Chapter Text
No one knows how it happened.
It was just a usual morning for everyone at the dorm until they heard a wail, a child's wail. Everyone who usually woke up late shot up from their beds to find out where it was, they checked outside the dorm, the bathroom, even the cabinets.
"Maybe it's just the neighbor," Jihoon suggests.
"We've met our neighbors, Jihoon. They don't have a kid as young as that." Soonyoung says, but a thought suddenly came to his mind "Well, unless it's a visitor."
"Maybe," Jihoon mumbled, everyone agreed and decided to get ready since they were all up either way.
"Can someone get Seungcheol?" Joshua called out from the bathroom with a toothbrush in his hand, "He's not awake yet."
Chan volunteers to go and skipped to Seungcheol's room, he knocks once, and then twice, and the third time he did, he received a cry in reply. The same cry they heard earlier.
"Seungcheol?" Chan tries to call out, but the crying just continued so he calls Jeonghan, who had the keys to every door in the dorm with him, to unlock the thing that's keeping them from finding out what was going on.
Jeonghan twists the knob and saw... Seungcheol.
But as a baby.
His clothes pooled around him because he suddenly shrunk.
"Is that..."
"Seungcheol?" Jeonghan tries, the baby tries to crawl towards him, tears brimming his already puffy eyes. Jeonghan approaches the baby slowly, he reaches his arms out and the child automatically tugs on his fingers, asking to be picked up. Jeonghan complies and wraps the now oversized sweater around his small body before picking him up. "What happened?"
Jeonghan tries to look around to see if there was anything that can answer his question since he knew that Seungheol won't be doing that.
"Aneee"
Hannie. Okay, Jeonghan figured that one out.
"What is it?"
He got another cry in return instead. Jeonghan sighs, turning around to see the rest of the members with a shocked expression. Even Joshua, who still had a toothbrush in his mouth was there with his eyes bulging out of their sockets.
"That's him?" Minghao asked dumbfoundedly, "Are you sure?"
"We've seen pictures of him before as a kid and... it's definitely him," Jun answers, eyes still not moving away from their leader.
"So, what do we do?" Everyone turns to Jeonghan, who was silent the whole time.
"I... I think Seungcheol just peed."
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And so they decided to start with groceries, diapers, milk, bottles, baby clothes, and a pacifier, buying only small amounts since they didn't really know how long baby Seungcheol will last. Seungcheol was sitting on the chair built in the pushing cart as they strolled around, wrapped in a big shirt Seokmin tried his best to tie up just so it could fit him more properly, the members who came along had their face covered up with either masks or bucket hats because the media would take it the other way when they see half of the members of seventeen walking around with a toddler with them.
Although they were still attracting a lot of attention by having at least one of their hands on the cart, looking like they were protecting Seungcheol from the rest of the world.
They were passing by the vegetable section when Joshua decided to grab two asparagus and handed them to Seungcheol, his small hands wrapped around the vegetable tightly, he looked at it curiously before deciding to put it in his mouth.
Mingyu, who was pushing the cart and the one in front of Seungcheol immediately snatched it away from his hands. He immediately realized his mistake when his lips wobbled, eyes slowly becoming glossy.
He was going to throw a tantrum.
Over a fucking asparagus.
Thankfully, Joshua took over in time. Grabbing the vegetables from Mingyu and entertained Seungcheol with them by putting them in front of his eyes. "Look, it's you! Asparagus!"
Joshua waved it in front of his face, but not letting him grab it. Baby Seungcheol saw it as a challenge though, his mouth forming into an almost toothless smile as he giggled, trying to catch the vegetables from Joshua. "You like Asparagus?"
"We should film this." Seungkwan says beside Mingyu, "Seungcheol would like it when he comes back to normal."
Mingyu snorted at the suggestion but handed his phone to Seungkwan anyways, taking a video of the current scene.
"Asparagus!" Joshua repeated again.
"I feel like this would embarrass Joshua more."
"Apagus!" Seungcheol squealed. "Apaguuuuus!"
Joshua threw his head back and laughed along, the other members were hiding their grin as well.
Seungcheol started to reach out further, his laughs turning into a whine. "Apagus!"
"You can't have it. It's not edible yet."
The 'tantrum processing' look on Seungcheol's face returned, "Anee! Apagus!" Seungcheol turned his head around to look for Jeonghan, but only grew more frustrated when he saw that he wasn't there.
"He's probably hungry." Seokmin says, "I mean, I know we all are since we didn't get to eat, but a baby just throws tantrums when they are."
Right. But what were they going to feed him now? The bottles were new and there was no way they were going to prepare them in the middle of a supermarket.
All five of them stood helplessly, Joshua tried picking Seungcheol up but the other was still grabbing for the veggie.
"You young boys are doing it wrong." they all turned around in the direction of the voice, a woman in her 50's was standing behind them with an uncertain look on her face. "Come on, give him to me."
Joshua wouldn't have trusted her but they were too desperate to decline. The woman held Seungcheol gently though, showing no signs of running away with the baby in her arms and that was enough for everyone to relax a little.
Seungcheol seemed to be confused than upset now and just stared at the woman, she noticed the look he was giving him and booped his nose, making him smile a little.
"He's hungry isn't he?" Everyone nods at the question, "There are sliced-up fruits in aisle two. You can make him chew on the pineapples for a while."
Jihoon nods and runs off to find it, the woman continues to rock Seungcheol in her arms as they waited. "You should also carry him than put him in the cart, walking around will entertain him more. How did you even end up in this situation?"
"I-" Seokminstarted, "He's my... sister's, she asked me to babysit him for a while but... but..."
"We forgot the bag she prepared at home. It's too far away to go back for." Seungkwan saves him, Seokmin quietly sighs in relief. "Thank you so much for your help."
"Hm, just continue walking and sway him lightly like this... he'll either stop crying or fall asleep, right?" The woman turns to Seungcheol who had a confused look on his face, "Oh look. His eyelashes are very long."
"I got it!" Jihoon runs back with the container of sliced-up fruits in his hand. He gives it to Seungkwan and the woman finally gives Seungcheol back to them.
"Thank you again." The woman just smiled and waved at them goodbye as they both parted ways. Mingyu stops the cart in an empty aisle to try what the woman just said. "Okay, Cheollie. Let's try pineapple."
Seungkwan opens the lid, grabbing the small slice of pineapple. Poking it at Seungcheol's closed lips before they part, tiny teeth nibbling on the fruit. His eyebrows furrowed at the taste but continued nibbling on it anyways, taking the slice from Seungkwan's hand.
This can work for now, just until they get back to the dorms.
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The people at the dorm on the other hand looked like they were doing a search for a murder case. Soonyoung was looking under Seungcheol's bed while Jeonghan had already flipped the mattress over. The rest were looking in the drawers while Vernon... decided that he would try and look in the trashcan.
"Is this even possible?" Chan asked, "I mean, it only happens in movies."
"No one proved it impossible before either." Vernon mused from the other side of the room, trash littering around him as he searched, "And we just proved the people who think it's impossible, wrong."
Vernon grins as he holds up an empty packet of candy, he reads the label and the ingredients, clicking his tongue before reading out. "Strawberry flavor, red food coloring, powdered sugar and...Bingo! Baby powder."
"It must have been a different kind of baby powder." Wonwoo scrunched up his nose, "The person who invented it is a genius though."
"Are you really commending the person who just decreased your leader's age by about 24 years?" Minghao chuckles at him, "But I've got to agree that it's genius."
"Seungcheol looks cute as a baby," Jun commented.
"He was born blessed with the eyelashes." Jeonghan sighs at the thought. They hear the door open, everyone immediately walked out to see them. They all looked tired, Mingyu had a clinging Seungcheol with him, Seungkwan was carrying the diapers while Jihoon carried some of the bags, looking as if he was ready to fall asleep on the spot.
"We found it! It's from a candy Seungcheol probably ate last night." The rest grew interested at the announcement, "There's got to be an expiration date here... hold on."
Vernon rips the packaging open and reads the text inside, "...Three days."
"No."
"You're kidding."
Followed by an incoherent noise from Seungcheol, then he makes a fart sound with his mouth before giggling.
"Okay, I can do three days with that adorableness," Jun says fondly, reaching forward to carry Seungcheol. "Normal Seungcheol can come back next week."
"That's mean but I agree. That was fucking adorable."
"Can you watch your fucking language?"
"Okay!" Jeonghan claps his hands together to gain their attention which thankfully worked, including Seungcheol. "Just... set out the groceries first and we'll talk about this after breakfast."
He earns mumbles of agreement, before setting down the bags and that's when Joshua realizes that he was still holding the asparagus. "Gyu, did we pay for this?"
"I think you were holding that the whole time." Jihoon laughs. Joshua's cheeks flushed in embarrassment.
Seungcheol on the other hand, squeals in delight and claps his hands. "Apagogus!"