Twelve Little Brothers

Shopping Trip

Hoshi eventually fell asleep in my lap, so I carried him into his room and placed him in his crib. I made sure he was still sleeping before quietly leaving the room.

"Mommy!" I laughed as all seven children rushed out of the living room to greet their Mother at the door. I watched from the hallway as she gave each one a hug and a kiss before walking out of the doorway and setting her purse down on the table.

Aunties smile widened when she saw me standing in the corner and she came over to give me a hug. "How's my Minseo?"

I laughed a little and hugged her back. "I'm fine. Hoshi just fell asleep on me so I put him in his room."

She nodded and quickly checked behind her and leaned closer to me. "Want to help me shop for Jeonghan's birthday?"

I nodded before quickly checking my mental calendar. "That's not for a while though."

Auntie smiled and her eyes crinkled in the corners as she did. "I know. It just takes me a while to find something, so I thought we could start early."

I nodded again, but quickly stopped when I saw that Joshua was about to drop a stack of plates. I ran out to the kitchen and helped him set the table, since he insisted he had it under control.

"Is everything all set for dinner?"

"Yes Sir." I saluted Uncle Seungcheol and the Chinas tried to do the same. With Uncle Seungcheol distracted, I grabbed the dish from the stove and set it on the table.

"I could have got that you know."

I smiled innocently and sat down at the table. "I know."

"Nuna!" I sighed and got back up from my seat.

"Hoshi's up."

...

"Are you ready to go, Minseo?"

"One sec!" I finished drying Joshua's hair from his bath before quickly throwing the towel to Uncle Seungcheol who was finishing up the Chinas baths. I ran out of the bathroom and slid across the kitchen a bit while grabbing my shoes from the rack. I quickly slid them on and grabbed my jacket.

"Now I'm ready!" My Aunt laughed while tucking a stay piece of hair back into my single braid in the back.

"Yes you are. We're leaving now, Seungcheol!"

"Have fun!"

We both left the house and hopped into the car. "Where to first?" Auntie started the car and pulled out of the driveway.

"I was thinking the Starfield Coex mall." My jaw dropped and my eyes grew bigger.

"That place is HUGE. There is no way we could scan through that whole place tonight."

Auntie just laughed at my reaction. "We're not going to go everywhere in there, just a few stores that are close to each other."

I leaned back in my seat, even though I don't remember leaning forward, and got comfy.

"You have some ideas though, right?"

"Um, we'll go with that." She laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her neck.

"Just remember that we have to be back before Uncle Seungcheol needs to go to work." She nodded and turned on her turning signal. We only have one car, which is a massive van. So we have to work around everyone's schedules, which isn't that hard.

"Auntie? Have you ever thought of putting the Americanos into a daycare?"

"We've thought about it, but decided against it. Why?"

"I don't know. It just came to mind when I remembered how bad everyone's pronunciation is."

She laughed. "Yeah, it is bad isn't it. It makes it easier to tell who is talking though."

"Especially since they all have trouble pronouncing different sounds."

"Mhm."

...

"How about this one?" I held up a plain grey hoodie with a giraffe on the front and she nodded.

"Put it in the basket for now." I folded the hoodie in half and laid it on the bottom of the basket. We hadn't been having the best of luck so far, and we are trying not to run over our time limit.

"Why don't you go over to the store over there and pick something out for him while I stay here with the basket and try and find something else before we check out and leave. Come back over here when you're done." Auntie reached into her purse, pulled out eleven thousand won (ten U.S. dollars) and gave it to me while I gave her the basket.

Something for Jeonghannie. Something for Jeonghannie. I started to hum to myself as I looked around the store.

"Can I help you with something young lady?"

I bowed to the ahjuma in front of me. "No thank you, I'm just looking."

She nodded and walked back to the front desk while I continued to look around. Hmmm, this is harder than I thought.

Let's see. He's always playing with the triplets and goes along with whatever anyone does. He does like giraffes, but I don't want to go giraffe overload since we already have the sweatshirt. Is there such thing as giraffe overload with this child?

I continued to look around the store until I found the world's cutest giraffe plushy. This solves everything. I don't care if he gets two giraffe things, he is going to love this.

I took the plushy off of the shelf and checked it over for any spots or rips. Looks good!

I brought the adorableness up to the cashier after checking that I had enough money to pay for it.

"Is this all for today?" I nodded and placed the money and giraffe on the counter. She typed some stuff into the register and gave me my change back before wishing me a good evening.

I bowed to the lady and tried not to run over to Auntie to show her what I found. I ended up in a half run, half fast walk.

"Slow down Minseo. What did you find?" I smiled and came to a stop in front of my Aunt.

"Look! He's adorable!" I held up the plushy and she cooed.

"Jeonghan probably won't let that go." I nodded excitedly and she laughed.

"Oh! Here's the change." She opened up her palm and I placed the money in her hand while taking the basket from her so she could put the money back in her purse.

"What do you think of this?" She held up a pair of light brown shorts and a light blue, tealish t-shirt that said, "Best Big Brother."

"Adorable! Are you done?" She nodded and headed up to the cash register.

After checking out, I helped her carry the bags and we left the mall.

"Well, that was fun. Thank you for helping me." Auntie unlocked the car and I started loading the bag into the back.

"You're welcome!"