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Xia was missing her partner-in-crime because he was napping. So now she was left to get into trouble by herself. Well, not purposefully in trouble. She was just a curious little kid. She was staring at the Christmas tree when she suddenly jumped up and ran across the room. She stared up at a specific ornament before deciding to climb the tree.
That proved to be a bad idea as she tumbled backwards off the tree, consequentially hitting her head on the floor. She ran out to the kitchen crying in an attempt to find Tae. She ran straight into his leg as she burst into the kitchen, making her cry harder. Tae scooped her up off the floor.
“What’s wrong, bear?”
She sniffled and buried her face in his shoulder before letting out a wail. Tae sighed and took her out to the living room. Namji was now silently stacking blocks on the floor. Where had everyone else gone?
Tae sat down on the couch and settled Xia on his lap, cradling her against his chest until she calmed down. Then he repeated his question from earlier. Her response came slowly.
“F-fell off t-tree…”
“You fell off the tree?”
She nodded.
“Were you climbing the tree?”
Another nod.
“Bear…”
Xia’s bottom lip quivered as tears threatened to spill again. Tae sighed and patted her back.
“You’re not supposed to be climbing the tree, baby.”
She just whimpered and buried her face in his chest again.
——————–
Ireun stared down at Hyunjun. He was trying to climb the chair she was sitting on. Having triplets was chaos. There were always three little humans that she had to keep an eye on, and now that they were all crawling it was a lot worse. Hojin was silently sitting on her lap playing with a toy, and Hyungmin was…crawling out of the kitchen. Great. She looked around the kitchen for anyone to help her. Yumi was elbow-deep in dish water, Aeja was mixing gravy so it didn’t burn to the bottom of the pan, and Xun was nursing Taemin.
“Xun, can you watch Hyunjun? Hyungmin is on his way to the living room.”
Xun laughed and nodded. “Sure.”
Ireun jumped out of her chair and carried Hojin to the living room in search of Hyungmin. She found her bouncy middle son giggling and grinning as Namji and Xia handed him blocks.
“Were you looking for Hyungmin?” Tae asked when he noticed Ireun.
She nodded. “He crawled out of the kitchen before I could stop him!”
Tae laughed. “You can leave him out here if you want. He’s not causing any trouble, and I’d imagine you have your hands full watching all three of them by yourself.”
Ireun smiled. “That would be wonderful. Thank you, Tae.”
Oh boy triplets! What was Jin thinking Inviting ALL of them at the same time?