Present Hunting

It was a crisp and cold morning, but Hakyeon relished it as he took the dogs out for a walk. It was sunny, but cold enough for the snow to stay and cover the world in a sparkling white coat. The dogs had fun playing in the snow, too.

Hakyeon trailed behind the playing dogs, letting his thoughts wander aimlessly, but eventually decided to hurry up. After all, Sanghyuk was coming over with the presents soon, which had to be discussed, decisions on which to keep being made, wrapped and hidden well, all before the kids came back. At least, he’d already brought Hyejin’s present for her best friend over to Mrs Choi on his way out.

He arrived home at the same time as Sanghyuk pulled up in the driveway.

“Hey there, hyung!”

Hakyeon waved as he crossed the street, the dogs already jumping around Sanghyuk.

“Hey Hyukie. Thanks again for helping with the presents.”

Sanghyuk shrugged as he petted the dogs and tried to keep them from jumping up at him with their wet paws.

“You’re welcome, hyung, and you know it. It’s a ton of fun, anyway.”

Hakyeon chuckled and then called the dogs off, making them quieten down as he opened the front door. Before he even got to take his own shoes off, he had to towel the dogs off so they wouldn’t bring more dirt inside than usual.

In the mean-time, Sanghyuk lugged the presents inside.

“Really, though, hyung… That’s a lot of presents you made me get for the kids. There’s barely anything left for me and the others to get them!”

Hakyeon waved Sanghyuk’s remark off.

“They won’t get all of those. We’ll choose a few for each of them, and the rest goes to a charity Taekwoon works with.”

Speaking of Taekwoon, the man appeared in the doorway. The dogs used the opening to make a break for the living room and rest of the house, while Taekwoon accepted the bags Sanghyuk handed him. Hakyeon took another load, and eventually they gathered in the living room, surrounded with bags full of presents.

“You exaggerated just a little, hm?” Taekwoon chuckled as he surveyed the heaps of toys and other presents. Hakyeon shrugged.

“You kind of loose sight on how much you already have when you’re not the one carrying the bags…”

Sanghyuk squawked indignantly.

“I felt that…! I expect a voucher for a spa and wellness weekend with three massages a day included for Christmas this year from you, hyung…” He muttered, but there was no bite behind it.

Taekwoon was the first to reach for a bag and pull out a box. It was a magnet building set.

“I went with Hyejin’s ideas for some things. That one was actually meant for Eunhyun. She was sure he’d like that.”

Sanghyuk nodded.

“Yup, I thought that too when I went and bought it. It’d be perfect for him.”

Taekwoon nodded pensively.

“So, we’re keeping this one for Eunhyun?”

Hakyeon nodded, and Sanghyuk approved. Taekwoon set the present aside to start the pile of presents they’d keep.

“And who’s this for?” He held up a stuffed unicorn toy. Hakyeon flinched.

“Jieun, but… It didn’t look so big in the store?”

Taekwoon shook his head.

“It’s twice her size!”

Sanghyuk laughed.

“It could double as a second bed for Jieunie!”

Hakyeon nodded.

“Yeah… Let’s not.” Taekwoon put the unicorn down to start a second pile.

Like that, they went through all the gifts, the pile with the presents to keep growing way faster than the one with the presents to give away.

“This won’t do. We’ll need a second house to have room for all of this at this rate!” Taekwoon intervened eventually. Hakyeon had to agree.

“Let’s finish sorting them roughly first, and then we can make piles for each child and sort them out further. It has to be even, anyway.” Sanghyuk suggested, and the parents agreed. The remaining presents landed mostly on the ‘to keep’ pile, too.

Taekwoon sighed, shaking his head.

“Alright, seven piles. This one is for Seojun, this Hyejin’s…” he started, sorting the presents into piles and handing them to Hakyeon or Sanghyuk if he couldn’t reach the respective pile anymore.

“Seojun’s pile is almost bigger than him…” Sanghyuk eventually remarked, and Hakyeon had to admit he was right.

“It’s just so easy to find presents for him, he’d be absolutely delighted by everything you could give him…”

Taekwoon sighed.

“We can’t keep all of that, we have to choose. This figurine… doesn’t he have that already?” Hakyeon thought about it for a while, but it was Sanghyuk who answered eventually.

“Didn’t Jaehwan and I get him that in the hospital when he broke his arm?”

“You totally did! I’d completely forgotten that!” Hakyeon exclaimed, and Taekwoon put the figurine down on the ‘give away’ pile.

The rest of the pile wasn’t that easy to downsize, and they ended up moving to the other kids’ piles first to get an idea of how many presents for each they’d keep.

“For Heejoon… The zoo-extension is a must! Tell me you’ll keep it!” Sanghyuk declared.

“It’s so big, though… And his zoo is already huge…” Taekwoon was skeptical.

“Hyung, there is little Heejoon loves as much as his zoo. This is the best present you could find for him!” Sanghyuk argued, but Taekwoon remained skeptical.

“How about we keep it, but it counts as much as two presents? He won’t make a fuss if he gets less presents than the others, anyway. He values quality over quantity, and can’t even count yet, so…” Hakyeon suggested, and Taekwoon sighed, moving the zoo extension to the ‘keep’ side of Heejoon’s presents. He remained firmly against keeping the play-doh set, though, and it was sorted out.

That way, the piles shrunk, until they had five presents for each of their own kids (four for Heejoon) and two for each cousin.

“Our kids are so spoiled. Add to this all the presents they’ll get form their grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, Sanghyuk and the others, their siblings, their parents, the neighbors…” Taekwoon sighed. “We’ll be left with no room to breathe between all the toys soon.”

Hakyeon chuckled, patting his dramatic husband on the shoulder softly.

“There, there. We’ll survive it. Somehow.”

Taekwoon shook his head, proceeding to nudge Hakyeon’s thigh with his foot.

“You have the wrapping paper. We should start wrapping them up so we have enough time to hide them before the kids get home from school.

Hakyeon got up and got the rolls of wrapping paper, bows, gift bags, tags, tape and scissors, and they went to work.

It took a long time to wrap all the gifts; especially since Taekwoon lacked talent in both wrapping and writing tags, Sanghyuk forgot to write tags and they had to reopen presents to see what was in them to know who they belonged to and re-wrap them, and Hakyeon was so much of a perfectionist that he was not just slow at wrapping each present, but also spent more time nagging at the other’s wrapping skills than focusing on his own wrapping.

It bordered a miracle that they managed to finish wrapping the presents in time before the kids got home, and even managed to put the presents they’d sorted out to give away back into the bags and out into the boot of Taekwoon’s car.

“I’ll bring them over to the orphanage tomorrow, when the kids are in school…” He decided, locking the car even though it was in the garage.

“Our bedroom, my office and Taekwoon’s studio are not options to hide these in. They are too obvious, those will be the first places they’d look.” Hakyeon was musing about places to hide the presents in when Taekwoon came back inside.

“The whole upstairs is out of question, we have too little control over there when the kids are home. We have to hide them somewhere downstairs.”

“What about the attic, though?” Sanghyuk suggested, and both Hakyeon and Taekwoon shook their heads.

“They know the attic better than we do. They’d find them in no time.”

“What about the laundry room? The cabinets are high enough up for them not to reach them…” Hakyeon suggested, and Taekwoon thought about it.

“Seojun would find a way to reach them…”

“Not if he remembers he’s not supposed to climb things.”

“‘If’…”

“I don’t think he will risk it. He’d want to brag about finding the presents if he does, he knows he’ll get a scolding if it turns out he climbed something to find them.”

“What about Hyejin?” Sanghyuk interjected, but Hakyeon shook his head.

“She knows very well not to climb things. She won’t do it unless she’s certain it’s worth it.”

“Alright, so the laundry room?” Sanghyuk picked the first bag up.

Hakyeon nodded, and they went to said room. The overhead cabinets were pretty stuffed with spare blankets, and they had to take some of them out to make all the presents fit. They were quite satisfied with their work, quickly cleaning up the living room to make it unsuspicious and ruffling the blankets they had taken out of the cabinets to make it look like they’d been used.

Hakyeon and Sanghyuk left shortly after they were done. Hakyeon had some work to do during the afternoon, and Sanghyuk would pick up Heejoon and bring him home before his afternoon classes started.

The kids arrived at the same time, Sanghyuk dropping Heejoon off at the same time Mrs Choi dropped off Seojun and Hyejin. They were busy with homework and playing somewhere, unsuspicious for the time being. The first time Taekwoon suspected something was when Hyejin jumped up and darted upstairs. She must have found Seojun in the hallway, and Taekwoon could hear her whisper-shout.

“Seojun! Look what I found under the couch!”

Taekwoon’s heart dropped, and he stepped closer to the stairs.

“What’s that?”

“Wrapping paper!”

Taekwoon cursed internally.

“You mean… presents?”

“Exactly! They must have hidden them somewhere… Stay alert, ok?”

Taekwoon bit his lip, stepping away from the stairs and going to play with Jieun. From where she was sitting on her blanket, he could spy down the back hallway and would see if someone tried to go into the laundry room. No one did, though, the kids clearly looking upstairs.

He heard doors opening and closing, including those of the linen cabinet in the upstairs hallway that made a creaking noise when the left door was opened too far. He stayed nonchalant when Seojun went to the entrance hallway, looking in the cleaning supplies closet and Hyejin spent more time than normal in the pantry before emerging with a juice carton.

It was when Heejoon -little, innocent, unsuspecting Heejoon- asked for his puppy blanket that Taekwoon froze.

“Uh, there are lots of blankets over here, though, Heejoonie…” Taekwoon tried to distract his son, but the small boy shook his head.

“I want the puppy blanket… These blankets are too big and heavy.”

Of course, his logic was faultless. Taekwoon sighed.

“Alright, I’ll get your blanket.”

He got up, and notice too late Heejoon was following him.

“Heejoonie, why don’t you go back to living room where it’s warm? I’ll get the blanket.”

Heejoon didn’t move from his spot in the door to the laundry room.

“I can carry the blanket.”

Taekwoon inhaled slowly, trying to come up with a way to make Heejoon leave so he didn’t find out where the presents were and couldn’t accidentally tattle to his older siblings.

“I know you can, but I have to look for it first and it’s cold here.”

“It’s cold in the living room, too.”

Taekwoon winced.

“It’s warmer than here…”

“I still want the blanket.”

“I’m getting you the blanket, I promise. But you should go back. You… Jieunie is all alone and you should keep her company while I look for the blanket.”

“Suri is keeping Jieunie company.”

Taekwoon sighed, slowly losing patience.

“Heejoon, I’m asking you, please go back to the living room and wait there while I look for the blanket.”

Heejoon pouted, but was ready to turn around and walk out when Hyejin appeared behind him.

“Appa? Why don’t you want Heejoon to wait here while you look for his blanket?”

Taekwoon grit his teeth momentarily.

“Because it’s cold here.”

He could tell Hyejin didn’t buy the excuse.

“It’s not really cold. It’s warmer in here than upstairs.”

Taekwoon sighed.

“It’s still warmer in the living room than here, so you should return there.”

He didn’t like the mischievous glint in Hyejin’s eyes.

“Well, since Heejoon says it’s cold everywhere, we should probably all wrap up in blankets, right? I can help you carry them!” She ignored Taekwoon’s clear hint.

Taekwoon huffed.

“Hyejin…”

Hyejin tilted her head, looking oh so innocent but at the same time oh so devious.

“Or is there something we shouldn’t see in here…?”

Taekwoon had enough.

“Hyejin, enough. I told you to return to the living room, didn’t I. So, please.”

She made a face, but did as told. Taekwoon closed the door behind her and got the blanket for Heejoon, then locked the door to the laundry room as he left it.

If he thought that was all it took to dissuade Hyejin and Seojun from trying to get into it, he was sorely mistaken.

He was slightly startled when Seojun hugged him suddenly as he was preparing a bottle for Jieun, but less when he felt Seojun reach into the front pocket of his hoodie. He huffed.

“Very clever. Give the key back, Seojun.”

Seojun pouted, but returned the key. Taekwoon only shook his head, putting it back in his pocket.

He finished preparing Jieun’s bottle and went to the living room to feed the baby. She was eager to hold her bottle herself these days, and Taekwoon humored her by getting a smaller, lighter bottle with handles for her. She loved it, and Taekwoon loved watching her as she fed, stopping in between to smile at him from time to time.

She finished eventually, reaching out for Taekwoon to pick her up, and Taekwoon complied immediately. It was truly amazing how rarely she cried or complained at all, Taekwoon mused as he gently rocked her. Almost as amazing as how much she could sleep.

True to that, Jieun slowly fell asleep eventually, as she always did after feeding. Taekwoon didn’t feel like putting her down on the couch to let her sleep, instead sitting down with her and letting her sleep on his chest. There was truly nothing more precious than having his babies sleep close to him. He wished Jieun would never grow old enough to not nap on his chest anymore, just like he had wished Hyejin, Seojun and Heejoon wouldn’t grow out of that. At least they sometimes still fell asleep next to him.

As he sat there with the baby, he started feeling drowsy, too. Drowsy, warm, and comfortable. Only it kept getting warmer, and warmer, and eventually Jieun stirred awake, complaining for once.

She must be too warm, Taekwoon thought, and yes, as he laid her down on the couch, she stopped complaining, going back to sleep.

It was unusually warm in here, Taekwoon mused. Hadn’t it been too cold not too long ago? Something wasn’t right. Absentmindedly, he took his hoodie off, leaving it on the couch before going to check the heating settings in the hallway.

He halted when he noticed the temperature settings for the living room and kitchen turned to 32°C. What the hell?! He turned them ten degrees down again, and returned just in time to see Hyejin drop his hoodie back on the couch, quickly pretending she’d been cooing over Jieun this whole time. Taekwoon frowned.

“Hyejin, did you turn the heating up?” It was the only logic explanation, since she was the only one tall enough to reach it.

“I was cold.”

“Thirty-two degrees, Hyejin?”

“I was really cold.”

“Hyejin, do you know what a waste of energy that is? And how bad air that dry is for all of us, especially in winter?”

Hyejin bit her lip, looking at least somewhat contrite.

“You have little siblings for whom that dry heater air is even worse, and they can get seriously sick from it. Jieun is even sleeping restlessly now because of it. Also, give me that key back.”

Hyejin’s eyes widened slightly for a moment, before she had her features under control again.

“What key…?”

Taekwoon sighed, impatient.

“Don’t act innocent. I know you took the key out of my pocket. Give it back.”

For a considerably long moment, Hyejin withstood Taekwoon’s piercing glare, but eventually she gave in, reaching inside her own pocket and returning the key to him.

Taekwoon eyed the key for a moment, then held his hand out again, still with the key.

“Not the key to my room. The key to the laundry room, please.”

Hyejin’s gaze darkened, and she reached into her other pocket, pulling out the right key and exchanging it for the key to her parent’s room.

“What if I need to wash my school uniform, though?”

Taekwoon huffed at her.

“Right. Because you totally know how to work the washing machine.”

Hyejin shrugged.

“I might want to learn how to.”

“Of course. And coincidentally it just so happens that you want to learn it today.”

“Coincidences happen.”

“Sure. And I was born yesterday.”

“Oh really? You should have told me, I would have gotten you a birthday present.”

Taekwoon shook his head.

“Stop trying to steal the key from me and go play something that doesn’t involve that key. And don’t mess with the heating again!”

Hyejin made a face and trudged upstairs. Taekwoon shook his head at her, hoping Hakyeon would get home soon to help him deal with those two trying to find the presents.

Hakyeon took a whole two more hours to come back, right after Taekwoon had put the kids to bed. He went up first to wish the kids that weren’t asleep yet a good night, before coming down and eating a reheated dinner Taekwoon prepared for him.

“How was your day?” Hakyeon asked as he ate, and Taekwoon shrugged.

“Normal. Hyejin and Seojun found out the presents must be in the laundry room, though, and I had to lock it.”

Hakyeon only nodded at that. He’d expected them to find out sooner or later.

“It was my fault, too. Heejoon insisted he wanted his blanket with the puppies and I wasn’t very smart about how to distract him while I got it. Hyejin caught wind of it and came to the right conclusions. They tried stealing the key from me, too.”

Hakyeon chuckled.

“How did they go about that?”

“Seojun reached into my pocket while hugging me, Hyejin turned up the heating so I would take off the jumper. Almost succeeded, too, but I caught her. Then she tried to fool me by giving me the key of our bedroom instead of the one to the laundry room.”

Hakyeon smiled proudly.

“Smart kiddos.”

Taekwoon sighed.

“Yeah… Too bad they are using that smartness against us.”

Hakyeon reached across the table and patted Taekwoon’s hand affectionately.

“You did well keeping your ground against them, too. We need a new place to hide the presents in, though.”

Taekwoon nodded pensively.

“How about the guest bathroom? We tend to collectively forget it exists when we don’t have guests over.”

Hakyeon’s face lit up.

“That’s a good idea!”

Taekwoon smiled, happy to be able to help the situation along after having messed up earlier today.

When Hakyeon finished his food, Taekwoon went to get the presents from the laundry room while Hakyeon made room in the cabinet under the sink in the guest bathroom. The presents fit just so, but they were happy with the result. After taking the bathroom supplies they had to take out of the cabinet to Hakyeon’s office, they went to bed reassured the kids wouldn’t find the presents for a while.

-----

Hakyeon and Taekwoon were well aware Hyejin was checking the laundry room from top to bottom when she disappeared into the back of the house the next morning, but they let her. She was back in time for breakfast, too, so they just pretended they didn’t suspect anything. It was only when she went back there after breakfast, when she should be finishing packing up her things for school, that Hakyeon went after her.

“Cha Hyejin! Where are you going?”

Hyejin jumped, and cried out.

“Appa!”

Hakyeon groaned, hurrying to her side when she whined while something dripped onto the floor in front of her.

“What were you carrying your hot chocolate out here with you? Oh, Hyejin. Here, give me that mug. Let’s run cold water over your hand.”

Quickly, he pulled her into the nearest room with a tap; the guest bathroom.

Her hand was reddened where the hot chocolate had spilled over it.

“I just wanted to take it to my room to drink while I got ready…” She whined, and Hakyeon tutted.

“What have we told you about taking food and sticky drinks upstairs, Hyejin?”

Hyejin pouted.

“But I don’t spill my drinks anymore…”

Hakyeon pursed his lips, giving her a pointed look that went from her eyes to her hand and back. She groaned.

“You startled me!”

“Well, how was I supposed to know you were trying to sneak something upstairs over the back staircase that we’ve clearly told you not to take upstairs? It’s not like I expect you to go behind my back all the time!”

Hyejin grimaced, contrite.

“Sorry, appa…”

“You should be. Is your hand feeling better?”

She looked unconvinced, then shook her head.

“It burns…”

Hakyeon sighed, reaching for the cabinet under the sink, but then froze. The first aid kit wasn’t there anymore. He bit his lip, then called out.

“Taekwoon! Bring me the first aid kid from the kitchen, please!”

Hyejin frowned.

“Why not use the one from here?”

Hakyeon took a moment too long with his answer.

“This one doesn’t have ointment for burns in it.”

Hyejin tilted her head.

“Are you sure? Maybe we should check.” She reached for the handle of the cabinet, but Hakyeon stopped her.

“I know which kit has what, Hyejin. I keep them stocked, remember? Taekwoon!” He called out again, just to have Taekwoon appear in the door that same instant.

“I heard you. What happened?”

“Hyejin spilled hot chocolate over her hand.”

Taekwoon frowned.

“Why did you have hot chocolate with you out here…?”

Hakyeon shook his head.

“Later, Woon. Are Seojun and Heejoon getting ready?”

Taekwoon nodded.

“Sanghyuk just picked Heejoon up.”

Well, at least one child was on time.

Hastily, Hakyeon fumbled the ointment out of the kit and lathered Hyejin’s hand in it, but when he went to wrap it in gauze, Hyejin protested.

“It’s not that bad.”

Hakyeon wasn’t about to argue with her.

“Well, then. Hurry up and get your things, we have to go and pick up Soobin, too!”

Without further protest, Hyejin darted out of the room and upstairs to get her things. As soon as she was out of hearing range, Hakyeon groaned.

“We never use this bathroom, but the one time we don’t want it to be used, this happens. How?”

Taekwoon patted his shoulder.

“It’s ok. I’d rather they find the presents than Hyejin hurts any longer than necessary.”

Hakyeon sighed, covering Taekwoon’s hand on his shoulder with his own and squeezing it gently.

“It was such a good hiding spot, too… We need a new one, though.”

Taekwoon nodded solemnly. But first, they needed to get the kids ready and to school.

----

While Hakyeon was out, taking the kids to school and then going on to work, Taekwoon found a new hiding spot for the presents; the drawers under the couch in his studio. They were probably too heavy for the kids to open them, anyway, and if what he’d heard from Seojun and Hyejin’s whispers was true, they thought it was pointless looking in his studio because they thought it was too obvious and didn’t think they’d hide the presents there.

He regretted his choice later on when he got a message from Hakyeon, asking him to finish up and send in some documents and reports about Jieun that they’d completely forgotten. They were due until midnight.

Taekwoon wondered when he was supposed to do that, with everything he had to do already.

Still, he moved Jieun’s pay blanket and toys to his studio and had her play there as he worked. He skipped lunch for himself, but he still felt he had to interrupt his work before he’d gotten anything significant done to make some food for when the kids came home, anyway. And once they were home, there were other things to do; school uniforms to wash, homework to help with, burns to check over, et cetera, et cetera. It was the middle of the afternoon before he got to sit down again, after imploring his children to play quietly and not make a mess because he had important work to do.

It worked somewhat, and he had some time to work on the report, before Heejoon appeared in the doorway. Taekwoon let him come in, and he went to play with Jieun on her blanket. Not long after him, Hyejin and Seojun appeared, too, and Taekwoon told them firmly to play nicely and quietly if they wanted to come in, too, and to not disturb him.

It was futile, and he should have known it. Before long, the two eldest were wrestling on the couch.

“Hey! Hyejin, Seojun, cut it out! I need to work here!”

“But we didn’t say anything!”

Taekwoon huffed, rubbing his temple.

“You don’t need to say anything to be distracting when you keep kicking the wall. I said play nicely, or go play somewhere else.”

They calmed down for a bit, but were soon at it again. Pokes and tickles at first, until Seojun threw himself right across Hyejin, who flipped them over and pinned him down with the strength of a child that was two years older. Seojun groaned a pained ‘Ooff!’ and Taekwoon looked up from his computer again.

“Is that what you call playing nice? Do I need to kick you out?”

Hyejin and Seojun shook their heads in sync, and Taekwoon let it slide one more time. They played more quietly after that, flicking marbles back and forth over the crease in the middle of the couch. Whenever one marble didn’t make it, the other grabbed it and put it on a pile with marbles that ‘died’ and were out of the game. Marbles that jumped over the crease were returned to the owner and kept in the play. One could save one’s marbles by retrieving them faster than the adversary when they got stuck.

Seojun was quickly losing, since Hyejin was too quick snatching his marbles away when they didn’t make it, and quickly got desperate, launching after his last marble when it got stuck in the crease at the same time as Hyejin. They wrestled silently, trying to reach the marble that was slipping deeper into the crease, until a ‘plock’ told them it had fallen through into the drawer underneath. Neither child’s hands fit through the crack between the wooden frames of the bottom of the couch cushions, and they quickly began hissing at each other about who had lost and who had cheated. Taekwoon had enough.

“Ok. Since you clearly can’t play quietly, out with you!”

“But, appa!”

“No buts. I warned you often enough. Out.”

“Appa, my marble fell into the couch!”

“It can stay there now. It wouldn’t have fallen in if you knew how to behave yourselves.”

“Appa, please! Get it out; it’s my favourite. Pleeeease!” Seojun pleaded. Taekwoon would have given in at this point, if it wasn’t for the presents also sitting in that very same couch.

“No. You have enough marbles to play with, still. Now, leave, please. I really need to work here!”

“Please, appa…”

“It’s unfair, to Seojun, appa. Please give us the marble back…” Hyejin chimed in, and Taekwoon groaned.

“I said no, and I asked you to leave! You can have the marble back later!”

“Why not now?”

“Because I’m trying to work here!”

“You’re hiding something in the couch, aren’t you?”

Taekwoon rolled his eyes.

“I’m not!”

“Then why don’t you just open it and let us have the marble and we’ll go?”

Taekwoon almost got loud, but keeping Jieun and Heejoon in mind he kept his voice level.

“I’m not going to bargain with you. The marble stays because you shouldn’t have pushed it in there in the first place. And you two will leave and go play somewhere else right this second. And if you make any messes, you’re both grounded for the rest of the month!”

Seojun inhaled sharply, turning on his heel and leaving, but Hyejin glowered at her father.

“You are hiding something from us in there…!” With that, she turned around and stomped out of the room as well.

Taekwoon exhaled slowly, almost missing the light tug on the hem of his sweater.

“Yes, Heejoonie?”

Heejoon gave him a troubled look, and Taekwoon sighed, ruffling his hair gently.

“It’s ok, baby. Go back to play, ok?”

Heejoon looked at him with uncertainty for a moment longer, but then went back to play quietly by himself, since Jieun had fallen asleep.

Taekwoon eventually managed to finish the report and gather the necessary documents, sending them to the address Hakyeon had texted him earlier. He was late with dinner already, too. Sighing, frustrated with the whole day, he still ushered Heejoon out of the room gently when he was done shutting everything down, and locked the door behind them when they left. Just to be safe.

There was no trace of Hyejin and Seojun, but there also was no trace of any mess when he made it to the front of the house again. He counted the small blessings, and went to the kitchen to start on dinner after putting Jieun and her blanket down in the living room where he could see her from the kitchen. It would only be a quick dinner today.

He was about halfway done preparing the food when he heard a clinking and scratching noise from the back of the house. He groaned as he had to take the pots off the stove and went to investigate.

It sounded like an intruder, but a very sloppy one. Still, Taekwoon was ready to fight.

All fight left him when he eventually spotted that sloppy intruder. It was his daughter, trying to pick the lock to his studio with a hairpin and a ball-pen lead like in some cheap old movie.

“Cha Hyejin, what are you doing?”

Hyejin stood tall, defiant, when her father approached.

“I wanted to get the marble back. It’s unfair that Seojun got punished alone for something we both did. You were being unfair. He’s upset.”

Taekwoon narrowed his eyes at her, finally having had enough of her bratty behaviour that day.

“Well, and I’m upset you keep going against what I tell you to do. You are unbelievable noisy when I ask for silence so I can work. You try to sneak food and drinks upstairs even though you know why you shouldn’t. And now you are trying to break into my space and invade my things without my permission. If you think this is in any way ok, should I go upstairs and go into your room when you’re not there, root through your things and take things out I find there, too? I’m sure I’d find more than one thing that don’t belong to you or in your room if I went to look, anyway. After all, you don’t care what you are allowed to take there and what not, nor do you care about other people’s personal things and space. Isn’t that so?”

Hyejin didn’t answer, lowering her head, clearly ashamed.

Taekwoon stepped forward and took the hairpin and pen-lead out of the lock, placing them into Hyejin’s hand.

“Don’t ever try that again. When a door is locked, it’s for a reason, and you have no business opening it.”

He didn’t wait to see what she would do, turning around and leaving her standing there to return to making dinner.

He felt awful, having to scold Hyejin like that, but she was really becoming too rebellious lately. And somehow, it was always him that she crossed the worst. It made him so tired. He wished Hakyeon would come home soon and help him deal with all this mess.

Hakyeon returned late again, though, after dinner and once again when Taekwoon was already herding the children to bed. It was too quiet, Hakyeon thought as he went and tucked his children in, wishing them a good night. Taekwoon was too quiet.

“I’ll go heat up dinner for you…” Taekwoon mumbled when they returned downstairs, starting for the kitchen, but Hakyeon stopped him, catching his arm and turning him around to face him.

“Taekwoonie…” He cupped his face gently, giving him a questioning look. Taekwoon exhaled slowly, avoiding his gaze.

“What’s wrong, Woon?” Hakyeon’s voice was gentle, and Taekwoon bit his lip, feeling so, so tired and close to breaking down. He shook his head, covering Hakyeon’s hand on his cheek and leaning into the touch.

“It’s…” He sighed deeply. “Hyejin. She keeps fighting me on everything, arguing about everything, twisting my words… I always end up having to yell at her. I makes me feel like I at parenting…”

Hakyeon’s stomach dropped.

“Oh, Woonie… That’s not true, you know that, right? You are a wonderful father. The absolute best any child can ask for.”

Taekwoon huffed a humorless chuckle.

“Why is it my children never listen to me anymore, then? All they do is talk back, defy me and what I tell them to do, and then accuse me of being unfair and basically tell me to my face how much I . I’m no more than a food and cleaning machine to them at this point.”

Hakyeon frowned at that.

“Jung Taekwoon, stop talking about yourself like that! It’s not true. Hey, come on. Children are just like that, they will always try to push their boundaries. And it’s our job as parents to show them where those boundaries are, and the consequences of pushing them too far, remember? Of course, they’ll say it’s unfair. And complain. And scream and yell. But it’s better for them they do that with us and we teach them how far they can go, than to let them run rampant and let life put them in their place later on.”

Taekwoon sagged against Hakyeon, letting Hakyeon catch and hold him.

“I can’t do it on my own, though, Hakyeon. It’s eating me up.”

Hakyeon bit his lips, rubbing Taekwoon’s back comfortingly.

“Just until the end of this week, and I’ll be home more, babe.”

Taekwoon sighed.

“Until then they’ll have ripped the whole house apart and me with it. Hyejin tied to pick the lock to my studio earlier.”

Hakyeon stiffened.

“She did what?”

Taekwoon nodded.

“With a ball-pen-lead and a hairpin. She would never have managed, but the intention…”

Hakyeon’s grip on Taekwoon tightened, and Taekwoon tapped his arm to make him aware of it.

“I told her off, quite harshly, but…” He broke off with a sigh.

“Rightly so. I’ll talk to her again tomorrow. What in the world…!”

Taekwoon hugged Hakyeon in thanks, then took a step back.

“Come. You need to eat.”

This time, Hakyeon followed Taekwoon as he led the way to the kitchen.

-----

They ended up changing the hiding spot for the presents again, since they didn’t like having locked doors around the house, and at least no one found it first thing in the morning this time. Taekwoon felt weary by the time Hakyeon left the house again to take the kids to school and go to work, though. The few hours he had before they would come back to no doubt torment him once again felt like a much too small reprieve.

To his eternal relief and surprise, the talk Hakyeon must have had with Seojun and especially Hyejin on the way to school seemed to have some effect. Neither complained when he sent them upstairs to clean their rooms and bring down any laundry they had to wash, and he could barely believe it.

His stomach dropped, though, when he was carrying the dirty laundry to the laundry room and saw Heejoon trying to open the cabinet under the stairs; that was where they’d decided to hide the presents last night.

“Heejoonie, what are you looking for?”

“I want to play with Chewy and need the ball with the holes for the treats.”

Coincidentally, the cabinet under the back stairs was also where they kept the spare toys for the pets.

“It’s in the living room under the TV shelf, baby.”

Heejoon let go of the door -which was thankfully jammed and hard to open; one of the reasons they had chosen that cabinet to hide the presents this time- and made a small ‘Oh’ sound before waddling back to the living room. Taekwoon quickly dropped the laundry in the washing machine and went to the cabinet to get the ball Heejoon was looking for. It was not in the living room, and Taekwoon knew that for a fact since he’d personally put the ball in the cabinet only a few days ago.

“Appa? Didn’t you say the ball was in the living room?”

Taekwoon nearly jumped out of his skin as he spotted Seojun on the stairs.

“I thought it was, but just remembered I’d put it back in here the other day. Are you and Hyejin done cleaning your rooms?”

Seojun nodded.

“Alright. Then go get your sister and come down to do your homework.”

Seojun nodded and went back upstairs, but Taekwoon still felt uneasy. Heejoon was happy when Taekwoon gave him the dog toy, not at all bothered it hadn’t been where Taekwoon had said it was, and Taekwoon was grateful at least the two younger children were rather uncomplicated; at least for the moment. He feared for what Seojun and Hyejin would get up to once they were done with their homework and decided to get help to distract them.

He texted Wonshik first, and it didn’t take too long for him to get an answer.

“Sorry, hyung, I’m busy, or I’d be over in a minute! But Jaehwan isn’t, as far as I know.”

Taekwoon tried his luck with Jaehwan, then. Thankfully, Jaehwan was free, and made it over just in time as the two oldest finished their homework.

“You have no idea how glad I am you could come…” Taekwoon sighed as he opened the door to Jaehwan.

The younger hissed as he looked at Taekwoon.

“Damn, hyung, you aged ten years since Sunday.”

Taekwoon sighed, rolling his eyes.

“Thank you so much. You do wonders for my self-esteem, Jaehwan.”

Jaehwan chuckled and hugged Taekwoon.

“It’s what I’m here for. Be glad it wasn’t Sanghyuk who was free and saw you like that. Now, where are the rascals?”

“Living room. Just finished their homework.”

Jaehwan let go of Taekwoon, showing himself further into the house.

Seojun was ecstatic to see Jaehwan, and immediately roped him into practicing lines for his play with him. Jaehwan wasn’t opposed to it, and somehow managed to convince Hyejin to join them. At some point Taekwoon could hear the three of them harmonizing (or trying to, at least) to one of the songs Hyejin and her class were supposed to sing on the last day before the holidays. It didn’t even sound half bad, and Taekwoon couldn’t help but feel a little proud of his talented kids.

Having someone else to help him look after the kids when they were all at home made things infinitely easier, and he wasn’t half as stressed as the other days when Hakyeon eventually came home just as Jaehwan was leaving.

The kids were tired out from playing with Jaehwan all afternoon, making less of a fuss as they were sent to bed than usual. Taekwoon didn’t mind not having to be involved in an argument for once. Then again, it was always easier to send the kids off to bed when Hakyeon was there to help, anyway.

He was beyond glad when he got to sit down on the couch and relax with Hakyeon once everyone was tucked in, though. He felt like melting partially into both the couch cushions and Hakyeon’s side.

Hakyeon chuckled at him, nudging him slightly but not pushing him off, before his features softened and he cupped Taekwoon’s face gently in one hand, his thumb over his cheek.

“You look better today than yesterday…”

Taekwoon hummed.

“I feel better, too. Yesterday was just a low point, I guess…”

Hakyeon leaned in, brushing a gentle kiss against Taekwoon’s forehead.

“I’m glad you called Jaehwan to help you out. And I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to help instead.”

Taekwoon hummed.

“I’m glad Jaehwan could come. I really needed someone to distract the kids. I think Seojun might have suspected where we hid the presents this time and I wouldn’t have been able to keep both him and Hyejin distracted enough all afternoon to keep them from checking.”

Hakyeon furrowed his brow slightly.

“Seojun suspects?”

Taekwoon nodded.

“I think so… He might, at least. He saw me get a ball for Heejoon out of the cabinet after telling Heejoon it was in the living room.”

Hakyeon bit his lip, nodding slowly.

“We need to get the presents out of there and find a new place… How about… Hm… Somewhere we already had; they won’t suspect we use the same place twice, would they? So, maybe guest bathroom?”

Taekwoon thought about it.

“My office is better, I think… They aren’t able to pull the couch out on their own yet…”

Hakyeon thought about it.

“Maybe they are… Hyejin might be stronger than what we give her credit for. It’s a risk… But what options do we have left…?”

Taekwoon shrugged.

“Not many…”

“Exactly. Let’s go?”

Taekwoon got up reluctantly, and Hakyeon had to pull him up and off the couch into a standing position. Then, though, Taekwoon trotted behind Hakyeon down the hallway.

They didn’t turn on the lights, not needing them as the lights from the living room illuminated quite a bit of the hallway, still, and so were able to hear the whispering in the darkness on the other end of the hallway.

“It’s jammed, I can’t get it open!”

“Let me try. Here, move out of the way and hold the light…”

Hakyeon didn’t wait any longer, jumping forward and hitting the closest light-switch near a door, illuminating the whole hallway at once.

At the other end of the hallway, Hyejin and Seojun jumped, one of them letting out a small, startled cry as they turned around to see their fathers standing there, having caught them.

Behind the kids, the door to the cabinet slowly fell open, the pull Hyejin had given it when she’d been startled strong enough to have unjammed it. Hakyeon and Taekwoon watched with mild horror as the door slowly revealed what was behind it, the presents in plain sight from their point of view.

“What in the world are you two doing down here?! Isn’t it way past your bedtime? No, I don’t even want to know!” Hakyeon scolded, quickly shutting any try to answer down when Hyejin started turning around to motion at the cabinet door.

“There is no valid excuse as to why you aren’t in bed but down here at this time of the night on a school night! Out, up with you and back into bed! Right this second! Shoo, hurry!”

Hakyeon wasn’t feeling half as strict as he pretended to be in that moment, more worried they’d just turn around and see the open door than anything else, but his strategy worked. Both Hyejin and Seojun were quick to hurry to the stairs and up, Hakyeon close behind them, lecturing them on how important getting enough sleep was, especially for children their age.

Taekwoon almost sat down on the floor in relief once they were out of sight and he could go retrieve the presents.

His office wouldn’t do to hide the presents again, he decided in that moment. Nor would any other place in the house. The kids were too lucky, and too astute.

He gathered the bags with the presents and lugged them to the living room, waiting for Hakyeon to return, which didn’t take long.

“We have to be more creative. They are too smart.” Hakyeon announced as he joined Taekwoon in the living room again. Taekwoon nodded in agreement.

“They’ll find the presents no matter where we’ll hide them. They got luck on their side.”

Hakyeon nodded, his face grave and serious.

“We have to find a place they can’t even access… And until then…”

Taekwoon sighed. There was no place like that in their house. He could only see one solution.

“The presents are the safest when there are no kids around them to look for them. So, how about we take the kids out?”

Hakyeon nodded pensively.

“I don’t have work tomorrow. We could take them to the Christmas Fair after school…”

Taekwoon’s face lit up, just to cloud with worry a moment later.

“We are only two people, with three kids that can run off on their own. In a crowded place like the Christmas Fair, it’s going to be hell to look after them…”

Hakyeon shook his head slowly, pulling out his phone.

“I’m calling the cavalry. Ideally, we should be able to double the number of kids that can run off...”

Well, like that, it was whole another story altogether. A small smile bloomed on Taekwoon’s lips as he watched Hakyeon type on his phone. Like that, he could look forward to tomorrow with a lighter heart than he had all week so far.