“Explain this to me again?”  I asked my brother for what felt like the hundredth time.

            “It’s like, a single dad support group.” Kyungsoo explained. “Basically, it’s me and eleven other guys who are all also single parents.  We meet once a week for group babysitting/daycare where we share stories and ask each other questions about parenting and stuff.”

            “So it’s like, the blind leading the blinder.” I said.

            “Exactly.  Which is why we need your help.”

            “And what makes you so sure I have any more of a clue what to do than you guys do?”  I asked him.

            “Because, you’re like, uh, a girl?  Right? And come on sis, I saw you babysit like every weekend in high school and didn’t you nanny the past few summers?  Some of these guys, especially the newbies, could really use your help.  There’s only so much the rest of us can say to help.  Like you said, we are all pretty clueless.”

            I looked at my brother as he dragged me down the streets of Seoul, one hand on my wrist with the other lugging a baby bag, little Kyungbin in a carrier on his back.  Kyungsoo stared back at me, the whites of his enormous eyes baring holes into my face.  He may be older than me, but you could hardly tell, especially when he gave me this look that made him look about five years old.

            “Besides,” he pleaded. “You already said yes and I promised you could live with me the rest of the school year as long as you did me this one, teensy little favor.”

            “I know I know,” I said, shaking his hand off my wrist. “I’m not saying I won’t do it, I’m just not promising I’ll be an help.”

            We trekked on the rest of the way to the community center where their little powwows were held.  I followed him down to the basement, trying my best to ignore the smell of humidity and gym socks.  We finally arrived at the room, and Kyungsoo burst through the doors.

            “I’m late! I’m sorry!” He announced, but I don’t think anyone really noticed.  The room was insanely crowded and the sound of screaming children echoed off of every wall.  I took a quick look around and saw a rather large room.  It had pastel painted walls, a bookshelf and rug in one corner, tiny tables in another, and toys strewn all over the place.  In the center was a circle of chairs, all facing the center and reminding me ominously of every alcoholics anonymous meeting I had seen in the movies.

            There was one man already sitting in a chair, checking his blackberry.  Two crouched over a child-sized table appeared to be having more fun coloring than the kids.  A bunch of other guys were all standing around laughing and talking to one another, all not paying much attention to the herds of children running around the room.

            “Daehyuk! Let go of your brother’s pants!”  I heard one man yell across the room to two little boys wrestling on the carpet.

            “Jongdae, you really need to teach him that taking off other peoples’ pants is generally frowned upon in society.” A ginger haired boy remarked, a smirk across his face.

            “I told you it’s just a faze!” the other guy yelled back.

            “ your thumb is just a faze,” blackberry man said, not looking up from his phone. “Forcibly removing another’s trousers is a bit of a bigger problem.”

            “Oh shut up, Kris, I can handle my own dang child- DAEHYUK IF YOU DON’T TAKE YOUR BROTHER’S PANTS OFF OF YOUR HEAD RIGHT NOW I AM REALLY GONNA-“

            “Achem, achem hey, guys? Everybody?” Kyungsoo said, raising his voice ever so slightly.  “Um, this is my sister, Yisoo.  I brought her like I said I would last week.  She’s here to help us.”

            The guys immediately perked up and stared my way. 

            “Well why didn’t you say so?” I man with a warm smile and a white pressed shirt said, coming over to shake my hand.

            “My name is Junmyeon, thank you so much for coming we really appreciate it.”

            “It’s no problem,” I lied, trying to put on my best smile.

            “Shoot I think we scared her.” Ginger boy remarked. “Don’t worry, it’s not usually this hectic.”

            “Don’t lie to her, hyung, it’s not like she wouldn’t figure it out eventually.” A boy at the kids table said. “It’s usually much worse.”

            “Alright,” Kyungsoo said abruptly, cutting off a big-eared guy who looked like he was about to add something else. “Why don’t we all gather up and introduce ourselves?”

            As the boys rounded up their kids and found seats, Kyungsoo lead me to a chair and told me to sit.  He sat down to my right, Kyungbin in his lap, while Ginger sat to my left.

            “I’ll start,” Ginger said. “My name is Luhan and this is my son, Jaehan.” He showed off a very pretty little boy squirming in his lap who appeared to be about three.

            “Shouldn’t we wait for Jongin and Sehun before we start?” A man with sleepy eyes and a little boy passed out in his lap said.

            “What would they be missing?” Big Ears said, “They know who we all are, hopefully. I’ll go next. Park Chanyeol and this is Chanyong.”

            Next to Chanyeol introduced himself as Baekhyun and his daughter, Baekha.  Then was sleepy eyes, Yixing, and the little boy snoozing in his lap was introduced as Bing.

            “My name is Kris.” Mr. blackberry said.

            “Hey isn’t it Yifan?”  Chanyeol said.

            “No it’s Jiaheng!”

            “Wait you told me Kevin…?” Junmyeon added.

            “Guys, it’s Kris!  We have been over this, do we have to explain all of my names every time someone new shows up?” Kris said.

            Easily irritated, I made mental note to myself.

            “Kara, Ace, come and introduce yourselves.” He said and two kids, a girl (five?) and a younger boy came running over to shake my hand.

            “I’m Kara I’m five!” The girl said.

            “Ace!” The little boy followed.

            “Your name is really Ace?” I asked.

            “Actually, his name is Kasper," His dad explained, "He’s had this stuffed alpaca since he was little and Kara named it Ace.  But he kind of never realized Ace was the name of his toy, not his name, so it just kind of stuck.” 

            “Ah I see.” I said, as Ace ran away, I assumed to find Ace the alpaca.

            “I already introduced myself,” Junmyeon said. “But these are my daughters, Jihye and Dahye.”  He motioned to two little girls sitting by his feet, completely absorbed with what appeared to be a princess coloring book.

            “I’m Tao.” A tall boy with panda eyes and hipster glasses said.  He held a chubby little girl in his arms and they were clad in matching designer gold overalls.  “And this little princess is Nabi.” He said, taking her pudgy hand to make her wave at me.

            Next to Tao was an older looking boy, who introduced himself as Minseok.

            “This is Jin,” he said patting a little boy of about four on the shoulders. “I’m actually his uncle, but I take care of him.”

            Finally, next to Minseok sat a short boy with black hair and a mouth that turned up at the ends, making it look like he was always smiling.

            “I’m Jongdae.” He said, a permanent grin on his face. “This is Daehyuk and Daehyun.” He said, motioning to the two boys who were wrestling earlier.  It appeared that Daehyuk had given his brother his pants back.  “They are identical, but you’ll be able to tell them apart soon enough.”

            “Yea,” Baekhyun snorted, “Only because Daehyuk is a notorious pants-er.  I would watch out if you don’t want to flash everyone.  He may be small, but he’s sneaky and he seems to have a personal vendetta to steal the pants of everyone in sight and wear their bottoms on his head like a crown.”

            The one on the left (I assumed was Daehyuk) snickered.

            “Sounds… good.” I said. “Thanks for the heads up.”

            Just then, two more boys burst through the door.  They looked younger than the rest (except maybe Tao) and they each had a baby in their arms, who each didn’t look older than one.

            “You’re late.” Junmyeon scolded.

            “I know, I’m sorry.” The darker skinned kid said. “Sehun was taking forever to leave work and we missed the first bus.”

            “Hey it’s not my fault I had a deadline!” the other boy, Sehun, whined. “Luhan, I finished the report.  It’s really good, too, and I promise this time I saved the right file to my thumb drive.”

            “Good.” Luhan said. “Last time he tried to send me a video for work, he copied the wrong file and instead of ’10 steps to improve fuel efficiency” I got a 20 minute video loop of Sehee giggling.  Now I’ll admit, it was adorable, but the board directors did not seem to find it as amusing as I did.”

           “I triple checked it this time.” Sehun stated, taking the seat next to Luhan as the other boy sat down too.

            “Sehun, Jongin, this is my sister, Yisoo.  She’s going to be coming from now on to help us.” Kyungsoo said.

            “Nice to meet you.” Sehun said. “This is my daughter, Sehee.” He said, bouncing a little girl on his knee.

            “I’m Jongin.” The dark skinned kid said. “This is Hyein.” 

            The two new kids looked significantly younger than the rest of them.  They couldn’t have graduated from high school that long ago.

            “It’s nice to meet everyone.” I said. “I don’t know how much I can actually be to you all, but I’ll try my best.”

            “We appreciate any help we can get.” Junmyeon said, and earnest look on his face. “We really need it.”

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Ahh first chapter is done!! I hope it was easy to follow enough (even with so many characters!!) Let me know what you think! And if you want little bios of each character in the foreward I was thinking of doing that too, if it would be helpful. Anyways~~ thank you everyone for subscribing!!! I hope to write the next chapter soon!