Half of the house was awakened by the screech of fear. Lotus had lurched awake, eyes snapping open in surprise. She wasn't sure what had wakened her before the scream came a second time.
"What's happening?!" She could hear her dad's panicked voice ask.
She wasted no time jumping from her bed and throwing open her door just in time to see Cole peeking from his room and Jeongsoo and Jin walking down the stairs. They stared at each other, Jin mouthed to her to go see what the hell was happening in the kitchen since she was the closest.
"...Okay..." She whispered to him and inched towards the corner.
Cautiously, she peeked into the room to see her mom moving the food from the cabinet as her dad appeared annoyed. There was nothing much to keep her from fully entering, so she did so.
"What's going on? Why did mom scream?" She asked, staring as the two adults scrambled around the kitchen.
"Ants. They're everywhere." Yeongja stated, before grabbing the sugar container and slamming it down.
Her dad sighed, heavily, "They've gotten into that and now I have to buy more sugar and more flour! Money is tight! What I want to know is who the hell left the containers open! All of these ants almost gave your mom a heart attack!"
Lotus quirked a brow and moved forwards, the catch a glimpse of the inside of the container that usually worked well in storing their food and keeping out pests. Little black dots moved on the inside.
She grimaced and looked at the cabinet, seeing the ants run around in there as well.
"That's disgusting." She murmured and backed away, a crawly feeling tingling on her body in response to the scene of all of those ants.
"I haven't used the sugar recently," She added, "I don't know who has."
"Are you serious?" Her parents sighed.
She nodded and back out of the kitchen to meet with her brothers. They were lingering at the bottom of the stairs, awaiting her arrival.
"So?" Jin questioned.
"Have any of you gotten into the sugar and flour?" She asked, eyeing them both.
"Uh..." Jin hummed in thought before shaking his head, "Nope." Jeongsoo shook his head as well.
"Where's Chance at least?"
Jeongsoo rolled his eyes, "Still sleeping. All he did was roll over and tell me to shut up when I was telling him about the screaming!"
"He's such an asshole sometimes," Jin huffed.
"Lotus! Tell all of your brothers to come here!" Their dad called out.
She gave a sheepish smile to them and gestured to the kitchen before passing them to go upstairs to get Chance.
Before walking in, she made sure to give a few knocks. The room that Chance, Jeongsoo, and Jin shared wasn't too messy. Chance and Jin slept on a bunk bed which was obvious which one slept on which mattress. Jin was a lazy kid so his bed, he took the top bunk, was always unmade and he had posters lining the wall around him.
Chance was surprisingly more put together and less lively than Jin. His bed, when he wasn't in it which wasn't the case now, was made before he left. Not mentioning he hung a sheet from the top of the bed so no one could infringe on his privacy. His brothers liked messing around and made him annoyed just by seeing their faces at times.
When the sheet was up, that meant he didn't want anyone to interact with him. Lotus wrung her hands together and looked towards Jeongsoo's side to calm herself down.
"Chance, mom wants you down there." She stated just a bit louder than her normal tone.
When no response was given she turned around and left. At least she could say she tried but she didn't want to wake the beast. She rushed down to Paz and Cole's room only to find that vacant so she went to the kitchen where everyone, excluding Chance, was gathered.
"Where's Chance?" Their mom asked with folded arms.
"Sleeping..." Lotus hesitated before answering.
Yeongja sighed and yelled out, "Chance! Get your butt up and come down here right now!"
They all awkwardly stood in there, lined up and watching their dad wiping the inside of the cabinet. When there was no response, she rolled her eyes and walked past them.
Minutes later, Chance came down with their mom trailing behind him. He glared at all of them as he scratched his head and settled at the end.
"This is stupid," He grunted.
Yeongja decided to ignore him and once more took her spot in front of them. She looked at each one of them, eyeing them suspiciously before she began talking.
"Now that you're all here, you'll all be deep cleaning today after school. That means coming straight home, no clubs and no friends today. Someone decided to leave the containers open and now ants have infested our kitchen. I don't know for how long, but it's bad, it's gross, it's nasty. All of your rooms have to be cleaned and sprayed until I can get an exterminator here to deal with this because I don't know where they're coming from."
"I'm sorry," Cole spoke up with teary eyes, "I forgot to shut them. I was trying to make cookies with Jeongsoo."
The older boy tensed and whipped his head to Cole, a look of betrayal on his face. "Cole, be quiet." He harshly whispered.
It only made him start crying. Jin and Chance groaned, glaring at Jeongsoo.
"Jeongsoo!" Yeongja scolded him.
"It wasn't just me! It was Jin and Chance, too!" He accused, "We just wanted something sweet but it was late at night and Lotus was sleeping!"
"You two told me it wasn't you!" Lotus exclaimed, furrowing her brows.
"Excuse them for not wanting to get in trouble." Chance sarcastically retorted.
"It was my fault, mommy! I really wanted cookies and told them!" Cole sobbed.
Yeongja seemed to melt at Cole's tears and went over to pick him up and hug him. "Don't cry, baby!" She shushed him, "It's fine! Just don't do it again. Make sure you close everything tight!"
Over Cole's shoulders, she mouthed a "not you" to the three oldest boys. They collectively huffed, departing to get ready for school and leave before she got done comforting the crying boy and could further scold them.
Paz and Lotus looked at each other before he decided to leave as well.
"Um, is that all?" She reluctantly asked her parents.
"Yes, sweetie. And all you have to do is clean your room. They'll be the ones to have to clean the house since this was their doing." Her dad told her, waving her off.268Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrbAmnXDROj
