CHAPTER III.

"Real Care Baby engages users by:

- Crying to be fed, burped, rocked or changed"

The fun didn’t end there. After crawling to his room from the car, Taeyong had fallen asleep at exactly 6:03 PM due to the physical and mental drainage from school. He had carelessly dumped his baby carrier in the living room in hopes that the housekeeper or his mother would get the message and channel their inner mother.

Things didn’t go to plan.

After groggily waking up at two in the morning and cursing himself for ing up his sleep schedule it took him quite a while to come to the cold realization.

Where was his baby?

Of course, it took him about fifteen minutes of rummaging through the pantry in pursuit of food for him to realize; oh , he was a parent. Whilst he dug through a cabinet for food, a box of blueberry muffins sat at the table, taunting him. Taeyong sighed helplessly, if only he hadn't let Joy do all the work 99.99% of the time and actually learned how to cook.

As Taeyong opened a jar of Nutella since he really didn't want to eat a blueberry muffin to quench his hunger; his mother surprised him. The bewildered expression on her face was obviously present despite the crackly, brown mud face mask she had applied onto her face. He Nutella off his finger then smiled brightly at his mother after realizing that it wasn't the brown-faced boogeyman, but rather his mother obsessed with skincare and her youth of wrinkle-free skin.

“Taeyong-ah?” Mrs. Lee asked cautiously, creasing her eyebrows at the sight before her. It wasn’t every day that she witnessed Taeyong (who had an odd obsession with Febreze ever since he was ten years old) to binge at two in the morning on Nutella. She sighed, then crossed her arms together resisting the urge to rub her temples in annoyance.

Not like it was the first time she did encounter someone binging in the kitchen at two in the morning.

Taeyong grinned toothily, “Oh, mom!” He greeted her happily, “Could you make me some food?”

Okay, so apparently he wasn’t the quietest at looking for food and while he was searching for food in the pantry not so discreetly he had woken up his poor mother. 

She sighed heavily at his request, as she pointed dully at the blueberry muffins she had bought the day before.

"Are you blind, Taeyong?" His mother commented as she pointed at the sticky note she had attached to it.

"I have a phobia of those," Taeyong replied sheepishly.

His mother glared at him in response. It was too early for Mrs. Lee to deal with this. 

“Okay, Taeyong,” Mrs. Lee carefully poured out boiling water from a kettle into a bowl of instant noodles, “Just wait five minutes, okay?” She rubbed her eyes as she set down the bowl in front of him, then sluggishly started to walk away to her room.

He pouted childishly at the bowl of instant noodles, “Can’t you make me something else?” He whined as he tapped his chopsticks against the table, a cringe-worthy expression on his face. He hadn’t eaten since lunchtime the other day. The second-hand embarrassment he had gained from his outburst at lunch rendered him only able to eat a quarter of his meal.

Mrs. Lee ignored his pleas with an eye roll, instead starting to complain about thing Taeyong had brought home the day before, “Do you know how stressful that doll was?” She responded grumpily, combing through her curly, graying hair with her fingers, “It took your sister and me five hours to shut it up!” Mrs. Lee shuddered at the memory of the ear-piercing screams that were reminiscent of when her children were babies. 

She sighed wistfully at the notice that had been mailed to her from Ms. Park the other day titled, “The Baby Project Parent Debrief” and took a sharp breath of air to calm her haywire nerves. "Don't you know how to toast bread?" She groaned to herself. It was Taeyong, she was talking about here. She side-glanced at him as realization flashed through Taeyong's face.

“Wait, where’s Ten Junior?” Taeyong gaped at his mother as it all came flooding in as cold realization.

I’m a parent, I have a child, I burned the muffins, I killed the oven, I embarrassed myself in front of everyone, I have a really cute partner-

Mrs. Lee narrowed her eyes at her soon, double-knotting her floral robe and pulling her hair into a bun, “You named your child…” She cried dubiously, “Ten Junior?!” Who would name their baby after a number? Scratch that, who was Ten Senior?

Taeyong laughed sheepishly, swiftly jumping out of the dining chair and leaping out the kitchen, “Where is she?!” He called out as he clambered up the marble staircase, holding onto the railing for his dear life.

“Check your sister’s room!” His mother grumpily stomped away to her room as she responded, already positioning her eye mask above her eyes. She cursed to herself, making a personal memo in her head to issue a complaint to the Board of Education the minute the office opened. How would a baby simulator ever help her child get into college?

Taeyong took in a sharp breath of air as he stopped in front of a door with a pink, flowery label titled "Dukseon's Room" stuck to the front, he cautiously peeked through a crack from his little sister’s door.

As per usual, the sight wasn't pretty.

Enter Dukseon Lee, a tiny five-year-old who liked to take spontaneous naps and was notorious among her family for wrecking everything in her possession. Rewind to the numerous toys she had ruthlessly wrecked in the past; whether it would be Baby Alives, Teletubbies, Barbies, Polly Pockets and much more, they all eventually faced their demise within a week.

Sure, she was incredibly bright and had been countlessly recommended by her teachers to skip a grade or two but Taeyong wouldn’t be surprised if she turned out to be some crazy psychopath of a murderer once she grew up judging by her obsessive interest in crime documentaries, medical dramas, and horror movies. 

Said child looked up innocently as he slowly creaked open the door. Her chocolate doe eyes blinked unknowingly at him once she broke away her gaze from the baby simulator in front of her. He turned to the clock that had read three o'clock, he was fairly certain that children this age weren’t supposed to be awake before sunrise.

Dukseon sat criss-cross applesauce across Ten Junior, who was lying down on an American Girl doll bed that if he wasn’t hallucinating, resembled a surgery table. The owner of that bed was thrown to the side, stripped off her clothes and a majority of her hair had been ripped off. The poor doll. His eyes turned to the decapitated baby heads that lined the shelves of Dukseon's room.

He just couldn't let that happen to Ten Junior.

“Hi, Oppa!” Dukseon called out excitedly as she smeared makeup onto Ten Junior, she smiled proudly at Taeyong, showcasing her two missing front teeth.

Dukseon had apparently taken it upon herself to fetch their mother’s makeup bag and pick out the most vibrant, pigmented lipstick Mrs. Lee owned and skillfully draw onto Ten Junior’s face and body. What was even more frightening was that her of lipstick strikingly resembled that of cut marks and bleeding.

He watched on with horror as he took in the mini setup that surrounded his little sister. A blowdryer? Okay, that seemed somewhat normal. A pair of scissors? Caution was already settling in at an even faster rate that it was before. A bottle of bleach? Yup. Taeyong had to pull the plug at this point.

Taeyong carefully crept over to his sister, already reaching out his hands to retrieve his child.

Dukseon opened in protest, quivering in response, “No!” She cried out desperately, clutching Ten Junior to her arms and the baby’s hair, “This is my new victim!”

Her brother stared at her strangely (because, victim?) but then quickly regained his composure, “No,” He attempted to pull out Ten Junior from her tight grasp, “This is my grade!” He writhed in pain as he pried the baby out of her pudgy claw-like hands.

Blame his pain on Dukseon for biting him. Despite missing her two most crucial teeth, she had managed to leave bite marks on her older brother's hand. She threateningly bared her teeth at him, causing shivers to run down his spine. Preschoolers really shouldn't have this much power over people.

“Taeyong-Oppa!” She yelled angrily, scratching at his arms, her face was already stricken with tears, “You can’t take her away from me!”

“Ah, Dukseon. You don’t understand-”

“I don’t need to understand! She. Is. Mine!”

“No, my whole love life and home ec grade depend on this…”

“I don’t care!”

“I’ll buy you a liter of banana milk and a new toy!” 

Dukseon paused abruptly, straightening her shoulders out of her animalistic slouch and smiled at her brother, “Well…” She pondered for a few seconds, tapping her tiny foot against the carpet, “I did have my sights set on that new Baby Alive but mother said I decapitated too many dolls this month…”

Taeyong smiled at her as he hastily nodded, relief flooding through his veins as he retrieved the baby bag from the little child’s bed.

“And don’t get me that disgusting cheap, boxed banana milk…” 

He nodded enthusiastically as he cautiously backed away from her room. Which, ironically, was decorated with pink flowers and Buddhist quotes.

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Taeyong blanched at the thought of the soggy ramen he had been forced to eat for breakfast this morning. He sighed earnestly as he replayed his morning to Jaehyun, “And here, Dukseon was coloring Ten Junior with the blood of her past victims..”

Jaehyun cackled in response once Taeyong had finished his tale of psycho preschoolers and banana milk, “Your baby still has stains on her clothes…” He gestured to Ten Junior’s disarray footsies that still had remnants of red, "Won't Ten get mad?"

Speak of the devil.

“Taeyong-hyung!” A familiar, sweet high-pitched voice called out to him accompanied with the murmurs of a certain American-Korean giant.

Taeyong turned around excitedly, rocking Ten Junior in his hands as he greeted Ten (and Johnny) with a cautious smile. He suspiciously took in the sight of Ten and Johnny. Why were they walking together? 

“Hi,” He blew his bangs away from his eyes. Due to the extra time he had from waking up at two in the morning, it had allowed him to take a little bit more care to his hair. Not that he wanted to look good for his partner or anything.

Who was he kidding? He was hot no matter what.

“Oh! How’s my little Junior!” Ten cooed happily as he gently picked his baby from Taeyong’s hand, his eyes lighting up at the sight of her, already ignoring Taeyong.

Taeyong smiled sheepishly but straightened his shoulders and took mind to his voice to make sure he sounded somewhat aloof, “So, funny story-”

“Why is there blood on her onesie?” Johnny peered over Ten’s shoulder with ease, taking the words right out of Taeyong's mouth, his eyes set on Ten Junior’s clothes. He laughed half-heartedly, but if Taeyong’s ears didn’t lie…

“It’s just makeup,” Taeyong explained to an amused Ten, “My little sister loves playing with toys…” He pulled out his hand eagerly to show Ten. A growing scab was forming on little Dukseon's bite mark.

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Taeyong didn’t ignore the far too casual arm that Johnny had slung over Ten as the conversations between him, Jaehyun, Ten and Johnny turned casual. Johnny seemed to smile at Taeyong smugly (or maybe he was just being paranoid?) as Ten explained to them why he was walking with Johnny, “Johnny lives in the same dorm building as me.”

“How nice.” Taeyong drawled out. He turned his head slightly to show Jaehyun a roll of his eyes but then resisted the urge to laugh at the current state of Jaehyun who was furiously tapping against his phone with a clear, frightened expression on his face.

Jaehyun face morphed into a frightful expression at the sight of a particular girl, “Hey,” He craned his neck to the side, “I’ll catch you later, Yeri is here.” He pointedly gestured his head to his partner who was currently stomping to him with a baby carrier in her hand and a bitter expression on her face.

Ten waved to Jaehyun as he sprinted away from Yeri then casually slid Johnny’s arm off him, this action didn’t go unnoticed by Taeyong who smiled to himself. That’s right, my arm should be around your shoulder. Johnny pouted in response, stretching his arms to mask the second-hand embarrassment of how Ten had shrugged him off.

The warning bell then decided to go off, which signaled the five minutes left before class.

“Bye! Taeyong and I better head off to class now.” He tugged on Taeyong’s sleeve with his left hand as he carried Ten Junior in his other hand. Taeyong resisted the urge to stick out his tongue at Johnny and wallow in glee as Johnny stared at Taeyong’s arm with a sour expression. 

Everything was going swell for the both of them as they headed to class until a certain baby from wherever had started to cry.

And apparently, once a baby started crying, it caused a domino effect and any other baby within a 10-foot radius would start to rapidly cry as well. The whole hallway was flooded with an onslaught of loud crying, students shuffling to shut up their baby and the occasional laugh from students who didn't have to do this stupid, stupid project.

Ten sighed as he coolly shut up Ten Junior with a plop of a bottle into , “I have no idea how I’ll survive with an actual baby.”

Taeyong stretched his arms out, snugly draping his arm around Ten's shoulders, “C’mon.” He dragged Ten to their classroom, “I don’t wanna miss another pregnancy video.”

For students with The Baby Project, babies were programmed to automatically turn off during school hours.

However, luck wasn’t in Taeyong and Ten’s favor when Ten Junior continued to wail. Taeyong casually re-adjusted his arm on Ten's narrow shoulders while Ten fumbled with the baby in his hands.

Maybe blueberry muffins weren't that bad.

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Author's Note: yeee I was pretty busy this week. I'm not really satisfied with how the chapter turned out but I wanted to at least update
edit: 06/05/16 i just proofread it holy moly i'm sorry to anyone who read this before i edited it. can anyone recommend me to some good beta-readers?
Special thanks to: nctdaebak, diamondapple and lovelyredflowers for upvoting! you guys are awesome! <3