bradley paused for a second in thought, “Davy, could you pick us up at the hotel? I don’t want to run into the boys manager and get them into trouble cause he’ll flip his lid over this.”

 

There was another pause, “Should be okay, but doesn’t he already know that you’re there?”

 

“What do you think, Davy?”

 

Another sigh, “They’re breaking rank? Oh this is going to be fun,” he chuckled, “Right, I’ll see you at the hotel with Saki and anything that you’ve got left between six and seven tomorrow. Oh do me a favour Bradley Bear and talk to Mam before she ends up doing herself a mischief trying to get this phone off me.”

 

Annie Eun was her usual fussy self and was more than in full swing, telling Bradley off on the one hand for being such an idiot but then making plans with him to sort everything out once he got back to the Onsen and then going back to telling him off. It was nearly half an hour later that his Dad was even remotely able to get on the phone just to confirm the details of the transport and then the phone beeped a low battery warning so he was able to go. “Yeah, I’ll see you on Monday morning Dad. Love you too.”

 

Clicking the call off, he blinked as the battery literally died and shook his head, “Even the phone tries to escape from Mam’s scoldings.”

 

“I think you needed one really badly Mama Bear,” Jongki smiled, passing him a cold drink, “There’s only so much I can say to you before you throw it back in my face.”

 

Bradley rolled his eyes, “Just you wait until you meet my Mam, then you’ll understand. Thanks though.”

 

“For what?”

 

“You know what,” Bradley said, not wanting to be called soppy for stating aloud that he was amazingly thankful to have such a good friend as Jongki in his life.

 

“Soppy git,” Jongki said, tugging the much smaller man into his arms as he clicked the television on to find something to pass the time with whilst they waited for the others to come home with Saki.

 

~~~

 

“Hmmm,” Kyung mused, “I wonder who’s going to get the more flustered about the state of us when we get home? Umma or Appa?”

 

“Jongki by far,” Sunwoo said, lying back to look up at the sky, “We got all the expensive stuff dirty.”

 

“I would think that it would be Mama Bear more,” Kyung said, throwing a few bits of grass at the other, “Saki is a complete state.”

 

“Duck!” came the voice of said girl and the pair looked up to see Kiyeol and Saki on the edge of the pond playing with five brightly coloured plastic ducks which had been found in the supermarket as a replacement for any real ducks that wouldn’t have turned up. Jin had got them for bath time with Saki to play with but they were serving as a good substitute for the time being. “Duck, duck, duck, duck...Ducky!”

 

Kiyeol blanched a little but giggled and gently battered her hand down, “It’s rude to point at people Saki.”

 

“I knows but it was fun. Cause look, there’s a duck and there’s Ducky!” she giggled again, pointing with both hands now.

 

Jin appeared on the scene, “You two be careful, you’re already mud covered as is!”

 

Kyung prodded him in the legs, “Did you get my drink?”

 

“Yeah, here you go,” Jin dropped the bottle of juice down into Kyung’s waiting hands, “Where’s the others gone?”

 

“Run off somewhere,” Sunwoo replied, pushing himself up onto his elbows to easily get the drink from his hyung, “Probably mucking about.”

 

There came a yell from behind them and Jin just about managed to dodge out of the way as Sang leapt over Sunwoo neatly whereas Jae misjudged and collided with Kyung sending them both to the ground once again. The steam punk nerd laughed at his victory and turned, running backwards a few steps to jeer at the other but didn’t see Kiyeol who was picking up Saki at the time and barrelled straight into them.

 

There was a humongous splash followed by a panicked wail from the four year old that was mixed in with several yells towards the geek for causing the problem. Kiyeol spat out dirty water and tried to regain his footing but with Saki wailing and flailing around he wasn’t that able to do so. Jin pushed Sang out of the way and stuck his hands out to the other to take the whining child out of the other’s hands so he could be pulled out easier. “Sang, you flaming idiot! Watch what you’re doing will you? Come here Saki, no need to cry.”

 

As he took hold of the girl though, Jin leaned to far forward and the combined weight of Saki and her wet things plus the muddy ground right near the pond sent him tumbling into the water after the pair as well. Kiyeol thankfully managed to grab hold of Saki to stop her going in a second time and as Jin half-hauled himself out, he heard the little girl laughing at him.

 

“Jin!” Sang’s voice drifted across, “Are you okay?”

 

“You got your camera on you?” Jin asked with a glare.

 

“No. Why?”

 

“Cause it means that I get to do this!” Jin and Jae spoke at the exact same time and Jin grabbed hold of Sang’s hand and hauled him forward whilst Jae pushed him from behind and sent him cascading into the mucky water.

 

Sang flailed and hauled himself up, a duck comically snagging itself in his hair, glaring at his elders but laughing despite himself, “I was going to apologise! No need to drag me in.”

 

“I’m soaked!” Kiyeol moaned, being hauled out of the water by Jae, “If I get a cold I’m completely and totally blaming you Sang!”

 

Sunwoo just chuckled, “You all look so silly, hold still so I can get a picture.”

 

“Don’t get mud on my camera,” Sang yelled, shoving Jin up and out of the water before being hauled out and tugging on the duck which was trapped in his head, “I want it to still be working when we get home.”

 

“Speaking of,” Kyung said with a grin, “I think we best get back home. Jongki and Brad are going to kill us.”

 

 “Too bloody true,” Sunwoo said, shaking his head and cursing as clumps of hair stuck to his face, “I hope the powers back on at home, cause I’m not looking forward to sitting around waiting for a bath.”

 

“Bagsey first bath!” Saki said straight away, giggling a little as she was hoisted up onto Kyung’s shoulders.

 

“No fair!” Jin said straight away, “You didn’t give us a chance Saki!”

 

“Bagsey Daddy’s First Bath!” Saki giggled again and everyone knew that they had completely and totally lost the game before hand.

 

~~~

 

“What the hell happened to you lot?” Bradley asked when the group walked through the door, “Fall into a duck pond or something?”

 

Several glares were sent his way but Saki giggled and stretched her hands out, holding onto a bright pink duck which had been salvaged from the pond with no one falling in, “How did you know that Daddy? Oppa’s and me ended up in the duck pond!”

 

Jongki glanced at his boys, burst out laughing and shook his head, “Oh stay there. I’m so getting pictures of this.”

 

“You lot look like a bunch of mucky pups!” Bradley scolded, “Go and get changed right now! Please tell me that you didn’t traipse mud up the stairs?”

 

“Mama Bear!” the boys chorused before suddenly bursting into laughter and charging at the two eldest members, smothering them in the dried mud and yucky semi dried clothes.

 

Needless to say, two hours later everyone was back in the living room, having been scrubbed clean and had their clothes shoved into the laundry. Saki was snoozing lightly against Bradley’s chest, clearly having been worn out by her outrageous Oppa’s and was hugging her pink plastic duck lightly. Gently Bradley hummed, clicking through the pictures on the camera and smiling at them. It was nice to see the others having so much fun with the little girl.

 

He hoped that they would be able to have more times like this; he knew that he belonged here and clearly Saki did as well. It would take a miracle to bring them all back together and at that moment in time Bradley couldn’t see any way that it could happen.  

 

 

A.N – they’re all such mucky pups but I loves them for it.