“Oh no, Ash please not again”. Mark groans while putting his head in his hands, this was the third pair of jeans Ashton ripped this week and he really couldn’t afford that many pairs of new jeans. Guess he was going to have to ask his mom to repair them again. “I’m sorry daddy, I was walking on the stones, and then I fell and they ripped” Ashton says. “It’s okay” Mark says while taking his son’s hand in his. “You are not hurt are you?” he asks. “No daddy” Ashton says and he shows Mark a cute smile. “Well at least you can’t rip your jeans at the playground anymore” the latter says.

They continue their way walking through the park, making their way to the outdoor playground. “Daddyyyyy can we get one” Ashton screams pointing at the ice cream cart. Mark looks at his son and then decides that that was probably the biggest mistake he made. Of course, he can’t deny those pouty lips. “Okay then” he says. “Yesss” Ashton screams while running to the ice cream cart. “Be careful” Mark screams while running after him. It definitely won't be the first time he would fall while running. Whenever Ash was excited he would forget to look ahead, which had way too often resulted in bruises and scrapes all over his body. 

Standing in the line before them is a happy family. It’s the stereotypical mom, dad, son and daughter combination. Mark tugs Ashton closer to him scared they might also laugh at him for not having a second parent in his son's life. Like that one time that mum from Ashton's preschool started making horrible comments about it. Or when people would ask his son “where’s your mom?” and Ash wasn’t able to answer.  At those times Mark feels sorry for Ashton, for making him ‘abnormal’. How he wishes there would be somebody who doesn’t scare away at the thought of raising a kid. Sadly many of the people his age do. They get their ice cream and continue their way.

Before they can even enter the playground a girl comes running up to them. Her braids bounce wildly and one of her Dora hair clips is hanging on for dear life.  “Ashton come help me, my daddy is stuck” and she drags him with her. Mark thinks he recognizes the girl from Ashton's preschool class. Mei was her name, wasn’t it? He walks to where the two children are trying to get into the slide. “Daddy, I brought help” Mei says. “Thank the gods” the unknown man says. He looks inside the slide but all can see are some very long legs. ”Do you need any help?” “You think I am doing this for fun?” the man says back followed by laughter. Mark laughs. “What happened?” he asks. “I was supposed to go off the slide after Mei but somehow my arm got stuck” the man answers with a deep voice. So her name was Mei indeed, he’s sure he’s never seen her dad though.

It takes a while but Mark eventually succeeds in getting the man out of the slide, and he is surprised to see that it’s the man Ashton ran into yesterday. He didn’t think he would have a daughter. He looked more like a boy picking up his baby sister. “How’s your arm?” Mark asks. “It doesn’t feel that bad” the man says while trying to hide the pained expression on his face. But Mark was having none of it “I think you should go and see a doctor, I can drive you to the hospital if you want because you don’t look like you could do it yourself” he said. He could almost see the inner debate on the man’s face.

The man sighed in defeat “Okay Mark”. To say Mark was surprised was an understatement, he was pretty sure he nor Ash had said his first name, so the man was either way a mind reader, a stalker or something in between. “How do you know my name?” “Yesterday I told Taeyong I was late because a kid named Ash ran into me and he must have told me” the man says. “I’m Yukhei” he says and wants to shake Mark's hand, but makes a pained noise. “I think we should get going” Mark says.

And that is how they find them sitting in Mark’s car fifteen minutes later. The kids do not even care about what is happening, they are talking in the back about school and very happy with this kind of unexpected playdate. The silence between the adults isn’t uncomfortable per se, but Mark thinks it might be good to try and distract Yukhei from the pain with some talking.  “So do you always take part in children’s activities?” Mark asks Yukhei teasingly. “Who says adults can’t go off the slide” Yukhei says as if Mark had just said the most ridiculous thing he has ever heard. “The sign literally says ‘for children under eight” Mark responds.“So mental age doesn’t count?” Yukhei questions with the biggest grin he could have while being in pain. Mark couldn’t do anything else but laugh at that “I guess not”.

They arrive at the hospital and Mark watches the kids while Yukhei is getting his arm checked. “Ash’s dad,  my dad is going to be okay right” Mei asks Mark with tears glimmering in her eyes. “Yeah, of course sweetie, maybe he’ll have a broken arm but it won’t be any worse than that”. “Thank you” she says while wiping her tears on Mark’s shirt. “Don’t cry Mei your dad will be okay” Ashton says, patting her shoulder. “Yeah, dummy your dad just said that” Mei says, having a complete mood swing and running off with Ash.

Yukhei comes back after a while, luckily only having a sprained wrist. “Thanks so much for getting me out of the slide and bringing me to the hospital and on top of that babysitting Mei. That might have been the hardest part of all” he says, with a smile on his face. “No problem she isn’t that bad and you need that arm very much to take care of your daughter” Mark says. And Yukei laughs and responds with a “Yes I do”, happy to get that comment from someone who really understands. “Do you want me to drop you guys off somewhere?” Mark asks. “No, we will take the bus home, we walked to the park anyways” Yukhei says.

They walk outside of the hospital, but before they say their goodbyes Yukhei says: “Hey Mark…”. “Yeah” the latter says “They want me to come back next week for a check-up, could you maybe pick Mei up from preschool as well and let her stay with you and Ash till I’m done?” Yukhei asks nervously because they don’t know each other that well but he doesn’t know anyone else who could possibly babysit Mei at that time.

Now how on earth could Mark deny that handsome face with those desperate puppy eyes something? So he says “Of course, Ash and Mei seem to get along nicely so I don’t see why not”. “Thank you so much” Yukhei says before giving Mark his phone number, so he can text him his address. He and Mei say goodbye and Mark watches them walk towards the bus stop.