C H A P T E R  T W O

Jay had always woke up early in the morning, and Mrs. Baek admired him for it as many kids his age and even older than him can’t handle waking up at six in the morning that well. His first morning at his Papa’s house wasn’t an exception.

He was trying to get the tight grip of his Dada off of him. Wow, his Dada definitely liked hugging someone when he was sleeping. Jay thought he should use that to his plan’s advantage, well that is if he can take his Dada’s heavy arm away from his little body.

Seeing that lifting his Dada’s arm wouldn’t work, he instead slid his body away from it and now he was on the foot of the bed. Jay used it to be able to step his foot on the wooden floor without any sounds, glad that he succeeded a few seconds later. Now, off he was to his Papa’s side to move him nearer to his cuddly Dada. He just hoped his Papa wasn’t that much of a light sleeper or else his plan wouldn’t work.

The child carefully pushed his Papa to the right, slightly amused that his Papa looked like a sleeping sushi by the way he rolled him in the bed. His Papa was skinny, but too heavy for a four year old like him to move, and so his task took several seconds to accomplish.

Phew, his Papa surely was heavy! But at least he didn’t wake up, and now he only has to do is wait until his Dada clings to his Papa. If his Dada wouldn’t do it, then Jay has to make Dada hug Papa by himself, and the thought of lifting his Dada’s heavy arm again didn’t sound appealing.

For the mean time, he was searching for Dada and Papa’s phones as he thought of capturing the moment when Dada gets his arm on Papa’s waist. Jay was pleased when he saw their phones lying on the bedside table on their side. He walked and made sure there was no sound emitted by his feet, and grabbed those. Navigating through someone’s phone wouldn’t be difficult for Jay as he used to make friends with the volunteers at the orphanage and they let him use their phones because he was so fascinated about the games installed in it. There were also times when he messed with their private things but he kept them a secret! He was not a bad boy, okay.

The four year old heard a movement in the bed while he unlocked both phones (good thing they don’t have pass codes) and clicked the camera app. He turned to his parents and wow, was he delighted when his plan worked! There, in front of him, was Dada hugging his Papa! And it wasn’t just a simple arms-lying-on-Papa’s-waist thing!  His Dada was scooping his Papa like his favorite plushie ever and had his face fixed on his Papa’s neck as if he was a child. Jay bit back a squeal and focused on taking pictures as much as possible. He was so going to make it his Dada and Papa’s home screen!

Weren’t they so sweet?

-

Donghae was woken up by the sound of feet thumping in the floor, as if someone was jumping, and groaned because he was feeling utterly comfortable with his position by now. He felt like he was hugging one of the biggest, comfiest, and warmest plushy in the world! It smelled so good too, masculine and—

What?

Plushies weren’t meant to smell manly.

The worst heart attacks were when you can’t even scream about it and everything you were feeling were bottled up inside your chest and crap, that was what Donghae felt the moment he saw a face so near to his. Just what the ? Did , molest him in his sleep or whatever? But he was the one hugging  like a koala! No, no, he was unconscious, sleeping, and tired out of his wits and that was the perfect excuse as to why he has his limbs entangled to ’s. Yes, that must be it.

It felt as if someone was missing, and it didn’t take long for him to recognize that Jay, the one who was supposed to be beside him, wasn’t there! He almost shoved  off of him, but thank goodness he was fast enough to see that his son was actually standing beside the edge of the bed, fumbling with their phones. Sighing, he retreated his arms off of , sitting on the bed at first as he was feeling quite dizzy before approaching Jay.

“Baby, what are you doing?”

The child looked up at him and smiled. “Nothing, Dada. I’m just changing your and Papa’s home screen because they look boring.”

Donghae was intrigued at that, although agreeing a little bit with Jay as his home screen was nothing but blue. He tried peeking but then Jay was already finished by that time and showed his Dada his and Hyukjae’s home screen.

“There, Dada! Your home screens aren’t boring anymore!” Jay exclaimed, definitely delighted, however realizing that his Papa might wake up because he was too loud and so he placed his hands in front of his mouth. “Oops.”

Donghae was shook by his son’s cuteness, and was about to ruffle his hair as well as too mutter praises about how he was so good with technology already at such age when he saw what wallpaper the kid used.

“Baby, what’s this?”

“Dada, it’s your not-so-boring home screen!” Jay grinned and showed Hyukjae’s phone too. “See! Papa has the same wallpaper too!”

“Ehm…but…baby…I-I told you that me and your Papa—“

Donghae didn’t even get the chance to finish his excuse when Jay’s face had a hundred-eighty degrees turn. Eyes downcast, and lips are pushed in a small, gloomy pout. He felt so guilty about bursting his son’s bubble but he had to understand that there was no way he was going to be involved to Hyukjae like what Jay wanted to. The best he can do was to act civilized with that when Jay was around, but to be his boyfriend, worse, his husband, that has to be a resounding no.

“Baby, I’m so sorry. Please don’t be sad for Dada anymore?”

“Why can’t you love Papa? Papa’s handsome and he treats me well…” The child whispered, eyes not meeting his Dada’s. If only I can tell baby that his Papa was basically a living example of a .  “Please don’t change the wallpaper, and tell that to Papa too. Please?”

Puppy eyes. Donghae had always used that asset of his ever since, and until now, to persuade someone in doing something they don’t want to. He was glad they worked most of the time, but never understood the struggle of people who had the chance to saw his puppy eyes. Now that his son was doing it to him, he suddenly felt like the tables had turned and he can now sympathize to the victims of his infamous trick before. It was so hard to say no, not when their eyes were begging and sad.

“Fine,” The brunet heaved a sigh. “I’m keeping the wallpaper, but first, I don’t want you to be sad anymore, okay?”

Jay nodded and hugged his Dada. Although his Dada never said anything about loving his Papa, he thought, maybe that he can work on that eventually.

“I love you, Dada.”

“Love you too, baby.”

-

“Dada, can I help you with that?” Jay tip-toed, trying to see what his Dada was putting inside the pot. He had always helped the elders in the orphanage in terms of cooking even though he didn’t need to. Jay was just the type to get easily interested by things. “What are you cooking anyway, Dada?”

Donghae laughed and carried his son right after he finished placing all the ingredients in the pot. “It’s a *Kongnamul Bap, baby. We need something heavy for breakfast because we’ll be out the whole day!”

“Where are we going, Dada?” The child gave him a questioning look.

“As for your Papa and me, we’re going to work but before that, we’re going to enroll you in the daycare center nearby. Aren’t you excited to have friends?” Donghae smiled at Jay who’s still looking pretty much confused, pinching his cheeks which sent the kid out of his reverie.

“Daycare? Are you going to leave me t-there?”

Donghae almost wanted to punch himself for not explaining the thing further. Jay had issues with people leaving and… it’s just so painful to see that someone as young as Jay was having anxiety. He closed the pot with its lid and brought Jay down as he kneeled to his height, cooking be damned. “Jay, honey,” He muttered in a voice so soft that almost soothed the child’s fears. “Me and your Dada can’t stay with you every time because we have work on weekdays, no one will look after you so we will trust the personnel in the daycare to do that, but I promise, we will come back for you as soon as we finish work, okay?” The brunet caressed Jay’s cheeks lovingly and gave him a peck in the cheek.

“D-dada and P-papa will come back? P-promise?” Jay, who previously had his eyes downcast, locked his gaze to his Dada’s, expression hopeful yet slightly teary.

“Pinky promise.” Donghae hooked his finger with Jay’s and was delighted when the kid finally smiled while he wiped his tears. “Me and your Papa, we’re not going anywhere, understand?”

The child nodded and his Dada gave him one last squeeze before setting his attention back to the food he was cooking. “It should be cooked in a couple of minutes. Care to help me with arranging the table while I wake up your Papa, hmm baby?”

 “Yes, Dada!”

Donghae took off his apron and hanged it to its place. “Just be careful. Your Papa’s dishes are expensive and easy to break, okay?”

“Okay, Dada.”

The last thing he heard before going inside ’s bedroom were the sound of plates being carefully removed out of the cabinet and laid on the table. He was kind of confident that his son wouldn’t cause that much nuisance in the morning by what he had heard, although he wasn’t that sure about this guy, whose room he was walking to.

Here we are in ’s bedroom.

Donghae wanted to bang the door, so much that it will ruin ’s peaceful sleep and d