”NO!”

haejin runs to myungsoo and hides behind his legs, obnoxiously looking at sungyeol from between them. myungsoo twists to see who’s just colonised him and straightens, giving a quizzical look at sungyeol who is trying to recall every reason why he’d ever asked for custody.

"hi, sorry," sungyeol mutters with a quick embarrassed look at myungsoo. "haejin, this is not a game. come here, we have to go home."

“NO! i want to stay here with mr kim!”

"uh," myungsoo starts sheepishly with a quick smile at sungyeol, putting aside the books he’s just picked up. he waves goodbye to two other kids happily leaving the centre hand-in-hand with their mothers (sungyeol despairs) before getting down to haejin’s eye level.

"haejin, you have to go home now. you’ll be back here tomorrow, so it’s okay. you can go home and play with your dad. i’m sure he’s got a lot of really good games he can’t wait to play with you."

"no," haejin repeats, but at half the previous volume. "can’t i stay here with you?"

sungyeol bites his lip and looks away, wondering how things had ended up such that his own son preferred a stranger over him. well, not stranger - this, clearly, is the famous mr kim, haejin’s idol and superhero. if in haejin’s eyes mr kim is batman, sungyeol is - alfred? sungyeol doubts even that. this kid doesn’t even look old enough to be working.

he himself probably doesn’t look old enough to be already divorced with a four-year old, if it came to that, sungyeol thinks wryly. haejin and mr kim are now whispering, haejin casting sungyeol unreadable looks every once in a while, and sungyeol is wholly unprepared for when haejin abruptly unlatches himself from mr kim and runs to sungyeol, arms out to be carried like he wasn’t completely resisting sungyeol a few minutes earlier. he picks his son up in a daze, turning to look at mr kim in surprise. 

"how did you do that?”

"i just talked to him," mr kim answers, smiling. "he’s ready to go home now."

"i - thank you - you’re going to have to teach me how to do that," sungyeol said, laughing to cover his humiliation. "i’m sungyeol. i’m haejin’s dad - uh, you already knew that. you’re mr kim, right?"

"oh wow, please, call me myungsoo. ‘mr kim’ sounds way too serious," myungsoo smiles, and then falters, his whole face sobering. "um, i really hope you don’t mind me saying this, but -" myungsoo’s eyes flick from sungyeol to haejin, resting his head on sungyeol’s shoulder. "he needs - i’m sorry, please don’t take this the wrong way - he needs more attention from you. he isn’t taking the transition of the divorce very well.”

sungyeol isn’t sure how to respond at all, myungsoo’s earnest, sincere eyes boring into his. a million emotions run through him before he settles on incredulity. “he told you that?”

"no, of course not, but kids are really transparent. and he never used to do this before, did he?"

"how - how did you know?"

"well, your wife used to be the one to pick him up, and she hasn’t been here in months. haejin has been acting up around the other kids and he keeps saying he misses his mom. and you changed his emergency contact number from her to you, so.." 

sungyeol nods. “yeah. yeah, i guess it was kind of obvious.”

"oh my god, i was really hoping she hadn’t died or something, you know -" myungsoo blurts out, and then claps a hand over his mouth once he sees the look on sungyeol’s face, mortified. 

sungyeol opens his mouth once, twice, gobsmacked, and unexpectedly finds himself beginning to laugh. he laughs so hard and so long myungsoo ends up just staring, haejin twisting around in sungyeol’s arms to look at him as well.

"oh god, i’m sorry," sungyeol manages to say finally, shaking his head a little. "i don’t know why i laughed. i just had to."

myungsoo smiles a little in sympathy, then says quietly. “maybe haejin’s not the only one who needs attention, huh? you need to take care of yourself.”

sungyeol breaks inside a little bit. working to keep his face neutral, he smiles briefly. “well, thank you. better go before he changes his mind,” he says, hefting haejin up slightly before turning to go. 

"wait - sungyeol? wait."

sungyeol stops and turns around to see myungsoo frantically checking in all his pockets, eventually turning up with a pen. he jogs back to his workstation and comes back with a piece of paper, and his ears are tinged with red as he quickly scribbles something on it.

"this is my number - well. in case you need to ask about haejin - or just talk. anything, really. you look like you need to."

sungyeol takes the piece of paper and puts it into his pocket, somewhat stunned. “thank - thank you, myungsoo.”

"sure," myungsoo smiles, clearly embarrassed, and raises an awkward hand to wave them off. 

"mr kim’s really great," haejin says inconsequentially on the way home in the car. "i like him the best out of all the other teachers."

"yeah," sungyeol answers fondly, reaching over to smooth a hand over his son’s hair. "i think i really like him too."

"you can’t like him more than you like me," haejin says, a huge yawn overcoming him, sleepy eyes blinking slowly. 

"of course," sungyeol answers, laughing. he’d have to tell myungsoo about this later.