ateez family au

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"Why does he take so long? It's cold!" Mingi whined and kicked a pebble with the tip of his foot.

"If your brother learned to shut his mouth and not pick fights with the teachers he would be out already," Yuqi replied and sat on the table tennis table, next to Yeosang and San who were sharing a hot pack. She reached for her own in her pocket an actived it. The clear liquid turned white and sold in seconds, warmed her cold hands comfortably. The elder looked to the boy jumping from one spot to the other, warming his hands with his breath. "Don't you have one too?"

"I used it this morning, it's cold again..." Mingi gave back and pressed his lips in a line, smiling forced.

"Oh," Yuqi gave back and patted next to her on the table, "come here, use mine."

Both Yeosang's and San's eyes switched to their younger brother. While San contained himself, it was Yeosang smirking and wiggling his brows slightly. "No it's fine!" Mingi gave back, laughing nervously and wove the suggestion away. "It's not even that cold!" he said, not feeling the tips of his fingers anymore.

"Is stubbornness some kind of gene in your family?" Yuqi asked Yeosang with a risen brow. She huffed and patted on the spot next to her again, this time louder, more demanding than before. "Come on, your fingers are going to fall off. Yunho is going to take a while."

It was annoying, he didn't even mean it like that. For Mingi, his brother's friend was just a really pretty girl, there was nothing, not a crush, surely not a crush. Yet his elder twin brothers just liked to pick on him, every single time they were together with Yuqi. There was no escape to their teasing, and once they got home, they would tell the rest of his siblings. Or worse, and he already started to paint his worst case in his imagination, they would tell their parents at the dinner table.
With a sigh Mingi sat next to his brother's close friend and put his hands over hers; his cheeks glowing as red as the hot pack in their hands. He didn't dare to look to his brothers, he didn't want to see their expressions at all. "Thank you," Mingi said quietly as he slowly regained feeling in his fingertips.

"No deal, hm?" she gave back and smiled at the young boy. Yuqi took get time to get a closer look at Mingi, there were just the littlest similarities between the siblings. She only saw bigger similarities between Jongho and their father, but maybe that was because she got told that he was a total copy of him, personality wise. "Mingi I don't think you can see like this," Yuqi called, motioning to the boys long hair. His bangs hung in his eyes, blocking her view on most of his face. She put the hot pack in his hands and reached for one of the clips in her own hair; Yuqi parted the bangs and pinned one part out of the boy's face. "Much better. You need to carry these around if you want to grow them out!" she said and twirled a strand between her fingers. "And winter protection could be a good idea, we don't want your pretty hair to get spiky, do we?"

"I'm gone for 20 minutes and you're all over my brother?" Yunho chuckled as he threw his hat at his friend. It flew right in Yuqi's face and fell in her lap.

"I'm taking care of them, you're a bad brother and role model, asshole," she gave back and threw the hat back, hitting Yunho's chest right in the middle. "You just dumped your pack of siblings on me, I want compensation!"

Yuqi stood up from where she had sat, the hot pack remaining in Mingi's cold hands. He kept sitting there and watched his eldest brother joke around and tease his friend, listened to his twin brothers laugh about them and make jokes he yet had to understand. It was cold and his body froze in the weather of early March, yet with the pin behind his ear and his hair prettily put back, his insides were warm nonetheless.

~

"I'll be late."

Seonghwa sighed as he stirred the dinner he was preparing. "Do you know when you'll be here?"

"Not really. I need to go over this track myself. The debut date is really close and it just doesn't fit." Hongjoong replied and let go of a groan loud enough to be heard over the speaker. "The other producers are planned with schedules and the one responsible for this came to me with this."

Seonghwa took the phone from his left shoulder to his right one, turned the stove to low heat. "Text me when you're done then. I'm making dinner, please eat too," he said as he reached for the plates, counting seven. "Or should I bring you something? I can bring some over if you're going to be too busy to get food."

"No, no it's fine. I ordered some food, it should be here any minute. Tell the kids I love them when they go to bed. And that I'll be mad if I see a light on when I'm back."

"I will," Seonghwa replied and took the phone in his hand. The elder took a pause and leaned against the counter, the nail of his thumb nervously, trapped between his teeth. "Don't overwork, but don't come home stressed please...

There was a dry giggle on the other side. "you're talking as if there will be something I'm definitely going to be mad at."

"Everything is fine, I'm just reminding you that you're freaking us all out when you're stressed from work," the elder gave back and turned to his plates and silverware. "We'll talk later again, mhm?"

"See you tonight, love you"

"See you," Seonghwa replied shortly and out the phone to the side before he took a deep breath. Some things just had their own way he couldn't control.

"Papa, is dinner ready?" Two small feet joined him in the spacy kitchen. Jongho's head barely reached over the counter, he peaked over it as he stood on his tiptoes.

"Mhm, just finished," Seonghwa put a smile on his lips and ruffled through his youngest's hair, "do you want to help me carry it to the dining room?"

There was a enthusiastic nod from Jongho as he waited with open hands for his father to give him something.

"Here, you can carry these, hm?" Seonghwa gave him the silverware and sent him out, following behind with the heavy pot. Yeosang and San stood up from their seats when they saw their father; they brought the plates and glasses to the dining room. "Dad won't be home for dinner tonight," the father announced as he gave out filled plates. "And he said that he doesn't want to see a light on this time when he gets back," Seonghwa said and threw a knowing glance on Yunho and Mingi's direction. The younger of them lifted his hands, distancing himself from the accuse as he hadn't been the one up so long. "I'm looking at you, Yunho."

"Ya... I know... I'm going to sleep earlier this time..."

-

Heyaa people

I hope you liked this chapter, liked reading the filler before we get into another arc🤠🤠

School is stressing the shit out of me ahaha

I don't have much to say other than happy birthday Jongho!!

Stay healthy and safe!

-gulkurusubb