Baekhyun whistled as he leaned on the chain-link fence, eyes lazily following random clouds in the sky, trying to ignore the not-so-subtle stares from passing mothers with their children in tow.

 

Even though Baekhyun was almost in his mid-thirties, he knew he still had the ability to draw in stares from women, his bright, bleached hair probably helped, (too bad he wasn’t into them). He would say that for a man his age, he looked pretty good. He was fit and fashionable, not to mention his babyface, which was a physical feature of his that Baekhyun had detested until recently.

 

“Appa!” Baekhyun heard a loud, joyous shout from behind him.

 

He turned around, a huge, goofy grin already spreading across his face. A little girl ran towards him, plaited hair flying and backpack thumping wildly against her back. He crouched down and opened his arms and the little girl flew straight into them without hesitation.

 

“Hey, hey, slow down, Nari!” Baekhyun nuzzled his cheek against her ruddy ones and kissed her tenderly on the forehead, grin never shrinking.

It was a few moments before he realized that someone else had followed her out from the building.

 

 

Her teacher.

 

“Baekhyun sshi, sorry for making you wait. Would you come inside for a moment? There’s something I’d like to discuss about Nari.”

Baekhyun glanced curiously at his daughter, eyebrow raising when he saw her refusing to meet his eyes and hiding behind his legs, but followed her teacher into the school without demanding an explanation.

 

Her kindergarten teacher was a tall man and from what Baekhyun could see, around his own age. Nari adored him, always coming home with stories about how Park seongsangnim had played his guitar for them or had let them try on glasses from his apparently numerous collection. From Baekhyun’s point of view, the teacher did seem to be a good person and a positive influence on Nari and he was also tall and handsome. Baekhyun wondered how much trouble he could get into for hitting on his daughter’s teacher, but laughed the ridiculous thoughts out of his head. Sure, Baekhyun was aware that he usually came across as light-hearted and flirty, but he didn’t throw himself at every good-looking man he came across.

 

When they were comfortably seated at a round table in a corner of the classroom with Nari concentrated on drawing at her own desk, the tall teacher brought over a drawing. Baekhyun saw that it was obviously ruined, red paint splattered all over the page, he could still see the outlines of several grinning stick men beneath the red paint.  An accidental spill?

 

“Nari did this.” the teacher said in an almost regretful tone.

 

Baekhyun was taken aback? Nari was usually very sweet and well-behaved, this was something she would never do.

 

“Park seongsangnim-”

 

“We look to be around the same age. Call me Chanyeol.”

 

“-Chanyeol sshi, my Nari would never do this, I would know. I’m her father and I’ve never seen her do anything like this.” Baekhyun said insistently.

 

“Yes, I understand. Nari is very lovely to have in class and I can assure you that this accident was not fully Nari’s fault.” Chanyeol explained.  “You see, it seems some of the other girls in the class were…bothering Nari, maybe even bullying her about some rather personal issues and that’s why she reacted the way she did so that’s why I want to ask...is everything okay at home?”

 

Baekhyun was taken back by this sudden turn of events, “Personal issues?”

 

Chanyeol looked slightly uncomfortable at this point, nervously running a hand through his hair, “One of the other girls in the class told me that they were teasing Nari about not having a mother?”

 

Baekhyun covered his mouth in shock and his heart squeezed painfully. His sweet Nari? Bullied? Baekhyun had never thought that bullying would be a problem with Nari. She was perfectly good at making friends. But the fact