Jisoo absolutely hated weekends.

He loved his children but having all of them at home was a bit overwhelming. Okay VERY overwhelming. Granted there were volunteers on weekends but most of them just came to gawk at Jeonghan. Speaking of, why was the little devil floundering around the house while he should be doing laundry.

“Oh that? Already done.” Jeonghan brushed Jisoo off when he interrogated him. Truly enough, there were a group of high school girls in backyard doing the laundry and waving back enthusiastically as Jeonghan threw them a wink. “I mean, volunteers, right?” Jeonghan shrugged.

“Then why don’t you make yourself useful and watch Chan while I cook for the volunteers.” Jisoo handed the crying toddler into Jeonghan’s arms. Jeonghan didn’t stand a chance against Chan’s fury but Jisoo had a group of hungry teenagers to feed and it’s nearly noon.

“Daddy, Daddy, Teolie is looking for you.” That was Minghao hollering in the halls as Jisoo had barely put the rice on the oven.

“What does he want again?” He called back from the kitchen so the kid could find him there.

“He’s hurt and he told me to ask you to bring the first aid box to the garage.” Minghao stood in the doorway, eyes wide, worried for his Cheollie.

’!’ Jisoo cursed mentally. All three of them do that now, cursing mentally, living with too many kids taught them well.

Jisoo rushed into garage with Minghao tailing him. There was Seungcheol, his stupid boyfriend with crying Hansol sitting on the ground in front of the garage.

“What the… what happened baby, are you hurt?” Jisoo cooped up Hansol to check for injuries.

“It’s me, I hammered myself.” Seungcheol waved his purple thumb.

“Then why is the kid crying?” Jisoo barked.

“Cuz Cheollie is hurt.” Seungcheol fake-pouted which Jisoo absolutely hated, okay loved, he loved his puppy Cheol but not on weekends.

“Tsk.” Jisoo was annoyed but bandaged Seungcheol up anyway. He took Hansol inside with him while his boyfriend remained in the yard doing god knew what.

“Solie play with Kwannie while daddy cook okay? Be good.” He patted the kids’ head lovingly.

“Hao Hao, wanna join us?” One of the older kids Jun appeared and tugged Minghao who was still following Jisoo around with wide eyes.

“Good, go play with your gege.” Minghao was a Chinese boy and a newcomer. Other Chinese boy Junhui immediately picked up Minghao and claimed Minghao as his which Jisoo was thankful for. Jun was 6 but he’s already a thoughtful a little guy. “Where are you going?” Jisoo called after the duo.

“We’re swimming in the stream.” Jun answered innocently.

“Wait what? Nooooo! You’re not allowed to go into the stream unsupervised!” Jisoo chased the boys and had to take them back inside alongside with disappointed Soonyoung and Woonwoo.  

When he finally got back in the kitchen, the rice are burnt. ‘Only slightly,’ Jisoo thought he could somehow work it into a fried rice. And he did exactly that before he was distracted by the commotion in the hall.

“What now?” Jisoo rubbed his hands on the apron and went out to see what all the noises were about.

“Mingyu is dyingggggg.” That very loud cry could only come from Seokmin.

The sight wasn’t beautiful. Unscathed Seokmin was crying while Mingyu and a few volunteer boys were laughing hysterically on the floor, every one of them were covered in red bumps.

“What happened? What did you do? Jeonghannnnnn!” Jisoo hollered.

“We were just playing balls in the yard.”

“Then we found a beehive and we thought it could be potentially dangerous for all the kids living here.”

“So I decided to scare them away by kicking the ball on them.” It was Mingyu who decided it was a good thing to kick a ball on a beehive and he looked so damn proud.

“Why would you do that?” Jisoo scolded Mingyu. “And why would you let a 5 year old kid do that?” He scolded the teens.

“What wrong? I was sle- putting Chan to sleep” Jeonghan yawned as he approached the scene. “Why are you crying baby?” He hugged the still Seokmin.

“It’s Mingyu. He kicked the ball on the beehive.” Jisoo gestured the gang on the floor. “Aren’t you supposed to supervise the volunteers?” He directed his irritation at Jeonghan.

“Hey I just put Channie to sleep,” Jeonghan defended himself, “and you guys are not supposed to go off and let our kids be stung by bees.” Jeonghan scolded the teens who were not showing any guilt.

“They’re kids too.” Jisoo was now defending the teens. “You’re the adult, you’re supposed to be in charge.”

And that set off the twins yelling at each other, until Seungcheol came with the first aid kit. “Ehhh guys, shouldn’t we tend the kids?”

“Yes, the kids!” Jisoo snapped himself back into adult mode. “Jeonghan please, please, please make yourself useful and cook some food.”

“Why should I?”

“Because we will starve unless you get your in your kitchen and start cooking.” Jisoo gestured everyone. “You can ask your gang to help?”

Of course, Jeonghan’s adoration gang, a.k.a., the girls, were over the moon to be cooking together with their oppa.

“Dadddyyyyy,” As Jisoo and Seungcheol with one less thumb were patching up the bee victims, Jihoon appeared and immediately attached himself on Jisoo’s leg.

“What’s wrong baby?” Jisoo cooed as he was applying ointment on one of the teens.

“Wonu yelled at me again.” Jihoon sniffed.

“Awww.” Jisoo cooed but showed no interest. That happened too when you’d lived with 10 kids for a stretch of time, you got indifferent to minor fights.

“He said I’m mean.” Jihoon started crying.

“But you’re not.” Jisoo assured Jihoon as he dragged his leg along with the kid on it.

“But he’s.” Mingyu helpfully added, taking a break from boasting his bee adventure to his friends Seokmin and Minghao. “Shh!” Seungcheol hissed at Mingyu.

Jihoon sobbed harder. “He called me a jerk too.”

“But you’re no- he did what?!” Fighting was one thing but Jisoo won’t allow name calling between his children. “Wonwoooo.” Jisoo hollered. “Come.” He scooped up Jihoon and went to find Wonwoo.

Wonwoo and Jun were playing in their room.

“He started it.” Wonwoo pointed at Jihoon.

“No he started it.” Jihoon pointed at Jun.

As it happened, Jun poked at Jihoon until the latter got angry and hit him. Then Wonwoo yelled at Jihoon for kicking Jun. Then they started yelling each other. When Jun tried to calm them down, bribing with toys, Wonwoo obeyed and played with Jun and Jihoon came crying.

For that, both Wonwoo and Jihoon got a long lecture each and all three of them got timeout which Soonyoung decided to join because he won’t let his friends leave him out like that.

The caretakers, the volunteers and the kids all had super late brunch at 1. Everyone was starving so no one complained about smoke-smelling fried rice and salty curry. Besides the girls and Jeonghan looked very proud of their food.

That night, too bummed out to cook dinner, Jisoo announced there will be European dinner which was baked potato with bacon and boiled egg. Jeonghan and Jisoo bickered over Jeonghan’s remark on how it was actually breakfast food. At bed time, after putting all the kids to sleep, Jisoo slept like a log. So Seungcheol had to content with kissing his sleeping boyfriend’s forehead.

On Sunday, they did it all over again but without volunteers, thanks god. They had food on time and there were less injury but there were fights, cries and mishaps all around.

However, all these misadventures didn’t make Jisoo, Jeonghan and Seungcheol bad dads. They loved their children and the children loved them. At the end of the day, that’s all that mattered, love.