While the boys were discussing their plans in the bedroom, the adults were left in the kitchen washing the dishes. Their mother was washing the dishes while Hyukjae and Sora were drying them and storing it away.

“Hyukjae,” his mother called. “Do the boys know about you and…?” she trailed off.

Hyukjae shook his head, “No, they don’t know about Donghae.” He answered her. “The boys are better off not knowing about my past relationship with him.” he told her dismissively.

“Oppa, you know that the boys will find out sooner or later. Jungsoo and the others are bound to slip at one point.” Sora chided him. “Why don’t you want them to know in the first place?”

Hyukjae groaned at the reminder of the last time the boys found out that he dated someone. “The boys have a mischievous streak in them. If they ever find out about Donghae and what happened in the past, they won’t hesitate to make his days a living hell.” He shared. “And despite what he did, I don’t want that.”

Mother and daughter looked at each other with exasperation. “Hyukjae, why can’t you just admit that you still want Donghae in your life? There is no need to prolong your suffering. You had three years for that.”

“Because he hasn’t done anything that will assure me that he still wants me back. All he’s been saying when we talk is saying sorry.” He said solemnly as he told them what happened earlier.

As the two listened to his recollection, they understood what needed to be done. Donghae had to prove that he still wanted Hyukjae and to be assured that he will no longer hurt him in the long run. Either way, that was something that the two needed to solve themselves, and they agreed that the boys need not be included in the crossfire.

…

Meanwhile, in the second bedroom, Junseo was startled when his phone started playing his and Yongha’s duet version of ‘Hold Me.’

“Boyfriend alert.” Suren teased.

Junseo raised a brow, “Isn’t he supposed to be with Jinsung and the other guys right now?” he wondered as he answered the phone. “Hello Jagiya. Did you miss me this past week?” he asked in a cheery voice that his brothers couldn’t help but to make gagging noises outright. Junseo simply waved at his brothers to leave him in the room so that he can talk to Yongha alone. His brothers thankfully obliged, but not before continuing their gagging noises for teasing.

“Cheesy, Kim Junseo.”  Yongha replied on the other line. “But I had agreed to date you so I have to live with it.”

“Ouch that hurt…” Junseo replied, pretending to be hurt. “But you didn’t deny that you missed me.”

At that point, Junseo could tell that Yongha was blushing. Given the fact that Yongha is technically two years older than him, Junseo can always make the other teen blush when he had the chance. “I’m three seconds away from hanging up just to deny that statement.” Yongha replied with a hint of annoyance.

Junseo chuckled. “Okay, I give up. You don’t miss me at all.” He ceased. “Is there any reason why you called me?”

Yongha sighed, “Jinsung doesn’t know yet, does he?”

Junseo didn’t need to ask what he meant, because it was their topic a few minutes before the call. “He doesn’t.” he confirmed. “Let me guess, Jinsung told you his woes about the suspicion that Muti might be trying to steal Doyum away?”

“Right on the mark. Yechan was on the verge of laughing at him.” Yongha reported. “We were thinking of telling him, but we knew that Doyum had to tell him personally.” He sighed, “Why do you all have to create this secrecy pact of yours so complicated?”

“Well, we did have to weigh the pros and cons of casually revealing it, and we really are trying to protect our donor dad in the long run. We can’t just throw that information haphazardly…” he tried to explain.

“Then you need it revised. Need I remind you that because of that secrecy pact, Yechan and I misread your skinship with Seunghwan to the point that it almost led to a breakup between Seunghwan and Yechan?” He reminded him.

The other teen had to laugh weakly at that, being reminded of that incident last summer where the misunderstandings were too much that the nine had decided in emergency that they really had to tell them no matter what—that and because Seunghwan was on the verge of crying his eyes out for eternity when Yechan suggested the breakup.

“We can’t do anything about it right now. Doyum needs to be the one to tell him, but Stubborn Doyum had to rear his head at this point.” Junseo told him. “But as per Doyum, he said that Jinsung is also hiding something about his own family, which he actually uses to defend his case.”

Yongha hummed. “Now that you mentioned it…I did ask Yechan since he’s classmates with him in Hi-Vocal, and he told us that Jinsung is a pretty normal kid, but even they had never seen his family members, claiming that they’re always on an overseas business trip.” He told him. “He always told us he only ever had his dad and two uncles.”

“That is a cause of worry on Doyummie’s side.” Junseo concluded. “But is he really that jealous of Muti?”

“Pretty much, and I can only do so much to stop Takehyeon and Taewoo from teasing him and Sungwoon adding unnecessary fuel to the fire.” Yongha said. “Whatever Doyum wants to confirm with Jinsung, he better finds it fast, or you’ll have to send your brother to the ER for a broken jaw.”

“And we’re not going to be the only ones who will be upset about that.” Junseo muttered. “Any who, I’ll tell Muti to be careful from now on from Jinsung before his jaw is actually broken.”

“You better. I don’t want Jinsung to unconsciously hate Wumuti-sshi for something that does not exist at all…” Yongha said. “I better turn in for the night. You?”

“We will once we send off our guests. See you tomorrow?” Junseo asked.

Yongha hummed in agreement. “And Junseo…?”

“Yeah?” Junseo asked.

“…I never said I didn’t miss you…” Yongha said suddenly. Junseo’s jaw dropped at the confession, but before he could reply, Yongha cut the call to save himself. Junseo could only stare at his phone with a small blush on his face before bursting into soft laughter.

His boyfriend was so cute sometimes.

…

Hyukjae was a bit surprised when he saw eight of his children coming out of the second bedroom, pillows and phones in hand, and settled at the living room without any preamble. He raised his brow and made eye contact with Shihyun.

“Junseo’s on the phone with Yongha.” Shihyun replied.

The man didn’t need any further explanation. From Hyukjae's experience, his son could really be sappy with Yongha.

“I see…” Hyukjae said, dismissing the topic entirely.

“Ah young love.” his mother commented. “I remember Heechul telling me about when a certain someone woke everyone up at the dorm to declare his undying love for you. It was so cute and risky at the same time.”

Hyukjae turned red all over at the memory. “Umma!”

“Undying love?” the eight repeated questioningly at their grandmother.

His mother, adhering to his son's wishes that Donghae's identity must not be revealed, simply smiled. His son never said she can't share their moments. She would just have to omit his name.

“Oh yes. It woke everyone up below and above their dorms. If I remember clearly, SHINee were above them and below them were SNSD. It was a spectacle that Jungsoo scolded them the next day.” Sora continued.

All of a sudden, eight pairs of eyes now had their attention to their grandmother and aunt.

“Tell us more!” they asked in unison.

“We won't ask who he is, promise!” Siyoung let out.

“We'd be happy to!” the women replied.

“Nooo!” Hyukjae wailed in defeat, knowing that there was no stopping his mother and sister from embarrassing him in front of his children, and he can't even blame Donghae for it!

Sora and their mother were smiling from ear to ear upon seeing that even after all these years, they still have a lot of things to hold against him. “Now, aside from that public declaration of love, there was also this one time…” Sora started, and all Hyukjae could do was to sink in his seat at the couch and pray for it to end quickly.

…

“I never thought Appa and Donghae-sshi spent that much time together fooling around.” Suren commented as he made himself comfortable at the mattress that he was sharing with Junseo, Doyum, Siyoung and Jongwoon. The other four were bunking in with their dad according to their ages.

“That's a lot of blackmail material if you ask me, and they're being careful not to mention a name.” Doyum said.

“We all know they're talking about Donghae-sshi. There's no doubt about it.” Jongwoon stated.

“Thankfully, Appa doesn't know that we know the identity of the ex they were mentioning.” Suren said.

“I wonder what will happen tomorrow now that Appa told him to stay away…” Siyoung stated.

“Shihyun gave us orders for the first plan. All we need to do is to follow them.” Junseo said, “That, and we have to accompany them for the teaser photoshoot tomorrow.”

“Oh, is that…?” Siyoung trailed off as Junseo nodded at him in confirmation.

“I can't wait for the first phase.” Jongwoon said excitedly.

…

The thing about photoshoots, as Hyukjae remembered when he was still an idol, was that they were both fun and stressful. More so when you have to supervise nine teenagers (for him) and fourteen man-children (Jungsoo's predicament).

The organizers and their managers were running around in circles all over the set just to get all of them ready. Hyukjae has told the stylists to take good care of his ‘students’ as they will be appearing at several shots as a special teaser. Hyukjae reasoned that the boys needed to be shown as the concert was meant to update the ELFs on what they had been up to—of course, Sungmin's family will not be included as he has stated more than once that he didn't like exposing them on stage. If any, they would be on the VIP stands to see him perform.

For Hyukjae and the boys, his back story is to show the ELFs that he has been working hard in cultivating new idols who can capture the hearts of their supporters.

Their concept for this concert was made to update the ELFs that they were still fine and complete even if they would no longer operate as the idol group Super Junior.

“Siwon-sajangnim.” Siwon's secretary, Jeon Hyejin, called him as they were in the middle of preparing for the first set of photos.

“What is it?” Siwon asked.

“The new photographer is here.”

“Oh, is she?”

Kyuhyun's ear twitched, not liking the fact that the photographer for the shoot was a woman. Siwon noticed it but could not blame his husband. The last time they had a woman do a photoshoot with him involved, she kept on doing all she could to flirt with Siwon that Kyuhyun was on the verge of getting rid of her career. In his life, Hyejin was the only woman he trusted to be around his husband due to the fact that she’s married and had worked with them since their idol days to know that she does not have any sort of attraction towards Siwon—mostly because she has experienced first-hand how much a handful they can be both as a group and alone.

“She?” he hissed.

Siwon's secretary also noticed it, having known the couple for a long time. “No worries, Kyuhyun-sshi. She's happily married.”

“She better be.” he growled.

The others who heard it snickered as they knew that Kyuhyun's jealousy knew no bounds, especially when it came to things like women flirting with what was his.

“Kyuhyun-sshi, her assistant is her husband, and I can tell you that they are very much in love.” She assured him.

“I'll be the judge of that.” Kyuhyun declared as they all shuffled out to the set.

Kyuhyun's worries escalated the moment he saw the woman with Hyejin though. She was tall, had a nice figure, and shiny wavy brown hair. Her makeup was on point, accentuating all of her best features. Had it not been for the camera on her hands, they would have mistaken her for a model.

“Uh oh.” The others said softly, sensing that Kyuhyun's territorial instincts will be on its max.

But before Hyejin could introduce her to them, the woman zeroed in on one of them in particular.

“Ah, Hyukjae-sshi!” she greeted as she and Hyukjae met halfway and briefly embraced in greeting.

“Yubin-sshi, it's nice to see you again.” he replied.

The woman, Yubin, smiled, “Oh it has been a while. The last time I saw you was when you visited us months ago for Junnie's birthday.” she then turned back to look for someone, “Jagiya! Look who we have as our client today!”

From behind her, another supermodel-worthy man approached them. “Hyukjae-sshi, a pleasure to meet you again.”

“Likewise Wonbin-sshi.” Hyukjae replied.

Siwon, wanting to get their attention back, fake coughed. “Eunhyuk, you know them?”

Hyukjae nodded. “We met three years ago. Yubin-sshi and Wonbin-sshi are a wonderful team when it comes to their jobs, and I don’t doubt their skills for a second.”

Yubin swatted him at the chest playfully. “What a charmer.” She replied.

“When we last spoke with the others last week, you never said that you would be our photographer for our concert shoot.” Hyukjae told her.

“Our boss didn’t either.” Yubin replied. “He just said, ‘I have a job for you for a high-profile account. Since you and your husband are the only ones trustworthy enough not to seduce those clients, you two are perfect for the job,’ and ‘poof!’ here we are.” 

“Must be because of Kyuhyun then.” Yesung stated.

“It’s good to know that Siwon-hyung knows Kyuhyun well.” Ryeowook agreed.

But the maknae of the group could only glare at his husband who looked amused staring at him, “You knew I planned to be catty towards a female photographer, didn’t you?” he hissed.

Siwon raised his hands in surrender, “To be honest, Kyu, I learned my lesson the last time we had a single woman be our photographer. Isn’t it better this way that I learn not to hire someone who could potentially try to seduce any of us lest we be branded as adulterers?” he defended.

Kyuhyun simple huffed and looked away, not really taking the fact that he has been outsmarted by Siwon so easily.

Yubin giggled at the interaction between the married couple, “Well, now that we are assured that I will most definitely not seduce anyone of the fifteen of you, let’s get this show on the road! I can’t wait to be the first to take high quality shots of you all, especially the shots I’m planning in my head right now!” she said enthusiastically. “I feel like a teenager again~”

When the others looked at Wonbin in question, he sighed and looked at the group apologetically. “Excuse my wife, she's been an ELF since your debut. Imagine my pain when she kept comparing me to the thirteen of you.”

Hyukjae laughed. “That was a good story.”

“Shush you!” Yubin snipped at her husband. “As it stands, I'll be enjoying myself today with the shoot. Just you wait for what I have in store for you all! Of course, just to rub it in anti-fans, we'll be doing married couple shoots.” she said, her eyes sparkling.

“Well, then, let’s get everything started.” Yubin said as she rolled up her sleeves and gripped the camera that was dangling down her neck in enthusiasm.

“Eh? Umma? Abeoji?” a voice called out at them.

The woman turned and her smile brightened as she made a beeline to the source of the voice. “Junnie my handsome little starlight!”

All stared as she made her way to one of Hyukjae's children, Kim Junseo, who was given a wide berth by his brothers the moment they sensed that the woman was intent on tackling her own son.

“What are you doing here Umma?” he wondered.

Yubin huffed as she flipped her hair in place after smothering her son. “I’m your photographer for this shoot, of course!” she said enthusiastically.

The fourteen men stared at the woman and Junseo repeatedly, and looked at Hyukjae who was looking a bit sheepish as he was scratching his ear.

“Eunhyuk, is she…?” Donghae muttered to him, eyes looking confused as the rest of them.

Hyukjae could tell that the man was trying to at least form coherent words, and simply gave up as he re-introduced Yubin to them, “I was about to tell you, Kim Yubin-sshi is also Junseo’s mom.”

Fourteen pairs of shocked eyes zeroed back to the woman who still had her son wrapped around her arms, “Thank you for taking care of my son these past few days, by the way. I was really concerned about his state now that he’s performing in a concert.” She simply said with a wink.

It took them three minutes to snap out of it and got to work when they were ushered by the rest of Yubin’s staff.

…

Donghae was conflicted. He had wished that he would not be meeting any woman that Hyukjae had slept with so soon. What was more, the woman has a successful career, and he really can't blame Hyukjae that he at least felt a bit of attraction towards her. She was a knockout by all means.

No wonder Junseo turned out to be a very handsome child.

As they started the photoshoot, Kim Yubin tuned into a professional and commanded the entire set. She first dealt with the shoot as a group which consisted of the fifteen of them in a green background. The way she managed all of them at once was impressive. With how much most of them fools around on set, she seemed to have realized from the beginning that it was better to go with it than to try to keep them all in order.

When they called for a break, she simply reviewed the shoots while they prepared for a new set.

That was when Kyuhyun decided to approach him. “She’s a knockout, isn’t she?” he whispered to him. Kyuhyun’s mood seemed to have improved the moment he started to trust Yubin that she will definitely not flirt with anyone on set except for her husband, especially the moment he found out that she was one of the mothers of Hyukjae’s sons. His turn of the mood was a big relief to everyone who knew his temper.

“She is…” Donghae replied curtly, knowing where Kyuhyun was getting to.

“I’m surprised, you don’t seem hostile towards her when she interacts with you.”

Donghae shrugged, “She’s a nice person, and I don’t want to act like a brat to someone who takes her job seriously.”

“Even if it means her subtly flirting with Eunhyuk?” Kyuhyun smiled when Donghae’s brow twitched. “I thought so.”

After a few moments, Yubin got up from her computer and signaled everyone to continue the pictorial, calling out Jungsoo and Heechul first, but not before entering into an animated small talk with Heechul—who gets along with almost all female species. It didn’t take long for Yubin to start taking candid photos of the couple and was immersed in what she was doing.

In a split second, Wonbin was spotted by the two of them, still supervising the setup for the lighting. It was then when Kyuhyun decided to gage how much the man knew about the circumstances of the parentage of the boys by approaching Wonbin while dragging Donghae with him, just for him to hear his responses.

 “She seems to have too much fun with the shoot, don't you think, Wonbin-sshi?” Kyuhyun mentioned without preamble as he stood beside the man.

Wonbin laughed heartily, “She always finds it in her to enjoy all photoshoots she does. That's her charm, I suppose, aside from knowing which pose would look good for her clients. Junseo seems to have inherited that since he takes a lot of selfies that she approves of.”

The glint in Kyuhyun's eyes alerted Donghae that he was about to ask something invasive. “I'm surprised you seemed close with Eunhyuk despite him being Junseo's biological dad.”

Wonbin seemed to have no care about the subject for some reason, but smiled nonetheless. “So Hyukjae-sshi told you. I have nothing against him. After all, he did give us Junseo. Just because he's not mine entirely, he’s my son as much as Hyukjae-sshi is his father.” he told them. “Besides, we asked for it.” he added.

“Were you married when Junseo was born?” Donghae dared ask, fearing a worst case scenario.

The man looked at them as if they had grown two heads. “We've been married three years when he was born. We wouldn't have him if we weren't. All of the boys’ conception happened when we're all married—well, except for Byeonghee’s moms, but that’s another story.”

The widening of their eyes matched the size of saucers at the new information.

They wanted to ask more, but at that point, Yubin had called out to her husband to ask for his help in fixing the lighting that was not going well with what she had planned for the couple with her.  

Donghae and Kyuhyun could only look at each other in blind curiosity.

“Do you think…?” Kyuhyun trailed off.

“I don't know what to think exactly.” Donghae said, getting confused of the dynamic between Hyukjae and the legal parents of his nine boys.

If there was anything amiss, they cannot, for the life of them, figure it out.

TBC

And here we finally have Chapter 9~

Thank you for the ones who are commenting their input in the story, but unfortunately, some of your questions are bordering on spoilers so…sorry if I can't reply...haha!

Sorry it took this long. Adjusting to my new working hours is hard, especially if your body clock of six months is not cooperating, and it really minimizes my creative juices for the day.

SO~ we finally meet one of the moms of the nine kids, and a bit of a cutesy fluff from Junseo and Yongha (I really love their friendship and it’s better because they’re label mates).

See you all next chapter~!