04

It was highly bemusing to see everyone turning up for breakfast on the 23^rd December in their crazy pyjamas which had been supplied by Annie to every last family member. There was a colourful host of creatures and other bright things which could barely be identified in the swarming mass of people. It was bright, cheerful and led to lots of laughter and literally hundreds of pictures being taken and this was before they even got onto the proper celebrations.

Though Kiyeol had to laugh at the fact that Annie had clearly grouped people together in a certain style. So all of R-Star PRISM had a unicorn themed onesie but in different colours and each family was matched at least in colour with their corresponding member which made it appear that there was a huge rainbow over everything. Yellow Crew’s representatives, Greg’s band, were in bat style onsies’ and whilst Greg seemed pretty happy about it, Maxi and Hero were being grouchy but it was easy to see that they were just messing around. Especially after both of them got clocked around the ear by Bradley and told to start acting their ages and stop moping around. Brad could easily do that with them because he was virtually their surrogate mother on campus whenever he managed to get a spare five minutes to go around to see them.

Plus Saki was running around in her Hello Kitty onsie and being so cute that it was next to impossible to remain in a grouchy mood.

He smiled around his third helping of bacon sandwiches as Bradley slipped into a vacant seat, “How does your mum manage everything Mama Bear?”

“No idea in the slightest,” Bradley said, “She’s just too god-damn organised for her own good,” and the next second he ducked down to avoid getting a ball of paper landing firmly on the back of his head.

Once breakfast had been completely devoured by everyone and the disposable plates sorted out into the correct bin – because as Annie had said, who really wants to be doing the washing up at Christmas – everyone got called together to be told that the traditions would begin and no one was exempt from them unless they were severely pregnant, like in the case of Dani’s wife, but even she could manage to wipe a few glasses and clean plates. The first tradition was to completely clean the whole of the Onsen and the main family house from top to bottom so that everything was nice, clean and sparkly.

Naturally there was a lot of groaning and complaining about being forced to clean but the promise of the best cleaning team winning a whole box of chocolates to share just to themselves was more than enough to appease virtually everyone else. To keep those who were still complaining in the right sort of mood, they were told that the loosing team would have to muck out the duck pond which hadn’t been touched since last year.

Bradley chuckled as he moved passed his mother, leaning down to whisper, “You are such a rotten tease.”

“I know, Bear, but you’ve got the hardest job. No one’s touched your room since you were last over so it’s going to be covered with dust and grime,” Annie smiled towards her third son.

For the next few hours the main thing that could be heard throughout the whole Onsen was the squirting of various bottles, buckets clanging, taps flowing and people deliberately trying to sabotage others work or helping each other so that they didn’t have to clean the duck pond. Not that those in the know let onto the fact that there wasn’t actually a duck pond anywhere in the Onsen of course, it was just good fun to watch everyone going completely nuts. By lunch time everything was sparkling and looked almost brand new and everyone gathered back to eat a light lunch of mainly snacks.

“I’m starving!” complained Sang, trying to snatch one of the last fairy cakes before it disappeared, “Why can’t we have more food?”

Saki blinked, her hands filled with a cupcake that was almost as big as her head, “Oppa Sang, did you not read your book?”

Sang blinked and turned towards his three giggling sisters, “What?”

“Not going to tell you,” the girls chorused together, sounding innocent and sweet despite not being so in the slightest.

Jin flicked a mint towards the youngster, “Oh stop complaining. At least you don’t have to clean out the pond.”

Bradley and Jongki exchanged a glance before bursting into laughter which had the red haired twin looking at them like they were crazy.

It was Kyo who explained however, “Twinny, there’s no duck pond. Think about it.”

Flushing bright red, Jin tried to stammer out a response but completely and totally failed which only caused more laughter from the boys.

A while later, Shaun strode over to the group and grinned, “Game rooms open if you want to go and chill out in there till later.”

“Cool, we’ll be over in a second,” Bradley said, picking up Saki who had been crawling around on the grass, “Does Mam want a hand at all?”

“Nope, she says and I quote,” Shaun grinned and did a pretty good impression of Annie’s voice, “Tell Bear that I’ve got enough trouble with my five girls under my feet fussing so he’s in charge of keeping the kiddies off the games they’re not allowed on.”

Nodding, Bradley grinned, “Okay. Tell her not to touch the cakes, they’re still setting and I can’t do anything with them till tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Shaun set off again as the group started to rise up to go and play in the games room.

Jaeshik shook his head silently, “Brad, how the hell did your parents get together?”

“I have no idea and before you ask, no I do not know why I’m the only one who didn’t inherit Dad’s height either. I’m just glad that I’m bigger than Mum cause it would be a nightmare otherwise,” Bradley said in response and rolled his eyes as they made their way to the games room.

~~~

“How...the bloody...hell,” Maxi wheezed as he tried to get his breath back, “Does he...manage...to...”

“Take a drink and breath before you pass out,” Bradley said, passing the youngster a glass of water, “We warned you not to challenge Kyung on that level several times over.”

The easiest game that everyone could agree on to play had been the DDR games as everyone could merrily keep the timing and at least have a vaguely plausible attempt at getting a good score. Excluding the youngsters naturally but most of them had been called away to do various other things so it was mainly the boys of R-Star and Yellow Crew with the addition of Minki, Sunwoo’s younger brother, and Kibum.

Greg was giggling in the corner at the state of his leader and power vocalist because both were barely able to breathe right now, “Oh this is classic. Please someone tell me they got a video or something of this?”

“You...dare...maknae mark II,” Hero coughed and shook his head.

Kyo lightly petted the fallen boy’s hair, “its okay. No one can ever hope to beat the puppy’s high scores.”

“But he’s barely out of breath!” Maxi whined in response, indicating Kyung who was panting a little after dancing to Electric Shock, “How is such a thing possible?”

Sunwoo gave the other a look, “You took on our dancer who happens to have ADHD, you seriously thought that you had any hope of beating him?”

“Saki beat him earlier,” Hero said, finally able to manage to speak.

“She’s my yeondonseng,” Kyung supplied, having a long slurp of juice, “Of course I’m going to let her win. You two are just fun little challenges. Even Sunwoo’s not silly enough to go against me on that song and he’s my rival.”

Greg frowned, “Eh?”

“Long story,” Kyung said, grinning towards the youngster, “He’s forever trying to out dance me.”

“I will beat you one day,” Sunwoo said with determination which earned him an eye roll from the puppy as well as a nearby cushion being thrown at his head.

“The day you beat him, Sunwoo,” Sang said with a grin, “There will be flying pigs in the sky.”

Jongki grinned, “He has actually got you there Sunny and before you start, no you are not going through a dance marathon with him either cause I do want to spend Christmas with the pair of you.”

Sunwoo pouted but whatever argument he was about to try and get into, another voice piped up. “Hyung, can me and Bummie have a go now?” Minki had twisted around from where he had been talking to Kibum and had his large puppy dog eyes on.

“Sure, as long as no one else minds,” Sunwoo smiled, ruffling the boys hair which make him grin in return.

Kibum was already moving towards the console to grab the controllers and change the settings to one that they could both manage and to select a song to go for.

Kiyeol smiled happily and glanced towards his youngest hyung, “Seems they have made fast friends.”

“Minki’s good at making friends,” Sunwoo replied, ruffling Kiyeol’s hair, “He’s just got a natural...what?”

Minki indicated the screen, “It’s stuck!”

“Oh hang on,” Bradley said, moving to grab the controller, “Sometimes it does this.”

Jongki chuckled, “When will your parents get a new one?”

“When they actually agree that it’s worth having around,” Bradley said, hitting the box to get it unstuck effectively, “Unless there’s a big gathering there’s not many kids around these days so it’s kinda rendered as being left to gather dust.”

“Korean please,” Jongki said, flicking a sweet at the others head, “My brain can’t process that much English and you two shut up right now,” he rudely pointed towards Jae and Kyo who wisely shut their mouths even though they looked as though they were going to say something.

“Virtually no one plays on it,” Jae translated before frowning, “Doesn’t your brother who still lives here have kids?”

“Yeah, but they’re still a bit too young for this,” Bradley said, resorting to resetting the system to get it working for the two youngsters, “Plus Davy is a bit strange with what he lets his kids play on. There again we didn’t actually get the gaming consoles until I was ten and we had strict rules on when we could play on them too.”

Jin frowned, “Ah that explains why you’re really funny with Saki playing games with us then.”

“No I’m funny with Saki playing games with you lot because you play age rated games that are not appropriate for my daughter,” Bradley said, throwing a cushion at the grinning youngsters head and settling back down. He was right next to Jongki and the leader allowed himself to indulge in a little snuggle time with his wife.

Kibum and Minki got off to a flying start on the DDR game now that it was running and it wasn’t long until they were progressing onto higher levels and having a whole host of fun trying to beat one another. Eventually though they got too tired to play and Sang challenged Kyo so they were off.

Minki landed on the floor with a plop, panting heavily but grinning, “Yay, I beat Kibum!”

“Only by a point,” Kibum argued back straight away but he was grinning madly, “But you beat me so I guess you get to audition then.”

“Audition?” both elder brothers asked at the same time, looking towards their respective younger brother. Both youngsters managed to look equally sheepish.

It was Kibum who broke first, “We were thinking of auditioning for the company.”

“Just to see if we could do it,” Minki cut in, “cause it looks fun and it’d mean that we get to see you a little more often.”

Neither Sunwoo or Kiyeol knew what to say in response to that and it took the elders of the group chuckling to even warrant a response from them. “Don’t see why not,” Bradley shrugged, “You can both dance at the very least which is a good start.”

“Yeah and Mama Bear’s already got Greg there so I don’t see what the trouble would be with a few more additional cubs floating around,” Jongki said, his grin cheeky and bright, “Cause you know for a fact that he’ll adopt them without any hassle.”

Bradley prodded at Jongki’s chest and side in order to tickle him, “Listen you, just because you want some more kids...”

Minki frowned, “Do they always go on like this?”

“Like a married couple?” Kiyeol nodded, “Yup. They’re our Mum and Dad without a doubt.”

“So can we?” Kibum asked towards Kiyeol again, “Audition I mean?”

The two youngest members of R-Star looked towards each other before grinning and nodding, “Sure. But it’s really hard work mind if you do get accepted and you can’t slack in the slightest,” Sunwoo said towards the two happily grinning boys.

“Plus you have to have permission from your parents too,” Kiyeol said, far slower wondering what his mother would think of Kibum trying out for the company.

Minki grinned, “That’s no problem for me. Mum’s already got Sunwoo there so she knows I’ll be alright.”

Kibum nodded, “I’m sure I can convince her to be okay with it. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t the least bit fussed. She’s too wrapped up in him to really notice anything that I do these days so it should be fine.”

Bradley sighed, “Yeah, Papa Bear we’re going to need a bigger house for all of these kiddies we’re getting.”

Jongki laughed, “I know, Mama, I know.”

The group settled down to continue playing on games for most of the rest of the afternoon, enjoying the challenge and listening to both Kibum and Minki sing just to be doubly sure that they could audition. Bradley knew that they would have to get a bigger house, though it would never happen, but that was the joy of living like they did.

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~

Evening rolled around and since everyone was following the ‘Traditions’ book as they were supposed to - because A) it was a whole lot easier to do and B) someone had actually been good enough to make a book to help everyone out since there were a lot of Eun Family Christmas Traditions it appeared – they got dressed in their Sunday Best Clothes and made their way down to the main dining hall which was set into three long tables with a whole host of food, drinks and decorations. There were long tapered candles that were currently unlit and the cutest comment which came out of Saki was, “Daddy is this Hogwarts?”

At the farthest end there was a slightly smaller table set out in the exact same way but there appeared to be people already sitting around it. Upon closer inspection it transpired to be a host of skeletons who had been decorated and dressed for the occasion and positioned so that it appeared they were having just a good time as everyone else. Some of the guests were a little freaked out by this odd little display until it was explained that one of their uncles lived in Mexico where they celebrated ‘The Day of the Dead’ and somehow over the years they had morphed it into a tradition for the 23^rd December in order to celebrate Christmas with the dearly departed. “That way we can never forget them,” Annie smiled gently, “It may seem a little strange but it is how we honour our dead. But we understand the most people find this strange so please, instead focus on the food and the wine and have yourselves a jolly good time.”

Dani rolled his eyes, “Stop with the rhyming mum, it sounds horrible!”

Laughter rolled around the table and everyone started to tuck into the food which was glorious and looked as expensive as it came with premium meats, fresh fruit and vegetables and an endless flow of wine and other alcoholic beverages which had most of the adults completely out of their brains within five minutes because it later transpired to be Shaun’s very own home brew. By the end of the meal there were more than a few cases of people being well over the limit and those who had remained relatively sober helped them to get back to the correct shack to sleep it off for the next lot of celebrations on the 24^th.

Those who were not allowed to drink alcohol were instead given lots of creative non-alcoholic cocktails or else some kind of fizzy drinking pop which saw half of the kiddies being on sugar rushes but it was all part of the Christmas fun. In the midst of everything, a few people chose to light the candles on the tables to remember their own departed and everything was soft and gentle.

Though one of the slow burning Christmas candles, which had somehow got mixed up with the other set of candles though they really shouldn’t have, ended up in Jongki’s room. Carefully he set it next to the window and made sure that there were no curtains or anything which could catch fire nearby. He had borrowed a lighter off someone and carefully he lit the wick and watched as it started it’s slow burn down. “Goodnight my love,” he whispered, “I hope you come back to me for next Christmas so you can receive all the love in the world that you deserve and more.”

Quietly he settled down in his bed and let his eyes close into slumber, allowing his dreams to bring his precious ray of sunshine back to him and imagining how he would react to the Eun family Christmas.