There were only a few times Sehun was quiet- when he was asleep, when he was watching Pororo, or if he was watching Robocar Poli. Even then it didn’t count- he would sing and dance along to Pororo and Robocar Poli, but whenever Sehun was not screaming, crying, yelling and running around was what Baekhyun equated to quiet.

Oh and there was one other time that Sehun was quiet during the day- Baekhyun’s most favourite.

Baekhyun used to hate the time 6:30am. Back when he used to school, it was the time he had to wake up, and he was always really, really bad at that. When he got a job as a bartender, at 6:30 he would’ve only been asleep for about an hour, and waking at that time would be a torture. Then Sehun was born, and Baekhyun used to want to cry himself when he heard his baby’s shrieking in the early morning for milk that he did every 2 hours.

“Appaa,” whimpered the certain baby, trailing his blanket and a soft toy in his hands. Sehun was standing in front of him at the side of his bed. Baekhyun’s wife normally woke up at 6 and rushed to get ready while holding Sehun, an early riser, on one arm. But she had to leave at 6:30, and a sleepy Sehun would make his way to their bed after kissing his mother goodbye.

“Hello, my little morning bird,” mumbled Baekhyun, half sitting up to lift Sehun up with his eyes half opened. “Wanna have a cuddle with Appa?”

The answer was always a yes, and Sehun nodded against Baekhyun’s sleep shirt, snuggling into Baekhyun’s chest as they lay down together in Baekhyun’s bed.

“I miss Umma,” Sehun whispered.

“She’ll come back soon, like always baby,” said Baekhyun, running a hand comfortingly down Sehun’s little back. Sehun closed his eyes and Baekhyun watched as Sehun started dozing, one hand gripping Baekhyun’s shirt and the other holding his pink Rilakkuma, Pinkeu Pinkeu. Baekhyun had seen it in a shop a few years ago when Sehun was still an infant, and had an unexplicable urge to buy it even though it was pink. Sehun and “Pinkeu Pinkeu” had been inseperable ever since. Baekhyun liked to think of it as Sehun carrying around a piece of Baekhyun’s heart.

Before Sehun was born, Baekhyun had thought he wouldn’t be able to love anyone more than his wife. But then he saw Sehun’s red wrinkled face and wow. He would gladly die for that little squirming nugget. And as hard as it was to be a stay at home father, he really loved being able to spend so much time with Sehun and have Sehun bond with him.

Sehun was really the best looking kid he had ever seen, in his very biased opinion. Baekhyun kissed Sehun’s forehead as he studied Sehun’s face like he did every morning. He was growing up so fast! He gently smoothed out the back of Sehun’s head, before fanning his fingers under Sehun’s tshirt on his chubby baby skin tummy, something he had done since Sehun was tiny.

“What are we gonna do today, Appa?” asked Sehun, muffled into Baekhyun.

“Well,” said Baekhyun. “I thought we could visit Taemin hyung today.”

“At his house, Appa?” asked Sehun, voice a lot more animated now.

“No, honey. Taemin hyung is in the hospital.”

“Why?”

Baekhyun had worried a lot about what to tell Sehun, or even bring Sehun with him. Taemin had called him the night before the last, telling him what had happened, and he had promised to visit today. On one hand, he knew bringing Sehun would probably make Taemin happier, and Sehun really liked Taemin. On the other, he wanted to protect Sehun. He didn’t want to bring his toddler to a mental health ward, and see things that would confuse him. He didn’t want to bring any negative energy in Sehun’s life. This was the weird thing about being a dad. He wanted to protect Sehun from everything “adult”. One of Baekhyun’s fears was scarring Sehun, or creating a memory that Sehun would forever find traumatic and have nightmares about.

“Taemin was very sad,” Baekhyun said slowly. “The doctor’s job is to make you feel better, right? So he is in the hospital because the doctors know how to cheer him up. And we’re going to visit him and cheer him up as well.”

Sehun looked up at his father with drowsy eyes, a pout painted on his lips. Baekhyun chuckled and kissed his nose. God, his son was sooooo cute. Once again, in his very biased opinion. Sehun squirmed closer, his little legs nudging Baekhyun’s stomach.

“It’s because of hyung’s boyfriend, isn’t it, Appa?” asked Sehun and Baekhyun froze. “Oh-new. The one hyung ran away from in the park and Sehun gave him a chocolate. Hyung’s boyfriend is mean. He always makes hyung cry and I think he is being a bully. Hyung should not be with his boyfriend anymore.”

Baekhyun gaped. He had no idea how Sehun even picked up on that. Baekhyun had always assumed Sehun wasn’t listening. He had to be more careful in the future.

“It’s very hard for Taemin to see that,” said Baekhyun. “Because he loves his boyfriend. And the hard thing about love is, that even when they are being mean to you, you still want to stay with them. But if they are mean to you, it means that they don’t love you, and you should always be with someone who loves you back.”

“Love is being happy,” said Sehun. “I love you, Appa!”

“Really?” beamed Baekhyun. He never got tired of hearing those words from Sehun. He tickled Sehun’s stomach.

“I love you lots, lots, lots, lots lots!” giggled Sehun. “Appa, kiss!”

Baekhyun laughed as Sehun gave wet sloppy kisses all over his face and then made Baekhyun kiss him as well as Pinkeu Pinkeu back.

The best way Baekhyun had learnt to dress Sehun was to distract him with a TV show.

Sehun stood still and let Baekhyun put his arms through a zip up hoodie as he stood openmouthed in front of the TV.

“Now, what did I tell you?” asked Baekhyun, kneeling in front of Sehun to zip it up.
“Taemin hyung only wants sunshine! And to never, ever talk about Onew because it will make hyung cry like rain,” said Sehun.

“Good boy,” said Baekhyun, kissing him and then picking him up. “Do you want to bring Pinkeu Pinkeu with you? If you do, she’s going to have to go in the wash later and you can’t have her for a day.”

Sehun associated hospitals with doctors that gave him injections, so Baekhyun wasn’t surprised when Sehun started shrinking back into Baekhyun when he carried him into the entrance.

“Remember, we’re here to see Taemin hyung,” said Baekhyun, sensing his unease. “Don’t touch anything. There’s germs and you’ll get sick.”

Sehun was getting really long legs, and he liked to walk by himself and run around and hated holding Baekhyun’s hand. But today he wasn’t protesting as Baekhyun held him. They walked into an elevator that was already occupied with a girl in a wheelchair with a nurse behind her, an IV attached to her arm and an eyepatch. Baekhyun gave her a quick smile before shuffling over to his side. He hated seeing things like this, because he always hoped and prayed that Sehun would never need to go to the hospital for anything. Another fear of Baekhyun’s was that Sehun would get seriously sick. Just imagining it made Baekhyun queasy with fear, and seeing children that were sick or hurt- he always thought about how it could be Sehun who was in their place. Baekhyun had a lot of new fears after becoming a father.

Sehun was quiet, and Baekhyun just knew he was getting scared. Was it really a good idea to bring a 3 year old into this? He was nearly 4. Did they remember much at this age? But he didn’t want Sehun to see the depressing and dark side of humanity. Baekhyun would be a lot less apprehensive if all Taemin did was break an arm. This was a lot more serious, a lot more scary. A dark illness of the mind was one that Baekhyun did not know how to make better.

“After this, we can go home and watch Frozen, okay? And Appa will sing with you,” whispered Baekhyun to Sehun, trying to make him feel better. “We can pop some popcorn.”

“Will you dance the Olaf song?” whispered Sehun, his lips. Sehun was looking up at him with big wide eyes, and part of getting his attention was that he would stop staring at the girl in the wheelchair.

“I’ll try my hardest,” whispered Baekhyun, gently rocking Sehun in his arms. With Sehun and the “Daddy” bag filled with food for Taemin and Sehun supplies (well, it wasn’t a Mummy bag) on his shoulder, things were getting heavy. But this was nothing compared to the time the elevator had broken down to their 10^th floor apartment, Sehun was asleep in his arms and he had just bought a watermelon.

When Baekhyun caught sight of Taemin, his smile got even wider. Not because he was happy- it was his habit to smile hugely and blather on about things when he was nervous. And Taemin did not look good. Too skinny, and defeated.

His wife swore Sehun got his face and personality from him, but Baekhyun disagreed. Yes, the puppy like energy, hyperactiveness and face was from him. But that was only when Sehun was at home, or with them. Sehun in front of strangers was painfully shy, just like his wife, except his wife was no longer really “shy”- she was just naturally reserved and quiet. Sehun also got his milky white skin from his wife, who also had a really beautiful translucent complexion.

They didn’t know where Sehun got the tall genes from though, because they were both really short.

“Taemin hyung,” Sehun pointed out, and Taemin saw them and smiled, while Sehun made no indication to be put down. He seemed to be a little bit wary, and once again Baekhyun was wondering about the assumptions Sehun might be making in his head.

“Do you want to tell Taemin what we bought for him?” he whispered in Sehun’s ear.

“We bought you yummy snacks, fruit and juice!” announced Sehun, braver now. “Hyung, why are you wearing pyjamas? It’s not fair. Appa doesn’t let me wear my pyjamas anywhere, and they’re really pretty! My old ones got a hole in the .”

Taemin cracked up and started laughing, and Baekhyun joined in as well. Sehun seemed to think they were laughing at him, and buried his head into Baekhyun’s neck.

“We’re not laughing at you Sehun,” Baekhyun laughed. “Taemin, tell my son we’re not laughing at him. You’re just so cute and funny!”

“Do you love Daddy?” asked Baekhyun, Sehun in his wife’s lap.

“Yup,” replied Sehun, twining a hand in his mother’s long black hair.

“Do you love… Mummy?” asked Baekhyun and Sehun furiously nodded.

“Who do you love more Sehunnie? It’s Daddy, right?”

Sehun looked confused. “I love you both the same.”

“But which one? You love Daddy more. Daddy plays with you more. Daddy looks after you alllll day.”

“Do you love me or Umma more then, Appa?” asked Sehun, thumb making his way to his mouth before Baekhyun gently stopped it. Baekhyun hated leaving Sehun with his in-laws because they kept giving him pacifiers and sippy bottles and it gave Sehun bad habits like his thumb.  Baekhyun was an anti-pacifier Mummy..uhhh.. Daddy.

“Easy. I love you more,” Baekhyun easily answered before his wife gave him a smack on his head.

“Yah, why don’t you sleep with him tonight then, Byun Baekhyun.”

“But Kyungsssssooooooooooo,” whined Baekhyun.

“Don’t call me that, it makes my name sound like a man’s!” retorted Kyungsoon, her wide eyes creased in mock annoyance but she had a big smile on her heart shaped lips.

“Umma don’t hit Appa,” cried Sehun. “Don’t be mean to Appa! Or else he’ll run away and leave us! And then Sehun will have to go to hospital and I don’t want to live in the hospital!”

Kyungsoon frowned. “Why would you think that, Sehunnie?”

This was what Baekhyun was afraid of. “Sehunnie, Taemin hyung is different from us. Taemin’s boyfriend is not family. We’re a family and we’ll be together forever. It’s different, because our blood is the same. We’re tied together by invisible string that can’t be broken!”

“Like floss?” questioned Sehun.

“Uhhh.. sure,” Baekhyun said.

“I love you Umma and Appa,” Sehun said trying to hug them both.

“I love you too,” said Baekhyun and Kyungsoon at the same time, and they started laughing while Kyungsoon was giving him the ‘tell me everything’ look.

“Do you think I should take him again?” Baekhyun asked as Kyungsoon tucked in a sleeping Sehun.

“It’s really up to you. Taemin sounds like he needs some company.”

“I really love you, you know,” sighed Baekhyun. “You’re so understanding. I hate these men that Taemin talks about, they’re ruining their families and ruining Taemin. They’re just leaving a trail of broken hearts, and I can’t understand why!”

“There is no reason Baekhyunnie,” Kyungsoon said sadly, turning on the nightlight. “It’s just human nature to do what makes you happy. The heart wants what it wants.”

“I know my heart wants you,” Baekhyun said. “And Sehun. I could never do that, ever. I think what they’re doing is disgusting. And can you believe so many are gay? And yet they manage to have kids. I could never imagine being in a situation like that.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” said Kyungsoon, linking their fingers together. “It’s really funny, isn’t it? Taemin doesn’t even have a family of his own, he didn’t really hurt anyone. It’s those men- they’re the ones we should be calling homewrecker.”