DAY 2 - PARENTING

It was another sunny saturday morning and Jinyoung woke up earlier than his usual scheme. He headed straight to the kitchen and hurriedly cooked something for breakfast before the toddler wakes up. He was about to get a pack of noodles on the shelf when he realized that he wasn't only cooking for himself.

"Ramen, won't do. Oh Jinyoung, where did you drop your common sense. It's not healthy for the little kid."

Jinyoung took his phone just to search the internet about some healthy breakfast.

Soybean soup, vegetables, cooked rice, kimchi, bean sprout soup, spinach, steamed egg.

He bit his finger while seriously scrolling down through the website for recipes.

"Hmm. All sounds delicious. Let's just cook everything then~" he smiled, kept his phone inside his pocket then proceeded in front of the fridge. He shoved his head inside and scanned for the ingredients, only to find out a container of soybean and kimchi. "Uh-oh. I guess soybean soup will do," he deeply sighed as he grabbed the container then stretched his arms before cooking.

Jinyoung has a big heart for kids, he enjoys nursing, feeding, and playing with them. It never failed to warm his heart whenever he hears their bubbly laughter, feels their tender touches and even seeing their purest smile. These kids give him joy which is truly incomparable among the other blessings he has in life. Truthfully, waking up to feed a kid was just one of his future dreams that he longed to do because he was the last child in their family.

Feeling the saturday morning vibe with a background jazz music coming from the radio, he put on an apron and hummed into the melody while cutting the ingredients he needed for the soup. It felt surreal that he was finally fulfilling the dream of becoming a big brother, cool uncle...

"Da-di"

...or probably a young daddy.

Jinyoung shifted his head down only to find the little kid who was adorably yawning with a messy hair.

"Good morning, sweet cakes! How was your sleep? Are you hungry?" Jinyoung kneeled down and dried his hands using his apron, he reached for the little kid's face and softly squeezed it.

"Da-da o-di?" the little kid asked with a natural pout from his cherry small lips.

Jinyoung curved his eyebrows as he suddenly became quite confused if he was hearing things right.

Did this little kid literally asked where is da-da? But who is da-da? Is he looking for his family now?

He heavily sighed and felt bad for the little kid who was left by his parents or guardian. He just pursed a smile before planting a soft kiss against the toddler's cheeks, "Let's eat first before we find da-da, okay?" then the little kid just giggled in return.

ㅡ

After that full-packed healthy breakfast, Jinyoung didn't waste any time and quickly determined a way to find the toddler's parents. He couldn't help but to feel bad for the little kid's situation, he was too young and innocent to be left out alone in this chaotic world.

Strolling in the midst of the broad daylight at the park, the seemed like father and son were perfectly matched in light-colored stripe tees. Not caring about the morning sun that crept on his pale skin, Jinyoung lead the walk to purposely hung several notices about the toddler. The toddler's situation was surely an opposite case since the person who found him was actually the one initiating to voluntarily put some notices on every possible walls near the place. It was really disturbing that no one was actually looking for the adorable little kid for the span of almost 24 hours, there were no missing reports in the police station as well. Jinyoung was hoping the least possible case, that the toddler was purposely abandoned by his parents or guardians.

"Rawr raaaawr rawr"

A sudden dog's weep startled Jinyoung from posting the notice against the tree bark. His heart almost jumped when he thought that the little kid was already bitten by random dogs around the park, but in contrary, he found the little kid playfully strangling the pomeranian's fluffy body.

"Oh goodness, honey! This is not your baby bear," Jinyoung immediately tried to free the pomeranian from the little kid's arms.

"Da-da be-beaaar?" the kid looked up at Jinyoung with pouty lips as he eventually freed the pomeranian, which later on ran away to find its owner.

"That's right, small nose," Jinyoung playfully poked the kid's nose and softly squeezed it. "It's not your baby bear, we left him above the bed, remember?" he pursed a smile and stood up as he let the little kid to cling his small and delicate fingers around his pointing finger.

They strolled around for few more minutes before the toddler grew physically tired from walking for about an hour and a half with his two small feet. Jinyoung was, of course, equipped with a bottled water, powdered milk, and even his favorite biscuits. They sat on a vacant bench as Jinyoung immediately prepared the milk for the toddler, who was already in the midst of being grumpy and impatient because of thirst and hunger.

The older let the toddler to occupy his lap, as the rest of the kid's body was lying on the bench. The toddler playfully touched the tip of Jinyoung's fingers while drinking his milk.

Parenting can be really tiring, you won't be able to feed yourself, and instead, you have to worry on how are you going to feed your child. But Jinyoung came up with the realization that no matter how tiring and difficult it may seem, the moment you see the little kid all relaxed and comfortable after a tiring day, it somehow gives you strength and happiness in return.

Too serious, you might say, but it was a sense of accomplishment for Park Jinyoung, who seemed to be too occupied by deep thoughts that he failed to realize that the toddler just ran away from him.

"W-Where'd he go?" Jinyoung got his senses back and instantly wandered his eyes around the area to search for the kid, whom he found running towards an ice cream stall. "Oh, that kid is faster than a thunderbolt," he immediately wrapped up his things and followed the toddler.

"Ahm ahm ahm~"

"You want some little boy?" the vendor scooped one ice cream into the cone and handed it to the toddler, who even tiptoed just to point out his favorite flavor, chocolate.

Jinyoung suddenly came, still catching up his breath. "How much is it, mister? I think he loves sweets that he even ran away from me just to get here," he grabbed his purse to get his payment for the ice cream.

"It's alright, he reminds me of my grandson who loves my ice cream, besides, a scoop of ice cream wouldn't get me bankrupt," the ice cream vendor chuckled.

Jinyoung was a bit startled and slowly zipped his purse, "Thank you so much, mister. I hope we're not much of a trouble."

"Definitely not"

After their conversation, he felt a small hand gripping the hem of his pants. "Da-di! Ohhhh," he found the little kid raising his chocolate ice cream, as he was probably trying to give him some.

Jinyoung kneeled down and got his towel to wipe the little kid's messy face, "No, it's okay. It's for you, honey!!!"

The vendor watched the two of them in awe. They looked totally adorable together, not to mention their matching tees as well. "How old is your son?"

"Ah, he's not my son actually," Jinyoung looked up and shook his hands. "I'm just voluntarily nursing him while looking for his parents," he added and continued to wipe the toddler's face.

After the toddler has finished eating his first scoop of ice cream, he dropped the empty cone to the ground and his lips using his little tongue. "Ahm ahm ahmmmm~" then he scooted over the mini glass and tiptoed once again to point the chocolate ice cream.

"I think he wants more," the vendor chuckled.

Jinyoung carried the little kid into his arms and tried to stop him from wanting more, "You just ate already, honey, you'll get cavities from all the sweets-" but the kid just cried from his warning. "Okay, another scoop please. Give me one as well," he immediately turned around to ask the vendor before letting out a sigh.

"This kid is an eating machine!"

He suddenly remembered Mark's words and finally got what it meant. One thing's for sure, he's obviously not going to win over chocolates.

The two of them sat on a bench under a shaded corner while eating their ice creams. Jinyoung noticed that the little kid seemed to be in a really good mood, he kept giggling and muttering random syllables, as if he was trying to communicate with the older.

"Are you that happy because you're eating ice cream?" Jinyoung wiped the kid's mouth as the latter stood up to feed him with the remaining chocolates from his cone.

"Da-da ahmm"

"Ahhh! It's okay!! Don't worry, I still have mine," he beamed a smile and softly pinched the kid's cheeks.

The little kid still insisted to feed Jinyoung that he accidentally tripped, causing him to smudge the chocolate ice cream into the older's nose. The toddler playfully giggled at Jinyoung's messy face, and soon dropped the cone at the older's well-maintained white shoes.

Feeling quite distressed from seeing the bloody incident that happened to his beloved shoes, Jinyoung just plastered a smile causing the little kid to giggle even more.

Parenting can be quite stressing, at some point it will test your patience and stress you out to your limit. But Jinyoung came up with the realization that kids were naturally born naughty and playful, and instead of mourning over his beloved shoes, he calmed down with the thought that he can actually just wash it again to regain its natural white color.

After a while, the little kid suddenly stopped from laughing which was followed by a not so likable sound and an unfriendly smell.

Uh-oh.

Jinyoung slowly shifted his head and horribly watched the little kid's struggling face from taking out his excess waste, he tightly held into Jinyoung's arms and shivered from his concentration.

Come what may, the mighty Jinyoung won't surrender. He immediately carried the little kid into his arms and endured the unpleasant sensation that he felt from the kid's diaper. He held his breath and swiftly searched for any nearest rest room available. When he soon found a cubicle along the park, he immediately went inside and put the little kid down at the corner.

"Da-da ba-bath?" the toddler grew grumpy and was starting to feel irritated from the sticky moist inside his diaper.

"Just hold in there, honey," Jinyoung panicked and wandered his eyes around the cubicle, but unfortunately, there were no soaps and tissues inside the cubicle.

Oh no.

Parenting can be risky, sooner or later you will face struggles in life but you have to remain strong to conquer everything. And Jinyoung came up with the realization that starting today, he should equip himself with tissues to at least face these struggles.

ㅡ

Jinyoung applied a sumptuous amount of sanitizer for the 10th time, he made sure that both of them were clean enough and odorous accepted, especially his bare hands that dealt with some tragic incident inside the cubicle.

"Ha, what a day," he mumbled to himself and rubbed his nape.

"Da-dada!!! Ahhhhmmmm!" the little kid, who was sitting beside him, playfully giggled while eating the biscuit wrapper.

"Want to eat it?" Jinyoung asked and slowly reached to get the biscuit from the toddler, whose eyes were just stuck on the food while his lips. "Alright, here you go!" he opened the biscuit and chuckled from seeing the little kid's excitement to eat it. "You really eat a lot huh?"

The toddler just mumbled while eating the biscuits, not caring about anything but just the biscuit alone.

No wonder Mark bought him a lot of food, maybe he wanted to get himself out from nursing the little kid. Aish, that sly fox.

Few minutes later and his phone suddenly beeped, he sat up before answering. "What's up Jackson?"

*Dude, the professor is look