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“Dad!” Chan called out, struggling a bit, carrying a large album as he ran up to Seungcheol who was reading his morning paper as he sipped on his Americano.
Peaking from the newsprint, Seungcheol smiled at the sight as he opened his dad’s arms like a gate and crawled into his lap, shutting the gate and leaning back into his chest with the album on top of his legs. He sighed, folding the paper, deciding to probably read it. “What do you have there, son?”
Chan smiled up as his dad wrapped his arms around his offspring’s waist. “I found this in your bedroom! Daddy was cleaning up and pulled this out. What is it?” he handed the album over, making Seungcheol smiling, realizing that it was the wedding album their specialized photographer gifted to them on their special day.
“It’s our wedding album,” he explained, pushing his glasses up as he opened to the title page, displaying him and Jeonghan together at the alter. He snickered, hearing Chan gasp in amazement. Next page turn, Jeonghan was shown putting on his suit thanks to the best man, Jisoo.
“Oh, that’s Uncle Jisoo!” Chan pointed out, looking closer at the picture. He laughed with Seungcheol as he pretended to be picking the picture’s nose. Chan flipped the next page and saw Seungcheol next, getting help from the other best man. “Uncle Jihoon’s in here too? Wow!”
“We invited all of our friends and family,” Seungcheol explained to the small, ruffling his hair as he turned the page. “Ah, this was where we got married.”
“The beach?” Looking at the photos, it seemed to be perfect weather in all the pictures. Dry heat, nice breeze, and them saying their vows underneath two trees, as Seungcheol remembered it. “Uncle Seokmin and Uncle Soonyoung!” Chan kept pointing out the other groomsmen as well as a few bridesmaids that he knew of.
It wasn’t long until they reached the reception section of the album that Jeonghan sighed in relief, dusting the dirt off of his hands as he saw his spouse and child on the couch, bonding together. He soon joined them, brushing his hair out of his face.
“Daddy!” Chan cheered as he opened Seungcheol’s arms and crawled into Jeonghan’s. He leaned his chin against the top of his son’s head and peaked over as Seungcheol scooted closer.
“Ah, our wedding, huh?” Jeonghan smiled as he softly bounced Chan on his leg.
“He said he brought it over here when he saw it while you were cleaning,” Seungcheol added.
“That makes sense,” the long-haired father raised an eyebrow as Chan cheekily smiled at him. “No wonder there’s a space in the bookshelf.”
Chan eagerly hit Seungcheol to turn to the next page where he gasped as he saw the four tiered cake that his two parents were cutting. “Wow! Is that a cake? It’s so big!”
The two looked at each other and snickered. “You remember Uncle Junhui, right? We visited his bakery last week! He’s the one who made it for us,” Jeonghan grinned looking up at Seungcheol and leaning in to kiss his cheek.
“What else happened at the wedding?” Chan’s eyes lit up, looking up at the two of them, resting the top of his head on their arms as they scooted closer together.
Jeonghan nudged his partner to answer. “Well… the reception, the big part after we got married, was a lot of fun! We had a lot of fun with our friends and family. Your Uncle Wonwoo and Mingyu kept clinging their forks on their glasses to make us kiss.”
Chan angled his head down, seeing the cup of coffee with a spoon in it that Seungcheol was drinking this morning. He reached to grab it and looked back up, clanging the spoon inside. His parents laughed, realizing what he was doing, before they leaned their faces in and softly pressed their lips together. Their son cheered happily before putting the mug back, almost dropping it in the process.
“Wow! You had an awesome wedding!” the young one giggled as he pulled the book from Seungcheol’s lap and continued to skim the pages while happily humming. Seungcheol wrapped his arm around Jeonghan and kissed his cheek as they watched their son enjoy himself.
“He’s quiet and sitting still,” Jeonghan whispered. “We should have done this sooner,” and the two snickered quietly.
“There are so many people in these photos!” Chan smiled cutely before his fathers noticed that he started flipping through the album at a faster speed. He was about four-fifths through when he turned to look back at them while pouting. “Why wasn’t I invited?”
The couple blinked before looking at each other, speechless. No words were said but their minds were on the same wavelength. Jeonghan tilted his head to Chan who was resting his head on his chest as he began to sniffle, signaling Seungcheol to speak.
“Why me?” he whispered.
“You were the one who opened the album in the first place!” Jeonghan whispered back as he stroked Chan’s hair and tried to comfort him.
Seungcheol groaned before he bent down to be at Chan’s eye level. “Chan… You weren’t born yet when we got married.”
Chan look up with big eyes, rubbing his nose that was beginning to drip. Jeonghan reached over for a box of tissues to clean his dripping nostrils. “B-born yet? But what does that mean?”
His eyes widened at his son’s words and he looked up at Jeonghan for help but his spouse shrugged, clueless. “Well…” he began, “you weren’t alive yet.”
“I was dead??” Chan gasped, tears streaming down his face as he nuzzled into Jeonghan’s shirt, dampening it with his tears. “I wasn’t invited to a big party because I was dead!” he cried out as Jeonghan continued to stroke his hair.
“Nice going, hun,” Jeonghan glared.
“Hey, I tried!” Seungcheol whined. “You give it a shot!”
Jeonghan rolled his eyes and looked down at Chan who was still sobbing and put the tissues away as he wiped his son’s tears with his shirt, thinking he should do laundry right after he puts him to a nap. “Chan,” he softly cooed, “we couldn’t invite you to the wedding because you were busy.. saving the world..”
Seungcheol’s head turned at his spouses words, raising an eyebrow in confusion. Their son lifted his head up and he rubbed his eyes. “I was… saving the world?”
Jeonghan nodded with a smile. “Don’t you remember? You had to protect our city from those dinosaurs!”
With a snap of his fingers and a light bulb turning on in his head, Seungcheol understood the plan. “Yeah! You know your favourite dinosaur? One of them turned bad and started knocking down buildings!”
Chan turned his head and rested his hands on Jeonghan’s arm. “Apatosaurus?” he titled his head and gasped. “Ah, but Apatosauruses are our friends! They can’t hurt people!” His eyes widen as he turns to look up at Jeonghan. “How did I stop him?”
“I’m glad you asked,” he smiled, cupping his son’s face. “Well, you flying around, trying to stop him from walking around and knocking everything with his tail and neck.”
“But then you saw one of his favourite trees,” Seungcheol added on, “and you used your super-strength to take the tree and you waved it in his face and he followed you out of the city.”
“You were very cool and heroic,” Jeonghan nodded. “We didn’t want you to miss the wedding, but our city needed you!”
Their son, calming down as he sniffled a bit, blinked his last tears away. “Wow… I did all of that?” He beamed at himself and chuckled. “Ah, I’m a great superhero!” And he turns his head to look at both of his parents. “I’m sorry I missed your wedding… but… are you guys having another one? I’ll make sure that I can go to that one!”
The two snickered while sharing a glance before Seungcheol spoke. “We did say we would recite our vows to each other one day.”
“Yeah, we’ll have another big party too,” Jeonghan grinned looking to see how their son jumped off of his lap and danced around their living room. “There he goes again..”
Chan continued to skip around, telling himself all the exciting things that would happen at the wedding as he sees all of his uncles again and how fun he’ll have with the two of them before passing out onto the rug that faced their television.
The couple laughed as Seungcheol stood up, kissed Jeonghan’s cheek sweetly, and went over to lift his son into his arms. “I’ll just put him down for a nap then,” he whispered as he started humming and carried Chan to his bedroom.
Jeonghan sighed and waved at his spouse before looking down at his shirt and groaning as he felt how damp it was. “Honestly…” he slowly stood up and stretched before looking down at the album cover, smiling when he saw Seungcheol and him standing with each other, laughing happily. He lifted the book and held it to his heart, grabbing the coffee and newspaper with his other hand as he sighed happily.