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It was December.  Jin’s least favorite month.  Sure, he loved Christmas.  But December always meant being busy 24/7.  Not only did they have Christmas, which the company he worked for liked to exploit, but he also had both his birthday and the younger twins’.

“Appa.”

“Yes, Tae?”

“Guess what.”

“What?”

Tae grinned. “Me and Minnie are going to be seven tomorrow!”

Seven.  They were going to be seven.  How were they so old?  It felt like they were born just yesterday.  And then they were two energetic toddlers learning how to walk and talk.  And then two little boys on the way to their first day of preschool.  And now they were turning seven.

“Appa,” Tae whined.

“What is it, Tae?”

“Are you excited?”

“What?”

“We get to go play laser tag tomorrow!”

“That we are.  You’re excited, huh?”

“Yup!  Xander said it’s soooo much fun!”

“I’m sure you’ll have fun.  Why don’t you go play with your brothers now?  I need to finish work.”

“Ok!”

Time to go back to his long report about Christmas sales.

——————–

Thankfully, this year the twins’ birthday fell on a Saturday.  That meant they didn’t have to squeeze a party into their crazy schedule during the week.

They were meeting the rest of their group at the arcade around three.  Tae and Jimin had invited four of their friends, Xander, JoJo, Tyler, and Kyra.  Xander was bringing his younger brother Luke so Kookie would have someone to hang out with.  Then Jin had to figure out how to cram seven little kids in his house that evening for cake.

No one else had arrived when Jin got to the arcade with his clan, so he gave everyone a dollar to spend on tokens.

“Taaeeeee!” the semi-silence of the arcade was broken as a boy with floppy brown hair ran across the arcade.

“Alexander!  Wait for your brother!” Xander had already reached Tae by the time his mother called after him.

“Can’t you bring him over?”

A minute later, a tall woman with a baby carrier on her arm met them.  A tiny blonde boy was holding onto her other hand.

“Lukey!” Kookie exclaimed, forgetting his game as he ran to greet his best friend. “See, Appa?  Isn’t baby Ella sooo cute?”

Jin laughed. “Yes, baby Ella is cute.”

Xander and Luke had been their neighbors for a long time.  Jin had never realized there were two little boys around Tae, Jimin, and Kookie’s ages living in that house, though.

One day during the spring Tae had come marching inside with a boy a little taller than him.

“Appa, this is Xander.  He lives next door.  Can he eat dinner with us?”

Xander was a year older than the twins, but they didn’t care.  Luke was a few months younger than Kookie, so the two of them got along well.  They’d also ended up at the same kindergarten.  Now both Xander and Luke were frequent guests at their house.

Soon enough, the other three guests had arrived, and they were all jumping at the bit to play laser tag.  Jin had already decided he wasn’t going to let Kookie and Luke play, so it was just the six kids plus Hobi and Joon.

Once everyone had on a vest, they were ready to play.  They were split up into teams so that each team had three younger kids and a teenager.  Tae, Xander, Kyra, and Hobi made one team while Jimin, JoJo, Tyler, and Joon made the other.

The game started off fast.  Nearly the moment the game started, Kyra shot Tyler’s vest.  This made Tyler chase her through the entire game room.

“Do you see anyone?” Tae whispered to Xander as the two of them hid behind one of the strategically placed walls.

“Joon is over behind that wall over there,” Xander replied, pointing to a wall a few feet from them.

“Tyler’s coming!  Hide!”

The two of them ducked down and huddled together while they waited for their opponent to show up.  Tae jumped out just in time to shoot Tyler’s vest.

“Why am I everyone’s target?” Tyler whined.  Tae just laughed and ran off after Xander.

Jimin jumped out from behind another wall and shot both Tae and Xander’s vests.

“Ha!  Gotcha!”

“That’s not fair!” Tae exclaimed and chased after his twin.

JoJo jumped out to help Jimin in his escape from Tae and Xander.  Eventually, the two of them gave up the chase and went to find Joon.

——————–

“Is it cheating if we just sit here the whole game?” Hobi asked as he joined Joon behind one of the walls. “Because really I feel like our height gives us an unfair advantage over these kids.”

“I’ve been sitting here the whole time just waiting for someone to come shoot me.  No one seems to have realized I’m here yet.  It would be a lot more fun if I had someone to chase me.”

Hobi smiled and held up his laser shooter. “I’ll chase you.”

That got Joon on his feet.  Hobi chased him all the way to the other side of the room.  A few of the younger kids had jumped out to shoot their vests as they ran past.

“We should play laser tag with first graders more often!” Joon told Hobi as they ran around.

“I doubt Appa will bring us here more than once a year,” Hobi laughed.

By the end of the game, everyone was wiped out.  Tae’s team won, but it was only because of the amount of times Tyler had been shot.

“Tyler, how did you get shot twenty-eight times?” Jimin asked, incredulous. “Were you not hiding?”

“We were supposed to hide?  No one told me that!”

“That’s what the walls were for!” JoJo exclaimed.

Jimin laughed. “It’s ok.  It’s just a game.  The point was to have fun, not to win.”

——————–

The car ride home was quite ridiculous.  Jin and Chaeha had both brought their cars so they had room for all the kids.  They had exactly enough seats to fit everyone.  It was a bit of a tight squeeze because of how many kids had to use boosters, though.  Chaeha took Joon, Jimin, and Jimin’s two buddies home with her.  Jin took everyone else since he had the minivan.

“Have you guys seen those speed cubes?” Tyler asked on the ride home. “They’re so cool.  My brother got some for his birthday, but he won’t let me use them.”

“Joon has one of those,” Jimin replied. “I can’t figure it out.  It’s so hard.  He can do it in ten seconds, though.”

“Fidget spinners are cooler.” JoJo pulled one out of his pocket and spun it. “My sister says they belong in 2018, but I think we should keep using them.”

Jimin nodded. “Hobi gave me and Tae his last year.  He bought like five of them, so we have a lot.”

“Really?  Five?  That’s so many!”

“I know, right?”

“What kind of cake are we eating?” Tyler asked.

“I think Appa made a chocolate cake and a strawberry cake.  Tae and I couldn’t agree on what flavor we wanted.”

“Does that mean we get two pieces of cake?” JoJo asked.

“I don’t think so.  There’s a lot of us.”

Jin beat Chaeha home, so everyone was waiting when they got back.

“Appa bought us party hats!” Tae informed Jimin the moment he walked in the door.  Tae slid the hat he was holding onto Jimin’s head before Jimin could even take his shoes off. “He also ordered us pizza.  He said he has to buy four pizzas because Joon and Hobi will both eat one.”

“No, they won’t!  They don’t eat that much pizza!”

“I think Appa was joking, Min,” Joon told him, patting him on the head.  Jimin swatted his hand away.

“Where do we put the presents?” JoJo asked loudly enough for the neighbors to hear.

“Just put them on the table,” Jin hollered back.

“Ok!”

Jimin rubbed his ear. “Don’t be so loud, JoJo!”

——————–

Everyone but Xander and Luke were gone by five-thirty.  Tae wanted Xander to stay and play Animal Crossing with him, and Kookie and Luke were playing with some of the boys’ LEGOs.

Jimin pulled out the stash of candy that JoJo had bought them. “Anybody want a Reese’s?”

“Me!” Tae exclaimed.

Jimin tossed him the piece of candy.

“He bought you guys so much candy!  For my birthday, he got me a plastic sword,” Xander sighed.

“Plastic swords are cool though,” Tae commented with a mouth full of candy.

“Not as cool as candy.”

“Xander, your mom wants you and Luke to head home now,” Jin informed him.

“Aw, man!  It’s so early!” Xander got up and walked down the hall. “Luke!  It’s time to go!”

“I’ll walk them home,” Chaeha offered, pulling her shoes on.

Luke was sitting on the ground putting his shoes on a moment later.

“I’ll come over in the morning, ok, Tae?” Xander asked as he slipped his feet into his own shoes.

“Ok!  See you in the morning!”

Jin smiled.  It was nice to see the younger boys making friends.  They hadn’t had friends for the longest time.  But now they did, and it was nice to see that they’d found good friends.