Twelve Little Brothers

Wide Awake

Jun's POV

Ming, are you up?

My twin poked his head from his top bunk and nodded.

Wanna take a walk around, Jun?

I nodded and I watched him silently climb down before I got off of my bed. It's become a habit for us to take a walk around the house together when we can't sleep. But because we now share a room with the Americano hyungs, it's become a sort of game for us.

Once we were safely out of our room, we started our usual loop down the hallway.

Do you hear that, Jun?

I shook my head and Minghao dragged me closer to Appa's door.

Are we supposed to be-

I was about to finish my sentence thought, but voices on the other side of the door stopped me.

"Seungcheol, do you want us to take some of your kids with us for a while?" My eyes widened at Minghao, but he waved me off and leaned closer to the door.

"Aron, you know the last thing I want to do is break apart this family."

"You know you can't support thirteen kids on your own in this state. And don't tell me Minseo is babysitting on the side because we both know that isn't doing very much."

"I could pick up another shift at work or-"

"Seungcheol, we all know that isn't going to do much for you. Not with thirteen kids. Let us take a set of twins or two for a bit. We really want to help you, man."

Now Minghao noticed my eyes that were wide in fear. He put an arm around me and backed away from the door a bit.

Appa would never let us go.

"You want to help? It sounds more like you want to take my kids."

Minghao, why do our Uncles sound mean?

He clung to my left arm and sighed quietly.

I don't know.

"We don't want to take away your boys, Seungcheol. We just thought they would be better off with someone they know instead of the foster care system."

Foster care system?

We both exchanged worried glances, even though we weren't quite sure what it meant.

"Are you saying you're going to call social services on me? Nothing has even happened yet!"

"Calm down, Seungcheol. Nobody is calling social services. In the future, though, a teacher might call if one of your boys comes in without a lunch for a few days. Or they don't look okay. We're just trying to help you do what's best for the boys."

I wanna stay with Appa though.

I clung tighter to Minghao and he nodded.

I won't let them take anyone away, okay Jun?

I don't know if we have a choice...

"If I need help, I'll call you, okay? For now, nobody is going anywhere."

I told you Appa wouldn't let us leave.

"Okay, just keep in mind what we said. Good night, S.coups."

Jun, let's go.

I nodded and we both silently left the hallway and returned to our room. A few seconds after we shut our door, we heard our Uncles walking towards the living room to their make shift beds.

Minghao, should we tell the Americano hyungs?

I watched my twin climb up to his bed, but shake his head.

Not now, only if we need to. It's better to keep it a secret.

I sighed while pulling my blankets back over me and grabbing my yellow bird plushie.

Okay, good night Ming.

Good night, Junnie.

The walk was supposed to help us fall back asleep, but I'm pretty sure it only made me more awake.