•••
MC knew that the twins would do everything to cause something unexpected and that their father would absolutely work with them.
Honestly, Saeyoung took 'If you can't beat them, join them' way too literally.
So she had to devise a way that they couldn't on the day of their Kindergarten graduation. She had thought of putting those electronic bracelets on them which would make noise whenever they were to do something she wouldn't agree on, courtesy of their Uncle Saeran of course, since he too got tired of his nephews' shenanigans. But that would disrupt the ceremony every few seconds.
She even wanted to tie them up to their chairs just to let them sit still even for just one minute but she understood that they were still children and had a very short attention span. And besides, people would judge.
She thought of leaving them to their teacher too since it was practically the teacher's responsibility but the poor woman was being stressed enough by the program that MC wouldn't dare add on to it. Afterall, she knew the pressure of organizing an event.
So she settled with placing them one seat apart with her in between them, Saeyoung sitting to the right and Saeran sitting to the left, caging the young twins in between the older twins.
They're just five, MC kept repeating in her mind, They'll grow up eventually and think properly.
I hope.
So when it was their time to go up the stage and no chaos has happened, she felt absolutely relieved. She couldn't believe that she was so successful on controlling the two within the one hour they were sitting down.
"Hello," the red head grinned at the crowd, "My name is Choi Ji-Min and I am five years old."
MC furrowed her brows. Something seemed… off. It felt wrong as if there was something that she was missing. She stared at Ji-Min for a while until her eyes widened in shock.
"That's not Ji-Min!" She blurted out, catching the attention of Saeyoung and Saeran
Saeran raised a brow, "What do you mean? He looks like Saeyoung, there's no way that's not Ji-Min."
She shook her head, "You don't understand. Ji-Min is shorter than Mi-Jin."
"How can you even compare their heights? They're not even standing next to each other," Saeran replied, "And besides, you gave them different colored socks, there's no way you mixed them up."
"I…" MC deflated, "Didn't. Saeyoung did."
They glared at the older twin who was stiffling his laughter, "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You switched them up," MC spoke, "Why did you switch them?"
Saeyoung burst out laughing, "I'm sorry it just seemed hilarious! I mean, imagine if Ji-Min wanted to be the lawyer and Mi-Jin wanted to be the musician."
"Well, you don't have to imagine anymore," Saeran said
"I wanna be a lawyer," Ji-Min continued, "I wanna protect people using the law! Like my papa! If that doesn't work, I'll just be a racecar driver! Vroom! Vroom!"
The teachers and heads of the school looked at Ji-Min with curiosity. Ji-Min was a troublemaker who knew no rules…
He wanted to be a what?
The other twin went up the stage and introduced himself, "My name is Choi Mi-Jin and I am five. I wanna be a musician! I wanna sing and make my own songs and have fun."
The child bowed and, once again, the heads were dumbfounded. Mi-Jin couldn't even follow the Alphabet Song and was tone deaf so why the heck would he want to be a singer again?
The people clapped and Mi-Jin went down, placing themselves back at their seats. They grinned at their mother who crossed her arms.
"Whose idea was it to pretend to be the other?" She asked
They both pointed at their father who was still laughing. MC turned towards Saeyoung and grabbed his shoulders.
"You," she spoke then pointed at Ji-Min, "you," she added then to Mi-Jin, "and you, are grounded until the end of the month."
This stopped Saeyoung's laughter and made the twins' smiles turn to frowns.
"Saeyoung, you'll do all the chores properly and you're banned from driving around the town without my supervision," she continued
"Wh-what? What if there's an emergency? What if a secret agent is catching me?" He asked
"Saeyoung, it's nearly a decade since you retired and 'the lack of Honey Buddha Chips in the house' is not an emergency," she responded then turned to her twins, "As for you two, no chips and soda, no video games, no pranks, and your curfews will be earlier."
The three responded with words of disagreement to MC's rules simultaneously while Saeran chuckled. MC looked over at him.
"And you." She pointed at him, "Don't you dare sneak in forbidden things to their room during the month or you're grounded too."
"Wait, why am I included in this? I don't give them those things," Saeran countered
"Oh really? So who was it that gave the kids ice cream for lunch while I wasn't around?" MC asked
"MC, they're children! I don't know how to take care of children," he replied, "Anyways, at least I don't give them sugar near midnight while you were sleeping."
MC sighed and looked down, "Saeyoung, why did you give the kids sugar at midnight?"
"They asked. Why wouldn't I? A-and I did that too for Saeran when we were kids; it didn't have much effect on him so I thought it wouldn't either to them," Saeyoung answered
"Tell me again, how many kids do I really have?" MC asked
"Two," Ji-Min and Mi-Jin answered
"Three," Saeran responded, pointing a finger at his twin
"Four," Saeyoung claimed then stuck his tongue out over to his twin