‘Let’s see…what am I gonna write about? What should I write?’

Introduction

“There. That should start it,” he said triumphantly, “dad said the rest should flow easy.”

He heard a snicker behind him. No doubt his brother had peeked over his shoulder and saw his laptop’s screen. He ignored the wordless ‘mockery’.

Week 1, Day 1 – Monday, January 26, 2032

            I have-

He tapped rapidly at the ‘delete’ button and pursed his lips. He heard the squeak of wheels behind him and saw, from his peripheral, his brother – in his wheeled-chair - zooming toward his bookshelf and deposited a comic book then slipped out another.

He started again.

            Like most families, mine is a normal one. What I consider normal might be different from others. Normal to me is having two dads and two brothers. I’m the youngest in my family. At least I hope so. I don’t think I want a younger sibling. Some would say this sounds selfish of me but it’s just that I’m content with how things are right now.

            So, my family is normal. Fairly ordinary is another way to put it. As this journal requires I include background information about my family, I’ll start with my parents. My parents are what I can proudly say successful people; they are an actor and a writer respectively. My parents met when they were in high school. My dad (he’s Canadian Chinese) was a part-time model then when he was eighteen and met my other dad (baba, he’s Korean) who was also trying out modeling at the time. My dad modeled because he liked it while my baba did it to earn some extra money. At least this is what my siblings and I were told. After that, they became fast friends. And after high school came college. When they went to college, my baba became interested in journalism and linguistics while my dad took two years off and became a full-time model and part-time actor. He then enrolled in the same university as my baba and studied business. In my baba’s second year, my dad proposed and they got married (in 2012). This was when my dad was twenty-two and my baba’s twenty. People might say that they married too early but it worked out well for them. Both were doing well as my dad already had a stable financial life. I can say that this is probably also due to my dad’s sufficient trust fund. His mother (nana) came from a well-off family and they were the type of people who were trained from early teen-hood to work and be independent.

He stopped. This sounded a bit off topic. Should he include this kind of stuff? It seemed too personal. He huffed as he deleted the last two sentences.  

I can say that this is probably also due to my dad’s sufficient trust fund. His mother (nana) came from a well-off family and they were the type of people who were trained from early teen to work and be independent.

A year after their marriage (in 2013), my parents adopted my eldest brother, an infant put up for adoption by an unprepared solo mother. Dad wanted a traditional Chinese name for him but baba wanted him to have an English name like Dad. In the end they named him with both to compromise. Edison Wu Zi Tao is his name. It was easy to name him with my parents’ surname (my baba took dad’s last name) because Edison’s birth mother gave up all rights and let my parents name him instead of her.

In 2015, my parents adopted my second brother, Kai Yuu Wu @ Kim Jong In. He was born in South Korea to a Japanese mother who recently lost her husband. Kai keeps his original name. He interchangeably uses ‘Wu’ or ‘Kim’ as his last name but it’s fine because both are listed as his legally. Baba named Kai ‘Jongin’ but usually only our parents use it.

I was born a year and three months after my second brother in Canada. I can proudly say that I am a test tube baby (sort of). In mid-2015, artificial wombs were perfected for mothers who want to have babies of their own, despite being sterile. I don’t know much about the details but it also allows males to carry babies to full term. My baba wanted to do it, but it was yet to be legalized in Korea so my family relocated to Canada for a while (all of us are dual citizens of Canada and South Korea). So basically, I am one of the first to be born, one of the first successful pregnancies, through this method, now world-widely known as the MPP (Meta-Pregnancy Procedure).

My brothers and I used to call our parents dad and ma but our ‘ma’ (baba) broke us out of the habit when I was around seven years old.

My brothers and I used to be homeschooled but it was only up until Edison was fourteen and we moved from Canada back to Korea.

My childhood is mostly influenced and shaped by my siblings and our parents’ supportiveness. Edison since he was young was an aggressive kid. Our parents signed him up into a lot of extracurricular activities (mostly self-defense classes) to curb him off the edge. I was similar but less violent than Eddie. Baba said Kai was the easiest baby/child among us three to handle. And he still is quite easy to get along with. My second brother, Kai is naturally a happy person and more of the shy type. Kai’s interests lies in dance and music so naturally our parents encourage him from an early age. Dad has the most influence in Kai’s development. 

To sum it up, my dad is an actor CEO of a small-time modeling company/agency and my other dad is a thriller-mystery novelist and a stay-at-home dad. Edison and Kai now are in their last and second year of high school respectively and I am a junior. My family is a pretty normal middle-class family and we pretty much do what every other family does daily-  

He abruptly stopped and yawned. Just then he realised how stiff he felt and tense that when he stretched out his arms above his head he could hear the telltale sounds of his bones cracking. He sighed in relief and rubbed his back against his cushioned chair. He was so engrossed with typing that he didn’t hear his brother snoring away behind him with an open comic book over his face.

‘I don’t think I can write ‘nymore,’ he thought.

His eyes gazed blurrily at the Word page in front of him. He yawned again and clicked full stop ending his journal entry at daily.

That’s when a clipped rap against his open bedroom door made him look away from his laptop. Sniffling, he saw his dad leaning against the doorframe. His dad was dressed in his office button-up and black slacks, with his fuzzy grey indoor slippers on.

“What are you still doing up, kid?” his dad asked. “It’s a school night, you’re way past your bed time.”

He looked at his desk’s clock and saw it was almost eleven. Weekdays’ bedtime was at nine.

Just then, his baba peeked into his room from behind his dad and smiled. “Why are you still awake?”

He almost laughed with how nosy his parents were being, how synchronized, how in tuned they were with each other. “I was doing my homework. I’m going to sleep now, just go away, you guys are nosy.”

But instead of going away, his baba stepped into his room, walked toward his snoring brother and nudged him awake. The book on his face slid down and his baba caught it. “Eddie, wake up. Come on, up! Go to your room.”

He then proceeded to slap at Kai’s exposed legs, whom he had forgotten was in his room and sprawled over his bed dead to the world, and his parent nagged at him to go sleep in his room as well. With his dad dragging a half-asleep Kai away and his baba pushing Edison out of the door, all that was left was him.

Before his baba went away, he smiled fondly at the youngest and ruffled his hair. He faked being irritated at the gesture and made his baba chuckled. His baba then smiled again and patted his cheek.

“Good night, Sehun,” he said and promptly exited the room.

Sehun smiled.

“Night, ba.” And he closed his laptop. ‘Wait a sec,’ and he promptly opened the device again.

My name is Sehun Wu Shi Xun and my parents and my two elder brothers are what I call my family.

Unwillingly, sometimes.

Satisfied, he slid the lid down and close. There might be some mistakes but oh well. He could always check his work when he was sober tomorrow anyway.     

N/A: This work is written on Jan 26, 2015. This work is fictional and is produced by the author.