NCiTy | Population: 20 Kids

Family Dinner Pt2

Requested by Tortoise012007

"Taeyong, hun, I think you're missing a child."

"No, I'm not, Mom. Taeil got called in for an emergency at work." She gave me a look as if to say "are you sure about that?" but I just continued eating.

I swear it's like she's trying to pick out every little thing tonight just to try and tell me I'm not good enough at this whole parenting twenty kids thing. I'd like to see her try. She could barely keep track of the two she had.

"How'd you get hurt, Chittaphon?" I could see Ten bite his lip and hesitate, either at how she refused to use his nickname or the question.

"Soccer game." He mumbled, barely even audible for anyone to hear.

"What's that? We can't hear you, son." He repeated what he had said but louder, and my mom instantly turned to me like it was my fault. Someone must've told her she couldn't have milk in her cereal or something this morning to make her so irritable.

"This is exactly why I never let you kids play sports. They're too dangerous." My Dad scoffed, never having agreed with Mom on that matter. Not like he ever said anything against her in his life, though.

"There were just a lot of things going on in the game that led to it all. That kind of situation never happens on normal terms, especially in soccer." Jaehyun stepped in, causing her to instantly snap her head in his direction.

"Did I ask for your input?"

"Don't talk to my son like that." I growled, throwing aside all thoughts of keeping this civil for the sake of my sister.

"Yeah, but he's not your son, is he. There are only two boys here who are your sons, and one of them doesn't even want to be here."

"I was in the room when he got called, he had  to go." Haechan added in, but I already knew that if more people started talking, she'd just get more ammunition to fire.

"You, you don't know when you shouldn't talk. You don't even know how to use honorifics! And I know you don't call him Dad, why's that? Huh?" Haechan slumped back, a very saddened look on his face.

"Stop bringing my  kids into our  problems."

"Taeyong, your kids aren't even all sitting at the same table." There is literally no table in the universe that could ever fit all of us.

"We chose to sit here!" Doyoung argued back, and I already knew she had more shots to fire just from those five words.

"Is that because you feel like you aren't a part of the family?"

"No! Because it's cool to sit on bar stools!"

"Guys, please stop. I just want a nice family dinner. We were doing so good all those other times." My sister pleaded, and she looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"Hun, he needs to know that this delusional family he has isn't working." She patted my sister's hand in the most calm matter, as if her words weren't thorns.

Chenle and Jungwoo then burst into tears, and everyone knew she had gone too far. Kun immediately picked Chenle up to bring him upstairs since he was the closest, and Doyoung took Jungwoo. WinWin, seeing Haechan in his dazed state, got up from the table and gently pulled him into his room.

Furious glares were all pointed straight at her, ready to attack if the chance arose.

"I think you need to go. Now."

"Why? You don't like hearing the truth?"

"We all know we belong here. There's nothing you can say to change that. And he's done a heck of a lot better at raising us than you ever did for him." Johnny spoke up before I could even open my mouth to respond.

"You know nothing-"

"Oh we know enough. Trust me." Yuta interrupted, and I noticed his hand was grasping Xiaojun's underneath the table. YangYang was running his fingers over his scar, and Renjun was gripping his chopsticks like he was going to try and stab her with them.

"Mom, I think you really should go." My sister spoke up, and it was like a switch was flipped in my mom's mind.

"Fine. I can tell when I'm not wanted. Let's go, honey." She stood up from her chair harshly, the legs squeaking on the wooden floor. She snatched her purse from the floor, and stormed off with her husband.

The room went silent once the door was slammed behind them, and I looked at my sister with the most sincere and apologetic eyes that I could.

"I'm sorry. I know you really want us all to get along."

"Don't apologize. She was completely out of line tonight. I think I'm asking too much for you to get along with them anyways." She laughed slightly, but the humor was lost on all of us.

"We should probably go, Yumi. Thanks for dinner." She leaned over and kissed my cheek, standing up from her chair in a much more graceful way than our mom.

"Can I spend the night?"

"No, I think they need some time. Come on." Yumi sighed as she got up from her spot as well, giving some of the boys a hug on her way to the door.

The house fell even more silent once they left, and I didn't even know where to start to address everything. I'm only hoping they all know everything she said was false.

"You all know-"

"We know." Mark butted in, and I looked around the table just to be sure. I'd never forgive her if she hurt these kids.

"I think you should make sure they know." Xiaojun nudged his head in the direction of both the stairs and where WinWin took Haechan, and I instantly got up to go check on Haechan first.

I knocked on the door softly before letting myself in, and the two of them were sitting on Yuta's bottom bunk, Haechan wrapped in WinWin's arms. The older of the two got up and left the room, so I sat down next to Haechan.

"None of what she said was true. We love you for how spontaneous you are. And it doesn't bother any of us that you don't use honorifics or call me Dad."

"Except for Yuta."

"Yeah, but he's only messing with you."

"I know."

"So what's bothering you?" He sighed, leaning against me so his head rested on my shoulder.

"She was just so angry. What'd we ever do to her?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. She and I have a lot of problems with each other, and she was just trying to find everything to attack me with." I brought my hand up to brush through his hair, absolutely hating how she thought she could come at my kids.

"Maybe you need Kun to help you work through all your problems." He laughed slightly, and I smiled at the sound.

"As if she'd ever listen."

We stayed in that position for a few more minutes, just breathing in the silence.

"I think you should check on Lele and Woo. I'll be okay." He lifted his head from my shoulder, giving me a smile for reassurance. I gave him a tight hug before I left the room, and walked up the stairs.

Not knowing where Kun and Doyoung had brought them, I went straight to Kun's room. Lucky enough, the four of them were in there cuddled up together on Kun's bed.

"We're family, right?" Jungwoo asked through his sniffles, and I immediately dropped to my knees in front of both him and Chenle, taking their little hands in mine.

"We always have been, and always will be. Nothing can ever change that."