A blanket of light blue with marshmallow-like clouds of varying sizes made up the afternoon sky, and a cold breeze occasionally battled the cool air. The cement sidewalks were spotted with irregular shapes, marking areas with big drops of rain from a few hours ago. By heart Hyukjae knew each house he sauntered by, every store that his eyes laid upon. He's been walking by the same streets for the last year or so, to drop off his sons at school in the weekday morning. And from the school he enrolled his kids in, he'd proceed to going to the café he worked at, which was within the busier streets of Seoul.

Once Hyukjae entered the elementary school gates, he headed straight for the pre-school classroom. He was greeted by the teacher not long before a way too familiar boy ran to him like there was no tomorrow, hugging his left leg with his height not even reaching the twenty-six year old's waist.

"Appa!" The little boy happily exclaimed, an infectious laughter following after. Hyukjae chuckled, bending down to be in level with his son before kissing his forehead. "I missed you, appa!"

It's been three months since Hyukjae's younger son started pre-school, and not once did he forget to say how much he missed his father. "Appa missed you, too, Henli-ah," The grown-up replied, making a kissy-face before Henry gave him a big kiss on the lips.

Henry's teacher watched the two in friendly endearment, knowing Hyukjae's background of being a single father. She has known him since their college days, and though they were the same age, the teacher found it amazing to see how Hyukjae's matured in just a few years. Who knew that the funny joker of the campus was going to become one of the most mature people in their batch?

After a few minutes passed of Hyukjae considerately listening to Henry telling him a summary of that day, the former took out a pair of black mittens to put on the little boy's small hands. Once worn, Hyukjae stood back up and smiled at the teacher. "I think it's time for you to break-up with Yunho; this little guy thinks you're a pretty teacher, Boa," He said, and the two laughed.

"Really, Henry-ah?" She said, exaggerating her surprise. Henry blushed crimson and slowly nodded before hiding behind his father's leg. "Aish, he's so cute, but I think he inherited your habit of being too shy around females. You should see him when he talks to Amber, one of his classmates."

Hyukjae raised his eyebrows in surprise, registering new information about Henry crushing on one of the girls in class. His eyes then headed to down to Henry before his lips curved up, seeing his son in such a cute state.

"Let's go to hyung now, appa," Henry shyly said in a volume he thought only Hyukjae could hear, still embarrassed about both his teacher's reaction and her comment. When Hyukjae told him in a few minutes, still wanting to converse with his friend, the short boy persistently tugged on the sleeve of his black, leather jacket. "Appa~ please?"

Sighing softly at the way Henry was continuously saying that phrase, Hyukjae gave up on attempting to have a thorough conversation with Boa. The latter didn't get upset, and instead laughed at the interaction between the two. "Okay, then, Henli-ah," Hyukjae said, taking hold of his son's hand. His gaze then met with Boa's eyes before they bid their verbal goodbye's at each other.

Because the kindergarten was next to the pre-school classroom, it didn't take long for Hyukjae and Henry to arrive by the entrance of said place. Holding Henry's hand as the latter hopped up three steps to the door, Hyukjae chuckled when he knocked excitedly onto the turquoise-painted door.

Unlike Boa, Kyuhyun's teacher was rather a flirtatious one, which caused Hyukjae to feel way too disturbed around her. He'd find a way to kindly excuse himself from having a long conversation with her, unless it was regarding Kyuhyun. When the short lady opened the door, a wide grin spread across her face. "Oh, good afternoon, Mr. Lee," She greeted, batting her eyelashes, and Hyukjae bowed his head slightly, forcing out a smile that turned out looking like an awkward smirk. The lady then started speaking, getting into her train of thoughts to which Hyukjae didn't really listen to but occassionally nodded at.

Looking over the teacher's shoulder and into the classroom, Hyukjae's eyes met with his older son's, who was aware that his father was a wee bit freaked out by his teacher. The father's eyes were practically speaking to him, almost begging for him to come over already. The five-year old happily waved at his father before telling his friends goodbye and quickly running to the two adults and his brother. "Hi, appa," the boy said, pushing the right strap of his Buzz-Lightyear backpack further up his shoulder. He then ducked his head a bit, walking under his teacher's arm, which was up with her hand on the doorframe.

"Hi, Kyuhyun-ah," Hyukjae replied. The father then bent down as his son tip-toed up, his lips planting a kiss on the former's cheek. The two then bid their goodbye to the teacher, who frowned realizing that Hyukjae probably didn't listen to her. "How was school today?" He asked his son, taking the backpack off of Kyuhyun's back before throwing it over his own shoulder.

"Same as always," the boy replied, shrugging a bit before looking up at his dad with beaming eyes. "Appa, did you bring my PSP?" he asked, and Hyukjae nodded. The male worked at the café from 9AM to 4:30PM, and so he had to bring his kids to work for the last hour and a half of his shift. Since Kyuhyun and Henry weren't in the grades where homework was frequently assigned, he kept them busy by bringing a few of their toys to his workplace.

As the two were walking by the pre-school classroom, heading for the gate, Hyukjae suddenly realized Henry wasn't present with them. He paused from his tracks, feeling his heart do the same. "Henli-ah?" He called out, now turning back to the path Kyuhyun had just walked by. The father started to scan the campus from where he stood, and sighed in relief when he spotted Henry by the adjacent parking lot slash playground, which was empty by that time.

But the twenty-six year old frowned upon realizing the little boy was sitting on the concrete ground, on a puddle to make things worse. Still holding Kyuhyun's hand, Hyukjae quickly made his way to the four-year-old. "Appa! Playing in the water is fun!" The boy giggled in a high pitched voice, his small hands splashing on the dirty water.

"Henli-baby, get up," Hyukjae sighed, trying his best to hold in his building displeasure. Henry ignored the hand his father offered him, continuing to play in the large puddle. "Henli, the water is dirty. Get up or else you'll get sick." When Henry refused, Hyukjae let out an even deeper sigh and let go of Kyuhyun's hand only to carry his younger son. "Don't do that again, arasso?" He sternly asked, watching as his son's happy mood changed for a look that told Hyukjae he was aware of getting in trouble. "Arasso?" Hyukjae repeated, and Henry silently nodded.

It took around fifteen minutes to get to the café, and by the time he stepped foot in the shop, Hyukjae brought Henry down. He looked down at his own, realizing how wet his white button-down had become, and sighed softly before turning to his two sons prior to noticing Henry was as dirty as him. "Kyuhyun-ah, do you still have the emergency clothes for school in your backpack?"  He asked, and the boy nodded. "Sit on one of the chairs by the front counter while I change your brother's clothes in the restroom, arasso?" The boy nodded.

"Can I have my PSP first, appa?" Kyuhyun asked, and his father then pulled out the well-tucked in device from the back pocket of his skinny black dress pants before giving it to his son.

When Hyukjae came back carrying a tidied up Henry, he sat the little boy on the cushioned, ebony chair next to Kyuhyun, who was now too preoccupied with his PSP to notice. Once again Hyukjae pulled out a device from his pocket, this time being the old GameBoy Color he used as a twelve year old. When Hyukjae was cleaning up their apartment during the summer, Henry caught sight of the device and began to use it and later love it as much as Kyuhyun's loved his PSP.

Giving the GameBoy to Henry, Hyukjae then walked to the Employees Only room of the café. Taking off his leather jacket, Hyukjae was soon greeted by Hangeng, his manager. "Hey, hyung," The younger said, smiling at the taller male as he threw his jacket over the coat rack behind him. Hangeng happily greeted back, returning the smile, too.

Being closer to the tiled counter Hyukjae had left his black low-cut and apron-like vest, Hangeng kindly took hold of it before passing it to the younger, who mumbled a thanks.

"You may have been gone for only thirty-five minutes, but so many customers arrived during that span of time," Hangeng said. "It was weird, as if they only decided to come over when you're not around," he teasingly added, causing Hyukjae to laugh.

"How hurtful,"  he replied, feigning hurt. Hangeng chuckled and lightly ruffled the younger's wavy hair, which had both light and dark shades of brown.

"I suggest you get back to work, or Wookie will finally crack from having to take twice as much orders from impatient customers," Hangeng then commented. Hyukjae nodded and soon they separated ways, with Hangeng going back to the cash register and the other heading for whichever customers were waiting to give their orders.

Hyukjae was doing fine throughout the last part of his shift and was definitely too busy to chat with his sons. But every now and then he glanced their direction to know that they were still where he left them. There was a couple of times when he caught Henry cutely pouting his direction, but Hyukjae didn't think much of it and only sent a flying kiss too him as he took down orders. Thinking he was going to end his shift on a positive note, Hyukjae was very much shocked when Hangeng had called him over. It wasn't the fact that Hangeng was calling him; however, the fact that he was carrying a very dirty Henry very much brought back his anger from earlier.  

"What did he do this time?" Hyukjae asked, taking Henry from the Chinese man's hold. With one arm carrying the child's weight, Hyukjae used his free hand to push back Henry's bangs, which were somewhat mixed with whipped cream.

"He was bored, so he walked behind the counter, tugging onto my pants, asking if I could make him a drink," Hangeng started, and it wasn't until then that Hyukjae realized the other was wiping chocolate syrup off of his face with a white cloth. "Of course I said yes, so I sat him on top of the counter. As I was making him a strawberry and banana smoothie, he decided that it was okay to play with other ingredients."

Hyukjae inhaled a big breath before letting it out and looking at his son. "What am I going to do with you, Henli-ah?" He asked, and Henry smiled at him, as if he was not aware of his father being upset.

"Bbobbo?" He asked, puckering his lips the direction of his father. Hyukjae shook his head, and Henry pouted.

"That was not a nice thing to do to Hangeng-hyung, baby," Hyukjae stated, and Henry pursed his lips, his eyes dropping down to look at the granite flooring. It was as if he finally realized he was in trouble, and was feeling the guilt build up inside him. Hangeng silently watched the two as Hyukjae continued to stare down Henry. "Was it nice?" Henry shook his head. "Then why did you do it?"

Henry kept quiet, causing Hyukjae to sigh once more before he brought his attention to Hangeng. "I'm really sorry, hyung," He apologized, and Hangeng nodded. "Henli-ah, tell Hangeng-hyung you're sorry for disturbing him."

"Sorry, hyung..." Henry mumbled with eyes still locked on the flooring. Hangeng chuckled and ruffled the little boy's hair, saying that it was okay.

The manager then looked at his watch for a brief second. "Oh, looks like your shift is over," he pointed out before looking back at the counter he had sat Henry on. "I'm sorry to say this, but a certain amount of money will have to be deducted from your next paycheck since Henry happened to also break three of the glasses." Hearing this made Hyukjae look back at his son, and even Hangeng could feel his hidden disappointment, which was also mixed in with slight anger.

"Okay," Hyukjae said, looking back at Hangeng. He forced a smile, but that wasn't so necessary since Hangeng knew that at that rate he was very upset. Carrying Henry, Hyukjae then walked over to the Employees Only room to take off his vest and exchange it for his leather jacket. Once finished, the father then called for Kyuhyun as they gave their goodbyes to the other workers not long before leaving the café.


Hyukjae's apartment community was located within the busy streets of Seoul, and though the exterior of the whole complex looked very fancy and rich, the interior of his apartment was not too grand, but just fine for a small family of three. The main entrance automatically led to the largest room of the house—the living room. If you turned right, there was an open entrance to the kitchen, which was also their dining room in a sense. Across the entrance of the kitchen—and to the left of the main door— was the hallway. To the right were two doors leading to two rooms, with Hyukjae's being the one further down the hall. The left of the hallway had a small closet for coats, towels, shoes, and other necessities along with the door leading to the only bathroom of the apartment. It was a quarter to six in the evening, and Hyukjae was still finishing up the cooking of today's dinner. Kyuhyun was already sitting by the dinner table, not really having anything else to do aside from playing his PSP. He had dressed into his pajamas already, which consisted of vertically striped blue pants and a graphic long sleeve shirt, which had Wall-E printed on the grey cloth. "Appa, what's today's dinner?" He asked from his seat.

"Kimchi bokkeumbap," Hyukjae replied, using a wooden spoon to stir said food on the pan. His son had been long gone from playing his PSP, and was watching in fascination when Hyukjae had flipped the rice up in the air before landing perfectly back onto the pan. "Are you hungry now?"

"Kind of," the boy replied sheepishly, and hearing his tone made Hyukjae chuckle.

"I'm almost done, but if you're really hungry, I already finished making some gimbap," The father of the two stated, pointing towards the counter to the right of the stove. "You want that?"

When Hyukjae turned his head to look at him, Kyuhyun nodded. Knowing that his dad was still cooking, he stood from his seat and decided to get the plate of six pieces of large gimbap by himself. Hyukjae found that gesture very polite of him and came to a conclusion that his son acted much more mature than his age, with an exception of his not-so-bothersome love for video games.

"Oh, Kyuhyun-ah," Hyukjae called out by the time said person placed the gimbap on the wooden table. The five year old looked at his father, whose back was facing him. "Tell Henli to sit by the dinner  table now." When he heard tapping on the floor as an assumption of it being Kyuhyun's feet, Hyukjae smiled softly at his obedience before turning off the stove. He then opened the nearby cabinet to take hold of a large plate prior to transferring the kimchi bokkeumbap.

A few seconds later, Kyuhyun came back to the room with the gimbap he brought halfway done. "Henli doesn't want to go yet," He said, standing by the entrance of the kitchen as Hyukjae poured water from a pitcher onto three glasses of ice.

"Henli-baby, come to the kitchen now," Hyukjae calmly called out, walking back to the refrigerator behind him to put back the transparent pitcher. Closing the fridge door, the father then collected three plates from the cabinet.

"But appa, Dragon Tales is still on!" Hyukjae heard Henry reply from the living room.

"Dragon Tales can wait," Hyukjae said loud enough for the boy to hear. He then passed Kyuhyun a plate as the other plopped back to his seat.

"No, it can't, appa!" Henry backfired, and Hyukjae bit down the insides of his cheeks, not wanting to have himself yell at all.

To calm himself down, Hyukjae let the little boy be for a few minutes, and instead started putting a generous serving of bokkeumbap on Kyuhyun's plate. "Do you want some of the kongnamul I made, too?" He asked, and Kyuhyun nodded. He then put a small side serving of the soy beans on a square saucer, settling it to the diagonal left of Kyuhyun's plate.

Sitting down on the chair opposite of Kyuhyun, Hyukjae then gave himself just the right amount of food he can devour. Watching Kyuhyun eat in satisfaction, Hyukjae then decided to test his luck with trying to get Henry to come over. "Henli, come here now. Appa wants you to eat with us," He called out, taking a sip of water right after.

"No, Henli watch cartoons!" Henry stubbornly replied, and Hyukjae frowned upon realizing the little boy was shouting.

"I'm going to count to three," Hyukjae said, "and by three you have to be here. 1... 2...." When he didn't hear Henry making an effort to walk over to the dining room, Hyukjae sighed, mumbling a curse quiet enough not to be audible for Kyuhyun. He then stood up and walked out of the kitchen to see Henry still sitting cross-legged on the rectangular rug across of the TV,  his head upwards but eyes settled on the large screen. "Let's eat dinner now, baby," Hyukjae said, now approaching the little boy.

"Appa~" Henry whined when his father began to carry him.

"I don't want to hear it, Henli," Hyukjae responded, using one hand to take hold of the remote on the glass coffee table. After pressing the red power button, the boy left it back on the table before heading to the kitchen with Henry in tow.

"Appa! I want to watch TV!" Henry argued, and Hyukjae was not at all affected by the little boy's light punches on his chest. "Appa!" The little boy cried, and since the two had just entered the room, Kyuhyun glanced at them for a mere second before going back to his food.

"You can watch TV after dinner, Henli," Hyukjae sternly replied, putting Henry down on the seat next to Kyuhyun. He then got the plate of bokkeumbap along with the serving spoon and served some of it onto Henry's plate. "Now eat."

When Hyukjae sat back down on his seat, he took hold of his spoon and fork before he looked Henry's direction only to see the little boy sitting with arms crossed and a stubborn look on his face. Letting out a sigh that was loud enough to hear, Hyukjae put down his eating utensils on the table. "Why are you not eating, Henli?" He exasperatedly asked.

"Henli don't want this food," Henry frowned, finding his knees much more attention-grabbing than anything else.

"Look at your brother, he's halfway done with his food," Hyukjae pointed out, and Kyuhyun paused from eating upon hearing his name. He then looked dumbfoundedly at the two with a spoon of rice in his mouth, and Henry giggled. "It's not meant to be funny. Kyuhyun, just continue to eat." Without saying anything, Kyuhyun continued to do as told. "Why can't you be like him?" Hyukjae asked.

"I want ice cream, appa," Henry said, looking up at his dad. Hyukjae shook his head and pointed at his food.

"Eat this first, then I'll give you ice cream, arasso?"

"No! Now!" Henry cried, and Hyukjae took this as his last straw.

"Henli-ah! You've been very bad today, and appa is tired of you disobeying me. Why can't you be like your older brother and do whatever I tell him to?" Hyukjae yelled, and both kids felt their blood run cold. Henry because it was his first time seeing his dad like this, and Kyuhyun for the sole reason that his usually calm dad was getting really mad. "I am very disappointed in you right now. If you don't want to eat what I cooked, go to your room for a time out, ARASSO?!"

Hyukjae was too angry to notice the little boy tearing up as he ran out of the room. Letting out the nth sigh of that day, Hyukjae went back to his seat.

The room was quiet, with Hyukjae downing his food and Kyuhyun being too hesitant to speak. But after a few minutes the click of a door was heard and though Hyukjae didn't hear it, Kyuhyun surely did. "Appa..." He softly mumbled, and Hyukjae looked up from his food still with an evident glint of anger in his eyes. "I heard the main door open then close...." He said, and Hyukjae's eyes widened slightly.

"Are you sure it was the main door?" He asked, and Kyuhyun nodded. The father then shot up from his seat, wiping his mouth with a cloth before quickly making his way to the living room.

Hyukjae frantically searched the various shoes neatly aligned together by the door, hoping to see his son's favorite sandals. When he didn't, the father felt his heart stop before running to his kids' shared room. "He's not in here," He said in shock, and by the time Kyuhyun was near him the father spoke up. "Get your jacket, we're going to look for him."

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a/n: Oh, no! Where did bb Henry go?! (ﾉಥ益ಥ)ﾉ lol, me gusta some feedback :3