4:52AM. The sky was only just lighting up along the horizon, indicating the start of a new day, and nothing warned the (for the most part) sleeping Cha family that their peaceful sleep would find an abrupt end in just a few seconds. Only the cat lifted its head from its paws, blinking sleepily over Taekwoon’s calf towards the door with twitching ears before the loud crash followed by a startled scream echoed through the house.

Startled herself, Suri jumped up from the bed, suddenly very awake, and darted towards the safest place she knew: Taekwoon’s chest.

Taekwoon groaned as he felt Suri’s claws digging through the fabric of his shirt, disoriented at first as he tried to remember what had woken him up.

Hakyeon sat up next to him, his hair sticking up in every direction as he blinked groggily.

“What-?” He didn’t get further before the cries of a child disrupted the momentary silence.

Taekwoon rubbed at his eyes with one hand while trying to gently pry the scared cat off his chest with the other, all while already swinging his legs over the edge of the bed.

“Aigoo, Suri, let go…” He murmured under his breath, while Hakyeon followed his example and got up as well.

With nothing more than a look it was decided between the husbands that Taekwoon would investigate the source of the noise that had woken them up in the first place, while Hakyeon soothed the crying child… one for now, since when one cried in the middle of the night (or early morning), more were sure to follow.

A little unsteady on his feet due to just having woken up, Hakyeon stumbled down the hallway towards the room of his youngest son, Heejoon. He found the boy sitting in the middle of his bed, his blanket wrapped tightly around himself as he cried. As soon as Hakyeon opened the door, though, the child let go of the blanket and reached out for Hakyeon.

“Ap-pa!” He cried, and Hakyeon rushed to his side, immediately taking the boy into his arms, blanket and all.

“Shh, Heejoonie… It’s ok, it’s ok…”

“Appa! I’m sc-scared!”

“Ah, it’s ok, there’s nothing to be scared of, I’m here baby…”

In that moment the door was thrown open again, making the boy jump in Hakyeon’s arms and clutch onto his shirt as he hid his face, but it was just a little girl who stormed inside, wasting no time to run into her appa’s arms.

“Appa! What was that noise? It’s scary!” She crawled into Hakyeon’s lap quickly cuddling up to him just like her brother.

“Hyejinie, careful!” Hakyeon grunted as her elbow dug painfully into his stomach for a moment, before she settled and he wrapped an arm around her, too.

“Your appa is investigating, but it was probably just one of the dogs that tipped something over.”

Hyejin didn’t look convinced.

“And the scream?”

Hakyeon blinked.

“Ah… Sometimes when a dog yelps it sounds like a scream, too.”

“But what if it was a monster and it ate Seojun?”

Heejoon started crying harder again at his sister’s theory, fearing for the fate of his older brother, and Hakyeon had trouble soothing him.

“Hyejin, that’s nonsense; there are no monsters. Seojun will be just fine, Heejoon. He wasn’t eaten by any monsters, he’s fine.”

“Where is he, if he wasn’t eaten? Seojun hyung!” Heejoon called out weakly, his voice not even travelling as far as the door of his room and Hakyeon ran his hand through his hair soothingly.

“He’s probably sleeping, still. Or he went with Taekwoon appa to see what the noise was. Ah, Hyejinie, can you let go of my arm just so I can reach these tissues…?”

Hyejin showed no indication she’d heard her father and kept clutching his arm as he reached out to get a box of tissues to clean the tears and snot off his son’s face as he was starting to cry less again.

Meanwhile, Taekwoon had finally managed to get Suri to let go of his shirt, which she reacted to with an offended noise as she darted back up the stairs once Taekwoon had reached the bottom. Taekwoon didn’t bother looking after her, too distracted by the light shining out of the half open kitchen door. Why were the lights on in the kitchen? He was sure he’d turned them off before going to bed last night…

Determinedly, he strode towards the door, pushing it open and stopping in his tracks immediately. The kitchen floor was covered in a dark red substance, littered with shards of glass, while his older son crouched on the floor in the corner by the fridge, picking up the shards he could reach from there.

“Seojun!” He’d called out for his son even before he knew it, and startled the boy into dropping the shards he’d already picked up.

Taekwoon’s heart clenched as he saw the tear streaked face and wobbling bottom lip of his second oldest.

“Seojunie, don’t touch the glass, ok? You’ll cut yourself…” He trailed off as he saw it was too late for that and his son already had a small cut on his hand.

Taekwoon curse internally as he remembered he was barefoot, too, and he really shouldn’t walk into the glass littered kitchen like this… But his child was standing in the corner, barefoot, too, and bleeding, and it really didn’t matter if he was barefoot or not.

Doing his best to avoid both the spilled liquid, whatever it was, and the shards of glass, he strode across the kitchen and picked the six-year-old up, holding him securely far away from the shards at their feet before carrying him out of the room and into the adjacent living room and setting him down on the couch.

Silent tears were streaming down the boy’s face again as he clung to Taekwoon, not wanting to let go when Taekwoon set him down.

“Seojunie, are you hurt somewhere, other than your hand?” He carefully took the boy’s hand in his, giving the cut a quick once over and to his relief finding it was only small and had already stopped bleeding, too.

Seojun didn’t look up as he muttered “Foot” and wriggled the corresponding body part weakly. Taekwoon inspected that wound as well, but it was only a small cut, too.

“Anywhere else?”

Seojun shook his head no, and Taekwoon internally sighed in relief. He didn’t need to go far to pick up some band aids and antiseptic wipes, finding them in the drawer under the coffee table; being the father of 4 rowdy children had taught him to keep tons of those supplies stored everywhere around the house.

“Alright, we have dinosaurs, cats, lions, butterflies, spaceships and… what is this?” Taekwoon listed as he spread the different kinds of band aids on his thigh for his son to choose which ones he wanted on his cuts, effectively distracting him.

“Bows…” Seojun supplied, peeking at the strip Taekwoon was holding, eliciting a nod from him.

“Oh, right. And bows. Which ones do you want?”

Seojun wiped at his nose with the sleeve of his pyjama shirt, eyeing the assortment of band aids before pointing at one with lions, and then creasing his brow.

“There was one with a big purple butterfly last time… I want that one!”

Taekwoon scanned the laid out strips, looking for one with a purple butterfly but being unable to find it.

“Are you sure it was in this box?”

“Yes!” There wasn’t a hint of doubt in Seojun’s voice, and Taekwoon lifted an eyebrow, wondering how it had come to a point where his son knew the band aids boxes well enough to remember which motives were in each of them. Then again, Seojun was the clumsiest and at the same time most adventurous of his children, and managed to hurt himself more often than the other three put together.

Suddenly, Seojun threw himself across Taekwoon’s lap, reaching for something on the other side of him on the couch pillow.

“Here!” He held up a yellow strip of band aid with a big purple butterfly and a few smaller pink and blue ones flanking it, smiling shakily but triumphantly through the lingering tears.

Taekwoon nodded, taking it out of his son’s hand and placing it aside with the lion printed one while returning the rest to their box and reaching for the antiseptic wipes instead. Immediately, Seojun pouted, crossing his arms and hiding his injured hand that way.

Taekwoon sighed.

“Seojun, we have to clean that cut before putting the band aid on. You know this…”

The pout intensified.

“But it stings!”

“I know, but it’s only for a little bit and it’s necessary so it will heal better.”

Seojun didn’t move.

“Remember the last time we didn’t clean your cut on your knee and it got all red and swollen and hot?”

Seojun tensed as the unpleasant memory resurfaced, then pouted some more, then slowly uncrossed his arms and stuck his hand out for Taekwoon to tend to.

Taekwoon made sure to be quick, already sensing a new onslaught of tears from his son.

“All done, see? Now, which one of those do you want on your hand? Butterflies or lions?” He quickly distracted the boy with the colourful band aids, which worked perfectly. Sometimes the boy’s short attention span was a challenge to deal with, but other times, like now, it was a blessing.

“Butterflies. They are too pretty for my foot!”

Taekwoon couldn’t find a fault in the boy’s logic and carefully covered the cut with the yellow strip before moving on to the cut on his foot.

“See, all done. The lions will protect that cut and make it heal faster.” He proclaimed before tickling the small foot in his hands, eliciting a delighted squeal from Seojun, before letting go of the foot and tickling his sides, then hugging him. The boy sobered up somewhat, looking up at his father a bit warily.

“Appa?”

“Hmm?”

“You’re not mad at me?”

Taekwoon didn’t pretend not to know what his son was getting at.

“No, I’m not mad at you. But I do want to know what happened there.” He nodded at the kitchen, and Seojun swallowed, tears rising again. Taekwoon wiped the one that escaped away gently, and that gave the boy the courage to start telling him.

“I woke up because I was thirsty and went to get milk… But I couldn’t get it out, so I took the juice bottle out first, and when I tried to get the milk out I slipped and the bottle fell and- and- and…!”

Taekwoon soothed him as he started to stutter.

“Shh, it’s ok. But… were you on the counter again?”

The boy bit his lip and looked away, telling Taekwoon all he needed to know.

“Seojun, how many times have I told you not to climb on the counter?”

The boy lowered his head, avoiding Taekwoon’s gaze.

“It’s dangerous to climb on the counter! You can fall down and really hurt yourself, and there are a lot of things up there you can get hurt on, too! Just imagine you had fallen after that bottle fell, and you’d have hit all those shards…! You would be really, seriously hurt now!”

The boy’s bottom lip trembled again.

“I just wanted some milk…”

Taekwoon sighed, never immune to that tiny, pitiful voice.

“You should just come ask me or Hakyeon appa if you want something you can’t reach yet…”

“But you were sleeping…”

“Then you should wake us up. We won’t mind you waking us if you are thirsty. Next time you want something to drink in the middle of the night you will come to us, ok?”

After a moment, the boy nodded minutely, and Taekwoon ruffled his hair affectionately, placing a kiss on top of the disheveled boy’s head.

“Good. Now wait here while I get you some milk and then we go upstairs again, alright? It’s early still, there’s time to play before you need to get ready for school.” Because there was absolutely no chance the boy would fall asleep again now that he was awake.

He got the promised milk, and when Seojun had emptied the glass Taekwoon carried him upstairs, like promised. Of course the boy could walk on his own, and of course he was already getting a bit heavy to be carried around like that, but Taekwoon couldn’t help but pamper him sometimes.

Upstairs, he heard voices from Heejoon’s room and decided to peek in and inform the gathered family what it had been that had woken them up.

“Hey everyone… It was just a juice bottle that fell and broke and startled Seojunie. He’s fine though.” He opened the door wide enough so everyone could see the boy in his arms as proof that he was telling the truth.

Hakyeon and Heejoon looked positively relieved, but Hyejin’s brow creased worriedly.

“What juice bottle was it?” She asked with a frown, and Taekwoon shrugged.

“One that was in the door of the fridge, next to the milk…”

Hyejin’s eyes widened in terror and she let out a high pitched scream before jumping off Hakyeon’s lap and darting past Taekwoon out of the door and down the stairs. It took Taekwoon a moment to react before he quickly set down Seojun and ran after her. He only just caught her in time as she was about to run into the kitchen, pulling her to a stop before she could step into the glass on the floor.

“Hyejin, wait! You can’t go in there!” He panted, but she paid him no mind as she let out a pained wail, confusing Taekwoon for a moment as he thought she’d stepped into a shard that must have flown all the way out into the hallway. He crouched down at eye level with her, trying to get her to look at him.

“Hyejin-ah, what’s wrong, baby?”

“M-my juice!”

“Oh… That was yours? Hey, hey, don’t cry, we can get you new juice…!”

It was obviously the wrong thing to say as Hyejin only started to sob and turned around to cry loudly against her father’s shoulder while at the same time hitting him lightly with her tiny fists.

“Y-you c-ca-can’t! I-I made i-it! It’s sp-pecial!”

Taekwoon was more and more confused by the second.

“You made that juice?”

She nodded, crying louder.

“At Soo-Soobinie’s house! I m-made it! And now… It’s gone!”

Taekwoon vaguely remembered Hakyeon mentioning to him that Hyejin had gone to her friend’s house when he’d wondered where she was when he’d come home the day before, and that she’d proudly presented her purple stained fingers when she’d come home, saying it was from all the berries… Slowly, it added up in his head.

“Ah, that’s a shame. But I’m sure we can ask Soobinie’s mom if she still has some of the juice you made and get you another bottle, hm?”

“I only made this one bottle! All the others are not the same!” Hyejin sobbed dramatically, and if Taekwoon didn’t know how good of an actress she was, he would have feared she might faint at any second. It didn’t hurt any less to see his child that torn up, though.

“I’m sorry, baby… I’m sorry…” Taekwoon felt at a total loss of how to soothe the crying girl. It was too early in the morning for his brain to function properly and deal with two crying children in such a short period of time. And Hyejin was always the hardest one to placate.

“Hyejin-ah, I have an idea…”

Hakyeon’s voice sounded behind Taekwoon, and he felt like saying a prayer of thanks for his husband’s timely appearance.

The girl froze for a second, then carried on crying but peeked over Taekwoon’s shoulder, blinking at Hakyeon with tearful eyes.

“It’s a really good idea, and I’m sure you will love it, but I’ll have some explaining to do and you won’t understand it if you keep crying that loudly.”

Hyejin frowned, then wiped at her eyes while still hick-upping and clutching Taekwoon’s shirt in her other fist.

“There is something that is even better than juice, you know...”

Curiosity was about to win over Hyejin’s grief as she followed Hakyeon with her eyes.

“And I’m sure you can guess what it is, too.”

Finally, the girl’s curiosity broke her silence.

“What?” She stage-whispered over Taekwoon’s shoulder, and Hakyeon winked at her, a small smile on his face.

“Want to try to guess what I mean? It’s made out of berries, too. But it’s not juice…”

Hyejin creased her brow in thought, her tears drying as she couldn’t focus on crying anymore.

“I don’t know…”

Hakyeon’s smile grew as he built up suspense.

“I’m sure you do… It’s something you eat… Something you like to eat a lot with toast…”

Hyejin jumped, letting go of Taekwoon in the process.

“Jelly?!” Her careful excitement showed through her voice.

Hakyeon grinned triumphantly.

“Ta-da! Yes, jelly!”

“But-but…”

Hakyeon rose an eyebrow.

“What is it, dear?”

“But… You can’t make jelly…”

Hakyeon scoffed.

“Of course we can! It’s really easy, it’s like making the juice but with one step more.”

Out of Hyejin’s sight, Taekwoon creased his eyebrows in worry. Of course making jelly was easy, but Hakyeon had barely managed to master cooking rice… How was he going to make jelly with the kids? Taekwoon feared for their kitchen’s integrity.

Hyejin of course had no such worries as she let go of Taekwoon and ran towards Hakyeon who swept her up in his arms for a moment, laughing.

“If Soobin’s mom allows it she can come here with you after school and then we can all make berry jelly together.”

“Can we go pick the berries, too?”

“Of course we can.”

Forgotten was the spilled juice as Hakyeon guided Hyejin upstairs and far away from the kitchen, and Taekwoon sighed in relief. Now he only had to clean the mess up before the gang came back down and demanded he filled their hungry stomachs.

Hurriedly, he went to get his slippers so he wouldn’t step into any shards of glass himself, barely just managing to catch the dogs before they ventured into the kitchen on his way back. Well, he managed to catch the overgrown Retriever mix, while the energetic Spitz darted right past him and skidded to a halt in the middle of the mess on the kitchen floor.

“Chewie, stay! Aigoo, Sora, what did you do…” He ordered the big one to stay put, while carefully picking up the little one. He enthusiastically at Taekwoon’s chin while he inspected the little paws for cuts, but found none, to his eternal relief.

He shooed both of them out of the danger zone, locking the door from inside just in case anyone else felt a stupid need to run into broken glass before cleaning up the sticky and dangerous mess. Still, even with the closed door, he could hear the noise coming from upstairs, and he truly wasn’t jealous of Hakyeon’s job to take care of the little rascals on his own.

Hakyeon wouldn’t have fought anyone who offered to take his position, either, as he tried to stay at least somewhat dry while helping his two boys get washed up.

“Seojun, put that cup down! Your brother doesn’t need a shower right now! No, Heejoon, not that soap! That one burns in the eyes, here take this one. Ack, Seojun! What did I say just now?! Son, you are one step away from getting so grounded you will be wondering if you ever get to go outside again!”

He failed spectacularly at staying dry as Seojun dumped a toothbrush cup full of water over Heejoon, who screamed and started crying as the cold water soaked his pyjamas. Hakyeon quickly wrapped him up in a big fluffy towel, drying his hair before standing back up to glare at his giggling other son.

“That’s really not funny, Seojun! You are cleaning this mess up before you go anywhere from here!”

Slowly, Seojun stopped giggling, seeing his father was really not joking, but Hakyeon didn’t have much more time than to simply hand him a towel to wipe the water off the floor before a yell from the other bathroom sounded.

“Appa!”

He hurried out into the hallway, stopping in front of the other bathroom door.

“What is it, love?”

“Appa, there are no towels!” Hyejin whined, and Hakyeon sighed.

“Hold on, I’m getting one!”

Sprinting to his bedroom, he took a stack of fresh towels out of the linen cabinet and returned to the bathroom his daughter had been showering in, handing her the towels through the crack in the only barely opened door, before hurrying back to his sons’ sides.

He swore he almost fainted when he saw the two troublemakers giggling in front of the mirror, in the middle of a contest to see who could pile more shaving foam on their heads.

“What in the name of everything holy are you two doing now?!”

The two of them jumped, and the pile on Seojun’s head slowly slipped off its side to land on the boy’s shoulder.

Hakyeon had to take a deep breath to keep his composure before ushering both boys into the shower cabin to get rid of the foam. They were soaking wet already anyway, might as well make a full shower out of it.

“I would really like to know whose genius idea this was, I really would. But I guess it is better I never find out, or else someone is going to be in big trouble! Really big trouble! If I catch either of you playing with any foams or sprays or creams ever again before you are old enough to need them, I’m going to take dessert away from you for a whole month!”

Seojun froze.

“But… appa! That’s too long!”

Hakyeon leveled a meaningful look at the boy.

“Yes, it is. And you better keep that in mind before you decide to go against what I just told you!”

Seojun pouted, while Heejoon couldn’t care less. Dessert or no dessert really didn’t make a difference to him, and of course Hakyeon knew that. Just like he knew that Seojun had been the one starting to play with the shaving foam, since there was no way little Heejoon could have reached that far up to get it off its shelf, and Seojun was the one always climbing furniture to reach what he wanted to.

Eventually, Hakyeon managed to get both boys clean, dried and dressed. To his chagrin, he also found that the shaving foam bottle was empty, and neither he nor Taekwoon would get to shave that morning without a run to the 24-hour convenience store.

Once the boys were safely tucked away in their rooms, he went to find Hyejin to help her with her hair. He only hoped she didn’t demand an elaborate hairstyle again and a simple braid would be enough for the day. He shook his head, wondering at what point it had gotten that far that he kept finding himself watching hair tutorials just so he could keep up with his daughter’s demands… She was only eight years old; how could she already care so much about hairstyles?!

Thankfully, his wish was fulfilled and Hyejin was too preoccupied with something else to care about her hair too much, and let Hakyeon away with only braiding it while she babbled away.

“…you see, and then they said I could never be a stuntman! But I’m not as clumsy as Seojunie, so I definitely can, so I said fine, I’m not going to become a stuntman, but a stuntwoman! They laughed, but, you see, they are dumb, so it’s not their fault they don’t understand, the poor kids. One day I will be the most famous stuntwoman in all of Asia; no, the world! And then I will just smile at them and say “Told you so”! But only with my eyes, you see, like Uncle Hongbin always does. Ah, but they probably won’t understand that, because, like I said, they are dumb… Why can’t real life have subtitles, appa? It’s unfair on the dumb ones, they never understand anything like this…” She sighed pitifully, and Hakyeon bit down a chuckle, wondering where all that sass his daughter possessed came from.

“Hyejinie, it’s not nice to call people dumb.”

She huffed.

“But they are!”

“It’s still not nice. And even if you are smarter than them, you shouldn’t brag about being smarter. Instead, try to understand why they can’t understand you and explain your point in a way that they will understand.”

Hyejin huffed again.

“But that’s hard!”

Hakyeon nodded, finishing up the braid and fixing the small hairs that didn’t fit in it with hairclips.

“Of course it is. But if you are smart, you should be able to do that easily.

Hyejin thought Hakyeon’s words over, then breathed a sigh of quiet acceptance just as Hakyeon patted her shoulder.

“All done. Shall we go see if Taekwoon appa is done making breakfast for us?”

Hyejin shook her head.

“I don’t have my jacket yet… Omo!! I forgot, I got it dirty yesterday, with the berries! Appaaaaa! I don’t have a jacket to wear today!”

Hakyeon quietly took the school uniform jacket out of his daughter’s hands, finding that it was indeed all dirty with berry stains. Internally, he flinched, already wondering how they were supposed to get them out of the fabric ever again.

“I washed your other jacket yesterday, it should be dry already. Go, take your brothers and see if breakfast is ready while I iron it really quick.”

Hakyeon breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the three of them make their way down the stairs loudly, giving him a moment to breathe seemingly for the first time since he’d been startled awake so suddenly.

Taekwoon’s moments to breathe were counted, though, as loud knocking sounded on the kitchen door he had forgotten to open again after finishing cleaning up.

Quickly, he went to open it before the kids broke it down, letting them in.

“I’m not quite done setting the table… Hyejin, can you put the last bowls from the counter on the table? Seojun, take your hands out of the kimchi!”

Taekwoon scolded his son as he helped the other sit on his chair, scooting the bowl with kimchi out of Seojun’s reach in the process.

“Wait until the table is set and everyone is seated. It’s rude to start eating while others are still working.”

Seojun pouted, but sat on his chair and waited until Taekwoon and Hyejin sat down, too.

“Where is Hakyeon appa?” Taekwoon asked as he sat down, sliding the bowl of kimchi back over in Seojun’s direction as he saw the boy could barely wait to dig in, his gesture a silent permission that he was allowed to start now.

“Appa went to iron my uniform jacket… I forgot that I got the other one dirty yesterday…” Hyejin informed him, and Taekwoon nodded.

“Next time you get your uniform dirty please tell us in time. We’re lucky Hakyeon appa did laundry yesterday and that we woke up early enough to have time to iron it, but that won’t always be the case. A day will come when you will have to wear a dirty uniform to school if you don’t tell us in time that it got dirty.”

Hyejin looked horrified at the mere thought and quietly focused on her breakfast after that, while Taekwoon shifted his attention to Heejoon, who was making a mess of his food and eating less than half of it while spreading the rest around his plate and across the table. While Taekwoon was busy making sure the little boy actually ate something, Hyejin didn’t stay quiet for long before she started arguing with Seojun about the juice bottle he had smashed.

“Hey! Hyejin, you are being unfair. He didn’t do it on purpose; he was still sleepy and it fell. You have broken your fair share of things accidentally, too, when you were sleepy. Seojun, even though it was an accident, it won’t hurt you to apologize to your sister. After all, the juice was special to her and it made her sad to see it gone. Be nice to each other, would you?”

Rolling his eyes, Seojun apologized half-heartedly to Hyejin, who protested he didn’t mean it. Taekwoon, unamused, made him apologize again, and then scolded Hyejin for being way too smug about it. In the end, he glared at both of them.

“I want the two of you to leave it be from now on. Hyejin, no more blaming your brother! Seojun, you have to learn to take other people’s feelings more seriously, even if you don’t understand them!”

He had a feeling the subject wasn’t completely over yet, but wisely the children kept to themselves as he got up to prepare their lunch boxes. He didn’t even get to fill them even halfway before he got interrupted.

“Appa, I don’t want a lunchbox! I want to eat in the school cafeteria with all my friends!” Hyejin was the first to complain, before Seojun leaned against the counter next to him and looked up at him with puppy eyes.

“Appaaaaaa, can’t I have the white and blue snacks instead? Oh, and the red chocolate!”

“I don’t want egg rolls…” Heejoon sighed from his chair, and Taekwoon took a deep breath to keep his composure.

“I’m not going to eat all that anyway if it’s only salty food. I want sweets, appa, pleeeeeaaase!”

 “Appa, can I have grapes?” Heejoon pulled at the leg of Taekwoon’s pants, but before Taekwoon could hand him the grapes he got distracted by Suri at her cat food in the corner and ambled over to chat with the cat instead.

“It’s unfair that I always have to bring a lunch box and can’t eat in the cafeteria like everyone else! So unfair!” Hyejin pouted, crossing her arms in front of her chest while glaring daggers at Taekwoon’s back.

Taekwoon set the spoon he’d been holding down, took another deep breath and turned around to face his children.

“Enough!” He declared with a firm voice, not quite raised, but firm enough to have his kids fall silent and stop what they were doing. Except for Heejoon, who kept happily digging into the cat food with his hand, much to Suri’s confusion.

With a sigh, Taekwoon picked Heejoon up and sat him back in his chair, brushing off the worst of the cat food from his hand before addressing the other two.

“You aren’t old enough to eat in the cafeteria yet, Hyejin, and you know it. You have to pay for the food in there, and you aren’t allowed to bring money to school yet. And sure, I can replace all the food in your lunchbox with sweets from now on, Seojun, if you agree that we’re taking you to the dentist every other week because your teeth will be rotting away in no time like that. And since when do you not like egg rolls, Heejoon… Heejoon, don’t let the cat your hand! Aish!”

Quickly, he snatched Heejoon’s hand, ignoring the boy’s pout as he picked him up to wash his hands, just as Hakyeon was walking into the kitchen, Hyejin’s neatly ironed jacket draped over his arm.

Hyejin was still pouting, though, snatching her lunch box unhappily without a word and made to do the same with the jacket, but Hakyeon held it up and out of her reach, raising a chastising eyebrow at her.

“Where did you learn those manners, young lady? Your appa puts a lot of work and love into preparing your lunch box every day and you don’t even thank him for it?”

“I don’t want it anyway!”

“So you’d rather starve through the day?”

Hyejin huffed, ignoring his question.

“Can I have my jacket?”

Hakyeon shook his head.

“Not before you thank your appa for preparing that lunch box for you, and while you’re at it, apologize for being so rude to him.”

Hyejin huffed again.

“Then I don’t want the jacket, either!”

Hakyeon shrugged.

“Fine. So you’ll be starving and freezing today. As well as probably get detention for not being dressed properly.”

“Why are you being so mean to me?!” Hyejin stomped her foot, crossing her arms in anger again as she stared up at Hakyeon with barely held back tears in her eyes.

“Am I? Or am I being just as rude as you are being to Taekwoon appa? All he’s doing is making sure you don’t have to go hungry through the day, and you are being mean to him. Does that seem fair to you?”

Hyejin swallowed heavily. Her sense of justice didn’t allow her to ignore how right Hakyeon was with his argument even when she was mad.

“I just want to be able to eat in the cafeteria like all the older students…” She argued weakly, and Hakyeon hummed.

“Hmm… I get that, but do you think punishing your appa because you can’t is the right thing to do, even though it’s not his fault?”

She bit her lip again, avoiding Hakyeon’s gaze.

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s not me you have to apologize to, it’s Taekwoon appa.”

Sheepishly, Hyejin turned back around and quietly walked back into the kitchen, to where Taekwoon had just finished washing Heejoon’s hands free of cat food and sat him back into his chair, distracting him with the grapes he’d wanted earlier.

“Appa… I’m sorry… for being rude. Thank you for lunch.”

Taekwoon directed a warm smile at her as he nodded in acknowledgement.

“Apology accepted. You’re welcome, dear. I hope you’ll like it.”

When she approached Hakyeon this time, he handed her the jacket, and she thanked him quietly before walking back upstairs to pack her school bag.

“Seojunie, did you pack your bag yet?” Hakyeon asked his son who was quietly humming to himself while drawing shapes with leftover rice grains on his plate, startling the boy.

“No…”

“Then please go do that now.”

The boy nodded, hopped off his chair and went to his room to do as told, and Hakyeon finally sat down at the table as well, all too ready to finally get something to eat himself.

“Hyejin brought a permission slip for an upcoming school trip home. It’s for two days and a night…”

Taekwoon looked up from his food.

“Where?”

“Not far from here, as far as I understood, in some mountains… They want to take the kids stargazing, though, that’s why they need to stay over night…”

Taekwoon nodded.

“Hmm… Stargazing… What else?”

Hakyeon shifted in his seat.

“There’s also a trip to a small zoo with animals from the mountains, a museum for Korean culture and a pottery workshop… But Woon, don’t you think she’s a bit young for something like that?”

Taekwoon creased his brow as he stuffed food into his mouth, chewing and swallowing before asking.

“Why?”

“I mean, staying out over night…”

Taekwoon pondered for a moment.

“She’s used to that… She sleeps over at Wonshik’s all the time, and at Soobin’s, too.”

“But that’s different! Wonshik is family, and Soobin lives three houses over!”

Taekwoon shrugged.

“She’s eight, Hakyeon. When did you have your first school trip where you stayed out over night?”

Hakyeon thought for a while.

“Eight… But I was almost nine at the time!”

Taekwoon shook his head, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

“Hyejin isn’t that far from nine anymore, either. I think it’s alright to let her go. The teachers will know how to handle kids who are staying away from home for the first time, and Hyejin isn’t the scared type anyway. She will be alright and probably have a ton of fun.”

Hakyeon looked displeased, stabbing at his food.

“I don’t like it… I’m going to talk to Soobin’s mom and ask if Soobin is allowed to go. I don’t want Hyejin going if Soobin isn’t going.”

Taekwoon hummed.

“I’m pretty sure Soobin’s mom is thinking just like that, too. Soobin won’t be going unless Hyejin is going. Soobin won’t even want to go without Hyejin. Have you asked Hyejin what she thinks about it?”

“No… I just saw the slip on her desk while I was doing her hair, but I didn’t address it.”

“She didn’t give you the slip?”

Hakyeon shook his head.

“No…”

“Hmm…” Taekwoon hummed. “There is a chance she doesn’t want to go and that’s why she hasn’t mentioned it yet. Is there a due date until when she has to return it on it?”

“Next week Thursday.”

“Hmm… We should wait until Sunday for her to ask us, if she doesn’t until then we’ll ask her about it. That gives you time to talk to Soobin’s mom, too. Aigoo, where is Heejoon again?!”

Taekwoon jumped up, looking under the table first, but that wasn’t where their son was hiding.

“Heejoon!” He called out at the same time as the doorbell rang, and Taekwoon cursed under his breath as he spotted Heejoon rolling around on the living room floor with Chewie. Heejoon peeked out from behind the large dog, clothes and hair ruffled up and a happy smile on his face.

Sanghyuk, who’d been the one ringing the doorbell and who Hakyeon had let inside in the meantime, laughed at sight.

“I feel like this must have been what you were like as a child, hyung. Then again, I think no one loves animals more than our Heejoonie, not even you.”

Taekwoon sighed as he picked the toddler up, wincing as he spotted the amounts of dog hairs sticking to the boy’s clothes, not to mention the smell…

“Ah, I’m sorry, Sanghyuk… I think I have to go wash and change this one really quick before he can go with you…”

“Change Heejoon really quick… Good luck with that, hyung!” Sanghyuk laughed, making himself comfortable on the couch as Taekwoon carried Heejoon past him, who leaned back as far as he could in his father’s arms, looking at him from upside down as he waved at Sanghyuk, giggling.

“Bye, Uncle Hyukie!”

“Bye, little rascal! Let your appa wash you quickly so I can bring you to kindergarten!”

Hakyeon shook his head with a sigh.

“I better help with that, or else it will take even longer…” With that he left after Taekwoon, planning to pick out a new change of clothes while Taekwoon took the child to the bathroom.

“Appa! Where are you? We will be late for school!” Seojun complained when Hakyeon came back out of the bathroom.

“I’m sorry, boo, I’ll just get dressed really quick!” He shouted as he rushed to his own room, jumping into the first clothes he could grab and pulling a jacket over it to hide whatever mismatched combo he’d gone for.

“Hyejin-ah, hurry up! We are going! Seojun, do you have everything you need? Did you pack your math homework?”

“Yes, appa…”

Hakyeon nodded, ushering the two oldest down the stairs.

“Stripes and dots? Daring, hyung, daring…” Sanghyuk chuckled as he petted Sora, who’d decided Sanghyuk’s lap was as good as any other place to lay down.

Hakyeon rolled his eyes.

“I’m sure you’ve committed your own fair share of crimes against fashion in your day, Hyuk-ah. Half of them I probably witnessed. We need to go now; see you Saturday?”

“You bet on it. I’m never the one to bail, you know that.”

Hakyeon grimaced, knowing that more often than not either he or Taekwoon were the ones that failed to meet up with the rest of them due to some kind of family emergency.

“I promise I’ll try my best to make sure we can both come. Bye, Hyukie, thank you for taking Heejoon to kindergarten for us!”

“No problem, hyung. It’s on the way, anyway.”

“Appa, I forgot my pencil case!”

Just as Hakyeon was about to pull the door closed behind him, Seojun came running back to him.

“Really, Seojun…? How many times did I ask if you had everything…? Never mind, just go get your pencil case, hurry!”

The boy ran up the stairs and back down in not time.

“Bye, uncle Sanghyuk!” He panted as he ran past, pulling the door closed with a bang after him as he ran down the path towards the car Hakyeon was already waiting by, door open and ready to strap Seojun into his seat before they took off to school.

Sanghyuk followed the familiar scene through the living room window, chuckling to himself as he watched Hakyeon usher the boy into the car, without a doubt nagging at him for being so forgetful.

“Sorry we made you wait. This one is a handful, despite how little he still is…”

Sanghyuk grinned as Taekwoon appeared in the living room again, a freshly changed Heejoon struggling in his arms, begging to be put down. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he ran to where Chewie was still dozing in the strip of sunlight that fell through the window.

“Heejoon, no! You just got changed, you need to go to kindergarten with uncle Sanghyuk now. You can play with Chewie when you come back.”

“I just want to say goodbye!” Heejoon protested, struggling against Taekwoon’s hold again, and when that didn’t work, turned around to give him the saddest pleading puppy eyes the world had ever seen. Taekwoon would have given in at half the effort, and finally free, Heejoon ran to the big dog, crouching in front of him to pet his head.

“Bye-bye, Chewie. I love you!”

He then scrambled back up, peeking into the box in the cat tree he knew Suri hid in most mornings, smiling in delight when he found her there. Reaching in, he petted the cat carefully.

“Bye-bye, Suri. I love you!”

Next was Sora, who jumped off Sanghyuk’s lap to meet the boy halfway, letting him hug him.

“Bye-bye, Sora. I love you mostest. Don’t tell Chewie and Suri.”

Only then did he walk up to Sanghyuk, taking his much larger hand in his tiny one.

“We can go, Uncle Hyukie.” He proclaimed happily, satisfied he’d gotten to say his goodbyes before they left.

“What about your appa? Don’t you want to say goodbye to him, too? You don’t love him?”

The boy rolled his eyes as if he thought Sanghyuk was a bit dense.

“Of course I love appa. But appa knows that. Chewie and Sora and Suri forget that, so I have to remind them. But appa doesn’t forget easily.”

“Oooh, right. It’s nice to remind your appa, too, though.”

Heejoon let go of Sanghyuk’s hand and walked over to his dad, hugging his legs.

“Bye-bye, appa. I love you!”

Sanghyuk laughed at the toddler’s antics.

“Aigoo, hyung, your son loves you as much as the pets!”

Taekwoon grinned, lightly chopping at Sanghyuk’s neck after finishing putting on Heejoon’s shoes.

“Be gone, you pest! Drive safely, and thank you for taking Heejoon. Heejoonie, be nice to uncle Hyukie, alright?”

“I’m always nice, appa!” the boy reassured him, then walked out with Sanghyuk. After Sanghyuk had secured him safely in his chair in the car and driven off, Taekwoon heaved a sigh of relief. Finally, some peace and quiet.

Dragging his feet a little, he returned to the kitchen to clean up the remains of breakfast, feeding the dogs afterwards and exchanging the cat food Heejoon had dug through for new one, knowing how picky Suri was with her food.

He was only just done when Hakyeon returned, tiredly dropping the car keys on the board by the front door.

“Honey, I’m home.”

Taekwoon chuckled as he flopped down on the couch.

“I can see that.”

Hakyeon approached him, dropping a bag in Taekwoon’s lap before letting himself fall on the couch right next to him.

“What is that?”

“Shaving foam. The boys used all of the other one in the bathroom to make hats out of it.”

Taekwoon chuckled, setting the bag down next to him and wrapping an arm around Hakyeon, who was cold from the chilly morning air outside and snuggled all too gladly against his side.

The serenity lasted for about 8.4 seconds, before a crackling noise from the coffee table alerted them to the baby monitor coming to life.

Both of them gasped, looking at the other half amused, half mortified.

“Did we really forget to check on Jieun?” Hakyeon couldn’t believe it.

Taekwoon bit his lip, before an amused smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

“How on earth did she sleep through all that ruckus?!”

Hakyeon shook his head as he got up.

“We are truly the worst parents ever…”

Taekwoon shook his head as he got up as well.

“Maybe not the worst… but close. Ah, I just hope she becomes a lighter sleeper when she gets older… Imagine having another one like Wonshik to wake up for school every morning… I’m getting bad idol life flashbacks!”

Hakyeon snorted as he climbed the stairs ahead of Taekwoon.

“Our idol life was a walk in the park compared to this crazy house!”