Chapter Eighty-seven (1/2)

Jeonghan put his glass of water down.  "What took you so long with the ladder?"  He asked. "I didn't know where to put it, so I put it next to the heater.."  He muttered. "Oh,"  Jeonghan snapped his finger, "did I say garage?  I meant to say the shed."  Jeonghan slapped his head lightly.  "Cheol put hooks in the shed where the ladder needs to go.  Could you do that for me?"  He asked. Jaemin breathed in and out inaudibly.  "Right.. Shed.. I can do that.."  He turned around. "Be careful of the spiders,"  Jeonghan mentioned, "it's the warm season.  They like to make webs."  He said. "What.. kind of spiders?"  Jaemin asked, swallowing inaudibly.

Jeonghan smirked.  "The big, fuzzy ones."  He said.

"Oh?  Why did he not do his exams?  He was attacked by a nest of vicious, venomous spiders."  Jaemin said with a nervous tone. Jeonghan laughed.  "Ay, don't overreact.  I was in the shed this morning, there aren't any spiders."  He said.

Jaemin sighed and looked down.  "I don't know why I listen to you.."  He muttered. "Because if you don't, I'll whoop your ass."  Jeonghan replied.  "Or pay Yeosang to."  He shrugged. Jaemin then exited the kitchen.

Jeonghan smirked before Woozi came into the kitchen.  "Hey, so I'm done the song that Seungkwan wanted,"  Woozi said, "I'm going out to help Yeosang at his shop."

Jeonghan raised an eyebrow.  "Do you get paid for helping?"  He asked. "His mom feeds me a lot, so I guess that's a form of payment.."  Woozi scratched his neck.  "Can Yeosang come over for dinner tonight?"  He asked.

The parent's expression softened.  "I consider him family.  He can come over and stay over whenever he wants."  He said.  "Just like that kid outside."  He muttered. Woozi smiled a bit.  "Thanks.."  He bowed and ran off.

Jaemin came back in and looked at the door.  "What's Woozi running off so quickly for?"  He asked. "He's going to meet Yeosang."  Jeonghan answered.

"He's going to be here for dinner.. isn't he.."  Jaemin sighed, still remembering how much they argued a couple Saturdays ago over how Yeosang should stop talking about sex so much.

Jeonghan smiled.  "Yes.  Now could you get me the laundry basket and meet me in Dino's room?  He has a big table that I like to fold clothes on."  He requested.

Jeonghan exited the kitchen.  Jaemin looked around.  "Basket.. that's in the garage, right?"  He slowly went to the garage and turned on the light.

He opened the dryer and took out the laundry, putting it in the basket.  "Which room is Dino's room..?"  He looked around.

Eventually, he found the right one.  He went into the room and saw Jeonghan cleaning up some piles of books around the room.

"What took you so long?  Shouldn't you know this house by now?"  Jeonghan chuckled, putting the basket on Dino's bed.

"It.. never mind.."  Jaemin breathed out.  "What's today's parent lesson?"  He asked.

Jeonghan raised an eyebrow with a smile.  "You're interested?  Today's lesson is about trying your patience."  He said.

Jaemin smiled but his eyebrows went lower.  "You really are trying my patience.."  He grumbled.

"It only gets worse from here, Boy."  Jeonghan whispered.  "Your next task is to wake Cheol up."  He said, taking a sock out of the basket.

Jaemin widened his eyes.  "Me?  No~  I can't wake him up."  He said with a scared expression.

"So you would let Josh sleep through an important court case?"  Jeonghan asked.  "What a gentleman."  He clicked his tongue.

The boy shuddered a bit.  "Waking up Mr. Choi is totally different than waking up Josh."  He said.

"Not really."  Jeonghan said.  "If you're okay with waking up the person closest to you, Cheol shouldn't be an issue."

Jaemin was silent.  "Let me put it this way: if you don't wake Seungcheol up, he's going to be upset that he couldn't get done what he wanted to do before work tonight."  He looked at the boy.  "It'll be your fault."

"No.. it's your fault for putting me in charge."  Jaemin said nervously. "So you want me to get in trouble?  How nice.."  Jeonghan sighed.

Jaemin muttered angrily as he left the bedroom.  Jeonghan smirked and tossed a pair of underwear on the table.  "This is fun~"  He giggled.

There was then a knock on the door.  Seokmin came in with a small smile.  "Hey, I'm going to the theater to practice for the festival."  He informed.

"You don't normally go to the theater for practice."  Jeonghan commented as he folded one of Vernon's beanies.

"My class is in the theater today,"  Seokmin replied, "Woozi sang the song he made before he left, so I want to start teaching the class how the song goes."  He said as he picked up his bang.

Jeonghan saw the boy taking out a plastic box.  He opened it and there were stacks of paper.  "He made copies for all of the students."  He showed. The parent nodded.  "Arlight, have fun."  He waved.

Seokmin bowed and exited the room.

Jaemin took a breath in and shakily let it out.  "It's just waking someone up, how hard could it be?"  He looked at the master bedroom door. He opened the door and looked around.  The sun is definitely shining through the curtains even though they're relatively dark curtains.  He saw a bookshelf near to the desk, eleven books with titles on the binder.  Curiosity got to him and he stepped closer.

He saw one titled Joshua.  He picked it up silently and opened the cover.  He saw the stork's message and looked through random pages.  Seeing some printed out pictures pasted on some pages, like how Joshua looked on his first day of school or how his uniform changed when he got into the junior high building.  He then turned to see Joshua in his crimson robe.

His smile is bright and more familiar to him as he met Joshua not too long later.  He gently traced the boy before turning the page.  He read a few notes where Jeonghan was upset about Jaemin.  But the book was almost done.  He saw the next blank page was already titled Wedding Day.  And a couple pages next were Their Children.  And then he met the end of the book.

It's like he went through Joshua's whole life.  He put the book back and turned to the lump in the bed.  He stood up straight.  "Mr. Choi,"  He lifted the blanket, "you have to wake up."  He said softly.

"Five.. more.. minutes.."  The man kept his eyes closed.

"Wake up,"  He shrugged the man's shoulder.  He then sighed.  "You don't want to sleep through the whole day do you?"  He clapped twice, earning an irritated face from Seungcheol. Seungcheol turned.  "Gotta think of a better excuse than that, Hannie."  He said.  "Get in here and cuddle.."  He patted the space beside him.

Jaemin raised an eyebrow.  "Do I really sound like Jeonghan..?"  He muttered.   "Wake up!"  He clapped once more.

Seungcheol opened his eyes and looked at the boy.  "What are you doing here..?"  He asked.  "Jeonghan's supposed to wake me up.."  He said.

"He put me in charge of waking you up."  Jaemin replied blankly.

"Shoot, you nag just as much as he does."  Seungcheol went onto his back and scratched his forehead.

Jaemin laughed a bit.  "Should I tell him you said that?"  He tried to threaten. "Sure, go ahead, Kid."  Seungcheol shrugged.  "I'm gonna."  He pointed at the door.

Seungcheol looked at him and scratched his eyebrow.  "Do it then.  I have to get up, but I'm not wearing pants."  He showed the door to the kid.

Jaemin bowed with red cheeks before leaving the room.  Returning to Dino's room, he sees that most of the clothes are folded on the table.  "That took you long enough."  Jeonghan commented.  "How did it go?"  He asked. "He eventually woke up.."  Jaemin folded his arms.  "He said I nag as much as you do."  He leaned on the wall while looking at a book on the floor.

"Good, Cheol only wakes up from intense nagging."  Jeonghan said with a smile.  "I learned that from his mom."  He said, hanging up one of Dino's jackets.

Jaemin picked up the book.  "You seriously aren't mad?"  He asked, putting the book on the desk. "Nah,"  Jeonghan shrugged, "I take pride in it."  He winked.

The boy's expression was blank.  "I don't know if I should be jealous that you two are perfect and always on the same page, or upset that you guys are literally horrible to each other."  He folded his arms once more.

"Once you spend a lot of time with your loved ones, you see past the annoying points they have."  Jeonghan said with a dreamy tone.

Jaemin nodded.  "True, sometimes it's easy for me to get past Joshua jumping to conclusions.."  He muttered.

"Oh?  Should I tell him that then?"  Jeonghan raised an eyebrow as he sat down on Dino's bed.

"Please don't.  He's already mad that I haven't said anything to him this week."  Jaemin furrowed his eyebrows.

Jeonghan chuckled.  "Oh, so Joshua shouldn't be mad that the lover he's engaged to hasn't messaged him at all during the week?"  He smirked.  "I'll make sure to include that."  He crossed his leg.

Jaemin had a pleading look.  "Seriously..?"

The parent laughed and fell back on Dino's bed.  "I'm not going to tell him, stop your worrying."  He held his stomach.