How does one argue for a straight, uninterrupted two weeks?

And passively?

Only Junhyung and Doojoon can adequately answer a question such as that.

Both men had been trooping in and out of their home, going on with their continuous lives with the demands of their careers and family duties propelling them.

But not love.

Love was killed in the Yoon-Yong household.

So when arguments ensued, the aftermath -- the silence, staleness, anxiety -- lingered for indefinite days. Or weeks, depending on the severity of the situation.

Until someone broke down.

♥

“Yeah, I’ve got my ticket……… mhm…… Seven in the morning…… Yeeeeeah, I’ve gotta be there real early…”

Doojoon swirled in his desk chair, the pressure of his ear and shoulder squeezing the house phone in place like tongs. He was in the privacy of his office, perfecting a criticism on his laptop… or was. He received this phone call about an hour earlier, a happy and welcomed deterrent. Doojoon was desperate for someone to converse with beyond these walls, and the person on the opposite line couldn’t have been more on time.

“Can I see you off tomorrow~?” asked the voice on the opposite side.

Doojoon’s smile glittered at the voice.

The voice of his “mistress”.

“………I would want that,” he muttered.

“I just figured you’d want some lovin’ before you left. Or is he finally treating you right?”

A sigh escaped Doojoon. The rather quiet, Junhyung-less weeks behind him reeled in his mind… He closed his eyes very tightly and smoothed over his eyelids with his fingertips.

“We’re not talking.”

“Awww… Doojoonie…”

“I don’t know what I’m gonna do… Hell, I don’t know what he wants me to do. Or say or think or… anything.”

“Can’t you make a short trip here? I can damn near see the frown on your lips…”

“No… Not tonight… I wish I could. Gotta get ready for tomorrow, and it’s already so late.”

The other sighed… “I’m sorry… Is there anything I can do? There has to be something I can do to make Joonie happy…”

A soft smile enticed Doojoon’s lips.

“Be at the airport tomorrow morning?”

“Is that safe…?”

“Yeah. Yoseob’s got school. Jun’ll be dropping him off in the morning.”

“And then you will be all mine… I’ll be anywhere you want me to be, baby. You know I will. I’ll always be there for you… I mean that…”

Such silken words spoken so sweetly. They were the words that Doojoon yearned to hear and had been longing to hear. They weren’t from Junhyung, but anyone would do. Doojoon was immediately taken, his heart filling with life and elation.

“I know it… and thanks for that, ba--”

“--Doojoon,” a new voice called flatly, but with some rocky apprehensiveness to it.

That elation evaporated.

Doojoon swiveled to the doorway of his office space. An apron-wearing Junhyung was standing by beneath it. Oven mitts covered his busy hands. Their eyes equally met for the first time in days. Junhyung looked to the floor some, playing with the mittens. He seemed to want to speak, but wasn’t sure if he should while Doojoon was talking on the phone. That would be very much rude, and that he did not want to be.

The right corner of Doojoon’s lips dipped abruptly. “Um… hey. I have to go.”

“It’s him, isn’t it?” the other voice on the phone inquired unhappily.

“…Yeah.”

“Aw… alright. Sleep well, Joonie. Work hard on your criticism! You’re doing such a good job--”

Doojoon’s glittery smile resurfaced. Junhyung wondered why it glittered so.

“--Just hang on for tonight. I will see you bright and early tomorrow morning… I loooove yoooooou~”

“Same here… Good night.”

“Good niiight~”

Doojoon ended the chat with the push of a button.

He set the phone down atop several, scribbled-on yellow notepads -- one was owned totally by Yoseob’s doodles -- piled on his desk area and unconsciously wet his lips. Now his eyes settled on Junhyung for a very awkward second.

“Yes?”

“You didn’t have to get off… the… phone--”

“--Well it’s too late for that now. I presume dinner’s done?”

Junhyung nodded and swallowed, “Yes. Everything’s finished.”

“Good. I’ll be there in a minute,” Doojoon swiveled to give his laptop attention, “I need this done by tonight.”

Junhyung’s empty eyes -- now with nothing to look at -- dropped to his feet.

…That was some attempt to get close to him.

Greater than any force in this known universe did Junhyung want to abolish this emotional barricade betwixt him and his boyfriend… Tomorrow morning, Doojoon would be leaving for his assignment in Shanghai. Doojoon was going to be gone for an entire week -- seven days -- touring all of the culinary hotspots and all Junhyung did for his final day home was tell him dinner was ready.

When Yoseob came about that corner from school, Doojoon lit up and unbridled laughs leaped from his heart and out of his throat. The pair played like there was no tomorrow in sight. It made Junhyung happy to see Yoseob showered with such love… but deep down, he wished he could have some of that love directed to him. Everyone wants to be loved…

Junhyung didn’t feel loved. He felt tolerated.

He couldn’t stomach much more of this nonchalance from his boyfriend. He… He knew he shouldn’t have said what he said… So maybe he should suffer from this. Maybe he deserved it. No one likes being nagged the moment they come home, especially with financial stresses and the idea that their other half utterly detested their profession already at the forefront of their conscious. Junhyung just blew up that day two weeks ago. He was tired, he’d been yelled at on his job in the cubical, they were almost behind on the mortgage, Yoseob had fallen sick with a high fever recently and they couldn’t readily afford medicine to lower it. Junhyung was a mess that week. His emotions were a mess.

“Junhyung,” called Doojoon.

Not “Jun”. Or “Junnie”. “Junhyungie”. “Jun-Jun”. “Baby”.

Just “Junhyung”.

But Junhyung almost tripped trying to stop. He re-stuck his head under the door frame. His eyes were wide.

“Y-Yeah?”

“Is Yoseob eating?”

Junhyung frowned… He’d hoped for another question, and one that did not involve their child as selfish as that sounds, but he answered it.

“Yes… He’s at the table.”

The night before Doojoon had to part for an assignment, he would spend his dinners with his family as opposed to eating in his room.

A few more noisy key , and Doojoon abandoned his laptop and chair. He brushed past Junhyung in the hallway and entered the dining room where Yoseob ate at their comfortably small family table, hollering the latter’s name with hilarity. Junhyung slugged behind him…

He ate in the living room instead.

♥

Junhyung stared at the letter he wrote, sitting on his bed.

Yes, that’s right. He wrote Doojoon a letter. A very long letter. An apology written with the ink of his sorry heart. He was to slip it into Doojoon’s briefcase and hope that he would find and open it some time on his flight or during his eventful day.

…Junhyung never knew how to say “Sorry”. Usually he was the one receiving the apologies, but this time around, he’d lost his cool and detonated on Doojoon. He knew he was in the wrong, but that word wasn’t so easily passed through his lips. When he was sorry, he was truly sorry.

The bathroom door opened. Doojoon and hot steam entered their bedroom.

He froze, seeing Junhyung with his things open in his lap.

“What are you doing?”

Junhyung flinched at hearing Doojoon’s voice after so long, and at the fair amount of base backing the inquiry up. He didn’t see him emerge, his eyes so focused on his letter. Doojoon was topless, too. Junhyung hadn’t seen him topless in a good, good while. That was a nice surprise.

“I was… just making sure that you had… everything,” Junhyung defended airily.

Doojoon’s eyes took a questionable swipe at him. He stretched his open hand for his briefcase.

“Thanks. But I’m sure that I’ve got all that I need.”

Junhyung bobbed his head, handing his mate the briefcase…

…but halfway.

It fumbled out of his hand. All its contents slopped abstractly over the floor. Files, paper, pens… All that was neatly in order was not any longer.

Doojoon orbs tumbled and tumbled.

“…” Junhyung hissed. His knees hit the floor; his hands hovered over the disarray of inked papers. Junhyung did not know where to start picking up. But he was sure it didn’t matter. The other joined him on the floor, silently scraping everything together in one massive stack.

“N-No. I’ll do it, Doojoon.”

“I got it…” he sighed.

“No. Let me--”

“I said I got it.” Doojoon stressed coldly, pausing to meet Junhyung’s shaken gaze, “Don’t act like you’re so interested in my business now.”

…That entire sentence formed into a steel spear and launched itself straight into Junhyung’s heart. The hardened look in his lover’s eyes added the fitting chill. It felt like his heart had just rolled out of his chest. Doojoon went back to stacking, just stuffing everything into his briefcase again. It was fairly late, and if he wanted to log any hours of sleep he would get wise and march straight to bed some time within that hour.

Junhyung looked at the stack of white and yellow papers. He didn’t know what to say to that. Was there anything to say? Would it be best just to leave their argument as it was…?

Yoseob called from his bedroom to be tucked into bed. That was Junhyung’s job.

Junhyung rose from the floor and left Doojoon to himself like he wanted.

♥

Songs of crickets owned the night.

Doojoon just sat in his car.

He sat there behind the steering wheel, his mind performing configurations as it tried to piece together what the hell just happened to him.

His eyes might as well have been hollow holes. Holes of emptiness. They reflected and represented the emptiness inside him.

Everything.

He lost everything. And in just fractions of a second.

He had nothing. Nothing except for all that was packed in his suitcase, but that was physical belongings.

And that was still nothing.

Inside -- emotionally -- there was nothing.

Yoseob was gone.

Junhyung was gone.

His world -- the two most important people in his life -- were expelled from it. And he did the expulsion to himself.

He had to have known that this day would come.

And yes. Yes, he did know. Doojoon was not horridly naïve to the point where he was unrealistic. But never did he expect his affair to come to the light so soon. And tonight, right when they were putting the previous night behind them and moving on with their lives as lovers, Junhyung found out.

And Junhyung took everything.

And left him with nothing.

♥

Kikwang heard a knock on his door. His back peeled off the couch as he stretched his neck to look out of the closed curtains. A ruffled shadow stood in front of it.

Probably Junhyung. Finally, someone had come to pick up Yoseob.

“I’m coming~” Kikwang hustled to the door, unlocked and opened it.

It was not Junhyung.

“Oh, hello Doojoon…”

Doojoon grinned… “Yeah, hey. Uh, Yoseob’s there, right?”

“Yes of course. Ah, but he fell asleep half an hour ago. He told me his ‘tummy was hurting’ a little, so I let him lie down on my bed for a while. He just went on off to sleep… Are you picking him up now? I can start gathering his things--”

“--No. I… I just need to see him for a couple minutes.”

Kikwang could tell in Doojoon’s false smirk that something was amiss. Even so, he invited Doojoon inside his home and together they made for his bedroom.

Yoseob’s sock-less little body was strewn all over Kikwang’s full-sized bed. One leg dangled from the edge; his peacefully sleeping face crept toward the same edge.

Doojoon swallowed. A terrible ache clamored its way to the top of his throat. He kneeled before his son and bestowed a barely-there kiss upon his small brow.

Kikwang did not know what to call his strange behavior. Now he definitely believed something was up. Why didn’t Doojoon want to take his son home? Nine in the evening was a few ticks away. That would be super late for a four-year-old to be kept at a person’s house, even if that person was a close family friend such as Kikwang. Both the latter and Doojoon knew how Junhyung wanted Yoseob home as early as possible. Kikwang keeping his baby this late was enough to induce a . So why didn’t Junhyung come pick him up? It was just a walk across the street…

Doojoon’s fingers enjoyed Yosoeb’s strands of honeyed hair. His lips blessed the little one’s forehead again and again… Morning was the last time he’d seen Yoseob, and that would’ve been the absolute last time if he did not make this visit.

“Seobie…”

Yoseob was starting to awaken at his father’s voice and touch. Tiny brown slits peeked at the other under thick branches of lashes. He recognized him straightaway.

“Ap… pa.”

Doojoon’s lips created a genuine smile.

“Hey, baby. Are you feeling okay? Does your tummy still hurt?”

“A small… bit…”

“Aw… Well, umma’s gonna make it go away soon… How was school? Was it cool?”

Yoseob closed his eyes. He nodded, rubbing his face into the mattress.

“What did you do?” Can you tell appa what you learned?”

“…bers…”

“Huh?”

“Numbers,” Kikwang interjected, “He told me how he could count all the way to ten.”

“Ohhhh. So like, one, two, three, four…”

Drowsily, Yoseob picked up from where Doojoon trailed, and they counted together, but he could only do so up till eight. His conscious beckoned him to return to its sleepy state. It was teetering. Doojoon wished to stay and talk more to his boy, but time was continuous, and his time had run out. He made the most of what he could…

“I love you. Appa loves you… You hear me?”

Yoseob was still.

Doojoon didn’t want to, but he shook him a little. He needed to hear Yoseob say it back. With Junhyung being in control of things, who knew when he would have another precious, in-person meeting like this.

“Yoseob?”

“Mn…”

Doojoon felt his throat imploding.

“I love you…”

“…ve y…”

Doojoon delivered a final kiss or two to his puffy cheek and found the wavering strength in his legs to stand up and lock his knees in place.

Yoseob was going to ask for him in the coming days. And just as Junhyung presaged, he was going to ask him why his appa was so absent… more absent than normal. And what was he supposed to tell him? How was he supposed to tell him -- a four-year-old -- that he had another person on the side, another “umma” and his first umma found out…?

It was going to be hard… and for all three of them.

“Kikwang.”

Kikwang blinked. “Yes?”

“When Jun comes, tell him…”

……But Doojoon did not finish. He never did.

His apologetic eyes focused on Yoseob with an adoring, fatherly fixation, and he was out the door.

Junhyung made his appearance an hour following Doojoon’s arrival.

Kikwang opened his home up to his longtime friend -- and boss -- with cautious but sure smiles.

Junhyung looked rough. It was in his eyes. In his face. He looked like he’d been through the mill -- an emotional strainer -- all the day long.

“Jun. It’s nine-thirty; Yoseob’s still here. What’s going on?” Kikwang inquired seriously and with brisk. Junhyung ushered himself inside.

“Where is he?” asked Junhyung, referring to his child, though he already knew. Whenever Yoseob would stay over for hours, either it be because of lengthy arguments between he and Doojoon or busy, busy work nights, Kikwang would provide for him a comfortable space to rest on his bed. Having been over Kikwang’s home innumerous times, Junhyung started for Kikwang’s room, and Kikwang noiselessly followed and fended off his questions for later.

Yoseob was still there, sleeping soundly. Junhyung planted himself at the end of the bed where the boy angelically snoozed.

It was the first time Kikwang saw his friend form even the faintest of smiles.

Junhyung leaned over Yoseob’s petite frame and bruised his cheeks with feathery kisses.

Yoseob squirmed… Then his umma gently picked him off the bed and tucked him into his arms. Yoseob’s head rest on Junhyung’s shoulder while the remaining limbs snapped around the latter’s torso dependently. Junhyung continued to abuse him with kisses, holding the boy against him, rocking to create a physical lullaby. Kikwang took a spot beside his friend, observing the tender moment, but as alerted as ever.

He’d seen Junhyung like this in the past.

And several times:

Out of touch.

Disinterested.

Distracted.

Uncommunicative.

Dejected.

Kikwang’s past with Junhyung was lengthy. They’d been good friends since their university years. When Junhyung jumpstarted “Sweet Yong”, Kikwang was the first person he employed. In fact, if it wasn’t for Kikwang believing in him and supporting his idea for a cupcake shop, there wouldn’t have been a “Sweet Yong” to begin with. They worked side by side -- hand in hand -- and they did so closely. Close enough to where people began rumoring, believing and asking if they were a couple. Kikwang would only sit back and light up like a bulb as Junhyung dismissed the claims coming at them from every permissible angle.

But wishing those claims to become a reality proved useless. Truth is, Kikwang fell in love with Junhyung in their Statistics course of their second year of university. Kikwang’s heart still beat just for him to that very day…

But Junhyung never saw. And because he never saw, Junhyung weathered one failed relationship after the other after the other. Kikwang watched these good-for-nothing beauties with caramel voices win him over with their falsities, then trample all over his sweet heart, and he could do absolutely nothing about it. He was the one up with Junhyung when he could not sleep… when he could not stop crying “Why?” and wondering why he never got an answer to all five hundred of them.

Kikwang could not see why anyone would under-appreciate such a good, sweet man.

Years of pain hardened him.

When Kikwang heard news of this “Yoon Doojoon”, he was instantaneously defiant against their budding relationship. No matter how “perfect” he sounded. Or how “adorable” his son was when he smiled. Doojoon was just another beauty with a caramel voice.

Kikwang watched Doojoon enter the shop the first day he and Junhyung met. Kikwang could tell he didn’t like him by the way he walked.

But when Junhyung’s eyes trembled upon being cradled by Doojoon’s brown oceans and glazed over, Kikwang couldn’t talk him out of anything. For the entire first year of their relationship together, Kikwang warned Junhyung of his past relationships. It bred some hostility between the pair of friends, and with Doojoon, too. The latter claimed he knew about Junhyung’s past of being hurt and swore he would never put him through anything like that. He swore that he loved him and that he would love him always.

And Doojoon also saw something that Junhyung could not see: He saw the passion and love that Kikwang’s heart kept stubbornly for his new boyfriend. He told Kikwang to forget about it. Junhyung was his, and was going to be his for “a long time”.

Two years went by, then three…

And now this.

Doojoon was just like all the previous men.

In the bedroom, Junhyung swayed his upper body forward and backward to rock Yoseob… Both males’ eyes were closed.

“I’m sorry for keeping him here so late. I’m sure you had plans,” grumbled Junhyung.

“Oh no no no. You know it’s no big deal for me… I was just wondering why you… why you hadn’t picked him up sooner. I was starting to get worried. Jun… What’s going on? Talk to me…”

“Doojoon’s been cheating on me.”

Kikwang’s stomach dropped.

“HE’S BEEN WHAT?”

Yoseob wiggled and whimpered at Kikwang’s shriek, but nestled sleep in its bosom again. Junhyung bounced him.

“He’s been… what?” repeated Kikwang, but so much quieter.

“I caught him this afternoon in between some guy’s legs. He was feeding him pudding on the kitchen counter. And then they started kissing. I left after that,” he explained blandly.

“You… caught him?”

“Yeah.”

Kikwang was surprised that he didn’t hear of ambulances and police cars blockading their street.

“I knew it. I knew it… IknewitIknewitIknew he was up to no good the second he showed up--”

“--‘Showed up’? Doojoon was here?”

“About an hour ago. He came and talked to Yoseob a little and left… I think he wanted me to tell you something, too, but he never said anything.”

“I don’t want to hear anything that bastard has to say. His has nothing to say to me, or Yoseob. He’d better be lucky I hadn’t come here. If Yoseob was so important to him, he would’ve been a little hesitant and more careful in his . He knows Yoseob comes home early on Fridays. He was asking to get caught.”

Kikwang shook his head, eyebrows scrunched and still, “I cannot believe he would do that… and in your home…! After all you’ve done for him -- and his child -- for all these years…” Kikwang abruptly gasped, “How long has he been seeing this guy?”

“I don’t know. I threw him out. I didn’t ask questions. I didn’t care. He still cheated. But they’ve known each other long enough. The called him ‘my Joonie’.”

“Do you know him? The ?”

Junhyung fluffed Yoseob’s locks.

“I didn’t get a chance to get a good look at him. Doojoon’s tongue was down his throat. And he likes fake blondes, apparently.”

“My god…” Kikwang exhaled.

“This is where you say ‘I told you so’.”

“No… No, Junnie, never… I should’ve never said all of those negative things about him -- al-although it’s true now, but… I was wrong to put you down about him in the beginning. But now, now that he’s shown his true colors, you did everything right. You were the perfect man… you are the perfect man. There’s nothing more anyone can ask from you. You’ve sacrificed for him. You’ve put time away just for him. You’ve raised that child for this man. You would do anything for Yoseob and he knows it. That’s how he’s going to tie you in. He’s going to use that boy as bait to--”

Junhyung covered Yoseob’s ear.

“--He can use anything he pleases, but there is no way on this green, goddamned earth I’m letting his crawl back into my house. I wasn’t going to stand there and let him me over. He can go and be with his tight- -- , all his other foreign , ‘cause I’m sure if he has one he has others sprinkled all over. That’s where he wanted to be in the beginning. He wanted me at home taking care of Yoseob while he could go out and advertise his any chance he got. He was only using me. They always use me.”

Junhyung peeled his hand away from Yoseob’s little ear, and both arms encompassed him again. Kikwang heart-wrenchingly watched Junhyung with saddened brown eyes… Why did this have to happen to him? Kikwang was wishing and praying that Doojoon would be different from the others… He was just as rotten.

And he had a child tangled in his mess.

Yoseob yawned. He switched cheeks. His right cheek now rested on his umma’s shoulder. Junhyung grinned at his stirring… it was so natural. He rocked a little more…

“That baby loves you. You are his umma, the only umma he’s ever known. And he’s going to need you… A-And Junhyung… I’m right here for you, too… And Seobie. Anytime.”

Junhyung peered over to Kikwang. His lips pursed into a slanted smile.

But it swiftly melted.

“. I gotta go to work tomorrow…”

“I-I can fill in for you! I’ll make sure things run smoothly!”

“No, no. I need the income. I have to work at that damn prison, too, an’ file my away all night…”

“It’s alright, Junnie. I… I can’t do anything about your second job, but take as much time off as you need from the shop to straighten things out. Actually, I prefer that you do that. I can help take care of Yoseob, too--OH. Yoseob has a slight stomachache!”

Junhyung’s eyes inflated.

“He does?”

“He complained a little bit about it while we were playing. I made a simple dinner and suggested that he’d eat some. And he did, but he couldn’t finish it all and said it hurt more. So I let him lie on my bed and he went to sleep.”

Junhyung tenderly rubbed Yoseob’s little back…

“It’s my fault… Damnit, I knew I shouldn’t’ve… I took him to an ice cream parlor after finding Doojoon with that… man. He had ice cream and a cupcake, but it was a big one… That’s probably why his stomach’s upset… I need to get him home and into bed.”

Junhyung stood on his feet with Yoseob cradled in his arms.

He started for the door.

“Junhyung…”

Junhyung sighed and turned around. Large brown eyes pleaded to him.

“I mean what I said. Anything… Just let me know.”

Those words and eyes haunted Junhyung while he walked home and into Yoseob’s bedroom. Especially when he was looking for the medicine. They were running out of it. He would be needing help soon, whether he wanted it or not, and his check alone wouldn’t be enough to sustain their home.

Junhyung had Yoseob drink down half a medicine cup filled with an orange citrus liquid used to calm his stomach. Junhyung then dressed him in his pjs and tucked him warmly into bed…

“Night, Seobie…”

“Night umma…”

A kiss to Yoseob’s cheek and the little one’s domain was blanketed in black by a flick of the switch. Junhyung left the door cracked for light from the kitchen to creep inside.

Speaking of the kitchen, Junhyung revisited the dining room area dirtied with Doojoon’s uneaten dish. He realized he should’ve made him clean it up before he evicted him, but no use crying about it now. Junhyung did what he did best and got to work, cleaning the floors. But as he got to cleaning, he got to thinking…

He thought about how lovely it would’ve been to have actually had that dinner with Doojoon… to exchange smiles across the table. Maybe even give Doojoon a massage afterward, and run him a nice and bubbly bath while Junhyung put Yoseob to bed. Then maybe Junhyung would feed him his carrot cupcakes and administer another massage if Doojoon wanted. And at the end of it all, they would wrap the night up in a pretty bow with passionate . That was Junhyung’s plan for that entire day, and that’s how it would have happened.

But that . He intervened. It wasn’t his fault, necessarily, because that’s what do. But Doojoon knew better. He knew he had a family. He knew he had the closest thing to a husband at home waiting for him and wondering why he wasn’t being loved.

But oh no, he didn’t want Junhyung. He wanted that blonde.

That was cool. No problem. Doojoon could have him now.

In a span of twenty minutes did Junhyung clean his mess. But he found himself cleaning the rest of the kitchen. And then the bookshelf -- or bookshelves. He organized the books. He cleaned the glasses in the showcase. He wiped down the windows. He dusted the wood.

He did this for hours, going well into the morning.

Junhyung thought it would do him some good to sleep. Thought.

He could not sleep. The angry sugar in his body prohibited him the serenity of sleep.

Because what else is one to do when they learn possibly five years of their love life was all an illusion? Do they digest it? Accept it?

Dare to ignore it?

Junhyung could not bring himself to do either of the three.

Junhyung could only clean--

And so he did--

--until he collapsed onto the couch, shot in the head by the sandman.

♥

Morning came.

It was not the most comfortable sleep, but it was sleep.

Junhyung slipped in the shower, slipped into some thin clothes and finally slipped into his deep emerald robe. Yoseob would be waking up fairly soon -- within the next few minutes -- expecting breakfast. Junhyung got to work in the kitchen preheating the oven and starting some cinnamon rolls from scratch. Yoseob loved them.

“Fairly soon” came early. The rapid pitter-patter of bare feet in the hallway let Junhyung know that the little one was awake and ready to start the day.

“Umma!”

Yoseob zoomed to Junhyung’s legs. The latter stopped what he was doing to pick him up.

“Good morning to you. Are you feeling better?”

“Uh huh. The medicine helped.”

Yoseob saw his umma working. He offered to help bake, and Junhyung gave in, of course. He took full advantage of every opportunity he could to enhance Yoseob’s culinary skills. He said he wanted to be a cook “just like umma” so giving him practice now would benefit him.

It was also a perfect time to get both minds off of appa.

Yoseob fled from the kitchen and entertained himself in watching his favorite cartoons when it was time for the cinnamon rolls to bake in the oven. At a commercial break, he zipped in and out of every room in the house. Something did not feel right in his little heart.

Junhyung called him to the table minutes later to eat.

“Where’s appa?” Yoseob inquired, climbing into his chair. Junhyung placed a hot plate of rolls in front of him.

“You know, that’s a very good question, Seobie,” Junhyung swiped the house phone off its station and he handed it to Yoseob, “Why don’t we call him? Do you remember his number?”

“Yes. C-Can I push the numbers by myself?! I want to do it by myself!”

Junhyung agreed and guided Yoseob through the dialing process; it only took two trails. The stand-by ringing started and the little one waited with bided excitement.

There were only three rings.

“Jun?!” Doojoon rushed as he answered.

“Appa!!”

“…Yoseob? Oh, heeeeey, Seobie. ‘Morning. How are you?”

Yoseob ignored his question.

“Appa, where are you?” he whined.

“Um… Appa is…… on another trip. I-Is umma any where near you?”

“Yeah. He’s behind me--”

And Junhyung abruptly leaned into the receiver, “Tell him the truth, Doojoon.”

Yoseob could hear Doojoon expel a pretty deep breath. He might’ve been young, but in his four years of living and observing Doojoon he knew that that was never a good sign.

“I did something bad, Yoseob… Really bad to umma. So I had to leave for a little bit.”

Yoseob’s small mouth was fixed sourly in sadness.

“For how long…?”

“I don’t know, Seob. Until umma says I can come back--”

“--Umma when can appa come back?”

Yoseob was giving him those eyes. Those eyes that one would say anything or give anything to efface such a sorrow-ridden look.

Junhyung folded his arms, “I don’t know. Ask appa when he thinks he should come back.”

“Umma said--”

“--I know. I… I heard him,” Doojoon cut, emitting yet another sigh, “…Yoseob. I’m sorry… It is very hard to explain to you now. You are much too young to understand… But I’ve been really bad, and I have to be punished for it. I won’t be home for… a very long time. So I’m going to need you to be a good boy for umma. Listen to him and do as he says. Now um, I have to go now. I love you… okay?”

“I love you, too appa…”

“Tell umma that I love him, too. Very… very much. And that I’m very sorry… Can you do that for me?”

“Yes,” replied Yoseob. He nodded, too.

“I’m gonna let you go now…”

“Okay… Bye, appa.”

“Bye bye.”

Yoseob pressed the “End” button. He spent some time frowning at the phone as if his appa was capable of crawling out of the pinpoint holes, but wouldn’t.

“Appa said he loves you very, very much. And he’s sorry.”

Junhyung’s eyes barrel-rolled. He took the phone from the boy and slammed it back onto its charging station.

“Umma?”

“Hm?”

“What if appa is good for today? Can he come home tomorrow?”

“No.”

“How about after tomorrow?”

“Not after tomorrow, either.”

“But he said he was sor--”

“--Eat your food, Yoseob. He’s not coming back until I say so and that’s it,” snapped Junhyung. He stomped to the sink of the dirtied dishes he assembled to create the cinnamon rolls. That man… Some nerve he had. As if Junhyung believed any of that. Sure, he was sorry now. Sorry that he had to make it on his own. Sorry that he couldn’t have been more secretive and sly.

Junhyung scrubbed and scrubbed. His brows couldn’t have slanted more.

He peered to the table shortly, seeing if Yoseob was done with his dish.

…Yoseob’s little shoulders quivered in short jerks.

Junhyung’s eyebrows untensed… He cut off the water.

He heard sniffles. And the sniffles got louder…

A terrible, terrible feeling devoured Junhyung’s heart. He threw off his gloves and glided to Yoseob’s chair.

“Yoseob…” He rung his arms about the weeping boy tightly and lovingly and swiped a napkin from the middle of the table. Junhyung dabbed up the moist splotches on the younger’s tinted face. With every dry place he created, Junhyung laid his lips there.

“I’m sorry… Umma didn’t mean to yell at you. I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Seobie.”

Big brown eyes stared the older male in the face. Junhyung stopped his swiping to look into them. Yoseob’s unconditional love for Doojoon mingled with the misunderstanding he was feeling. In those eyes, Junhyung took his appa from him, and he was struggling so hard to understand why…

“I want appa to come home…”

Junhyung didn’t want to linger on the topic anymore…

“Do you want to go to the park today? It’s so pretty outside. I can invite Kikwang. We can all go together. Would you like that?”

Yoseob quietly bobbed “yes”, rubbing his eyes. Junhyung wiped his nose with the tissue.

An hour after breakfast, the little family walked to the neighborhood park. Kikwang said he would meet them there some minutes later. He had an early shift at the shop.

The pair stood before a large, extravagantly-assembled jungle that overran a child’s greatest imagination. A swarm of little boys and girls around Yoseob’s age and height seemed to be playing an enormous game of tag in the capacious grass area.

“Oh look. You’ve got some friends to play with.”

Yoseob blinked at the colorful crowd. He liked friends…

He blinked again. He recognized those kids. All of them.

He really recognized the tall and older person that the children were evading. The tagger.

“Jang-ssi! Umma, that’s Jang-ssi!”

Yoseob started running to this “Jang-ssi”, better known as his favorite and only assistant teacher in the world that escorted him to his classroom every morning. Jang Hyunseung froze, peering all over to the shrilling voice barking his name. Yoseob ran right up to his hyung and hugged his skinny legs together. Hyunseung looked down. A grin instantly formed on his mouth as he plucked Yoseob from the ground. He brought his head up in search for Junhyung…

Junhyung waved his hand simply in his direction, smirking. The wavy-haired man waved right back to him with a sparkling Yoseob on his hip.

Yoseob’s kindergarten program extended into Saturday, but Junhyung and Doojoon could not afford an extra day worth of expenses. They were already paying sacrificial amounts to have him attend such a prestigious school for youngsters, but it was worth every dime. Yoseob was inherently bright. He learned faster than his peers and was at the tip-top of his class.

Though with money becoming tighter, Doojoon suggested he be placed in a less fiscally-demanding institution. Junhyung disagreed fervently. He wanted Yoseob to have the best of everything, and the best education was definitely not a tossup. That was also a reason for the couple’s arguments.

With Yoseob in Hyunseung’s care, he stepped to an empty swing and sat. He got to thinking more…

He was not the first person in the history of the world to get cheated on by someone they absolutely loved and trusted with a barely functional heart. But he pondered on how those before him dealt with the flipped circumstances. Junhyung remembered the very evening that he told Doojoon how he’d been handled and treated so poorly… He recalled Doojoon interlocking their fingers and looking him in his soul… It was a look so strong, “I will never hurt you” wasn’t needed. What was that moment for, then, if Doojoon was going to do it anyway?

“Junhyung?”

Junhyung’s head lifted.

Hyunseung was standing in front of him.

“I don’t believe I’ve personally met you, but I have met Doojoon… I am Jang Hyunseung, assistant teacher of Little Kkochi Academy. I’m thrilled to finally speak with you.”

Hyunseung bowed and held out his hand.

Junhyung rose form the swing and politely shook hands with him, bowing also.

“Yong Junhyung. The pleasure’s mine.”

“I simply wanted to tell you that your son is a doll. Yoseob is stellar and so friendly towards everyone. He’s a silly one, too, but he gets his work done. I enjoy teaching him every day. You have a beautiful boy.”

Junhyung smirked, very pleased in himself.

“Thank you. He was well raised.”

“Junnie!!”

Kikwang could be seen coming down the hill, in bound for the blue and red swing set. Seeing that Junhyung was going to have company, Hyunseung dismissed himself with a teacher-y smile.

Kikwang arrived and settle his bottom in the empty swing beside his friend. He eyed Hyunseung, watching him return to the children.

“Who’s that?”

“Yoseob’s assistant teacher.”

“Oh… And what did he want?”

“He was just telling me about Yoseob being ‘a doll’ and things I’ve known forever…” Junhyung’s smile slipped away, “…Yoseob asked where Doojoon was this morning. I let him call him, and I guess Joon gave him a softer version. Of course Yoseob didn’t understand why I made him leave. He kept asking me when he could come home, and… I yelled at him and told him to stop asking. Yoseob started to cry…”

Junhyung stopped swinging his feet. His eyes told the other male that he had plunged his conscious deep into his thoughts.

“Keeping Yoseob away from Doojoon is hurting him. I can see it in his face. He shouldn’t have to go through this. This wasn’t his fault…” Junhyung strangled the chains, blanching his knuckles, “Doojoon knew how this would impact him. But he didn’t care. He didn’t think about his own son…”

Junhyung’s heart hurt more so for his son than for himself… Seeing him cry that morning… He wished Doojoon could see him.

Kikwang got up from his swing… He walked behind Junhyung, leaned over, and enwrapped his upper body in his arms. Junhyung’s back was warmed by Kikwang’s chest. Kikwang’s cheek burrowed into the other’s left…

“You’re gonna get through this… You’ve done it before. You can do it again. I know you can. You’re Yong Junhyung.”

♥

Doojoon stayed in a hotel just minutes from his home. He did not make plans to stay there extensively, money being a factor. Financially, he couldn’t afford two nights. So subsequently, he had to find another place of refuge.

Though that was not at all hard to do.

Doojoon did not want to have it come down to this. None of his family agreed to his relationship with Junhyung initially, and they still didn’t. Housing him would show support.

There was only one person he could rely on.

♥

“Doojooniiiiie~!”

Doojoon saw a blurred streak of vivacious blonde. He was then affectionately tackled in the middle of the airport. Doojoon had to hold onto his attacker to sustain their balance.

“Dongwoonnnn…”

Dongwoon stripped off his shades. He hopped in Doojoon’s arms and chuckled with a smile that did not say he wake at five in the morning. His happy feet could not keep still. Dongwoon pasted his puckered mouth to Doojoon’s right cheek.

“Morning~”

Doojoon neatened the blonde’s hair.

“What have you had?”

“Coffee~”

“…I know how much you like to sleep. You really didn’t have to come…”

“And miss you leave? Nooo… I’m always gonna be here for you! I thought I told you that?”

Dongwoon kissed him again… Doojoon kissed his jittery, caffeinated blonde back. It was harder than one would think, because the blonde liked to play games, and he by dodging the kisses before giving into them.

It was a positive start to Doojoon’s day.

When Junhyung woke, he found his lover not to the left of him.

He didn’t feel him get out of bed that morning… But truthfully, he did not feel him when he was in bed. Their full bodies didn’t touch. Physical contact was the occasional brush of the feet between the sheets.

No, things were not looking well. But that’s when that letter came in handy. That letter would straighten everything up again, and have Doojoon calling him every pet name in his little book from wherever he was.

Junhyung banked his faith in that letter, but it still hurt… Junhyung grew tired of holding himself at night… He needed Doojoon, and -- being an independent man from the start -- that was very hard to say.

There is no sense in ruffling one’s feathers over things that could not be currently helped. And so Junhyung crawled out of bed and prepared to take Yoseob to school and begin his early shift at his bakery. Showering and dressing was not a hassle.

Looking for his signature apron was. Yoseob was pretending to be Junhyung last night by wearing it, so its exact location was not going to be known for at least an hour…

Or so he thought.

A yellow string peaking from beneath his bed led him to his displaced article of clothing.

And to something else: Pieces of paper. Junhyung secured a particular one and looked it over.

But it was instantly familiar.

He was holding his heartfelt letter in his hand. Doojoon had left it behind along with another pile of
forgotten papers and pens, possibly ones that slipped under their bed undetected when Junhyung dropped his briefcase.

Or maybe he left it behind purposefully.

Junhyung stopped smothering his heart and gave in: He wept expressively on the floor.

Yoseob was late for school for the first time.