The teen looked at his reflection once again in the mirror, making sure that everything on him was okay. His once curly blonde hair turned to the color of bubble-gum pink, since Jiyong insisted him on doing such thing. The latter always has that strange taste of fashion; it was lucky for Junhong that his Guardian didn’t make him copy his seaweed-like hairstyle; but the younger had to admit the color looked good on him nevertheless. His uniform was neatly ironed, and everything was on its rightful place. Junhong picked his backpack up from the floor; a light frown was plastered on his forehead as the thing weighed more than he expected. His gaze caressed the badge on the backpack for the nth time after Minki reassured that he saw the same thing on the person’s friend the day before. Junhong threw the backpack over his shoulder and left the room, locking the door silently behind his back.

♥

   “Good morning guys.” Junhong said as he slid through the small gap between the door and its frame while dropping his backpack down to the floor leaving a weak thud behind his back. As he expected, Yongguk was having breakfast on his reserved seat next to Minki; the younger nodded at Junhong, ensuring the latter that he was perfectly on time. He skipped to the fridge happily for some morning strawberry jello, but got blocked by a person that was all too familiar with the children in the house. Jiyong smiled and led Junhong back to the large dining table and set a bowl of oatmeal in front of him.

   “You’ve had enough jello for your entire life, Junhong.” The Guardian ordered firmly, though his gentle smile was still there on his lips. “It’s high time you had a proper breakfast.”

   “Apoji…” The young boy looked up and blinked at Jiyong pleadingly; but the latter just laughed and handed him a spoon. “Nice job, Junhong, but you know I’m also pretty good at this.” He said, retreating back to the cooking area nearby. Junhong made a face at him but quickly got himself a spoon of oatmeal, enjoying the gentle odor of cinnamon wandering around in the air.

   Later on Dongho and Aaron also joined them in the dining room; both of them got away with the oatmeal and had some bacon and eggs for breakfast instead. Junhong stood up to place his bowl in the dishwasher. As if being startled by something he hadn’t realized up to then, he turned around quickly and looked at Jiyong:

   “Say, apoji, where are the girls?”

   “Seunghyun took them to their school already.”

    “Why did he keep on insiting them on going to a private girls’ school like that?” Junhong questioned back. “It costs an arm and a leg just to pay tuition there, and I thought you said we are having ‘budget problems’?”

   “It’s all for your safety, Junhong.” Jiyong smiled and ruffled his pink hair, and everyone else knew it was his way of saying ‘enough talking about this subject’. Junhong rolled his eyes, he wasn’t a bit satisfied with the answer, but still decided to let it go. Of course Jiyong and Seunghyun knew what they were doing, and there was no doubt that Junhong, as well as his siblings, put full trust on the Guardians.

   “Oh, look at the time.” Aaron stood up from his seat and handed his dish to Jiyong; the latter smiled at him motherly and nodded. “I think we should get going already.”

   Junhong pulled his phone out and looked at the tiny numbers on the top right corner. Aaron was right; they needed to go or else being late on the very first day of school wouldn’t be a very faraway prospect. The others also stood up; Yongguk helped Minki. They formed a line in front of Jiyong; where he touched each of their foreheads and said something that sounded like a blessing. Junhong was the last one to be blessed; and as Jiyong pushed him away gently signaling that everything was done, the teen stepped back and observed the scene carefully so that nothing would ever miss his eyes. There they were, all of his older brothers standing in the kitchen getting ready for school, with all too familiar red threads hanging down from their fingers, arms, neck and so forth. Junhong could see all of those; he himself got one, right above his real thread. He knew for himself that it was just a little trick that the Guardian placed on them, only just to disguise them from the eyes of the others, just in case they ran into some of those people on the other side. Those fake threads were extremely fragile, unlike the real ones; and soon all of them would disappear when the sun goes down. Junhong chuckled, thinking about how sarcastic it was for people like him trying to be normal, but all ended up being even more socially awkward. They all do.

   Minki looked a bit confused when it came to standing on his own. His fake thread was perfectly straight and strong; unlike the condition of the real one which would be described as ‘fragile and tattered’. It was a side effect of a Guardian’s blessing – disabilities would be healed for a particular period of time. He was leaning against the now closed door trying to get a stable position. He would if the door hadn’t creeked open again and send him back down to the floor. Aaron jumped up as if he was bitten by a poisonous snake and came over to help the feminine blond stand up; glaring at the figure which had just entered the room.

   “Shoot, Min, I almost forgot you. What took you so long?” Jiyong laughed and pulled the newly arrived in, placing his left hand on the younger’s forehead. Soon after that Junhong spotted a thin, red threat hanging down from her relaxed pinky. She shook her head slowly and beamed at Jiyong before turning around and bowing at the boys.

   “Aren’t you with the girls, Min?” Yongguk raised his eyebrows and spoke, but she just shrugged shyly and looked at Jiyong as if waiting the Guardian to reply for her.

   “I forgot to tell you, Min is going to attend your school.” Jiyong grinned, scratching his head in a kind of, Junhong swore it was, purposely absent-minded way.

   “Eh?” Exclaimed the confused almighty Dongho. “But why?”    

   “It’s her first time going outside, Dongho, she needs to be taken care of.” Jiyong said while examining every detail on the little girl’s uniform to make sure that she was all neat and clean. “But the girls are pretty busy with all of their schoolworks already, and I don’t want to bother them…”

   “Apoji Jiyong forgot to hand my application form in. He put it on his desk along with unnies’ but left mine there when he went out to post it. After that it was the end of enrolling time, so he had to put me in here with you.” The girl interrupted Jiyong and said calmly as all of the boys rolled their eyes. It was all too familiar with them, the forgetful Jiyong who wants to take care of everything.

   “Anyway Yongguk will drive you to school before he heads to his campus, okay?” Jiyong broke the atmosphere and pushed the girl next to Yongguk before continuing to shove the teens’ backpacks into their hands. “Your lunch money is all there and you remember to call me if anything goes wrong okay? Aaron, please take care of your dongsaengs, make sure they don’t run into trouble. Especially you, Dongho, behave and listen to your hyung. Minki, watch where you are going and eat properly or else you would faint in P.E again like last year. Junhong, I packed your mask along just in case, and I tell you that you have jello for lunch again I would make you have oatmeal for the rest of your life. All of you keep your eyes on Min, and Min, stick to your oppas alright? Yongguk, just take your time at college, don’t worry about us. And remember if you see that boy again try to make friends, okay? I’ll see you later this afternoon. Goodbye, kids.”

   “Goodbye, apoji.” All the teens chorused and Yongguk nodded at Jiyong as they left the house. Junhong finally knew the feelings of canned sardines as he and his siblings got stuffed into the car. Yongguk was sitting on the driver’s seat; on the front seat was Aaron who only seemed to mind about lecturing his younger sister by his side. Junhong, Dongho and Minki were crammed in the backseats with desperate attempts of getting comfortable positions as time passed by. Finally Yongguk pulled off, and Junhong jumped out of the car immediately gasping for air while telling himself that he was going to skateboard to school for the rest of the schoolyear.     

♥

   “Okay…” Said Aaron as he pulled out a piece of paper from his backpack while the others left their lockers and gathered around him. “Dongho, two periods of Math, one Korean and one Science; room 107, 202 and 072. Minki, two Korean, one History and unsupervised study; room 157, 196 and after that just go into the library okay? Junhong, Min, you are in the same class with Minki, so just follow him and he would tell you what to do. I’ll be in room 008 for the rest of the morning if you need me, or else I’ll see you at lunch break.”

   “All right, peace out!” Dongho waved and disappeared right after, ignoring Aaron shouting after and telling him to behave. Aaron sighed. “I’ll see you guys later.” He said and walked away in the opposite direction of Dongho’s. Minki looked at Junhong and smiled, but the latter was still focused on the zigzag lines of threads on the floor, almost fascinated of those images that thin lines in all different colors made. His younger sister poked him by the side, and he startled a bit before heading towards the classroom through the noisy and crowded corridor.

♥

Author's words: Well, it's me here again and you may think that I'm dead already because I haven't done much updating lately :( Well, guess again because I'm STILL ALIVE baby~ *Sorry I'm still spazzing over Monster. Everything was just so gorgeous, and Jiyong OMG I drooled a river just by looking at him. The only thing that needed to be complained about is Bebe's hair oh God I don't even know why they let him grow it like that. But the theme is Monster, right?*

So this is my sorry gift 3 CHAPTERS UPDATED TTANTARANTTAN~ I hope you like it and by the way if you see too many grammatical mistakes and typos I have to tell you this: I NEVER PROOF-READ. Yes it may sound irresponsible, but I never have the guts to read my written chapters again because if so I would die from embarrasment :"

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