She would have denied and objected to Luhan’s idea of spending a day around their neighborhood to walk on memory lane with Taeyang, but she couldn’t find the courage to do so. Luhan’s shimmering eyes sparkled and begged for her obedience, and she lost to it. At first, she thought it’d be a bad idea and that something would go wrong but she finds herself having enjoying it.

She didn’t know that the park had been rebuilt for safety issues and concerns, the library was close to losing business, and that the department store during her time married to Luhan had been renovated four times after she left.

But what is most surprising is the unchanging daycare center she, Luhan, and Taeyang had frequented.

“This is my old daycare, Mom?” Taeyang asks in amazement while eyeing every single space of the center. He cannot recall such a place because the only daycare center he knows of is the one he is currently attending if his mother cannot pick him up on time from school.

The old center is much smaller in comparison, but it is much cleaner. There are hardly any toys lying on the ground, and everything is neatly placed in its appropriate area. Everything looks sanitary, and the little children in the center are hardly making any kind of ruckus; they seem to enjoy the center as much as Taeyang likes the place.

At his current daycare center, the kids younger than him would make a fuss if any kind of media or entertainment is not something the kids themselves know. He had once witnessed a child younger than him wail on the floor with a flushed, wet, and red face. The child was crying because he wanted to listen to “The Wheels on the Bus” instead of “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”

But here, the background music is a subtle, gentle, and soothing instrumental, and the kids pay no attention to it. Even when there is a kid sitting on the lap of an employee, the other kids do not fight over her and instead, pays close attention to her reading to them. Back at the daycare center he only remembers, all of the kids would fight to sit on the lap of the person who is reading the book.

“Mr. Lu!”

Luhan, Hana, and Taeyang turn their heads to a young girl who seems to be close with Luhan as she beams a smile while walking over to the trio. Hana subtly pouts in disappointment when she cannot make out who the girl is other than a daycare employee. She realizes that many of her old employees she knew are probably not working here anymore.

“Chaeyoo!” Luhan responds back with the same tone of cheeriness. “I thought you’re off today.”

“I decided to take tomorrow off instead,” she says. Looking behind Luhan, she sees Hana and Taeyang. “Are they your guests?”

Luhan explains to her about whom Hana and Taeyang are—in Hana’s desired format because he wants to avoid ruining the happy atmosphere they have already created—and then asks to see someone else. While Mika leads the way, Luhan signals for Hana and Taeyang to follow.

To Hana’s surprise, one person she knows is still working here.

The Head Lady of the Daycare Center.

Just as how Hana recognizes the Head Lady, so does she recognizes Hana.

After Chaeyoo does her job, she excuses herself out the door and closes the door for the guests’ privacy.

“Luhan.” A hushed and mesmerized voice escapes from the Head Lady who seems to have gotten more beautiful with age. She stumbles to come over to Luhan and never removes her eyes from Hana. She asks Luhan if the person in front of her is who she thinks it is.

Luhan proudly nods and answers her, “And my son, Taeyang.”

The Head Lady slowly gazes down to the little boy, and she grins wider in delight. “He has grown up wonderfully.” She takes a few cautious steps to the young boy, but before she does anything else, she telepathically asks for permission from Hana with a simple look.

Hana gives her a gentle smile.

The Head Lady gets down on Taeyang’s eye level. “Hi, Taeyang. You probably don’t remember me, but I have seen you before. When you were a baby, that is.”

“Is it because I used to be here?”

“Yes.” The Head Lady momentarily hesitates before she asks for a hug.

Taeyang lights a smile and initiates the grand hug.

Everyone in the room laughs at his sweet gesture.

The Head Lady gets up and then faces Hana.

Hana tenses up and unlike Taeyang who has no recollection of the happy and painful memories, she does, and she’s timid on how to respond to the Head Lady.

The Head Lady first takes a calm and tender hold of one of her hands. “You’re also more grown up than before, Hana.”

For some reason, the softness of the Head Lady’s voice and her acceptance make Hana’s feelings overflow with guilt and sorrow. She bites her tongue to hide from biting her lip to show that she’s trying to stop herself from crying.

“Let this old lady hug you for old time’s sake.” And just like Taeyang, the Head Lady takes the initiative. Pulling away from the hug, she says, “I’m so glad I can see you guys as one again.” She puts out a hand at Luhan for his.

He envelopes his hand in the Head Lady’s and comes closer to Hana and Taeyang.

The Head Lady, smiling with such delight that can match Taeyang’s, she warmly places Hana’s and Luhan’s hands together, much to the confusion of Taeyang looking at the adults who are having their own conversation now. “I’ve waited so long to see this family.” Looking at Luhan, she adds, “Thank you, for finding her.” Looking at Hana, she says, “And thank you, for coming back.”

*

“Hana.”

Hana’s eyes fluttered at the soft whisper of her name. She is too sleepy to distinguish who is calling her, but she flips her body around on the uncomfortable object her body lies against. “Yeah?”

“Give me your keys.” The person continues to whisper. A hand calmly pats on her arm. “I need to put Taeyang in his bed.”

The name of her son receives her attention and she shoots up. In front of her is Luhan, and the couple along with Taeyang are in his car. She has fallen asleep during the car ride back home because today’s walk on memory lane was not only emotionally exhausting, but physically too.

Especially when they rested at the Daycare Center for the rest of the day to catch up on old times.

They did origami, played with clay, and Luhan invited a clown to do his balloon magic for the kids to allow some of the staffs to rest momentarily. He even dropped off a few of his company’s toys—both new and not yet on sale—for the kids and the center to have. After the tiring day and before the kids were to leave, he made sure he fed them with the kids’ favorite foods.

“Sorry, I fell asleep,” says Hana, rubbing her eyes. She rummages through her purse for her keys and tells Luhan that she can wake Taeyang up instead and for him to head on home for it is late already.

He doesn’t allow her to and offers to take Taeyang in while she opens the door.

With no energy to say otherwise, Hana agrees and follows his plan. While she stands at her son’s bedroom door and watches Luhan put him to sleep on his bed, she recalls the mixed emotions she encountered today, specifically in regards to the Daycare Center.

Luhan releases a satisfied sigh after the hard labor of tucking in a child almost half his size. “Night, little buddy.” He smiles at her and then walks her out of the bedroom to head to the exit.

“Why didn’t you use the key you secretly copied?” Hana asks him, blandly. She is sure he has made multiples of it because they both know he will not rest at just one copy of her house key.

“I gave it back to you. On top of your dresser.”

“What about the rest?”

“I only made one.” He flashes a sincere smile. “Honest.”

She lightly scoffs in utter surprise. “What made you do that?”

He stands still at his spot and locks a long eye contact with her. “I don’t want the key to your house anymore. I want something else.”

“What?”

He quickly says, “The key to your heart.”

Hana looks away in dismay.

A thorn throbs in his chest at her response. To change the subject to not leave on an awkward note, he says, “I hope today wasn’t too much. If it is, I’m not going to apologize.” It is in a joking manner, but they also know he means it. He goes to the door and turns around to face her again when she speaks.

“You don’t have to,” she says. “Taeyang enjoyed it.”

A momentary pause.

“And…I too.” She quietly adds.

Luhan slightly smiles in contentment. “But it didn’t look like that though.”

She furrows her brows at him to show that she is muddled with his contrary comment.

“I know there are a lot of reasons for what you must have felt today, but it seemed that you were forcing a smile.”

Her stomach churns at his blunt, but true observant commentary.

“Even if you were enjoying your time with us, you weren’t with us emotionally and mentally.”

“Luhan, I—”

“You don’t have to say anything, I know.” This time, he forces a smile at her. “You don’t want to have anything to do with what we had.” His hand reaches for the door knob.

Her hand rapidly covers his. “It’s not any of that,” she quickly adds. Her rushed tone hints to Luhan that she has more to add. “It…it’s…” Her hand gradually glides down and away from his, but he manages to hold onto it.

He squeezes her hand to show her that he’ll understand whatever she wants to say.

She squeezes his hand back. “I was a bit uncomfortable at first, but…” Exhaling deeply, she drops what she is going to say and instead ask the question she wants an answer to. It is the reason for her current state of emotions. “Were you searching for me…because of the Head Lady?”

Luhan takes a few moment to progress her question’s meaning and then soon laughs in response. He pulls her into a hug to assure her of his love for her. “Pabo, I searched for you because I’ve longed for you.”

Not liking his answer, she pushes herself away from him. “Then what did she mean by that? How come she was waiting for you to bring me back to her? Why didn’t she move on like the rest of the other staffs we knew?”

His expression turns firm. “Are you really asking that?”

“Yes!” She catches herself exclaiming out of context, so she composes herself down.

He heaves another sigh. “Did you expect her to forget about us after what you did to me? I was alone in a world where no one told me anything when they knew of everything all along, and she couldn’t leave me alone after finding out that I had no one because my someone—my family—has always been you and Taeyang. Other than Yunho hyung who stood by my side and helped me, she provided me emotional support and gave me the strength and understanding to find you again. To repay back for what she had done, I promised myself to find you and present you to her…but it was nowhere near how I had envisioned of it.”

He bites his lower lip and looks around. “I don’t care where we live. I don’t care what we missed. But I hope that one day the words I have said to her today would come true.” He comes back over to her and takes her hand again. “If I have to wait for another few years to build up our relationship, I will. I will do anything it takes…to make you my Mrs. Lu.”

*

A week has passed since Luhan, Hana, and Taeyang have last seen each other because Luhan is currently busy with his company’s new regulations and internal processes, and Taeyang is preparing in excitement to sleepover at Kris’s place because his father has a roommate he knows—Baekhyun, also passionately referred to as Take by Taeyang.

Because Taeyang will be heading over to Kris’s for the weekend, Luhan has taken advantage of this and has stopped by at Hana’s place after Taeyang got off of school and has offered to take the two to Kris.

Much to Hana’s reluctance, she had to agree because her son was smitten with Luhan’s bag of presents.

A total bribery, of course.

Along the way, however, Luhan receives a call from his secretary informing him of his brother waiting for him at his company, so they drive there instead. He apologizes for the turnaround but also admits that it gives them more time to spend together.

Hana continues to ignore him as usual to not show otherwise of their relationship in front of Taeyang who is busily playing a game at the backseat.

As soon as they arrive, Luhan directs them to his office and not to his surprise, his brother is patiently waiting for their arrival.

Along with someone unexpected to Hana.

“Uncle Baek!” Taeyang slips away from Luhan and Hana to run over to the young lad sitting on the couch across from Kris.

Baekhyun stands up in shock because he did not expect to see Taeyang. As he high-fives the young boy, he catches a full glimpse of whom the casual-looking woman behind the President is and he freezes at his spot.

“Baekhyun?” Hana says in a whisper manner.

“You two know each other?” Kris asks when he hears Baekhyun’s name escape from Hana.

Hana lets out a small laugh. “I had tutored him and his friends,” she answers to Kris. Glancing at Baekhyun, she asks, “Have you been well?”

Luhan’s eyebrows twitched at the name that sounds familiar, but he cannot recall form where. He wonders why and how this young lad knows Hana well enough for her to kindly speak to him in a manner of familiarity. Sure, he had missed out on the last few years of her life, so she could have made new friends, but from the looks of it, she was still in close contact with their old friends and her new friends are mostly just her co-workers.

Just exactly who is this guy? he mentally questions.

“I-I’ve been out on the countryside. With Kris.” Baekhyun timidly points to Kris.

Hana’s eyes widened at the surprising fact she has learned of today. “You’re whom Kris’s been with for all of these years?” She laughs to herself at how close she had a contact who knew and had access to Baekhyun. “What a small world.”

To indirectly stop the conversation, Luhan purposely clears his throat. When all eyes lay on him, he casually asks why his brother is here for him.

“Ah, I am here for the interview we talked about last time,” says Kris.

“Interview?” Hana’s tone of voice hints joy. “Like a job interview?”

Kris turns to face Hana. “Baekhyun and his family have helped me a lot in the past few years, and I would like to help him in return. I don’t want him to be restless and stressful over finding a job, so I figured Luhan can take him in and help train him.”

“That’s great! I’m sure Luhan would be glad to!”

Luhan rolls his eyes—thankfully, he does it behind everyone’s back.

Kris says, “Baekhyun wants to find a job on his own without anyone’s help, but luckily, I was able to persuade him.”

Hana glances at the younger man. “I’m glad you took up the offer.”

Taeyang looks back and forth between Baekhyun and his mother. After hearing the conversation between the three adults—with Luhan pouting in the background—he puts the pieces together and asks for validation. “Uncle Baek, you know my mom too?”

Another surprise hits Baekhyun.

Hard.

“Y-your mom…?” he stutters to ask with a lump in his throat.

Taeyang proudly nods and goes to his mother.

Hana smiles and confirms it.

“You’re married…?” Baekhyun asks, sounding slightly depressed. “To who?”

This time, Kris, Luhan, and Hana give each other a quick, subtle glance at one another. There is no definite answer to Baekhyun’s question, and they also know that they cannot speak of their complex relationship to anyone in front of Taeyang.

Taeyang doesn’t see the harm in answering the question for his mother because from what he knows, his mother is married to his father, Kris. Right after he blurts out the relationship between Hana and Kris, the adults freeze in absolute despair for their own personal reasons—Hana doesn’t know how to clarify things; Kris doesn’t know what to say; Luhan can’t decide whether to speak up about it or not; and Baekhyun is dejected about Hana’s new life.

Baekhyun composes himself and tries to stay upbeat. “Oh, wow. I did not know that you were married, Kris...and to Hana, that is.” He knows that he should have added a congratulatory phrase to the couple, but it is already suffocating enough for him to know that he’s too late for her.

Kris catches the dejected expression from Baekhyun and decides to takes this chance to close the discussion and start anew. He brings their attention back to the job interview and then thanks Luhan for taking Hana and Taeyang. He will be taking them home first and will come back to pick up Baekhyun when the interview is finished. Before he leaves, however, he makes sure he warns Luhan to not inquire anything non-job related or say anything related about Taeyang’s situation.

Luhan obediently agrees and guarantees his silence on it.

Then, Kris pleads for the unexpected.

“What?” Luhan raises a brow. “You want me to accept him regardless if he passes the interview?”

The brothers are a few meters outside the office door, having a talk within themselves in the pretense of completing a few tasks.

Kris tries to hide his stressed smile. “I know it’s morally wrong, but—”

“And unfair.” Luhan adds. He crosses his arms over his chest.

“But I owe him.”

“For what? You work for his family without pay. I say that’s enough for whatever you want to pay him for.”

“I’m not paying him for anything.”

“Then you owe him nothing.”

“I do.” Kris insists and looks solemnly down on the floor. With a disheartening tone, he adds, “And if could give him my life, I would. But it amounts to nothing.”

Luhan vaguely glances at his brother. Seeing his brother look hopeless is a sight he has never seen before, so out of guilt and care for his older brother, he agrees to the deal by nudging him and showing him his reluctant nod.

*

Hana, Kris, and Taeyang just finished dinner at Kris’s place because Kris did not want Hana to leave without eating. Because Hana cooked, Kris and Taeyang washed the dishes because they have a family rule of taking turns to do certain duties and chores. She excitedly saved a portion of dinner for Baekhyun for when he gets back from the job interview, which Kris and Taeyang will go back to pick him up. With the family dinner finished, Hana is about to leave to her house, but she gets asked to stay for a moment for a little talk since Taeyang is busy in the shower.

Both Hana and Kris sit at the kitchen on opposite ends.

Kris has something to say to Hana.

“So…I did some thinking.”

Hana perks up from wiping her hands dry with the napkin in her hands. “Yes?” She can see that Kris is still hesitant on what he wants to say because his fingers are fidgeting with each other and his eyes are looking around, although they’re facing down.

“Hana…I know I have been with you since you left Luhan.”

She nods. She’s always and will forever be grateful for what he did for her.

“When I thought about it—when I really thought about it, it’s not so.” He sounds ashamed of himself and burrows his head further.

“What do you mean?” She doesn’t like him feeling this way nor would she allow him to speak of such untrue. She lists all of the incidences of when she was in need and how he was always there, whether it was for the move, the support of her career path, or simple stuff such as the movie nights.

“But I have never been there…when…” this time, he doesn’t know how to word it. “When I should’ve been there.”

“What do you mean?”

He figures it’s best come to out and say it. Gathering enough courage, he gradually looks up with an apologetic expression. “I’m sorry that I never acted out as a proper Mr. Lu for you. It’s really unfair to you, and now that I witnessed how unsettling it can be to be asked about who is your other half, I...” he trails off in his sentence because he’s mentally frustrated at himself for not realizing any sooner.

Hana is stunned at his statement, and she knows why this is on his mind. When Baekhyun threw out the question earlier that afternoon about who is her husband, it was not the adults that gave Baekhyun a proper answer.

It was Taeyang, the innocent boy who only said what he has been shown.

She didn’t think much of it because not answering or dodging the question has become a norm for her. But she probably cannot say the same for Kris.

Kris is usually with Taeyang during every other weekend and over summer break, but most of the time—over the weekend only—Kris and Taeyang are at the park playing some kind of sports together and no one would question of the whereabouts of Taeyang’s mother to Kris.

“I’m thankful you’re even thinking of me,” Hana says. She shifts in her seat. “But I am not one who would stress over or mind about such a thing.” She finally sees a smile from Kris and she is reminded of Taeyang. She purposely adds, “Taeyang is the one who needs our help the most.”

He subtly shrinks into his chair. “Can I take that as you no longer care for my brother?”

Hana nods, but her heart wavers.

He knows the actual truth, but he does not dare to instigate about it. Or else he will lose this chance. “Then I guess it is time I do the