Little Dreamies rewritten

At odds

Taeyong had noticed that there was something terribly wrong amongst the boys. Renjun was sulking, picking at his food while Mark tried to eat every bit of food in his bowl and keep Chenle from throwing his food everywhere. Jisung seemed more mellow and subdued, less happy. Haechan was slowly flinging food at Jaemin, who retaliated by flinging food back. Jeno kept looking at something underneath the table and then glaring at Mark and Renjun. And for the first time in forever, Chenle did not seem like he was okay with Jisung clinging to him.

"Alright. What's wrong with all of you?" Taeyong put his chopsticks down.

"Nothing's wrong. What makes you think something's wrong?" Mark perked up, trying not to seem too nervous.

"Jisung, why are you being clingy to Chenle?" Taeyong ignored Mark and turned instead to his youngest.

"Junnie yell" Jisung pointed at Renjun.

"Point at me again and I will snap that finger off your hand and shove it down your small, whiny little throat!" Renjun snapped, standing up out of his chair. Jisung moved his finger teasingly, pointing it back at Renjun, who started to go around the table. Taeyong caught him by the waist, sitting him back down.

"Don't threaten your brother" He scolded, keeping Renjun from getting up again.

"Okay. Renjun, why did you yell at Jisung?" Taeyong questioned.

"He kept annoying me. He wouldn't leave me alone" Renjun answered, still annoyed at both Jisung and Mark as well, now that Taeyong looked closer at the two of them, both of which were either avoiding looking at each other or glaring at each other.

"Haechan, Jaemin, why are you mad at each other?" Taeyong hoped the problem between Renjun and Jisung was over but he had a feeling it wasn't.

"He humiliated me at school!" Haechan accused.

"How would I do that? I don't even go to school, remember? I'm homeschooled!" Jaemin pointed out.

"Well, I don't know! But somehow, my whole class found out that I still sleep with a blanket and now I'm the talk of the school. It's your fault!" Haechan smacked his hands down on the table. Mark hid his face, turning away from the quarrelling brothers.

"How would it be my fault?! I don't go to school!" Jaemin repeated. Haechan picked up a handful of noodles and flung them at Jaemin. The younger retaliated by pouring his milk over his brother's head and then storming off.

"Jaemin, sit down! Haechan, go get cleaned up and then come back" Taeyong ordered. Haechan got up, kicking Jaemin's chair as he passed.

"Okay, Mark. Is there anything you want to add to that argument?" Taeyong had noticed how Mark seemed to be avoiding looking at his brothers while they argued.

"I may have let it slip to my friends, some of them have siblings in Haechan's class so they could have overheard or been told" Mark explained, right as Haechan came back down with a new shirt.

"It was you!?" Haechan shouted.

"I didn't mean to" Mark defended himself. Haechan tried to go after him but Taeyong caught him instead and pulled Haechan to sit on his knee, securing an arm around the kid so he couldn't escape.

"Jeno, what is your issue with Mark and Renjun?" Taeyong continued the questioning.

"They kept me up last night, playing games!" Jeno tattled. Taeyong wondered now how much his boys had been doing when he was not watching.

"Okay. Why do you keep looking under the table?" Taeyong moved on.

"Renjun rescued a duck. It's sitting on my foot" Jeno answered. Taeyong peeked under the table to see there was in fact a baby duck sitting on Jeno's foot.