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He knew what he was getting himself into, yet it was still a stressful situation.
Seonghwa was running around the house just so he could make sure they had everything packed for a family fun filled trip week. Hongjoong remained outside where all the children were buckled in and ready to get moving. With school was out and Hongjoong for once in his life had the next two weeks off, the first week would be traveling to the coast and spending time outside at the beach and staying at an airbnb. Then when they returned home it was off to Seonghwa’s parents’ for the other half of the two weeks (Including Jongho, Hongjoong was still emotional at the idea of his baby not being with them for the first time ever) for some very much needed alone time for the married couple. Though Seonghwa had a feeling they wouldn’t make it through the week before missing all the children too much.
Seonghwa checked in each room to make sure there wasn’t anything to grab that was needed, last stop being his and Hongjoong’s room. He relaxed seeing there was nothing left behind he finally he left the house, door shutting behind him. Making sure it was locked and made his way to the car. “Everything set?” Hongjoong spoke quietly. For easy travel, they had woken up just a few hours shy of three in the morning, waking the two eldest to bring them into the car and then carried the little ones to place them into their respective car and booster seats so they could all sleep during the car ride. Seonghwa may be a little exhausted, but that’s what the energy drink he had sitting in one of the cup holders was for as he’d be doing most of the driving while Hongjoong slept in the passenger seat.
“Yeah.” He said, equally as quiet. As he circled around to get in the driver’s seat he peeked through the backseat windows. All of them were asleep. Behind the driver and passenger seats were Wooyoung, Mingi and Jongho. Behind them, Yunho, Yeosang and San were seated. Being gentle with the door so the noise wouldn’t startle anyone, Seonghwa started the car, cringing as his engine roared to life but thankfully no heads popped up in the rear view mirror.
“If you need to take a break to rest don’t hesitate on waking me up.” Hongjoong told him while unfolding the blanket he brought with to get himself as comfortable as he could in the passenger seat, placing a pillow against the window too so he would have a place he could rest his head on.
“I will.” He assured Hongjoong while flashing him a smile, holding the steering wheel with one hand to grab his drink to sip on it. “Get some rest, it’ll be a while before we get to the place.” Now on the road, descending for the highway Hongjoong laid his head against the pillow, placing the sleep mask he had purchased for the road over his eyes to keep the traffic lights from disturbing his sleep and shut his eyes after.
Once it was certain Hongjoong fallen asleep, Seonghwa sighed to himself, taking another sip of his energy drink before placing it back into its cup holder and put his hand back on the wheel. This would be a long drive.
By the two hour mark, things were going peacefully. There were barely any drivers out in the highway, too early for most people to be awake so really Seonghwa had most of the lanes to himself. His drink by then was completely empty and with his heart vibrating in his chest from the caffeine he felt completely awake and alert (but still a little tired, curse his body for being so used to caffeine) . On occasion he looked to Hongjoong’s sleeping form, not once had the younger moved from his spot, seat slightly reclined back (but not too much so he wouldn’t crush Jongho’s seat behind him).
Everything was going smoothly, none of the children had woken up or even moved from their spots, everything was going according to plan—
A piercing cry ran in the car, easily recognizable to be from Jongho’s. The loud cries scared Hongjoong from his sleep, taking the eyemask off and whipping his head around to look in the back. Jongho was now awake and crying, from what he wasn’t aware. And with his piercing cries it quickly woke Wooyoung up, his own cries ringing in the car. One by one each child lifted their head up from being woken up suddenly, even Mingi began to cry from being woken up and understandably was grumpy about it. San kept it together, but the tears lined his eyes and threatened to spill.
“Already on it.” Seonghwa said before Hongjoong could tell him to pull over. There was a truck stop just a few miles down, but there really wasn’t any time to waste. He pulled over alone the side of the highway and Hongjoong, still in the process of waking up, threw himself out of the passenger seat and slid the van door open to attend to Jongho. While he did this Seonghwa got out and did the same, unbuckling Wooyoung out of his carseat and lifting him up to cradle the boy, needing to hold him with one arm at one point so that he could also hold the crying Mingi after getting him from his booster seat, gently bouncing them both. Turns out it was a simple need of a diaper change because once Jongho was changed and coddled a bit he went right back to sleep. Hongjoong shut the door after and walked around to take Mingi from him so that Seonghwa wasn’t struggling. “How much longer?” He asked his husband, bouncing Mingi at the hip while rubbing his back.
“About the halfway point. Just a couple of more hours.” He said while nestling Wooyoung’s head against his shoulder, rocking him side to side while also softly singing his favorite song to him. Hongjoong nodded, turning his attending to the child grabbing onto his shirt. Mingi had since stopped his crying, softly sniffling as the occasional tear or two slipped down his little cheeks.
Wooyoung too, thankfully enough. When his eyes shut, Seonghwa placed him back into his car seat and remained by his side until he was certain that Wooyoung wasn’t waking back up. He shut the door after Mingi was placed back in as well. “My turn to drive, you should sleep some.” Hongjoong wasn’t asking, making way to the driver’s seat and getting in and left Seonghwa no other choice but to get in the passenger seat. He didn’t want to admit it but yeah, he was exhausted. Hongjoong pulled back onto the road and Seonghwa pulled the blanket he was using beforehand to wrap himself up tight, eyemask now over his own eyes while he rested his head against the pillow and easily fell asleep to the gentle pur of the car engine.
Seonghwa’s head snapped up at the shake of his shoulder. He blinked a couple of times behind the mask before pulling his hand from under the cover, yanking off the mask from his eyes and squinting at the sudden blast of sunlight against his eyes. He turned to the direction where he was being shaken from, at the driver’s seat where his husband remained. “Morning.” He whispered and motioned with his head to the front of them. “We’re here, we should get the kids in to sleep some more.” Seonghwa looked in front of the and sure enough, the house they rented for the week was right in front of them, looking the same as it did in its photos, just barely able to see the ocean behind it.
He was hit with the wave of salty air as he opened his door, turning around to slowly side the back door open, one by one with Hongjoong carrying their children into the house, into the different little guest rooms that were available. Each room had two twin sized beds, except for the master bedroom which had a queen sized bed for Hongjoong and himself. After carrying Yeosang in (Which he swore the child was awake as he spotted the corners of his lips turned upwards, Seonghwa wouldn’t deny his son of wanting to be carried). He came back out, passing by Hongjoong who was carrying San to take him to the room he’d be sharing with Wooyoung.
Now to see if he could carry Yunho in because he felt awful waking their oldest up for the car. He hadn’t carried Yunho since he was around San’s age. Opening the door on his side, Seonghwa slowly unbuckled Yunho and detamgled his limbs from it, leaning over to get Yunho in his arms somehow and bring him into his room (He’d be the only child without a roommate, for weeks Yunho was commenting how excited he was to have a room for himself for the week they’d be gone). Managing to get him out of the car, with his foot nudged the door and thanking whatever that their model of car had self shutting sliding doors. As he was walking to the front door, Yunho’s head that lazily laid on his shoulder suddenly sprang up.
“Hey, hey. Sorry. I wanted to try and carry you in.” Seonghwa said while already setting the ten year old down when he looked around. He gasped a little as he realized where they were. “You can go on into your room to sleep if you’re still tired, or if you want you can help Mama and I bring in our stuff.”
Yunho, while squinting and rubbing at his eyes took a moment to reply. Yunho always took a moment to process mornings upon first waking up. “I’ll help.” He spoke through a yawn. Seonghwa smiled, patting down the tuffs of black hair. “Thank you Yunnie.” Yunho smiled sleepily at the praise.
With the aid of their oldest child the couple started carrying bags into the house, for the time being just leaving them in the living room and after everything was brought in, the door was shut and Hongjoong collapsed onto the couch with a groan. “I’m ready to sleep for the whole day.” He complained while laying his arm over his eyes. Seonghwa sat by his head and combed his fingers through his current grey dyed hair. “Maybe rather than the couch you can go into the bedroom. I’m not tired so I’ll stay up and wait for the children.”
Hongjoong nodded and after a moment got up from the couch, towards the master bedroom where not only they would be staying but Jongho too, the baby currently in a portable crib that was purchased for the sole purpose of the trip. Seonghwa leaned back on the couch, head resting against it while sighing. Though he opened his eyes again when a weight was rested on top of him. He found it to be Yunho, who sat on his lap and laid his head against the middle of his chest. He fondly smiled. Yunho hadn’t cuddled with him like this in a while, so he wasn’t going to waste it, letting him go back to sleep on top of him while he turned on the television to entertain himself; volume turned low so Yunho wouldn’t be disturbed. Though his attention slowly moved from the screen to around the room. One thing he spotted was in the kitchen was where the sliding glass door was, giving him a perfect view of the beach. It was still a little early in the morning so the area wasn’t packed, but there were still a few people sitting along the sand to relax before the wave of tourists came crashing in.
It had been years since he last gone to the beach. The last time probably being when Yeosang was just two years old and Hongjoong pregnant with San, he was looking forward to see all the childrens’ excitement once they got a glimpse of the ocean.
The morning was quiet, for the longest time it was himself and Yunho, until one by one children were emerging from their rooms. Once their brains started to wake up and realize just where exactly they were at was when it started to get hectic. “Beach!” Screeched Wooyoung as he and San both ran to the glass door to look out it. Yunho woken up by then, getting off of his father to instead go where his brothers were and Seonghwa was able to stretch out his legs.
“Right Wooyoungie, it’s the beach! We’re going to go swimming later today!”
“Swim! Wanna swim!” He yelled as his hands pressed to the glass. Seonghwa stood to follow where their children were. They’d have to shop for food but for now Seonghwa would wait for Hongjoong to wake up with Jongho and for the morning go to a diner for breakfast and worry about stocking up on food later on.
Seonghwa crouched down, enveloped the second youngest in his arms and lifted him up to give him an even bigger view of the water. “I promise we will swim later. Right now we have to wait for Mama to wake up with Jjongie and then we’re going out for breakfast!”
“Aw yeah! I’m getting a stack of pancakes!” Proclaimed San while he held onto Seonghwa’s left leg, Mingi taking the right.
“With lots of fruit!” Mingi added.
Now Seonghwa was trapped, when he took a step forward he just dragged Mingi with, the two giggling amongst each other and when he looked to Yeosang, the eight year old shrugged.
“Don’t terrorize your papa boys!” Seonghwa’s head whipped around, relieved to see Hongjoong with Jongho in his arms, the eight month old fighting back the urge to sleep any time his cheek smushed against his mother’s shoulder. “Not without me at least.” Hongjoong added with a smirk, leaning over after he stepped up to the three and leaned over, pressing a kiss against Seonghwa’s cheek and playfully bit onto it to make Seonghwa whine out. The two below him had let go to run out of the kitchen as Wooyoung wiggled in his arms, reaching for Hongjoong which the male happily accepted. Now he had both him and Jongho in his arms. “So breakfast?”
“Figured we could go shopping later in the day rather than now, plus I think it’d be faster.” He eyed San and Mingi who both eyed the ocean with excited looks. Even Yeosang was looking back out of the windows. “I got a feeling if they don’t get their feet in the water as soon as possible all hell will break loose.”
“Well guess its time to unpack then so we can leave. I’ll give you the honor of that.” He lightly bounced the two in his arms. “I’ll be on diaper duty.” After Hongjoong disappeared, Seonghwa went back in the living room where the large pile of bags remained. He started pulling out one bag at a time, carrying each back into each room its owner was residing in, keeping Wooyoung and Jongho’s for their room and setting them on the bed for Hongjoong to use. He came back out to grab his and his husband’s luggage to carry in as well. He stepped into their bedroom, Hongjoong in the middle of dressing Jongho, Wooyoung sitting next to his brother already dressed to go out. Setting their bags on the ground he grabbed clothes for himself, deciding to change in the bathroom and then went back in the living room to wait for everyone.
One (not so quick ) breakfast later they stopped by the store for snacks and drinks to be placed in their cooler before returning to the house. They waited a couple more hours to let their meals settle before beginning to prepare for their day out in the sun, Seonghwa even lining everyone up to start lathering them up in sunscreen, each one commenting over how slimy it felt. “Trust me, you’d rather be slimy than sunburnt.” He told the complaining San while dabbing some more sunscreen onto his nose, massaging it in and moved on to his torso and arms.
Lastly was Hongjoong, who only rolled his eyes while allowing his husband to cover him too. “Don’t forget yourself.” Hongjoong said after he finished up, snatching the bottle out of Seonghwa’s hands to give him the same treatment. Now that was finished, now the next obstacle; carrying their items while also managing their out of control children. He ended up with Yunho being the lead, then Yeosang who held not only Yunho’s hand but San’s and so on and so forth, leaving Wooyoung at the end of the small train. Jongho ended up being placed into a sling strapped to Hongjoong’s chest. The idea of bringing out the stroller into the sand didn’t sound too appealing so a sling it was.
Seonghwa carried most of the items. A large umbrella to rest under, two folding chairs that hung on his back, a cooler with their drinks and snacks and on top of that was a large blanket for everyone to sit on while sitting under the umbrella.
He may struggled, yet he refused Hongjoong’s help as they stepped on the sand while telling him he was carrying enough.
“Babe, I only have Jongho and the beach towels.”
“Exactly, you’re bringing with you precious cargo!” Seonghwa motioned to the giggling baby against his chest. Hongjoong rolled his eyes while mumbling something Seonghwa wasn’t able to understand. Upon finding a spot, Seonghwa laid the blanket down first and placed the umbrella deep in the sand so it wouldn’t fly off with any gust of wind. Setting the chairs down he straightened up, placing his hands on his back as he stretched it out. Yet he didn’t complain to prevent Hongjoong from saying anything, working to get his chair out of its bag to set it up. “I can stay back with Jongho so you can take the children out to the water.”
“Are you sure?” Hongjoong looked to where Jongho was now sitting on the blanket, focused on the toys that were brought with to keep him entertained.
“I’m sure, you better hurry, Mingi’s arm might rip off with how much Wooyoung is pulling.” He motioned to the toddler, currently being held onto by Mingi who looked up to his parents for help.
“Fine, fine. But I’ll come back in a bit so you can get your turn in the water. Wooyoungie!” Hongjoong scooped the eager child in his arms and relieved the four year old. “The ocean isn’t going anywhere silly!”
“Wanna swim!” He yelled in Hongjoong’s ear, for sure causing it to ring while grabbing onto his mother’s bare shoulder. With Wooyoung in his arms, and with his little ducklings Hongjoong made way to the ocean, remaining mostly by the shore as Yunho rushed to get deeper into the water, Yeosang following closely behind his older brother, even grabbing and holding onto Yunho on his back. Hongjoong crouched and eventually sat in the water, waves gently lapping up over his legs as they washed over and slowly placed Wooyoung in front of him.
The two and a half year old giggled as he kicked his feet in the water, making tiny splashes. San ran right over to join them and sitting next to Wooyoung and when Hongjoong turned his head he spotted Mingi along the shoreline, watching the waves lap up by his feet but not yet getting them yet.
“Come here princess.” Hongjoong called our with a hand out for the four year old, patiently waiting as Mingi took his first step into the ocean water. Hongjoong waited, until Mingi was within reach and gently pulled him over, lifting him up and placing him on his right thigh.
“Yeosangie told me on the way here about the sharks in the water.” Mingi commented as he was eyeing the water around them. “Are they gonna eat us Mama?”
“Sangie is just teasing. The sharks aren’t going to hurt you. Mama and Papa are here to keep you all safe.” Reassuring the child, Hongjoong kissed his temple and let his hand in the water, gently scooping some into it and when he lifted it back up, he gently splashed the child in the face to get him to giggle. More at ease, Mingi moved off of Hongjoong’s lap and sat in with the others.
Hongjoong looked around to make sure Yunho and Yeosang wouldn’t stray too far away. It wasn’t too overly packed but he wanted to keep his babies safe.
Just a couple of feet away were the two oldest, Yeosang still clinging to Yunho’s back like a koala as he swam them around, though when spotting his mother watching the two of them he lifted a hand out of the water to wave, causing him to sink under just a bit.
“Don’t stray too far!” Hongjoong called out, a small okay! coming from Yunho and Yeosang and Hongjoong watched as they swam a little closer which eased Hongjoong.
He turned his head to check on Seonghwa, smiling at the sight.
Seonghwa had the umbrella open, keeping Jongho in the shade as he was placed on the sand rather than the blanket, Seonghwa pressing different shaped molds into the sand and lifting them up, the sand keeping its shape. At least until Jongho smushed them with his hands. “You little heathen.” Seonghwa cooed and lifted the baby up, with what exposed skin he saw Seonghwa leaned over and blew raspberries into to make Jongho squeal out, legs kicking out as he let out loud screeches of laughter that Hongjoong could hear even with the distance. As Seonghwa placed Jongho back down he spotted Hongjoong watching them and smiled. Gently moving Jongho to be facing his mother he pointed over. “Look, Mama’s watching. Say hi Mama!”
The only thing they got was gurgles and Jongho moving onto his hands and knees to crawl towards the blanket. Seonghwa fondly rolled his eyes.
Just as Hongjoong turned his attention back to the remaining five he had fell back at the splash of water to his face. He blinked a couple of times from the burn of the salt water, looking towards the culprits. Mingi and San giggled and when Hongjoong grinned, sitting back up they screeched, standing up and running out of the water. He would have hollered for them to return, but seeing as they were heading for Seonghwa so their father could protect them from their mother’s wrath he decided not to.
For a while Hongjoong remained in that spot with Wooyoung, eventually their oldest two returned to sit in the shallow area with their mother and stick their hands into the sand below them. Though at one point he picked Wooyoung back up, telling the other two to come with if they wanted a snack. The idea of food had them both running back where Seonghwa was and Hongjoong stood and followed them.
Seonghwa was digging through the cooler, pulling out boxes of juice packed within for the children. San and Mingi were now sitting on the blanket, towels hanging over their shoulders from being dried off by Seonghwa and snacking off of the little lunchables given to them, taking a juice box when handed one by Seonghwa. Hongjoong set Wooyoung down and grabbed a towel for the two year old, ignoring the whining as he patted him as dry as he could. After that he brought him over to his chair with a lunchable in his other hand for the two year old. Hongjoong accepted the bottle of water that Seonghwa handed to him as he was sitting down. “Thank you.” He said. He opened the water and took a large drink of it. “When it’s time to go back out to the water it’ll be your turn.” He said to Seonghwa as he sat next to him, a small container of fruit in one hand and Jongho in his other.
“Fine by me.” He said while setting Jongho against his lap, leaning against his arm and basically had to open the container one handed, feeding Jongho the small pieces of fruit inside of it. While Seonghwa fed Jongho, Hongjoong opened the lunchable for Wooyoung to snack off of as well as cut open the juice box to fill up one of the sippy cups that they brought with them. Now with all the little ones eating, Hongjoong reached into the cooler and pulled out a bagged sandwich for himself to eat on, even feeding Seonghwa bites of it as he was busy.
Their oldest sat on the blanket along with his brothers, munching on his own meal. With a cracker in his mouth he noticed just a couple feet away that a few seagulls had landed on the sand. He turned to Yeosang who was sipping on his juice. “Look!” He pointed over, gaining not only Yeosang’s attention but San’s too, the five year old having clung to Yeosang since he sat down. Mingi perked up too to look at the seagull.
“Mama look! A bird!” San’s head whipped around to look up at Hongjoong, who perked his head to look in the direction pointed to.
“Oh I see it! Be careful, it might just sneak up and snatch your food away!”
San gasped, already holding his half eaten lunchable to his chest while glaring at the bird. “Stay away!” He yelled, starling Yeosang as it was quite literally right next to his ear. At least it listened, because the bird quickly flew off so San smiled, happily returning to eating.
When meals were finished, and after a moment of relaxing it was time to get back in the water. As said, Seonghwa was the one to leave with their rambunctious four, leaving Hongjoong with a sleepy two and eight month old.
By the time afternoon came around, it was finally time to pack up, Wooyoung and Jongho both napped in Hongjoong’s arms.
Even Seonghwa was carrying Mingi one handed, making his job of dragging their stuff a little harder. But he managed, leaving everything on the back porch to carry Mingi inside and to his room where he could continue with his nap.
When everything was inside and the littler ones were placed in their beds (they’d worry about baths after dinner) , both Hongjoong and Seonghwa collapsed onto the couch with a groan.
“How about pizza for dinner? We can cook tomorrow.” Hongjoong was first to speak up. Plus they still haven’t properly stocked on meals just yet.
“Pizza is fine.” Seonghwa nodded, already fishing his phone out of his pockets to pull up the site.
When dinner was delivered, children were woken up to eat and bathe, and then brought back to their room to sleep, and as the night grew the couple would go to bed themselves. Seonghwa stretched as he crawled in, making sure to remain quiet as just at the end of their bed was where the portable crib was, Jongho sleeping inside. “Today was eventful.” Hongjoong whispered as he scooted into Seonghwa’s side, resting his head on Seonghwa’s left pec.
“I’d say so. My favorite part is when San and Mingi both tried to chase that one seagull.” Softly chuckling, Seonghwa kissed the top of his husband’s head and shut his eyes to sleep. But in the process of falling asleep, he felt someone shaking his shoulder and in his groggy state lifted his head up.
“Papa?” Yunho’s voice quietly rang in the air. He blinked a couple of times to focus, turning his head to the ten year old. He immediately was on alert. Why was Yunho here? He normally never woke him up unless something was wrong with the younger ones.
“What’s wrong Yuyu?” He rubbed his eye while asking the boy the question.
“I can’t sleep..” A little embarrassed, Yunho lowered his head. “It’s so lonely in my room, normally Yeosangie is with me but he’s with Wooyoung and I don’t want to wake them up.. can I sleep in here with you?”
Seonghwa’s heart melted. Yunho hadn’t asked to sleep with his parents in their bed probably since he was little. “Of course.” He told the child, looking down at Hongjoong who was fully asleep on him. With a little shake, and a brief explanation of what was happening, Hongjoong sleepily scooted away from Seonghwa and gave Yunho the room to crawl over his father, laying in between the two parents and getting comfortable under the covers. Seonghwa laid back down, turning to face the two of them. “Better?” He whispered, smiling at the nod Yunho gave and leaned over to kiss his forehead. Seonghwa never denied when a child was unable to sleep and would rather sleep with their parents, especially when it was someone like Yeosang or Yunho as they didn’t ask that often compared to the others, or really ever. Now with the edition of Yunho, Seonghwa dozed back off and this time, fell asleep with no interruptions.
Except when it came to Jongho, small cries ringing in the room but simple diaper changes and cuddling were enough to lull the baby back to sleep. Most of the time Seonghwa was the one tending to Jongho, as when Yunho fell asleep he unconsciously curled into his mother’s side, holding onto him.
Aside from Yunho hating sleeping along, the week went smoothly, their time at the beach coming to an end quickly. Like the trip to, they would travel at night to make it easier on the parents and when everything was packed and ready to go, they got in the car, turning the engine on and drove off, leaving with memories the family would hopefully have for years on end.
They didn’t even make it through half the week the moment the children were dropped off at Seonghwa’s parents. Hongjoong just couldn’t stand a completely empty home (and neither could Seonghwa) so by Wednesday morning the children were dropped off. At least they seemed to have a fun time even if their week at their grandparents was cut short.