Crying. Sungyeol was used to see Sunggyu doing that, after all, they had countless fights the last year, but this time.... this time his heart became heavy, which Hoya said later it was great because he now could emphasize with a child, so he was becoming a good human being and all that crazy illogical crap Hoya sometimes sputtered so he could explain himself.

Sunggyu was not inconsolable though, Sungyeol didn't even have to do much aside from giving him a hug, wiping a round of tears and saying sorry (it was coming rather fast now according to Hoya), because Sunggyu seemed like he was ready to fight. Well, maybe their plan was more than what happened that night, but Sungyeol didn't want to know, he didn't want to become an accomplice and he didn't want Myungsoo to think he was using the kids, if they did something, it would be their own agenda. But surely he talked to Sunggyu to the importance to not try to get him and Myungsoo back together right now, they couldn't because of the situation in college.

Once more Sungyeol knocked on Myungsoo's door in the morning to see if they could take Woohyun to school but once more there was no one home, it didn't surprise him, he thought it was gonna be that way from now on but it didn't cost him money to try, right? What did surprise him was that he was still in school talking to Dongwoo when Myungsoo and Woohyun arrived.

“They are plotting something for sure, so if you discover something it would a big help.” Sungyeol was saying to Dongwoo when someone came running and almost hit him but dodged at the last second.

“Hyung!” Woohyun hugged Sunggyu for dear life and the older boy face lighted up when he welcomed his friend in his arms, which the other kids found kinda weird, didn't they live close by? Why they seemed like they didn't see each other for years?

“Woohyunnie, are you ok?” Sunggyu asked worriedly once they parted but Woohyun turned around to glare at his father that was coming with his backpack but one pointed look from Woohyun the boy decided not to say anything about that in front of his father and instead whisper something else.

“Did you called them? Did you call grandpa and Sungjong hyung?”

“I was almost grounded.” Sunggyu confessed before nodding and smiling sneakily. “Jongie hyung said he will talk to your uncle and Grandpa said he would come this week.”

“Great, because I ...” Woohyun was halfway beaming when his father finally approached him.

“Here it is your backpack.” He said and Woohyun begrudgingly grabbed.

“Come with me hyung.” The boy said and started to run away again when Sunggyu turned to Myungsoo.

“Liar.” Before Myungsoo could answer Sunggyu already had followed his friend that gave a brief hug on Sungyeol legs and ran to put his backpack away.

“Bye.” Sungyeol waved at the boys with a sad smile as Myungsoo approached him and Dongwoo and took a deep breath before speaking.

“Hi, Dongwoo hyung.”

“Hi Myungsoo, today you came on time.” Dongwoo approved.

“I didn't come from Incheon.” Myungsoo said sheepishly and it seemed like he wanted to talk more but he was holding himself because Sungyeol was there.

“Won't you greet Sungyeol too?” Dongwoo asked motioning the said guy but mainly to see what would be Myungsoo's reaction, he knew Sungyeol had a plan but he would get these two to talk or else.

“Hi.” Sungyeol prompted hopefully but Myungsoo avoided his gaze and that made Dongwoo snap with frustration.

“Guys, is this really happening? Is this going to be cyclical?” Dongwoo asked pointing his index finger from one to the other. “Can't you two at least talk politely about trivialities and the weather?”

“I told you.” Sungyeol said with a sigh then continued. “But if it's on me: no. I'm open to conversations. About anything.” He made sure to stress the last words.

“The only conversation we will have is about my project.” Myungsoo in the most polite tone he could make.

Sungyeol turned fully to him and said seriously. “Good, it seems like everything won't be through email only, because, seriously, I don't think I can help you if you plan on not exchanging a word with me personally anymore. And boy we need to talk about that, are you free to talk about it? I have time now.”

At first, Myungsoo was annoyed that Sungyeol got in by technicalities in his words, and if he knew the elder a bit, he wouldn't let that pass. Then he became surprised that Sungyeol already read everything he sent it. That was not actually a surprise because he knew Sungyeol read and worked super fast for Woollim but he became surprised that apparently Sungyeol already had a lot to say about it.

“I... can't.” Myungsoo blurted and Sungyeol looked down at his feet and sighed so Myungsoo thought it was better t at least clarify something. “I decided that I would keep working for Hoya hyung so he dumped a bunch of work on me yesterday.”

Riiiiiight, there was that and Sungyeol couldn't relate, mainly when he took a break from work to supposedly study for the selective process of a new professor, but he knew he was prepared so in reality he only had Myungsoo project to think about.

“I didn't think Hoya would be competition for time.” Dongwoo said apologetically. “I can talk to him if you want.”

“No, no, that's ok, he sent a bunch of things that not necessarily have this weekend as a deadline so I can take my time, though I think I will finish a good amount of it before coming to pick Woohyun up because I had insomnia last night so...” Myungsoo stopped when he noticed he was justifying something he didn't need to justify too much. He briefly looked at Sungyeol then looked back at Dongwoo hyung. “Can we have a moment alone?”

“OK, that's my cue. Bye Dongwoo hyung, tell Hoya hyung to go back home, I can deal with things in my own apartment by myself.” He then turned to Myungsoo. “I'll be in the office all day, but try arriving before 4 PM because I have a class to teach and yeah.”

Sungyeol turned around and left with slumped shoulders and the other two watched him until he disappeared before Myungsoo awkwardly started talking.

“Hyung... I wanted to talk to you about Sungyeol permission to take Woohyun home... how do I revoke that?”

Dongwoo crossed his arms and glared at Myungsoo. “You just did, but really?”

“It's just... the recent situation with Sungyeol hyung made me realize that we were both too dependent on him so maybe we should all take a break...”

Suddenly Dongwoo put a hand up for him to stop, he didn't want to listen to excuses, if Myungsoo didn't want to tell the truth it was better if he said nothing at all. “I was at Sungyeol's yesterday so I sort of expected something like that when Sunggyu came back home crying.” He sighed when Myungsoo made a guilty face. “I know that the situation between you and Sungyeol requires some distance..” He reduced the volume a bit. “... because you two broke up too...” He spoke normally again. “...but this is on you two, remember that.”

As Dongwoo returned to his duties because Shinhye tripped into Jonghyun and it seemed that somebody broke a finger, Myungsoo came back home thinking what his son might be up to, but once he got to work he soon forgot about that.

By the time he finished working he had skipped lunch and was this close of being late to picking Woohyun up, he had to leave earlier to get there early otherwise they would need to ride a crowded bus again and Woohyun hated that, and he hates it too, it was if the energy were drained from their bodies.

After they managed to take bath and eat dinner, Woohyun, that barely talked, went straight to his room to do his homework and Myungsoo wanted to pull his head, he tried to make peace with his son but the boy didn't seem interested. As he cleaned the boy's bag once more and saw that for the second day in a row Woohyun didn't eat his fruits, he had the brilliant idea to smooth things with his son by baking him a cake. And if the boy helped they could forgive each other again, right?

“Woohyun...”

“Yes?” The boy said disinterestedly as he put his done homework in his backpack again.

“You're not eating your fruits, perhaps you would like to eat something else.”

Woohyun head snapped so he could look at his father. “Yes, please!” The boy replied eagerly and Myungsoo felt good that he managed to gain the boy attention.

“Do you want to help me? We could bake a cake so you could eat something different tomorrow.” Woohyun furrowed his little brows at his father, him? Baking cake? He never baked. Ever. “Come on, how difficult it can be?”

“Can it be a chocolate cake?” Woohyun finally asking surrendering on the talking part, though he saw that an entirely different opportunity to what Myungsoo had in mind.

“Sure.” Myungsoo confirmed as they moved to the kitchen.

“Can we put some filling?” The boy asked more interested.

“What kind of filling?”Myungsoo asked as he opened the fridge to take the eggs out.

“Chocolate.”

“This time only ok?” Myungsoo said and Woohyun smiled brightly.

They moved into the kitchen and Woohyun helped to pick up a big bowl and the blender for his father and once they had put everything on the counter Myungsoo gave the ingredients an overall look and gasped.

“We don't have baking powder.” Myungsoo said as he tried searching his pantry again and Woohyun crossed his arms over the counter and decided that that was a perfect opportunity to annoy his father.

“Do you know who has baking powder home? Sungyeol hyung.”

The elder head snapped to look pointedly at his son then took a deep breath in and out to contain himself, getting mad would defeat the purpose of baking with Woohyun right? “Mrs. Baek might have too.” Myungsoo countered then inspected the flour. “Ah, self-rising, we won't need it.” He said triumphantly and Woohyun rolled his eyes and let go, he was sure he would have plenty of opportunities later.

Myungsoo taught Woohyun how to break an egg and separate the yolk from the rest of the white stuff and Woohyun dutifully paid attention until a question came.

“Why are we separating it?”

“Because we will beat the whites into something that looks like snow and...” Myungsoo tried to explain but Woohyun just blinked at him.

“Sungyeol hyung didn't do this when we baked cupcakes.”

“Well, he probably used a different recipe.” Myungsoo said with a hint of annoyance but once more Woohyun became silent.

He told Woohyun to put try to mix butter, sugar and the yolk in one of the bowls as he tried to beat the whites of the egg in snow.

“It's weird and hard to do it...” Woohyun commented idly as he did what he was told very lazily. “Sungyeol hyung used the blender, can't we use too to be faster?”

Myungsoo could only sigh at the number of times Woohyun already said Sungyeol name. “In a bit.” After some time he put the whites to the side, cleaned the blender and came to Woohyun aid but the boy kept reminding him of the neighbors.

“Sunggyu hyung wanted to peal onions when we made cupcakes with Sungyeol hyung, isn't that funny?” The boy giggled as he watched his father working.

“Yes, Woohyun, super.”

“Sungyeol hyung said to put the flour slowly!!!” The boy scolded at some point. “You didn't even sift it.”

“It is not needed for this recipe.” Myungsoo said trying to contain himself.

“But Sungyeol said it always makes whatever cake better.”

“Now you're making that up” Myungsoo squinted his eyes at his son and the boy's eyes became big and he shook his head.

“I paid attention and Sungyeol hyung teaches well too.” Woohyun said with his most innocent tone. Yes, that might be true but he was out to annoy his father.

“Woohyun, milk, milk, milk.” Myungsoo urged, choosing not to comment on that, he knew his son paid attention to the adults cooking. “Go prepare the pan.”
“We don't have a cake pan, but do you know who has it?” Woohyun didn't even let his father have time to process what he said before he already answering the question. “Sungyeol hyung!”

“Take a regular one.”

The boy shrugged and picked the first one that he saw. Honestly, he thought this came wouldn't come out good but if he was correct it was gonna be even more helpful for his plan of annoying his father until the elder crossed doors and talked to Sungyeol.

“You put the butter like this and then we drop some flour too, see.” Myungsoo taught and Woohyun smiled and started doing. “Keep doing so it is easy to take the cake out later.”

The boy started doing but his main mission wasn't finished. “Can I make the filling?” Now Myungsoo was ready to say a yes when Woohyun continued. “Sungyeol hyung let me.”

The young father rolled his eyes as he put the chocolate on the mix. “Your cupcakes had a filling?” He asked because he probably ate Sunggyu's back then, and honestly, he was kinda surprised that Sungyeol taught how to do that and Woohyun actually did it.

“Yes, and cover and red sprinkles, because it is my favorite color.” The boy smiled widely.

“Wasn't Sungyeol hyung nice?” Myungsoo chose to ignore that question and now Woohyun was already getting worried his father wouldn't become annoyed. “Can I?”

“While the cake is in the oven we can see if we can make it, ok?” The young dad assured so the boy threw some flour on the pan and with his butter hands shook the pan a bit so it spread it.

“Go wash your hands now.” Myungsoo instructed and as soon as the boy turned around he quickly fixed up the messy parts.

“Daddy? How about we make some cover too?” The boy asked sounding innocent but at this point, Myungsoo was already expecting Woohyun to say Sungyeol name again.

“I think Sunggyu hyung likes it.” Woohyun surprised him by not saying the tall neighbor name but the maknae one. “I can share the cake with Sunggyu hyung in school, right?”

“We need to see if we have enough ingredients and then we'll see.”

Woohyun pouted as he didn't have the reaction he expected. “But it has to have a cover. A chocolate one.”

Myungsoo stopped filling the pan to look at his son. “A chocolate cake with chocolate filling with chocolate cover... that's too much chocolate! I don't even know if we have that much chocolate home but you'll sure have a stomachache like this.”

“Sungyeol hyung let me do like this and I didn't have a stomachache.” The boy pouted.

“Woohyun, stop...” Myungsoo put the pan in the oven and was about to complain about the usage of his neighbor name but Woohyun eyes quickly moved to the empty bowl and asked.

“Can I eat the leftovers? Sungyeol hyung lets Sunggyu hyung and I have it.” The boy asked as he came close and put his finger inside the bowl but Myungsoo promptly took the bowl from him, put on the sink and threw enough water inside, he was this close of snapping at his son.

“Woohyun, do you want to get sick?”

“No.” Woohyun said then placed the only amount of the mix he could scoop on his mouth to taste it then looked seriously to his father. “I don't think this cake will be good, maybe we should ask Sungyeol hyung help to fix it.” Now Woohyun didn't mean that only to annoy his dad, it tasted kinda weird, his dad probably put the wrong amount of something.

“Woohyun, do you want to be grounded for longer or am I just Imagining things?” Myungsoo asked his son as he had enough and the boy made sure to look innocent and fluffy and he maybe did aegyo.

“No~~.” He replied cheekily.

“Good, then go to your room and go read a book or something.” Myungsoo said with his hands on his waist then walked to his pantry to figure out some filling at least. “I'll finish things up here.”

The boy smiled internally and he was about to do what he was told when he stopped at the kitchen's door and turned around to annoy his father one last time.

“Can we still put sprinkles? Like I did with Sungyeol hyung?”

“Woohyun!”

“Sheesh.” The boy complained loudly and with irritation but as soon as his daddy moving around in the kitchen was the only thing he could hear, he giggled to himself, proud that he accomplished what he wanted it. Myungsoo's life without Sungyeol help was becoming kinda hard but Woohyun would surely make everything more difficult.

25 minutes later Sungyeol and Sunggyu were playing some chess when suddenly Sungyeol stopped thinking and sniffed the air. “Are you smelling this?”

Sunggyu did the same and then he held his nose. “What is this? So awful.”

“Yeah...” Sungyeol agreed when he remembered something, all his neighbors were kinda old and usually there was a nice smell around that triggered Sunggyu hunger but there was only one person that was not that good and was enough mess that could overlook things. He promptly got up to check things and Sunggyu followed him, but both didn't need to sniff the air too much because they knew it came from Myungsoo and Woohyun apartment.

“Hyung!” Sunggyu gasped worriedly and Sungyeol hadn't doubt, he knocked on the door as harder as he could, this was a matter of security.

“MYUNGSOO! MYUNGSOO!” He called as he knocked, he could hear movement on the other side, like someone running (probably Myungsoo), and a few moments later the door opened and Woohyun appeared.

“Save me hyungs.” The boy pleaded and they could hear Myungsoo shrieking in surprise.

“You two, go open all windows.” Sungyeol instructed and the boys ran to do what they were told while Sungyeol closed the door and ran to the kitchen only to find Myungsoo cursing to himself.

“, , !” Myungsoo cursed lowly as he looked at the completely burnt... everything but he still was somehow paralyzed in place out of disbelief.

“What the...” Sungyeol ended up talking out of surprise and the younger dad finally noticed him as the elder passed him and turned off the oven.

“What are you doing here?”

“Apparently saving you.” Sungyeol said as he went straight to Myungsoo cabinets to take some towels so he could get the pan and put on the counter and once he did that he gave Myungso a pointed look. “Put your head into place!” He scolded before he walked outside the kitchen, and leaving Myungsoo kind of flabbergasted.

“My head is not out of place!” Suddenly that was the best comeback Myungsoo could manage at that time.

Sungyeol stopped and turned around to ask sarcastically. “Really? You do decently in the kitchen so is this a new hobby?”

“I said it would be a disaster.” Woohyun said as he appeared back with Sunggyu.

“We opened the windows.” The elder boy informed.

“It was an accident.” Myungsoo retorted.

“Your handle is burnt.” Sungyeol said in exasperation and Myungsoo kept quiet, which made Woohyun have or haven't felt delighted his fatehr got some scolding. The elder then sighed.

“Myungsoo, I want to help you but I can't help you with this part of your life right now so please, please, remember who you do everything for and put your head into place, we will need tomorrow.” Sungyeol said and pointed to Woohyun.

“You're tresspassing, get out.” Myungsoo said trying to contain all of his anger.

“Sunggyu!”Sungyeol called already directing himself towards Myungsoo door.

“Don't leave me hyung!” Woohyun pleaded but after a glare from Myungsoo Sunggyu knew he had to get out soon.

“Hang on, Woohyunnie, you'll survive.” He hesitated and gave his friend a kiss on his forehead as consolation before he followed his hyung and Myungsoo close the door after them.

“Why you opened the door?”

Woohyun didn't say anything reply to that but he slumped shoulders and asked. “How long am I going to be grounded?”

“Go to your room!” Myungsoo hissed and Woohyun dragged his feet back to his room.

“Mom, you're seeing that, right?” Woohyun asked alound before closing the door only for Myungsoo to rub his hands on his face and sigh hard.
_______________________________________________________
Sungyeol couldn't believe Myungsoo burnt a pan with a handle, and god knows what was that black thing in the pan, but he decided not to comment that episode with anyone or else people would start questioning Myungsoo parenting skills. Sungyeol just knew that that was probably the reflect of Myungsoo inner turmoil because any other day Myungsoo would be the one teaching Sungyeol how to be responsible over a kid.

He dropped Sunggyu in school early, having the boy's lunchbox full enough to feed him Woohyun and maybe distribute it to his minions, and directed himself to college to wait for Myungsoo, he had to appear today to talk about his project right? He didn't have the luxury to wait too long.

He ended up arriving too earlier than normal in and was nervous not only because this was gonna be their first official meeting but because what happened last night. Maybe he was too much, maybe he shouldn't have scolded Myungsoo, maybe he shouldn't have done anything at all. He sighed and picked a book to read while he waited for his doom, Myungsoo probably hated him more now.

8 AM, 9 AM, 10 PM, and nothing of Myungsoo yet. Sungyeol had already read half of his book and paid some bills online when he decided to get a cup of coffee to keep him awaken and fill his stomach enough until lunch time.

Lunchtime came faster than Sungyeol noticed and Dara appeared in the office to call him to grab a bite together. They directed themselves to the cafeteria and each made placed their order then sat on one table together.

Halfway through lunch though she placed some papers in front of him. “Sungyeol, can you take a look at this?” Sungyeol looked at her flabbergasted and an expression that asked sarcastically 'Really?' “I applied for this job I'm sure I'll get it, and as soon as I finish this Ph.D. I will earn more...” She started sheepishly. “ I already finished my thesis but I'm a bit insecure about the section 1.1... I think the text is not very fluid, could you... take a look? To help a friend?”

“Fine. But you're totally paying my lunch.” Sungyeol replied before pulling the papers close to him and looking for the section she mentioned.

He spent about forty minutes to finish eating and rewriting some paragraphs to help her and she indeed paid his bill, which wasn't even that expensive since he didn't have that much appetite. After a sincere thank you and an explosion of happiness from her, Sungyeol felt a bit lighter. Despite his grumpiness he liked to help, he liked to pass knowledge on and he felt pretty good whenever he thought he made the right choice of profession. Dara also grew on him since she started dating Chanyeol, he was happy that they found happiness in each other despite the .

That lifted Sungyeol mood long enough for him to return to the office, but as he approached the door he felt bad that this same choice of profession was keeping him apart from the one he loved. Only to think about that made his heart squeeze, but this was going to be worthy. Myungsoo would graduate, would get a job in Seoul and he and Woohyun would be happy so they would reconcile and have a great relationship again with lots of good moments and one day Woohyun would accept him too and...

His daydreams were interrupted by a person knocking on the door and Sungyeol straightened himself up and cleared his throat and told whoever it was to come in but... it wasn't Myungsoo.

“Mr. Lee, I have a few doubts about the essay we're supposed to hand you till Friday.”

Sungyeol forced a smile. “Sit here and let's discuss it.”

Honestly, Sungyeol didn't keep the track this time, the girl distracted him enough and her concerns were really valid, besides she had a bet with Chanyeol going on and Sungyeol would bet against him anytime just to annoy him. When they finished, the girl gave him a bow and thanked before leaving and now it seemed to Sungyeol he was waiting too much for nothing, Myungsoo wouldn't appear.

He opened his laptop and then his email, he couldn't force Myungsoo to do anything but he could try to do his job and really advise him. He was halfway through a list of things Myungsoo should fix when he heard the door again. “Come in.” He instructed but his eyes and hands didn't leave the laptop until the person was sitting in front of him. “How can...” He couldn't help but smile when he saw who it was. “Myungsoo.”

“Hey.” Myungsoo said reluctantly.

Sungyeol somehow noticed that that only word, and the fact that he managed to come to his office per se, happened because a lot of courage, so to help a little he decided to start talking first. “I thought you wouldn't come today anymore, I was about to send you an e-mail.” He confessed, trying to school his face into a poker face, this wasn't totally cool with him.

“I don't have enough time to even procrastinate.” Myungsoo forced an awkward smile.

“Right, of course.” Sungyeol said nervously and picked up Myungsoo printed project and took a paper out f the pile. “I read your project already and I have a lot  of things to say about it but first I want you to answer some questions for me, since we are not from the same department, so I figure out the best way to do my job.”

Sungyeol pushed the paper towards Myungsoo, gave him a pen for him and the said man leaned to grab it and read what was written but a few seconds passed and Myungsoo just seemed to not be paying attention to the paper and just having some conflicts in his head.
“You don't have to elaborate too much.” Sungyeol said uncomfortably.

“No, it's ok, it's just...” Myungsoo looked really uncomfortable in his seat and Sungyeol had to ask.

“Do you want to say something? Because I can hear whatever you have to say.” He finished a bit hopeful and Myungsoo noticed and gulped hard.

“Hum... about yesterday...” Myungsoo hesitated a bit but lowered his voice to talk. So Myungsoo wanted to talk about that? Sungyeol was a bit disappointed but he would keep his promise and talk.

“It's ok, she is not in there.” He motioned to the door that leads to professor Song office before and only then Myungsoo decided to elaborate.

“I don't want you entering my apartment carelessly anymore, even if Woohyun opens the door.”

Sungyeol knew they would probably come to this even if Myungsoo had agreed with the plan since the beginning but “Sorry, I won't do it again, but it was a matter of security, I could smell from my apartment, things could really have gone worse yesterday, what was that?”

Myungsoo leaned back on his chair and ran a hand on his face. “That was a cake I was trying to bake to cheer Woohyun up yesterday...” Sungyeol frowned a bit, that was a cake? In the end, he chose not to comment on it and just let Myungsoo say whatever he wanted to say. Myungsoo tentatively looked the other in the eyes. “Thank you for acting when I became shocked by the situation.”

Sungyeol smiled warmly, a thank you was a start right?“You took care of me once, we are even.” He assured, referring to when he had been sick, but Myungsoo wanted to pull his hair. No, they weren't, he owed Sungyeol a lot of things and he thought that that aggravated his confusing feelings since the breakup.

The young dad rubbed both of his hands on his face and mumbled to himself. “I'm not doing anything right lately, urgh!”

“If you have this mentality you'll really won't be able to do anything to change this.” Sungyeol said and Myungsoo sighed again.

“It's true though.”

“Why are you saying this? Do you want to talk about it, and get that out of our way, now that no one can hear us? Once we start this we need to be consistently professional.”

“I shouldn't be discussing this with you.” Myungsoo said as he straightened up in his chair.

“You can pretend I'm someone else.” Sungyeol insisted though he didn't think the younger would talk, but, to his surprise, the said man cursed something under his breath before avoiding his eyes.

“This... is hard for me.” He confessed and Sungyeol nodded in understanding, for him too, though Myungsoo didn't see that. “You're right, my head is not in place, this is why I don't even have my son under control lately.”

“What do you mean?” Sungyeol furrowed his brows in curiosity. “Sunggyu said he was upset but I thought you'd solve that fast.”

Myungsoo snorted. “I wanted but he decided to test my patience so I grounded him and I hate doing that. And now he is testing my patience and refusing to eat, and he never gave me trouble to eat, never.”

“We always left the doors open for them to come and go and... is this why he is not coming over? My door is still open...” Sungyeol said and hoped Myungsoo would get the hint, but the said guy looked everywhere but him.

“It's one of the reasons.”

“Myungsoo, I know you're angry with me and you're just putting up because, well, you have to, but they don't need to be affected by this... We can treat each other coldly, but the kids like each other and you know I couldn't avoid that when they weren't close, but now that they are... I doubt that they won't annoy you until you give in.”

Myungsoo stopped a few seconds to think then groaned. “This makes a lot of sense, but no, hyung, I mean, Sungyeol shi.” Myungsoo corrected himself as soon as he noticed his mistake and Sungyeol eyes became surprised, he didn't expect Myungsoo to become that formal with him. “This is not about our situation only. I mean, it is, but in another way.”

“Which way?” Sungyeol asked almost as a scolded child.

“I don't want to depend on anyone, this is why I left my parents place, but I feel like I exchanged them for you in a way, this isn't right.” Now that surprised Sungyeol, but at the same time, it hurt him. It's been a while that he didn't mind spending time with the kids and he also didn't mind helping Myungsoo in every way he could too, this was in his personality, take care of the people he loved the most he could. Still, he was surprised that Myungsoo was able to have this kind of revelation while in the middle of anger and god knows what else.

“I understand. Thank you for being sincere about that at least, I wouldn't have guessed.” Sungyeol was the one avoiding the younger gaze. “Since you're being sincere with that I'll tell you something.” He moved his eyes back and Myungsoo lifted a brow as their eyes met. “I think Woohyun is eating Sunggyu lunch and that might be why he is not touching his food.”

“What?”

“On Monday I put some more food on Sunggyu lunchbox because I didn't think you'd have time to cook so maybe they would share, but, since then, he's been asking me to put more food every day and I know Sunggyu, his appetite didn't grow from one day to the other.”

“Thank god at least he ate something.” Myungsoo sighed in relief but the looked at Sungyeol annoyed. “Don't do that anymore, I'll organize myself and he will have real food.”

“Yes, sure.” Sungyeol promptly agreed then tried to coax his neighbor softly. “But let the kids play, please, they won't relent.”

“Give me some time.” Myungsoo said with a sigh then finally took a look at the paper “I don't know why you need to know these things but...” He started to write down some answers.

“We shouldn’t do anything without a strategy, we will need one so you can come out from this situation as faster as you can.” Sungyeol briefly explained.

“Yeah, because you need to pump your curriculum in time for the job selection, right?” Myungsoo said bitterly as he finished writing and then pushed the paper back to the taller only to look at Sungyeol with anger.

Sungyeol breathed in and out and fixed his eyes on the younger. “If you search my name on Google you'll know I don't have to pump my curriculum that much, it's just the other applicants have the same curriculum with double my age and that means experience.” He then placed his hand on the paper to get it back but he made sure to place the tips of his fingers on top of Myungsoo's. “I'm not doing anything here for myself only.”

Myungsoo felt a lump immediately form on his throat but they didn't have the time to do anything but pull their hands back in fear when the door opened and professor Song entered with Chanyeol in toll.

“... and I came to hand you my essay too.” Taller Yeol was saying.

“Haven’t Sungyeol told you guys it was due on Friday?” The woman asked looking at him and then she moved her eyes to look at the other two. “Oh, hi guys.” By this point, Myungsoo felt like his heart was beating so fast that he might throw up while Sungyeol. “You are already catching up, right?”

“Yes.” Sungyeol answered stiffly and with a look to communicate with Chanyeol he decided to try to cover-up. “We were so concentrated, you gave us a scare.” He said, finally allowing himself to breathe and Myungsoo automatically nodded. “Yes, it is due to Friday.” He ended up confirming too.

“Good, good.” She said completely unaware about the two previous interaction and Chanyeol was quick to say something.

“Hi, guys, sorry for the interruption.” He quickly added a sheepish smile, bowed a little and continued with his rant. “But I already did mine so if I could hand it first...” The guy sheepishly explained.

“So you want to hand in earlier?” She asked the tallest in the room.

“Yes, please? My sister will marry this Friday too and I’ll have to skip class, so better hand in now right?” The taller begged and Sungyeol furrowed his brows.

“Ok, fine.” She rolled her eyes and then looked briefly at Sungyeol. “Take his essay, if anyone else appears, which I doubt, you can start taking theirs too.” Then she threw a scolding eye at Chanyeol before walking further in the room and her office. “For your own good, I hope you put effort, Chanyeol, because I’m the one grading this time and I don’t want to read a half-assed essay of yours, I’ve known you for three years, you can do better than that.”

She closed the door behind her and the three men in the room finally sighed.

“Gosh.” Myungsoo mumbled to himself as Chanyeol tried to hand his essay to Sungyeol.

“Am I the first? Am I? Did Yein handed hers before me?”

“You said your sister is not even dating.” Sungyeol scolded his taller friend, choosing to ignore his question.

“Sorry but I bet Yerim 50 bucks that I would hand my essay first and 50 more if I get graded higher than her so I had to throw a white lie to try to win. Now tell me, am I the first?”

“What you’ll do on Friday then that you're not coming to class?”

Chanyeol smiled devilishly. “You don’t wanna know.”

“Ew.” Sungyeol made a face. “Chanyeol the next lesson is really important.” He scolded then.

“Yah, just taking noona out to cheer her up before her presentation is scheduled. I know I might fall behind, but this is for her...” Chanyeol explained and Sungyeol looked at the corner of his eyes at Myungsoo but the younger avoided his eyes and, not noticing that, Chanyeol tapped Sungyeol shoulder to urge him to get the essay. “Now, come on, I don’t know what you two were doing but it is the second time I saved your asses with her so throw me a bone here and say the truth.”

After noticing how much Myungsoo tensed, Sungyeol said the truth, if Chanyeol was set on staying on their side and gave proofs of his good intentions he could be nice. “Yein came, but she just asked me a few questions, she didn’t give me anything.” He then grabbed Chanyeol essay from his hands only for the said man squeal happily. “And we weren’t doing anything, right Myungsoo?” Sungyeol asked trying to use his lowest tone of voice so the professor wouldn’t hear him.

“Ye-yeah.” The said man stuttered and Chanyeol gave him a knowing look.

“Whatever man, just let me take a picture of us with the essay so I have proof and…” He was about to align himself behind Sungyeol chair, already with his phone in hands, to take a picture when the door from Hyekyo office opened and she poked her head outside.

“Chanyeol, they have a tight schedule, you are interrupting. Besides, you said you also finished the paper, I have to see if it is ready for publication.” She urged.

“I’m coming.” Chanyeol quickly took a picture of Sungyeol, himself, and more importantly, the essay before he ran towards her office. “Bye, my beloved friend and sunbae, bye my online friend and dongsaeng.”

“I’m not your friend!” Sungyeol retorted and Chanyeol gave him a final triumphant, but sarcastic smile.

“Yes, right.”

“Come on Chanyeol, I don’t have all day, Sungyeol and I have to leave in an hour.” The professor urged and in a second they disappeared behind the door, leaving both Myungsoo and Sungyeol alone and awkward which other.

“That was...” Sungyeol tried to steer some conversation but, for Myungsoo, that kind of situation was scarier than he thought, not only because it could jeopardize his project, but because he was sure if he kept talking to Sungyeol like that, he would only keep prolonging his suffering as he remembered their good times together.

“You'll leave in an hour, right? Let's get down to business.” He immediately interrupted the taller.

“Ok.” Sungyeol voice almost didn't come out but he grabbed the Myungsoo's printed project and adopted a more professional façade before looking at him in the eyes. “First and foremost, I don't know how things work in your department, but you should never ever send a copy of your work that people can freely edit, not everyone is bad but you have to take precautions so people can't steal your work.”

Myungsoo pinched the bridge of his nose to alleviate stress he could predict that if the taller started that way he would need lot's of patience, but he didn't have the luxury to fight Sungyeol, the adviser, too, right? “Yes, sure.”

“Secondly, your project is not formatted, if you're stuck in a part at least go fixing that.”

“Of course.” Myungsoo replied tiredly.

“Third, what kind of methodology are you using? You are all over the place.” Sungyeol said and this time Myungsoo only sighed so Sungyeol squinted his eyes.

“Myungsoo, look at my face and tell me if you think I'm playing around.” He snapped.

“You're not gonna help pointing those things out, I will fix those things at the end.” The young tried to justify himself. “I need to move on with content and I don't know where to go with that.”

“We will have time for that, but you have to trust me. What I just told you might not seem important at first sight but it is. If I wanted to be a I could get the central idea of your project and write a paper about it and that would kill the relevance you're trying to show; once you format things properly your text my grow or shrink and if it is the second case, you'd have more work to do to meet the number of pages required by or department, not to mention, that you don't have a clear methodology and that is like building something without structure. Those things might be part of your grave en if it's minimally, and do you know you can fail this by having a bad grade too? Is that what you want?”

“No, but...” Before Myungsoo could argue Sungyeol continued scolding him.

“I know it is difficult, but you should trust me to lead you. This is going to be hard, this is probably going to take time you rather spend with Woohyun too, I will be hard on you and your life might become hell in this aspect, but you will not only finish this, you'll finish earlier than your friends and you'll have the highest grade you can achieve, and this I can promise you if you compromise, focus and do what I say.”

Myungsoo only sighed and avoided his gaze but nodded shortly. Sungyeol could see that by the younger action he was just agreeing to shut him up and that made him so angry. It was like he was talking to the walls, not only that, it felt like Myungsoo wasn't taking his situation seriously enough and that he couldn't care less about them ever solving the situation on a personal note after this was over. If felt like he was trying to do to help was futile.

Sungyeol kneaded the younger project a little out of anger but, no, he wouldn't let his ex-lover waste anything he was doing on his end, nor he would let everything Myungsoo was feeling be for nothing. His eyes twitched a little too and he briefly thought about Sunggyu misbehaving last year. Yes, if Myungsoo was going to give him immature behavior he thought he could handle him just fine, Sunggyu had pestered him relentlessly and unknowingly might have prepared him for this back then.

_______________________________________________________

Today Myungsoo decided to buy some take out on his way back from his son school because he wasn't in the mood to go to the kitchen, one look at the half-cleaned mess he made yesterday made him angry already. As Woohyun ate well and was currently in his second bowl (he had PE today and he always ate more on those days), Myungsoo chewed his food with force and more than necessary as he thought about today.

He couldn't believe how he weakened and talked to his... adviser about personal matters, his son and how confused he was, why had he done that? So Sungyeol be full of himself and have the upper hand whenever they met? He already had too much power on his hands already and did Sungyeol need to know that he was the reason why he was crumbling emotionally? The tall genius already knew. Myungsoo didn't need to rub his ego and shove that knowledge in his face every time.

Gosh, he was so weak, and he was so annoyed that Sungyeol decided to talk about things he didn't consider important... not only that, the taller made a list of things for him to correct that didn't exactly made him progress. That wasn't helpful at all! And why Sungyeol gave him a deadline until Friday to correct everything? 2 hours would be enough right? And why did he need to do some research for Sungyeol?

“Google exists in every computer if you turn the internet on.” He grumbled to himself.

Woohyun raised his head to look at his daddy, there was something very wrong with him since he fought his elder neighbor but today he was especially cranky, chewing food like he was destroying an enemy and his aura practically screamed not to mess with him and that's why his plan was kinda of halted, he was afraid his dad prolonged his punishment.

Today would be Sunggyu turn to annoy his dad by knocking a lot on their door after dinner so after one more look at his father, that was looking his way but not focusing his eyes on him, the boy decided to wait and see. Woohyun promptly returned his focus to his food but a second later they heard some knocks on the door. As he thought it was Sunggyu, he did his best not to show to his father how widely he was smiling and continue quietly eating, he was sure if he opened the door for the neighbors again his dad would become scary.

Myungsoo didn't even pay any attention to his son's reactions, because he only registered the knocks a few seconds later and promptly snapped his head to look at it.

“Who it is now?” He grumbled and got up to get the door.

The young father hoped his neighbor tried something because now he could tell him off properly and he opened the door with some force, to already show he shouldn't be messed with when he saw something he never expected.

First the door in front of his (Sungyeol's) was opened the and taller was there talking to... his mother that faced behind her and Sunggyu was currently hugging his dad that was ruffling the boy's head and assuring him that things gonna be alright and the only one that seemed to be paying him any attention was his brother.

“What are you all doing here?” He asked confused but then looked at Sungyeol and glared.

“Who is it?” Woohyun asked from afar, not daring to come close to check things up for himself.

“We came to visit you.” Moonsoo forced a smile and Myungsoo knew the whole family was up to something that probably wasn't good for him

“Uncle Moonsoo?!” The boy recognized the voice and started climbing his chair but he hesitated to come closer, his father seemed like was gonna kill somebody today and if he had to do so it better be his uncle, that could try to defend himself than him, right?

“Sunggyu dear, let me go, I need to talk to my son a bit.” Bumsoo said to Sunggyu and the boy hesitantly let go as he looked at Myungsoo then run to hide behind his brother.

“No, it's ok, really.” Sonmi said, not to Myungsoo, but to Sungyeol that tried to push a box full of letters in her hands but up till now still ignoring her son.

“Please, take it.” Sungyeol begged and the older woman finally accepted with a sigh and Myungsoo quickly guessed that the taller was returning his past mother letter to Sonmi, he wanted to scream that Sungyeol was a coward, not only for not reading the letters but also for not fighting for them, but he decided not to say anything, Sungyeol probably lied about what he felt and he wasn't important just like that. With a look at Myungsoo, Sungyeol took a deep breath and spoke to Sonmi but didn't move his eyes to her. “I got to go. Good night.”

After Sungyeol closed the door Woohyun finally took courage to come closer and as he approached Sonmi finally turned to Myungsoo with a cold expression and noticing that Bumsoo decided to do the talking.

“Hi Myungsoo, we need to talk about lots of things.” The elder said as he looked intently at his son and Myungsoo gulped hard but at that moment Woohyun arrived beside him and finally noticed his grandparents.

“Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Moonsoo!!!” The boy greeted and his voice cracked in the middle of it because of his emotions. “You came to save me.” The boy said in tears as he tried to hug his grandfather and his uncle at the same time while Sonmi just stood with a box in her hands glaring at her son.