Sungyeol was very attentive while driving but he drove to Sunggyu school on automatic pilot. It wasn’t like he wasn’t paying minimal attention to the streets but both his head and heart were kinda hurting and elsewhere.

The rest of the afternoon had been tiring. Woohyun didn’t share much about his conversation with Hoya - and Sungyeol would have a talk with his cousin later to try to scoop something more - but the boy cried and asked questions not even his genius self knew.

‘Why everything is so complicated?’ had been the question asked so many times between sobs but not Sungyeol nor Sonmi had an answer or even enough words to comfort him. They tried hard but nothing seemed to calm the boy down and, at some point, Woohyun just made them lay in bed with him and tried to hold down both of them until he fell asleep. Sungyeol didn’t know if that had been fear, desperation, or both.

He knew Woohyun's problems had a different source from his but Sungyeol couldn’t help but relate and remember himself in the past. How many times didn’t he cry desperately like that? His heart ached to see a child younger than he had been crying the same way. On the other side, the more he could relate he felt guiltier over Sunggyu.

Back when his mother died, he was feverish for some days and he wasn’t close enough to even try to comfort Sunggyu, of course he wasn’t a comfort hero back then, but that didn't mean he hadn’t tried to appease the boy somehow. He apologized to Sunggyu, grew close with him and he was mostly at peace with things that belonged to the past so this wasn’t exactly the reason why he felt guilty.

What bothered and made his heart squeezed with guilt was the fact that the more he helped Woohyun, the more he felt like he was neglecting his brother. Sunggyu was straightforward with his complaints whenever he was done with certain behavior and he didn’t complain about anything yet, but Sungyeol felt that he could be making his brother jealous and that the boy was about to complain. 

Sungyeol knew that 98% of the time his brain could conjure a lot of ways of dealing with problems (being the aftermath good or bad), but this time he didn’t know how to continue giving support to Woohyun but also properly pay attention to Sunggyu individual needs. God, he had to talk with his little brother, Sunggyu had to show him the way somehow or indirectly give him an idea on how to please him.

Once he parked, he took a deep breath to gather his courage and strength. Because of Woohyun, he was late and he knew Sunggyu probably would complain about it a lot. He was about to enter the school when he saw Dongwoo and Sunggyu coming to the gate, the teacher was tapping on his phone while holding Sunggyu's hand and the boy seemed upset.

“Dongwoo hyung! Sunggyu!” He called and speed up to meet them halfway.

“You’re late hyung! I’m the last one today, THE LAST ONE FROM THE WHOLE SCHOOL!!” Sunggyu complained and made a point to emphasize his frustration while squinting his eyes in a disapproving way.

“Sungyeol, you’ve never been this late. I have Hoya’s car today so I was about to call you to ask if you wanted me to take Sunggyu directly home.” Dongwoo said once Sungyeol caught up with them.

“I’m sorry I’m late.” He said to Dongwoo but turned to Sunggyu and squatted to be at the boy's eye level before grabbing him by the shoulders. “Hyung is really, really, sorry to be late, I swear I can explain.” 

Sunggyu pouted but after about two seconds of looking into the elder's guilty eyes, he wriggled his body cutely and sighed. “Whatever.” He said then grabbed one of his brother’s hands, ready to go. “Let’s just go, Woohyunnie is waiting for me.” He said as he tried to pull the elder but even if Sungyeol got up he didn’t move.

“We won’t go to Woohyunnie today.”

“WHAT?”  Sunggyu was shocked. “Hyung!”

Dongwoo furrowed his brows. “Sungyeol, did anything happen?”

“Yeah, Woohyun met Hoya hyung today.”

“Oh.” Dongwoo didn’t seem surprised. It made a lot of sense for him when he knew Hoya met Myungsoo this morning. “But that is a good thing, no? Hoya has been worried over him and wanted to help so…”

“Yeah, he said the conversation was good but Woohyun didn’t want to share anything and cried a lot,” Sungyeol helplessly shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know.”

“Oh no, Hoya will be crushed to know,” Dongwoo said, he was still worried about his student but now he was worried about his boyfriend too.

“Don’t tell him anything, please. Hyung said the conversation was good and Woohyun has a million reasons to cry, it might not be his fault at all. Besides this is something that can hurt Hoya hyung too and he was pretty sad already when he left.” Sungyeol instructed. “Just be there for him please, he might need you today.”

“Of course, I’m gonna call him right away and.,” Dongwoo didn’t even finish his sentence and he was already calling his lover.

“Hyung, hurry up, we have to go to Woohyunnie and comfort him now!” Sunggyu insisted and tried to pull Sungyeol again. “Come on, hyung!”

“Bye, Dongwoo hyung!” Sungyeol said his goodbye to Dongwoo, who just waved him off, then finally let himself be pulled by the boy. “Oh, no, no. This way, this way.” He pulled the boy in the right direction as soon as he felt Sunggyu leading him wrongly and the boy followed him.

Once they were accommodated inside the car and before Sunggyu could urge him to move, Sungyeol turned half of his body back and decided to start a conversation.

“Sunggyu, I meant when I said we won’t go to Woohyunnie today.”

“But, hyung…”

“I know, I know.” He halted the boy before continuing. “I spent the day with him and it is not like Woohyun kicked me out and didn’t want to see you. It’s just today was a difficult day for him, he cried a lot until he got tired and fell asleep. This is why I got late, I was trying to comfort him.” He explained.

“You spend the whole day with him while I was at school?” Sunggyu asked in disbelief then shifted in his place awkwardly. “Is this why you were late?” He asked as he tried to mask his emotions.

“Yeah, I did. I couldn’t do much today to soothe him but he held me until he fell asleep so I had to wait to come.” Sungyeol explained although his tone came out apologetic. Sunggyu looked away and through the window then got quiet. After observing the boy conflicting expressions for a bit, Sungyeol touched his knee. “ What is going on? Do you want to tell me something?”

“I… you spent the whole day with Woohyunnie and I was alone at school… That’s… that’s not fair.”

“I doubt you were alone because you have other friends now, but, even so, that wasn’t a punishment for you, Sunggyu, nor it was some kind of reward to Woohyun.” The elder tried to explain patiently.

“I know but you were by his side and I...” Sunggyu was ready to complain but halted his words and looked down at the hem of his shirt he started to play nervously with it.

“You what?” Sungyeol encouraged, the sooner the boy complained the sooner he could put his worries to rest. After his relationship with Sunggyu progressed he was sure he could solve that faster and more effectively. “Are you somehow jealous? Or does it have to do with the way our relationship was before?” Sunggyu hesitated and his small eyes tried looking at Sungyeol’s a couple of times. “Come on, hyung is asking to understand you.”

“Both?” The boy whispered. 

Sungyeol sighed deeply, then decided that it was best to leave the car only to re-enter through the backseat so he could have this talk without the distance the driver's seat put between them.

“Sunggyu ya.” He called softly and the boy took a while but dared to look at him. “Nothing that is happening with Woohyun changes the way I feel about you now. I’m not helping him because I like him more than you or because of his father, I’m trying to help because he is our friend and because I don’t want to see you worried about him.”

Sunggyu looked skeptical. “Are you sure?”

“I’m 100% sure.” The elder confirmed. “I know I’m acting differently from when mom died but I thought we were doing this together, like a team that takes turns to do the same task and progress together.” Sunggyu made a guilty face and looked down again. “You know our words aren’t making things better for him - sometimes he doesn’t listen to us at all. What makes him feel slightly better is that right now we are people that he can trust so he just needs us to be there. But, that doesn’t mean I was playing with him while you were in school - I would never do that; if we have to play we all are gonna play together - in fact, before he cried I made him do homework.”

Sunggyu immediately looked at Sungyeol with a horrified expression and if Woohyun was doing homework while he was in school there was no way he could be jealous. Sunggyu thought that, as much as his brother changed for good, Sungyeol still kinda whenever he forced him and Woohyun to sit down and do homework.

“Hyung, you made him cry because of homework!” Sunggyu accused and seeing that the boy's jealousy dissipated, the eldest brother opened a small smile. 

“He didn’t cry because of that, buddy. He cried because Hoya hyung met him to talk about adoption and things that you and I don’t understand well enough to explain to him ourselves.”

Sunggyu kicked the seat in front of him. “Hyung, he was supposed to help.”

"Yeah, but remember you told him sometimes things hurt but it is best to know?”

Sunggyu looked displeased and kicked the front seat again before sighing. “How can we make Woohyunnie happy again?”

“I don’t know.” Sungyeol said after a sigh of his own. “What I know is that I don’t want to do anything that would make you unhappy as well.”

“It’s ok hyung, just promise you won’t be late like this ever again.” The boy pleaded and showed his pinky finger to his brother.

Sungyeol smiled again and wrapped his pinky finger around it. “I promise, next time I will just explain to Woohyunnie that I have to pick you up and we help him together.”

“Good,” Sunggyu said as he pulled his hand away. “Now, can we go?”

“We can, but what if I want to try to make up for you? So you can forgive me for good?” Sungyeol asked and while Sunggyu made a confused face, he left the car again only to re-enter through the driver's seat.

“How so?” The boy asked interested.

“Well, we can eat out in that place that you like.” He said and he could see through the rearview mirror that Sunggyu already liked the idea. “And then I was thinking about telling you the answers to your homework so you could finish it quickly. Then we can spend some time together, just the two of us, we can watch a movie or play chess. You still have to go to school tomorrow but maybe Saturday morning we can rehearse your song again before visiting Woohyun, what do you say?”

“Assa byong!” Sunggyu beamed.

_______________________________________________
Bumsoo opened the door just an inch and tried to inspect the apartment with one eye. There was no initial sign of Woohyun, Sonmi, Sungyeol, and Hoya in the living room but that didn’t exactly mean that they were not inside the apartment. He leaned back and placed his finger on his lip then carefully entered the apartment.

One look at the small kitchen told him that everyone wasn’t there and a further look at the bathroom told him no one was occupying it. The door of the room he was occupying with Sonmi was half open but he deemed people probably wouldn’t be there.

He turned around and made a sign to wait then was about to walk to the boy’s room when he was surprised by his wife’s voice.

“Oppa, why are you being so furtive?” She asked from the door of the room she was using.

“Ahhhh” Bumsoo yelped and instantly got on his knees and placed his hands on his heart. 

“Shhhhh, Woohyun is sleeping.” She scolded.

“Do you want me to die?” He whispered a second later when a figure in black finally entered the apartment to put a bag on the side to help him on his feet.

“You’re prohibited to do that in the next thirty years.” The guy said as he helped the elder while Sonmi had a confused expression on her face. “Are you ok, dad?”

“Yeah.” That promptly glared at his wife and once Sonmi recognized the voice and frame, she ran to hug her son.

“Myungsoo!” She hugged him tightly. “Are you ok? Why weren’t you contacting us?” She asked once she pulled away and placed her hands on his face to inspect him. 

Myungsoo sighed deeply and took his mother’s hands out of his face. “I’m fine mom. I’m fine.”

“You’re not, look at you.” She insisted.

“Ok, I’m not,” He conceded. “but I don’t have time to be reporting on my feelings every hour.”

Sonmi frowned and looked at her husband that slumped his shoulders and then shrugged as if he was telling her there was nothing he could do about that. “Even so,” She insisted. “I sent you a message telling you that Hoya-shi came and talked to Woohyun and you didn’t even reply.”

“I know and I’m sorry about that, we were in the middle of something important and I couldn’t reply but I came here personally to hear everything about it and check on him.” Myungsoo apologized and that seemed to appease his mother.

“What were you two up to that you couldn’t reply to your mother about your son?”

“A meeting.” He replied idly.

“Not a meeting.” Bumsoo interrupted and Sonmi frowned in confusion. “We were all over the city from office to office. Most of the afternoon was filled with meetings. Yes, plural.” He walked past them into the kitchen to fill a glass with water. “I’m so tired.” 

“Meetings?” Sonmi turned to her son with an inquiring expression.

“Yes, I had some meetings and I needed dad’s help,” Myungsoo replied awkwardly as he followed his father pulled a chair for himself then placed a paper bag he was holding on the table.

“Can you both stop with the suspense, I want to know what is going on.” She demanded.

“Tell your mother, son. I think she would like to hear this good news from you.” Bumsoo said before drinking his glass in one go and then proceeding to look for something to eat.

Myungsoo shifted in his place under his mother's waiting stare. “Well, it’s everyone’s knowledge that things with Woohyun are terrible at the moment. But, after we met that scumbag of his biological father and I let my feelings out, I’ve decided that I can’t stop the rest of my life while I wait for Woohyun to be in the mood to see me.”

“That’s something good.” She said as she walked to the table and pulled a chair, something told her that this wasn’t everything. “Did Sungyeol talk some sense in you? He was worried about that.”

Myungsoo shifted uncomfortably in his place again. “He didn’t need to, I was already trying to progress with my thesis and I already sent him what I have up till now through email.” Sonmi smiled pleased with that answer because it seemed like Myungsoo was ready to pick up the pieces of his life and somehow glue them back together. But, at the same time, some questions were formed in her mind. If Sungyeol didn’t talk some sense into her son, what was their conversation about? And what on earth Myungsoo was doing this afternoon? “It’s great that you didn’t need him for that, son.” She said awkwardly.

It was evident in how she tried to control her expressions that she wanted to know about their conversations. But, if Sungyeol hadn’t told Sonmi anything, Myungsoo wouldn’t tell her now, there were a bunch of other things that were more urgent at that point. 

“To be honest I was trying to use my other problems to occupy my mind, so I’ve sent Sungyeol hyung things from my project, and I caught up with work for a bit, and…”

“Come on tell her the good news already.” Bumsoo interrupted impatiently.

“There is more?” Sonmi asked in surprise and Myungsoo shyly nodded.

“When I was about to send my project I noticed a few emails I hadn’t noticed before.” Sonmi made a confused face. “They were from some other agents, some of them tried contacting multiple times. It turns out that people had been coming to see me play for a while but they didn’t have orders to approach me.”

Sonmi happily gasped, her eyes were big and she had a smile on her face but then she tried to control herself not to yell or clap her hands too loudly because Woohyun was sleeping. “Omg, this is such good news!!! What are you gonna do about it?”

“Sonmi, you’re asking the wrong question, it’s not ‘what he is gonna do about it?’ but what he already did.” Bumsoo chirped.

“Kyaaaaa.” She squealed although she tried to keep the volume down, and turned to her son. “What did you do?”

“I wrote to everyone, said I was sorry for not checking my email, and said I was interested. I also said that I was busy because of my graduation but wrote down my number and told them to call me if they had any proposal printed so I could have my lawyer take a look. They called me when I was talking to Hoya hyung this morning.”

“So this is why you suddenly called today.” She pointed out as she moved her eyes from son to father.

Bumsoo nodded with a smile on his lips. “And then we moved from office to office to collect papers, there are four different agents interested in our boy, Sonmi.”

“Nwayay.” She playfully doubted.

“It’s true.” Myungsoo tiredly pulled a bunch of envelopes from the paper bag he brought, pushed them to her, and then hugged the bag, that had something else inside, against his chest. “Dad will look at them in detail later and see what’s best for me, they said they can negotiate. But that only means I’m choosing who can represent me and help out with specific bureaucracy of sports contracts, I would still have to be drafted in a team but that’ll only happen in December so I still have some time.”

“Oh, so it is not the real deal yet.” She concluded awkwardly and Myungsoo shook his head to confirm that no, it wasn’t. “But it’s still a great thing because it means you decided which path  you’ll take in life.”

“Yeah, it is something I enjoy and the shortest path to money that’ll allow me to take better care of Woohyun and repay you guys for everything you helped me until now.”

“You don’t need to pay us back for anything, in our hearts Woohyun is our grandson,” Bumsoo assured from his corner and Sonmi nodded her head in agreement.

“I know but I said I would be the one to take responsibility for him and Jihyun also wanted to pay back for all the help so I want to honor her wishes as much as I can.” 

“Myungsoo, what do I do with you?” Bumsoo sighed defeatedly once he heard that, it was fine really, he didn’t want money from his son.

Noticing some frustration coming out of her husband Sonmi decided not to insist on that topic. “Let’s not talk about that now ok? The important thing is that you’re this close to getting a job and Woohyun will be so happy when he knows, he loves to see you play, and apparently, he loves Seoul.”

Myungsoo shook his head defeatedly. “I don’t think he will like to see everyone happy about this while he is in such pain. Besides, there is nothing certain yet and I can be sent to another city. If you need to tell him anything, tell him that I am trying to find a way so he can stay close to his friends.”

“Ok then, if you don’t want to we don’t tell him.” Bumsoo readily agreed.

Sonmi opened to add something but Myungsoo was done with that topic already. Good news aside that was not what he came here for. “I asked Hoya hyung this morning to come to talk to Woohyun. Dad told me he had just arrived before I messaged, did he talk with Woohyun? How is he doing?” 

Sonmi frowned and Bumsoo took that opportunity to finally sit beside them before she continued. “I don’t know, I left Sungyeol with them but he also didn’t stay during their conversation. In the end, we paced back and forth worriedly for about two hours and a half.”

“But none of them made comments about it?” Myungsoo insisted.

“Hoya shi looked a bit sad when he came out, I guess remembering things left him down. He said that Woohyun avoided talking about his feelings and focused on asking questions about his life but that the conversation had been mostly good.”

“Good, asking questions is good,” Bumsoo said from her side.

“That’s not everything he told me.” Sonmi looked at her husband then back at her son.  “He said that despite not talking much about what he was feeling, Woohyun made a point to say his birth father was cruel to him and that he saw you punch him.”

Bumsoo gasped and Myungsoo instantly placed both hands on his face and rubbed over it in distress. He wasn’t a violent person, he never hit Woohyun but he was sure that the boy would not only hate him for lying but be scared of staying beside him again. Right now it didn’t matter all the help he tried to get from everyone around him, he was sure whatever chance he had to revert this situation was lost.

His eyes filled with tears that he tried to wipe with one hand as the other pressed the bag against his chest again. “He hates me, doesn’t he?” He asked brokenly.

“Hey, hey!” Sonmi leaned over the table and offered a hand for her son. “You’re jumping to conclusions.”

“How can I be jumping to conclusions? You saw how he reacted when dad grabbed me by the arm, he will be even more terrified because he saw me punch his biological dad. I’ve never been violent in front of him, he will be terrified of me.” Myungsoo reasoned.

“I know, that’s what I initially thought too, but…”

“What? What? But what?” Bumsoo interrupted to urge.

“But Hoya shi told me he wasn’t scared and that he said the guy deserved.”

“You scared me for a second Sonmi. If Woohyun is aware that the guy deserved a punch he will not be scared of Myungsoo.” Bumsoo said as he placed a hand on his heart. 

Myungsoo immediately halted his tears. He slightly leaned to the front to show his interest and grabbed her hand. “Are you sure? Don’t give me hope if this isn’t true.”

“Well, if you ask Hoya shi he will probably repeat what I’m telling you.” Sonmi offered. “But when I think Woohyun only got scared and angry at oppa because he thought oppa hurt you, I can assume he was being protective of you. That, my son, could mean that despite everything, Woohyun still loves you somehow so you still have some grounds to work on with him, therefore, yes, you can have hope.”

“That's good to know,” Myungsoo admitted with a relieved smile and then tried to better clean his face. “Did you talk to him once his conversation was over? Did he say anything else?”

“Once Hoya shi left, Sungyeol and I checked on him. He didn’t tell us any details so I don’t know what exactly Hoya shi told him but he cried, Myungsoo. He asked why everything is so complicated and hard to understand.” She sighed sadly and she remembered. “He cried a lot when his father rejected him but back then it felt like he cried because he couldn’t believe that could happen. And today… today it felt like he finally understood that he had not been dreaming when he got rejected. It was painful to even watch, Sungyeol and I were helpless. I mean, Sungyeol has improved in understanding other people’s emotions but today he was pretty lost, and I… I have never seen a child cry like this.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t beside you today.” Bumsoo apologized as he tried to grab his wife’s hands and squeeze them to comfort her.

“Did you not do anything to comfort him?” The young dad asked.

“We tried to soothe him, of course. I kept telling him that I loved him and Sungyeol said that he was a strong boy and that everything would be fine because everyone supported him. He hugged us tightly as if he was afraid we would abandon him, it was so sad. We had to lay down with him and keep whispering soothing words until he finally got so emotionally tired that he slept.”

Myungsoo pressed the bag against his chest and rubbed his face another time, he had been doing that a lot since everything happened. “Hoya hyung explained a lot to me but he told me Woohyun might take a lifetime to make peace or overcome things and feelings. I know everything I can do at the moment is not to force him into anything, but I feel so powerless, I just want to take his pain away.”

“I know son, I know,” Sonmi said and Bumsoo leaned to pat Myungsoo’s shoulder.

“Being a parent is not an easy thing. Sonmi and I tried to do our best under the circumstances life brought us, but there were always moments when we felt like that. Every time you fell, you were lonely, blaming yourself, stressed, guilty, angry, when you cried after Jihyun died while holding Woohyun in your arms when you broke up with Sungyeol, and now this. There is always a moment we feel powerless because we don’t want you to hurt but at the same time we can’t change things for you.” Bumsoo said then sighed defeatedly. “So here we are, twice powerless watching our son suffer because our grandson is suffering. We try to help as much as we can but we can’t do much to change things, can we?”

“It so badly,” Myungsoo complained.

“Yeah, it .” Bumsoo agreed.

“But even if some feelings persist over time, things can get better,” Sonmi said trying to be positive. “At least enough so you can bond again.”

“I just wish this part came sooner so I could be there for him in every other thing.”

“Give him a bit more time. Tomorrow is a new day, Moonsoo said he will come to take Woohyun for a stroll, maybe he will clear his head a bit and so we can try to convince him to meet you another time.”

“I don’t think Myungsoo can wait that long.” Said as he looked from his son to the bag in his hand.

“Yeah, I can’t,” Myungsoo confirmed as he got up and pulled something out of the crumpled paper bag. “In the end, I came here just to see him.”

Sonmi was about to say that she didn’t think it would be wise to talk to Woohyun right now, the boy had been stressed enough today and a conversation with Myungsoo right now could not only worsen his state but also wear out their relationship. But once she identified the faded yellow worn-out toy that Myungsoo had brought she couldn’t tell him that, she just couldn’t.

That was the toy she and Bumsoo gave Myungsoo when he was a child. The one Myungsoo used to hug to sleep every day and the one toy that could comfort him - even Jihyun sometimes. That was also the toy that was passed down to Woohyun as soon as he first arrived at their home and the one the boy was mostly attached to when he was younger. The one he hugged when Myungsoo left for MT’s or when his best friend moved out of the country. The one he had cried when the seam opened up and the filler came out and that they promised to repair but never had the time. So yeah, she couldn’t stop her son to give Woohyun the toy that was pretty much the most symbolic link of their family.

“When did he fix it?” She whispered to her husband as they watched their son enter Woohyun room.

“After we finished all the meetings he drove to Incheon, got the toy, and sewed awkwardly while I drove back.”

“That has to move Woohyun somehow.”

“Let’s hope it does.” Bumsoo rubbed her shoulder.

Myungsoo entered the room only to see the small window opening, letting the shy moonlight shine over Woohyun feet. The boy was sleeping but Myungsoo could guess he wasn’t sleeping soundly. The covers were half on the boy’s body and half on the ground, one of his pillows was almost falling from the bed while the boy tried to hug the other, but it was too big for him. Lastly, the furrowed brows meant the boy wasn’t having the most beautiful dream. Albeit happy to see him, Myungsoo couldn’t show any expression of happiness because he knew that the boy had been suffering.

He placed the toy under his arm and approached the bed quietly, careful not to make any noise that could wake the boy. Firstly he carefully fixed the boy on the bed and covered him properly. Then, very slowly and gently, he placed the pillow back on underneath his head. Taking advantage that the boy had loosened his hold on the second pillow, Myungsoo took it away and placed the toy in its place, only to watch Woohyun instantly cuddle up to it and unfurrow his brows.

At this Myungsoo finally managed to twitch his lips into a sad but a bit relieved smile, somehow that unconscious gesture from his son brought him a little bit more hope. He combed Woohyun hair with his fingers and placed a kiss on his forehead before whispering something to him. “I love you, Woohyun.”  Despite being sad, his words came out sweetly.

Myungsoo pulled back and looked at his son sleeping again and this time he couldn’t control the wave of sadness that came over him. To not wake the boy up, Myungsoo retreated as carefully as he could but, before he left the room, he saw Woohyun's notebooks and pencils were forgotten on a desk.

Without thinking much about it, he grabbed a pencil and opened the notebook on a random blank page to leave something written for the boy.

“Things break and things change with time. Although they may not be exactly as they once were, with love and effort even broken and old things can be whole again.
I love you, Myungsoo.”
_____________________________________________

While Sungyeol had dinner and bonding time with Sunggyu, Myungsoo arrived home tired, his day had been a rollercoaster. 

In the morning, he had an enlightening but emotionally difficult talk with Hoya, then he was interrupted by a couple of calls from the people he replied to emails yesterday and set up meetings for the afternoon. Once he left Hoya’s apartment, he hurriedly ate something and called his dad for help then waited to start the second part of his day.

During the afternoon, they visited a couple of offices and listened to people’s offers. Once they were done with that, he asked his father to go to Incheon so he could pick up something for Woohyun there. Bumsoo whined a bit because he was already kinda tired but in the end, he was happy Myungsoo was trying to solve things in his life and he couldn’t say no once his son offered to drive a bit.

They didn’t take long in Incheon, Myungsoo already knew where the thing he wanted was and he quickly showed up with a worn-out yellowish toy that made Bumsoo practically melt when he recognized it. They made a quick stop at the market to get a few snacks for the ride and to buy a sewing kit and then Bumsoo drove back while Myungsoo tried to awkwardly sew the toy back together while pricking his fingers with the needle a couple of times.

Back in Seoul, Myungsoo had talked to his mother, given the toy to Woohyun, and left him a message that he hoped that the boy would understand. He had received some money to return home by cab but he decided to come back by public transportation so he had some time to reflect and collect himself.

He took a bath and ate once he arrived home. He wanted nothing else but to fall into his bed and sleep till the next morning, but as soon as he did that, he realized he wouldn’t be able to. Maybe he wasn’t that tired yet. He opened his email, mostly to pass the time, but was surprised to see that Sungyeol had sent him an email around 2 pm. He wasn’t expecting anything today but still hurried to check what his ex-lover had to say.

“Hello, Myungsoo, 

I was concerned when you skipped our meetings twice this week but I was happy to discover that you tried to keep track. I read everything you sent me and tried my best to offer you some feedback already:
- Good job on finishing all pre and post-textual elements already but the way you wrote your references is not entirely correct. I’m sending back a few examples so you can change that.
- I’m pretty much satisfied with the way you wrote your abstract, it is concise and gets the message through but there is an English mistake there that I highlighted.
- I saw you already wrote things for your intro with those paragraphs I told you to take out of your first chapter, but have in mind that this part doesn’t need to be that long. You’re doing mostly great here but the second part seems big and all over the place, I think you should rethink that.
- In chapter 1 only minor typos are left.
- For chapter 2, aside from typos, you made the same mistake you did before in chapter 1, just rewrite your last paragraph to make your text smoother.
- You have not sent the pictures you’re gonna use, maybe you’re stuck trying to choose? I don’t know much about photography but if you want my help you just have to say it.
- I don’t think you’ll be able to write your conclusion without choosing the pictures.
- I’m sending a file back with more specific explanations and suggestions, take a look at it.
I can’t exactly promise you but I’ll try to read your work again just to be sure I didn’t let anything pass and Friday, if you decide to see me, I will be able to discuss your work better. Depending on how you’ll think you’ll progress we can start thinking about the day of your presentation. 

Lastly, as it is of your knowledge, I am going through some rounds of evaluations for a professor position within my department and one of them was scheduled for next Monday.  So, if you aren’t able to make it next Friday but want my opinion, you can send me your work during the weekend so I can take a look. If I can’t reply by then continue your work and I’ll check everything as soon as this round of evaluations is over.

Best regards.

Lee Sungyeol”

At first, Myungsoo was impressed with Sungyeol speed to send him corrections just after some hours, mostly because he knew that a lot happened that wasn’t written in this professional email. He knew Sungyeol came to check on him after a day of work, then returned to aid his son and waited for the boy to sleep to help with his project again, so there was no way Myungsoo wouldn’t feel at least touched.

He didn’t think he could send thankful words back. He knew that what Sungyeol hadn’t written shouldn’t have happened in the first place, but since it did, he shouldn’t talk about it in an email that was nothing but professional. On the other hand, he couldn’t process and put words to reply to Sungyeol professionally either.

He quickly thought about it and decided that rather than replying, he would try to work on the project until sleep came to him. He didn’t think that he would have that much to show Sungyeol or even had any doubts or questions at this point but whatever he could come up with, would be a good excuse for him to appear and discreetly show some support for Sungyeol as well.

___________________________________________

Woohyun opened his eyes and immediately rubbed them to make sleep go away. He tried to stretch and sat on the bed only to notice two things: 1 -he was in his pajamas, which meant someone changed his clothes so he could sleep comfortably, and 2, something yellowish fell by his side once he got up. He grabbed the object to inspect it only for a happy expression to appear on his face.

“Kero-chan!” He gasped in surprise but didn’t waste any second hugging the toy against his chest. Yes, he loved that old toy, he couldn’t explain why but he loved to hug it and it had always been by his side until the seam opened and the filler came out.

Once he remembered that, Woohyun pulled the toy back and inspected it all over. It was weirdly sewn but the filler was inside and Kero-chan still looked like Kero-chan even if his head was weirdly shaped now.

He smiled genuinely and innocently for the first time in the last few days and got up so he could thank the one he thought returned his toy.

“Uncle! Uncle!” He yelled and the couple that had been eating in the kitchen promptly turned to look at him.

“What is it?” Bumsoo asked worriedly but Woohyun hugged him tightly which made Sonmi a bit dumbfounded.

“Thank you for fixing Kero-chan and bringing it back from Incheon to me.” The boy said sincerely and the couple exchanged worried looks.

As soon as Woohyun pulled out of the hug, Bumsoo patted his hair awkwardly. "Woohyun, you don’t know how happy I am to know that you found a way to smile in the middle of everything that’s been happening to you but…” The boy frowned and the man couldn’t help but blurt (somehow) the truth. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t the one that fixed and brought you your Kero-chan.”

“But you left for Incheon yesterday.” The boy reasoned but Bumsoo couldn’t produce words, he just looked conflicted. He then tilted his head to the side in confusion and then looked at Sonmi but she shook her head so the boy knew it wasn’t her either. “Who was it then?”

Sonmi became tense and looked at her husband for some kind of help, but he made an apologetic expression that just looked helpless. Sonmi sighed then looked back at Woohyun.

“It was Myungsoo,” Sonmi revealed much to the boy's surprise. “He knows you feel better when you cuddle up to something but the pillows here are too big for you, so he wanted to make you feel better somehow...”

“He went to Incheon, I met him there,” Bumsoo used a white lie, but he also said the truth. “And he searched for it then sewed himself.” 

The boy raised the worn-out plushie to his eyes and inspected it. “He doesn’t know how to sew.” He stated judgingly, and despite not knowing how he would further feel about Myungsoo’s actions, Bumsoo couldn’t help but find that kind of amusing.

“Hy doesn’t. Maybe he should stick to basketball and his camera.” The elder said trying to be humorous.

Woohyun nodded to agree but he kept looking fixedly at the toy. His brows were raised as if he didn’t know what to think about the information he just received and that got Sonmi a bit worried.

“Are you ok Woohyun? Should I tell Myungsoo you didn’t like to receive your Kero-chan back?” She asked carefully.

Woohyun turned his head to the woman and gasped. “What?” He looked back at the toy and the hand holding the plushie moved closer and then away from his body a couple of times. “I- I…” The boy stuttered and it became clear to the couple that Woohyun had conflicted emotions about his plushie. He still loved that toy, but at the same time, he wasn’t sure he wanted to receive anything from Myungsoo he didn’t even know how to feel about that yet.

Noticing that Woohyun was struggling, Bumsoo decided to take some pressure from the boy's shoulder and distract him somehow. “Sorry for not waiting to eat with you.” He said as he pointed to the plates over the table. “You seemed very tired yesterday so we let you sleep more. Do you want to eat now?” He asked and patted a chair for the boy.

Since Woohyun was trying to deal with something he deemed complicated, he promptly put that conflict away for later. He didn’t need to be asked twice, he was hungry so he decided to approach the table and sit with the elders.

“What’s there to eat?” The boy asked once he was settled while the elders started to fix his breakfast and offer him orange juice.

“Today we have omelets... tofu with seasoned soy sauce... rice cooked with red and black beans and kkakdugi.” Sonmi explained slowly as she placed every item in front of him.

“I like kkakdugi.” Woohyun showed a bit of interest even though his mood had a setback when he came out of the room. Now somehow was easier to associate it (although to a lesser degree) with how he was feeling yesterday.

“We know.” Bumsoo ruffled his hair and offered chopsticks to the boy. “We tried to make something you liked, so you’re going to eat a bit today, right?”

“I’ll try.” Woohyun nodded to himself as he grabbed the chopsticks and observed the food. Considering most of the past week they heard ‘I’m not hungry’ and ‘I don’t want to eat’ a lot and there was a lot of coaxing done by Sungyeol and Sonmi so Woohyun could eat, Bumsoo considered that an improvement.

“Is our house ok?” Woohyun asked as he played with his food for a bit.

“Yeah, there was no real damage, everything is fine.” Bumsoo replied, internally happy that he used ‘our’ instead of ‘your’, which meant the boy (consciously or not) included himself in their family again.

“Auntie, when will my hyungs come? I want to talk to them.” The boy asked after a small bite.

“I think they’ll come for dinner.” She replied right off the bat and that made Woohyun stop his chopsticks from picking some food and his mouth stop chewing, to gulp everything in one go.

“Wha-what? Why?” The boy asked in a mix of disappointment and desperation. “Why will they take so long? Did I do something to them?”

“Noo, no, no, nooo.” The couple replied together.

“Of course, you didn’t do anything, dear. It’s just it’s Friday so Sunggyu needs to go to school and Sungyeol has to work today but he promised they will come right after they get free.” Sonmi approached him to say.

Woohyun pouted, he was clearly disappointed. “What will I do until they come? I… I want to talk to them.” He asked as he picked on his food and threw a glance at the toy over the table.

“Well, if you don’t want to talk to us then I can teach you stuff so you can do your homework, that way you’ll be able to let things go for a bit.” Bumsoo offered.

“I already finished my homework.” The boy complained.

“Not the one Sungyeol brought earlier today.” The elder continued and Woohyun made a tortured face.

“Noooo~~” He wailed then pouted.

“Namu, you can take your time for everything else but you need to keep up with school, your exams are around the corner. If you don’t do your homework you won’t practice, then you won’t do well on your exams. Your mother wouldn’t have liked to see you slacking, despite her problems she never slacked with her studies as well.” Sonmi coaxed.

“And sometimes it’s nice to be able to think about something else so, come on, you can do it.” Bumsoo encouraged as well. “If you do it now, you won’t have to do it during the afternoon, which will be great because Moonsoo wants to visit you. By then you can stay here or go out with him, or maybe we can all go out later and treat ourselves to good food, what do you say?”

Woohyun kept the pout on his lips while he heard both adults talking and he made the two wait a few seconds until he returned his attention to his food and relented after a sigh. “Fine, I’ll try.”

The elders were happy that Woohyun accepted to at least do some homework but their relief came too soon, the boy didn’t take long to push his plate away and they ended up needing to coax him to eat. When they were somehow satisfied with the amount he ate, they let him go for a bath and pretended not to see how the boy hesitated but end up taking the toy with him.

While Woohyun took his bath, the elders tried to clean the kitchen and do some minor house chores while whispering their thoughts on Woohyun's reactions to the toy to each other. When the boy appeared (holding the plushie) Sonmi came to help him to dry his hair and noticed how he didn’t let go of it. Once Woohyun hair was totally dry she left to put the hairdryer away and he dragged his feet to the desk in his room to get everything prepared.

He pushed everything away to make a place for his favorite toy and placed it in front of him. He crossed his arms over the table and rested his chin on his arms as he looked fixedly at it. He was letting out a sigh every other second as he tried to evaluate his feelings about it. 

Unfortunately, he didn't have enough time for that because Sonmi reentered the room pulling a chair from the kitchen. “Woohyun, are you ready?” She asked and couldn’t help but notice what the boy was doing.

Upon hearing her voice, the boy straightened himself and pushed the toy away only to pull his notebooks and papers in front of him. “Yeah.” He said nervously so Sonmi pretended she had not encountered him in a reflexive mode.

“Do you want help?” She offered and the boy turned to her with begging eyes. 

“Please?!”

“Ok, let’s see what Sungyeol brought you.” She said as pulled the chair near the boy and sat. “Hum, there’s some math, some science, and then you have to write some sentences in your notebook using new words. What do you want to do first?” She said as she took a look at the papers that Woohyun pulled near him.

“Sentences?” The boy didn’t seem too sure about it but he opened his notebook and started looking for a blank page.

“Start by writing your name and date…” She ordered then kept inspecting his homework. Meanwhile Woohyun settled on a page though it wasn’t blank, instead, there were written words in pretty handwriting that weren’t his but he knew too well who it belonged to.

“Wow today you have to write sentences about your favorite food, this is going to be so easy …” Sonmi commented after a few seconds but halted her words once she noticed the boy wasn’t moving at all. “Namu?” She called while he looked fixedly at his notebook with eyes filling with tears.

He didn’t reply at first. He pushed the notebook away and crossed his arms over the table to hide his crying face there. Sonmi was completely at a loss so she tried to search in the notebook for what had possibly made the boy cry only to see the message written by her son.

“Things break and things change with time. Although they may not be exactly as they once were, with love and effort even broken and old things can be whole again.
I love you, Myungsoo.”

At first, Sonmi didn’t understand the cryptic message but then her eyes moved to the toy. She quickly understood that Myungsoo used it as a metaphor for his relationship with Woohyun and, just like the toy, Myungsoo could offer support if their relationship was remotely fixed even if it was not the same thing anymore.

While that warmed her heart in a way, she recognized that it must be hard for the boy to interpret and process this in the middle of everything.

“Come here, baby.” She said and tried to pull him to her lap to be able to comfort him.

Woohyun quickly accept it, and moved to her lap. But, before he was completely settled on it, he grabbed his worn-out plushie and held it tightly against his chest then he laid his head on Sonmi’s chest.