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Today was a special day at Qian – Suh household. It was Johnny and Kun’s fourth year wedding anniversary and Sicheng, Kun’s younger cousin, had planned out an entire weekend just for the couple. Of course, this would be the first time in Jisung’s life that both his parents would be gone for an extended period of time. Kun was scared at first, given Jisung’s young age. But with a little push from Sicheng and Jaehyun, Johnny’s younger brother, he finally gave in and agreed. Johnny reasons that they deserve to have a break from being parents from time to time. But the biggest problem for Kun was who was willing to babysit Jisung while they were away. Johnny laughed and said not to look further. There’s a reason he has two younger brothers.
“Alright Jaehyun, remember, if he starts throwing a fit, all you gotta do is make Mr. Hamster do a villain voice and he’ll stop crying all at once.” Johnny instructs to his younger brother.
“Isn’t that a little scary on his part?”
“Nah, he’ll just think that he got possessed by Darth Vader or something.”
“Hyung, are you sure Jisung is allowed to watch Star Wars already? Does Kun hyung know?” Jaehyun looks at his older brother in disbelief. Even he wasn’t allowed to watch the movies at the tender age of 9.
“Of course, he doesn’t know.” Johnny voices a little louder. “But he doesn’t have to know, right?”
“You do know that toddlers can’t keep secrets, right?”
“As if my own son would sell me out!”
“Okay.” Jaehyun sighs. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you though.”
“Why are you serious about this? It’s just a movie! Worry about who’ll wash Jisung once he’s finished with his business!”
“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Jaehyun smiles. “Mark’s got that covered.”
“Mark?” Johnny raises an eyebrow.
“Mark.” Jaehyun repeats.
“Dada, dada!” Jisung calls out as he waddles to the living room. “Dada!” He exclaims as he spots his dad.
“Hey, bub! Look who came to visit!” Johnny beams.
“Ankle Jae!” Jisung yells as he runs full speed to his uncle.
“Did he just say ankle?”
“Yep!” Jaehyun confirms as he scoops Jisung up and seats him on his lap. “Ankle Markie’s coming, too.”
“Ankle Markie!” Jisung repeats.
“Sungie, it’s uncle not ankle.”
“Ankle.” Jisung says nonchalantly.
“No, no. uh-ncle.” Jonny emphasizes on the uh sound. “Like Sungie’s last name; Suh.”
“Sah!”
“Ah, don’t bother yet. He’s only three you know.” Kun interjects as he enters the living room as well.
“Baba!” Jisung calls out as he makes grabby hands to Kun. Jaehyun lets him go and the toddler runs to Kun to cling at his dad’s leg.
“Hey now, it’s never too early to correct them.” Johnny defends.
“Hyung, he’s only three. He’s got a lifetime of scolding ahead of him. Cut him some slack.” Jaehyun mentions.
“Right?” Kun agrees as he looks down on Jisung. “How could you scold this little baozi?”
“Baby, you know better than to baby him.” Johnny pouts.
“Baby, you know better than to woo me with your words.” Kun retorts.
“You’re both gross and Jisung is right here.” Jaehyun points out as he picks up Jisung again and settles him on the couch. This earns Jaehyun a chortle from Johnny.
“Cooties are gross!” Jisung grimaces as he crosses his arms.
“Baobei, where’d you learn to say cooties?” Kun looks at his son with a worried face.
“Enjun hwung!” Jisung says proudly. “He talks like Baba sometimes!”
“Enjun?” Jaehyun tilts his head to the side.
“Renjun. He’s a prep student. He’s also Chinese.”
“Ah.”
“Wait, what time is Mark coming?” Johnny interrupts.
“He’ll be here by tonight. Says he has a gig at the café in the afternoon.” Jaehyun informs.
“Well, guess it’ll be just you two for the afternoon, then.” Kun points out. “You think you’re ready?”
“This will be my training ground.” Jaehyun says seriously.
“Get laid first.” Johnny deadpans.
“YOUNGHO!” Kun and Jaehyun scold at the same time.
“Why would ankle Jae lie down?” Jisung looks up at the adults.
“Because he’s tired, Sungie.” Kun reasons hurriedly. He then gives Johnny a glare.
“Well, would you look at the time! Shouldn’t you two be on your way to the airport? You might miss your flight!” Jaehyun informs as he stands up.
“Why are you kicking us out?” Johnny whines.
“I feel like if you stay here any longer Jisung might learn a word he’s not supposed to learn yet.”
“I’m his dad!”
“And I’m your brother! I’ve been in his shoes.” Jaehyun deadpans.
“He’s right, you know.” Kun agrees.
“Kun! You’re supposed to side with me!”
“Sometimes I don’t wanna.” Kun pouts.
“Please take your PDA somewhere else. Some of us are single here.”
“Fine, fine.” Johnny sighs in defeat.
“Sometimes, it’s okay to surrender, you know.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Johnny waves his hand. Kun gives him a smile and pecks him on the cheek before rushing back to their bedroom to fetch their luggage. Jaehyun laughs along as he notices Johnny’s cheeks turning red. “When you get married, then you’ll see.” He says as a parting word before trailing behind his husband.
Ten minutes later and the cab honks outside, ready to pick up the couple and drive them to the airport.
“Alright, baobei, be good, okay? Listen to uncle Jaehyun and Markie, okay?”
“Yes, Baba!” Jisung says with tears forming in his eyes. He makes grabby hands again towards Kun. Kun immediately picks his son up and gives him a tight hug.
“Baba will miss baobei so much.” He whispers before kissing Jisung on the cheeks. Johnny joins in on them and caresses Jisung’s cheek.
“Now, Sungie, no playing with your food, okay? And no watching JJ and friends while eating.”
“Yes Dada!” Jisung now makes grabby hands towards Johnny and Johnny scoops him up from Kun’s arms.
“I’m gonna miss you, bub! Is Sungie gonna miss Dada, too?”
“Euhm!” Jisung says with a nod.
“Ah, don’t cry, okay? Uncle Jae will play with you!”
“Sungie will not cry!” Jisung says firmly as he wipes a tear from his cheek.
“There’s my big boy!” Johnny says with a smile before kissing Jisung’s temple. He lets Jisung down and grabs his luggage.
“Enjoy you two.” Jaehyun calls out.
“Thanks for babysitting.” Kun gives Jaehyun a warm smile.
“Ah, it’s nothing. Besides, you two looked like you need it.”
The cab honks a second time and the adults all hurry to say their goodbyes.
“Alright, bye bye Jisung!” Kun calls out.
“Sungie, bye bye!” Johnny adds.
“Bye bye, Baba and Dada!” Jisung bids goodbye as he waves at his parents walking out the door.
When the cab has already zoomed away and gone from their vision did the dread inside Jaehyun start to sink in. It was only 10:30 AM, it’s far too early to serve him lunch, so he guesses they’ll just play.
“Okay, Sungie, what do you want to do today?”
“Park! Let’s go the park!” Jisung says with enthusiasm.
“You wanna play at the park? Okay! Let’s get you a jacket, okay?”
“Okay!”
The two skip their way upstairs into Jisung’s room. While Jaehyun rummages through his nephew’s closet for a jacket, Jisung sits on his bed and hugs his teddy bear tight.
“Sungie, is this okay?” Jaehyun pulls out a sky-blue padded jacket for Jisung to see.
“That’s okay! That’s my favorite!” Jisung squeaks.
“Okay! Let’s put it on!”
Once they get to the park, Jisung immediately runs up to the slide while Jaehyun tries to catch up to him.
“Alright, Sungie, Ankle Jae’s gonna catch you when you slide down, okay?” Jaehyun calls out as Jisung climbs up the ladder of the slide.
“Okay!” Jisung squeaks. Once Jisung was at the top, he shoots a thumbs up to his uncle before sitting down and sliding down. Jaehyun readies himself and catches Jisung just before his butt hits the grass.
“You did it!” Jaehyun pats Jisung through his padded jacket.
“Yeah, I did!” Jisung cheers as he looks up at his uncle. “Ankle Jae will slide too?”
“Ah, Ankle Jae is far too big for this slide.”
“But Dada always slide here too.”
“Dada… slides here?” Jaehyun asks as he motions for the slide behind him.
“Yeah.”
“Oh.” Was all Jaehyun could say. But really, he’s already thinking of using this information as blackmail material. Oh, the joy of toddlers being unable to keep secrets. “Okay I’m going to climb up now.”
“You can do it!” Jisung cheers him on. Once he reached the top of the slide, he sits down and notices that his legs already take up about three fourths of the slide.
“Sungie, I don’t think I can slide here.”
“Sure, you can! If Dada can do it, so can Ankle Jae!”
“Okay, okay.” And with a little push, Jaehyun slides down. Well that was interesting. He hasn’t slid down a slide in twenty years.
“The swing!” Jisung waddles over to him and grabs him by the sleeve of his sweater.
“Okay, the swing it is!”
Once Jisung was sat on the swing, he starts to push his nephew lightly at first.
“Faster!” Jisung orders.
“Now, now. You can’t swing that high up yet. You have to five years old to do that.” He lectures.
“But, but!”
“No buts, Suh Jisung. It’s for your own good.”
“You’re no fun.” The younger pouts.
“Yeah? Which will you pick? Me or shushu Sicheng?”
“Ankle Markie!” Jisung looks up at him with big eyes.
“No fair! Mark wasn’t even in the choices!” Jaehyun pouts as Jisung laughs at him.
“Push! Push!”
“Okay, okay.” He obliges nonetheless. He reasons that there’s no better joy in this world than hearing his nephew’s loud giggles echoing through the park.
“Ankle Jae! Come swing, too!”
“But then I won’t be able to push you.”
“It’s fine! I can reach the ground myself! I’m tall now like Dada!”
Okay, if you say so.” He replies as he occupies the swing next to Jisung. He starts to swing himself while trying to drag Jisung’s swing seat as well. Jisung on the other hand, fervently tries to reach the ground with his stubby legs but to no avail. He’s just not that tall enough yet. Jaehyun notices his nephew struggling and consoles him. “It’s okay, Sungie. One day, you’ll be just as tall as Dada and Ankle Jae.”
“I want to be tall now!”
“Now, now. You’ll get there, okay? It’s okay if you’re still small now.” He reasons. “You know, if you become tall now, then Baba and Dada won’t be able to pick you up anymore. I won’t be able to pick you up anymore. And then, you won’t be able to sleep next to them as well since you’ll be too tall to squeeze in between them when they sleep.”
“Really? Then I don’t want to be tall! I want to sleep with Dada and Baba forever!” Jisung concludes.
“Yeah. There’s nothing wrong with being small. You’ll get taller when you get older. Until then, just enjoy being small, okay?” Jaehyun holds out an okay sign.
“Okay!” Jisung presses their thumb together.
Around 11:30, the two head back home so Jisung can have his lunch. What they didn’t expect was to see Mark sat on the pavement with his phone in his hand.
“Hey!” Jaehyun greets him.
“Ankle Markie!” Jisung pries away from Jaehyun’s grip and runs up to Mark. He takes Jisung in his arm and embraces him as he peppers his nephew’s face with kisses.
“Oh, I’ve missed you Jisungie!” Mark coos at the younger.
“Why are you here? I thought you had a gig today?” Jaehyun squats down to Mark’s level.
“The café’s closed for the day. Taeil hyung had some business to attend to. It looks pretty important if he had to close the café early.”
“Ah, well that’s great! You can come eat with us. Kun hyung cooked lunch before they left.”
“Cool!” Mark looks up at his older brother. “Does Jisungie want to eat with Uncle Markie today?” He looks at Jisung.
“Yes!” Jisung nods enthusiastically. Mark stands up and picks Jisung up to carry him as they head inside. Mark then removes the padded jacket and sits Jisung on top of the counter while the older two prepare their lunch. They make small conversation with their nephew to keep him occupied, asking him questions about his parents, his classmates and such.
“I made a new friend. He talks like Baba. His name is Chen – leh”
“Chen – leh?” Mark repeats.
“I don’t know how to say his name so I just call him Chen.”
“Well, I’m sure he’s not as cute as you, right?”
“He’s prettier than me!” Jisung boasts.
“He is?” Mark gasps dramatically. “This can’t be! No one’s allowed to be prettier than Jisungie!”
“It’s okay if it’s Chen.” Jisung replies bashfully.
“Oh, really? Then I need to meet this Chen guy to see for myself!” Mark plays along.
“Okay!” Jisung gives his uncle a thumbs up.
“Lunch is ready!” Jaehyun calls out.
“Alright, there’s our lunch! Let’s eat!” Mark says as he picks Jisung up and sits him on his high chair. Jaehyun places his Kumamon plate and bowl on his table along with some watermelon shake.
“Eat up!” Mark picks up Jisung’s matching kiddie chopsticks and hands it over to his nephew. Jisung grabs it and places his fingers through the hoops and picks up a chunk of pork and brings it to his mouth.
“Ah, eat lots, Sungie!” Jaehyun calls out as he sits down on the table. The three of them had a hearty meal mixed with some light hearted conversations.
An hour after lunch and Jisung was already busy snoring away in his room while his two uncles were situated at the living room playing a video game. Jaehyun receives a text and glances at it. When he notices it was from Johnny, he pauses their game and opens up the text.
“It’s Johnny hyung.” He informs.
“Tell him Jisungie’s asleep for his afternoon nap.”
“Hm.” Jaehyun hums in reply.
1:27 PM
- We just arrived in our hotel. How’s Sungie
He’s asleep now. Mark’s here so we’re using your ps5 –
- Fair enough. Think of it as payment
You owe us beer and chicken when you get back –
- fine
Now stop texting us. You have a honeymoon to attend to –
- okay bye! Have fun with sungie!
We will! You too! Send pictures! Bye! –
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