jongho opened his eyes, taking a moment to properly wake up before sitting up and sighing.
he figured this day would be the same as any other, and that he would quickly end up being bored and sad. he already didn't have any motivation to get out of bed, let alone get through the whole day.
but, when he weakly opened his phone, he saw a reminder that caused a smile to creep onto his face.
'3 months clean!' it read.
jongho got a little boost of motivation, getting out of bed and taking a long, deep breath.
suddenly, someone knocked on the door, then san came walking into the dark room, immediately surprised to see jongho already out of bed (considering he usually had to drag the youngest out of bed every morning).
"you're up early." san joked and smiled.
"guess what." "what?" "today, i'm three months clean from self harm." jongho said, with a lot of eagerness in his voice.
"really?" san gasped. "that's great! i'm so proud! and i'm glad you're happy, too!"
the boy then ran up and gave jongho a hug.
"it's also wooyoung's birthday, so i guess we have two things to celebrate!" the older said.
"alright woo, where are we going for your birthday?" hongjoong asked excitedly.
"i wanna go to an arcade!" wooyoung exclaimed.
"okay then, let's go." hongjoong replied. the lone parent then packed all six kids in the car, and took them to a nearby arcade.
once they went in, they realized how crowded it was. san stayed close to jongho—as the younger had a huge fear of large crowds—and made sure that he was okay as they walked inside.
hongjoong waited in line to order some pizza while the kids ran off with a lot of coins.
once the parent got the pizza, he told yunho to father everyone up to come eat.
yunho tapped wooyoung's shoulder and waited, as the younger was in the middle of a game. "come on, woo. the pizza is ready." "just a few more rounds, i promise." wooyoung immediately replied.
"wooyoung, dad wants everyone at the table. come on." yunho started getting a bit frustrated.
"nooo.. let me play."
"wooyoung." yunho raised his voice a little.
"leave me alone, you're not my mom! stop trying to boss me around, it's my birthday, you should be the one being nice to me and letting me do what i want to do."
"well dad said so, he wants everyone at the table right now, including you. get off the game."
"you know what, shut up! god, i hate when you talk to me like this, please just leave me the hell alone!" wooyoung finally yelled, slapping the oldest's hand away from him.
"wooyoung, cal—"
"wooyoung calm down, wooyoung calm down, wooyoung calm down, i'm tired of you saying that! i hate you so much! i can't even enjoy my own birthday without you nagging me and irritating me! just shut the fuck up!" he rambled on.
wooyoung then turned and stomped away. yunho angrily followed him to the table, where hongjoong was handing out pizza to the other boys.
when he saw how angry they both looked, the parent let out a long sigh.
"did you two fight again?" he asked.
"yes." they responded in unison.
the parent was about to say a few words to scold them, but stopped when he heard san mutter "are you okay?"
everyone turned their heads to find that jongho had his hands clasped over his mouth, his head facing down and his breathing seemingly speeding up.
"get up, get up..." hongjoong then said, wrapping his arms around jongho and leading him to the bathroom, with san following quickly behind him. they walked into the family bathroom, where they locked the door.
hongjoong was internally panicking, as these situations were always where seonghwa was needed the most to solve the problems.
what would seonghwa do? hongjoong thought.
he then sat down on the tiled floor, leaned against the wall, and cradled jongho in his arms, despite the child having grown so much since the last time hongjoong had even held him. he rocked the panicking child back and forth, as san knelt down next to the two and rubbed jongho's arm.
"hon, what happened?" "i-it's just.. i don't k-know.. i started to f-f-feel sick to my st-stomach, and i-i got really paran-noid.."
"i think it's his anxiety. he's scared of crowds." san suggested, and hongjoong nodded.
"san, can you take him and talk to him? i'm gonna send yunho in here too. i need to talk to your brothers, i'll come get you when we're ready, okay?" hongjoong said.
san immediately nodded and crawled up to his brother, hongjoong gently putting him down on the floor and leaning him against the wall. the parent then stood up and walked out, as san let the younger lean his head on his shoulder. not long after hongjoong left, yunho came in.
after a few minutes of waiting, hongjoong finally came back in and told them they were going home.
"—yeah.. it's alright, hon. i get it."
wooyoung was peeking his head around the corner of his doorway, secretly watching hongjoong in the dark kitchen talking on the phone with seonghwa.
"mhm... oh, how are we? well.. it's woo's birthday, so the day seemed like it had a good start, that's for sure... but it didn't last long. we went to an arcade, yunho and wooyoung fought... yes, again... then jongho had a panic attack from the amount of people there, poor baby.. and then i had wooyoung who didn't want to leave, and jongho who sort of had to leave.. god, being the disciplinary role and the emotional support all at once by myself... hwa, let me make this clear, i'm literally a mess without you." the parent chuckled.
hi again :) i'm not fantastic mentally but thanksgiving break is coming meaning i'll have a whole five days off soooo hopefully that'll give me enough rest to feel better
also the growth on this story has been so crazy i love you all thank you so much :,,,,,(
