Hi every one :) Before we get to the chap, I am happy to announce that this story now has 108 readers with lovely 12 votes. /(^_^)/

Goodness lovelies ! Thank you so so so much !

Okay now here we go. This is bit rushed since I had some stuff to take care today and I was being busy (I thought I was supposed to slack off in my vacation but meh~)

So bare with me lovelies~ Excuse grammar slips and spelling errors. I will edit later.

Enjoy.

word count ~ 5000

Lu Han flails his arms to stop his gorgeous face from planting on the floor as he trips over his own foot. He a deep breath and stays still for minute to muster up the energy from his worn out body. He wipes his forehead and walks to his baby Ziyu’s bedroom.

It’s been hectic as Lu Han managed to squeeze through all of his meetings and paper works along with field visits, completing everything in his schedules. He admits that he was on a constant run like a headless chicken in a marathon. If it wasn’t for the -load of caffeine in his system, he might be dead by now, he knows.

Upon opening the door slightly, by the dim light of the bed side night light, Lu Han sees that Ziyu is long lost in the dreamland. He smiles at the heart warming sight. His little boy is sleeping soundly curling himself in Minseok’s side. Minseok is sleeping on Ziyu’s small bed, his legs dangling, one hand over Ziyu’s small body under the blanket. Lu Han heart squeezes little painfully because it should be him who is cradling Ziyu, not Minseok. Lu Han sighs, walking into the room. He gently shakes Minseok awake.

Minseok sits up on the bed groggily and looks around dazed. Realizing that it’s Lu Han who woke him up, Minseok slowly gets off the bed. Gesturing him to be quite, Lu Han tucks Ziyu warmly and kisses his head.

“Good night baby. Daddy loves you.”

He slowly closes the door and turns to face Minseok.

“You can sleep in guest room Minseok. Thank you so much for taking care of him this late. It’s been a long day.”

Lu Han pats his shoulder with gratitude and Minseok shakes his head fast.

“It’s nothing Mr. Lu. Thank you for asking me to stay but I really should go. I have to collect my sister tomorrow morning at 6.00 from the station. She is going to attend high school here so she is gonna stay with me.”

Lu Han hums and smiles. Minseok goes to collect his bag in the living room while Lu Han tails him.

“Then I’ll drive you home.”

“No no Mr. Lu, you can’t leave Ziyu alone. I can walk, it’s just two blocks anyway. Don’t worry I have black belt in Karate.”

Minseok grins pumping his fist. Lu Han chuckles at the silly college student.

“Wait wait, may be you do have a black belt but as your employer I have a responsibility over your safety. It’s almost one in the morning and you did this much for my son this whole week. This is the least I can do.”

He pulls his phone out and dials someone, holding his finger in front of Minseok’s face as if he is telling not to argue. He politely speaks to someone. He smiles as he finishes the call.

“A cab will pick you up in five minutes. It’s a trust worthy cab service.”

As he closes the door after Minseok leaving, Lu Han leans against the door feeling utterly drained. He reads the wall clock in living room shows 1.30 already. He rubs his face tiredly and taps the phone screen a few times to set an alarm to wake up. With all the refreshments he promised to bring as Ziyu pestered him to, he will have to wake up 5 the most. (He agreed to Ziyu’s pouty lips and informed Mr. Oh as he dropped Ziyu Tuesday morning that he will bring evening snacks for children for the trip).

Lu Han drags his body and falls on the couch. Sighing he presses his face on the cushion, thinking that he will spend a few seconds here until he finds some energy to get up. It’s going to be a few second anyway, he thinks, sinking deep to the couch.

“Dadyy Daddy wake up! Wake upppppp !”

Lu Han groans as he hears Ziyu shrieking up. He tries opening up his heavy eye lids but it’s difficult and he just wants a few more seconds to….

Wait!

Is it morning already? And why does his bed seems less soft?

“Baby what time is it? Why are you up?”

He asks, voice muffling to cushions, ready to drift back to sleep.

“Dadddyyyy it’s trip dayyy wake uppppp, it’s… it’s…. I dunno, big arm on eight, small arm on five!”

Ziyu jumps up to the couch and sits on Lu Han’s back, drumming his little fists on his father’s back muscles.

Lu Han takes another five seconds to process the information and Ziyu is currently punching his already fatigued muscles.

“Five…eight? Five…eight! Oh fu- duck! It’s five forty!”

Lu Han shouts as Ziyu jumps out of his back and runs away gigging, knowing that his morning mission is completed. Lu Han rolls on to his side and….

Thud!

He welcomes the floor because it’s couch he was sleeping all night, not his king sized bed. Groaning he stands up. Damn, his joints are stiff from being cramped and he is still wearing his office clothes.

And just like that Lu Han’s morning starts.

He is in a run while preparing sandwiches and calming down from hyperactive Ziyu from storming all the way from kitchen to back yard and from the bathroom to kitchen. Gulping down literally a gallon of black coffee, Lu Han gets himself to his functioning super-daddy mode, being multi-tasked. He then gets a screaming Ziyu to bath fighting off his naughty child’s protests over bathing. But it’s a war to take Ziyu out of the bath and it’s already 6.15.

Lu Han breathes easily as he dresses the baby who chatters non-stop. He smiles as he adjusts the collar of Ziyu’s ironman T-shirt.

“Mr. Oh said that Mr. ele- elep-phant is this big.”

He spreads his arms to show how much big this Mr. elephant is. Lu Han takes the hair brush and start combing Ziyu’s silky hair.

“He said Ziyu hafta drink a lot of milk and be tall like him, so I can bring Mr. Ele home.”

Lu Han mentally rolls his eyes at Mr. Oh’s lame reasoning. What kind of milk did he drink to be that tall? Pffttt, tall like him, like he is the only one tall around here!

“Why? Is daddy is not tall enough?”

Lu Han pinches his baby’s nose. Ziyu shakes his head with a cute little frown between his eye brows.

“No. he said that daddy is not tall enough, so daddy can’t bring Mr. Ele home.”

Lu Han huffs at “Daddy is not tall enough” part but sighs in relief because if he was tall like Yi Fan did (He doesn’t want to admit that Sehun and Yi Fan are roughly similar in height), he wouldn’t know how to convince Ziyu about elephants are not pets to bring Mr. Ele home.

“Hmmm, okay then Ziyu should drink a lot of mile to grow taller.”

He peppers Ziyu’s face with kisses as the toddler giggles.

“Daddy loves you so much Ziyu-Ziyu”

Lu Han says lovingly hugging his precious son to his chest.

“Ziyu loves daddy too, daddy.”

That’s all he wants to live, Lu Han thinks when he hears his baby’s sweet voice.

Wondering from where these tiny teeny muffins get their constant energy supply this early in the day, Lu Han tries to calm down a very energetic Ziyu who bumbles around the house gleefully, shouting his Baba to hurry up. Lu Han rolls his eyes as he neatly packs the food into different containers. He takes out the chocolate cake and slices it to equal pieces and packs neatly for the children.

To say Lu Han is tired is not an understatement at all. He worked hard to free his schedules in Friday wanting to be a better father (and that doesn’t have anything to do with him not wanting to show off the handsome teacher Oh that he deserves the best daddy award, nope, not at all). Still he has a business party to attend tonight, which he thinks he will be able to.

He thinks nothing can be exchanged for the toothy happy smile Ziyu is displaying with much eagerness. He understands that his child craves for his attention. It wasn’t easy for him to raise him for five years. He still remembers it as yesterday how happy he was when this little bundle of life was gifted to him. But then his world shattered when his wife, Mei died in a car crash when Ziyu was just a month old infant. But Lu Han didn’t lose the hope as Ziyu brought him light. It was difficult for him, though it was an arranged marriage, he loved his wife and he still has a special place for her in his heart. There were many sleepless nights over the years and so many hard times than he could count. There were times Lu Han cried alone, pleading Mei to help him. But at the end, seeing how Ziyu has grown to a happy and healthy child, Lu Han is proud of himself. He knows Mei would be proud too.

Ziyu hugs his Baba’s leg and grins as Lu Han checks messenger bag to make sure he has everything Ziyu needs including the first-aid kit. He ruffles Ziyu’s black hair, smiling back, ready to go for a final brush up of his appearance (Don’t judge, he needs some concealer to hide the dark eye bag. He doesn’t want to appear like a coffee induced zombie because he is sure as hell that he has to be leveled with the handsome teacher in this competition.)

“Baba, can I have cake?”

He asks, blinking his big brown, killing Lu Han’s stern ‘No’ on the tongue before he even makes a sound. Ziyu has that ability of melting his Baba’s resolve into a puddle of melted cotton candy. He is the example for one of the cutest five year olds. And without a doubt he inherits it from his handsome father.

Lu Han sighs and nods, offering slice of sugary sweet cake to his son, as he takes it out of the fridge from what remained in the box.

“I am going to get something and then we are ready to leave. Eat and be careful okay?”

He kisses Ziyu’s head and turns to leave. Ziyu tugs at his sleeve and Lu Han turns to face him with a soft --why baby?-

“Thank you Baba. I am happy you come to the zoo”

Ziyu says, adorably smiling. Lu Han smiles back nodding. He ruffles his hair.

“Me too baby.”

6.45 a.m.

Sehun checks his wrist watch the thousandth time in between talking parents who are bringing children, clarifying them any matters they have. He is patient and kind but he is little worried because Mr. Lu is supposed to be here at 6.30. He takes out his phone and taps a few times, viewing his contacts. He has Mr. Lu’s contact number as he extracted that specific piece of data from Ziyu’s personnel record only because he thought that it would come out handy in emergencies like now.

Excusing from parents in the classroom, asking Jimin, the mother who volunteered for this trip, to take care of things little for a few minutes, Sehun walks away, towards a much quieter area of the kindergarten. He is about to dial Lu Han when he spots a familiar black Audi, pulling into the parking area.

Lu Han laughs when Ziyu starts to shake his , doing a happy dance, while he tries juggling with the box in his hand that has the entire food assortment for evening snack. Ziyu skips ahead with the back pack slinging in his back shrieking that he is going to run to see his friends.

“Ziyu, be careful!”