“I’ll have him dropped off by the end of this week when preparations are done” Kris said as he put on his shoes at the entrance. It was almost eight, and he was getting ready to leave the teens alone to their new house. “So, until then, Taeyang will be staying with me at my apartment.”

Hana handed him a wrapped meal she had made. “So, you’re going to leave for  Jinsari after dropping Taeyang off over here?”

Kris moved his right foot around to get it placed correctly in his shoes. “That’s the plan.” He touched his jacket pocket. “Oh, that reminds me.” He took out something. “Here is your new cell phone.” He handed it to Hana.

Luhan took it before Hana can grab it. “Why do you need another?”

Hana became gloomy. “I threw my old one away. I don’t want to have anything to do with them anymore.”

The brothers knew who she was referring to—her family.

“Besides, that phone was only bought so they could call me to ‘work’ and to keep tabs on me.”

Kris then handed her a familiar envelop that only she recognized.

She asked, “Why are you returning my money?

Kris smiled. “It’s because I bought it for you.” He placed it onto her hand. “Think of it as a ‘thank you’ from me.”

Hana bashfully smiled. “No, I should be the one who’s thankful, not you.”

Luhan nodded. “Hey why are you helping us so much?”

Kris became flustered. He seemed nervous to answer the question. Managing to calm himself down, he looked at the teens. “Let’s just say…I’m thanking you for being a responsible adult.”

Luhan playfully scoffed. “Oi, are you saying that I’m not responsible? I told you that kid isn’t mine.”

“You are responsible,” Kris said. He sadly muttered, “More than me.”

Hana popped her head to the side. “Hmm? What was that?”

Kris shook his head with a smile. He opened the door and headed out to his car. “So, I hope everything goes well from now on.” After wearing his seat belt, he drove off onto the streets. Stopped at a red light, he took out his phone and dialed a number.

“This is Seoul Center’s Forensics Department. How may I help you?” A lady on the line greeted him.

“Uh, yes. This is Kris. May I speak with Suho ssi? Tell him it’s regarding Taeyang.”

“Yes, please wait.” The line was put on hold.

As he waited, he glanced over at his thesaurus-sized burgundy book in his bag. Just then, the phone line connected again and the green light lit on.

“Suho ssi speaking.”

“It’s Kris, Suho.”

Suho laughed. “I know.”

Kris tightened his jaw. “What have you got so far?”

“I did what you asked me to do—I went through the files of recently born infants, which was very hard to do since I don’t work in that area or department…and yes, he is in the record.” Suho explained. “His birthday is June 25th, and he has no birth name. And, as requested, I input the information you wanted me to fill.”

Kris heard a shuffling noise.

“Ah, let me confirm what you wanted me to input into the directory. It was: name: Taeyang; birthdate: keep as is. As for family, you’ll be giving me that information when?”

Kris stopped at a nearby curb to listen to the details. “Wait, go back to before. What do you mean he had no birth name?”

There was a long silence before Suho answered. “Kris…the baby was taken out of the hospital a few hours after birth.”

Kris jerked up in surprise. “So, this baby—!”

“She died after giving birth.”

Kris heard Suho sighed.

“I’m sorry…for your loss.”

Taking deep breaths and his eyes becoming wet, Kris looked back at the book.

“But Kris…it wasn’t any kind of death.”

Kris revert his attention back to listening to Suho.

“…she died because…”

*

Coming downstairs from his room, Luhan saw the kitchen lights still . As he came closer, he saw Hana sitting down at the table looking at something. “What are you doing?” He poured himself a cup of water and went over to sit next to her.

Hana looked up at him. “The paper.”

Luhan looked and saw the family register form that was still blank.

Kris gave them until the end of the week to put down a family role they were going to be since they would be working for Kris as what Kris called it, ‘The Virtual Lu Family.’

“He said we don’t have to put ourselves down as ‘husband’ and ‘wife’, but…” she looked away. “No matter how much I think about it…it is the best and safest for Taeyang.”

Luhan slid the paper closer to them and then clasped his hand in hers.

They looked at one another.

With a comforting and an assuring voice, he said, “Then…what more do we need to think about?”

Hana leaned up straight when she heard this.

“I’m going to be here for you. You’re going to be here for me.” He raised the paper to look at it, “…and we’re going to be there…for our little one.”

*

“Hey, so how’s the house?” Xiumin asked as he came over to sit in the seat in front of Luhan’s desk.

Luhan perked up to his question.

“We were wondering if we could come over and throw a house-warming party.”

Luhan looked around. “I gotta ask Hana first though. It’s not just my house.”

Xiumin smirked. “For some reason, it feels as if you’re married.”

Luhan lightly shoved Xiumin. “Don’t kid me. She and I would never be that way.”

“Fine. I’ll ask Hana when she comes back with Luna.”

“Where’d they go?” Lay came over and gave them their worksheets. “You two aren’t going to study for the upcoming test for the end of second term?”

“It’s okay. We still have two more months before the term ends.” Xiumin skimmed through the page. “The girls went to use the restroom since the teacher said we can have this period as free time.” He put the paper down and grinned. “I heard that his wife just went into labor, so they couldn’t find a teacher in time to fill in.” He nudged Lay. “Hey, Luhan said we can have a house-warming party this week!”

Luhan snarled back. I told you I have to ask Hana.”

Xiumin sighed. “It’s Hana. She’s going to agree.” He grabbed Luhan’s pencil and started drawing on his worksheet. “Speaking of Hana.”

The boys listened carefully.

“Didn’t you try to get Hana to go out with you during your bachelor days?” asked Xiumin.

Luhan glared back in annoyance with Xiumin teasing him of being married. “I’m still a bachelor! Besides, it wasn’t that I liked her, I was just...trying to annoy her.”

“Yeah, right,” Xiumin said. “You were so flirtatious that you even aimed for Luna. You didn’t stop until Lay finally confessed that he liked her.”

Lay nodded. “Yeah, I remember something like that. Wasn’t it that she was the only girl who didn’t respond to your cheesy pickup lines?”

Luhan scoffed. “Lay, why are you going to go along with Xiumin’s false story? I can accept flirting with Hana, but I can’t accept liking her.” He quietly and sarcastically added, “I sin when I see a girl.”

“What about Hana?” asked Luna. She and Hana came over to where the boys were conversing. Hana went over to sit on her desk that was across from Luhan while Luna stood behind Lay.

Hana pointed a finger at Luhan and glared at him. “If you’re talking smack about me, you’re cooking tonight!”

The friends made some ‘oooh’ noises in response to Hana’s comment.

“The couple fight has begun!” Xiumin teased again.

“We’re not a couple,” Luhan and Hana said together.

Luhan looked at Hana. “Hey, Xiumin was saying that when we first met, I liked you. I didn’t, didn’t I?” Before Hana could answer because she was thinking back to when they first met, he added, “I mean, seriously, me liking you? You’re so not in my league.”

Aggravated at how he implied that she wasn’t a match for him, she gave him a look. “No, I remember.” She pretended to recall the memories.

Luhan became shocked because he didn’t remember anything.

“However, I only remember that the only reason why I never responded was because I’m not interested in little boys.” She stuck out her tongue. “Even years later, you’re still the same little boy that hasn’t grown up.”

The friends laughed as they cheered for Hana’s victory.

Luna stopped the cheer. “No, Luhan did stop his flirtatious ways. This whole entire time, he hasn’t been wooing any girl at all. Back then, it was a big fuss within the students.” She emphasized the following words in pain. “Especially among the girls.” She pointed at Luhan. “It was because you stopped taking them out to your ‘karaoke’ time afterschool, which to this day, I am still confused as to what do you guys do. It was also around the same time when Lay and I started dating.” She hugged her boyfriend.

Xiumin clapped. “Ah! I remember! It happened…” he tapped the side of his head as if that’d help him remember, “…it was sometime in the middle of our first year of middle school! I remember a few girls crying and saying that Luhan has found someone special to him.”

Hana was taken aback. Admiring Luhan for something she didn’t know, she said, “Ehh, I didn’t know someone could make you have a change of heart.”

“Could it be— your first love?” Luna asked. “Who was she?”

Luhan was surprised because he really didn’t remember any of this. “I—it can’t be!” He chuckled to himself. “I really don’t have any collection of that.”

“Then, what is your recollection of how we became friends?” Hana asked, slightly challenging him.

Luhan thought carefully as he spoke. “I do remember meeting you in sixth grade, but we had less interaction then. Also, you didn’t like me as much as you do now too back then. As for seventh grade, I think it was in the middle of the school year that we met again through Lay who had a deep crush for Luna, who was your friend…” He looked up. “Right?”

His friends nodded.

He paused. “That’s all I can remember.”

His friends were disappointed. They thought he had remembered something cool or twisted or whatnot, but it turned out that the story was just a plain ending.

“Oh,” Lay began. “That was also when you started hanging out with us more instead of with the usual flock of girls afterschool.”

Xiumin smiled. “Problem solved. It must be from then. That was probably how you two got close to one another—hanging out together.”

Hana laughed. “Actually, I also don’t remember how we became close friends too.”

Luhan turned to look at her. “But that doesn’t matter, right?”

Everyone looked at each other and smiled in agreement.

*

“Luna.” Luhan called out to his friend.

It was afterschool and the gang was waiting in the library for Hana to finish her afterschool duties.

“I was wondering…how much do you know about Hana’s family and about the babysitting problem she’s been having?”

Hearing this question, the boys stopped what they were doing and lend their ears into the conversation.

“Oh, I know them real well,” said a proud Luna. “So well that all the exaggerations you guys think I have done won’t even measure up to this. You guys wouldn’t believe me at all.”

Xiumin laughed. “Well, duh. You’re Queen of rudeness and exaggeration.” He pouted when Lay and Luna glared at him for badmouthing her.

Of course, they knew he was joking and they joked back.

“Do you want to know why any of you boys weren’t allowed to visit her or even be with her afterschool, or that she can’t even mention you guys to her family?” Luna asked.

The boys shook their head.

“You see, she’s never had any problems with making friends. But one day, from what she told me, she overheard her parents argued about enrolling her into an all-girls private academy to be far from the ‘wolves’.”

“Wolves?” The boys asked in sync.

Luna nodded. “By wolves, I mean boys.” She sighed. “You guys know that she’s the youngest of nine right?”

They nodded.

“Well, her life took a huge turn when she heard that argument. When she heard that they would make the decision about whether or not she’d be enrolled in the second year of middle school in the city or in the countryside, she decided to cut off all ties with all her guy friends.”

“Why?” Xiumin added.

“She wanted to prove to her parents that she wouldn’t be like her sisters—boy crazy. The three sisters that are married either eloped with her boyfriend-now-husband, married a man who is ten years older than her when she was only fourteen, and the other dropped out of school to choose the marriage life.” Luna continued to explain. “Devastated about how their daughters’ lives turned out to be what they didn’t expect, they thought that they needed to keep an eye on Hana. Fortunately for them, when the sisters began to have kids of their own, they started asking Hana to babysit—constantly. Knowing that Hana was always going to be at a family’s house instead of some place with friends, her parents didn’t try to stop her from house-hopping.”

Lay leaned back. “So, that’s why she was so distant from us back then.”

Xiumin nodded. “I just thought she didn’t like us then because Lay began going out with you, and Luhan was ually harassing her.”

“This was also the reason why all our other girlfriends left Hana. They thought she was just using the excuse of ‘babysitting’ to not attend any invitation to parties and whatnot.” Luna looked away and sadly continued. “I too committed the same crime.”

“What did you do?” Lay asked his girlfriend.

“This isn’t a justification for what I had done to her before, but…hearing the same excuse from her over and over again, one day, I ditched her…just like how the other girls did.”

Xiumin perked up in excitement. “Whoa, when did this happened?!”

Lay and Luhan nudged him for being insensitive.

Luna laughed. “It was about two months after Shin and I started going out.” She paused. “I thought maybe she was torturing me by not wanting to spend time with me and Lay because I got a boyfriend before she did…” She managed a smile. “But one night, running away from home, I saw her at the convenience store…and there she was, just like what she had said from a conversation I heard earlier from that day—she was going to be babysitting.” Luna wiped the tears as the guilty emotions she had from the past crept up to eat her again. “The diligent thirteen-year-old Hana was multi-tasking with five kids to watch and a grocery list to complete!”

Lay came over to give her a hug.

The boys felt touched at Hana’s and Luna’s beautiful bond for one another.

Luna managed to continued. “She was so great at handling the kids who were running around making messes around the store.” She laughed. “I still remember one of them trying to get into the grocery cart of another person. She managed to stay her cool the entire time while those little apes just kept running around.” She sniffed. “When I thought of that, I realized that she had always been telling us the truth…and that she wasn’t hanging out with me because I was going to be with Lay…but because she couldn’t be seen with a boy.” Luna became okay now that it was reaching a happy ending. “So, I apologized the next day, and we’ve been even better friends ever since then.”

“Poor Hana.” Xiumin frowned. “She had been a Mommy since a long time ago.”

Luna smirked. “It’s all thanks to those fast-reproducing siblings of hers!” She scoffed. Whenever it was about the siblings, anger filled her up. “She grew up not having a youthful teenage life.”

Xiumin picked up a nearby book and skimmed through it. “Honestly, I don’t see how keeping Taeyang will help in any way. It’s just back to square only except it doesn’t belong to any of her siblings.”

Luhan angrily took the book. “Oi, his name is Taeyang, not ‘it’.”

Xiumin scowled. “I thought Hana would be the only one who’d get worked up over that. Why are you too?”

“Because he’s ours now,” Luhan said.

“Ours?” The friends repeated.

Luhan looked at them. “Not in that sense. In the sense that we’re both in this together.”

*

“You know what the best part of today is?” Luna turned around to look at her friends as she walked backwards. She pointed to Hana. “Hana doesn’t have to go to babysit anymore!”

Xiumin shook his head. “Luna, you spoke too soon.”

Luna stopped walking when her friends did the same. “What do you mean?” Noticing that her friends’ eyes weren’t on her, she turned around and saw what grabbed her friends’ attention. “Oh.”

“…Hey…Hana.” It was Dasom standing at the school entrance gate.

With tension filling within Hana, the one who calmed her down was Luhan who held her hand from behind. Without looking at her, he whispered, “Don’t worry. You have a new home now.” He squeezed her hand. “Taeyang’s waiting for you.”

Dasom came forward with a smile. “Hana,” she stuttered as the atmosphere was awkward, especially since what had happened a few days ago. “We found out that you were back at school, so I came to get you—um, not to babysit.” She laughed nervously. “Just to go home.” She sighed. “Everyone wants to talk to you. Please.”

Luna scoffed. “Why’d you guys had to ask the school for where she is?” She rolled her eyes. Now that Hana was no longer on good terms with her family, Luna took this chance to show how she really felt towards them for all those years they’ve done to Hana. “She’d usually be at two places: school or home.” She pretended to think. “Oh wait, not home, your home.”

Hana’s friends looked at her as they waited for her response.

If I go, I could get closure…or into another argument and make things worse. Hana looked at her sister. If I don’t go…closure will just be from our last argument…and things will stay the same. She took a deep breath.

“She’ll go…if I can go.” Luhan inserted. He knew that Hana had become nervous. He wanted to be there for her and with her. He also had some things he wanted to clear up with the Kim family.

*

The gang sat in a couch that was exclusively placed just for them. They were at Hana’s house, brought home by Dasom.

Hana glanced at Luhan and whispered, “Thanks.”

Luhan responded with a smile.

A cough from Mr. Kim made them look back to the front.

“Your older siblings wanted to speak with you. Not me.” Hana’s father drew out the line so that Hana wouldn’t misunderstand.

Hana smiled. “Yes, I know. But I didn’t come back for them. I came back for Taeyang.”

“Taeyang?” Hana’s family asked in sync. “That’s what you named it?”

“I have a baby, not an ‘it,’” Hana said. “I’ve always respected your children by referring them in their respective, proper pronouns based on their gender. As adults, I expect you to respect my child too.”

Her friends smiled to support her in defending Taeyang.

Her family looked away in embarrassment.

Dasom became the first one to start. “Hana, we just want you to have an honest discussion with us—about everything...especially about how you’ve felt.”

Hana nodd