“Are we there yet?” Sunwoo asked for the ninth time that evening.

“No, not yet” his father said, losing his patience. Shinwoo just smiled at the sight of his husband massaging the sides of his head.

“Appa, I’m hungry” Jinyoung didn’t need to look in the rearview mirror to see who was talking. It had to be Junghwan.

“Hwannie, you just had ice cream at the zoo”

“It was a long time ago! My belly is making noises!” he exclaimed. It was his favourite excuse.

“I don’t hear anything” Sunwoo said, just to .

“Shut up, Baro. You can’t hear them ‘cause they’re inside of me”

“I think I can hear them” little Channie said, just for the sake of his brother “it sounds like a monster!”

“See? I’m telling the truth!”

“No, you’re lying!” his twin assured.

“I said I’m not!”

Jinyoung sighed. Luckily he wasn’t driving, it was very hard to drive with the kids fighting in the back. He didn’t understand how Shinwoo could be so relaxed, God, he was even smiling.

He looked through the mirror and saw the twins facing different directions. Sunwoo had a frowning face and his arms crossed while Junghwan looked slightly sad and was rubbing his tummy. He saw their baby Gongchan smiling. Of course he thought you started this little fight, you little boy. Of course you’re smiling. Jinyoung always got surprised at how devilish his youngest boy was; if the twins were always fighting or causing disasters, you could bet most of the times it was his fault, not directly, but still. Anyway, there was no way to prove it. Never. 

“Are you done fighting?” Shinwoo asked from his spot at the steering wheel.

“He started” the oldest said, still looking at the window.

“You were the one lying”

“I’m not lying, I can really hear noises!”

“Maybe it’s the bugs that are eating your brain”

“Yah! Eomma!” Junghwan cried.

“Sunwoo…”

“What? It’s not my fault he believes everything I say.”

Jinyoung saw his husband flashing a smile. He smiled too, their Junghwan was too innocent.

“Baro, don’t say those things. It was supposed to be a secret” Gongchan said with malice.

“There are no bugs in my brain” the chubby boy said, but he wasn’t so sure.

“Don’t worry Deullie, it will take time for they to eat you. You’re too big.” Baro said poking his twin’s stomach.

Sandeullie gulped.

“Kids…” Jinyoung said, but he couldn’t say anything else cause Shinwoo chose that very moment to speak too.

“We’re already here! Grandma’s house!” he announced, making the klaxon sound.

“YEAY!!!” two voices celebrated from the backseat. One remained silent, unnoticed.

“Here are my boys” said a woman with some wrinkles on her face.

He embraced them all very tight and gave each one a big kiss in their cheeks.

“One for my handsome little boy” he said before kissing Gongchan. “Another one for my brave boy Sunwoo”

“It’s Baro, Granny! Baro!”

“Oh, right, silly me. One big kiss for Baro” she said as she leaned over to kiss him.

“And the last one but not less important, to my big boy Hwannie” Sandeul hugged his grandma and let go too fast. She noticed something strange but decided not to say anything. It was weird that her grandson wasn’t too loving.

They spent the evening making cookies. Shinwoo and Jinyoung could rest a little bit. Jinyoung was so glad that her mother in law was a good person. Not that his own mom wasn’t… but they could have never spent some time at her house like that. His mother would never take care of the kids and let them rest cuddling in the couch together. It was so comfortable and easy to be near that lady… He remembered the time he met her; they were in college and Shinwoo had invited him to spend Christmas with his family. They were already dating and he wanted to tell his parents. Jinyoung was horribly nervous, what if his parents were like his own? What if they hate him? But they didn’t. Shinwoo’s dad was a good man, when he passed away it was kinda hard for him too, he was also a parent for him, for a short time, yes, but still a parent.

Shinwoo squishing his hand brought him to the present.

“Again spazzing out” he said, smiling with his sleepy eyes.

“I’m sorry baby” Jinyoung peeked a kiss from his lips. “Shouldn’t we be helping your mom?”

“Are you crazy? Listen”

Jinyoung couldn’t hear a thing.

“See? No sounds. She must be feeding them a lot of candy while she’s cooking.”

“Jungwhan must be happy”

“Poor boy, he really thought he had bugs in his head”

Jinyoung laughed.  “He’s slow like you”

“Are you calling me silly?”

“Are you calling our son silly?” Jin raised an eyebrow.

“Never” Shinwoo smiled and the smiled soon broke because of a kiss.

It was weird to kiss like that with the kids being so close. It was nothing ual though, it was just deep and slow, and they were enjoying it really well. Lip to lip, tongue to tongue. It was soft and wet to the touch, delicious kiss, like the one they had had that morning. Before the twins had appeared.

“I love you” Shinwoo said.

“I love you too”

“I love my life with you. I love our kids. I love you.”

“You’re so dramatic” Jinyoung laughed, but he was glad he was hearing those words.

“I just wanted to see that smile you wear when you hear sweet things”

Jinyoung hadn’t noticed he was smiling, he just felt the warmth in his heart.

“I love our life too”

And so they cuddled in the sofa for what was a long time. The atmosphere was getting filled by the smell of homemade cookies and the voices of their kids asking “are they ready yet?”

Finally, they both fell asleep, tired as they were of the long day at the zoo.

“Ew, they’re holding hands” Baro said.

“Stop ewing everything they do” Gongchan complained “They’re cute. Eomma looks like a princess”

“Can we wake them up? Can we?” Baro asked their Grandma, he was excited. All he wanted was to show his parents the cookies they’ve made.

“I think, it’s better if we let them sleep for a while” she said. And then she looked around “Where’s your brother?”

“Probably in the kitchen” Baro said, not worried at all.

“Can you bring him, Channie? We can’t start without him”

“Okay”

“He’s probably eating anyway” Sunwoo said half smiling.

He and his granny set up the table and were pouring milk into the glasses when Gongchan came back from the kitchen. All alone.

“He wasn’t there” he said.

“Deullie? Not in the kitchen?” Baro said as if he couldn’t believe it.

“I haven’t seen him for a while, now that we talk about it” Gongchan admitted it.

Baro ran to wake up his parents. Even if he and Junghwan were the first to fight everyday, they were also the best friends. You can’t let your best friend disappear just like that.

“Appa! Eomma! Wake up!”

It took a few minutes but Baro finally did it.

“What’s wrong Sunwoo?” his Appa asked, half mad.

“Deullie is gone!”

“How? What do you mean gone?”

“He’s not in the kitchen” Baro was tearing up by the moment. Of course he wouldn’t admit he was worried.

“Did you look around the house?”

“…No”

“Okay baby, calm down” it was Shinwoo who was holding Baro “we’ll look around the house and we’ll find your brother. He probably fell asleep somewhere. Okay?”

“Okay”

They looked for Sandeul everywhere. Screamed his name, looked for him under the beds, in the backyard, inside the closets but nothing.

Baro was starting to get really scared. Channie was starting to get nervous too.

“I found him!” they heard Jinyoung screaming from the second floor of the house. A sigh of relief escaped from the lips of the children.

Sandeul was in the bath tub with half of his head inside a bucket full of water. He couldn’t hear anything. How many time had he spent up there? Jinyoung embraced him delicately and took him out the bucket.

“Hwannie, what are you doing?” he asked, trying not to look too worried. His son was all wet, dirty with floor and chocolate. He was really a mess.

“Appa! No! I need to get in the water!” he said desperately, trying to get into the bucket again.

“What-? Junghwan stop! Why do you need to get in there?” Jinyoung tried to hold him back and took off his dirty t-shirt revealing a really plump pale belly.

“I need to get the bugs out” said the boy tearing up.

“Oh. Hwannie come here” the father said hugging him “there are not bugs in your head”

“There are not?” Deullie asked in between sobs.

“No, baby”

Jinyoung could feel his shirt getting wet from the hair of his son but he didn’t care. He blamed himself for it, he should’ve told him before, he knew how his Junghwan reacted to these things… He saw the whole family looking at them from the bathroom door and waved them off, giving the other two kids an special “I’ll talk to you later” look. They came back to the first floor.

“Appa” said Sandeullie when he stopped crying.

“Yes?”

“Don’t tell anybody what I did” he begged.

“Okay baby”

“Thanks dady”

He didn’t stand seeing him like that. He started tickling his belly.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

“A lot!” he laughed.

“Let’s go eat then”

No one mentioned the incident. It was a happy night.