Kyuhyun smiles down at the tiny being cradled to his chest as his baby son ers eagerly from the milk bottle held up for him.

“My baby loves his milk, doesn’t he?” Kyuhyun coos with an amusing smile as his son returns him a gummy grin without letting go of the teat. How does the little guy do it still baffles his parents.

Siwon steps into the nursery with silent footsteps and spends the next minute or two leaning on the doorframe to admire his picture of perfect bliss – his spouse nursing the proof of their love; their son.

“Oh, look, baby, here’s daddy!” Kyuhyun exclaims happily when he caught sight of his goofy husband watching them quietly. Siwon moves closer to the armchair Kyuhyun is sitting in and pecks a kiss on his spouse’s soft cheek. Kyuhyun chuckles lightly, sharing a meaningful look together before looking down at their precious gem.

Hyukjae gurgles merrily and reaches out for his Appa. “I’ll burp him.” Siwon offers grabbing a towel from the shelf next to him and throwing it over his shoulder. Kyuhyun stood up and pass the tiny being into Siwon’s arms.

“I’ll get it.” Kyuhyun offers when the phone in the living room rang.

“Come on, little buddy. Time to burp.” Siwon mutters smilingly as he pats the baby’s back gently. Hyukjae giggled happily as if he is having the time of his life. Just as Kyuhyun steps back into the room, he rewards his father with a long loud wet burp. “There you go!” Siwon cheers animatedly to Hyukjae’s baby babbling.

“Who was that?” Siwon asks while he rubs his giggling son’s round tummy inciting more giggles from the baby.

“Your dad and mom.” Kyuhyun said lightly. “They want to come over for a visit.”

“Oh? Did you ~”

“I told them we are bringing Hyukkie for his first grown up haircut. And they are coming along.” Kyuhyun replies while his hands are busy packing the baby bag.

“I can do it with my shaver.” Siwon suggests with genuine seriousness.

Kyuhyun looks at his husband with a lop-sided smirk. He really did not intend to make Siwon feel small but really, sometimes the big guy needs a lesson in reality.

Siwon seems to shrink from the look his spouse is giving him and he shifts uncomfortably from one foot to the other and even faked a cough. “What?”

“A shaver, hyung?” Kyuhyun asks with a highly arched brow.

“A-huh.” Siwon replies matter-of-factly.

“Do you want your son to blame you for giving him a buzz-cut as his first haircut?” Kyuhyun tries again with infinite patience and a long suffering sigh. Siwon frowns at the show of dramatics.

“What’s wrong with a buzz cut? Every boy gets one one time or another in his life.” Siwon defends himself unhappily.

“You’re right, but how many gets it as his first hair cut?” Kyuhyun challenged and Siwon’s face soured further.

“We’ll take him to the barber.” Kyuhyun decides with a triumphant smile. Siwon mumbles something under his breath in reply. “What’s that, honey?” Kyuhyun’s smile falters.

“Nothing dear ~” Siwon flashed a plastic smile at his sulky spouse. Kyuhyun purses his lips, not taken in one tiny bit by Siwon’s false cheer. The phone starts ringing again and this time Siwon went out of the room with Hyukjae in arms to answer it.

“Your folks.” Siwon announces when he came back into the room. “They want to visit too and I told them where we are heading. They are coming along too.”

Kyuhyun frowns lightly at the new situation they just found themselves in. Originally an excursion for 3, it has now expanded to 7. And he has no idea how Hyukjae will react towards his first haircut, surely too much adult attention will not be healthy for the little boy?

But then, it is not like Kyuhyun could stop the grandparents from tagging along on one of their grandson’s major life events.

If Hyukjae is wondering why he has an entourage of 6 adults with him on this day’s excursion, he is not showing it. Rather, he is enjoying the attention all his grandparents are lavishing on him. They certainly are doing a good job with distracting him. The tiny toddler did not pause to wonder where they are heading today. Not even the presence of his seldom available Appa evokes his sense of foreboding.

Not till….

Where is this place?

“Welcome! Please come in!”

“We would like to get a haircut for our son.” Siwon told the friendly middle-aged man.

“Would this be his first haircut?”

“Yes, it is.” Kyuhyun replied with a smile. 

“All right, we’ll have the daddy sit down in the barber’s chair and hold him up.”

Siwon moves towards the chair instinctively but his father stepped forward to stop him. “Let me.”

Siwon exchanged a wary look with Kyuhyun just as Kyuhyun’s father stepped forward to protest. “I’m the grandfather, let ME hold him!”

The barber looked on helplessly on the side as the two elderly men start to bicker. Siwon pressed his son’s little body tightly against his chest, a picture of unwillingness to relinquish his hold on Hyukjae leaving Kyuhyun to settle the argument alone because his mother and mother in law are obviously taking the sides of their own husbands.

Feeling annoyed and flustered, Kyuhyun turned to Siwon for help but all he got was a look of apology. With a soft sigh and a frown, Kyuhyun turned back to the fight and raised his voice a little louder over the racket.

“Dad, you will carry Hyukkie for the first 10 minutes, Appa, you will carry him for the next 10, then Siwon carry Hyukkie for the rest of the way.” Kyuhyun resolves efficiently.

“But ~” Mrs Cho blurts out and her son silence her with a short glare.

“Not now, umma.” Kyuhyun snaps softly at his pouting mother. Mrs Choi knows better than to speak up now. Without a word she slithers quietly to her husband’s side.

Mr Choi reached out both arms for his grandson with a look of anticipation but Siwon just continue to look at his father dumbfounded. Mr Choi is beginning to glower at his goofy son but all Siwon did was tighten his hold on his son.

Kyuhyun looks at the father and son having a stare down and roll his eyes in irritation.

“Wonnie, pass baby to Dad!” He orders shortly. Siwon turned to pout at his spouse who is openly glaring at him now. With a soft whine, he holds his happily oblivious son out to his father.

Mr Choi eagerly stands his only grandchild up on his lap. Hyukjae being only a year and half old could barely stand and wobble on pudgy bow legs, shrieking and giggling much to his paternal grandfather’s delight. The barber breathed an obvious sigh of relief as he drapes a towel on Hyukjae’s tiny shoulder.

“Let’s get started.” He announces as he waves the comb and scissors with practiced flourish. Hyukjae gurgles merrily to the strange voice. Siwon frowns in anticipation while Kyuhyun was about to let go of a sigh of relief.

The comb touched the silky light brown strands standing on Hyukjae’s head.

And all hell broke loose.

The grimace forming on Hyukjae’s tiny face served as a warning that came a little too late. Kyuhyun bit down on his plump lower lip as he braced himself. The tinny shriek shocked all the adults surrounding him, each cringing and pulling away to avoid ear damage. The crazy distortions on the adults’ faces would have been really funny under other circumstances.

Mr Choi’s face fell while Mr Cho gloats. Siwon is tripping all over himself to get to his son and comfort him. The barber, however, seems to have seen all this ruckus before and calmly wait out the anxieties of the adults trying to pacify the little tot whose shrieks are getting louder by the second.

“Mama! Mama!” Hyukjae suddenly cried twisting his little body around to look for his familiar comfort. Kyuhyun steps forward to hold his son while the other male figureheads of the family curl their lips in disappointment.

“Come on, Hyukkie baby, hush.” Kyuhyun coos tenderly while wiping the tears off Hyukjae’s dark red spongy face. The baby is not happy but he stops crying. “Let’s try again, shall we?” Kyuhyun mutters as he puts his son back into Mr Choi’s arms.

It was déjà vu all over again when the comb touches his head. Determined to get that haircut, Kyuhyun dug into his pocket and pulls out his phone. A few jabs and flicks later and a video clip of Barney sprung to life on the tiny screen. Hyukjae’s attention is held by the myriad of images dancing about on the phone screen. The barber dove in and began snipping with fervour, silently counting the mere seconds before the baby starts to twitch again.

@

“You have such strong lungs in that tiny baby body of yours!” The barber remarks as he took another snip at Hyukjae’s hair. “What a nerve-wrecking 20 minutes you gave us all!”

16year old Hyukjae rolls his eyes in long suffering silence. To his chagrin, his best pal, Donghae is sitting next to him chortling merrily, completely unaware of the dirty look Hyukjae is directing at him.

“Ahjussi, it’s thanks to your superb skills that Hyukkie managed to get a decent haircut back then!” Donghae praised. Hyukjae’s eyebrow arched in surprise since he has to keep real still or risk having a large portion of his hair snipped off by accident.

“Ah, yes! Yes!” The elderly barber chuckles with pride. “All that twitching about and shrieking it’s a wonder his haircut was still symmetrical when I’m done!”

Donghae leans close and made a show of whispering loud enough for everyone to hear. “You’re such a baby!” Donghae guffaws and he did not stop even though Hyukjae is glaring daggers at him now.

“I WAS a baby.” Hyukjae replied bitingly.

The barber and Donghae burst out laughing again. Hyukjae rolls his eyes and expels a soft sigh. He doesn’t understand why his Kyuppa insists that he comes back here to get haircuts every single time! Why can’t he try out a new barber or a new hair salon? Why? Why? Why?

“I mean, I have been to him since I was like one! It has been 16 LONG years!” Hyukjae rants at Donghae as they wander down the shopping street.

“He’s good.” Donghae reasons.

“There must be others just as good or better!” Hyukjae bites. “I just don’t understand Kyuppa!”

Donghae frowns at his BFF’s increasing wrath. To his young teenage mind, Hyukjae is simply over-reacting. He reached out and grabbed his friend’s skinny arm.

“What?” Hyukjae snaps.

“Kyuppa trusts Ahjussi. That’s why he sends you back to him every single time.”

Hyukjae’s jaw drops away in surprise. He gaped at his usually confusion embodiment of a friend. “How did you ~”

“Kyuppa knows that Ahjussi will be able to do the best for you every single time. Kyuppa wants the best for you.”

Hyukjae is quiet as he accepts Donghae’s rebuke. He can’t deny that his friend is right, even if he is upset about having to sit through all that teasing during every visit.

Donghae let go of his grip on Hyukjae’s arm and ambles away, leaving Hyukjae to collect himself and run after him.

That should teach him! Donghae thought silently to himself. He congratulates himself for eavesdropping on Kyuppa’s conversation with his mom. Or how else would he be able to silent Hyukjae so effectively?

“Hae! Wait up!” Hyukjae shouts from afar as he runs to catch up.