Seungcheol was currently headed to his worst nightmare—working at the office on a weekend.

He dropped Hansol off at Jeongyeon and Mina’s house (which was large and packed with all sorts of games; it was Mina’s collection and Seungcheol was more than impressed, and quite possibly a lot more reluctant to go to work) for they had been teasing for a month and a half now. Before he left, the mother’s had wished him good luck, although they made it a point to sound as ingenuine as possible. Seungcheol had pouted all the way to the office because the children looked to be having so much fun and so did the mothers—particularly Jihyo, despite a few of her gripes about her friends, she never failed to smile the brightest when they were around.

The pouting followed Seungcheol into the office, and he sighed. Even with all of their teasing, Seungcheol wished he could have been hanging out with Jihyo and her friends; anything was better than working, especially on a weekend . Nonetheless, as Seungcheol made his way to the elevator, he caught a sight of Joshua and his mood brightened considerably. He ran up to Joshua just as the younger was stepping into the elevator, beginning to say something about how much today was going to , but the sight of the other person in the elevator made his words catch in his throat.

It was Jeonghan.

The man was as beautiful as ever, even with his short, light brown hair that framed his face just as perfectly as his longer hair had. And then, with a singular movement, Seungcheol’s eyes finally roamed over the tiny human in Jeonghan’s arms. He had a child . Jeonghan had a child , and he looked no younger than Hansol was.

“Cheol? You getting in or what?” Joshua questioned with a chuckle, but Seungcheol only coughed and sputtered as he looked between the two. Jeonghan’s face left no indication that he knew Seungcheol, and instead, preoccupied himself with the child in his arms who happily played along with Jeonghan.

“N-no, I—Just—Yeah, bye,” Seungcheol shook his head, exhaling a unsteady breath before running off. He didn’t care if he looked a bit insane as he frantically searched for anywhere to just take a moment to himself, he had every right to be. Seungcheol hurried past the stairwell, but doubled back and shut himself inside. He doubted anyone would be taking the stairs, but he  travelled up a bit before sat himself down. Seungcheol sat in the stairwell for a long time, definitely well past the start of his shift, but he couldn’t bring himself to head up to his floor knowing very well that Jeonghan would be there—with a child, his child—very expertly pretending that he didn’t have a clue of who Seungcheol was, or even whatSeungcheol was to him at one (long) point in their lives.

After another long moment, Seungcheol took in a slow breath, ran a hand through his hair, and wiped at his eyes. He picked himself back up, straightened out his clothes at the very least, and headed up to his floor; he tried not to think too much about his situation, and solely on the fact that Junhui would surely catch a glimpse of Seungcheol’s now unstyled hair and invite himself into his office to fix it up for him. When Seungcheol finally arrived to his floor, he ignored everyone on the way to his own personal office, especially Joshua who sent several questioning looks his way.

“You’re quite the late one today, Choi.” Seungcheol’s boss caught him before he went into his office. Seungcheol sighed and nodded, ready to be scolded, but his boss simply patted him on the shoulder a few times. “Maybe you should start looking into getting a wife to hold down the house for you. Raising a kid by yourself must be hard.”

“Ah, uh, y-yes sir, will—will do…” Seungcheol stuttered, confused, but not ungrateful for the excuse. His boss left him with a few more pats and Seungcheol was making his way into his office to finally get some work done.

Seungcheol worked continuously all morning, never taking his eyes off of his computer screen or the paperwork he had to go through. He didn’t want to chance making eye contact with anyone since his office was encased by only glass. Somewhere along the way, Junhui did indeed invite himself in and fix Seungcheol’s hair for him. The younger talked to him too, despite Seungcheol’s less than enthusiastic responses and more than occasional silences. Before he left, though, Seungcheol stopped Junhui to thank him and give him the best smile he could muster at the moment. Junhui nodded and waved his office comb (vastly different from his comb at home, which he always made it a point to specify) before returning back to his own desk.

Seungcheol sighed, turning back to his work, suddenly very unmotivated to do anything. He checked the time and noticed that it was almost time for lunch break, though he considered skipping it entirely to keep working. And Seungcheol would have, too, if his phone hadn’t vibrated at that very moment. Seungcheol checked his phone and opened the message he received from none other than Jihyo.

Jihyo sent a picture

Jihyo: Lunch time~

Jihyo: Have you eaten yet?

Seungcheol groaned, knowing very well that he could lie and say that he has, or even say that he was going to, but not actually do it. However, when he looked at the picture again, the food that they were eating looked so appetizing, and his stomach began to twist a bit.

Seungcheol: Looks good, wish I was there :(

Seungcheol: I was about to go eat, though

Jihyo: We’re playing well w/o you~

Jihyo: Eat well, work hard, and come home! lol :D

At this, Seungcheol had to put his phone down and rest his face in his hands. For a moment, he could forget his earlier despair, his mind occupied with many different thoughts. A lot of them were dangerous, so he pushed them away, simply focusing on the very safe thought of ‘I want to go home.’

Seungcheol: Will do! ^^

Seungcheol responded finally, leaning back in his chair contemplating the best way to escape down to the cafeteria without being caught. However, Seungcheol must have done something terrible lately, because Joshua knocked on his office door before coming in with Jeonghan in tow.

“Hey, Cheol, you seem to be taking a break finally. Wanna go get lunch with us?” Joshua walked over to Seungcheol, casually sitting on the bit of desk to the side of Seungcheol, as if the slightly older male hadn’t acted weird earlier. Seungcheol thought about his life choices, and what he possibly could have done for everything to come down to this. He didn’t get to think long, though, because his stomach growled louder than it should have and Joshua was dragging him up and out of his office.

“Guess I am getting lunch with you then.” He mumbled and Joshua nudged him with a laugh, chatting with him all the way down to the office cafeteria.