It was a stressful week for everyone at MatExo Academy. Parent’s Day was arriving and after being on the station for months, the new students would finally be able to see their families again. Many were excited but others found themselves dreading the day to come.

Taehyung sat in one of the lounge areas near his room, flicking through the holo TV in a pair of sweats and t-shirt. He didn’t want to think about what Parent’s Day would mean for him but it never left his mind. Captain Himchan had been a great help to know more about who he came from but it was beginning to hit him that he would likely meet his Matoki parent over the weekend. The realization was starting to get to him to the point that he skipped a few classes over the week.

“There you are!” He looked up, startled, to see Jimin and Victoria standing in the doorway. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere. We need your help getting this whole event together.”

“Oh…” He shifted his gaze back to the screen. Victoria and Jimin shared a look and went to sit beside him.

“Tae, what’s wrong?” Victoria rested her hand on his arm. He looked at her then quickly turned away, not caring that his eyes were visible.

“It must be serious. You can talk to us.” Jimin spoke up. “Is it about what the Captain said?”

Taehyung sighed and nodded. “I’m just...nervous about Parent’s Day in general. What if I never find him? What if my father finds out that I’m not his son? What if the Mato doesn’t accept me?”

His friends shared a look and without another word, hugged him as he cried silently. All his worries coming to the front of his mind.

~~~

It was finally Parent’s Day.

Students milled about, waiting for the ships to dock and see their families. Taehyung walked around, carefully avoiding Sehun and his lackeys, to try and see if his parents had arrived. It was nerve wracking for him to be alone but he knew Jimin and Victoria needed to be with their families on this day.

“All passengers, please make your way to the auditorium in an orderly manner. More ships are docking and we need the space.” He heard a familiar voice using a megaphone and turned to see his primary teacher, Sunny standing not too far from him.

“Ms. Sunny!” He hurried over to her with a grin. He hadn’t realized how short she was until he was standing next to her. “It’s good to see you.”

“Taehyung! My have you grown. How are things here at the academy?”

“Good...just waiting for my parents to get here. I’m sorry I haven’t said hi to you more often.” He hung his head down with a bashful smile.

Sunny ruffled his hair. “It’s okay, kid. Besides, you seem a lot happier than the last time I saw you on EXO.” She glanced over his shoulder. “And it looks like your parents just got here.”

Taehyung turned to see Baekhyun and Chanyeol walking towards them with big smiles on their faces. Not too far behind him, he sees the Matoki ship letting off passengers and spots Jimin running to two women. He looked back at his parents and walked to greet them.

“Dad!” He hugged Chanyeol tightly, closing his eyes to hide the emerald that was fighting to show. He turned to Baekhyun when he felt he had control and looked at him with a soft smile. “Mom! I’ve missed you guys.”

“He called me mom again!” Baekhyun said as he dramatically pulled Taehyung into his arms. “How are you, son? Are you having a good time here? You aren’t fighting anyone outside of class?”

Taehyung laughed and shook his head no. He stands there as his parents gush over him when someone else caught his eye. Looking towards the Matoki ship, he thought he saw Baekhyun standing there again with a female. He blinked and realized that it was not. Watching carefully, he saw Kenny walk up to the couple and hug them.

“…” he huffed under his breath.

“What was that?” Chanyeol cut his eyes at him.

“Nothing. Let’s go to the auditorium. I think they’re going to make some big announcement.” He pushed his parents out of the loading bay and inside the station as fast as he could. They didn’t need to know what was going on right then.

~~~

Sehun watched as Taehyung lead his parents out of the loading bay. With his father already on the station, he came to see if his mother would arrive instead. Tao waited beside him also looking out for his parents. He had watched the two ships land from Mato and EXO and perked up a bit. He had continued to watch as Taehyung’s parents stepped off the ship and greeted their son.

“Looks like all the players will be arriving soon, don’t you think ZiTao?” Sehun’s words were calculating. Tao continued to look straight ahead, deciding not to play into Sehun’s plan. “All we need is to figure out which Matoki shares Taehyung’s blood and expose the truth. Any idea how we could do that?”

Tao shrugged. “There’s no way to tell. Unless we freeze time so I can just look around but…” He trails off and smiles when he sees some other passengers stepping off the EXO ship. “My parents are here. I’ll see you later.” 

Tao quickly walked away from him to greet his mom, happy to be away from Sehun. Shrugging, he went back to looking for his mother. After another ship landed and she hadn’t arrived, he sighed and went to go meet his father at his office.

“What are you doing here, boy?” Joonmyeon was immediately antagonizing towards him. “Where is your mother?”

“She hasn’t arrived yet, sir.” Standing at attention as always, Sehun holds in his annoyed expression. His father was never happy to see him. It stopped getting to him a long time ago but it didn’t make his lack of a happier greeting make him feel any better. The only person who did love him was his mother but she was hardly around.

“That woman…” his father sighs and takes a good look at him. “How are your scores here?”

“Top five of my class.”

“Aim higher S