Chapter 3: Go halfsies
 

To share something by splitting it in half.

“Good afternoon,” Chanyeol said to the woman at the front desk. “I’m here to pick up Jang Byulha.”

The woman smiled. “Are you registered on her file?”

“Yes,” he replied. He fished out his ID, and gave it to her, taking off his sunglasses at the same time.

Byulha’s record clearly stated that there were three people allowed to pick her up from school: Jang Wooyoung, Park Chanyeol, and Lee Minyoung.

The woman behind the desk nodded, and gave the ID back. She gave him the green light to go pick up the student.

Chanyeol was more or less familiar with the layout of the school. He also knew where his daughter’s classroom was. The door was wide open, and he peeked inside. Byulha was holding Sojung close to her while she and another girl played Memory, the game of matching cards. He let them play for a little more, since the game was almost finished. The other girl won, and Byulha cheered, offering her friend a high-five. This made her father smile as he stepped forward. “Byulha,” he called, “I’m here!”

The little girl waved goodbye at her friend, and then at her teacher, and then took her father’s hand and followed him through the corridors.

“How was your day?” he asked.

Byulha bubbled over with stories of the day. She told him about how she was the only one who already knew how to count to 100. She asked him to guess how many times she raised her hand and got the right answer. It was eleven times.

Chanyeol helped Byulha into her carseat, and then boarded himself. “Don’t forget your seatbelt,” the little girl reminded him.

The radio was playing WoonByul’s newest song, and Byulha was singing along to every lyric. She liked them mostly because part of her name was in part of theirs.

Right after dinner, Chanyeol went to work, since they had a music video shoot throughout the night for a new surprise single, Pageant Princess.

The concept was to cast girls who weren’t idols or actresses, and to have them portray realistic accounts of the average life of the average girl at different stages of life. There was a girl around 5 years old, one around 15, another around 25, 55, and 85.

There was one scene where the band was playing at a concert, and the five girls were attending as audience members. One by one, they got called up to the stage and each member entertained one of them. Chanyeol chose the girl, because she looked so much like Byulha. Minseok chose the 25-year-old, because somehow he had managed to get his girlfriend cast for the part. Jongdae gravitated towards the 35-year-old, Baekhyun chose the 15-year-old, and Kyungsoo paired up with the 85-year-old woman.

After the concert scene, they were supposed to have one thing to do together. Chanyeol took the little girl out for ice cream. Minseok took his girlfriend out shopping, where she tried different dresses on. Baekhyun helped Jangmi, the 15-year-old, choreograph a dance to a non-title EXO song. Jongdae and Jihye went bowling, and he let her win. Kyungsoo and the old woman danced to traditional music. All of these were presumably in the “daytime”, but it was all sets and lighting that achieved that look.

Chanyeol was done first mostly because the little girl was prone to falling asleep when they droned on the filming, but he was still needed for some extra shots of the band playing music. Until he was called up again, he simply watched the others have fun with the cameras rolling.

***

Wooyoung ate breakfast with his daughter on Saturday. Chanyeol had a special video to film with EXO to tease an upcoming webshow.

After breakfast, Wooyoung took Byulha to her piano lessons, and watched in absolute adoration as she fumbled with the keys and tripped over her own fingers. When she was finished an hour and a half later, he told her she was improving a lot, and that she deserved a treat. He took her out to a bakery and bought her a cupcake. “This is for you,” he said, “my little pianist.”

When they went back home, her father helped her with her homework, the basics of the alphabet. “What comes after ja, princess?”

She recited the song under her breath for a minute before coming up with “Cha! Like Chanyeol!”

“Exactly! High-five!”

***

“You’re hogging my daughter,” Chanyeol complained one night as he slid into bed, late.

“Hmm?” Wooyoung moaned sleepily.

“You spend more time with Byulha than I do. It’s not fair.”

Wooyoung shook his head. “Nuh uh, you spend more time with her. You have all the time in the world with her when you’re not on tour and I have work. I don’t always get to see her even when you’re away, because I still have work.”

“But when I’m away, you still see her more than I do, and lately I’ve been going away more than I stay here,” Chanyeol argued.

The older man pried an eye open and glanced at the clock. 1 AM. “Yeol, can we talk about this later?”

Chanyeol sighed. “Okay. I guess we can.”

***

Later came much sooner than Wooyoung would’ve guessed. The next morning, at breakfast, Chanyeol brought up the topic once again.

“Really?” Wooyoung asked. “You were serious?”

“Yes!” Chanyeol said. The toast popped out of the toaster and the kitchen staff got to work on it. “Nayeon,” Chanyeol called, making the young girl stop in her tracks, “what do you think?”

Her eyes bulged out. “A-about what, sir?”

Wooyoung scratched his head. “Don’t bring the poor girl into this,” he said, waving the girl away dismissively.

“No, no. Please. I need a third opinion. Who gets to see Byulha the most? Me, or Wooyoung?”

Nayeon was saved by Minyoung’s timely entrance. “You’re both wrong answers. I see her the most.”

“Minyoung! Okay, yes, but,” Chanyeol started, letting the young kitchen worker go, “between me and Wooyoung, which one?”

She thought for a while. “I think it’s Wooyoung. Why?”

“Ha!” Chanyeol grinned from ear to ear for being right. “Take that!”

Wooyoung sighed, and Minyoung looked between the two in confusion, but no one bothered to explain anything to her.

***

At the JIG building, Chanyeol made his way up to the CEO’s office with a file he’d printed out so recently that it was still warm. He slapped it onto the desk. “I got Taecyeon’s help with this, and we devised a routine in which we both see Byulha equally.”

Wooyoung chuckled and picked up the sheets, stapled together. He flipped through the pages, each day of Byulha’s week detailed, including in each event either of the parents would be unable to look after the child. “Impressive, Yeol,” Wooyoung admitted.

“So can we implement it?” the excitable drummer asked.

With a pause, Wooyoung finally gave in. “Sure. Fine.”

***

Mondays, Wooyoung was supposed to drop Byulha off to school, and pick her up as well. He had two hours to spend with her before he had to drop her off with Chanyeol. And then Chanyeol had three hours to spend time with her before it was time to go home. There, she spent an hour with Minyoung where she helped the little girl get dressed for supper and got all of her homework done.

Tuesdays were the same, except the parents were reversed.

Wednesdays had Wooyoung drop her off, and Chanyeol pick her up. Then she would be dropped off with Minyoung because Wednesdays were both men’s busiest day. They both wouldn’t see her until it was time for dinner.

Thursdays and Fridays were just like Mondays and Tuesdays.

The weekend was divided in half. Saturday was Chanyeol’s day because Wooyoung had lots of things to do on Saturdays. He would take her to her piano lessons. Sunday was Wooyoung’s day because that was the day EXO got together weekly to practice. Wooyoung would take her to ballet rehearsals.

***

“Hi, I know I’m supposed to pick up Byulha, but I got wrapped up in work and I’m not going to be able to make it. Could you do it just this once? Love you!”

***

“Hey, I’m sorry to ask you this, but Jongin needs to go to the doctor's, and no one else is picking up their phones. Can you pick up Byulha?”

***

“Hey, Byulha’s ballet got cancelled, and there’s this cool amusement park that opened up at the mall. Do you think I can take her there today?”

***

On a Sunday, Wooyoung got called into the office, so Chanyeol took Byulha to the set of their webshow, which was the dorm they were going to live in for a month.

Byulha sat quietly and watched her dad and s bow in front of the camera. “Hello, we are EXO!” they said in unison. Chanyeol continued. “We normally don't live together, but we decided it might be fun to try, and film it for you guys.”

Baekhyun quipped from behind, “Maybe if we don't end up killing each other, we’ll live together after, too!” The five of them laughed.

“The goal of this show is to get to know each other even better than we already do by living together,” Minseok explained.

Jongdae picked up from there. “The house is equipped with motion sensitive cameras all over the place.” He cupped his mouth with one hand and stage whispered, “It’s kind of creepy! They follow you around, everywhere.”

Kyungsoo took over now. “Every day each of us will have one mission, and we need to complete it by the end of the day. If we don't,” he gestured to a chalkboard behind him, “we get demerit points. The person by the end with the most demerit points loses, and has to make it up to the fans in whatever way they choose. You can cancel out a demerit point by doing extra missions in one day.”

Chanyeol was speaking again, holding a stack of envelopes. “Now! First missions!” He threw the envelopes over his shoulder and said, “Fight for rooms!” before everyone scrambled away.

***

Minyoung worked overtime in the weeks that followed, going home later than usual, sometimes even staying for dinner. Once she slept over, taking the guest bedroom right across from Byulha’s. A couple of times, she let Byulha come over to her own house.

“Do Appa and Daddy hate each other now?” she asked one such night.

Minyoung immediately dropped to her knees to reach Byulha’s height. “No, of course not, honey. Why?”

“It’s my fault, isn’t it? They always try to push me to each other. I’m hard to take care of, right?” Byulha sniffled and chewed on her lip.

Minyoung hugged the little child. “No, Byullie, never. You’re such a sweet little girl. It’s never hard to take care of you.”

“Then why don’t Appa and Daddy ever spend time with me together anymore? Like a family?”

Minyoung had no idea how to explain her parents’ childish behavior to an actual child and make her understand. “They can’t share you. They love you so much that they get jealous when one of them spends more time with you than the other.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Byulha muttered.

“I agree,” Minyoung whispered back. “Hey, do you want hot chocolate? I feel like having hot chocolate.”

“But… it’s so late…”

Minyoung winked. “I won’t tell your parents if you don’t tell.”

Byulha smiled and wiped away the few stray tears she’d shed. “Okay!”

She waited in the kitchen as her nanny made the drinks. “How many marshmallows do you want?”

“All of them!” Byulha said, and they both laughed.

There was a picture hanging on the refrigerator of a woman who looked like Minyoung with a little boy on her lap. Byulha pulled a stool up next to the fridge to reach the picture. “Unnie, who’s this?”

Minyoung glanced at her as she walked to her side. She set the little girl’s mug, the surface covered in mini marshmallows, on the kitchen island, and then sat next to her. “That,” she said, “is my son.”

Byulha gasped. “You have a son? Where is he? What happened to him?”

The older woman smiled gently. “He lives with his Appa in New York,” she revealed.

“Are you married?” Byulha asked.

“I used to be. But then my husband and I didn’t get agree a lot so we separated, and I came here.”

Byulha was silent, and she stared at her hot chocolate without once making a move to drink it.

“It’s okay though. I still get to see my son,” Minyoung said, unsure why the little girl was so glum all of a sudden. Byulha smiled, but it wasn’t her usual smile. It didn’t cover her entire face. “What’s wrong, Byullie?”

“Do you… Do you thi