Kyungsoo - 12

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86. More Time Changes, Less We Do

Two things were noticeable immediately – the happiness shining from Minho and Eunha’s faces and the large, bugged-out eyes of the young boy standing between them on our doorstep. I could hear Sehun’s loud whisper of “Minho Uncle has found a perfect match of himself.” The elders and the older kids laughed on hearing him, but thankfully kept their laughter muted not wishing to scare the new addition to our family.

Fortunately, common sense prevailed and we guided the new family to sit in one corner of the living room, instead of the center. Most of the family was gently moved away from them, and not-so-gently in the case of Baekhyun, Taeyong, Jungkook and Chen. Yixing stood in the most vantage point, which was on top of a corner coffee table, and was busy recording the events to share via live stream with others. Donghae ‘entrusted’ Baekkie and Chen with the task of creating a short recording of each of our introduction on Baekkie’s phone, with the sole purpose of keeping them busy and away from our new family member. Sooyoung decided that her youngest sibling couldn’t be entrusted with such an important task and self-appointed herself as his supervisor, leading to much bickering between the two with Chen obviously aligning with Baekhyun.

Kyungsoo sat silently between his new parents and stared wide-eyed at the not-so-organized mayhem that was our living room. Before any introductions could be made, our doorbell rang again and Kibum rushed to answer it exclaiming loudly, “Thank the dear Lord that they are here and I won’t have to repeat anything and everything tomorrow.” Controlling their visible curiosity, Minseok and Junmyeon moved in to sit with Taemin and Siwon, while their wives moved to sit with Hyemi noona after setting the food they’d brought with them in the kitchen.

We decided to introduce only a few of us to Kyungsoo initially so as to not overwhelm him further. A silent agreement on keeping the introductions limited to mix-gender families was reached without anyone having to actually voice it. To this effect, Minx and Sehun and their kids were pushed to approach the new family. Kai and Amber moved subtly to stand in front of Jaejoong and Yunho who once again had one hand in each other’s back pocket. Minho smiled widely at Minx and Kyungsoo stopped looking around the room to focus on the people standing in front of him.

Minx grinned at the boy and bent to pull his cheeks, “Welcome to the family! I am your oldest sister, Hyunjin. But everyone prefers to call me Minx. Be good to me if you want to eat good food.” Her last words were accompanied by a wink. Kyungsoo just gulped while he bowed and rubbed his cheeks, all the time staring silently at his now-oldest sibling.

Sehun put his hand out in welcome to Kyungsoo. When the younger boy shook it, Sehun pulled him up from his seat and wrapped an arm around his thin shoulders. Knowing that his poker looks could scare the young boy, Sehun was quick to smile widely in greeting, “Welcome! I am Sehun, your Minx noona’s husband and father to her three brats. You can come to me any time you want sanity from this insane family.”

Kyungsoo nodded and whispered out a soft “hello” in return. Taeyong took hold of his hand and began shaking it vigorously in a parody of his father’s handshake, “Samchon, I am Taeyong, youngest of the said three brats.” Kyungsoo’s eyes widened once again on hearing himself addressed as ‘uncle’ by a boy nearly his age. From the other side of the room, we could hear Baekhyun begin his loud chuckling, “Lay hyung, we have another member in our ‘samchon club’. Wonder whether he’ll be the only one of us to be called samchon. And to think, he is only two years older than little Taetae calling him samchon.”

Taeyong immediately lost interest in his new uncle and went to Baekhyun to climb on his back, “Bacon samchon, you are only three years older than me but I will be soon three inches taller than you. We will then call you our ‘small samchon’.” This made Baekkie squeak in protest, “No way! I will also grow and you will never be taller than me, Taetae.” We tuned out rest of their bickering to focus on Kyungsoo again.

Sehun had guided him to meet Kai and Amber. After one timid look at Kai, Kyungsoo couldn’t stop frequently looking at him, albeit as discreetly as possible. His eyes bugged out again, so much like Minho, when he caught sight of the younger couple behind Kai and Amber. He did not miss the way Jaejoong and Yunho winked at him together. Embarrassed by their winks and obvious display of love for each other, Kyungsoo again focused on Kai, only to quickly look towards Amber. He bowed to the older couple and mumbled a greeting.

Soo was more concerned than any of us and loudly corrected her younger son, “Joongie, behave or I will send you home without dinner and cake.”

Yunho laughed and pulled Jaejoong closer still, “Si-omonim, you cannot have the dinner party without the birthday boy.” Joongie pecked his cheek to reward him for his defense.

Soo pouted and whined, completely forgetting her original grouse with the younger couple, “Yunho, I am too young to be a mother-in-law. Wait till you get married before you call me that.”

Junsu laughed at his mother’s words and jumped into the fray to side with his almost-brother-in-law, “Mom, can Chunnie call you si-omonim? We are engaged after all.”

Hyemi noona went to Soo and pulled her cheeks, “Now you know how I felt when Sehunnie married. Give in gracefully or they will tease you even more.” She then faced the boys and advised, “Do not tease your mother or she will deliberately delay your weddings. At his age, your father is more suited to the title of father-in-law for now.”

Leeteuk raised his hand and waved it in good cheer at his sons and future sons-in-law. He grinned at no one in particular, “Everyone else is umma or appa and I am going to be called si-abonim? Hmmm, why not? Because Joongie has behaved reasonably well till now, I will grant this wish.” Joongie smiled happily at his father and promptly proved him wrong, “Appa, can we get engaged on Yunho’s birthday?” Leeteuk nodded in agreement making his younger son jump in cheer only to deflate on hearing his father, “Sure, why not? You can get engaged on Yunho’s birthday in 2035.”

Yunho quickly covered Joongie’s mouth with his hand and began whispering comforting words in his ear. Jaejoong glared mutinously at his father and turned around to face Yunho. He removed the hand covering his mouth, gave the older boy a quick kiss and grumbled loudly, “These dried up prunes do not understand the passion of youth. They are forced into monkhood due to age and believe in punishing us to live like them.”

Well, the only person startled by Jaejoong’s proclamation was our new addition, Kyungsoo. The rest of us laughed it away as it was neither the first not the last time that Soo’s youngest would amuse us with his unsuccessful mutiny. Amber dug her elbow in Jaejoong’s side and laughingly admonished, “Baby Joongie, are you forgetting that this punishment was set by us? More importantly, behave yourself tonight at least for the sake of Minho Uncle’s new son. Don’t have to show him what a whiner you are, within the very first hour.”

Jaejoong quickly separated himself from Yunho and offered his hand to Kyungsoo who looked quite unable to bring his eyes back to their size. Donghae snickered, “Minho, he really has your eye expressions,” making it difficult for many of us to control our laughter. Joongie ignored Donghae’s teasing of Minho and went on to introduce himself to the newest lost lamb, “Hi, Kyungsoo! I am Jaejoong hyung and this is my nearly husband – Yunho. If you like anyone, doesn’t matter whether it’s a girl or a boy, come to me and I will help set you up. Rest of this group is really useless in the matters of heart. Sehun hyung may help you a little bit but Kai hyung is too scared of his gun-toting wife to help you any.” Kyungsoo could only stare at the older teen who was quite cheerfully giving his perspective.

Jaejoong, his right hand still holding onto Kyungsoo’s, led the younger boy to where Junsu and Yoochun were standing a respectable distance from each other. Yunho followed the two as if bound by an invisible thread to Jaejoong. Junsu and Yoochun smiled at Kyungsoo and waved a greeting when Jaejoong introduced them, “This is my baby, Junsu, and his fiancé Yoochun. Never ever go to either of them for any love advice. Both are absolutely useless at confessions, dating and making out.” Kyungsoo’s eyes went impossibly wide on hearing that introduction. Junsu and Yoochun laughed and nodded in agreement.

Eunha squeaked in worry, “Someone rescue him, or he will run away any second!”

Heechul cackled from somewhere in the room, “Stop squawking nonsense, Eunha! He is perfectly fine. If you wanted him sane, you shouldn’t have mentioned about him during this dinner. Should have simply brought him home quietly when it was the two of you and then invited each of us separately for intro. But it’s too late for that now. Fat is already in the fire. By the way, Simba, am I getting fat around the middle? I couldn’t fit into my wedding tux anymore.” We heard Siwon’s murmur something too softly for us to catch, most probably calming his hyper Cinderella down.

“Hee oppa, what were you doing wearing your wedding tux? Trying to remember your heydays?” Jiyeon took a jibe at Heechul whose annoyed denial was again silenced by Siwon’s soothing murmurs.

Jaejoong had led Kyungsoo to the younger kids by then and was introducing each one by name. He deliberately left out the relationships so as to not confuse the boy any more than he already was. Kyungsoo’s eyes had lost their shock and we caught him glancing over at Kai more than once during the introductions. Yunho surreptitiously moved to block Kai from the young boy’s sight. Our suspicions were confirmed when Kyungsoo changed his position to keep Kai in his view. Yunho and Jaejoong caught it and grinned at each other.

Baekhyun took over from Jaejoong and assured Kyungsoo, “Don’t worry about remembering who’s who. We will give you a video introduction of each person present in the room. You can take your time getting to know them and how to get what you want from each of them. Did you know that Hyukkie samchon can come in very handy when you want to approach Hae appa for something? It is very easy to get Hae appa to give you all the dirt on any one in your school who troubles you. If you want anything hacked, come to my father. If you want something that everyone else is refusing to give you, then the person to appeal to is Puppy appa. Even your parents will agree to what he says. And if Puppy appa says no to you then go pester, wait forget I said that word, I meant you should go and beg Ummappa. He is a er for pestering.” When Kyungsoo looked at him oddly, Baekhyun realized his Freudian slip, “No, no, I mean begging. He is a er for begging. Ummappa really cannot deny us anything if we beg him enough for it.”

Kyungsoo found his voice finally, “That sounds like pestering.”

Baekkie nodded, “I know, but we don’t like to call it that. So we beg. Yes, we beg and he gives it to us. I got these new sneakers on my birthday in March even though my mother had warned everyone to not gift me these because I had given her more headaches in the last year than ever before. So I pestered, ummm, begged Ummappa for them and promised him my eternal obedience and he got me the sneakers. Yeah, you should also remember that Ummappa is also a er for promises. But don’t let him catch you breaking any promise, then there will be hell to pay. He doesn’t realize that I promised my eternal obedience to him, not to anyone else.” Baekhyun gleefully chuckled at his victory over me.

Hearing his words, Puppy and I silent laughed. We knew what he was doing while he made us his promise, but at least there was one of us he would willingly listen to. Where Baekhyun was concerned, that was the best we could hope for.

Minho cautioned Jiyeon, “Better make sure that your youngest does not corrupt my youngest.” Jiyeon looked at the young teens with a warm smile, “Kyungsoo can do with some corruption. He looks too sober for his age. Lay and Junsu are there to straighten him out if need be. Once he learns more about our family, there will be no reason for him to err in the wrong way. A little mischief never does any kid any harm.”

Kibum decided it was time for dinner and cake and Duckie exclaimed happily thinking of Heechul’s awful tofu stew. During dinner, Chanyeol sat next to Minseok and began talking to him about the security firm his organization employed. Very soon, he had wrangled out details of whom to contact in the head office about hiring the services of Dragon Security. Minseok also promised Beagle to give him more references of other companies and organizations. No wonder Dragon Security was doing so well, they left no opportunity to drum up more business.

With different conversations flowing joyfully around the table, it was a night of celebrations. Byond and Duckie were going to have twins. Jaejoong was nineteen. Minho and Eunha were finally parents. Kyungsoo was no longer shocked by anything he saw or heard.

When it was time to cut the birthday cake, as Jaejoong bent to blow out the candles, Lay and Baekkie suddenly pushed his head into the cake. With a loud yelp, Joongie surfaced with his face covered with blue icing. Yunho promptly leaned forward to his cheek. Kyungsoo captured the moments on the camera. Jaejoong caught both Lay and Baekkie and rubbed his face on their faces to spread the sticky joy around. The younger kids watched these antics and laughed holding their stomachs. Ji wanted to scold her boys but Soo held her back and motioned to Amber to get the actual cake from the kitchen.

Learning from our past dunkings into the cake on every birthday, Soo had prepared for Jaejoong in advance by bringing out a small cake first for ritual sacrifice. We saw a three-tier cake get wheeled out by Minx with Amber keeping watch over it to prevent any further mischief. By the time cake was cut and eaten with no further mishap to it, there was definitely a lot more icing decorating Joongie’s face.

Kyungsoo had by then somewhat settled with our teenagers of different ages. He did appear to have a problem with Baekhyun who talked non-stop no matter who was by his side. Kyungsoo kept his distance from all us elders, including his parents. He physically migrated towards Junsu and Jaejoong whose quiet and constant soft laughter he found comforting. His eyes did wander a lot towards Kai throughout dinner and cake eating. He found Ren fascinating but did not look in any way concerned about his gender-bending dressing. He did like the fact that music was a big part of some of the kids. They made plans to meet for a session together when Yixing discovered Kyungsoo’s singing ability during our family’s own version of birthday song.

Before the celebrations were over, Chanyeol and Ji became the last to give Jaejoong his birthday gift. Like the other gifts given before, Joongie did not wait to tear off the wrapping paper and on seeing what was in the small box he jumped for a good five minutes before calming down enough to thank his aunt and uncle by hugging the couple tightly. We were not surprised by his actions because the contents were already known to us. Joongie next embraced Yunho and lifted the older boy’s left hand to clasp one of the platinum couple bracelets on his wrist. Yunho took the other bracelet and put it on Joongie’s right wrist. As the two kissed each cheek of Jiyeon, Ren loudly asked, “Does it mean they are now engaged to marry? Have the bracelets replaced rings? I want to have a pink diamond bracelet when it’s my turn. Can you make the metal black? I think I would like that over this white one.”

Chen and Junsu’s laughter was the loudest amongst us. Yixing put a hand over Baekkie’s mouth to stop the younger one into starting another monolog and that began a scuffle between the brothers. Sooyoung and Irene just wanted to admire the simple jewelry and caught hold of couple’s hands. Hyukkie and Sehun pulled the fighting boys apart. Beagle softly scolded his eldest, leaving the youngest under the care of Donghae.

Heechul went into the kitchen to fulfil another food request of Duckie. We couldn’t fathom how Duckie could stomach his cooking during her pregnancy. Kibum snickered, “That’s exactly the reason, Jinki hyung. This is payback for Amber wanting only you to cook for her.” Puppy moaned, “Oh God! Yeobo, we are going to have very, very weird ducklings.” Siwon looked around to make sure that his husband was not there to hear us once again tear his cooking skills to shreds. Taemin laughed uncontrollably and ribbed Siwon for being hen-pecked.

Minho warned Kyungsoo, “You’ll do well to avoid eating anything cooked by Heechul or you are going to end up getting poisoned.” Heechul responded from the kitchen, “I heard that Minho! Remember you are too old to survive a kick from me. Do you want to die before you even get to enjoy one day with your son?” Hearing that, not only did Kyungsoo’s eyes opened wide, but also his mouth. He looked worriedly towards the kitchen, wondering if in our crazy family such threats were implemented immediately and he would be minus his new father before he even became comfortable calling him ‘aboji’.

Minx patted her new brother’s back soothingly while her voice was anything but that when she loudly scolded Heechul, “Don’t scare away Kyungsoo, Hee umma. I don’t want to go back to being Minho appa’s heir. I will never hear the end of it from Puppy appa then.”

Minho muttered under his breath at the same time, “Out of all the criticism of his cooking just now, all he heard was mine. And I spoke softer than Key. How could he hear me above Tae’s laughter? Eunha, are we making the right decision in staying the night here?”

Junmyeon began laughing on hearing Minho, “How can you think of not going home with your new son?” Minseok nudged him to be silent. Junmyeon ignored his older brother and continued to laugh.

Minho pouted like a child, belying his silver-haired age, “I don’t want him to sleep in our guest room as his bed is still not delivered. He is my son, not a guest. He should sleep in his own room, in his own bed.” Eunha covered and softly giggled as Minho turned beseeching eyes on her.

Jonghyun went and comforted the worried man, “It’s okay, Minho. Ignore everyone. You know you are welcome to stay here any time, for as long as you want. And don’t worry, we’ll save you from Hee hyung’s kicks. Remember he is not too young himself, and is more likely to lose his balance while kicking you and sprain his back.” Puppy chuckled while saying that, causing others to imagine it as well.

Byong came and rescued Kyungsoo from hearing anymore of our ribbing, “Avoid these old fogeys for at least a week. It’s a miracle all of them are still alive and at least one of them is not yet murdered by the other. You will be safer and saner in our company.”

I sighed in relief that Kyungsoo was on the other side of the room, when Heechul briefly left the kitchen to actually try and kick Minho. Eunha quickly sat in her husband’s lap, covering his body with hers, making Heechul retract his kick in nick of time. So the annoyed Diva turned huffily to his husband. “Simba!” he whined, “Make them stop maligning my name as a cook. My food is not poisonous. You have been eating it for decades now and have not fallen sick even once. Tell them, I am a good cook.”

Siwon promptly glared at us, “Why do you always insist on making my life difficult? I don’t want to be kicked out of my own bed. I am too old to adjust to sleeping anywhere else. Come on guys, have mercy on me.”

Well, one thing was very clear. No matter how much our family size changed or aged, its members would still behave the same. We were all brats, from the youngest to the oldest. And we loved each other just as they were, no change desired or requested. Would it be more appropriate to say that barring a few, the rest of us loved each other? I laughed mentally at my own bad pun, but then my bad puns had also remained unchanged.