Work Text:
Does anyone else agree with the universal fact that mathematics isn't as easy as it looks?
If you are to argue, you have to face this thirteen years old boy first.
"This isn't adding up."
Changbin groans, slamming his head on the table, his worksheets and printouts spread all around him. The boy shook his head, wanting to give up.
His mother always help him with school and studies, but right now he doesn't want to be a bother because he knew that the other one is already busy enough with taking care of the three of them as uncle Min and auntie Min left Yongbok at their house.
It's double the duty for Hyunjin since Jisung is busy with office as well, taking care of the house in the absence of the kids' father.
Jisung is always there to help Changbin along with the woman, well, whenever he's home, but usually those helping hands ends up with both of them going to Hyunjin for help. So, better ask mother before anyone else.
When left alone with the worksheets, Changbin is sure at first that he'll complete it without anyone's help, but in the end you'll see him whining and glaring at the papers.
Again, who invented all these difficult formulas and labeled them as the easy ways to do the work?
Hyunjin glanced at her son while stuffing a few folded clothes into her elder son's side of wardrobe, then to the two smaller kids playing on the bed.
Chan and Yongbok occupied Changbin's bed, along with their books and pencil cases. Chan is busy doing his math homeworks as well, Yongbok playing with her colour pencils set. Seungmin left the girl in Hyunjin's care half an hour ago, as he was busy with work and her mother was out of the town for some errands where she can't tag the little girl along.
"What about the equations?" Hyunjin asks causally, taking the empty basket into her hands. "The one to find the number of angles?"
Changbin makes an 'ahh' sound and turns to the book, biting down his lower lip. His face soon lits up, correctly answering the last problem of his worksheets.
Hyunjin smiles, shaking her head as she placed a hand over her son's hair to ruffle it affectionately.
"Stick to the basics Bin. Maths is easy."
Changbin would never agree.
But one thing is sure, he's done for the evening. Changbin glances at the new gaming console, then turning to his mother with pleading eyes and Hyunjin nodded as an approval, making the boy squeal in happiness.
Almost two hours of war with mathematics, he indeed deserve some break. As he was arranging his study table, he heard his mother's footsteps leaving the room and a small shuffle behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw his brother there with his school book.
Changbin frowns and raised his chin as a question and Chan spread the book on his brother's table, him on his tiptoe. The little one fiddled with his pencil that looks new and points at a number.
It's addition. And Chan's having trouble.
"What is it Chan? If you don't tell, i can't help." Changbin says, hurried as he was busy to go play. But no matter how busy he is, he'll never ignore his brother.
Changbin sees himself in Chan, his younger version, who followed Seungmin around when he was a toddler thinking the older was his elder brother and he really loved his big brother, who turned out to be his uncle as he grew up.
Chan points at the numbers again. "Help." He mumbles. He was waiting for his big brother to finish his studies like mom said, to ask for a little help to do his own homeworks.
"Chan is not as good as Binnie." The little boy says, rubbing Changbin's ego unknowingly.
Changbin pursed his lips. "It's easy. How can you not-" He sighs, his mother's voice echoing.
"Stick to the basics Channie. Maths is easy."
Changbin smirks, shrugging his shoulder in a proud manner. He then takes Chan's book into his hands, taking the boy with him to sit on the bed.
Yongbok looks up from her coloring book, where she painted a crow pink just because she does what she wants. The girl is now interested in what her cousins are upto, abandoning her half done pink crow.
"Look." Changbin began, pushing the book to Chan, taking another pencil. "This says sixty four plus twenty eight."
Yongbok looks at her big brother to Chan, then back at Changbin again because she didn’t quite understand what was happening. The older shuffled a bit to accommodate Yongbok between, the girl sitting between the book and her elder cousin.
No matter the situations, Yongbok loves hanging out with her cousins.
"We take four and eight. That makes?" Changbin asks and Chan counts with his fingers, stopping at ten, then drawing a line on his book, then another one to go for two.
"Twelve."
"Good. So we write two here and give this one to..." Changbin pauses, scribbling the number down. "Here. Now add."
Chan followed the same procedure, counting slowly. Yongbok looks back up at Changbin and the boy nods at her, internally confirming that this one right here is one of the hardest subjects she got to face in near future.
Chan after taking his time, came up with the answer. "Eight."
"What about the reminder?" Changbin points at the number that he wrote not too far from the actual numbers.
"Nine." Chan was fast to reply and the boy looks proud. "Ninety two."
"That's my good boy." Changbin says patting the boy on his shoulder and Yongbok pouts.
"Bokkie knows numbers." The girl pipes up, her voice sharp. She sat up straight, puffing her chest out, placing her arms on either side of her hips. "Bookie knows a lot."
"Oh yeah?" Changbin says, lifting the girl up to place her next to him. Yongbok nods excited and lifts her fingers, a frown forming on her brows.
"One, two, three, four-" Yongbok is counting by lifting her tiny fingers one by one, then taking Chan's fingers to go when she needed more than ten, making him lay his palm flat on the comforters. Chan followed his cousin's steps and counts with her, just like what he does in his maths class sessions.
After Yongbok is done at twenty, the brothers looked at each other and Changbin is impressed at the girl's memory at the age of three.
"Bokkie do meths."
"Maths."
"Meths."
Changbin held his urge to roll his eyes. Instead, he pursed his lips into a thin line, watching as Chan gave his book to his cousin. Yongbok took it into her lap, her legs folded as she turned the pages to get one she found appealing, a fresh one.
Changbin wrote two ones on the page and Yongbok's eyes are on the older, asking about next.
"Add one and one then." The boy says and Yongbok frowns glancing at the numbers.
"One and one?" She repeats and Chan raised two fingers, slowly up in the air, already coming up with the answer.
"No cheating." Changbin warns and Chan held his arms back, looking down nervously.
Yongbok scribbled something on the page, showing it to Changbin and the male scoffed at the answer.
"How did you even-"
"Bokkie show." Yongbok says and gave the boys a serious look. She grabbed her colour pencil, getting on her knees to shuffle closer to the older male.
Changbin is interested now, invested more than that he was about to on his games, because Yongbok seems serious with doing maths and he wanted to see what the girl is upto with a little grin spread across his face.
"Look." Yongbok urged the boy's attention, drawing a straight line.
"One." The girl says and draws another, that's too long to be a one and together, the digits now looks like-
"Eleven."
Changbin snorts in amusement. "So one plus one is eleven?" He asked and the girl nods, her eyes sparkling. Changbin shook his head as he took his index finger, facing the girl.
"See, one plus one." He says adding the middle one as well. "One, two. It's two." He says and Yongbok doesn't look convinced. She glances at Chan and the boy nodded his head taking his brother's side.
"No." Yongbok shook her head in a disapproving manner. "Bokkie knows meths." She says, crossing her arms on top of her chest, sulking.
Yongbok is a perfect mixture of her parents, kind of a scary accurate mixture of both of them. She was sarcastic and protective like her father, but at the same time, she is intimidating, well in a three years old's way, and determined to prove her point right like her mother.
But most of the time, Yongbok is exactly like her mother. Both by looks and attitude.
The girl snatched Chan's book again, her eyes fixed on the numbers and signs. She made a tiny huff and made her mind, drawing a line, then another and takes the book in to her hands, inspecting it carefully. It does look like an eleven. Then why's her brothers not agreeing?
Chan stared at his brother silently asking another help, to get the book back from the girl before she tear it out of anger.
"Bokkie, give it back to Channie." Changbin says authoritatively and Yongbok glares at the boy, hugging the book as if the man's words did nothing on her.
"Bokkie do meth." She says and Chan looks worried about his homework book. He moves to get Yongbok's colouring book and hands it to her, an attempt to get his school book back.
"Boys." Yongbok calls, then she placed a finger on her chin, remembering what her auntie said just earlier. "Ahh. Meth is easy."
"Not you too." Changbin busted into a bout of laughs, adjusting his reading glasses. Yongbok covered her face behind her hands, joining the older in process but Chan isn't. He's more concerned about his homeworks, and the book that's under threat, well, means under the girl's custody.
"Bokkie, you draw. Channie will do maths." Chan tries, nervously and Yongbok's eyes turns to him, her brows knitted.
"No one tells Bokkie." She says with fire in her eyes as she held the book away from her cousin's reach and Chan's focused on the safety of his book than himself.
"Bokkie does-"
"-What she wants. Yeah, we know that." Changbin fills, suppressing his smile. Not understanding the joke, the girl grinned all the way up to her ears and Chan giggled, absolutely catching his brother's sarcasm.
The older slowly leaned, taking the book from Yongbok, sneakily giving it to the boy's waiting hands.
"So tell me Bokkie, one plus one gives?"
"Eleven."
Why is this evening so long?
"Done with the homeworks?" Hyunjin asks, watching the trio walking into the garden, Yongbok running to come first before the boys. The woman scooped the girl up, placing her on the mini round table, her legs dangling off the wood.
Changbin nods and Chan extends his arms out, asking to be lifted and the woman did what the kid wants, the boy making his seat near Yongbok.
Hyunjin looked at her elder child, watching him taking the vegetable pots to arrange them, following his mother's steps.
"I thought i said yes to video games?" Hyunjin asks amused and Changbin shook his head with a smile, glancing at the two kids on top of the table, mumbling about something serious.
Well, at the girl who does all the talking and the boy who's assigned to be the one listening.
"We did more problems. Together." Changbin says, taking the pot from Hyunjin, that he assumed is of tomatoes. Placing it near the other pots, he calls for Yongbok. "Right Bokkie? We did maths right?
Yongbok's head snaps up and she nodded happily. "Yes. Bokkie help Channie and Binnie." The girl says clapping her hands and Hyunjin laughed, stepping closer to the little one.
After removing her gloves, Hyunjin leaned down, to give a kiss on her cheek, Yongbok giggling.
"That's my good girl." Hyunjin proudly says, even though she's unaware of what exactly happened after she left the room. Changbin joins, placing an arm around his brother's shoulders, Chan leaning into the older's hold. The older boy looked at his mother, with a small satisfied smile across his face.
"It's true." Changbin began, laughing a bit when he felt three pairs of eyes on him. Hyunjin tilted her head and glancing at her, Yongbok did the same, mimicking her aunt. Changbin shook his head at the little girl and turned to his mother again.
"If we stick to the basics, maths is always easy."