As soon as Sungyeol closed Myungsoo’s door, he felt like a little angel and a little devil puffed to life on his shoulders and both seemed to give him looks of disbelief. ‘Really? Don’t you get tired of your life becoming difficult?' The angel seemed to ask. ‘Dude, the ethics, the bed was right there!’ The little devil seemed to say. 

Sungyeol sighed and shook his head to make his imagination stop working as he opened his door, he wouldn’t be able to satisfy both extremes of it and he had to find something plausible to justify his delay to Woohyun. He ended up grabbing some clothes and his laptop and rode back to Myungsoo’s parent's temporary apartment.

“Sungyeol, how did it go?” Bumsoo was the one greeting him once he knocked on their door again, the Kim patriarch seemed a bit too giddy for someone that said Woohyun was giving him trouble.

“Weren’t you supposed to be worried over your son’s wellbeing?” Sungyeol retorted, he was annoyed but maybe it was wise not to say anything more right now and just enter the place while Bumsoo was inviting. 

“I am, but I know Myungsoo is mostly avoiding us because sometimes we are too much.” Bumsoo unabashedly confessed as Sungyeol passed him. “What’s the deal with the bag?” He added a second later when his eyes fell on the taller's hands.

“That’s to justify my delay to Woohyun,” Sungyeol whispered. “I know I can come and go but I don’t know if Woohyun will sleep past his bedtime so if you don’t mind, I’ll pretend I’ll sleep on the couch tonight.”

“If it takes time with him, you might as well sleep here for real, though I have to warn you that the couch is not the best.” Bumsoo offered and Sungyeol nodded to himself.

“Ok, I’ll go to Woo-” He was suddenly interrupted by Bumsoo repeating his former question in a mix of impatience and curiosity.

“But how did it go with Myungsoo? Did he open up to you?”

Sungyeol eyes roamed the room with a bit of nervousness. Well, he didn’t remember asking Myungsoo about it but he was asked about Hoya so if Myungsoo wanted to share, he would have done so. 

“I didn’t ask.” The taller blurted.

Bumsoo promptly slapped his forehead, and, with that gesture, made it clear he didn’t like Sungyeol answer or at least was disappointed by it. “You didn’t take this opportunity to talk to him and get closer again?”

Sungyeol rolled his eyes and decided to be a little daring. “And now I know why he isn’t picking phone calls, geesh.” Bumsoo glared so Sungyeol fixed his speech. “I’ve talked to him enough to know he will be fine and that’s what I’ve told you before.”

Bumsoo squinted his eyes at Sungyeol. “You don’t want to tell me, right? But your face looks a little swollen, should I take that your conversation left things between you two worse than they already were?”

Sungyeol internally sighed, Bumsoo wouldn’t drop the subject or let him go for Woohyun if he didn’t spill something, right? He briefly thought about how to assure the elder heart without giving details and then, to his luck, he remembered the day they discussed the bubble pop theory. “Remember when we came up with a bubble pop theory?”

Bumsoo furrowed his brows in interest. “I’m listening.”

“Let’s say that life poked Myungsoo's bubble of problems and that messed up a few things that were inside.” Bumsoo opened his mouth but Sungyeol didn’t let him have time to interrupt. “ What Myungsoo and I built recently is not up anymore but the foundation is still there.” Bumsoo made a face as he wasn’t able to catch what Sungyeol meant. “If he wants, and with some work, I’m pretty sure everything can be rebuilt.” 

Sungyeol said trying not to show how hopeful he was/sounded but Bumsoo couldn’t help to share the feeling and be able to fully smile at the news. “I’m sure you guys will find a way, especially when you have Woohyun on your side.” And that’s all that it took for Sungyeol to make a concerned expression.

“I’m not sure, he doesn’t know.”

“Yeah but you know Woohyun, after the disappointment he suffered today if he has to have a second father he will ask Myungsoo for you,” Bumsoo said as he tried to cheer Sungyeol a bit.

“This is flattering but I’m not trying to be anything like that when I’m offering help, I’m just a family friend for now. Besides, Myungsoo is the official father here, and, even if we rebuild things, I don’t know if he or Woohyun will see me this way.” Sungyeol dismissed Bumsoo's thoughts with a tone that said he was done with the conversation then he slightly bowed. “If you will excuse me, I’m going to Woohyun now.” 

And that's exactly why Woohyun will want you. Bumsoo thought to himself as Sungyeol moved to the door and opened it.

The taller found Woohyun crying as Sunggyu tried to pat his back in a comforting manner and Sonmi held a plate of food beside both kids, trying to coax the youngest child to eat.

“Woohyunnie please, your belly will cry for food later.” She tried to put some food on the fork and offered it to him, but Woohyun turned his body to Sunggyu. That had made the old lady sigh, she probably had been moving from one side of the bed to the other for some time.

“Hy-hyung.” Wooyun pleaded while trying to stop some hiccups.

“Hyung is coming, I’m sure.” Sunggyu tried to assure, although it was pretty obvious he was running out of, not only excuses but words as well. “He just… he just…”

“I’m here,” Sungyeol announced while he put his bag on the ground, which made everyone look at him. Sonmi sighed in relief. 

“Hy-hyung!” Woohyun tried to complain but it was obvious he was mostly glad he was finally seeing the tall hyung in front of him. “Why you to-ok so lo-ong to come?” He asked as he tried to support himself in his arms and crawl towards the bed edge.

“I’m sorry, when I arrived here Sonmi shi told me you met your biological dad so I went back home to grab some clothes, so we can stay together for as long as you need me.” Sungyeol apologized and only had time to rush to the boy so Woohyun could nest himself on his lap.

Once Woohyun found a comfortable position, he placed his little arms around Sungyeol neck and hid his crying face on the taller shoulder. Now, Sungyeol had improved a lot in his interactions with both children but such a crisis was a first for him. He wasn't sure what he learned with Myungsoo would work with Woohyun because it probably wasn't working for Myungsoo himself so he looked at Sunggyu and Sonmi for some help. Sunggyu crossed his arms in front of his chest with each hand touching his shoulders, clearly telling Sungyeol to hug his friend. As for Sonmi, she put the bowl on the bedside table to do like Sunggyu but she also suggested through hand motions that Sungyeol rubbed the young boy's back. Then she puckered her lips and that was interpreted as if the tall man needed to kiss Woohyun head. Sunggyu immediately frowned at Sonmi, he wanted his brother to help his friend but he didn't think that a kiss could help his friend at this point.

Sungyeol ended up hugging the boy back. Although that made Woohyun relieved that he could express his feelings to the elder - that never had lied about how he felt about him- it also made him cry harder because he was feeling something he couldn't or perhaps was too young to identify himself.

Meanwhile, Sonmi tried to touch her grandson for comfort but Woohyun tensed, and Sungyeol the fabric of his shirt being gripped with some strength. Noticing Woohyun's state and Sonmi's sad expression, Sungyeol addressed her. "Sonmi-shi, I'm sure Woohyun doesn't want to hurt your feelings but perhaps he needs a little break to process things better?" He suggested but Sonmi still looked at him with worried eyes. "You don't need to worry, Woohyun is our friend and we're here for him."

Still a little bit worried and sad - because seeing Woohyun crying nonstop made her heart hurt - Sonmi nodded and grabbed the bowl only to leave quietly right after.

Sungyeol continued to hug the boy and rub his back. "Shhhh." He said in the boy's ears as he tried to soothe him a bit.

"She is gone," Sunggyu announced quietly as he tried to pat his friend's shins. Woohyun still clung to Sungyeol for some time but eventually, he slightly pulled back and rearranged his body to lean his right side on Sungyeol chest, then he tried to wipe his tears, even though he was still kinda hiccuping here and there. 

“How are you feeling? Tell hyung.” Sungyeol said softly.

“Awful.” Woohyun answered in between hiccups.

“But you said you would be better when you talked to hyung and he is here now.” Sunggyu reasoned, implicitly letting Woohyun he should finally open up.

“You can tell me anything.” Sungyeol encouraged. “I was told you met your biological dad today, how did it go?”

The boy pressed his lips together to stop involuntary muscle movements when that memory popped in his head but he ended up hiccuping so his effort to control his feelings failed. “You were right.” Woohyun ended up whining. “It was terrible.” He added with a strained voice as he covered his face with his hands.

“So it was different than what you were expecting.” Sungyeol concluded and Sunggyu made a sad pout when he heard that. Woohyun nodded to confirm and the elder decided to hug the boy again and rock his body until he managed to calm himself a bit. “ What were you expecting?”

Woohyun shrugged but Sungyeol squinted his eyes a bit, showing he didn’t believe the boy wasn’t expecting something out of that meeting.

“I… I don’t know,” Woohyun scratched his nose. “I wanted to see if I looked like him…”

“Do you?” Sunggyu interrupted to ask.

“Yes,” Woohyun said but not joyously or excitedly as he believed he would be once he told his friends about the meeting. Despite finally knowing whom he took after he was disappointed, at this point he didn’t want to look like the guy. “A lot.”

“So why are you sad?” Sunggyu asked in confusion, he thought his friend would be overjoyed when he discovered that.

“I don’t want to look li-like him, I don’t wa-want to be like him!” Woohyun snapped and although that made Sunggyu a bit startled, Sungyeol patted him to calm the boy down.

“You were expecting something else, right?” He asked.

Woohyun calmed a bit and seemed to be deeply ashamed about the answer to that question. “I thought that since he is my father he would take me to live with him and we would be together like we should, but I don’t want that anymore.”

“Why not? What made you change your heart?” Sungyeol asked and that unexpectedly made Woohyun fired up.

“Because he-he is a bad person,” Woohyun said in an angry and definitive tone, in his mind there was no room to question that anymore but Sungyeol felt the need to ask more.

“What did he do that makes you think like that?”

“Because he is!” Woohyun said angrily then crawled out of Sungyeol lap to sit as far as possible. “He never loved or cared about mom, and he told me he didn’t care about me too.” He continued as he grabbed a pillow to hold then his tone became sad and disappointed. “He-he said he would never be my father. Everything that Myungsoo-shi told me was true, and he confirmed everything.” 

Sunggyu discreetly wiped a tear and Sungyeol sighed heavily, he didn’t know exactly what to say. “This is why I told you to think about the consequences of your wishes.” He ended up saying softly as he scoots closer to Woohyun and placed a hand on his little foot. “Sometimes our wishes and actions not only can hurt other people but sometimes they can hurt ourselves.” He said as he also thought about his situation with Myungsoo and how his decision broke the young dad's heart. 

When Woohyun heard this he pressed his lips together as a new wave of emotions hit him and then hid his face in the pillow he was already holding, he regretted asking to meet his biological dad deeply. 

“Hyung!” Sunggyu hissed and Sungyeol just knew he had screwed up.

“I’m sorry Woohyun, didn’t want to make you feel worse.” He scooted even closer and tried to hug Woohyun again, which the boy let him do without any resistance. “It’s just… sometimes we know a person and have some expectations on them and we still get hurt, so we shouldn’t put our expectations in people we never even seen because the chances of getting disappointed are bigger.” He tried to explain his point of view, hinting that Woohyun hurt Myungsoo but also hinting that he knew the biological dad would be a douche.

“But we have the same blood.” Woohyun whined, obviously not noticing that Sungyeol also said the boy hurt Myungsoo.

“And while that means a lot to you, some people think that blood doesn’t mean anything and that can also be good or bad.” Sungyeol reasoned and both boys looked at him in confusion. “How so?” Woohyun asked and Sungyeol saw a chance to be more clear and to clean his ex-lover image a bit.

“Well… having the same blood didn’t mean anything to your biological dad and he didn’t want to stay by your side and Myungsoo doesn’t care about you having the same blood and he...” Sungyeol was about to try to make the boy think about Myungsoo more fondly but he was interrupted by him.

“What do I do now? Mom is in heaven, Dad doesn’t want me, Grandma is bad, Grandpa is in jail.” He turned to look at Sunggyu and wailed. “Hyung~, I have no one from my family, so I’ll end up in an orphanage.”

“When I finally have this kind of thing under control with Sunggyu...” Sungyeol mumbled to himself as he rubbed a hand on his face while Sunggyu rushed to his friend to soothe him.

“Hoya hyung told me orphanage isn’t a prison for children so if you go there we’ll visit you every day.” Sunggyu tried to assure the boy then turned to Sungyeol for backup. “Right hyung?” He looked at his brother practically begging for help and Woohyun just looked at him with not only sadness but fear.

Sungyeol sighed deeply. “No, because no one is going anywhere and as of today you both will stop fearing orphanages.” He looked at Sunggyu's small eyes first. “Even if I were to die today, there is money your parents left for you and Sungjong is an adult now so he would take care of you, probably better than I’m doing.”

“But...” Sunggyu tried to say something but Sungyeol hissed at him.

“No buts, even if something would happen to Jongie I doubt Hoya’s parents would let you go there because they love you, you’d probably become Hoya hyung's brother.” Sunggyu seemed a little surprised to hear about that but somehow his heart got warm? 

“OK, but don’t go anywhere, please?” Sunggyu asked shyly and Sungyeol practically melted right there, something that wouldn’t have happened a few months back.

“I won’t Gyu, I won’t, and if I go I will take you with me.” He assured with a soft tone that made Sunggyu pleased then turned to look at Woohyun. 

“And you, you also won’t go...” Sungyeol was about to continue when Woohyun managed to talk and be heard while he took a breath.

“But my real dad told Myungsoo-shi to throw me there.” Woohyun wailed.

“And do you think Myungsoo would do that?” Woohyun looked down at his hands, he wasn’t sure and that drove Sungyeol nuts. “Listen here, you can be angry all you want  but know that his lie is one of the things that prevent you from ever being sent to a place like that.” Sungyeol used a cold/scolding tone that made Woohyun's eyes get big. He seemed a little startled when he heard that so Sungyeol sighed and decided to be more gentle next.

“Guys, the point of an orphanage is not to punish children, it is meant to be a place a child will stay for some time until they are adopted by a new family or be old enough to take care of themselves.” He looked at Sunggyu. “And I already explained that to you.” The boy promptly nodded so Sungyeol turned his eyes to Woohyun that seemed like he was thinking about what he had just heard so the elder patted his foot to gain his attention.

“Woohyun-ah, you don’t need to go to an orphanage to find a new family, Myungsoo already gave you one.” 

Woohyun thought about that for a few seconds and then he made a confused face before he looked at Sungyeol. “No, hyung, you must be mistaken. If-if that was true, shouldn’t I have been sent-sent to an orphanage right after mom went-went to heaven, then waited there until a new-new family took me in?” The boy said with some desperation/denial then his eyes moved around as he developed his theory further. “And-and Myungsoo shi lied about everything but he didn’t pick me up from an orphanage so I-I shouldn’t be with his family too.”

“Myungsoo is your father, why can’t you accept that?” Sungyeol mumbled to himself and when the two children looked at him in confusion because they didn’t hear properly, the elder sighed deeply and decided to take this opportunity to talk about Hoya

“Woohyun, love does not always have to do with blood, or else Sunggyu and I wouldn't be here for you.” He said softly then changed his tone to be more firm. “...but you’re right.” Both boys blinked in confusion when they heard that and now Sungyeol knew he had the ground ready so he could plant the little seed of a conversation with Hoya. “Yeah, you’re right, I know a lot of things but what do I know about that when I wasn’t adopted myself, hm?”

Woohyun looked a little less upset because Sungyeol said he was right but then again he was sad if his beloved elder friend Sungyeol wasn’t able to help him who would? At that moment Sunggyu's eyes grew big as he remembered something and he patted Sungyeol to gain his attention.

“Hyung, wasn’t Hoya hyung adopted?” He asked with some excitement and that made Woohyun very interested, maybe that purple hyung knew what he was going through right?

“He was.” Sungyeol nodded but pretended he didn’t know what Sunggyu was aiming for.

“He was?” Woohyun mumbled to himself as he cleaned his face and looked from one brother to the other.

“Then he should know everything about orphanages and adoption, right? Right?” Sunggyu asked even more excited.

“Well, more than I do for sure.” Sungyeol confirmed, happy inside that Sunggyu helped him somehow. “I think his situation was a bit different than Woohyun’s because, if I remember correctly, he lived in an orphanage for a while.” Sunggyu made a hopeless expression once Woohyun sighed so Sungyeol continued. “But he had a lot of trouble dealing with his feelings when he was rejected by his biological family…” Woohyun looked at him interested again. “...and even after he got adopted, he had some trouble getting used to having an entire new family and so on.”

“Do you think he can help Woohyunnie?” Sunggyu asked his brother but looked at Woohyun as he was telling him ‘this is it’.

“If he remembers things maybe he can.” Sungyeol chuckled softly then shrugged. “But I don’t know, would you want to talk to him Woohyun? If you want it, I can call him and ask him to come.”

“Would he come?” Woohyun seemed skeptical, he wanted but he wasn’t sure that Hoya would want to come to help him, that hyung was nice but he wasn't as close to him as Sungyeol and Sunggyu were.

“Yeah, maybe not right away because he is busy but I can persuade him.” Sungyeol said with confidence.

“Wha-what’s 'persuade'?”

“Convince.” Sungyeol and Sunggyu said together and while they both were amused they managed to say the same thing at the same time, Woohyun took his time to play with his fingers.

"I-I don't know, can I-can I think about it?" The boy hesitantly asked.

Sungyeol smiled internally, one of his missions was probably achieved. "Of course, you can, but not on an empty belly." Sungyeol said as he got up. "Let's eat and then we will talk again in more detail to know more about Woohyunnie's feelings. Then we can figure out how to make him feel better."  He offered a hand for both boys to take as he referred to the game he and Hoya played the kids some time ago.

"I'm not hungry~" Woohyun whined. "And I don't want to play."

"Can I eat again? It was super tasty." Sunggyu was the first to grab Sungyeol hand and while that surprised the elder a bit Sunggyu looked from the corner of his eyes at Woohyun so the elder just knew he was trying to encourage his friend.

"Oh, Gyu wants to eat more, this means the food is really good." He smiled at his brother then looked at Woohyun. "Come on, let's eat, then maybe we can play a shooting game past bedtime to blow some steam off." He offered his hand again and that made Woohyun think for a few seconds.

"Can we make my dad a target?" Woohyun hesitantly asked.

Sungyeol brain was briefly broken, did he mean his biological dad or Myungsoo? If it was Myungsoo he thought that Woohyun's anger might not have been wearing off despite the boy being disappointed with his biological dad. On the other hand, Woohyun wasn't considering Myungsoo to be his dad at the moment so he should be referring to his biological dad, right? Either way, if that was what it took to put some food inside the boy's belly after so many hours…

"We can try to do something to represent him." He awkwardly replied.

"Ok then." Woohyun finally grabbed his hand and Sungyeol, with a lot of relief, helped both boys out of bed and into the kitchen. 

Sonmi and Bumsoo felt relieved when they saw the boys coming out of the room and Sungyeol arranging things for them to eat, they marveled at the taller achievement and were thankful for that. Once they knew Sungyeol got the food part figured out, they decided to disappear into their room in case Woohyun wanted to talk more about his feelings but they let their room door open just an inch so they would be able to hear. Indeed 10 minutes after that they were able to hear Woohyun explain his feelings about the meeting with his biological dad and that left them heartbroken but thankfully he didn’t talk about Myungsoo throwing a punch at his biological dad, Sonmi had taken the boy out of the bakery just in time which made them dodge a problem.

After eating, Sungyeol took the boys to the other room and they figured out a game where Woohyun could vent much of his anger. After about an hour both boys were having trouble keeping their eyes open.

Sungyeol was mostly satisfied with how his conversation with Woohyun was. He managed to throw advice and scold the boy here and there but given that Woohyun hugged him until he was deep asleep, Sungyeol deemed that the boy's trust in him was still unshaken.

He untangled himself and kissed the boys' forehead softly before he got out of the room to make himself comfortable on the couch, now that he helped the son it was time to take care of the father. 

------------------------------------------

Dongwoo knew Sungyeol was planning a conversation between Hoya and Woohyun, and the webtoon artist had accepted it, but once it was canceled he had been eager to see his boyfriend. His day was tiring and Hoya was giving his best to hang on while Myungsoo needed a break so he was hoping that they could give each other a break from their other responsibilities and spend some time together.

The teacher knew this problem between Woohyun and Myungsoo was big and a lot of people were concerned, but he wasn’t expecting to have Hoya so on edge that night.

“Sorry hyung, it’s just… I’m worried. Sungyeol canceled things and then didn’t give me any more updates, I couldn’t even concentrate that well on work because of it.” Hoya urged himself to explain.

“I know and I love this side of you, but you’re tired, I’m tired, let’s just spend some time together hum?” Dongwoo offered, without any expectations. “Let’s watch a movie or maybe we continue watching Dark.”

“OK, we can watch Mean Girls, I’m not in the mood to think.” Hoya had said already getting up to go to his kitchen. “Mom dropped a bit of food earlier, let’s heat it.”

Dongwoo sighed in a bit of relief, he knew Hoya's troubles and worries wouldn’t disappear but the younger had accepted to think about/do something else to take a break and, just like he had imagined, they spent the rest of the night cuddling while watching movies until they slept.

There was one thing Dongwoo wasn’t counting to and that was his alarm (or lack of it). He always put his alarm on whenever he slept in Hoya’s place so he would wake up earlier to get ready for school, but today… today he just overslept, thankfully not that much.

“OMG, OMG, I’m doomed.” He said once he checked the time then jumped Hoya to raid his clothes and then run for the bathroom.

Hoya woke up with the door banging loudly and after he lazily checked his phone, he knew what kind of situation his boyfriend was in. In what world do the children arrive before the teacher in a Korean school, right? To make it up, Hoya ran for the kitchen in search of food Dongwoo could eat on the way and prepared a rushed breakfast.

Once Dongwoo was out of the bathroom Hoya rushed to him and gave him a bag with things to eat/drink and his keys. “Eat on the way ok? And take my car so you won’t get that late.”

“Thank you, babe, you’re the best.” Dongwoo pressed a kiss on his boyfriend and rushed for the door but he didn’t know he was going to almost hit a person on his way out. “A parent!” He screeched. 

Hoya furrowed his brows and came to see what he was going on only to see Myungsoo and Dongwoo surprisingly but awkwardly looking at each other. “Go before you get late, Myungsoo didn’t see you here at this time, right Myungsoo?” He looked from his boyfriend to his employee and then waited for Myungsoo's reaction, thankfully Myungsoo was able to get the hint he had to say something to make Dongwoo not freak out.

“Woohyun is sick so I didn’t take him to school today.”

Dongwoo sighed relieved and was about to go but turned around at the last second and gasped. “Woohyun is sick?”

“No, but that’s what I’ll say,” Myungsoo replied awkwardly.

“Just go or your boss will have your head.” Hoya pushed Dongwoo's shoulder and that got the elder moving before he opened the door wider for Myungsoo to enter his place. “Sorry about hyung, this never happens I swear, we forgot the alarm.” He said embarrassed as he closed the door and passed Myungsoo further inside the apartment.

“It’s ok, I don’t mind.” The young nervously replied.

Hoya sat on his couch and made a hand motion for Myungsoo to sit. “I wasn’t expecting that you would come here today.” He ended up saying with genuine surprise.

“I’m sorry to come this earlier…” Myungsoo hesitantly said as he sat.

Hoya mildly snorted and made a hand motion to the younger to forget this. “I just woke up but it’s ok, it’s not like you were interrupting anything.” Myungsoo nodded to say he understood and both men looked at each other. Myungsoo was kind of nervous about how to ask a favor, and Hoya was kind of afraid of what the younger came to say. At some point, the elder couldn’t take any suspense anymore. "You came to quit it?" He asked.

“To be honest I didn’t come here for that but do you want me to quit right now?” Myungsoo seemed a bit taken aback by that. 

“Omg, no! No! This is not what I meant, I just thought it could be but no!” Hoya promptly shook his arms in the air. 

“I’m sorry I left you hanging just like your previous assistant, I didn’t mean to disappear but...” Myungsoo apologized sincerely and that made Hoya kind of flustered.

“No, it’s ok, it’s ok. I already thought about what to say if I can’t manage a colored update this week so take your time to solve your problems, I can stay alone for a week or two.” Hoya assured.

“Thank you.” Myungsoo forced a smile that as soon as that appeared disappeared, although Hoya sensed he was sincere with those two words. 

“It’s ok, I consider you my friend so let me help you this way.” The elder nodded away.

Myungsoo gulped. "Sorry that I'm not being a good friend to you." 

Hoya scrunched his face in confusion. “When did you ever disappoint me?"

Myungsoo shrugged. “When I said I would quit if talked about Sungyeol hyung? When I accused you of taking sides?”

“Pff Myungsoo, that?” Hoya wanted to laugh. “I confess that both situations left me a bit annoyed, but that wasn’t a problem for this friendship.” Hoya moved his hand between them. He then looked at the ground and made a face as if he was trying to contain a smile before he said what was on his mind. “I confess I’m a big supporter of you two - and if it was on me you’d end up together - because you were a big and good influence on him. But I know him better and you don’t know the number of times I fought Sungyeol when he was an insensitive , therefore I’d never be hurt because you weren’t in a mood to listen to what I was trying to say at the time.” The younger blinked at Hoya, Sungyeol was right about him. “Besides, friends sometimes argue about stuff right?” Hoya wrapped up kind of embarrassed and hoping that Myungsoo confirmed things.

Despite all of his problems, his hesitance, and his fading nervousness, the young dad managed to stretch his lips in a relieved smile. “Yeah, of course.”

Hoya tried not to show his fangs in his smile and decided to hide this bit of happiness by changing the subject. “So, what brings you here this fine morning?”

“First of all, this.” Myungsoo shifted in his position, took a Pendrive out of his pocket, and passed it to his boss. “You already know I have a lot of problems but I decided to go one step at a time. But since I couldn’t exactly sleep yesterday and at some point, I had to take a break from my project, I brought what I could.”

Hoya grabbed the Pendrive but his eyes stayed looking at Myungsoo’s. “You didn’t need to bring me this right now, it’s really fine.”

“I know that now." Myungsoo sighed heavily. "But my project at this point is mainly choosing pictures of Woohyun and me, and it was kind of breaking my heart,” Myungsoo confessed as he looked down at his hands nervously again and the other got the impression he wanted to say more.

“I’m sorry about that, Myungsoo,” Hoya said softly. “But aside from this, why are you here?” He asked as he raised the Pendrive to make a point.

Myungsoo gulped hard, it was now or never. “I recalled that you’re adopted…”

Hoya squinted his eyes. “Yeah, my family is very open about it, it is no shame for me either.”

“Yeah, I know so-so I came to ask if there is anything you can tell me or explain so I can help him through this.” Hoya blinked twice and Myungsoo felt the need to explain himself more. “I know he is in turmoil right now but I want to get past my hurt to understand his feelings, and change my actions so I can offer what he needs.”

“Wait a minute, have you talked to Sungyeol about me?” He asked while furrowing his thick brows so Myungsoo had no idea if he had offended him.

“He came to check on me yesterday.” Myungsoo hesitantly said and Hoya's brows rose in surprise. “The conversation wasn’t long because Woohyun was begging for him, but I told him I was thinking about coming here, why are you asking?”

“Nothing, but it explains why Sungyeol canceled plans with me.” Hoya shrugged/lied. With the way the younger spoke, Hoya thought Sungyeol hadn’t time to convince Myungsoo to ask for help but the younger had taken the initiative himself and that made Hoya admire him a little bit more. He shifted on his couch a bit to get more comfortable and continued. “I liked your attitude because this is more about him and his pain than yours. So what do you want to know?”

“Everything I can.”

“I’ll start by saying that this will be a complex journey and he will not wake up one day and everything will be flowers and rainbows, no. This can take years. I still deal with some ty sensations and feelings here and there and a lot of triggers exist to remind us of that. Also, a conversation with me won’t answer all of your questions because every adoptee is different and I’m not a specialist.”

“I know that but one has to start somewhere right?” Myungsoo asked but it was kind of defeated.

“You’re right, though there are things you might not like to hear.” Hoya adopted a more business-like posture so he could start. “I won’t go into deeper details on my story because I had more idea of what was happening than Woohyun ever did so the feelings we have might not be the same. Any person would feel betrayed when discovering a lie but this is not everything he is feeling at the moment. I know he knows his mother died and until now he seemed to have accepted that but the truth about you destroyed his sense of belonging, his identity, it erased his history, he might even be wondering if everything he lived till now was real or not. To put in words a non-adoptee can understand… imagine you go watch a movie, but you arrived in the middle of it, you’re pretty lost and wondering ‘what happened before’? Not only that, imagine this movie is supposed to be biographic but only other people aside from the main character are shown. I’m lucky I could be outspoken with my adoptive family but many adoptees feel like they don’t have a voice, that they can’t express themselves or feel that their feelings don’t matter.”

“Woohyun feelings matter to me and he can tell me anything, I raised him to have this kind of relationship and he is an outspoken boy,” Myungsoo argued.

“Even so at some point he might be thinking about his birth family and just don’t tell you because he is afraid to hurt you. It is complex, he will feel many things. One day he might be grateful to you, although he shouldn’t feel obliged to feel like that because he asked nothing from you - which I can personally say is a burden and it creates another hoard of problems - he also might want to know his birth parents and extended family. And while meeting them might hurt you as an adoptive parent, he is not being unloyal, he is probably trying to find answers to his questions and trying to retrieve his identity and that can be a painful and slow process for him too, he might spend some time grieving about that too.”

“And aside from that, society's view on orphans is just heart-breaking because everything is based on blood, blood, blood. Humpf blood is sometimes so ized here.” Hoya said grew annoyed as he spoke but then decided it wasn’t worthy and went back to soft mode. “I probably have fewer problems than a person that spent their whole life in the system but I’m still asked about my birth parents and there are people that look at me like a second-class citizen. Have I mentioned how is it difficult to make friends when the other kids are making me feel unwanted, saying my birth parents don’t love me? And that my adoptive parents pity me? Woohyun will go through that too.”

While Hoya took a break Myungsoo thought about what he just heard. Up till now Woohyun spoke his mind but the elder was right, the boy hadn’t discussed his feelings a lot so Myungsoo only knew the consequences (anger) and not the causes of every other feeling his son had. Once he realized how true that was, the second part of Hoya’s speech was processed and he rubbed his hands over his face.

“Up till now Woohyun lived as a child of a widow teen parent, we face many prejudices like those already, are you telling me things can get worse?” Hoya opened his mouth to reply but the young dad continued. “When it comes to his papers he is not exactly adopted by an adoption process and if I hadn’t married his mother no one would have allowed me to adopt him because I was just fifteen.”

“I don’t know, hasn’t he fought in school because of a similar thing?” Hoya asked and Myungsoo groaned, now that the elder reminded him of this it made perfect sense why Woohyun didn’t want to go to school. “But you’re right, to be an adoptive parent you need to be married and older than we are if I’m not mistaken.” He commented idly before asking.“What is his status?”

“Well, I’m aware that taking responsibility for a child that isn’t mine technically can be considered adoption, but because I married his mother I can be considered a stepdad. But since there were changes in laws around the time he happened, aside from blood, douchiness, and surname, there is no difference between his biological father and me. I could have made him use my surname but we chose to let him keep his mother’s to minimize some problems he could have and if he wants to have my surname we can change it anytime.”

“Well, but that difference exists outside the papers and in his heart, although I think that this surname thing can help him find some roots, so nice work,” Hoya said then mumbled to himself again. “How were you able to think about this kind of stuff when you were fifteen?”

“Ji and I did lots of research on my father’s books and over the internet,” Myungsoo explained amusedly once he heard and after Hoya smiled back he continued seriously. “Hyung, not all of this was crystal clear before so thank you for explaining things to me, now that I know what’s ahead of me, I will do my best to handle his feelings carefully.”

“You’re welcome, the road will be long and difficult but I’ll be rooting for you both,” Hoya said and was about to continue when the younger interrupted.

“But hyung, I was hoping that you, with all of your experience of being an adoptee, would be able to talk to him. Can you?” Myungsoo begged.

“I can but what do you want me to say? Our experiences are different.” Hoya agreed but countered.

“I know but maybe if it's you that tells him that he can be loved and that a family can be formed, even if we don’t have the same blood, he would be able to see he isn’t alone as he thinks he is?” Myungsoo suggested and after a second he added. “I know all of his problems will not fade from one day to another but this will give me some grounds to be able to be there for him.”

Hoya sighed deeply but he looked determined. “Well, that I can do. Can you tell me more about his story and this week's happenings so I won't worse anything?"

Myungsoo smiled in relief then looked a little puzzled. “Sungyeol hyung never told you anything?” 

“He tells me how he feels about you and we talked when you broke up but he never gave me details about your problems with Woohyun. The max he did was to ask my help to find Woohyun and to be there for him if one day you two ever needed.” Hoya explained then mumbled to himself something he was thinking. “How he did predict this kind of problem so many months back?”

Myungsoo wouldn't be mad if Hoya knew about that (although he knew he would have been when he and Sungyeol broke up), but at this point, it surprised him that Hoya knew so little about Woohyun's story. He smiled internally with a bit of relief. In the end, this was proof that Sungyeol did at least one thing he wanted during his relationship. 

Now that he had his head a bit less clouded by the breakup anger, he could see that the tall neighbor always respected his rules when it came to Woohyun. Sungyeol wasn’t all that controlling, it was just him that got accommodated most of the time. That realization made Myungsoo's heart heavy even though it wasn’t the right time for him to think about that.

He took a deep breath. “Ok, before he learned all the truth he already asked me about other relatives so here is what happened then….”

------------------------

Sungyeol night went like this: 1- some rollercoaster of emotions for him, 2- Woohyun talking about his feelings, and concerns, then shooting a drawer of his biological dad with paper balls until he was ready to sleep (Sunyeol was relieved the improvised target wasn't named Myungsoo), 3- reading Myungsoo project and preparing advice for it, 4 - trying to figure out how his lecture would go. He was a light sleeper but since he fell asleep during the wee hours, he didn't notice the background noise in the kitchen or the boys waking up and looking for him.

Woohyun was about to call his friend, that had been sleeping on the couch, when Sunggyu shushed him. After he was quiet (and puzzled), Sunggyu nervously approached his brother. If Sungyeol hadn't woken up till now, the elder could be sick again so the little Kim approached him, closed his eyes tightly (afraid to discover), and poked him.

Nothing happened but Sunggyu didn't feel any high temperature so he opened his eyes and tried poking his brother again. This time Sungyeol slightly flinched and, knowing he was fine, this time Sunggyu called him gently. "Hyung-ah."

Sungyeol eyes finally fluttered open but there was too much light so he closed them again. He tried to sit on the couch and rubbed his hands on his face for a bit, then he opened his eyes to see the kids looking at him, he greeted them with a voice full of sleep.

Woohyun seemed to have subsided his anger a bit but was sad and looking like a bus ran over him while Sunggyu seemed more well-rested and, for the first time, more active than Woohyun. Once Sungyeol filed this first evaluation on his brain, his eyes got big once he realized that it was morning and both boys were in front of him in their pajamas.

The boys were in the middle of questioning why Sungyeol hadn’t slept with them in a bigger bed that could fit him and if his back was ok when he raised on his feet. The kids looked at him confused but Sungyeol moved to search for Sunggyu's uniform while fretting about school and the kids were less than amused. The old couple, that had been watching everything from the kitchen, found everything amusing and giggled in the corner but at the end called everybody to eat.

Woohyun was in the middle of complaining that he didn’t want to eat when Sungyeol came back with Sunggyu uniform and announced that his brother had to go to school. Woohyun soon forgot about the food he didn’t want to eat and said he didn’t want to go to school, which was deemed ok by his grandparents and made Sunggyu say he also wouldn’t go, which kinda pissed Sungyeol.

 “Look here, you’re going to school, mister. When I let you drop school last year it was because you had a serious problem, Woohyun is the one having a serious problem now, not you, so you’ll go to school.” He said firmly and although Sunggyu's eyes fired up ready to argue his way into staying, Woohyun interrupted them by asking if they were going to abandon him. 

Sungyeol internally panicked while some cutlery fell on the ground behind him, now one more problem. A collective no echoed in the apartment but Woohyun didn’t seem to believe, so Sungyeol proceeded to explain that he knew Woohyun was in distress and that sometimes school could be like bitter medicine, but the fact Sunggyu would go to school didn’t mean that they were abandoning him, especially when he volunteered to spend the day with him. 

Despite Woohyun breathing in relief, Sungyeol's speech didn’t please his brother, that moved his brow upwards in distress and stomped his foot on the ground once. “But school without Woohyunnie is no fun and everybody keeps me asking about him.” That speech, which seemed like a valid complaint to the boy, didn’t seem like much for Sungyeol although the grandparents knew it would mean trouble for Woohyun. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to enlighten the other two because Woohyun made it clear himself when he asked with tears in his eyes and betrayed tone if Sunggyu was spreading in school that he had no family anymore.

Sungyeol just wanted to leave Sunggyu in school and come back but that end up being put on hold. The taller friend was about to try to explain for the hundredth time that Myungsoo's family was the boy's family but was interrupted by his brother trying to convince Woohyun that he had misunderstood everything. It took a few minutes of hesitation for the boy to believe his friend had been saying he didn’t know because Woohyun (supposedly) was in Incheon.

In the end, Woohyun begged Sunggyu not to say anything and, although both Sonmi and Bumsoo couldn’t exactly understand the boy's request, the pair of brothers knew that Woohyun was deeply afraid of bullying. Not only did they know that might happen because Sunggyu had been through this and because the school handled this problem kinda poorly so Sungyeol made a mental note to talk to the boy's family about that while Sunggyu tried to assure the boy that he would protect him.

As Sungyeol sensed a menacing tone on Sunggyu and remembered the time the boys fought, he made them promise that if anyone said something to hurt, they would first report it to Dongwoo and then report respectively to him and Myungsoo so they could solve the problem. Sungyeol knew Sunggyu didn’t believe in the school solving that kind of problem anymore but he insisted until both of them said yes and the grandparents were grateful for that.

After that Sungyeol entered rush mode again. He convinced the boys to eat and Sunggyu to dress and since Woohyun wasn’t exactly comfortable with them leaving Sonmi suggested going with them to school and waiting for Sungyeol in the car while Bumsoo made a trip to the market to fill their pantry.

Once Sunggyu was dropped in school (late as ), Sungyeol returned to the car as he said and that made Woohyun slightly happy, but once he spotted papers in his hand he knew it was homework. He whined a lot about it, but after a bit of coaxing Sungyeol managed to convince Woohyun to do to think about something else, to not create a pile of homework later, and a promise of lap and maybe chocolate once Sunggyu was out of the school.

Despite being upset, Woohyun brought his things to the coffee table in the living room and settled himself on Sungyeol lap, the taller knew his legs would become numb but he was patiently trying to explain the past day's homework to the boy. Meanwhile, Sonmi watched them both with mixed feelings. She marveled at how useful and patient Sungyeol was being without making Sunggyu jealous, and she was genuinely happy Woohyun was trusting him. At the same time, her heart ached, when would Myungsoo regain Woohyun trust? When her son would live another moment like this one with his son?

Sonmi was lost in her sad thoughts and she only snapped out of it when Bumsoo arrived from the market with food and some treats to gain more points with Woohyun. After that, they put everything in its place and started to make lunch together.

Meanwhile Woohyun struggled to learn and do his homework because he wasn't putting effort to concentrate enough on it, Sungyeol knew it was understandable, he wasn’t much into homework when things were happening to him but even if Woohyun didn’t learn things fully now he just wanted to prevent the boy for being buried in a pile of homework later, because then Woohyun would whine even more not to do it.

When lunch was finally ready, they all sat to eat together but there weren’t many words exchanged. The adults tried to talk to Woohyun but the boy just kept his eyes on his plate, eating lazily and thoughts far from his current location. Before he knew it, the food was cold so he pushed the plate away and moved towards the coffee table, and called Sungyeol.

“Hyung, come and help me finish it.” Woohyun called and while it was true that there was some homework left, it left Sungyeol in an awkward position, should he go with Woohyun or should he stay back and accompany the couple as he finished his dish?

Sensing that Sungyeol was uncomfortable, Bumsoo was the first one to wave him off. “It's ok, I'll bring you guys snacks.” He said with a wink and got up to arrange that but Sungyeol looked guiltily at Sonmi.

“I’m sorry about this.” He apologized.

“It’s ok.”  She offered a weak smile. “Thank you for being here for him.”

Sungyeol didn’t know exactly how to reply to that but Woohyun called again so he got up placed his plate in the sink and moved to help the boy.

By then Woohyun had to use new words in a sentence and write a small paragraph about anything he wanted and the boy had a particular problem with this since most of the examples, sentences, or paragraphs he had written before were about his family. The boy felt like he couldn’t come up with anything and was shooting down every topic Sungyeol had suggested when they heard the doorbell. 

Sungyeol felt Woohyun tense - maybe the boy thought it was Myungsoo (and Sungyeol might be happy to know if his ex-lover was doing ok) - so he decided to keep distracting Woohyun with more suggestions but the boy decided he was more interested to discover who was at the door.

Bumsoo came to open the door and briefly talked to whoever was outside, which made Woohyun kinda anxious. Once the door was opened entirely and the person came inside, the boy visibly relaxed, though he matched Sungyeol's confused expression a second later. The guy who wore a purple hoodie knew Sungyeol was confused because they hadn’t agreed to meet today, but he decided to mask the real reason why he came.

“Sungyeol! Why don’t you answer your phone? I have been trying to find you all morning.” Hoya complained as he looked at Sungyeol kind of annoyed then moved his eyes to the boy. “Woohyun, I thought you’d be in school.” He pretended to be surprised.