I'm a bit under the weather today and I asked for some encouragement on twitter. I received some really great support, but I wish more of my readers would write me from time to time. I hope that it'll happen sometime soon. Anyway, I just wanted to say something more about this story. It'll be very calm and peaceful, there won't be any drastic changes in action, just kind of family-oriented piece. I know it's not as interesting as some of you might want it to be but maybe you'll still enjoy this smooth ride? Please let me know what you think!

***

Kyuhyun met Sungrin’s father again on one of those rare occasions when he was out of the house, in the center of the city, taking care of the business which required of him more than an email. He was leisurely strolling along the street, headphones blocking all sounds of the outside world. He was checking out the displays of the shops with minimum interest when a familiar bright smile flashed in the reflection of the shop’s window. He quickly turned his head around and with surprise noted that the man he met, and who almost took his son, was animatedly chatting with the street vendor selling Tteokbokki.

Before he knew what he was doing he was already walking towards the stall and stopping only when he was right behind Sungmin. The man was wearing elegant dress shirt under light grey fitted vest. The jacket was hanged quite messily over one the man’s knees and his briefcase was propped against the wooden stool he was sitting on, next to his foot clad in polished leather shoes.

The shadow alerted the man and Sungmin spun around, his mouth stuffed with too many cakes. He was blinking for a moment while staring into Kyuhyun’s face before his eyes widened in acknowledgement. He chewed fast before swallowing and punching himself in the sternum when it turned out that pieces were still too big and had some problems going down to his stomach. When he was done with the small comedy sketch he was gracing Kyuhyun with he wiped his mouth and smiled brightly.

‘Kyuhyun-ssi, am I right?’ The question was what first left his mouth.

Of course, Kyuhyun forgot to take his headphones off so he only read the words from the movement of the other man’s lips. Blushing a little he quickly pulled the headphones down so that they were around his neck.

‘Yeah. Sungmin-ssi, right?’ He answered with a bow when the smaller, by a few centimeters, man greeted him with one.

‘Yes, yes. Would you care to join? This is delicious!’ He turned to the vendor who was laughing with amusement at the man’s antics.

Without a word, just with a simple nod, Kyuhyun took off the satchel that was slung across his chest and plopped onto the stool next to the smiling man.

‘It’s a surprise seeing someone from our neighborhood here, I didn’t think anyone else worked in the center.’ Sungmin was chatting as he waved at the cook to put a portion for Kyuhyun.

Kyuhyun shook his head. ‘I’m not working here, just had to deal with a client. I work at home.’ He explained, his mouth watering when the plate full of steaming rice cakes appeared in front of him. He wasn’t aware how hungry he was until this moment.

‘Ohhhhh!’ The other dragged the word and smiled even wider. ‘Then it’s even nicer meeting you here.’ He said and stuffed his face with the food again.

For a moment they were eating without exchanging more words, the food was too good to disturb inhaling it with conversation. Instead, the vendor was talking, spilling some short stories and making them almost choke whenever those were particularly funny.

They ate quickly and moved to make space for next customers. Sungmin paid for them both before Kyuhyun could pull out his wallet.

‘It’s nothing, you’ll cover it next time.’ The man waved his hand at him dismissively.

They were walking slowly towards the metro station.

‘I’m a senior negotiator in the telecommunication company across the street.’ He pointed at the huge glass building hidden behind another one looking exactly the same.

Kyuhyun nodded taking in the bit of information. ‘I’m designing websites and administrating them.’ He thought it only fair to share his occupation with the man. ‘At least when I don’t have to drive Chunghee to the hospital, bakery or hairdresser whenever he sticks gum in his hair.’ He grumbled remembering that only the day before he had to pin his five year old to the leather chair while Amber, their hairdresser, was trying to brush the pink concoction out of the strands since she didn’t want to cut it out and leaving the boy with what surely would be a bald spot.

Sungmin’s pearl laughter filled the tunnel they were walking through to get to their station. ‘Oh my, I wonder when Sungrin starts to misbehave. For now he’s either sleeping or tugging at the ears of our dog. Bernard is the epitome of patience, just standing there while his head bounces back and forth along with the tugs.’ He was chuckling at the memory he was surely remembering.

Kyuhyun pfffed and smiled.

The metro came and they got in.

‘I assume Chunghee’s mother is not around?’ Sungmin asked, his curious eyes fixated on Kyuhyun’s face.

Swallowing Kyuhyun shook his head. ‘I have the full custody. As you do, right?’

Sungmin sighed, his eyes lowering before he looked up again. There was sadness in them.

‘I’m a widower, so I didn’t have much choice.’ He smiled a little but it was a pitiful one.

Kyuhyun drew in air and decided to drop the subject. It was obvious they both didn’t feel comfortable talking about their sons’ mothers. But probably for completely different reasons.

They didn’t exchange more conversation, Sungmin started to stare into the window despite the fact that there was nothing to be seen. He was obviously lost in his thoughts, maybe about his deceased wife, who must have passed not that long ago since Sungrin was only year and a half old. But it was him who brought up the topic of the mothers.

Kyuhyun was shamelessly staring at the man and admiring his profile. If not from his mother, Sungrin got his huge eyes from his father. The man’s eyes were as round as they could get considering his ancestry. When not fogged with memories they were bright and smiling. Sungmin’s nose was straight and shapely, upper lip upturned and plump. He had slightly chubby cheeks and delicate jawline coming down to a defined chin. He was a beautiful man, there was no other way to describe him, because handsome wasn’t fitting. His brown hair was properly brushed and shiny, his suit pressed and perfectly tailored to fit his form.

Kyuhyun looked down onto his simple, black, long sleeved t- over which he had military green sports jacket. His beige pants were too big for him, as he didn’t really have much time to go and shop for clothes among all of the other responsibilities he had. The worn black leather satchel was slung across his chest, he liked it too much to replace it. Only his sneakers were new, Chunghee choose them for him when they were buying new pair of sandals for the boy and Kyuhyun just agreed because the boy seemed to really like them and was often putting them on and shuffling across the small front yard of their house.

All in all Kyuhyun knew he wasn’t making the best first impression, but those were the clothes he was feeling comfortable in and he wasn’t required to wear suits for work. Also, taking care of the hyperactive five year old wasn’t a clean job.

‘Oh, this is my stop. I need to pick up laundry before I go to nursery.’ Sungmin said suddenly when they approached the station and he pushed his body through the crowd. ‘It was nice meeting you Kyuhyun-ssi! Goodbye!’

Before Kyuhyun managed to say anything, the man was already out and he was standing like an idiot with hand raised to wave goodbye.

***

‘Chunghee, stop there right now!’ Kyuhyun ordered in a stern voice as he was glowering at his son but his heart was racing and his insides were sizing with dread.

Chunghee froze on the spot but didn’t turn around to face his father. He knew he did wrong and didn’t want to meet the repercussions but he also knew his father would be even more mad if he just tried to run away.

‘What do you think you’re doing?!’ Kyuhyun hissed and took his hand before tugging him gently to the side of the sidewalk, away from all the people who could hear them. ‘You aren’t allowed to run across the crossing or even walk across it without holding my hand. No matter whom you saw on the other side.’ The man crouched in front of his son, eyes roaming his whole body despite knowing that nothing happened. ‘There will be no PSP time today after school.’ He decided and saw how his son lowered his head and his lower lip started to quiver. But no matter how sad and pitiful the boy was at that moment he couldn’t let his get away with his actions. He almost had a heart attack when Chunghee suddenly tore from his hold and rushed through the crossing when he saw his friend from the day care.

‘That was very dangerous Chunghee, don’t worry your dad like that.’

Kyuhyun turned his head and looked up only to see Sungmin standing next to them with the trolley. He was again wearing different kind of suit, dark blue one, while Sungrin was amusing himself with stuffed giraffe in his seat. This time the boy was dressed in green hoodie with frog eyes on his head, the zipper looked like a long tongue and there was a fly imbedded on the material where the tongue was ending.

Kyuhyun stood up. Chunghee shifted close to him and pressed against his leg burying his face in his father’s thigh and hiding the fact that tears were glistening in his eyes.

‘Hello.’ Kyuhyun bowed and the other responded with the same. Sungrin made some strange sound and waved his hands at him as if asking to be taken.

Sungmin chuckled. ‘He doesn’t like the trolley and uses every chance he has to get out of it.’ He pushed the trolley and started to walk towards the nursery that was a few meters away.

Kyuhyun moved too, reassured when small hand slipped into his and he glanced briefly at his son who was sniffling but walking obediently. Sometimes he needed to be harsh, as much as he hated to see his son’s face like that.

‘It’s so good it’s Friday.’ Sungmin sighed heavily when Donghae and Hyukjae took their sons to their respective age groups. He was looking with longing after Sungrin.

‘Not much difference for me. I’m still working.’ Kyuhyun slumped his shoulders and remembered he had a deadline in a couple of hours. He was mostly done but still wanted to work on the graphics a little more.

‘Oh, the disadvantage of working at home.’ Sungmin nodded as they moved slowly towards the gates. ‘I would go crazy if I couldn’t have Sungrin for those two days every weekend. I was taking care of him for over half a year all the time but my predecessor retired and I had to jump from junior position to senior and go back to work. Thankfully this job doesn’t require me to stay long hours that often and work weekends.’ He was smiling.

‘It’s so much pain to hire people, otherwise I would do it and just lie and do nothing.’ Kyuhyun whined and was rewarded with the same pearl laughter that he heard in the metro tunnel.

‘Having kids won’t let us lie and do nothing for the next ten years at least, in my case even more.’ The man commented with amusement.

Kyuhyun groaned but with a smile. They reached the crossroads were they were parting, since Sungmin was going to the station and Kyuhyun home to finish his work before doing the laundry and trying to cook something for lunch.

‘Hyuk said there is some parents’ day on Sunday here?’ Sungmin asked after a moment of hesitation.

Kyuhyun nodded and leaned on the street pole he was standing next to.

‘Yeah, it’s once in a while, more now in spring and later summer. All the parents come with kids and we have lunch, chat and find a sitting partner.’ He explained although the idea was very simple.

‘Sitting partners?’ The man tilted his head and furrowed his brows. Kyuhyun wanted to press his finger between his eyes to smoothen the wrinkles there.

‘When the day care closes at 5pm and you still can’t pick up your child your sitting partner takes it to his home and looks after until you pick it up. Or on normal Sundays when you have work or something comes up and you have to go but can’t take your child.’ He listed, but there were many more occasions and sometimes this system was very helpful.

‘Oh!’ Sungmin exclaimed and his eyes widened. ‘That’s great! Then I’ll be sure to come, you never know when something might happen.’

Kyuhyun chuckled. ‘Yup. So see you there?’

Sungmin nodded and looked at his elegant silver watch before puffing his cheeks. ‘Now I’m late for my train. Well, they’ll have to wait.’ With smile he shrugged and after waving once at Kyuhyun he walked away.

Kyuhyun kept looking after the male until he disappeared behind the corner of the street and only then he pushed himself off the street pole and turned to stroll towards his house. He has met Sungmin already three times in the span of one week. All by accident.

Tilting his head back Kyuhyun released a sigh. It seemed that this crush would last for some time.

***

Clicking furiously at his computer Kyuhyun was keeping one eye on his son. After all these years he managed to train his eyes to focus on two different things. Or rather he was awesome at his job and didn’t need to watch closely what he was doing in the early stages of his projects. But the trained eye sounded so much cooler.

He didn’t really have to watch Chunghee that carefully because the boy was smart and learned his lessons very fast and so he was already capable of grabbing food for himself and heating it in the microwave – but only under Kyuhyun’s surveillance. He was dressing himself already, although more often than not his father still needed to straighten his clothes or put them on correctly whenever he wore them inside out. Currently, most of Chunghee's time at home was subjected to learning some easy Hangul, the boy was eager to know how to read before he went to school, no matter how impossible that was to achieve.

Kyuhyun stopped writing and leaned back in his chair. He looked at his son with fondness. Chunghee was bent over an elementary Hangul practice book and was trying to learn how to write ‘dog’. His brows were furrowed in concentration and his lower lip was stuck out. Obviously something wasn’t coming along like he wanted it to and he was getting frustrated.

Chuckling, Kyuhyun pressed both hands to his face and rubbed it before sighing and looking back at one of the screens in his office area. There was a proper room in the back of the house which he was planning to use before, but since he felt the constant need to have an eye on his son he set his workplace in the living room area. Currently he had three screens neighboring each other, he was working on all of them. Two laptops were perched on movable trays but those were only supporting appliances and he was barely sparing them any glace during the day.

Checking his work for any errors he saved the changes and closed the program before spinning in his seat and standing up. He stepped over the endless amount of cables and padded quietly towards where his son was huffing with annoyance.

Chunghee didn’t even raise his head when Kyuhyun stopped behind him and sat on the floor before wrapping one arm around small waist and placing the boy on his folded legs.

‘Something’s wrong?’ He looked at the piece of paper full of what probably was supposed to be word ‘dog’.

Chunghee shook his head before yawning widely. The boy shifted so that he pressed his cheek against the front of his father’s shirt.

‘Tired?’ A nod. ‘You’re not hungry?’ Shake. ‘Let’s go brush teeth and sleep, okay?’ Again a nod.

Kyuhyun decided to spare his son a bath and just brushed his teeth for him and washed his face and hands that were black with the pencil smudges. Chunghee was so sleepy his eyes were barely open throughout the whole ordeal. Even when Kyuhyun was dressing him in his pajamas he just stood there and allowed the other to move his arms and legs around.

After kissing his son’s forehead and covering him with thin comforter Kyuhyun the small lamp that was hung over the boy’s bed. It had small game controllers all over. He looked at the sleeping form of the child once more before going out of the room and leaving the door open.

He grabbed the basket that was standing in the entrance to the living room area and quickly gathered the toys that were lying around the place. Normally his son was doing that to get a star. The board with stars was on the corkboard beside Kyuhyun’s work materials and after doing something in the house Chunghee was getting one. After gathering ten Kyuhyun was taking him for ice cream or some other dessert depending on the season. The boy loved sweets a lot and Kyuhyun had to control him. He had some hidden stash at home just in case but this system was working very well for the both of them.

After the toys were tidied and he cleaned the low table the boy was working on, Kyuhyun grabbed the leftovers from the dinner and plopped onto the couch. It was only 9pm. Chunghee was surely tired after their trip to the park. The boy was running and playing with kids for three hours. This was the time when Kyuhyun could sit and read a book which didn’t happen often with all of his other responsibilities.

He threw a glance towards a picture of a young girl standing next to his parents on the dresser, near the TV. There were more pictures of her around the house since Chunghee wanted them, but Kyuhyun would gladly put them away in some box.

Shaking his head he inhaled his food and went back to his work station. He could still work a little on the design of the menu he had a small problem with.

A sticky note with date caught his attention. The Sunday with parents was the next day. The image of Sungmin immediately entered his mind and he sighed. He didn’t even know the man that well, but he was already feeling butterflies dancing in his stomach at the mere thought of seeing him again.