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Junseo adjusted his grip on the steering wheel, all while side-eyeing the three teenagers currently lounging in the backseat. Sanghyeon had his head halfway out the window like an eager golden retriever, while in the middle Anxin sat with his trusted purple bag on his lap and was fiddling with his hoodie strings like they were some kind of advanced origami. Meanwhile, on the leftmost corner Woojin sat with the energy of someone who's currently stuck in a purgatory.
All in all, the three look either exhausted, excited, or everything in between. Well, it's the first day of the school year, no one can blame the kids for being like this. Which is why, as the eldest, he tried to start a conversation in hope to break the ice—only to blurt out the most awkward and painfully basic question to ever exist.
“So,” Junseo asked, “how was your first day at school?”
To his credit, though, that question immediately grabbed the three's attention from whatever mini-quest they've been doing the past few minutes.
“It went well!” Anxin, like the sweetheart he is, answered first. His tone was so eager it was as if his social battery hadn’t drained even a single bit, the E in him continues to fuel his energy like an IV drip of pure sugar rush. "Class is kinda boring, but the surprise adopting during lunch break was fun!”
Junseo blinked. Did he just imagine the last part? Surely not, he's too young to get hearing problems, no matter how much Sanghyeon would like to point him out on his age. He's still perfectly fine. Thank you very much.
“I'm sorry, the surprise what?”
Oblivious to the tone of the question, Anxin repeated his answer with the same amount of excitement as he did with everything else in his life, “Surprise adoption!” He exclaimed, as if that simple sentence was just your average Tuesday activity and not something that guaranteed a police investigation.
Well, for these three, it may as well be a regular Tuesday stroll with how much chaos these three goblins brought. God help him, raising one hyperactive teenager wasn't enough and now he has two and one half as a bonus on his plate.
Hearing the answer, though, Junseo felt his brain buffering like when the Wi-Fi suddenly cuts off in the middle of streaming. Well… this definitely didn’t come from experience. Certainly not.
"What was that supposed to mean?”
Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, before Anxin could open his mouth to answer, the second youngest of the trio that sat beside him gripped his hand, stopping the brunet from saying anything. With a sigh, Woojin began to explain this ridiculous situation that may have become their daily routine at this point, "I think what he meant is—"
“We almost got kidnapped!” Again, like an ill-timed karma, Sanghyeon suddenly chirped, cutting the taller boy's words with a one-thousand-watt gummy smile that could melt even the hardest of hearts. And damn him if he's weak to that smile. Well, everybody does, so it's not him being at fault here.
But that answer was the last piece of puzzle that he needed to understand what the eldest of the trio meant earlier.
So, surprise adoption and kidnapping huh. Junseo nodded at the newfound information. “Ah, is that so? Thanks, Sanghyeonie,” He said with, let it be said, alarming calmness and composure. Because that's a perfectly normal activity between teenagers to do in their lunch break.
Right?
“No problem!” Sanghyeon beamed, unsuspecting of anything.
On the other hand, Woojin is clearly suspicious, he leaned toward the other two who already goes back to their respective side quests, and whispered, “Um, guys? Don't you think he’s being too calm about this?”
Anxin looked up from the absolute mess that is his hoodie strings which was going to be hell to untangle later, and answered, “Why wouldn't hyung be calm?” He asked, his voice was so genuine that Woojin hadn't had it in him to even let out a tired sigh. That's just the Anxin effect, you couldn't even get mad at him no matter how hard you try, that's just illegal.
Overhearing the answer, Sanghyeon lifted his gaze from where he was focusing on the window earlier before tilting his head with a puzzled expression. “Yeah, I don’t get why you’re making it a big deal, Woojinie. It was a fun experience!”
"Right! It's a part of our high school experience!" Anxin beamed, his dimples popped out as he thought of the adventure the three of them had earlier, completely unaware of the headache he was causing by his choice of words.
“That’s not how it works.” Woojin sighed for the umpteenth time, his tone exasperated, clearly done with babysitting the two of them despite him also being part of the extrovert gang and one of the youngest.
While the three of them are in the middle of conversing among themselves, Junseo’s brain, which is still half on autopilot, now suddenly came back online. When the dots finally connected, he slammed on the brakes, making the three in the back jolt forward as the tires screeched like a bad sound effect from a B tier horror movie.
“WAIT. The three of you almost got what???”
Woojin, already expecting this turn of event, muttered calmly. “Ah, here is it.”
“Surprise adopted!” Anxin, though, didn't get the memo and just repeated his answer proudly, as though he’d just won a lottery ticket for a lifetime's worth of ice cream with his name already written on the winner’s check.
Hearing this, Woojin, while being younger than the chinese boy, began to age for another five years. “For the last time, Hyung— that’s called kidnapping.”
“But he’s right!” Sanghyeon interjected, grinning happily like what he just said was completely reasonable. “We even got extra candies out of it!” He said as an afterthought, like it was something that will make the situation any better.
“And ice cream!” Anxin added enthusiastically, to nobody's surprise.
Besides him, Sanghyeon clasped his hands dreamily, his eyes gleamed as he imagined the cold delicacy. “The strawberry one was so good. Hyung, can we have more later?” He asked Junseo, which the latter is still frozen behind the steering wheel.
Before Woojin could interject, Anxin’s eyes mirrored the younger and his face lit like Christmas just came early. “We’re getting ice cream? I’m chocolate!”
Woojin thought that he should just give up at this point, which is why he just said in a resigned tone, “Guys, I don’t think this is the right time to say this. But… vanilla for me, please.”
Junseo opened his mouth, before closing it, then opened it again. “You know what? I don’t even want to know anymore. Let’s just go home.”
There was a beat of silence.
“...But the ice cream?” Sanghyeon asked, hope evident in his voice.
For a moment, Junseo briefly considered driving the car straight into a ditch. Then again, faking amnesia sounded better and is cheaper on car insurance and the future wellbeing of his monetary issues.
He's also sure his wallet would appreciate that after taking these three walking chaos into their desired place after a failed kidnapping—which he absolutely refuses to even think about before hitting sugar rush or a caffeine one—which is an ice cream shop.
God, please save him. He’s barely on his mid-twenties, still too young for white hair and midlife crisis.
"Ah, did we also tell you that the school thinks you're our adopted parents now?"
Forget that, maybe driving straight to a ditch might've been the better option after all.