Yonghwa quickly turned around at the sound of that voice. A little boy with curly brown hair was looking at him curiously. He had huge brown eyes that looked like big pools of dark amber, ruddy cheeks and cherry lips. He looked like he was trying to put up a brave front, but the tears glistening at the corners of each eye gave him away.

The boy repeated his question.

"Ahjussi, have you seen my mommy?"

Yonghwa didn't answer him immediately.

"What's your name, kid?"

"Yongyong..." the little boy whispered, staring at his feet. His lips started to quiver and he looked like he was really going to cry soon.

"Hey guess what?! My name is Yongyong, too!" Yonghwa went to crouch in front of the kid, stooping to eye-level as he gave a big grin. The boy looked up in surprise.

"Your name is Yongyong, too?!"

"Yep! My mommy gave me that name!" Yonghwa resisted the urge to fluff up the boy's hair as he stared back at him in amazement. He didn't want to scare him away.

"Wow, I didn't know anyone else had the same name as me?!" The kid temporarily forgot about crying. Yonghwa took out a handkerchief from his back pocket and dabbed at the tears.

"Of course, it's probably just the two of us. And that makes us special," he whispered the last part near the boy's ear. The kid beamed in response. He seemed to have forgotten his momentary fear of being lost.

"So, since we have the same name, can I call you Little Yongyong? That makes me Big Yongyong. But you can call me Uncle Yong instead." The kid nodded. "Okay!"

"So, what's your mommy's name?"

He gently pulled the boy to sit on the wooden bench.

"My mommy is..." The kid stopped talking as he felt something vibrating in his small backpack. Yonghwa heard it, too, so he helped the kid check it. There was a handphone inside, obviously placed there by an adult for emergencies. The kid probably forgot about it in his anxiety.

Yonghwa swiped across the screen and handed it to the boy.

"Hello?"
"Uncle Hyuk, where are you? I got lost." Yonghwa listened to the boy talk in a trembling voice.
"Uh, I don't know where I am... Oh, there's an ahjussi here beside me, maybe he can tell you where I am."

Yongyong handed over the handphone to Yonghwa with pleading eyes.

"Please talk to my uncle and tell me where we are. I need him to pick me up,"
"Please?"

The boy's big, round, pleading eyes were too much for a softhearted adult. Yonghwa lost all the stiffness and self-discipline he'd earned while he was in the marines. He didn't know he had such a weakness.

"Yes hello, this is Jung Yonghwa speaking, sir. Don't worry, the kid's alright, I just met him here in the par~"

"What the f~Hyung?? Yonghwa hyung, is that you???"

Yonghwa pulled the phone away from his ear after that earsplitting shout. A look of surprise came upon his face as realization dawned on him.

"Minhyukie?? Is that you??? Kang Minhyuk???"

The two men exchanged expletives over the phone, forgetting that there was a toddler nearby. When Yonghwa finally remembered about the kid, he turned away as he continued to talk on the phone.

"Yah, Kang Minhyuk, is this your kid?! You never told me you had a kid?! No wait, he called you uncle. Is he Jonghyun's?! That f&$@£*¥ bastard, he finally let one slip by?!"

"No hyung, no! The kid belongs to... a friend..."

"The hell, is he Jungshin's?! Why, I'm gonna whip his~"

"No! No, he's not Jungshin's either. You, ah, don't know his parents, they're MY friends, umm you don't know them... Wait is he really okay? His mom asked me to pick him up coz she was running late, but his teacher at the daycare said he'd wandered off. There's an army of bodyguards out there searching for him, can you please hold onto him for me while I drive over? Where exactly are you?"

Yonghwa looked over to where the kid was sitting quietly on the bench, staring at him in anticipation. He closed his eyes as he took a deep breath. He'd gotten too excited over the thought of his friends having had kids without his knowledge.

"You mentioned bodyguards. So, his parents are rich?"

"Well, yeah, sort of. His mom's a bigshot. His dad's... not in the picture... That's why his mother's gonna kill me if anything happens to him! Please keep him safe. I'll pick you up."

Yonghwa gave him their location and ended their conversation. He was still in shock at how the world seemed so small and such a coincidence could happen today, of all days.

"Hey kid, your Uncle Hyuk's coming to pick you up. While we wait for him, wanna feed the ducks with me?"

The little boy nodded his head and beamed excitedly as he jumped off the wooden bench. Yonghwa picked up his duffel bag and slung it over his shoulder.

"By the way, kid. Call me Unce Yonghwa, I happen to be your Uncle Hyuk's friend. You're safe with me, okay? But next time, don't you ever talk to strangers, alright? Better yet, don't wander off on your own, you might get lost again."

Yongyong hung his head and stared at the ground, mumbling something. Yonghwa couldn't hear him so he crouched lower and asked him to repeat what he said.

"I just wanted to play with my friends, but... they all left me behind... They all said I'm weird coz I don't have a daddy..."

Something tugged really hard at Yonghwa's chest and he stopped breathing for a bit. He pulled the boy into an embrace, patting his back to comfort him.

"They're wrong, Yongyong. You are not weird. You're very special."

They stayed in that position for a moment before Yonghwa stood up and carried the kid over to the pond where the ducks were. He'd only known the kid for less than an hour, but he already felt like protecting him from everything that would hurt him.

He couldn't wait for Minhyuk to arrive.