Neither Jihyo nor Seungcheol expect for the door to ring, and even less so for it to burst open and for four mothers with their three daughters (in total) to pour in casually. Just as Tzuyu and Hansol did when they arrived, Dahyun and Chaeyoung barely get their shoes off before they’re speeding to the other children's’ side; the two girls greet Tzuyu as normal, but Dahyun in particular seemed to have completely skipped over Hansol’s presence at the apartment.

“Hansollie has intrapilated the base!” Dahyun pointed, moving closer to Hansol to poke at his nose.

Jihyo giggled, still stuffing her face with food. “You mean ‘infiltrated’, Dahyunnie?”

I don’t know!” Dahyun turned toward Jihyo and shrugged wildly with a huge smile on her face. Seungcheol prided himself in getting stronger, though, because he didn’t turn into a pile of goo at the sight. However, Dahyun quickly followed up with giggles and excited jumps up and down which succeeded in melting Seungcheol’s heart.

“So, you’re Choi Seungcheol, huh?” The bunny-toothed, Black-haired woman from before (who looked much more put-together today) sized Seungcheol up. He didn’t really know how she did it, but she turned her bright and youthful face into a weapon of mass destruction, ready to be used at any moment. Seungcheol was terrified to say the least.

“Don’t mind this softie, she does this with any of us,” Another woman easily moved the now offended, and less terrifying, woman aside. “That’s Nayeon, and I’m Sana. We’re Dahyun’s mothers. Nice to finally meet you!” Sana was as bright as Nayeon looked, and he could see where Dahyun got her personality from.

“Nice to finally meet you two as well,” Seungcheol shook Sana’s hand (cautiously) and gave an awkward smile.

“And we’re the better parents! I’m Yoo Jeongyeon, and this is my wife, Mina. This is our oldest daughter, Momo—she’s twelve—and you already know our baby beast, Chaeng,” Jeongyeon introduced their little family quickly, mainly to try to sneak some of Jihyo’s lunch, to which she only succeeding after taking a risk and tossing a piece over to her other hand.

“Introduce us any faster, Jeong...Anyways, nice to meet you,” Mina griped, but she turned towards Seungcheol politely and bowed. Mina seemed expensive, but Seungcheol couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

Momo gave a polite bow. “Hi…” she said, shyly, before going to play with the other children. Seungcheol expected the decision to have been more like an ultimatum, but she slipped right into the children’s play easily.

“Momo’s a bit of an idiot, honestly,” Jeongyeon nudged at Seungcheol.

“ Jeongyeon,” Mina scolded, sighing and rubbing her forehead.

Nayeon rolled her eyes and scoffed at the two. “Do you ever stop? How are you two even still married?”

“Excuse you, she’s the love of my life!” Jeongyeon and Mina pulled into each other, clearly offended. Seungcheol couldn’t help but laugh at the display, sending a glance over to Jihyo who gave him a look.

“I introduce to you, my friends, unfortunately …” She grumbled as Jeongyeon stole some more of her food.

“ Best friends, and most definitely fortunately .” Nayeon piped up, shoving at Jihyo’s arm slightly with a pout. “Anyways, more importantly…” Nayeon turned towards Seungcheol sharply, features weaponized once again. Seungcheol gulped.

“Uh oh, I don’t have a good feeling about this...”

“You’re a smart man, Choi Seungcheol, if that is even your real identity.” Nayeon squinted her eyes at Seungcheol and sized him up again. If there was anything worse than getting picked apart by middle aged mothers and young women looking to date, it was getting picked apart by young women who weren’t into men (as far as Seungcheol knew, anyways; there was always time for character building).

“As far as I’m concerned, I’ve been Choi Seungcheol my whole life…?”

“You don’t sound too sure about that, but I’ll let it slide. What I really wanna know is your backstory. Is it tragic? Is it amicable?” Nayeon leaned her elbows onto the foldable table in the middle of the living room. Seungcheol glanced around and Jihyo was casually watching television, Jeongyeon had begun inspecting the Lego figurines while also expertly placing new ones, while Sana and Mina were watching over the kids and making small-talk in Japanese. In other words, Seungcheol was alone.

“It’s... something ,” He answered shakily.

“I want answers, Choi!” Nayeon moved to slam her hand down on the table, but was stopped by a glare from Jihyo that had motioned her head over to the kids. Nayeon pouted again and settled for dramatically tapping her hand onto the table instead. “Hope you felt the slam in your heart, buddy.”

“I did, it was very powerful,” Seungcheol nodded.

“You bet your sweet a—  it was, now I’ll ask again. Backstory: tragic or amicable?”

Seungcheol sighed. “Tragic,” he relented.

Nayeon raised a brow. “Is that where Hansollie came into the picture? Did his mother die, or did she abandon you?” Seungcheol’s breath hitched at this one, and Nayeon latched onto the tiny show of weakness. However, instead of hardening up like he expected her too, she softened instead. Seungcheol took a glance towards Jihyo when he caught Nayeon looking her way, but she was already refocused on the television once again. “Sorry, let me rephrase that—”

“No, no, it’s fine. There was no mother in the first place, I adopted Hansol.”

“Alone? That young? You had to have had a partner at least. No one does stupid shi— stuff like adopting a child all on their own that young. Not saying that adopting Hansol was stupid, he seems lovely, just the idea of taking care of a child at the ripe age of twenty is what’s a little, you know,”

“Well, that’s a bit…” Seungcheol ran a hand through his hair and rubbed at the back of his neck. He started looking towards Jihyo, but she held up a hand towards him.

“You’re truly all on your own now.” Jihyo smirked. “Payback for making me cry earlier.” Seungcheol had never felt so betrayed in his life. He turned back towards Nayeon, and found the rest of the women crowding around now, too.

“Did I just hear my super duper best friend for life say that you made her cry?” Sana, who seemed the most harmless of the group, questioned as she were truly a mafia boss (although, her phrasing was still very cute, but she had Nayeon beat by a longshot).

“I think you did, we’re too young to be going deaf otherwise,” Mina clipped, stone cold with a raised brow. Once again, Mina seemed expensive, and her judging stare towards him made Seungcheol feel short a few (hundred) dollars.

“Seemed like Nabongs had the right idea, let’s grill this guy for all he’s worth,” Jeongyeon smirked, and that’s all the women needed to hear before the relentlessly assaulted Seungcheol with more and more questions. Seungcheol had never struggled so hard in his life, not even when he came back to Jihoon with a baby, a broken heart, and enough money for a week of McDonald’s at the very least .

When it was finally an acceptable time to leave, Seungcheol sprung at the opportunity. Seungcheol made his way over to the children who were playing with their respective dolls. Dahyun and Chaeyoung were having a roaring contest with their Charizard and Tiger plushies respectively. Tzuyu and Hansol watched on quietly, both a bit confused at the two. Momo, on the other hand,  had left the children to go snack in the kitchen as mess around on her DS. “Alright, Sol, I think it’s time to go. C’mon,”

“No!” The children yelled in sync, and Dahyun and Chaeyoung began attacked Seungcheol with their toys. Seungcheol played along, grunting in faux pain while falling to the floor.

“Kill everyone who defies you!” Chaeyoung shouted, raising her plush in the air. Seungcheol, despite playing dead, could practically hear Mina’s pointed look towards Jeongyeon.

“Alright, we really have to go, sweetie. You’ll see everyone again soon, don’t worry.” Seungcheol got up and scooped up a pouting Hansol in his arms. Seungcheol and Hansol waved goodbye to the group of girls and then the group of women before putting their shoes on at the door.

Suddenly, though, Jihyo gasped. “Your clothes! I totally forgot about them!” She jolted up and headed towards the laundry area from which a groan was heard soon after. “Yeah, they were still in the wash. I’ll, uh, make sure to bring them to you Monday?”

“No problem, I’ll return these to you on Monday, too.” Seungcheol chuckled and stood, waving goodbye one last time (and shaking off a bribe from Dahyun and Chaeyoung to take them with him so they could still play), and then he and Hansol were off back home.

On the way back, Seungcheol let out a deep sigh after Hansol had fallen asleep. He didn’t think he would gain such a deep understanding of Jihyo’s woes right after hearing them; no offense to her friends, of course, they were quite lovely when they weren’t interrogating him, but when they were it was awful . They wouldn’t let anything go, and Seungcheol couldn’t really blame Jihyo for confiding in him despite their relationship still being somewhat new. Even when the women were being understanding, their facial expression still held a lot of things unsaid, so Seungcheol didn’t want to imagine what their expressions would be like if Jihyo had truly tried to explain everything to them. They cared about her, definitely, but something told him they were the “tough love” kind of friends—well, maybe except Mina.

Either way, Seungcheol was glad Jihyo’s friends were somewhat intense, because it had given the two of them a chance to grow closer today. As Seungcheol pulled into his own apartment building’s parking lot and worked quickly to get him and Hansol inside so he could start their nightly routine and get the tired boy back to bed, Seungcheol thought about how he should try to open up a bit more himself.