Kangin pressed the end button for the umpteenth time and glared at his phone, ‘Why won’t he answer?’ he thought idly, bouncing Kyuhyun a bit since the baby was starting to make little noises of discomfort.

He felt a sharp tug on his pants leg, he turned to glare at the little offender, only to find Siwon looking at him curiously. “Yes, Siwonnie?” he asked, his eyebrows rose to match the little Shibrows that were arched in question. “Appa, where’s Yesung hyung?”

Kangin fought the urge to break something, “. We haven’t even started living as a family and the kids are already giving me trouble…” he muttered under his breath as he tried to stay calm and give the expectant Siwon a calm smile. “Are you sure, Siwonnie? I mean, you know Yesung, he’s probably just in the bathroom or something…” The mini-Shibrows scrunched up together, “But Appa, hyung’s been missing ever since we found Chullie noona.” Kangin’s eyebrows shot up in alarm as he digested what his ‘son’ just told him as Heechul ‘hmphed’ in annoyance at the ‘noona’ comment. 

Kangin suddenly thanked whatever deity was up there that Leeteuk didn’t answer his phone.

While demanding why his little Horse only informed him of this predicament now, Kangin ushered his little brood in search of his lost child.

Meanwhile, as Kangin fell victim to the Princess Chullie  and managed to lose a child, Leeteuk on the other hand started off with Heechul, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Donghae, and Ryeowook until he also fell into the aegyo trap and was led on to another section as Heechul stomped his way over to his Appa .

“Sungminnie, Ryeowookie darlings, where are you taking me?” Leeteuk asked gently, warily eyeing the “TO LADIES SECTION” arrow signs they just happened to be following.

The normal timid Ryeowook looked up at him, “Well Teukkie Umma is our real Umma now! And we want our Umma to look pretty.” He smiled sweetly.

Leeteuk came to an abrupt stop after hearing what his child just told him and couldn’t help but let out a surprised “EHHH??!” in the process. He wanted to turn back and continue shopping for all his children but Sungmin, being the martial arts expert that he is, kept the leader’s hand in an iron grip, preventing Leeteuk from escaping his fate. ‘Sungminnie… let Umma go…” he tried to reason with his little bunny.

Sungmin looked back at him with bright eyes, “You’re going to be me, Wookie, and Chullie’s Umma, you have to look and act the part! What will all the other parents say when they see you and Appa together and you’re in sweats and a large hoodie??” the little boy tsk-ed, dragging the defeated Leader to the dressing room where Ryeowook was already waiting for them with a whole wardrobe ready.

‘Kangin, I hope you’re doing so much better than I am…’ he briefly thought of his ‘husband’ imagining them all happily enjoying their ice cream as he was being lead to his impending doom.

“Come on kids, we’re playing a game!” the false cheeriness was making his cheeks hurt as Kangin tried to get his children to start walking; Siwon arched a shi-brow in question from his position at the end of the line with Kibum, to which Kangin ignored and tried jibe his tired and hungry brood to get a move on and find his missing child. Kangin was expecting Shindong and hopefully a happy Heechul to be game in playing, but what he did not expect to hear the excited chattering of Donghae and Eunhyuk.

“YEYEYEYEYYYYY!! Let’s play a game!!” Donghae giggled, bouncing up and down with Eunhyuk.

Kangin’s eyes widened in alarm upon realizing that these two troublemakers were supposed to be with Leeteuk, “Donghae-yah, Hyukkie-yah, aren’t you two supposed to be with Teukie-Umma?” Kangin asked, shifting the now dozing Kyuhyun to one arm and picking up Kibum, the second youngest who looked as if he was going to collapse at any moment if it was not for Han Geng who was supporting him. The thought of dropping by a baby store to buy a baby carrier momentarily passed Kangin’s mind, as old as the members were mentally, they were still stuck in the bodies of little children which get tired easily.

Eunhyuk and Donghae smiled sheepishly, shuffling their feet in terrifying similarity to what Heechul just did. “Ehrm, We got lost going to the bathroom…” Eunhyuk mumbled.

Kangin rolled his eyes at the unintended aegyo his little monkey just pulled. “Aish and Teukie Umma didn’t notice? Tsk tsk. Okay, come along, hold on to Siwon and Han Geng, don’t want to lose you.” Kangin meant to say, “as well” but stopped himself.

Donghae started to tug at his pants, asking Kangin what game they were going to play.

“Well, we’re going to be playing treasure hunt!” Kangin grinned at his own cleverness. “OOOOOH!!! WHAT KIND OF TREASURE? Is it shiny treasure??” Heechul asked excitedly, his screeching rousing poor Kyuhyun and Kibum from their comfortable positions on Kangin’s shoulders.

 ‘UGH. SO LOUD. My poor baby ears, they’re more sensitive now…’ Kyuhyun mentally groaned, burying his face further into Kangin’s sweater-clad shoulder. 

Kibum popped one sleepy eye open, seeing if there was a fire or emergency, only to witness Heechul’s excited squealing and screeching. Kibum and Kyuhyun’s sleepy eyes met, and sharing an ‘I know right?!’ look, they proceeded to go back to dream land.

Kangin smiled at the excited Heechul, who was expecting the ‘treasure’ was to be something materialistic as usual, “No Chullie, what we’re looking for is not shiny. We’re actually going to be looking for Yesungie” Heechul’s excited face dropped to a deadpan, the child’s face taking on the older Heechul’s expression “You mean you lost your own son?” Kangin could feel cold beads of sweat forming on his forehead, “O-of course not, why on earth would I do that? I’m a good Appa! I just told Yesungie to hide… yeah that’s it, he’s hiding somewhere in this mall and the game is to find where Yesungie is hiding!” Kangin explained to the kids, though it was more to himself than to his kids.

Kangin looked to heavens with an exasperated expression thinking ‘Why me??’ and proceeded to lead his children on a hunt for their older brother.