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85. New Addition?

“No! Absolutely Not! Our babies will not be called flappers,” Duckie faced Sehun with a pout. “Oppa, how can you call my babies ‘ugly ducklings’? I thought you loved me?”

Sehun grinned unrepentantly and squished her cheeks, “I do love you, Duckie. But we have a tradition to maintain.” Duckie gave him a wounded look and sniffled. Heechul glared at Sehun. Duckie sniffled again. And, Sehun gave in, “Alright, you win! We will just call them Duckling 1 and Duckling 2 for now.”

Duckie, the con artist, immediately stopped sniffling and beamed at him, “Just for that, Sehun oppa, you get the right to name them.” Duckie left Heechul’s lap to kiss Sehun’s cheek. “Give them good names, oppa.”

Heechul went into the kitchen to prepare the requested tofu stew, happy that his cooking skills were at last in demand.

Baekhyun approached them thoughtfully and tapped Duckie’s shoulder, “Why don’t we call them tyong one and two?” At Duckie’s puzzled look, he explained with an exaggerated sigh, “Tyong for tiny dragon. Byong tyong, you see? I think motherhood has affected your brains, noona.”

Byong interceded before the mother of his unborn babies could screech us deaf, “Bacon, there is no way we will have tiny babies. Worry about yourself first? At the rate you are growing, Duckie will remain taller than you.”

Before Baekhyun could defend himself, Minho loudly cleared his throat. Those sitting near him, including Puppy and I, looked at him while the rest continued their various conversations in different parts of the room. Minho repeated his actions, to be ignored once again. Puppy twisted in his chair and flicked Minho’s greyed head, “You have not learnt anything, Minho.” Saying this, he turned around and loudly wolf whistled, silencing everyone instantly.

In the sudden silence, Heechul’s loud squawk from the kitchen was clearly audible, “Key, leave my stew alone! My baby asked ‘me’ prepare it, not you! Don’t blame me for none of our pregnant girls wanting you to cook for them.”

Duckie interrupted his tirade, “Umma, come here! Puppy appa wants to say something.” Kibum and Heechul heeded her call without delay, digging their elbows in each other’s sides like petulant little kids.

With everyone’s attention on us, Puppy gestured to Minho to carry on. The oldest of us all, began changing color. Minho first turned pink and his blush soon turned his face and neck red. Puppy looked at me with raised brows but I was just as much unaware of the reason as he. We turned to look at Eunha who we found to be not just holding but clutching tightly onto Minho’s hand. Both husband and wife were red from their faces to their hands. By then, everyone’s curious attention was focused on the blushing couple.

Before anybody could react, Minx voiced our thoughts aloud, “Teukkie gomobu, is there anything you want to announce to the family?” When the reply was in negative, she scowled at Minho, “Don’t tell me you are divorcing her!”

Minho wordlessly shook his head while Eunha decided to speak for both of them and redeem her speechless husband’s name, “No! How can you think that of him? He is an exemplary husband to me. It’s not what you think. Just that, we don’t know how to say it.”

“With your mouth,” came immediate response from Baekhyun, earning him an ear twisting from his mother. He rubbed his ear and went to make a place for himself between Jaejoong and Yunho. Failing to separate the two older teens, he approached Junsu and Yoochun, who smiled and pulled the youngster to stand between them, wrapping a protective arm each around his shoulders and waist.  

Eunha took a deep fortifying breath and spoke quickly as if she was scared she would turn mute in the next second, “We are adopting!”

It took no more than five second for her announcement to sink in and then erupted loud cheers and chaos. Almost everyone began speaking at the same time. There was a barrage of “wow!”, “congrats!”, “when?”, “where?”, “who?”, “how?”, “anyone we know?”, “how old?”, “girl or boy?”, “we need more girls in the family!”, and all combinations of the same from different members of the family. Puppy’s loud whistle silenced everyone again.

Seeing the positive response from the family, Minho began explaining, haltingly and with much unnecessary blushing. Why he needed to blush like a new bride was beyond our comprehension. “We are adopting a 12-year-old boy who was abandoned in our hospital’s pediatric wing after a surgery, a week ago. We searched for his parents but they are not to be found anywhere. We have decided to legally adopt him. We hope he will receive lots of love from you.”

“Another boy? Don’t you think this family already has enough boys? It needs more girls? Can’t you adopt a girl?” Sooyoung began harassing the older couple. Her every question was accompanied by a nod from Irene.

Jaejoong didn’t give Minho or Eunha any chance to respond, “Don’t worry, Yunho and I will have lots of daughters to balance out our family.” Predictably, Yunho murmured, “Anything you say, babe.”

Minho and Eunha opened their phones and showed the pictures of their future son to all of us. We learnt his name to be Kyungsoo. He looked adorable and though he smiled for the camera, his eyes showed his uncertainty over his future. We fell in love with him and began harassing Minho for leaving him in the hospital. When Minho explained legal procedures were taking time, Kiwoo opened his phone to hasten the proceedings. A few well-placed calls and Minho had verbal permission to bring the boy home while the legalities were finalized.

There were even louder cheers and half the family began rushing to the door to put words into action. They were hell-bent on scaring the newest member of the family. Amber preferred to hold back Kibum and pester him to make Ren dress as a boy so as to not confuse Kyungsoo about his gender. Donghae and Siwon squeezed Minho between them and began scolding him for keeping the adoption a secret. Heechul rounded on Eunha for not informing them before about the legal issues related to adoption. Yixing, Baekkie and Irene wondered if the new family member was musically inclined.

“Thank god, he is in pre-teens!” Junsu sighed in relief. “Our diaper changing days are still months away,” Jaejoong agreed cheerfully. Both went and wrapped an arm each around Duckie and began to whine about letting them off from their punishment.

“How tall is he?” Baekyun began another line of monolog. “Is he taller than me or shorter? I don’t know when I am going to grow more? Umma and appa are so tall. May be I am a late bloomer. After all I am only thirteen. I hope he is shorter than me.”

It took a few minutes before the elders in the group-by-the-door realized how scary it would be for all of them to meet Kyungsoo before preparing him beforehand for our large and ever-increasing family. It was decided that Minho and Eunha will fetch him from the hospital and attempt to prepare him about us. Ji and Baekkie would fetch some clothes for him, in case he didn’t have sufficient and before he was taken shopping by his new parents. Minx went into the kitchen to prepare seaweed soup to welcome her new brother with.

All of us were glad that we still had not eaten our dinner yet. There was a new buzz and excitement in everyone’s voice. Hyemi noona began harassing Kiwoo again to give her more grandchildren. Sehun took pity on his brother and guided his mother to the kitchen for preparing soup along with Minx. Both of them shooed Heechul out of the kitchen, promising to finish preparing his tofu stew exactly as he instructed.

Yixing made sure our extended family was kept abreast of the new developments. Photographs of Kyungsoo were posted for all to admire and fawn over, in all parts of the world. His cheeks were virtually pulled and his smile gushed over.

Puppy and I looked around the large room and our family gathered there. We smiled at each other and showed our crossed fingers. We didn’t want to overwhelm Kyungsoo but there was no way out of it. We were what we were – an unusually large family.

Kibum was on his phone, inviting Minseok and Junmyeon to come over for dinner with their wives. With their kids grown up and settled in Australia, Kibum’s brothers and their wives were having a difficult time coping with their empty nests. Puppy hummed his approval and called to Sooyoung to set five more places on the table. Chan Yeol was busy turning down unfathomable requests from Baekhyun on behalf of all the mischief makers in the family – Chen, Taeyong and Jungkook.

Irene was trying to get Ren to give up hair bow and put up his hair in a more boyish style. Ren was resisting all her attempts in making him appear more like his gender.

Even with everyone behaving normally, there was an undercurrent of anticipation. An invisible excitement around the room. When Puppy’s phone rang with Minho informing they had reached our home, everyone became silent. Even the youngest kids were quiet, somehow understanding how important that moment was.