Yixing was absentmindedly walking around the shopping centre when he heard sounds of sniffling. A small frown graced his face as he searched for the source of the sounds. After a quick look around he managed to identify the source of the noises to be a little boy. The child was softly hiccupping and furiously rubbing his eyes with his little fists, smearing snot and tear all over his face. He looked lost but Yixing wasn't entirely sure so he approached him with caution.

He got closer until he was a meter away and then crouched down to the boy's height. "Are you ok?" He asked softly. The boy shook his head. "Are you lost?" The boy nodded to confirm Yixing's suspicions. "What's your name?"

"Appa says I can't talk to strangers." The small boy managed to whimper out.

"Well your appa's right, you shouldn't talk to strangers, but I want to help you so I'll introduce myself. My name is Zhang Yixing, but you can call me Mr Zhang or uncle Yixing. Now I'm not just some stranger."

The boy hesitated before offering his name. "My name is Kim Jongin, Mr Zhang."

Yixing smiled brightly at the boy. "Nice to meet you Jongin." Keeping his distance, Yixing got out a few tissues and handed them to Jongin.

The boy took them gratefully and murmured a response, "Thank you." He quickly bowed before proceeding to wipe the fluids off his face.

Once the boy had finished cleaning up and had calmed down considerably, Yixing asked him another question, "Now Jongin, do you know your eomma or appa's phone number?"

Jongin nodded confidently and Yixing handed his phone over to him. He watched as Jongin's pudgy little fingers typed in the number before bringing the phone to his ear. The receiver picked up after a few rings.

"Appa, it's me Jonginnie." Jongin voice began to waver. "No I'm fine, I'm using Mr Zhang's phone. No he didn't do anything, he's not a bad man. I'm near the smoothie shop thingy and the toilets, come quickly." He turned to address Yixing. "Is it ok if I stay on the line, appa told me to stay on the line." Yixing nodded. "Mr Zhang said I could stay on the line. No appa he's a good person. I know I know, but he hasn't touched me once. He asked me if I was lost and I said yes and then he handed me his phone to call you, see he's a good person. You're the bad one! You left me! I was crying and crying and Mr Zhang was the only one who noticed and he gave me lots and lots of tissues-"

"Jongin!"

Both Yixing and Jongin turned to see a two men, carrying a child each, running towards them. Jongin seemed to recognise the men because he ran up to them. A man with sharp cheekbones swooped him up into his arms and held him close. He proceeded to check over every inch of Jongin before repeatedly kissing the boy's face. Yixing couldn't help but notice how attractive he looked, especially smiling at Jongin like that with his kitten lips.

Yixing walked up to them to reclaim his phone. "Are these your appas?"

The man smothering Jongin looked up and stared at Yixing for a while. "No!" He denied a little too quickly. "I mean, I'm his appa and Joonmyun hyung is my brother and this is his son Zitao. I'm single-I mean I'm Jongdae and this is my other son Sehun, you must be Mr Zhang."

Yixing held out his hand and gave him a gentle smile, Jongdae noticed that he had cute dimples when he did that. "Please call me Yixing."

Jongdae took it and smiled earnestly at him. "Thank you Yixing-shi, Sehunnie was throwing a tantrum and Taozi had run away, it was all a bit chaotic. We only noticed that Nini wasn't following us and then I panicked. We were going out of our minds trying to find him when he called. Thank you for helping him."

Yixing waved him off. "Anyone would've done the same. Jongin seems like a good kid."

Jongdae beamed with pride. "He is but it can be hard being a single parent. Sehunnie's a little more fussy than Nini-"

"Hey!" Yixing looked down to see a small boy with a frown on his face and a hard line for a mouth. "I wasn't the one who made Nini cry."

"Sehun!" Jongdae scolded. "How many times do I have to tell you to call him hyung?"

Yixing was surprised when Sehun rolled his eyes, he never seen a child being that sassy. "He's only older by a few minutes."

Jongdae chose to ignore him and turned back to Yixing. "Is there any way I can repay you?"

Yixing didn't even think twice. "Let me take you out to dinner."

Jongdae eyes widened and he gaped at the man. He hadn't been asked out in a long time, a very long time, especially not by anyone as good looking as Yixing. He threw caution to the wind, just because he was a dad now didn't mean he couldn't have a love life too. "Sure."

Yixing smiled again and Jongdae almost swooned at the reappearance of those dimples. "Great. It seems we already have each other's numbers." Jongdae looked confused until Yixing gestured to Jongin, then understanding flooded his face. "I'll call you."

Yixing bowed to Joonmyun, patted Sehun and Jongin's heads and winked at Jongdae before leaving. A light layer of pink settled on Jongdae's face.

"Maybe I should lose Tao at the shopping centre." Joonmyun teased when he saw Jongdae's longing expression.

Zitao's eyes began to water and he clung on to Joonmyun. "No eomma no!"

"I was only kidding Taozi," Joonmyun said as he smoothing patted the boy's back and wiped his tears. "I would never be as irresponsible as uncle Jongdae."

Jongdae snapped out of his daze. "Hey!"