Haeun

Yongguk glares at me with his arms folded.

"You can't leave him with me. I've never been alone with him before."

"I know, that's why you're going to spend the day with him while I take Iris out for lunch and shopping."

I kiss his cheek hoping it will make him feel better and rub his chest. It’s been two months since we decided to keep Tristan and they had not bond yet. I wanted them to get to know each other. I don’t want Tristan to feel like Yongguk didn’t want him and I want Yongguk to get to know his son.

"Haeun" Yongguk sighs.

I reach up and kiss him good bye. "I love you"

Tristan and Iris walked down the stairs holding hands. I open my arms to wards them and they came running the rest of the way.

I hug Tristan first. "Be good for daddy my sweet boy."

Tristan holds onto me not letting go.

"It's okay sweetie mommy will be back with iris later okay?"

Iris turns to Tristan and hugs him kissing him on the cheek. "Tristan be good"

Tristan held onto Iris.

"Iris buy Tristan toy okay?" Iris pats his head and he relentlessly lets go.

We wave bye to the two boys in our lives and leave.

Yongguk

Tristan sits across from me in the kitchen holding on to his toy truck. We haven’t said a word to one another in the last twenty minutes. He’s looking at the plate of cookies and then at me. He looks like he’s going to grab one but then he looks at me and all his courage is gone.

Haeun was right he was afraid of me and I didn’t want him to feel that way. I push the plate of cookies towards him. He looks at me clutching tighter onto his toy.

“Do you want a cookie Tristan?”

He nods.

“You will have to let go of your toy if you want to eat a cookie.”

I reach out my hand for his toy. He looks at his toy and then the cookie. Ultimately he gives up his toy and hands it over to me. I give him a smile and hand him a cookie.

“Do you want milk with that?” I ask putting his toy down.

He nods.

I grab his milk from the fridge and set it in front of him. He smiles up at me and takes a big gulp of milk to wash down his cookie.

“I see we both don’t like dunking our cookies into the milk.”

He looks at me not saying anything. Looking at him Haeun was right, he did look like me when I was his age. I remember how I grew up and I didn’t want him growing up the same way but I almost let that happen to him. What kind of a father was I to do that to him?

“Tristan…daddy is sorry…I don’t want you to be scared of daddy. Daddy wants to be someone you can come to and look up to. I don’t ever want you to be scared of me. I’m sorry I acted like the way I did to you. From now on I’ll try harder to be a good daddy.”

Tristan is still giving me that blank look but then he nods pushing the plate of cookies towards me and smile.

Haeun

I carry a sleeping Iris into the house and stop when I saw Yongguk sleeping on the sofa with Tristan sleeping on his chest. They were both shirtless and the living room was a big mess. By the stairs I saw their shirts hanging on the rail all wet and dirty. Train tracks were spread all out from the kitchen to the living room. Toy cars were pile up in the middle of the tracks and blocks were stacked up to my waist. All over the place.

I carry Iris into her room and then made another trip with Tristan. When I got back down stairs Yongguk was up putting away all train tracks. I sneak up behind him and hug him. He pats my hands on his stomach.

“How was shopping?” He asks.

“Fun, we got lots of bags in the car waiting for you to bring inside.”

He chuckles.

“How was your day?”

“Fun, we made all this mess waiting for you to come clean.”

I laugh squeezing him tighter. “How about we help each other?”

“Okay”