Seungcheol’s life isn’t exactly hard. He isn’t crippled and dependent. Instead, he’s the opposite of dependent. He can’t exactly depend on much people when he has big responsibility, 3 big responsibility. 3 big responsibility, as in 3 kids. Or basically being a legal guardian of 3 kids. 3 kids who aren’t even his. His first and third oldest kids, Wonwoo and Vernon, are from Seungcheol’s bestfriend and wife who decided that they aren’t ready to care for a kid, much less two. Screw his friend for making him take such a big burden of having two kids. Seungcheol isn’t exactly sure where the second oldest one come from. Mingyu, the second kid, is actually found inside a box right outside Seungcheol’s front door, along with Mingyu’s birth certificate and adoption papers. Such a burden. Ok so maybe they aren’t much of a burden, they’re more like burden relievers, or the likes, kind of painkillers towards pain kind of thing. They lift the burden of life from Seungcheol with their enthusiasm and bright smiles, as bright Mingyu can be with his dark skin or Wonwoo’s rare smile hiding behind his clothes collar or Vernon’s confused unsure smile whenever he doesn’t pay attention. They, the three kids or his three kids, are Seungcheol’s safe haven. Seungcheol would always get excited about finishing his work for that means that he’s going to pick up his sons or kids as Seungcheol would prefer, and the car will filled with a foul scent from whatever game or sport, whatever sweat or dirt that they have achieve at school.

Jeonghan's life isn’t exactly dull. Instead, it's hard to have a dull life when you have 4 kids to take care of. 4 kids is a large number for a single parent. It is in a way overwhelming, very overwhelming actually. But Jeonghan isn’t complaining, because they're his kids. Technically the 4 of them weren’t his kids, but biology isn’t anything for them. The oldest of the four, Joshua, and the second oldest, Jihoon, are the only one who are blood related to him, although barely. Joshua is actually Jeonghan’s aunt's son, and at the age of four Joshua's parents ended in a car crash so Joshua was entrusted to Jeonghan's mom. Since Jeonghan's mom is an irresponsible mother, Jeonghan ended up taking care of little Joshua. The second one, Jihoon, is actually Jeonghan’s brother. Jihoon is technically the result of Jeonghan’s mother ‘irresponsibility’ slash -like behavior. So Jihoon become part of the family 5 months after Joshua come. About his other two kids, when Joshua and Jihoon has reached the age of 10 and 6 respectively, one of Jeonghan’s ex-girlfriend call him to meet up. When he got there at the designated time, he wasn’t exactly expecting to be given two boys with high enthusiasm from his ex. Seokmin and Seungkwan, the two boys, are 5 and 4 respectively. So that day, he went as the father of 2 kids, and he returned as the father of 4 kids.

Seungcheol’s and Jeonghan’s life may seem similar, but nothing is ever exactly similar. Jeonghan is actually forced to care the kids, being the caretaker of 4 kids isn’t exactly what he wanted but Jeonghan can’t watch as Joshua and Jihoon get corrupted by Jeonghan’s mother’s behavior and the other two would have been heartbroken, being clingy, affectionate, and caring childrens. Unlike Jeonghan, Seungcheol actually has a choice, he could have refused his friend to care them and he can always give Mingyu to the orphanage, but he didn’t. And other than that, Jeonghan and Seungcheol has many other difference, yet they’re so alike. If they one day meet, they can’t help but get along someday, right? And adding more wouldn’t have hurt, right?

Seungcheol first met Jeonghan at the elementary after he dropped his kids off. Seungcheol has noticed a car, which there seemed to be a ruckus inside. But he didn’t notice the car for its ruckus nor for the person inside (a surprisingly devilish angle which he learned on a later date), instead he noticed the position of the parked car. Which is parked, in front of Seungcheol’s parked car, as in not across of his car in the adjacent parking lot, but instead it’s in a parallel parked in front of his car. Blocking Seungcheol’s car from exiting. Somehow that make Seungcheol panic, he can’t be late for work. Seungcheol is a good worker, he’s never late for work! Unknown to Seungcheol, the person inside said car is also panicking. Jeonghan hissed quietly, why must Seungkwan throw a tantrum right now? Jeonghan actually can show up for work anytime, but that doesn’t mean he wanted to come any later and get stuck in traffic and Jeonghan really didn’t want Seungkwan to have a bad card for being late on the first day of school. “Seungkwan please, the others are also going to be there with you. I really need to go to work.” Jeonghan pleaded to the 8 (and a half, Seungkwan would later remind him) year old. Said 8 (and a half) year old was about to retort when they heard a knock on the windshield. Outside, Seungcheol is getting impatient and decided to just get on with it and knock. When Seungcheol knock, he doesn’t exactly expect anything, but he’s still surprise about how fast the occupant reply. “I’m sorry, really I am. It’s just that my son won’t go to school. Just wait for a minute okay?” Jeonghan quickly said as he opened the driver’s window. After the speed explanation, Jeonghan turned back to look at Seungkwan to glared at him. “Fine.” Seungkwan huffed at him and continue exiting the car, running towards the entrance. After seeing Seungkwan made it inside the building, Jeonghan apologizes again and leaves the parking space, leaving behind the other puppy eyed driver.

The second time they meet, Seungcheol has been moved from his old office to another branch on the other side of town. Seungcheol’s boss reasons that Seungcheol is never late excluding that one time when Vernon has faked a stomachache to skip school (A reason that Seungcheol decided to make when he realizes, he spend five minute daydreaming after the longhaired driver has left) so Seungcheol’s the best candidate for the new branch. Another reason that his boss has given him is that the currently trending and successful coffee shop is only a seven minutes’ walk away. Seungcheol of course cannot decline the offer, although it’s quite far from his kids school (a 45 minutes’ drive), the pay raise that also come with it is very generous. At the same time, Jeonghan had just manage to expand his coffee shop for the increasing number of people that came every day. Jeonghan has also managed to add cake and ice cream to the original only beverage and pastry to the menu. Business is going well for Jeonghan.

Back to the point, the second time they meet has been in a more pleasant situation. Not really. The second time they meet Seungcheol has finally been given the chance to taste the famous coffee, or not. When Seungcheol took his cup of coffee, he accidentally spill his coffee to one of the shop’s worker. What made it worse is when he saw the workers nametag.

YOON JEONGHAN

OWNER

Actually what made it even worse is the fact that it’s the longhaired driver from the elementary school. Oh my god. On the other hand, Jeonghan is also panicking. Of course Jeonghan recognize who the person is, the puppy eyed driver. He’s really worried about anything that’s about to come, this could be a form of revenge after all. Thankfully some embarrassing confrontation of revenge and stuff didn’t happened. Instead, Seungcheol quickly apologizes and ran the 7 minutes’ walk back to his office building, half-filled coffee cup held tightly in his left hand as the right push everything out of the way. Hopefully he won’t have any more embarrassing moments with the longhaired driver, or Jeonghan as he newly learned.

The third time they met, it’s finally in a peaceful situation, at least for them and not the kids. The next time they meet is at the principal’s office. Unfortunately their kids have been involved in a fight, although fortunately not with each other. Seungkwan and Vernon, who have become lifelong friends without the knowledge of their guardian awkward relation, was caught fighting with two other classmate of theirs. Apparently, their teacher decided for a little unscheduled fieldtrip to the playground across the road and let the kids play when suddenly he saw Seungkwan and Vernon fight with two other kids while two boys that she didn’t recognizes walked away, one of them crying and seemingly clinging to the assumed older while the other murmured comforting words and calling two other boys from the ice cream truck. Seungkwan has admitted that he saw his classmate bully them, Vernon nodded in agreement. Their classmate in retort told the teacher that Seungkwan was the one who throw the first punch. With that note, the four boys are suspended from school for the next two days. Despise the fight that happened, Jeonghan is proud and decided to buy Seungkwan ice cream for his bravery to protect the two boys, Seungkwan decided to bring Vernon along, Vernon decided that since his dad is released early from work, Seungcheol might as well follow them.  So while Seungkwan and Vernon finished off their ice cream and ran off the sugar rush they’re experiencing, Seungcheol and Jeonghan sat down and talked about their current, awkward, relationship. They talked, about their current situation, apologies exchanged, they also talked about their kids, noticing how different they are, yet both of them are very similar. What started as an awkward talk ended up with both male leaning on their hands, trying to get closer to each other, showing over flowing friendliness. Before they know it, they’re going to need to pick up their other kids which they did so together and parted ways after.

After that one problem solving talk, Jeonghan and Seungcheol grew closer. Sometimes they would spend their weekends together, which is no problem since the kids are all classmate and friends. At least most of them, Seungkwan and Vernon are classmates, Mingyu and Seokmin are classmates, and Wonwoo and Jihoon are also classmates while Joshua has his own set of friends being older than the others, although he spend more time reading alone or playing his guitar alone or in other words watch over his younger siblings. Sometimes, when Jeonghan had an emergency at his coffee shop or Seungcheol had an emergency meeting, they would send the other in charge of their kids. It was nice, their friendship has grown beautifully if you forgotten their first three meeting.

They actually wishes that they could live together, the kids has also demanded multiple sleepovers. Seungcheol and Jeonghan would have granted their wish if it isn’t for the fact that both apartments are small and barely fitted for one adult and 3 or 4 kids, it wouldn’t be impossible to do a 2 adults and 7 kids’ sleepover if it isn’t for the walls. Another reason for why they wanted to live together is that they rarely got a chance to see each other since they lived on the opposite side of the city. Jeonghan on the west, Seungcheol on the east.

That’s when something when downhill for both of them, or maybe just Jeonghan.

So apparently, Jeonghan’s apartment building is getting old and is getting demolished in a month or so. The building that’s going to be built on this very spot has also offered Jeonghan’s coffee shop a spot for a branch so maybe it’s not that bad. Jeonghan isn’t poor, he got a successful business running and crowded, money pouring out of the cash register (not literally, mind you), and so the small family economy isn’t the main problem. The problem is that searching for an apartment (not a house where Jeonghan can’t keep track of his kids and the cleaning would probably need more work) that can housed one adult and four kids is hard. Plus, Jeonghan needed to make sure the environment is safe for kids. And he needed a strategic place where he could easily commute between work and the kids’ school, thankfully they’re all still in elementary so commuting between elementary and middle school isn’t a problem yet, that’s for next year where Joshua would hopefully will graduate. And thankfully his mother has died some years before so he doesn’t need to worry about her either.

Now for Seungcheol, he’s grieving. Or at least, he showed that he’s grieving but he isn’t sure for whom is he grieving. Seungcheol grandfather’s cousin apparently had died of old age, people said that they were sorry for him as Seungcheol used to be close to the man when he was a kid. Seungcheol’s parent said that Seungcheol really used to enjoy playing with his grandfather’s cousin when Seungcheol was 5, Seungcheol is sure it’s normal to forget something that has passed over 20 years. But the thing with his grandfather cousin’s, (Grandcousin? Does that exist?) death is that Seungcheol has been mention in his late grandcousin’s will. It is said that Seungcheol has the right over a house that he owned downtown. And that’s honestly confusing. So when Jeonghan when to him one day asking about available apartments, Seungcheol bought it up. What if we move in to a house together? And after some consideration which include commuting, rooms, and other stuff, mostly the kids whine to do so quickly. They agreed to move in together, one house, two adults, seven kids, what could possibly go wrong.

Fortunately, the move is successful except for the fact that they miscounted the bedrooms leaving some space meant for their kids unattended. The kids choose the rooms by themselves. Joshua pick the smallest room which is meant to be alone, Wonwoo picked to be with Mingyu, Seungkwan demanded to be with Vernon, while Seokmin and Jihoon took one room each. Unlike Joshua’s room, Seokmin and Jihoon’s room are meant to be for pairs, but even so they still have one empty kid room. Which means that this house still has spot for four other kids.

A month after moving or two and a half months after Seungkwan and Vernon’s park incident, some strange instances happens. The first instance happen on a Saturday, both Jeonghan and Seungcheol are enjoying their walk down the sidewalk alone. The kids are busy practicing for a talent show at school and Joshua is studying with his friends, so while waiting, the both of them took a walk. It was nice and both are enjoying each other’s laughter so much that they could have care less about the man that accidentally, or so they thought, bumped into Jeonghan. It was all suddenly interrupted by four kids quickly running past them in laughter, one of them ran around the couple, another one ran beneath Jeonghan and Seungcheol intertwined hands, while the other two ran underneath their legs. One of the boys accidentally bumped to the man who bumped to Jeonghan, making the man drop his bag. Another boy tripped over the bag, spilling the bag contents to the sidewalk. The last kid who come help the fallen one up while kicking one of the bag content. The four kids quickly apologize and continue running. They also bowed, but it wasn’t a form of apology and it wasn’t given towards the fallen man, instead it’s towards Seungcheol and Jeonghan, or maybe they saw it wrong but Jeonghan doubt that. It wasn’t until they see what the last boy kicked that they realized Jeonghan’s been robbed of his wallet.

The second instance happen towards Seungcheol. It was a busy Thursday, Jeonghan had drop the kids to school while Seungcheol stuck is stuck between the large amounts of bodies trying to get to the nearest bus stop. Why did his car choose to break down the day before? Seungcheol was trying hard to get through the crowd when he noticed small nimble hands on another man’s pocket lifting the wallet without notice. The boy who took the wallet also notice Seungcheol and wave for three other boys over, somehow these boys seems familiar. The four boys in front of Seungcheol smiled confidently and bowed. Somehow, Seungcheol suddenly found himself at the bus stop, the four boys already left and feeling of fingers gripping his hand is left tingling, but his wallet is intact. And the four boys has disappear, the boys from that day Jeonghan’s been robbed.

The third instance happen to Jeonghan this time.  A week after Seungcheol’s on a Wednesday morning. The quiet time between morning rush and lunch time and no matter how famous his coffee shop is, that hour will always be boring and empty of customers. That’s when four kids suddenly showed up in front of his shop and dance. A street performance outside his shop, Jeonghan is annoyed now. But as he paid more attention to the kids, it’s actually quite entertaining and when the bell over the shop’s door started ringing, he knows the annoyed has turn grateful, karma they would say. The shop began to fill, some buying drinks and continue watching outside, while some buy snacks and continue watching through the window inside the air conditioned room. When the shop is getting full and the boys has stopped Jeonghan looked outside and met four pair of eyes. The four boys smiled slightly and bowed, Jeonghan is sure that bow is meant for him. And as for the boys, it’s the third time they have helped Jeonghan’s handmade family now.

The fourth instances happened to the kids. On a Friday afternoon where they’re heading towards the park, ready to play while Seungcheol and Jeonghan chat. This park is beautiful, bad thing that not many people know it or is that a good thing? Jeonghan was almost thankful that Seungkwan and Vernon’s fight has happened here or else he wouldn’t have known this beauty. The park is usually empty so Jeonghan was surprised when he saw the playground filled with four kids, He got more surprise when he recognized those kids and looking at Seungcheol proves that Jeonghan isn’t mistaken. The four boys smiled sweetly and two of them ran ahead, Seungkwan has also ran ahead dragging a stumbling Vernon behind. The two boys hugged Seungkwan and Vernon who returned the hugged. They hurried back to the other two and shouted a thank you together, the four smiled and ran waving to those behind them. These are the kids that Seungkwan and Vernon saved months ago. Everything that they have done to this family just to say thank you, Jeonghan is shocked. And when the four boys passed them, Jeonghan and Seungcheol give a proper goodbye, a simple wave and a smile. Then the kids has disappear behind the bushes and trees, and even then Jeonghan could still hear the faint laughter of joy. Those kids are precious little angel, the perfect fit for this mess of a family.

They formed a plan, or something of the like. They wanted the boys to trust them, and possibly add them to this family. The plan they made was simple, but it needs the kids help and lots of sugar. Or basically the plan is to make the kids, who are on sugar rush so they won’t get tired, play with the four boys, who are hopefully orphans which they seem to be, make the four boys tired, make them so tired that they wouldn’t mind giving their names. Seungcheol and Jeonghan could have asked nicely, but considering the four always ran after helping Jeonghan and Seungcheol, they figured the ‘make them tired plan’ will probably worked better.

They put the plan rolling after spending some days playing in the park with the kids and the four boys, just to make them more at ease. That day, they decided to give the kids ice cream that is sold at the park, the same one Jeonghan treats Seungkwan after his fight, and apparently the same one that two of the four boys were queuing when the fight happened. Walking towards the playground after everyone finishes their ice cream, they met the four boys, waving excitedly ready to play. Jeonghan and Seungcheol watch them all have fun until the last ray of the sun dimmed. Tired and sleepy, it isn’t hard to ask for their names and getting it. Kwon Soonyoung, Wen Junhui, Xu Minghao, and Lee Chan.

The paperwork started. Adoption papers, examination papers, health papers are spread on the kitchen table as both Seungcheol and Jeonghan worked hard for this adoption. A social worker has been called and now they’re going to meet the kids. Fortunately, Jeonghan and Seungcheol had managed to analyzed most of the kids’ schedule. Went near Seungcheol’s office to pickpocket in the morning, do something that they didn’t know yet on the afternoon, then enjoy their evenings playing in the park and meeting the other seven kids.

Jeonghan, Seungcheol, and a social worker come to a nearby place where Seungcheol sees the four boys’ pickpocket in the morning. When the four boys saw them, they approach slowly and carefully, faces of caution and legs ready to run. The social worker slowly approach the four and laid out what Seungcheol and Jeonghan wanted to do. “Do you kids want to get adopted by this lovely couple?”

They seem surprised for a moment then they ran, not away, but towards Seungcheol and Jeonghan. It resulted in one big group hug, and that’s all the answer needed.

Jeonghan stepped his way quietly towards the kids’ room. Joshua’s room seems fine, the curtains are open letting the soft morning light comes in, the room isn’t a mess maybe just the desk which is full with school project, and on the bed is Joshua sleeping peacefully. Seokmin and Soonyoung’s room is a mess, clothes thrown everywhere, the table is tilted, and pillows and dolls are strewn around the room, probably from another pillow fight which the two enjoy to play so much and the two are peacefully sleeping on the empty bed. Seungkwan and Vernon’s room look slightly better, just some clothes on the floor and a fallen pillow, Jeonghan also noticed the lack of dolls on Seungkwan’s bed which he probably used to join the fun with Seokmin and Soonyoung. Wonwoo and Mingyu’s room is probably the weirdest with all the strewn clothes on Mingyu’s side only while all kind of books are stacked messily on Wonwoo’s side. Jihoon and Jun’s room are probably the nicest of them all, everything is placed on perfect order, the only thing out of order is the fact that Jihoon’s sleeping on his desk and Jun sleeping in an awkward angle on his bed with his legs dangling over the edge, they were most likely to spend the night talking or something and falling asleep without meaning to. Minghao and Chan’s room are also messy with dolls, doodles, and Minghao’s martial art equipment on the floor, the two beds are also pushed together so both of them could cuddle with Minghao spooning Chan like the sweet brother he is. Jeonghan smiled seeing all of this and when towards the kitchen where hands immediately attached themselves on Jeonghan’s waist. Breath on his throat, Seungcheol’s voice is a melody to his ear.

“It’s been one year since I knock on your car’s window. Happy anniversary Jeonghan.”

“Happy anniversary Seungcheol.”

Everything’s complete now.

With 2 adults and 11 kids, what could possibly go wrong?