Yunho rushed in the store in search of his sons while also trying to grab last minute ingredients and snacks for their New Year’s Eve party tonight. However, frustratingly enough the other shoppers and moms were faster and more aggressive than him, snatching the last of everything. He internally groaned. Jaejoong was a better shopper than him and Jaejoong wouldn’t have waited till New Year’s Eve morning to buy ingredients for food. He was an idiot to think there would be an abundance of food in the store because it was New Year’s Eve. Christmas was over. People don’t eat large dinners on New Year’s.

But he’d been clearly wrong.

Everyone was buying up everything as if it was another Christmas feast.

He didn’t know whether or not if grabbing the food or finding his sons were more important. Jaejoong would be severely disappointed and lecture him if he didn’t get all the food and he’d be furious if he returned home without the kids.

“Food first.” He finally concluded. He only had a few more food items left to get, and he was sure he’d eventually bump into the boys.

Yunho spent the next half hour scavenging for the next few items before he hurried into the shortest line. Just as it was his turn to check out, his phone rang.

His heart beated nervously in his chest at the caller ID. He couldn’t answer it. The elder can’t find out that he was last minute shopping nor learn that his favorite tiny human beings weren’t with him.

“Hello?” But Yunho couldn’t ignore it either.

“Hey Yunho I…” Yunho held his breath at the early pause. “…are you at the store?” Nothing got past his husband, not even for a second.

“Uh, yeah…there was a few things I forgot to get.” Yunho answered.

The cashier raised an eyebrow at him, seeing the conveyer belt stacked with food.

“Okay.” Jaejoong brushed off.

Yunho internally sighed in relief.

“I just wanted to let you know that we’re boarding the plane.” Jaejoong had flew to his grandparents’ house over the weekend with his mom and brother. His grandfather had gotten sick and was sent to the hospital, so they went to visit him and do what they can to help them out. It was a last-minute trip. That weekend after Christmas they were supposed to begin the process of moving into their new house in hopes to be done by New Year’s Eve. Jaejoong had been stressed about it, but Yunho assured him that he could do most of it on his own, and at least have enough stuff for them to hold a small New Year’s party. But that ended up not being the case.

“Did you finish moving things in?” Jaejoong asked.

“Not exactly.” Yunho rubbed the back of his neck, pausing before putting his card in the pin pad to pay for the groceries.

“That’s fine. As long as you have enough for today. I can help with the rest tomorrow.” Jaejoong clarified.

“Oh yeah. Of course. That’s what I meant.” Yunho quickly assured.

There was a silent pause on the other end.

“Yunho. Are you okay? You sound frantic.” The elder easily caught onto his nervousness.

Yunho thanked the cashier before quickly putting the bags in his cart. “Yeah. I’m fine. Really. It’s just a lot going on right now.” He lied.

Jaejoong hummed in understanding. “That’s why Ig et everything early.”

Yunho held back the urge to roll his eyes. He already learned his lesson and just wanted to get out the store, but he couldn’t.

“Can I speak to the boys?” The question struck him frozen. He could hear the excited smile behind his husband’s voice. He was smitten by the tiny devils.

“You can’t!” Yunho accidently blurted out of panic, earning the attention of the shoppers walking past him.

“Excuse me?” Jaejoong had also been startled by the sudden outburst.

Yunho quickly straightened up and cleared his throat. “I mean, you can’t because they’re not here with me.” He tried again, this time much calmer than before, but it was too late the elder had grown suspicious of him. “Yunho, where are the boys?”

“I dropped them off at a friend’s house. I figured it’d be too crowded to take them with me. They might’ve ended up getting lost.” Yunho played off.

There was another dreadful silence before he received an understanding sigh. “I guess I’ll talk to them later then.”

Yunho breathed in relief, not realizing that he’d been holding his breath.

“Well, I have to go. They’re getting ready to board.” Jaejoong informed.

Yunho couldn’t help but feel disappointed that their conversation was coming to an end. He missed him; they didn’t get to talk much ever since he left. But he also had a lot of things to do and so little time to do them. “Love you. Have a safe trip.

“Love you too. See you soon.” With that their phone call ended.

Yunho was temporarily relived that he survived the call, but he had bigger problems to face. One of them included finding his sons. He was sure he’d bump into them before he checked out, but he was by the exit and there was no sign of them. He ran his fingers stressfully through his hair. He had no idea where to start.

The store was growing more and more crowded by the minute. They could be anywhere. They might not even be in the store anymore.

Just as the worst of thoughts began to seep in the back of his mind, aloud voice boomed behind him. “Anyone missing two little?”

Yunho quickly turned around at the sound of giggles. His body immediately relaxed in ultimate relief at the sight of his best friend with two little boys tucked beneath his arms.

“Uncle Yoochun found us.” His 4-year-old giggled.

“What are you guys doing here?” Yunho asked the couple in both disbelief and immense gratefulness. He’ll definitely owe them after this.

“We were heading to your apartment to help you move, but Yoochun wanted to stop to pick up snacks for moving. So, we stopped by here.” Junsu wore an unimpressed frown on his lips.

“Then we found these little guys running around by themselves.” Yoochun tickled the boys in his arms, causing them to giggle loudly.

“It was fun!” Daehyun cheered. “But then Jaehyun got scared because we couldn’t find you and he started crying.”

Yunho felt guilty at his eldest son’s words.

“But I told him that papa would find us, cause Appa always finds us. Then we had fun again and then Uncle Junsu and Uncle Yoochun found us and it was even more fun!” The 4-year-old suddenly burst. His younger brother nodded in agreement at the last part.

Yoochun put the two boys on the ground. Jaehyun immediately ran up to his father and hugged his leg, still somewhat shaken from being lost. Yunho bent down and picked him up. “I’m so sorry that I lost you guys. I wasn’t paying attention.” He confessed.

“It’s okay papa. It was fun! Let’s do it again!” Daehyun cheered, but Yoochun caught him before he could run off. The 4-year-old giggled at him a mischievous smile on his lips that threw his Uncle off guard. “You’re a reckless one, aren’t you?”

Just then an idea came to Yunho’s mind. “Hey, can the boys stay with you guys?” He quickly asked.

The couple looked at him in confusion, “Aren’t we helping you move?” Junsu questioned.

“Yeah, but I don’t have much time. Jaejoong is gonna be here in a few hours, and I can’t watch the boys and do everything else. It’ll still work out. Changmin is going to come by ad help too anyway.” He quickly explained, feeling a sudden rush of urgency. Every second he spent talking was less time he got to prepare the house before Jaejoong comes by.

Junsu thought for a moment, somewhat doubtful of the logic, “Wouldn’t it be faster if-,”

“Sure! We’ll watch them.” Yoochun cut him off.

Junsu looked at him, but before he could say anything, Jaehyun was shoved into his arms.

“Thank you so much.” Yunho thanked, “I’ll see you guys later.” Yunho waved to his sons before running off with the cart. “Bye Papa~!” Daehyun called.

Yunho put the groceries into the trunk of his car as fast as possible and drove out the parking lot. He was glad that their new house was close to the store, but it still took out a lot of vital time that he needed for moving things into their new home.

They were hosting a small get-together with close friends and family, and Jaejoong wanted things to be a certain way. He’ planned everything out for the past month, but the sudden hospitalization of his grandfather prevented him from executing his plan. Yunho knew how excited he’d been about it, so he offered to set everything up while his husband was away. However, Yunho underestimated how much work actually need to be done and instead spent all weekend playing with his sons and talking with potential clients. Now he was suffering the consequences.

Yunho rummaged through the spare cabinets and drawers, pulling out the utensils he could find. He pulled out the small cookbook Jaejoong left for him after bringing in all the groceries. He flipped through the highlighted recipes. A sigh escaped his lips. This was going to take longer than he thought. There’s no way they were going to have time to move in the furniture and cook. “I wish I had more time.” He groaned.

He thought hard to himself, figuring out his best options before pulling out his phone.

“What’s up?” Yunho was grateful that his best friend was always quick to answer.

“Have you left yet?” He went straight to business.

“No. I’m about to leave in a couple of minutes, why?” Changmin questioned, catching onto the elder’s underlying urgency.

“Can you stop by the apartment? I need you to pick up some things.”

“Sure.”

“I’ll send you a list of what to get. Thanks.”

“No problem.”

Yunho hung up first to text the younger the list of things he needed. They left a spare key under the mat for their friends and family to use to go in and out the apartment to help with the move. They didn’t have a lot of stuff, but it was still too expensive to rent a moving truck, so they traveled back and forth carrying things in their cars.

Yunho washed his hands and turned to face the large mountain of food that awaited him. He started off with (by Jaejoong’s calculations) the longest recipe, buffalo hot wings, which he thought would be the easiest. He was most familiar with the recipe and had helped grill and fry them before when they were dating and first married. However, that wasn’t the case.

He’d never done the tedious parts of actually making the sauce and prepping the chicken. The first half ended in a large mess of oil, garlic, salt, and pepper all over him after trying to toss the chicken. But that wasn’t even the worse part.

Changmin pushed through the unlocked door of his best friend’s house, only to be greeted by the hot smell of burning food and the penetrating cries of the smoke alarm. He paused for a moment, contemplating on if he entered the right home before hesitantly entering the kitchen.

His eyes widened at the sight of Yunho rushing a smoking pan to the sink. “What the hell?” His eyes scanned the messy kitchen.

“I don’t know what happened.” Yunho confessed just as confused. “I was trying to make the buffalo sauce for the chicken.” He rubbed the back of his head, not understanding what just transpired.

On the other hand, that was enough to explain the reason for the disaster for Changmin. After rooming with his friends for a few years, he quickly learned that Yunho and Yoochun should never be allowed in the kitchen alone, well at least not Yunho. Yoochun should just be banned all together.

“Uh, I’ll clean this up. You can grab the stuff from my car.” He suggested.

Yunho nodded finding the idea better than what he had in mind and quickly left the kitchen.

Changmin placed his hands on his hips analyzing which part of the disaster to clean up first and save anything that survived.

-

After a half hour of bringing in the items from Changmin’s car, Yunho returned to the kitchen., only to be surprised by the scene. It was still a mess, but far better than before. Changmin was holding a large trash bag, dumping the last of the food scraps inside.

“Well, I managed to save the chicken before it burned. But your sauce is a total loss, along with the pan and a few utensils. There was no saving those.” The younger member diagnosed

“Great.” Yunho groaned. He didn’t have enough ingredients to make more sauce, nor did they have enough utensils to spare. He ran his fingers through his hair, contemplating on whether or not to go back to the store. He already wasted an hour trying to make the chicken and clean the disaster. Who knows how long the trip to the store would be? He needed more time.

“I think I have some ingredients at home that I can pick up.” Changmin suddenly said.

Yunho perked up at the suggestion. “That’ll be great. I can start cooking the other stuff while you-,”

“No, no, no.” Changmin immediately stopped him. “I’ll cook. You can move everything else in.” He suggested, though it came off more as a command. “That way your house won’t burn down before you can even live in it.”

Yunho playfully rolled his eyes but was thankful for the offer. “Okay fine.” He said, tossing the younger his eyes but was thankful for the offer. “Okay fine.” He said, tossing the younger his keys. “I’ll be back.” Changmin walked out the kitchen first.

Once he was gone, Yunho went to work on moving their stuff throughout the house. It’d actually went by quicker than he expected, since he had to bring in less stuff than planned. He didn’t have time to bring the couches, especially without Junsu’s and Yoochun’s help, so he had Changmin bring in a bunch of folding chairs and their kitchen chairs from their apartment. It was barely enough to seat all of them, thankfully Changmin brought a few of his own folding chairs and a folding table to put the food on.

He stood in the middle of the kitchen nook where he had the best view of the two-story house. Despite there being several chairs lined around the family room, the house still looked empty and bare. Even if he moved all their stuff, it would’ve still looked vacant.

Yunho chuckled to himself tat the thought, remembering when they first moved into their first home together just before they’d gotten married.

~6 ½ years ago~

Jaejoong’s arms trembled as he carried the heavy box up the stairs. He regretted having grabbed the last box. He didn’t realize it’d be so heavy.

“What’s even in here?” He grumbled.

He was about to take another step forward, when his foot missed and slipped off the smooth concrete step. A yelp escaped his lips as he prepared for the inevitable.

But it never came.

He slowly looked up to find himself in his fiancé’s arms.

Jaejoong blushed in embarrassment, quickly standing back up. Yunho took the box from him.

“Let’s go.” Jaejoong walked up the rest of the stairs before the younger could . Yunho shrugged and followed after his, easily carrying the box the rest of the way.

A smile returned to Jaejoong’s lips as he pushed open the door to their brand dew apartment. They finally finished bringing up their belongings. They already bought the bed and couch and assembled them the day before. They ordered a table and kitchen chairs and brought it in earlier that morning. All that was left to do was for them to unpack their boxes.

His excited smile grew larger, everything was finally coming together. “This is great!” he beamed when Yunho put the box down.

“It’s small, but not too small. It’s perfect for the two of us.” He continued.

“Yeah, I guess.” Yunho agreed without much energy.