#jeppfrost

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T'was the night before Christmas, not a creature was stirring. Not even a mous...

"MOUSE! OH MY GOD! THERE'S A MOUSE IN THE HOUSE!"

At 11:15pm, the loud screaming echoes in the Bang household. There is a lot of crashes and sounds of stuff falling echoing with stomping feet.

She watches as the mouse dodges her high heels and runs towards her two youngest brother-in-law's room. Why did she even think of throwing that, what if it impales the thing and she has to pull off his dead body off the heels? The mess in the living room doesn't even deter her from chasing after the vermon. Grabbing the nearest item, she chases after it. "Come back here, you nasty bacteria infested rodent. I'll kill you for entering my house!"

Wide eyes look up at her, body stiff and caught off guard. The eyes turn to the item in her hand. The corner of pink lips turn downwards, a whimper escapes the puffy lips and then...

Bang Yongguk, age 26, father of none, older brother to five jumps up from his bed when the screeching of his brothers rings in the apartment. He might be deaf to a lot of other sounds, by years of babysitting tuned his hearing to screaming and crying. He tugs the door open and sees the sight of his girlfriend of a year and a half holding a hammer above her head and his three year old toddler of a brother screaming his head off. Channie is puffing up his chest like a cornered feline, Uppie hugging the sobbing Junhong, and Daehyunnie and JaeJae standing at their bedroom door with wide eyes.

"Don't touch him!" Channie shouts with his version of a terrifying glare.

"Don't kill Hongie!"

"I told you she looks like that scary lady from the movie! She's gonna bury us in flower pots with our heads sticking out!" Daehyun rushes over and kicks her shin, causing her to flinch and drop the hammer on her toe. "Serves you right, ghost lady!" He runs off without another word.

Himchan lifts up his camera and two clicks rings in the hall. "I took your picture! You not gonna get away from this!"

"For evidence, hyung!" Daehyun returns with a large ziplock bag, pushing the hammer inside with a tissue. "We have evidence!! Her finger prints. We'll go to the police and put her butt in jail, even if hyung likes them cuz they squishy."

Yongguk facepalms with a heavy sigh. "Daehyun, stop." Walking over to the sobbing maknae, he leans down and pulls him into a hug. "What's wrong? Did baby get scared?"

"Ahjumma scary."

Jongup tugs on his big brother's sleeve. "Hyung, is halmoni gonna nail Junhongie to the wall?"

A whimper escapes Junhong's trembling lips, his fingers digging into Yongguk's tank.

"No. Noona is not going to nail Junhongie to the wall."

"That's mean, don't you like noona?" She has, leaning over to pat Jongup's head.

Jongup purses his lips and frowns. "I don't like you." He trusts a finger towards her. "Or your boobies."

Looking down, she realizes her exposure and quickly covers up.

"You showing my baby brother boobies now?" Himchan wraps his arms around Jongup's neck, patting his head affectionately. "No one wants to see your ugly boobies. Keep them away. We don't want cooties."

"Himchan, you can't get cooties from..." Yongguk gives up at the pout from the other. "It's late. Go back to bed, okay? You want to be rested so we can have our hot chocolate and cookies tomorrow. Noona's baking gingerbread man and we're gonna build our gingerbread house together." Yongguk lifts up Junhong and enters the bedroom.

"What if she tries to poison us, hyung?" Daehyun asks, stomping his feet with a pout. "I don't poison in our food. That's torture!"

"Maybe she'll put in rat poisoning." Youngjae turns to her warily, shifting closer to his Daehyungie. "I don't wanna die. I'm too young."

"Hyung!" Himchan stomps his feet and turns himself into a puffer fish. "Does she have to stay here? Tell her to go home!"

"Channie, she can't stay in her apartment because the ahjusshi need to help her get rid of the roaches, remember?"

"I bet it's cuz she did all kinds of mean things to people so someone throw roaches in her house!"

"Yeah!" Daehyun pulls Youngjae away from her, keeping his eyes trained on her while walking sideways like a crab.

"She wants to conquer our home and make it hers." Youngjae comments over Daehyun's shoulder. "I heard her say it's her house."

 "No! I don't wanna!" Junhong wiggles in Yongguk's hold. "I don't want to live with ahjumma!"

"Me either. I don't want halmoni to live here."

"Hal-noona's going to stay for a few days. She has her own place." Yongguk nearly bites his tongue on the slip-up. "She doesn't want to live with bad children like you."

"Yeah! We're bad children! Don't stay here!" Daehyun sticks out his chest in a superman pose. "We'll put snakes in your bed cuz we dangerous! We bad children!"

"Daehyun...that's not something to be proud of."

"You don't know anything, hyung. You just like her cuz of her butt."

"Y-yah, Daehyun."

"You like butt people."

"Daehyun..." Too tired to argue, he just points out the door. "Go sleep."

Daehyun huffs and rushes out, sticking his tongue out towards her. "I still don't like you."

"H-hyung." Youngjae hurries out after him, staying as far away as the ahjumma as he can.

"Himchan, go back to your room."

"I'm not leaving my baby brothers here. She gonna come in the middle of the night and squish poor baby Uppie with her boobies and hit Hongie with a hammer."

"Move aside! Coming through!" Daehyun lets out a 'che' when she squeals from being surprised. He throws his pillow onto the king sized bed Jongup and Junhong share. He climbs up and crawls to the teary-eyed maknae, kissing his tears away. "Hyung will protect you."

"Me too!" Youngjae sits down next to Daehyun, grabbing Junhong by the next and placing kisses all over his chubby face. "Daehyungie and Youngjae hyung loves baby Hongie very much."

"What about me?" Uppie feels left out in all the love.

"Channie will love Uppie twice as much." He places a kiss on Uppie's face, chasing away the frown. "Channie loves Hongie too!" He leans over and presses his lips to Junhong's cheek. "My baby brothers are the pretties babies ever."

"I feel like I'm watching some kind of weird love drama."

"Go away, hyung! You're not allowed here." Channie thrusts his chubby finger towards the eldest. "You have sided with ahjumma so you're not one of us anymore."

"Himchan." His shoulders slumping, Yongguk feels abandoned by the seven year old, especially since the others refuse to look at him, sticking to each other like a litter of kittens.

"I will take care of the babies all by myself."

"Really now? Fine, take care of them then." Shaking his head, Yongguk escorts his girlfriend back to his room.

"Shouldn't you...?"

"They'll be fine."

Half an hour later, she crawls into the bed she shares with Yongguk temporarily. "They don't like me much, do they?"

"That's not true. They like you a lot."

"They don't act that way."

"The last time I had anyone over, it was this female co-worker who came by to drop off some work I had to do. Junhong was sick and that made the others sick cuz they were babying him. Then I got sick and we were coughing all over the place. I was lucky to have our neighbor come in to check up on us and make sure we don't die."

"Did she stay?"

"For a bit, yes. I couldn't just push her back out the door. It's rude."

"Hm."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"That's not nothing, it's something. You have that look on you face that says the 'something' is bothering you."

"Did you have a crush on her?" She questions, leaning her face close to stare at his reaction.

"What are you talking about? She was just a co-worker."

"I bet she had a crush on you. Why else would she stay?"

"Channie said the exact same thing."

"What else did he say?"

"That she was staring at my..." He pauses, clearing his throat awkwardly. "Um...at my..."

"In front of the kids?"

"They wouldn't go to bed unless I joined them and I couldn't because or work! I had to finish the work so my co-worker could take it back to work the next day."

"She stayed the night?" She leans in closer, her tone accusing him.

"Well, yeah...kinda...almost."

"What happened?"

"She kinda...might have...possibly..." His voice trails off, his eyes guiltily looking away.

"Bang Yongguk." She grabs him by the chin and turns him to face her. 

"What did she do?"

"She crawled into my bed when I was drugged up by the medicine."

"Bang Yongguk!" Sitting up, she straddles him with her hands on his abdominal. "You better not have..."

"I don't know what happened next." Yongguk puts his left arm on her back and the other on her thigh, rubbing her smooth skin. "I do, however, remember her screaming and running out the door."

"What happened?" Resting her body against his chest, she begins to trace his collar bone.

"To this day, it still remains a mystery." Yongguk frowns in deep thought. "I kept my interaction with her to a bare minimum after I caught her calling my brothers vermins and that they should be caged and locked away. She makes them out to be dangerous animals."

"That reminds me..." She pinches his nose. "We need to buy traps, there's a mouse in the house."

"What do you mean? We don't have any..."

The sound of squeaking interrupts Yongguk's next words. He turns around to see a black beady eyes looking at him. The next thing he knows is an ear-splitting scream piercing into his skull and an incoming image of the alarm clock. Then everything went black.

Yongguk woke up Christmas morning with a headache and to the sound of screaming in the living room. He opens the door with a groan. "What's going on here?" He didn't know what surprised him more, the sight of his brothers with pots and pans in their hands and varies cooking utensils as weapons, or his girlfriend sitting in the middle of the living room floor wrapped in Christmas decorations.

"Hyungie!" Junhong rushes to his brother and tackles his leg. "You not dead. Daehyungie said ahjumma killed you."

Yongguk chuckles and picks up Junhong. "No, as you can see, I'm very much alive." He presses his lips to his chubby cheeks. "Why did Daehyun say that?"

"Cuz hyungie won't wake up when me and Hongie went to wake to you." Uppie rubs his teary eyes with a hand on Yongguk's sweatpants.

"I saw a bump on your head and it was black and blue." Youngjae shouted, rushing over to hug his brother's leg.

"We thought the she-demon was gonna eat you, hyung." Daehyun tackles his other leg. "Then she'll come and eat us cuz we small and can't fight her."

Yongguk sits down at the sobbing mess of the four children. "That's not nice. Noona's not a demon, don't call her that."

"Then is she a vampire like that other later who was biting your neck?"

"What vampire?"

"The lady from your work place. That Jieun demon."

"Ji..." Yongguk frowns and turns a glare towards them. "That reminds me, what did you do to her? She said some very bad things."

"Gukkie's mean!" Himchan shouts, his body trembling from withholding his sobs. "We saved you and you're being mean to us."

"Himchan."

The child keeps quiet. He knows that tone. He was in trouble and he knows it. "We wanted to keep you safe." He comments in a soft voice. "You're ours, not hers or anyone else's. You're our hyung." He rubs his sleeve over his nose, pulling back to brush away the tears with his palm. "We not gonna give you up."

"Come here, baby." Yongguk opens his arms to accept the crying Himchan. "No matter what happens, I'm always going to be here for you and take care of you."

"Promise?"

"Promise. You're always gonna be first on my list."

"Hey! That's no fair!"

"What about us?"

"I want to be first hyungie!"

"Uppie too! Uppie wants to be first too, hyungie!"

"You're all number one. No one's number two here."

"Hey! What about me then? Am I not on your list?" She pouts playfully, blinking her eyes.

"Ew...ahjumma's trying to do aegyo." Daehyun's lips curls up in disgust. "That's gross."

"Halmoni shouldn't do aegyo. It's icky." Jongup frowns and curls up more against Yongguk's shoulder.

"Icky halmoni." Junhong's fingers curls into Yongguk's shirt again. "Halmoni is icky. No icky halmoni."

"Okay, okay. That's enough. Go wash up and I'll prepare breakfast."

"Gukkie?" Himchan looks up, the apologetic look plastered on his face.

"What's wrong?"

"Are you mad?"

"Of course not. You're my precious Channie. How can I be mad at you?"

"I think you're going to be."

"Why?"

"You asked what we did to the Jieun demon."

"Jieun noona."

"Yes, the she-demon."

Yongguk gives up with a sharp exhale. "Yes, I did. Are you going to tell me?"

Himchan glances at the others and bits his lips. "You promise not to be mad? Promise you won't get angry first."

"Himchan, what did you do?"

"Just promise!"

"Okay, okay. I promise."

"If you break your promise, then no ramyun until Hongie is old with grey hair!" A look of determination spread out over Himchan's features.

"Okay, fine. I'll promise." Yongguk pats Himchan's head. "Now tell me what did you do?"

"Can someone free me first? My arm's growing numb. Please?" She moves her shoulders to give her arm some kind of movement to ease her paralysis. "It's falling asleep here."

"Fine. Dae, go free her."

Daehyun imitates the walk of the crab again and slowly reaches the spatula closer to the the red decor. "You promise not to eat us? We know your weakness. If you don't behave, we'll use it against you."

"What are you talking about? What...?" She freezes as a pair of beady eyes looks out from under Daehyun's pajamas. "O-okay, I'll behave."

"Good." Daehyun flings the decor away and quickly returns to join his brothers.

"Now, tell me. What did you do to Jieun noona?"

"I put toki poo in her shoes!" Youngjae's hand shoots up like an obedient and studios student in class.

"I dropped Junhong's dirty diappy on her head." Daehyun sticks his nose in the air, proud of his accomplishment. "She was gonna suck all of hyung's blood when hyung was sleeping."

"Channie hyung turned me and Hongie into ghost with flour and we scared her. And she fell on mousy traps."

"That..." Yongguk pauses and thinks back to the morning after when he returned to work. "...would explain why her fingers were bandaged." He turns to Himchan expectedly. "What did you do?"

"I might have dropped baby Junhong's dirty diappy on her head."

"I...you..." Yongguk's shoulder's slump in defeat. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Thank us."

"And where was Hanna noona? She was supposed to come over to make dinner for you boys."

"Noona took a picture and told the she-demon that if she ever tries it again, noona's gonna put the pictures all over the internet and send it to her boss. Then the she-demon put her foot into her toki poop shoes, screamed and ran off. It was funny."

"That's not funny."

"That's not what noona said."

Yongguk ushers the children to put the pots and pans back where they found them and quickly dialed for his neighbor's phone for a quick explanation on her side of the story. With his girlfriend holding the phone and the call on speaker, he was able to cook breakfast successfully, except for the slight mishap with the eggs. At the end of the call, he is more bothered by the information than what his brothers did.

She tries to hold in her laugh with a hand over her mouth, looking away from Yongguk's gaze. She was jealous at first, sure, but anything she could have dealt to the girl would have been less of a punishment than what her boyfriend's over-protective brothers could have ever done.

"Stop laughing."

"Why? You should be proud." A snicker passes through her lips. "I mean, I thought they didn't like me, but from what I just learned, they don't let anyone close to you, not just me." A playful grin spreads on her face. "I've never heard of younger brothers being protective over their big brother. Isn't that a brother-sister thing?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Yongguk pouts and stabs his cake, glancing over at the living room where the five children are watching Poporo. "I thought getting them bunnies would help ease them over the protection thing, but that backfired."

"Hm." She glances over at the sight of six bunnies cuddling against their owners.

Daehyun is lying down on his belly and his grey bunny, Keke is curled up in his hair, occasionally moving into the hood of the boy's hoodie for safety. Youngjae's white bunny with a yellow ribbon, Joko, is sleeping on his lap. Junhong and Jongup's white bunnies with brown spots, twins Toto and Dada, cuddle with each other in between their owners. Sitting in front of Himchan are polar opposites, yet extremely close bunnies, Tatsu and ShiShi.

"Cute bunnies, but I think Jepp hates me." Her eyes lingers on the...rat...using Toto and Dada as a fluffy bed.

"Don't be silly, he's a rat. He can't do something as human as hate."

"Yeah, the vermin that scared the shit out of me when I came back, then decided it was funny to interrupt our time together. His stare creeps me out." She shivers at the reminder of the beady eyes that startled her when she was cuddling with Yongguk the night before.

"Don't call him vermin if you want the kids to like you."

"Can't you get rid of him?"

"Tried, he reappears after a few hours." Yongguk finishes his coffee and smiles apologetically at her pout. "There's nothing I can do about him. He disappeared for a few days and I had thought he was gone for good, but it turns out that he was hiding out in Uppie's backpack. I got a call one day from the kindergarten saying pets aren't allowed in school. I thought it was Dada or Toto until I got down to the school and saw both Uppie and Junhong crying about the teacher saying she'll throw Jepp into the sewers where he belongs."

"Why did you even buy that for them?"

"A previous tenant moved and couldn't take him so he offered them to the boys. It took me a month and an accidentally meeting with them for me to realize the rat was in the apartment."

"Seriously, Bang Yongguk." She leans in and lifts her hand, curling her fingers starting from her pinky. "They have you curled around their chubby little fingers." With a defeated sigh, she leans back on her chair. "I can live with that, I'll try too."

"You can?"

"It's the least I can do after they saved your innocence from the she-demon."

"Are you making fun of me again?" Yongguk asks, leaning in close with his forearms on the table.

"What if I am?" She asks, mirroring Yongguk's pose.

"Well, then you should make it up to me." His eyes lowers to her pink lips, his tongue gliding across his own.

"How so...?" She smiles and leans in, ready to let him press his lips against hers.

"Maybe you should..."

"Present!"

A box is shoved into their faces, causing them to pull back. Himchan smiles brightly, ignoring the irritation on is brother's face and the embarrassment on the girls. "Present."

"F-for me?" Surprised, she takes the box in her hands. "Wow. Thanks."

"You better like it. We spend a long time making them." Himchan turns and walks away, his bunnies hopping along after him.

"W-wait for me hyung." Daehyun runs after the other with Youngjae in tow, their respective bunnies in their arms.

"We go byebye now." Junhong yawns and leaves with Jongup, their bunnies in the pouch of their hoodies and Jepp on Junhong's shoulder, clinging on as the tall maknae jog to keep up with his Uppie hyungie.

"See? They don't hate you."

"Yeah, well after that phone call with your neighbor, which you never told me is a girl, I've realize that it's their way of making sure I won't steal you away. Like unnie said, it's probably some test they put me through. It doesn't, however, make me feel any less jealous that they accepted her right away."

"Well, she was here for them since Channie was a year old, so that changes a lot of things."

"Is that why they'll call her noona and I'm still ahjumma and halmoni?"

"Well..."

"Save it. I'll do my best to earn their trust." She turns the box around and pulls on the ribbon. "I just want to know what this is." She tugs the cover open and looks in. Her face pales at the contents and...

The five brothers cover their laughs as her scream pierces through the walls. Okay, maybe they don't accept her yet. But maybe, one day... Then again, maybe not.

"HIMCHAN!"

"I don't think hyung likes us giving noona pinky mice for Christmas." Daehyun giggles turning to Youngjae who's crying from laughter.

"Noona's so funny." Youngjae lets out a squeak when he falls to the floor, falling on his butt, and rolls around in laughter.

"Let's give noona another present! I want to draw a picture of noona screaming from the micey." Junhong hurries to grab his crayons and paper.

"Me too! I want to draw too!" Jongup sits down next to his brother and grabs a red crayon. "Noona has to be red cuz people who are mad are always red."