third person pov
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SAYURDAY
the weekend was busy as always. kyungmi had a game, jongho had vocal and guitar lessons, wooyoung, mingi, and san all had dance. and on top of it all, seonghwa had three fittings and hongjoong had a meeting. so, yunho and yeosang to the rescue. and hyunjin, and junho, and tay, and of course yeji. though, hyunjin and tay were visiting everyone more than helping. but that's okay
the three older siblings in the house had dance kind of early today, so they already got dropped off by yeosang and junho who said they'd meet yeji and yunho at the school after. they also had to drop off
jongho so they'd either be really late or really early, depends on who's driving.
to say kyungmi is upset today is an understatement. she's excited to see her brothers and friends, how can she not be? but, in her few short years of playing volleyball, both of her dads have always been there for every game. there's never been a time that they weren't there cheering her on. she knows they're busy, but she just wishes they were here, they're her good luck charms really.
"bug, what's wrong?" yeji asked noticing the girls pout
"i want ma and pa to be here" she frowned as she put her shoes on. yunho's heart broke.
he knows what it's like to not have your parents at an event for the first time. all the siblings do. and they know it's not their parents fault, they're just doing their jobs to give the kids this life. but it's still upsetting.
"i know how you feel kyungmi, all of us do" yunho said as he sat next to the girl. school floors were dirty but oh well. "there have been times they didn't make it to dance competitions. when yeosang won first in the talent show for school they weren't there for that either. i promise dads really wish they could be here for you. but you gotta show them that you're brave enough so they don't worry right?"
kyungmi nodded. her brother smiled "i promise it gets easier bug. you just have to clear your mind and keep your head in the game"
"just listen to troy from high school musical" yeji shrugged making the girl giggle and remember when lia and yeji showed her the movie series.
"you good now?" yunho asked smiling when his sister nodded. the two did their hand shake before getting up "have yeji braid your hair. i'll go get you a drink"
yeji sat on one of the cafeteria chairs that was set up outside of the gym. she didn't understand why the teams sat on the floor, maybe it's a volleyball thing. kyungmi sat in front of herwatched youtube on her phone until her friends came over.
"hey bun, when did you guys get here" yeji smiled
"just now. mommy said you'd do my hair after mimi"
yeji nodded and smiled at her little sister, placing a kiss on her cheek.
yuna, nari, and jee all sat around talking about nari's new phone case, the high school team, and boys. but yeji noticed yuna's discomfort when jee started saying how cute the boy basketball teammates are.
"i don't think i like boys" yuna stated
"you like girls then?" nari asked
"maybe. but definitely not boys" yuna faked a gag and her friends all giggled. just then yunho came back smiling and saying hi to the girls. he handed his sister a water.
"can you grab my card and get me food and yuna a drink too please" yeji giggled and yunho's expression before watching him sigh as yeosang, junho, hyunjin, and tay walked into the building.
"hi mimi and yuna. i have to use the bathroom hold on" yeosang ran to the bathroom with a laughing junho following behind.
"yun went to grab snacks" yeji told hyunjin. the older nodded and went over to his friend while tay stayed with yeji
nari giggled and whispered "you're brothers and friend are cute" but tay and yeji acted like they didn't hear that and smiled at each other
"ew!" yuna and kyungmi both gagged
"they're dating people" yuna a said and pointed to her sister and tay.
"and they're like. old" kyungmi scrunched her face
"hey!" tay and yeji said making all four girls giggle like crazy.
once everybody was sat around, the game was delayed by an hour due to an injury on court. the girls sat around playing on their nintendo switches.
"what're you guys playing?" nari asked her friend
"minecraft" jee said
"animal crossing" yuna said
"mario kart" kyungmi said as she stuck her tongue out, focusing a little too hard on her game
"my switch died" nari pouted.
"you have minecraft on your phone, you can join me" jee smile me excitedly
"smart!" all the girls giggled as jee and nari high-fived.
they all went back to playing their games, the older group just sat around. yunho and hyunjin were laughing about some weird video, the girlfriends decided that they didn't want to know. yeosang was eating chicken strips while junho was trying to stay awake.
the older groups attention was soon brought back to the girls when they all gasped and ran toward the entrance. they were about to go stop them, but their coaches and team went over there so the figured they were fine. and they were, but when they walked back with a girl none of them have ever seen in a knee brace, they were confused.
"who's that?" junho asked
"not sure, i rarely pay attention to mi's friends" yeosang responded
the four girls seemed to be a lot closer with this new girl than the rest of the team, so it wasn't a surprise when she was brought over to meet everyone.
"this is yiren. yiren, these are my brothers yunho and yeosang-"
"that's my sister yeji" yuna interrupted
"yunho and yeji are dating" jee said
"and that's junho, he's dating yeosang" nari said
"uhuh, and that's tay. oh and hyunjin" kyungmi giggled when hyunjin gave her an offended look for introducing him like that.
yiren gave her friends a confusing look, causing them to laugh a little.
"hi yiren" yeji smiled
yiren only waved, the group suspected that she's just shy. but they were wrong, well kind of.
"yiren is mute" yuna said
"she has a hard time remembering words, she knows some but she's too shy to say them in front of new people" nari stated.
yiren nodded and smiled shyly. this caught yeosangs attention. though he wasn't necessarily mute when he was younger, he was pretty silent. he found it hard to connect with other kids. even to this day, yeosang still struggles with his stuttering. communicating in such a world is hard.
"you know sign language?" yeosang spoke as he signed. he picked up sign language at a really young age due to being in a special needs class in the mornings, he learned it there. it later became useful with teachers and staff when his anxiety would get the best of him.
the girls eyes lit up as she smiled widely and signed 'yes' while shaking her head. then she signed 'were you mute?'
'no, but i had a really bad stutter, so my teachers taught me sign if i became nervous to speak in class' he signed back. junho watched while smiling, at first he was shocked because he wasn't aware that yeosang knew sign. but now he's finding this really pure and thoughtful.
kyungmi had her mouth open, shocked. she wasn't aware that her brother knew sign either.
'you're cool' yiren smiled
both yunho and yeosang chuckled, the older now grabbing the girls attention. 'you sign'
yunho picked up sign language when yeosang did. so they could talk in class, and just to talk smack on people without them knowing.
'i'm probably not as good anymore, but yes' yunho signed
"what the heck man" kyungmi said making everyone laugh.
"i'm with kyungmi, at least translate here" hyunjin said
"we'll translate if you want to ask questions" yunho nodded
"what happened to your knee?" junho asked gently, he's been focusing on the girls bright purple knee brace since she got here
yiren did her signing them waited for the the olders to translate.
"she broke it a while ago when playing with her dog" yeosang pouted
"she hasn't been able to play since she got hurt" kyungmi frowned and hugged her friend
the coach came up to the group and smiled. "sorry to ruin the bonding, but we have to get in there and stretch girls!"
the girls smiled and waved bye to everyone. the older group cheering them on with 'good luck's and 'do great!' before they walked into the other part of the gym where parents usually sit and watch. tay and yeji took up a conversation with an old woman about car insurance. hyunjin and yeosang laughed at how awkward the girls looked and junho and yunho were playing inessage games together.
after sometime, the girls won their game and it was time to go home. so yunho and yeji put kyungmi in the car to drive her to get milkshakes as a celebration. yeosang and junho went to pick up the other boys and tay and hyunjin headed home.
~
"i still don't get why me and min couldn't just drive" san grumbled and buckled his seatbelt
"you want to waste up gas money?" junho laughed
"well no, but-"
"ma and pa told me to pick you g-guys up and d-drop y-you off. s-stop complaining" yeosang said
mingi, wooyoung, and san all looked at their brother. he hasn't stuttered much, if at all, within that past year at least.
"bub, are you okay" wooyoung asked but yeosang only nodded and continued driving until he reached jongho's practice center. he got out of the car without a single word and went into the building to sign jongho out and talk to his teacher.
"yeosang's anxiety has been acting up because of school and all the practices. today has been stressful so if you guys could just relax and not stress him out more..." junho turned in his seat to look at the younger three
mingi nodded "yeah"
san stayed silent and looked out the window.
~
"mama!" kyungmi ran into seonghwa's arms as she walked into the house.
she got some yunho and yeji time before coming home. which meant everyone else but hongjoong was home before her. it seems the younger parent is stuck in the studio again.
"hey bug, did you win?"
"mhm! and yiren came to watch today!" kyungmi smiled
"ah! good! you'll have to invite her over once she's fully healed again" seonghwa smiled and pat his daughters head.
yeji and yunho smiled and hugged seonghwa. "dad, can i talk to you" yunho whispered. seonghwa just nodded and walked with him into the kitchen. "papa at the studio?"
"yeah, has been for the past two days. probably will be for a couple weeks. you know how it is" seonghwa sighed.
"have you guys been fighting again?"
seonghwa and hongjoong haven't really fought since yeosang and yunho were in highschool. but both of the sons could see the stress and tiredness written on seonghwa's face. it isn't like they haven't seen it for hongjoong too, when seonghwa is in another country for fashion weeks. or on sets until the a.m.
hongjoong started his career a year after yunho was adopted. seonghwa started his when the kids were a little older but still pretty young. yunho and yeosang have watched their dads grow in the industry. from news headlines and movie screens, their parents have always been in the public eye since they were babies.
"we haven't really even talked in the past three days or so yunho, so no we aren't fighting" seonghwa said
"i feel like that's worse" the taller said
"part of marriage is having times when your distant, especially during busy times like this" seonghwa shrugged and leaned against the counter
"talk to dad please, i can tell the others feel it too. kyungmi had to go her first game without you two. she and mingi texted me last night saying they haven't seen pa" yunho spoke quietly
"i know yun, i'll figure it out sweetie"
[to be continued]
[proofread]
[sorry for the wait!]