“Please, Jinki, I’m working! You can’t keep calling.” Kibum muttered to his phone, rolling his eyes. “I’m gonna be fired.”

“They won’t fire you in the next lifetime, you’re too precious. Your boss’ son loves you.”

“I told you already to stop saying those things about Taemin. Want do you want anyway?

There was a moment of silence before Jinki spoke again.

“Kibum, this is a serious matter.” He sighed, trembling. “What if they cry? What am I supposed to do?”

The blond took a deep breath three times. “I can’t believe you call me again to ask this. You just have to entertain them.”

“But Kibum, I-“

“Bye, Jinki, I’ll call you later.”

Key disconnected the call, sighing. After agreeing in taking care of Minho’s kids, Jinki had been impossible. Well, partly was Kibum’s fault but either way he didn’t need to call every minute of the day to ask the most insignificant things. The three passed days had been torture for Kibum so he was glad that the day of Jinki taking care of Minki and Soo Jin had finally arrived.   

He left the backroom where he had been for the past minutes and ran to Taemin, patting him on the head before taking his role on the front counter and receiving the costumers’ orders. After a while, the blond looked at the wall’s clock and grinned, thinking that Onew had ceased his calls.

Just as the thought passed through his head, Key heard his ringtone for Jinki playing. Faking a sob, Key leaned his head on the counter and right away felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to find Taemin looking at him.

“Hyung, are you okay?” He asked, his black hair covering his eyes, his lips in a pout. “Do you need to rest?”

“No, Taemin, thank you.” Kibum assured, trying his best to smile widely. “Can I go answer my phone once again?”

“Of course, hyung! Take your time.”

Kibum gave a little hug to Taemin and ran to the back room for the nth time that day. He grabbed his phone from his back pocket and answered.

“What?”

“Oh, I thought you weren’t going to answer and I was already freaking out. Kibum! What if they need to pee? Or worse! To poo? I don’t think I can do this, it’s too much pressure!”

Key closed his eyes and counted to 20. “This can’t be happening.”

“What did you say? Kibum, you need to talk louder, I can’t hear you!”

Without even replying to Onew, the blond ended the call and put his phone on his bag, refusing to listen to more nonsense. From that moment on, Key was going to concentrate in his job and only at the end of the day was going to pick his phone again.  However, when he reached the counter, before he could say anything, Jonghyun appeared in front of him, grinning like a mad man.

“Oh, Key! You were just the person I wanted to see!”

“In what can I help?”

“You know…” Jonghyun giggled, with his hand in front of his mouth, like he was embarrassed. “That friend of yours… I believe his name is Onew.”

“Yes…” He nodded, hesitant. “Onew.”

The white haired man chuckled once more. “Onew! Yes, him. Well, can you tell me more about him?”

Kibum arched a brow to Jonghyun and try to refrain from laughing. “Why are you interested in him?”

“I’m not!” He quickly said but once he saw the look Key was giving him, he moved his hands around. “I mean, I am! I… I… well, I’m gonna tell you something.”

“Sorry, I don’t really have time.” Kibum said, knowing what Jonghyun was trying to tell him was going to take a lot of time. “I have a lot of work.”

“But Key!” Jonghyun stretched his body on the counter and grabbed Key’s both hands. “I really need your help. He’s my muse!”

Kibum widened his eyes after the words left Jonghyun’s mouth and slowly took two steps back, untangling his hands from the other. The song writer was also shocked from saying that out loud to Key and so was immobilized, left with mouth hanging open.

Shaking his head, Key whispered. “What did you say?”

“Hum, I…” He gulped, looking everywhere but Key. “I said that he’s my muse. When I saw him the other day, a million words started to flow in my mind and formed amazing lyrics! But I need more.”

“You’re creeping me out, Jonghyun-ssi, I don’t know if it’s a good idea to let Onew near you.”

“I swear I just want to be next to him! Take in his precious existence and-“

The waiter held his hand up to stop Jonghyun. “I’m going back to work.”

He left Jonghyun at the counter and started to clean the tables but after a few minutes, he felt a presence behind him and when he turned around, there he was. Big and shiny puppy eyes were looking at him and an adorable pout was also featured and Kibum had to use all of his self-control to look and walk away from him.

Minutes later, a hand rested on his back and something inside him snapped.

“What?”

But instead of finding Jonghyun, Key found Taemin looking at him, troubled. “Sorry, hyung, I didn’t mean to-“

“No, I’m sorry, Taemin. I thought it was Jonghyun-ssi again.” He explained, looking around. “Where is he anyway?”

“He went to the bathroom, I think.” Taemin nodded, but then scrunched his nose. “There’s something I want to ask you, hyung. What’s your relationship with Jonghyun hyung?”

“Taemin!” He yelled, making a few costumers look at them. “What are you talking about? He’s just like any other client.”

“But… but… He came to see you! And now you’re looking for him! And your phone didn’t stop ringing the whole day!” Taemin tried to reason, spurting all evidences he could think off. “Hyung! Is Jonghyun hyung your boyfriend?”

Kibum stared at him, without knowing what to say. What was wrong with all the people today?

**

Jinki held up his trembling hand and tried to force himself to ring the bell of Minho’s apartment. After almost ten minutes, his finger was already on the buzzer. He only had to push it a little in and Minho would open the door. But Jinki was still unsure about all of this. How could he possibly be able to take care of two kids? He couldn’t even take care of himself.

Still looking at the bell as if it was going to eat him, Onew fail to notice that some neighbor was leaving his house. When he passed by, the man murmured a greeting which scared him and made him click on the bell. Staring wide eyed at the door, Jinki took a step back when the door suddenly opened and the toddlers appeared.

“Hi, Onew!” They greeted in harmony, grinning. Onew gulped and did a little wave at them.

“Guys! What did I say?” Minho appeared from the living room. “Don’t open the door without telling me. And what’s with calling him just Onew?”

“Sorry, appa.”

Minho smiled at them, which made them jump and run to the inside of the house. He then looked at Onew and stepped aside. “Come on in. I’m going to introduce you to them and then I have to go.”

Onew nodded and stepped inside, taking his shoes off. As they were walking, Minho was thanking him for staying with the kids and telling how long he searched for someone who could stay until late. Little did he know that Onew didn’t want to do this.

“Soo Jin, Minki, come here!” He called and soon two doors opened and the kids ran to them. He pointed to the little boy with black hair and big eyes who had come first. “This is Minki. He’s my little champion and he’s a little restless but he does almost everything that his sister says.” He then pointed to the girl at Minki’s side, with two braids. “The princess is Soo Jin, she’s usually shy and calm but when she gets comfortable with you… well, you might not want to know.”

The kids giggled and began to run around again while Onew and Minho just stared at them.

“They’re… hum… energetic.”

“Ah, yes.” Minho chuckled, patting his back. “But you’ll get used to them. You can go with them to the park if they get moody but…” His expression turned serious. “No boys near Soo Jin.”

“O-okay, sure. No boys! I can do that.”

Minho smiled and glanced at his watch. “Oh, look at the time, I gotta go. Kids, appa is going now. Be nice to Onew, alright?”

Before he could say anything else, they heard a girly scream. “Appa!” Soo Jin grabbed his legs and looked up with teary eyes. “I’m gonna miss you.”

The coach crunched down and she thrown her tiny arms around his neck. “Princess, I’m sure you’re going to have a great time with Onew, okay? And you have your brother too.”

“Yeah, stop being such a crybaby, Soo.”

“Stop being a meanie, Minki.” She cried, showing him her tongue. “You’re not going to miss appa?”

Minho decided to mediate before they both ended up crying. “Come on, guys, be nice to each other.” He stood up and kissed their foreheads, ruffling their hairs after. “I’ll be back in no time. If you need anything call me, okay?”

“Yeah, sure.” Onew said, still a little uneasy seeing Minho walking out of the door but only after thanking him again. He then turned to the other two who were now grinning from ear to ear. “So…”

“Onew hyung, do you like sports?”

“Onew oppa, you’re so handsome!”

Oh, Jinki thought, this was going to be a long night. “Hum, do you want to go to the park?” He asked, not waiting for them to get bored.

“Are you serious?” Minki asked, his eyes shining. “Really?”

“If you two want… I mean, we can stay home and-“

“No!” Soo Jin interrupted, pouting. “Let’s go to the park.”

“Okay.” Onew said, regretting immediately. He needed to take something to the park, right? The two kids were looking at him, expectant. “But first I need your help! I’m going to prepare some snacks while you go to your bedrooms and change to the clothes you usually wear when you go to the park.”

“But we don’t change clothes when we go to the park.” The little girl said, confused.

“Well, maybe we can do that this time.” Onew said, sweating. “Go! Go change!”

The kids ran to their rooms and Onew took a few minutes to decide to move. He walked to the kitchen and looked around, trying to understand where the food should be. He opened some cupboards and, finally, he found cookies. Luckily, Minho had left bread and a lunchbox on the table.

Here is the second one! Thank you for reading and commenting and subscribing :)

See you next Thursday!