Ever After
" The Good Kind of Hectic "
Their alarm goes off at six in the morning, but Yifan and Joonmyun are already awake. “Here we go again,” Joonmyun squeaks, turning over in bed to give Yifan a weak smile. He’s trying to sound brave, but it’s not working. Yifan appreciates the effort; after all, he’s nervous too.
“We’ve done it once, we can do it again, right?” Yifan asks, clearing his throat anxiously. He’s asking Joonmyun for a reassurance more than anything else, and his husband merely nods, unable to shake that feeling that it’s going to be just as difficult the second time around.
They roll out of bed, Joonmyun into the shower and Yifan into Yunsang and Junseok’s room. Junseok can sleep, but Yifan shakes Yunsang gently. “Yunsangie? It’s time to get up, baby. Today’s the big day!”
Yunsang wakes up slowly, looking at his father. “Papa,” he smiles, and Yifan gives him a kiss on the forehead.
“You ready for school? Are you excited? What do you want for breakfast?” Yifan asks, clearly more nervous than his five year old son. Yunsang politely asks for strawberry milk and Yifan whisks him into the kitchen to get their day started. For himself and Joonmyun, two strong cups of coffee are definitely necessary.
Joonmyun comes out of the bedroom, hair clean and dry, taking over for his husband. They share a peck on the lips before Yifan heads into the shower. Once Yunsang is equipped with breakfast and strawberry milk, Joonmyun goes to wake Ara, who is already very good about getting ready for school quickly.
“But Daddy, I don’t want to get up,” she complains, much to Joonmyun’s surprise. No, no, they can’t have any delays today.
“Sweetheart, don’t you want to cheer on Yunsang? It’s his first day of school!” Joonmyun coaxes. “We even have chocolate milk!”
At the mention of chocolate milk, she gets up out of bed groggily, and Joonmyun praises the lord that it was not more difficult to get her out of bed than that. He hurries back into the kitchen after her, clapping his hands. “Okay, you two, what do you want for your lunches?”
“Kimbap!” they both cheer, and Junmyeon groans. He can make it - he can make it quick - but it’s time he could spend doing other things. He’s just lucky he has the vegetables sliced and the rice already cooked.
He’s making the kimbap when Yifan comes back from the shower, ushering the children upstairs to get dressed. When they come back, the children are wearing their uniforms, and Joonmyun pauses for a moment to look at his kids.
“Wow, Yunsangie, look at you! What a big boy!” he exclaims, and Yunsang puffs up with pride. Ara interjects “Daddy, do you think I look pretty?” she asks, and Joonmyun assures her that she looks absolutely beautiful. Yifan takes Joonmyun’s waist, kissing him on the cheek.
“We’re raising some cute kids, aren’t we?” he whispers, and Joonmyun grins.
“We certainly are.”
Joonmyun turns back to the kimbap when Yunsang notices a problem. “Daddy!” he cries. “I want egg in my kimbap!”
“No, sweetie, we don’t have eggs; I’m sorry. You can have eggs next time, okay?” Joonmyun says, rolling up the seaweed.
“No! I want eggs today!” he whines, and Joonmyun frowns at him.
“We don’t have eggs, kiddo,” Yifan says, and Ara echoes her father cutely. “Anyway, the kimbap Daddy is making is going to be great even without eggs. You’ll get eggs another time, I promise.”
“I want eggs!” Yunsang screeches, and Yifan merely picks him up, bringing him to the living room to have a talking to. Joonmyun sighs, hoping it wouldn’t come to this as he packages the kimbap. They don’t have much time now; it takes fifteen minutes to drive to the children’s school on a good day, which means they have to leave in about ten minutes. They don’t have time for delays.
Just as Joonmyun sends Ara to go get her hairbrush (because her hair looks like a bit of a bird’s nest), Junseok starts crying from the bedroom. “I’ll get him,” Joonmyun calls to his husband, who’s still scolding Yunsang about the eggs. This morning is not going as planned. He heads into the boys’ bedroom and picks up their wailing infant son out of his crib. He bounces the baby up and down, trying to get him to go back to sleep, but it’s clearly not going to happen.
“Daddy! I got my hairbrush!” Ara calls.
“Try brushing your hair yourself, sweetie!” Joonmyun replies. He changes Junseok’s diaper before putting a onesie on the baby and bringing him back to the kitchen. He’s stopped crying, for now, and Joonmyun hopes that lasts.
Ara appears in the kitchen, and to Joonmyun’s horror, the hairbrush is stuck in her hair. “How on Earth does your hair get like this?” he cries with exasperation, and he’s about to put Junseok in his baby basket when Yifan comes back into the kitchen with Yunsang.
“Tell Daddy what we agreed on,” Yifan says, and Yunsang looks at Joonmyun shyly.
“Me and Papa are going to buy eggs after school. So maybe we can have eggs in kimbap later,” he says, and Joonmyun smiles.
“Good idea, Yunsangie, You’re a good kid.” Junseok starts crying again and Joonmyun bounces him again. “I’ll get the formula, Yifan, can you brush Ara’s hair? I don’t know how she got it this way.”
“I was trying to to brush it myself, like you said!” Ara retorts defensively, and Yifan frowns, looking at his watch. They really should have left already. He pulls the brush out of Ara’s hair carefully and then attempts to smooth down the mess of tangles and knots on top of her head.
Yunsang watches Yifan brush Ara’s hair while Joonmyun calms Junseok with some warm baby formula. “Ara, does it hurt?” Yunsang asks, and Ara smiles cutely.
“No,” she says. “Papa is good at brushing hair. He’s even going to style it for me, right Papa?”
“Am I?” Yifan asks, finally looking proud at how Ara’s hair now looks slightly less like a bird’s nest. He ties Ara’s long hair up into a topknot and puts a bow on it, hoping that will satisfy their little fashionista, and it does, thankfully.
“Am I extra pretty now, Papa?” Ara asks, and Yifan does think he’s raised a gorgeous little girl.
“Am I pretty too?” Yunsang asks loudly, and Yifan grins.
“Yes, Yunsangie, you’re also pretty! I have such pretty kids,” he kneels down to hug the two children.
“It’s because Daddy and Papa are so pretty,” Ara says very matter-of-factly.
“Okay, okay,” Joonmyun cries, rushing into the room with Junseok sound asleep on his shoulder. “We need to get going, we need to go now. We’re going to be late!”
“Don’t worry,” Yifan assures him as he ushers the children out and into the car, “I’m sure there won’t be any traffic.”
He’s dead wrong. There’s an accident on the road and traffic is moving at a snail’s pace. To make matters worse, Junseok starts crying and Yifan attempts to sing a lullaby to the crying child while Joonmyun yells at rude motorists in front of him. “How are they so bad at driving?” he says, hitting the brake hard.
“Daddy, if we’re late it’s bad!” Ara cries, and the clamor in the car just gets louder and louder.
It seems like ages until they get to the school - the two school-aged children are seated in their classrooms only about two or three minutes late - a miracle, really. They make sure to give Yunsang extra kisses and hugs and reassurances that he’ll have a great time on his first day of school and that they’ll be back to pick him up as soon as school is over.
“I love you Daddy! I love you Papa!” he smiles, waving cutely has his parents leave the classroom, Junseok still in Yifan’s arms.
“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Yifan asks, and Joonmyun nods.
“He’ll do great.” But Yifan is tearing up, and Joonmyun laughs a little. “Really, Yifan, he’s our second child and he’s the most outgoing. We know he’ll do well.”
“What? I’m not crying. Are you crying? I’m not,” Yifan insists, and that has Joonmyun laughing outright. “Let’s never send Junseok to school. I can’t stand to leave them here all alone,” Yifan says, frowning at his husband whose face has turned red from laughing. “Seriously, Joonmyun, please.”
“You know they’ll be great here,” his husband says reassuringly, rubbing his back in comforting circles. They get back in the car, Junseok well-secured in his car seat before they head back home. Junseok is crying the entire way home, which makes Yifan stop crying to soothe the baby.
When they finally arrive home, they collapse on the couch, Junseok cradled in Joonmyun’s arms. “This does take quite the toll, doesn’t it?” Joonmyun asks over Junseok’s cries. “Shh, sweetie, it’s sleepytime now.” He sings to Junseok and Yifan strokes Junseok’s hair gently until the baby finally, finally falls back into a deep slumber.
Yifan switches his attention to his husband, who he pulls closer to him for a deep kiss. “I love you,” he says softly. “You know, honestly, I’m so glad we got married, so glad we adopted kids, so glad we’re happy together.”
“Yifan, now you’re going to make me cry,” Joonmyun says despite the massive grin blooming on his face. “I love you too, honey. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. You and our kids. No matter how hectic it gets.”
Joonmyun leans onto Yifan’s shoulder, kissing him quickly before settling down into a comfortable snuggle with his husband and their baby. It’s true, it can get hectic. But this life, this feeling of satisfaction and love and belonging - it’s all worth it.