“This is a bad idea and you know it,” sighed Kyuhyun as he watched Siwon walk into the living room.

 

Siwon had been fixing the collar of his suit when he entered, only to now stop at the table Kyuhyun was sitting at with their daughter Daerim.

 

“What’s a bad idea?” he asked, wanting to clarify before he attempted to defend himself.

 

“I don’t think she’s ready to do this again. When she was a baby it was different, but now that she’s older, I don’t think she can handle it,” said Kyuhyun shaking his head.

 

“But Kyu…I already promised my parents that we were going to start going again. Besides, she’s three, it’s the perfect age to start her in the daycare center,” reasoned Siwon.

 

Kyuhyun sighed as he looked down at Daerim who was preoccupied with trying to keep the rice on her spoon on it’s way to .

 

“Daerim-ah, aren’t you excited to go to church with Wonnie and Kyu appa?” asked Siwon with a smile as he the back of Daerim’s soft hair.

 

She looked up at him, full with a few spare of grains of rice on her cheeks and nodded vigorously.

 

“See,” smiled Siwon at Kyuhyun.

 

“That’s because you’ve filled her head with the idea that church is this place we go to spend hours coloring pictures of bible characters and eating snacks—speaking of, can you please get her bag of snacks together before we go?”

 

“Of course. Are you ready?” asked Siwon as Kyuhyun began to clean up the remaining dishes from Daerim’s breakfast.

 

“Yes, I’m just going to get the other bag—said Kyuhyun rising when he heard Daerim’s voice.

 

“Uh-oh, Kyu Appa,” said Daerim as she looked at Kyuhyun.

 

In an attempt to finish the last of her strawberry juice pouch, Daerim had squeezed the remainder all over the front of her dress.

 

“Daerim-ah,” groaned Kyuhyun palming his face.

 

“It’s okay, we have plenty of time,” said Siwon checking his watch.

 

“Okay, give us ten minutes,” said Kyuhyun as he helped Daerim down from her chair and then led her back to her room.

 

When they returned exactly ten minutes later, Daerim’s bag slung over Kyuhyun’s shoulder, Siwon put away his phone and stood up from the kitchen table. As Kyuhyun and Daerim walked to their front door, Siwon grabbed Daerim’s small lunch box and they were off.

 

“Okay, the daycare is just down this way,” said Siwon leading Kyuhyun and Daerim down the hallway once they arrived in the basement of the church.

 

As they walked down the hall, Siwon suddenly froze, staring at a door that had a little sign on it.

 

“What’s wrong?” asked Kyuhyun when he saw Siwon’s expression.

 

That’s when he saw the door for himself.

 

“Are you kidding? The daycare and Sunday school teacher are both sick? What are we supposed to do now?” asked Kyuhyun setting Daerim down.

 

“I guess…we’ll have to take her up upstairs and into the service with us,” said Siwon scratching the back of his head.

 

“Oh no,” chuckled Kyuhyun. “That’s not gonna work.”

 

“Kyu, we’ve already come all this way and my parents are expecting us,” reasoned Siwon.

 

“She’s just turned 3, there’s no way she’s gonna sit quiet for two hours!” said Kyuhyun with big eyes.

 

“People will understand. It’s not like they expect a toddler to be completely quiet during service. I promise you she wont be the only child there. It’ll be fine. Everyone will be too distracted by how cute she and her pouting appa are anyway,” said Siwon rubbing Kyuhyun’s arms.

 

After rolling his eyes, Kyuhyun took a deep breath. “Fine.”

 

“Good!” smiled Siwon. “Come on sweetheart.”

 

Daerim scampered over to Siwon and he scooped her up high in the air before bringing her back down to his hip, making her laugh.

 

“Wonnie, don’t build her up for excitement. You’ve sat through hundreds of your father’s sermons, you’re only setting her up for disappointment,” murmured Kyuhyun with a smile as he followed along.

 

“I heard that baby,” Siwon said with a smirk as he glanced over his shoulder.

 

Kyuhyun shrugged innocently as they made their way to the elevator.

 

When they arrived in the main part of the church, the last of the patrons were just filing in. Siwon was headed towards the front, where they would usually sit, but Kyuhyun stopped him and steered them to the far end of a row closer to the back.

 

“Why all the way back here?” asked Siwon as he followed Kyuhyun into the pew.

 

“Because if we need to make a quick escape, the door is right there,” said Kyuhyun nodding towards the door.

 

“Kyu, she’s gonna be fine. Trust me,” chuckled Siwon placing Daerim between them.

 

Kyuhyun said nothing, only cocking an eyebrow as the music began to play.

 

But amazingly, Siwon was right, for the first twenty minutes at least. Though, it didn’t take long before the monotony of the service turned to boredom for Daerim. Kyuhyun tried to placate her for a bit, at first with a picture book and then with his phone and then Siwon’s phone. But they were only temporary distractions.

 

“Kyu appa, I’m thirsty!” Daerim suddenly exclaimed during a moment of complete silence in the church.

 

Kyuhyun slightly jumped from the sudden interruption. Looking around self consciously and then down at Daerim, he saw that she waiting for him to act.

 

“Appa, thirsty, thirsty,” she said tapping his arm.

 

“Okay aegi-yah, just a minute,” said Kyuhyun trying to get her to mimic the volume of his voice. “Wonnie?”

 

After rustling around in her bag, Siwon turned to look at Kyuhyun empty handed.

 

“We must have left it in the car, I don’t see it,” he whispered.

 

Kyuhyun’s mouth hang open in shock. “What?!”

 

“It’s fine, it’s fine, don’t worry. She can just have some of my water,” Siwon whispered back as he unscrewed the lid of his plastic water bottle.

 

Kyuhyun settled back, slightly relieved as he watched Siwon carefully help Daerim drink from his bottle.

 

When she had had enough he put the top back on and resumed listening to the sermon.  He barely noticed when Daerim reached over and took the bottle out of his hand.

 

Kyuhyun was watching her out of the corner of his eye, praying that she wouldn’t attempt to open the bottle again.

 

But much to his relief, she simply sat still, staring at the words on the label as though she understood them. In fact, it made him smile a bit before turning back and trying to listen to Kiho as well.

 

Swish swish swish—crackle crackle—swish swish

 

 Kyuhyun’s head whipped around when he heard the noises.

 

Daerim had taken to shaking the bottle and then crunching the plastic in her tiny hands.

 

“Daerim-ah!” Kyuhyun hissed, reaching for the bottle.

 

But Daerim leaned away from him, laughing as she turned to Siwon.

 

“Sweetheart, give appa the bottle please,” said Siwon holding his hand out.

 

“No!” Piped Daerim as she held the bottle close against her tummy.

 

“Aegi-yah, you have to be quiet—remember we practiced our quiet voices? You can’t play with the bottle like that,” said Kyuhyun her leg. “You’re gonna disturb all of the nice people here if you keep—

 

“Daerim-ah, look what Wonnie Appa found,” said Siwon.

 

Daerim turned her head and saw that Siwon was holding up at small lollipop.

 

Her eyes grew with excitement and she quickly dropped the bottle to the floor in order to grab the candy. The bottle hit the floor with a loud thud and proceeded to roll a few pews backwards, much to Kyuhyun’s chagrin.

 

“Wonnie, it’s 8:30 in the morning,” said Kyuhyun as he watched Daerim happily on the strawberry flavored er.

 

“Sorry Kyu…but at least she’s not playing with the bottle anymore right?” Siwon shrugged.

 

Kyuhyun sighed and then nodded before settling back against the pew.

 

Twenty minutes later…

 

“Wonnie appa I want another snack,” said Daerim tapping his leg.

 

Siwon looked into the bag that he had brought, and saw that there was just one container. Pulling it out, he looked at Kyuhyun.

 

“Don’t give her cookies now after that lollipop, didn’t you pack any fruit?” asked Kyuhyun.

 

“I didn’t pack anything,” said Siwon shaking his head.

 

Kyuhyun’s eyes widened. “Why not? I asked you to when I was getting her ready this morning.”

 

“I thought you asked me to just grab her bag, not pack it,” said Siwon shaking his head.

 

Kyuhyun palmed his face. “Wonnie no. ‘Get her bag together’ means pack it, not grab it.”

 

“Sorry Kyu.”

 

Kyuhyun let out a chuckle as he leaned over and peered into the bag, seeing for himself that that’s all there was.

 

“Appa! I’m hungry!” whined Daerim patting her belly as she moved around on the pew.

 

“Well, just give them to her if that’s all there is,” he said with a small shrug.

 

Siwon opened the container of cookies and Daerim immediately dug her small hand in, grabbing a small cookie to put into .

 

After about three cookies, Daerim looked up at Siwon.

 

“Wonnie appa, I can do it,” said Daerim taking the container from him.

 

Because he wasn’t expecting it, Siwon’s hand jerked and the entire container of cookies spilled out onto the floor, the plastic making a loud noise as it spun on the ground.

 

Siwon closed his eyes, too nervous to look over at his husband.

 

When he finally was brave enough to look, Kyuhyun was pinching the space between his eyes while Daerim was eating the few cookies that had managed to land in her lap instead of the ground below.

 

“Kyu—

 

Kyuhyun put his hand up, signaling Siwon not to say anything while he still took a few moments to process what had happened.

 

Siwon sat back in the pew and looked forward, ignoring the glances from those around him.

 

“Appa. There’s no more cookies, they all fell on the ground,” said Daerim tugging on Kyuhyun’s arms.

 

Siwon let out of laugh, which he quickly tried to stifle, especially when he saw Kyuhyun’s head turn towards him.

 

“This is not funny!” he said just above a whisper. “Everyone is looking at us.”

 

“Baby, relax, she’s three, like I said, they understand that,” said Siwon as Daerim slipped down from the pew, effectively crunching the majority of the cookies under her feet.

 

“I told you this was a bad idea this morning, didn’t I? They're going to kick us out,” said Kyuhyun shrinking a bit lower into the pew.

 

“It’s my father’s church Kyu,” Siwon chuckled as he scooted slightly closer. “No one is going anywhere.”

 

“Daerim!” Kyuhyun said louder than he meant to, lounging forward and effectively knocking foreheads with his husband.

 

“Aish!” yelped Siwon rubbing his head as he turned to see Daerim stepping out into the main aisle.

 

“Please, go get her!” said Kyuhyun desperately.

 

“Okay, okay,” said Siwon as he stayed low while moving to the end of the pew to go get Daerim.

 

When he got to the end he saw that she was still standing in the middle of the aisle staring up at Kiho who had momentarily stopped speaking.

 

“Aegi-yah, come here to Appa,” said Siwon holding out his hand.

 

“No!” she smiled stepping away from him.

 

“Daerim-ah,” he said slightly firmer.

 

When he moved to step out into the aisle himself, Daerim took off running towards the pulpit, where Kiho was standing.

 

“Harabeoji!” she yelled running towards him with her arms held out.

 

Kiho chuckled as he watched Daerim trot up to him and Siwon stand up fully.

 

“I apologize,” Siwon said with a small bow to the church goers as he turned to face them.

 

“No need to apologize son,” said Kiho as he bent down to pick up Daerim. “As many of you all know, this is my granddaughter, Daerim, my son Siwon, and his husband, my son-in-law, Kyuhyun.”

 

As Kiho gestured to them, Kyuhyun felt the redness in his cheeks increase, Siwon felt his chest fill a bit with pride. It had taken so many years for his father to accept his family, but now to see him confidently claim them as his, gave Siwon such a feeling of relief in the middle of such an embarrassing situation.

 

But he still realized he needed to go and retrieve his daughter.

 

“Harabeoji, where is halmeoni?” asked Daerim.

 

“She’s over there sweetheart,” said Kiho pointing to where his wife always sat.

 

“Me and Kyu Appa and Wonnie appa are sitting over there. All my cookies spilled on the ground so I can’t eat them any more. Can we go to your house and eat snacks together?”

 

“Okay, aegi-yah, that’s enough. Harabeoji has to finish talking now. The daycare was closed today, so we had to bring her with us, I’m really sorry,” Siwon said as he approached the front.

 

“It’s alright,” said Kiho again with a chuckle as Siwon took Daerim from his arms.

 

“Bye Harabeoji!” said Daerim with a wave as she looked over Siwon’s shoulder.

 

“Bye Halmeoni!” she called out when they walked past her as well, making everyone in the church laugh at her cuteness.

 

When they finally reached their pew, Kyuhyun had all but slide down it completely, turning to hide from the looks everyone was giving them, despite it being all smiles and chuckles.

 

“So…on a scale of 1-10, how mad are you?” asked Siwon as he held on Daerim while she played with his tie.

 

Kyuhyun shot a look over to Siwon before slowly sliding back up to his normal sitting position.

 

“I hate you,” Kyuhyun said curtly, reaching over and taking their daughter.

 

“What did I do?!” Siwon asked incredulously.

 

“Shhhh!” Kyuhyun hushed him.

 

Siwon looked around and then scooted closer to Kyuhyun, filling in the gap.

 

“Baby, why are you mad at me?” he asked softly as Daerim now played with both of their ties.

 

“Because even in the worst situations, you're always right,” Kyuhyun muttered.

 

“What am I right about?” asked Siwon.

 

“That your child is cute enough that they wont kick us out for her being a little hellion.”

 

“Well, I thank you for finally trusting me baby,” Siwon said with a smile.

 

“See, don’t do that. Don’t get cheeky. This is why I reserve things like this for rare occasions. Because you don’t stop smiling at me like that.”

 

“I just love when you get like this, that’s all,” said Siwon putting his arm around Kyuhyun’s shoulder.

 

Kyuhyun rolled his eyes as he patted Daerim’s back gently, coaxing her into laying against him.