Chapter Ten: Lee Soo Man, the Letter, and Night Chores

            You woke up an hour later to the feeling of little hands against your face. That seemed to be the only way they’d wake you up. Not yelling, not screaming, not even jumping on you or hitting you…they just placed their hands on your face: one on your mouth, one on your nose, one on your left cheek, and the other two on your eyes. You could still breathe, of course, but it was still weird to you that they chose to wake you up like that instead of what you knew as normal.

            Like whenever Lee stayed over, she’d jump on you in the morning. Since you both are early birds sometimes, she thought you would have been up. But you weren’t. So, since she was hungry, didn’t know how to cook, and was bored being alone with nothing on the T.V., she decided to wake you up….by jumping on you. You were having such a great dream, too! And Jill! She would yell at you super loud as if she was being murdered or something! They were the only friends you had left, even though you could make friends easily. You didn’t want to lose them, but the fact that Lee, your closest friend, didn’t approve of you having to take care of twelve toddlers made you very upset and want to cry…but you knew if you had to choose between twelve “angels” and her, you would choose the twelve. Even though your grandfather had that gut feeling of Xiumin and Luhan being bad news for your grandparents, your gut told you they would be the best thing that would ever happen to you! And with your luck, you really needed something good in your life.

            “Umma! Get up,” Kris said, the hand on your mouth pushing down gently. You groaned, turning your head away, trying not to laugh at the sounds of frustration they make.

            “Omoni!” Luhan whined as you felt a body lay horizontally on top of yours. “Hungry~!” You knew you couldn’t starve them, they were your “babies” now and you had just gotten the first three to warm up to you…and you had to find out the other two’s names. You groaned again, sitting up. Luhan got off you and stood with the other four, all of them looking at you; waiting for you to move. You stretched your arms and rolled your shoulders before getting up. You looked for a letter in the basket, but couldn’t find anything other than the blanket and pillows the babies were using. You were confused, of course, but decided not dwell on it. You picked up Xiumin, putting him on your back, the two babies on your hips, and Kris and Luhan following behind you.

            You set the two new ones in Xiumin’s and Luhan’s seats and Kris in his before getting two more highchairs for Xiumin and Luhan, putting them in the seats. You went to the kitchen and began cooking some food for the first three, before showing food to the new ones. Much to your sadness, they chose baby food. You warmed both of the baby food up with Luhan, stirring Xiumin’s and Kris’ soup. You got everything ready, pouring some of Luhan’s food on his tray with a small spoon. You then blew on it, making sure it was okay. You then began to feed the others, not noticing the kitchen door open behind you until you heard Luhan scream.

            You turned around, seeing a man with dark skin with orange-tinted sunglasses, dressed in a suit.

            “Who are you and what are you doing in my house?” You asked, your hand reaching under the table where you had hidden one of the guns from earlier.

                “No need for a gun, Miss Shield,” he said as he pulled out a chair, making himself comfortable. “I helped out your friends today,” he paused, looking at you with an emotionless mask on his face. “Gave me your letter that told me to give them some ‘normal’ kids…I did. I gave each group one to three kids…all the kids will be rivals of your own, you know…they won’t like your kids and will try to hurt you as they grow older.”

            “Why have you come, Mr. Lee?” you asked, your voice strong as you glared at him. He leaned forward.

            “To give you my letter! I didn’t put it with the baby because I wanted to give it to you myself,” he said, handing you a letter with an XO stamp. “I also copied your grandmother’s letter to you, but lost it and found it again under a pile of papers. I read it, and I just want to let you know that we do not feed the children, we can’t ever touch them. They know how to feed themselves, dress themselves, bathe themselves, and more, but that doesn’t mean they won’t allow the one they see as their rightful “Umma” to touch them. Five like you already, so you should be fine later on.” He beeped, and for a second you thought it was his watch, but it was his phone. He checked his phone, sighed, and then looked at you. “My…friends…need me. Ta-ta~!” And with that, he walked right out of the dining room and house.

            You wondered the alarm system hadn’t worked. You have had it on ever since you got home…unless there was something wrong with it. But grandmother wouldn’t have left it unfixed, you reasoned. So, maybe the problem is me. Maybe I didn’t turn it on and off correctly. You finished feeding them, the letter on the table. When they were all done, you took the kids, the letter, and some crackers up to the jungle gym room. When you got there, you set the three on you down and watched as they played, eating crackers as you read the letter.

Dear Miss Shield,

            It brings me great happiness to tell you that you have overcome the hardest children: Xiumin, Luhan, and Kris. But now, it is on to the cuddly, clingy, and quiet ones. Soon, you will be back to having a hard time with one of them, but think about this as a little break to help you get along with them more.

            If you hadn’t noticed already, the boys love music, playing, and tend to eat a lot. The two new ones you have gotten are Joonmyeon and Yixing, or Suho and Lay; in that order.

            Suho is a very smart one, yet very cuddly and clingy. Once he’s asleep and has something in his arms, he won’t let it go. It’s like a super powered death grip. He tends to eat normal food, though sometimes he’ll eat some baby food. Don’t leave him alone with glass, he’ll break it, and don’t let him see any sort of ‘Survival’ T.V. show. Happened once, we couldn’t find him for days. We all thought he was dead, even his brothers who cried nonstop every day, no matter what! We found him on top of the roof after six days passed. He, a small infant, survived in the cold winter for six days…he’s a weird kid.

            Lay, is very quiet. He would disappear from time to time, so we don’t really know much about him. Only thing we do know is that this must have been his second life. He has eyes that look older than his time, and he can play the piano really well. We found that out when one of the assistants was with him in the music room. She was playing a song for him while he was doing something, I didn’t bother to ask, and then she had to leave. She said that when she came back, he was playing an old Chinese song so beautifully that she had tears in her eyes.

            I understand you play many instruments and can sing. If you do that, they may turn out to be really, the best thing that happened to South Korea. Also, you keep setting your alarm system on and off wrong. To turn it on, it’s 7689 not 7698; and to turn it off, it’s 0098 not 0078! Gosh! I hope you set it right next time!

            Anyways, be careful with them! They might get a little emotional seeing their older brothers act as if they were the sons of you. They’ll get all worked up and you won’t be able to calm them down once that happens, unless you are gifted in crying baby areas. You will maybe get two or three more one year olds tomorrow and maybe see me if I decide to give you the letter personally. It all depends on what happens.

                                                -Lee Soo Man

            You munched on the crackers, watching the boys get tired, coming one by one to sit on your lap or next to you, all falling asleep except Luhan. You put Suho and Xiumin on your back since they clung to you, and carried Lay and Kris. You took them all to your room, along with Luhan, who followed you from behind. You laid them all down, watching them all fall to sleep, including Luhan. You then got up and did the chores you neglected doing.

            You tended to the garden, first, since there was still some light from the sun. After you pulled out many weeds and fresh vegetables, you ate instant ramyun since you were hungry, you washed and dried the dishes that piled up quickly in your sink, did the laundry, set out clothes for each child, and even made their lunch for the next day.

            You really started feeling like a mother, but you planned doing half of the things you did. Yet, the one thing that bothered you, was that gut feeling. Usually you feel fine with your gut not really reacting to anything, and if it did, it was usually a happy feeling. But now, you couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen the next day. Either the next day, or the day after that, or the day after that, and so on. Something bad was being concocted, and you were too afraid to find out what.

            Soon, at eleven p.m., you took a shower in the closest bathroom, dressing in a towel robe when you were done. You were so tired, and after turning on the alarm, properly, you had gone to your room and fell asleep horizontally on a vertical bed (Meaning:  _ on l…kind of) with your babies slowly moving down the bed to you throughout the night, curled up to you as if you were their only body heat. You fell into a deep sleep, the thought that you still had homework crossing your mind, but you were too tired to care.