Chapter Two

    “Are you hungry?” The male asked uneasily while hanging his coat on a rack near the apartment door before helping the boy out of his.

    The boy nodded and the male stood, leading him to the couch. “Why don’t you, uh, sit here and I’ll get you something to eat... What do you want?”

    “Mac cheese!”

    He blinked and smiled, entering the small kitchen and looking through cupboard after cupboard for the item. Sadly, after a determined search, he only came up with easy noodles. Must have left it on the move, he thought to himself, now cursing his incessant need to constantly travel. He was hoping the boy wouldn’t be too upset about the change...

    “How about ramen?” He called and closed his eyes, expecting the worse, only to re-open them and receive a submissive accepting nod.

    While preparing the awkwardly silent ‘meal’, the strange male found something that was both alarming and idiotically impulsive. In the abrupt nature of it all, he forgot to ask...

    “What’s your name?”

    “Jae...”

    “I’m Yunho. It’s nice to meet you, Jae.”

    “Nice...”

    Carrying a small bowl of slightly cooled noodles, he set it at the table and helped the boy onto a ‘book-booster’ covered chair.

    “Thank you...”

    “You’re welcome. Would you like to um... Watch something while you eat?”

    “No...”

    “Ah, okay...” He sat across from him and tried to focus on something to do to pass the time as the boy ate, not wanting to make the child uncomfortable with any sort of staring. Of course, it was only natural that he was curious as to why the boy had left without the supervision of an adult and had gone searching for his mother...

    An hour later and the young one looked like he was going to pass out on the couch after an episode of Spongebob Squarepants, which in turn caused Yunho to panic a bit. He hadn’t thought about where the boy would sleep! He hadn’t a guest room in the small apartment...

    A few minutes of pacing and inner cursing directed toward himself, he finally gave up, scooping little Jae into his arms and carrying him into the master bedroom.

    Setting him upon the bed, he smiled a bit as his heart swelled at the tiny hands refusing to let loose his iron grip on his shirt. As soon as the warmth came, though, it went, and he was retreating from the room with a hand placed upon his chest, shutting the door carefully so that the light wouldn’t disrupt the covered boy’s short slumber.

    “I really need to be careful,” he said quietly with a relieved breath, running a hand over his face tiredly, “he’s someone’s child. And besides - I don’t like children. Never have, never will.”
 

A/N: Comments appreciated! Give me some feedback, guys. Is it too slow? Too fast?