ATIMY // 09

-

It was a weird day, at least for Wonwoo. When he arrived at the daycare center that afternoon, everyone was quiet- even Seokmin and Soonyoung. It was almost an unbelievable miracle! The kids also thanked Mingyu because apparently, he saved their Wonwoo seonsaengnim.

"Thank you City boy hyung." Seungkwan pat Mingyu's head after having the volunteer carry him. Mingyu wasn't sure wether he should be annoyed or pleased by Seungkwan's compliment since everyone, (just the teachers actually) started laughing.

"Alright everyone! Play time!" Seokmin suddenly announced.

One after another, the kids ran quickly to the backyard in excitement who were soon  followed by the teachers and Mingyu.

"I wanna play house!" the maknae suggested.

"But playing houseis for girls!" Hansol countered and sulked, crossing his arms on his chest.

"Lets play hide and seek instead." Jun tried.

"Yeah, yeah! Lets play that!" Hansol agreed with much enthusiasim.

"But I wanna play house." Chan repeated sadly.

Myungho, who was such an angel couldn't stand seeing the maknae sad, sat beside him. "Me too. I wanna play house with Channie."

"Alright, alright. How about this? We play house first and then afterwards, we play hide and seek?" Wonwoo suggested in a calm manner, smiling at the kids. He missed them dearly even though he was gone only for a few days. In the end, the kids agreed.

"I wanna be the baby!" Chan grinned.

"You are a baby." Seungkwan pointed out and rolled his eyes.

"We need a mom and a dad." Myungho insisted.

"Wonwoo seonsaengnim and City boy hyung can do it." Jun said, voice getting louder and louder.

Everyone exclaimed in agreement but Mingyu seemed to have his doubts. He shook his head and then everyone kept quiet.

"You don't wanna?" Chan pouted and put up his best kicked puppy under the rain face.

Wonwoo observed Mingyu while trying not to laugh. Nobody gets away with Chan's puppy face (he knew based on personal experiences). Mingyu looks arounf uncomfortably but Chan's adorable face made him feel guilty somehow, "Okay! I will, but only for a little bit, okay?"

"Yay! Then hyung is appa and seonsaengnim is umma." Chan instructed, his sad face now bright.

The teacher tried to protest but his pleas were muffled by the toddlers' shouts of joy. Mingyu, on the other hand, suddenly felt better. Yeah, I should be the appa. I'm definitely manlier and cooler than Wonwoo.

"Why am I the umma?" Wonwoo pouted. Chan walked towards him and reasoned, "Because hyung is tall and seonsaengnim is pretty!"

The taller male laughed out loud upon hearing the child's reason, "Yeah Wonwoo! You're pretty."

"I-Idiot!" Wonwoo blushed.

"What's an idiot?"

"I.. Its an adult word Chan. Promise we never say it again."

-

Playing house with the kids wasn't so bad. In fact, it was fun but of course Mingyu wouldn't admit that out loud. The kids were adorable and very obedient: a constrast to what he had thought all along. They were very nice and very understanding too but after Chan had had stated his idea, "Appa and umma should get married to have babies! You should get married!" he wanted to take back every praise he gave.

That resulted to a Mingyu waiting 'anxiously' for his 'bride' and Seokmin laughing his heart out beside him, "Seokmin! What the hell?"

After volunteering at Mansae, Kim Mingyu became friends with Seokmin as well as Soonyoung. At first it was awkward because watching the two was like watching a sappy drama with a cliche love story but he eventually got used to it thanks to his foul mouth telling them to get a room everytime.

"Here comes the bride!" Soonyoung announced from outside.

Mingyu heard Wonwoo's whining and the childre's cheers. "Don't worry man." Seokmin said, still having a hard time holding in his laughter. He was assigned priest by Chan. That Lee Chan Kid.

As the young teacher appeared and started walking towards him, the City boy sniffled a snicker. Wonwoo was wearing a flower crown, probably made by the kids. He was also holding a flower bouquet. The children were walking in front of him throwing petals along the way, as requested again by Lee Chan.

Wonwoo internally sighed, there's so much to clean afterwards.

After a minute or two, an eternity for Jeon Wonwoo he finally arrived beside Mingyu. "Why am I even doing this?" he whispered.

"Because you can't resist that Lee-puppy-Chan kid's face and of course, because you're stupid." Mingyu whispered back while laughing lowly.

"Seokmin-ssaem, hurry! They have to get married now so we can play hide and seek already!" Hansol whined.

"Alright! God, you guys are so demanding." Seokmin answered, shaking his head in disbelief.

..."Do you, Kim Mingyu, take Jeon Wonwoo as your husband to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer as long as you both shall live?"

"I do! I do!" the kids chattered.

Mingyu laughed, "Okay, I do."

"Do you Jeon Wonwoo..." Seokmin tried not to laugh while repeating his speech because Wonwoo looked as red as a tomato.

Wonwoo rolled his eyes, "Fine, I do. There guys, we're done! We can play hide and seek now." Wonwoo smiled at the kids.

"No no no! You gotta kiss first!" Myungho asked.

Upon hearing this, Hansol went back to sulking, turning hi back from everyone else. Seungkwan sat beside him and rubbed his back, "Hyung, ssaem, hurry up and kiss already! Hansol wanna play hide and seek now." Seungkwan babbled.

"You know, we don't have to kiss. We can just play." Wonwoo reasoned. Mingyu was laughing right beside him but didn't even help. God, this idiot don't even help, ugh.

"But its not a wedding if there's no kiss." Myungho pouted. Jun being the 'Myungho-should-be- happy' club president couldn't stand seeing him dejected so he ran up to Wonwoo to ask him face to face and hopefully explain why he couldn't stand a sad Myungho but he was accidentally tripped by Seungkwan's foot, he ended up bumping onto Wonwoo.

Wonwoo lost his balance, he tried to lean the other way in order not to fall but it was too late. He closed his eyes and waited for his body to meet with the floor but that moment never came. Fortunately, Mingyu was there. He caught Wonwoo before he  could fall but he caught him in an uncomfortable position. Right after he adjusted their bodies in a more comfortable way, the little trouble makers, namely Seungkwan and Hansol, saw this as  a chance to make them kiss already.

They pushed Wonwoo as hard as they can together. This time, Mingyu couldn't manage to catch him on time. The teacher bumped onto the city boy and so the latter lost his balance as well. Mingyu fell ungracefully on the floor and because he was holding Wonwoo, the teacher fell on top of him too resulting to an accidental event- Wonwoo's lips landed right on top of Mingyu's. Two pairs of eyes stared at each other for a moment until Wonwoo realized what hapened. He scurried off of Mingyu as quickly as he could.

"Yay!! They're married!" Chan and Myungho clapped with enthusiasm.

"Mansae! Mansae!" Seungkwan and Hansol shouted in unison and the other joined in as well.

On the corner, two people laughed at Wonwoo and Mingyu for getting played by the kids.

"Ya~ This kids sure know how to get what they want."
"That's teamwork. I call that teamwork."

-

"What!?" Jihoon exclaimed, eyes widening as he looked at his son.

"I know now! Cheol appa is my appa! Like my real appa!" The child beamed.

"I... uh-okay. Okay. Now that we've uh.. settled that. Let's eat." Jihoon nodded and sat back down with a sigh.

Sunghoon started telling random stories, dreams he had when he was in the hospital. Seungcheol watched him and listened attentively until the child asked him for a second bowl of the chicken dish.

"Meat, meat, meat! Uh- carrots no no. Potatoes no, no."

Upon seeing his child pick the vegetables and set then aside, Seungcheol asked, "Why aren't you eating your vegetables, baby?"

The said child only looked at him and answered, "Hmm...Because Hoonie like meat!"

Sunghoon was a picky eater but Seungcheol was going to fix that and act like the father his son always needed.

"Sunghoonie, you have to eat veggies or else you won't grow up fast!" Sunghoon stared at his father in doubt but the adult continued, "I ate lots and lots of veggies when I was a kid, that's why I can lift you up like this!" The tall male lifted his son up from his baby chair and spun him around once. Sunghoon giggled happily.

"No playing while we're eating, please." Jihoon warned. The boys shared a look, smiling at each other before returning to the table.

Seungcheol stayed as long as he could, but obviously, he needed to go home too.

"Appa's going home now?" the toddler stood by the door and watched Seungcheol put his shoes on, "Why can't you stay here?"

"Appa should go home, baby. I gotta wash up and sleep." The man ruffled Sunghoon's hair and kissed the top of his head.

"Why don't youw wash up here? You can sleep here, you can sleep in my room!" Sunghoon giddily suggested.

The tall man glanced up at Jihoon currently watching their son but the pink haired male lookedd away when their eyes met. Seungcheol  finished tying his shoes on and smiled to his little boy, "I'll see you tomorrow, Sunghoonie, I promise."

"But he has daycare tomorrow." Jihoon intervened.

"Day care take kids with parents that work during the day, right? I can take him."

"Not necessarily like that. Mansae is basically like a kindergarten. Wonwoo and the others teach them stuff from time to time and I'm paying so he's got to go." Jihoon opposed, lips slightly jutting out.

"Then, I can volunteer at Mansae tomorrow. That way, I can watch him and spend time with him." the older of the two rebuttaled, "Come on,  Jihoon, please?"

"Please umma! Please, please!" Sunghoon hugged his mother's leg and looked at him with his pleading eyes.

"I'll take care of him. I'll make sure he changes clothes when he sweats, I'll feed him and play with him, anything. Please?"

Jihoon was about to refuse but agreed in the end. Sunghoon and Seungcheol's pleading eyes were too much to handle, "Alright, okay. You guys can hang out tomorrow but you can't stay under the sun for too long or else you have to make sure to put on more than one layer of sunscreen. The weather is getting a bit chilly too so make sure he's not cold. I'm gonna pack everything so-"

"Hey.. Don't worry. I got it." Seungcheol smiled, "I'll take care of him and won't let him get sick or hurt."

"Alright."

Sunghoon clapped happily and said, "I wanna sleep now umma! I want tomorrow to come fast! Bye bye appa! See you tomorrow!" he then waved goodbye and ran up to his room.

"Bye Jihoonie. Goodnight." Seungcheol smiled.

Jihoon's breath hitched but he managed to asnwer. "You too."

--

Jihoon followed his son after seeing Seungcheol off and found the child snuggling into his covers. Sunghoon felt his presence when he sat at the edge of the bed.

"Umma? Are you going to sleep his tonight?"

"Can I, baby?" Jihoon asked and tucked himself in beside his son.

Jihoon hugged his son close and asked with hesitation, "So... what do you think about Seungcheol?"

"Appa? What about him?" Sunghoon asked back, not quite understanding what his mom meant.

"I mean.. Do you like him? Do you like playing with him? I... I don't know, baby." Jihoon tried explaining but even he didn't know what he was talking about.

"Oh yeah! I like appa! We play together and its so fun!" the toddler answered with a big smile but then it disappeared, "but... how come appa doesn't stay with us when we finally see him again?"

Jihoon didn't reply. Instead, he hugged his son tighter. What was he supposed to do? Sure, Seungcheol was still as attractive as ever and he couldn't deny the fact that he was a teeny tiny bit interested at Seungcheol's idea of giving their son a whole family but it had been years. Was he brave enough? Was he ready to take the risk?

Seungcheol would leave sooner or later anyway, so what was the point of getting back together? Seungcheol and his gorgeous smile clouded Jihoon's head and he eventually drifted off to sleep.

Jihoonie!Look!" eighteen year old Seungcheol had balloons clasped tightly in his hand.

Jihoon looked at his friend (at the time) and blinked in confusion. They were at Hang Gang park trying to relax. The younger of the two looked at the balloons, they were all white. Plain. Very boring.

"Why are they white? That's so boring!" he scoffed and went back to playing on his phone.

"Yah! You better pay attention to me, I planned this all night just for you!" The older whined and finally approached Jihoon, "You look beautiful today."

Jihoon didn't dare look at him because he feels it, he was furiously blushing. This is what happens to Jihoon everytime Seungcheol complimented him.

"Sh-shut up!"

Seungcheol though, made the other face him, "I have something to tell you and it is very important."

The shorter male finally showed interest. He tilted his head and waited for Seungcheol to continue.

"But first, you have to pop these balloons!"

"What?!" Jihoon asked and counted those balloons. Five. Shouldn't take long. "Why do I have to pop these? Why can't you just tell me like how normal people do?"

Seungcheol answered him with a grin, "Where's the fun in that?" he handed Jihoon a safety pin.

Without much of a thought, the younger took what was handed to him. He glanced up at his friend who was smiling brightly at him. Jihoon let out a loud shriek from the sound when he popped the balloons one at a time. He opened his eyes after having popped one and saw a paper fall from it. He looked at Seungcheol and the other just ushered him to continue.

He popped the balls of air one after another, seeing colourful papers fall from them. One by one he picked up those pieces of paper and lined them down on the grass surface.

At first, he didn't get what it was but after shuffling the papers for a bit, he read it.

 난 니가 좋아 

With his heart beating incredibly fast, he looked at Seungcheol with shocked eyes. The taller male approached him with that gorgeous smile, making him fall for his friend all over again.

Seungcheol held his hands, "I really really like you, Jihoonie. We've know each other for quite a while now but... my heart still beats fast when I'm with you. I know this might seem too sudden and I don't mind waiting, really. But... Lee Jihoon, will you be my boyfriend?"

Jihoon's eyes watered but he smiled and hugged the other, "Yes... Yes!"

Jihoon shot up from his sleep. He checked if Sunghoon was still asleep and let out a sigh of relief. He checked the time on his phone.

12:51AM Why did I dream of that day? The happiest day of Seungcheol and I?

--

A/N:

Hello! I know, I know I've been gone for like almost half a year. No excuses. I'm so sorry :(

Here's a new update and I seriously hope you guys still remember this story. Thank you for those of you that waited patiently and to those of you who are new, welcome and thank you for showing interest! <3

Don't forget to subscribe, recommend, upvote and comment!

If you read until here, comment "Carrots and Potatoes are delicous!"

SEE YOU NEXT TIME!
-ellemoonbin ♡