Minho was peeved.

Sure, he was only 12 and a half. There were a lot of things he didn’t know like why people date or how submarines work or exactly where babies came from (though he had an idea about that one). Although he didn’t know certain things, Minho was a sharp kid, who picked up on a lot of stuff.

Last week, he’d made the reckless mistake of showing his older brother a video that personally, Minho enjoyed a lot. It was great to see his dad so genuinely happy and cheerful. Minho cherished it.

It wasn’t like Minho’s dad was never happy. He was a very happy guy. But because he was a human being, sometimes, he went through the ringer. And it was hard for Minho to see his father that way.

Minho adored his father. Honestly. His dad could do next to nothing wrong in his book. And if he did something wrong... who cares? He’s the dad. Respect him.

Ever since the matriarch of the family passed on, Minho had felt that a piece of Jinki went with her. He always tried to keep the same enthusiasm but losing a wife, a best friend, and the mother of your children all at the same time? It’s hard. Minho could see that.

All Minho had wanted since the tragedy was for his dad to move on. Date. Get married. Anything. It steamed him that Kibum wanted everything but that.

Minho always knew his brother was on the selfish side but he never knew it was this bad. 

A week ago, his dad was happy. He had someone he really liked and they were sneaking around and chatting and exchanging gifts and all that cute stuff that makes adults happy.

This week, his dad wasn’t as happy anymore. Minho couldn’t help but think that it had to do with Key showing him that video.

Man, that Key was such an idiot sometimes.

But it was okay. Everything was fine because Minho had concocted a plan.

THE PLAN: #TeamJoonki

Objective: Get Dad and Joon together for good.

He didn’t really show it, but Minho really liked Joon for his dad. He was cool and stylish, and could probably take Onew out of his comfort zone (in a good way). It was clear that they liked each other so enough with the games.

s a t u r d a y , 5 : 4 3 p m

Step 1: Assemble a Team

”Listen, Tae. If you wanna help, you gotta make sure you keep it top secret.”

”But why?”

”For Appa. So we can surprise him and make him happy.”

”Hm... Can I also have candy?”

Minho shook his head, smiling. “Fine. Okay, here’s the plan...”

Step 2: Provide a Distraction 

Minho and Taemin skulked down the stairs. From the kitchen, he heard his father and brother’s voices as they were loudly debating the performance of some actress in some movie.

Jinki’s phone was on the counter next to him. That was the target. Minho whispered into Taemin’s ear and the younger nodded. 

“Appa,” Minho greeted as he entered the kitchen. 

Onew pulled away from the conversation with Kibum to respond. “Yes, my rational, reasonable son?” 

Key rolled his eyes.

”You’re grilling tomorrow, right?” Minho asked innocently, as if his dad hadn’t been asking the entire household whether he should grill all week.

Onew’s eyes lit up with excitement at the question. “Why, you think I should?” 

Minho just shrugged. “Did you get any meat?”

Key furrowed his brows at Minho. Jinki had also been unable to shut up about his turkey burgers all week. Key could see that clearly Minho was up to something. He just didn’t know what.

”As a matter of fact, I did get some meat!” Onew cheesed, oblivious to any plans unfolding.

”Ah.” Minho nodded, behind his back his hand was gesturing for Taemin (who was peeking by the kitchen entrance) to enter. 

Step 3: Acquire Target

“Well, did you buy any burgers?”

Onew smiled in amazement. “I got the good turkey burgers from the market! Look!” Onew hurried over to the freezer. It was an amazing paradox: Onew was elated that he was going to grill but somehow didn’t seem to remember a single  instance where he told someone he was going to grill. And there were a lot of instances.

As Onew stuck his head in the freezer to pull out the meat, Taemin ran in the kitchen up to Kibum. 

“Bummie hyung!” The boy exclaimed, clad in a fluffy boa and sunglasses. “Is this high fashion?”

Key looked down, instantly bursting out laughing. “Not quite, Tae.”

Minho took this opportunity to slide Onew’s phone off the counter and into his pocket.

”See?” Jinki grinned, finally pulled the packs of burgers out.

”Oh? Dad, those are the good ones.” Key walked over, shocked.

”That’s what I’ve been saying!”

”Yeah, you usually say that but you buy the cheap ones as if we can’t tell the difference.”

”You can’t tell the difference!”

”I can totally tell the difference.” 

Minho took this opportunity to grab Taemin and slip out of the kitchen silently.

Step 4: Run interference

”Eh? Where’s my phone?” Jinki asked looking around on the counter. “It was just here.”

Key just shrugged.

”Daddy, Daddy!” Taemin called from the living room. “I need help!”

Onew entered the living room. “What’s wrong, Taemin?”

”I need help saving the town from the evil witch!” He was on the floor surrounded by LEGOs and action figures.

”I’ll play with you soon, Tae, I just need to find my phone-...”

”Okay. But in the blink of an eye, I’ll be a moody teenager and you’ll have missed out on the good ol days when I was cute and just wanted to save the town.” He simply shrugged. Jinki stood there with his mouth agape, blinking in surprise at the words that just left Taemin’s mouth.

”Okay, sheesh. Let’s save the town.” he laughed softly, walking over to the boy.

Step 5: Make the date

Minho, in a secure and undisclosed location ((his closet)), scrolled through a few past messages so he could figure out his dad’s style of texting. Once he got that down, it was only a matter of inviting Joon to the grill tomorrow.

The plan was coming together much more smoothly than Minho thought it would. Joon agreed to come to the grill tomorrow and Minho deleted the proof off the phone.

Now all that was left to do was for Minho to prepare his presentation.

“Key honey, could you grab some cups and ice from the kitchen?” Jinki flipped a patty, already starting on the grill. 

The table was pretty much set up for the family’s little cookout. They had burgers, buns, sodas, chips. Unfortunately Little Taemin had caught another fever so his father put him down for the night.

Key nodded and headed out of the backyard and off to the kitchen to get the supplies his dad requested. On his way there, he heard the doorbell, curious as to who could be visiting.

He opened the door and peeked his head out, not at all pleased to see none other but Lee Joon standing there with a charming smile and some vased flowers.

Key audibly growled in annoyance at the man’s presence as he rolled his eyes before simply walking away.

Luckily a speedy Minho came to the rescue to guide a lost Joon into the house.

”Oh! H-Hi, Minho. Long time no see.” Joon started, eliciting only a short ‘hi’ as he was led through the living room and dining room out to the backyard.

Onew had his back to the entrance, focused on cooking the perfect burgers, “Kibum, you’re missing my flawless techni-!” He stopped in his speech, when he turned and saw Joon standing there, Minho already having taken the soda and abandoning Joon to put it on the table.

”Joon? What are you doing here? I mean it’s great to see you! But...”

Joon’s eyebrows burrowed in confusion. “Uh... what do you mean? You told me to come?”

”Me? I didn’t.”

”Yeah, you invited me yesterday... and confirmed today... I brought the flowers..?” Joon mumbled, gesturing behind him.

”What? I couldn’t have invited you yesterday, I couldn’t even find... my phone...” Jinki trailed off.

Just then, Minho decided to finally intervene before the grown ups popped a blood vessel trying to figure it out. “Appa, I invited him. He’s my guest.”

”Minho-ya, you invited him? Did you take my phone?”

”Mianhae, Appa, but I had to be sure he would come.”

"Why?"

”Because I have an announcement.” Minho said simply, before heading off back into the house.

”Apparently he has an announcement.” Onew chuckled nervously. “Ah, I’m really sorry. I had no idea he was doing that.” It was a bit awkward because Joon hadn’t really given his answer about what talked about the previous week.

”No way, it’s actually kind of impressive. And I’m super curious about his announcement.” Joon laughed, shaking his head.

“Yeah, me too...” Onew turned his attention back to the grill. 

“Do you grill often?”

”Yeah,