I really need to start checking and posting ealier, I'm barely conscious now... Also, had to cut this chapter short, I can't do 10 pgs every week because it means I have to write 10 pgs again while I would really like to work on my other stories. Forgive me ty ending fo this one...

***

Sungmin looked after Kyuhyun’s retreating form with amusement. He knew Bernard could be a little too much for some people but he was sure that Kyuhyun could handle him. And most of the time the dog was too preoccupied with being Sungrin’s squeeze toy to care about adults.

Shifting Sungrin from one hip to the other he extended his hand towards Chunghee.

‘Let’s go? We’ll put on shoes and put leash on Bernard waiting for your dad, okay?’ He asked the boy, who immediately nodded and slipped his hand into the bigger one of Sungmin’s.

Just when he was strapping the special suspenders onto Bernard, to lessen the pressure of the leash from the tender spine of the Basset, Kyuhyun emerged from his room.

‘We’re taking him?’ The younger male looked with distaste at the happy dog.

‘Yeah, he was stuck at home so long I feel a little sorry.’ Sungmin said quietly, embarrassed. He was really fond of his dog, be it because Bernard was Sunkyu’s or simply because he was just a very good and well-behaved animal. ‘There is a special spot for dogs at the local supermarket.’

‘Let’s take Bernard, dad! We can’t leave him alone!’ Chunghee whined pleadingly and tugged at Kyuhyun’s pants.

‘Bena! Bena!’ Sungrin joined in, although he surely didn’t know what they were talking about.

Rolling his eyes Kyuhyun pushed Chunghee out the door and snatched the leash out of Sungmin’s hand.

Laughing just a little Sungmin closed the door, Sungrin still propped on his hip. When they were already down the boy flailed his arms and kicked against the buggy.

This time it was Kyuhyun’s turn to snicker and laugh at Sungmin.

‘Sungrin!’ Sungmin huffed irritated. So apparently there were moments of conflict between the father and son. ‘God da~’

Kyuhyun slapped both palms onto Chunghee’s ears and glared at Sungmin. ‘Do you mind?!’

Sungmin’s head snapped up, red and puffing Sungrin still in his arms, but wiggling to be let go of. ‘What?’

‘I was hoping to be the one to teach my son his first curses. Well, maybe not exactly hoping, but I’d appreciate if you didn’t. Yet.’ Kyuhyun looked down at Chunghee, who was looking back up at him with an annoyed expression.

‘Oh.’ Sungmin said, eyes wide. Suddenly his grip on Sungrin lessened and the boy managed to slide down his father’s body and run as best as he could towards Chunghee, snatched his hand and plastered himself against the older boy’s side.

Clenching his jaw Sungmin propped his hands on his hips.

‘I can’t wait when he hits puberty. I really can’t.’ Sungmin said petulantly. ‘Have it your way, but I’m not carrying you home.’ He directed the words to his son, although he must have known that the child had no idea what he was even talking about.

Kyuhyun shook his head, smiling, and turned around. Bernard was already by the door, his nose pressed against the frame, huffing urgently.

‘These two are such menace when we’re going out.’ Sungmin said wryly, still annoyed. ‘I spend ten minutes every morning trying to strap Sungrin into the buggy. He hates it, he wants to walk everywhere since he managed to stand on his own.’

‘Chunghee would be gladly still riding his if I allowed it.’ Kyuhyun noted with pleasure that Bernard was obediently padding next to his leg so when the dog stopped to sniff at something and later mark his territory he halted in his steps and waited for him.

Chunghee and Sungrin were slowly walking in front of them, hand in hand, but Sungmin was still observing them like a hawk. Thankfully, the street was closed for cars and there was a separate bicycle path on the other side. And he thought that the hanok village was safe and kids friendly.

It just seemed that practically everything around Sungmin was perfect for him and his son, as if tailored for his needs. As if the world around was trying to compensate for the loss they both experienced.

***

The supermarket was small, but it still had baby corner. Area separated from the rest of the place by colorful fence behind which were tables with crayons, baskets with toys and pillows, where already five kids were playing. Kyuhyun immediately recognized three of them.

‘Jiyah!’ He called the familiar name and the boy turned towards him from where he was scribbling something on a piece of paper. His face brightened with a huge smile and he abandoned whatever he was doing to run towards the low fence. He knew better than to go over it even if he knew the person calling for him. Besides, there was a caretaker there, a girl currently squeezing a squeally toy at Jisoo, who was clapping her hands happily. Despite being wrapped up with kids she was carefully studying the surroundings and people who as much as stepped into a meter radius from the corner’s area.

Chunghee let go of Sungrin’s hand and clambered over the fence before throwing his arms around Jiyah’s neck, happy to see his friend. The boys were quite close before the elder had to move on to school. Kyuhyun was suspecting that if Youngwoon’s boy, Youngjin, agrees to attending primary a year earlier, Chunghee will follow just to be together with two of his best friends. He never really took to Jiyah’s younger brother, Jiyoung, who was his peer.

Sungmin nudged him with his elbow and pointed towards Sungrin with amused smile.

Sungrin was looking at his abandoned hand with deep concentration, probably processing that he was just ditched, but not really understanding what that meant. He raised his head and looked at Sungmin, serious frown between his eyes, and then his gaze landed on Chunghee who was already chatting with Jiyah. The elder was puffing out his chest as Kyuhyun’s son kept asking him about school.

Before any of them could even blink a low whine escaped Sungrin’s throat. His mouth was turned down and his eyes were moist, in preparation for full-out bawling.

Chunghee’s head spun unnaturally quickly and he climbed the fence again. Before Kyuhyun could catch him he fell heavily from it. Thankfully, it wasn’t high enough to cause any damage, so the boy didn’t even care. The moment he was outside he crawled towards Sungrin and while still on his knees wrapped his thin arms around the boy who clung to him, sniffing. A moment later they both walked into the baby corner properly through the small gate.

Sungmin rolled his eyes, not phased by what had just occurred. ‘I spoiled him way too much…’ He mumbled loud enough for Kyuhyun to hear.

Chuckling under his breath Kyuhyun grabbed a basket right after Sungmin and followed him into the shopping area.

‘I kind of enjoy it. Chunghee depends on me way too much and now he’ll learn he needs to think before he does something.’ Kyuhyun shrugged and chuckled again when Sungmin threw him a glare.

‘Yeah, he’ll learn while making Rin even more spoiled.’ Again mumbling, Sungmin swept vegetables into his basket. ‘I don’t really have troubles with him, he’s very unproblematic to handle and entertains himself easily, but when he needs something he just won’t stop until he gets it. And he’s not even crying – that display out there?’ He indicated with his head towards the baby corner they left behind. ‘It would turn into full blown screaming. He doesn’t cry, I don’t know why his eyes get watery, he just screams. And it’s so much fun when he wants something specific to eat and I have no idea what that is because he still can’t talk properly! Last time I just brought him in here and let him loose to find whatever he couldn’t point out to me at home. Turned out he wanted grape juice. We have five different juices at home. But no, he wanted grape juice. I have no idea how he even distinguishes them!’

Kyuhyun’s brow raised and there was a small smile playing on his lips as Sungmin kept rambling while throwing, what looked like random, things into his basket.

‘Go grab minced meat, I need some burgers in my life right now.’ The elder huffed and knocked a bottle of barbeque sauce into the basket.

With a snort Kyuhyun patted the man on the shoulder and jogged towards the meat section. The place wasn’t exactly big and he didn’t even find himself surprised when he ran into Sooyoung. With deep concentration on her face she was reading the label on the bag of baby carrots. Obviously she was just waiting there because there were no frozen foods around.

‘Lost Siwon between the canned goods and un-alcoholic beer?’ He chatted up when he was close enough.

Startled, Sooyoung dropped the carrots into her basket.

‘Kyuhyun, God. Just ing never creep up on me like this.’ She breathed out putting a hand on her chest. ‘Yeah, he’s somewhere there choosing between two seasonings I see no difference in. Like this.’ She picked up the bag of carrots again. ‘There were three brands, he went on for ten minutes why we always get this one and not the other two. And frankly speaking, for me it’s all horse food. I’m waiting for him to get me some steak.’ Again the poor vegetables got dropped and found place among tomatoes and celery. Sooyoung tucked a stray strand behind her ear, wiped her forehead and pulled up the strap of her top that was threatening to fall and expose her in the middle of the supermarket. Not that she had any reservations about it, she was walking lingerie shows half of the time and had no shame – they were made for each other with Siwon.

‘The one he chose is organic, apparently healthier…’ Kyuhyun explained with amusement seeing how the model’s face turned into expression of horror.

‘Oh my God, there are more of him out there!’ She cried out and started to look around, probably in search of an escape route.

Laughing out loud Kyuhyun made a few more steps towards the fridges and pulled out two packs of minced meat.

‘I saw the kids, family outing?’ He decided to stop the teasing, he remembered how easy it was to make Sooyoung run at the mere mention of cooking anything.

‘We can’t leave them in without the fear of coming back to the ruins and I value my shoe collection, so every outing is a family outing.’ Her tone was clipped. In normal circumstances she had a short temper, but it seemed that fuse was only millimeters long this time.

‘I see you run out of your happy pills.’ Feeling somehow brave he jarred at her again and found himself at the end of a nasty glare.

‘House full of kids, husband a prude – dry spell rings a bell?’ Snarling she kicked at the cart’s wheel.

Biting his upper lip to stop the laughter, Kyuhyun placed the packets with meat from one hand to the other since the cold was starting to hurt a little. Sooyoung’s easy admission speaking volumes about how close friends they were.

‘Make sure none of them will walk in on something that would make child services breath down our necks and I’m willing to bang you through a wall.’ A new voice joined their conversation. Siwon swerved around his wife and dropped a couple of bottles into their cart. He sent a cheeky grin toward his fuming spouse and bend to press a chaste kiss onto her bare shoulder.

‘Public place, I swear you have no sense of propriety.’ This time Kyuhyun groaned and shook his head. With Sooyoung it was all jokes, with Siwon only bare honesty.

‘Who doesn’t?’

Kyuhyun’s head spun and he looked as Sungmin walked up to him and stopped at his side.

‘Apparently I because I want to bang my very cranky and deprived wife but there is no way for that to happen unless I spike my kids’ dinner with sleeping pills.’ Siwon chirpily provided the explanation making both Sooyoung and Kyuhyun cringe and the former smack his hard on the arm.

As taken aback as Sungmin looked he quite quickly gathered his wits again and just cleared his throat with simple ahhh before taking meat from Kyuhyun’s hands, putting it in the basket and finding something immensely interesting on the shelves a good few meters away.

‘Do you really have to be the creep of the neighborhood?’ Sooyoung shook her head in resignation which only earned her a grin from Siwon.

‘We share everything in family!’ Siwon exclaimed fending off another smack aimed at his head this time. ‘Kyuhyun’s family and apparently Sungmin will become part of his family too!’

Kyuhyun raised his brows and tried to fight off the blush that started to creep onto his cheeks. ‘What?’

‘Shopping together on Saturday?’ Siwon supplied the explanation, his head jerking towards the smaller man, currently muttering to himself while half-diving into the fridges with steaks.

Folding his arms on his chest Kyuhyun leaned back without a word. He knew he wouldn’t be able to lie to one of his best friends and decided that not talking at all was the best way out. Though he knew he’ll be bugged about it for the next week at least. He just made sure Sungmin didn’t hear that with a quick glance towards the man.

Sooyoung stifled a giggle observing the staring contest between her husband and his friend.

‘I could take care of your kids tomorrow… maybe?’

Three heads whipped towards the voice. Sungmin was looking down into his basket as if checking mentally the grocery list with what he already had there. Then he looked up and took in the bemusement evident on everyone’s faces.

‘I have a garden and a child-friendly dog, Sungrin could use some company and I mostly stay in or go to the playground.’ He added. ‘You could have a day for yourselves.’

Sooyoung’s eyes glinted with unspoken glee. ‘Yes!’ Before Siwon could even react she was already walking arm in arm with Sungmin towards the registers, towering over the man significantly.

‘I… what had just happened?’ Siwon stuttered, not used to being the one knocked into stupor.

Chuckling Kyuhyun patted him on the shoulder. ‘I guess Sungmin just secured you a Sunday.’

It was really a great experience to see Siwon speechless. For once.