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They know that their Daddy and Papa won’t be together soon.

Sebong even thinks that they might not be together anymore in the future. It’s not the same as the stories his Papa would always read before tucking him and his twin sister to bed, but he also remembers hearing that not everything has happy endings. He’s not sure where he heard that, but it confuses him and provides him an answer at the same time. It does not make him feel less sad, though.

“Hey, buddy, you alright?”

“Uncle, can Dada and Papa just make up?”

Jisoo bit his lips. He has the urge to just point and talk about something, at anything, just to avoid the pair of huge eyes looking up on him. But Sebong’s orbs are begging, pleading, and it hurts Jisoo’s chest to even ignore the pain in them. A part of him gets mad at his friends for putting the child in this state, but among others, he knows the two adults too well for him to have the guts to judge them of their choices.

It’s hard to judge someone when you’ve witnessed them fighting with their own demons. It was probably easier if he hadn’t known.

Crouching down to meet Sebong’s height, he tries to give a reassuring smile; as reassuring as it can be. The words he’s going to say hoped to be as assuring as well. “I’m not sure, BongBong-ah… but I do know that even though your Papa is not living with you and your Daddy anymore, your Papa still loves you very much.”

Sebong looks down before meekly nodding his head. Jisoo knows his words are not enough, but it should do for now. “Let’s go to sleep, okay?”

After making sure that Sebong is silently sleeping on his bed, Jisoo carefully made his way out of the room. If he’s surprised to see Jeonghan waiting outside, he did not show it. He keeps his face calm as he closes the door behind him.

“Is he sleeping?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, okay.”

Jisoo only stares at Jeonghan. The man is too fidgety that Jisoo can’t help but wonder what’s getting him so worked up. Not the first time, definitely, but he noticed that his friend turned like this the moment he went out of Sebong’s room after tucking him to bed. What’s getting Jeonghan so uneasy? It’s just him and his own son behind the door they’re leaning at.

“Don’t tell me you’re getting nervous to talk with Sebong?” Jisoo asks, his tone calm but deadly. Jeonghan flinched for a second. The minimal wince would’ve get out of a stranger’s eyes but Jisoo is no stranger.

Jeonghan bit his lips as he tries to ignore Jisoo sighing exasperatedly. He sounds so disappointed and Jeonghan can’t even get mad at his bestfriend for it.
Gods, he’s even disappointed at himself.

“Jeonghan, what the hell?! Sebong is your son!” Jisoo harshly whispers, afraid that Sebong might wake up from his peaceful slumber. Suddenly, the younger man feels his chest constricts. He is not even sure if Sebong is having a peaceful slumber. What if the child is silently crying in his dreams? What if he is still wishing for both his Papa and Daddy’s presence in his sleep? Gods, Jisoo suddenly feels so angry and mad. It all it takes for him to remember how Suji also begged his uncles to talk to Jeonghan because the poor girl thinks she can’t help her own father out of his misery. The children are inevitably getting affected and Jisoo does not know who to blame.

Is there anyone to blame?

“Listen,” Jisoo starts. He did not need to have his bestfriend look at him. If Jeonghan is too embarrassed to meet him in the eyes then he understands. Jeonghan better keep his ears open, though.

“Sebong needs you. Suji needs you. The children need you and I hope you two understand that.”

“Are you really sure about this?”

“All I do is disappoint him. He’ll be happy without me.”

No, he won’t, Jihoon would like to say but he already said it a lot of times that he knew the Seungcheol right now won’t get it in his head. Nothing is going to get in Seungcheol’s head. Not in this state. All the younger man could do is shrug his shoulders and watch his bestfriend walk out of the recording studio.

But not all problems are solved by just simply walking out of it. This has got to stop.

Jihoon was just about to turn with his swivel chair when the door is slowly opened, small head peeking in. “Suji-yah,” the producer acknowledges, naturally reaching an arm out for the child. The two year old meekly stepped inside the room, using all of her body to close the door behind her. She looks small, but even more so with her head slightly down and innocent confusion on her face, like a lost child in a middle of a crowded supermarket, not having an idea on what is going on or what she should do. Jihoon’s arm is still stretched for her to take, but Suji had only stand from where she closed the door of the studio.

Jihoon frowns, “Suji?”

“I miss Dada.”

If the demo version of the new track he’s working on is playing, Jihoon wouldn’t have heard Suji. Her voice is just above a whisper. Jihoon hardly catches it.

“Your Dad just came out of this room a while ago. Haven’t you seen him?” he asks, his arm more stretched out. Suji finally walks towards his uncle and Jihoon didn’t waste any time, quickly wrapping his arms around the child. He brought her to his lap, trying to look at her eyes. Suji hides away, though. Jihoon figures she hadn’t heard him, so he repeats his question, albeit a lot softer in tone.

The young man felt Suji slightly nodding against his chest. The toddler looks like she’s hesitating, but she said it nonetheless.

“I hid from Dada. Will Dada miss Suji?”

Jihoon frowns, “Of course.”

“Then Dada will miss Papa, too?”

He is caught off guard. Suji looks up at him with big eyes filled with wonder and hope and Jihoon almost nods at everything the child would ask just so he could satisfy whatever it is bugging her mind. He would spoil her in a different circumstance. He would in a heartbeat. But doing that would just bring more heartbreak for the child and heartbreaks are the last thing Jihoon would want. He knew that her Daddy would definitely miss her Papa, though, given that his bestfriend is still madly in love with his husband – well, now ex-husband – but Jihoon wouldn’t make Suji happy like that without a concrete proof that it would happen.

He learnt not to declare things with Jeonghan and Seungcheol’s relationship by now. Good example is this separation. Everyone is shocked with this divorce. No one is expecting it.

“Suji-yah,” Jihoon starts, trying to carefully watch whatever would come out of his mouth. In his entire life producing and composing, oh boy, this would be the hardest time for him to send his message to another person. Words are suddenly tangled in his tongue and he’s extremely wary of sentences slowly formulating in his head. People would think he’s already an expert in the field of expressing so this should not be a problem, but boy they are wrong.

Squeezing the toddler’s hands slightly, Jihoon offers a smile. “What do you see in your Papa and Daddy’s eyes?”

“Love. Hurt.”

Gods, she said hurt. That’s pain. She’s barely three.

“Why hurt?”

Suji reaches up, her small palms suddenly tapping Jihoon’s cheeks. The adult kept his eyes on the toddler, watching how Suji kept her lips in a thin line. He felt the soft hands against his cheeks again, short fingers almost stopping below his eyes. And then, the toddler speaks, “Because they cry.”

Damn.

“Dduji cries when she’s hurt…”

“Do you think love is something good for people?”

Suji innocently tilts her head, seemingly trying to think about his uncle’s question. It only took her several seconds to smile to Jihoon. “Maybe.”

“Do you know that love is an ingredient to miss someone?” Jihoon slowly asks, eyes never leaving its softness as they look in Suji’s eyes. The child gently nods her head, prompting for her uncle to continue. “If you see love in Daddy’s eyes, then maybe… maybe,” Jihoon says, words already lost in his tongue. But then he saw Suji bobbing her head leisurely and Jihoon thinks that maybe, this is enough for now.

“Uncle Soonie!” Suji squeals, little legs running to tackle her uncle with a hug. Soonyoung laughs as he opens his arms for the child.

With a yelp, Soonyoung scoops Suji up with ease. “Hello, princess Dduji! How long did you not see uncle?” he asks with a grin. Suji puts up five fingers with a shy yet blinding smile of her own. “That’s right! Uncle is gone for more than five months!” Soonyoung gushes despite seeing the child’s hesitation with her answer. Truth been told, the choreographer was sent to Japan to train trainees and teach choreography for, actually, more than five months – six months to be exact – but now he’s back and he’s dashing as ever. Six months are not far from five months as well so her princess Suji is still right!

Soonyoung’s going to punch anyone who’ll make Suji sad.

Anyway, being away from Korea does not mean he is not updated, though.

Soonyoung still remembers it well. Pretty well, to be honest. It’s two weeks after the divorce of his friends when he takes off for Japan. He would’ve stayed, honestly, but Seungcheol had personally assigned him the task and he does not want to give the older man another burden by rejecting the assignment.

The man had gotten through a lot and Soonyoung is honestly concern on how he is still managing the whole company like he is not breaking apart. How? From what he heard, Jeonghan filed a leave at work but Seungcheol acted like he’s not hurting. Soonyoung wonders every second. How much does his boss hide? It’s not going to be pretty when it explodes, right? Ah, maybe this is the disadvantage of being so close to someone at work. Soonyoung cannot sometimes see it within himself to not be obviously worried even when they’re inside the company. Jihoon reprimands him sometimes with that, but not so much because Jihoon is aware that he is also unconsciously doing the same thing.

Okay, Soonyoung, focus on what’s at hand right now.

“How’s your Papa? Still looking at the picture?”

The three year old girl nods her head. “Yep. Every night.”

Information #1: Jeonghan always looks at Seungcheol’s photo or their family photo.

Honest to moon, Soonyoung is not surprised. The groundwork might have been broken right now, but Soonyoung is sure it’s not into ashes. Nope. Far from it. Their foundation together was brilliant, it’s just that their foundations within themselves as individuals were the problem. While his friends’ marriage life did not work, he witnessed the foundation of their relationship. It was not something that would be easily erased by signed papers of separation. Soonyoung bets the papers are barely doing the minimum.

“What do you say when you catch your Papa doing that?” Soonyoung asked after making sure that Suji is safe on her booster car seat. The man just finished doing his own seatbelt when Suji replies. “I ask him if he misses Dada…”

“Hm?”

“Now Papa always…” Suji puts her arms in front of her face, “…hides when he sees me watchy him.”

Soonyoung snickers. Very not Jeonghan-like to be embarrassed when he’s caught doing something. That man marvels about his clever ways.

“So I just hide from him. Papa looks red when he sees I see him. I still see him, though! He does not just know!” Suji adds enthusiastically, looking so proud that she’s being an adorable snitch, and Soonyoung barks a laugh. Jeonghan might be unaware that he’s raising a cunning child. Well, the fruit is not far from the tree!

The drive was then filled with random blabbers from the two. Soonyoung thinks that Jihoon would be jealous at how Suji practically tells her life story to him. Hah, of course! He’ll be the favourite uncle! Even his stay in Japan did not distance the child away from him. Maybe it’s his talent of talking a lot and reacting well to Suji’s tales. And oh, how adorable she is for wiggling her toes as she brags about her new shoes! Gods, Soonyoung just couldn’t help but coo at the child. “Uncle Soonyoung is so cute!” Suji even gushes!

Truly, he is the favourite uncle!

“No, you’re not,” Wonwoo deadpans.

“Just admit that Suji likes me better than any of you old gremlins!” Soonyoung boasts as he sticks his tongue out to his, mind you, bestfriend. He had been telling his friends the high possibility that he is Suji’s favourite uncle for about ten minutes now and so far, only Wonwoo had been able to give a reaction about it. It wasn’t even a good one! “Maybe Suji kept talking about me to all of you so you are all bitter!”

Wonwoo rolled his eyes. “Real mature, Soonie.”

“The only thing keeping us from hearing stories about you is the fact that Suji is the one telling us about them,” Jihoon adds, smirking as Soonyoung glares at him. Well, what else would he be good at? Yep, pushing Soonyoung’s buttons.

“We wouldn’t give jackshit about your adventures, y’know.”

“Oh, so you don’t deny that baby Suji always talks about me?”

“Oh my god. He’s so annoying,” Jihoon relents. For some reason, even if he has the power to tease Soonyoung, the latter had some expertise to irritate him in a second with his comebacks and dumb smiles.

Wonwoo gives a fond pat at Jihoon’s back as the latter passed by him. Clicking the door shut, Soonyoung continues to laugh at Jihoon’s exit outside the room.

“You have some real talent shitting Jihoon’s mood,” Wonwoo nonchalantly commented. Now that the two bestfriends are left in the room, Wonwoo took his time walking towards his still giggling bestfriend, pulling a chair across Soonyoung and sitting on it with his legs crossed. That’s got Soonyoung stopping from laughing. The older male looks serious.

“Suji and Sebong once talked to me,” he starts, and Soonyoung does not like how Wonwoo’s eyebrows meet together in a frown. “I tried asking them who’s their favourite uncle, y’know.”

Wonwoo jumped in surprise when Soonyong suddenly bursts. The latter pouts with the biggest scowl on his face and Wonwoo might be deterred if an upset Soonyoung does not look adorable to him. The younger male is still loud as heck as he accuses, “Hey! That’s cheating! You can’t sweet-talk them to choose you to be the favourite uncle!”

“Relax,” Wonwoo softly says, hands patting Soonyoung’s cheeks. “They didn’t even mention a name so you better start toning down your bragging rights,” he adds, chuckling at how Soonyoung pouts. “They told me something, though.”

Soonyoung stubbornly turned to move his face away from Wonwoo’s cradling hands. “Nah, I don’t want it.”

“It’s about how to be the twins’ favourite uncle.”

“Speak now, bitch!”

Wonwoo grinned, but it wasn’t long enough to hide his sad smile afterwards. “Whoever helped them to get their parents together would be the greatest uncle, they said.”

“Uncle Shua? What’re we doin’ here?” Suji asked. Jisoo grinned at the children as the three of them walked together, flower shops lining on their sides. The flower market is not that busy today and Jisoo thinks that’s a win for them! Then again, it’s not a special month for people to buy flowers so the children might be confused on why they are brought to the place all of a sudden.

Jisoo gently squeezes the hands tangled on both his palms. Suji and Sebong simultaneously looked up in wonder. “Kids, we’re buying your father a bouquet!”

“Fathe’? Papa o’ Dada?”

The adult chuckled softly as he pats Sebong’s head, “Papa, Sebong-ah. We’ll buy your Papa Jeonghan a bouquet.”

The children smiled so wide, excited at the prospect of buying something for their Papa. Jisoo laughed internally. He’s not sure if it’s a good thing that either of them had already completely forgotten more questions to ask. All he could think about is how selfless these kids are.

Sebong tugs lightly at Jisoo’s hand, gaining the man’s attention. “This, surprise?”

Stopping by a flower shop, Jisoo bends down to meet Sebong’s eyes (after making sure that Suji is assisted by one of the kind vendors) before nodding to the young boy. “Is this a surprise? Yes, Sebong-ah. This is a surprise!” To add more anticipation plastered on Sebong’s face, Jisoo leaned closer and quietly whispered to his ear. “And, this is also a secret! Your Papa should not know that we’re buying him flowers!”

At this, Sebong tilted his head, “Eh? Why?”

“We want to surprise Papa, right? Papa Jeonghannie won’t be surprised if he’ll know that the flowers are from us.”

After seconds of thinking, Sebong shrugs his shoulders with a shrug. “Okay! Daddy also tell me that before when he wants surprising Papa!” he nods, jumping a bit before joining his sister to look over the flowers. Jisoo melts every time Suji’s eyes widen in pure joy whenever she spots a beautiful flower, but that statement left a sad smile on his lips.

The kids still remember a lot of Seungcheol’s ways to make Jeonghan into a blushing mess. Must be an important thing to them to see their parents like that.

“Hey, the both of you can choose what flower we will give to your father, okay? Your Uncle Shua will just be right there,” he points a finger not far from where they are, repeating it again until the two nods in understanding. He hears a voice in his head, sounds like Wonwoo’s, scolding him for talking in third person that would not help the kids’ vocabulary whatsoever. He shakes his head and continues pointing. “Right there, and call me if you found something pretty, okay? Don’t go off anywhere without each other. Do not also go out of this shop without me, okay? Call Uncle Shua if you need anything!”

Sebong quickly holds Suji’s hand in his as he nods, “I understand, Uncle!”

“I un’stand, Uncle!” Suji mimics.

Jisoo coos. He thanks God. They’re so adorable.

Sebong and Suji continued looking over the flowers, occasionally stopping to smell them. Suji excitedly tugs at her brother’s hands and Sebong almost stumbled on his shoe. “BongBong, look, look!” she squeals, small fingers eagerly pointing to the flowers displayed steps ahead from them.

“Shall we go there, Dduji-yah?”

Suji nods, her small teeth on full display, “Yes! Yes!”

Little steps took them to the pointed flowers, that turned out to be roses, and Suji dips her head on them. “Dduji-yah, you can’t just do that!” Sebong acts quickly by pulling his sister away from the flowers. He remembers this kind of flowers. They have thorns. Thorns are not nice. They poke! Daddy told him it’s not nice to poke someone! Suji might get poked by them! “Dduji, no…” he clutches his sister closer to him. Instead of getting upset, Suji only had this mesmerized look on her face. Sebong waves his small palm in front of her face. “Dduji? Hello?” he asked

“They smell nice!”

Sebong looks hesitantly over the roses. “Yes, okay, they smell nice, but they have thorns! So, still not nice!”

The kind vendor quietly watching over them as well chuckles. “Hm, you’re right. Roses have thorns. How did you know that?”

Suji lightly hides behind Sebong but the latter, being the sociable being he is, grinned proudly with his cheeks full on display. “Daddy told me about them! I got poked once!”

This cause Suji to show herself behind Sebong with an unamused face. The vendor was amused about how a kid could look like that at her own brother. The words that came out from her mouth had even made the watching adult laugh. “Bong, you’re a fool.”

Sebong crossed his arms, “You don’t even know they have thorns, Suji.”

Suji also crossed his arms, “I know! Papa told me!”

Not one to back out, the small boy hold his chin up. “Well, maybe Daddy told Papa that!” he says and Suji is quick to pout. What?! That’s impossible! Papa and Daddy don’t even live together anymore! How could his Daddy tell that to Papa, then?!

“Okay, okay. We’re just happy that Daddy and Papa told you about the thorns,” the vendor gently gets in between the almost fighting children. Sebong and Suji both squint their eyes at each other. The vendor holds his breathe, preparing to witness another fight but sighs in relief instead as he watches the children shrugging and letting it go.

“So, do you like this flower?” the vendor asked and the two replied with an adorable series of ‘yes’.

Just then, Suji remembered something his father always say when they’re in the market. With a smile and crinkling eyes, she asks the vendor, “Mister, do you have discounts?!”

“I think they’re doing well,” Jisoo chuckles from where he is standing. He can’t hear them but he can clearly see the children talking animatedly with the vendor. They’re also pointing to some baby’s breath. No one knows what they’re talking about. Jisoo just hoped it’s something not potentially damaging to anyone’s reputation. “And, I also think they’re about to pick these pretty-looking roses here. Baby’s breath, too. Do you think I should add some more kinds? Sunflowers, tulips?”

Junhui just laughs from the phone. “Seriously, hyung. You can just buy whatever. It’s not like Jeonghan-hyung would know it’s from you guys,” he says with a sip of his drink. Jisoo could hear some chips crackling from the other line as well.

“You’re right. I just hoped this would give me the favourite uncle title, though!” he grins. Jisoo thinks Junhui is rolling his eyes at him.

“Oh, please, hyung,” Junhui scoffs. “Your plan won’t do the bare minimum! I will surely get that title. My plan is perfect! Truly polished, wonderful, finalized with perfection.”

“Last time you planned something, Chan broke his ankle.”

“Now, that’s something we shouldn’t talk about now, should we?”

All was thrown out of the window when Jisoo felt bodies bumping against his thighs and he looks down to see two bouquets of beautiful roses with baby’s breath. He does not need to see if Suji and Sebong are happy underneath the bouquets. Their giggles reaching Jisoo’s ears as they hold the flowers securely against them are more than enough.

“I can’t believe that plan worked, hyung.”

“Well, what can we say, Hoonie? My grandma says I’m a genius.”

“Actually, technically, it did not work.”

“You’re such a party-pooper, Won,” Jisoo pouts, chucking a pillow at Wonwoo’s direction. “Just when Jihoon agrees with my plan working, you’re disagreeing,” he adds while sulking. Jihoon is amused at how Wonwoo treats Jisoo like he’s the same age as them (well, almost, but still not) and makes fun of the guy like this.

Just to lessen the pout on Jisoo’s lips, Jihoon shrugs his shoulders. “But it did trigger something,” he concludes. Wonwoo seems to accept that.

True to Jihoon’s words, Jisoo’s plan of sending flowers to Jeonghan did stir some additional reaction. While the exact plan did not work because Jeonghan was not in the office when the flowers were delivered that day – “Hyung, that’s dumb,” Jihoon said that morning – the action somewhat started a revolution of being openly affectionate towards a certain Yoon Jeonghan. Just a day after that, the bachelor received an overwhelming amount of flowers that he might just open his own flower shop.

Thinking about it, Jisoo seems satisfied with the result.

His goal is to let Seungcheol know that someone is sending flowers to Jeonghan, hence the anonymity of the delivery, and make the older man realize something! Though, it somewhat failed because Jeonghan hasn’t been able to see the flowers, it did work somehow because the additional admirers, that think it is fine to show their admiration towards Jeonghan, successfully caught Seungcheol’s attention! Jisoo means, who wouldn’t?! The list of men and women flocked on their lobby is eye-catching and the occasional ‘for Mr. Yoon Jeonghan’ is an effective word to stop the CEO himself while picking up Suji in the office. Jisoo is a genius.

“He’s proud of himself again,” Wonwoo mumbles, silently watching (read: judging) the smiling Jisoo.

The man then turned when Jihoon nudged him. “How ‘bout you? Got some plans yet?”

“Can you not make this sound like we’re on a top-secret mission or something?”

“Aren’t we on one?”

Wonwoo can’t believe Soonyoung got Jihoon in this, too.

He sometimes regrets telling Soonyoung about “The Favourite Uncle” title because his bestfriend had managed to put almost the whole group into a state of chaos to get the two adults back together. He really thinks it’s dangerous. The two divorced for a reason. Why would they push them back together?

And he hates it because he finds himself contradicting his own self. Dammit.

Of course, of course! He wants them back together. If it’s not because of the papers and whatever signature there is, Wonwoo had probably long shoved their faces together as they announce them husbands again. The way his hyungs desperately glance at each other makes him sick. He really tried not letting the guilt get in his head, but every longing eyes the divorced couple have for each other makes it hard for him to ignore the fact that he helped for the finalisation of their separation.

“You’re just doing your work, Wonwoo,” Seungcheol would say, but maybe it was not enough.

And maybe, maybe, the whole group is aware that the two idiots still love each other. Maybe, they are all have just been waiting for this chance to do something because at that time, they did nothing. They did absolutely nothing, afraid that they might break the couple more, that their words won’t matter.

But now the wish is from the twins and the small voice that has always been at the back of their minds had swallowed them whole.

“So?”

Wonwoo blinks. He looks back at Jihoon before shrugging. “I’m still planning.”

“This is the perfect plan!”

“I’m honestly afraid, Kwannie.”

Seungkwan coos at Hansol affectionately as he pats the latter’s head. “You’re so innocent, Vernonie! Don’t worry! Seungkwan-sunbae shall guide you well. You will learn a lot from me, my dear child!”

That only made Hansol frown. “We’re the same age…” he mumbles but decided to shake it off as he follows Seungkwan inside the building.

The two of them made their way to Jeonghan’s apartment. While inside the elevator, Hansol can’t help but ask, “Do you really think this would work?” Not that he does not trust Seungkwan. He is just, um, wary. Yes. That’s the word; wary. What they’re about to do is actually risky as he contemplates about it. It can either put the two closer or break them apart more. Oh, shit. Hansol suddenly felt himself gulping. He’s getting nervous.

But Seungkwan is the total opposite of the worried male. He is confidently smiling on his reflection on the lift, checking his outfit. “Come on, Hansol. Calm down! You rarely get nervy, you know,” he jokes.

Well, yeah, Hansol rarely gets obviously nervous because he looks like he does not give a fuck most of the time, but they’re also talking about two of the most important people in his life, so…

The self-assured male did not wait to see Hansol’s reaction because then, the elevator opened and he quickly pulled him towards Jeonghan’s apartment. Seungkwan could still feel Hansol trembling a bit as they walk along the hallway. He hopes it dissipates soon. Man, help him.

“Uncle Kwannie!” Suji bursts out of the door the moment it opened and Hansol tries not to pout that Suji did not greet him first. Instead, he settles with watching his friend and nephew hugging it out outside of the apartment. He really wants to join the hug but he does not want to squish Suji in between of two adults; does not mean he does not go all pouty, though. At least, not until a pair of arms hugged him and fondly patted his head.

“It is okay, Hansol-ah. Your Jeonghan-hyung will just hug you instead,” Jeonghan says from where he’s hugging the younger male on the side. This time, Seungkwan was the one getting all pouty but he’s undeniably louder than Hansol.

“Hyung! Hug me, too!”

“Well, okay. Let’s exchange huggy bears.”

And just like that, as simple as it sounds, Suji went to Hansol and Jeonghan went to Seungkwan. They’re really easy people to talk with, huh.

Greeting passed and they soon found themselves inside of the apartment. Suji is actually already preparing for her bedtime before the two younger males came. Now that she had greeted them, she’s already knocked out in her room.

How Jeonghan’s eyes widen to the bottle of alcohols almost made Hansol to join Suji in bed, sleep and forget whatever they’re trying to do.

“Hyung, come on! You just finished your big-ass shoot, we need to celebrate!”

“We should’ve just eaten outside, Seungkwan.”

“What, and leave Suji alone tonight?”

Hansol watches as Jeonghan bites his lip. Well, Seungkwan got a point. He’s sure Jeonghan won’t leave Suji alone in their apartment. That’s got to be a problem… if the father does not have so much friends to babysit the child. Shit, yeah! He got a lot of friends that eating out should not be a problem! Hansol sweats. He can already see the running wedges on Jeonghan’s brain and it wouldn’t take long until he realizes what he realized. Jeonghan isn’t one of the top people in his school for nothing.

“I could ask someone to babysit Suji if we’ll eat outside.”

“They’re busy.”

Gods, Hansol wanted to run. He’s so lost and all he can understand is Seungkwan’s not going to give up anytime soon to get this, cough cough, majestic plan, successful. He’s out here standing directly against Jeonghan. The Yoon Jeonghan.

“Boy is getting to get it,” Hansol murmured.

Unless Seungkwan didn’t.

With a playful roll of his eyes, Jeonghan grabbed a bottle of alcohol and tugged it open with a bottle opener lying on the coffee – where the fuck did that come from?! – before throwing it to Seungkwan’s direction. Hansol was so lost and he does not have an ounce idea about their dynamics but Seungkwan and Jeonghan is already clanking bottles happily after he managed to pull himself towards reality. Hansol thinks he’s going to go insane.

“Hansol-ah,” Jeonghan called, offering a drink in his direction. Hansol almost declined if he did not see Seungkwan’s eyes widening, threatening, to kill him.

“Thanks, hyung…”

The plan is to have at least one sober person and from the looks of it, Hansol knew he’ll be doing the role. Jeonghan and Seungkwan are apparently too eager in celebrating. From what he heard, the shoot is really a huge thing not only for Jeonghan, but also to their company itself. Additional info he got is that another celebration would be held next week, so it’s that big. Hansol silently watches as they chugged straight from the bottles. How long has it been since they started going wasted? Must be long enough. Maybe a couple of hours has passed already in their drinking session because Hansol is trying to listen to Seungkwan’s story and he can’t understand a fucking thing.

“He just… he just… he looks awesome!” Seungkwan giggles, swinging his bottle that Hansol got scared of getting hit straight on the head.

In his wild state of drunkenness, Jeonghan giggled along, cheeks already flushed. Hansol smiles sadly, thinking of the many times where every one of them drinks together and Seungcheol would stare at Jeonghan, this Jeonghan, like he got the whole world in his hands. He recalls how Seungcheol practically gushes about how adorable and beautiful Jeonghan looks when he’s drunk. Good times. Hansol hopes he hears Seungcheol say that again soon.

Not that Seungcheol stopped doing it. He never stopped. Hansol just figures it’s better if his tells come along with a smile of genuine happiness, not a wistful one.

“Yeah… but!” a giggle. “Cheollie pro’lly looked bet-ter!”

There it is.

Hansol looked beside him and shakes his head. Seungkwan was too lost with the alcohol intake so he’s going to take it from here. Ha, Seungkwan’s going to get real jealous he got the opportunity.

“Who’s Cheollie?” Hansol asks, leaning his elbows on the coffee table to hear more. Jeonghan hiccupped, grinning widely, before he looks incredulously at Hansol. Okay, maybe Seungkwan should’ve taken this role.

With a drunken glare, Jeonghan hisses, “You… you don’t know?! Shame! He’s… Cheollie is…” his words are dragged ever so slowly Hansol had a hard time catching them. “Cheollie…” there’s a smile. “Cheollie…”

And Jeonghan is crying.

Hansol panicked so hard. “Kwan! Kwan! Hyung is crying!” he comically wailed his arms around, trying to grab Seungkwan’s attention. How disappointed (and scared) was he when he looked behind him to see his companion knocked out on the couch. “Oh, shit.”

Maybe Jeonghan hadn’t realized he’s crying because he continues to stare into space, face void of any emotions. The smile he got earlier was now replaced with an empty thin line. Tears are just freely flowing out of his eyes, but he does not move. Heck, Jeonghan doesn’t even sniffle. He just stares there. He just keeps on staring into space. His tears just keep on rolling. What the fuck.

Hansol needs to talk or he’ll go crazy in place of Jeonghan.

“Is Cheollie special?”

Okay, Hansol. Good try. You got this.

Jeonghan looks like he was pulled out of his stupor, blinking a few times and finally, finally, hang his mouth open in surprise. “Oh,” he mumbled, fingers touching his wet cheeks. Hansol isn’t sure if he was heard, so he repeated, “Is Cheollie special?”

“I love Cheollie…”

Fuck, Hansol thinks he’s going to cry.

“I just –,” a hiccup. “Gods, I love him! I – I, I’m sorry... I’m just, so, so, sorry… I miss Seungcheol… I miss him, a lot – I, I just – I’m sorry…”

Hansol watches as Jeonghan hunches over the coffee table, sobbing his heart out.

“I think I heard enough,” he mumbles to himself as he makes his way to sit beside Jeonghan. What was their plan again? To get Jeonghan to admit that he still loves Seungcheol? Or was it to get Jeonghan call Seungcheol? Or maybe to just be with their Jeonghan-hyung because they know he’s been trying so hard to keep upright despite hearing of news about women already going for Seungcheol and they just made this plan as a cover up to see how he’s been holding up… Hansol snorts. Seungkwan might be good at acting confidently, but his worriedness for Jeonghan was never going to be out of Hansol’s sight. He knew that his friend would just like to make sure that Jeonghan is doing okay.

Hansol rubs the older male’s back and shoulders to soothe him, but he still bawls his eyes out. The hands holding Jeonghan’s shoulders are shaking with them and Hansol felt his heart breaking. This romance is painful to watch. He did not sign up to witness this.

Slightly leaning closer to Jeonghan, Hansol says, “Hyung, Cheollie loves you, too.”

That got Jeonghan to stop shaking for a moment.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he lifts his head to peek. “He loves me?”

A nod, “Hm. He loves you very much.”

“How much?”

“Very much.”

Jeonghan went silent, just staring on the coffee table, before he nods. “Okay,” Jeonghan mumbles, and Hansol can see his eyes already drooping low and maybe it’s time for everyone to rest already.

After cleaning the living room, Hansol expertly took out the blankets from the guest room’s cabinet, second drawer, the brown one. The amount of sleepover they had made him an expert for this. It also teaches him that carrying drunk people to sleep on beds is way harder than bringing blankets outside and letting them sleep to where they passed out. Someone’s gotta be smart.

Before sleeping on the other couch, Hansol did not forget to shoot Joshua a message to come at early morning to make Suji breakfast because he knows Jeonghan’s hangover is going to be so bad.

“Jun.”

The said man jumped a bit, hands almost letting the phone slipped. He holds it tighter after calming down. “Damn, Mr. Choi. That scared me,” he says and Seungcheol thinks it’s incredible how he formally address him with a bad word.

Scrunching his face in confusion, Seungcheol took the seat across from Junhui’s. “Dude, I’ve been calling you like, three times, asking you if you want pasta or chicken,” he chuckles, opening the box of chicken – so he chose chicken – and passing the cola to the younger male’s direction. Junhui accepted the drink with a smile, all the while putting his phone in his pocket.

“Who’re you talking to?”

“Why do you want to know? Why would I tell you?”

“Okay, fine. Don’t tell.”

Junhui laughed. Expect it to be Seungcheol to be done with his childish antics. “Relax, hyung. It’s just Wonwoo, talking about this two cats going viral for being dumb.”

Seungcheol frowns, “Cats are adorable, though.”

“Yeah, of course! But these particular ones are really stubborn.”

Seungcheol’s frown goes deeper as he stares at Junhui and his grin. “What do you mean – ” Junhui quickly opened their drinks and clanked them together, effectively blocking whatever Seungcheol’s question is going to be. “I’m hungry! Let’s eat,” he says instead and he smiles upon watching his hyung shrugging the topic off. Crisis averted.

“By the way, you’re free this weekend, right?”

“I have a kid, Jun.”

“Bring Sebong, then.”

“Where is this going to?”

Junhui slammed a ticket on the table. He smiles as Seungcheol eyes the ticket wearily, a drumstick stuck in his mouth. “Wha ish it?” he mumbles in question as his eyes looked up to meet with Junhui’s bright ones.

“Amusement Park! It’ll be fun. Come on! Minghao told me to give it to you so we can have fun,” he muses. After taking a sip of his cola, he continues, “Hyung, come on. Loosen up. You’ve been working hard since, what, the start of the year? And the women flocking you must be stressing you out. You deserve a break.” With a smirk, he whispers, “I heard there are a lot of beautiful girls there, hyung.”

“Cool, but Junhui, I’m bi,” Seungcheol deadpans.

“Okay. Beautiful women and men!”

Seungcheol avoids his eyes, sips in his cola and whispers in the rim, “No, thanks. I’m not interested.”

Aha, that line. Junhui ends up always snorting upon hearing that from Seungcheol. The guy is too transparent letting everyone know that he does not want anyone aside from a… certain someone.

And a certain someone, here right here.

“Papa! Papa!”

Daddy instincts had Seungcheol automatically wrapping his arms around his son before he bolts to wherever he wanted to run to. Oh, no. Not when there’s a lot of people and he might lost him. “BongBong, wait, relax,” he whispers on the child’s ear. Sebong stopped moving so much but he still grins and bounces excitedly on his spot. What did the child see to be this excited?

“Papa!”

Papa?

Seungcheol looked up and stunned, what he was.

Jeonghan and Suji are walking towards them. It’s really his beautiful man with his pretty daughter.

Maybe he was too surprised because he did not notice when Jeonghan is already hovering over him and Seungcheol’s wrapping his arms around nothing. Okay, where is his son? Oh. There. Sebong already made his way out to hug with his sister. He did not even notice. Disappointing.

“Hey,” Jeonghan greets, a soft smile in his lips. Seungcheol gulped for a moment before standing up and dusting off his pants. There’s no dust. His hands are just sweaty.

“Hey,” he replies and again, maybe he was too pre-occupied to realize that meeting the man here, in this day, in this time, in this spot, to this amusement part, is too much coincidence. All he could think of is Jeonghan, Jeonghan, Jeonghan! His mind is blaring alarms of Jeonghan! All that’s in his mind is Jeonghan standing in front of him, soft gleam of the sun shining above his head, his skin glowing in the middle of this sea of people, looking ethereal, breath taking, soft but at the same time prominent. It’s impossible not to look at him. He’s glowing.

Okay, Seungcheol suddenly feels heat on his face. He needs water.

On the other hand, Jeonghan felt the silent tension between them. Ah, of course. Today is Saturday. It should be a regular day so meeting his ex-husband was a shock. He had always used this day to prepare himself for the next day because that’s family day with him, so meeting him today caught him off-guard.

He looks up, expecting Seungcheol to be as awkward – but more than awkward, he looks shyer than anything.

“Uh… did you guys eat already? Sebong and I are just about to,” Seungcheol says and Jeonghan felt his heart skipped a beat at how gentle his voice is. He still basks in the moment that he got to witness this. A lot of people knew the man from his leader-like voice, so Jeonghan felt happy somehow.

Shaking his head a bit, Jeonghan answers, “Not yet. I’m actually trying to find the food park so…”

“My car is parked there. Come on.”

Seungcheol sounds so casual about it, like they already did it a lot of times – and yeah, they did, and Jeonghan had always been too willing to nod in return.

As they made their way towards the food park, the two adults watch their children with a fond smile. Suji and Sebong are skipping hand-in-hand, telling stories here and there. It makes the awkwardness between them slowly dissipates. Walking leisurely side by side is a nice feeling. Jeonghan thinks meeting them unexpectedly – if his friends did not plan this – isn’t as bad as he initially thought.

“By the way, you’re not getting your car?” Seungcheol asks while he helps Sebong on his seat. They have arrived. “Ah, we did not use my car. Suji wanted to try riding a train today,” Jeonghan smiles.

Seungcheol swiftly gave Suji a kiss on her cheek. Jeonghan openly smiles at that. “Wow! My princess really likes adventures! Maybe you could influence Sebong about riding trains, what do you think?” he asks, like it’s a conspiracy. Suji nods cheekily. Looks like she agrees with the plan. Sebong heard everything, though, and he squints his eyes towards his father. “No. I’ll ride train if you buy me a train!”

It’s Jeonghan’s turn to nuzzle Sebong’s head. “Bong-yah, trains are expensive.” He crouches down to meet his son at eyelevel, smiling while doing so. “But if Choi Sebong worked hard like his Daddy, then you might be able to buy your own train in the future!”

Seungcheol’s aware Jeonghan’s only doing it for the children. Everything is about the children. Everything should be about the children… does not make his heart a less fluttered, though.

“Even a dragon?! I can ride a dragon?!”

Jeonghan stopped for a moment before grinning and nodding, “Yeah!”

Too weak for his children.

The food park is relatively filled with families around and it is honestly a surprise that Seungcheol had quickly found a spot in less than a minute. Maybe the car parked closed by helped, but it is Friday and the place is quite packed, so Jeonghan is relieved. Suji had been incredibly fussy their whole time looking for the food park. Jeonghan had only so much time before his adorable princess started wailing in the middle of the crowd so seeing Sebong gave him a huge relief.

Seeing the father? Not so much.

“Minghao asked me to go here with him but he ended up cancelling the last minute,” he absentmindedly says. Seungcheol looked at him from where he is watching his children eating their food and Jeonghan felt a bit guilty that he stole the attention from the kids.

Seungcheol looks like he did not mind, though. “Really? Jun was supposed to come with us, too, but his stomach started acting up since last night so I told him to rest today.” He chuckled a bit with a fond smile, “Y’know how he’ll get upset when we won’t use the tickets, so here we are. Now that I remember it, he told me to send pictures of,” – air quotation marks – “proofs, to make sure we really went here.”

Jeonghan giggled. Seungcheol is always so fond of their friends. Both of them are. Endearing.

It took the younger male a couple of seconds before he was able to register his face on Seungcheol’s phone screen. Suji and Sebong are already pushing their faces on the camera, leaving a tiny space for their Papa’s face at the back. Seungcheol was too busy to keep his kids from falling off their seats and the photo was a disaster of fluffy cheeks, unprepared smile and worried but funny face as the camera’s countdown snapped to zero.

Jeonghan asked Seungcheol for a copy of the photo later that day.

They should’ve really seen this coming.

No matter what feelings the two idiots hold for each other, they are still divorced.

Fuck papers.

The tension in the room is absolutely disgusting – Chan is coughing to his non-existent breathing problems. The air is suffocating that the young man excuses himself to fuck off from the room. “I am not born for this shit,” he mumbles out of the way.

Honestly, who would’ve wished to be born in this situation?

It only takes so much of Seokmin’s long, long, long patience to not scream to the scene in front of him. While he watches and enjoys drama on television, he did not need a live-action version. No thanks! He’s fine alone in his couch with his dog while he indulges himself to the scripted lines directed to deceive his dumbass to get hooked by the scenes! So, maybe – just maybe! – this woman sending flirty eyes towards Choi Seungcheol could go the fuck out and leave the room because Jeonghan’s face looks like he’s having a massive internal diarrhoea and it is not pretty!

Note: pft, as if Jeonghan can be ‘not pretty’ right.

“Oh, I do not know you are acquainted with Mr. Yoon here, Mr. Choi,” the woman said. Seokmin’s eyes twitched to her smile. Fake ass! Her lippy shade isn’t even matched with her makeup!

And who the fuck does not know that Choi Seungcheol is acquainted with Yoon Jeonghan?! Okay, maybe some people do, those who are not in the same field as them or just plain people who don’t give a fuck about other people’s business (as they should be) but this woman, the daughter of a business partner the Chois had been connected for years now?! Seokmin calls bullshit! Fine, maybe Seungcheol and Jeonghan were not so public about their relationship as a couple, they always kept it lowkey with their kids with several photos here and there on Jeonghan’s SNS accounts, they do not exposed their family to the media despite their popularity as individuals – gods, Seokmin got that!

But the woman was a guest in Seungcheol and Jeonghan’s wedding! Fuck off!

Seokmin sees it before it sinks into him. The strained smile along with the answer, the disappointed face, the pained hearts.

“Yeah. Mr. Choi is my ex-husband.”

Ouch.

Seokmin was just a second away from wiping the woman’s smile away with his own fucking hand, just a shit, tiny bit of shit second away, when Minki decided to come inside the room smiling blindingly at everyone. He’s so oblivious of the tension suffocating every person in the room.

When no one said a word, it was only then that Minki noticed the presence of two unfamiliar faces in their office. “Oh, Mr. Choi,” he acknowledges and it only dawns on him – the presence of the other person. His face immediately dropped. Out of professionalism, he acknowledges her as well but with a strained smile. Sorry, not sorry. Don’t be like him, kids.

Seungcheol, seemingly out of his inner breakdown after Jeonghan’s words, nodded at Minki. “Uh, we’re here to discuss about the contracts for the show in Japan in the next two months,” he added and although he’s supposedly talking to Minki, they can’t help but notice how his eyes desperately glances at Jeonghan, which the latter greatly avoided.

Ouch.

Nodding, Minki smiled, all signs of unprofessionalism gone. “Of course. Please follow me to the conference room.”

When the office’s door closed, everyone’s eyes are carefully on Jeonghan. No one said a word when he excused himself to get coffee. It’s a silent agreement that they should just leave at that, no need to talk about it. They do not need to be told. It’s pretty obvious he does not want to talk about it.

Jeonghan does not drink coffee – at least, not anymore.

“You need to help me.”

“Excuse me? On what circumstances do I owe you?”

“Dad! Quiet! Uncle! Play seriously!” Sebong whines, holding his controller that is obviously too big for his little hands, but what can they say? That boy is competitive as heck. A big controller won’t stop him from challenging his uncle Jonghyun on Mario Kart. So, said uncle ignored Seungcheol’s presence of asking for help to focus. Focus, focus, focus.

The screen shows that Jonghyun, for the nth time, wins. He’s pretty competitive as well.

“You’re cheating!” Sebong accuses and Jonghyun only shrugs. “Want another round?”

Sebong shakes his head, “No, ‘m hungry. Gonna eat!” Jonghyun chuckles, watching the child dash towards the kitchen. He faintly heard the child’s babysitter telling the child to not run. It’s hard to take care of Sebong because of his energy sometimes, but he’s an amazing kid – always smiling, laughing.

Now, only if his father is the same.

“Okay, what do you want me to do?”

“Do you know if Jeonghan has any suitors?”

Jonghyun scoffs. How the hell would he know? He said exactly as that, without the bad word, of course, and added with a shrug, “If anything, I know you know more than what I know.” Scrunching his face in realization, he added, “Besides, it’s impossible to not have suitors for Jeonghan. You, of all people, should know that. Remember when people still take interest in him even after you guys are married? Saying that Jeonghan has suitors is putting it lightly. That man is adored by the nation. His face competes with this country’s actors and actresses.”

And what more after the divorced, but Jonghyun did not need to say that for Seungcheol to know because, duh, he knows.

The dancer watches as his long-time brother in fraternity wipes his hands against his face. With how hard Seungcheol’s swiping his palms against his skin, that’s bound to be painful.

The other male outwardly winces. “Can you stop that? I’m hurting just by watching you. What do you want me to do, anyway?”

“I saw these two males giving flowers when I picked my child from their office just yesterday. I don’t know if they’re models as well but they look so interested in him and…” what comes after his long ass rant had been evaporated in the air because Jonghyun is already contacting his dear source to calm Seungcheol’s horses.

Seungcheol only stopped ranting when Jonghyun speaks. “They’re models as well, but from different company. Minki said they’ve been sending flowers to Jeonghan since three months ago but it is only yesterday they gave it personally because they had a meeting closed by their building,” he explains while reading the text. Deeming that is all there is to say and a child is not anywhere in their vicinity, Jonghyun puts his phone aside to stare disapprovingly at his friend. “Seungcheol-ah, I’m not going to tell you again that you’re acting improperly for someone who’s out of marriage because I know you know that already…”

Of course, he knows.

“It’s either you’re going to continue to pester me about every male going around Jeonghan or you’re going to do something about your feelings.” Jonghyun sighs, “Listen, I’m not pushing you to do anything, dude. I just want you to know that you do not have all the time for yourself. Minki only has so much information to give until he goes snapping your stubborn heads together.”

“Your boyfriend is scary.”

“I wonder where he got that from. You always spoil him,” Jonghyun deadpans.

Seungcheol lets himself a little laugh, feeling a bit light after talking it out. Jonghyun might not be at his circle now as often as before, but they basically grew their rebelling high school selves together to have built a connection and understanding they somehow built alongside their brotherhood.

Grabbing the controller from where Sebong left it, Seungcheol nudges his friend. “Come on, let’s play. I’m going to avenge my son.”

“Bring it on!”

They’re both hella competitive in games, by the way.

If Wonwoo already felt bad before, now he feels ten times worse.

“Uncle Nonu, pwease~” Suji pleads, tiny and fluffy fists grabbing at his slacks. The child is literally hugging his thighs as she stares up at him with big eyes that are too adorable for Wonwoo’s heart to handle. Why are Jeonghan’s kids so cute?!

“Dduji did not ask anything for birthday! Dduji is nice!” the child continues, pressing her fluffy chin against Wonwoo. Honestly, he does not need to be told. Suji has always been nice! Anyone who says otherwise will have papers stuck in their mouths. Suji is a nice kid who always comforts her uncles when they’re sad, Suji who always declares her love for her family, Suji… Suji is the nicest child!

“Uncle!”

The adult finally gave in, sitting on a chair to sit the now four year old on his lap. What Suji said was true. Wonwoo kept asking her what she wanted for her birthday but the little girl did not demand anything at all. Wonwoo tried asking her even after her birthday passed, but boy was the kid insistent on not demanding anything. Well, surprise! Now she’s wishing for something and he has an inkling about what it could be, but Wonwoo is more surprised by the fact that Suji understood that this, what she’s, possibly, wishing right now, is nowhere as near as toys or play houses that she could’ve easily asked for her birthday. This makes it harder for Wonwoo.

Sebong had been easy. All he wanted is a PSP. Easy.

“Okay. What does princess Suji want?”

“Date. Dada and Papa.”

How the fuck will he make it possible.

And how the fuck does Suji know what a date is?!

“A date?”

Suji seriously nods, to Wonwoo’s amazement and bit horror. “Yep. Dinner. Food. Park. Ferris wheelly,” she rumbles, cheeks turning fluffier as she grins wider. Little teeth are already on full display when she made it to her last word, little arms up in the air. “Fun!”

Wonwoo unknowingly smiles. Suji’s date is so ideal, almost what everyone would read in a popular romance novel where the main characters would end up with each other because they’ve been in love just like that. So ideal that Wonwoo can’t help but want to be Suji; to be like a child, believing these types of fairy tales. The sparkle of innocence is warm in the child’s eyes, a far cry from Wonwoo’s cold gaze while thinking it all over. The gloss of gullibility shines like fireworks in Suji’s eyes, dreaming high, beyond the sky, beyond the stars.

“Okay. But uncle will take time. Can Suji wait?”

Wonwoo fell for the innocence. He wants to believe as well.

And if the smile Suji gave is anything to go by, Wonwoo almost felt no regrets.

“I bet Jeonghan-hyung would like that.”

“I know.”

“Buy it for him.”

Seungcheol stares at Wonwoo. The latter only shrugged. “I heard hyung got a huge gig last month. Think of it as your congratulatory gift to him. You know he’ll like that. He deserve at least that for working so hard, right?”

Wonwoo hopes his words look nonchalant as how nonchalant he wanted it to be, but the small smile settling on Seungcheol’s lips as he cradles the necklace in his hand made Wonwoo confident that perhaps he’s doing it right.

Watching Seungcheol’s back walking towards the cashier, Wonwoo made a silent congratulatory dance for himself.

“Package for the oh so pretty, Yoon Jeonghan!”

“Minki, stop exaggerating,” Jeonghan sighs. It says a lot because he is dramatic himself – and he loves Minki being dramatic, by the way – but the gifts from people trying to impress him is not his cup of tea today. Actually, most of the days. Please, they’re all just the same stuff and the same goal. So with a dull wave of his hand, he instructs his friend, “Just put it with the rest.”

“Okay! I’m curious about what Seungcheol got for you, though – ”

It was as if a cheetah run in front of Seokmin. His coffee almost toppled! But he can’t get himself to be angry when all of them inside the office watched in awe. Damn! Jeonghan was so quick at standing up from his cubicle to get to Minki standing at the entrance of the room, which is like seven cubicles away! Totally beaten Wheein’s record when she ran for free cat treats last month.

Everyone likely stopped what they are doing, peering their heads out of their compartments to see the Yoon Jeonghan blushing like tomato.

“This is from Cheol?”

Minki smiled. “Yah, it has his name there. Who other Choi Seungcheol could it be?” he snorted. He can’t help but grin, though. Jeonghan was so caught up in the moment that he did not even notice his slip saying Seungcheol’s nickname at work.

“Maybe you’re just pranking me, Minki.”

“Oh, please, Jeonghan. If I were to prank you, I wouldn’t pull this stunt. Pranks are supposed to be cruel, not heart-warming. We’ll make sure to make you suffer when we pull a prank on you – right, Seungkwan?!”

“Yes, hyung!” Seungkwan replied from his cubicle.

When Jeonghan stayed silent holding the rectangular box safely in his palms, Minki gave him a small tap on the back. “You worked hard, Jeonghan. You deserve that.”

“Hell yeah!” Wheein shouted from somewhere, earning laughs from Jeonghan himself.

Jeonghan looked up from where he’s watering his plants to see Minghao waving at him. “Hi, hyung!”

Pulling the younger male inside the living room, Jeonghan dried his hands on his worn apron. “Minghao-yah! I’m sorry! How long have you been waiting there?” Minghao only dismissed his hand and Jeonghan smiled gratefully in return. He silently thanks the heavens that the younger male knew their code. It will bother Jeonghan so much to know that Minghao would wait hours in the hallways, waiting to get inside.

“I brought pudding, hyung! Seokmin had been going around telling how good this tastes like so I thought I’d get some for us,” the dancer proceeded to say, eyes crinkling with happiness. Jeonghan laughs a little. Something passed his mind. It was an unnecessary memory, but he was reminded at how shy Minghao was before until Seungcheol took him under his wing and practically treated him as a son.

Jeonghan supposes it’s just so Seungcheol to randomly adopt kids like they’re his own children.

Happily accepting the pudding while telling Minghao that Suji is still in school, Jeonghan wonders about the former’s work. “Is it your day off today?”

“Hm! Soonyoung-hyung is having a meeting with this choreographer so he told us to rest today.”

Closing the refrigerator after mildly arranging his resources inside, Jeonghan smiles, “It’s good, isn’t it?” He takes a seat beside Minghao, hands quickly making its way to ruffle the younger male’s hair. “You should take a rest sometimes, too! Overworking is bad for your health.” Jeonghan laughs a bit bitterly and Minghao is hyperaware that the words that came out of the older male’s mouth is not just a joke. It was light, but Minghao could feel the hollowness in Jeonghan’s voice as he spoke, “Don’t be like your Seungcheol-hyung. That dumbass wouldn’t take care of himself properly.”

Minghao was then thrown back to a conversation he had with the twins just yesterday. Sebong and Suji practically told him that they’re sad and he feels so shitty to see the children like that.

He shakes his head, pulling his mind to the situation in hand. Here he is today, at Jeonghan’s couch, having this conversation. It’s not like him to stick his nose to issues he shouldn’t be associating himself with but at that moment of silence and show of frailness, Minghao slips off, “Is it really impossible now, hyung?”

Jeonghan jerked a bit at the question, but he hid it well. He only chuckled lightly, voice void of any humour. “Is it still possible, Hao?”

“Yes.”

“It looks easy when you just think about it, right?” Jeonghan responds, lips softly beaming. Minghao felt shy. How dare he answer so confidently when he’s not even in the position to say anything? Heck, he wasn’t even married for fuck’s sake. He can feel his face reddening and hopes that Jeonghan would lash out at him for being so insensitive, for not putting his shoes on their shoes, but the older male is only looking at the floor, a small smile tugged at his lips and eyes gently sparkling with hope.

Hope?

“Hyung…”

“Y’know, I think about it as well – I always think about it, how simple would it be if we just make up,” Jeonghan starts talking and Minghao is not sure if he’s even talking to him or to himself, but Jeonghan does not send him away, so he listens. “Our kids would be back together again, we’ll be back together again… and maybe we could just live like a happy family, right?” Jeonghan laughs, like wind passing by to slip away the next second. “But… we were exactly like that, Hao, and then suddenly… we’re apart. It happens so fast. How long has it been? One year? It just… happened. Like that.”

The whole apartment is filled with silence. Minghao only nods, slowly, like he’s trying to digest everything in his mind.

Jeonghan then looked up when Minghao stood up, went to the kitchen to open his refrigerator. He hears spoons and plates clanking before the younger male showed up with pairs of them and the pudding he got earlier.

“Let’s eat, hyung. There’s still a lot more in the fridge.”

For once, Minghao was contented to the silence. He did not really understand how the separation went, or how even it became possible. For all he knows, they know, Seungcheol and Jeonghan had pretty much established their status as the best couple he ever met in his entire life. It was baffling him and it still is, but hearing Jeonghan’s sentiments… maybe some things don’t always work out the way you wanted them to be. Maybe perfection still has flaws. Maybe bests still have worsts. Maybe neither Jeonghan nor Seungcheol understands as well and they’re all just people living in this world, trying to find out how to live well with a chaotic mind for their everyday lives. Maybe Minghao is also one of them, still confused as he munches on his pudding.

But maybe, maybe, in the midst of this chaotic mind is a lulling declaration of light as well.

“I love him, y’know.”

“Hm?”

“Your dumbass CEO. I love him, like, a lot.”

And Minghao finally understands how to not seek understanding because it will come, it shall come and place itself as a warm blanket wrapping his clouded mind. He smiles, eyeing the soft smile Jeonghan has in his lips, “I know, hyung.”

“Wow!”

“BongBong, no! Don’t!” But it was too late because Sebong had already put his little hand inside the cup of fruit punch. Seungcheol sighs, silently rubbing the bridge of his nose. He thought that the fruit punch fountain that Junhui happily installed to this formal event is enough for his child to be distracted about but no! The child wants to have his hand on the drink to be satisfied! He’s just thankful Sebong did not stick his hand on the fountain itself. Junhui might be their close friend but Seungcheol knew how the man worked so hard to organize this event and Sebong would also sulk if ever he’ll ruin his uncle’s hard work by putting his hand on the fruit punch fountain. Again, he’s thankful his son didn’t.

“Bong-yah, that’s ewy!”

“Try, Dduji!”

“No, no, no, no, no!”

Getting in between a potential fight, Seungcheol says in a lightly stern voice, just enough to get Sebong’s attention. “Buddy, we don’t want to make your sister change her clothes because of drink stains right now, do we? Suji worked a lot in her outfit today,” he says and Sebong nods. When Seungcheol heard Suji’s shy giggles with the compliment, he once again took off as the super Daddy that he is, showering more praises to his adorable daughter. “Look at your sister! She’s really pretty with her dress!”

“Right, Daddy. Now, you wanna drink this, Suji?”

“Daddy!”

“Hey, what’s up with you two bothering your father?”

The trio, Dad, son and daughter, all looked up to see Jeonghan looming over them. Seungcheol did not even realise he was crouched down to be eye level with his kids. “Hey, Jeonghan,” he softly calls out in contrast to his children squealing as they embrace Jeonghan’s thighs in excitement. Fight forgotten, just like that.

Jeonghan tried to ignore the warm hand steadying his small back when he almost stumbles to focus on his kids instead. “Careful, you two,” he says, voice way more stern than what Seungcheol had used on the kids earlier. The twins quickly stood up nice and firm as they grin brightly, looking up to their Papa’s beautiful eyes. As if their eyes don’t tell enough, the twins gush, “Papa, you look so pretty!”

He tried to stop it but he blushes because the people around them practically heard the twins and are now staring openly at Jeonghan. He knew he should be used to this, what’s will all the cameras always pointed at him in shoots, but Jeonghan has always been conscious when he’s out of his work self. He wasn’t sure what the twins did particularly see in his usual face and brown hair, but whatever it was might’ve been visible to others as well because people also send their own compliments, much to the twins delight. Jeonghan laughs shyly.

“They’re not wrong.”

Jeonghan felt his face grew hotter, only registering in his mind now that Seungcheol’s hand is still resting warmly on his back.

And the compliment came from his voice.

“I’m not sure what they’re seeing, honestly.”

“I’m sure. You’re really pretty.”

When the younger male shyly nodded, Seungcheol remembered Jonghyun’s words at him: “Besides, it’s impossible to not have suitors for Jeonghan. You, of all people, should know that. People still take interest in him even after you guys are married.” It didn’t hit him that hard before because heck, he was perfectly aware of Jeonghan’s beauty that no validation is needed but now, as they stand in the middle of this room filled with important people from their fields of work, various types of audiences from celebrities, businessmen, models, producers and entrepreneurs, hell was Jonghyun’s words were true. Seungcheol is not sure on how to feel about being able to decipher those who compliments Jeonghan genuinely and those who compliments him with… interest. He was suddenly engulfed with the urge to set them at their places.

But then Jonghyun’s words rang in his head again:

“Seungcheol-ah, I’m not going to tell you again that you’re acting improperly for someone who’s out of marriage because I know you know that already… It’s either you’re going to continue to pester me about every male going around Jeonghan or you’re going to do something about your feelings.”

“I’m acting really improperly…”

“Huh?”

Seungcheol blinks, face becoming hot. Did Jeonghan hear? “Did I say something weird?” he asks instead, trying to wiggle his way out of this embarrassment and he prays that he would be able to. Once Seungcheol is caught lying by his ex-husband, it becomes so difficult for him to get his way out of it!

But lo and behold! Jeonghan only frowns harder, much to Seungcheol’s relief but not to his heart. Being this cute should be illegal!

“I thought you were trying to tell me something…”

He is just about to go on with his bullshit of awkward laughing and waving it off because he becomes so, so, so embarrassing in front of the pretty male when Jonghyun, now in flesh and not just memory, caught his eye in the corner and he was reminded again of the “act of doing something to his feelings” and Seungcheol just wanted to punch himself. “Get your shit together, fucker,” Jonghyun mouthed from where he’s throwing deadly stares of threats.

Okay, okay. Get his shit together. He can do that.

“You wanna dance?”

Oh shit.

“What?”

Seungcheol had already said it, right? He asked Jeonghan if he wanted to dance. That’s it. There’s no going back. There’s only confirming Jeonghan’s uncertainty because yes, you gorgeous hell of a man, you heard it right. Choi Seungcheol asked you to dance!

“Let’s dance. Can I?”

Jeonghan thinks it should be illegal how his heart fucking went crazy when he saw the offered hand. He can certainly hear his children squealing somewhere but it sounds so distant, as all the people and happenings around him. It’s just him and Seungcheol in his vision that got him gaping like a fish and blushing like a tomato. Is this okay? Is this possible? Is this even happening?! Jeonghan’s mind went on a hard haywire that he suddenly cannot think anymore.

He held Seungcheol’s hand.

“Thank you, Uncle Nonu…”

Wonwoo watches as Suji dozes off against his chest. He’d been babysitting with Junhui for hours now and he actually didn’t mind. The smile present on Suji’s lips earlier as she watches her fathers dancing together was more than enough to have Wonwoo babysit her forever. No payment rate! All free.

“Nice work, Won,” he hears Junhui say beside him. Wonwoo glares disapprovingly at him when he saw the cup against the male’s lips. In which, by the way, Junhui only laughs at. “Relax. This ain’t the adult drink, just juice, see?” he explains with an easy grin, turning the cup a little to let Wonwoo know that he’s not about to show alcohol in front of the kids. Wonwoo shrugs at that, “Good, then.”

“But, it wasn’t my work. Jonghyun-hyung probably talked him out of it and all this event is organized by you,” he added for a while, rubbing Suji’s back to not wake her up. The fuck he cares about his suit getting crumpled? Holding Suji in his arms is more important.

In the midst of slightly bouncing the child in his embrace – because Suji only slightly jostled but had quickly got back in her slumber again anyway, Junhui noted which Wonwoo ignored the fuck out – the taller male proceeds to snort. “Listen, Won. Of course, Jonghyun-hyung talked some sense in that old man’s head and I arranged this, but don’t discredit yourself, okay? We’re all trying to do something and if it ends well, then you’re a part of it.”

“But what if it does not.”

“Wonwoo.”

“It doesn’t matter, right? I already done the damage, anyway.”

“Wonwoo,” Junhui spats and he’s thankful that Suji is out like the dead. She would not like it if she feels the tension between her uncles. Even the slightest bit of sadness from her Papa had her quickly isolated.

“Wonwoo,” he starts again, and he lost count on how many times did he call for his friend’s name. “Don’t blame yourself, okay? This is not your fault. You only did your job. They asked for divorce, you get them the papers and you did paperwork. That’s it.” Despite Junhui’s try to somehow convince him, Wonwoo only nods. He’s suddenly feeling so guilty of holding the child in his arms and having this conversation while she’s sleeping. It suddenly feels so heavy all of a sudden.

But after a long moment of silence to let Wonwoo hear the loudest battle in his brain, Suji yawns and opens her eyes, blinking up at his own. She smiles again and Wonwoo feels so light.

“Thank you, Uncle Nonu…”

Wonwoo only blinks, smiles back and presses a kiss on Suji’s forehead. He watches Seungcheol and Jeonghan laughing together in the distance. Maybe this is enough for now.

Maybe Suji is happy because in her mind, her fathers are already on a date she wished to him.

“The child is thanking you, Wonwoo. Maybe you should thank yourself, too.”

“Thanks, Jun.”

“So, tell me, did you guys get together?”

“Minki, what the fuck?”

Said man only cackles. Jeonghan wanted to hit him so bad when his loud ass laugh got the twins’ attention and they’re now looking over them to where they are standing behind the kitchen island. Minki doubled in guffawing before waving his hands off nonchalantly. “Nah, your Papa’s just really funny.”

“I know!”

Jeonghan had made sure his children got back on their drawing activity to the dining table before finally smacking Minki, who’s currently curled on the floor laughing, by the way. “You stupid, even your son knows you’re funny!”

“I hope Jonghyun dump you.”

“Pretty hard to do when we’re about to get married but go off, I guess.”

At this, Jeonghan’s eyes widened before tackling Minki in a bone crushing hug. “You didn’t tell me!”

“Everyone in the party knew, thank you very much, you’re just too caught up to yours and Seungcheol’s world that you didn’t hear. Power of the magical couple dance, maybe?” Minki scoffs with a playful roll of his eyes. Jeonghan tries to ignore the blush creeping up on the apple of his cheeks by coaxing Minki of the details. Their conversation went just like that before the both of them got silent. It’s like they’re both convincing themselves that wow, a marriage is going to happen soon.

“I’m nervous.”

Jeonghan looks up to see Minki smiling, but his whole being is tensed. He pats his back to let him know that he’s listening. “I mean, marriage… we’re really going to do it now, aren’t we? Officially living together, getting to choose our house, our home and maybe, starting a family of our own soon? Pretty crazy…”

“Just do you, Minki. I’m sure Jonghyun is going to be with you all the way.”

Minki nods. Jeonghan thought the conversation would end there, but the next words from his friend got him smiling softly as he remembers a certain someone outside of his doorstep last two nights ago and the warmth he gave just by exchanging hushed conversation.

“Hey, you know that there’s a still a path ahead, right? You don’t need to go through them alone, Jeonghan.”

The hallways were silent then and he’s already holding Suji in his arms. His daughter was out for the day with his brother and other father and that night, Seungcheol dropped her off. Jeonghan felt his cheeks burning when he remembered how the older male remained outside of his doorstep and before he knows, he’s already engulfed with warmness that makes him feel safe and scared at the same time. It was just a conversation, but it was intimate and securing to his chest. Seungcheol calling him again by his nickname got him weak. The way he craves for it scares him, but he knew what he wanted.

“I know… I want him there, Minki. Again.”

“I’ll always cheer for that, Han.”

“He’s currently smiling like an idiot.”

“Jihoon-hyung, that’s Jeonghan-hyung’s lunchbox right there.”

Both Jihoon and Soonyoung comically got their eyes widening. “Say what, Chan?” Jihoon asked again, pulling the other two from where they are peeking inside to secretly observe the smiling CEO.

Chan wriggled his eyebrows. “I should know! I was with him when he bought that! That is definitely Jeonghan-hyung’s. You can even ask Suji if you want.” But Soonyoung does not need any of that anymore. Aside from his trust to his baby Chan – Chan’s already an adult – it just confirms his speculation because he knew he’d seen that food container somewhere and it clicked now! He saw that in Jeonghan’s kitchen!

“So Jeonghan-hyung got lunch for Seungcheol-hyung? Interesting,” Jihoon mumbles. He then shrugs his shoulders, “Well, then. I’m off! I think we’re in a good progress. Sebong will be ecstatic.”

Soonyoung and Chan grin at the same time.

“Dad gave a gift to Papa.”

“Papa gave lunch to Daddy.”

“But Daddy gave a gift first!”

“Well, Papa cooked with love for Daddy!”

“Okay, you two, calm down,” Mingyu chuckles nervously, trying to break off the bubbling fight about to happen between the siblings. It was first all fun of telling Seungcheol and Jeonghan’s efforts for each other then it turned to a full-blown debate and Mingyu would not want to witness twins fighting when they are trying to get their parents back together, thank you very much.

Oh, and especially not on their birthdays!

“But Daddy says he loves Papa, though?” Sebong mumbles and Mingyu closes his eyes because, gods! Seungcheol’s son is as competitive as him! Not that it’s a bad trait, but at this rate, Mingyu is convinced the child won’t let anyone win over him even if it’s a nonsense thing. That isn’t exactly good now, yes?

Maybe because this is not a nonsense thing for the children.

Mingyu sighs. “You two waited for so long, huh,” he whispers, smiling a bit sadly while he watches the two children mildly fight again. He just hopes whatever they’re doing right now will have a good outcome because heavens, he would not hesitate to bang his head against the wall when the children and their fathers would get swallowed up again in immense sadness.

No, please no.

“Relax, Gyu. They’re going to be fine,” Minghao says, sitting beside him as he ruffles Mingyu’s hair. The taller of the two breathes deeply before nodding. “Yeah,” he first says weakly, but then he saw the twins running up to their fathers in a huge embrace as they gather around to watch the cake being brought out with smiles and laughter. “Yeah!” Mingyu says surely.

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, Uncle! We saw Papa inside Daddy’s room! We’re not lying!” Suji whispered harshly. She turns to Sebong for a confirmation which her brother nods to.

So, some context, the twins are currently FaceTime-ing their uncles to tell them the story they forgot to say. Duh! Their birthdays were a blast so it flew right out of their heads. At least they’re telling now. Better late than never!

“Um, is Jeonghan-hyung…” naked? Seungkwan wants to ask, but it is too awkward to ask this to the children so he shakes his head instead. He’s suddenly so amazed at pre-school teachers when they turn complicated sentences to simple ones for children to understand. He shall acquire that legendary skill soon. “Is Jeonghan-hyung happy when you saw him inside the room?” he settles for it instead, ignoring Hansol snickering beside him. He smacked him with a pillow instead to shut him up.

“Yeah!” Suji excitedly replies. Her happy face falls quickly into that of worried, though. “Even if Papa’s cold, Papa’s still happy. But maybe Papa’s cold…”

It’s Hansol’s turn to ask. “He’s cold?”

Sebong went beside Suji to show himself on the screen, shrugging his shoulders. “Maybe. Papa’s wearing zero.”

“The word is naked, kids. It’s called being naked,” Hansol hears Seungkwan mumbling. He’s sure the kids didn’t hear, though because Suji and Sebong only looks at them with concern on their faces when they became silent. “Are Uncles okay?” Suji asked, but Hansol cannot respond as he’s still trying to comprehend the information they got.

Jeonghan in Seungcheol’s room. Happy. Wearing zero. So naked.

“I think it’s on pause,” they hear Sebong say from the other line. The two males went out of their stupor. “No, this is not on pause, kids. Anyway, can you elaborate on that – ” Seungkwan did not get to finish his sentence because they are suddenly facing the ceiling of the room after Suji lets out a high squeak. They also heard the door opening from the other line. Oh my gosh. Did Jeonghan just enter Suji’s room?

“What were you two doing?”

“Nothing! Just saving the turtles!” Suji blabbers out. She got her hold on the phone back to her little hands and if it isn’t inappropriate, Seungkwan and Hansol would’ve laughed at the child’s panic face. They can see a bit of Sebong’s face from the side and although there’s panic in his eyes, he can pass. Suji is a lost case.

“Hi, hyung,” Hansol decides to greet Jeonghan instead. Soon enough, the older male’s face showed up on the screen, grinning widely while Suji’s eyes are comically wide behind him. He’s obviously a lot happier these past few days. His grin is contagious. “Hi, Nonnie, Kwannie! You guys talking about the turtles?”

Seungkwan laughs awkwardly, “Uh, yeah.”

“So, would that mean the twin’s birthday wishes came true?”

“Ha! Told you, Jihoon! I told them to wish that on their birthdays and it came true!”

“Soonyoung, shut the fuck up.”

“This is entertaining. Please continue,” Mingyu says, obviously enjoying Soonyoung and Jihoon’s bickering. The three of them are currently huddled together in a café, talking about the information from Hansol and Seungkwan. From what Jihoon shared as well – because apparently, Seungcheol and Jeonghan went to their respective bestfriends aka Jihoon and Joshua to share what happened – the twins are telling the truth; the couple slept together. True enough, the twins wished for their parents to get back together on their birthdays. Of course, Seungcheol and Jeonghan did not know that. Only the uncles know. Mingyu sometimes thinks if this, whatever this is, is helping the family be happy again or they are just raising two children lying to their parents. Uh.

But it’s been weeks, months even, since that happened and from what they can tell, Seungcheol and Jeonghan are living the life of a sweet couple right now.

Or so they thought.

Mingyu and Jihoon watches as Soonyoung’s eyes blare alarms. He was tightly clutching his phone from where it is pressed against his ear. The two spectators don’t have a good feeling about this.

“Okay, Suji. Calm down, baby. Do you want Uncle to be with you right now?” Soonyoung says and it’s more than enough to make Mingyu and Jihoon arranged their things to get ready to bolt out and be with the child. For fucks sake, Mingyu is just about to power step out of the room when Soonyoung spoke again. “Okay, okay, baby. I understand, you don’t want Uncles there today. Okay, Suji, princess, I understand.”

Mingyu and Jihoon fell back to their chairs while Soonyoung harshly gestures to them to stay in their places.

And the whole afternoon was spent like that, Soonyoung talking with Suji on the phone until the little girl fell asleep. They all looked outside. The sun had set down. It’s already late.

Is it?

“I swear, one day, I’m going to spill my coffee on that bitch,” Jihoon hisses and Jisoo is quick to agree.

Chan would’ve stopped them from blabbering bad things, but when he saw Sebong’s sad face as he sits on the corner, gone are all Jeonghan’s nagging about the proper use of language. “I honestly can’t understand why that lady can’t understand that, no! Seungcheol-hyung doesn’t want her! Her fake ass wouldn’t get to Cheol-hyung! No one cares about her money! She’s a fake ass, delusional, sorry human!” he raps.

Despite of chuckling at his use of words, Chan is still sad. Gods, the plan is going well, so well! But then one person decided to ruin everything. Bitch.

Chan hopes some light will come to save them all soon.

Sebong smiles at his grandma. “Granny, do you know that you love Grampa?”

“Of course, BongBong-yah. Why?”

“Then, do you know if Daddy loves Papa?”

The couple turned to look at each other, caught off guard by their grandson’s question. Sebong had been quiet these past few days. Every time they visit their son’s house, it was always Sebong’s full laughter greeting the home of the Chois. That’s not had been the case for now. The grandparents felt like their grandson had been so calculated with how he moves. It is only now they had a clue of what’s going on.

“Is our BongBong-yah okay?”

“No.”

Their hearts break at that.

“Daddy says he loves Papa, but now they’re sad again. Is love sad? Daddy says love is happy. Papa says love is happy. But they’re sad,” Sebong mumbles randomly and the grandparents think he’s mostly talking to himself. “And then… that woman says she loves Daddy, but she’s not making Daddy happy. Dad is annoyed when she’s around. Is love really happy?”

It’s clearer now, and that afternoon, when Jeonghan came to drop Suji off, the couple took the chance to talk with their son-in-law. They would always treat Jeonghan as their son-in-law, especially when they know that he’s the only one who can make their son happy.

“Jeonghan,” Seungcheol’s father says, holding his hand. “Whatever decision you make, we’re going to support you, okay? Let me ask you, do you want to hurt Seungcheol?”

Jeonghan shakes his head, firmly.

“Then you’ll do things to not hurt him intentionally,” Seungcheol’s mother says. Jeonghan felt both of his in-laws hands wrapped against his own. “Think about that, sweetie.”

“Uncle! Uncle!” Suji squeals, bouncing on where she’s standing. Wonwoo smiles at her, ready to pick her up but the child ran to him, clutching his thighs with so much excitement Wonwoo can’t help but giggle along with her.

“Good day, Suji?”

“Papa and Daddy talked! They’re smiling!”

Wonwoo and Suji squealed together as they spun around with held hands.

“Papa and Daddy are going out today. Is it fine for our babies to be with Uncle Hansol?”

Upon hearing this, Suji’s eyes widened in excitement. “Go out? Like a date?!”

Jeonghan’s cheeks became roses. Did he hear that right? That word came from his daughter’s lips? His mouth just gapes and closes because he’s suddenly tongue-tied because where the fuck did his daughter learn that?! He’s going through with a questioning crisis that was only wavered when he felt Seungcheol’s arms wrapping from behind him.

“Yes, princess. Daddy and Papa are going on a date,” Seungcheol confirms, much to Suji’s delight and Jeonghan’s dismay.

“Yay!”

“Choi Seungcheol!”

Seungcheol only nuzzled Jeonghan’s cheek in attempt to lessen the damage. “No!” the younger male tries, not so hard, to tilt his head away from the tempting affection. “No, you think you can get away with that?!” Jeonghan hisses, glaring at his lover with all his might. The older male only tightens his hold around the younger male’s waist, pulled him closer to drop a kiss on his shoulder and smiles against the spot that was showered with affection. “Babe, she clearly knows about it, why bother hiding?” Seungcheol says, voice muffled by Jeonghan’s shirt.

“More reason why – wait, did she learn it from you, you big goof?!” at this point, Jeonghan might just go hysterical. Nah, can’t blame him. He’s not ready to go to that phase yet. Suji is his precious baby! Precious innocent baby!

“Han, Suji knowing about dates doesn’t mean her going on dates, okay?” Seungcheol laughs, finally pulling away to look properly at Jeonghan’s crumpled face. Gods, is he beautiful. Straight up made by the Olympians, handmade and blessed by every deity.

But little did the couple know, when Suji was alone in her room that day, did she bring out her little notebook, messy drawings of uneven and muddled colours together in a page with two stick figures looking up to a supposedly fireworks display in the sky. She knew all along. She’s been wishing for it.

“Can you believe I really got them to bang?”

Minki quickly threw a tangerine on Chan’s way. “Your mouth’s dirty when it’s open. Please eat,” he says, leaning back to Jonghyun when Chan obliged.

“No offense, Chan, but all you did there was make all of us wasted right after a children’s party,” Seokmin grins, like his words did not just diss someone or something. He looks genuinely happy as well. “Seokmin-hyung, if it isn’t because of the alcohol, they wouldn’t probably be sleeping in the same room the same day as the twin’s birthday!” Chan reasons back.

Jonghyun chuckles to wave all of them off. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. At least they’re getting married again,” he says. Seokmin once again decided it’s a good time to diss his hyungs. “Finally, hyung! Finally, the both of you are coming to their wedding. You ditched us on a lot of events but I’ll let you guys pass. Honeymoon phase really is hard to get out from.”

“You’re not invited to our anniversary, Seokmin.”

“I was joking, Minki-hyung!”

“You know, I’ve felt like the twins had always been behind some of the happenings that occurred before we got together again.”

Seungcheol snorts, “Baby, I’m sure their uncles are behind them as well.”

The couple are currently enjoying their alone and quiet time on the couch as they mindlessly watch something about pottery on the television, but who are they kidding? Seungcheol is mostly focus on cuddling and brushing his lover’s hair against his fingers while Jeonghan might just sleep right there and then because Seungcheol’s arms around him is just too soothing and warm. The television does not even have any sound. When they say quiet time, they were not kidding.

Jeonghan mulls over it. He still thinks about it sometimes; if they’re on the right track, if they’re ever going to fuck up again? But then he feels Seungcheol beside him, on this weekly free day he rarely did when they were first bonded by marriage…

Changes and improvements are done little by little. Counselling sessions here and there. Jeonghan feels a breath of relief at every one of them. A sudden change would most likely suffocate him to death so he’s glad to what they have right now. Jeonghan knew his husband is also aware that he’s trying his best as well. He tries not to feel giddy when he thinks about it, but Seungcheol always giving him extra dose of affection every time he improves himself – man, what a concept. Every time Jeonghan makes decision by himself, Seungcheol is always there to be the proudest companion he had.

Maybe this is okay.

“It’s crazy.”

“It is,” Seungcheol agrees.

Jeonghan stayed comfortably cuddled, his head buried deep against Seungcheol’s neck. “I think… I’ll forever think about how my babies had a hard time because their parents are dumb sorting out their romance,” he softly tells that got Seungcheol laughing lightly. “And those bunch of idiots as well. I don’t know what will happen to us without them,” Jeonghan added, receiving kisses on the top his head.

“Probably the worst parents and lovers,” Seungcheol scoffs, thumb running circles against Jeonghan’s palms. The younger male giggles, breathing in his lover’s scent.

The couple is once again enveloped with silence, just the afternoon light slipping passed their windows basking silently with their presences. Seungcheol continues to pepper soft kisses on Jeonghan’s hair, palm and forehead. He thinks about how much he could not have missed if he did things right at the start. Years of this display of affection had been wasted, but maybe not for nothing…

Those times taught him well. Hard, but well.

Foreheads and nose touching, Seungcheol was punched by how lucky he was to be with this close with Jeonghan, to see his eyes sparkle with love for him, to hear his soft voice whispering for him to only hear.

“Uncertainties are still there, Cheol…”

“Yes.”

“But you have me, okay?”

“And you have me as well.”