“I wanna get a puppy,” smiled Youngbae, putting a plate of some breakfast porridge in front of Teddy as he sat down at the table.

Teddy had barely woken up, he was still wrapped in a blanket and wiping the sleep from his eyes.

“Good morning to you too,” Teddy grumpily replied, pushing the bowl of porridge away and reaching for his coffee mug.

“So I was thinking we could go out today and pick a puppy together,” Youngbae continued as he sat down at the table, across from Teddy.

Teddy finished downing his coffee and once he felt it kick in and was in a slightly better mood he replied “You sure are happy this morning. Why do you wanna get a puppy? Is Boss not enough?”

Youngbae looked down the hallway towards the bedroom and expected Boss to come running in at the sound of his name.

“It’s not that. I just want a puppy. A friend for Boss,” he said.

“Well can’t it wait?” asked Teddy “I’m going into the studio all day to work with 2ne1 and I don’t have much time.”

Youngbae pouted, “well when do you have time?” he insisted.

“I don’t know,” Teddy said “it’s like 9 a.m right now can we talk about this later?”

Youngbae pursed his lips, “what time do you have to be at work by?”

“11,” Teddy replied in between spoonfuls of porridge.

He saw the smile fade from Youngbae’s face and felt a pang of guilt, it wasn’t fair of him to be an just because he wasn’t a morning person, “what kind of dog did you have in mind?”

Youngbae’s face lit up, “well I wanna get a puppy so we can raise it together” he said, flashing the smile that made Teddy’s stomach weak.

“But I want it to be a girl so Boss can have a girlfriend,” he continued as he chuckled slightly, “I was thinking we could get a pug, they don’t get very big so she won’t be too troublesome.”

Teddy smiled at how enthusiastically Youngbae was talking, “you’re so cute” he said, unable to control the words that came out of his mouth due to the lack of sleep.

“So is that a yes?” he asked excitedly.

“Yeah we can get another dog, but you’re cleaning up the poop. I’ll feed her and we can walk her together with Boss,” Teddy said as he finished his breakfast.

“Okay hurry up and get dressed so we can go!” Youngbae said as he took the dishes to the sink.

“We’re going right now?” Teddy whined.

“I’ll drive,” Bae responded with a smile.

Teddy went to the bedroom and picked up a random shirt from the floor, not bothering to check if it was clean before putting it on. He kept on his sweats, ‘they aren’t even dirty’ was his reasoning. As he laced up his sneakers he couldn’t help but think that there was a deeper meaning behind why Youngbae wanted another dog. He got Boss because he was lonely, was he still lonely? Teddy shook that thought from his mind, that couldn’t be it.

He walked back into the kitchen where Youngbae stood with Boss on a leash, “alright are you ready?” Bae asked excitedly.

“Yeah, but before we leave I have a question” he paused “What’s the real reason that all of a sudden you want to get a dog?”

Youngbae stood pensive and looked up as if the answer were written on the ceiling, “I don’t know… I guess I just want a dog so we can raise it together. We can be dads!” he said with an eye smile.

Teddy didn’t know how to feel about the last part. He had never seriously thought about the whole “kids” thing. He was 34 for s sake how he could never have thought about it?

In that moment it all dawned on him that one day he and Youngbae were going to be dads; he wanted them to be dads. His stomach was filled with butterflies and he smiled slightly at the thought of it. Suddenly, it wasn’t really as scary of a thought as it had been when he was 22 and hooking up with women left and right.

It just felt right with Youngbae. So right that he had never once thought about running away due to constantly thinking about the future, because with Youngbae all that mattered to him was the present.

Youngbae stood still, thinking he had said something wrong, “if you really don’t want to, we don’t have to get a dog,” he said meekly.

Teddy shook the thoughts from his head and walked over to Youngbae, embracing him in a tight hug.

Youngbae was confused but he promptly wrapped his arms around Teddy. Teddy broke the hug and kissed Youngbae on the forehead "no I want a dog too," he finally said.

Teddy laced their fingers together as they walked out of the house “I love you.” he said to Youngbae.

"I love you too," Youngbae replied, tightening his grip on Teddy's hand.

                                                                                                                         ~~~~~~~~~~

They got to the pet shop and looked around for what felt like an eternity for the perfect puppy. “Do you like her?” Youngbae would ask Boss as he picked him up and pressed his face against the dogs' cages.

After a lot of back and forth and about 30 minutes of puppy petting later, they decided on a 6 month old pug named “Princess”

Teddy insisted on buying a brand new glittery pink collar, “she’s our baby girl right? And her name is princess so we have to treat her like royalty.”

Youngbae smiled at how cute Teddy was behaving around the puppy, petting her and cradling her in his arms.

“We’re gonna be great dads” Youngbae said as he turned to Teddy.

“Yeah,” Teddy smiled while still looking down at princess in his arms, “we really are.”