Mark usually loved getting out of work early, but today he kept glancing at the clock, dreading the moment he'd have to clock out at two-thirty. His son's first grade teacher had called that afternoon, asking if he and Allison were able to come in for a brief conference with her.

“Is something wrong with Lou?” Mark had asked urgently. “Has he done something?”

“Nothing serious. There was just a little situation this morning I wanted to confer with you and your...” she trailed off for a moment, probably consulting her notes- “ex-wife about. Mrs. Wang said she'd be able to come in this afternoon, around three, if you were also available.”

“I'll be there,” Mark had said. “Thank you for getting in touch with me.”

He'd spent the past few hours wondering what his son's teacher could possibly have a concern about. It was early May and almost the end of the school year, and Lou hadn't been having any problems at all recently according to the parent-teacher conferences they'd attended. He was doing well in his classes (really well—having a teacher specializing in early childhood education living in the house was a huge advantage), was fairly well-behaved, and got along well with the majority of his classmates.

So when he arrived at Lou's grade school at three sharp, he really had no idea what to expect. Allison was waiting for him in the office, keeping a close eye on Lou and Kit, who she would be taking home with her once their meeting was over. Mark had no idea how she managed to keep up with the two boys while six months pregnant since he had a hard enough time without the added burden on his energy, but Allison was nothing if not capable. Or, she just put Jackson in charge of babysitting while she put her feet up.

“Hey, Allie,” Mark said, bending over to an extend a hand and help her out of her chair. “How are you feeling?”

“You know,” she said. “Very pregnant. And you?”

“Curious as to what this is all about.”

“I don't know anything more than you, unfortunately. But I don't think it's anything serious.” She took his arm. “Shall we find out?”

It had been a few months since Mark had been inside Lou's classroom, but it seemed to have emptied out of many of its art decorations in preparation for the school year ending. Mark always loved seeing the kids' art and crafts and how the whole room seemed to smell of wax crayons and glue. Growing up and having to give up art projects for algebra tests seemed like such an unfair trade off.

Lou's teacher, Mrs. Sheffield, welcomed them into the room and sat them down at a work table in the back of the room. Most of the chairs were on the short side for the children, but she found them two grown up chairs to settle into for their comfort.

“My apologies for calling you in on such short notice,” she said, folding her hands. “The issue today arose over an art project, and since the class will be presenting their work tomorrow, I wanted to make sure I had a full understanding of what was going on before then. You see, we're doing a little presentation on their goals for the next school year as second graders. There are different categories they've been working on, and today they did family goals. Here's what Lou drew.”

She passed them a picture Lou had drawn of their family in crayon. To the left were Jackson and a very bloated looking Allison labeled “Mommy and Daddy Jackson” with the goal of “BABY SISTER” written in all caps underneath. Next to them were two male stick figures—“Daddy and Daddy Jinny“—with the goal of “JINNY SHULD BE MY REAL DADDY“ underneath. Further to the right were stick figures with the names of other relatives—Mark's parents, Allison's parents, and Jackson's parents, plus Jinyoung's uncle Sangyoon.

Mark felt like his heart would melt upon seeing the picture. He knew Lou adored Jinyoung and vice versa, but he hadn't realized that Lou had already started looking on Jinyoung as a father instead of an older buddy who occasionally kissed (“GROSS!”) his father. Lou still called Jinyoung “Jinny” in person, but now Mark wondered if he wanted to start referring to him as a “Daddy,” just like he called Mark and Jackson. And if he did...

Another overwhelming burst of emotion hit Mark. His son loved Jinyoung just as much as he did, and wanted him to officially be one of his parents. Mark had been waiting for Jinyoung to finish his first year on the job in a few weeks, but really, what was he waiting for anymore? He also wanted to be a family. They were one now, but why not make it official? Jinyoung really should be one of Lou's daddies.

Mark was so touched by the situation that he completely forgot this was part of the issue Mrs. Sheffield wanted to talk to them about until she brought it up again.

“Another child in the class saw Lou's picture and told him he couldn't have three daddies,” Mrs. Sheffield explained. “Lou insisted that he was telling the truth, but the other children were bothering him. I explained to the children that some people come from families with multiple parents, and Lou certainly isn't the only one—there are other children with divorced parents and step-parents who also had drawn multiple sets of parents into their pictures. But the child who instigated the argument still insisted that the three daddies didn't make sense, and it should only be two. Lou got really upset and said the person he drew in the picture, Jinny, was one of his daddies...I did try to step in and explain that family structures can be complicated, and it's not our place to say someone else's family is set up 'wrong,' but I wanted your advice on how to proceed with the situation tomorrow. I looked up Lou's info, and I'm well aware you've remarried, Mrs. Wang, but I wasn't sure about you, Mr. Tuan, or how I can help Lou explain his picture to the class.”

Allison glanced at Mark, who was still in a bit of a happy daze about Lou calling Jinyoung 'daddy' that he needed to pull himself out of. When he finally wrapped his head around what she was saying, he realized he'd never really thought about it before. Lou accepted their family as it was, as did the friend he had over most often, Kit, who seemed to have no concern at all that Lou's father was with another man. Allison's parents were the only people around them who were grudging about it, but they at least didn't spread their negative feelings to their grandson. Lou probably had no idea at all that society would find his father's relationship “weird” or even wrong.

Possibly Mrs. Sheffield would find it weird or wrong herself, but if she was the one who was going to help explain to the kids how families could be different from one family to the next, Mark felt it would be best to tell her the truth.

“Jinyoung's my boyfriend,” Mark explained. “He's been living with me for the past year. We're not married or anything yet, but that's how Lou feels about him, I guess...”

“Ah.” Mrs. Sheffield didn't look terribly surprised, just troubled. “The thing is, I wouldn't mind explaining that to the children, personally. But school rules...if one of the children told their parents I was explaining homoual relationships to the class...”

Mark sighed. “I get it.”

“Private schools have religious affiliations, so we can't...it's not fair to the children that things in their world they could form their own thoughts on are being blocked from them, but that's the way it is. Do you have any suggestions as to how I can talk to Lou about this and have him explain his picture to the class?”

“Since he wrote that he feels like Jinyoung should be his daddy, you could have him explain that Jinyoung is like a babysitter who he admires so much that he wants him to be a part of his family,” Allison suggested. “It's not that far off base. He used to be my parent-helper when Lou was three, and Lou considered him family back then.” Noticing Mrs. Sheffield's somewhat surprised expression, she quickly amended her statement, “He was my parent-helper after Mark and I divorced” in case Mrs. Sheffield was getting any idea about the divorce being caused by Mark having an affair with the babysitter.

“That could work,” Mrs. Sheffield said, nodding. “Is that acceptable to you, Mr. Tuan?”

Mark nodded.

“If you don't mind me saying so, if you do wind up making your boyfriend your son's real daddy like he wants, you may want to explain to him that other people might not understand your relationship or find it unusual. I know that's not a great thing to have to say to anyone, but it might help him be a little less flustered and confused if someone gives him trouble about it again. You might want to talk to your boyfriend and give Lou an answer he can share with other people who bother him.”

Mark nodded. “I'll definitely consider it.”

After talking with Mrs. Sheffield awhile longer about how Lou was doing in school, they wrapped up their meeting and headed back to the main office to retrieve Lou and Kit.

“I see that look in your eyes,” Allison said knowingly. “Lou's given you a very good reason to get serious, hasn't he?”

Mark nodded. “I think it's time.”

“Good luck, then. I'll expect a text with some good news tonight.” She paused. “Or tomorrow morning. Whenever you're done celebrating. Don't overdo it.”

Jinyoung was already at home by time Mark arrived, bent over the chicken casserole he was preparing for dinner. Learning to cook was the next step in his “become a competent adult” plan. Not that the plan was necessary, considering Jinyoung was more competent in a lot of things compared to Mark, particularly cleaning and decorating the house, but cooking was still his weak spot. He had an issue with balance. Just like he overloaded his gingerbread men with cinnamon, he had a problem with either seasoning his food too much with flavor or not enough, leaving the dishes either too strong or too bland. He also had a similar problem with the stove and figuring out the happy medium between undercooking and overcooking.

He'd been making dinner every other night, which meant a lot of questionable meals for Mark, Lou, and even Kit from time to time, but Mark was so impressed by how hard Jinyoung was working that he never complained if things didn't turn out just right (although Lou occasionally had to be bribed with trips to Dairy Queen to make up for it). It was the thought and effort that counted, and Jinyoung was never short of either.

When Mark came in, Jinyoung set down his spatula and went over to give him a brief peck on the lips. “Welcome home. How was the little conference about Lou you messaged me about?”

“Interesting. But let's talk about that later. How was your day?”

“Pretty good. We're getting ready for graduation, so it's been busy, but enjoyable. I've been having a lot of fun teaching the kids their graduation song.”

“I bet it's going to be beautiful.” Mark smiled at Jinyoung, feeling a little nervous. He hadn't been anticipating popping the question with no pre-planning, and he had almost no idea what he was doing. He hadn't gotten a ring. He hadn't even done any of his trademark mirror rehearsals (those rarely went as planned to begin with, but still). He wasn't sure how he was going to create a sense of occasion to make it a good story when Jinyoung told his friends about it later.

He just knew that he wanted to do it now more than anything, and he'd promised Jinyoung he wouldn't hesitate as soon as he knew.

Jinyoung studied him curiously for a moment. “You look a little anxious. Is something wrong?”

“Wrong? Not at all.”

“Are you sure? You've got a weird look.”

“...that's just my face.”

“Oh, come on. Handsome people don't get to use that line.” Jinyoung shrugged and resumed working on the casserole. Mark wandered around the kitchen, thinking. What kind of proposals were 'in' right now? He tried to think of drama examples, but those usually went slightly wrong for comedic effect. And when Allison had proposed to him back in the day, it was with a very simplistic, “I want to get married to you, would you like us to look into setting dates?” He hadn't minded a practical approach, but he thought Jinyoung might like something more romantic. Maybe he'd better come up with some kind of flowery speech. Or song.

“Okay, you really are genuinely starting to worry me,” Jinyoung said from the counter. “You are not the pacing type.”

“I have a lot of pent up energy.”

“Well, I have a lot of pent up skepticism.” Jinyoung sighed. “If you really do have pent up energy, would you mind checking the filter of the fish tank? I'll be done with dinner by time you finish, if you're too antsy to stand around.”

“Will do.” Mark wandered out of the kitchen to Fishy's tank. “Okay, Fishy, any advice for me here?” he whispered. “Spontaneous approach? Smooth approach? What?”

Fishy didn't answer him, but sent up a few encouraging(?) bubbles.

Mark whispered a few practice proposals to Fishy as he changed out the filter, none of them to his satisfaction. He'd have to wing it, as always. Perhaps that didn't matter so much as the response, anyways. Jinyoung would say yes, wouldn't he?

“Dinner's ready!” Jinyoung called from the kitchen. Taking a deep breath, Mark trooped back in to help Jinyoung get the dishes on the table.

“It doesn't look like you've calmed down,” Jinyoung said worriedly. “Was there a problem with your meeting with Lou's teacher?”

“I wanted to talk to you about that, actually,” Mark said, reaching for his briefcase. “There's something Lou drew that I want you to see.”

“You know I always love his drawings. What is it this time?”

Mark slowly pulled out the family picture Lou had drawn and set it down in front of Jinyoung. Jinyoung looked it over. “Ha, look at pregnant Allison there. I'm glad he's so excited for his baby sister. And there's you and me. Daddy and Da-” Jinyoung's eyes widened, his jaw dropping a little. “Daddy Jinny? He wrote that about me? And...oh my god. Jinny should be my real daddy?” He clapped his hand over his mouth, his eyes filling with tears. “I-I didn't know he felt that way. That's so sweet.”

“He's not the only one he feels that way.” Mark took another breath. “I was thinking...that you should be his real daddy. After all, I already know by now that there's never going to be anyone in the world who I love as much as I love you or want to be with as much as I want to be with you for the rest of your life. If it's also what you want, I want to share every happy moment and difficult thing with you and Lou by my side, as a family. I'm already yours forever, so I guess I'm asking...would you like to be mine?”

Mark hadn't thought it was possible for Jinyoung's eyes to get any wider. “You...you're serious?”

“Of course I'm serious.” He reached over to grab Jinyoung's hand. “Marry me?”

A few of the tears that had started pooling Jinyoung's eyes started leaking out. “God. You don't need to ask me as if you're not sure what I'll say,” he whispered, squeezing Mark's fingers. “Of course it's a yes. It's always been a yes. Ever since I met you, I-” He shook his head, his words falling short. “I'm sorry. My heart is pounding so much right now, I don't know what to say.”

Mark grinned and pulled Jinyoung forward gently by his hand. “You don't need to say anything other than 'yes,' Jinyoungie. I already know.” He pressed his lips against Jinyoung's tenderly, feeling the soft tremors of his body. God, he loved this person. He wasn't sure how his life could get any better, but he had infinite faith that it would.

Jinyoung pulled away first, his lips turning up in a pleased smile. “Where's my ring?”

“I thought we'd pick it out together.”

“Did you?”

“Um...actually, I hadn't been planning on proposing today until I saw the drawing. I was going to wait until school got out for you, but it didn't feel like I could wait anymore.”

“Maybe I paid off Lou to make that drawing to get this end result.”

“Jinyoungie doing something that sly? Never!” Mark lifted his hand and kissed his ring finger. “I'll just have to owe you, won't I?”

“You could pay me collateral. We will be alone tonight.”

“Don't tempt me during dinner. After you worked so hard to make the casserole, I'm not just going to leave it to get cold.” Mark dropped Jinyoung's hand and picked up his fork. “Thanks for dinner, my handsome fiance.”

Jinyoung coughed. “Oh, wow.”

“I suppose such a fancy word is a little much for you.”

“What do you mean by that, my idiot fiance?”

“Nothing, fiance-pie.”

“Ugh, you.” Jinyoung laughed. “Could I love you any more?”

“I really hope so. Considering I'm signing up for a lifetime, I'm hoping you'll love me more every day.”

“A lifetime,” he murmured. “I still can't believe it. I wasn't sure this day would ever come.”

“I told you, I wouldn't do to you what I did to Allison.”

He shook his head. “Not that part. When you said you wouldn't hesitate, I believed you. Just...all those years ago, when I left Korea, I didn't think this would happen. I wasn't even sure I could fall in love normally, nevermind actually getting to be a father. Or that the person I would be sharing this with would be so...special. Important. Everything. You.”

“I wasn't really expecting this either,” Mark admitted. “But if the surprises in my life are this good, I don't mind some more surprises.”

“Mmmm.” Jinyoung set down his fork. “This casserole is rubbery.”

“If you're thinking about changing my mind about eating right now, rubbery or not, we still need to eat.”

“You got home an hour early,” Jinyoung said, trailing his foot up Mark's leg. “We normally wouldn't be eating at this time anyways.”

“It'll get cold.”

“It will taste just as bad cold as it does now. I could throw it out and we could order in.”

“That depends. Which one of us will be answering the door ?”

“Whichever one of us can stand when it's over?”

“Or whichever one of us is willing to stop and get out of bed?”

“Or we could just give up on eating for the day.” Jinyoung his lips. “Or eat more enjoyable things...”

“ert fiance.”

“Mister seduced by ert fiance.”

Mark shook his head in amazement, in that moment blown away by how much he adored this silly, beautiful, hard working, elegant, handsome, and endearing human being. “I love you, Jinyoung,” he said. Just so Jinyoung would know it, without question.

“I love you, too.” Jinyoung grinned, rising to his feet, pulling Mark up with him. “My beloved fiance.”

A/N: Hey guys!!! I hope you're excited for our upcoming next phase of Cinnamon & Ginger. Seems like it's getting off to a lovey dovey start!

Just a polite reminder: try not to use emojis in the comments, even if you're happy. I'm really excited to read all of them, so I don't want any part of them to be deleted !