(Continued)

Ilhoon pouted, angry that he wasn’t able to eat because of Junhyung. From Hyunseung’s expression, he could tell that his umma was mad at him. But I didn’t say anything! It was Jihyun and Sohyun who said all those things to make appa upset. I kept quiet!

“Junnie, wait up,” Hyunseung called out, still pulling Ilhoon along.

Junhyung stopped and turned around, frowning when he realised that he wasn’t hearing things and that Hyunseung did actually call out to him. Hyunseung quickly caught up to the younger and sighed, looking at Ilhoon and shaking his head. “Why’d you follow me?” Junhyung asked. “I wanted Ilhoon to at least be able to enjoy lunch and if my being there was upsetting him, then I didn’t mind leaving.”

Ilhoon looked up when he heard what Junhyung said and bit his lip, feeling a little guilty. It was true that he still didn’t quite like Junhyung, but his appa had tried various ways to get him to warm up to him already. The only reason he was still hanging onto that dislike of Junhyung was because he really couldn’t shake off the image he had of Junhyung. Nonetheless, he did feel guilty for upsetting Junhyung and hurting his feelings.

“Yong Ilhoon, what do you have to say for yourself?” Hyunseung demanded.

“Sorry,” the boy muttered.

“Seungie, it’s fine. Go back and have lunch; it’s still Doojoon’s birthday. Ilhoon really seems to want to eat,” Junhyung pointed out. Ilhoon nodded in agreement, causing Hyunseung to sigh and give both Junhyung and Ilhoon a disapproving look.

“I know you’ve only been back for two days, and that Ilhoon still hasn’t gotten used to you, but he shouldn’t have gone around announcing that he doesn’t like his appa. And Junnie, you’re already giving in to him too much,” Hyunseung retorted. “Do you think I raised our son to disrespect you?”

Junhyung shook his head and sighed. “But I don’t think doing this will make him like me more.”

“Then I’ll make him like you. We’re going to the park and I don’t want either of you looking all mopey and upset by the time we get home, got it?” Hyunseung asserted, looking at father and son. Both of them nodded, knowing better than to disobey Hyunseung, and followed him to the park. Once they got there, Hyunseung seated Junhyung and Ilhoon next to each other before announcing that he was going to buy their lunch. “Bond well, both of you!” he shouted while walking away.

“Umma! You can’t leave me here!” Ilhoon yelled back in disbelief. Then, looking at Junhyung, Ilhoon groaned and flopped down onto the grass. “Why would umma do this to me?” he whined.

Junhyung eyed his son, wondering what exactly the boy had against him personally. “Did I ever do anything to make you hate me? Besides making Seungie cry,” Junhyung asked. Ilhoon glanced at Junhyung, shaking his head reluctantly because Junhyung really hadn’t done anything to him. “Then can you try not to hate me so much? You don’t want to upset your umma, right?”

“No…” Ilhoon mumbled.

Junhyung smiled and pulled out the bag of oats that Hyunseung had picked up on their way to the park. “Have you ever fed ducks with umma before?” he asked. Ilhoon lit up visibly and nodded, grabbing a small handful of the oats and throwing them into the pond. A few ducks swam over, gobbling the oats up almost instantly, and Ilhoon grinned.

Junhyung threw his own handful of oats and watched as even more ducks came, fighting for their oats. He looked over at his son and saw how much Ilhoon liked feeding ducks, just like Hyunseung. “You know… I used to feed ducks with your umma a lot, before you were born. Did he tell you why I left you guys?” Junhyung questioned, genuinely curious if Ilhoon knew why he left.

Ilhoon nodded. “Some bad guy wanted you to leave umma, right?”

“Yeah, I did some pretty bad things to a lot of people and that man didn’t want me to be happy. He threatened to hurt you and your umma if I didn’t leave. I couldn’t let that happen, so I had to leave,” Junhyung explained, hoping that Ilhoon would understand his rationale better.

“Why’d you do bad things?”

Slightly hesitating, Junhyung just said, “My appa wasn’t a very nice man. Nobody taught me what was right or wrong.”

This got Ilhoon curious, which was bad because how was Junhyung supposed to explain that his father killed the rest of his family? Did Hyunseung even bring Ilhoon to see his umma and brother before, or had he visited them alone? Had he not visited at all? “What’d he do? What about your umma? Didn’t he or she teach you?” Ilhoon asked, all at once.

“Did umma bring you to a cemetery before?” Junhyung asked. Ilhoon looked confused, not seeing the link, and shook his head. Sighing, Junhyung continued. “My appa killed my umma and brother; I watched them die. Then I learnt from him.”

Gasping, Ilhoon asked the question Junhyung dreaded the most.

“Did you kill anyone before?”

Junhyung sighed heavily, looking around and making sure that Hyunseung wasn’t back yet. He doubted the elder would want him to tell their son the truth, but it had to be said. It would probably be worse to admit it to Ilhoon when he was older. “…Yes.  A lot of people, actually. They were all bad guys but it was still wrong, Ilhoon. Don’t ever kill anyone, got it?” Junhyung said.

Ilhoon nodded. “You went to jail because you did bad things, right? You won’t do it again?”

“Never. I’m not going to leave you or Seungie ever again,” Junhyung promised confidently.

Smiling slightly, Ilhoon said, “You better don’t! I still think you’re a bad guy, especially after what you just told me, but you’re not all bad after all. At least you left me with umma.”

From a few meters away, Hyunseung heaved a sigh of relief, glad that Junhyung and Ilhoon could finally get along well. Sure, it’d only been two days since Junhyung came back, but Hyunseung hated seeing how afraid Junhyung was of talking to Ilhoon. Deciding that it was time for his reappearance, Hyunseung walk towards the two people he loved most and asked, “Who wants ramen?”

After they finished their food, the family of three walked back home together. Ilhoon was in the middle, holding onto his parents’ hands. Hyunseung didn’t know how Junhyung had managed to win Ilhoon over in less than twenty minutes, but for now he was just glad that Ilhoon didn’t hate his appa. Maybe Ilhoon just managed to finally wrap his head around the fact that Junhyung was back. Maybe he got rid of the thought that Junhyung was bad.

“I think Gikwang and Dongwoon are alone with the girls. They’re going to wonder why we took so long,” Hyunseung said, looking at the time on his phone. They’d spent over an hour feeding ducks and eating and talking about Ilhoon’s school life. He doubted that their friends were still eating, which meant that Doojoon and Yoseob had probably already gone for their date and that the two youngest males were alone with three kids.

“We’re reaching,” Junhyung shrugged. “Say it was my fault or something.”

“If you say so,” Hyunseung replied with a shrug of his own.

They reached their apartment within minutes, and Hyunseung told Ilhoon to change out of his dirty clothes before they go downstairs to play with the other kids. Junhyung and Hyunseung, too, changed into their home clothes and they went to Doojoon’s house to find Gikwang and Dongwoon.

As expected, the two youngest of their group were already there. Jihyun was quietly drawing something at the dining table while Sohyun was playing house with Dongwoon and Minhyuk. Gikwang was just sitting on the couch watching a random drama and looking at Jihyun’s drawing every now and then.

“Finally made it?” Gikwang asked with a chuckle. “Took you guys long enough.”

“Yoon Jihyun and Yoon Sohyun, apologise to Uncle Junhyung now,” Hyunseung instructed.

The two girls looked up from their respective positions and said “Sorry” in unison.

“I don’t hate my appa anymore, so don’t say that again!” Ilhoon told the twins with a grin.

Sohyun nodded, grinning as well, but Jihyun didn’t look so convinced.

“Two hours ago you didn’t like him,” the elder twin pointed out.

Hyunseung sighed and plopped down beside Gikwang, beckoning Junhyung over. Jihyun loved arguing sometimes, but only with those who were the same age as her. That included Ilhoon, Sohyun, Changseob, and Heekyung. She didn’t argue with anyone older or younger than her, even if it was only by one year.

“The twins are really like Yoseob,” Junhyung whispered. Hyunseung leaned against him and looked up, waiting for the younger male to elaborate. “Jihyun’s the sassy side of him, while Sohyun’s the somewhat hyper side,” he added.

“Yeah, we’ve noticed that ever since they turned three,” Hyunseung chuckled.

“Are they never going to stop arguing over this?” Gikwang asked, watching as Ilhoon and Jihyun continued to argue. Hyunseung shrugged, knowing what would happen in the next few moments. Ilhoon was technically older than Jihyun, but somehow she just seemed to be the older one.

“I know I’ve been saying that I didn’t like him for the past six years, but I didn’t know him then!”

“Then what about the past two days?”

“I-I don’t know! I didn’t know him well yet!”

“And you know him so well after two hours because…?”

Hyunseung sighed, mentally counting down in his head. Cue the crying in three, two…

“You don’t understand! You’ve always had your appa with you!” Ilhoon yelled, tears of frustration finally spilling over. Dongwoon sighed, telling Sohyun to be nice to Minhyuk and asking Gikwang to take care of those two before pulling Jihyun to her room to talk to her. Ilhoon, on the other hand, ran over to the couch and jumped right into Hyunseung’s lap, sniffling and mumbling something about how he used to feel so unwanted and lonely.

“Aww, was umma not enough for you?” Hyunseung joked, pretending that he was hurt by what Ilhoon said. He looked at Junhyung, making sure the younger knew the other reason behind Ilhoon’s dislike of him. Sure, the main reason was that Junhyung made Hyunseung cry a lot, but that wasn’t the only reason why Ilhoon disliked him. The boy honestly felt that his appa didn’t want him, because he’d never seen him once in his entire life.

Ilhoon sniffled. “No, umma wasn’t enough,” he admitted honestly.

“I’m here now. I won’t leave,” Junhyung said. He carried Ilhoon over from Hyunseung’s lap and hugged the boy awkwardly, still not too used to interacting with kids. Ilhoon just continued to sniffle and rub at his eyes, curling up in Junhyung’s lap.

By the side, Gikwang took photos of the adorable family of three.

-------------------------

An hour passed and the kids were taking a nap, giving the adults some time to talk. They had been planning to catch up during lunch but clearly that didn’t work out too well.

“So what exactly happened while you were gone? Why does Ilhoon suddenly not hate you anymore?” Gikwang asked curiously. Dongwoon nodded in agreement, just as curious.

Junhyung looked at Hyunseung warily, wondering if he should tell the truth or just lie, at least for now. Eventually, he figured that he should be honest because he didn’t want Hyunseung to get angry at him for lying. “I kind of told him a summary of my life story,” Junhyung admitted.

“You told him that you robbed?” Dongwoon questioned.

“Well… I told him that my father was a bad guy who killed my mum and brother. Then I learnt from my father so I killed people too and I think Ilhoon understood how I felt, about not having a father. He asked if I’d ever do bad things again, I said I wouldn’t, and then he told me that maybe I wasn’t all bad because I at least left him a mother,” Junhyung summarised.

Hyunseung sighed. “You did remember to tell him not to kill people, right?”

“Of course I did,” Junhyung said, looking offended that Hyunseung would ever think that.

“I thought he’d think that you’re worse than he thought, because you killed people,” Dongwoon pointed out, not quite sure why Ilhoon would not hate Junhyung because of what he told him.

“He did say that he still thinks of me as a bad guy, more so than before actually, but I think he’s starting to see my good side.”

Gikwang raised his brow in disbelief. Ilhoon had disliked Junhyung ever since the first time he saw Hyunseung cry because of him. Was it really so easy to get rid of that dislike? “That’s it? You told him your life story and he doesn’t hate you anymore? It was that easy?”

“Apparently so.”

Hyunseung shrugged.

“All’s well that ends well, I guess.”

And suddenly Ilhoon's fine with Junnie idek anymore what am I writing

I was lazy and addicted to maple so sorry for the late update ><

I hope you guys enjoyed this, idk when the next update will be up cause I haven't started on it yet OTL

Welllll look forward to the next update. That's all from me now. Annyeong~! ^^