Minho was ninety percent sure his brain was about to implode.  Why on earth did people subject themselves to this torture?  Three hours.  Three hours of a rerun cartoon and a few adults in oversized costumes who had to be drunk or high as they stumbled around on stage.   Three hours.  His ears were about to bleed from the deafening volume and there weren’t enough painkillers in the world to cure his headache.  It was decided, if he ever had children of his own, they weren’t even going to know what a television is.  They would play with wooden blocks and cardboard boxes until they graduated from university.  That seemed like a much better option than sitting through a live performance of ing Pororo and Friends ever again.  If he so much as saw a picture of Pororo or heard that nasally voice one more damn time…

So naturally, as soon as the show was over he found himself being dragged into the gift show to spend another hour of his life and countless dollars on the show’s paraphernalia.  Once Yooguen had finished exhausting Minho’s wallet the building had thinned of most of the crowd, the halls comfortably empty in comparison to mere hours before.  Minho almost felt like a rational human being again.  He still hated Pororo and all his annoying friends but he didn’t have the urge to punch the character actors any more, so that was good.  Progress.

Even if he was miserable, Yoogeun seemed happy and now it was over so they could finally go home.  But first, they needed to take care of a little business, Minho was quite fond of the leather upholstery in his car after all.  Minho began wandering in search of a bathroom.  After a few minutes of winding hallways Minho was almost ready to accept the fact that he had kind of, sort of, maybe gone in the wrong direction.  In his defence, the bland beige walls were hardly helping his naturally bad sense of direction and his headache was still making its presence known, demanding his attention so he could barely focus on where he should be going.  

“Uncle Ho?  Where are we going?  I need to potty,” Yoogeun whined, following along behind him.  

“I’m looking for the bathroom, buddy.  There must be one around here somewhere,” He replied, trailing off into a mutter.

He let out a huge sigh of relief as he saw someone rounding the corner in front of him.  Normally he would be a bit too embarrassed to ask for directions but he had a four year old with him and bathroom breaks could only be delayed so long.

“Excuse me!” Minho called out, catching the stranger’s attention immediately.  “Do you know where the restroom is?”

The man looked up, flashing a bright smile, “Sure, there is one down this next hallway.  Let me show you,” he said with a wave of his hand, spinning on the ball of his foot to go back in the direction he just came from.  

“Thanks,” Minho sighed with relief.

“No problem.  Were you here for the show?” The man asked, falling in step beside them.  

“Yeah.  Yoogeun here is a big fan of Pororo the Penguin,” Minho explained, jiggling Yoogeun’s hand to get him to look up.  

“You don’t say?  Hey kid, nice to meet you ” the man said in a perfect replica of the characters voice.

Yoogeun’s eyes got as wide as saucers, a smile forming on his lips as he stared up at him.

“Mister, are you Pororo?”

“Uh huh!” the man’s smile was infectious and Minho couldn’t help but feel almost as awestruck as Yoogeun.

“Cooooooooool!  Say something else!”

“ Like what? ”

Yoogeun giggled in response.

“How about... what’s your name, short stuff?” the man asked.

“Yoogeun,” he replied with a toothy grin, “And that’s my uncle Ho!”

“Uncle Ho, hmm?” the man said, raising his eyebrow in amusement.

“It’s Minho actually,” Minho corrected, his ears tinged pink at the rather embarrassing nickname his nephew liked to call him.  

“Of course it is Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome,” he replied flippantly, “ And here is the restroom!”

Minho blinked in confusion, afraid he had heard wrong, Yoogeun seemed completely unphased by the random, bordering on inappropriate comment, too enthralled by the man’s voice.  

“Wait here, okay?” Yoogeun said to the stranger in a serious tone before pushing his way into the bathroom, the poorly marked bathroom Minho noted with a twinge of annoyance.  

“Hey thanks, this place is like a mono-colored maze,” Minho gave him a sheepish smile.

“No problem gorgeous, happy to help,” he replied with an easy smile and a cheesy wink.

“Ummm yeah,” Minho said, clearing his throat in discomfort, “so are you really the voice actor for the penguin or are you just randomly talented at imitating cartoons?”

“I’m the real deal.  Fluffy little penguin by day, but by night I revert back to my true form, romance extraordinaire with just a dash of ual prowess to keep things interesting.  How about it?  You free tomorrow night?”  his adorable smile didn’t really fit with the words coming out of his mouth.  

“Wh--”

“Hyung!  Do the voice again!” Yoogeun screeched, cutting Minho off as he raced out of the bathroom and practically fuzed himself to the man’s leg.  Minho was almost glad for the interruption, he really had no idea how to respond to such a blatant come on.  

“ Sure thing little man ,” came the reply, sending Minho a playful wink before turning back to Yoogeun.

“Uncle Ho isn’t it so cool!  He’s really Pororo!”  Yoogeun was like a kid on Christmas day, overwhelmed with excitement that it almost hurt to look at him.  

“It’s very cool buddy, but I’m sure Mr. Pororo is very busy so we should let him get on his way,” Minho said gently.  

“Not too busy for you!  And the name is Jinki.”

“Well thank you Jinki, really.  It was very nice to meet you but we should be on our way anyhow.  It’s well past someone’s N-A-P time and my sister-in-law will murder me if we stay out too late,” Minho explained.  He wasn’t lying either, he needed to get Yoogeun home and in bed before the cute little boy next to him turned into a walking, screaming nightmare.  Sleep deprived children were no joke.

“Alright, I understand.  At least let me walk you out,” Jinki said, falling in step beside him.

“That’s not necessary--”

“Jinki Hyung do the voice again!!!!”  Yoogeun interjected, causing Jinki to smile, triumph shining in his eyes at having an excuse to ignore Minho’s protests.  Jinki babbled away in that squeaky Pororo voice until they reached the front lobby, a location that would have taken Minho hours to reach by himself but he wasn’t about to admit that aloud.  

“Oh!  Are you busy next week Yoogeunie?”  The little boy frowned, looking towards Minho to answer the question for him.

“Ummm… why?”

“Well since I’m like a part of the cast and all, I get free tickets to the shows.  We have a small meet and greet with the characters next week, wanna come?”

“I get to meet everybody?”  Yoogeun’s eyes lit up with excitement.

“That’s right.  Everybody,” Jinki assured him, his grin held nothing but confidence like he knew Minho would never be able to deny Yoogeun such a treat.  Minho almost wanted to hate him for it.

“Please Uncle Ho!!!  Please!”  He begged.

“Yoogeun,” Minho said as sternly as he could manage, “We have to ask your mom first.  This isn’t up to me.”

“Well you guys go ahead and take the tickets and figure it out later.  I have no one else to give them to anyway so it’s no big deal,” Jinki said casually, steering them towards the front desk as he spoke.  “YaeJin,” He greeted the woman behind the counter like a close friend, “meet my new friends, Yoogeun and Minho.  Can you hook them up with tickets to the cast meet n’ greet next week,” Jinki sent her an easy smile as he relaxed against the counter, his eyes still trained on Minho.

“Sure thing, Jinki.  Just two tickets?”  She asked as she began tapping away at her computer.  

“Is two enough?  Or do you need more?”

“I-- umm-- I think two is good?” Minho stumbled over her words, unsure how to deal with this slightly overbearing man who was pretty much forcing free things onto them.

“Great!  See you then, cutie,” Jinki said with another greasy wink before vanishing through the doors.  

Minho was a bit stunned, standing in the middle of the lobby with this tickets in one hand and holding onto Yoogeun with the other.

“Uncle Ho?  Why did Jinki hyung call you cutie?  Is he your boyfriend?  Mommy says you call people things like ‘cute’ and ‘pretty’ when you like them.  You know, like them , like them,” Yoogeun explained.  Minho’s head dropped to his chest with a deep sigh, how was he ever going to explain what just happened?  His brother was going to laugh himself hoarse when he heard about this.