“Unnie are you sure it’s ok for you and Seunghyun oppa to look over the twins?” Dara has a worried expression on her face.


“Ssantoki it’s fine. Besides this is not the first time you’ve had me babysit and I survived didn’t I?”


“You did” Chewing the corner of her lip “But…”


“No buts” Bom starts pushing Dara out the door, with Seunghyun following behind with the twins“Hurry up and go to the doctor"


“Thank you unnie” Dara mumbles as she gives Bom a hug. 


Bom whispers back, not wanting to spoil the surprise “I’m really excited for you having a new baby.”


Dara crouches at eye level of the twins and stared into their eyes “Mommy will just go out for a while, but you have your Aunt Bom and Uncle Seunghyun. Just tell them if you need anything.”


“Yes, mommy” The twins answered in unison.


Dara then hugs and kisses the twins, before straightening up and handing out a piece of paper to Bom.


“Unnie, this is their daily afternoon schedule. The emergency numbers is posted by the board in the kitchen. You do know my number right? Oh, I guess you may need Jiyong’s number as well.” Dara opens her purse and takes out her phone, it was only then had she noticed the amused look on Bom’s face.


“What?”


“I already have Jiyong’s number.”


“Oh” Dara’s face flushes as she realizes that she’s panicking.


“Seunghyun is here to help” Bom pushes Dara gently in to the car “And your kids are little angels. How hard can it be? Now, go.” 


Bom closes the door.Dara looks out the window and mouthed ‘Thank you’ waving goodbye as the car moves.


“Let’s go inside and have fun” Bom announces to the twins, guiding them back inside the house.




_____________________________



Inside the playroom the twins sit at a table, as Bom reads out Dara’s list



1. Play time
2. Snack
3. Nap



This is so easy. Ssantoki’s nervous over nothing.



Turning her attention to the two “What do you want to do today?” 


“Paint!”


“Ok. Uncle Seunghyun and I will just go get your things”


The twins nodded and the adults went to the other corner of the room to get the art material. Bom hands the apron for the children to wear over their clothes. Mi-Young struggles with putting on her pink apron. Seunghyun walks over to the little girl.


“Need some help?” 


“Yes, please” 


“There!” Seunghyun exclaims after tying the apron.


“Thank you uncle” Mi-Young says giving him her sweetest smile before she goes back to her seat.


The twins became engrossed in what they’re doing. Bom sits beside Seunghyun, rests her head against his shoulder and gazes on the busy children. 



10 minutes later, Bom’s phone rings, seeing that it was Dara calling, she excused herself and went out of the room, leaving Seunghyun alone.


“Uncle?”


“Yes, Min-Kyung-ah?”


“Will Santa knows if I’m bad?”


“Yes” 


“Will Santa comes if we’re bad?”


“I guess he won’t. Why are you asking?”


“Nothing” Min-Kyung impishly answers before turning his attention back to what he’s doing. 



A bit later, Mi-Young reaches out for a small container of paint the same time Min-Kyung did for the one beside it, making both opened containers to topple over. Paint oozed out from it, and began to drip down to the floor. Seunghyun was too shocked to even move.


Bom enters the room right in time to see the mess. Immediately grabbing the box of tissue nearby, she runs to set the bottles of paint upright then dabs on the puddle of paint.


“What happened?”


“The bottles were standing side by side and the lids were open. Mi-Young and Min-Kyung both reached out at the same time”


“I’m sorry” The twin s say one after the other, their eyes misty with tears.


The twins are now wearing an expression of guilt on their faces. Sensing their distress, Bom tries to appease them “It’s just an accident. Aunt Bom will take care of it and it’ll look the same again”


“Honey, why don’t you bring them down for some snacks, while I clean this up.”


Seunghyun holds each child by their hands as they went out of the playroom and went downstairs, then they headed straight towards the kitchen.

_____________________________
 

Once there, Seunghyun felt Mi-Young tugging his hand.


“Mi-Young-ah?”


“We did bad, will Santa comes?”


“It was just an accident sweetie. You and Mi-Kyung didn’t mean to spill the paint, so Santa will still come”


Seunghyun was surprised to see Mi-Young pout instead, upon hearing his response. Mi-Young looks close to tears as well. 


In an attempt to distract Mi-Young, he asked “What do you want to eat?”


“Ice cream! Candies! Cake! Chocolates!” Min-Kyung answers in a loud voice.


“Are you allowed to eat those?”


“Yes, uncle” Min-Kyung gleefully retorts again.


Mi-Young joins in, bestowing Seunghyun once more her most winsome smile“Can we, pretty please, uncle?”


Seunghyun couldn’t resist Mi-Young “I don’t think it would hurt to give you those treats since your mom lets you have them”



Min-Kyung isn’t lying. Dara does give them such treats but only one sweet a day. However, Seunghyun didn’t know about this and gave all the sweet treats the twins have requested. Not long after, they became hyper. 


Gone were the little angels the twins were a few minutes ago. Pools of melted ice cream litter the floor. Large chunks of cake join in the goop. The twins even started running after each other, all over the kitchen and everything they touch bears a sticky residue. 


“Min-Kyung! Mi-Young! Stop running, you might slip” Seunghyun desperately calls out on the twins, who as if in that instant became deaf, and continued running and squealing from delight.


He runs after them and tried to grab to one, but the little muchkins were as slippery as the floor, Seunghyun almost stumbles, face down to the kitchen floor, after he stepped on one mushy, cold, sticky pool , if he wasn’t able to grasp the edge of the sink.



“Stoooooopppp!” 


The twins froze in their places. Seunghyun also stops moving, gazes over the entry way to the kitchen, relief on his face as he sees his wife, coming to his rescue.


Bom gives the whole room a quick glance over. The always immaculate kitchen now resembles a war zone! She moves towards Seunghyun, helping him straighten up. Taking one step backwards, she steps on mushy goo.


“Aaaargh” Gingerly lifting her foot, she inspects the bottom of her slippers “What happened here?”


Seunghyun still bewildered “I don’t know. One moment they were happily seated eating their snacks then next thing I knew the kitchen is already in this state ,and they were running around, and I’m trying to catch them” 


Bom turns her attention to the two little culprits, whose backs were turned towards her. 


“Kwon Min-Kyung! Kwon Mi-Young!”


The twins slowly face her way. Bom gasps at the sight in front of her. Her sister would hardly recognize her own kids! 


Both have chocolate frosting on their faces. Mi-Young over her lips and chin. It was almost the same with Min-Kyung except that he even has icing on both of his cheeks. Their clothes and perhaps just about any part of skin not covered by cloth, is streaked with goop.


“Honey, what exactly did you feed them?”


“Uhmm…everything you see on the floor” Seunghyun blushes.


“I can only see a pile of mush. Can you be more elaborate what this mush is made of?”


The twins beat their forlorn uncle in answering.


“Ice cream!”


“Cake!”


“Candies!”


“Chocolates!”


Then the two offenders started giggling in glee. 


Bom looks at her husband incredulously “You fed them those sweets all in one go?”


Seunghyun could only nod.


“No wonder they became this hyper. I’ll go give them a bath.”


“How about the mess?”


“You stated this mess, you clean up” Raising one eyebrow “Unless you want to give the twins a bath?”


Seunghyun quickly shakes his head “I’ll clean up”


Taking one sticky hand of each of the twins, Bom heads over to the bathroom. 
 

_____________________________

The twins are now quietly seated inside the tub, and Bom gently scrubbing off the sticky snacks they had, off their skins.


“Auntie Bom?” Mi-Young gazes upwards to her aunt, who is currently busy shampooing her hair.


“Hmmm...?”


“We’ve been bad again”


“So you do know, that what you did was wrong”


“Yes” Tearfully Mi-Young adds “Oppa and I am sorry”


“Will Santa comes?” It was Mi-Kyung’s time to ask.


“Well since you didn’t mean to do those things and said sorry. Santa will still come”



Bom noticed the two immediately became quiet and even shared a sad look. Brushing it aside, Bom finished giving the twins a bath.

_____________________________

Minutes later, Min-Kyung and Mi-Young are now wearing a new, clean set of clothes. Bom tucks Min-Kyung first, then Mi-Young. Before she could go out of her niece’s room, Mi-Young calls out to her in her sweet, soft voice.


“Auntie?”


“Yes, sweetie?”


“Mi-Young don’t like Santa”


“Eh? But why? Didn’t you like Santa before?”


Shaking her head vigorously against the pillows as she clutches Tamtam “No! Santa is bad!”


“Don’t worry Mi-Young ah, Santa will come tonight for your gift”The earlier conversation they had inside the bathroom pops in her head. “Now, go to sleep so you can help prepare Santa’s snack tonight.”


It was against her will, but Mi-Young did close her eyes, her pink lips making a thin line. Bom stares at her niece’s face for a minute, before she goes out of the room and back to the kitchen to help Seunghyun, clean up the mess.




_____________________________





Opening one eye, Mi-Young takes a peek to see if her aunt is still around. She waited until she no longer hears footsteps echoing in the hallway. Going down her bed and out of her room, she darted to the room across hers. Min-Kyung opens the door.


“Oppa!” Mi-Young launches herself to her brother. Hugging him tight. She didn’t even mind that she’s squishing Tamtam between them. She really got scared when her aunt told her Santa is still coming.


“Let’s go to the playroom” 



Min-Kyung takes Mi-Young’s free hand and the two ran back to the playroom. The instant they arrived in the playroom, Min-Kyung goes to the basket where some of his toys are kept and retrieves three pieces of paper. His and M-Young’s new wish letter and a clean one. He also takes out the same box of crayons they used yesterday.


He sits beside Mi-Young who was clutching Tamtam in a death grip. Mi-Young is already crying. 


“Oppa, I’m scared”


“Why you scared, Mi-Young?”


“Auntie Bom says, S-santa… comes…t-tonight…h-he…might…take….m-mommy….away” 


“No!”


“B-but… auntie Bom s-says so”


“Santa will not comes”


“How can we stop Santa?” Hearing the determination in her brother’s voice, gave her little heart hope that they could, indeed, stop Santa from coming.


“Santa must be mad”


“How will Santa get mad?”


With a lopsided smile, just like his dad’s, a glint of pure naughtiness in his eyes, Min-Kyung answers “We eat his cookies!”