here is more of this drivel.

in which junhoe is the single dad of jinhwan.

#1:  jinhwan drops two bombs on his father. junhwe is okay with only one. [requested by anon]

“Dad?”

Junhoe’s laying on the sofa scrolling through his iPad, when Jinhwan appears in front of him.

“What?”

“I have something to tell you.”

“What is it?” Junhoe asks, continuing his browsing. Jesus, him and Donghyuk are far too old to be exchanging pictures of animal memes, but how else are they supposed to keep up with the youth these days?

“It’s—it’s something really important.”

Jinhwan sounds nervous – this is relatively uncharacteristic of him, so Junhoe looks up at him over the top of his tablet and raises an eyebrow. “What did you do?”

His son immediately flushes, cheeks starting to turn red. “Oh my god, dad, I didn’t do anything!”

“Well then what is it?” Junhoe swears, if he took the fall for one of Bobby and Hanbin’s nonsensical schemes one more time—

“Dad… I—I’m gay.”

Junhoe mulls this over. To be honest, he was starting to wonder a bit why Jinhwan never talked about girls, or asked about girls, or whatever – the boy’s seventeen, for crying out loud, the hormones were supposed to be raging. On the other hand, Junhoe had never particularly noticed Jinhwan’s inclinations for the same gender, which he supposed was probably due to his lack of reading a lot of social cues, and was probably also somewhat bad parenting, but what’s done is done.

“Guess I don’t have to worry about any sudden grandkids. Love you, Jinnie.” He shrugs and sends Donghyuk a picture of a seal with its neck rumpled up in response to Donghyuk’s fluffy cat.

“Dad, there’s something else.”

Oh god. “DON’T TELL ME YOU GOT A GIRL PREGNANT!”

“DAD! NO OH MY GOD, I’M DATING BOBBY!”

Jinhwan’s thoroughly red now, and if Junhoe were a person with less respect for material goods, he would have dropped his iPad. But Junhoe respects that an electronics company named after a fruit produces extremely expensive products, and thus tersely sets it to the side, safely on a couch cushion. He’s not completely sure if he can function properly right now.

“You—you what?”

“I’m… dating Bobby?”

“Is that a statement or a question.”

“Well, is that a statement or a question?”

Junhoe rises, thankful once again that Jinhwan still has not grown taller than him (and if the doctor is to be believed, probably never will). “You’re dating Bobby? Like, Bobby Kim? Jiwon? Son of Donghyuk, Lord of cat memes? The one that drives me up the wall every time I see his stupid bunny face?”

Jinhwan, to his credit, doesn’t shrink away. “Yeah. That one.”

Junhoe sighs. “I need to process this. Also, you’re not sleeping over at his house tomorrow.”

“Dad!”

“No buts! That permission was for a platonic sleepover!”

“But we’ve been dating for like three mo—”

Jinhwan’s mouth abruptly clamps shut, and he runs off to his room, yelling “Loveyoudadseeyouatdinnerpleasedon’tkillme!” as he does. Junhoe, still reeling from the news, makes no effort to follow him, merely sinking back down onto the sofa as if he’d been deflated. Then he grabs his iPad.

koojune: DID YOU KNOW YOUR SON WAS DATING MY SON
kimbabappa: yeah
koojune: AND YOU DIDN’T TELL ME
kimbabappa: no
kimbabappa: i thought you knew
kimbabappa: it’s not like they were being subtle, really
kimbabappa: but then again you’re also terrible at reading people
koojune: consider our friendship null and void
kimbabappa: wow rude
koojune: also, bobby is coming to dinner at my house
koojune: tomorrow
koojune: tell him to pull his pants up or so help me god i will do it for him
koojune: i am not paying for any medical expenses related to fabric wedged up places they shouldn’t be

#2:  junhoe's protective dad instincts might be a little too strong.

“Jinhwan.”

“Yeah, dad?”

“You look like a pathetic puppy. Stop sitting next to the door and help me set the table.”

Jinhwan rolls his eyes, fidgeting with the rolled sleeves of his shirt as he leaves his post next to the front door, grabbing the plates off the counter and setting them down. There are three spaces tonight, instead of the usual two – the third is for Jinhwan’s (it pains Junhoe to even think the word) boyfriend, Bobby.

This in itself is not unusual. Junhoe’s played reluctant host for the two boys multiple times throughout Jinhwan’s formative years. The kitchen table has seen many a homework assignment, heart-to-heart that Junhoe always pretends he can’t hear, argument, and actual meal. But this is a first.

“Why couldn’t you have waited til you were, I don’t know, thirty before you started dating?” Junhoe groans, taking out some bean sprouts from a container and putting them on a small dish. “I needed more time to prepare myself.”

“When you were thirty, I was already born,” Jinhwan retorts, taking the dish and putting it beside the rest of the banchan. “Isn’t that a little hypocritical?”

“When I was thirty, you were small and cute and didn’t talk back.” Jinhwan’s still small and cute, but that’s not the point.

The doorbell rings. Jinhwan springs up, running to the door to pull it open (and revealing the bane of Junhoe’s existence. Not really. The kid’s not that bad, but if Junhoe had to choose to deal with him or not, he’d rather have the former.)

“Hi,” Jinhwan says, slightly breathless, running a hand through his hair.

“Hey,” Bobby replies, leaning in a bit, presumably to kiss Jinhwan, but he catches sight of Junhoe's fiery glare in the kitchen and straightens back up. Jinhwan turns back, pouting slightly at his father.

Junhoe rolls his eyes. He is immune.

“Hey, Mister K!” Bobby calls, smiling widely and waving as if Junhoe were standing at the end of a soccer field instead of twenty feet away.

“My last name is Koo,” Junhoe says tersely, “it’s Jinhwan’s last name, too, is it really that hard to say?”

Bobby shrugs. Junhoe fights the urge to roll his eyes again, or pick up his iPad and demand Donghyuk beat some sense into his son, and tells Jinhwan to close the door. Bobby takes off his shoes, passing Jinhwan a plastic bag with his free hand.

“Courtesy of my dad. He said it would make things easier, or something.”

Jinhwan passes the bag over to Junhoe, who peers inside. It’s a box with a sticker from one of his preferred bakeries. Donghyuk is literally trying to butter him up.

“Have a seat,” Junhoe says, and Bobby complies, settling into his usual seat. Jinhwan sits to his right, and Junhoe puts the rice and pork on the table before sitting down across from Bobby.

“Thanks for the food,” Bobby says, helping himself to the kimchi, oblivious to Junhoe’s glare. Jinhwan follows suit, pecking at his rice, evidently nervous.

“So,” Junhoe leans forward slightly, “mind telling me about how all this,” he gestures between the two boys, “got started?”

Jinhwan immediately turns bright red. This is either a very good thing (Junhoe will get another fun story to tell) or a very bad thing (Bobby did something really stupid).

Bobby chews on a mouthful of food contemplatively, looking off to the side. “Well,” he says, “we were all hanging out at Hanbin’s, doing homework and stuff. Then Hanbin decided he wanted to watch some horror movie, and Jinhwannie started freaking out—”

“Bobby!” Jinhwan hisses, and Junhoe feels a kick under the table that he presumes was meant for Bobby.

“Come on, Jinhwan, don’t worry about it,” Bobby laughs. “So yeah, Jinhwan got all skittish and stuff – you know what I’m talking about, right?”

Junhoe knows exactly what he’s talking about – Jinhwan had never been the strongest of heart when it came to scary things – but he wishes Bobby would just get to the point already. There’s only so much his eyes can narrow before they just close.

“So we were like, halfway into the movie, and Jinhwan’s glued to my side. It was kind of painful, really, but Hanbin noticed and he was all ‘why are you hanging onto Bobby so much, you usually hang onto me too, do you like Bobby or something?’” Bobby pauses to eat some more. Junhoe’s got a pretty good idea of where this is going, and he’s pretty sure it’s going to end with him developing more of a distaste for Hanbin, too. Such a shame, it is, that he doesn’t like either of Jinhwan’s best friends.

“And Jinhwan started freaking out because apparently Hanbin was right, and then Hanbin started freaking out because he didn’t actually think that was the answer, and then I started freaking out because Jinhwan actually liked me, and then I think Jinhwan ran home.”

It’s all coming back to Junhoe, now – that day, Jinhwan had burst through the door and ran straight to his room, refusing to come out until the next day, and Junhoe had had to ignore ten minutes of pounding on his door by a couple of teenage boys.

“And then we talked about it and then we started dating,” Jinhwan cuts in, shoving some sprouts into Bobby’s open mouth. Bobby frowns, but ceases talking.

There’s no conversation for the next few minutes. Junhoe supposes this is the part where the parent is supposed to be grilling the significant other about themselves, but Junhoe already knows far too much about Bobby, and he’s not interested in finding out about anything else.

Unsurprisingly, Bobby breaks the silence. “Are you guys always this quiet while eating?”

Junhoe winces internally. Does Bobby really not view him as an adult, or is he just this casual with everyone? He suspects it’s both.

“Not really,” Jinhwan says, “but it’s usually me talking about school or dad complaining about something.”

Bobby nods, and that’s the end of the talking for the rest of the meal. Junhoe’s saving his big interrogation for later, anyways.

Once they’re all finished, Junhoe banishes Jinhwan to the living room (him and Jinhwan have got this whole ‘talking with their eyes’ system down, and it works with scary accuracy) while Bobby helps him clear the table.

“So, Bobby,” Junhoe says, keeping his voice as even as possible, “what are your intentions with my son?”

“Intentions? Like… I intend to date him? If that’s what you’re talking about.”

Dear god this boy is dense. “You guys aren’t having yet, right.”

“DAD!” Jinhwan screeches from the living room.

“No, Mister K.”

Junhoe picks up the knife he used to cut the pork and starts cleaning it loudly, just to make sure Bobby can see him holding it. “You sure?”

“Yes, Mister K.”

“Lies!” he yells, whipping around and sticking his finger out, “Jinhwan opened his box!”

“He has a wha—AUGH!”

“DAD!” Jinhwan yells again, running into the kitchen, just as Junhoe’s about to put Bobby in a headlock, “what the hell are you doing?”

Junhoe releases his hold. He can hear his back cracking. He is far too old for this . Waving Bobby away dismissively, he holds his back, praying that neither boy can see him in this moment of weakness.

“Go… just go. I will deal with you later, Jiwon.”

Junhoe just hopes that this will be a passing teenage fling that they can all laugh about in a few years.

(He then shudders – did he really think that he would still be seeing Bobby around in a few years? He must be getting soft in his old age.)

lmao what am i even doing really