Chapter Text
It was going to be a busy few weeks for Chan.
Jisung’s 7th birthday was in a few days so there were ongoing preparations for that, and then just a week later it would be Seungmin’s birthday. Well, that was what you signed up for when you had six kids.
It was after school and Chan was driving to pick the kids up before taking Seungmin to baseball practice and Minho to dance class.
Minho had only recently started to take dance classes at the local dance school after begging Chan for months on end. Chan hadn’t taken so long to agree because he didn’t want Minho to do something he enjoyed, in fact, it was quite the opposite. To Chan, it seemed like one day Minho asked and the next he had been signed up when in reality it had just completely slipped his mind. Minho may have held a slight grudge against Chan because of that, which was completely justified. It was just difficult to keep up with what six different kids were doing or wanted to do after school.
Once Seungmin and Minho were successfully dropped off, Chan was finally able to drive the other kids home.
As soon as they walked through the front door, Jisung dragged Chan over to the kitchen table so they could plan his birthday party. They had already given out invitations to all of Jisung’s friends at school at the start of that week so they didn’t need to do anything regarding guests apart from waiting for people to RSVP. Jisung just wanted to plan everything down to the finest of details.
And so they did.
Chan loved celebrating his kids’ birthdays. It was so much fun to watch them play the games he had played when he was little. His parents had made his birthdays so special when he was a kid, and he wanted to do the same.
Jisung had recently become obsessed with Despicable Me so was having a minion-themed party, which definitely hurt Chan’s soul a little bit but whatever made his kids happy. When Chan asked Jisung why he liked the Despicable Me movies so much, he had given the most adorable explanation possible.
“It’s because it’s like us. You were scary at first when we all came home but then you became super nice and now you’re my Appa.” Chan’s heart definitely melted a little bit there. “Oh, and also the minions speak funny and I like it,” Jisung added as an afterthought. It kind of ruined the sweetness of the moment but looking back on it, Chan just found it funny.
All of the party decorations had already been bought from the party store in town the previous weekend, so they didn’t need to worry about that before the party day thankfully.
After about half an hour of planning, Jisung seemed to get bored. He jumped down from the kitchen table and ran upstairs with no explanation, although he was presumably going to play with the others in Changbin’s room. Chan chuckled as he put all of Jisung’s messy plans into a pile and placed them on the edge of the kitchen table.
Glancing at his phone, Chan saw that there was still about 20 minutes until he needed to leave to pick up Seungmin and Minho from their respective practices so he decided to go upstairs and see what the kids were doing.
As he reached the top of the stairs, giggles were coming from, just as Chan predicted, Changbin’s bedroom. It was one of the larger bedrooms that the kids had, so it made sense for them to store most of the toys in there. Of course, there were a few in all the kids’ bedrooms but more often than not they all played in Changbin’s room.
Chan pushed open the door to see all four of the kids playing with the train set Chan’s parents had gifted one of them the previous Christmas. They had built an elaborate track for the wooden train with different stops along it. One kid was at each stop while Jeongin moved the train along the track. Chan watched quietly from the door as Jeongin moved the train, with sound effects and all, towards Changbin’s stop.
“Hello there, Mr Train Driver,” Changbin said in a posh voice. “What can I help you with today?”
“Hmm,” Jeongin replied in a silly voice, which caused Jisung and Hyunjin to burst out laughing. “I’d like three fish please.”
“Three fish?! But Mr Train Driver, I only have two fish left!”
“Three fish or I will report you to the Queen on the next stop!” Jeongin giggled evilly.
“Please don’t do that! I can’t have the Queen knowing!” Changbin said, rummaging through his toy food basket. “Will two fish and an orange do?”
“It will not! I will only accept three of your finest fish,” Jeongin said, sticking his nose in the air.
“The train is departing in 10 seconds,” Jisung said, imitating a radio.
“I must report this to the Queen now,” Jeongin told Changbin, rolling the train towards Hyunjin’s stop.
“Nooooooooo!” Changbin said, dramatically falling backwards before breaking out in giggles.
“Miss Queen,” Jeongin greeted when he stopped in front of Hyunjin. “The man at the shop just before this is refusing to sell me three fish! You must punish him!” Hyunjin gasped.
“Put him in jail! Immediately, he has to go to jail!” Hyunjin pointed at Changbin, who had sat back up.
“But–but Miss Queen, I can’t go to jail!”
“Why not?” Jeongin asked.
“Because I am in love with you!” Changbin replied. Jisung’s face screwed up.
“Binnie, that’s gross,” he whined. Changbin giggled, Chan himself unable to stop himself from chuckling. This caused all of the kids to be alerted to his presence.
“Appa!” Jeongin said, scrambling to his feet and jumping over the train tracks to wrap his arms around Chan’s legs.
“Hi there, Innie. Were you boys having fun?” All of the kids nodded.
“Appa, you should play with us!” Changbin suggested.
“Yes, yes, yes!” Hyunjin, Jisung, and Jeongin agreed. Jeongin then let go of Chan’s legs and dragged him over to the train tracks, giving him a stop and helping him set up.
They continued to play for a while, Chan’s stop being a waterpark for the train passengers to play on for a while before they went back on their journey. It was actually a lot of fun to just sit and play with his kids.
However, eventually, they did have to stop and go pick up Seungmin and Minho.
The kids were a little disgruntled about having to abandon their game but soon perked up when Chan told them that they could keep playing once they got home.
First, they went to pick up Seungmin from his baseball club as his practice finished before Minho’s dance lesson. The boy waved goodbye to his friends who were waiting with their coach when he saw Chan’s car pull up and ran over to the door, pulling it open with all of his might.
“How was practice, Minnie?” Chan asked, glancing at Seungmin in the rearview mirror to make sure he was all buckled in.
“Fun! Coach said that my pitching posture is getting way better!” Seungmin replied excitedly.
“That’s great, good job, buddy.”
Next, they drove towards the local dance school. Thankfully, Minho was waiting outside so Chan didn’t have to find a proper parking spot.
Before they knew it, they were driving back home.
Predictably, all of the kids ran back upstairs to play the moment they got home and Chan began to work on dinner.
Even if it wasn’t something exciting, Chan liked to have all of them sit together as they ate dinner. It gave everyone a chance to actually tell Chan about their day (as if they didn’t tell him every little detail on the drive home from school).
The next few days passed in a flash and before they knew it, it was the morning of Jisung’s birthday.
Chan was awoken extremely early because, of course, he couldn't sleep in, not on a day like today. Jisung was overflowing with energy as they walked downstairs. Correction: as Chan walked downstairs, Jisung more or less flung himself from the top step.
The morning was a flourish of opening presents and celebrations. It was adorable to see Jisung’s face light up with excitement every time he opened a gift. Chan had taken each of the kids out separately to the shops to get presents from them for Jisung and Seungmin so it was just easier overall. The rest of them had stayed with a friend of Chan’s during the day, which he was very grateful for.
For breakfast, they had a feast of pancakes and fruit. Chan even pulled out the ice cream to put on the pancakes because why not? They were celebrating a birthday here, so treats were definitely allowed.
Once breakfast was over, Chan had a couple of hours until the guests started arriving to prepare. There was quite a lot to do so he sent the kids upstairs to play while he sorted everything out downstairs.
Thankfully, nothing went too wrong and everything was set up in time.
Jisung had insisted on dressing up as a minion for his birthday, which Chan found pretty adorable. They already had some blue overalls and yellow t-shirts so all they had to buy were the goggles. They DIY’d the Gru logo on the pocket of the overalls and voila, Jisung was a little minion. It was so cute to see Jisung running around, a broad grin on his face as he showed everyone his costume.
There was a knock at the door and Jisung immediately leapt off the couch and skidded towards the shoe rack. Chan followed him, opening the door to reveal Jisung’s friend Sunwoo and his mum.
“Sunwoo!” Jisung cried when he recognised his friend. He reached forward and grabbed Sunwoo’s wrist before the two boys ran off together. Chan stayed at the door chatting with Sunwoo’s mum until the next kid arrived. Chan called down Jisung, who, along with Sunwoo, came racing down the stairs to greet their friend.
This went on for a little while until all of Jisung’s friends had arrived. Thankfully, there weren’t too many additions, only about five, because Jisung had filled up his invitation list with his brothers. Even when Chan had told him that the other kids wouldn’t count as he invited and he could ask more friends from school if he wanted, Jisung had flat out refused, saying that he didn’t want his brothers to feel as if he didn’t want them there. It was rather sweet.
Chan left the kids to play upstairs on their own for a while as he prepared the party food. It was a pretty standard selection, including some Australian staples such as fairy bread because you can’t have a birthday party without fairy bread.
As the kids got older, Chan got to have more and more fun with their birthday parties. Of course, he had fun with them when they were younger, but now he was able to individualise them more to each of their interests. It was also nice to meet the friends he heard so much about in person. So far, there hadn’t been any major tantrums from anyone for the past year or so of birthdays but that could always change.
Once all the food was set up on the kitchen table, Chan went upstairs and knocked on Jisung’s bedroom door. The chatter and giggles paused before Jisung called “Yeah?” Chan pushed the door open slightly, just enough so that he could stick his head in.
“Food is ready, come on downstairs.” The kids all scrambled to their feet, completely abandoning whatever it was they had been doing. Chan then walked across the landing and knocked on Minho’s bedroom door, telling him the same thing he had told the others.
Chan had all of the kids line up, Jisung at the front of the line, of course, so they could choose the party food they wanted. Sadly, no one but Chan’s own kids took any fairy bread, Jisung’s friends probably being too cautious of the unknown food to try any, just in case they didn’t like it. Oh well, Chan could probably sneak some. You can’t waste good fairy bread.
It was nice to just stand and watch as the kids ate and chatted in the living room. Chan didn’t particularly want to have to clean crumbs out of Jisung’s carpet for the next few weeks so made sure that all food stayed downstairs.
Even though Minho was quite a bit older than the other kids at the party, he still seemed to be having a good time. He hadn’t been playing with them earlier, preferring to read in his room instead, but Chan wasn’t going to force him to be around the younger kids if he didn’t want to. They were all seven or younger and Minho was almost nine, it would get a little irritating. Changbin was still roughly in their age range so was perfectly happy to stay and play with Jisung’s friends.
When everyone looked like they were done eating, Chan walked over to the living room and started taking some of the abandoned plates. Jeongin jumped to his feet and started helping, carrying two plates over with Chan.
“Thank you, Innie, that was very helpful, Chan told the boy, who beamed before hurrying back to his spot on the couch next to Seungmin.
Jisung then tried to get to his feet and lead the rest of the party back upstairs but Chan called over to him.
“Hey, guys, why don’t you stay down here for just a little bit longer so we can do cake and presents?” The kids hurried back over to the couch, excited by the prospect of cake.
Chan quickly lit the candles so as to not keep them waiting and carried the minion cake—that he definitely didn’t get from his friend who made cakes—over to the kids.
“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Jisung! Happy birthday to you!” Jisung took in a deep breath and blew out all seven candles in one go. Everyone cheered and clapped, Jisung grinning broadly.
Cake was delivered to all those that wanted it, which was the majority of the kids there, and even snuck a piece for himself. He needed the energy for the party games that would happen very soon.
Jisung then decided that it was time for presents, bringing the pile that had been sitting on the chest of drawers to one side of the living room and sitting them on the coffee table. He made himself comfortable on the floor before picking up the first present.
“No, don’t open that one yet, that one’s from me,” Jisung’s friend Haechan said. “I want you to open mine second.”
“Oh, okay,” Jisung replied, placing the present back on the table.
“Open my one first!” Yeji said, pointing out her present. Jisung grinned and picked it up, ripping off the paper to reveal a helicopter Lego set.
“Wow, Jisung, what do you say?” Chan prompted.
“Thanks, Yeji!” Jisung said happily, looking at every little detail on the box. Yeji looked over the moon that Jisung liked her present.
Next, Jisung picked up Haechan’s present, which turned out to be a little rock collection book.
“Look, Appa! It even has real rocks in the back!” Jisung exclaimed, lifting it up so that Chan could see the little divided section in the back.
“That’s really cool, Sungie!”
Soon enough, all the presents were open and the living room floor was covered in wrapping paper.
“You were pretty spoilt this year, weren’t you, Jisung?” Chan joked. Jisung giggled as he looked over his pile of presents.
Chan then gave the kids a choice of playing party games now or later. They discussed very seriously what they wanted to do and eventually decided that they wanted to play now before the first parents came to pick them up. Even though Chan reassured them that if they didn’t play them right that second they would still have plenty of time before the first parents showed up, they still chose to play them now.
They played the traditional games such as pass-the-parcel and musical statues, and even pin the tail on the unicorn—which was, of course, the unicorn from Despicable Me. It was all a little exhausting for Chan but the kids seemed to have fun and that was the most important part.
Once Chan was exhausted of all his party game knowledge, the kids went back upstairs to Jisung’s room to continue playing on their own for a while before the parents started to arrive.
However, Minho decided to stay downstairs with Chan as he started to clean up. As Chan began to take down the set-up for pin the tail on the donkey, Minho walked over and silently began to help him.
“You don’t have to help me, Min. You can go back upstairs and read if you don’t want to be with the younger kids,” Chan told him. Minho just shook his head and Chan understood that he was trying to say “I want to help”.
After that, the two of them cleaned up quietly together, Chan occasionally rambling on about something while Minho listened. Minho liked the stories Chan told, whatever they might be about. Sometimes they were about his time in Australia when he was a kid, sometimes they were just about stupid little things he did with his siblings. No matter which story Chan decided to tell, Minho was always the one to stay awake for the whole story—Chan usually told them as bedtime stories for the kids—and even requested for him to tell them again and again for just him.
When there was no longer stuff lying everywhere, Chan decided that it was clean enough for the time being. He could do a more thorough cleaning once all the kids were in bed that evening. Chan told Minho that they were done tidying for the time being and the boy nodded, heading up the stairs to presumably resume the book he had been reading.
Not long after that, the first knock at the door came.
One by one, Jisung’s friends were picked up by their parents, each receiving a party bag as they went. If he was being totally honest, Chan let out a little sigh of relief when he closed the door behind the last kid.
For the rest of the afternoon, Jisung decided that he just wanted to watch a movie, so watch a movie they did. Jisung chose from their collection of DVDs in the drawers under the TV, predictably picking the second Despicable Me movie.
It was honestly quite nice to have everyone cuddled up on the couch together, just watching the movie was as if they hadn’t seen it about 50 times before. Chan just enjoyed being with all of his kids, huddled up under blankets with Jeongin dozing off on his lap.
It was definitely an early night for everyone in the house that day, including Chan. He went around the bedrooms, tucking in everyone one by one and making sure to give them all a kiss on the forehead before he turned the light off.
He reached Jisung’s room last, taking extra care to tuck the boy in nice and warm.
“Did you have a good birthday, Sungie?” Chan asked, stroking Jisung’s hair. The boy nodded.
“It was…it was a good one,” he mumbled sleepily. Chan chuckled.
“I’m glad, buddy.” He placed a kiss on Jisung’s forehead and walked towards the door before flicking the light off and closing the door.
It was safe to say that Chan fell into bed not long after that.