old, ugly, and dead.

The Red Knot.

The four of us get to the edge of our terminal and stop dead in the middle of people racing to their flights. I laugh to myself. I don't even know where Umma will be, assuming that she picks us up. "I think baggage claim is this way," Yumi suggest pointing to the left. Of course, there are just more people charging towards us, but it is what it is.

"Yukiko-chan, I choose you! …to be my walking buddy."

She looks at me and giggles at my pokemon joke. "Only if you'll allow."

We link arms and carefully navigate through the crowds. Being the gifted and lovely girls that we are, we become victims of the threads…falling to the floor after four steps.

"Still as graceful as ever," a voice says as arms help me and Yukiko up.

"Wahhhh? Zelo-yah?" I jump up hugging the boy. "It's been what, five days and I missed you like crazy." I turn around and realize both Yukiko and Hikato are staring at the giant in confusion. "Ah, guys this is my friend Zelo-kun…He doesn't speak Japanese, but you can be nice to each other during your stay right? I'm pretty close to him."

Zelo and Hikato shake hands bowing slightly, Zelo much more deeply than Hikato. "How old is he? He's being too formal."

I laugh at Hikato and pat the boy beside me. "He's just a big baby," I say in Japanese. Hikato's eyes widen when I say that's Zelo's only fifteen.

"No kidding?"

I nod but Zelo just looks thoroughly confused after giving Yumi a warm hug. "Where are your bags?" he asks changing the subject.

"Uh, they're at baggage claim." The thought of how he got here suddenly hits me. "Zelo-yah, did you take a cab?"

"Ani," he shakes his head. "Hyung drove me. You're umma called him and he's actually taking all of you home."

I choke. Hyung? Which hyung? And…and…Umma called him?!

"We should hurry, I'd hate to keep them waiting."

Them, as in more than one…as in both Hyungs?!

I freeze. I just can't move. If not for Zelo and Yukiko dragging me to the carousel, I'd still be stuck in the middle of the walk path.

When we gather our bags, Zelo does a short dance and salutes us. "Follow me." I translate for my cousin and almost brother-in-law. "He got the van for today because he knew not everyone would fit in the car." Zelo directs us to a silver minivan parked in the "pick-up" section. We bring our bags up to the back and I brace myself for the worst as the driver's door opens.

"Nami-yah!"

I peek through my eyelashes. The trunk pops open and I see two sets of eyes looking over the middle seats, staring at me. "UNNI!"

I could really faint. I was so worried about HimChan being in the van that I didn't let Zelo finish. Never in a million years did I think that YongGuk would bring his cousins. "Excuse me, I'll help," YongGuk offers. He takes Yukiko's bag and packs it in. She turns to look at me and give me a thumbs up.

I know what she's doing, but it seems like she's playing her situation off. That makes me feel even worse.

We get all the bags in and YongGuk shuts the trunk leaving no room to be seen through the windows. "Ah, Annyo…Bang YongGuk eemnida," he bows.

Hikato shakes his hand and they bow in unison.

"Oh!" I take a second to introduce him in Japanese.

"Nami-yah," Yumi teases. "I think he's more than just your friend."

Yongguk grabs my right hand and I feel that incredible warmth again. He raises my hand to his lips and kisses my fingers. "B-boyfriend," I stutter in Japanese.

"You are just too cute!" Yukiko gushes pinching my arm.

"Uh…" I look at Yumi and then at the other two. "You know what?" I begin in Japanese. "Can we have a moment?"

"Fine," Yumi scoffs in the language only YongGuk doesn't understand. "We'll get in the van."

I wait until I hear the door shut. "YongGuk-ah, don't say anything about HimChan-shi…arraso?"

He looks at me confused.

"I'll explain later. Okay?"

"Aish….Arraso." His expression seems a bit disappointed.

Ah, I see what he was expecting.

I lean forward and latch onto his collar bringing him down to my height. "Pabo," I smile before pecking him on the mouth. He smiles and kisses my mouth. "How am I the pabo…you initiated the kiss," he wines.

"Only after you looked so sad and pitiful."

He smirks. "If there wasn't a van full of people here, who knows what I'd do to you."

I make a face but he just kisses my fingertips. "Nami-yah, glad to have you back."

"Unnie!~" the two girls sing as I open the door taking my seat between them.

"Annyo!" I smile to them. "DanHae you look so pretty! DanYi…whoa, you've grown!

Remember, DanHae (older) is eleven and DanYi is five


The two of them giggle. "Unni and Nami-unni are so nice, but who is the quiet unnie?" DanHae motions to Yukiko. "She's so pretty…but she hasn't said hello."

"Yeah!" DanYi agrees. "She hasn't said hello."

I turn in my seat and try my best to ignore Yumi and Hikato who are snuggled up together. "Yukiko-chan, will you say hello to the girls? They think you're really pretty." She looks at me oddly. "Just say 'annyohaseyo' … just like that. Okay?"

She nods understandingly. Her lips curl into a smile before saying hello. She waves both hands, one to each girl and lets the foreign syllables spill from her tongue. "Ah, did I say it right?"

"Un, you did great."

Zelo turns in his seat and looks back at us. "Nami-neh, how was Japan?"

"Oppa has a big head," DanHae mutters under her breath.

Before I could re-think what she said exactly, Zelo turns back into his seat and sinks into the upholstery. I try today something to distract him, but DanYi fidgets in her booster seat to the point that I need to make sure she's still secured in.

"Unni?" she asks sharply.

I look at her. "Dae?"

"Ani, Unni in the trunk." She turns to get Yumi's attention. "Unni, are you and handsome-oppa in love?"

A wave of electricity hits me so hard I can't believe the van is still running. I'm surprised that my hair isn't fried.

"Dae, we are."

DanYi in her bottom lip. "Whatever you do, don't kiss him." She looks so seriously for a five year-old. "Oppa told me that when a girl kisses a boy she starts growing old and ugly, then has children and DIES."

I laugh so hard that I jerk forward, extending my seat-belt all the way and catching myself on the lock. She did not just say that…did she?

"What did she say?" Hikato asks. Yumi translates for him.

"Who told you that?" YongGuk laughs turning down the street.

"Pabo-Oppa, he said once a girl kisses a boy she's done for."

"She must not see her parents kiss," Hikato offers shrugging it off.

Yumi asks about their parents between fits of giggles.

"Uma and Appa kiss all the time. Why do you think Unni and I are here? …They're both getting old now. All they have to do is die."

Omo. I don't think she understands what she's saying.

I look at DanHae who stares blankly at the back of Zelo's seat.  "What's wrong."

A tear slides down her cheek. "Oppa is going to die."

I forgot all about her crush on YongGuk and begin to have a mental breakdown. These girls are wearing me down and out."DanHae, sweety, no no. Oppa is okay. See? YongGuk Oppa is driving, he's fine."

"DanHae-yah," YongGuk commands and the girl looks up to him. "Do you see me?" His voice is firm but she nods. "Do I look dead to you?"

"Ani," she pouts.

"Then I'm not dead. Who told you and DanYi this?"

"Pabo-Oppa."

He sighs deeply. "Do you mean the Oppa that was with Unni yesterday?"

"Dae!"

I lean forward resting the side of my head against his chair. "What's this about?"

Zelo laughs dryly next to me looking like he might strangle himself with his seat-belt. "You…you pabo!" he gasps. "I told you it was a bad idea! I. Told. You."

"I didn't think that he would say something like that to them."

"Wait." I pause and look at the two of them. "What exactly happened?"

"Hyung has been watching the girls for the past two days and will be for the rest of the week," Zelo laughs. "He needed to do something with Kim Hyung so he asked GeeNa nuna to watch them for all of thirty minutes. He didn't realize the TaeHoon-Shi would be there. He must be 'Pabo Oppa.'"

Zelo falls back into his seat.

"Aish! Will you cut it out? I don't want them getting anymore upset than they are," YongGuk growls.

I pinch Zelo's cheek and pull at the skin as I shake him playfully. "Don't be mean."

"Ah! Nami-neh? What was that for?!"

I sigh. "You're always so mean to DanHae-ya."

"Because she thinks she's going to marry Hyung, it's so stupid."

I smack him softly across the side of his head. He's so jealous and he doesn't even realize it. I wonder who the stupid one really is.

"She's just a child," YongGuk explains.

"Yeah, but she's eleven. She's so gullible, at least DanYi-yah is still little."

I turn back to DanHae. "Would you feel better if Zelo was going to die too?" I ask. She in her bottom lip and nods her head. "Ask him to say sorry."

The boy sighs. "Nami-neh, do I really have to?"

I smack him.

"Alright, alright…." he lets his seat recline and looks back at her. "DanHae-yah, I'm sorry. Arraso? Nami-neh does that-"

I peck the side of his face quickly. "See? Now Zelo Oppa and YongGuk Oppa are the same."

She smiles a little and Zelo straightens the back of his seat hiding from her. His cheeks turn pink and I realize what I've done. Oops, well…I guess it was his fault anyways.

A/N: so I just kept it as one chapter. asdfghjkl;
I love little kids.
and I LOVE messing with Zelo in this story. My harrassing him isn't over yet, oh-ho ... wait until Nami's Umma gets ahold of him *evil grin* she's the type of parent that went to all of her children's soccer/football games and sang cheers with only her child's name to embarrase them. yeah. I'm going to be like that too. lol

ZELO IS BACK! ... *forgets about YongGuk*

and the girls. /dies
I want my kids to be like this. I know I'm being weird, but I love children. That's probably why I love Zelo so much. (he's like a baby to me...a GIANT, baby.) And I have an entire chapter deticated to DanHae in the furture (it's all still in my head. It's the very last thing I'll write.)

Was this better? (I had a ton of fun writing it ^^)
I mean, it was a lot happier and less sad ... *creyingbucketsforyukiko*

There need to be some comic relief after those last chapters.

Any guesses who "Pabo-Oppa" is? TaeHoon.

 

Hope you enjoyed this long @ss chapter ;D

Thank you for reading, commenting, subbing or just droping by~ annyo!
I'll be posting again very soon! *u*

(I didn't like the way I was doing comments ... you know the reply thing. I think you guys lose out on Karma points. So I'm not going to do that anymore ... toowhiteforkpop I DID go back and reply to you! I'm thinking I replied right after you read it ... seeing as you already posted a comment by the time I updated the last chapter OTL sorry.)

@toowhiteforkpop : DON'T CRY! asdfghjkl; TT___TT I have big plans for her! kinda, they're not HUGE like I do Nami...but asdfghjkl;///dying

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alovelyfall
I'll be uploading something like an epilogue again to The Red Knot. Hope you enjoy it ^^v

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shapphire
#1
Chapter 1: Heheh, she is half Japanese. Today I've met two stories, including yours, who involved Japanese (^-^)
Is this CRASH era? I didn't see the date of this story created. It's fun to have this kind of gift X]
pyjamagirl
#2
Chapter 33: Again, I like the dialogue alot. It rings true to me how you can bicker with someone you've known a long time without even knowing the reason.
pyjamagirl
#3
Chapter 32: It's a big, complicated family now! And trust Daehyun and Youngjae to be troublemakers. My favourite part of this is that you've kept Nami's character the same. She still wants to help people and spread love, even when she's in her own happy ending.
pyjamagirl
#4
Chapter 31: *sobs* I'm glad they've found their way back in this ending chapter. Himchan and Yumi have both pulled other people into their mess but what shows you are a great author is that you've managed to weave clues on the reasons for their behaviour through the story that helps keep the reader rooting for them. They could've come across as unsympathetic characters given their actions so its really nice work that as a reader I'm happy for them at this point despite the collateral damage.
pyjamagirl
#5
Chapter 29: It's nice to see a mix of playful, lightheartedness together with more sweet romance because I think otherwise it can seem to ring a bit untrue. To me I can picture the moments so well and it feels like I am watching a super cute made-for-each-other couple in real life and thinking "awww, I want that!"
pyjamagirl
#6
Chapter 28: I like how here you convey little things about the characters' personalities by how they interact with different people even in small moments.

Side note: You can draw too?! *shields eyes for fear of being blinded by the shining light of your talents*
pyjamagirl
#7
Chapter 27: Heh heh heh, I'm glad for a little light relief in this chapter. Zelo is always good for that!
pyjamagirl
#8
Chapter 26: So, I saved reading the rest of this story until I knew I'd have time to re-read all the preceding chapters and savour the new ones (eh-em, a year later...). Coming back to this I loved it even more. I realised/remembered that you are so good at writing dialogue and there are so few stories I've read that keep such a great balance of character and plot development with good pacing that keeps the writer well-engaged. Also, re-reading from the beginning I picked up some nice foreshadowing as well. In this chapter I really felt along with Nami about Yukiko's actions. Selfless, yes, but with that "what were you thinking?!" moment too. I can only think despite her best efforts its not going to end well.
KathyKaulitz2PM #9
Can I just say that I lost a few hours of sleep reading this fanfic because it was FREAKING GOSH DARNIT AMAZING??!! SO MANY FEELS! <3 You did such an absolute wonderful job :) now I'm going to have to tell my friends to read this story!
toowhiteforkpop #10
Chapter 34: :OOOOOOOOOOOO THAT WAS SO AWESOME OMG MY YONGGUK FEELS I COULD CRY RIGHT NOW OTL i'm sorry but i think i love this story more than you enjoy writing it :3