Part 3

The sweet scent of freshly baked cinnamon rolls along with a hint of bitter scent of coffee beans wafting around the cosy-looking cafe. The ambient inside the cafe was warm, letting the customers to escape the chilly weather from the outside. The cafe was filled with chatters, sometimes laughter and giggles among the occupants of the cafe. But there’s a lone guy sat at a table which located at the very end of the cafe, with a cup of hot chocolate in his hands.

It was Jeonghan.

Jeonghan was a nervous wreck as he was fiddling with the disposable napkin, which was now shredded into tiny pieces under Jeonghan’s torturous hands.

Poor napkin.

The feminine-looking man glanced at the clock on the cafe wall for the nth times already. He’s 10 minutes early before the appointed time. Jeonghan sipped on his hot chocolate while glancing around the cafe, trying to find any possible source of entertainment. But unfortunately, there’s none. All he could see was an elderly couple standing in front of the counter, bickering loudly on what to order; a bored-looking cashier and a line of people patiently waited for the elderly couple to order their freaking beverages and cakes.

Yup, there’s absolutely nothing amusing.

Just then the bell jingled and two neatly dressed men entered the said cafe, and one of them is Daehyun. Jeonghan raised his hand before calling out ‘Dae-hyung!’ as he saw Daehyun glancing around the cafe, probably trying to spot Jeonghan. Daehyun’s face lightened up as he saw the one he’s searching for. Jeonghan saw Daehyun pulled along the other man towards him.

Daehyun gave Jeonghan a brief hug while the other man, which might be Jeonghan’s possible-to-be-employer, offered a handshake while introducing himself as ‘Choi Seungcheol’; in which Jeonghan gladly reciprocated and introduced himself as ‘Yoon Jeonghan’. Jeonghan felt that he had met this guy before, but where and when? But Seungcheol beat him to it.

“Have we met before?” Seungcheol tilted his head as he couldn’t help but to feel he had met the other man in front of him.

“Are you trying to hit on my dongsaeng?” Daehyun teased. Seungcheol’s face reddened as he sputtered out ‘No, I’m not! I just felt like I’ve met him before!’ in which Daehyun just shrugged it off mercilessly.

Jeonghan on the other hand was thinking very hard on the identity of the person in front of him.  Suddenly, an image up a little boy came in his mind. Jeonghan gasped.

“Ah! I remember! You’re Jihoonie’s father, am I right? The one who thought that I’m a girl.”

Seungcheol eyes widened as he recognized the identity of the person in front of him. His pinked face was getting a shade redder. Daehyun being no help, doubled in laughter as he took in the new info.

Seungcheol felt like killing himself. But before that, he needs to kill Daehyun first.

Both Seungcheol and Jeonghan were sat awkwardly opposite to each other. Daehyun left the two as he went to order some beverages for Seungcheol and himself, as Jeonghan already ordered his. Seungcheol protested saying that he’s the one who should go and order the drinks but Daehyun swatted the idea away as he said that the two should get to know each other, even when technically they’ve met before.

And so that explained how on earth they’ve ended up in such awkward atmosphere. Seungcheol was really tempted to end his hyung’s life.

Both of them were engulfed in silence before Seungcheol decided to break it.

“I’m sorry about the other day.”

Seungcheol started as his hand rubbed the back of his neck, feeling embarrassed of how their previous encounter had turned out. Jeonghan shook his head as he smiled.

“Nah, it’s okay. A lot of people had mistaken me for a woman anyway. No big deal.”

Seungcheol shook his head.

“No, it wasn’t about that. Wait, no, I mean, I’m sorry about that too but I was talking about my son’s behaviour before. He’s not usually like that.”

Seungcheol sighed. Jeonghan was curious as to where have the mother of the four year-old had gone to. He fiddled with his hand, unsure of how to ask about the mother. But it seems Seungcheol could read what was in the nanny’s mind.

“His mother’s gone; blood loss during labour.”

Jeonghan could only mutter an ‘Oh...’ as he couldn’t think of anything else to say to the young dad. It must be hard for him to raise his child alone after his wife departure. Again, Jeonghan fiddled with his hand.

“Sorry about that.”

Seungcheol shook his head as he smiled.

“Nah, it’s okay. Things are better left in the past.”

Just then Daehyun popped out of nowhere with two cups of coffee in his tray.

“Oh, I see you guys already getting to know each other.”

Daehyun put the two hot beverages on the flat table before plopping himself down the chair. He then clapped his hands once.

“So, shall we start the interview?”

It was a rare moment for the Choi household to be in such harmonious state. There was no usual shouting from Seungcheol to rush his son to get ready and his sock didn’t go missing that day. In fact, he was already in his crisp suit with Jihoon sitting beside him on the couch, the child’s legs were daggling from it.

“Jihoon honey, it’s the first day you’re going to be under your nanny’s care so I expect you to be good to him. Did you copy?”

Jihoon only nodded his head in understanding. Seungcheol smiled and ruffled the boy’s hair.

Jihoon is a boy of few words. He’s acting a tad bit matured for his age that Seungcheol sometimes felt worry about his only son. Jihoon rarely shows any emotions for most of the time the child seems indifferent. The only time Seungcheol saw his son acted his age was when it comes to the topic of the child’s mother.

The event happened during Christmas Eve where Jihoon mistook Jeonghan as his mother wasn’t the first one. It had happened before, after Seungcheol showed Jihoon the picture of his mother. Seungcheol remembered the first time Jihoon saw his mother’s picture; the boy couldn’t leave his gaze from the said piece of glossed paper. The three year old boy at that time slowly took the picture into his hand and before Seungcheol knew it, the picture is already one of the most important items to have for the boy to go to sleep.

It seems that the image of the soft, effeminate looking person with silky long black hair in the picture had imprinted into little Jihoon’s head. It was on a Sunday evening at the park when Seungcheol heard some commotions a few feet from the bench he was sitting only to realize that his son was arguing with another kid, with a long black haired woman standing near the two boys looking flustered. Seungcheol presumed that the lady was the other boy’s mom.  Seungcheol quickly went to get Jihoon who was sobbing and shouting at the other boy. It left him perplexed as he never saw Jihoon acted that way.

It turns out that Jihoon claimed that the lady was his mom and he pleaded for lady to come home with him. The lady’s son felt threaten that his mother was going to be taken away started pushing Jihoon away and that was how the argument started. The boy’s mother tried to stop the fight but to no avail. That explained how Seungcheol frantically apologized to the lady and the little boy as his son refused to do so and kept demanding for his ‘mom’ to come home with them and resorting to haul his son on his shoulder and fled from the crime scene.

That night, Jihoon refused to talk to Seungcheol.

Seungcheol was awoken from his train of thoughts when he heard the bell rang. He made his way towards the entrance and opened the door, revealing a fresh-faced Jeonghan. Jeonghan was wearing a simple cream long-sleeved knitted top and his black hair falls on his shoulder. He was smiling sweetly as he greeted ‘Good morning’ to Seungcheol. Seungcheol could only barely breathe out ‘Good morning’ back because wow, Jeonghan was lookin’ so fine.

“Mommy!”

The high-pitched voice of Jihoon caused Seungcheol to wake up from his day dream. The next thing Seungcheol knew, his son was hugging the new nanny tightly while repeating ‘mommy’ over and over again. He saw Jeonghan looked flustered for a second before he smiled sweetly and hugged the boy back. Seungcheol opened his mouth to reprimand his son from causing his new nanny to feel uncomfortable but he saw Jeonghan put his index finger on his mouth, before lowering his hand and mouthed ‘It’s okay’, letting the boy do whatever he wants. Seungcheol closed his mouth. His eyes were still lingering on the nanny’s soft facial features. The soft, effeminate look and the silky long black hair,

‘He really does look like him...’

a/n:

Don't go throw bricks at me! I know I'm late in updating and I'm so so sorry guys! I don't know what happened but this supposed to be a short Jeeongcheol fic but it seems that it's getting longer. *sigh

Anyway, please do enjoy!