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"Would you rather have 5 Ruis or baby Rui for a week?"
"Alright everyone... 3, 2, 1, answer!" Everyone said the same thing except Hyun. They all wanted baby Rui, and he wanted 5 Ruis. However, Hyun realized how much of a bad decision that was and switched over to baby Rui. Honestly, 5 Ruis would be absolute chaos.
Hyun's birthday live ended about a half an hour later, but it felt like only 5 minutes went by. It was a lot of fun talking with all the EVOLs and Hyun was in such a good mood (thankfully, since it's their birthday).
They still had dance practice until late in the evening, but that didn't stop Wumuti from treating Hyun to his favorite place for dinner. And of course, she had to treat the others as well.
Back at the dorm, everyone almost passed out from how tired they were. Rui was the first to shower and immediately fell asleep, which was unusual since she typically needs Wumuti to borderline smack her as she keeps waking them up. Wumuti went to his room and gently pressed the back of their hand to his forehead. He's fine. They just worry too much.
—
The next morning, Wumuti woke up to Haru softly patting his shoulder. Wumuti let out a heavy "hmm?" without moving much.
"Um, sorry for waking you up this early Muti-hyung, but we kinda have a problem," Haru whispered in his ear.
"Hm, what problem?" Wumuti still didn't feel like waking up.
"Um, so... don't freak out, but Rui-hyung is kinda, well, a baby."
"A what?"
"A baby."
"Haru, are you sure you're not dreaming?"
"I slapped myself and it hurt so... no."
"Well, then maybe I'm the one dreaming," Muti closed their eyes again. She was just about to doze off when she heard-
"OMYGOODNESS HARU WHY IS THERE A BABY ON RUI-HYUNG'S BED?!"
This must be the craziest and loudest, most realistic-sounding dream Wumuti has ever had.
"OMYGOSH IS THAT YOU RUI-HYUNG?!"
Haru really tried to convince Wumuti again to please wake up when-
"WAAAH!!"
Woah.
That sounded like a real baby.
Wumuti had enough. If this was a prank, all three of them would not be sleeping at the dorm tonight.
Wumuti stopped dead in their tracks as they reached the last step. Across the living room, next to Haru's bed, there’s a Hyun. Next to him, a very fussy baby getting tears and snot all over Rui's beautiful pink blanket.
"See, I wasn't lying," Haru said while hiding behind Wumuti.
"Muti-hyung! Please help! I really didn't mean to walk in here but I just got up to pee and I saw the door wide open and I came to check andomygoshthere'sababyonthebed!"
Wumuti shushed Hyun and he immediately covered his mouth in guilt. She slowly stepped closer into the room.
The baby really does look like Rui.
Wumuti stepped a little closer to the bed and kneeled down on the cold wood floor. She hesitated at first but slowly wrapped the naked baby in Rui's pjs, which were on the bed, and awkwardly picked them up.
Meanwhile Hyun and Haru just watched wordlessly from a distance. Both also started to question if they were dreaming.
"I swear kids if this was all a prank-"
"It's not Muti-hyung, we're just as shocked as you are," Haru answered as she looked at the baby.
If this was really not a prank, Wumuti started thinking.
"This must've been from yesterday’s live, right?" Wumuti bounced the baby slightly as they kept wriggling in a tantrum.
"Maybe, but Muti-hyung, is Rui-hyung really that baby? Like really really that baby?" Hyun looked at Wumuti, then at the baby, then at Wumuti again.
"I guess so. We just have to figure out how to reverse this and get them back."
"How do we do that?" Haru stepped a little closer.
"I don't know, but there must be a way." The baby started calming down and Wumuti could finally hold them right.
"What do we do now?"
There was a moment of pause as they let reality sink in.
"We need to feed Rui some breakfast and get them baby clothes," Wumuti said.
"Feed? Do we have to go to the store and get some baby food? And shop for some clothes too?" Hyun was getting worried about this being a permanent thing.
"Yeah, let's go," Wumuti said as she left the room.
—
It hadn’t really settled in for Wumuti yet. He was walking on the street, baby in arms, Hyun and Haru following behind like little ducklings. It was weird not having Rui around. Well, he’s still here, he’s just… a baby. Nobody’s cracking jokes or being silly for no reason. It was just silence. Was it too early to say that Wumuti already missed him?
They walked into the convenience store and Rui started squirming again. She was getting uncomfortable in the makeshift sling Wumuti had made out of his blanket. They went to get whatever baby food was available, some baby essentials, and quickly left for the next store. Wumuti’s back was starting to strain.
There was nobody in the baby store. Only one clerk who looked at them confused but welcomed them nonetheless. Wumuti didn’t know what kind of clothes Rui needed to wear. It was hot in Korea, but cold at night, especially in the dorm.
They did notice one thing though, there were almost no gender neutral options here. All the pink clothes were frilly with laces that might itch and all the “boy” clothes had no life in them. They chose simple pajamas for now, with little pink and red hearts which matched Wumuti’s nails, and checked out.
The sun was fully out and beating them down on the way back. They had to stop by a bus station because Rui started crying again, making quite the scene as he tried to wriggle out of Wumuti's grip. Thankfully no one was in there so they could all cool down a bit while Wumuti tried feeding Rui some water.
“Hyung, how long do you think Rui-hyung will stay like this?” Haru asked quietly.
“I don’t know Haru. Wait- didn’t the question say 5 Ruis or baby Rui for a week?”
“I think so.”
Wumuti looked down at Rui’s red little face.
“Maybe he’s gonna stay like this for a week.”
“Oh dear, I hope not. What about our comeback and dance practices and-”
“It’s okay Hyun. It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.” In reality, Wumuti also didn’t know what to do. They were on a tight schedule with recording their new songs and preparing for the next tour. However, Wumuti trusted her members. She trusted their production team and staff. She trusted future Wumuti to have everything under control. Present Wumuti only needed to focus on taking care of this unexpected baby while hoping she goes back to normal soon. It’ll be fine.