Baekhyun wipes the counter-top and softly whistles under his breath. He halts his movement when he hears the head maid, Seohyun urgently calling for his name from the living room.

“Hyun!”

Baekhyun rushes out of the kitchen, “Yes?”

“Can you come with me to get some groceries? Please, this is urgent! The chairman asked us to prepare some special dishes for lunch, there’s not much time left!”

“Okay, sure. I’m done with my work anyway,” Baekhyun states, confused but he doesn’t ask much as he can sense the urgency in her voice. He excuses himself to put the wet rag away.

The head maid thanks him and then leaves the room, sighing in relief as she walks away to retrieve the car keys and her wallet.

She had asked a few other maids earlier but they were all busy with their tasks, thank goodness Baekhyun is free.

“Haeun is asleep, right? Please watch her for me, Seungwan. I’m not sure how long this will take so if she wakes up and starts crying, you can give her some snacks, I think she’ll be quite happy with snacks. If it doesn’t work, please give me a call, I’ll rush back home as fast as possible,” Baekhyun says, leaving a long reminder behind to the other maid in charge of cleaning the second floor.

He isn’t used to leaving Haeun behind. The two-year-old can be quite a handful if she doesn’t get to see her ‘papa’ in front of her eyes whenever she wakes up from her nap, leaving it almost impossible for Baekhyun to leave the mansion and whenever he does, he will always bring her along; which is rare as he almost never steps a foot outside the place he now calls his ‘home’.

“Is someone coming? Why is Grandpa Park asking us to make other dishes? I thought yesterday he told us to make his favourites?” Baekhyun asks the head maid he now considers his older sister, strapping the seatbelt in the passenger seat.

Though he is reaching half-fifty, he still doesn’t have a driver’s licence, deeming it no use because he won’t ever get a car in the first place, opting to go by public transportation more.

Seohyun reverses the car and mutters while her eyes are on the side-mirror, “He told me that a special guest is coming, I recall him saying about his grandson abruptly coming home from abroad. I think he will be staying with us later.”

Grandson? Baekhyun has heard the old man talk of his grandson before. He knows that the said grandchild is currently living abroad, managing the family company’s brand in New York.

“Oh, I see… So, what are we making?”

Seohyun lists out the dishes they have to make, along with some questionable ones such as chocolate cake and melon bingsu (shaved ice)?

“Wait— we have to make melon bingsu too? And chocolate cake? How old is this grandson again?” Baekhyun interrupts, suppressing his laughter and shakes his head in disbelief.

However, deep down in his heart, it tinges of unnoticeable pain. The desserts remind him so much of someone he used to know.

Somehow, he cannot help himself from wondering, how is the latter doing? Is he eating well? He feels sorry but he immediately shakes off the thought.

He doesn’t deserve to know.

“Oh no, dear. We’re buying the bingsu at the store later,” Seohyun says, snapping him out of his thoughts. “—but you’re making the chocolate cake, okay? You bake some mean chocolate cake, even Grandpa says so,” she continues.

Baekhyun nods, understanding. “Sure thing.”

Baekhyun enters the manor with a bag of groceries in each of his hands, quickly making his way to the kitchen to put them down on top of the counter-top. They’re quite heavy and he feels like his arms might fall off soon if he doesn’t get the extra weight away.

He heaves a sigh and leaves the kitchen to help Seohyun with the rest of the bags.

“Papa!” a tiny voice calls from the top of the stairs.

Baekhyun looks up and his mouth blooms into a bright smile. His little princess is up and Grandpa Park is holding her hand. The little one excitedly makes grabby hands to the old man, demanding to be picked up and brought down.

The mahogany stairs are too huge for her little waddling feet. Her papa had always reminded her not to go down by herself.

“Hey, princess, did you have a good nap?” Baekhyun greets her, picking her up. “No wonder you wake up so well-behaved today, grandpa is here.”

He smooches her cheeks repeatedly until the toddler is a giggling mess.

“P-pa..pa, sto-stop..! Papa twickles Eunnie,” she giggles with her little lisps, wiggling left and right in her papa’s hold.

She had just turned two last month, her pronunciation still a little off just like other kids her age. Therefore, little Haeun calls herself Eunnie.

“When did you get back, grandpa?” Baekhyun takes his chance to ask the old man, though his eyes are still fixated on his daughter.

“Just now,” Grandpa Park replies, his eyes also looking at the two figure with adoration.

“So, what did my little Haeun do while papa was away, hm?”

“Eunnie played with grandpa!” she exclaims excitedly.

“Really? Was it fun?” Baekhyun asks and turns his body to face the old man, grinning mischievously. “Is Grandpa Park much more fun than Papa?”

“No! Papa more fun. Eunnie loves Papa,” she brings her hand beside Baekhyun’s ears and whispers none-so-discreetly.

“Grandpa heard that Haeun,” Grandpa Park chimes in, faking his tone to sound stern.

“Oh no! Grandpa angry— Papa, put down Eunnie, put down!” she gushes restlessly, and Baekhyun does so.

The little girl approaches Grandpa Park and tugs on his trousers, looking up with sad eyes and extending her hands forward, asking for a hug, “Grandpa don’t be angry, Eunnie is sorry. Eunnie loves Grandpa.”

Grandpa Park lets down his facade. He crouches and brings her into his arm, admitting his defeat. He can never win against those doe eyes.

“Look at you, how can I be angry at you, little darling.”

“Grandpa not angry anymore, okay? Eunnie wants to play with Mochi, grandpa lets go!” the toddler excitedly beams. Her tiny hand grabs the wrinkled hand into her hold— well not exactly hold as it can barely wrap around Grandpa Park’s pinkie.

Mochi is a Maltese puppy that Grandpa had bought for her birthday when she claims to be lonely with no friends. Baekhyun had insisted that there is no need to get her a puppy and don’t spoil her so much.

But of course, Grandpa Park, as a chairman of a mega-company can be quite adamant when he wants to— it was in his nature as a businessman. Baekhyun could only shake his head when the Maltese was brought home the next day.

Haeun is spoiled rotten by his kind employer, and he doesn’t want her to be adjusted to this kind of lifestyle because no one knows what might happen in the future.

He feels a bitter taste in his mouth when he realises that he could get fired if things ever go wrong in the future later although, the generous old man had assured him many times that he will never fire Baekhyun and he does not mind spoiling his daughter.

He is more than indebted to the old man; Grandpa Park had saved their life. He doesn’t even want to imagine what would happen to him and Haeun if they hadn’t met Grandpa kit in that one fateful meeting.

“Princess, let’s let grandpa rest first, alright?” Baekhyun speaks up and smooths down her hair, patting her head adoringly when she juts out her lips unhappily. She wants to play with grandpa!

“How about you play with Secretary Junmyeon first?” the grandpa offers when he sees tears b in the little girl’s eyes.

Baekhyun tilts his head. Secretary Junmyeon is here? Oh, grandpa must have invited him to lunch. It wasn’t anything unusual to see the secretary at the mansion. He is, after all, the chairman’s personal assistant.

Haeun’s face instantly lights up and she nods giddily, “Eunnie wants to play with handsome uncle!”

“Go, your handsome uncle is in the garden, I think.”

The little girl did not wait much before skipping away, dashing off without looking back at her papa and grandpa. She can’t wait to play with handsome uncle and Mochi!

“Be careful, baby girl!” Baekhyun shouts.

They can hear her calling for the secretary who has worked for the chairman for nine years and is one of Grandpa Park’s most trusted employees.

“That kid… she left me for a handsome man, who did she take after, huh… couldn’t be me for sure,” Baekhyun scrunches his nose distastefully and blows on his bangs.

Grandpa Park laughs wholeheartedly at the words. “She has always loved Junmyeon more than anyone else.”

“Grandpa don’t laugh!” Baekhyun stomps his feet playfully and frowns before he quickly brings his arms together, crossing them on his chest. “Have you taken your medicines today?”

The old man’s laugh abruptly stops and he scratches his head guiltily. By the face that the old man is making, Baekhyun knows that he is yet again, trying to run away from taking his medicines.

“Grandpa, I don’t know if anyone has told you this, but you are an old man . You have to take your medicines! What if you get rushed to the hospital again?” Baekhyun places his hand on his waist and scolds the old man sternly, worry evident on his face.

Even the almighty chairman cannot do anything else but cower under the younger male’s displeased gaze.

It might also look comical to the ones watching because Baekhyun is actually a head shorter than him.

The maids nearby also shake their head, the two are back at it again, they figured.

“Geez, Hyun. Spare this old man some break. I’m a very stern chairman at work, okay? Imagine what would my workers say if they see me get scolded like this…” the chairman tries to work his way out with puppy eyes.

Baekhyun would’ve gotten swayed if he doesn’t find the situation remotely hilarious. This old man is giving me puppy eyes!

The chairman of a multi-billionaire company is known to be one who hardly smiles, let alone be someone who actually knows how to make puppy eyes! He should snap a picture, send it to the tabloids and make millions from it!

Baekhyun quickly schools his expression, hiding the smile that is threatening to come out at the old man’s antics. “You should have eaten your medicines if you don’t want your workers to see you get scolded by this housekeeper, Chairman Park.”

“Okay, okay… this old man is sorry, I will take my medicines now. Seungwan, can you get my bag from my office?” Grandpa Park solemnly says and takes his seat at the head of the dining table.

Baekhyun follows him from behind and stands next to the chairman. Grandpa Park eyes him weirdly and mutters.

“Hyun, you can go now. My grandson is arriving soon, have you baked the chocolate cake? I think it will take some time right? Don’t worry, I am just waiting for Seungwan to bring my bag.”

Baekhyun smiles sweetly and shakes his head, “Oh, it’s okay. I’ll go once I see that you have taken your medicines. The chocolate cake doesn’t really take that much time to make.”

Baekhyun watches him with hawk eyes, from the second Seungwan places his bag onto the marble table and excuses herself to the kitchen, to the way Grandpa Park hesitantly takes out the bottles of pills from his bag.

“Hyun, I think it would be great if I have lunch first, don’t you think s—”

“Grandpa.”

And that one word is all it takes for the old man to unwillingly gulp the pills down his trachea.

Baekhyun nods, satisfied. “Okay, good job grandpa, I’ll be off to work now. You can rest, I will call you for lunch later.”

Baekhyun taps the old man on the back and excuses himself. He sighs once he reaches the kitchen, what would he do with the chairman... Even Haeun takes medicine better than you, grandpa.

Baekhyun places the chocolate cake he had cut into smaller pieces onto the table and claps his hand silently, happy with the way the cake turned out to look and taste.

Damn right… I really do make some mean chocolate cake.

Around the dessert are a bunch of other special traditional dishes that Grandpa Park had ordered them to make for his grandson who is arriving in less than 30 minutes.

Grandpa Park is excitedly waiting for his grandson that he had not met for a long time; the last time was when the chairman had flown to New York for an important meeting, where a year had already passed.

No one in the household had met the chairman’s grandson before, considering that Grandpa Park had only moved to South Korea less than 2 years ago. Before, he was residing in Australia, only monitoring the company from afar but certain circumstances had forced him to move back to his mainland.

The maids and servants are currently lined up near the main entrance, waiting for the young master to arrive, Baekhyun included when suddenly a cry resonated through the hall.

Haeun, in her white frilly dress comes into view. Baekhyun had placed her onto the sofa in the living room and she was sleeping when he left, exhausted after playing with Secretary Junmyeon who had left to pick up the Young Master at the airport, it seems like she had accidentally woken up from her nap.

She stands on her little two feet before she ditches walking and decides to crawl instead, all the while crying her hearts out.

“P-pa.. papa.”

Baekhyun apologetically glances at Grandpa Park, and when the latter nods, he excuses himself.

“Yes, papa is here, sweetheart,” he picks her up and pats her back, softly humming a tune that he always uses to put his daughter back to sleep.

“Grandpa, I will put her to sleep first.”

“Alright. Call us if you need anything,” the old man says in a fatherly tone.

Just as Baekhyun is about to climb the stairs, he hears a loud honk from the main door. He considers waiting to join them and greet Grandpa Park’s grandson, it will only take a while but when Haeun whines into his shoulders, Baekhyun decides to go upstairs instead.

He doesn’t want Haeun to start acting up in front of Grandpa Park’s grandson.

Chanyeol looks out the window and takes a mental note of the changes that happened to the city of Seoul.

There’s not much change, after all, he was only gone for two years. He looks to the front and calls for the man in the passenger seat.

He knows Junmyeon had worked as his grandfather’s personal assistant for almost a decade.

“Junmyeon hyung.”

“Yes, Young Master?”

“Please drop the formalities, I am younger than you.”

“I don’t think Madame Park would like that, Young Master,” the 33-year-old man coughs, uncomfortable as he recalls what the mother of the man in the back seat had once told him.

“I know that my father-in-law does not care how you address him but with my family, address us properly.”

Junmyeon could still hear the chilling tone that the charismatic woman had told him once. It still sends chills down his spine.

“She’s not here, it wouldn’t be a problem, hyung.”

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