Blog

Once upon a time, there was a small house in a little town in the middle of South Korea that held a small, happy family.  In it lived two tiny twins called Joonie and Hobi, their parents, Jin and Yeong, and Jin’s father, Yoongi.

Now, most would agree that this was the perfect little family.  Yeong sure thought so.  She was happy with her two little boys and her husband.  But she wasn’t so happy with their location.  She’d wanted to move to the United States for years.  And her wish was granted one snowy day when the twins were six.

Once they were in America, however, she wasn’t so happy.  Only a little over a year after they had settled, she found out that she was carrying another set of twins.  And she was not ready for two more babies.  Joonie and Hobi were hard enough to take care of.

When their second set of twins entered the world four months later, Jin was certain his family was complete.  And for the next few months, with two tiny twins and two jumpy little boys, Jin and Yeong had their hands full.

But soon after, their life was flipped upside down when Yeong announced that she was once again pregnant.  Jin could tell she was beyond scared.  She’d recently taken Jin’s place in working because taking care of four boys day and night had been too much for her.  And now they were about to add another baby to the mix.

Two weeks after their tiny fifth son had entered the world, she cracked under the pressure and left.  Left Jin and the boys.  All she left them with was a note.  A note…and divorce papers.  Ones that she had already signed.

Jin brokenheartedly signed them as well and turned them over to an attorney.  Then, he went on with his life.  He couldn’t afford to mope around.  He had five little boys to take care of now.  He needed a job.

That had all been nearly four years ago now.  His tiny baby wasn’t so tiny anymore.  He was turning four in a few months.  And Jin had told himself it was ok to move on from his ex-wife.  He was now happily dating Chaeha Jung, who had been the younger twins’ preschool teacher from the previous year.

The boys all adored her, even the older twins, who were turning fourteen today.

Jin couldn’t believe his two oldest babies were teenagers already.  He could still remember the day they were born.  Even that day, Jin could already see their personalities starting to come out.

——————–

He could remember tiny little Hobi grinning up at him as he held him for the first time.  Then the tiny baby had drifted into a peaceful sleep in his appa’s arms.

Joonie had simply stared up at Jin with his squinty little eyes.  It appeared the tiny boy had been trying to study him.  But soon enough his eyes had been exhausted, and he had also fallen asleep.

——————–

Jin could also vividly remember Hobi’s first steps and Joonie’s first word.  They had happened on the same day, in fact.  Hobi had waddled his way around the table, clinging to it for support.  Then he’d bravely let go of the table and made a few steps towards Jin before falling onto his bottom and giggling.

Then Joonie had made an exclamation after watching Hobi fall. “Appa!” He turned to Jin, his small eyes widening.  Jin’s eyes had widened as well.

“You two did it!  Hobi’s first steps and Joonie’s first word on the same day!”

Hobi had grinned up at Jin and clapped.  The he had crawled over to the chair Jin was sitting in and attempted to pull himself up onto it.  Jin picked him up and sat him on his lap, so Joonie also found his way over to the chair and waited for his appa to lift him up as well.

——————–

Then Jin remembered their first day at preschool.  Hobi had been dancing around the room with his backpack, very excited to be meeting his new classmates.

Joonie had been trying to arrange his crayons in color order before they left, which Jin wouldn’t let him do.  Joonie had cried the whole car ride to school because of this.  But once they’d arrived at school and the preschool teacher had promised he could sort his crayons in class, he cheered up.

——————–

Jin could vividly remember the day they boarded a plane for America.  Joonie had been excited to see new things.  Hobi had been scared of flying.  Joonie had sat in the window seat and stared out the window the whole flight, and Hobi had sat on the end seat and clung to Jin’s hand for dear life.  They had both enjoyed the snacks and the toys they’d gotten, though.  And they’d both enjoyed the road trip to the place that they now called home.

——————–

A few weeks after Minnie and Tae had been born, Jin had found the older twins in the babies’ room watching them sleep.  Well, actually they’d taken both boys out of their crib and were each holding one of them.  Hobi and Joonie looked so happy to have two babies in the house.  And the little twins had been contently asleep in their arms.

——————–

Some memories were more painful than others.  Jin could still remember the two boys crying when he broke the news to them that their mother had left.  That day had been a terrible day.  Kookie had only been two weeks old, and the younger twins hadn’t even been two yet.

——————–

“Joonie…wan’ eomma.”

“Eomma’s not here right now, Minnie.”

Jin had watched as tears poured down both boys’ faces.  Their mother leaving had been tough on all of them, even Kookie.

Things were better now.  Much better.  And today, they were celebrating Hobi and Joon’s birthday by going to the trampoline park.  Kookie was wide awake at six am that morning bouncing around the house.  They weren’t leaving until eleven, so this was quite early.  And everyone else wanted to sleep in.

Everyone else got up around eight, and Jin made waffles for breakfast.  As always, Tae wanted peanut butter on his, and Jimin wanted jam on his.  Once everyone had eaten, they teamed up to clean the kitchen before all splitting off to do their own things for the next house.

Around ten, Jin started rounding everyone up to get ready to go.  The boys generally goofed around for a while, so Jin always told them to start getting ready early.

They were all ready about ten minutes before they were supposed to leave, but Jin figured better early than late.  Not to mention getting all three younger boys in the car and buckled was quite the task.  Today, all the boys were excited to go to the trampoline park though, so getting them in the car was far easier than usual.  They managed to leave the house five minutes ahead of schedule.

——————–

Everyone was out of the car almost the second after Jin parked it.  They were all excited to bounce around on the floor of trampolines.  Jin bought them all tickets and sent them off.  Chaeha and Yoongi were supposed to be here soon.

Hobi and Joon decided they wanted to play dodgeball, and of course, the younger twins wanted to join them.  There were quite a few other kids the older twins’ age in the dodgeball court, but they seemed willing to play with a few younger kids.

Kookie sat on the sidelines while everyone else was hurling balls at each other.  He was hesitant to enter the court.  He didn’t want to get hit.

“Kookie, do you want to come throw a ball?” Joon asked.  They were about to start a new round.

Kookie stared up at him out of two, wide eyes before nodding and wandering out to stand with his two oldest brothers.  The next round started, and the other team was oddly generous while playing against them.  It was clear no one wanted to hit the toddler by accident.

But of course, like any game of dodgeball, someone did get hit.  In the face.  Hard.  The entire court froze as a piercing cry sounded.  Hobi rushed over to Tae.

“Are you ok?”

Tae looked up at Hobi through wide, teary eyes.  Hobi winced.  Tae’s lip was busted and bleeding.

“Oh, dear…let’s go see Appa, ok?”

Hobi picked Tae up and left the court to go find their dad.  And Joon decided he, Jimin, and Kookie needed to go find something else to do.

“Thanks for letting us play,” he told the other boys before leading his two remaining brothers to the other side of the park.

——————–

Meanwhile, Jin was examining Tae’s lip as the little boy cried.

“Where does it hurt, Tae-Tae?”

Tae set his finger on the most swollen part of his lip. “Here.  It hurts a lot…”

“Do you want to go keep playing with your brothers?”

Tae shook his head.

Jin turned to Hobi. “You can go back out.  I’ll bring him back over to you guys if he wants to play again.”

Hobi nodded and headed back towards the trampolines.  Joon, Jimin, and Kookie had gathered in the younger kids’ area.  Joon was lifting Kookie up, helping him to throw the basketball he was holding into the hoop.  Kookie grinned and clapped his hands as the ball fell through the net.

“Can I try?” Jimin asked.

Hobi ran up behind him and scooped him up.  Jimin giggled.

“Go grab a ball and I’ll help you.” Hobi set him back down.  Jimin ran to grab a ball before returning to Hobi.  Then Hobi lifted him up to help him throw the ball into the hoop.  After about five minutes of Jimin and Kookie taking turns throwing the balls in the hoop, they got bored and wanted to go do something else.

They spent the next half an hour just bouncing around on the smaller trampolines.  A few of the trampolines extended up the side of the wall at a slant.  And Kookie decided he wanted to climb on of them.  This turned out not to be a very good idea.  He slipped halfway up and went sliding down.  That wouldn’t have been so bad, but Jimin was standing right below him, so Kookie slid right into him, knocking him over.  Their heads bonked together, and they both burst into tears.

Joon and Hobi both shared a collective sigh.  At this rate, they’d probably be leaving soon.  They took both boys over to Jin.  Tae was sound asleep on Jin’s lap, and Chaeha and Yoongi were both sitting at the table with them.

“Did these two get hurt too?” Jin asked.

“Kookie slid down one of the slanted trampolines and crashed into Jimin.  And then they banged their heads together,” Hobi explained.

Jin sighed. “Well, we only have about half an hour more on the passes.  Do you want to go play for a little longer or get pizza now?”

“Definitely pizza now.” Joon said.  Hobi nodded in agreement.

——————–

Jin decided the best course of action would be to just go get the pizza by himself and take it back to the house, so he met Yoongi and Chaeha at the house, dropped the kids off, and went back to get pizza.  Thankfully, it only took about twenty minutes, so he was back at the house half an hour later.

When Jin got back to the house, Tae was napping on the couch, Chaeha was helping Jimin read a book, Yoongi was playing blocks with Kookie, and Joon and Hobi were playing on their Xbox.

“Pizza time!” Jin announced.  Almost immediately, all four of the conscious boys were up and running out to the kitchen, followed by two slower adults.  Jin set out the pizza and a pile of plates before heading out to the living room to wake Tae.

“Tae-Tae, wake up.  It’s lunch time.”

Tae pouted and opened his eyes. “But lip hurts, Appa…”

“I know, baby.  But if you eat lunch then I can put some ointment on your lip, and it will feel better.  Ok?”

Tae nodded and sat up before holding his arms out to Jin.  Jin chuckled and picked him up before taking him out to the kitchen.

After lunch was over, Jin took Tae to the bathroom to take care of his lip.  Then, it was time to open gifts.

Jin set a cube-shaped box in front of Hobi and Joon. “This present is for both of you to share, so open it together.”

Moments later, all the paper had been torn off of the cardboard box and Jin had tossed them a pair of scissors.  Hobi cut the tape off the box and Joon pulled the flaps back on it.  They looked at each other with wide eyes.

“You bought us a Switch?” Hobi asked incredulously.

Joon pulled out three more wrapped gifts. “And these are games, I’m guessing?”

“No, those are definitely chocolate bars,” Jin replied sarcastically.

Hobi and Joon chuckled. “Thank you, Appa,” they replied simultaneously.

And that day was definitely one very happy birthday.  (If you count out the injuries.)