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Whap!  Jin can hear the sound of pool noodles slapping each other as the boys use them to sword fight in the basement.  He still hasn’t decided if it was a good idea or a bad one.  On one hand, the boys are preoccupied with their fight.  On the other hand, someone could get hurt.

Living in the new house was something everyone was used to now.  The entire upstairs had finally been painted, and Xander and Luke came over every weekend now.  They’d even stay the night some weekends.  Jin usually had to pop into the bedroom to remind them to go to sleep, though.

This weekend was different.  Xander wanted the twins to stay at his house this weekend.  Jin could tell Jimin was hesitant to go.  He always seemed more like a third wheel around Tae and Xander.  It did make sense.  Tae was the outgoing twin, while Jimin liked to silently do his own thing.  Xander was equally as loud as Tae, so when the three of them were together, Tae and Xander did all the talking.

“Can I pleeaaassee go, Appa?” Tae begged as Jin made lunch.

“Are you going to behave yourself?”

“Yes,” Tae groaned.

“Are you still going to want to go if Jimin doesn’t go?”

Tae pouted. “Yes.  I wanna go over to Xander’s house.”

“All right.  Go pack a bag.  You need a change of clothes and a toothbrush.”

Tae grinned and ran off down the hall.  Jin sighed.  It was going to be odd not having one of his kids in the house tonight.

——————–

“Mom said there’s a way to tell them apart, but I don’t remember,” Xander told Tae as they watched the fish swim around in their aquarium. “Luke said we should just name them all ‘Fish’ we don’t accidently call them by the wrong name.”

“Ta.”

Xander and Tae looked down.  Xander’s younger sister Ella was gripping the table with one hand to keep herself up.  She was holding her other hand up to Tae.

“Bock.”

Tae grinned and took the block. “Thanks, Ella!”

The little toddler’s face split in a grin before she let go of the table and crawled away.

“She’s so silly.  She keeps giving blocks to everyone who comes over,” Xander shook his head.

“I know.  She gave me one last time I was here.”

Just then, they heard a knock at the door.  Then the doorbell rang a second later.

“Luke, do not open the door!  I’ll be there in a minute!” Xander’s mom yelled from the kitchen.

A minute later, a boy with olive skin came marching into the living room, his curly black hair flopping on his head.

“Tae!  You’re here?  Is Jimin with you?”

“No.  He wanted to stay home today.”

“JoJo, didn’t you come over to see me?  Why are you asking about Jimin?” Xander asked.

“Because I was just wondering if Jimin is here.  Do you guys still have the ping pong table?”

“Yeah.  If we’re gonna play with it we have to sneak downstairs, though.  Luke keeps hiding the balls so Dad said he can’t play with it anymore.”

“Well how are we going to do that?  If we leave the living room, Luke is definitely going to follow us.”

——————–

Tae wandered into the kitchen.

“What’re you making, Mrs. Johnson?”

“Macaroni and cheese.  I figured you guys would like that for dinner.”

“Ooo!  That sounds yummy!”

“Are you having fun with Xander and JoJo?”

“Yep!  Thanks for letting me stay the night!”

“Of course, Tae, you can come over anytime.”

Tae looked down at the 5-year-old who’d followed him into the kitchen.

“What’re you doing, Luke?”

“Gonna color.”

“Oh, that’s cool.  What are you going to color?”

“A treehouse.”

Tae nodded, glancing back towards the living room where Xander was trying to get Ella away from the baby gate that blocked off the stairs.

“What color are you gonna make the treehouse?”

“Um…” Luke puffed his cheeks out. “Blue and red.”

“Cool!  Have fun!” Tae marched out of the room to join his two friends in sneaking down to the basement.

“Look at the new balls we got!  These ones are blue!” Xander exclaimed as he showed Tae and JoJo the ping pong balls.

“Those are cool!” JoJo responded as he pulled one out of the box.  He grabbed a paddle and hit it across the table. “Did you guys see the new Xbox Tyler and his brother got?  Tyler invited me over to play with it, but his brother keeps hogging it.”

“When did they get that?  Last time I saw Tyler, he was saying how he was sad they didn’t have a console.” Tae said.

“I think it was his brother’s birthday present,” JoJo shrugged. “I dunno.”

“Oh, Tae!  Kyra’s baby brother was born last week!” Xander informed him.

“Really?” Tae asked.

“Yeah.  She said it’s no fun because her parents don’t pay attention to her anymore.  She said he’s super cute though, so she doesn’t care.”

“I asked her to go to the park with me yesterday, but she said no,” JoJo sighed. “I hope we get to see her again soon.”

——————–

“I miss Tae-Tae.” Kookie frowned.  He was half-heartedly playing Animal Crossing with Jimin.

“Tae’s coming back tomorrow,” Jimin told him.

“I wanna play with him now!” Kookie kicked his legs.

“Is it bedtime already?” Chaeha asked as she entered the living room.

Kookie pouted. “No.”

“Are you having fun playing with Jimin?”

“No.  Animal Crossing is boring.”

“Why don’t you go play with your cars then?”

“Because I don’t wanna.”

Chaeha sighed. “Kook, you can’t sit around sulking all night.  Tae won’t be home till tomorrow, so there’s no point in wasting the next hour whining about it.”

Kookie huffed and jumped off the couch, tossing his controller onto it before wandering out of the room.

Jimin stared after him. “Why doesn’t he want to hang out with me?  Am I no fun?” His shoulders dropped. “Everyone always wants to hang out with Tae….”

“Aw, Minnie, that’s not true.  JoJo likes to hang out with you, right?  And I’m sure Kookie is just mad that you’re playing Animal Crossing.  He thinks it’s boring, remember?”

Jimin sighed and exited out of his game. “Yeah…just like me.  I’m boring.” He pouted.

“Minnie, come here.” Chaeha patted her lap.

“I’m not a baby anymore.”

She bent down and pulled him up onto her lap. “Look at me.”

Jimin begrudgingly met her eyes.

“You and Tae are two different people.  He’s very loud and talkative, and you’re quiet and like to stay in the background.  I think people just gravitate towards Tae because he’s loud.  There’s nothing wrong with being quiet, Minnie.  You know that, right?”

Jimin nodded. “But Tae doesn’t like to hang out with me anymore either…he’s always playing with Xander.”

“Well, Tae likes to explore new things.  He’s only known Xander for about a year, so I think Tae is enjoying getting to know him.  You like getting to know JoJo when he comes over, right?”

Jimin nodded.

“Well, the same goes for Tae and Xander.  I know it’s easy to feel left out because Xander is around so often, and I’m sorry JoJo can’t come over more often, buddy.  It stinks that we moved right after you guys started to become friends.”

Jimin just sat there, frowning.

“How about this, I’ll text JoJo’s mom tomorrow and see if he wants to come over.  I can pick him up when I go to get Tae.”

“Ok…”

“Now, how about you go find Kookie and ask him if he wants to play cars with you?  I’m sure he’d like someone to play with him.”

Jimin laughed. “Ok, I’ll go find him.”

——————–

Tae stood in front of Xander’s window, leaning against the windowsill as he started outside.  It was nearing midnight now.  Xander had fallen asleep a long time ago, but Tae wanted to go home.  He was missing cuddling Jimin and Kookie to sleep.  Jin and Chaeha hadn’t been there tonight to tuck him into bed.

He sniffled as tears started to pour down his face.  The stars were starting to turn into little blobs as his vision blurred.  He didn’t know what to do.  He didn’t want to wake anybody up, but he really wanted to go home.

“Tae?  Where are you?” Xander asked groggily, clearly more than half asleep.

“I’m here…” Tae mumbled lamely, still leaning on the windowsill.

“Oh, ok…aren’t you going to sleep?”

Tae stayed silent for a moment, tears still making their way down his cheeks. “Yeah…”

“It’s one.  Come sleep.”

Tae tugged the curtains shut and made his way back to the bed.  He crawled into bed and pulled the covers up over himself.

“Are you ok?” Xander asked, still sounding somewhat asleep.

“I wanna go home…” Tae admitted in a small voice.

“Oh…I could go get my mom and have her call your dad?”

“No…it’s ok.”

“Ok….”

It wasn’t long before Xander was fast asleep again.  Tae let himself start crying again once Xander was asleep.  Soon enough, the tears exhausted him, and he fell asleep as well.

——————–

“Tae, wake up, your mom is here to pick you up.”

Tae opened one eye.  Xander was standing above him, shaking him awake.

“What…?”

“Your mom is here.”

Tae sat up. “Already?”

“Yeah?  It’s past eleven.”

Tae jumped out of bed and dug through his backpack.

“I’ll go tell her you’re changing.” Xander marched out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Tae pouted as he tugged his shirt over his head.  Last night had been no fun at all.  It hadn’t been like when Xander stayed at his house.  At home, it felt normal.  Every night Appa would put them in bed at night and kiss their foreheads and tell them goodnight, and Tae would fall asleep cuddled up with his two brothers.  He liked that.  Going to bed with just Xander last night had been weird.

When he entered the living room, Chaeha was talking with Xander’s mom.

“Why don’t you go jump in the car, Tae?  I’ll be out there in a minute.  We’re gonna pick JoJo up on our way home.”

Tae just nodded and headed for the car after saying a quick goodbye to Xander.  Chaeha joined him a minute later.

“Did you have fun, Tae?”

Tae pouted. “Yesterday was fun, but I missed home.”

“Oh, you did?”

“Yeah.  I wanted to go home.”

“Oh, sweetie, you should’ve told someone.  Appa and I would’ve come and gotten you.”

“I know…I didn’t want to wake anybody up.”

“Well, if it happens again, please tell Xander’s mom and ask her to call me, ok?”

Tae nodded.

Nearly the moment they pulled into JoJo’s driveway, the 7-year-old came running out the front door.  He pulled the backdoor of the car open and grinned at Tae.

“Hi there.  Did you miss me?”

“We saw each other last night.”

“So, you didn’t miss me, then?  You’re so mean.”

Tae sighed and stared out the window.

“Did you have fun at Xander’s last night?  I haven’t stayed at his house since January.”

“It was ok…” Tae mumbled.

“Did his cat bother you?  That thing is so ginormous!  It almost flattened me the first time I went over there!”

“His cat is fine.”

“Huh.  Maybe she just doesn’t like me.”

Tae nodded.

“Hey, Mrs. Kim, what are we having for lunch?”

“I was thinking we could order some pizza.  Hobi and Joon are having a few friends over to celebrate school being over, and I am not about to cook for twelve of us.”

“Pizza sounds good!  I haven’t had that in a while!”

“What kind do you like?”

“Um, I’ll eat anything.  My favorite is pepperoni, though!”

“I’ll make sure to order some, then.”

——————–

That evening, Jin was surprised when Tae crawled up onto his lap.  The little boy wrapped his arms around Jin and buried his face in his chest.

“Hey, Tae, what’s up?”

“I missed you.”

Jin rubbed his back. “You did?  Did you not have fun at Xander’s?”

Tae shook his head. “Wanted to come home…”

“Oh, I see.  Maybe we should just invite Xander over here from now on, how’s that?”

Tae nodded. “Ok…”

Jin smiled.  Tae hadn’t done this in a while.  He’d used to climb up into Jin’s lap all the time when he’d been younger, but since he turned six, he’d seemed to have decided he wanted to be a big boy.  Which meant no sitting in appa’s lap anymore, apparently.

“Tae?”

Jin looked down to find Tae fast asleep.  Jin smiled.  Maybe his boys weren’t growing up so fast after all.