Chapter 10

Reading Writing Romance

Junho

The rest of the week moved at a snail's pace. Junho hadn't heard from or seen Chansung since their aborted date night. Either Jea or Chansung's parents had been bringing Jay to school and picking him up at the end of the day.

Junho had spent his time without Chansung going over and over that last night. Yes, Chansung had been the one to start things between them physically, but he should have been smart enough to know that Chansung used as a distraction and pushed him off.

He didn't like to admit it, but he wasn't that strong. He'd wanted Chansung. He'd wanted to do exactly what they'd done together and a lot more besides, but by listening to the lunatic ravings of his , he'd royally ed things up between them.

Huddling into his fall jacket to escape the cold September wind whipping off the river, Junho pushed through the front door of the Blue Chicken, his favorite downtown restaurant. Quickly scanning the large Friday night crowd, he easily spotted Minjun and Ewon who were laughing together over something.

"Hey guys." Junho raised a hand in greeting. He wasn't in the mood to be here. All he wanted to do was stop at the Wendy's drive-thru, buy twenty bucks worth of food and go home to watch a marathon of Hawaii Five-0 while he ate his feelings.

"Christ, Junho!" Minjun half-yelled "You're half an hour late and you look like something the cat dragged in. Don't you own a mirror?"

Junho snorted, finding his first smile in days. This was the reason he'd agreed to come out tonight when all he wanted to do was stay home. His friends knew him and loved him, warts and all. If anyone could give him good advice, it was Minjun and Ewon "Sorry I'm late." he shrugged, sliding into the booth next to Ewon. 

"Were you making kissy face with Hwang Chansun?" Minjun's eyes sparkled in the low light of the restaurant.

"You could have invited him along, you know." Ewon grinned.

Junho loved that his friends were behind his relationship with Chansung and didn't seem to be jealous of his finding someone. He just hoped what he was about to tell them about Chansung wasn't going to change their minds about him "There's something I need to tell you guys about."

", trouble in paradise already? Why don't we get a drink into you and then you can tell us all about it." Minjun held his hand up to signal the waitress.

After Junho ordered a pink Cosmo, he sat back against the booth and tried to organize his thoughts. The way Chansung left things between them wasn't going to endear him to Junho's friends. Once the waitress set the cocktail down in front of him, he took a large gulp and asked her to bring another.

"What you have to say must be pretty bad if you're down vodka like water. You know the kind of hangovers Cosmo's give you." Ewon whispered in his ear.

Pushing the fruity tasting drink away from him, Junho took a deep breath "Chansung's ex-wife served him with papers this week wanting full custody of Jay. She's moving to Connecticut with her rich boyfriend and she wants to take Jay with her because Chansung's gay." 

Minjun and Ewon exchanged uneasy glances with their mouths hanging open. It was obvious neither man knew what to say.

"Chansung came over the other night so we could read the papers and what the ex alleges is her reasoning is just a homophobic rant. She's bitter that Chansung only used her as a cover to hide his uality and is taking Jay away from him as her revenge."

Ewon cleared his throat "He used this woman and got her pregnant just to hide the fact that he was gay?"

Chansung sounded like a first-class the way Ewon laid it out "Chansung dated her to hide himself and when he couldn't put off her demands to finally have , he gave in at some frat party in college. Jea got pregnant with Jay that night. She's an awful mother." Junho grabbed his drink and took a long sip, his straw making a sound when the liquid was gone.

"Every ex in a custody battle says that." Minjun waved a hand in the air.

"True, but I've seen her in action in my classroom. She's a cold-hearted . When she picks Jay up, he runs to her and she never hugs him or is interested in any of the things he wants to show her. Every time I see her, she always seems to be ogling the dads who are picking up their kids."

"You can't blame her there." Ewon laughed "We do the same thing." 

Junho rolled his eyes. It was true, they did that exact thing, but not at the expense of anyone else "She's one of those types who is constantly picking men over her son. Half the time she is scheduled to have Jay, she leaves him with Chansung so she can go off with her rich boyfriend."

Minjun knocked back the rest of his beer and signaled the waitress for another "So you look like because your boyfriend is facing a custody battle?"

This was the part of the story Junho didn't want to tell "Not exactly."

Minjun's easy smile vanished as the principal leaned forward in the booth "What do you mean not exactly? What happened between you two?"

"I invited him to dinner at my house the other night. Jay was with his mom, so it was just Chansung and I. He brought me flowers and dessert from Cupcake Heaven and I made steaks on the grill. After we ate, we read the papers together." Junho in a deep breath "God, they were awful. Filled with bigoted, homophobic language and claiming that part of the reason Jea wanted full custody was to get Jay away from the homoual men Chansung has in his life."

"Are you ing kidding me?" Minjun practically roared as the waitress set down his beer.

Junho shook his head sadly "After we read the papers, I was going to tell Chansung about your brother, Jun. Offer to make the introduction if he wanted, but..."

"Let me guess, his distracted you?" Ewon grinned.

"Yeah and when it was my turn to, uh, return the favor, Chansung lost his ." God, he hated having to tell his friends this part of the story. He needed Jongup's help and wasn't likely to get it if Minjun ended up hating Chansung.

"What do you mean? Did he hurt you?" Minjun looked ready to breathe fire.

"Not physically. He stopped doing what he was doing and told me that he was about to lose his son because he was gay and there he was..."

" your ?" Ewon asked with no humor in his voice.

Junho nodded miserably.

"Jesus Christ." Junho blew out a harsh breath "Let me guess, you haven't heard back from him since?"

"Right. I wanted to give him time to get his head straight, but it's been three days and his parents have been dropping off and picking up Jay."

It was Minjun's turn to nod "And you want Jongup to help him?" 

"I do, Jun. I know you probably want to stomp Chansung into next week, but he needs a bulldog like your brother who will fight to keep him and Jay together." Junho shook his head "You should see them together. I've never seen a father show so much love and devotion to a child than Chansung."

"I know. I have seen them together, coming into the building and on the way out. Jay is always smiling and happy. I've gotten a few emails from parents of the kids in your classroom letting me know what a good friend Jay is and how thankful they are that their kids are in class with him."

It made Junho think of the day Lisa's mother took the time to thank Chansung for raising Jay to be the kind of boy who made everyone welcome in his life "I'm not surprised."

"So let me get this straight, you want Jongup to help Chansung even though he was a complete to you?" Minjun raised an eyebrow in challenge.

Junho turned to Ewon to gauge his response.

"I'm with Jun. This guy hurt you and in return you want to help him?"

"I know neither of you know him very well, but he's an amazing man. I think he's the one." Junho could feel a blush rising up his neck to bloom over his face. He'd only recently admitted the truth about his feelings for Chansung to himself. It wasn't easy telling his friends how he felt, especially in light of the story he'd just told about Chansung.

Minjun and Ewon exchanged a wordless look "Okay, I'll call my brother in the morning and explain the situation, but if Chansung keeps being such a prick to you, I'm asking Jongup to charge double!"

"That sounds reasonable." Junho grinned and picked up his menu "Are you guys hungry? I'm so hungry I could eat a whole elephant."

"Son of a mothering !" Minjun whispered angrily.

"What? What's wrong? Did the price of hot wings go up?" Ewon laughed.

"It's ing Taecyeon." Minjun gritted out between clenched teeth.

Junho could see a muscle in his friend's jaw fluttering as Minjun ground his teeth together. Ok Taecyeon was Minjun's ex and a private speech pathologist who was sometimes brought in to work with the kids at Little Wonder Clovers. The relationship between the two men had ended when Minjun caught his lover cheating on him "!" Junho grimaced when he saw Taecyeon kissing some guy and groping his with both hands.

"Christ, he's all class." Ewon looked away from the salacious scene "I bet he's doing it on purpose to piss you off."

"Yeah, well, it's working." Minjun appeared to be studying the man his ex was publicly mauling "That er probably charges extra for the boyfriend experience. Now, who's hungry?"

 

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Chansung

"NO!" Jay shouted, throwing himself on the floor of Chansung's living room and kicking his sneakered feet against the couch.  Pounding his hands in concert with his feet he kept yelling.

Chansung had never seen his son act like this before. Jay had tantrums just like any other kid, but this was beyond a tantrum. Sighing, Chansung got down on the floor with his flailing son and started whispering to him, knowing that if Jay wanted to hear what he was saying, he'd have to stop screaming first.

It took about five minutes for Chansung's plan to work. The minute Jay stopped pounding his arms and feet against the floor, Chansung scooped him up and held him against his chest. He could feel his son's heart pounding like a hummingbird's. Whatever was wrong must be pretty big for the little boy to act like this "Daddy loves you, Jay."

"Love...you...more...dinosaur." Jay panted against Chansung's chest.

Now all he needed to do was figure out what made Jay so upset in the first place "Are you mad at me?"

Jay shook his head no, but stayed silent. 

"Well that's a relief! Phew!" Chansung laughed and held Jay closer. If the boy wasn't mad at him, maybe something had gone wrong at school? "Are you mad at Lee-sunsengnim or someone at school?"

Jay shook his head again "I love Lee-sunsengnim and all my friends and the lizards."

"Of course you do, buddy." so, if Jay wasn't mad at him and everything was all right at school, that left only one option. Right before Jay's epic meltdown, he'd told the boy he was off to spend the weekend with his mother and Jongkook.

Jea was already on his list thanks to her little stunt with serving the court papers in front of Jay. He hadn't said a word about what was in the envelope to Jay and had been careful all week to say nice things about his ex-wife whenever the little shrew's name came up. If Jay was unhappy about going to see Jea and her lap dog, it wasn't because of anything Chansung said "Are you upset at going to see your mom and Jongkook?"

"I hate Jongkook!" Jay pulled his angry face away from Chansung's shirt. The look in his eyes almost seemed to be daring Chansung to yell at him for using the "H" word.

Chansung bit his lip so the smile and bark of laughter he was holding back wouldn't escape. Although he'd taught Jay what the word hate meant, he didn't like his son using it. He knew it was him living in his own little dream world because in his reality, hate was something he faced on a daily basis "Why do you hate Jongkook?"

"Because he's mean to me." Jay crossed his arms over his chest as if his words explained everything.

"What kind of mean? Does he hit you?" Jesus ing Christ, if that man laid so much as a finger on Jay, he'd rip him limb from limb.

Instead of answering, Jay burrowed into Chansung's chest.

Frowning over Jay's non-answer, he took a deep breath "Does he yell at you?"

Jay nodded "He wants Mommy, not me."

That didn't surprise Chansung one bit. Jea was a selfish person. It made all the sense in the world that she'd attract a man with the same nauseating qualities she possessed "Let's go pack your T-Rex suitcase, okay?" it killed Chansung to say it, but he couldn't refuse Jea her time with their son just because her boyfriend yelled at Jay.

Jay took a deep breath like he was going to start yelling again, but just let the breath out slowly.

It was that simple act of resignation that broke Chansung's heart more than his son's earlier tears and theatrics. 

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Khunismyluv #1
Chapter 81: That was amazingly sweet
Khunismyluv #2
Chapter 78: Their conffesion to each other is so sweet
Khunismyluv #3
Chapter 44: Seriously taec is stubid
Khunismyluv #4
Chapter 24: Chansung is an a hole
Khunismyluv #5
Chapter 9: I'm making another comment because I really wanna upvote this
Khunismyluv #6
Chapter 8: Seriously I can't stop reading.... this story is amazing!
Khunismyluv #7
I'm glad someone recommended your stories to me
babikhun
#8
I miss your updates so I thought I should reread an old one
bbbrdwngs82
#9
Chapter 82: This story deserves so many more views, subs, up votes and comments. Everything about it was so beautiful and stunning and I'm not ashamed to say I cried more than a few times. All of the couples got their happily ever after and their children are lucky enough to have such amazing, understanding and caring parents
Jjwhwhwhwhhwh #10
Chapter 43: Omg Taec bottoming???? I love it!