It was, indeed, nearly impossible to wake the kids up the next day.

They were all very sleepy and Shinwoo and Jinyoung had to dress them up for school. Short pants and high socks, also bow ties for the three of them. Little Gongchannie earned himself a little ponytail that made him look like a sprout.

Even if they were sleepy at first, there was no way to shut them up when they were in the car.

“I’ll make the most friends” Junghwan was saying, his eomma had given him a lollipop to calm him down in the morning, and now he was in a very good mood.

“I’ll get all the girls” Baro said “I think I got muscles yesterday, they’re going to look at me like crazy”

“You still look the same” his twin commented.

“Shut up, you don’t even have a flat belly”

“Leave my belly alone” Sandeul poked his stomach and only found soft fat. He shrugged.

“I want to learn things and make friends” Gongchan interrupted them. “I’m just afraid I can’t” he said and he looked at his wounded hands unconsciously.

“You’ll do Channie” Junghwan said, his lollipop. “You’re a really daebak kid”

“That’s because he’s my brother” that was Sunwoo.

“He’s also mine”

“But the cool part comes from me”

“What about me?”

“The whiny part”

“Yah!”

Shinwoo took his husband‘s hand as he drove with the one that had left. They crossed their fingers and smiled. Jinyoung felt a little ball of fear alighting in his chest. Last year, Junghwan and Sunwoo had been in a little town’s school, with much less children than the school they were going to attend this year. This was their first time in a big school in Seoul, and it was Channie’s first day ever too. He felt his bones like ice; it was going to be a long day at work thinking about their kids. He looked at them and suddenly felt a well-known feeling of warmth inside him; they were going to be okay.

Shinwoo was all tears when Gongchannie was saying goodbye.

“He’s so tall, I can’t believe he’s already in school” Shinwoo told his husband between hidden sobs.

“He’s getting taller than Junghwannie”

“And most clever than Sunwoo”

“We can’t let him know” Jinyoung said “he’d use those things as a weapon”

“Can we go and spy a little from the window?” Shinwoo asked, shyly.

“Are you listening to yourself?” Jinyoung was amused.

“Just to check”

“Okay” the tiny man rolled his eyes, but inside he was happy Shinwoo asked.

“He’s just so cute”

“Shinwoo, we’re going to make a brat out of him”

“Shhh, don’t say those things, just look at him”

So Jinyoung stared. Little Gongchan was sitting on his spot, his back straightened and his eyes fixed in the front of the class. He must have felt them ‘cause he soon looked over to the window and saw them. He just smiled and then looked back to the front.

“Let’s go check the twins”

“I can picture the twins already” Jinyoung said, sure about what he was going to see.

He wasn’t mistaken.

Sunwoo and Junghwan were sitting together. Sunwoo was chatting up with some girls, showing them his belly, where his imaginary muscles where. His brother was still focused in the lollipop, and laughed once in a while, making derpy faces that made the girls smile.

“He’s still eating, in class”

“He can’t help it” Shinwoo defended him, knowing what his boy thought about it. He looked over at him and smiled when he saw a frowning expression on his face, he embraced him. “He’ll be fine”

“I don’t want no one to bully him, you know how different things are here in the big city”

“If something happens, we’ll be there” Shinwoo assured him and then kissed his lips softly.

Jinyoung was right. Things were different in a place that was as big as Seoul.

But it wasn’t only Sandeul who had a hard first day. Gongchan and Sunwoo had a rough time too. Is just because life isn’t that easy when you’re different.

The day started out good, or at least, the boys didn’t realize it had started bad until later.

“Boys and girls, it seems we have new students with us today” said the professor.

The heads of all the children turned around to look for those new students until they found them. Baro and Sandeul stood up.

“Introduce yourselves, boys” said the lady with a wide smile.

Baro coughed. “I’m Jung Sunwoo” he started “but you can call me Baro, my favorite things in this world are soccer and rapping. I think that’s all”

The class said “Hi Baro” and waved, but the little boy couldn’t seem to be able to get his eyes off the professor. She smiled back.

“My name is Jung Junghwan, but please call me Sandeul” his brother started, moving at his side “Baro here is my twin brother and my favorite thing on earth is chocolate ice cream. I hope we can be friends”

The class greeted him and Junghwan smiled in pleasure. He did good. He was proud.

The class was soon over –easy class, batchim writing and pronunciation, nothing to Junghwan- and the bell rang. Good thing because he was damn hungry. It hasn’t been a bad day by far. He was willing to go out and talk to people, it was going to be fun.

He was trying to get Baro to share his cookies with him –he wanted the chocolate ones but he got ginger instead- when a group of boys got close to them and talked.

“Hey, wanna play soccer?” a blonde guy asked.

“Sure” said Baro “C’mon Deullie, you’ll eat later”

“But…”

“I said let’s go” Baro gave him a very significant look.

“Okay”

“Actually…” the blonde boy said kinda awkwardly “we were just talking to you.”

“Oh”

Baro looked at his brother without knowing what to do next. Sandeul just smiled.

“Just go, I’ll go check on Channie”

Baro wasn’t so sure, his brother was smiling but he suspected he wasn’t really that happy.

“Fine…” and then he had an idea “you can keep my cookies if you want”

“Why? Thanks!”

The blonde boy and his group were already heading to the yard when Baro caught them, he apologized for being late.

“It’s okay” another boy said, and then laughed a little “how did you get rid of him?”

“What?” Baro thought he maybe had misunderstood.

“Lucky he didn’t follow us, that nerd. He would make us go slow, you know, being such a fatty”

“Haha, yeah, sure”

Baro didn’t find the joke that funny but he laughed anyway. He wanted to play soccer, he hadn’t played in so much time. It wasn’t the same playing with his appa and Channie. It didn’t feel right making fun of his brother… well, he did it all the time, but it was weird when that other boy called him fatty. He was glad his brother wasn’t there to listen.

He forgot all of those things when he touched the ball.

“Actually… we were just talking to you.”

Junghwan couldn’t stop thinking about those words while he was looking for his little brother’s classroom. What had he did wrong? He remembered being friendly. He smiled. He said his name just like Baro did. He just couldn’t find the problem.

At least he had to rations of cookies and that was good, he knew he was lucky ‘cause Baro never, never, never, gave him any food just for the sake of it.

“Hyung!” he heard from somewhere near the walls.

He looked everywhere but he couldn’t see anyone. Maybe he was just hearing things.

“Hyung! Down here!” he heard again.

He looked down at the floor and found his little brother hiding behind a trash can.

“What are you doing there, Channie?” Sandeul asked, full mouth.

“They want to beat me”

“Who?”

“Those kids from my class.”

“What? Why?” was everyone in this school so mean?

“I told them I had two dads, they think it’s weird”

“But it’s not” Junghwan said, confused.

“I know! Now hide!”

Junghwan sat down next to Gongchan behind the trash can. There wasn’t much space there, not with them both there at least.

“I’m sorry I’m so big” Sandeul said munching his cookies.

“I’m sorry you’re so noisy hyung! Could you speak any louder?”

Gongchan took a cookie and ate it. He took another and fed his hyung with it, just to keep him quiet.

They stayed there until the bell rang again, announcing the end of the recess. They made plans to spend the next recess together at the same place, you know, a fancy location. Junghwan had never seen his brother that scared. He had never seen him scared at all.

When he got to his classroom he found out that Baro wasn’t there yet, so he just went to his spot and sat down to wait for him. He felt something weird in his stomach. He wasn’t used to be all alone in public places.

His brother soon appeared at the door, almost getting late for class, surrounded by his new friends, they were all laughing. Sunwoo seemed quite happy.

“Baro-yah” Sandeul said as soon as his twin was sitting down in his spot next to him “our Channie is being bullied”

Baro, who was still distracted with his new friends, focused immediately.

“Bullied?”

“Yes. He told the class we have two dads and now they’re going to beat him!”

“Not over my dead body!” Baro swore but he still went to play soccer the next recess instead of seeing his little brother.

He’ll be fine he was repeating to himself. He has Deullie.

But he knew having Deullie wasn’t much. His brother was as soft as a plushie and got tired very fast. Of course he would stand up for Channie if something were to happen, but they’ll probably beat the crap out of him too.

He tried not to think about it.

If you take away the horrible feeling of guilt that remained on his heart all the time, Baro could say he had a great day. He hadn’t played soccer like that since like forever, he laughed a lot, sweat a lot, ran a lot. He felt something inside of him waking up. School was great.

School .

The pretty lady had looked at him weirdly when he said he had two dads. The other kids too.

But it wasn’t really weird. He had an eomma and an appa, just like every other kid out there, he had two brothers, they were happy, just a regular happy family. Gongchan couldn’t see what was all the trouble about.

He hadn’t planned to spend his first day of school ever hiding with his brother behind a trash can. His hyung didn’t seem very happy either. Gongchan was sure something had happened to him, but Sandeullie refused to talk about it, so he didn’t know.

“Can I play with you now?” Sandeullie had asked at the beginning of the second recess. Baro was talking to some girls near the door.

“No. You’re fat, we don’t like fat dudes. You’ll slow us down” the blonde boy said, merciless.

Sandeul could feel his heart ache.

“But I can play good” he tried.

“Yes I’m sure you’d make a good ball. Just leave us alone okay?”

 In the present, Sandeul was shaking a little sitting down next to his brother. He wanted to cry, but he couldn’t show weakness in front of his baby brother.

“Are you okay hyung?” Channie asked with those precious puppy eyes of his.

“Yeah, I’m just cold”

It was a hot day. He couldn’t even lie well.

At least the both of them agreed with something; they wanted Shinwoo eomma to pick them up now.

Jinyoung was staring at the picture of his family he had on the desktop. He just hung up Shinwoo on the phone. Both of them wondering how their kids could be. 

He could feel a smile growing on his face. He was so proud of his babies.

“First day of school today?” asked Eunsook, his work mate. She was very beautiful and had been a friend of the family for years.

“Yeah…” Jinyoung said, daydreaming.

“I bet you guys were more nervous than the boys” she laughed.

“Shinwoo even cried” the man said, laughing at the memory.

“So adorable.”

The phone rang. Eunsook took it.

“Hello? Oh, yes. Hold on for a second, if you may” She looked at Jinyoung and moved her lips “It’s your mother”

“WHAT?” Jinyoung couldn’t believe it.

“Yes, he’s here. I’ll contact you”

Jinyoung wasn’t prepared to take the phone. He wasn’t prepared to hear the voice of his mother either. He hadn’t heard it for months.

He didn’t like what she had to say.