the classroom was the same as usual except for the absence of the original class b preschool teacher. the substitute teacher, later going by the name, ms. sooyoung, was getting quite a liking from the students, including jongdae who was usually uncomfortable with new teachers. though she was a bit of an air head, clumsy and forgetful, the kids thought she was pretty and laughed along with all of her small mistakes she made. 

"okay, kids. that's all for today. i hope i was a good substitute teacher!" ms. sooyoung smiles as she waves bye to the kids. 

"you were~" the kids cheer, gathering their bags. 

kids start exiting the room, waving goodbye to sooyoung. as jongdae gathers his belongings whilst talking to chanyeol, he accidently drops his colored pencils on the ground. sooyoung gasps and shuffles over to help the two boys. 

"jongdae-ah, you must really like drawing." she comments as she holds the box up so jongdae and chanyeol can put handfuls of colored pencils into it. jongdae nods with a huge smile. 

"yeah-" 

"yeah, jongdae-ie LOVES to draw." chanyeol smiles. "once he drew a dragon and baekhyunnie drew a mountain and i drew a town and we put them together and made it look like the dragon was attacking the town and and and he also drew the people and he's really good." sooyoung awkwardly laughs and nods her head, saying "ah, is that so?" as she hands the boys the box and stands up, smoothing out her skirt by brushing it down. 

jongdae puts the rest of his items back into his backpack while chanyeol tells him a story of when his dad took him fishing. they laugh at a funny moment in the story as they head towards the door. "bye, ms. sooyoung!" the boys wave as they leave. chanyeol's mom is already waiting in the front when they reach outside.

"hi, jongdae-ah~" chanyeol's mom greets, reaching a hand to ruffle his hair. 

"hi chanyeol's mom!" jongdae smiles. 

"your daddy isn't here yet?" she asks as chanyeol clings on to her. jongdae glances behind her before returning his attention back to her and shaking his head. 

"i think he might still be at work. sometimes he stays at work for a little bit." jongdae explains and chanyeol and his mom nod. 

"my mommy says that's called overtime, right, mommy?" chanyeol looks up at her and she smiles while nodding. 

"do you want us to wait here for a little?" she asks while checking her watch, not wanting to leave jongdae alone since usually, joonmyeon would be at the school by now. jongdae nods and chanyeol smiles as he forcefully pushes a hand towards jongdae's arm. "TAG!" he laughs as he runs away. 

"ya~ chanyeollie!" jongdae whines as he chases him, chanyeol's mom laughing. 

they wait for around twenty minutes and chanyeol's mom checks the time. "he should be here by now..." she goes ahead and checks if there's any traffic and to her surprise, there is. "ah, there was a car crash..." she sighs. she needed to be getting to the store to buy ingredients, but she didn't want to leave jongdae by himself. "chanyeol-ah, we should get going now." chanyeol's jaw drops as he whines. "jongdae, do you want to go with us since your daddy isn't here yet? chanyeol's cousin's car seat is in the car so you can come with us." she smiles and jongdae glances back to the gate entrance. 

"but what if daddy comes to pick me up and i'm not here?" he looks back and she sighs. 

"shall we give him a quick call to see where he's at?" she asks and jongdae's eyes widen as he nods quickly. 

"please get here soon daddy!"

"okay, okay. i'll be there soon. i should be there in thirty minutes, okay?" joonmyeon reassures. 

"hi, joonmyeon." chanyeol's mom greets. "i'll have to leave soon but we'll see if jongdae can stay with their substitute for a little. if not, then will it be okay for us to bring him with us? you can pick him up at our place." 

"yeah, that's fine. thank you so much!" joonmyeon says, a bit apologetic. "i'm sorry, there's a lot of traffic..." 

"no, no it's okay. well, i'll let you know." and with a goodbye, they hang up, chanyeol's mom pocketing her cell phone and beaming down to the boys. 

"okay, then let's see if you can stay in the classroom until he comes?" she asks and jongdae nods. the two boys run in front of her with chanyeol laughing "i'm gonna win!" and jongdae whining "it's not a race!"

they get to the classroom and ms. sooyoung's still there, sitting on the computer. "hi ms. sooyoung." the boys bow and she smiles, her gaze rising up to chanyeol's mom. she quickly stands and they both bow. 

"hi, i'm chanyeol's mom. jongdae's father isn't here yet, but he said he should be in half an hour or so, so we were wondering if it wasn't too much to ask, can jongdae stay here until his father gets here?" she explains and sooyoung nods, understanding. 

"yes, he can stay here. i'm leaving a bit late so that will give mr. kim enough time to get here." she smiles. jongdae turns and smiles at chanyeol's mom, then he slightly bows as a thanks. chanyeol's face contorts into a slightly sad one, bottom lip jutting out into a pout. 

"i really wanted jongdae-ie to come with us..." he whines and jongdae smiles, giving his friend a hug. 

"i'll see you tomorrow~" he pats the taller boys' head. chanyeol gives him a small smile before nodding in agreement. "okay, fine." he sighs in defeat before beaming his signature smile before clutching onto his mother's hand, waving at sooyoung and jongdae as they exit the classroom. 

it's around ten minutes in. the typing on the keyboard and sounds of a pencil on paper are the only things audible in the classroom. soon, jongdae puts the pencil down and announces that he has to use the restroom. sooyoung pauses and nods at jongdae as a signal that he can go. jongdae gives her a small smile before skipping out of the room, the door shutting behind him. sooyoung watches as he leaves, slightly smiling to herself. "he's grown into such a nice and caring boy. he really did learn from his father." she laughs to herself before returning to the keyboard. she smiles as she types a few more words into an email before pressing send.

the bathroom was down the hall and to the left, the closest bathroom to the front of the school. since it was already an hour or so since school was dismissed, the school was quite empty already, with an exception of some teachers still finishing up some work in their classrooms. jongdae's just finishing washing his hands when he hears something fall outside of the bathroom. curious, he creeps outside and sees papers on the ground, a lady trying to pick them up. 

"ms. sooyoung!" jongdae finally recognizes. he bends down and starts helping the substitute clean. handing the papers back to her, she smiles, thanking him. 

"thank you, jongdae-ah." she says, kneeling down to thank him at his eye level. 

"ms. sooyoung, are you leaving?" he asks and she shakes her head. "no, i need to put these in my car before i forget." she laughs as she holds up the pile of papers and points at the other two books on the ground with her other hand. 

"i can help!" jongdae offers. before she can deny, he's already picking up the two teaching books on the ground. she laughs before agreeing. they walk out of the school and through the school gates to the street where her car is parked on the curb. after placing the stacks of papers onto the car, she rummages through her pockets before gasping. jongdae looks up at her while trying to fix the books from falling out of his arms. 

"i forgot my keys in the classroom." she laughs embarrassingly. "i'll go get it really, really quickly. stay at the playground. you shouldn't stay out of the gate by yourself." she smiles and jongdae nods, following her back onto the school campus and watches as she disappears back into the school. he places the books down by the swing set and peers over to her car again. 

"ah- she forgot the papers on the top!" he gasps. he looks back at the front door of the school and back at her car. a slight breeze starts to blow and jongdae worries that the papers might go flying everywhere. "it's okay because ms. sooyoung will be right back." he nods firmly before standing up and walking out of the school gates and towards her car. 

"now where did i put those keys..." sooyoung asks herself as she rummages through her bag. "it has to be somewhere." she turns her bag upside down and watches as everything falls out- everything but her keys. "where..." she looks onto the desk and rummages through the drawer. she lifts up papers, checks on the ground, but her keys aren't there either. she then turns and her eyes widen. she begins laughing. "they were right here." she laughs, picking up her keys from the marker holder of the whiteboard. she continues laughing to herself before she slowly stops. "what was i..." she turns to the desk, remembering she had to do something. "oh yeah, i had to send an email to the other school i want to substitute for." she reminds herself as she sits back down at the desk. 

jongdae tries to reach his arms to the top of the car in order to get the papers, but honestly, he's just way too short. his arms, when fully stretched, only goes to about a little bit more than half the height of the car. he tries jumping. still just a lot of cm too short. he sighs, pursing his lips together, gaze focused to the sky. "maybe if i climb on the car i can get it!" he decides. he makes his way to the front of the car and as he's about the attempt to climb onto the front of the sedan, someone stops him. 

"excuse me, what are you doing?" a ladies voice sounds behind him. jongdae turns and his eyes focus on a lady with sunglasses on, a mask, a long jacket and a hat on. jongdae hurriedly fixes his stance, taking his knee off of the bumper of the car and turning fully to face the weird lady. 

"i.. i uhm.." he turns and points to the top of the car. 

"oh, you have to get these papers?" she walks closer to the car and picks up the papers from atop of it, handing them to jongdae. he accepts them and bows. 

"thank you." he mumbles shyly. 

"you're welcome. but why are you out here alone? primary school should have already been dismissed." she checks her watch. 

"my daddy isn't here yet... he said there was traffic..." jongdae mumbles and the lady kneels down to meet his height. "i... i want my daddy...." he slowly backs away.

"awh, poor boy." the lady pats his head and jongdae's eyebrows furrow as he tries to slowly pull his head away from her hand, eyes directed towards the ground and hands clasped in front of him. tears start to well in his eyes as he gets uncomfortable. a lady he doesn't know was talking to him, he didn't know where his dad was and he was alone. 

"my daddy said to-"

"but you know what?" she asks and jongdae lifts his head a little to look at her. "i know where your daddy is." she pulls down her mask and gives jongdae a small smile and jongdae can't help but notice how pretty her smile is. he fully lifts up his head and his eyes start to widen, his tears slowly dampening his cheeks.

"you- you know where my daddy is?" he stutters and she nods. 

"yeah, i do! you just have to follow me, okay?" she asks and holds out her hand. jongdae, though hesitantly, accepts it and holds her hand as well as she guides him down the road and into another car. 

joonmyeon checks his watch and smiles when he sees that he was actually going to get to jongdae's school five minutes less than what he anticipated. he felt bad for letting the substitute watch jongdae and for making chanyeol's mom go through the trouble to worry about him. but he was thankful. after parking, he jogs through the school gates and notices the two textbooks by the swing set. shrugging, he jogs into the school, slowing down when he gets into the hallway. he knocks on classroom b's door before letting himself inside. as he does, sooyoung swivels the chair in order to see who was entering. as she notices who it is, she quickly stands and bows. joonmyeon does the same. 

"hi, mr. kim." she smiles as she smoothes out her skirt. joonmyeon also greets her and furrows his eyebrows. 

"you... really look familiar," he starts and sooyoung laughs. 

"don't you remember me from junior high, joonmyeon?" and his eyes widen because he does remember her from junior high. 

"i do! wow, you really look the same~" he smiles and she laughs. "i haven't seen you since you moved to the united states~" 

"i know and thank you. after i graduated in the states, i decided to become a teacher since you know i've always loved kids." she smiles.

"that's amazing. i'm glad to see it worked out for you, knowing that you're so forgetful." they laugh and then she remembers.

"ah, jongdae was so good. he really does take after you." she smiles and joonmyeon almost forgot about him in that moment.

"ah, yeah where is that kiddo at?" he looks around and spots his colored pencils and a picture on his desk. he looks back at sooyoung. she looks up at the ceiling as if trying to remember. 

"ah, he went to the restroom." she recalls. 

"ah. okay. well it shouldn't take too long." joonmyeon walks over to jongdae's desk, peering at his drawing before laughing to himself. jongdae had drawn a large goldfish that took up the whole page and wrote "to: kyungsoo-hyungie's mommy" in the limited empty space that was left on the page. he quickly takes out his phone and takes a picture, thinking "kyungsoo will really love this." 

a few minutes pass and jongdae still isn't out of the bathroom. worried, joonmyeon stands. "i'll go see if he's okay... he was having a hard time using the bathroom this morning and the day before..." sooyoung nods, encouraging to go check on jongdae. as he leaves, she looks back at the desk and spots her car keys. then she remembers jongdae coming out of the bathroom as she was going to put something in her car really quickly. she left jongdae outside. rushing out of the classroom and down the hall, as she's about to push open the door, a frantic joonmyeon pulls it open shaking his head. "he isn't in there..."

"j-joonmyeon... i..." he looks up at her, eyes wide. "i forgot... he was waiting outside... we.. we were going to put something in my car and i forgot my keys... and he was waiting outside... and i forgot... i..." joonmyeon starts shaking as sooyoung sinks to the ground. 

"he.. he wasn't outside when i came in..." they look at each other in panic. 

"joonmyeon, i'm-" 

"there's no time, sooyoung... we- we have to check the school..." he tries to stay as calm as he can. sooyoung scrambles off the floor and nods. 

"r-right... i'll go see if there's any other teachers that can help." she says before running to the teacher's offices located right down that same hall. 

all of the staff that was on the campus dropped everything they were doing to help look for jongdae. a handful of them along with people from the neighborhood even looked around the area. while all of this, joonmyeon had already called the cops and was trying to get a hold of kyungsoo but to no avail. come on... kyungsoo... you can't be lost, too. i can't lose two people in once day... he attempts to call kyungsoo again. "i'm sorry, but the number you're trying to call-" damn it damn it damn it. . this can't be ing happening... joonmyeon's eyes swell up with tears as he thinks of the possible things that could've happened to his son and now kyungsoo. no... get a hold of yourself, kim joonmyeon. kyungsoo is okay... he's with his parents... focus on jongdae... jongdae is okay. he's a smart boy... he's-

his phone starts to ring. "kyungsoo's parent's house...?" this can't be ing good...

"kyungsoo's mom? kyungsoo's dad? is kyungsoo okay? what's wrong? he wasn't answering his phone..."

"joonmyeon hyung, it's me." kyungsoo's calm. 

"kyungsoo! where's your phone? is something wrong? i've been calling...!"

"my phone was stolen, it's a long story... why were you trying to call me?"

"j-" joonmyeon sniffles. "jongdae got kidnapped!"

- - -

heh.. hey yo. sorry for the long awaited update. but uh happy new year! sorry you know, life got in the way w college and graduation coming up. buuuut yeah, i hope you enjoyed the other side of what was happening. i'm planning on finishing up this story, maybe in the next few chapters. hopefully. fingers crossed. and idk when i'll be posting again but we'll see... i know i lost a lot of my creative writing skills. and by a lot, i mean, all of it. maybe im just not in the mood to write? but ive been having trouble with creative writing since all i write are essays and research summaries haha. fun. no i really miss writing. and honestly, i don't really listen to exo anymore. or kpop. i'm getting into got7 and bap again. 

anyway, hope you guys liked the update and hope youre having a great day/night/evening. hope everything is good. 

goodmorning, good afternoon, good evening and good night to you all! 

- sikkei-ssi