One Week Earlier

Lee Donghae was conflicted. Here he was, at eleven in the evening, staring at the group chat that had been revived by Heechul, his eyes not leaving the statement that Hyukjae had given out.

“Not exactly. Look, it’s a long story. Fact is, I have nine kids and I’m bringing them along in the guise of them being an extra performance.”

Kids.

Hyukjae had nine children and he never knew.

Donghae may be stupid, but he can do the math. The eldest was turning twenty, and the youngest is turning fifteen. Four to five years. He has slept with women for four years since he was eighteen.

He had been together with Hyukjae since they were nineteen when Heechul finally gave him the necessary shove to confess to Hyukjae.

And he had been cheating on him early on their relationship until he stopped when they were twenty-two or twenty-three.

A rush of anger and hurt ran across his face as he looked at the chatroom.

He wanted to throw his phone as far as he could, but his hands wouldn’t let him as it was shaking due to different kinds of emotions running through him.

Instead, what he did was get up and go to the bathroom for a shower, hoping that his emotions will wash away along with his anger. Stripping off his clothes, he fell into the embrace of the hot shower, but still, thoughts about Hyukjae never left.

After all these years, he still loved Hyukjae. The man was not an easy person to forget to love. With his bright personality and his gummy smile, Donghae found it hard not to fall in love with the man. He was the bright part of his life, and the one who stuck to him the most when his father passed away and always knew what to do every time he missed his father’s presence.

That was something that Donghae cherished about Hyukjae. He was the one person he had promised forever with.

Until that day…

Donghae growled as he hit the bathroom wall with his fist, but not strong enough for it to bruise.

‘How could Hyukjae do this?’ he thought to himself.

He wanted to hate him for what he had done in the past, he really did, but he knew that he was not the only one who did something that hurt the other. At least Hyukjae managed to hide it behind his back until recently, but as for what he had done to him four years ago…that was something that even Donghae knew was far more unforgivable than him going behind his back and having nine short affairs.

“You lied to me!”

“Hyuk, please, let me explain—”

“GET OUT OF MY LIFE LEE DONGHAE!”

“Hyukjae, please, listen, I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“But it did, Donghae! You…how could you?”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? SORRY?! You think apologizing to me will make up for what you’ve been doing behind my back?”

“I know that but…”

“Go away, Donghae. Don’t you dare speak to me again as if we’re together, because based on what you did, WE NEVER WERE TOGETHER.”

“But…”

“GET OUT!”

“.” Donghae cursed as he held onto the countertop of his sink, his eyes looking at himself in the mirror. The memory of four years ago still fresh in his mind. The hurt and devastation on his face as he saw him as a lover for one last time before acting indifferent with him behind the public eye, until a few months later, they disbanded and severed all contact with each other.

He tried to reach out to him as many times as he could, but Jungsoo, upon the request of Hyukjae, told him that he does not want to speak to him ever again.

Donghae had honored his wishes, but that didn’t mean that he never kept an ear and eye on him for the past three years.

He was there in the shadows when he had first opened his dance studio, he was also present on some concerts that he had directed for SM for three years, including NCT’s biggest concert, and he was aware that he had collaborated with Solji, Crush and Dynamic Duo for a joint summer camp.

The nine kids were a shock to him. How he had managed to hide it from them for the past three years was a mystery that Donghae didn’t want to pry in, but has the urge to.

Even if it hurts, he wanted to respect Hyukjae’s wishes.

Because for some reason, he was still madly in love with him.

…

Present Day

At five in the morning, in the Lee household, nine teenagers are awake in the living room in their pajamas, phones in hand and lazing around, waiting for their father to wake up to cook breakfast. It was a Tuesday, and he was in charge of the cooking today.

While waiting, Wumuti decided to prompt them in the chatroom.

“What are you all doing there?” Hyukjae asked the moment he got ahold of himself and saw that his sons were either pressed up on the wall or on the couch or each other. Something was up.

“Nothing…” the boys said one by one, acting innocent.

Hyukjae was not convinced, but seeing as he will never get any responses from his sons other than that without being pushy, he let it slide. “Okay. Do you guys feel for pancakes today?”

“As long as Byeonghee doesn’t hog all of the maple syrup.” Junseo replied, and he was shoved by his brother instantly afterwards.

“Need some help Appa?” Shihyun offered.

“Can we help?” Wumuti and Seunghwan joined in.

Hyukjae smiled in amusement. Even though it was his turn to take the lead in cooking their meals, his three eldest would always offer their assistance. When he asked them why they do it, their replies were ‘Because if we let the others cook nothing might get done,’ and ‘Because we are older and we want to improve our cooking.’ He finds it endearing and quite cute for being responsible hyungs.

If only they would stop the strange synchronized movements of his kids when engrossed in something or simply just absent minded, it would put him at ease.

Don't get him wrong, it was good that they share a good bond, but there are times when he thinks all of them only has one mind. His mother often commented that it was like watching the nine different attitudes of Hyukjae, which kind of embarassed him at that point. His sister also added that they were like his clones when being neat freaks and with simple eye contacts from each other, they can understand what they were trying to say. “They make me think that you split yourself into nine.” Sora had said.

As he was making the batter, the boys proceeded in doing their agreed task. Shihyun was at the stove heating up the pan slowly, Wumuti was at the fridge taking out the syrups and proceeded to set up the table and Seunghwan was preparing coffee and orange juice and hogged the entire island with the coffee maker and the juicer. Not long after, Wumuti joined him to help out with the slicing.

Hyukjae then joined Shihyun in cooking the pancakes which took less time had he done it on his own. In no time at all, breakfast was done and they all called the other six to the dining table, some of them still drowsy but hungry all the same.

This was the kind of atmosphere Hyukjae liked the most.

“By the way, Yesung-hyung spoke to me yesterday.” he started when he was sure that all of them were completely awake. “He was very impressed about your work ethics.”

“Huh?” Nine heads looked at their father as if he spoke alien.

Hyukjae knew that he shouldn't beat around the bush. “Siwon and Yesung-hyung are interested in making an offer for the nine of you to become trainees.” he then began to tell them what transpired in his group chatroom, minus the conversation regarding ‘pirating’ Muti as fast as they can.

The nine simply stared and listened as their father spoke miracle after miracle for the next few minutes.

When the man was done, all the nine could do was stare at each other. Eventually, Siyoung spoke, “I'm sorry, can someone pinch me? I think I'm still asleep…”

Hyukjae smiled at him, “No Siyoung, you're not dreaming.” he assured them. “This offer came from Yesung-hyung himself. He was very impressed and is very eager to see the final product of your performance at the concert.”

“But…but Appa, we're under contract with other companies!” Wumuti said, reminding everyone that they signed different contracts.

Hyukjae knew that his reaction to this would be like this, considering what happened to SWIN, so he decided to explain, “Of course, they want to respect your wishes and your parents too. If you don't want to, I can always tell them no, but if you want to, we need to speak to your parents first.”

“That sounds fair.” Shihyun said. “I mean they want us to audition. Doesn't mean we have to be trainees right away, right?”

“Well, about that…” Hyukjae started.

His next words were so unbelievable to hear that the nine had concluded something:

Super Junior is as spontaneously insane as ELFs claim them to be.

…

“What did you tell them?” Siwon asked Hyukjae as he motioned his head to the nine teenagers who are still in a daze, but very wary of the members as they sat at the corner couches, already done with their own practice on the adjacent room as Changmin took over with Yunho (Of course, the boys had to contain their fanboy tendency when they saw Mr. Passion himself). Compared to yesterday, they were more on guard towards the adults.

“They feel like their every move is being monitored like lab rats.” Kangin pointed out.

Kibum snickered, “Well, they’re not wrong. You told them this morning?” he asked the father.

“Yes. They’ve been like that ever since.” Hyukjae shared. “They’re like that when they’re pressured. I guess the concert being turned into an audition got to them.” He stated. “Maybe I should have asked their parents first…” he muttered.

“You’re really close with their parents despite sleeping with the women, huh?” Siwon commented.

That got Hyukjae’s attention. It seems that Heechul and Jungsoo didn’t tell them the specifics of how he became a father. “I’m friends with their parents of course.” He stated. “Do you really think they would trust me with the kids if I wasn’t?”

“Considering you slept with their wives, it is a bit of a miracle the husbands didn’t gun for your head on a silver platter.” Kibum supplied.

The man could only roll his eyes. “I never slept with them.” Hyukjae declared.

“I’m seeing nine kids with your DNA in them. I’m not that convinced.” Kangin stated.

“There are other ways of making a kid, Kangin-hyung.” He was getting a bit frustrated, and he had no intention of explaining himself multiple times. “You know what, if you want the full story, ask Heechul-hyung an Jungsoo-hyung.” He stated. “It’s time to start practice.”

“But Donghae…” Siwon started.

“Donghae can go and catch up later for all I care.” He snapped as he went to the sound system to set up, leaving the three men to themselves, wondering about their conversation.

“How could you make a kid without having with a woman?” Kangin wondered.

Kibum shrugged. “Well, all else considered, there must be…oh.” He mumbled, picking up the right pieces. “Okay. I understand now.”

“What?” Siwon asked, looking at him intently.

“I think I got it.” Kibum said, “But we need confirmation with Heechul-hyung.” He decided as he approached the man who was fooling around with Ryeowook and Kyuhyun.

The two sighed, setting aside the matter for now.

…

The nine teenagers were watching Super Junior’s every move with admiration. As soon as they started rehearsals, they saw their father in action in a different angle, rehashing things with his teammates and the backup dancers the sets and giving everything on their planned songs.

Lee Donghae had arrived five minutes before Hyukjae called for the rehearsals to start, not even sparing an unnecessary glance at the man.

Shihyun was speculative. “I don’t think this thing can be easy for us,” he mumbled at his brothers. “Appa’s coldness knows no bounds when he sets his head to it.”

“We’ve beaten the odds before. Remember when we had to set up Yongha-hyung and Junseo?” Jongwoon commented.

Junseo blushed at the mention of his training mate. His brothers had fought tooth and nail just to get the two of them together during the summer camp last year. The misunderstandings galore caused the most of it. Yongha was also the first to know that the nine of them were brothers—but didn’t disclose the identity of their father for obvious reasons, when he actually thought that Junseo and Seunghwan were dating (“You made him misunderstand because you kissed Seunghwan on the cheek for a campfire dare without saying any protest.”-Doyum).

“Junseo is different because he’s denser than oil.” Seunghwan pointed out. “This one, I think we’re going for reconstruction rather than creation.”

“We just need to know what made it collapse.” Wumuti stated.

“If we ask around too much, people might get suspicious and warn Appa. We don’t want that.” Doyum reasoned.

“You could always ask me.”

The nine were startled when they heard Heechul’s voice who was leaning on the wall. They didn’t notice him due to the couches being in a pocket corner of the training room, and didn’t realize that someone was capable enough to eavesdrop on them. They forgot that most of the routines they are doing right now, Heechul is mostly appearing only on his parts due to his knee injury that he sustained years back.

“You’re lucky I was the one who eavesdropped on you.” Heechul stated. “I told you before, Muti, you can always ask me for help.”  He said, “Besides, your father is very stubborn, and he is also hyper aware that you’re planning something for him.”

The boys raised a brow, wondering how he knew.

Without saying anything, Heechul handed Byeonghee their father’s phone, the screen showing a conversation between him and Hyukjae just this afternoon while they were practicing. “Hyukkie asked me to hold on to that. Of course, I knew his password.” He answered when the nine looked at him curiously.

“Well, at least he’s aware we’re not angels.” Siyoung pointed out as Byeonghee handed back the phone to Heechul, careful not to make any indication that they invaded their father’s privacy.

Jongwoon was a bit skeptical about the conversation, “Then that means that this is mostly Donghae-sshi’s fault.” He concluded with a frown.

The eight already knew that tone of his voice. Out of all of them, Jongwoon was the one with the biggest trust issues due to his family situation.

“Now, now, Jongwoonie, don’t bring out the grouch in you again.” Wumuti said, trying to get him out of his mood.

Suren elbowed his youngest brother, “Don’t worry, we won’t make this easy.”

“Because we’re going to mess with him as often as we can.” Doyum declared.

No one protested.

Heechul swore his spine shivered when he saw nine determined faces, promising retribution towards Donghae. The face they were making reminded him of Hyukjae when he wants to get back at someone spectacularly—which usually ends in his favor. He might start praying that the kids would go easy on him.

TBC

Okay~! 5th chapter done! I’m glad I got to finish this on my Holy Week vacation.

Fun Fact: The chatroom of the nine kids is a revised version of what I posted on my tumblr, rinscribblesmalls, when I was considering in publishing this a few weeks back. There are  a lot of changes, and I'm quite happy with the turn out!

Did you like the little Donghae POV I pushed in? XD

It came out unexpectedly, and I figured this would be a good glimpse at what happened between Donghae and Eunhyuk. All will be revealed in due time!

And also, before you think that the breakup is mostly Donghae’s fault, that’s just how the kids see it, since they just discovered only vague hints from the text with Heechul. Not to worry.

Also, I finally put up a cover! I’ve forgotten how fun Photoshop can be when making covers. This is the first one I made in years since I made a KHR fanfic in my account at FFN.

Oh! And a question for my readers: I’m planning on posting a side story—more like prequel—to this fic centered on the nine kids. I planned on posting it and this one side to side, but I want to consider your input on this. What do you guys think?

See you all next chapter!