Handle My Kids With Care

Quiet Snuggles

"Dad! Dad! Daaaaaad!" Seungmin screamed as loud as he could, and I handed over the spatula to Minho so he could keep the food from burning. I ran down the hall and into his room where he was calmly sitting on his bed, and he smiled when he saw me.

"What's up?"

"I want snuggles." He pouted, reaching his hands towards me.

"I would love to cuddle with you, but I'm in the middle of cooking dinner right now." He frowned, dropping his hands, and I felt bad for denying him of them.

"Cudduddles!" Jeongin screamed, entering the room and carefully climbing up onto Seungmin's bed to curl into his side.

"Minnie needs cuddles?" Hyunjin asked with Felix right behind him in the doorway, and the younger nodded excitedly. At least now I can continue making dinner without having to worry about him not getting enough cuddles.

"Wait! Can we go to the couch? There's no more space here." Seungmin tilted his head at me and I gladly picked him up to bring him to the couch. As soon as he was situated the other three joined him for cuddles, which just resulted in Hyunjin falling asleep with Felix on his lap.

I returned to the kitchen where Minho was still making sure dinner wasn't ruined, and I took the spatula back from him to finish. He ended up hanging out in the kitchen with me, swinging his legs underneath himself as he sat on the counter.

He told me about one of his new projects for school that he thought was absolute garbage as I cooked, occasionally trying to steal some of the pepper I had cut up. The four kids stayed on the couch cuddling the entire time, and the other two were being a bit too quiet for my liking.

"Dad! I think Jisung's trying to form a cult!" Changbin screamed, followed by muffled shouting and quick denials.

"Can we watch a movie with dinner?" Felix asked from the couch, unfazed by his brothers who just might be killing each other in his room.

"Sure, you can go pick one out together."

"Hey Dad, where do we keep the bleach?" Minho asked innocently, but I'd already had a similar conversation about this with him before.

"We don't have bleach. You'll have to find another way to cover up the crime scene." He groaned and went back into his room, telling the other two to knock it off.

Dinner was soon finished and a movie was decided upon after a lot of suggestions being thrown around by the younger kids. The nine of us sat in the living room with a few of us on the floor since there wasn't enough space on the couch, and I somehow ended up with Jisung on my lap.

As soon as Minho, who was in charge of the remote, decided it was a good time to get up and put our dishes away, all of the kids rearranged themselves on the couch so all eight of us fit. I wasn't expecting everyone to be in need of cuddles, but there was no way I was going to complain.

Seeing as I had already seen this movie roughly five times, I glanced at the boys with a smile on my face. Seungmin was nudging Hyunjin awake, Felix was staring intensely at the floor seeing as it was raining on screen, Jisung was twisted around on Minho's lap to cover the older's eyes even though he wasn't affected by the bridge scene in the movie, Jeongin was tucked tightly into Seungmin, and Changbin was simply jamming out to the background music on my lap.

And this is why you have to handle my kids with care. There's too much behind their smiles not to.