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“Uwaah, Prince Kulru runs so fast! That’s because he is a tiger, right, daddy?”

“Yes,” Sehun nods. Sowon and him are currently on the couch watching some cartoon animal show on TV, but honestly, Sehun is barely paying attention right now.

Not after what happened earlier today, anyhow.

“Please let me love you this time,” Jongin had said. And then he had kissed Sehun.

Afterward, he had smiled in relief while putting Sehun’s resignation letter through the shredder, with the owner of the letter watching distractedly, still unable to believe what had just happened.

Then, he had given Sehun one last kiss on the cheek before pushing him off to work, and that was that.

Sehun had spent the rest of the day at work in a daze, and he’s still in a daze even at home.

What does it mean?

Jongin wants me to let him love me? he ponders internally. Does that mean he loves me? Was that a confession?

Does Jongin want to start over?

So Jongin still loves him all along?

Then why had he acted like he didn’t know Sehun? Why put them through so many play-pretend games? Does Jongin have some kind of problem that had led him to do that, and does it relate to why he had left without a word five years ago?

And does it really all matter in the end, as long as Jongin wants to be with him again?

Some may call him a fool, but… This was all Sehun had ever wanted―for him to reunite with Kai, for Sowon to know his other father, for them to be a happy family again.

That had been his only wish for five long years.

So if Kai comes back, and he wants to go by the name of Jongin, that’s fine. As long as they can be together again, that’s fine.

Sehun is content―

“―is that?”

He blinks, gazing down at the little boy staring up at him with wide eyes. “Huh?”

“That animal! What is that, daddy?”

Sehun follows Sowon’s pointed finger to the TV screen. “That’s a jaguar.”

“Jag-wire?”

“Jaguar,” Sehun chuckles. It’s probably too hard a word for a four-year-old to pronounce correctly. “It’s one of the fastest animals on Earth.”

“Ooooh…” Sowon marvels, eyes sparkling as he looks back at the TV.

Sehun mimics him, watching a cartoon jaguar sprinting across a field. Come to think of it, Kai had always reminded him of a jaguar, nimble and wild―reckless. Quick to react and lash out, but direct and candid as a result.

Sehun had loved that unscrupulous side of him.

It’s interesting how time changes a person, though. The Jongin now doesn’t really remind him of a jaguar.

Jongin reminds him more of a―

“And what animal is that, daddy?”

“―Panther…” he breathes, looking at the new animal emerging from the distance.

A panther, yes. Dark and brooding, with an air of quiet restraint around him but no less dangerous beneath that composed exterior.