Seonghwa woke up the next morning with his laptop’s light shining brightly into his eyes, he sat up a little and stretched. The previous night, because of the worsening of the blizzard Hongjoong stayed with the twins’ majority of the night, they were still a bit scared with Seonghwa’s sudden appearance so they stayed far away from him, which honestly saddened him a bit.

In the end, he went to his room to go through the photos he took during the day, and he had to agree with everyone on the bus, the town was quite beautiful, the photos turned out well, but they still felt like everything else he often captured, dull.

No matter what he did everything seemed dull, through his camera’s lens, through his own eyes, nothing really seemed like it was worth keeping or sharing with others.

He got out of bed and looked around the room a bit, now that it was brighter outside he could take a proper look. The room wasn’t actually that bad, sure it needed fixing up but not as much as he thought it would.

He found himself taking out sticky notes he bought at his last stop and started nothing. The room was quite dusty and he didn’t really like it. He wrote down some cleaning supplies that he would need as well as a few other things.

He grabbed his phone and some clothes and went to the bathroom Hongjoong showed him the night before and washed up changing out of his pajamas into something casual and comfortable.

When he got to the kitchen he saw Hongjoong busy making breakfast, he was a bit surprised but somehow he also felt like he expected it, the boy seemed to be very organized.

“Good morning,” Seonghwa said with a smile.

“Oh Morning, did you sleep well?” 

“Yep I did, how about you?” 

“Well, I didn’t sleep much but it’s okay” Seonghwa sent him a concerned look.

“That doesn’t sound very healthy,” Seonghwa said with a frown.

“It isn’t but I had no choice, Seola is busy getting sick and when she gets sick, Siyeon follows shortly after,” Hongjoong said with a bit of a sigh.

“The bad thing of twins I guess huh”

“Definitely, Luckily I have known them since they were born so I know how they are when they get sick so it is quite easy to take care of them” 

“Oh… wait, they aren’t your kids?” Seonghwa said, a bit surprised.

“Nope, but I raised them since birth, somethings happened that I don’t want to speak of yet, especially not in front of them”

“That’s understandable, plus I am also a total stranger so you might not be comfortable telling me all that,” Seonghwa told him with a small smile, he knew exactly how Hongjoong felt… not wanting to talk about the past and what happened there but then he also knew somewhat about what how much it hurt to keep it all inside.

A phone ringing broke the silence in the room, Seonghwa picked up his phone and saw the name that appeared on the screen and smiled a bit.

“Hi Jjong,” he said the moment he picked it up.

“Mhm, I met some nice people here, I am staying at an Inn for a bit, but I am not sure when I will return,” Seonghwa said with a small smile.

“Yeah, tell the others not to worry but it is for the better right now that I stay away for a bit” 

“Thanks, Jjong, take care of yourself and tell Sani and Woo not to burn my apartment down okay?”

Seonghwa hung up shortly after that, Hongjoong looked at him with a knowing look.

“It sounds like I am not the only one running away from things” 

“It seems you aren’t, sometimes I feel like a coward for running away and then I think about it again and realize that if I had to go back I am not sure how I would handle everything that’s waiting for me”

“Makes sense, well let’s make a promise one day when we are both comfortable enough we spill our guts about what we are running away from” Hongjoong suggested as he placed a plate of pancakes in front of Seonghwa and took his own and placed it in front of him.

“That’s a promise, it might be good to get advice from an outsider in the situation,” Seonghwa said before digging in.

The two just finished their food when the two toddlers came into the room, they were holding hands, one had tears running down her cheeks and the other was whispering some incoherent words to her while patting her hand a little.

“Daddy Sol no feel well,” the one said, looking at her dad with big eyes, Hongjoong walked over to her and picked up the crying girl.

“Are you still feeling sick baby? Daddy will take you to the doctor today, the snow is calming down a bit but Siyeon-ah I will have to drop you off at uncle Gi for that time since dad doesn’t want you to get sick as well” Hongjoong said looking at the little girl.

“I- if you want I can take care of her for you, I have to arrange some things with my friend who is in charge of my savings accounts. I can get some money for the time I am here” Seonghwa told him.

“Are you sure? She might be a bit of a handful” 

“It’s fine, I love babies so it’s okay, just write down when she has to eat and her nap times and I will take care of it” Hongjoong places Seola down and couldn’t help but hug Seonghwa.

“Thank you, seriously, I’m still getting used to handling them on my own” Hongjoong said with a smile.

“No worries, as I said, you are letting me stay here for free this is the least I can do for you” 

Hongjoong smiled happily, “Well then girls let’s eat something and get you both washed up and dressed,” Hongjoong said happily and placed the girls in their high chairs, and got their food which he had already cut up earlier and gave it to them.

Seonghwa smiled as he watched the boy move around the kitchen. He seemed like some who was a natural parent, someone who could easily take care of others when it was needed.

Seonghwa was a little envious, he wanted to be a father his whole life, but not everything works the way you want it to, sometimes things go south and you have to rethink the things you wanted and the things you have.

Later on, Hongjoong left with Seola to the doctor leaving Seonghwa with Siyeon, he played with her for a bit but she eventually fell asleep, he carried her to her bed and then went to his room and took his laptop, and moved to the living room and started taking care of his financial issue once he got hold of Wooyoung.