Taeil walked into the living room to find very few of his brothers in there.
"Who wants to go to the store with me?" He waited.
"Me!" Renjun, Jeno, Jaemin, Chenle, Jisung, Jaehyun, and Yushi all raised their hands.
"Alright, go get your shoes on. I'm going to tell dad I need his car" Taeil went upstairs, finding Taeyong.
"I'm taking some of the kids out to the store with me but I need your car cause they won't all fit in mine" Taeil explained. Taeyong grabbed his keys off the side of his table, tossing them to his oldest kid.
"Thanks" Taeil turned to go.
"Wait! Can we come with you? Please!" Ryo ran over.
"Yeah please?!" Sakuya added, joining his twin. Taeil looked at Taeyong to make sure that was okay. Taeyong nodded and Taeil agreed, telling the maknaes to get their shoes on.
"Hey, just don't lose any of them. Make sure they know to stay near you, especially those two" Taeyong motioned to Ryo and Sakuya.
"I'll try not to lose anyone" Taeil promised, going back downstairs with the twins. The other boys were all ready to go so they all left and went to the store.
"Okay, you guys know the rules. Just because your with me and not dad does not make them any different. Do not wander off and don't touch anything. If you behave, then I might be persuaded to buy each of you a small treat as a reward. Anyone who doesn't behave doesn't get a treat" Taeil warned.
"Come on hyung, we're not babies. You don't have to worry about us" Jaehyun argued. Taeil glanced at the younger boys as if to prove his point. Taeil was honestly less worried about Jaehyun and the triplets than he was about Chenle, Jisung, Sion, Yushi and the twins.
"Oh. Right" Jaehyun corrected himself.
"We're not babies either! We can behave" Yushi argued. Jaehyun just patted him in the head.
"Okay. Ryo, Sakuya, I want you two holding someone's hand. You too Yushi" Taeil grabbed a cart, knowing that he would need it if any of the kids started misbehaving.
"But I'm nine!" Yushi argued again.
"And small enough for someone to easily grab you. Hold someone's hand or hold the cart" Taeil repeated. Yushi huffed and grabbed Renjun's hand, pouting. Renjun tried to make him feel better by pointing out different toys, snacks and anything else a nine year old could possibly like. Nothing worked until Yushi caught sight of a camera for sale and he came to a halt, one hand flying up to point at it as Renjun's attention turned to him.
"We have to go" Renjun didn't even look at his brothers object of interest.
"Hyung, look! Can we get it?" Yushi pleaded.
"No. We need to stay with Taeil-hyung. Come on, Yushi" Renjun glanced nervously at where his brothers were going, none of them even noticing that Renjun and Yushi were no longer with them.
"But hyung! I want the camera" Yushi whined.
"Please, before we get in trouble" Renjun tugged on Yushi's hand but it was no use. Yushi seemed to have gotten immensely stronger in the past two minutes, his strength fueled by his determination. Renjun was a little embarrassed the longer they stood there as he felt panic rising inside him. Taeil and the others were no longer in sight and Renjun hated to admit it, but he was close to tears just at the thought of being in trouble as well as being lost in the store.
"Lee Yushi! I am not going to say it again, let's go" Renjun tried to be firm but he was not used to scolding his brothers. That was Taeil's area of expertise.
"No! This is so stupid! I am not a baby!" Yushi shook his head.
"Well your acting like one!" Renjun snapped. He had no idea where Taeil was now and he was scared but he was trying his best to not show it. Yushi glared at him and then turned, yanking his arm out of Renjun's tight grip, and ran in the opposite direction. Renjun watched him, with wide eyes before coming to his senses and following his younger brother. There was no way he was going to risk Taeil finding him without Yushi.
Meanwhile, Taeil was slowly losing his mind. He had promised Taeyong that he wouldn't lose any of the kids and he had lost all of them. Except one. Jaehyun was still standing by the cart, trying to look calm but his eyes betrayed him, flicking first to the left and then to the right as he scanned the area once or twice every minute.
"Shouldn't we look for them?" Jaehyun finally put his phone down and looked at Taeil.
"I wouldn't know where to start" Taeil admitted.
"Well dad's going to kill you if you come back with even one of the kids missing so you might want to figure something out soon if you want to still be alive when the day ends" Jaehyun pointed out. He wasn't helping at all but he knew that.
"Stay here. I'm going to look around. Maybe ask a worker for help" Taeil abandoned the cart and his brother to go find a worker.
"See ya" Jaehyun waved, going back to pretending to look at his phone. Taeil kept walking, hoping that he would find his brothers before he had to embarrass himself by asking a store worker for help.
"Jeno, look at that!" Jaemin pointed to one of the top shelves, getting his twins attention. Jeno looked up where he was pointing, not even noticing Taeil walking past. The oldest stopped in the aisle his brothers were in, waiting for them to notice. Jaemin saw him stop but it took a minute for him to turn and look, wondering why someone was just standing there and not doing anything.
"Run!" Jaemin pushed Jeno but they didn't make it very far. Taeil caught both of them by the back of their shirts, pulling them back.
Spank Spank Spank Spank Spank Spank
Taeil let go of Jaemin, turning to Jeno and doing the same before turning both boys to face him.
"What was the one rule?!" He demanded to know, wanting to make sure they remembered.
"Stay with you and don't wander" Jaemin huffed, both hands going back to rub at his bottom.
"So you do remember?" Taeil snapped.
"Sorry hyung, we got distracted" Jeno hung his head. Taeil took both of them by the hand, ignoring the embarrassed complaints they gave him as he walked both younger twins back to where Jaehyun was.
"Oh, you found them" Jaehyun gave the two youngest of the triplets a dark look. Taeil forcefully placed Jeno and Jaemin's hands on the cart, swatting both of them once more before turning to Jaehyun.
"Make sure they stay here. If they let go of the cart even once, you have my permission to smack them" Taeil decided.
"Hyung!" Jaemin and Jeno argued.
"Hush!" Surprisingly, it was Jaehyun that scolded them instead of Taeil. The oldest gave his brother a proud nod and walked off again to find the remaining seven boys. He found Ryo and Sakuya next, tucking both of them under one arm and giving each five quick spanks that would seem like love taps to the older boys.
"Do you know where your brothers went?" Taeil wondered, carrying both of them back to Jaehyun.
"Lele, Sion and Sungie hyungs went that way. They were staying with us but they got distracted" Ryo tattled, having no problem doing so. It was Chenle and Jisung's fault that they got separated from the others in the first place. And it was Sion who did nothing to stop either of them. Though there wasn't much that Sion might have been able to do in the first place considering both Chenle and Jisung were older than him.
Taeil sighed. Just great; so not only did the boys wander off but the older ones left their five year old brothers alone in the middle of the store. Taeil was furious and he was intent on giving Sion, Chenle and Jisung a loud, long lecture when he found them. At least all of the boys had stayed paired up. Taeil didn't know if Renjun and Yushi stayed together but he was hoping that Renjun hadn't let Yushi walk off alone. Then there would be real problems. Taeil left the maknaes with Jaehyun and went off to find Renjun, Yushi, Chenle and the not-twins.
"Lee Chenle! Lee Jisung! Lee Sion!" Taeil brought all three to a halt. None of them turned to him until he was right behind them.
"Wait! We can explain" Jisung panicked.
"Oh yeah, I would love to hear why you not only disobeyed me but left your five year old brothers alone in the middle of the store" Taeil spanked all of them, dragging the three boys back to the rest of his brothers. It was another hour before he found Renjun, walking around alone with tears gathering in the corners of his eyes.
"Renjun!" Taeil ran over to him.
"Hyung! I am so sorry. I lost Yushi" Renjun finally burst into tears.
"It's okay. Do you know where he went?" Taeil wondered, kneeling down to his brothers height.
"I-um, I don't think he went anywhere. I walked away from him and then I went back where I last saw him but he wasn't there. He might be looking for me" Renjun lied. He couldn't get Yushi in trouble. Renjun blamed himself for losing Yushi so he was taking the blame. Taeil stood up. Part of him didn't believe Renjun and knew that his brother was lying but at the same time, Renjun didn't lie often and Taeil didn't see any reason why he would now.
"Why would you do that? I told him to stay with one of you. Imagine how scared he must be right now" Taeil scolded, conveying his anger.
"I'm sorry. I've been trying to find him but I can't!" Renjun did feel bad for not having a tighter hold on his brother, for not being able to keep up with Yushi. Taeil took his hand, pulling him closer.
Spank Spank Spank Spank Spank Spank
"Let's go. I want you to stay with Jaehyun while I find Yushi. If you disobey me on this, then you will be in so much more trouble once dad finds out" Taeil warned.
"Your going to tell him!?" Renjun squealed.
"Yes! All of you know better than to walk away from an adult in the store. I might not be dad but the rules are the same" Taeil lectured.
"You're not an adult" Renjun reminded him, ducking down when Taeil went to smack him over the head.
"Yay! Just one more. Are we going home after this?" Jaehyun was starting to get tired. The boys had been running around him, complaining and pleading with him to convince Taeil not to tell Taeyong.
"Yes. I'll come back tomorrow to get what I needed" Taeil nodded. He was too tired, mentally, to deal with trying to shop after the past two hours that he just experienced.
"Yushi's here" Jaemin pointed. Yushi came over, climbing into the cart beside the twins and shoving his face in his arms without a single word.
"Okay?" Taeil was a little unnerved by that but at least Yushi was there. They all went home and Taeil, much to the younger boys' dismay, told Taeyong what happened. The triplets, Chenle, the not-twins, Yushi and the twins spent the next five to twelve minutes sitting in corners, on steps or in their rooms with sore bottoms.
_____________________________________
I know this ends kind of suddenly but I ran out of energy to keep writing so I hope you enjoy anyways.
Taeil-18 Johnny-17 Yuta-17 Kun-16 Doyoung-16 Ten-16 Jaehyun-15 Winwin-15 Jungwoo-14 Mark-13 Xiaojun-13 Hendery-13 Haechan-12 Renjun-12 Jeno-12 Jaemin-12 Yangyang-12 Chenle-11 Jisung-10 Sion-10 Riku-9 Yushi-8 Daeyoung-7 Ryo-5 Sakuya-5
Grades
Taeil(First year college) Johnny(12th. HS) Yuta(11th. HS) Kun(10th. HS) Doyoung(10th. HS) Ten(10th. HS) Jaehyun(9th. MS) Winwin(9th. MS) Jungwoo(8th. MS) Mark(7th. MS) Xiaojun(7th. MS) Hendery(7th. MS) Haechan(6th. E) Renjun(6th. E) Jeno(6th. E) Jaemin(6th. E) Yangyang)6th. E) Chenle(5th. E) Jisung(4th. E) Sion(4th. E) Riku(3rd. E) Yushi(2nd. E) Daeyoung(1st. E) Ryo(Kindergarten. IS) Sakuya(Kindergarten. IS)