Yukhei walked as fast as he could. He tried to be as early as possible, hoping that Mark was still at the school. The younger one had ignored his text ever since what Yukhei called ‘the accident’ from the morning.

He entered the classroom and looked around for that familiar brown hair but he couldn’t find it. “He’s not here, his mom was but she already left” he heard Taeyong say. “Oh” Yukhei answered trying to suppress the disappointment in his voice.

Taeyong hand over Mei who was sleeping in his arms, “I think she’s getting sick as well, that’ll be the sixth one this week” he says. “Well, I’m sure that makes your job a whole lot easier” Yukhei jokes causing the teacher to chuckle.

Yukhei takes Mei home, and sadly Taeyong was right, the girl had a high fever.

But when Yukhei wakes her up she has other plans. “Where is Ash” she asks. “With his grandparents” the man answers. “But we were going to have a playdate” she says. “You can’t princess you’re sick” Yukhei answers and he doesn’t know what that triggers but the girl starts crying.

When he has managed to get her to calm down after thirty minutes, he gets the medicine. “Mei princess you need to take this medicine” he says. “Nooooo” she whines trying to push the spoon away. Yukhei sighs.

And it continues like that for the rest of the day, Mei throwing fits and crying about everything and anything apart from when she’s sleeping. Yukhei knows that it’s just because she’s sick but that doesn’t make it okay.

Still, that is what Yukhei is trying to tell himself when she wakes him up for the third time that night, and when she wakes him up at five in the morning because she can’t sleep anymore.

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Mark walks back slowly, hoping to see ‘accidentally’ walk into Yukhei here in the hallways. The man hadn’t answered any of his text which was quite unusual for him.

A look on his watch tells him he needs to hurry up in order to not be late for work. With a disappointed feeling in his stomach, he sprints out of the school building.

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The next day Mark didn’t care anymore: screw being on time for work. Yukhei still hasn't answered his text or even taken a look at them and he was worried.

Taeyong approaches the young brunette who’s playing with his son. He had seen him looking around the room a couple of times. Mark never left this late and the man put one and one together and knew exactly why the younger was waiting.

“He isn’t coming, Mei is sick” he says. “Oh” is the only response he gets from Mark who immediately stands up and leaves for work.

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After giving her some medicine and swaddled in a blanket, placing her on the couch to watch some Dora he walks to the bathroom to take a shower. He’s greeted by a human wreck in the mirror. The past two days have left a greeting in the form of bags under his eyes and his hair looking like a mess

He takes a shower, water and tears washing his body. Mei calling for him reminds him that he can’t cry, he’s not the one that’s sick for god's sake. He turns off the shower getting ready to do whatever it would take this time to stop her from crying.

The rest of the morning continues like that: Mei crying and Yukhei trying not to cry of exhaustion and desperation.

Yukhei doesn’t know if his praying has worked but towards the afternoon Mei seems to get better. She’s finally able to sleep which means he also is able to sleep. So he lays down on his bed and gets some seriously needed sleep.

The next morning he is woken up by Mei jumping on his bed, screaming into his ear. “Daddy I want breakfast” she shouts. Happy she finally wants to eat again he drags his still partially exhausted body out of bed to make her some food.

“You don’t have a fever anymore princess” Yukhei tells her after taking her temperature.

“Yeayyy” Mei squeals.”Are you sure you feel fully better?” Yukhei asks not wanting her to get sick again. “Noooooooo” she answers.  

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Mark tries to tell himself he’s late because the traffic wasn’t in his favor but he knows he just left later in the hope he’ll finally see Yukhei. While Ash is putting his coat onto the coat rack he sees a little figure running towards Ash wildly screaming “ASHHHH I missed you”. It happens to be Mei, the kids do their BFF handshake before being ushered into the classroom by Taeyong.

Mark slowly turns around, if Mei is here then that must mean Yukhei’s here as well. He’s proven right when he sees the man slowly making his way over. “Hey”. “Hey”.

“How have you been?” Mark asks. “I feel exactly as I look” the older responds. “Terrible but handsome” Mark states and Yukhei laughs.

“So Mei was sick?” Mark asks. “Mmhh” Yukhei murmurs as a confirmation as he tells Mark about the past three days.

“Yeah I was worried when you didn't respond to my texts but Taeyong told me Mei was sick so I at least knew you weren’t dead” Mark says. And it looks like Yukhei had totally forgotten about the existence of his phone. “I’m so sorry, I should have responded” Yukhei says.

“No, if you had any free time you should have slept” Mark says caressing the bags under Yukhei’s eyes. “Yeah you’re right” Yukhei says before letting out a yawn “I could probably fall asleep while walking home”.

“Well then maybe I should make sure you stay awake” Mark says and he leans in and kisses Yukhei, who of course kisses back.

“Where is the confidence coming from Mark Lee” Yukhei asks feeling the best he has in the last couple of days. “I’m just making sure you won’t fall asleep” Mark responds but the smile on his face gives him away.

“Maybe you should make it just a little bit more sure than” Yukhei says as he goes in for another kiss.

And this time Mark really was late for work.

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A couple of minutes later the door to Jaehyun’s class swings open startling all the kids.

“Jaehyun it’s important” Taeyong says and Jaehyun tells the kids to go play by themselves for a bit.

“Taeyong if this is another try to get me to you in the janitor's closet I’m not doing it” Jaehyun whisper-shouts. “What I never did that?” Taeyong says faking innocence before Jaehyun responds he continues “Mission Markhei is going well, really well if you ask me”.

“How do you know?” Jaehyun asks. “I saw them kissing in the hallway this morning” Taeyong says. “What!” the other responds shocked.

“If you don’t believe me, I’ve filmed it” Taeyong says as if it was the most normal thing before sliding his phone over to Jaehyun.