~ This chapter has a warning for swearing and one use of a slur ~

They didn´t plan on adopting Kyungsoo.

Junmyeon and Kris already had five boys, and two of them were still new and adjusting; but when Lucy had called, telling them about a two year old in need of a good home, they just couldn´t say no. He was another failed adoption, only spoke a few words of Korean, and was intimidated by everything.

Kris immediately fell in love with Kyungsoo. He reminded him so much of Yixing when he had been little, with pale skin and wide eyes, quiet and gentle and thoughtful.

All of the other children immediately loved him, and who wouldn´t? Kyungsoo could wrap anyone around his tiny little finger in a matter of seconds.

They definitely didn´t plan on adopting Jongin.

It´s just that Jongin was a baby and they had never raised a baby before. Also, Jongin was the sweetest kid, smiling at everyone while showing off his gums.
He never cried unless he was hungry or lonely, and he was just so adorable.

By the time Tao came along, a few months older than Jongin but not any less cute, Kris put his foot down and called it a day.

They had eight boys. Eight sons and three of them were babies or toddlers. Luhan and Minseok were hitting puberty, and while Minseok was calm as always, it definitely showed in Luhan. Baekhyun and Jongdae weren´t difficult per se, but they were definitely more energetic and clingy than their older children.

Even Junmyeon and Kris, basically super parents at that point, needed sleep sometimes. Eight children were enough.

One morning, like every morning, Junmyeon got up early to prepare breakfast. When six lunchboxes were sitting on the counter and the smell of pancakes waved through the air, Kris finally came down the stairs with the babies, buckling them into their high chairs and trying to convince them to eat their healthy and organic baby food.

Junmyeon would wake the older boys and get Kyungsoo and the twins into their outfits, check that every backpack was complete, and usher them into the kitchen for breakfast.

Then, Kris would take the older boys to their secondary school, and Junmyeon would send the younger ones off to the bus.

In the afternoon, Junmyeon put Jongin and Tao into their carriage, dressed Kyungsoo, and went for a walk. Junmyeon liked getting Baekhyun, Jongdae and Yixing from their school on foot. It was good exercise for Kyungsoo as well, who was still a bit wobbly on his tiny legs.

Kyungsoo was fast that day, and Junmyeon arrived at the local Elementary school a bit earlier than planned. In the carriage, both Jongin and Tao were contently sleeping.
With fondness, Junmyeon mustered the babies´ faces. Tao was still ling on his pacifier; Jongin had rejected it outright from the first day.

Jongin was about a year old now, and Tao one and a half. Both of them had recently mastered walking, even if Jongin´s record was only sixteen steps in a row. To Junmyeon´s dismay, Tao had also begun to speak not too long ago.

Babies were cuter before they knew the word “no.”

Kyungsoo was kneeling, looking at something on the pavement. Junmyeon let him be, even if it never ceased to fascinate him how easily children were amused.

“Don´t sit on the ground, okay, baby?”, he said, “it´s cold and you´ll get sick.”
“Hmm”, Kyungsoo hummed, too distracted by whatever had caught his attention.

Suddenly, Junmyeon´s peace was disturbed by the smell of smoke. Irritated, he looked around, expecting to find another waiting parent or even a teacher smoking nearby, but instead he set eyes on a little boy, leaning against the school building not too far away.

Even from a distance, Junmyeon could see the boy was unkempt. His hair was sticking up in all directions, and he just had an air of absent manners about him that made Junmyeon´s nose wrinkle.

“Baby, can you promise me to wait here for a second with your little brothers?”, Junmyeon asked. Kyungsoo looked up questioningly.

“I am going over there to talk to that boy, okay?”, he continued, “Appa will be right there.”
Appeased, Kyungsoo nodded.
Junmyeon knew he could leave Kyungsoo alone for a few minutes without him running away or wreaking havoc. He wasn´t one of the twins, after all.

Junmyeon walked over to the boy. He couldn´t have been more than eight or maybe nine years old, wearing dirty shoes and a shirt that was a bit baggy on him. The boy kept playing with a lighter, staring at the flame for a few seconds before clicking the lighter again.

The smoke of the cigarette made Junmyeon cough. Great. Now these clothes were practically ruined.

“How old are you?”, he asked, “you´re not allowed to smoke.”
“And why the is that your business?”, the boy replied. Junmyeon´s mouth fell open in shock. What kind of child was this?

“Excuse me?”, Junmyeon said.
The boy snorted. “You´re excused. Now let me smoke in peace.”

Junmyeon, now irrationally angry, took the cigarette from the boy´s fingers and crushed it under the heel of his shoe.

“Hey! These are expensive!”
“And really bad for your health”, Junmyeon said. The boy rolled his eyes.
“Whatever.”

“And now, apologize”, Junmyeon said, “you swore at me. You should never put those words into your mouth.”
The boy stared up at him defiantly. “Go yourself”, he said after a few seconds of tense silence, spat on the ground in front of Junmyeon, and walked away.

Junmyeon was too speechless to reply, and he couldn´t have followed the boy anyway because suddenly, there were two voices yelling “Appa!” and Junmyeon had to focus on his sons running out of the school gate.

He walked back to the baby carriage, barely making it before Jongdae and Baekhyun crashed into him.
“I missed you, Appa”, Baekhyun said. Junmyeon hugged him back tightly.
“I missed you too, little troublemaker”, he said.

Baekhyun was so, so sweet. He wanted attention all of the time; ninety percent of the time, if Junmyeon felt tiny feet wriggle their way between Kris and Junmyeon at night, it was Baekhyun, looking for comfort.
Now that he had accepted that Junmyeon and Kris were different than his first parents, he had seemingly decided to bask in the affection that was offered to him.

Jongdae was similar, but he liked to show Junmyeon his achievements. He loved it when people praised him and told him he was amazing, and today was no different.

“Look, Appa! I drew you a picture!”, Jongdae told him with a smile. He was starting to lose his teeth and he looked rather funny.
“It´s you and Daddy and Minseok and Luhan and Yixing and Baekhyun and me and Kyungsoo and Jongin and Tao”, Jongdae said in one breath, “Yixing-hyung helped me. Do you like it?”

“I love it”, Junmyeon said, “keep it in your backpack, okay? I don´t want to wrinkle it. We´ll put it up on the fridge when we get home.”

After the twins were placated, Junmyeon got the chance to hug Yixing.
“How was your day, Xing-ah?”, Junmyeon said, frowning when Yixing didn´t reply.
“I feel a bit sick, Appa”, Yixing finally confessed.
“You should´ve called me!”, Junmyeon scolded gently, feeling the eleven year old´s forehead. “I think you have a bit of a fever. Come on, let´s go home and get you into bed.”

With Jongdae chattering about his picture, Yixing being sick and Baekhyun running ahead with Kyungsoo, Junmyeon forgot all about the boy smoking next to the school.

The next day, Junmyeon encountered him again. He was waiting for the twins (Yixing was sleeping at home), pushing the stroller with Jongin and Tao back and forth, when he saw the same boy, smoking and playing with his lighter.

With a huff, Junmyeon walked to him again, putting out his cigarette and pocketing his lighter.
“That´s mine!”, the boy said, “you´re a thief!”

Junmyeon shrugged. “So what?”
The boy glared. “I am going to call the police”, he said.
“And tell them what? That you are an underage child smoking in a public space where smoking is forbidden?”

“I hate you!”, the boy suddenly spat, “why don´t you go back to your picture-perfect family and leave me the hell alone?”

Once again, the boy was too quick for Junmyeon to catch him.

This time, however, he stayed on Junmyeon´s mind until late in the evening. He stared into his glass of wine – a weekly luxury he and Kris allowed themselves – until Kris cleared his throat.

“Are you alright?”, he questioned.
“Yes, of course, why wouldn´t I be?”
“You look a bit…out of it”, Kris said, “are you sure nothing happened?”

“There was this boy at school today”, Junmyeon said, deeply in thought. He didn´t know what to think about that child. Was he simply a delinquent, acting out without his parents´ permission? Was he being neglected?

“I´ve seen him smoking and play with a lighter multiple times”, Junmyeon said, “he´s stick thin and his clothes are always dirty, and the words he uses…”
Junmyeon shuddered.

“Do you think we should inform someone?”, Kris asked, visibly concerned, “how old is he?”
“I´d say, maybe as old as the twins”, Junmyeon said, “I don´t know what to do, he just spits insults at me.”

“Hmm”, Kris hummed, “let me get the kids from school tomorrow. Stay home with Xing. I´ll try to find him; maybe he´ll talk to a new face. He already has a negative opinion of you now.”

“You´d do that?”, Junmyeon asked. He was about to say a sappy comment, but in the next moment, he heard the unmistakeable noise of thunder relatively close to their house.

“Oh no”, Junmyeon managed to say before all lights were on upstairs and at least three children were crying.
“Daddy! DADDY I´M SCARED!”

Another thunderous noise shook their house and the kids screamed. Kris winced. “I´ll get the twins, you get the babies”, he said.
The couple could barely walk upstairs. Jongdae was sitting in the hallway, clutching his favourite stuffed animal and crying his eyes out.

“Hey, buddy”, Kris said, lifting him up, “no need to cry. It´s just a thunderstorm.”
“You weren´t in your room”, Jongdae sobbed, “I thought you were dead! Or worse, gone!”

“I´m sorry, buddy”, Kris said, “I´m not going anywhere. What do you say, should we build a blanket fort in mine and Appa´s room? We can all cuddle so you know no one is leaving. Would that help?”

His face still pulled into a miserable grimace, Jongdae nodded.
Kris collected the other twin, who was hiding under his blanket in a small, shivering ball, and got to work. At some point, Yixing, Luhan and Minseok showed up, woken by all the noise.

“Dad, what´s going on?”, Luhan questioned.
“We´re building a blanket fort!”, Jongdae exclaimed, tugging at Yixing´s hand. “You have to stay here.”

“But I´m tired”, Luhan complained. Baekhyun gave him a weirded-out look from where he was re-arranging some pillows.

“You are going to sleep here, hyung”, he stated.
“No way”, Luhan replied.

Ten minutes later, Luhan was lying in the blanket fort, Baekhyun clutching him on the left side and Jongdae on the right. He looked like a disgruntled cat, but he was pinned down and couldn´t move. Jongin and Kyungsoo were curled around each other, already asleep, while Minseok was spooning Yixing.
Tao had cried until he was safely settled in Kris´s arms. Fortunately, Junmyeon and Tao were both tiny, and they fit into Kris´s arms without problems.

Rain was hitting the windows, and the occasional thunder would make the children wake up again, but they weren´t scared anymore, cuddled close in one nest with their parents.
Junmyeon should´ve been happy, but his thoughts were haunted by the boy near the school. He could only hope the child was safe from the rain somewhere, hidden in the embrace of a loved one he trusted.

Somehow, Junmyeon knew that wasn´t the case. With a sigh, he curled one arm around Tao´s waist, and closed his eyes. However, he was still awake when his husband´s and children´s breathing had long evened out.

Kris got the twins from school the next day. He arrived early, to have a bit of time to search for Junmyeon´s mystery boy, but he spotted him immediately. The boy was sitting on a bench on the schoolyard, pushing the dust on the ground around with his worn-out trainers.

He had funny ears, sticking out at the side of his head at a seemingly impossible angle, but it was endearing in a silly kind of way. The boy was fiddling with his hands; dirty hands, and it made Kris´s inner parent persona shiver in disgust.

Children with dirty hands were a special kind of torture that was not allowed in their household.

Wordlessly, Kris sat down beside him. Junmyeon had prepared one additional lunch box today, because that boy looked like he was starving.
“Who are you?”, the boy said immediately, suspicious. Good. At least he was looking out for himself on some level.

“My husband told me to give you this”, Kris said, holding out the lunch box to the boy, “as an apology for taking your lighter.”
“That er who stole my lighter is your husband?”, the boy exclaimed.
“Watch your mouth”, Kris said, anger creeping into his voice. No one insulted the love of his life to his face, not even eight year old delinquents.

The boy became smaller in front of Kris´s eyes.
“Sorry, Sir”, he said meekly.
“That´s more like it”, Kris said, “now eat. You look hungry.”

The boy hesitantly took the lunch box, taking out the apple, juice box, sandwich and chocolate Junmyeon had prepared for him.

He looked back up at Kris, as if he was expecting him to take it away. Instead, Kris nodded encouragingly.
“Eat”, he said, “it´s all yours.”

The boy didn´t need any further invitation. Kris cringed when he watched the boy devour the sandwich in less than five bites, gripping the food with dirty hands.
“So”, he said once the boy had started to munch on the apple, “can I ask your name, or do I have to keep calling you “the boy” in my head?”

“…ol”, the boy replied, his mouth full. Oh dear God. Who had been raising him until now? Kris really wanted to give them a piece of his mind.
“Chew first, words second”, Kris scolded, and the boy looked chastised. With wide eyes, he swallowed before he opened his mouth again.

“Chanyeol”, he said eventually.
“Are you Korean?”, Kris said. Chanyeol shrugged.
“I guess so? I never asked my parents about it. Mum´s always too high anyway, and Dad would probably beat me. My foster Mum said they just should´ve just had me in Korea and left me there instead of bothering her.”

Kris opened his mouth, then closed it again, processing the new information.
“Are you a foster child?”, he said after a while. Chanyeol nodded.
“ing ”, he muttered, before smiling sheepishly at Kris´s displeased look. “Sorry.”

“Doesn´t your foster mother give you food? And clothes?”, Kris asked. Chanyeol looked to the ground.
“I get breakfast and dinner, that has to be enough”, Chanyeol said, “it´s more than I got at home, anyway.”

“And why the cigarettes?”
“Stole ´em from my foster dad”, Chanyeol replied, “he said he needs it for dealing with brats and that´s all that school is so I started. It´s fu-…it´s disgusting but it looks cool, I guess.”

Chanyeol was not like eight year olds Kris was used to. At eight, none of his