𝘼 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜, 𝙮𝙚𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙟𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙮 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙮𝙤𝙪

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↳ ੈ‧₊˚ ┊͙
Chapter Three: Food

Mina brandishes a shoe at the girls threateningly. "If you all don't sit and watch your movie and shut up for five minutes, I'm going to take you into the woods and leave you there to be raised by wolves."

Yeri and Nayeon give her identical smirks. Tzuyu ignores her entirely. But Momo stares wide-eyed and falls silent, curling her two-year-old self meekly into the couch.

Mina likes Momo.

Saturday mornings are baby-sitting mornings. Irene's at home with these kids all day, every day, and also she's incubating; Mina doesn't begrudge her wanting to sleep in and have five hours to herself for once. And the guys get up at five AM to go fishing. They get all cranky and shit if they don't have their private man-time at least once a week.

So the kids get dropped off at the Son's house, and Mina wrangles four children under the age of four until noon. She has not yet killed any of them, but it is only a matter of time.

"I wanna snack," Yeri says. At Mina's narrowed eyes she quickly adds, "Please."

If their mouths are full they'll talk less. "All right. What do you want?"

"Peenabutter cups!"

"Nem-an-nems!"

"Cheese!"

She knows it's her own fault for asking an open-ended question, but still Mina snaps nevertheless, "Quiet. You can have goldfish or you can have pretzels."

A chorus of groans.

"Oh, nothing then? Okay, that's fine-"

"Goldfish."

"Goldfish."

"Goalfishes."

No response.

Mina glances at Bella. The Kang twins run roughshod over the little thing; even Tzuyu talks right through the girl's whispered sentences. Mina keeps waiting for the other kids' outgoing personalities to rub off, but apparently Momo's too much like Charlie. (And thank God for that. The more of her father she's got in her the less room there is for her mother. Mina still wants to spit whenever she hears that bitch's name.) "And what do you want, Momo?"

"Prezzles, Missus Kearaller please," she whispers.

Mina really likes Momo.

"All right, then." She points back at the television. "Watch the movie and sit still and I'll get your snacks."

"And apple juice?"

"Yes, and apple juice." Enthusiastic cheers, drowned out when Tzuyu pokes at the remote and Tchaikovsky starts to play. Mina encourages them to watch Sleeping Beauty because the heroines are middle-aged spinster ladies and the villain is a gorgeous woman who can turn into a dragon. Cinderella is not allowed in the front door. No girl that Mina has any influence over will learn that tidy housekeeping will get you a man.

Admittedly, Mina's man loves her in spite of the fact that there's a two foot stack of dirty dishes in the sink. But still.

"And we're gonna have a baby brother," Nayeon is explaining when Mina comes out of the kitchen with the snacks. "And we're going to name him Nemo."

Yeri shoves Nayeon back into the couch cushion. "Are not. We're gonna name the baby Fiona like in the Shrek movie."

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

Tzuyu looks up at Mina excitedly. "Mama, I wanna baby brother!"

"Baby brothers only come to big girls who use the potty properly," Mina explains. She sets the goldfish box on the couch and gives a plastic baggie of pretzels to Momo.

"I wanna brotha too," Momo says.

Mina frowns. Jihyo has shown no signs of dating whatsoever. "Well... maybe one day."

Momo looks down and picks at the edge of her diaper thoughtfully with her eyebrows furrowed.

"If you want," Yeri says, sticking her arm in the goldfish box up to the elbow, "you c'n borrow our brother sometimes."

"Yeah. Mommy says babies are noisy." Nayeon makes a face. "So we might not want Nemo all the time.

Momo's eyebrows scrunch together. "But... he's not my sistah, right?"

"He," Mina corrects. "Brothers are boys, so he'll be a he, not a she, sweetie."

The girls look at her blankly, then...

"A boy?"

"We don't wanna boy!"

"Gross!"

"Ew!"

Mina makes a mental note to renew her birth control prescription.