Taekwoon woke up when a heavy weight landed on his stomach.

“Appaaaaaa! Wake up!”

Taekwoon blinked his eyes open slowly to find Seojun sat on top of him.

“What is it, boo?” He asked sleepily.

“Appa, can we light the candle yet?”

Taekwoon let his head flop back into the pillow.

“Seojun, it’s not even day yet…” He sighed, knowing already it was a futile attempt to try and get the excited child to let him have so much as five more minutes of sleep.

“It iiiiis!! Appa, come look, the sky is already lighting up! It’s day! It’s Sunday! The first advent! We can light the candle now, right?!”

Taekwoon sighed, not ready to leave his cozy bed just yet.

“Pleeeease, appa!!” Seojun sprawled out on top of him, hugging him through the blanket and looking up at him pleadingly.

“Whasgoinon?” Hakyeon lifted his head off his own pillow to blink owlishly at the commotion on Taekwoon’s side of the bed.

Seojun was quick to sit up again, facing his other father in hopes that he’d react quicker.

“We have to light the first candle on the advent wreath! It’s Sunday!!”

Hakyeon took a moment to understand.

“Before even breakfast?”

Seojun blinked back, not having considered that yet.

“Can we have breakfast now, then?”

Hakyeon chuckled softly, yawning.

“Can we wake up fully first?”

Seojun sighed, throwing himself onto the mattress between the two of them with wide spread arms reaching both of his parents.

“How long will it take for you to wake up fully?”

Hakyeon smiled.

“That depends…”

“On what?”

“If I get cuddles or not.”

Seojun didn’t have to be prompted twice before throwing himself over Hakyeon and hugging him through the blanket, too.

“Ooof…” the air was knocked out of Hakyeon as the boy landed on his chest, but he wrapped his arms around him anyway.

“Are you awake yet?”

Hakyeon opened only one eye to blink at Seojun.

“Hmmm… no.”

Seojun pulled a grimace, waiting another 30 seconds… maybe; maybe less.

“And now?”

Hakyeon bit back a chuckle.

“Still not.”

Seojun sighed, wriggling impatiently, until Hakyeon tightened one arm around him and tickled him with his free hand, making the boy squeal and squirm with laughter until he collapsed back on the bed between Taekwoon and Hakyeon, a little exhausted.

“Let’s rest for a little bit longer before we all get up, ok?”

Seojun sighed, but it was laced with a yawn, and he eventually nodded, cuddling closer to Hakyeon who let him under the blanket so he didn’t have to lay in the chilly morning air only in his pyjamas.

They might not have been able to fall asleep fully again, but the extra rest was very welcome; for the three of them, actually. There came a time, though, when Seojun absolutely couldn’t stay still anymore, and his parents had to get up with him.

“Don’t wake your siblings up just yet. You can come help me with breakfast while we wait until they wake up.” Taekwoon admonished, watching Seojun jump on the bed after Hakyeon had left for the bathroom and he was pulling clothes for the day out of his wardrobe.

Seojun jumped one last time, landing on his on purpose to look up at Taekwoon.

“How long do we have to wait?”

Taekwoon finished pulling a jumper over his shirt before picking Seojun up to bring him to his room and pick out clothes for him.

“Until they have all slept for long enough and are not the tiniest bit tired anymore.”

Seojun groaned, slumping in his father’s hold.

“Whyyyy…? Jieunie, too?”

Taekwoon smiled out of Seojun’s sight.

“Jieunie, too.” He confirmed, and Seojun made a dying noise.

“We won’t get to light the candle until tonight like that!”

Taekwoon chuckled.

“Now you’re just being dramatic. Come on, lets choose what you’re going to wear today.”

“I just want my pyjamas… And everyone to wake up!”

Taekwoon sighed.

“Seojunie, we’re not waking up the others this early because of a candle; no matter how special it is. And if you don’t choose your clothes, I’m going to do it.” Casually, he let his hand fall onto a jumper he knew for a fact the boy wouldn’t want to wear on a day off school.

Seojun jumped into action, choosing his clothes and letting Taekwoon help him wash up and then put on the socks since he forgot to put them on before his pants. He was ready to dart out of the room when Taekwoon stopped him again.

“Slippers, Seojun. No running in the morning. And don’t be loud while the others are sleeping.”

Seojun sighed, but returned to put on his slippers, and then walked out of the room at snail speed, as he called it. He only spoke up again when they reached the kitchen. Then, though, there was no stopping him as he blabbered on about everything and nothing, asking millions of questions and jumping from one subject to the next, unable and unwilling to waste too much time on one single subject.

Taekwoon listened and answered patiently while preparing and serving breakfast. He was almost done when Hakyeon entered the kitchen with Jieun and Heejoon, who still looked as if he’d rather go back to sleep soon.

“Hyejin is coming down in a minute.” He informed the two as he seated Jieun in her raised baby chair and helped Heejoon onto his chair, too.

Seojun shifted restlessly on his chair while they waited for Taekwoon to finish serving breakfast and Hyejin to come down, and he still didn’t sit still all throughout the meal. It was no surprise that he was the first one to be done eating and started slipping off his chair.

“Seojun, it’s rude to leave the table when everyone else is still eating.”

Seojun pouted at Taekwoon, who hadn’t even looked up from his food while he admonished him, then looked pleadingly at Hakyeon to see if he’d agree with Taekwoon.

“He is right, Seojun. You can wait until we are all done before running off to play.”

Seojun pouted some more, crossing his arms in front of his chest and sliding down on his chair.

“I don’t want to play; I want to light the candle…”

“You’ll have to wait until Taekwoon and I are done eating and cleaning up anyway before we can go light the candle.”

That was absolutely not what Seojun wanted to hear, and the rest of the meal felt like centuries passed before he was allowed to get up… And only to be sent to brush his teeth! Complaining every step of the way, he stomped up the stairs to brush his teeth, and when he came back not even two minutes later, Hakyeon was not amused.

“Seojun, did you even brush your teeth?”

“I did! Can we light the candle now?”

Hakyeon ignored his question.

“Let me see your teeth.”

Seojun hesitated, and Hakyeon lifted an impatient eyebrow. Hesitating, Seojun opened his mouth, and Hakyeon huffed.

“Seojun, did you lie to me?”

Seojun lowered his head.

“I was going to brush them later, after we finally lit the candle…”

Hakyeon shook his head.

“The candle is not going to run away, and you have to wait anyway until everyone else is ready. But if you lie to me, chances are we are not going to light it at all.”

Seojun looked up with big teary eyes.

“Appa… please!”

“Go brush your teeth for real now. Until they are all clean and sparkly.”

“Appa…”

“Now, Seojun!”

Seojun lowered his head and dragged himself up the stairs again. Once he was out of sight, Hakyeon sighed deeply, rubbing his face. He hated having to scold Seojun, and he did his best to bring up more patience for him than everyone else, but sometimes… Sometimes he couldn’t. Sometimes he just had to scold him, even if he tended to swallow his anger down three out of four times, and still it felt as if he was scolding him more than the other kids.

Steps on the stairs alerted him that Taekwoon was coming back downstairs from helping Heejoon with his teeth and changing Jieun.

“What happened?” He asked before he was even all the way down. “Seojun is crying.”

Hakyeon felt like a jerk.

“I scolded him. He lied about brushing his teeth because of the candle. I scolded him because he lied in the first place, though.”

Taekwoon sighed, putting down Jieun on her play blanket.

“What did you tell him?”

“That if he lied, chances were we wouldn’t light the candle at all.”

Taekwoon hissed.

“Harsh.”

“He has to learn that lying is not ok, though. It’s not the first time he does it, either.”

“Are you planning to go through with it?”

Hakyeon grimaced.

“No… That would be punishing Hyejin and Heejoon, too, and they didn’t do anything wrong. Also, don’t you think that would be a bit too harsh on him, after all? He’s been waiting for this day for ages.”

Taekwoon nodded, hugging Hakyeon quickly.

“I’ll go be the nice appa and save the day, then. Don’t feel bad, Yeonie. You did nothing wrong. He is complicated sometimes, after all.”

Hakyeon leaned into the hug for as long as it lasted, pecking Taekwoon’s cheek before he could let go and thanked him. While Taekwoon then proceeded to go back upstairs, Hakyeon distracted himself with gathering the supplies they’d need later on, after the candle was lit.

Meanwhile, Taekwoon found Seojun in his room, sniffling into the blankets on his bed. Quietly, he sat down at its foot-end, waiting patiently for his son to look up and acknowledge his presence. Eventually, he did.

“What happened, Seojun?”

Seojun sat up, wiping at his eyes through his hick-ups.

“Ap-appa said… Said we’re not-not going to light the ca-candle…!”

Taekwoon hummed in understanding.

“And why did he say that?”

Seojun’s hick-ups increased, and he hid his face momentarily.

“Because- Because I lied.” He admitted quietly.

“And lying is bad, right?”

“Y-yes.”

“And you know why it’s bad?”

“Because… Because then people can’t trust me anymore… And it makes people sad.” Seojun sounded miserable, but Taekwoon wasn’t quite done yet.

“Right. Do you want to make Hakyeon sad?”

“No!!”

“Then why did you lie to him?”

Seojun hid his face.

“I didn’t mean… I just wanted… the candle…”

Taekwoon sighed.

“Seojunie, do you think lighting a candle a little bit earlier is worth making Hakyeon sad for and breaking his trust?”

“N-no!” Seojun wailed, and Taekwoon couldn’t stand it any longer, wrapping an arm around the crying boy. Seojun leaned against him immediately, and Taekwoon held him until his tears slowed down again.

“Seojunie, I have an idea.”

The boy lifted his head and blinked up at his father with a still wet face, which Taekwoon dried gently.

“If you go brush your teeth really nicely now, just like Hakyeon told you to, and then go to him and apologize for lying, and promise -and mean it!- that you won’t lie to either of us again, he might still let us light the candle today.”

Seojun blinked hopefully.

“R-really?”

Taekwoon nodded.

“Yes. But only if you really mean it!”

Seojun hugged Taekwoon tightly, then climbed off of his bed and stumbled a little as he walked out into the hallway. Moments later, Taekwoon could hear him brushing his teeth in the bathroom next door, and decided to go back downstairs.

He found Hakyeon on the couch, reading something, while Heejoon played with Jieun on the blanket.

“All set?”

Hakyeon looked up from the magazine.

“Mhm. In my office.”

Taekwoon nodded.

“Good. He’ll be down soon to talk to you.”

They shared a look, and Hakyeon sighed quietly.

“Alright.”

Taekwoon vanished to his studio in the back of the house, where he was shortly after ambushed by his daughter.

“Appa… Are we still going to light the candle?”

Taekwoon looked up from the papers he was just stacking and setting aside.

“If Seojun apologizes to Hakyeon, maybe.”

Hyejin plopped down on Taekwoon’s desk chair.

“Why does he have to be so dumb? Ugh!”

Taekwoon creased his brow.

“Hyejin-ah, that’s rude. You need to stop calling everyone dumb. Your brother is not dumb just because he sometimes makes bad decisions. You’ve made bad decisions in your life, too, and will still make plenty, and that doesn’t make you dumb, does it?”

Hyejin pouted.

“But… He makes so many bad decisions…”

“He’s two and a half years younger than you. It’s normal that he still makes more mistakes than you. You make more mistakes than I do, too. Does that make you dumb?”

“No…”

“Exactly.”

Hyejin sighed, picking up a pen from Taekwoon’s desk a moment later.

“Appa, can I have a nice pen like this, too?”

Taekwoon glanced over, seeing her play with his fountain pen.

“Why don’t you ask Santa for one?”

Hyejin rolled her eyes at him.

“Appa, Santa is for little kids.”

“So you don’t want to write a letter to Santa this year?”

Hyejin chewed on her lip as she contemplated it.

“Can I, still?”

Taekwoon hummed as he put away a folder that had been laying on his desk.

“Of course, why not?”

Hyejin squealed, then calmed down really quickly.

“Do you think Seojun has apologized yet?”

Taekwoon shrugged.

“I don’t know. Don’t tell anyone, but I’m hiding in here until it’s over. I’ve had enough tears for one hour.”

Hyejin grinned slowly.

“I’m hiding with you. What were you going to do while you wait?”

“Just clean up a little.”

Hyejin made a face.

“That’s boring… Do you have any new music on the computer?”

Taekwoon watched her eye the computer and decided to round his desk, too.

“Let me see… Can I sit down, too?”

Hyejin quickly made room for Taekwoon to sit down, then jumped onto his lap while he the computer, keyboard and speakers.

Moments later, he scrolled through lists of files that made no sense to Hyejin, until he stopped on one.

“This one here is fairly new.” He pulled the music sheet up and settled his hands on the keyboard, his arms bracketing Hyejin while he peeked over her shoulder and started playing.

When he finished, Hyejin applauded, and another set of hands joined in from the doorway. Father and daughter looked up simultaneously to see Hakyeon standing there.

“That was beautiful. Are you two coming to light the candle now?”

“Yes!!” Hyejin exclaimed, hastily hopping down from Taekwoon’s lap and running to the door, after Hakyeon, but turning back around to come back to Taekwoon’s side before she’d quite reached it.

“Appa, are you going to sing to this song, too?”

“I don’t know yet, precious. I don’t have any lyrics for it yet.”

“It’s going to be a ballad, though, right?”

“Most likely.”

“Can we sing a song together one day?”

Taekwoon smiled as he finished shutting down the appliances again and started for the door, Hyejin hot on his heels.

“Maybe. Do you have something you’d like to sing?”

Hyejin shook her head.

“I want you to write a song for us to sing together. Something cute. A ballad, but happy.”

Taekwoon hummed.

“Hmm, we’ll see if I can come up with something one day.”

That was when they reached the dining table on the far end of the living room, and Hyejin quickly scooted into her chair between Heejoon and Seojun. Seojun still had slightly puffy eyes, but there were no traces of sadness left on his face as he rested his chin on his crossed arms on the table and fixed the wreath intently, his eyes only leaving it shortly to acknowledge Taekwoon and Hyejin’s arrival.

“Alright, all here? Good.” Hakyeon picked up a small white candle and a lighter once Taekwoon and Hyejin had gotten comfortable.

“Who’s turn is it this year to make the first wish?”

Hyejin and Seojun pointed at Taekwoon excitedly.

“Taekwoon appa!”

Hakyeon nodded with a smile, lighting the small white candle with the wax cup around it and handing it to Taekwoon, who held it with both hands and closed his eyes.

“This year I wish… for lots of yummy biscuits and no icing smeared under the table.”

“Appaaaaa! You can’t say the wish out loud or it won’t come true!” Seojun yelled.

Heejoon giggled behind his hands.

“Silly appa.”

Taekwoon opened one eye, then both, and cleared his throat.

“Really? Ah, then I have to try again.”

He cleared his throat again, closed his eyes, and the whole table went quiet as Taekwoon thought about his wish. When he opened his eyes again, he handed the candle to Heejoon carefully, so he could make his wish next.

The little boy held the candle with both hands, and Taekwoon made sure no wax would spill onto his hands while he closed his eyes and made his wish. Meanwhile, Hyejin got up from her chair and stepped close to Taekwoon to whisper into his ear, tugging on his jumper where it covered his shoulder.

“Appa, what did you wish for this time?”

Taekwoon smiled over his shoulder.

“I can’t tell anyone, or else it won’t come true.”

Hyejin didn’t give up yet though.

“Even if you just tell me? You can whisper it to me and I won’t tell anyone!”

“Not even you, baby. I will tell you after it’s come true, though. Come, sit down, it’s your turn.”

Hyejin hurried back to her chair, quickly accepting the candle and humming theatrically before making her wish and solemnly passing the candle to Seojun, who made an equally grand show of making his wish, chest puffed out and eyes closed in utmost concentration. He was a little confused, though, as to whom to pass the candle next to.

“Is Jieunie… Can Jieunie make a wish yet?”

Hakyeon accepted the candle with a smile, saving it before it splattered wax onto the table.

“I’ll make a wish together with Jieunie.”

And he did.

“Now, who wants to light the first Advent candle?”

Both Seojun and Hyejin almost threw themselves over the table reaching out for the small white wish candle.

“I want!”

“I want!”

“Seojun did it last year!”

“But I wanted to do it most this year again!”

“Calm down, both of you!” Hakyeon chuckled, shooing them to sit down again. “Hyejin is going to light the candle, and Seojun can choose which one is the first; deal?”

Hyejin squealed in joy, clapping her hands before making grabby hands for the candle, and Seojun resigned to his fate, deciding it might be better not to make a fuss and push his luck again after the rough morning. He still chose the candle excitedly, watching closely to supervise if Hyejin did it right. He cheered when the wick lit up, almost blowing it out again in the process, and earned laughter from his parents and an elbow to his ribs from his sister for it.

“Alright, the candle is burning! Who wants to write letters to Santa now?” Hakyeon announced, and a round of cheers answered him. Hakyeon took that as a yes from everyone, and while he went to his office to get the gathered crafting materials, Taekwoon discreetly maneuvered the Advent wreath out of the way of anything flammable.

It took absolutely no time until the whole living room was littered with pieces of coloured paper and felt tip pens, open glue sticks and crayons.

Only Hyejin was able to write her letter on her own, and while Seojun requested Hakyeon’s help for sheer endless time, Heejoon was quickly bored after having put together his wish list of a pony, a canary, a reindeer and a saddle for Chewy.

After that, he wildly drew all over the letter, explaining in great detail what the drawings were supposed to show, and finished it off with pasting so many stickers all over the letter that it was near impossible to read what it once said. He was quite happy with the end result, though, and slipped off his chair to see if Jieun had woken up again and would want to continue their playing from earlier. When he found she hadn’t, he climbed into the dog bed and quite happily decided to join Chewy and Sora for their nap.

Lunch time came and went, and while Seojun went back to his letter afterwards, Hyejin showed her parents how to fold origami stars. A good fifty stars of all sizes and colours later, and Heejoon decided to join in on the fun and use them to decorate the whole living room; at least up to waist height, since he couldn’t reach higher than that, until Hakyeon agreed to help him and lift him up so he could put the stars everywhere else he saw fit, too.

Slowly but surely, the children started to become tired as the day progressed and dinner time neared. That was, of course, until the doorbell rang, and Hakyeon opened the door to Wonshik and Hongbin.

“Uncle Wonshik!” Hyejin forgot all about her stars the second she saw her favourite uncle and darted across the living room to hug him close.

“Uncle Hongbin, too!” She let go of Wonshik to hug Hongbin real quick, too, and then grabbed Wonshik’s hand to pull him across the room and to show him the stars she’d been making. Wonshik humored her, letting her show him every single star, and listened to the story of every single one, too. Before long, Hyejin had both her uncles sitting at the table, trying to fold stars under her guidance. Both were a lost cause, as quickly transpired, but Wonshik was determined not to disappoint Hyejin and tried a little harder, while Hongbin slipped away and into the kitchen to where Taekwoon was trying to feed Jieun at the same time as cooking dinner. It was going surprisingly well, Hongbin thought, but he still offered to help.

“Hyung, let me help you. I can feed the baby so you can focus and don’t accidentally poison us.”

Taekwoon glared at him, and Jieun laughed happily. Hongbin gave her an offended look.

“Jieunie! You think it’s funny when your appa kills me with his stares?”

Jieun gargled happily in baby speech, grabbing at Hongbin’s nose and squealing even happier when she eventually caught it.

“Jieunie, you caught my nose! What am I going to do without a nose? Ah, it’s gone!”

Jieun patted his nose as if to glue it back in place, and Hongbin beamed at her.

“Thank you, Jieunie. Oh nooo, not again!”

Jieunie jumped in her seat, laughing, after she stole Hongbin’s nose again. The game of putting it back and stealing it again repeated a couple more times, and there seemed to be no visible end to it as Jieun wasn’t getting bored any time soon.

“She was supposed to eat her dinner, not play so much… She hasn’t been that active all day!”

Hongbin didn’t seem to listen, but caught Jieun’s hand before she could catch his nose again, pretending to steal her hand.

“Ah, what are you going to do now, Jieunie? I stole your hand!”

Jieun looked at him, perplexed, then at her hand, that was ‘stolen’. She creased her brow in confusion, then tilted her head as she looked at Hongbin, and suddenly lurched forward to grab Hongbin’s hand with her other one and got her own hand back. Hongbin laughed loudly, and Jieun chuckled contently.

“Smart baby girl! Shall we finish dinner now, though? Your appa says you have to.”

She turned around in her seat, trying to see Taekwoon behind her.

“Appa…”

“Yes, that’s your appa. And here’s your food.” He lifted the small bowl for her to see, but she furrowed her brow again, looking between the bowl and her father.

“Appa?”

Taekwoon turned around then, crouching in front of her chair.

“Here, baby. Let uncle Hongbin feed you, ok? Appa is busy right now.” He scooped up some of the pureed food on the small plastic spoon and handed it to Hongbin then, before going back to the stove.

“Jieunie, look what I have here…!” Hongbin cooed, and Jieun turned her head to him again, after having followed her appa when he’d walked away again. She must have decided that Hongbin was as good as her father to feed her, though, and opened her tiny mouth wide as she reached for the spoon in Hongbin’s hand.

Hongbin chuckled when she almost took the spoon out of his hand as he fed her, and looked thoroughly entertained by the mundane task.

“Aww, our Hongbinnie is practicing his dad skills!” Hakyeon cooed when he came into the kitchen and saw the scene.

“Ah, no, I don’t think so. I’m quite happy being an uncle for now, thanks.”

Hakyeon grinned as he sat on a chair on the other side of the table.

“That’s a damn shame. I was so looking forward to making fun of you when you haven’t slept for two weeks straight because your baby is teething…”

“Hyuuung! You are mean!”

“Oh? So were you when you teased me for how I looked after Seojun kept me awake for a month straight. I’m looking forward to the day you look just as wrecked.”

“So vengeful, your appa, Jieunie. You need to teach him to be softer. You are the maknae now, it’s your duty to make your appas soft and nice.”

Jieunie giggled, but then pushed the spoon away and yawned widely, scrunching up her little nose.

“Whoa! Someone’s tired! So soon?”

“She always falls asleep around now. We usually put her to bed even before the others eat dinner.”

Hongbin looked at Hakyeon incredulous.

“And she still sleeps through the night?”

“She’s usually the last to wake up in the morning. She sleeps enough to make up for the other three.”

Hongbin chuckled.

“I know someone else who can sleep that long... If he actually goes to sleep at all.”

Hakyeon rolled his eyes.

“Don’t even! I hope she gets all that sleep out of her system now before I have to start waking her up for school.”

Hongbin chuckled, watching as Hakyeon got up and got the sleepy child out of her raised chair.

“It’s not like you don’t have experience waking up reluctant heavy-sleepers in the morning.”

“I’ve had my fair share of that in life. If she still sleeps that deeply when her time to go to school comes, I’m going to hire Sanghyuk as personal alarm for her.”

Hongbin laughed as he followed Hakyeon with the baby to the nursery.

“Ah, I forgot to change her bed this morning, damn it. The kids have been a handful since this morning… Do you mind holding her?”

“Not at all.”

Hongbin stepped inside, leaving the doorframe where he’d planned to wait until Hakyeon had put the baby to sleep.

“Thank you… Ah, wait, put this over your shoulder. She doesn’t usually burp up anything anymore all that often, but better to be safe than sorry.”

Hakyeon draped a baby towel over Hongbin’s shoulder before transferring Jieun to his arms. Hongbin seemed to glow as he held the precious weight.

“She’s really tiny still, isn’t she.”

Hakyeon hummed as he started changing the sheets in the cot.

“Hmm… She is small for her age, but the doctor said it’s normal since she was premature. She’s growing healthily, though.”

“I didn’t know she was premature.”

Hakyeon huffed.

“Yeah… Apparently her mother wasn’t the most careful during her pregnancy. Jieunie had a rough start into life and we’ll have to monitor her health and development closely to make sure we don’t miss anything that could be a leftover from… the neglect her mother showed her, and do our best to make up for it.”

“Aww, poor Jieunie. But you’ll grow up healthy and strong, won’t you, baby? Ah, so cute, how can someone so small yawn so much! Wasn’t Seojunie premature, too?” Hongbin switched from baby speech to normal again as he turned back to Hakyeon after adjusting Jieun in his hold again.

Hakyeon nodded as he shook up the blanket before placing it in the cot again.

“Yes. Not quite as much as Jieun, though. And as far as we were told his mother took wonderful care of him, but had to give him up because of her family. We gave the adoption office permission to give her our contact should she ever try to find him.”

Hongbin hummed, handing Jieun over when Hakyeon was done changing her sheets so he could change her into her pyjama.

“Are you planning to adopt more kids after Jieun?”

Hakyeon sighed.

“We never planned to adopt any more after Seojun, and then we ended up adopting Heejoon after all, and even though we said he’d be the last we adopted Jieun… But I think now it’s enough. We don’t want to end up with so much work with the kids that we end up not having actual time for them. It’s hard enough as it is now sometimes. It’s not even December yet and I already know that I’ll be ready to fall into a coma by New Years.”

“Hyung, you know we’re all more than happy to help with the kids whenever we can, right?”

Hakyeon smiled at Hongbin over his shoulder.

“I know, Binnie. But Taekwoon and I never adopted kids to then go and let others take care of them all the time.”

“Of course not, hyung! I never suggested that! I just mean… Everyone needs some time for themselves, though, and that’s the same whether you have one or ten children…”

Hakyeon finished changing Jieun, who was almost asleep, and put her in her bed. Kissing her on the forehead, he wished a good night before turning down the lights and quietly shooing Hongbin into the hallway. He stood by the door in the dark for a while, listening if Jieun was going to make any noises of discontent, but none came. Only then did he guide Hongbin down the hallway and towards the stairs again.

“Thank you, Hongbinnie. I might hold you to your offer one day.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Hakyeon chuckled, nudging Hongbin with his shoulder as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

“I’ll remind you of your words when I find you covered in baby puke and with burnt hair because of one of Hyejin and Seojun’s experiments gone wrong…”

“They’re not that bad, hyung… Or are they?”

Hakyeon laughed loudly as he led the way to the kitchen where the rest of kids, Wonshik and Taekwoon were already getting situated around the table.

“Hyung-…” Hongbin broke off, realizing that he wouldn’t get an answer to his question anymore, and instead made his way to the only free chair except for Hakyeon’s that he could find around the table.

Surely babysitting these adorable kids couldn’t be that hard, right?