Prompt—the relationship between Luhan and Jongin wasn’t a secret to anyone; however, the fruit of such relationship definitely was.

“I really want to give up.”

“No, you don’t.” Luhan almost hisses in annoyance, covers Jongin’s mouth before he could scream back at him. “Let me think what we can do about it.”

“He got hurt, Luhan.” Jongin tears up; the sight of their child knocking him off his axis, “do you even remember he didn’t even want to talk to us! You know what that means? That means he is missing us—missing his father and his mother.”

Luhan sighs and scratches above his eyebrow before sighing once again. “We will think about it.”

“When,” Jongin chokes, “you fathers are so ing heartless! You don’t understand what goes on in everyone’s mind. He is a child and staying away from his parents. We seldom meet him. For how long would this work, Luhan? I don’t want him to grow up without his parents, hyung.”

“He needs to accept the reality.” Luhan provides at last, minutes later.

“Accept the reality?—that both of his parents are in show business and doesn’t ing care about him enough? Do we love this life more than our son? No, we don’t. He is only a few months old, hyung. I can’t bear the truth he will grow up hating us.”

“He won’t,” Luhan reassures, and he has the audacity to cup the younger’s cheeks at this moment. Jongin pushes his hands away. “Jongin,” he sighs, reasonable between them. “We just started our careers—we cannot—”

“Then you had to think a hundred times before knocking me up.” Jongin pushes him away, and with a cry loud enough for the whole dorm to hear, walks out of the bedroom and toward the bathroom.

Luhan sighs and runs a hand through his hair before following Jongin inside the bathroom.

Knocking up Jongin wasn’t exactly a plan of Luhan.

They had been nothing but reckless back then; Luhan had been the first one to initiate everything between them, Jongin had been the one to prompt Luhan more. It was a game of cat and mouse; of who could seduce the other more. Between the hours of training and lectures and training, and training, they needed some time off.

They found the time in each other’s arms.

There was a fine line between sharing intimate moments with each other and falling in love. When they crossed such line, even they didn’t know. They just knew one thing: they were in love and were intent on making sure to survive as one throughout the tough journey coming their way.

They found out about Jongin’s pregnancy a few months into their relationship; to say they were ecstatic and afraid and worried would be a vast understatement... and all of that happened after their debut. Of course, there was no going back and no other way than to hide the truth about Jongin’s sudden ‘weakness’.

Hiding Jongin’s growing baby bump was the hardest part of it all; it was only because the male pregnancy was of six months that they didn’t have to struggle as much as someone unwilling would.

A boy was born; they decided to leave the boy in the care of Jongin’s family.

Jongin and his relationship, kind of, worsened after that. With them worrying not only about their rising career but also about their child started taking a toll on their personal lives. What would any parent want other than spending time with their newborn? Jongin was more affected by this than Luhan—being the mother as he was of the child—but hid everything well from everyone. How he was living was a mystery of its own.

No one knew, but Luhan knew his boyfriend was worrying himself to death. The younger would find moments after moments so that he could call home and listen to their son’s incoherent babblings. He would then call Luhan and ask him to talk to their son, and Luhan would smile and cry and wouldn’t even know minutes later if he’s happy or sad.

Their son was the adjoining force and Luhan knew a day would come where they would need to take a final decision. Jongin would not live this down; he knew that more than anyone else.

The day, however, came sooner than he thought it would.

There was a commotion in the K dorm when he walked inside. The members were worried about Jongin, Junmyeon more than anyone else. Apparently, Jongin had locked the door to his bedroom, was crying his heart out while talking to someone and wasn’t allowing anyone into the room.

“He got his periods.” Baekhyun tried (and failed) to lighten the mood between them.

“Did you two break up?” Junmyeon asked when he followed Luhan toward the room.

“It’s more than that,” he replied. “Let me see it—do you have the spare keys?” Junmyeon gave him one. “Thanks,” he said and asked Junmyeon to leave them be. Junmyeon did as he was asked to.

“Jongin,” he called, stunned to his bones at the sight of Jongin stuffing his clothes inside his trolley bag. “What—what are you doing?”

“I am leaving,” Jongin answered, resuming his work of shoving the clothes into the bag. He cried out when Luhan threw entire content out of the bag, as furious as his younger lover. “What is wrong with you?”

“Where are you leaving, huh? What are you even talking about?”

“I am leaving everything behind! I don’t want this—I don’t want this, I just want my child!”

Clenching his jaw, he decided to watch Jongin being all childish before coming up with words. “What would you do after this?”

“I will live with my son. We are still alive and I want my child to know that.”

“Stop it—” he ordered when he had enough of Jongin’s antic. “Put everything back in its place.”

“You are not for me to decide.”

“Jongin,” he sighed, and pushed Jongin to sit on the bed before impatiently pacing around the room. “Okay, fine,” he said at last, minutes later into the silence. “You want someone with our child—someone who is not your family, but one of us?” Jongin replied with a nod. Luhan is silent for some more moments—the long minutes feeling like hours to Jongin.

“I will go then,” Luhan said, determined and firm in his words. “I will take care of our son; I will leave Exo and everything behind. Not you.”

“What...” Jongin stands up immediately. “Hyung, t-this—what are you saying?”

“If you are not afraid to sacrifice everything for our son, then why would I be? He is my son, too, and Jongin—first listen to me, baby—you have given so much to me. You have given me the greatest happiness; you have made me a father. Can I not do even this for you? Don’t you trust me with our son?”

“That’s not it, hyung.” Jongin breaks into tears; Luhan pulls him into his arms. “This is all y-your dream too. You worked so hard for this, a-and...”

“Did you not work hard for this, too, Jongin? If I were to say, I would say you worked the hardest. Despite being pregnant with a child, you proved yourself. Do you know how much people love you? How many admire you for your impeccable talent?” Jongin shook his head. Luhan smiled through tears. “Besides, I hate how SM treats us like robots. I think we deserve something better than these losers. I wanted to get away from this since forever and now I got the chance—this is a sweet chance, Jongin.”

“Jongin,” he called minutes later when Jongin refused to stop crying and leave him. “I will go to China with him. You will come and meet us; promise me?”

Jongin cries harder and pushes his face into Luhan’s chest more. Luhan smiles, though it’s sad, and the expression sitting on his handsome face doleful. “It’s okay.” Jongin shook his head and fisted the elder’s shirt.

“I am sorry,” he said at last. “I am sorry, hyung.”

Luhan only pulls him close and presses a kiss to his temple; a pitiful attempt to stop the threatening tears.

just a pitiful attempt to show to what extent parents can go for their child; they can sacrifice their happiness for the wellbeing of their child. and it’s not always mother, but father, too. but father always remains in the background, like a pillar; they will be there if you ever need them. mums are standing ahead of us, like bodyguards.

make sure to let your parents know how much you love them; believe me, the smile on their faces will bring tears to your eyes.