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“Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!”
A high pitched scream broke out and Nara and the boys quickly ran to the playroom since they were outside hanging the kids’ finger paintings to dry, while the Little continued to make their masterpiece on the plastic covered floor.
Renjun, XiaoJun, Mark, Sungchan, Chenle and Jisung were the Littles on that day and Lucas, Ten, YangYang, Jaemin, Jaehyun and Winwin volunteered to help Nara with the boys.
“I TOLD YOU NOT TO PAINT ON MY PAPER!!” The scream continued with a whimper as the 7 of them entered, just to see Renjun crying and was about to hit XiaoJun with his green coloured hand before Jaemin and Winwin pulled them apart.
“Dede... What happened?” Asked Nara while the 5 years old just shrugged. She sighed and turned to the oldest of the Littles, who were standing there, looking confused. “Minmin... Can you tell 누나 what happened with Junnie and Dede?” Mark blinked and nodded.
“Dede painted on Junnie’s paper when he was out of paper to paint on.” The toddler recalled, making the caregiver to sigh. “Junnie told him to stop, but he didn’t and then Junnie screamed.” Nara thanked Mark for explaining and let him continue on his painting with Jaehyun before turning to confront the crying 4 years old and silent mischief 5 years old.
Jaemin cleaned Renjun’s hands with a wet napkin as he cried, while Winwin cleaned XiaoJun’s. After they were done, Nara let Jaemin to take Renjun to their room to calm him down as she went to question XiaoJun, keeping the two distanced for awhile.
“Dede...” She calmly called the 5 years old as he was sitting with Winwin while playing with his Dino plushie before swiftly looking up at her. “Dede, look at me.” He pouted and looked at her as his eyes started to tear up.
“What did 姐姐 told you about messing with Junnie? Do you remember what姐姐said about teasing him?” She softly asked and he slowly nodded. “Can you tell me what was it?”
“Don’t tease him since he is younger than me.” XiaoJun answered and sniffled as tears started to stream down his chubby cheeks. Nara nodded and gestured for him to continue. “Always be nice to him and don’t fight.”
“Then why did you painted on his paper when he told you to stop? Dede... What you did is not nice. Will you like if the other painted on your painting too?” He shook his head and wiped away his tears. “Are you going to apologize to Junnie then?”
“No.” XiaoJun replied as he shook his head. “Dede asked for paper from Junnie, but he won’t give Dede any.”
“Why didn't you ask from 姐姐or Ten哥 or the other哥哥?” Nara asked and he shrugged. The caregiver sighed and shook her head. “Are you going to apologize for painting on Junnie’s painting then?” Again, the toddler shook his head.
Nara stared at the stubborn young boy and got up from the floor before taking off her apron. The members and the other Littles just stared at her as she went to hang the apron back it’s hook and grabbed her sling bag.
“If Dede don’t want to apologize to Junnie, then 누나 is going to quit her job.” She announced and bowed slightly. “Goodbye.” With that, she walked out the room and closed the door.
The room became silent as no one dare to make a sound. Moments later, Jaemin came out from the room carrying calmed Renjun was confused by the sudden quietness.
“형...Why everyone no make sound?” Renjun asked as he was confused as well while Jaemin just shrugged. “Where’s 姐姐?” He noticed the female wasn’t there and looked around for her.
“Dede made 姐姐 leave...” Chenle answered as he pointed to the said toddler and frowned as he crossed his arms. Jisung cluelessly followed his gesture and cracking a small smile on the member's faces, making the 2 years old to smile and giggled.
“Why?” Renjun asked and the 3 years old shrugged. The silence came back until the door suddenly slide opened, revealing panicked Taeyong panting with the other behind him.
“Yah! Nara just quit!” He shouted and everyone’s eyes widen. “We met her at the entrance and she said she quit before leaving. What happened?! Why so sudden? Did you guys said or done anything to upset her?”
“We didn’t say anything. She just leave a few minutes ago.” Lucas answered while the other nodded. “Dede refused to apologize to Junnie for what he did and she decided to quit.” Winwin continued as he eyed the toddler, who looked down at his plushie.
“Dede...” Kun calmly called and the toddler pouted. “What did you do to Junnie? Didn’t 姐姐told you not to mess with him again?” XiaoJun nodded as he sniffled. Everyone turned to the toddler as he cried out of guilt and scared. He looked at everyone with tearful eyes and cried harder as he buried his face against the plushie.
As heart-breaking as it seem, the older restrained themselves from calming the toddler down as they felt like he need to learn his lesson on keeping his promise on not to pick a fight or mess with the younger Littles, especially Renjun since he tended to bother the 4 years old quite often when he had the chance. As cruel as it can be, they decided it’s best to make the toddler to apologize on his own, other than telling him to.
Meanwhile, just outside the room, Nara was standing behind the sliding door next to Hendery as she also restrained herself from coming in and giving her crying baby a big hug to comfort him. But before she could do that, XiaoJun must find himself to apologize to Renjun and promise not to mess with him ever again. Holding on to Hendery’s hand, she managed to stop herself before it could happened with Hendery, Shotaro and DoYoung gesturing her to wait and calm down or their plan won’t work.
The plan was to let the 5 years old to admit his wrong doing and apologize to his fellow Little as he promise to not repeat the same mistake again. It was a quick plan but only the outside members knew about it, leaving the volunteer members clueless.
“Dede... Do you have something to tell Junnie?” Lucas asked when the toddler calmed down a little as he sat next to him and gestured Jaemin to bring Renjun closer. XiaoJun looked up from his plushie to the 4 years old as he sniffled and wiped away his tears.
“Junnie, Dede is sorry for messing with your painting.” He whimpered softly. “And Dede promise not to mess with Junnie ever again.”
“Do you really mean it?” Winwin asked and the 5 years old nodded. “You can’t break this promise, alright?” XiaoJun nodded again before linking his pinky with Winwin and connected their thumbs together to seal it. “Junnie, do you want to forgive Dede?” Jaemin set him down, but the toddler held on to his shirt, not wanting to go near the still crying boy and shook his head.
Renjun then turned to look at Jaemin, asking for a suggestion to the question and he nodded. The 4 years old turned back to the crying boy and Winwin before nodding as a respond.
“Can you give Dede a big hug then?” Jaehyun suggested, making the small boy to stare at XiaoJun before pulling away from Jaemin and gave XiaoJun a hug and kissed him on his forehead. “Good boy, Junnie.” He ran back to Jaemin to bury his face to the crook of his neck with his little arms around his neck when everyone cheered.
After that was done, everyone went to comfort XiaoJun, making him cried harder again as he was overwhelmed and relief that no one was mad at him. Taeyong pulled him to his embrace and patted his back, as he slowly calmed down. Just as everything was going back to normal, JungWoo noticed the youngest of the Littles weren’t in the room with them.
“Where’s Jisunggie?” He asked, making everyone to realize the 2 years old was missing. “I swear he was sitting next to Lele and Sunggie the whole time.” YangYang exclaimed since he was playing with the three before the commotion.
They looked inside the two rooms and the small bathroom, in the playhouse and the fort pillow, but he was nowhere to be found until they heard a laughter outside the room. Chenle and Sungchan ran outside and cheered when they found the missing toddler laughing with their runaway caregiver tickling him.
Nara went inside with the three of them and XiaoJun quickly ran to her crying as he apologized and promised not to misbehave ever again if it meant to keep her from quitting her job.
“姐姐, please don’t quit. Dede promise to be a good boy and no bother Junnie anymore.” He said to her while Nara just looked at the toddler as his eyes was puffy from all the crying and nodded. “Dede already promised to Dongdong哥 that he won’t do it again.” Nara nodded again and wiped away his tears before pulling him into a tight hug.
“누나...” Sungchan called after a few moments of silence and she turned to him. “You no quit, right?” He fidgeted his fingers and pouted as he waited for her to answer. Nara looked at the members as they was anxious to know her answer and smiled before nodding. With that, everyone cheered except for XiaoJun, who fell asleep after all the crying he done.
She cradled the sleeping boy as she sat next to Taeil on the couch, while the other Little continued to play with their members after cleaning up all the paints. She brushed away the strands of hair from his eyes and rubbed his back gently as he sleep.
“He really is tired from all the cry, huh?” Taeil whispered and she let out a small giggle before nodding. “I notice he was already sleepy when Taeyong was holding him, but he managed to stay awake until you came in.”
“I just hope his eyes are not puffy tomorrow since you guys have a photoshoot to do.” She replied and he shook his head as he giggled.
“Aaaaaahhhhhh!!” Then a high pitched scream was heard after another and Nara looked over at YangYang and the three youngest. “AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!”
“YangYang, why are they screaming at each other?” She asked the young Chinese man after checking on XiaoJun who was still sleeping as he laughed at the scene.
“Monkey see, monkey do, but in this case, toddler see, toddler do.” He replied before stopping them while he was still laughing as all the older members and Nara smacked their foreheads.
“Remind me why he is caring for the three youngest today?” Kun asked as he sighed.
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