Chansung

Hours later, Chansung could still feel the tingling ghost of Junho's touch. Jay's teacher was the most handsome man he'd ever met in his life. With his brown hair and deep black eyes, the man was an absolute ten. 

Not to mention that Junho spent his day finger-painting and singing songs with a bunch of five year olds.

Step Up day last June had been Jea's "day" with Jay, so he hadn't been able to attend the ceremony or meet Jay's new teacher. His mother, Narsha, had snuck into the school and had snapped some pictures of Jay in his graduation gown, one of Chansung's old dress shirts, and his Styrofoam plate mortar board which had been an arts and crafts project.

What his mother didn't do was take a picture of Jay's new teacher. He was certain that if she had, Chansung would have spent the entire summer crushing on Lee Junho.

Technically, today hadn't been his "day" to have Jay either, but Jea had started seeing some new guy and to be honest, could not care less about her son's first day of kindergarten.

She'd dumped the little boy on Chansung's doorstep on Friday night and headed off for a weekend of fun with her new flavor of the month. He'd been the bigger man and sent her a picture of Jay dressed for school, with his new backpack. Nine hours later, she still hadn't responded.

Jea's lack of motherly affection for their then two year old son was the final straw in their marriage. It was bad enough that he didn't have romantic feelings for his wife, but Jea not bothering to parent their child was something Chansung couldn't live with. He'd filed for full custody, but Jea, not wanting to pay Chansung child support, had sued for joint custody and had won. 

It hadn't been easy, but once the divorce from Jea was final, Chansung had come out to his parents. Much to his surprise, both of them cried and told him they'd known he was gay all along. They were just waiting for him to accept who he was meant to be.

Over the last three years, Chansung had dated here and there and had hooked up a time or two. What he'd come to realize was that he wanted to find a man who would love Jay like the boy was his own son and settle down. Maybe have a few more kids.

Chansung had always known he was destined to become a librarian, what he hadn't known was that being a father was what he'd been born to be. Jay was his life. Nothing made him happier than spending time with his son, watching him grow and learn new things.

He'd spent the day at work being distracted by thoughts of Junho and those amazing black eyes. He regretted jerking his hand away from Junho like touching the other man had burned his skin. Chansung had never been that powerfully attracted to another man in his life.

Getting out of his car at his parents' house, Chansung sighed. It was neither here nor there. Junho was straight, no doubt about it.

"Daddy!" Jay shouted from the living room when Chansung walked in through the back door.

"Hey! There's my big boy!" Chansung bent down to scoop up his running son "How was school?" 

"It was the bestest time ever! Just like you said. Lee-sunsengnim loves lizards. Dinosaurs are lizards too! Did you know that, Daddy?" not bothering to wait for an answer, Jay powered on "I got to hold Candy the Chameleon and her skin changed-ed colors and I got to feed the leopard gecko named Spot. Taeyeon and Jessica were afraid to touch Spot, but I told them lizards are the coolest. Cooler than a puppy, right, Daddy?" Jay flashed a bright smile.

Chansung burst out laughing. Jay never lacked for enthusiasm when it came to dinosaurs and now it looked like he'd be adding lizards to the list of his son's favorite things. He had a feeling a trip to the kids department of the Seoul Public Library was in order "It sounds like you had an awesome first day of school."

Jay nodded his head against Chansung's neck, seeming to have lost a little bit of steam.

"He's been like that all afternoon." Hwang Narsha said from the living room door.

"Hi, Mom!" Chansung kissed her cheek "Was he any trouble?"

"Heavens, no!" Narsha rubbed a hand over her grandson's back "I just sat and listened to him tell me all about his day. It was 'Lee-sunsengnim this and Lee-sunsengnim that.' all afternoon."

Chansung nodded. There were worse things than his son being excited about starting school "Any word from...?" 

Narsha shook her head with a sad look in her eyes.

"I sent a picture this morning, but haven't heard anything back." damn Jea's cold, black heart. What the hell kind of mother doesn't show up for her child's first day of school? Chansung sighed, holding his son closer.

He should stop expecting Jea to care about Jay. After five years of acting like the boy was an imposition rather than the greatest joy of her life, it was obvious she was a leopard gecko who wasn't going to change her spots.

Junho 

"Hey guys! Sorry I'm late." Junho slid into the red-checkered booth across from Kim Minjun and next to Jung Ewon.

"No worries. We ordered you your usual." Ewon pointed to the root beer float next to him, before taking a sip of his usual, a strawberry milkshake.

"This is my favorite tradition." Minjun knocked his long-handled spoon around the bottom of his chocolate shake, pulling out a glop of ice cream and it off the spoon.

Junho, Minjun and Ewon had all started working together on the same day at Little Wonder Clovers. Minjun was the new, hot-shot principal, while Ewon taught one of the first grade classes. They'd become fast friends during the prep week before their first year of school started. Every year since, the men celebrated the first day of school with ice cream shakes and apps at the 18th Street Saloon.

The restaurant was a popular downtown Hongdae tourist attraction during the busy summer months, but the locals knew better to wait until after the Constitution Day crowds had gone back home before venturing in.

"Here we are boys, loaded nachos, potato skins with extra bacon and Junho's favorite, fresh pretzels with beer-cheese sauce." the waitress, dressed in a blue gingham uniform dress, announced all of the plates as she set them on the table.

"Thanks, Tiffany." Junho smiled up at their waitress. She'd been serving milkshakes and bar food for as long as Junho and his friends had been coming in to eat here.

"Sure thing, Teach. Let me know if you boys need anything else." snapping her gum, Tiffany moved on to check on another table.

"Huddle up." Minjun grinned while his friends leaned in closer "Any hot dad sightings today?" he waggled his eyebrows and started laughing.

"Just that Choi Siwon guy. He's hot, like really hot, but goes through lovers like I go through underwear." Ewon sighed.

"He's not that bad, is he?" Minjun looked dubious. 

"I had his little darling last year. Choi Minho is the most rotten kid I've ever taught in my five years at LWC." Junho shook his head "Every time I'd call his father in for a meeting about Minho's behavior, Choi Siwon would tell me, to the penny, how much money he'd donated to the school, all the while his lips and staring at my zipper."

Ewon shivered "That's exactly what he said to me when he dropped the kid off this morning. The only good thing about that man is when he's walking away. Boy howdy, what an he's got. It's really unfortunate that his ugly behavior overtakes his pretty looks"

Junho rolled his eyes. Pretty didn't pay the bills as he'd learned the hard way with Junyoung. He'd had to borrow money from his parents to pay that gym bill that his douche-monkey ex had run up. It was either that, or not be able to make his mortgage payment.

"So Ewon struck out." Minjun reached out to slap a hand on the first grade teacher's shoulder "What about you, Junho? Any keepers in your class?"

Junho blushed, flashing back to Hwang Jay's father and his dreamy brown round eyes.

"HA! Look at him blushing, Ewon!" Minjun laughed.

Ewon knocked his shoulder against Junho's "Spill it. Who is he?"

"Okay, fine." Junho rolled his eyes and tried to get his pounding heartbeat back under control "I don't know his name but he's Hwang Jaebeom's father." 

"Damn, you met Hwang Chansung?" Minjun slapped the palm of his hand down on the table.

"You know him?" maybe Minjun had met him last year when Jay was in Pre-K?

"Yeah and I'm surprised that you don't. He's the head librarian of the adult section at the Seoul Public Library." Minjun dropped Ewon a wink.

"You need to stop reading Dr. Seuss and start reading some George R. R. Martin." Ewon urged "Damn he's fine. Divorced too." his dark eyes danced in the low light.

Junho shook his head "He might be divorced, but that doesn't mean he's gay."

Minjun shook his head "I've seen him a couple of times when I've been cruising for hook-ups at Vic's."

Vic's was one of the top two gay bars in city. It had a classy reputation, while Jackboots, across the Homo Hill, was a meat market "Just because you saw Chansung there doesn't mean he's gay." Junho loved the way Chansung's name sounded rolling off his tongue.

Ewon nearly choked on his shake "The hell it doesn't!" 

"He's a local boy, Junho." Minjun lowered his voice "He knows damn well what Vic's is and what men go there to find."

Maybe Minjun had a point. Or maybe Chansung had just been there for won hot wing night "Gay or straight, it doesn't matter. I'm off the market, remember?"

"Please!" Minjun groaned as if he were in pain "Don't let that asshat ex of yours ruin your dating life."

Junho shook his head "Guys, come on. I met this man once and thought he was handsome. It doesn't mean we're soul mates." did it? Could it?

"How do you know unless you get to know him a little bit?" Minjun shrugged and dug into the nachos. 

"What he said!" Ewon agreed, pointing to Minjun.

Grabbing a piping hot, soft pretzel, Nash twirled it around in the cheese sauce. Maybe his friends were right. What would it hurt to get to know Bronson McKinnon?