"Thank you. Say bye, boys!"

Heechul bowed to the caretakers in the daycare and walked out of the property, going to his right straight to the park. Like usual, he had braced himself to face another hostility his professor would throw at him when they met, probably not for so long. The sun surprisingly shone pretty brightly today although the ray was nothing compared to the chill the winter offered. He headed to the nearby bench and put down his belongings.

"Your hands are cold," Heechul uttered as he put on Donghae's mittens skillfully while the kid was sitting nicely on his lap, swinging his feet. Once he was done, he put him down and noticed that Donghae was getting bigger, judging from the grunt he elicited when he lifted the boy.

"Maw?"

"Hmm?" Heechul only hummed, busy dressing Donghae in his winter coat, not even glancing to Hyukjae. He missed the nervousness written all over the older son's face.

"What is it, Hyuk?"

Heechul finally turned to Hyukjae when the boy never continued his hanging utterance. And just then, he finally saw the concerned face Hyukjae had on. He smiled and held the kid's hand.

"You can tell me anything, remember?"

A few moments had passed with Hyukjae only staring at him. Worry started to creep in his heart with the way Hyukjae behaved. It worsened because he could not look after him twenty-four seven like he used to do. The boy suddenly dropped his head and uttered, words laced with slight disappointment that squeezed Heechul's chest to suffocate.

"You never came home with us."

No reason was good enough to reply to what Hyukjae said. He guessed Jungsoo also never properly addressed this issue. He did not even expect his professor to ever mention his name to the kids ever again. His existence in this family was on the thin rope. It was just he who was desperately clinging on that rope while his professor was ready to cut the ties anytime the professor fancied. He was just glad Jungsoo still let his stubborn to meet the kids. It was enough for now but apparently it was not enough for the kids.

However, before he managed to try explaining to Hyukjae about this sickeningly complicated matter, he heard a car engine stopping in the usual spot behind them and he did not have to turn around to look because seeing Donghae getting excited, he knew who it was. And he also knew his time to be with the kids today had come to an end.

"Heechul?"

Wait.

This voice.

This was not his professor. This was the last person he was ready to meet and right now he was caught off guard when fate had successfully shown him that keeping his eyes open, always, was important.

"You've come back?"

Heechul inhaled deeply and eventually stood up, gathering his belongings ever so slowly to stall some time for he had to ready his heart to face this person. His eyes accidentally saw the high heels she wore, and it was enough to throw his composure out of the window. If he gave no damn to other people around them, he would have been kneeling as soon as he saw her.

"Mrs. P-park."

«────── « ⋅♥⋅ » ──────»

"Hyuk, sweetie, stay in your room upstairs until Grandma calls you for dinner, okay?"

Heechul smiled at Hyukjae and gave sleeping Donghae to the helper to be put in their room. His eyes unconsciously wandered around. It had been so long since the last time he came here; the last time was probably on Mrs. Park's birthday—the day he convinced himself that leaving was the right choice. He glanced sideways and noticed that Mrs. Park had fixed her eyes on him. Inviting him to her house was not just.

She demanded an explanation.

"I don't want anyone to come to my workroom."

The aura Mrs. Park radiated right now as she ordered her staff was exactly like how it was the first time he met her. Intimidating—as what he always described Mrs. Park and Jungsoo. She turned to him and motioned him to follow her. The knot in his guts got tighter and tighter the farther he trailed behind the woman into the house.

Mrs. Park locked the door as soon as they entered the room. She gasped when she heard a loud thud coming from behind. She turned around and her eyes dilated when she saw Heechul already on the floor, dropping to his knees.

"I'm sorry. I'm v-very sorry."

She stared blankly at the man in front of her, unable to proceed anything as if she had been struck dumb. She heard Heechul crying, uttering his apologies again and again that she wanted to hate herself for wanting to forgive even before knowing what her son-in-law apologized for. However, when Heechul suddenly crawled his way towards her, she could not help the undulating emotions that rose in . Beads of tears finally escaped her eyes as she crouched down to guide Heechul to stand up. She was dumbfounded when Heechul refused, insisting to stay in his position along with his cry that sounded so raw and heartbreaking. She attempted to hug him and even though he wanted to resist, she managed to coax him that he eventually calmed inside her arms.

"Tell me everything, Heechul. Tell me what actually happened. I'll listen."

She helped Heechul to stand up and settled on the couch with Heechul still curling himself. It stressed her out because it seemed that out of all people involved in this sickening situation, Heechul looked like he was the most hurt. And it did not make sense because he was the one who caused it. It took a few minutes with Heechul trying to calm down and eventually beginning to narrate his story.

"I needed money, Mrs. Park. I needed money for the orphanage or else those people would evict us. And... It just happened that—"

"I already heard about that, Heechul," Mrs. Park cut him off and it left him stunned by the fact that Mrs. Park already knew about this.

From who?

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