Kibum had just dropped off the photos from the fashion show he had covered on his editor’s desk when he received a text from Minho. Kibum read it, a frown forming on his face.

Bummie~~~ My sweet, sweet baby. Could you do me a teeny, tiny favour today?

Okay, extra endearing terms before a question usually meant that something unpleasant was following. Kibum gathered his patience before typing up a reply.

Could you pick up Yoogeun from school for me? His nanny is sick and I forgot that I’ll be in a meeting when he gets out, so I didn’t arrange anything else for him. Please, baby?

Kibum shook his head in disapproval at Minho’s desperation even though the latter wouldn’t be able to see it. He had made it sound like he was about to make Kibum do something that would be a pain in the , what with his choice of endearing words and all. But it had turned out to be not that bad at all.  Kibum was learning quickly that he quite enjoyed the boy’s company. He was quite a character and it was always a surprise, the words that left the boy’s mouth.

Besides, there really were no other options for today, were there?

Yah, of course I’d help you. Didn’t need all that buttering up.

The time on his phone told him he had half an hour till school ends. Just enough time to inform his editor and leave the office for a bit.

Jinki noticed him putting his jacket on and his interest was immediately piqued.

“Where are you going at this time of day?”

Another text from Minho arrived just then.

Thanks, Bummie. Knew I could count on ya. I’ll see you boys later…

Kibum glanced briefly at him before grabbing his wallet and phone to slip into his pocket. He didn’t have to carry his entire bag for the short trip.

“I’ve got an errand to run. I’ll be back in an hour or so…” Kibum answered him.

“Does this errand have anything to do with a certain tall, handsome man that drives a luxurious white-coloured vehicle?” Jinki probed, swinging in his chair like a child.

“Have you been stalking me or something?” Kibum joked.

“So what? You’re sneaking away for a mini rendezvous? At office hours too,” Jinki mocked him, feigning disappointment.

“Yah, what makes you think we’re dating?” Kibum asked him back.

“Hey, I know you don’t really like discussing your love life and all, but I’ve known you long enough to notice these things,” Jinki said, boring into Kibum’s eyes with his intent gaze. He almost felt stark under those piercing eyes.

“I’ve seen you around him. You might not have seen me though because of your tunnel vision when he’s around. It’s so adorable that it’s almost revolting,” Jinki continued, his brilliant smile almost blinding. The fool was proud of himself for having figured it all out by himself without Kibum needing to spell it out. And he seemed fine discussing it openly as well, which came as a surprise as this was the man that became instantly awkward at the sign of any public displays of affection between couples.

 Kibum ignored the other purposely, checking if the editor was back in. He was.

“Jinki, don’t you have a piece you should be finishing right now? It’s due this evening if I’m not mistaken…” Kibum said, passing by JInki on the way to the editor’s room.

“I’m on it, I’m on it. I’m gonna need those pictures too so don’t go missing or something…” Jinki retaliated. Kibum just waved back at him nonchalantly as he walked away, leaving a very excited Jinki staring at his back as he left.

Just as Kibum had promised, he was back in the office an hour after he had left, the young boy in tow. Kibum had had to explain to Yoogeun the circumstances and then teach him how to ride the subway, because he has apparently never tried it in his short life. It had been a mostly uneventful journey, except the part where Yoogeun had gotten stuck at the entrance where they had to scan their tickets. Luckily, security had helped him out quickly and he had made Kibum promise to never speak of it again.

Arriving in the office, they both received many curious glances but none of them had been driven by that curiosity to ask questions.

Except of course Jinki.

“Okay, I have so many questions…” Jinki announced as soon as they had gotten to Kibum’s desk, looking straight at the boy. Yoogeun didn’t seem to mind the attention as he seemed distracted by the notice board beside Kibum’s desk. It was filled with memorabilia from his most significant assignments. Kibum wondered what he was thinking about as he took the boy’s coat.

“I’m sure you do, Jinki, but they’ll have to wait,” Kibum said to his colleague before turning to Yoogeun again, “Yoogeun-ah, you hungry?”

Yoogeun finally tore his eyes away from the board to look at Kibum for the first time.

“Is this really Ryu Hyun Jin’s autograph?” he asked, instead of answering Kibum’s question. He has gotten used to this habit to be bothered by it now.

“Yes, it is. I went with a senior photographer during my internship days to take pictures at the Korean Baseball Championship. I met him there and got him to sign my cap, so that I could sell it for a quick buck if I am ever in need of cash urgently…”

Kibum had made up the latter part of that, but it was fun to watch Yoogeun’s expression change. He obviously disapproved of this.

“I’ll buy it from you. I’ll have appa pay you for it. Money isn’t an issue…” he said, touching the cap like it was made out of gold or something. Kibum moved to his seat, accidentally making eye contact with Jinki, who was fiercely mouthing the words ‘What’, ‘The’, and ‘’ at him.

Kibum understood the feeling. It wasn’t too long ago that he had been floored by the boy’s arrogance as well.

Kibum told Jinki to calm down by gesturing with his hands. He turned back to his monitor to check for emails from his editor about which photos he had chosen.

“I have a better idea, ask me nicely and I’ll give it to you for free…” he told the boy after a while. Yoogeun had been waiting for his answer and immediately showed his dissatisfaction by pouting.  Kibum simply patted the chair beside his twice to ask him to sit. Yoogeun did it very much reluctantly.

“You will not have my pride!” he declared indignantly, going back to sulking right after.

Kibum smiled at the adorable actions, but he was careful not to let on too much. A few minutes passed before Yoogeun actually spoke again, this time demanding for food. Kibum grabbed his giraffe mug to get himself some coffee and some cookies from the pantry for the younger boy. By the time he returned, Jinki had moved his seat to Kibum’s side and was running a full-on investigation as to the boy’s identity.

“Jinki, leave the boy alone. Ask me what you’re dying to know…” Kibum said, handing the bag of cookies to Yoogeun, who accepted it quietly before sliding his chair over to the notice board again.

“Let’s start with who he is, shall we?” Jinki said, grabbing some cookies for himself as well.

“His name’s Choi Yoogeun, he’s my boyfriend’s son,” Kibum said, matter-of-factly. Jinki was obviously about to be smug again about guessing Minho was his boyfriend, but the smugness was quickly taken over by the surprise at the fact that he had a grown son.

“Wait, your boyfriend didn’t look that old. Is he adopted?” Jinki gestured to the boy as he whispered the question to Kibum. This earned him a scowl from Yoogeun who had obviously overheard it.

“No, I’m not, but even if I was, that would still be rude to ask…” Yoogeun scolded from behind him, mouth full of cookies. Jinki eyes widened at that.

 “And you, you’re going around telling people now that you and appa are together?” Yoogeun asked Kibum.

“Never hid it to begin with…” Kibum replied curtly before turning to Jinki, “To answer your question, no he’s not adopted. Minho’s just blessed with a youthful face…”

Jinki nodded, his eyes focused in the mid-distant in deep thought.

“Suit yourself, you’re setting yourself up for a very public heartbreak…” Yoogeun commented offhandedly.

“It touches my heart how much you care about me, Yoogeun-ah…” Kibum replied just as offhandedly and noticed how Yoogeun quickly turned his attention back to the notice board, bag of cookies still in his hands.

JInki looked absolutely lost. Well, served him right for being so nosy. Kibum wasn’t even going to try and explain to the other man.

“I’m sensing a strange atmosphere here. I think I better go,” JInki said, rolling his chair back to his own desk after mouthing the very same words from earlier to Kibum again.

Kibum settled back into his work routine, answering Yoogeun whenever he asked something. The boy gave up on just sitting there after a while and wandered around the office for a bit. He came back after almost ten minutes with a strange request.

“Can I use your camera? I’m bored…”

Kibum looked at his work DSLR. He considered it for a moment as it was expensive.

“I’ll be careful. I wanna try taking pictures like those…” Yoogeun said, pointing at few pictures on the notice board that was just focused on one face in a crowd.

“Okay. But you have to be really careful okay? Let me show you the settings for it…”

The boy listened obediently once again as Kibum explained. He really liked seeing Yoogeun like this, inquisitive and observant. He looked like Minho when he’s watching soccer or reading the newspaper, absolutely focused and in the zone.

Another half an hour passed while Kibum was editing and compiling the requested pictures. He had seen Yoogeun going around asking people if he could take their pictures and also taking a few from afar, while they weren’t looking. He saw Yoogeun do this with him a couple times too. At 5 pm Kibum was done with his work and had sent the finished work to JInki to use in his article. They had gone over it together one last time before sending it to the editor, who’d do the final tweaking before inserting it into the magazine.

“Yah, what’s the deal with the boy?” Jinki asked him in a whisper. Kibum had just started to relax in his chair after all the work when JInki had interrupted the peace. Kibum gave him a very quick rundown of their situation currently. Jinki wore an unreadable expression the whole time he was listening.

“So it’s not because of the whole same- relationship thing?” JInki asked, trying to clarify why Yoogeun didn’t really approve of him.

“Not really. I mean, he was incredibly upset by how his grandfather had treated me and Minho. He’s never even brought it up otherwise. It’s always just been about his mother…”

Jinki pursed his lips, deep in thought. Kibum took the chance to finish his cold coffee and to check for messages from Minho. Whatever JInki was about to say was cut short by Yoogeun returning to them.

“Here. Tell me what you think…” Yoogeun said to him. Kibum put his phone and mug down, taking the camera instead.

He browsed through the pictures one by one. Most of them were blurry, either because the face had been too far away or maybe Yoogeun’s hand had been shaky. But there were a few really good ones. There was one particular one with him and JInki concentrating on the article that caught Kibum’s attention. It was well framed and his side profile was in perfect focus while Jinki’s was out of focus.

“Overall, not bad. But this one, I’d give it a perfect score,” Kibum said. Yoogeun seemed elated by the compliment for a short while, but it was soon shadowed by a frown.

“Which ones were bad? And how do I fix it?”

They took a lot of pictures of each other to demonstrate the differences in technique and eventually, it just turned into goofing off with the pictures. Jinki gave up on talking to him and moved back to his desk, not leaving the office although it was quite late already, for some reason.

“Key-hyung, are you so poor that you had to steal our mug?” Yoogeun asked, jolting Kibum out of his reverie. They were just sitting down, doing nothing after putting away the camera. The office was almost empty except for couple other coworkers. Minho was supposed to be there in another fifteen minutes, so they were just killing time now.

“Yah, steal? I took it ‘cause it looked like your father a little,” Kibum said, picking up the mug in his hands. Yoogeun took it from him to look over as well.

“I don’t see it…”

“Oh, you know, when he’s guilty and he’s trying to hide it. The awkward smile he puts on then…”

Yoogeun studied the mug again, laughing out loud all of a sudden.

“Okay, I see it now…” Yoogeun admitted.

“You laugh just like him, you know?” Kibum told the boy.

“Yeah I know. But they say I got my good looks from eomma…” Yoogeun replied, placing the mug on the table. Kibum’s good mood was slightly threatened by the mention of the boy’s mother, but he figured he might as well use it as a segue.

“Yoogeun-ah, did I ever mention that my parents got divorced also?” Kibum started. Yoogeun simply shook his head, seeming a little curious but concealing it by playing with his fingers on his lap.

“Yeah they did. When I was fourteen. It was probably the worst period in my life. I thought it was my fault and I thought I had to fix it,” he said again. When Yoogeun did not say anything, he continued, “I was wrong, you know. It wasn’t my responsibility to mend their relationship…”

“Did you even try to fix it?” Yoogeun asked, probably understanding where this was going.

“No, I didn’t know where to begin,” Kibum said, opening up wounds from his past the more he spoke about it.

“That was your mistake then, maybe you could have helped them get back together…” Yoogeun insisted.

“Maybe. But they wouldn’t have been happy about it. I look back now and I see that they were never happy together. In the end, the divorce was the best thing that could have happened to them. My mother is happy now and so was my father before he passed away…”

“I’m sorry about your father…” Yoogeun said, looking up at him for a bit. “But my parents aren’t like yours. I’ve seen how happy they were, they’ve just forgotten. I’m gonna help them remember…”

Kibum sighed audibly. He reached out to pat Yoogeun’s shoulder comfortingly. The boy allowed him the contact, not meeting his eyes though as he pulled out his phone. Kibum’s eyes landed on Jinki’s as the other was just getting ready to leave. He gave Kibum the look. It was a look that said he had something to say but was biting his tongue, considering if it will be appropriate or not.

“Appa’s here…” Yoogeun announced, picking up his backpack and coat, looking longingly at the baseball cap once again before heading towards the lift. Kibum followed suit, with JInki right behind him.

“Save it, Jinki. I know…” Kibum warned and Jinki pursed his lips again, nodding twice.

~~~~~

Minho looked absolutely worn out, leaning against his car with his shoulders slouched and dark circles around his eyes. His shirt was all wrinkled, which was very unlike him. Minho looked as if he hadn’t slept in days. When he saw them walking towards him, he barely managed to put on a friendly smile.

“Appa! You’re late! Let’s go, I’m hungry…” Yoogeun said, half-hugging his father before hopping into the backseat. Kibum knew his brows were furrowed but he couldn’t help his concerned expression as he approached the taller man.

Minho wrapped an arm around him, taking in a deep breath and releasing it in the nape of his neck. Kibum raised his arms to rub Minho’s sides comfortingly, sensing something was wrong.

“Baby…”

“I had the worst of days in court today and I’m so ing glad you’re here now…” Minho spilled without much prompting. Kibum pulled back slightly to see a slightly more sincere smile on the other’s face. He was tempted to wrap him up in tightest of hugs and chase all of his worries away then and there, but he was reminded of the eyes on them by an awkward throat-clearing.

“Umm, this is Lee Jinki, my colleague. And Jinki, meet my boyfriend, Choi Minho…”

Minho stretched a hand out to shake Jinki’s. Kibum noticed how Jinki’s gaze was flitting between the hand being offered to him, the arm around Kibum’s waist and of course, Minho’s face. This was more like the awkward Jinki Kibum knew so well.

“Um hi, nice to meet you, Minho-shii. Took us long enough to officially meet. Not that we have met unofficially. I’m not a stalker, I promise…” Jinki rambled on. Kibum found it funny how Jinki had the ability to make any social interaction seem excruciatingly painful when he was aiming to do the opposite.

“Well… I’m glad you’re not…” Minho looked at Kibum with uncertainty. Kibum nodded at him reassuringly.

“Jinki’s a writer. He’s the one in charge filling white space beside my pictures…”

“Quite the daunting task I imagine, since this one can be pretty demanding…” Minho said, completely ignoring the look Kibum shot him. He didn’t really mind the jab though, it brought back some light to Minho’s eyes.

“Tell me about it!” Jinki said, rolling his eyes. He immediately sensed Kibum’s eyes changing targets and went back to his awkward self.

“I… have to go. Work is over and need to get home and cook dinner and become a couch potato for the rest of the evening and all. Busy, busy…” he said, starting to shuffle backwards.

“Would you like to join us for dinner?” Minho asked, all of a sudden. He must have felt Kibum’s questioning eyes on him because he turned to him and whispered that the company would be a nice distraction.

“Oh I wouldn’t want to impose on-“

“No, no it’s fine, come on. I know a really good place for barbecue and soju…” Minho said, unwrapping himself from Kibum as he walked towards the driver’s seat. He met Jinki’s eyes and simply shrugged at him, calling him over with his hand as he too went to get in the car.

“Shut up. You won the case against Park Tae Jin?” Jinki’s jaw fell upon hearing Minho’s words. The taller man took another swing at his soju before answering Jinki with a simple nod and a smug smile.

“Oh my god, is this what old people talk about?” Yoogeun muttered under his breath, picking up the last piece of meat on his plate. Kibum agreed with his sentiments wholeheartedly. Why was work still a topic outside of work?

“But he’s used to buying his way out of all the lawsuits. He’s like the real life bad guy who gets away with everything even when everyone knows he’s guilty…” Jinki continued fangirling.

“Not that one time. He put his employees in real danger with his safety code violations and one of them really had gotten hurt. He wasn’t getting off that easily, not under my watch…” Minho said, sounding almost like a comic character before a fight. Maybe he was getting a little drunk. Again, completely unlike Minho to drink on a weekday.

Kibum had decided to not drink as soon as Minho had ordered a soju for himself, allowing the man to do as he wished because today had obviously been rough for him.

“And to think your name hadn’t been plastered on the newspapers for that…” Jinki said, looking pretty drunk himself. On a Thursday night. He’s going to be disappointed in himself when he realizes this tomorrow, Kibum thought.

“Technically my law firm’s name was the one being talked about, but you’re right, it wasn’t my name. Don’t like the publicity, so told them to leave it out. It’s not like they don’t know anyway…” Minho made a gesture to brush off his shoulders as if it was no big deal. Kibum sighed. He was definitely drunk and he was definitely on the ‘I’ll regret this tomorrow’ list, along with Jinki.

“Minho-yah, that’s enough alcohol, okay?” Kibum said, trying to take the bottle away from Minho, but the other refused by holding it out of his reach. He gave up, although he was still keeping a close eye on him as his attitude was slightly worrying. Minho was past the point of no return any way.

“Okay, I’m gonna go play with the doggy…” Yoogeun said, finally standing up to go to the cashier where the restaurant owner was sitting with her Shih Tzu. Kibum followed him with his eyes, getting distracted by the cute puppy for a while. By the time he turned back to the two drunk men, they were on the topic of Minho’s relationship with him.

“He never talked about any of them to me. But they all lasted really short periods anyway so I wasn’t surprised. But I was surprised to see your car consistently for six months and still not hear a word from him…” Jinki was saying. Kibum’s glares weren’t working at this point. He had no control over his friend anymore.

“I’m not surprised. He’s the humble kind, you know. Not the type to go around saying that he’s dating a hotshot attorney…”

“Minho-yah…” Kibum whined quietly, burying his face in his arms from embarrassment at the other’s blatant boastfulness.

“Oh you could be right. I was thinking more along the lines of him being uncertain about your relationship. But that’s obviously stupid, you’ve been together for so long now…”

Kibum’s head immediately snapped in Jinki’s direction in curiosity. What was he on about? This seemed to be Minho’s question too.

“Uncertain?”

“Yeah, you know, less people you tell, less damage control to do when things get messy. Yoogeun seems to agree with me on that…” Jinki kept talking, oblivious to the changing atmosphere around them.

“What do you mean, Jinki-shii?” Minho asked, no more mirth in his voice. His slurring words were the only indication of his drunk state. Besides that, it seemed as if Minho was in his court, grilling someone on the stand.

“Jinki, stop talking…” Kibum said, trying to stop the escalating tension. Minho’s hand was on his swiftly, while his eyes were fixed on Jinki.

“Your son, of course. He seems to hate Kibum’s guts. I wouldn’t blame Kibum for thinking this might end anytime…” Jinki’s word vomit was endless and it was making Kibum cringe on the inside.

“Do you really think that, Kibum-ah?” Minho asked him and he was quick to deny this. Jinki was making his own assumptions as an outsider looking in, but Kibum of course knew better.

“Of course he’s gonna say no if you ask him like that. Have you stopped to ask him how he felt being compared to the boy’s mother every time he said a word? I‘d feel trapped in a hopeless situation where I know I could never win and I should never win, because children always come first…”

Okay, Jinki made a lot of sense, oddly. And Kibum found himself relating to some parts of that rant involuntarily. But this wasn’t the right place or time for this. Heck, Jinki had literally met the man just a few hours prior.

“So you’re saying I’m not giving a about how he feels? You’ve known me for three hours…”

“Minho, calm down, he’s just drunk…”

“I’ve known him for four years. He’s going to be the last to admit he’s hurting when he knows saying that will cause inconvenience to others around him. Does that make sense? I think I’m making sense, it sounds right in my-“

“Jinki that’s a little dramatic-“ Kibum started to say, before being cut off again.

“Remember the time you were doing all the work for your intern when you realized her mother just passed away? Or how you wouldn’t tell anyone that you were no longer interested in the sports gigs for the longest time because you knew they didn’t have anyone to replace you and all their work would’ve gone down the drain if you quit?”

Kibum blinked, trying to catch up with all of that. Minho’s brain seemed faster than his even under influence of intoxication.

“Kibum would tell me. He knows that’s important to me…” Minho said, sounding extremely cold. Jinki realized for the first time that his words had been rubbing Minho the wrong way.

“I’m sure it is. But you know, you could start with talking to your boy about the way he speaks to Kibum…”

“Jinki, please just stop…” Kibum begged.

“So now you’re giving me advice on raising a child? Oh we have a genius right here, don’t we? Don’t you think I’ve tried that?”

Kibum reached out to hold Minho’s hand, but the other was getting so riled up that he shoved the hand away without even blinking. This was getting painful to watch.

“I’m just saying-“

“I think you’ve said enough. I’m trained professionally to think from all angles. I’ve thought over all this so much, you wouldn’t even understand it. I don’t have to sit here, taking bull advice from a ing writer, whose job is to make up about celebrities for people to read as distraction from important things. That’s exactly what you’re doing here too...”

That seemed to sober Jinki up, if not just a little. He stared between him and Minho, looking completely confused. Everyone was looking at them now, particularly at Jinki for being yelled at. Kibum felt pity for him. He did not deserve that for just trying to help him out in his own way.

“Minho, I’m sorry if I have offended you. I was just speaking based on my observation of your son’s interaction with-“

Minho rolled his eyes rather obnoxiously at him. Kibum found himself getting mad at Minho now.

“Stop talking about my son. You don’t know him. What part of that is not getting through your thick skull, you im-“

Jinki looked like he was going to burst into tears any moment then.

“Minho, shut up, okay?”

“Kibum-“

“No, you’ve both said enough tonight. It’s time to leave…”

Kibum ignored Minho’s shocked expression as pulled his phone out to call a chauffeur service for Jinki. He paid the bill and called a very nervous-looking Yoogeun to join them as they got ready to leave. They walked out of the restaurant, many pairs of eyes following them till they were out of sight.

He got Minho and Yoogeun into Minho’s car while waiting for Jinki’s ride. Jinki was incredibly quiet as he stood beside him, wobbling once in a while but never actually losing balance. A few minutes later, his ride was there. Kibum made sure to give him the address and even paid in advance to drop the other off safely.

The whole ride home Minho was incredibly silent, nodding off to sleep after a while. Kibum didn’t mind it. He would prefer not to say anything now, lest he said something he’d regret out of rage.

“Wow, what happened back there Key-hyung?” Yoogeun asked, once Kibum had helped Minho up to their apartment and had tucked him into bed. The boy had stood by the door, waiting patiently as Kibum dragged the half-asleep Minho into a proper position and took most of his clothes off.

Kibum shuffled the boy out of the room to talk to him.

“Drunk people tend to get sensitive about things and get into arguments easily. That’s all…” he said, crossing his arms,  “I’m sorry we’re home so late. You didn’t really get the time to do homework or anything, did you?”

Yoogeun shrugged, walking towards his room.

“Lucky I didn’t have any today. Appa will be fine, right?”

Kibum nodded, smiling at the boy.

“He will, don’t worry. Now, do you need anything before you go to bed?”

“I’m almost twelve. I don’t need you to tuck me in…” Yoogeun said, shaking his head playfully.

“Hey, just checking, you never know right?” Kibum said, backing into the room while rocking on the balls of his feet.

“You’re staying?” Yoogeun asked him, stopping him in his tracks.

“Y-Yeah?” Kibum asked more than said, fearing a backlash. Now, after all of today’s events, that would be the last thing he needed.

Yoogeun didn’t say anything. He simply stepped into his room, sliding the door shut behind him.

“Good night to you too, Yoogeun…” Kibum mumbled, closing their door as well and immediately stripping to hop in the shower. He glanced over at Minho’s sleeping form and couldn’t help but sigh. He hadn’t even had the chance to ask him about his day.  Whatever could have happened that had made Minho this way?