A couple hours later, Jihoon came down. He was still half asleep, rubbing his eyes a little too roughly for Seungcheol's liking but the one thing that preceded everything else in his head was, he's too cute. When Jihoon finally looked around, sleep rubbed away, he froze at the sight of a new person in the room. Seungcheol completely forgot about Joshua for a second, snapping out of it with a cough from said man. Right, he should introduce them. 

"Jihoon-ah! Come come!" 

He rushed over to Jihoon and ushered him to Joshua who was seated on the couch. Jihoon was still processing what he saw, a lot slower due to sleep. Finally remembering a small part of the conversation he had with Seungcheol saying a friend was coming, he panicked. Fidgeting with his sleeves, his eyes darted around the room. He didn't dare look straight at the person. Should he serve the guest? Or should he sit down? What should he do?  Seungcheol clapped his hands in excitement snapping Jihoon out of his head and gathering his attention. 

"Jihoon-ah, this is my best friend and cousin, Joshua." He introduced. 

Jihoon took small glances at Joshua and nodded in greeting. Joshua smiled. 

"Hi! My full name is Joshua Jisoo Hong. Please call me Joshua hyung." 

Jihoon nodded and shook Joshua's hand with his own jittery hands. 

"J-jihoon." he said quietly, hoping it could reduce his stutter.

Joshua found Jihoon's actions very cute, it reminded him of a timid puppy. Holding Jihoon's hand tightly, Joshua's smile dazzled. 

"I've just come from LA. I own a chain of cafes and I'm planning on opening one in Seoul on this trip!" Jihoon nodded. 

"I love coffee and guitars. I can play the guitar but I'm not too confident in it. What do you like?" Joshua shot sentence after sentence, overwhelming the poor boy. Jihoon struggled to give an answer, Joshua's hand still holding his own not helping. 

"I-i ....play piano..." he finally squeezed out.

His voice dropped as did his confidence. Seungcheol made a mental note, piano, huh. 

"Really? You can play piano? Amazing! We could play together sometime." 

Jihoon listened to Joshua talk about this and that absorbing as much as he could and answered with a "Ungh" from time to time until it was getting late. 

"Shua h-hyung... D-ddinn-er...." He tugged on Joshua's sleeve and tried to explain. It didn't help that he was still a bit afraid of Joshua, knowing him only for a few hours. Joshua understood and decided that he would help, leaving Seungcheol alone. He had been zoning out, staring into space once Joshua began rambling and snapped out of it finally when they left for the kitchen. 

"Wait for me!!" He also skedaddled to the kitchen and the 3 worked together to make dinner. 

When dinner was ready, Seungcheol went to get the children. As he arrived in Jihoon's room, he saw several children sitting up in bed. Mingyu was craddling Chan in his arms while Hansol and Seungkwan were standing in the crib holding the bars. Seungcheol went up to the crib and swiftly picked them up and out of the crib. 

"Hm? Why were you 2 in baby Channie's crib?" he asked, raising the pitch of his voice, cooing too the pair.

The 2 giggled in his grip and squirmed around. Mingyu got up while carrying Chan and shook the last two awake. 

"Wakey wakey, Seokminie, Myungho-yah." They rolled for a few minutes before finally getting up.

Soon all of them were up and they came downstairs. Waiting at the bottom of the stairs was a very excited Joshua and an expectant Jihoon. Jihoon could hear all the "omg"s Joshua was uttering under his breath and was very much confused. He resorted to picking at his sleeves and fingers, hoping that Joshua would be as nice to them as Seungcheol had been.

"Children," Seungcheol began, "this is my best friend and cousin, Joshua." 

He motioned for Joshua to greet them. Joshua walked up to the little ones and squatted down to their level. 

"Hi! I'm Joshua." he greeted, flashing an award winning smile. The children hid behind Seungcheol's legs and peeked out a little. Maybe an extremely handsome face with an equally handsome smile wasn't the best thing to wake up to, confusion swam in their eyes. Mingyu who was holding baby Chan stepped out first. After all, he is the biggest of the little brothers.

"Hi! I'm Mingyu!" One by one they introduced themselves, and Seungcheol introduced those who couldn't. 

"Oh my gosh, they are so precious!!" Joshua exclaimed. His inner softie squealed at the squishy cheeks and big eyes. 

They warmed up faster to Joshua than Seungcheol, Joshua being easier to play with and more proactive with his voice. After seating everyone at the dining table, Jihoon again fed Chan first. Seungcheol quickly snatched Chan from Jihoon's arms which startled Jihoon. My baby...?

"No no no! Jihoon, eat first! You always feed Chan first don't you? I got this." 

Seungcheol grabbed the bottle from the counter and shuffled over to his seat, giving Jihoon no time to complain. Jihoon still trying to process what happened was ushered by Mingyu to sit down and eat. Seungcheol made funny faces and cooed whenever Chan smiled or gurgled. Joshua recorded the entire exchange and was happy to learn that Seungcheol was such a warm and loving person outside of work. He was going to share this with Soonyoung as soon as possible.

Dinner went well with more hands to help the children, as did bathing them for the same reason. It was getting late so Seungcheol decided they should leave, give some time for Joshua to unpack and rest. Calling Jihoon over again, he gave him a pat on the shoulder and messed his hair. Jihoon scrunched his nose in confusion before trying to pat down his hair. Seungcheol also sported a scrunched nosed grin looking at the cute being before him. He warmed up with the kids real fast, even he was bewildered. 

"Well Jihoon, it's getting late so me and Joshua should get going. There isn't another bed set up for him here." he reluctantly said.

Jihoon nodded in understanding. Rubbing Jihoon's head again, Seungcheol sighed. 

"You really work hard for your brothers, I admire that. We'll come by again soon. Okay?" 

"Ungh." Jihoon responded. Walking Seungcheol and Joshua out, the children waved goodbye. 

"The children are quite adorable don't you think?" Joshua said buckling his seat belt unconsciously, head still fantasizing about meeting them again.

"You've said that a million times today, and I answer the same thing every time: They are hella cute." They laughed together and caught up as they drove back to Seungcheol's home. 

-------------

Monday morning, the house was filled with whines and groans and cries. 

"Hyung, do I have to go to school?" Mingyu whined. Jihoon nodded as he helped him put his jacket on. Mingyu groaned some more but obediently put on his jacket and backpack.

"I don't want to gooooo....." he grumbled, stomping around.

"Ungh." 

No matter how much Mingyu fussed, Jihoon only nodded and said "Ungh." Finally out the door with all the babies in the quad-stroller, Chan strapped on his chest, and Mingyu holding his hand. They made a stop at the local daycare dropping the 5 children off for the day. Taking Mingyu by the hand again after saying bye to the little ones, they walked quietly to Mingyu's elementary school. Mingyu skipped and swung their clasped hands to and fro, much more awake and lively compared to earlier. 

"Hyung, will Wonnie hyung come over?" Jihoon shook his head. 

"Then can you invite him? I miss Wonnie hyung." Jihoon nodded. 

They stopped at the entrance of the elementary school. Mingyu didn't want to go in yet so he stood there staring at their shoes and swinging their hands for a while longer. Jihoon didn't complain, he knew how much Mingyu disliked school.

"There isn't a chance that you would take me home from here right..?" Jihoon rubbed Mingyu's hair. 

"B-behave." 

"Mmm." Jihoon gave Mingyu a peck on his head before ushering him through the gate.

Finally releasing his grip on Jihoon's hand, he reluctantly walked to school. 

"See you after school." 

"Ungh."

-------------

Jihoon arrived at his high school and was waiting by the trees on the side. Soon enough, someone was seen walking in his direction. Recognizing the person, Jihoon quickly bounded over to the male. 

"Wonwoo h-hyung." Wonwoo smiled in greeting, stopping for Jihoon to catch up. 

"Hey there buddy. How was this morning?" Jihoon scrunched his nose and hunched his shoulders. 

"B-bad." Wonwoo laughed. He grabbed Jihoon's cold hand and shoved it together with his own into his warm jacket pocket before pulling out another hot pack from his other pocket and shoving it into Jihoon's free hand.

"They don't ever change. Those kids love their sleep too much." Pulling Jihoon closer to share the warmth, they began walking towards school. 

Arriving at Jihoon's classroom, Wonwoo walked him all the way to his desk. Automatically taking out some wet wipes, they cleaned off all the graffiti drawn on Jihoon's desk. 

"They never get tired of this do they." 

"Ungh." He scrubbed harder at the permanent ink, thinking about when the next time he was going to bleach the desk will be.

Jihoon learned to not be disheartened by such things. It's been going on his whole schooling and people never change. Always writing the same thing, always picking on him for the same reasons. After cleaning off the table, Wonwoo rubbed Jihoon's back and sighed. 

"Good luck, Jihoon. Look for me if anything happens." 

"Ungh." 

Wonwoo waved bye once more before leaving for his own class. He hesitated at the door, but knew he couldn't do anymore for Jihoon and left. Just like every other school day, Jihoon sat patiently through class trying to draw the least attention as possible, doing his best to understand the class topic.