When Yugyeom decided he would give up his breaks to help his hyungs out at the day-care, he wasn't expecting to become the new dad to five little persons—children, whatever. Youngjae says it's because he's so big and looks like a grown man rather than a university student, but he knows Youngjae is just bitter he doesn't need help getting stuff from the top shelves.

“Hyung, hyung help!” Yugyeom hears a voice behind him, momentarily forgetting every person he deals with from 9AM to 12PM is around four-fifths his size, and looks down. He inwardly groans.

It's little Kunpimook. Little Kunpimook from Thailand and his cute little face and big, big, big mouth. Nichkhun hyung warned Yugyeom about him, at first Yugyeom thought it was nothing—what's the worst he can do? Spill milk on me?—but he was wrong. Every time Kunpimook comes to him, an older boy by the name of Jackson is not far behind. That child, Yugyeom will never forget. Jackson's loud and kind of goofy, and is always up for jokes. Sometimes he pulls Yugyeom to the side to whisper a knock-knock joke to him or show him cool things he brought from home. Sweet kid, but awfully loud.

It was sort of cute how one came after the other, until Yugyeom realized the only reason Jackson was that close behind was Kunpimook liked to throw things. A lot.

Yugyeom plasters a smile on his face and bends down to lift Kunpimook up, grimacing at the glob of pink paint in his dark hair. (Good thing he never wears his nice floral shirts to this job.) He ignores the screeches of horror from beyond the rocking horse, knowing full well who is responsible for such noises.

“Hyung's here, what's the matter?” He makes sure to keep his head as far away without it looking weird to avoid the very wet paint on the child's head. But the world isn't smiling on him today and the child nuzzles his face into Yugyeom's neck, smearing pink paint over the underside of his face, laughing all the while.

“Nothing! Just wanna be up high so I can see hyung better!” Okay, he admits that's cute and maybe he can forgive Kunpimook for getting paint on his face. He almost forgets that any moment now Jackson's going to show up and start a screaming contest with the toddler in his arms.

From the distance Yugyeom can see Jackson with pink paint on his pants moving stuffed dolls around and checking under tables for Kunpimook, not looking very pleased. He's tempted to walk out of the room and ask Junho hyung to switch classrooms with him until a tug on his pant leg catches his attention.

One of the older kids, older than Jackson by a year and Kunpimook by two, Mark is staring up at him. Mark isn't a problem child, he's quiet, follows directions, and helps keep Jackson in line sometimes. He never really asks for much either, which Yugyeom is thankful for.

“Yes, Mark?” He wants to bend down to speak at eye-level with the boy, but Kunpimook's yelling in his ear that he wants to stay up, so Yugyeom settles for leaning down a little. Mark seems to understand as he waves to the younger boy.

“Is Jinyoung here?”

“Uh,” He looks around, trying to spot the boy Mark is looking for. Jinyoung was a kid that Yugyeom would be able to spot instantly, he smile kind of brightened up the whole room. Mark was usually with him too, so Yugyeom understands why he would ask where Jinyoung is. “I don't see him, Jaebum isn't here either. Maybe they'll be here later?”

He tries to give Mark some hope when he notices the little boy frown. “Okay, I'll wait.”

“I'm sure he'll be here soon, why don't you find Jackson?” Yugyeom ruffles Mark's hair and really hopes he takes his advice and go find Jackson. Mark nods and runs off, calling for the Chinese boy. Just in time, Yugyeom thinks, because only a second later and Jackson would've been running full force towards him and the boy in his arms.

“Hello, Youngjae hyung is here!”

“Hyung!” Surprisingly it's not the kids that greet him, but Yugyeom.

“I didn't expect you to be so excited to see me,” Youngjae laughs, looking at Yugyeom's pained expression. “You have a little, uh..” He taps the side of his face, staring at the pink on the younger's face.

“Yeah, yeah I know. Kunpimook had paint in his hair and launched himself at me,” he sighs. “Hyung help me.”

Youngjae only laughs, closing the door behind him and tugging on the little boy's hand he's holding inside. Yugyeom almost doesn't notice, tired from carrying Kunpimook around and having to calm Jackson down and withstanding the yelling that eventually did happen between the Thai and Chinese boys. Poor Mark had his hands over his ears the entire time.

“Hey—” He barely greets the boy before two voices beat him to it.

“JB!”

“Jaebum!”

Both Mark and Jackson run towards the door, nearly bowling Yugyeom and Youngjae over to greet their friend. Kunpimook makes his way over too, not liking that his two friends abandoned him.

Right, Jaebum, how could Yugyeom forget. He's one of the older kids too, same age as Jackson, but a lot more mature. Sometimes he wondered if Jaebum really was a five year old with the way he just commands the other kids. He's going to grow up to be a leader, Yugyeom thinks. Usually he's the one to calm Jackson down or suggest to do things, and their little group of Mark, Jackson, Kunpimook, and Jinyoung all listen to him. Well, now that Yugyeom thinks about it, Jinyoung listens to Jaebum and because Jinyoung listens Mark listens too. A bunch of toddlers' relationships is probably more complicated than his will ever be. Yugyeom's the youngest out of the workers at the day-care so by default he has to listen to everyone and that's the end of it.

Oh how he wishes he was a child again.

“Hey guys,” Jaebum greets, letting go of Youngjae's hands and going over to the blocks.

“He's rather late today,” Yugyeom comments, watching the four of them pile blocks up and burst out in giggles when it falls over. Jackson seems to have forgotten about Kunpimook throwing a block at him.

“Yeah, I was just talking to his mom before,” Youngjae says, pulling Yugyeom towards the sink at the back of the room. Well, Yugyeom guesses he's still kind of a child with the way his hyungs take care of him. Youngjae wets a paper towel before he starts gently rubbing away at the paint on his face. He thinks they paint a funny picture, considering Yugyeom's taller, but he doesn't mind because it's Youngjae. “Jaebum was waiting for Jinyoung, but he never came out. Turns out Jinyoung got sick so he's staying home.”

“Mark's not going to be happy,” Yugyeom blurts out, thinking about how the boy asked him earlier about Jinyoung.

“Can't fight sickness, Jaebum wasn't that happy either. I didn't know they were neighbors.”

“Really?” Youngjae tsks when Yugyeom moves, making him miss the last bit of pink on his face. His face is a little red from the rubbing, but at least most of the paint is off. He didn't have time to do it himself since he had to help Kunpimook get it out of his hair before Youngjae came in.

“Yeah, they come in together, don't you notice?”

Yugyeom shrugs. He's usually busy dealing with the kids that arrive super early to notice when others come in.

“Well you should, their group seems to like you a lot,” Youngjae mentions, throwing the towel out and wiping the excess water off his hands on Yugyeom's sleeve. (He makes a noise of protest, but it falls on deaf ears.)

“Yeah, well you're lucky Jaebummie told them why Jinyoung's not here today or I would've made you break the news to them.”

Jinyoung isn't back the next day either.

Jinyoung definitely makes his list of top five kids, sure there are other kids that didn't cause problems and easy to get a long with, but little Park Jinyoung is like that kid you wish was your little brother. He smiled a lot and it made a lot of the other kids smile too. He noticed Jinyoung held hands a lot, outside of the buddy system they had. It calmed other kids down and made them happy when someone else was with them, he guesses. Or at least Mark was always super smiley when they held hands. (It's a lot.)

And it was really hard not to cave when he acts cute to get an extra cookie during snack time or something. Yugyeom can see why the other four hang around him so much.

“Jinyoung's still sick, but he'll come back soon. Cheer up guys,” Yugyeom tries, kneeling down by the four boys who opted to just lay around on the carpet staring at the ceiling. He knows that feeling of just not wanting to do anything, he does the same thing when school is in session. “Come on, me and Youngjae hyung will play monopoly with you!”

“Monopoly's only four people, hyung,” Kunpimook moans. “I wanna play with Jinyoungie.”

“Me too,” Mark adds, pouting. Mark never pouts. Ever. This is already on dangerous levels of weird. “I miss Jinyoungie.”

“Mama says I can't visit him either. Why did he get sick?” Jaebum asks, turning his head to look at Yugyeom. Because when sicknesses attack your body, your immune system has to fight it off, but if your immune system is weak, then you'll get sick, is what he wants to say.

“Because it's almost winter, right? Jinyoung got cold so that's why he has to stay home and get all warmed up before he can come back,” he makes it up and hopes that they'll buy it. Yugyeom doesn't want to lie, but if he explained it, they probably wouldn't get it or cry. Or both. Yugyeom can only handle so many crying children before he starts crying and running to his hyungs.

“Oh.” Jackson is surprisingly quiet and it scares Yugyeom a little bit. Him of all kids, should not be laying around on the ground moping. He isn't even phased when Yugyeom ruffles up his hair—usually he makes a fuss about it and yells that he messed up his hair and now he's never going to look like the cool hyung on TV.

“They really miss Jinyoung,” Youngjae whispers to him when they're both off in the corner supervising the kids during snack time, munching on animal crackers and sipping dinky little apple juice boxes.

“Yeah,” Yugyeom says, “I miss him too.”

“Hi!”

Yugyeom turns around to see a little boy, his hat pulled down so much his hair blocks his eyes, but Yugyeom would recognize those little crescents and the little wrinkles that appeared around them anywhere.

“Jinyoungie!” He exclaims, lifting the little boy up, smiling at the giggles that came from him. He laughs at the smiley mouth mask Jinyoung has, and asks him why he's here so early.

“Wanted to see hyung and my friends! It was soooo boring at home,” the boy whines. “Did you miss me?”

A hand reaches out and pats him on the head, “Of course we did. Yugyeomie hyung was so sad without you~”

“Yeah, Youngjae hyung almost cried~” He sticks his tongue out at his hyung that appeared out of nowhere. Jinyoung just giggles.

“I love you, hyungs!”

Yugyeom watches as one by one Jaebum, Jackson, Mark, and Kunpimook come in and slowly notice Jinyoung is back. There's a lot of hugging and yelling that they can all play together again, and a few comments about the cool mask he has to wear. He laughs and calls Youngjae over when out of nowhere Mark takes Jinyoung by the hand and drags him to the cubbies where they put all their belongings. The two watch from behind the bookshelf to see Mark take out his scarf from his cubby and wrap it around a surprised looking Jinyoung.

“So you won't be cold,” the two of them hear him say. Yugyeom almost doubles over, clutching his heart—that's cute. Youngjae almost hits him over the head for making a scene.

Jinyoung smiles and holds Mark's hand, walking back together to where the other three were.

“My heart, help me hyung.”

“I'll always help you, dummy. You don't even need to ask.”

is there implied youngjae/yugyeom?? maybe