Two

“You’ve adopted a boy,” Junmyeon says with a fond smile as they watch Sehun study at the dining table.

The white haired man is carrying his sleeping son, husband standing behind him.  At the mothering voice, the little boy’s head snaps over. Stoic face brightening up again now that he doesn’t have his head stuck in Chanyeol’s old textbook.

“He’s my newsboy,” Chanyeol replies with a half smile, moving so that the family can come into his apartment. “I didn’t know you all would be here today.”

“Luhan wanted to come play with you,” Yifan explains with a wave of a hand. “But as you can see.”

Junmyeon sets their son down onto the couch before practically skipping over to cup Sehun’s little face.  The other two come over as well, and Chanyeol is unable to hide his proud grin when Yifan’s eyebrow raises in surprise.

“You’re nearly done with the book,” Yifan comments, picking up the worn down green book, impressed. “When did this start?”

“A month ago,” Chanyeol answers, crossing his arms and leaning onto the wall behind him. “But the kid soaks up information like a sponge.  I’ve skipped all of the basic lessons.”

“ ‘Ma taught me some stuff,” the child points out, words muffled because Junmyeon is still holding his face cooing.

“Oh, he speaks Korean!” Junmyeon cries in joy, gripping onto Sehun even harder. “My precious child!”

“Jun, leave the poor boy alone,” Yifan orders as he pulls his husband off of Sehun. “He’s suffocating.”

Chanyeol reaches out and ruffle up the messy black hair.  Sehun beams up at him before handing over the binder paper he has been working on.  “I’m done, Mister Park Sir!”

“Alright, go wash up,” Chanyeol commands and Sehun slides out of his chair. “We’re having dinner with the Wu’s tonight.”

“Outside?” the boy asks, coming to a stop in his steps.  At Chanyeol’s nod, the boy nervously hides hands behind his back. “Can… Can I ask ‘Ma?”

The business man doesn’t answer, only holding out his cell phone.  Sehun’s toothy smile comes back and he scrambles over to take the phone and runs off down the hallway.

“Yifan, go get Luhan’s extra clothes in the car,” Junmyeon says, handing the towering dentist the car keys. “The boy cannot wear what he is now.  He’ll freeze to death.”

Sehun comes back out with Chanyeol’s phone in the air to return it as Yifan eventually comes back.  “ ‘Ma didn’t answer but I left a message.”

“Is that okay?” Chanyeol asks, ignoring Sehun’s confused look when he kneels down to change his clothes.

“I think so,” Sehun answers, frowning when clothes is put back on him. “What is this, Mister Park Sir?”

“It’s called a sweater, a blanket shirt,” Chanyeol elaborates when Sehun continues to look sceptical. “It’s Luhan’s and he’s letting you borrow it.”

“Luhan’s my son,” Junmyeon explains kindly, pointing to the boy Yifan picks up. “He’s around your age.  He’s four.”

“I’m seven,” Sehun deadpans and Chanyeol stops as he fixes the sleeves of the collar of the jacket. “ ‘Ma says that I’m small like him, but I’ll be big when I get older - like Appa.”

During his next trip to the market, Chanyeol finds himself picking out a large jug of milk and boxes of snacks for the boy.

 

---

 

“Mister Wu told me that you’re here looking for someone,” Sehun claims boldly when Chanyeol finally gets the chance to tuck the boy into his too large bed.

It’s the first time the boy’s mother has allowed him to stay with a stranger he’s never met.  But Sehun has called from Chanyeol’s phone numerous times for permission to do anything. Chanyeol even saw his call history when his bills increased; pleased to find ‘Sehunnie’s Omma’ as the contact that repeats over and over.

“I am,” Chanyeol confirms, sitting on the end of the bed as Sehun testingly curls into his fluffy pillows. “Did he tell you who?”

Sehun shakes his head, black hair swinging back and forth.  A smile forms on Chanyeol’s face when the boy blinks up at him in hope.

“I’m looking for my wife,” Chanyeol says softly, remembering Baekhyun’s promise to him.  

That they would get married one day, when Chanyeol comes back home from studying abroad - and if they had a child, one that would keep them together.  They would raise that child far away form their old city’s narrow point of views, away from his parent’s harsh words, away from the dirty glares.

“What happened?” Sehun asks, voice wavering and Chanyeol pulls the boy into a tight hug when he sees tears in the child’s eyes.

“My old home wasn’t a very good home,” the man explains slowly as Sehun looks up at him in sadness. “My parents were raised to look down upon certain people.  My old home didn’t see those with a certain hair color as people who are equals.”

But as pleasures to be abused and thrown away.  Sehun touches his own hair, little fingers tugging at the strands. “But black is okay?”

“To them, yes, that is what they thought,” Chanyeol answers when tears begin to fall, heartbreaking to see how shocked the boy is. “It’s silly, isn’t it?”

“Did… Did they like red hair?” Sehun asks, edging to begging and cries harder when Chanyeol doesn’t answer immediately.

“No, they didn’t because it’s strange to them,” Chanyeol says carefully, wiping away the tears with a finger. “Do you know anyone with red hair?”

Sehun nods pitifully, trying his best to control his tears. “Yien got red hair and Tao too, they’re nice to me!  Tao always gives me food when I don’t have any. And Yoongi! He fights anyone who hurts me! And and and Yien hums me to sleep when ‘Ma isn’t there… And ‘Ma has red hair too!”

Chanyeol sits frozen, finding it hard to breathe as the boy cries himself to sleep in his arms.  He wonders how much Sehun’s mother has done, sacrificed himself, for Sehun to only find out now that red hair is untolerable in their society.  He wonders how much Baekhyun is going through, if he’s going though the same things as Sehun’s mother, now that Chanyeol’s parents have casted him out onto the streets.

For the first time in years, the twenty-seven year old thinks about calling Baekhyun’s number again.  Just to see if he’ll pick this one time up out of the millions Chanyeol has attempted.

 

---

 

Baekhyun’s number is gone.

Byun Baekhyun is no longer apart of his contact list.

Chanyeol wants to scream, throw anything and everything out of anger in his sight.  It was there, right in the favorite section, starred and all. It was there when he found out from Yoona that Baekhyun had been kicked out.  It was there when he ran throughout the whole city, there were he begun traveling in his search. And now…

“Mister Park Sir?” is the only thing that snaps Chanyeol out of his fury. “Do you want tea?”

Stress slowly seeps out of his body and Chanyeol has never felt so tired.  Sehun stands at his office doorway with a nervous look on his face, eyebrows knitted up and bottom lip being chewed.

“Yeah,” Chanyeol breathes, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah, let’s go make some tea.”

The man picks Sehun up, holding him tight all the way into the kitchen.  Chanyeol makes the tea the way Baekhyun showed him, having memorized the little details and steps the smaller has done over and over.  The tea gets poured into two cups, one mug and one little plastic one Luhan has given Sehun.

“Boy, what are you doing?” Chanyeol asks in confusion when he sees Sehun pour milk into his cup.

“Auntie Junmyeon told me that I have to drink two cups of milk everyday,” the seven year old replies as if it was obvious. “So I am.”

“In your tea?” Chanyeol clarifies slowly and blows air out of his nose in amusement when Sehun nods and dumps an ungodly amount of sugar into his cup. “Easy with that, kid.  You’ll get cavities.”

“Mister Wu said that he’ll fix my teeth if they go bad,” Sehun points out before taking a big gulp.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean you should ruin your teeth on purpose,” Chanyeol chastises but it earns him a toothy grin. “Hurry up and go walk Luhan to school.”

“Okay, but we’re getting sushi later for dinner, right?” Sehun begs and Chanyeol laughs when Sehun celebrates at his nod.

Somehow, maybe it’s because he misses the smaller, but he thinks Sehun is a little like Baekhyun.