The baby was crying, Jongin was panicking and Sehun was stressed out. The only person in the apartment who was not freaking out was Chanyeol. His thick skull was probably protecting him from catching the emotional trauma that everyone was facing and it was also probably protecting him from the information that was printed on the milk powder tin can. After finally managing to open the oh-so-complicated can, Chanyeol, had no idea what to do next.

“I think we just have to feed it directly from the tin can. It doesn’t say anything.”

“Are you sure?” Jongin asked uncertainly as he rocked the wailing baby in his arms.

“I’m 90% sure.” Chanyeol puffed up his chest confidently and pumped his fist on it.

“Okay then…” Jongin passed the child to Chanyeol and watches as he brings a tiny teaspoon filled with milk powder to the baby’s parted lips.

The three grown men surrounded the child and watched, hoping that the baby would accept the food and stop crying. Their hearts pounded in sync and the baby’s long eyelashes fluttered gently while looking up at Chanyeol’s face.

“Say ahhhhh,” Chanyeol slowly put the spoon into its mouth and then removed it in the next second. The moment it was removed, the baby spat out the powder onto the three faces crowding her and laughed. They lifted their powder covered faces and looked deadpanned at each other. “Yup, Jongdae’s child.”

After the small laugh the child had back there in the kitchen, it decided to return to crying its lungs out. Jongin chased off Chanyeol calling him an idiot and tried to sooth the child while Sehun took a little escape and researched on baby milk.

“Okay, okay, based on my research, it should contain this amount of milk powder and the ratio of the milk powder to the water should be about 1 is to 10.”

“Okay, sure. But why are you using cold water?” Jongin gently patted the baby’s back, enduring the sharp wailings right beside his ears.

“Won’t the baby get scalded if we used hot water? C’mon man, use your head.”

“I’ll punch you if not for the baby in these hands.”

“Okay, done. It’s a masterpiece. It’ll love it.” Sehun passed the bottle to the child’s uncle and beamed proudly as it at the bottle – only to spit it out on Jongin’s face the next instance. “Okay, I’m out.” He walked out of the kitchen with his hands up, leaving the milk-covered Jongin alone with the baby.

Half an hour later, the wailing stopped. Mr. Popular Chanyeol and ever-studious Sehun popped their heads out of their rooms to check out what happened.

“I’m not dreaming, am I?” Chanyeol directed the question to Sehun but kept his eyes locked on the kitchen’s entrance.

“Definitely not. Let’s hope Jongin didn’t do anything stupid.”

“I heard that!” Jongin stepped out of the kitchen with a baby drinking from an almost empty bottle.
“Ayyyyyyyyyyyyy, it's a miracle!!” Chanyeol cheered loudly and pumped his fists in the air. “Give me a bump!”
“I can’t, idiot. I’m holding the child.”
“oh… right… SEHUN GIVE ME A BUMP.”
The two ran at each other and gave a chest bump mid air.
“Argh, yeah! We’re going to be super dads.” With so much enthusiasm laced in his voice, Sehun almost felt bad for pointing it out.
“Wait, wait, wait. You can’t be serious right? We’re going to keep the child?”
“Se-”
“No, no, no. We can’t. We’re college students for God’s sake! We have classes, we have exams, a social life and we definitely don’t have time to take care of the child.”
“Sehun,” Jongin tried again, but his words were not reaching the other. The blond male paced the hall with his fingers grabbing at his chin, muttering something incoherent. “Sehun.”
“What?” He snapped.
“You don’t have to do it. She is my niece so, I’ll take responsibility.”
“Oh right!" He snapped his fingers, "why don’t you send her to your parents?”
“Are you crazy? You want me to rat on my brother? My parents will rip his head out and he will rip mine in turn.”
“But they’ll be excited to have a grandchild, wouldn’t they?” Chanyeol piped in, backing Sehun up.
“No, they wouldn’t. They are the Asian-est Asian parents one could have.” Jongin said with a shake of his head, thinking of his strict parents, turned his back against his best friends and walked out of the hall, “If you guys don’t want to do this, I’ll do it alone. It might be noisy for the first few weeks but I think I should be able to get a hang of it.”

“No matter what, I’ll take care of you okay, my little dumpling.” He pinched her nose gently and took a shaky breath. “I’ll handle this just fine.”
Hesitant footsteps followed him to the kitchen, shuffling against the cold tiled floor.

“You’re not going to do this alone, Jongin.”
“You have us.”

Jongin turned around with tears almost clouding his vision when the baby in his arms started crying again. “Okay, man up Jongin-ie, now isn’t the time for you to cry. Don’t steal the baby’s limelight.” Chanyeol took the baby from his arms and gently rocked it, cooing and making weird noises while Sehun shrugged in his fuzzy fuddy-duddy sweater.
“I mean, we’re living under the same roof after all.”
“Th-thanks Sehun, thanks Yeol.” Jongin blubbered, wiping his face on his sleeve.

“Er, guys.” Chanyeol started out uncertainly, “I don’t mean to spoil this wonderful, warm brother/friendship moment thing we’re having right now but, I think the dumpling just pooped.”
“Oh, no wonder it smells in here. I was wondering what kind of cologne were you using.” Sehun adjusted his spectacles and calmly removed a pack of baby diapers from one of the cabinets behind him.
“Are you kidding me? Why would I wear cologne at home? With only you two at home? Hello?? Not gay!” Chanyeol made his stand in his sassiest voice which had Jongin laughing his tears away.
“I’m going to go to the toilet. Please don’t kill the child in the process of changing diapers.”
“C’mon man. Trust us a little.” Sehun gave a thumbs up and a bright eye smile before ripping the packaging to bits.
“Was that violence really necessary?” Jongin asked him deadpanned.

A/N: Mid week update! A few more days to the weekends! Hang on, everyone! ^o^ Recently I've been reading a lot of baby sitting mangas >//< they are so cute???? I feel inspired to get a job in a daycare but at the same time like nah, I'm busy. Subscribe and comment, ya? ❤️

❤️ Meg