the title's awful omg but I've wanted to write something like this ever since hwajong's half storyline in the telltale burn book. so don't judge me lol

“I need more money,” was the first thing Myungsoo had grumbled out once he’d reached his friends’ table at the school cafeteria.

                “You need more of a lot of things you don’t have,” Hoya commented from the side, taking a bite of his sandwich. “Starting with more colorful clothing.”

                The younger college student shot a disgraced glare at his friend before laying his head back down into his arms. “I’m serious thoughhhhhhh…”

                From the left side of Myungsoo, Woohyun took a sip of his milk before saying, “Actually, Myungsoo, I might have a job for you.”

                “Job?” Myungsoo lazily muttered. “That requires work…”

                “You can’t get easy money from anywhere!” Sunggyu scolded, though nobody really listened to him anyways.

                “I swear, it’s not a hard job,” Woohyun said. “I would’ve done it myself, but I’m busy.”

                “What is it then?” Myungsoo asked, lifting his head up pitifully to look at his friend. “If it requires anything that makes me dress up, though, that’s a no.”

                “It’s not,” the older boy laughed. “Basically, my neighbor has this five year old –“

                “No,” Myungsoo interrupted immediately. “No. No. I hate kids.”

                “No, listen to me! The kid’s the sweetest thing ever, trust me. He just sits there and watches TV, or sleeps, or eats, or colors most of the time. I’ve baby-sat for him a lot, for free too. That’s how much I love doing it – and you know how much I like making money.”

                Myungsoo sighed, bringing his arm up to lean his chin on the palm of his hand. “But kids…”

                “It’ll be a breeze, trust me,” Woohyun persuaded. “It’s just…his dad – my neighbor – is kinda a single father working…so I doubt you’d be paid too much.”

                There was another sigh, and Myungsoo shrugs. “Whatever. I just need a few bucks an hour…I guess I’m in.”

A few days later while he was lounging around in his dorm, Myungsoo’s phone rang, leaving awkward traces of TVXQ lingering in the air.

                “Hello?” he asked curiously because it wasn’t a number that his phone or he had recognized.

                “Myungsoo-sshi…?” a soft, slightly hesitant voice asked from the other line.

                “That’s me, yep. And you are?”

                “Oh! Okay, um, I’m Lee Sungyeol. Woohyun told me the other day that you could babysit for my son? And I was wondering if you could come over today so I could maybe…talk to you about some things? And I was kind of wondering if you could babysit for my kid too, because I kinda have something really urgent going on in my workplace…”

                “Oh! Of course,” Myungsoo sputtered out right away. He ran around his room looking for a pencil and pad of paper and when he finally found one, he asked, “What’s your address? I’ll try to get there as soon as possible.”

                “Ah…thank you so much,” Sungyeol said gleefully as he informed Myungsoo of his address. “Please don’t be in too much of a rush…I don’t need to be at work for another hour or two.”

                “It’s alright, I’ll get going now.”

The result of being friends with Woohyun for so long was knowing where the older boy lived – a slightly deserted apartment building that only broke students, divorced mothers, and…,well, single fathers could result to.

                Lee Sungyeol’s apartment turned out to be right across from Woohyun’s, but by the sign that said I’M NOT IN RIGHT NOW <3 YOU CAN PUT THE LOVE NOTES UNDERNEATH THE DOOR!~ on Woohyun’s door gave Myungsoo the notion that his friend wasn’t in at the moment.

                Slowly, Myungsoo began to brush down the top of his hair as he walked over to the apartment across, knocking as gently as he could.

                From outside, he could hear a little, high-pitched voice scream, “APPAAAAAA SOMEBODY’S HEREEEEEEEEEEE!”

                There were a few footstep noises and the door opened, showing Myungsoo a tall, very handsome man with caramel hair, dressed in black-clothed skinny jeans and a thin, light pink jacket.

                “Oh! You must be Kim Myungsoo, come in!” the man said gleefully as the pulled the door open wider. “Try to disregard the mess…I wasn’t expecting you to come so early so I didn’t tell Sungjong ahead of time to clean up his toys.”

                When he came in though, Myungsoo could already see a little, stout child running around the living room throwing his blocks and legos and little cars into various boxes around the room. Maybe Woohyun was right, this kid wouldn’t be so bad.

                (And somewhere in the back of his mind, there was something that said the dad wasn’t so bad either.)

                “Sungjong, come over here!” Sungyeol called out, and the little boy threw in the last racecar before dashing to his father’s side.

                “Appa?” the cute kid questioned, tugging on the hem of his dad’s jacket.

                Sungyeol immediately bent down to his son’s height, holding him around the waist before pointing up at Myungsoo. “That’s Myungsoo hyung, Sungjongie. He’s going to be staying with you until Appa comes home tonight, alright?”

                Myungsoo saw a flash of grief strike through Sungjong’s eyes and a small pout pass his lips before nodding, breathing in deeply. “Alright, Appa.”

                “Ah, that’s a good boy!” Sungyeol grinned, ruffling his son’s hair. “Be nice to Myungsoo, alright? Appa will try to be back as soon as possible. Then we can stay up and watch Ben 10 together!”

                Sungjong’s bright smile came back and he nodded faster. “Alright, Appa! Have fun then!”

                Sungyeol stood back up, giving his son a peck on the cheek before telling him to go into his room for a minute. He looked back at Myungsoo, still smiling.

                “Sungjong isn’t too much of a trouble, I promise,” Sungyeol nodded. “At least I hope not. He knows how to eat his own dinner, so all you need to do is get it out of the freezer and microwave it for however long Jongie tells you to.”

                Myungsoo pursed his lips, nodding. “Oh. Okay then, alright…um, how long are you going to be gone exactly…?”

                “Uh, the latest is 10, if that’s alright with you,” Sungyeol rushed. A look struck on his face and he reached to his back pocket, pulling out a worn out black wallet. “Right, and the money –“

                The shorter boy stood there for about two seconds as he watched Sungyeol rummage through a few wrinkled bills until he said, “Oh, no, don’t worry about payment. I, uh, usually don’t get paid the first night. Just to see how the baby-sitting goes.”

                Oblivious to Myungsoo’s improve helpfulness, Sungyeol broke into a wide grin and said, “Oh! Woohyun didn’t mention that…well, that makes things a lot easier for me. I’m getting my paycheck tomorrow, so I’ll remember to pay you by then.”

                “Of course,” Myungsoo nodded, bowing as Sungyeol walked over to the open door.

                “Sorry for the late call,” Sungyeol apologized, taking a black coat off the rack beside the walkway. “Um, Sungjong knows my phone number so if you need me, ask him. And, uh, if anything bad happens, you can probably phone his mom…her number’s on the fridge, by the way.”

                Myungsoo noticed the tension in Sungyeol’s voice, so he just smiled and nodded once more, saying, “Alright! I got it, you should probably go off to work now. I can’t have Sungjong seeing you or else he wouldn’t want you to leave.”

                Sungyeol smiled again, bowing a bit before waving and walking out the door, closing it meanwhile.

                When the door was fully shut, Myungsoo sighed and walked down the hallway – which was all filled with pictures of Sungjong and Sungjong & Sungyeol, he noticed – until he reached a room at the end, the only one with an open door.

                Inside, Myungsoo could see Sungjong sitting in front of a big, white dresser, the last drawer pulled out as he pulled clothes from a green carry-on bag, folding them neatly before laying them inside the dresser.

                Wow, Myungsoo thought, quietly walking in. He really is the sweetest thing ever…

                “You know,” he joked aloud, “kids your age would usually be watching TV and not folding clothes.”

                Sungjong let out a slightly startled noise before rushing himself to stand up, bowing to the older boy. He then sat back down, laying the palm of his hands on the shirt he’d just folded.

                “Ah, I can’t…Umma says that the house has to be nice and neat if I wanna stay with Appa,” he grinned. “And Halmoni even told Appa, I can’t stay here anymore if everything’s not neat and pretty.”

                The words that were about to come out were constricted in Myungsoo’s throat, and he could only manage to stay quiet as he strove over to Sungjong’s bed – which was actually a mattress laid in the corner of the room, surprise, surprise.

                “Wow…”

                “Do you like my room?” Sungjong cheered, deserting his clothes-folding to join Myungsoo on the mattress. “Appa decorated it for me. He was so happy doing it, too! But I can only see it today and tomorrow…”

                Today and tomorrow? Myungsoo thought. Oh. Right…today’s Saturday. Today and Sunday.

                “Where are you the other days?” Myungsoo asked, although he already knew the answer. “…Your umma’s?”

                “Yep,” Sungjong nodded, though the older could see a sad smile on his lips. “I don’t really like it as much there…I have to go to school. And I don’t think Umma or Halmoni like me that much, either…at least not as much as Appa does…”

                “Oh, don’t think that,” Myungsoo laughed, ruffling the top of Sungjong’s hair similar to the way Sungyeol had done it a few minutes ago. “I bet they love you a lot. They’re just really busy.”

                “Maybe,” the little boy shrugged. “Appa’s busy all the time too, though…but he still loves me a lot…”

                “Don’t worry about it, okay? Your dad loves you and so do your mom and your grandma.”

                Sungjong smiled a little until he jumped off his bed, clapping his hands. “Oh right! I wanted to show you something…”

                He ran around the room, rummaging in his carry-on bag until a little rectangular piece of paper came out. “Here it is!”

                Running back to his bed, he pounced on it as he shoved the photo card (so that’s what it was…) into Myungsoo’s hands. “I like that picture a lot…I always show it to everybody!”

                Myungsoo laughed as he ran his finger down on the people – Sungyeol in the middle, making a funny face with Sungjong on his shoulders, clapping wildly with a hilariously cute smile plastered on his face. Both of them had matching party hats on their heads with confetti floating everywhere and streamers in the air.

                In front of the father and son, there was a banner taped on the edge of the table that read “HAPPY 22^ND BIRTHDAY LEE SUNGYEOL <3”.

                “Twenty-second?” Myungsoo said with scrunched eyebrows. “But I’m 21…Hey Sungjong, how long ago was this photo taken?”

                “Huh?” Sungjong looked up, obviously having been distracted by something on the wall. “Oh. Last week!”

                “Last week?!” Myungsoo screeched, staring at the picture once more. “But –“

                Sungjong was five. And Sungyeol was 22.

                That meant Sungyeol had Sungjong when he was seventeen.

Everything made so much more sense after that – the so called “resentment” that Sungjong’s mother and grandma were giving him (it was a teenage pregnancy, after all), the lack of money, the little-paying jobs, the ratty apartment housing, the things little Jongie had to go through to be able to live with his young father.

                “He’s only 22,” Myungsoo muttered as he pulled out the rice from the microwave. “He should be getting a college education, not raising a child…”

                “Huh?” Sungjong asked with wide eyes, seated on the kitchen table with awaiting eyes.

                “Nothing,” Myungsoo shook his head, even though it wasn’t nothing. Heck, Sunggyu was older than he was. And so was Woohyun! And Hoya, too – Dongwoo included! “This is just…”

                “This is just?”

                “Oh, the rice is just really hot,” Myungsoo tried. He put the rice back down to grab the frozen kimchi, putting it into the microwave with a little directioning from the five year old.

                When he looked back to see Sungjong sitting patiently at the table, fingers crossed together in wait as his feet visibly dangled from the chair, Myungsoo couldn’t help but grin. Or maybe Sungyeol was fit to raise a child, if this was the way Sungjong turned out.

                “Who taught you to be so quiet?” Myungsoo asked out of the blue. “Usually five-year olds are loud and scary.”

                “Appa said that when we have guests, I should always be respectful,” Sungjong replied. “Especially to guests that make me food…and Umma says if I don’t listen to what Appa tells me, I can’t come visit Appa anymore.”
                “Ah…” Myungsoo nodded, delivering the hot food to Sungjong’s table. So everything revolved around the threat of never being able to see his father again, was it? “You really love your Appa, don’t you?”

                “Yeah!” Sungjong nodded furiously. “He does everything for me…and he tries really hard, too.”

                Despite his thinking, a sad smile escaped Myungsoo’s lips as he went down to pet Sungjong’s hair – the boy didn’t notice, he just took a hold of the chopsticks and starting eating, making sure to blow on the food before placing it into his mouth.

Sungyeol had been right on – it’d been about 10 PM when he’d come out, after Myungsoo had came to the decision to tuck Sungjong in at 9 PM (the little boy had insisted his bedtime was 8:30 PM but he was clearly not tired and he also wanted to stay awake a bit longer, so Myungsoo figured, why not?).

                “I’m sorry, I really didn’t think it would take that long,” Sungyeol sighed, closing the door behind him. “At least I hoped it wouldn’t…”

                He settled his keys on the top of the coat rack, pulling off his black coat. “Thank you so much Myungsoo, again.”

                “Um, no problem,” the younger boy nodded, not sure of what to say. He wanted to ask so bad about what exactly all this was about, but he couldn’t. He just couldn’t.

                So he resulted to something else.

                “Uh, well, you know, while I was babysitting Sungjong, I got this call from my school. We have this community service project coming up and I’m supposed to do community service for the public, others in general…so I was thinking, if you ever needed a babysitter for Sungjong, could you, like, call me? I have to do it for free – you know, to get credits and graduate college. Yeah.”

                After all, the only way he’d figure anything out was if he could extend the time with Sungyeol and Sungjong, right? Even if it was by telling a littttttttle white lie.

                “Oh! Oh, um, of course. Thank you so much for the offer, by the way.” Sungyeol walked away from the door to the kitchen, where he grabbed a readied water bottle. “You should do anything you can do to graduate. That’s probably a great experience.”

                Myungsoo bit his lip, knowing full well that Sungyeol probably didn’t even go to college at all. Probably even had to drop out of his senior year of high school to take care of baby Sungjong.

                “So um…”

                “Oh, you’re welcome to go now,” Sungyeol smiled. “I’m just gonna stay up a little later cook some food to freeze for later on in the week…and make myself some dinner at it. Thank you so much today, by the way!”

                Myungsoo bowed once more, about to walk out the door until something stopped him. He took a few steps before sighing, walking into the kitchen.

                “Myungsoo?” Sungyeol gave him a weird look as he bent down to grab a pan.

                “Let me help,” Myungsoo offered. “After all, it’s Saturday night, and people do tell me that I can make a mean ramen.”

“So you’re friends with Woohyun, eh?” Sungyeol asked a few minutes later when Myungsoo was on the other side of the stove heating up ramen as he was stirring up some soup.

                “Yeah, we go to school together,” Myungsoo answered, twirling his chopsticks. “He, uh, majors in biology with me.”

                “Are you trying to be a doctor?”

                “Well, I don’t really know,” Myungsoo shrugged. “But my parents kind of want me to, you know? So I’m trying it out. I’m not too sure what I want to be just yet.”      

                Sungyeol nodded understandingly, avoiding Myungsoo’s eyes for not until the younger asked, “What about you? What do you want to do when you grow up?”

                “When I grow up?” Sungyeol chuckled. “But I’m already grown up.”

                “Oh c’mon, you’re still younger than Woohyun –“ Myungsoo stopped himself, eyes wide as he went back to the difficult task of heating up raw noodles.

                Sungyeol cleared his throat, wiping the side of his cheek with his right shoulder. “Uh…yeah…but you know, with Sungjong and everything, it’s not like I can go back to college…”

                “Can’t you, though?” Myungsoo glanced at Sungyeol, putting his chopsticks down. “I mean, he only stays with you on the weekends, right? So you have the other five days –“

                “It’s not about the time, Myungsoo, it’s the money,” Sungyeol interrupted with a low, soft voice. “I already have a low-paying job as it is, and Jongie’s mom literally forces me to spend half of that on Sungjong, whether he wants it or not.”

                Myungsoo didn’t know how to reply to that, so instead he tried another tactic. “Well, Sungjong told me about his mom and his grandma. About how they…aren’t exactly fond of him.”

                Sungyeol snorted, replying with, “Sungjong’s mom likes him, or at least I hope so. Her mom, on the other hand…not so much. But that doesn’t really matter, she just want to do everything possible for him not to end up in my custody.”

                “…Why?”

                “Well gee, I don’t know, maybe because I got her daughter pregnant in high school?” Sungyeol spat out sarcastically, causing the younger to reflexively step back in fright.

                He let out a frustrated sigh, looking back at his soup. “Sorry…it just gets me so irritated sometimes. Like, does it matter if we had him so young? He was still a blessing, right? I mean, he’s a wonderful kid and I love him to death…but they just have this thought in their minds that if they leave him here for more than a weekend, he’s gonna end up dead or drunk, whichever one’s worse.”

                Myungsoo stayed silent, though the look of fright had been dropped off his face. He gave Sungyeol a hopefully supportive smile, shrugging. “People are just…messed up sometimes.”

                “Yeah, I’d say…besides, how’d you even find out about me? And Sungjong?” Sungyeol placed his spoon down on the pot, looking over at Myungsoo.

                “Sungjong,” the younger answered instinctively. “He showed me the picture of your party last week…which was pretty adorable, I might add.”

                He watched Sungyeol’s cheeks go a bit pink, and Myungsoo fought the urge to squeal and pinch them.

                “I also saw the 22^nd birthday banner,” Myungsoo continued as if nothing had happened. “I did some math…discovered you were only a few months older than me, subtracted a few years, and then figured out that you were only 17 years older than your son.”

                “Hmm…”

                “I mean, I probably could’ve figured it out sooner,” Myungsoo shrugged. “You didn’t look all that old when you opened the door…at first I thought you were the older brother, or maybe the real Lee Sungyeol had already hired a babysitter after calling me.”

                “Never,” Sungyeol laughed. “I don’t have that many options open.”

                “I’d always be more than happy to watch over Sungjong,” Myungsoo offered. “I’m serious…if I was ever to have a kid, I’d want one exactly like him.”

                “I think a lot of people would,” Sungyeol said, smiling otherwise. “He’s seriously an amazing blessing, the greatest kid ever.”

                Turning off his portion of the stove, Myungsoo walked over to the kitchen table to place the boiling hot pot on top of a thick stack of magazines. He looked at Sungyeol’s back, which was admittedly pretty gorgeous as he was bent over taking a sip of his soup.

                “How about it, then?” Myungsoo vocalized.

                “How about what?” Sungyeol asked, turning around with the spoon in his hand. Myungsoo couldn’t help but smile at the scene, walking a few feet to push Sungyeol’s inflated hair down.

                “How about having Sungjong as my kid? I mean, his mom and grandma would be pretty satisfied with him having a stepfather that’s a doctor-in-training, right?”

                Sungyeol’s eyebrows furrowed as he set down the spoon, giving Myungsoo a weird look. “Two things, I thought you weren’t going to be a doctor, and are you planning on going out with my ex-girlfriend?!”

                Myungsoo’s eyes widened as he shook his head disastrously. “No! Oh my gosh, I haven’t even met her! I don’t know about the doctor thing yet, but seriously, I’m not hitting on Sungjong’s mom. I meant you. As in I would date you, and be his stepfather, not his mother.”

                “Oh,” Sungyeol sighed in relief before a look struck his face. “Wait – so – you mean –“

                Myungsoo shrugged, a knowing smile appearing on his lips as the conversation from this morning appeared in his memory. “You know, it’s always been on my bucket list to watch Ben 10 with my boyfriend and his son as a date.”

                Sungyeol couldn’t help but laugh, shaking his head in complete and utter disgrace. “If you can live through Ben’s alien-ness and Lee Sungjong at the same time, then it’s a date.”

the ending makes no sense but I have this undying love for ben 10 so I had to add it in somewhere

well ben 10 and danny phantom but I doubt anybody really knows those shows anymore orz

...truth be told I'm actually really sick of ramen rn because it's the only thing I've been eating for the past week so I don't even know why I added that in. actually, it's the only thing I can freaking chew with my teeth being pulled.

(I just found out I might have two more years with braces OMFG DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS IT MEANS I HAVE TO GRADUATE HIGH SCHOOL WITH METAL SQUARES GLUED TO MY TEETH.)

fml. goodbye.

[[c:14]]