It was just the day before Christmas vacation starts, Sunggyu’s house already screamed the upcoming occasion with all the decorations being put up hastily and more of them in boxes lying around the living room haphazardly.

Scratching his head while eyeing them he made his way to the coffee machine to get himself a shot of the bitter bliss. He sighed a couple of times leaning against the kitchen counter trying to figure out ways for having a peaceful weekend coming ahead in full force which marked the start of the merry holidays.

He promised his wife who had gone to aid to her sick mother in Melbourne that the house would be in good safe hands till she returned. She was already apologetic to leave him alone with their son who was eagerly waiting to celebrate the start of his holidays with his parents on a weekend getaway to Sunggyu’s family home. But all went downhill when his mother-in-law broke three ribs and fractured a leg after taking a dreadful fall on her way home from aqua aerobics, which pushed his wife with no choices but to fly there to tend her widowed mother.  

He went upstairs to see if his little boy had woken up after crying all the way from the airport back home last night; it was a huge struggle to get him to sleep after they both got back. He just wouldn’t take any reason for being away from his mother even after sunggyu tempted him with options of buying more gifts or doing whatever he wanted for the weekend. Until his tears finally wore him out.

“You look like an angel while sleeping daehan-ah” sunggyu said to himself smiling quietly looking over his son. The tiny five year old slept with his spider-man quilt covering his small built hugging his figurines. Sunggyu leaned to slowly run his fingers through the little boy’s hair making him shift a little which made sunggyu to step back in surprise. He left the room to let him sleep a little longer while he contemplated on what to cook for the two of them.

His boss was kind enough to let him off the hook for the weekend after he worked his all week to prepare for their company’s 10th anniversary celebrations happening right after the weekend on Monday.

Sunggyu wanted to snuggle in bed all weekend with his wife while his parents took care of their grandson. He really wanted the weekend to make up for all the time he was apart from his wife and son, but looking at the mishap he was rather dejected to even do anything without her. But she made him promise to not make daehan unhappy under any circumstance, plus it had been a long time since it was just him and daehan. So he did actually look forward to all the tantrums and gimmicks his son was going to throw at him all weekend.

Shuffling through the items around the kitchen, he made them a small brunch since it was already 11 am. He heard the squeaks of the door opening with his son slowly making his way towards the kitchen.

“Morning dae” sunggyu smiled widely walking up to pick his little one up, daehan immediately snuggled to his father’s embrace rubbing his tiny eyes which resembled his father’s impeccably.

Sunggyu rubbed his tummy asking him if he was hungry to which Daehan nodded frantically, placing him on the high chair he went to get the food for them to start eating.

“What do you want to do today?” he looked up to his son while sipping his coffee. He still looked sullen from all the wailing last night but Sunggyu was relieved his appetite was still intact as he watched his five year old gulp his fried eggs and rice balls.

Daehan circled his spoon around his empty plate thinking deeply, he was still upset to not have his mother but he promised her he won’t cry and behave like a good boy so he still stayed in Santa’s list of good children. He continued pouting before his dad called him once more before taking away his plate to the sink.

“I want to go to the park…and the aquarium” Daehan spoke carefully, eyeing his father who was looking at something on his phone.

Sunggyu smiled warmly at how cute his request was as he walked up to his son to kiss his forehead, “Of course, and then we’ll have dinner at your favorite dumpling shop too”

Daehan bounced on his chair in excitement and stood up to hug his father, “I will teach you all about the fish names so you won’t get lost appa” he rattled to his amused father as he spoke animatedly to keep his attention intact when he heard his phone buzzing.

Sunggyu ignored it for a few minutes as he listened intently to his son before asking him to go play while he finishes the call before they take a bath and head out in some time.

As soon as he was put to the floor Daehan ran to the stairs shouting out the things he was going to pack for his fun date. He couldn’t contain his excitement as he used his hands also while climbing the stair fearing he might fall down and ruin everything.

“You know you can always hold the rail instead of your hands dae” sunggyu spoke loudly, laughing looking at his son struggling to climb the stairs.

 “I know I know” screeched his little one as he finally made it to top of it and ran towards his room.

Sunggyu himself made it to his room upstairs and finally grabbed to see who was calling him repeatedly only to find five missed calls from his assistant. He cursed before dialing her number mumbling, “This better be important” he cursed when she picked up his phone before the first ring could end.

“Sunggyu I need you to come to the office immediately” she spoke with a shaky voice,

“You know I am taking the off this weekend right? Whatever it is it can wait” he replied with so much annoyance stacking up just thinking about work,

“But this is…” before she could finish, his boss grabbed the phone and yelled “GET YOUR HERE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE OR I AM GOING TO FIRE YOU KIM SUNGGYU”

Sunggyu was startled to listen to his boss scream like that as he could hear his assistant took back the phone when she broke the awful news to him, “Our caterer for the party scammed us, we aren’t able to reach him and his address is non-existent. Boss is going hysteric you really need to come here sunggyu” she pleaded to him,

“WHAT?” exclaimed a tensing sunggyu continuing, “The caterer did what?”

“” he banged the table.

“Fine, I’m on my way. Try to calm down boss and quickly start searching for any newbie caterers. Because no sane man would agree to cook a three course meal for 400 guests in less than 48 hours, I really can’t believe that was a scam. I thought we did a background check” sunggyu shouted frustatedly at his assistant trying to find his bag and keys when someone tugged his pants.

He looked down to see Daehan holding his iron man towel.

“Oh my god” he exclaimed once more sitting down on the bed clutching his hair. How did he forget about Daehan? He sure can’t take his son all the way to work. He was supposed to go to the park and then the aquarium followed by dinner at Daehan’s favorite dumpling shop.

“Appa, what happened? Come on let’s go have a bath, we have lots to do today” he said impatiently dragging sunggyu’s pajama pants towards the door with his tiny fingers clutching onto the fabric tightly.

“Umm…Daehan-ah” he scratched his head apologetically looking at his son, “I need to go to work now, there has been an emergency” he slowly kneeled next to his son meeting his eye-level.

“NO” Daehan screeched while blobbing on the floor pouting heavily, “You said we were going to have lots of fun today. Just the two of us”

“Well you will definitely” he assured his son shaking his head as he paced around the room trying to think of something, something that would not ruin his son’s day at least.

He held his breath for a minute before scampering for his phone on the bed; he quickly opens his contact list scrolling through it to find the perfect prospect to keep his son entertained and safe until he fixes the fiasco at work.

He dials a number he spots with the second scroll, “Pick up pick up pick up” he chanted as he watched Daehan lose interest looking at his dad’s antics as he pulled out his marvel figurines from the night stand and started playing with them leaning against his parent’s bed.

“WOOHYUN” he shouted as the called picked up the phone, “What took you so long? Anyways I need you to get your in like twenty minutes to my house and look after my son” he rapped while aligning his work files from his desk into his bag.

“Woah slow down daddy gyu. I can’t hear you” Woohyun replied laughing. Sunggyu could hear loud voices behind him as he recognized the one which was deafening, “Is that Dongwoo?” he questioned his best friend curious to know what his neighbor was doing with him.

“Yes, I was about to call you after I met him and his boyfriend Hoya near my workplace. We promptly made a plan to grab lunch together but remembered you need to take care of Daehan” he explained listening to sunggyu’s angry puffs through the phone.

“Now you are stealing my neighbors too after taking away all my work colleagues away to hang out with you” he sounded very pissed

“Hey, I’m not the one who is cocky and judgemental. They are nice people whom you introduced to me, who actually prefer to go out with me rather than a grumpy old person like you” Woohyun reasoned knowing that he was feeding to his best friend’s rage.

“We can have that conversation later but you need to get here as soon as possible, its an emergency” Sunggyu pleaded desparately when he heard the loud voices of cheers once again.

He gasped realizing but anyways asked hoping it was not true, “Are you guys drinking?”

“Yes” woohyun yelled cheekily on the phone holding his beer glass up for another cheer.

Sunggyu grunted loudly hanging up the call and sat down on his bed defeated looking at his son busy flying thor across his knee, he definitely cannot leave his son with his intoxicated best friend and looking like his Plan B of asking his neighbor was a failure too.

“Daehan-ah, Appa is running out of choices now.  Is there anybody you would like to go out to the park to play?” he asked his son hopelessly.

The little one titled his head to tell as if he was thinking with his tiny index finger tapping his chin, “Uncle Jjong” he said which made his father’s eyes once again go wide eyed as he quickly took his phone to call him.

“How didn’t I think of him?” sunggyu murmured as he waited for his brother-in-law to pick up his call, although he was inexperienced sunggyu was willing to let him babysit his son since he knew Daehan wouldn’t feel uncomfortable around his favourite uncle.

“Hyung” the younger sounded excited,

“Sungjong-ah, Hyung needs some urgent help right now but first please tell me you are not drinking?” sunggyu wanted to confirm facts before getting his hope high.

Sungjong laughed, “Sure, tell me. And I’m definitely not drinking have you looked at the time it’s not even past noon” he replied quizzically at such a sudden question sensing how desperate sunggyu must have been to actually call him with a request.

“I need you to come and take of your nephew. I have an important emergency that came up and I have to rush back to my office to sort things out. Please help me out?” he spoke fast but clear enough for sungjong to understand

There was a momentary silence and sigh before sungjong spoke, “I’m sure my sister must have forgot to mention it to you with the accident that happened with mother”

“Tell me what” sunggyu tensed as he knew this conversation wasn’t going in the direction he wanted.

“I am actually heading to Paris on an important business trip hyung, a popular designer contacted me after seeing my final year portfolio. If I seal a good deal, I might actually get to work with him. This was why my sister volunteered to go look after mom” he said with an apologetic tone.

Sunggyu knew his wife’s brother was studying to become a designer and even got a scholarship to a prestigious arts college in Korea all through his sheer talent. He was now feeling guilty to have SOS-ed him while he was going to something that was extremely important to him,

“I’m sorry hyung, really I am” sungjong continued,

“No no no, I am the one who is sorry. Good luck with your meeting” he tried to sound supportive, not to make sungjong feel bad as he continued to talk to convince him that he’ll figure out something and hung up the phone.

He was now growing anxious as he was supposed to be at the office by now but he was failing pathetically to find someone to look after his son. He really wanted to take his son to work but given the whole mishap, taking a five year old to a place with a hysteric boss isn’t what he wished for.

Daehan finally broke his father’s train of thoughts when he pushed hulk across his face in irritation that he was still at home and not on the monkey bars he has wanted to play for so long since school ended.

“I know son, we both are upset to be in such a situation but I can’t leave you alone nor can I ditch work today” he let out a deep sigh and fell back on the bed looking anguished. Daehan jumped twice to get on the bed barely managing with his height as he grabbed his father’s knee to climb on it and sat next to see his father. He looked very tired and sad. He didn’t like it when his parents looked like that. He really missed him mom right now but he knows that if he mentions that it would only add more misery to his father.

“Appa” screeched his son in sudden excitement like he found something and pointed towards something while bouncing on sunggyu’s hand.

“What?” sunggyu half groaned as he slightly lifted his body to look where his son was pointing with such excitement. It was to a big framed picture right over the left side lamp by the bed.

Sunggyu looked at it for a whole minute in silence; it was a picture of his family during his college graduation. His wife wanted to have a picture of both their families before they got married on the sides of the lamp above the bed. She chose that picture because it reminded of a cute hamster she once had as a pet.

He shook his thoughts trying to understand why his son chose that picture to bring to his attention and he realized why.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this” sunggyu murmured as he clicked on the contact in his phone that he thought would be the last person he would choose to babysit his son.

“Pick up the phone goddammit myungsoo” he yelled in annoyance that his little brother wasn’t attending the call when he was in such a situation.

Kim myungsoo was sunggyu’s younger brother who dropped out of college to start a career in photography which their parents were totally against so he cut all his connections with his family until sunggyu’s got married and had daehan that he started to slowly come into the family, all thanks to sunggyu’ wife. Sunggyu wasn’t really close with his brother but he was slowly trying to with a push from his wife.

“Hyung?” myungsoo spoke with shock and surprise mixed in his tone on why the hell was his brother calling him when it wasn’t even his birthday or any other family occasion that was happening in the near future.

“Answer two questions before we talk further” sunggyu spoke impatiently leaving myungsoo more confused.

“Are you drinking?” sunggyu shot the first one,

“WHAT? No hyung…why are you asking-“myungsoo replied with confusion in his voice,

“Are you in seoul?” sunggyu asked him the final one,

“Yes I am, where else will I be?” myungsoo answered sensing the urgency in sunggyu’s voice.

“Good, get your to my house in the next 30 minutes. I don’t care what you are doing but you need to get here NOW” sunggyu high pitched getting up from the bed relieved to have actually found someone although he wasn’t sure about his credibility to take care of his son.

“Sure hyung” myungsoo replied, drowning in confusion knowing his brother wasn’t taking NO for an answer with how he spoke.

Before sunggyu hung up he spoke once again, “Are you still dating that tall pole thing?” he couldn’t believe he was going to actually ask more than his brother’s presence.

“Yes, he has a name hyung” myungsoo laughed at how he always made fun of his tall boyfriend, sungyeol.

“Does he still work at the kindergarten?” he asked to confirmed after vaguely remembering myungsoo’s boyfriend was a kindergarten teacher.

“Bring him along” he finally said it with a huge sigh and hung up.

-

In less than twenty minutes myungsoo and sungyeol made it house not sure of why sunggyu wanted them especially together in his house out of the blue.

Sunggyu came running to open the door while hurriedly buttoning his shirt with a tie dangling around his neck,

“I don’t have time so get your ears perked up and do not miss even a single thing I say” he said trying to pick up his bag from the couch as he pulled out a paper he had jotted a few things while he was waiting for them to come.

“I have an emergency at work so I really have to go there now, you both are going to take care of daehan” he looked at