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Halloween was coming around and the costumes were slowly arriving in the mailbox. Changbin had already bought the candies and it had been a few weeks since Chan had started the marathon of child friendly spooky movies. They'd also tried pumpkin carving for the first time this year and decorated the living room with fake spider webs, paper ghosts and cut-out bats.
The kids loved the spooky season because most of the birthdays in their family were during this period, in September and October. Minho was especially happy about Halloween this year because it was on the Saturday of his birthday week and they planned a party for him that day.
He'd also gotten the right to choose their costume theme this year. And since he was obsessed with a peculiar animated series this year and he knew his siblings would agree with his theme he chose Pokemon.
He liked to play the video games with Hyunjin, Yongbok and Jisung. They would take turns playing the main character while the other watched. Seungmin would also play sometimes but he would rather play with the plushies and figurines they'd gotten, especially with Eevee and Pikachu, his favorites.
Their dads had also bought Pokemon themed books for them this year, especially for Yongbok who had much less screen time than his brothers due to his medical condition. Minho, who started to learn Japanese last year, even requested the manga in Japanese to try reading, even though it was still very hard.
When they got to choose the costumes of which Pokemon they'd be, Minho insisted for his brothers to be the first generation Pokemon starters which they eventually agreed to because they couldn't find the right size of costume for the Skitty that Hyunjin wanted.
Minho would be Ash because he chose to be a trainer instead of a Pokemon. Felix got to be Pikachu because it was his favorite and he had so many Pikachu items it only made sense for the others to let him be his favorite. Seungmin got to choose Squirtle because he already had the right onesie in his closet and a Squirtle shell backpack he could put on his wheelchair.
It left Hyunjin and Jisung with only two options and they both wanted to be Charmander, they even started to fight to know which one of them would have the costume which resulted in the both of them being punished and forbidden screen time for a week. In the end, they played rock paper scissors and Hyunjin won so he would be Chamander. Jisung ended up with Bulbasaur which he was eventually fine with after 3 days pouting because he didn’t get what he wanted.
To add to it Jeongin would be Meowth since the 2 years old was stuck to his parents' hips these days and the two men decided that they would dress as the team Rocket, Chan as Jessie and Changbin as James.
The kids' joy when each costume arrived was wild. They loved to try on their costumes that quite literally were pajama onesies, fluffy fleece, cute and looked exactly like the characters they'd chosen.
When the 31st came the kids were ready to dress up the second they woke up. Chan had to make them wait because it was definitely too early.
Seungmin was the first to ask, at about 8 AM when his brothers (apart from Jeongin that was now in bed with Changbin) were still to wake up.
"I want Squirtle!", Seungmin signed when Chan rolled him in a towel and sat him on the counter after he was done showering so he could brush his teeth.
"Later."
"Now. Please, please."
Chan shakes his head as he towel dries Seungmin’s hair before putting his hearing aids on.
"Not now, later, when Minho's friends come. Jungwoo, Seyoung, Minsoo, Yoojin and Soojin.", Chan says, knowing that Seungmin would ask him who was coming no matter if they'd told him multiple times already.
"When?"
"They should come at 4. Then Halmeoni, Harabeoji, your uncles, aunties and cousins come for dinner. Is it all good now? Do you want to know anything else?"
"Can I go play?"
"Teeth first then you have to put some clothes on before playing."
Seungmin giggled, as if he’d already forgotten he still had to clad himself.
The other kids were just as eager, when Jisung woke up and came to get breakfast, the first thing the 9 years old asked for was candies but to his disappointment, Changbin said later because candies definitely weren’t a breakfast food.
“You’ll definitely have enough time to eat candies later, Sungie.”
“But I wanted some now.”
“Well we can’t always have what we want right there, right now, isn’t it?”
The kid mumbled while eating his rice.
"Alright. I don't know what you said but I won't take it personally, you just woke up and you're grumpy. I guess some things never change, you can be mad at me if you want Jisung. It’s not candy time yet. After breakfast I want you to help me tidy up the living room."
"Why only me?"
"What do you mean only you? It won't be only you, everyone's gonna help get the house ready, don't you worry. Plus, if you start helping out this morning you'll be done with your part when Minho and Felix will be back from taekwondo practice and I'll leave you alone early afternoon."
Jisung pouted and Changbin sighed.
"Hey, today is gonna be a fun day, but we have to do certain things before it's only normal that we all participate to prepare for Minho's birthday party, right? He helped when we prepared yours last month. And you'll get to help me out with the candies later so you can have some extra."
Jisung's smile finally appeared and Changbin laughed. He told the kid to finish his food and to behave until he came back from waking the others up.
In the corridor in front of Minho's room, Chan had spent about half an hour blowing the balloons they'd use to decorate the house. He'd always found it fun to have the kids wake up to dozens of balloons in front of their door. He had Jeongin sitting next to him with an orange balloon in one of his hands and his fennec plushie in the other.
"I think we'll have to wake Minho hyung.", he said to the kid. "We can't have him be late to his class, can we?"
"Nu-uh.", the toddler answered around his pacifier.
"Yeah, you're right."
He picked up the little boy and after knocking on the door and waiting for a few seconds he entered. He dropped Jeongin on Minho's bed and the toddler immediately started to jump around.
"Hello, hello, time to wake up."
"Hyung! Wakey wakey."
The older boy slowly woke up and caught Jeongin in his arms as the youngest almost jumped on his stomach. He hugged Jeongin so tight the kid actually whined to be released from his embrace.
"Minho, be gentle please."
"Hyung, baboons."
"Baboons? I only see a little chimp here.", he said, tickling his brother's sides.
"Not sure that's what he means."
"Ba'oons!", Jeongins said, pointing at the door.
"Oh balloons? Let's see the balloons."
Chan smiled, he loved the bond between these two, between Minho and all the kids. Actually, he was such a good big brother.
Minho and Jeongin played with the balloons for a little time, making them fly around until Chan told the older boy to go get ready for his taekwondo class.
Chan brought Minho and Felix to their class, always proud to see them in their dobok.
As Minho ran around the dojo with Jeongin, Chan fixed Felix' helmet, reminding him to tap out if he feels anything weird and not to take his helmet off at any time until Chan came back to get him.
The helmet was the only hard rule the kid had because the parents only agreed for him to participate in the classes if he kept his helmet on even when they weren't actively participating. It had taken them a whole year to have the neurologist agreement and to find a good teacher that knew how to proceed in case of a seizure.
He caught Jeongin and left Felix and Minho, not 100% free of worries because he was always a little worried for his kiddos but he trusted the teacher.
He put Jeongin back in his carseat and went to the bakery to grab the cakes.
Changbin cleared the whole floor with Jisung, Hyunjin and Seungmin's help.
Changbin knew much too well that Minho wouldn't like for his little brothers to mingle with his friends. Because as much as he loves his siblings, he was still the oldest and sometimes he liked it when they weren't stuck to his sides. Changbin figured Minho would probably want to be in his room with the other teens so he'd planned it out with Chan in advance.
He hung a big white bed sheet in the boy's room, plugged their projector that they rarely used as well as one of their Nintendo Switch for the kids to play games.
It took him nearly an hour to set everything up in Minho's room and by then Chan came back with their little athletes, a sleeping baby and the 3 cakes they ordered.
Together, they set up the living room. They wanted to make sure that the 9 years olds and Seungmin stayed together in the living room where either Chan or Changbin could see them and make sure they didn't try to forcefully join in.
They made sure to have options. Movies, paintings, board games. He also gave the promised candies since Halloween was definitely made for that.
Around 3.30, the kids started getting in their costumes and Seungmin was absolutely happy about it.
Minho was a bit shy about his, even though he liked his outfit and thought it was cool that he found something everyone liked, he was scared his friends would find it childish. But it didn't really matter, he didn't have another costume option anyway so he dressed up and tried not to think about it.
He was reassured when his friend started to arrive at 3.50. After all, they weren't much scarier than him. Jungwoo arrived dressed as Mario, saying that his dad didn't allow him to have a scary costume. Yoojin arrived dressed in all pink, she was Barbie, but not Stereotypical Barbie, she was Korean Barbie as she insisted. Minsoo was a very impractical inflatable T-Rex rider and Seyoung a, per his words, a "sexy" vampire. Soojin only had a bunny hat on but it wasn't really a surprise since she'd told Minho her mom didn't really want her to go to a Halloween party to start with.
Chan absolutely insisted on taking pictures of them together. "For memories." After their photoshoot, as the parents had planned, the teenagers gathered in Minho's room and they had to remind Jisung of what they'd say earlier, that he was allowed there only if Minho wanted him to.
To his dismay, Minho said no and when he came back he was pouting.
"Minho hyung sucks."
"Jisung, don't say that!", his Dad scolded. "He is allowed to want some time for him and his friends only."
In his bedroom they played Just Dance for a bit, maybe an hour, before Minsoo proposed they changed game. The young dancer from Minho's team was a bit sour from ranking the lowest because of his impractical costume.
They decided to play truth or dare instead. They started with easy truths and tasks.
"Do you have a crush on somebody?", "Eat this candy without your hands.", "What's your biggest fear?", "Show us your favorite dance move.", "Squat for one minute."
Everything went well. Between confessions there were loads of giggles and fun, Minsoo asked the weirdest truths but it wasn’t astonishing since he had a dirty mind while the girls always found the weirdest dares.
Seyoung’s face was still red from more or less admitting that he still had a teddy bear, of course he’d said no but with the color of his face, the others concluded he was lying and he somewhat ended up admitting. But Yoojin cooed that it was cute as Jungwoo dug out Minho´s teddy from between his pillows.
"Yah. Leave him alone, give me that, my Appa bought it for me when I arrived home.", Minho complained.
Minho placed his beloved teddy back in the bed and sat on the floor to continue playing. It was now his time to be given the famous question.
"Truth or dare.", Soojin asked.
"Dare."
When he saw Soojin's face, he knew he'd chosen the wrong answer but he knew he couldn't escape either.
"I dare you to kiss … hum, to kiss Seyoung Oppa."
Minho felt himself becoming red, he'd never kissed anyone before and he was taken aback by the dare. On top of that he didn't know what exactly it was that he felt for his 1 year older friend but he definitely felt something for him. He wondered what the others would say and what Soojin knew exactly. Was she aware of those weird feelings he had?
"Hey, why should I?"
"Because I dared you to. Look, Oppa agrees anyway."
"He never said that."
"Because we're all friends, it doesn’t matter and it's a dare, look.", the girl said, grabbing her friend's face and pecking his lips.
Minho was taken aback, Soojin had kissed him but he hadn't really like it. It wasn't a bad thing per say, it just was empty of the little spark he'd expected for his first kiss.
"Now do it with Seyoung Oppa, I dare you!"
Minho bit his lip for a second, still thinking, he licked his lip, chasing the feeling of Soojin's lips away but before he could put his tongue out of the way, Seyoung was coming to him and pecked his lips.
It didn’t even last more than 2 seconds yet his belly was bubbling with a feeling he didn't know and he knew he was burning hot.
"Alright done, is it my turn to ask now?", Seyoung said.
"Hum, yes."
"Yoojin-ah, truth or dare."
Around 6, Chan came to Minho's door and knocked as much as he could to stop the loud chattering.
He called them out for the cake. They sang happy birthday, multiple times in as many languages as they knew.
Minho cut his chocolate mousse like cake and they shared it and ate.
When they were done, Minho finally allowed for his brothers to join in his little party after they begged to join in. Since Yoonjin was trying to play with Jeongin that was stuck to their Appa's hip, Minho grabbed the toddler from the man's arms and brought him together with them.
The parents took that time to clear up the living room where Hyunjin had spent some time painting while Felix and Jisung watched The Nightmare Before Christmas and Seungmin played Connect 4 with Chan.
"Ready for my family to come?", Changbin asked.
"For your family, yes. For your evil nephew, no. I hope Joonyeon won't be mean to the kids. Last time he called Jisung a pig, stole Hyunjin hair bows and called him a sissy."
"I know, Hyung, I'm sorry about that."
"You don't have to apologize for him, it's just that I'm wondering when his terrible teenage years will be behind him."
Changbin's brother, Hanbin, arrived 1st, and Chan was thankful, since Hanbin immediately started to make dinner. As a professional cook, he always proposed to bring the food for events when he could take an evening off from work.
Then about half an hour later, it was time for Changbin's parents and grandmother to arrive with the two kids of his oldest brother (who would join later). The boy Joonyeon immediately joined the other kids in Minho's room while Haeyeon, his 5 years old little sister stayed in the living room with the adults.
A bit later Changbin sisters arrived with their partners and from there on, Chan called the kids in the living room so they could spend the evening together. While the adults started to pile around the table, the kids stayed on the couches where Seyoung explained the rules of Mafia to the others.
It quickly got loud and Hyunjin started to become antsy. He didn't want to play and sit anymore and started running around the table with Haeyeon and Jeongin.
After a while Chan interrupted his race. He was clearly trying to stim by running around but it became clear when he also started flapping his hands that it wasn't working. Chan forced him to go upstairs to calm down after he overheard Joonyeon call his kid a weirdo, Chan wanted to say something but had to bite his tongue not to.
Once in Hyunjin's room, Chan dug out a pair of noise canceling headset and a chewy necklace from the desk drawer and fixed it on the kid. Hyunjin took some time to stop running around and calm down but after 10 minutes the kid was sitting on the bean bag, playing with the zipper of his onesie costume.
"You're doing good, Prince. Is your costume itchy?"
"Is soft."
"Appa took off the tag for you."
"It smells good."
"Yeah I washed everything after you tried it."
"Thank you."
Once the kid was completely calm they went back downstairs. Chan didn't expect to see what he did but he was glad he heard it all so no one could accuse his son.
Minho had just punched his cousin right in the nose and Joonyeon was whining as his nose bled. Next to them Felix was crying.
"Minho!", Changbin called while Chan went to check on Yongbok.
"He deserves it! He deserves it!"
Changbin's sister, Dabin immediately brought her nephew to the washroom to stop the bleeding while Changbin's mother started to scold Minho for what he did.
"Eommoni, eommoni, he did it for Felix.", Chan finally said loudly over the chattering. "I heard what Joonyeon said.
Chan processed to put his hands over Felix's ears so he didn't have to hear that again.
"He asked Felix if he was dressed as Pikachu because his brain was fried from short circuit-ing. Minho simply acted to defend his brother."
Minho nodded and his friends all started to talk one over the other to explain with their words what happened and to call out the older boy that had mocked each of their costumes.
Dabin came back with Joonyeon about 10 minutes later, the teen's nose wasn't bleeding anymore but his t-shirt was stained with blood.
"It's alright, it's not broken.", Dabin, who also happens to be a nurse, said.
"Minho is crazy!", Joonyeon complained.
"No he's not and you're rude and mean.", their great grandmother said. "I'll talk to your father when he arrives! Just know you're in trouble."
The rest of the evening was less eventful, as Minho expected, he'd gotten a scolding from his uncle for hurting Joonyeon when the man arrived but Joonyeon got an even bigger scolding and wasn't allowed to leave the table for the rest of the evening so Minho was still glad in the end.
The food was on the table by 8.30 and they ate altogether, chatting and laughing. It was great to have some family time. It was also loud to have family time, much louder than usual (and trust me, in a family of 8 it was always loud at the table).
Minho was glad to have his friends there with him, it had been a wonderful afternoon. He could only hope his cousin's shitty behavior didn't scare them away too much.
Not so long after the meal the kids were called at the table again, this time for the second round of birthday cakes of the day. Of course Chan was video calling his parents for them to participate from afar. And Changbin was taking pictures and videos. They liked to make a big deal out of birthdays especially for the kids that didn't have the right to birthday parties before they arrived at their house.
After they were done the grandmas and aunties started cleaning up despite Chan insisting that they didn't need to. Changbin's older brother, Jaebin, left just after the cake with his wife and his 2 kids.
Yoojin, Soojin and Seyoung were picked up by their parents around 10 while Minsoo and Jungwoo were staying to sleep.
By now, Jeongin had fallen asleep in their uncle Hanbin's arms but the other kids were totally hyper with sugar rush.
The fathers asked them to go get ready for bed no matter what and by midnight everyone that needed to go back home had left and all the kids were piled in Minho's bed.
As soon as they were ready Changbin started Detective Pikachu on the projector in Minho's room. When the movie was done almost every kid was sleeping and Minho's best friend Jungwoo was rolled in a ball, drooling on Minho's pillow.
Chan and Changbin slowly moved the younger kids back to their own beds and when they went to kiss Minho goodnight the boy was reluctant in front of his friends so they didn't insist.
Little did they know that Minho would come into their room to kiss them goodnight when it was time for them to go to sleep.
"Thank you for today, I love you.", he said as he tiptoed his way back to his bedroom.