“Welcome to this week’s segment of Superman Is Back! Today we will be joined by the best, absolute, perfect new fathers, Bang Yongguk and Moon Jongup! Will you please introduce yourselves and your children to us please? Yongguk, you’ve been on the show before, so Jongup, would you like to go first?”

            Jongup picked up his son and stepped forward, still shyly smiling. “Hello everyone. I’m B.A.P’s Jongup and this is my son, B.A.P’s Baby Jonghae.” To ease the clumsiness, Jongup picked up his son’s arm and waved at the audience. The three year old ducked his head into his father’s neck and everyone laughed.

            After the introductions were over, each of them were handed individual mission cards. Jongup saw his and gulped. He had to take his baby boy to the doctor for a checkup. He knew how much Jonghae hated the doctor, especially the shots and so this would be a difficult task. To be followed by cameras would be even harder.

            He bent down and helped Jonghae put on his jacket, all the while trying to think of a way to convince him to go without crying. “Jonghae, we’re going to go see Dr. Shin okay? We’re going to conquer the bad guys together but first we need Dr. Shin’s help. The aliens have tried to take over your body and we need to fight back.”

            He held his breath and watched his son. The toddler wrinkled his nose. “Dr. Shin?” he asked. When Jongup nodded, he ran into his father’s arms and held on tightly. “Don’t wanna.”

            Jongup glanced up at the cameras and felt self-conscious when he started to sing the family happy song. “Happy, happy, Moon Jonghae, will smile and laugh every day,” he sang until his son finally let go.

            “Are we fighting the aliens?” he asked.

            Jongup nodded. “Yep, we’re going to need to check out your body to see if the aliens have gotten into you.”

            Jonghae’s mouth dropped open and he started to scratch on his arms. He shook out his limbs and wiggled his body. “No! I will never allow aliens to conquer me!” Giddy with his success, Jongup allowed himself a victory dance before picking his son up to go to the van.

            The wait in the doctor’s room made Jonghae antsy all over again and he began to swing his legs in the way he did when he was scared. Jongup picked up his feet and placed them on his lap, and tapped out rhythms on his leg. “Remember, this is all to fight the aliens,” he reminded the child.

            Jonghae gave a determined nod and even hopped off the seat himself when his name was called. When he saw Dr. Shin, he walked up to her with a straight face. “Doctor, we need to check to see if there are aliens inside of me. If you see them, you must must get rid of them for me or else I can’t continue to fight.”

            The doctor laughed and nodded. “Here, sit on my lab counter and we’ll examine you.” Jonghae was delighted that the doctor willingly played along and opened his mouth widely when she asked him to. Jongup held his hand throughout the checkup.

            “I think to prevent aliens from invading, we need to give you a special power. But I’m going to need to put the special power into you. Would you be okay?” She held out a needle.

            Jonghae glanced up at his dad and shrunk closer. Jongup held onto his arm and hugged him. “You don’t have to look. Just hold your arm out and daddy will talk to you.”

            The little boy gulped and closed his eyes. His free hand curled around Jongup’s shirt tightly and his jaw was tense as he clenched his teeth. There was a muffled cry when the needle went in but Jongup continued narrating the alien invasion story until the shot was over. He barely got through the entire plot.

            Jonghae admired the alien sticker on his arm and saluted the doctor as he left. “Thank you, Dr. Shin for helping me and daddy save the world! We’re going back to Planet Mato now!”

            On the car, Jonghae proudly showed off his arm. “Look daddy. Now we can fight the evil aliens together!”

            Jongup nodded and leaned his head on the seat for a tiny rest. Being a dad was stressful; being a dad on television was absolutely painful. There was a tap on his shoulder and he was handed another mission card.

            “Make dinner with your child! Go shopping.”

            Jongup grimaced and poked Jonghae. “What do you want to eat?”

            The little boy looked up from where he was playing with his action figures and smiled. “Galbitang!” he shouted out the name of the beef soup that was difficult to make. Jongup stared at him and he smiled back innocently.

            He had no choice. Jongup quietly pulled out his phone and prepared to call his mom to ask her for the magic ingredient that made the soup so magical. He glanced over at his son, who was contently playing and blissfully unaware of the difficulty of his request, and sighed. The show was definitely appropriately named. If he could get through the next forty-eight hours, he was indeed Superman. 

daddy Jongup!