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“Tae-Tae, Minnie, time to get up.  You have to get ready for school.”

Jimin sat up. “School?”

“Yeah, baby.  You start school today.”

Jimin grinned and rubbed his eyes before rolling out of bed.  Tae was still cuddled in the blankets.

“Tae-Tae.” Jin shook the bundle of blankets gently. “You need to get up.”

“Dun’ wanna go to school, Appa.”

Jin frowned. “Why not?”

“Cause I wanna stay with you n’ Kookie…”

“Baby, I have work today and Kookie is going to Grandpa Yoonie’s.” Jin pulled back the blankets and scooped Tae up. “C’mon.  Time to go get ready.  You can’t let Minnie go by himself, can you?”

Tae continued to whine as Jin helped him get ready for the day.  He whined as Jin took him out of his diaper.  When Jin pulled his shirt over his head.  When Jin helped him put on his pants.  Even as Jin was cooking waffles Tae was sitting at the table whining.  Jimin and Kookie were in the other room playing.  But Tae didn’t want to play.

“Appaaaaa dun’ wanna go to school!  Juju and Seokie say is’ no fun!”

“Juju and Seokie go to big boy school.  They have to do homework.  You’re still a little boy, so you get to do fun things at school.”

Tae pouted as he watched Jin cook.  He was sure school would be no fun.  His older brothers didn’t like it, so why would he?

Twenty minutes later as they all piled into the car, Tae was fighting getting buckled in.  He was throwing a fit, in fact.

“Nooooo dun’ wanna gooooo!” Tears streamed down his face as he wiggled around in his car seat.

“Tae-Tae is’ gonna be fun!” Jimin exclaimed. “We get to have snacks and color and play!”

Tae shook his head. “Dun’ wanna goooooooo!” he wailed.

“Tae-Tae no cry.  Minnie say have fun!” Kookie exclaimed.

That calmed Tae down a bit.  But tears continued to spill down his cheeks as he pouted.  Jin successfully got them all buckled in, and they were off to school.

Fifteen minutes later Jin was attempting to corral his boys and get them inside.  Tae was crying again and clinging to his stuffed tiger.  Jimin was attempting to unbuckle his seatbelt as he babbled away about how excited he was.  And Kookie was chattering away to his stuffed bunny.

Jin pulled Jimin out of the car first.  Once Jimin had his backpack and his stuffed elephant, Jin unbuckled Tae.  Jin tried to set him on his feet on the pavement, but Tae was refusing to stand.  So instead Jin set him on the floor of the car and unbuckled Kookie.  Once Kookie was out of his car seat, Jin picked him up and scooped Tae up off the floor.

“Minnie, can you close the door?”

Jimin stood on his tiptoes and clicked the button to close the car door.  Then Jin led him inside the school, still carrying Tae and Kookie.  The second they were inside, Kookie was trying to wiggle his way out of Jin’s arm.  Jin set him on the ground.

“Stay here, Kookie, ok?”

But Kookie had already run in the direction of the door to the classroom.  Jin sighed.  He was about to turn his attention to Tae when a voice caught his attention.

“Hello there.  What’s your name?”

Jin looked down to see a woman squatting next to Jimin.  Her dark brown hair brushed her shoulders a bit, the top half of it being pulled up into a short ponytail at the top of her head.

“I’m Jimin!” he turned and pointed up at Jin. “This is Appa and Tae-Tae.”

“Is Tae-Tae your brother?”

“Yep!  He’s my twin!”

“Oh, I see.”

“’n Kookie is over there.” Jimin pointed towards the classroom, where Kookie was attempting to climb the door.

“Ah,” the woman chuckled and went to scoop the small toddler up before he injured himself.  She carried him back over to Jin.

“Hi there.  I’m Ms. Jung.  I’m assuming you’re Mr. Kim?”

“That’s me.” Jin nodded. “Tae, can you say hi to Ms. Jung?”

Tae turned his head away from Jin’s shoulder. “Hi…”

“You’re gonna stay with Ms. Jung today, ok, Tae-Tae?”

Tae seemed to have calmed down after meeting his teacher.  He nodded slowly. “Can put down, Appa?”

Jin lowered him to floor and squatted down next to him. “You’re gonna have fun today, I promise.  I’ll be back at four to get you and Minnie, ok?”

Tae nodded again and sniffled. “Ok…”

Jin stood and took Kookie from Ms. Jung. “You silly, I told you to stay here.”

Kookie giggled.

Jin looked up at Ms. Jung. “It was nice to meet you.  I hope my boys don’t give you too much trouble.”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine.  They seem like two little sweethearts.” She reached out and booped Kookie on the nose. “This one too.”

After telling his boys goodbye one last time, Jin headed out the door and towards the car.  He had half an hour to get Kookie to his dad’s house and get to work.

——————–

Eight hours later, Jin returned for Tae and Jimin.

“Appa look!  I drew tiger for you!” Tae held up his drawing to Jin.  It looked more like a bunch of orange ovals and triangles, but Jin smiled.

“Wow!  It looks so good, Tae-Tae!”

Tae grinned up at him.

“Did you have fun today?”

Tae nodded. “Ms. Jung taught me how to write my name!” Tae pointed to the corner of his picture. “See?”

Jin nodded.  He’d never really had the time to teach them that. “Oh, very nice!  Which hand did you use?”

“I use my left hand like you said!”

“Good boy.” Jin smiled, patting Tae’s head. “Where’s Minnie?”

“Minnie putting his stuff in his backpack!” Tae grabbed Jin’s hand and dragged him over to the table Jimin was sitting at.  He was trying to cram his crayons into his box the wrong way.

“Can I help you, Minnie?”

Jimin pouted and nodded, handing the box and the crayons to Jin.  Jin quickly placed all the crayons in the box correctly and closed it before handing it back to Jimin.

“Are you two ready to go?”

Two tiny heads nodded.

“Ok.  Finish packing up while I go talk to Ms. Jung, ok?”

“Mr. Kim, do you know what darlings your boys are?  One of the kids spilled juice everywhere today, and while I was getting supplies to clean it up the two of them attempted to clean it up with their napkins!”

Jin chuckled. “Oh really?  Well I’m glad they didn’t give you any trouble today.  I had trouble getting Tae into the car because he didn’t want to come.”

“Ah.  Well, he wouldn’t be the first.”

“Appa!  Is time to go!” Jimin exclaimed.

“All right, all right.  Let’s go.” Jin made sure both of them were holding his hands before he headed outside with them.

“Are you guys excited for tonight?” Jin asked as he helped them buckle in.  They were going to give barbecuing a go tonight.  Jin hadn’t tried it himself since they’d moved to America six years ago.

In all honesty he’d been shocked that the boys’ teacher was also Korean.  He’d rarely met anyone who was also an immigrant, though maybe Ms. Jung had been born here.

The only reason they hadn’t stayed in South Korea was because his wife had been wanting to move here since before they were even engaged.  They’d finally been able to move when Joonie and Hobi were six.

He still wasn’t quite sure why she’d left, though.  But he knew she’d never been good with kids.  Even Joonie and Hobi had been a bit too much for her.  Then they’d had Jimin and Tae, and she’d been overwhelmed trying to raise them.  Two months after the tiny twins had been born, she’d asked Jin if she could work and he could stay home.

And then Kookie had been born a year later.  And she’d left only two weeks after.  Jin had woken up one morning to Kookie wailing in his ear.  Which was pretty normal.  Kookie usually woke Jin up in the mornings.

But on that particular morning when Jin had headed out to the kitchen to find a bottle for Kookie, he’d found a note taped to the fridge.

“I’m sorry, Jin, it’s too much.  I can’t handle raising five kids, even with your help.  I was never a good mother to them anyway.  You guys are better off without me.

-Yeong”

Jin had spent the whole day crying and pondering how to break the news to Joonie and Hobi.  Yeong hadn’t been the greatest mother to them, but she had still been a good one.

Jin had called his appa that day and told him what had happened.  And Yoongi had dropped everything to move back to where Jin lived.  He’d moved with them when they’d originally moved, but he’d decided to travel the country two years after they’d moved.

“Appa?”

Jin blinked and looked down at Tae.

“Why cryin’, Appa?”

“Oh…nothing, baby.” He smiled at Tae and closed the door after making sure Tae was secure in his car seat.  Maybe one day they could finally have a mom again.