36 Green is for the Garden    Soojung hadn’t realized Chris’ eternal aegyo charm until Chanyeol banged her front door 7AM in the morning, wearing nothing but a pair of blue Adidas tracksuit, his bird’s nest uncombed, sticking out in different places, his eyes red and droopy. How he managed to drive all the way to Kline would remain a mystery.

Ironically though, far from his poor state, Chris was already wearing a cute baby blue button-down, a tiny polka dot bow on his neck, paired with denim pants and white sneakers. He looked clean and fresh. His hair was somehow damp, too, which meant he just showered.

Groaning, Soojung opened her door wide to let the two inside. Chanyeol walked in like a zombie, opposite to Chris who greeted Soojung with a very cheery, “Good morning, Soojung eomma!” before entering.

Chanyeol collapsed headfirst on the couch almost immediately.

Soojung turned the lights on and grunted. “What’s up with you, Chanyeol? The party starts not until 3PM! Why are you already here?”

“Soojungie eomma, where’s Dan?” Chris asked, standing in the middle of the living room like a lost puppy.

“He’s inside my room, slee- Hey, Chris! Don’t wake hi-!” She just groaned when the boy already ran upstairs to look for Dan. She just hoped Dan won’t kick him on the face because a just-woke-up Dan was the worst. Way worse that the snoring one, that she learned from a week of being the boy’s guardian.

Deciding she couldn’t do anything with those kids anyway, she turned to Chanyeol who was sprawled out on her couch. She kicked his left foot which was dangling out. “Chanyeol, get up and explain to me what’s happening.”

He just grumbled in reply.

She kicked him harder. “Chanyeol.”

“UGH! Chris woke me up 4 ing AM and asked me to come here already. He was too excited and kept bugging me. I have no other choice. Now, will you let me sleep?” he answered with annoyance, his face buried in the couch.

Knowing she couldn’t go back to sleep anymore because, first, when she was already wide awake, she’d always have a hard time going back to sleep, and second, there need to be at least one adult to keep sober to look after Chris and Dan – mostly just Chris – she went to the bathroom to wash her face.

When she went out (drying her face with a towel), Chris and Dan were already downstairs pulling each other.

“Come on, Dan, let’s play outside!” Chris convinced, pulling the other by the wrist.

“I don’t want to!”

“Chris, that’s not a good idea since you’re already dressed,” Soojung joined in as she gets a bottle of water from the fridge. She wasn’t only saying it to save Chris’ attire and Chanyeol’s phenomenal efforts to bathe and dress the kid this morning (which seemed to be a miracle because that giant couldn’t even take care of himself properly, moreover, a child) but also Dan who looked like he was done with everything so early at sunrise.

“Right,” Dan said, walking away before Chris grabbed him by his shirt and practically dragged him outside.

The two disappeared to the front yard before Soojung could open again. All she could do was snort and jog upstairs to take bath which seemed to be a bad idea because right in the middle of massaging her scalp with shampoo, she heard Chris’ unmistakable bawling outside. Panicking, she wrapped herself with the towel and ran downstairs only to see Chris sitting on a puddle of mud, crying and wailing. Dan was standing beside him with a straight face on.

Seriously, as time passes by, Dan proves to me even more that he is the Sehun kid version.

She ran towards them, not before she threw a pillow at Chanyeol first for being so irresponsible (like herself), and lifted Chris up away from the mud.

“What happened?!”

Chris was sobbing like crazy so she turned to Dan.

“I don’t know,” the boy shrugged. “He said he wants to play so we ran all around to catch each other and then he just slipped over the mud and cried.”

“UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

“Dan, go inside. Chris,” she called, bending down to reach Chris’ level. “Are you hurt anywhere? Are you injured or something? Tell eomma.”

Rubbing his eyes while hiccupping, Chris shook his head once.

“Okay, let’s go inside and clean you - AH!” She yelped in surprise when she felt arms hugging her waist from behind. Turning around, she was greeted by Chanyeol, wearing only his wifebeater, only to find his jacket being tied around her waist.

“Will you stop crouching down when you’re basically wearing nothing but that small piece of towel around yourself?”

Her whole face turned red. “O-oh… uh, t-thanks.”

When he secured the knot, he looked up to meet her eyes only to turn to Chris. “What happened?”

“H-he just fell on the mud,” she answered.

Without being asked, he carried Chris inside. Soojung followed immediately, her whole body hot.
    “Can you clean him up by yourself?” she asked.

“I can if I want to. But since I’ve had enough of him this morning, why don’t you do it instead?” he mocked, passing his responsibility over Chris to someone else.

“You’re one heck of a responsible parent.” She rolled her eyes. “Okay then, wait here. I’ll just finish washing up,” she groaned, realizing she still has shampoo on her hair.

The kids nodded as they watch the morning cartoons. Chris was already out of his clothes and was wrapped into a smaller towel.

Soojung went upstairs to rinse herself up, unnoticing Chanyeol who was trailing behind her. Before she could open the door of the bathroom, she shrieked when he suddenly asked, “Where should I put Chris’ soiled clothes?”

She turned and took the clothes from his hands, saying, “I’ll take care of it. Uh, could you prepare breakfast instead? I don’t know if you and Chris have eaten breakfast yet but Dan and I haven’t yet, so… Just a payoff for waking us up too early for our liking and ruining our suppose-to-be-happy morning?”

He rolled his eyes but nodded nonetheless. “Okay. But before anything else…” He slowly advanced towards her. If it wasn’t for his teasing Cheshire grin, Soojung would’ve thought everything was just normal, but since he had that stupid smile across his face, she backed away.

“W-what?”

He continued walking forward and grabbed her arm when she continued backing away at the same time.

“C-chanyeol, wha-?”

“I need this back,” he whispered, untying the jacket from her waist. His fingers were unintentionally brushing over Soojung’s lower abdomen and for some reason, it was driving her crazy. When he had finished, he pulled it off, kissed her left shoulder, and muttered a very teasing, “Thanks, Clau!” before walking away.

She didn’t know why, but her stomach was doing somersaults because for once, he didn’t sound like he was flirting. For once, he had done something sweet out of his own chivalry.
 
The gang hit the road four hours earlier than the scheduled time because they found out Dan’s clothes were too big for Chris. And since he had no spare clothes at Soojung’s house, they decided to drop by the nearest mall to buy some clothes. Soojung, however, was having a hard time convincing Chanyeol to buy matching clothes with Chris.

“Why do I need to wear matching clothes with this kid?” he complained.

“Because it clearly says here you have to wear the same clothes as your child!” Soojung defended shoving the invitation to Chanyeol’s face.

In the end, left with no other choice since the persistent brat and the relentless woman ganged up on him, he walked back to the parking lot wearing a stupid hat, red long-sleeved shirt, pants, and suspenders. Chris was too happy to see him looking so stupid while Soojung, wearing the same stripe-patterned outfit as Dan, was just as much.

They asked Jongin to meet them at the mall instead to conserve time. He arrived with Lauren thirty minutes later. Soojung laughed out so loud some people gave her funny looks. Well, who could blame her for seeing Jongin wearing an Olaf costume