After busy hours as a bartender in the Tavern, Jonghyun strolled back to the Orphanage in the evening. He inhaled the fresh scent of cooked meals coming from cottages around the village and wondered what Taeyeon had made for the kids.

The two friends had made an agreement that Jonghyun would make breakfast and Taeyeon would make dinner for the children as lunch would be provided by the local school.

As he entered the building he caught sight of Beatrice napping in her armchair in the living room so immediately left for the second floor where children were making themselves ready for bed.

Jonghyun stopped in the doorway of one-bedroom shared between Minji and Sejun. The little girl was curled up on her bed and sobbing in her pillows whereas Sejun was nowhere to be seen. ''Minji, sweetheart why are you in tears?'' He questioned concerned with a furrowed brow as he dropped his leather bag near the door.

The little girl glanced away from her hands and to him with a sniffle, his heart shattered at the sight of swollen eyes spilling tears accompanied with a trembling lip. ''Jwongie.'' She hiccuped, scrambling from the bed and into the comfort of the small man's arms. He hugged Minji close and pressed a kiss on the top of her head as he rocked her back and forth, her hands fisted the fabric of his tunic as she sniffled and cried in his neck.
 

Jonghyun softly hummed a melody to calm her down as many thoughts swam in his head about the reasons for the child's distress. ''It's okay, everything will be alright.'' He crooned and caressed her soft black hair.

She calmed down eventually and brushed her tears away with tiny hands while looking at the blond shyly. Jonghyun smiled and cleaned her rosy cheeks with the sleeve of his tunic before picking her up and sitting down on the bed where it was more comfortable than the ground.

''Now, would you like to tell me what happened?'' He sang gently and wiggled the piggy-tails on her head around, she giggled and swatted at his hands. ''I-is Sejun gonna leave?'' her eyes welled up with tears again and Jonghyun raised an eyebrow at the question. ''No, why would he leave?''

Minji placed her head against his chest and snuggled into him when warm arms closed around her in an embrace. ''S-sejun had an awcccidewent.'' her tongue twisted around the difficult word, making her frown cutely. Jonghyun couldn't stop himself from smiling at the view.

''An accident?'' He wondered as he busied himself with undoing her sloppy piggy-tails and redoing them. ''Yesh! He needed to potty but he was too late and now his pwants are wet!'' She babbled with a high pitched voice and pulled away from the blond to look into his eyes worriedly. ''Isw missy Beatrwice gonna send him off now?''

Jonghyun blinked as the situation made sense, he smiled warmly down at the girl to reassure her and he could feel her little tensed body relax slightly. Apparently, Sejun needed to go to the bathroom but hadn't made it and had a bit of a mishap. That also explained why he hadn't seen Taeyeon yet, and now Minji was worried that Beatrice was going to send him away.

''Don't worry Minji, Sejun is not leaving.'' The blond promised her and laughed when she squealed happily and jumped on top of him to give a huge bear hug. ''Hey! What about meeee?'' a boyish voice from the door had them both glance up and smile to the boy who had been the subject of the hour.

Jonghyun watched with soft eyes as the girl let go of him and ran to the boy in the doorway. Sejun grunted as the girl tackled him yet giggled when she pecked his face with adorable kisses and rambled cheerfully about ''Staying together forever.''

Taeyeon grinned as she came up behind Sejun and her eyes landed on the blond. The two friends shared a smile before Taeyeon left Minji and  Sejun in Jonghyun's care whilst she checked up on the other children.

Jonghyun clapped his hands playfully and winked when the two children gazed at him with bright features. ''Time to hit the hay sweethearts.'' He chirped and gestured to their beds, he dropped his hands and tilted his head to the side like a puppy when Sejun nibbled on his lower lip and looked from Minji to the blond hesitantly.

''Can we sleep with you?'' He asked shyly and shuffled his feet, his hand nervously curling around Minji's. The girl herself blinked blankly for a second then her eyes lit up and both of them glanced pleadingly at the small man.

Jonghyun stare traveled between the two tiny adorable faces and his heart melted when they even started to pout. Whilst he would have liked to have some alone time up there in the attic with the addition of Roo, of course, he couldn't exactly reject the children now.

Maybe he could say noo but seriously, who could resist those big round twinkling eyes and chubby cheeks? ''Okay...only tonight.'' He agreed and chuckled in amusement as they cheered and raced out of the room towards the attic. ''Silly children.'' He uttered and closed the door to their bedroom before he went after them.

The small man helped Minji up into the attic as Sejun claimed to be a tough boy and he didn't need help. Roo looked up from her place on the bed and barked with a tail wagging enthusiastically when seeing the young faces alongside her own master.
 

The black dachshund jumped from the bed and approached the children, Sejun and Minji giggled as they dropped to their knees and scratched the puppy behind her ears and played around with her. Gleeful laughter and giggles filled the usually dark, cold attic causing it to look much brighter then it was in reality.

Jonghyun beamed as he left them with Roo and changed himself in his nightwear in the bathroom. He shuffled out his tunic and observed the bluish bruise on his tummy and sighed tiredly. It hadn't gotten bigger thankfully but it had bothered him at work when he had to strain his muscles to pick up heavy things.

He quickly changed and left the bedroom, Sejun had moved to the bed with Roo in his lap and Minji was peeking over some music parchments on his deck. ''Are these music Jjongie?'' she asked childishly and held up a parchment with inky scribbles on it. Jonghyun approached her and took it out of her tiny hands and came face to face with his recently composed song. He wasn't completely happy with it yet but hadn't found the time to change anything.

''Yes Minji, this is a song.'' the blond responded softly, Minji clapped her hands and tugged on his tunic, ''Jjongie sing for us?''. The request had the blond hesitate but like always Jonghyun was bad at saying no.

They moved to the bed where the children snuggled on either side of him with Roo laying flat out in their laps. ''Fank you mommy.'' Minji murmured contently from his right side.

Jonghyun blushed to even his ears and coughed at the wrong word choice. He covered his face with a hand embarrassingly, God, why did people always compare him to a woman, not that he could blame Minji from doing the same, she didn't know any better. If this was any other situation, Jonghyun would take personal offense but instead, he smiled gently.

''Erm sweetheart, mommies are girls like Taeyeon, daddies are boys like me...''

The girl whined in disagreement whilst all her attention landed on him, ''But you sing for us and take care of our boo boo's, you kwiss our heads and gwive hugs!'' She countered back and hugged his side to prove a point.

He opened and closed his mouth but he couldn't deny it, he really does those things. ''Wouldn''t you rather have Taeyeon as your mommy? I can be the cool uncle!'' Jonghyun said brightly instead, Minji shook her head stubbornly.

''Nooo, Taeyeonie is the cwool Aunty and you are the sweet mommy!'' 

Jonghyun pouted and sweatdropped yet laughed at the child's silly ideas. 

''It's okay Jjongie, today we had a lesson at school about the meaning of mommy and daddy and Minji got this idea that you are a mommy because the teacher pointed out things you do too.'' Sejun pipped up and giggled at the baffled expression on the blond features.

Jonghyun flushed and swallowed thickly, he wanted to explain the right terms to Minji but he didn't have the heart to correct her, he didn't want to make her cry when the reality of no mother figure in her life would hit her. He let it go for now and just pressed a kiss to each of their heads with an endearing smile.

The small man cleared his throat and softly sang the song, his soothing voice worked like a sleeping drug, caressing the children's mind as their bodies relaxed and sunk comfortingly on the bed. Sejun squished his cheek against his chest and Minji snuggled against his side.

His voice grew softer and quieter until the last part of the lyrics left his lips, eyelids fluttered open and met the closed eyes of the children. Warmth spread through his chest at the sight of either child at his sides and Roo on his chest as usual.

The picture would have been perfect if there had been a daddy to complete it.

A soft light emerged beneath soft cotton wool, gliding across bare skin as if kissing flesh.
Blueish hue slowly vanished from damaged skin evoking the sleeping owner to moan as warmth spread across tenderness.
The light faded just as fast as it had been summoned leaving a puppy as its only witness. 

The next morning went on pretty much the same as the day before. Jonghyun woke up before the sun did and followed through his routine, covered the children back up with his blankets and left to make breakfast for Beatrice. This time he didn't bother to offer her company and went straight into his chores.

He cleaned the kitchen and organized the fridge then moved on to the living room where he put scrolls and books back in their rightful place as they were scattered around the dinner table courtesy of Kangin probably, who loved to go through books and leave them to become a chaotic pile.

Then he grabbed a broom and swept the path up to the Orphanage. Autumn was around the corner and whilst the season was gorgeous with the warm colors, the fallen leaves were a pain to clean up.

The small man smiled when the birds sang and danced in the air as he stepped outside and the sunbeams of the rising sun touched his face warmly. He appreciated the touch and went on with sweeping. He sang another composed song that brought the playfulness out of himself as he spun on his heels, wiggled his hips and even used the end of the broom as a microphone.

I carefully look over at you (a-ha)
And stick close to you but you push me away (1 2 3 yeah)
I’m covering your eyes and sticking close to you again
But you push me away again (Déjà-Boo Singing)

Stay oh cool, don’t turn around
Even though I saw you for the first time, it’s not unfamiliar
Stay oh cool, don’t pretend you do