Energy

Kyungsoo’s POV

In the dormitory, day of flight to L.A.

From the bed, I could hear the sound of retching.

It sounded worse than normal so I rolled off the bed and made my way to Yeol and Baek’s bedroom. When I reached the bathroom, I was greeted with the sight of Baek bending over the toilet bowl and Yeol hovering around him sweating bullets.

Baek straightened with an effort, his back to me. Yeol immediately started to fire questions at him, asking if he was alright etc. Without answering, he gulped a lungful of air and threw back his head as Yeol reached forward to dry his forehead with a sleeve. Then another spasm hit him and he doubled over. But there was nothing more inside him to come up. He braced both hands on his knees, trying to catch his breathe. My parenting instincts kicked right in. Yeol looked on the verge of tears so I sent him away to the kitchen to prepare some lemon water for Baek. Then I reached out a hand and lay it on his back, gently massaging it the way Jongin used to when I had morning sickness. Baek straightened, muscle by muscle, and blew out a shaky breath of relief from my gentle massages.

“Feeling better?”

“Yeah. Thanks,” He whispered shakily. “It’s over now.”

“You sure you’ll have the energy to take that long plane ride?”

“Nope. I am pretty sure I will throw up on the plane. When will all these morning sickness go away?”

“Soon. Maybe in a week or two.”

As I supported his weight when he started to stand up, Yeol returned with a glass of lemon water. Handing Baek over to his care, I gave Yeol a slight pat of encouragement on his back before returning back to the living room. The twins were both up already, still dressed in their wrinkled pajamas. Jongin had single-handedly washed both their faces, brushed their two front teeth and changed their diapers before depositing them in the living room full of their toys. He sat in front of both boys and stacked three wooden blocks in a tower. Jungwoo reached forward and knocked them over with both hands, his fingers sprayed wide open. Dongwoo gasped at the sound the tumbling blocks and then giggled happily, clapping his hands together in excitement. As I stood there with my arms folded across my chest, I just had to smile as I watched my three favourite boys having so much fun over three wooden blocks. I could only pray that Baek and Yeol would be able to experience the same feelings we had as parents of our sons.

Of all the titles that Jongin and I had been privileged to have, of all the prizes that we had been honoured to be given as members of EXO, the title of 'dad' was and will always be the best. To hear the boys say ‘Dada’ and knowing that they were slowly understand the meaning of the word, it meant the world to the both of us as fathers of these two beautiful children. Watching Jongin playing with the boys now, I felt nothing but pride. I had never known that he was such a family-orientated guy before the pregnancy. Now, he welcomed any chance he had to do fatherly things with the boys. Even spending ten morning minutes playing with them would put a smile on his face for the rest of the day.

“Oh, look who has joined us, boys.” Jongin caught sight of me and leaned slightly to the left to put me in the boys’ line of sight. Excitedly screaming ‘Dada’, they both waved their chubby arms at me, wanting some love and attention. Laughing, I strode up to my favourite trio and sat down on the carpet. Jongin gave me a quick peck on the cheeks and then it was back to the wooden blocks.

It wasn’t long before one of them started whining about being hungry. Usually it would be Jongin who got hungry first but today Dongwoo started whining and fussing so off to the kitchen we went. Suho and Yixing were seated there having breakfast with their eyes glued on today’s newspapers. Sometimes they really did give off that grandparents’ vibe as they cooed over the babies while reading the papers at the same time. As Jongin and I set the twins in their high chairs, Suho and Yixing made funny faces and sounds at them. While leaving them to entertain the hungry and fussy boys, Jongin and I turned to prepare breakfast. Today’s menu was a bottle of milk and a couple of slices of bananas and oranges. Now both boys were hungry as they ignored Suho and Yixing completely, banging loudly on their tray table and saying “mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmmm” over and over and over and over. Their feet and hands went a mile a minute as their eyes stayed fixated on the food we were preparing. Gosh, these boys sure did like to fill their bellies.

As I fed the boys their breakfast and ate my own breakfast of cereal and fruits, Jongin headed off first to wash up. Soon, Baek and Yeol joined us in the kitchen as well for breakfast. After Jongin was done, we swapped roles and I went off to wash up. We had our own little morning routine. But when I returned, I noticed Baek and Yeol looking a little green in the face, their breakfast remained in front of them untouched. Before I could ask why, Jongin hurried me out to prepare the boys. Jongin’s mother was going to pick them any minute now so we hurriedly packed the boys’ suitcase and dressed them in fresh matching outifts.

“Come here, big monkey. Come give daddy a kiss before we leave for L.A.” I stretched out my arm at Jungwoo. Probably unaware that we were about to leave for a couple of days, he said something that I couldn’t make out before smiling happily and crawling over to me. Seeing his brother in my arms, Dongwoo too reached out for a hug. Lifting them both in my arms, I gave them both a tight hug just as the doorbell rang.

Time to say goodbye to the boys and off to L.A.

I hated to leave the boys behind in Korea. These days, I was getting worried that they might feel betrayed or left behind every time we left the country for an event now that they were old enough to understand things. Every time, I would be anxious to return to them. But whenever we returned, we were greeted with such lovely and adorable grins that I was about 90% sure that they didn’t blame us for leaving them behind.

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Jongin’s POV

In the van, on the way to the airport

We were in our usual seats at the back of the van. Kyungie’s head rested on my head as we stared out of the window. I knew his mind was on the boys. He usually got very sentimental when we had to head overseas for an event. As the boys grew older, they were beginning to understand more and more. It was amazing how fast their brains developed. I could understand why he was worried that the twins would feel left behind. There was really nothing we could do without jeopardizing their secret existence. So I just tried not to think about it and enjoy every moment I had with them.

And honestly speaking, I can’t really say that I hated to go overseas for an event. Being away from the boys but being in a hotel with no one but Kyungie had its own perks. It sure wasn’t unpleasant. Nope, not one bit. Already, dirty thoughts were forming in my head as I looked forward to spending the night doing just one thing, and it definitely was not sleeping. A devious grin widened on my face just as Kyungie peered up.

“What are you thinking about, smiling like that?” He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at me. As my grin widened and my eyebrows wiggled suggestively at him, his eyes narrowed further, “Oh, I know what you are thinking about, you and your dirty little mind.”

I had to bellow in laughter.

“By the way, did you notice Baek and Yeol looking a little green this morning? Do you think they are alright? Do you know what made them look so sick?” Kyungie frowned slightly. Baek and Yeol were in the other van.

Oh I knew.

I even had a video in my phone that would explain everything.

One look at my face and Kyungie instantly knew I was the one responsible for that look on their faces. “What did you do?” He shot up from his position of cuddling in my arms and turned to face me directly, shooting an accusing glare at me.

“I’ll tell you later.”

“No. Tell me now.”

“We are arriving at the airport soon, Kyungie.”

“Tell. Me. Now.”

So I did.

Or more like I showed him that video on my phone.

The more he watched, the more his expression turned dark and murderous.

Thankfully, before he could react, we had arrived at the airport and I hurried off the van. I tried avoiding Kyungie as long as I could. I was pretty sure he was going to kill me for the prank I pulled on Baek and Yeol but I just couldn’t resist then. After all, they had been pranking us members since our trainee days, it was about time someone gave them a taste of their own medicine. As we walked to our gate, Kyungie sneaked up on me and his right hand locked onto my arm. For someone his size, so small and squishy, he sure did have a lot of strength. AND he knew just where to press to inflict the most pain.

At a tight squeeze of his hand, I yelped and jumped from the pain.

“That was mean of you, Jongin ah.” He whispered menacingly at my ear, his eyes seventy percent disapproving and thirty percent mischievous. I couldn’t help laughing despite the pain, all the while struggling to get away from him. I literally had to swing really really hard just to get out of his grip and I wasn’t kidding when I said it hurt. The instant relief from the pain was refreshing the moment I managed to get my arm out of his grip but that didn’t last long. Within seconds, his hand was back on the exact spot that was still a little raw from his earlier maneuver.

“Baek was already feeling sick this morning and your little prank did not help one bit.” He squeezed down hard on the same spot again and I winced at the pain, shaking my arm to get out of his grip. At my pain, he smiled this mischievous smirk as he rejoiced in my agony. Even then, even in the pain, my mind didn’t fail to think, wow, Kyungie looks really cute with all the murderous mischief on his face.

“But you have to admit, it was funny!” I managed to release his grip on me and quickly grabbed his hand in mine, intertwining our fingers. Hoping that holding his hand in mine would stop him from punishing me.

Nope.

I was so terribly wrong.

He squeezed down hard on my poor fingers that I involuntarily yelped again, desperately trying to shake my fingers free. “Funny or not, you ought to be punished!” He laughed evilly, before he finally released my poor tortured fingers from the pain.

“I consider it training, in preparation for their impending parenthood,” I declared as I rubbed my fingers to ease the soreness.

“Well, at least you took a video.”

And we both burst out laughing.

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Kyungsoo’s POV

Hotel in L.A.

I had to say it.

Served him right.

Yeol managed to find some vomit candy at the candy store and together with Baek, guess who was their first target?

You guessed right.

Jongin.

Although I had to say their faces were priceless in that little video Jongin had shown me when we were on the way to the Incheon airport. It was taken when I was in the shower and Jongin was watching the twins. Baek and Yeol were seated beside the twins having their breakfast. Having raised the boys for eleven months now, we were very accustomed to the kind of faces they made. So the moment Jungwoo furrowed his little eyebrows together and squeezed his mouth into a pout, Jongin grabbed him out of his high chair. One hand holding the phone filming every moment, he carried the baby in the other hand and shoved the baby’s diapered bum right in front of the unsuspecting Baek and Yeol.

That face was Jungwoo’s I-am-going-to-let-out-a-huge-stinking-fart face.

No questions there on why they were so green in the face.

KCON 2013

Performing in front of such a huge amount of people from a different country was pretty daunting. As we belted out the fun and high energy 3.6.5, I felt a tiny bit lost. After my infamous mistake in that music show interview when we first debuted, I had a bit of a stage fright problem, especially when I didn’t have choreography to follow. I mentioned it on Beatle’s code once. Plus, I wasn’t too fond of crowds and sasaeng fans, especially after that HomePlus incident. 3.6.5 was not like ‘Wolf’ or ‘Growl’ where I could hide my lack of confidence behind well-practised dance moves. While I did enjoy the carefree style of this song, I was just a teeny weeny bit uneasy.

Just a tiny bit.

Nothing serious. It wasn’t as if I was all alone on stage; that would have been extremely frightening if you asked me. Jumping around on stage and having fun with the members gave me a huge adrenaline rush and despite the slight uneasiness, I was still enjoying myself, feeding off the positive energy from the crowd.

But when I saw Jongin’s arm spread wide open right in front of me, I instinctively walk right into the safe haven of his arms. Instantly, I was completely at ease as I waved at the energised crowd. I heard a lot about KCON from the EXO M members who were here last year and it was exactly how they described it.

So much energy.

The fans were jumping along with us, waving their arms, stomping their feet. It was more than just a wave. It was a tide, an ocean of bodies. Some of them even sang along despite it being in a foreign language to them. So much energy, you could almost harness it and power a small city. With Jongin’s arm casually resting on my shoulder, I let my insecurities go and immersed in the energy of the crowd.

This was why I wanted to perform.

This was why I became an idol.

I smiled as I met Jongin’s eyes.

Might as well enjoy it.

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A/N: Kaisoo at KCON! Hope you guys like it! ^^