__

Minhyun yawns, his eyes still closed, scratching his belly. He sniffles a little before turning to his side, trying to snuggle in closer with his father, his arm reaching out for his figure…

The little boy opens his eyes when he only feels emptiness, sitting up. He rubs the dust out of his eyes, his hair messy and sticky, before looking at the side of the bed where his father sleeps in.

He’s not there.

“Daddy…?” Minhyun mumbles, looking under the covers to see if Baekhyun was buried under there. Finding nothing, he climbs off the bed and looked under it, frowning when his father isn’t found.

He hobbles to the bathroom, looking in the bathtub. He searches everywhere within the bedroom, looking behind the curtains and in the balcony. When his father isn’t to be found in those places, Minhyun began to be panicky, running out of the room, looking for him in the hallways.

“Daddy? Daddy!” Minhyun calls out, looking around wildly, trying to search for his father. He ran through the hallways, his socked feet occasionally slipping on the tiles. He searches through every room, looking under desks and tables and behind curtains, a sense of dread looming over him when he doesn’t find him.

“Daddy! Daddy, where are you?” Minhyun began to cry, running even faster to check up every single hall and floor, running up and down the stairs.

Staying with his father for the whole of his six years’ life meant that he was dependent on his presence—but the absence of his appearance made Minhyun fearful. Before they’ve moved, Minhyun was used to having his father wake up by his side, even if he was working the previous night—but now, in this maze of hallways and corridors, Minhyun couldn’t seem to find him.

Minhyun began to be desperate, the tears beginning to pool in his eyes as he opens each door of a room without any success. He tries to open the Office door, pushing against it with all his might, but to no avail—the door is locked, and if Baekhyun had been inside, he would’ve heard Minhyun’s lamenting call.

The small boy ran downstairs again, towards the bedroom, the tears streaming down his cheeks, but his foot slips on the smooth tiles and he falls down shoulder-first, collapsing on the ground.

He faces another problem, remembering his father’s words too late. He wasn’t supposed to run or do anything too strenuous—he had sprinted around the mansion and now his chest was agonizingly painful, his heart having trouble coping with a severe demand of oxygen. Minhyun curls up on the floor and sobbed, crying, curling up small as he calls for his father with short gasps, clutching his chest.

“D-Daddy—“ Minhyun whimpered, his breaths coming up sudden and interrupted, as if he was hyperventilating. His voice was far too hoarse to call out now, and if anything complicated was to happen, there were fatal consequences.

“Minhyun?”

Baekhyun’s voice floated out of the hallway, and the man himself appears. At the sight of his son crumpled on the floor, Baekhyun breaks into a run and was at his son’s side in a matter of seconds, picking him up and pulling him in his arms, his hair.

“Is everything okay? Poppet, what’s wrong? Do we need to go to the hospital?” Baekhyun panics, though tries to compose himself for the better of a rational mind to sort things out. Minhyun cries, his tiny hand clutching his chest, gripping his father’s shirt.

“D-Daddy—Daddy, it hurts—“ Minhyun cried, squirming uncomfortably at the growing pain in his chest. Baekhyun hushes him and rocks him back and forth, kissing his wet face, embracing him closely.

“It’s okay, baby, it’s okay. Daddy’s here, sweetheart, it’ll be okay,” Baekhyun whispers, “Come on, let’s calm down a little, okay? Take deep breaths. Big, deep breaths, you can do it.”

Minhyun struggles to hold his breaths in, but Baekhyun easily puts him in a relaxed state, demonstrating how to breathe in and out while murmuring comfortingly to his son, rocking him back and forth in his embrace. Minhyun soon returns to his normal respiration state, where only his sobs remained, and Baekhyun sighs with relief, pressing their foreheads together.

“Don’t do that to me, poppet, you really scared Daddy there,” Baekhyun whispers, nuzzling his nose onto Minhyun’s. His son clutches onto him tightly, as if fearful that his father would be gone if he did not hang on to him.

They returned to the bedroom, Minhyun still in Baekhyun’s arms, sniffling into his father’s cotton shirt. Baekhyun kisses him repeatedly, the little boy’s sobs subsiding into hiccups, looking up at his father’s face before twirling a hazel strand of hair in his chubby fingers.

“Daddy looks pretty,” Minhyun murmurs, mussing up his hair. Baekhyun smiles, albeit tearfully, and returns the favor by the little boy’s damp hair.

“Am I?”

“Yes. Pretty pretty,” Minhyun cooed, his mouth pulling into a tiny smile. He presses a palm to his father’s cheek, observing the tired, melancholic look that ingrained itself within Baekhyun’s face. Exhaustion hung under his eyes, drawn out as dark circles. Though he looked frail, happiness surged through his pupils at the sight of his son.

“Where did you go, Daddy?” Minhyun sniffles. Baekhyun smiles a little shakily.

“I was working, baby,” Baekhyun whispers, “I asked for work back in my old workplace in the warehouse—remember? Daddy lifts boxes and things. Fortunately they accepted me back. And Daddy will work there every night from bedtime to morning so we have enough money so we can make you better.”

“B-But Daddy…” Minhyun said, a little aghast, “You’ll be tired… A-And I thought Daddy stopped working b-because things are better now—“

“I know, poppet, I know. But I don’t think things are going well right now. It’s okay if Daddy’s tired. Daddy will do everything so you can get better.”
Baekhyun’s face darkened.

“And… And if Daddy doesn’t get enough money by then, maybe… Daddy can find another home for you,” Baekhyun bit his lip, unconscious of the tears that had spilled down his cheek, “W-We won’t be together then, but if it means that you can get better—“

“No! I don’t want Daddy to go away!” Minhyun screamed. He latches onto his father and clung onto him, shaking his head, his face stricken. Baekhyun swallows thickly, his fingers trembling as he came to hold his son.

“If there’s no other way—“

“No! Don’t wanna!” Minhyun shook his father by the shoulders, and Baekhyun’s head feebly flopped on his neck like a shaken corpse. Minhyun smacked Baekhyun across the cheek, to which the latter stared on the floor unfazed, and Minhyun whimpers once more at how his father had looked so hopeless—like his life had suddenly become meaningless.

“You’ll have a happier life with someone else, Minhyun,” Baekhyun mutters, his face becoming blank, “You’ll go to a proper school. You’ll have a good future. You can have a loving Mummy and Daddy. I’ve been such a bad parent. I couldn’t take care of you properly. I can’t even pay the rent. Or buy you nice clothes. Or new toys. You’ll forget an old sod like me fairly quickly—“

“Daddy!” Minhyun cried out, shaking his head furiously. He shook Baekhyun’s frame repeatedly, trying to convince his father that this was not the solution—but Baekhyun simply stared at the wall like a mannequin; a shell that was formerly full of life, but it seemed that he was finally dead inside after years of fighting.

“Daddy! Daddy, please—“ Minhyun sobbed, but Baekhyun couldn’t find the energy to wipe his son’s tears away. His body stays rooted and seated on the bed, catatonic as his eyes stare into nothing, and no matter how many times Minhyun called out for him, clinging onto him for dear life, it seemed that his father had finally crumbled apart.

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Chanyeol lies strewn all over the bed, and the sheets weren’t even over his body anymore. He had called off any meetings arranged today—yesterday had took an unexpected toll on him. It was supposed to be another game; something to pull his ex-husband over the edge. That was the whole point of the deal; for revenge. But obviously, some part of him had planned for something else all along—Chanyeol was still hopelessly, stupidly, incredibly in love, and that was his biggest mistake.

So now, he was teetering between trying to make his former lover fall in love with him while also toying with his feelings. Nice move.

What was the deal anymore? Any real love out there never needed a deal.

So what were his feelings? What was Baekhyun?

What was anything?

What was he?

And if he loved his so-called son so much, why was there a deal at all to save him? Why did Chanyeol have to wait?

Chanyeol’s own thoughts