Jinyoung could feel the perspiration on his back, pits and even palms. It was almost time. But he was in no position of going anywhere but to stay put on that God damned chair because the merger was important. Jinyoung stole glances at his wristwatch and knew there was no way he could leave on time. His brain started calculating possible routes to avoid traffic, and found none, unless he was a superhuman.

And a superhuman was what his son needed him to be at that moment.

He scrolled through his contacts, wondering if there was anyone close by, or any of his friends who could help him. He left a small text of S.O.S in his usual group chat, hoping, praying to God that there would be a soul kind enough to lend a hand.

Jaebum: ‘Sup bro?

Jinyoung: Guys, anyone free? Kindergarten’s almost over, and my son would cry if no one picks him up! T_T

Jackson: Sorry, man. I’m shooting a commercial now oh no my poor Taeyoung baby! You bad father Jinyoung!

Jaebum: I don’t think that’s helping Jackson -.-“

Jinyoung: Jaebum, you?

Jaebum: , bro. I’m at the airport, boarding for Greece soon. Sorry

Jackson: Ha! You’re no help too, Jaebum!

Jaebum: Can’t you get someone else? Colleagues?

Jinyoung: Taeyoung bites strangers :C

Jackson: Should’ve tattooed that bite mark!

Jaebum: Any other friends he knows other than us? Neighbours?

Jinyoung’s eyes lit up and he almost grinned at the thought of it. NEIGHBOUR.

He got up from his seat, excused himself while his colleagues and the other merging company’s representatives go through the terms (for the 4th time) again.

Unlocking his phone, Jinyoung pressed on the number he recently saved and waited for the other to answer.

“Hello?” It took the receiver more than a couple of seconds to answer.

“Ah, Mark, hi. It’s your upstairs neighbour, 8B,” Jinyoung started off.

“Yes, Taeyoung’s father! Is everything okay?”

“Well, yeah, that’s the thing. Taeyoung’s almost done with kindergarten, but I can’t pick him up, my meeting’s delayed. Can I ask you for a favour?”

“Yeah, sure,” came the reply.

“Can you help me pick him up in about 10 minutes? The place is nearby, like you could get there in no time. I’m so sorry I asked a few others, but none of my friends are available now and I know I should probably get him a nanny, because I didn’t expect for this to happen, the department’s a little bit crazy these days –”

“Calm down, Taeyoung’s father. I got you, no worries. Just text me the place,” the other replied smoothly, it kind of calmed Jinyoung down.

“Sure, sure. Thank you so much, Mark,” Jinyoung didn’t know he was holding his breath until he ended the call and leaned on a nearby wall.

Once he sent the location over to Mark, Jinyoung entered the meeting room and cleared his mind, ready to whoop some asses with his head in the game.

Jinyoung rushed home right after the meeting, not wanting to waste another moment. Plus, he was worried that Taeyoung might bite Mark (oh dear Lord). The lights in his place were not , oh , and he totally forgot to tell Mark about the spare key. He went back downstairs, and knocked on 7B’s door.

What, or more to who, greeted him at the door surprised Jinyoung.

All his worries, doubts and regrets flew off the building when Taeyoung, clad in Darth Vader mask, opened the door and screamed, “are you my father?!”

He was pulled right into Mark’s apartment, leaving him to toe off his shoes without properly organizing them.

“Father, father, you’re home!” Taeyoung enveloped him in the tightest of hugs.

Jinyoung picked his son up, sniffing the boy, suspecting that he had way too much sugar.

“Well, technically this is not our place, Taeyoung. How was school today? Were you a good boy?”

“Yeah,” the boy’s eyes lit up, “today we played animals and I became a horse!”

“Wow, really? You must be a strong, brave horse, Taeyoung.”

Mark came into the living room, and greeted Jinyoung, “you’re here, Taeyoung’s father. Sorry I couldn’t get the door, I was on the phone.”

But before Jinyoung could reply, Taeyoung wiggled his way down and ran towards Mark.

Which was odd.

“Daddy!”

Oh, very odd, indeed.

“Gosh, Taeyoung, you can’t call Mark like that. You have to call him ‘Mark hyung’,” Jinyoung fully believe that adult men do not blush, therefore he wasn’t blushing and neither was Mark.

“No,” his son clung himself to Mark’s legs, “daddy picked me up from school today. Father is too busy saving the world, so father couldn’t pick me up.”

Oh, dear Lord, save me.

“Mark, I’m really sorry about Taeyoung.”

“No, it’s fine. Kid’s got an imagination, leave him be,” Mark brushed it off like it was a normal thing.

“Well, we should probably get home, it’s dinner time. Let’s go, Taeyoung,” Jinyoung held his arms out but the child was stuck to Mark like a koala, “come along now.”

Mark crouched down to the boy’s level, and the look on his face softened, “go on, Taeyoung. Your father is tired, he needs to rest. Superheroes get tired too, right?”

“Okay, you’re right, daddy,” he released the man he was clinging on to, “I’ll see you tomorrow, daddy.”

Mark pat the boy on his head, and that kind of melted Jinyoung’s heart. Oh, snap. No. Nope. Nu-uh.

Jinyoung took Taeyoung’s hand into his, grabbed the child’s bag from Mark and thanked him, “I don’t know what I’ll do if you weren’t around to help. Again, thank you so much.”

“No problem,” the other smiled, “it was fun with Taeyoung. Wasn’t it?” The little boy beside him nodded enthusiastically, finally taking off his mask and handing it back to Mark.

“Thank you!”

“Welcome, little man. I’ll see you around,” Mark pinched Taeyoung’s cheek and the boy giggled, he bloody giggled.

“Bye, daddy!” And with that, they were out of apartment 7B.

Jinyoung sighed, looked at the boy and reminded him, “you can’t just call anyone ‘daddy’, Taeyoung.”

“But, Mark is not stranger, father. Mark is my friend, and now he’s my daddy. And you’re my father. Oh no. Are you ‘daddy’ or ‘father’, father? Is Mark hyung ‘father’ or ‘daddy’?”

Jinyoung facepalmed himself, “what do I do with you, Taeyoung.”

“Can daddy come get me at school again tomorrow, father?”

“No,” it was quick, he was too quick to answer that and he saw tears welling up in the child’s eyes, “I mean, no, tomorrow I’m coming to get you.”

“Oh, okay, next time then,” the boy shrugged, he shrugs now!

“Yeah, maybe,” never, “what do you want for dinner, Taeyoung?”

“Can we have fish tonight, please?”

“Sure thing, buddy,” he said, “so what made you call Mark ‘daddy’ huh?”

Taeyoung’s eyes twinkled as he opened his mouth.

Mark wasn’t prepared for a visitor.

Especially unannounced ones. Heck, who could have predicted any unannounced visitors?!

Falling off from the couch, he rubbed the drowsiness from his eyes and crawled his way to the door. Sadako noona would have been so proud of him. He was awakened by the insistent sound of his door bell ringing, and he wanted to chew the visitor’s head off. His best guess about the person on the other side of the door was probably one of his friends or the postman. But, it turned out to be neither of those two.

There, in front of him, stood this fine specimen of a man, sweating in his cutoff shirt and slim fit running pants. He smiled and Mark probably stared for a second too long. He dared himself not to check the other man out, but it was impossible, because then, he caught sight of a child hiding behind Beautiful Man’s legs. Then he realized, he was topless. Oh, !

“I’m so sorry,” and Mark tried to cover himself up as much as possible in front of the child.   

“Oh, no, it’s fine. Sorry to bother you. We’re your upstairs neighbour. I’m Park Jinyoung, and this kid is Park Taeyoung. Go on, introduce yourself,” and he pulled the child to face Mark. Mark felt the need to cover himself up even more.

“Hello, my name is Park Taeyoung and I’m 5 years old,” the boy bowed and he looked up at Mark with fascination as his eyes were glued onto Mark’s face.

Although that just ruined the whole thing. Because now, Mark thinks that he has a crush on his upstairs neighbour, but he’s probably straight as heck, and has a beautiful wife with the cutest child on Earth.

“Hello, Mr. Park Taeyoung. It’s an honour to meet you. You can call me Mark,” Mark held his hand out but it was Beautiful Man’s reaction that surprised him a little.

“Oh no!” As he reached out to take Mark’s hand, smaller fingers took his instead.

“You’re pretty,” the little boy said, “I like you.”

Mark chuckled, “thank you, my good man,” and saw Jinyoung released a sigh of relief.

“You okay?” Mark had to ask.

“Well,” he rubbed his nape, “Taeyoung tends to bite strangers who gets too friendly with him. Didn’t want him to bite your fingers off.”

“I survived then! Gosh, sorry to keep you guys waiting outside, come on in,” and Mark opened his doors to his neighbours.

“Yeah, well, the thing is, Taeyoung dropped his action figure, and remote control on your balcony while I was getting breakfast ready. So here we are,” Jinyoung explained.

Mark had the chance to find a shirt from beside the couch and put it on as Jinyoung told him about their surprise visit. The child beside him gave Mark a sheepish grin.

“Ah I see. I’ll just go and get them. I was asleep earlier, didn’t hear a thing,” Mark made his way to the sliding doors and saw the said action figure and a black remote control. He grabbed them and came back in to see Taeyoung staring at his kitchen cabinet.

There were assortment of chocolate, candies and cookies and honestly, it was a child’s heaven. Mark made his way to the kitchen, grabbed a few bars of chocolate, a few pieces of soft cookies, candies of all sorts and placed them in a small paper bag.

Taeyoung was watching his every move, and his eyes lit up like Christmas was brought forward in the middle of spring when Mark handed him the paper bag.

“Oh, no, you didn’t have to! We’re already troubling you with this kid’s toys and now he gets treats for dropping things at your place. Next thing you know, he’ll be dropping everything on your balcony just to mooch candies off you.”

“It’s okay. I have way more than what I could eat alone. He could drop by anytime if he wants some.”

“Thank you so much, Mark. We really appreciate it,” then he turned to the child, “Taeyoung, what do you say to Mark?”

“Thank you so much! I’m going to eat them all at once! Father never buys me more than one chocolate. I like you more now,” the boy tattled.

“Father?” And that bloody question left his mouth sooner than his brain could filter. Yup, Jinyoung definitely has a beautiful wife with this cute child.

Jinyoung scoffed, “uh, well, I adopted Taeyoung. I can’t foresee a future of me getting married or having kids.”

Uh, is you gay Beautiful Man, because I is digging that already.

“My real mom a