a/n Jake and Jane are 9, Aeyoung is 8, Millie is 7
Jake's POV
"Shit!" I automatically cursed when my eyes fell on three girls in front of me, ignoring the glare that my twin gave me when she heard my curse. "What are you girls doing here?" I even double checked the door I was opening, making sure that I was coming into my twin's room and not being transported to either South Korea or the US.
"Well, if you paid attention to what mom's been telling you last week, then you'd know that this week, these girls will be spending their holiday with us," Jane kindly answered me, even though she still shot daggers at me. "And since mom can't ask for a leave at the last minute and dad suddenly has an emergency at the office, they'll be spending their day here, in our house."
I scoffed, "What kind of emergency that dad could have other than putting out some baseless rumors?" If anyone should have an emergency, then it should've been my mother, and not my father. After all, he was an entertainer, while my mom was a genuine surgeon.
"I don't know," Jane shrugged nonchalantly. "Doesn't matter. All that matters is, we, both of us," she pointed to herself and me, "have to play host for the day."
"Really?" I groaned loudly. I didn't need to hide my hatred toward this arrangement. "Where are their parents anyway?"
"Both have scheduled an appointment at the spa, so they can't be bothered," Jane deadpanned. "Now, what were you about to say earlier?"
I huffed, "Forget about it." I slammed the door shut and stomped back into my room. This was definitely not in my plan when I got home five minutes ago.
I totally forgot about the infamous annual family holiday that my father started years ago. He insisted on this tradition of visiting each other's hometown during holiday so everyone could stay close as a big family. GOT7 family. Even though everyone had their own family now, he argued that their kids should familiarize themselves with each other, thus the idea of this family holiday. Every year, one family acted as a host and this year, it was our family's turn to be the host. But, since I innocently kissed Milli, an innocent goodnight kiss that Uncle Mark exaggerated years ago, I decided not to join the holiday. I tried to avoid it as much as I could. To avoid their bullying and to avoid Uncle Mark's unnecessary suspicion. Yeah sure I would still go with my family to our destination, but once we were there, I would go on my own. Or spent the time by myself and limited my interaction with Milli as much as I could. Since last year, my father couldn't force me to join anymore but since this year we were the host, I didn't have much choice. But I didn't expect them to show up at my house either. I thought they were going to some amusement park or at least the Disneyland in Shanghai. I thought that was their original plan. But again, I didn't pay attention, so I might be wrong.
"But dad... I have this basketball practice," I practically whined when I called my father to complain about the situation. Apparently, he couldn't make it until dinner so I had to help Jane with dinner.
"It's just a practice. Missing one won't make you lose much. You can double your practice next time to catch up," my father easily said over the phone and I groaned. He, among other people in the family, should know how important it was not to miss any practice. Especially when I was still a beginner. I had to work twice as hard to earn my spot in the regular team. Which I still haven't. So missing a practice wasn't really an option here.
"Look, your coach might give you hell for missing the practice once. But if you come back stronger, then he won't have anything to say about it," my father confidently said. "I know it so don't worry."
When I said nothing and just gritted my teeth, my father spoke again, "I'll ask Mark to be your sparring partner tomorrow. You know, he's good at basketball so he'll be a good opponent for you."
"Ugh.." I groaned louder. Great! I tried my best to avoid Uncle Mark and Milli but now my father threw me at him. Like he was feeding me to the tiger. But I had no choice here. I just had to accept that he would kick my butt in the field tomorrow.
"Jake! We need to eat real food, not charred food!" Jane reprimanded me when I burnt the toast.
"Well, maybe I prefer burnt toast," I retorted, though in reality I didn't like burnt toast. Somehow I was lost in my thought that I forgot to flip the toast before it got burnt. Since our parents gave us short notice, we didn't have the time to prepare proper dinner, so grilled cheese and tomato soup was the best we could do under short notice. And that was what we managed to make with everything that was available in the pantry with our limited cooking skill.
"Is it ready yet? I'm hungry," Aeyoung came strutting to the kitchen and slumped on the chair behind the island with Milli following right behind her and occupied the chair beside her.
"If Jake here doesn't burn the ones he's cooking right now, then 2 more minutes and we can eat," Jane mocked me and I rolled my eyes at her, making sure to flip the toast right on time so they were golden brown and not burning black.
Once I was finished, we ate silently and since it was our turn to cook, Aeyong and Milli offered to do the dishes. Well, mainly Aeyoung while Milli only helped load the dishwasher. Once they were done, the girls vanished into Jane's room again, leaving me alone so I decided to play some video game. But it was boring. Why did the uncles have so many girls and the boys are too young to play with? Jihoon was way too old to play with us and King was too young to play with me. And he wasn't here anyway. Point being, I hated being alone. I decided to turn off my game and saw what the girls were up to.
"Hey," I stuck my head inside Jane's room and saw the girls were all sitting on the floor. "What are you girls up to?"
"Oh," Milli grinned, bringing up those little bottles in her hands, "We're doing our nails. Oh well, technically Jane is."
"Don't move!" Jane held down Aeyoung's wrist, who looked like about to hide her hands and buried it under the rock. "You're going to mess your nails!"
"Well, I'm not asking for a manicure," Aeyoung hissed and it was getting interesting so I closed the door behind me and decided to sit in.
"What are you doing?" Milli looked at me as if I had two heads.
"Watching you girls," I plopped my ass down beside Aeyoung and watched as Jane dotted her nails.
"That's cute," I made a comment, grinning at Aeyoung who rolled her eyes. Clearly she wasn't into this manicure, not as much as Milli anyway. I saw Milli had her nails done already. She donned pastel colors and there were some cute princesses stickers on some of her nails.
"Cute is for kids," Aeyoung snorted but Jane pulled her wrists back so she could finish her last nail.
"Ain't girls love being told that they're cute? Or if they're sporting something cute?" I raised my eyebrow at Aeyoung who rolled her eyes again.
"Not everyone," she answered and I just smirked at the bitterness in her tone. I just found something amusing to occupy myself for the time being. But Aeyoung seemed to sense it so she shut her mouth and waited patiently until Jane finished all her nails.
"Okay, now's your turn," Jane turned her body to face me and I was flustered.
"What?" But her face remained flat and I knew she wasn't kidding. I turned my head to see Aeyoung finally found this amusing and Milli was excited at the prospect of getting one more customer. "No way!" I pulled my hands and hid it behind my back.
"Why not?" Milli's face fell while Aeyoung smirked behind her. Jane glared at her when she lowered her hands and told her to keep her hands up until the nail polish was completely dried.
"Well, I'm a boy, not a girl. I don't do manicures," I argued.
"But my dad did his nails sometimes. And Uncle Bambam did his too!" For once, I was surprised to see Milli raise her voice. In my mind, she was this timid little girl but apparently she had grown up since then.
"Well.. your dad and Uncle Bambam are entertainers. They do stuff that not all regular guys do. Including manicures," I tried to reason with her but apparently it was not a good reason.
"Why Jake?" Aeyoung clearly mocked me. "Are you afraid that you'll feel emasculated if your nails get manicured?"
"No," I quickly retorted.
"Then a little nail art won't hurt," Milli insisted. "My dad said that what makes a guy is not the stuff that people think it makes a guy. That's why he's not embarrassed at having tea parties with me or doing his nails with me. Mom can't do her nails, so he does it with me instead. He said those stuff don't define his masculinity."
And those words struck me. I said nothing as Jane pulled my hands and from the side of my eyes, I could see Aeyoung bit down her smile. She was right. Uncle Mark was right. And I hated it. I huffed but said nothing as Jane started to do my nails. That's just great. The boys would definitely make fun of me at practice tomorrow.
a/n: hey guys, sorry for the slow updates. i'm out of ideas so please be patient with me. send me ideas.. requests, anything..