I don’t remember

“slaw-bell-lee! slaw-bell-lee! Pinky…..pinky…..slaw-bell-lee!” small chubby hands plucked a juicy strawberry and the song began again. the strawberry disappeared in the chest’s blue flap of the overalls. The same hand poked the strawberry on the centre of his chest, the one of hand-stitched red and green cloth and yellow dots made by small yellow thread knots.

Then the little fellow toddled over to another plant with his favourite fruit within reach. He spotted on. It was smaller than the previous one, but to him quantity and quality mattered not size. The fingers wrapped around it and pulled it off, but instead of putting it in the usual place, he was more tempted to eat it. so it went towards his mouth but failed when his world turned upside down.

“Muahahaha! Where is my strawberry?” a fake evil voice bellowed. Changmin only laughed more being hung upside down in mid-air.

“daaaddyyy~!” he squealed gleefully, his hand still holding the strawberry from before.

“I’m not daddy you little tot! I’m the strawberry monster. Hand over your strawberry!” Yunho made a big show of eating the strawberry embroidery on Changmin’s overalls making the one year old giggle.

Complying with his co-strawberry fan, Changmin put the strawberry in his hand near Yunho’s lips and the older man held it. Biting the fruit, he straightened Changmin and held him on his hip while feeling the bulge of Changmin’s upper body.

“what is this Min? you got muscles?” Changmin squealed happily.

“like daddy.” The child agreed.

“Nice! Body and choice just like daddy.” Yunho fished for the strawberries inside Changmin’s shirt, “haha! Min, you’ve put them in your shirt. You should’ve put them in your pockets here-ah!” Yunho chuckled realising that Changmin did put some strawberries in his pockets but since they didn’t fit, the kid stuffed his shirt with the berries making his front hang out. Yunho pulled out one strawberry from the pocket and was about to put in his mouth but small hands clamped on his lips.

“my slawbelly.” Changmin pouted.

“can’t we share?” Yunho pouted back.

Changmin’s finger waggled in front of his face, “no.”

“please! Just one. We’ll be sharing all the fruits anyway.” Changmin remained resolute and shook his head.   

“boys.” Jaejoong came to them holding a basket. She wore white short overalls with a light blue tee underneath. It matched Yunho’s blue t-shirt and white jeans. “I told you, you can’t eat the fruits yet.”

“But you didn’t say anything about strawberries.” Yunho ignored Changmin’s howling and plopped the strawberry in his mouth.

“You're trying to go around it and don’t eat it like that.” Yunho didn’t understand what she meant. He stood there with his hand ready to throw the stem but Jaejoong was frowning at that action. “you’ve wasted most of the fruit.” Jaejoong pulled out a straw she was carrying in her pocket and took a strawberry from Changmin, again ignoring Changmin’s whines.

“Why are you carrying a straw?” Jaejoong  just gestured for him to watch and Yunho did.

Jaejoong the straw from the lower end of the strawberry. The straw went through the fruit and pushed out the stem from inside. “See? Clean and you have the whole fruit intact.”

“Genius.” Yunho praised.

“Saw it on YouTube.” Yunho opened his mouth for Jaejoong to feed him the strawberry but Jaejoong turned her hand right when it was a few centimetres from Yunho’s lips and put it in Changmin’s mouth instead.

“mmmm~!” the boy sighed blissfully loving the taste of his favourite fruit.  

“that’s the last one you two get. I’ll have nothing left to give you after lunch otherwise.” Jaejoong told Yunho warningly.

“let’s just take more fruit.” Yunho suggested.

“we have plenty.” Jaejoong showed her basket.

“what did you get?” Yunho peered at the wide basket with all the fruits.

“I got some apples and grapes and we’d add your strawberries to mine. And the farmer ajhussi has kept a watermelon aside for me.”  

Since the weather wasn’t as hot that day, Yunho took a leave from work to take his family fruit-picking. The orchard was at the outskirts of the city recommended by one of Yunho’s business associates. 

“Myyyyyyy~!” Changmin screamed with his arms and legs flailing while Jaejoong just put his strawberries in her basket. She wore a smile so bright as if her son wasn’t psychotic right now.

“okay~! Let’s get going.” Jaejoong singonged.

“daddy~!” Changmin whimpered.

“you can’t eat as much as you want when you go home kiddo.” Yunho nuzzled Changmin’s cheek, “and I have strawberry milk hidden in the car. So yay!”

“yay!” Changmin clapped his hands. He didn’t really know but just hearing strawberry milk was enough to make him happy.

“just like you.” Jaejoong laughed, “you went crazy too when we went strawberry picking last time.”

“we’ve gone before?” Yunho scratched his head.

Jaejoong pouted, “of course we did. Not this one. We went to Jeollado.”

“I’m sorry Jae, I don’t know what you're talking about.” Yunho gave her an apologetic smile.

“You don’t remember? after what you did?” Yunho flinched at how angry Jaejoong looked. Jaejoong stomped over to him and took Changmin, “don’t talk to me till you remember.” Jaejoong turned around and walked away with Changmin. Changmin gave his father a small wave and buried his face in his mother’s hair.

Yunho racked his brain for 10 minutes before finally giving up. He called Yoochun who answered in the first ring.

“Yo man! How’s off day?”

“just got ruined.” Yunho grumbled. He picked up another strawberry from a plant and ate to make him feel better, “Do you by any chance know if I had gone to a strawberry field in jeollado?”

“yup! not just you, we all were there. It was a class trip dude!”

“why don’t I remember anything?”

“you don’t? well, it would make sense you head took a nice hit. But you were crazy man.”

“Chun, just tell me the story. My wife’s not talking to me till I remember.”

“That’s understandable. Jae was the worst affected. We all were. Really, I never felt like strangling you before.”

“that sounds really bad. I don’t know if I want to know now.”

“you need to know. It’s not fair that the culprit has to memory of the darkest day of our lives. So listen….Once upon a time…..”      

Flashback

“what’s that su?” Yoochun put an arm around his girlfriend and pointed at the fancy golden wrapped box peeking out of her bag.

“Somebody sent our parents a box each of these chocolates. They have alcohol in them.” Junsu showed it him and Yoochun realised she was carrying three of them. “It’s some very strong liquor. I don’t even know where it is from. Mommy just told me to get rid of the remaining three.”

“Remaining?” Yoochun quirked an eyebrow.

“Mama ate an entire box in one go.” Jaejoong came to them and pouted. “she started with one and then two and then wouldn’t stop. By the fifth one, we came to know that it has liquor and daddy told us not to have any…..well, Mama wouldn’t share with us either way.”

“You should have seen the lengths Uncle went through to sneak the other boxes.” Junsu shook her head remembering how Hankyung distracted Heechul by very ‘unfashionable’ clothes while Seunggi sneaked the boxes behind her and gave it to Junsu and hurriedly sending her off to school with Jaejoong.

“something wrong with the chocolates? Are they spoilt?” Yoochun opened one slightly and was instantly hit by a pungent waft of liquor. “whoa! That’s strong!”

“You see!” Jaejoong nodded, “they’re huge and they have some kind of liquor made locally in Daddy’s client’s hometown. It’s not enough to knock you out but enough to make you go….well….Wyaaaaoooo!” Jaejoong made cat like claws and raised her hands while making crazy eyes.

“What.was.that?” Yoochun stepped a bit away from Jaejoong.

“No, no Chunnie. Aunty actually went Wyaaaaoooo!” Junsu imitated Jaejoong.

“So you're saying, these are like those drugs that make someone go…. Wyaaaaoooo?” Yoochun did a minimal efforts version of the same action.

“Yeah and well, daddy says that mama is not much of a drinker so she couldn’t hold it.” Jaejoong said, “we don’t drink much because it doesn’t go well with all the pills.”

“I see. So what are you doing to dispose it off?” Yoochun asked.

“Hyori unnie says she likes liqueur chocolates.” Junsu chirped.

“and that woman is nothing without her unlimited drinking capacity.” Yoochun nodded and scratched his chin with a very solemn expression making Jaejoong and Junsu wonder if he is complimenting or insulting Hyori.

“I’ll give these to Jihoon-ssi before we leave. It’s almost time for the bus to leave as it is.” Junsu was about to leave. She wasn’t seeing where she was going and dashed into a hard chest. Before her squishy could cushion her fall, she was held by strong arms on her shoulders.

“whoa there! Be careful Su.” Yunho steadied. He looked at the three of them. “you guys were being awefully chummy without me. I feel left out.” He pouted and Yoochun fake-gagged.

“we didn’t need you Yunnie!” Jaejoong said brightly. What hurt Yunho more was she was being innocently honest and not joking.

He coughed to cover his embarrassment to see what Junsu was carrying. “what’s that?”  

“liquor chocolates. Really I’ll-be-public-nuisance kind.” Yoochun informed.

“I’m giving it to the dean for passing it to Hyori unnie.” Junsu said. She squeaked when Yunho took the topmost box.

“Don’t worry lesser mortals. The almighty Jung Yunho shall dispose these off for you.” Yunho was about to put one in his mouth but Jaejoong swiped it.

“No Yunnie!” she took the box and put the chocolate in it.

“Joongie~!” Yunho stomped his feet like a kid.

“Yunnie, you're underage.” Yoochun snorted behind her and Yunho resisted one of his own.

“You're about 2 years too late to stop me from drinking Boo.” Yunho teased. He didn’t need to tell her that he had actually been sneaking sips from his father’s personal bar since he was 12. He quite liked the taste of alcohol and if Jaejoong knew, she’d tell Kangin and Sayonara premium scotch.

“Yunho, these chocolates have some weird liquor. Aunty went crazy after eating it. she tried to do a Tarzan swing on the banyan tree in the backyard and kept singing ‘I’m too y for this club’ whole day.” Junsu warned. It was obvious from her expression that she had been traumatised and so was Jaejoong but Yunho and Yoochun found it more amusing.

“Don’t worry Junsu-yah. I’m very good at holding my alcohol.” Yunho said in between trying to steal the box from Jaejoong but ended up getting his hand slapped by Jaejoong. “what! I have a better alcohol tolerance then Hyori noona, Jihoon hyung and my father combined.”

*cough* “last august” *cough* Yunho glared at Yoochun for bringing up the forbidden topic.

Jaejoong looked curious, “what happened last august?”

“Nothing Boo. We just became 4 times back-to-back champions in the basketball tournament. Don’t listen to him.” Yunho went and stood between Jaejoong and Yoochun to make sure Yoochun wouldn’t say anything.

“o! o! I heard of this!” Junsu bounced excitedly, “is that when you drank so much in the afterparty you did a ?”

“No.” Yunho shot it down.

“full professional baby. Pole and all.” Yoochun cackled despite Yunho’s murderous glare.

“oooooh! I heard of it too. They were talking about it in the music sessions too.” Jaejoong looked at Yunho with a some sort of hopeful glint, “did you really faint right before you could take off your boxers?”

Yunho’s face twitched. He really didn’t want to remember the day. However the amount of alcohol that made him do that somehow didn’t do anything for his memory and he still recollects the faces of his teammates waving money bills at him. That did nothing to faze Yunho’s alcohol craving though.

“I was still