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Jin decided he didn’t need an alarm anymore as Kookie pounced on his bed at seven am sharp.

“Appa!  It’s time to go to the beach!”

“Mmm, no.  Go back to sleep.  We’ll leave in two hours.”

Kookie flopped onto the bed next to Jin. “But I wanna goooo.”

“That’s nice.  Appa is still tired.”

Kookie climbed off the bed and left the room, so Jin assumed he’d won.  But then he heard a crash in the other room.  He sighed and climbed out of bed to see what was up.  He found Kookie standing near the counter looking down at the cereal he’d spilled everywhere.

“Oh, no.  It’s a big mess,” Kookie said in a mock tone of surprise.  He looked up at Jin with wide eyes.  Jin sighed.

“Clean it up, Kookie.”

Kookie pouted but began to pick up the cereal.  Jin sighed.  It was only seven am, but he could already tell today was going to be a long day.

——————–

Two hours later, Jin was helping all three boys put on sunscreen.  Kookie was trying to put it on all by himself, and Tae was whining that Jin was taking too long with helping Jimin.

Hobi came walking towards the car. “Appa, how many snacks should I bring?”

“As many as you can,” Jin responded without looking up. “You know how fast your brothers can go through those.”

Jin looked up just in time to see Kookie dump a blob of sunscreen on his arm.  It was enough to cover at least two of him.  Jin sighed.  It looked like he was going to have a lot of patience today.

“Kookie, wait a moment.  Let me help you.”

“I wanna do it myself!” Kookie exclaimed.

Jin sighed again.  He finished putting Jimin’s sunscreen on before turning towards Kookie.  He ran his hand through the blob of sunscreen before turning to Tae and wiping it down his arm.

“Hey!  That’s mine!”

“It was way too much for you.” Jin picked up the bottle of sunscreen and threw it in the back of the car before Kookie could touch it again.  Kookie pouted.

“Hobi, you and Joon both have your towels, right?” Jin asked.

“Yup!”

“Can you look in the back of the car and double check that I grabbed all four of the towels for me and the boys?”

Hobi dug through the bag of stuff Jin had packed for the beach. “Yeah, they’re all here.”

“Ok, good.  Yesterday I gave your grandpa the pack of water bottles I bought.  Can you go get them from your room?”

Hobi nodded and was about to turn back towards the hotel when Jin added, “oh and have Joon grab all the portable chargers.”

——————–

The beach wasn’t as fun as Jin remembered it being.  Then again, last time he’d seen a beach he’d only had two six-year-olds to chase around.  Today he was constantly looking around to make sure every single one of his kids was in his sight.  Hobi and Joon were old enough to take care of themselves at least, but still, Jin wanted to make sure he knew where they were.

The little boys were currently all splashing around in the shallower water.  Jin had told them they couldn’t go out farther than the water that was mid-thigh height on them.  He didn’t want anything bad to happen.  He was hoping they’d tire of this and want to go build sandcastles soon.

“Hey, boys!  You want to come build sandcastle with us?” Chaeha hollered at them.

That got all three of the boys out of the water.  Jin followed behind them.  Hobi was sitting on the ground digging a tunnel in the sand when they met.  Kookie knelt down next to him.

“Ooo!  Can we build a big sandcastle?”

“Sure,” Hobi replied, patting his brother on the head.

Half an hour later, their sandcastle was pretty big.  Well, it was more like a bunch of walls made of sand.  Joon was packing some more sand onto one of the walls when Tae started whining.

“I’m hot.”

Hobi stood up. “Ok, let’s go over to Appa.”

Jin had had the good idea to bring an umbrella along with them in case anyone needed a break from the sun.  Tae ran up to him and hugged his leg.  Jin looked up at Hobi for an explanation.

“He said he’s hot,” Hobi explained.

Jin bent down and picked Tae up. “You’re hot?”

Tae nodded and leaned his head on Jin’s shoulder.  Jin reached up and felt his forehead.  He felt warm, but Jin couldn’t tell if it was from the sun or not.

“Should I go get the boys to start packing up?” Hobi asked.

Jin nodded. “We’ve been out here long enough, and if Tae’s feeling bad, someone else might start feeling bad soon as well.”

Kookie didn’t take this news well.  He started throwing a fit when Hobi told him they had to leave.  He threw a fit all the way to the car and as Hobi tried to wrestle him into his seat.

“Hey, Kookie.  There’s an ice cream shop near the hotel.  How about we walk there after we drop everyone off?” Chaeha offered.

“I wanna go!” Jimin exclaimed.

“Actually, how about we go get ice cream right now?” Jin asked.  He pulled out his phone. “There’s an ice cream place about five minutes from here.”

“Yeah!” Kookie’s grin was back almost instantly, and the adults all sighed in relief.

Ten minutes later, they were all sitting in the ice cream shop eating ice cream.  Kookie was inhaling his mint chip cone as Jimin watched.  Jimin was slowly taking bites of his chocolate ice cream.  Tae was about ten seconds from falling asleep every time Jin gave him a bite of ice cream.  Jin was hoping it would help cool Tae down.

“Kookie, is your ice cream good?” Chaeha asked.

Kookie looked up with wide eyes and nodded. “It’s yummy!”

She laughed and pinched his cheek before turning to Jimin. “How about you, Minnie?  Are you enjoying your ice cream?”

He nodded in response, his cheeks stuffed at the moment.

“What should we do this afternoon?  Do you guys want to swim in the pool?”

“Yes!” Kookie exclaimed.

——————–

That afternoon, Chaeha and Yoongi took the older twins, Jimin, and Kookie to the pool.  The four boys splashed around in the water while Chaeha and Yoongi watched them from the chairs.

“You know, I think the boys have really gotten attached to you,” Yoongi commented.

“They have?”

“Definitely.  Especially Kookie.  The first day he met you, he wouldn’t stop talking about you when Jin brought him to my house.”

Chaeha smiled. “Well, that’s good, because I’ve been getting attached to them too.”

“You know, I think Jin didn’t think he’d ever be able to find someone who wanted to date him and loved his kids too.”

“Really?  Who wouldn’t love them?  They’re all such dolls.”

Yoongi laughed. “I suppose they are.”