“Underline” = speaking in English

 

“Normal” = speaking Korean

 

Also just a heads up in case it makes no sense, Saki always calls Bradley ‘Daddy’ even when speaking Korean so if you see then it’s in English regardless of it being underlined or not.

 

And for those of you who haven’t read the profiles, Jae is fully fluent in English but is Korean.

 

Part III

 

A steaming cup of tea was placed in front of him and Bradley glanced up to Kyung briefly before smiling and accepting it, “I would offer to…”

 

“Don’t start,” Kyung said with a sigh, shaking his head towards the other, “We’ve already been over this three times Mama Bear and you aren’t going to get your way. Not tonight at the very least.”

 

Taking a drink of the very bitter tea instead of answering, Bradley tried to figure out what to say next. Out of all the people he had ever expected to just come walking up his front door, he would have never guessed that it would be Kyung, Jin and Jae. Well maybe Kyung cause he was about the only other person in the group to have a licence to drive as well as access to a car. He vaguely remembered some half-excuse of a story as to why Jongki didn’t drive but it was one of those things that was generally put into the ‘don’t talk about it category’. Bradley’s own car had been sold to pay off the hospital bills for Saki but he didn’t so much care for that now, it wasn’t as if he actually had a place to park a car at his new address so it had just been taking up extra space.

 

He heard a giggle coming from the children’s play area and smiled warmly at seeing Saki running around with the other two who had taken a shine to the girl almost immediately. Well Jin had taken a shine to her; Jae had been a bit standoffish until about five minutes ago when she had picked up a ball from the pool and thrown it at his head. Seriously whoever thought of putting a ball pool in McDonalds clearly knew how to keep children of a certain age entertained.

 

“So she’s your daughter?” Kyung asked, breaking the silence though he didn’t sound as if he were exactly in his comfort zone in this situation.

 

Bradley nodded slowly, “Yeah. I didn’t know about her…until Mali turned up at the company with her and bloody well told the management a whole load of crap about me not paying any attention to her for the past three years or something.”

 

For a few seconds, Kyung paused processing this information and trying to fit it in with the personality of the elder in front of him. Gently he shook his head, “Even I know that’s a load of bull, if you had known anything about her then there’s no way that you would have even auditioned,” gently he sighed, “Is this why you left?”

 

Snorting into the paper tea cup, Bradley frowned towards the dancer, “Left? Kyung I was fired.”

 

“What?”

 

“How the hell didn’t you know that?” Bradley was surprised, he had thought that they would have at least been told that much, “What the hell did they tell you guys?”

 

“Nothing,” Kyung answered honestly, looking bewildered, “Other than what we got on that blasted day in the park. We were told not to ask about it and then you didn’t return any of the messages or anything that we tried…”

 

About to ask what messages they were talking about, Bradley groaned and shook his head, “God damn it, they must have known you’d try.”

 

“You never got anything?”

 

“No,” Bradley sighed, “I mean I know I’ve got a bad case of phone gremlins but if I had heard anything any other way from you guys then I would have responded immediately. You know what I’m like.”

 

Holding his hands up in surrender, Kyung sighed and placed his chin on his hands after resting his elbows on the table, “Why the hell would they do that though? It makes no sense.”

 

“Why the hell would who do what?” Jin’s voice cut into the conversation, the youngster holding onto Saki who immediately stretched her hands out towards Bradley who gladly took her.

 

Kyung wasted no time in replying, not wanting Bradley to cut in with something else, “The Company fired Bradley for having a daughter and then stopped all forms of contact between us.”

 

Jin blinked, “She’s Bradley’s daughter?”

 

“Yes,” Saki said looking up towards Jin, just as confused as he was but in a slightly different context, “I told you I wanted to go back and see Daddy.”

 

“I thought she was one of your little sisters,” Jin said, still confused and frowning all the more now as he sat down at the table they were sharing, “How the hell did that happen?”

 

“If you haven’t had the talk about the birds and the bees yet Jin, I’m not going to go through it with you right now,” Bradley felt a little bit of deadpan humour slipping onto his tongue before he could stop it, and shook his head, “How do you think it happened?”

 

Jin looked a little sheepish but managed to keep a straight face, “Oh come on, I know all about that but I was under the impression that you batted for the same team as Kyung.”

 

“Same team? Mama Bear?” Kyung glanced towards his friend with a look that clearly said babo, “Bradley’s Bi, he always has been as long as I’ve known him.”

 

“Bi?” Jin asked, not quite getting the abbreviation.

 

“Biual,” Jae’s voice now cut in, the pink-red hair making him stand out regardless though he was carrying a tray of food, “Means he’s into boys and girls.”

 

The younger blinked slightly, “Oh…right.” He paused for a fraction of a second, clearly trying to process this bit of information, “How does that work?”

 

Quickly Kyung brought them back on topic before the conversation could descend into the realm of madness, “It doesn’t matter right now. Look, I’m more concerned with the fact that JustHi fired Bradley because they found out he had a kid which he knew nothing about and then they stopped us getting in contact with one another.”

 

Jae returned at that point, carrying a tray of food and the smell of the processed food which Bradley normally hated made his stomach growl. The boy grinned ruefully at him, “Hungry by any chance, Bradley?”

 

There was something about the way that Jae said his name at that point that caused Bradley to give him a strange look before smiling and shaking his head, “More like starving to be honest.”

 

“You not been eating again?” there was a slight seriousness to the edge of Jae’s voice and Bradley tried to think of a way to back out of that conversation as possible. Thankfully his daughter provided a good escape route. 

 

“Daddy,” Saki went, obviously caught up in her own little world, “Can I go back and play in ball pit after tea?”

 

Bradley smiled down towards the little girl, “As long as you eat everything up and don’t make a mess then sure you can sweetheart.”

 

“Yay, keep out of the nasty rain that way,” the girl said, gladly picking up a wrapped burger which was taken out of her hands by Jae who was on food hand out. She looked up at him a little bit hurt.

 

“That’s your Daddy’s,” Jae said straight away, instead handing the girl a happy meal box, “That’s for you.”

 

“Oh wow!” Saki’s voice lifted up a few pitches, replying to him in Korean, “Thank you! It’s been forever since I had one of these!”

 

Jae virtually glared at Bradley, seeing the older boy about to speak,  “You say one more thing about paying and I will hit you.”

 

Frowning, Bradley shook his head, “Jae, you do realise that I’m a lot older than you right?”

 

“Yeah,” Jae replied, sounding a little uncharacteristically stroppy, “But you’ve just virtually lost your home and all of your possessions and I’m telling you now that you’re not paying me back a single penny for this.”

 

“Oh and you’re coming home with us tonight as well,” Kyung cut straight in, “It may be a bit of a tight squeeze in the car but I’m sure that we can fit everyone in. No arguments either, I’m not gonna leave you in a place with no front door and everything destroyed. Especially seeing as this weather is going to keep up too.”

 

“Kyung do me a favour and stop stealing my job will you?” Bradley said good naturedly, shaking his head but smiling, “How the hell you lot convinced Jongki to let you out to come and get me I don’t know.”

 

There was a slightly awkward silence and Bradley frowned at the group, “Jongki does know where you are right?”

 

Jin broke first, “It’s more a case of that will know eventually that we’re going out but he may not know exactly what we’re up to”

 

Bradley recognised that game all too well and decided that he wasn’t in the mood, “Jinseok, did you tell Jongki that you, Jae and Kyung were coming to find me after getting my address?” he paused, suddenly realising that he hadn’t actually asked how they had even found him in the first place, “Actually how did you find out where I living? My message didn’t even get through to any of you from what Kyung’s told me.”

 

Jinseok had gained a few precious seconds to answer and was about to launch into a full blown excuse ridden story when he thought the better of it. Bradley clearly wasn’t in the mood to play the round the houses games and whilst he hated it, it was probably better to be honest at least this once, “We snuck out. Jongki was in a meeting with the CEO and other management officials and you know how long those things last. We left Sang, Sunwoo and Kiyeol watching a movie and said that we were going to get popcorn and sweets.”

 

“We didn’t want to get their hopes up too much seeing Kiyeol’s really taken it hard since you left,” Jae added, shaking his head and idly flicking a chip around in his fingers, “plus it was just easier. Sang probably knows what we’re up to but he’s keeping quiet about it and will placate Jongki if he gets back before us.”

 

“It was a fan who got us your address,” Kyung added to the trio of sneaky stoats who were so going to be in trouble with their Leader when they got home, “they sent us a few pictures of you and a little girl who we now know to be Saki along with the building name and district. It was simply a matter of timing and opportunity before we could come over and find out what the hell happened.”

 

Staring at the others in disbelief, Bradley shook his head, “So in other words, you three are sneaking off and expect Jongki not to worry when he gets back from the meeting and finds the three of you gone in this weather?” He suddenly let out a half laugh, placing his hands on his face to try and hide the fact that he was so close to tears right now that it was starting to sting, “He’s going to be having ing kittens over this.”

 

“So?” Jae said, “Jongki won’t admit it but he’s been hit pretty bad by this whole thing too. Hell we all have…it’s not the same without you around anymore Bradley. I keep on expecting you to just walk in through that door and start taking care of us all or yell at us for something. Jongki tries but he’s not you…no one can replace you.”

 

Silence followed at that highly unusual statement from Jae, as everyone else around the table just sat and stared at him and the youngster managed to look just a little uncomfortable, “Don’t deny, we’ve all thought it.”

 

Kyung turned back to Bradley and blanched in fright, “Mama Bear, what are you crying for?”

 

Large droplets of water were running down the elders face, adding to the lines from earlier but he could barely contain them. “I’m sorry,” he said, not caring that they were in a very public place, “I’m sorry, I should have told you…I should have.”

 

“Whoa,” Kyung stepped up and wrapped his arms tightly around Bradley, “What are you apologising for? This isn’t your fault for gods’ sake!” It didn’t take long for Jin and Jae to also join in the hug to, all of them trying to tell their sobbing Mama Bear that none of this was his fault and that they couldn’t hate him for it. Bradley felt just all the more guilty for having put them through all of that torment and pain but strangely just the very notion that he was wanted and needed by the other seven boys whom he hadn’t seen properly in seven months just made his heart swell though he couldn’t tell with what emotion.

 

Saki sat and stared, swinging her legs back and forth a little too young to understand what was going on.

 

Slowly the hug broke and the little girl clambered up onto Bradley’s lap, “Why Daddy cry? Is he hurt?”

 

Bradley gently brushed a few stray tears away from his eyes, “No, sweetie, Daddy’s not. He’s just bit emotional at the moment.”

 

Gently the girl started batting at his face with her fingers, “Then Saki will shoo them away!”

 

“Owww,” Bradley went, his daughter’s slightly over enthusiastic battering just catching the corner of his eye and gently he caught her fingers and kissed them, “Saki don’t need to, Daddy will be fine in a moment. Thank you though.”

 

“Good!” Saki went before squirming around to pick up the happy meal box which rattled a little bit.

 

Jin smiled at her, “Your daughter is just too cute for words, Mama Bear,” he said, half-singing the last two words like he would normally do with Sunwoo’s nickname, “even if she wasn’t yours she would just be too cute.”

 

“Look what Oppa Jae got me!” Saki said, clearly not having heard Jin in the slightest and holding up a small plastic Princess doll which had come with the happy meal.

 

Jae had paled slightly and was staring at the girl like she had just grown an extra head or something, “What did she just call me?”

 

“Oppa,” Kyung said gently, grinning towards the other, “I think you’ve just been adopted by her.”

 

“Aww, no fair!” Jin said playfully, “I wanna be adopted by her too! Hey Saki, can I be an Oppa to you?”

 

“Course!” Saki grinned happily, “Can Oppa Jin pass me my drink please?” 

 

Jae stared, “Does she always do this?”

 

Bradley shook his head, “Nope, first time I’ve ever heard her do so. Count yourselves very lucky indeed.”

 

“Will she adopt all of us do you think?” Kyung said with a grin, taking a drink out of his cup before pulling a face at realising that it was stone cold freezing, “I mean after she spends the night. Which you’re still doing by the way, you’re not getting out of that.”

 

Rolling his mismatched blue and brown eyes Bradley nodded, “Yeah, yeah, I know. I don’t have much of a choice right now anyway. Plus I want to be there to see Jongki severely kick your arses for this.”

 

“He won’t kick our arses,” Kyung said with a grin.

 

“Oh yes he bloody well will,” Bradley said with a fond smile before glancing down at Saki, who was tugging on his now semi-dry jumper, “What?”

 

A little rudely she pointed at Kyung; her opposite mismatched blue and brown eyes boring straight into his to silently ask him the question which was bugging her. Bradley knew that look all too well. “Kyung,” he said, slowly, “Ke-yung”

 

“Ka-gun?” she tried earnestly.

 

“Not quite, Kyung,” Bradley tried again, silently apologising to the other who shook his head in understanding, “Key ung” 

 

Saki paused for a second and then looked directly at Kyung, “Oppa Key is we spending the night at yours?”

 

The boy smiled and nodded, “Yeah, sweetie, you will be.”

 

Jae had disappeared off to get another round of food and drink in and some take out for those who had been left behind. It was over an hours drive back to the Dorms at the best of times and with this weather it was probably going to take even longer. Bradley picked up his burger and took a bite out of it, savouring all the fatty goodness and feeling his heart swelling with pride once again.

 

Five minutes later Jin and Kyung headed to the ball pool with Saki for a few moments, Bradley stared out at the rain soaked night and wondered what the rest of it would bring. The mobile networks were off, hence why there had been no calls but he wasn’t entirely sure how meeting up with Jongki would go. They were best of friends of course and at times he felt so lost without the other’s constant presence but it had not been easy in the slightest to walk away from him. Gently he took a swig of his tea and shook his head before glancing back towards the ball pool.

 

Kyung and Saki were clambering up the long climbing frame whilst Jin was yelling at them for cheating whilst he tried to untangle himself from one of the net climbing things. Bradley couldn’t help but wish he had a working camera or something to capture these precious moments.

 

Gently he sighed, smiling properly for what felt like the first time in a long while, “Whoever found me out there, thank you,” he gently whispered.

 

Lightly he shifted at feeling soft fingers on the back of his neck, lightly playing with the long strands of his red hair. Jae was back with more food it appeared and Bradley sighed contently, humming happily at the sensation from the other. He had almost forgotten how much he enjoyed those flirty touches even though he could never quite explain as to why. Silently he took hold of the others wrist, pulling the youngsters hand into his own so that he could interlock their fingers and place his lips onto Jae’s in a series of kisses. His eyes remained closed as they shifted position, Jae wrapping himself around Bradley and holding him exceptionally close. Maybe consciously or not, Jae’s hand returned to gently caressing the back of his neck and Bradley just happily let him do so.

 

~~

 

O.O!!!!!!!!!

 

Sorry had to have a little cuteness flirting between the pair. Honestly, you two, work out how the hell you’re going to get together already! Lol

 

Even though it’s not going to happen for at least two/three years…silly bunnies! Is it ironic that I’m listening to Suju’s ‘y, Free and Single’ right now?