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“HYUNG, THAT IS MIIIIINE!”
“yujin, duck!” just in time, yujin was able to avoid a series of flying lego bricks and hot wheels being thrown from the other side of the living room.
“hyung, what is happening?” he asks, facing hanbin, as he is on the verge of tears.
when hanbin called him to help babysit, the image in his mind was a peaceful abode, with the babies peacefully sleeping inside their cribs, not a literal warzone.
hanbin sighed, “byul, give it back to your brother,” he said as he placed his hands on his hips.
“i only want borrow!” hanbyul said, stomping his foot while pouting.
“byul, please give it to gyul now,” this time, hao approached their kid, who was throwing a tantrum.
“baba…” their youngest kid, hangyul, sobbed as he reached his arms, signaling hao to carry him.
hao sighed as he wiped hangyul’s tears away, “hyung is just joking, okay? he’ll return mr. doongdoong later,” he said as he sat on the couch with hangyul on his lap.
“baba, i want up too,” hansol, their eldest son, said as he waddled his way toward hao and hangyul.
“sure, baby,” hao smiled as he patted the space beside him.
on the other side of the living room stood hanbin kneeling in front of their middle child, “byul-ah, you shouldn’t have taken mr. doongdoong from hangyulie like that,” he sighed. “you know that your brother would let you borrow it if you asked nicely, right?”
hanbyul looked down, with the elephant stuff toy in his hands, as he nodded, “sorry, appa…”
hanbin sighed and ruffled the boy’s hair, “you should apologize to gyulie, too, okay?”
the kid slowly nodded as he walked to where hao and his other siblings were.
yujin watched hanbyul waddle his way to where hao and and the other kids were. “hyung, is it always like this here?” yujin asked.
hanbin shook his head, “not really. just on specific days, and today is one of them,” he sighed as he ushered yujin to the kitchen. “baobao, i’ll be cooking dinner with yujinnie,” he said loud enough for hao to hear.
“alright!” hao answers from the living room.
“hyung, i’m not sure if you’ve seen jiwoong-hyung’s message in our group chat, but the other day, he asked if he could bring alcohol for tomorrow’s gathering,” yujin said while helping hanbin prepare the ingredients.
hanbin snorted, “no, definitely no alcohol! it’s hansol’s birthday,” he said. “they can’t drink with my children around.”
yujin just smiled while peeling the potatoes, “i’ve always thought that you’re someone we could count on, but i never knew that you could be like this when it comes to the kids, hyung,” he said.
hanbin smiled sheepishly as he nudged the younger boy, “i still consider you as my oldest son, you know,” he said, making yujin burst out laughing.
“what are you two talking about?” hao said, entering the kitchen with hangyul in his hand.
the kid was trying to walk on his feet, while holding onto hao’s hand for support.
“appa!” hangyul smiled and reached out to hanbin who was peeling the carrots.
hanbin smiled as he placed the carrots and the peeler down. he quickly washed his hands and carried his youngest son. “where are the other two?”
“building a castle made out of lego,” hao sighed, already foreseeing the mess they’d do later on.
hao went to where yujin was and placed his chin on the younger’s shoulder, “our yujinnie~” he said as he hugged the youngest from behind. “when did you get this big,” he said, fake crying.
the younger only laughed as he continued peeling the now-discarded carrots that hanbin had been peeling earlier. “hyung, you already have babies now. you can’t baby me anymore,” he said.
“who said i could not?!” hao said, making the hug even tighter.
“when we were in zerobasone, we’ve always thought that you and hanbin-hyung would get married first,” yujin said out of the blue. “i mean, we’ve watched you fall in love with each other, and fell in love even more as the years passed by, and now, we’re just so happy that you’re together! and you also have little hao and hanbin, too.”
hanbin smiled as he carried hangyul on his back, with the kid acting like superman, “weeeeee!” he cheered, making hao and yujin laugh.
“alright, who’s ready to party!!!!” jiwoong exclaimed the moment he entered the sung residence.
“uncle jiwoong!” the three kids immediately rushed to jiwoong, who was carrying multiple paper bags at once.
“hello to the cutest children in the world!” he knelt down and placed the paper bags on the floor as he opened his arms to hug the kids. “did you miss uncle woongie?” he asked, chuckling.
“yes!” the three of them replied at the same time.
“where are my cute nephews?”
“uncle taerae!” the three then rushed to taerae when he entered the house.
hao and hanbin’s former bandmates entered their house, and somehow, the already messy living room (thanks to the scattered building blocks and miniature cars) became even messier.
hao was watching the three boys with their other five boys.
it’s not like he doesn’t trust his friends with his children, but these children are his children, and they could be unpredictable at times.
hanbin, on the other hand, was preparing all of their food in the backyard with ricky and matthew.
“how old is our hansolie now?” jiwoong asked as he bent forward, locking eyes with hao and hanbin’s eldest.
hansol slowly counted using his hands, until he stopped when he had five fingers raised, “five! hansol is five years old!” he said, cheering.
“why is he so cute?” gyuvin laughed, while continuously hitting yujin’s arm. “even i don’t think that my siblings were that cute when they were younger,” he giggled.
“how could you say that to your own siblings?” taerae chuckled. “wait, where are byul and gyul?” he asked.
“over here,” gunwook, who was on the other side of the living room, said, while pointing at the two kids who were busy building lego towers.
“byul and gyul always fight, but somehow, they’re always together,” yujin said as he watched the two kids hand each other different-colored legos.
“hansol-ie,” gyuvin said as he knelt in front of the kid, “what did you ask baba and appa for your birthday?”
“a baby sister!” hansol cheered.
they all instantly looked at hao, who froze in his spot. “stop looking at me like that,” he said as he felt his ears grow redder each second.
“guys!” matthew called out. “it’s time to eat!”
the kids immediately headed toward the back door, hand-in-hand, as they were greeted by ricky.
“where’s hanbin?” hao asked.
“saving himself from embarrassment because he heard what hansol said,” matthew chuckled.
they all headed at the backyard, where a long table with different dishes on it was elegantly displayed.
“woah, how can you do this in such a short time?” taerae asked in amusement.
“matthew-hyung, hanbin-hyung and i are geniuses,” ricky nonchalantly said, earning a disapproving groan from gyuvin.
“before we start eating, let’s sing a birthday song for hansol first!” gunwook said as he clapped his hands, getting everyone’s attention.
hao and hanbin placed hansol’s cake on the table as yujin lit the candles up.
they all sang hansol a happy birthday, including his two younger siblings, who were cheering beside hao and hanbin.
“happy birthday hansol~” the song ended with hansol making a wish by putting his hands together and closing his eyes.
“happy birthday, hansolie!” gyuvin quickly carried hansol and spun him around. “i hope you grow up as a nice man like your fathers,” he smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“let’s start eating,” jiwoong said as he ushered his friends to begin eating.
“hyung, you should go look at yourself in the mirror!” matthew laughed as he pointed at jiwoong’s face, which was covered in marker inks of different colors.
although hanbin mentioned yesterday that they couldn’t bring any alcohol for hansol’s birthday party, jiwoong had already bought several bottles of soju. he and ricky were the only ones that were drinking since the others were too fixated on the kids (hao and hanbin involved).
jiwoong got knocked down immediately, since ricky wasn’t drinking continuously. taerae was the one who noticed that jiwoong was already out cold on the grass, while yujin and gyuvin were the ones who gave the kids the markers.
“i never knew they’d have this side on them, too,” ricky laughed as the three children ran from the crime scene.
“you should have expected this before all of them were born,” hao sighed. “they’re hanbin’s sons, of course, they’d be little hanbins.”
“what’s that supposed to mean!” hanbin laughed.
“three little hanbins,” gunwook chuckled. “i don’t think you’d have a hard time taking care of them, then.”
“and that’s true,” hao smiled.
the two walked away from the scene since they did not want to be involved in whatever they’d be doing to jiwoong.
hao and hanbin could only laugh at their eldest friends from afar, “why did he bring soju anyway?” hao asked, covering his face in secondhand embarrassment.
hanbin chuckled as he watched gyuvin, ricky, matthew, and gunwook carry jiwoong using his arms and limbs. taerae had the kinds behind him, making sure that they didn’t get hurt with everything that the boys were doing, while yujin was taking photos and videos of the scene that was unfolding in front of him.
“on the count of three, we drop jiwoong-hyung in the pool!” gyuvin said loudly, making them (even the children) laugh.
“should we stop them?” hao asked and looked at hanbin worriedly.
“nah, they know what they’re doing,” hanbin said as he took a sip from his can of coke zero.
“one!” gyuvin yelled.
by a miracle, jiwoong was able to gather his consciousness together when he felt his back touch the surface of the pool’s water.
“two!”
“are you sure we’re not stopping them?” hao asked.
“wait, you guys!” jiwoong yelled, now completely awake.
hanbin placed his can down as he stood up, “okay, maybe we should.”
“three!”
“wait-!!” before hanbin could pull everyone back to safety, jiwoong had already fell into the water—together with everyone else.
their former leader could only laugh while massaging his temples as they all laughed at this misfortune. hao, who was now with taerae, was stopping the kids from jumping into the pool, while yujin, on the other hand, had caught everything on camera.
“ah, this is fun,” gyuvin said while climbing up the pool.
“is everyone okay?” hanbin asked as they all sat by the pool one by one.
“i think my phone is broken,” matthew said as he removed his phone from his drenched pocket and chuckled.
“that’s waterproof,” ricky said, patting his shoulder.
“no, I'm not okay,” jiwoong said, coughing exaggeratedly.
the rest only rolled their eyes at their friend. “the pool is barely over five feet, hyung,” gunwook snorted.
“hold on,” hao said as he gave hangyul to hanbin. “make sure the kids don’t jump into the pool, i’ll just get some towels for everyone. i do hope you guys brought spare clothes, though,” he said.
“of course we did,” matthew said. “we were planning to have a sleepover here after hansol’s party anyway.”
hao rushed inside to get some spare towels for his friends.
“appa, pool,” hangyul pointed at the pool where his uncles were, and once hanbin understood what he meant, he immediately shook his head.
“maybe not today, gyul-ah,” he shook his head and poked his son’s nose.
“why!” hangyul looked like he was about to cry, but before he could burst into tears, hao immediately spoke.
“baby, come here,” hao said softly as he reached for hangyul.
the kid instantly went to his baba’s arms, while hao handed his husband the towels for their friends.
“it’s because you easily catch a cold,” hao said, ruffling his hair. “do you want to sneeze and go to the doctor again?” he asked, now seated on one of the benches.
hangyul, although sad, shook his head as a no. “baba mad?”
“no, baby,” hao shook his head as he placed a kiss on hangyul’s forehead. “i could never be mad at hangyulie,” he smiled.
“woah, hao-hyung, you were never like this to us before,” gyuvin said as he grabbed a towel on the table.
“you’re not a baby, gyuvin,” ricky snickered from behind.
“ah, ricky, you say that but you treat me like one anyway,” gyuvin teased.
“can you guys shut your nonsense,” matthew rolled his eyes as he wiped his hair using one of the towels that hao brought.
“gyul-ah!” from the other side of the backyard, hansol and hanbyul called for their sibling.
“your brothers are calling for you. go and play with them first,” hao said as he handed hangyul to taerae, who was there to fetch hangyul.
“hanbin-hyung!” yujin yelled while running away from gunwook, who was targeting him using a water gun.
“when did i have so many problems,” hanbin sighed as he sat beside hao, and leaning his head on his husband’s shoulder.
hao chuckled, “i told you we should have eaten at a restaurant.”
“nah, it’s better to see them all like this,” hanbin laughed at the view that was in front of him.
jiwoong was passed out beside the pool, gunwook chasing yujin, ricky and gyuvin arguing, matthew eating some leftover chicken skewers, and taerae babysitting the kids.
“byul-hyung, borrow,” hangyul tugged at his brother’s shirt while pointing at byul, hanbyul’s stuffed raccoon.
hanbyul nodded and reached for the toy that was on the couch. he sat on the couch first and patted the space beside him, urging his younger brother to sit beside him. “gyul-ie, play with me,” he said, handing byul (the stuffed toy) to his brother.
meanwhile, hansol was playing with his toy trucks with yujin on the play mat. hansol was crashing his toys against each other while yujin was constructing a highway using some spare lego bricks.
“are you sure you guys are okay sleeping here?” hao asked the boys, who were laying out their futons one by one.
“hyung, it would be just for a night, don’t worry about us too much!” matthew said, swinging his arm around hao.
“yeah, but—”
“no buts, hyung,” gunwook said. “we’re the ones who invited ourselves even if it’s hansol’s birthday, so we’re in no position to complain.”
“yeah, and these futons are comfortable,” taerae said.
“where are the kids—oh,” hanbin, who just got out of bath, was about to point out that it was his children’s bed time already, only to see hanbyul and hangyul on the couch sleeping with hangyul’s head on his brother’s shoulder, and hanbyul having his arms around his dongsaeng.
the two of them quietly approached the two sleeping children and smiled. hao carried hangyul, and hanbin carried hanbyul. “you guys should get some rest, too,” hao said, his voice almost a whisper.
“hansol-ah, it’s time to sleep, too,” hanbin said.
without another word, hansol immediately dropped his toys and followed his father upstairs.
“woah, he listens to hanbin-hyung well,” gyuvin said, amused.
“well, you guys are the only ones who don’t listen to him,” hao said, laughing. “anyways, good night, everyone! make sure to turn the lights off when you sleep.”
“good night, hao-hyung!” matthew said.
“good night, hyung! happy birthday to hansol once again,” yujin said.
once hao and hanbin had tucked the kids (and the other seven overgrown kids), they went to their room to retire for the day.
“i’m so tired,” hao said as he lay on the bed, face-down.
hanbin chuckled, “do you want a massage, baobei?” he asked.
“yes please,” hao said, his voice muffled.
hanbin gladly obliged as he gave his husband a massage. “it’s been a while since this house was in this chaotic mess,” he said.
“are you saying you’re not satisfied with the mess that your sons are creating every single day?” hao asked, his voice tired.
the younger laughed, “it’s nothing like that!”
“chaos follows them around. it never changed,” hao said. “do you remember when we accidentally destroyed a table at one of the award shows we attended before?”
hanbin laughed at the memory, “i was an mc back then, but i saw the table collapse in front of my eyes,” he said.
silence enveloped the two, and if hanbin didn’t know better, he would probably assume that hao had already fallen asleep.
“thank you, bin,” hao sighed as he lay down properly.
hanbin followed him to bed soon after, “it’s nothing,” he smiled as he placed his arm under hao’s head.
“no, it’s not about that,” hao chuckled.
“then what do you mean?” he asked, looking at his husband.
“thank you for giving me this little yet wonderful family,” hao smiled. “it may be a warzone in here every day, but thank you for being patient. not just with the kids but with me as well. i’m so happy to wake up every day seeing you, hansol, hangyul, and hanbyul. i love you, hanbin,” he smiled, feeling sleepy as each moment passed.
hanbin engulfed him in a hug as he placed his chin on top of hao’s head, “that’s just my duty as a husband, baobei,” he chuckled. “i must thank you as well for giving me three good-looking and kind children.”
hao chuckled, “yeah, and i remember you wanting three daughters, but the universe gave you three sons instead.”
“well, it’s never too late,” hanbin said.
“what do you mean,” hao pulled from the hug.
“we haven’t given hansol any gift yet,” hanbin smirked.
“sung hanbin! your youngest is only a year old! cut me some slack!” hao said as he hit hanbin’s chest.
“i didn’t say that we’d do it tonight, though—”
“sung hanbin!”