yunho opened his eyes and sat up.
he'd just woken up, not knowing what time it was or why he was awake. all he knew was that his younger brothers were asleep in their own beds.
until he heard a voice.
"h-h-hyung, do you know where mommy or daddy is?"
"wooyoungie, why are you up? are you okay?" yunho immediately asked once he realized wooyoung was hugging himself and crying. "h-hyung, i heard them wake up a-and they came in and t-took jongho out of the room, i don't know where they went or why they took him out of the room b-but i'm scared.." wooyoung said.
"it's ok, come over here, it'll be fine." yunho said.
the small crying child slowly stood up, and stepped over his sleeping brothers to get to yunho, who was holding up his arms, waiting to hug wooyoung.
the younger fell into yunho's arms, muttering "i'm scared," as the five year old comforted him.
☆*:.｡. o .｡.:*☆
"psst, boys. get up, come here." seonghwa whispered, motioning for everyone to get up.
wooyoung rolled out of yunho's arms and stood up, while yunho helped wake everyone else up. he shook san awake, who then jumped on top of mingi, while wooyoung walked over and tapped yeosang's head. san was already energetic, yunho and wooyoung were restless because they'd just stayed up for a while, and mingi and yeosang just sat there, their hair in messes and their facial expressions confused.
eventually, everyone sleepily shuffled out of their room and into the living room, where they found a tearful hongjoong lying on the couch, closely cuddling jongho.
they piled on the couch, and seonghwa explained.
"okay, you boys understand how jongho and san are brothers, because they were both born from the same mommy, right?" they all nodded. seonghwa already wanted to cry, he was so proud of them for being so smart and understanding complicated situations like this. "alright, so, since jongho came here because the leaders of korea wanted san and jongho to be together, because they're brothers, that means he and san have biological—meaning their real parents—are still out there. are you getting it? please let me know if you don't understand." "i understand!" "yes!" "yes." "mhm!" and yeosang just nodded. seonghwa, once again, felt so proud of his children. "ok, so jongho and san were taken away from their real mommy because she wasn't a good mommy for them, so we adopted them so that we could be a good mommy and daddy for them, instead. but, a few hours ago, some things happened, and we found out that jongho and san's real dad...he wants to take custody of jongho, which means he wants to have jongho at his house, and not at ours. a-and if he takes jongho, that means he would h-have to take s-s-san, as well.."
the kids' chill expressions all changed into worry at watching seonghwa begin to break down.
"don't w-worry, mommy and daddy are doing everything in our power to make sure that san and jongho stay here, because here is where they belong. but for now, we're not really sure what's going to happen."
"and no matter what," hongjoong suddenly spoke up, "no matter what, san, jongho, and all of you—we will always love you, no matter what happens or where you go. we will always love you and we will work hard to keep you in this house, okay? s-so don't worry.."
and that was when yeosang started crying.
seonghwa instantly reached out his arms and let the child crawl into his embrace, hugging him tightly.
eventually, wooyoung and san were crying.
and so, the whole family embraced together, in the dark living room, most of them crying, at 4 in the morning.
"yeosangie, i wanna teach you a word!" san yelled.
it was the next day, in the afternoon. the kids were all sort of ignoring the whole thing that happened that early morning. hongjoong was out at the store, and seonghwa was lying silently on the couch. he wasn't asleep, he was just lying there, in case anything happened to the kids.
yeosang tilted his head in confusion.
"hey, i've wanted to teach him words for a while, but you said it wouldn't work! what makes you think if you do it, it'll magically work?" yunho came walking out of the hallway a bit angrily.
"fine, you teach him a word then!" "wasn't it you who said they wouldn't work, though?"
"fine! if my word is better than yours, i get to teach him. if yours is better, then you teach him." "how will we decide?" "yeosang will judge, duh."
"ok, my word was 'i love you.'" yunho stated.
"that's not a word, that's a sentence!" "whatever! it would be cool if he could say that!"
"i wanted to teach him his brother's names." san said as well. "that's five names. plus he already knows out names, he just can't say them."
yeosang sat on the floor and waited for them to stop bickering, he was getting tired of it.
"fine, just teach him our names!" yunho shouted.
"yay! ok, yeosang, can you say 'san'? like, sss, ah, nuh." san formed the word carefully and yeosang tried to copy it, but only formed muttered gibberish. "sssaaannn." yeosang tried again, but this time, only got out the "ah" sound. "saaan." "..a...aan.." he said.
"my name isn't an, it's san." "a-an.. t-thah.."
"yunho, he keeps saying 'than,' like san but with a th! why can't he say san? daddy, can you help us?"
seonghwa sat up, finally realizing what they were trying to do, then sitting on the group beside them. "what's the problem?" he asked.
"he keeps saying than, not san."
"that's because he has a l-" seonghwa froze.
yeosang turned to him with a worried face. he was scared that they would be mad at him for consistently getting it wrong, but seonghwa wasn't mad.
"h-he has a lisp, oh my god.." seonghwa fell backwards, practically combusting at how cute yeosang was.
hi there i'm the author :-)
i have a feeling everyone is going to call me cute bc apparently even the way i type is cute (which i highly disagree with but u know whatever)
i just came to apologize for the angst, i mean i've known people who've gone through problems similar to this, and i just thought it would be interesting to put in, bc i knew i wasn't going to make this story all happy n cute n shit
anyways thanks for almost 300 reads y'all are amazing uwu ily >:((
