DAY 4 - GETTING CLOSER

After the busy weekend of nursing the little kid, Jinyoung decided to divide their schedule in taking care of the toddler since he has classes to attend every week. He sent a message to Mark about the division of the schedule, which ended up with tuesday, thursday and sunday as his designated days. However, the latter didn't respond nor didn't even give a feedback about his concern regarding the schedule's division.

"W-Who is this?" Jackson uttered with a flustered face from seeing Jinyoung in his decent yet dandy student look but with an unusual baby carrier on his back. Leaning closer as he furrowed his eyebrows, he stared at the small moving human, who was clinging like a koala from Jinyoung's back. "I can't believe you literally brought a baby here. I mean both of you looked cute together but this university isn't a nursing home, shopping mall or a themed park," he sarcastically added with a cracked laughed.

"I know but I have no choice. Can you take care of Gom for a while?" Jinyoung pleaded him in a very affectionate manner.

"Wait. Let me get this straight," he cleared his throat and crossed his arms against his chest. "You told me that you are the youngest in your family... and I don't remember anyone of your sisters from getting pregnant," he raised an eyebrow and Jinyoung just nodded. "P-Perhaps, is this your son?! Come on, Jinyoung! I don't remember you having a girlfriend?! Don't tell me it was a one night stand?!" he unknowingly raised his voice which somewhat caught almost everyone's attention around the area.

Hiding his embarassment from the sudden judging glares that were thrown to him, Jinyoung bit his lower lip and mentally sighed in defeat. "Relax Jackson, this is not my kid," he calmly responded.

"Da-di!"

"But the kid says so," Jackson rolled his eyes and playfully reached for the toddler's small arms. "And he looks cute like you. Come on don't lie to me, Jinyoung. I can keep a secret," he wiggled his eyebrows as he lightly squished the toddler's soft cheeks.

"I'm not lying. This is not really my kid," Jinyoung defended himself. "I'll talk about it later since I really don't have much time. Can you please see him for a while? I really needed to pass my report today."

"Oh right. The professor was badly looking for you because you ditched him last saturday."

He sighed and felt really troubled from the fact that he can fail this semester because of that. "I'll come back as soon as I can. For the mean time, please keep an eye at Gom," he slowly pulled down the bag straps of the baby carrier as Jackson carefully carried the baby into arms.

"Peek-a-boo!!!" Jackson made a popping sound using his mouth to cheer up the toddler, who was seriously looking at him as if the kid was familiarizing his unknown face. "Jackson hyung will take care of you, Gommie bear," he playfully blinked and nuzzled his nose against the toddler's cheeks.

"Keep an eye on him always, he's pretty good in sneaking. Don't feed him with too many snacks. The milk and water are inside his bag pack," he suddenly realized that Jinyoung was actually talking to give him a brief instruction yet he was only focused from cheering up the toddler.

"Yes I understand, daddy Jinyoung~!" he adorably responded which finally earned a giggle from Gom. "You can trust me with kids. Now, do what you need to do and I hope you're still not late!"

"Alright, thanks dude! Bye for a while, Gom-ah!" Jinyoung waved goodbye and hurriedly made his way towards the building.

"Da-di-di!" Gom suddenly sobbed and tried to reach out for his leaving daddy.

"Shhh. Don't cry. Your daddy Jinyoung will come back later. For now, Jackson hyung will take care of you. Want to play soccer?"

Jackson tried to hush the toddler as he wiped his forming tears but Gom just kept mumbling "Da-di-yong" while looking at the building, where Jinyoung went in.

"Yes, daddy nyoung will come back," he assured the toddler before handing him a lollipop to divert his attention with, which was surprisingly effective as Gom suddenly stopped from sobbing when he received the lollipop. "Why are you so cute? Now tell me, how am I going to believe that you're not Jinyoung's kid when it seemed like you have a deep connection with him?"

ㅡ

Jinyoung took a deep breath before entering the classroom from the back door and slowly slid himself inside. He lightly tiptoed towards a vacant seat, trying his best not to get noticed by the professor, who was writing the lectures on the board.

"Did it start that long?" he mumbled while settling himself on the vacant seat.

"For about ten minutes, I suppose," the guy, wearing squared spectacles, casually responded.

Jinyoung breathe out in a relief as he started to unload his bag, to get a pen and some papers to write on. Surprisingly, he found a teether inside his bag which he totally forgot to give Jackson. He mentally sighed and unknowingly met gazes with his seatmate.

"Oh. It wasn't mine," he immediately retorted while waving his hands.

"Why would I think it was yours when you have a perfect set of teeth?" the guy chuckled.

"Right," he knocked himself out of the embarassment and chuckled back.

"Let's start the discussion with Mr. Park Jinyoung, I hope you're already prepared with your report that took you weekends to accomplish it, isn't it?" their conversation was halted when the professor hit the wooden table to catch everyone's attention.

He immediately stood up and gathered the materials he needed for his presentation. The discussion didn't even last for an hour and he perfectly wrapped it up with a decent and concise examples which made it easier for his classmates to understand his report. The professor casually let him sat on his seat without throwing complicated questions, as to what he was expecting from ditching him last saturday.

After few more minutes, the professor finally dismissed them after giving another complicated bunch of assignments to research. Jinyoung just shrugged the idea that self studying is much better than attending this subject, which was somewhat the same but with lesser stress.

"Hey, you dropped this," he was about to leave when his arm was suddenly gripped from his behind. "... Park Jinyoung?" and it was the guy in spectacles, who was handing him a pen.

"Ah yeah. Thanks...?"

"Im Jaebum," the guy flashed a wide smile, causing his eyes to form a straight line.

ㅡ

"Can you please stop running already, Jackson hyung is already tired," Jackson pleaded the toddler, who kept running in the middle of the wide soccer field while hugging the soccer ball using his small arms.

"Ja-ju-jung~ Ja-ju-jung~ Aheeee!" Gom playfully chanted as he continued to run around like a freed wild boar.

"You're supposed to kick the ball, not to hug it!"

"Ja-ju-jung!"

"Aish! I give up! We've been running for an hour already. Aren't you tired yet? Jackson hyung will rest first," he messed up his dirty blonde hair and rested his back against the green field. Feeling the soft grass from touching his skin, he finally found the desired comfort he had been wanting through out the day. He squinted his eyes and casually looked up at the cloudy and dark sky.

"Ja-ju-jung!" then suddenly the soccer ball just solidly landed on his face which was followed by a giggle from the toddler.

"YAAAAAAAH!!!" he cried out loud and immediately sat up while holding his swollen face. The impact of the soccer ball felt like he just received a slap from a muscular guy. "Aish, that kid, really!" he gently massaged his almost deformed nose and stood up to ran after the naughty kid, which was already in Jinyoung's arms.

"Da-di-yong!"

"Hey, you little monster! Come here!" he walked towards them while holding his nose.

"Excuse me. Who did you call a monster?" Jinyoung raised his eyebrows.

"Jinyoung! That kid!" Jackson unbelievingly pointed the little kid while holding his nose. "That kid threw a soccer ball straight to my face!"

He saw how Jinyoung just laughed at him, "What? You're just going to laugh?"

"Sorry," Jinyoung bit his lower lip and tried to control his laughter. He just found it really amusing that Jackson sounded like a kid, who was about to cry from getting beaten. "I thought you were going to take care of him? But look how dirty his shirt was... And you just left him running around in this field alone? What if he tripped into something hard?" he raised his eyebrow and acted really frustrated as he heaved a deep breath.

"Seriously, how can you be so inhumane to me? My nose almost bled and you only cared about his dirty shirt?"

"Da-di-yong!"

Jinyoung beamed a mocking smile and shifted his eyes towards his cute angel, "Alright, what did you do to Jackson hyung? He almost broke his nose because he said you threw the ball on his face," he pointed at Jackson and smoothly warned the toddler. "That's not good, Gom-ah. Don't do it anymore, okay? You just hurt Jackson hyung really bad," he shook his head and made it sound like Jackson was really pitiful.

"Ja-ju-jung?"

He pursed his lips and nodded. "Apologize to Jackson hyung with a kiss," he instructed as Gom eventually leaned forward to plant a soft kiss against Jackson's cheeks. "Hug him as well," he added as the toddler obediently wrapped his small arms around Jackson.

"How can I even stay mad when he's too adorable?" Jackson melted from Gom's sweet touches, but still holding his deformed nose.

"You can't," Jinyoung chuckled. "Now, let's settle somewhere before the rain falls."

The three of them stayed under the roofed bench beside the gymnasium as Jinyoung took the time to feed Gom after that long and tiring activity, he had with Jackson.

"So mind telling me whose son is this?" Jackson casually snapped him out as he finally revealed his swollen nose.

"I don't know," he briefly responded which earned a disbelief look from the latter. "I seriously don't know. I just saw this little kid in front of a cafe. I supposed he was lost so I took initiative to help him find his parents or guardians."

"And?"

"And after posting a lot of missing notices and even reporting it to the police, no one still claimed him."

"So what are you planning to do? I mean you can't take responsibility of that kid alone. You also have a life, Jinyoung."

"I'll take care of him until he finds his family," he uncertainly responded.

"Until when? What if no one will claim him?"

He released a deep sigh and rubbed his thumb against the toddler's soft palm, "I don't know."

Jackson scoffed from hearing his uncertain response, "I can't believe you're already feeding this little kid without knowing until when you're supposed to do it. If I were you, you should report it to the authorities and hand him to the nursing or adoption center."

"He's just missing! Why am I going to hand him there?"

"Listen Jinyoung, just tell them that this kid is missing and they'll be the one to raise this kid while waiting for someone to claim him," Jackson calmly explained.

Jinyoung pursed his lips and stared at the sleeping toddler on his chest, "I guess I'll wait for few more days then."

ㅡ

Mark constantly tapped his fingers at the steering wheel while staring at the dark and cloudy sky.

"We are advising everyone to stay indoors due to the strong typhoon that will hit the country this afternoon. Make sure you also have enough supply of food inside your houses."

He heard the reminder from the radio and couldn't help not to think about the little kid and Jinyoung. The other night, he received the division of schedules, that was sent by Jinyoung, however, he just felt like it wasn't a need to send a response since it will only prolong their conversation that might lead into arguments, and besides, he's somewhat used from just following whatever Jinyoung has planned. Without sending a response beforehand, he actually dropped by to Jinyoung's apartment early in the morning to fetch the toddler, but to his surprise it was already lock