A/N: Hi, guys! We’re back to the present time again in this chapter! Here’s what happens when Kyuhyun and Yesung finally see each other again after five years… ;-;

In the past, whenever Kyuhyun read stories where the main characters would claim that time stopped—that they froze in time, Kyuhyun would just scoff. Logically, he knew that it was impossible for time to freeze. 

But now, Kyuhyun suddenly felt like time had frozen. 

He might have been staring into those almond-shaped eyes for an eternity already, and he wouldn’t have noticed that any time had passed at all. Especially not when the almond-shaped eyes stared right back at him. 

Kyuhyun felt weak in the knees. He had hopelessly and painfully thought that he would never be under the gaze of these almond-shaped eyes ever again.

But this was really happening again now. Kyuhyun’s doe-like eyes and Yesung’s almond-shaped eyes were staring into each other again, both pairs of eyes reflecting great shock but also still completely caught and lost in the moment.

However, their staring competition was interrupted by a curious, and quite perceptive, child.

“… Daddy? Why are you and Mister Yesung staring at each other as though you’ve both just seen the Ghost of Christmas Past?”

Children sometimes really did have a bluntly honest way of putting things into words.

Kyuhyun forced himself to tear his eyes away from Yesung to focus on his daughter, who was looking at him with the most curious expression on her face. 

Well, what was he supposed to say to his four-year-old daughter now? That it seemed like he really had seen a ghost? Well, not exactly the Ghost of Christmas Past, but still a ghost of his past nonetheless? The person from his past whom he had loved the most and had lost? He couldn’t tell Hyuna that.

“We’re fine,” Kyuhyun said automatically instead. Though nothing had been “fine” between him and Yesung for years. He tried to calm himself and ignore for now the stare from Yesung that was burning right through his very soul. He said more sternly to his daughter, “What’s not fine is that you wandered off on your own.”

Hyuna pouted her lips and looked up at her dad with the widest, most heartbreaking puppy-dog eyes in all of history. “I’m sorry, Daddy.”

Kyuhyun didn’t have a chance of even just pretending to be mad as soon as that expression appeared on his daughter’s face. He sighed, bent down, and placed a kiss on top of Hyuna’s head (Yesung let out a shaky gust of breath at the gesture, but no one said anything about it). “Just don’t do it again, okay, princess? Are you alright?”

Hyuna nodded, now happy since her dad didn’t seem to be mad at her. “Yes, Daddy! I’m alright, thanks to Mister Yesung! He kept me company while I was waiting for you to find me, and he bought me ice cream! I got to eat ice cream, Daddy!” She giggled and beamed at how she was able to eat such a sweet treat a while ago.

Andddd those words made Kyuhyun’s and Yesung’s eyes meet again. 

“Thanks—” Kyuhyun tried to say, but his voice broke. He was too overwhelmed with seeing Yesung again (and even more surreal was how Yesung had been accompanying and sitting with Kyuhyun’s daughter) that he couldn’t even be embarrassed about his voice cracking. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Thanks for accompanying her.”

Yesung just stared at Kyuhyun some more, and for a moment, Kyuhyun thought—feared—that Yesung wouldn’t even bother to reply to him at all.

But then, Yesung spoke. Spoke to him.

“It was no problem, Kyuhyun.”

Yesung’s first words to Kyuhyun in years.

Yesung’s voice was very quiet when he spoke, but even if Kyuhyun was deaf, he probably would have still heard it.

Kyuhyun’s heart both rejoiced and ached at the sound of Yesung’s voice. Rejoiced, because he was finally hearing it again. Ached, because it brought back his throbbing, longing pangs for the man. Kyuhyun hadn’t heard Yesung’s voice since the night that they had broken up—since the moment Yesung had asked Kyuhyun to let him go if he really loved him.

Even better now, Yesung said Kyuhyun’s name again. Kyuhyun thought that his heart would burst upon hearing his name pass through Yesung’s lips again.

Yesung, for his part, felt like he was having an out of body experience. Kyuhyun was in front of him again. Kyuhyun had just talked to him again (and he had responded). Kyuhyun was making his heart pound wildly in his chest again.

But at the same time, all of Yesung’s past hurt and bitterness were back at full force. While he felt (for some crazy reason) that he was floating on cloud nine now that he was in Kyuhyun’s presence once more, seeing Kyuhyun again now also inevitably reminded him of all the betrayal and heartbreak that happened between them.

…Especially given how Kyuhyun’s child from that night was now standing just right there beside Kyuhyun, holding Kyuhyun’s hand and looking quite a lot like Kyuhyun.

Hyuna looked so much like her father. They shared so many physical features. And also, all Hyuna’s talks while ago about loving math and video games—she clearly got her father’s interests as well. Why didn’t Yesung realize, or even just suspect, earlier that she was related to Kyuhyun? That she was Kyuhyun’s daughter?

But then again, Yesung had never even considered the possibility of running into his ex’s child by accident. What sick and twisted joke was the universe playing on him?

Meanwhile, Hyuna was looking curiously between her father and her new friend. “Daddy, you two know each other?” she asked.

Once again, Kyuhyun wasn’t sure how to respond to his daughter. What was he supposed to say? That this man in front of them was the love of his life whom he had lost due to his own stupidity as well as her mother taking advantage of his drunkenness?

No, he couldn’t tell his daughter that.

“Hyuna, we have to go now. Why don’t you get in the car?” As a parent, you eventually learn how to avoid answering painful, awkward questions (especially when the questions dug up the ghosts of your past) from your child.

“Okay, Daddy!” she chirped. Then, she turned to Yesung and waved goodbye to him. “Goodbye, Mister Yesung! Thank you for the ice cream and for keeping me company!”

“Uhm, yeah. Of course,” Yesung mumbled, forcing a smile on his face. He didn’t know what to think and feel about Hyuna now that he knew that she was apparently his ex’s daughter—the product of the night that Kyuhyun got so drunk and ended up cheating on him. He had like Hyuna very much from their interactions a while ago, but know