Chapter 61
Waaaaaaah-
'A baby crying?'
I was so exhausted that I managed to ignore the rustling sounds outside, but...
Once I heard the sound of a child crying, I couldn't help but go out of the room.
Leaving Park Hanhwi behind, who was sleeping soundly with earplugs in despite the commotion outside.
As I opened the door and stepped out...
'Ah...?!'
The first thing I saw was the lit living room and five children, who looked about three years old, sleeping there.
And the cameras trying to film my reaction as I came out the door.
'It's a variety show.'
Did they hide what today's schedule was just to capture me coming out and being surprised?
Since I had somewhat expected it from the moment I heard the crying outside, I figured I wouldn't give the dramatic reaction the broadcasting station wanted.
Waaaaah-
Seeing the child crying, it seemed impossible not to be startled.
Without even having the time to think about what to do, I hastily approached the crying child and scooped them up in my arms.
I could see four other children sleeping deeply, not caring at all whether the one next to them was crying or not.
Fortunately, as I held them, the child in my arms slowly stopped crying.
After a little time passed, I finally had some leeway to look at the children properly.
Children sleeping in cute animal pajamas. And on their clothes were nametags with each of their names written on them.
The name of the child I was holding right now was Yujin. She was the only girl among the five children.
However.
'Yujin?'
Seeing a somehow familiar name, I realized that I was the only one who came out despite this commotion.
'Do I have to wake them up?'
They all seemed to be fast asleep, so I didn't want to wake them up if possible.
But even if it's reality TV, we still have to proceed with the broadcast, right?
And while I might not need the other members, I definitely needed Shim Sungha.
Just then, through the open door, I saw Park Hanhwi getting up, still not fully awake.
I saw the cameramen moving to film the waking Park Hanhwi.
"Huh? Uh uh...?"
I approached Park Hanhwi, who was faithfully showing the reaction the production crew wanted.
"Rin...? When did you have a baby...?"
Looking at the child still in my arms, Park Hanhwi asked an absurd question.
"Hyung, just get up quietly and come out to the living room."
Leaving Park Hanhwi, who seemed to have come to his senses to some extent, behind, I left the room to wake the other members.
And a full 10 minutes later.
"S-so... what is... this?"
"Shh!"
Looking at Woo Jungwoo, who came out of his room last with a bewildered expression, the other members hastily signaled him to be quiet.
Five children huddled together and fast asleep on the mat spread out in the living room.
And in front of them, the seven members of Wieus gathered with disheveled appearances, having just woken up.
Once we were all gathered, the production crew, who had only been filming us without a single word until then, finally made their first move.
They sidled up to us and handed over a tablet and a large piece of paper with something handwritten on it.
"Should we look at this...?"
We spoke while looking at the tablet the production crew handed us.
When the production crew nodded, I turned on the tablet screen, and as soon as it turned on, I immediately played a video that was visible.
In the video, there was a man and a woman who looked like a married couple.
[Hello everyone in Wieus. We are a couple raising quintuplets!]
"Qui... Quintuplets...!"
"I had my suspicions, but they really were multiple births..."
[For our wedding anniversary, the production team of 'My First Childcare' has planned a special day for us, a couple who has been solely devoted to childcare without a single day off.]
'My First Childcare'.
It was a weekend variety show broadcasted on KBC.
A childcare variety show where celebrities, who are beginners at parenting, take care of children for a day on behalf of a couple on a special day.
'My First Childcare' was a program that minimized the production crew's intervention under the name of strict reality. It mainly drew entertainment by showing the struggles of celebrities who were clumsy at childcare.
I also knew about this program.
Although its popularity had faded a bit now, it was still one of the popular programs maintaining a viewership rating in the 10% range, as expected of a terrestrial weekend variety show.
'Being on such a program is fine up to that point, but...'
I didn't watch this program often, but I had only ever seen them take care of one or two children.
'Aren't quintuplets too many?'
Glancing at the children who were still asleep.
I pictured in my mind what the situation would be like when those children woke up.
'This is...'
It seemed like it would definitely not be an easy day.
[I heard that you Wieus members will be taking care of our quintuplets until this evening. Our kids really love music! I think they'll follow you Wieus members really well!]
Seeing the wife's expression as she excitedly spoke without caring about her husband's reaction, it seemed like she liked us more than the kids did.
[We've written the things to be careful about on the paper. If anything happens, please contact us immediately!
See you this evening then!]
The current time was around 7:00 AM.
Until this evening, we had to stay with these children for at least 12 hours.
"W-what's written on the paper?"
"Wait a sec..."
After the video ended, we spread the paper that was said to contain the precautions in the middle and all looked at it together.
"First, things they shouldn't eat... And we must make sure they take naps..."
Past a few ordinary contents, the last written phrase was quite memorable.
"Never take your eyes off the children for even a moment...!"
While we were getting tense at the meaningful message...
"Mom...?"
"Hmm."
As if they knew exactly that it was time to wake up.
The children started opening their eyes right after we finished watching the video.
"W-wait. What do we do now?"
"First..."
Before we could even make a plan, the waking of the quintuplets was extremely noisy.
"Where is this...?"
"Mom! Mom!!!"
"Who are you, mister?"
At the destructive aura emitted by the five children, I spoke to the members who seemed to have collectively fallen into mental breakdown.
"Let's do 1-on-1 man-marking first."
Seeing the members running toward the children at my words, I spoke to the production crew.
"D-don't tell me you didn't explain anything about this situation to the children...?"
Instead of answering my question, the production crew sent me a signal to look behind.
"Waaaaaaaah!"
"Where's mom!!!"
"Send me hoooooome!"
Right, figure it out yourselves... I got it loud and clear.
I slowly approached the children the members were barely managing to soothe.
And.
"Alright, everyone, attention!"
"Waaaaaaaaaah!"
"Scary!!!"
"Go away, monster!"
It was a massive backfire.
I only said one sentence...
Along with the tragic looks from the members staring at me, I instantly lost my dignity as a leader.
-Hyung, get away over there!
-The kids are scared of you...!
No, I didn't do anything wrong though...?
In the end, unjustly, I had no choice but to take refuge in a corner of the living room, avoiding the children's eyes.
'Let's see how well the others do.'
While I was observing the other members with a twisted mind.
"Kids, wait a second! Should we talk together with uncle?"
When Park Hanhwi spoke in a gentle tone, the attention of the kids, who were throwing a tantrum, focused on him.
"Mom and Dad have something busy to do today, so they'll come in the evening. Let's play fun here with the uncles until then, okay?"
'There's no way an explanation like that would work on kids...'
"Really...?"
"Mom and Dad are coming in the evening?"
"But what are we going to play?"
"I'm hungry!"
Why is the reaction completely different from when I said it?
Are you guys discriminating against people?
Regardless of my unfairness, it was quite fortunate that the children regained some stability.
Of course, this state didn't seem like it would last long.
"Let's prepare the kids' breakfast first!"
Right, Sunghaemong. I trusted you.
But why is he coming towards me?
"Rin-hyung, what are you doing? Come to the kitchen quickly."
"J-just me?"
"Everyone except you here is watching the kids."
Right, excluding me and Shim Sungha, the number was exactly 5-to-5.
So I had no choice but to go to the kitchen.
It was definitely not because the kids were scared of me.
"Hmm, eggs, vegetables, and chicken breast... I think this would be enough for breakfast?"
Shim Sungha, who instantly took out the ingredients and roughly estimated them, looked truly reliable just for this moment.
"First, the kids need to be able to eat it, so we have to chop the vegetables finely."
While I was preparing the ingredients according to Shim Sungha's instructions.
Suddenly, I heard a voice calling me from the living room.
"Rin-hyung!"
"Hyung, we need help!"
The desperate cries of the members.
As expected, can't do without me.
"Sungha, I'll be right back."
"Yes, go ahead."
As I came out of the kitchen and headed to the living room, I saw the living room had become a mess in that short time.
And.
"Hyung, could you come over here?"
"Yes, just lie down here."
Lie down?
When I was hesitating with an ominous feeling suddenly crossing my mind.
"Alright kids, an airplane has come here! Who wants to ride first?"
"Wow!! Me first, me first!"
"Next is me!!"
'T-this...'
It was Woo Jungwoo, who had already turned me into an airplane without even a gap to escape.
I sent a look of unfairness as I suddenly turned from a human to an airplane, but...
-Hyung, we had a hard time too...
-Please...
Seeing the faces of the members who seemed to have aged about 3 years in that short time, I couldn't bring myself to go back to the kitchen.
"Alright, from now on I am an A380. Who's first? Seojin?"
"Yes!"
"Come on, board quickly. The airplane is departing!"
Like that, the flight of the human airplane Sunwoo Rin continued nonstop for about 30 minutes.
***
After finishing breakfast, for the children whose bodies could no longer be satisfied just by being inside the house.
We were now out at the playground within the apartment complex.
"Kyahahahahaha"
"Take my sword!"
"Agh! How can you attack first!"
The toys received at the fan signing event had already become the children's possessions.
"The fans will... understand, right?"
"They will, right?"
The gifts you gave are being put to good use like this.
Silently expressing my gratitude to the fans once again, I was sitting on a bench with Yujin Kim.
"But Yujin is really good, isn't she?"
"Yes?"
"Not you."
"..."
Yujin, the only girl among the quintuplets, who had been sticking by Yujin Kim's side since this morning.
Sitting on Yujin Kim's lap, watching her 4 blood siblings running around wildly and the five Wieus members, Yujin looked very peaceful compared to the other kids.
"Yujin, aren't you going to play with them?"
"I hate running!"
"I see."
Thanks to Yujin, who liked to sit still, sticking closely by Yujin Kim's side, Yujin Kim was also spending a honey-like day.
"But Yujin is sitting on Yujin's lap. Hahaha."
"Not funny!"
"..."
"Pfft."
Yujin is good, but her sense of humor is a bit lacking, huh? She totally resembles a certain Yujin I know?
Anyway, it was a peaceful morning compared to the chaos over there at the playground.
I could feel the five members looking our way with envious eyes.
-Yujin won't leave my side here...
It was Yujin Kim appealing to the members while looking at Yujin sitting on his lap.
-A human airplane for 30 minutes...!
At my glare reminding them of what happened earlier, they averted their gaze this way and started focusing on playing with the kids.
But Shim Sungha suddenly started approaching the three of us.
"Rin-hyung. I think we need to buy the ingredients for lunch and dinner today while we have time."
"Ugh..."
I couldn't refuse Shim Sungha's words, as he would be responsible for the children's daily bread today.
Receiving the memo with the list of things to buy that Shim Sungha handed me.
When I was about to head to the nearby mart.
"Me too! I want to go grocery shopping too!"
"Huh? You too, Yujin?"
Yujin, who was sitting on Yujin Kim's lap, came to my side and said.
"Will it be okay...?"
"Yeah, since it's a weekday morning, I don't think there will be many people."
Actually, since coming to the dorm, I hadn't been to the mart at this time, so it was a bit ambiguous.
But it wasn't a time when there would be a lot of people, as Yujin Kim said.
'Going grocery shopping with a child would be better for the broadcast than going alone, right?'
It was hard to ignore the intense gaze of the cameraman next to me, who was sending a look telling me to take the child.
"Alright, then let's go together!"
"Yay!"
Eventually, Yujin, Yujin Kim, and I.
A party of three heading to the mart was formed.