“Appa! Why do you have to leave again, can’t you stay?” Minki was nearly crying, which made it even harder for you but even more for Yongguk who was standing in the doorway, already fully dressed to leave the house.

“Minki-ah~, we explained it to you, appa needs to work reaaaally early tomorrow so he is staying together with the others for tonight. He promised you to be back in two days, right? And I know for sure he is keeping his promise.” It was not the first time that Yongguk had to leave for some days and while Minki did not seem to mind most times, some days he was trying to hold Yongguk back even more.

Taking the nearly five-year-old in your arms, you walked Yongguk to the door. “Give your appa a goodbye kiss, mhh? After all he will miss you just as much.” Yongguk nodded and quickly pecked you both on the cheek. “I will miss you lots!” The male sighed and ruffled Minki’s hair. “Have fun tomorrow, okay? And make sure that Minhyun does not eat all of the muffins, okay? I really want to have one too when I am back.” Minki started to giggle at that and nodded. “I will protect the muffins appa!” He exclaimed with a smile and waved the older goodbye. Pecking Minki’s cheek as well, you let him down again and he immediately rushed to the window to get a last look of Yongguk, who was walking down the road to the car that was picking him up. Watching Yongguk leave, Minki called back to you with his two plushies in his arms. “Eomma, you promised me that we can watch appa on TV tomorrow, right?”

“Of course we will watch him!” You nodded quickly. “I’m sure it will be funny to watch him play around with the others, don’t you think?”

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“Eomma?” Minki rushed towards you, a bit breathless and, at the same time, he seemed scared as well.

“Minki? What’s wrong?” You asked him, quickly crouching down to his level.

“There are weird men outside.” Minki pointed back at the door that was already closed.

“Outside?” You tilted your head a bit confused. “Did they walk by our house?”

“No, no, they are standing on the other side of the road, and they are taking pictures!”

“Taking pictures? Of our house?” You asked quickly and got up to take a look through the curtains.

“Yes, yes I saw them taking pictures of appa when he got into the car.”

Alarmed at Minki’s words, you quickly got away from the window again. “O-Okay Minki-ah, promise me not to look out the window today, okay? I- I will call appa, and ask him about it, alright?”

The boy nodded with a pout. “They are not dangerous men, are they?”

“Mhhh no, but they want to take pictures of your appa, and if they know about us, they might want to take pictures of us too, and I don’t like that. I don’t want any stranger to take pictures of you.”

Taking your phone you quickly called Yongguk, who did not take long to take the call.

“Missing me so much already?” He greeted you cheerfully and for a moment it even sent a smile to your lips, before you remembered the cause for your call.

“There are paparazzi outside!” You blurted out. “Minki saw them, he said they took pictures of you getting inside the car, I-I am not sure how long they have been here and what they saw and what other pictures they took, but ugh I don’t know, what should we do now? I already told Minki to stay away from the windows for today, but we can’t stay inside forever.” You rambled on, not giving any chance to Yongguk to respond.

“Shhhhhh, calm down.” You could hear him trying to stop you and it was at that moment that you noticed your legs shaking slightly, so you quickly sat down on the couch. “I-I will ask them to look into it, okay? But please, you, you need to try and stay calm okay. I swear nothing will happen to either of you, I told you before and I will tell you again, you both are the most important to me, and I will not let them drag you into anything. Give Minki a kiss from me and tell him that appa will take care of the men he saw, okay?”

“I-yeah…” Suddenly you were way too overwhelmed to respond with more words and only could listen to the rest Yongguk was saying before he ended the call.

“I will call Minhyun too and ask him to come over to you guys, hopefully he can stay over night already. I will call you once I got some new information, okay? I love you!”

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“Hyung!” Minki already seemed to have forgotten about the two men he had seen just a few hours ago, as he was excited about Minhyun coming to visit and even stay over night. Rushing towards him, the boy quickly hugged the older before he excitedly talked about his toys that he was playing with.

Minhyun ruffled his hair and grinned at him. “Hey Minki. You definitely need to show me what you are playing with, but I need to talk to your eomma first for a few minutes okay? I will join you after that.”

“Hey oppa.” You could see the serious expression on his face as you greeted him.

“I checked outside, but it seems like they left already.” Minhyun came to your side to give you a brief hug. “Yongguk got really worried, and I guess he was not exaggerating when he said that you are freaking out. Look at you!” He took your hand and squeezed it. “See they are gone and Minki doesn’t seem to be afraid anymore either, you should calm down as well. You are looking like you are being chased for your life.”

You chuckled dryly and glanced at the mirror that was hanging at the wall in your hallway. Seeing how dishevelled your hair was and the look in your eyes, you nodded in defeat. “I guess you are right, I just was so shocked. How did they even find out? I mean ugh...” You stopped talking for a moment to make sure that Minki was back in his room and playing with his toys.

“It has been months that he was going back and forth, and no one noticed anything and I really thought that maybe it can stay like that for longer. But now, I do not know, I just was not expecting it to happen today, I did not want it to happen so soon.”

“It was bound to happen some day; we all know it. I mean you don’t want to hide it forever, do you?” Minhyun sighed softly. “Lo