TITLE: not so little anymore SUMMARY: In which Jong Kook is kept out of the secret that is probably his worst nightmare.     “Gongju-yah? Jagiya? I’m home!” Jong Kook bellows from the doorway, having just arrived home from filming one of his shows the whole morning.   He makes quick work of his shoes and heads further into the house. Getting no reply from his girls, he begins his search around their abode. As far as he knew, Ji Hyo and Mi Young weren’t out because their shoes are still on the rack beside the door, and none of them texted him that they had any plans anyway. His best bet is they’re probably just gossiping somewhere that they weren’t able to hear him. They really loved gossiping, the closeted busybodies that they were.   He peers into the living room first just to make sure. The cushions look untouched, so that means they haven’t gotten up from bed yet. It’s a bit of a worrying thought, as he also wonders whether they’ve eaten at all today, but still, he continues his search.   After the living room, he looks into the kitchen next; maybe they were eating — a thought he so badly wishes to be true just to put his concern over their daily meals to rest. When he arrives and also finds it empty, his head tilts in confusion. The kitchen island was void of its usual occupants at this hour.   He heads into the study thereafter. It was an unlikely place to find them since he’s pretty sure he’s the only one who actually uses the room, but it was better to be safe than sorry. But just like he guessed, no one was there too. He guesses they aren’t in the lounge room as well, or he would have heard the TV noises by now.   Jong Kook stops and thinks about where else they could be. They weren’t in the living room, the kitchen, the study nor the lounge room. They both also couldn’t be in the laundry room because he remembers Jihyo doing the laundry yesterday and him doing the folding. The only places left to check are the bedrooms. So on, he goes.   He climbs up the stairs to the second floor and makes a beeline to Mi Young’s room. Slowly opening the door after knocking, Jong Kook pokes his head in and scans the purple room. The bed was unmade, but the bathroom door was open, so Mi Young couldn’t be in there. That left the master bedroom.   As he makes his way down the hall to his and Ji Hyo’s room, he begins to hear hushed voices filtering through the open bedroom door. He sighs in relief, knowing that he’s found them safe and sound. But as he gets closer and closer to the door, what he hears piques his interest.   “Do you think I should tell appa?” Jong Kook hears Mi Young ask. His brows raise up in question at the mention of him.   “Absolutely, gongju. But maybe ease him into the idea first, we wouldn’t want your appa to freak out over your news,” Ji Hyo replies. Jong Kook is invested by now, and his curious self is dying to know what they are talking about.   “Yeah, that’s what I was planning to do too, eomma. I’m just a little scared of what his reaction would be.” His reaction? Whatever their topic about must be big if they expect a big reaction from him.   “You know how appa is — he gets a little too overprotective,” Mi Young adds and Jong Kook can’t help but take slight offense from that. Of course, he’s overprotective! She’s their only child and his baby girl! Over his dead body would he allow Mi Young to get hurt anytime, anywhere.   “If I know your appa like I always say I do, it’ll take him a bit of time to get his head wrapped around it, but I know he’ll come around a lot sooner than you think,” Ji Hyo says.   Jong Kook hears Mi Young groan and say, “I hope you’re right, eomma. I'd hate for this to cause a rift between me and appa," and that’s the cue he takes to make his presence known.   Pushing the door open wider, he enters the room and places his hands over his hips, “Yah, what are you two talking about?”   Both girls jump in shock, eliciting short screams.   “Oppa!”   “Appa!”   Jong Kook chuckles at their reaction, but still, he stands his ground. “Both of you got too caught up in your talk, you didn’t notice I was here. So come on, tell me what you two were talking about.”   Mi Young sends Ji Hyo an alarmed look, grasping tightly at the arms that were wrapped around her. She hopes that her telepathic connection with her mother is working because she really needs her not to say anything.   Thankfully, Ji Hyo gets the message and delivers a quick cover-up. “Aish, what are you talking about, oppa? Mi Young-ie and I were just having our morning cuddle session when you suddenly barged in here.”   “I hope you two know it’s already well past noon. And are you sure you’re not keeping something from me?” Jong Kook narrows his eyes, not buying into the excuse. “I can be trusted with secrets too, you know!”   Ji Hyo rolls her eyes while Mi Young giggles at the last comment. “Yes oppa, we know you can be trusted. But really, we didn’t talk about anything significant.”   “Alright.” Jong Kook drops the conversation with Ji Hyo and turns to Mi Young, targeting her instead. “Okay gongju, you can spill the beans now. Tell me what you were talking about with eomma.”   “Nothing, appa!” Mi Young shakes her head a little too quickly, which Jong Kook  caught.   “Are you absolutely sure, gongju? There isn’t anything I should be concerned about?”   “A-aniya, appa! W-We were just t-talking about blackmailing you again to buy us chicken! For lunch!”   Though he knows they weren’t talking about chicken, Jong Kook just takes the bait and steers the topic away from what he had overhead, making a mental note to just bring it up at a later date.    “Yah, you can’t have too much deep-fried food! We already ate chicken last night.”   “Ah, come on, oppa! We don’t get to eat fried chicken everyday.” Ji Hyo joins in.   “Yes please, appa!” Mi Young widens her eyes and sticks out her bottom lip, using the famed puppy look that always got her whatever she wanted. Ji Hyo follows suit, and now, Jong Kook feels like he’s melting.   “No more, gongju. Maybe next week, I’ll order in fried chicken for both of you.” He tries to stand firm on his decision.   “But appa! We want chicken!”   “Not today, Mi Young-ah.”   “Yes today, appa.”   “No.”   “Yes.”   “No.”   “Yes.”   “No.”   “No.”   “Yes.”   Mi Young and Ji Hyo cheer after they successfully tricked Jong Kook into saying yes. Belatedly realizing what just happened, Jong Kook groans.   “Yah, you can’t gang up on me like this!”   “Yes, we can and we just did, oppa!“ Ji Hyo giggles as she shares a high-five with Mi Young. “Girl power!”   Jong Kook sighs, finally giving in. “Alright, you can call that chicken place we like. But make sure to get the sweet wings for me too.”   The girls continue to cheer, and Jong Kook can only shake his head fondly. They’ll be the death of him, those cheeky little s.   He still wants to find out what exactly they were talking about before he came in, but for now, he’ll spend time with his family first.     A few days after that, Jong Kook comes home again to a quiet house, but this time, his girls were easier to find because they were just in the living room with a guest - Somin.   He slowly drops his bag by the shoe rack, making sure not to make any noise. He then makes his way to them quietly — he has a gut feeling that they’re talking about something important. When he gets closer to the doorway leading to the living room, he realizes that their conversation is about the topic he had overheard a few days prior - the topic that was likely so big, they were unsure of what his reaction would be if he found out about it.   “So, when are we going to meet him?” Jong Kook hears So Min ask. Oh, they are talking about a person? He thinks to himself.   “Some time soon, imo,” Mi Young answers, and once more, Jong Kook’s curiosity is piqued. Why do they have to wait that long to meet whoever this ‘him’ is? "We went to the hospital earlier for a check-up, and he's fine now."   Jong Kook stealthily sticks his head out the doorway, just enough to see into the living room. Thankfully, no one was facing in his direction, so his ninja tactics aren’t caught…yet. One of these days, they’re going to find out he’s been eavesdropping on them, but Jong Kook swears today is not going to be that day.   “And when are you going to tell Jong Kook oppa?” So Min asks again, and Jong Kook’s ears pick up at the mention of his name. “In a few days time, So Min-ah. We still need to eas