Five Scenes from a Domestic Life

01.

“It’s great!” Haeun proudly declares, twirling around in her perfectly prim white Sunday dress. Her tulle skirt picks up at the waist as she spin around excitedly, her braids flying along with her and with a white flower clipped to the side of her hair, she is absolutely lovely and a sight to behold. 

Except–Hyukjae takes a long look at the lopsided mismatch braids, with one coming loose at the end and the other has uneven dived sections, and gives her a skeptical look.

Too many times Hyukjae had seen Donghae doing one of the kids’ hair and he’d always played an inactive part of that portion of the day, not being able to contribute to anything like styling the kids’ hair–it’s not a skill they taught him in school or prepare him for fatherhood–but this morning he woke up and took one look at Donghae getting ready to do Haeun’s hair for church and had carelessly without a thought asked if he could do it instead and after seeing Haeun’s light up eyes at his request, there was no going back from there. He was going to do this, he’d just hope he doesn’t mess it up and have Haeun coming out of it hating him for ruining her hair.

Despite all his effort, his fingers clumsily weaving through her hair, with none of the finesse and skill of Donghae, and carefully–edging toward nervousness–he braided her hair with Donghae’s detail instructions guiding him on but somehow it still came out horribly.

He chews worriedly on his lower lip before helplessly offering, “We can just undo it and have Donghae do your braids again instead.”

She pulls to a stop in front of him and gives him a rather impertinence look, that no six years old should have at that age . “No, daddy, I love it!” she stresses. “It has character,” she says like she has any idea what that even means but she’s smiling, grinning from cheek to cheek and Hyukjae will takes it, his heart caught in his throat as he stares at her near tangible joy.

“Okay, okay,” he says, and can’t resist meeting her smile with his own.

“Can I have one too?” Jihu asks, voice rising from the other side of the kitchen island.

Hyukjae turns around to face Jihu, who had been sitting quietly in Donghae’s lap the entire time and avidly watched Hyukjae as he braided Haeun’s hair.  

“Can you have what?” Hyukjae says, brows furrowing curiously but then it struck him. “Wait, you mean a braid?”

Jihu nods his head, eyes wide and beseeching.

Hyukjae pauses and hesitates over it. He’d been doing okay with Haeun’s hair because hers was pretty simple and long so it was not that hard on a first try but Jihu’s hair is much, much shorter and he could easily mess it up more than he did with Haeun’s.

He feels a tug on his pants leg that draws his attention downward. “Daddy, you have to do Jihu’s hair too,” Haeun pleads, holding on to his pants leg. “We’ll be a pair and it’ll be fun.”

“I might mess it up,” he mumbles, unsure and unwilling to ruin another of his kid’s hair.

“You should just give it go, daddy,” Minseo says, sitting beside Donghae and Jihu and not even looking up from her book but clearly paying enough attention to the conversation to add her input. “After seeing what you did with Haeun’s hair, Jihu still wants you to do it so clearly he doesn’t care if you it mess up.”

More than any of the other kids, Hyukjae has a hard time denying Jihu when Jihu himself rarely ask him for anything and this time he thinks he can’t deny him either.

He glances at Donghae, who been quiet throughout the entire exchange and Donghae looks at him, eyes bright as he gives Hyukjae an encouraging smile.  “It’ll be fine.”

Hyukjae sighs, raking his hand through his hair as he admits defeat. “Alright.”

Jihu makes an excited noise as Donghae puts him down on the ground and as soon as Jihu’s feet touch the floor, he quickly make his way toward Hyukjae.

Hyukjae picks him up and puts him on the stool.

This time around he decides to go for a small braid at close to the front of his hair where the bangs are longest and thickest.

As he quietly and puts all his effort to work on the braid and it is harder as he expected, his fingers are awkward and big as he fumbles his way through the braid, the sections are much smaller and thinner, but once he’s finished, with a neat little red bow hair tied at the end, he examines the braid closely.

The upper end bunches up slightly near and the middle section is a bit loose, and Hyukjae kind of hate it and itches to redo it but Jihu’s touch his finished braid, fingers carefully grazing through each section. “I like it,” he says softly, looking up at Hyukjae as a smile settles across his face.

“I like it too,” Hyukjae says, humble and loving this precious little human being before him.

Jihu abruptly hops down from the stool before Hyukjae could react and heads off to show Haeun his new braid, who had been waiting anxiously for Hyukjae to finish.

“You look so cute, Jihu. I love it!” Haeun says with a barely held back squeal and Jihu flushing happily under the compliment.

Hyukjae wants to wrap this entire scene up and box it away so he can immerse into this moment whenever he want but just as he is caught up in the moment he is dragged out of it when Minseo suddenly plops down on the stool right in front of Hyukjae and turns around to face him, demanding almost haughtily in that tone of voice of her that is hard to deny, “My turn.”

He blinks, and then comprehension, “I thought you don’t like braids because they are for kids,” he says, causal as you please but the corner of his lips twitch ever so much.

“I don’t and they are for kids,” she says with a roll of her eyes and then quietly she adds, “but I am okay with it if you do it.”

Hyukjae thinks his heart might burst out of his chest in this moment. He drags her into his arms and gives her a tight squeeze.

“Daddy,” Minseo whines into his chest, “you are squishing me.”

He grudgingly lets her go. He takes to braiding her hair with barely held back enthusiasm this time around. He makes a single thick braid down the back of her head and it’s probably his best work despite the little fizzy and slip of hair near the middle coming off but when it’s all finish and done with, forty-five minutes spent on each of kid’s hair when it usually just take Donghae fifteen minutes at most, the three of them them stands before each other and taking a look at each other braid, hands flying out to grab hold, to touch, to fondle and making excited commentary about each other braid and Hyukjae thinks he can give up hours of his busy schedule just so for a brief unconstrained moment like this where his kids are happy and flourish under his gaze.

He hears a shuffles and turns to see Donghae settling down beside him. Donghae smiles at him, soft and sweet, and Hyukjae could definitely live in that smile. He leans in close, his lips inches away from Hyukjae’s right ear and his breath is hot and Hyukjae is flush with a heat that would not die down, as he says, firm like an untold truth, “You did a good job.”

“Thank you,” Hyukjae says, dazed and helpless at Donghae’s grining proudly at him, and the world could stop and fall apart right now and he still would die with a smile on his face because today is good morning. A very good morning in the life that he share with his kids and now Donghae too and this is what happiness feel like–unfiltered and tangible in all its glory.

02.

Hyukjae is abruptly dragged off of the dance area with great reluctant as the music continues to play in the background. Haeun and Minseo pulls him to a secluded corner of the park but still in view of the dance area, empty of either parents and kids and he has the nagging suspicion that he won’t like where this is going.

“Is something wrong?” he asks warily staring down the two small but very imposing figures in front of him; it feels too much like he’s facing a tribunal for a crime he’s sure doesn’t exist. Pretty sure, anyway.

“Daddy,” Haeun begins, voice serious and grave,  “you can’t dance with us anymore.”

“You don’t want to dance with me?” he asks, and tries to keep the hurt leaking from his voice. He shouldn’t be clingy, he thinks, kids these day probably frown on that sort of thing but they’re still his little girls despite how fast they’re growing up and he wants to hold on to them just a little longer.

Haeun shakes her head, her pigtails flying with the movement. “No, but we already dance twice with you already." 

”Each and you dance with Jihu three times, so that’s seven dances in total,“ Minseo adds in, as though he needs help counting. 

He frowns, brows furrowing in confusion. "But I thought you like dancing with me.”

“We do like dancing with you, Dad,” Haeun hurries to assure him, to placate any hurt feelings that may have pass, “but you can’t dance with us all night that would be weird.”

“Really weird. We want to dance with other people too so go ask Donghae for a dance already,” Minseo demands, gesturing to the mix of parent-kid, parent-parent, and kid-kid couple out on the dance area. “You entertain us enough so go have some fun too." 

Hyukjae startles by that sudden suggestion that he takes a step back in surprise. "W–what?”

He casts a glance a quick glance back out in the middle of the dance area where he sees Donghae and Jihu are happily dancing together to an upbeat music.

“No it’s fine!” he protests loudly. “I love dancing with you guys. I don’t need–” at their skeptical face, he hesitates, and then, quietly, “What if he say no.”

“You don’t know unless you try,” Minseo huffs, crossing her arms.

“Yea, just go ask him, Dad!” Haeun insists. “It’ll be okay.”

As worries and fears claw at him, he starts, “But what if I step on his foot or something and break his toe and he’ll get mad and–”

“Daddy, don’t be silly!” Haeun interrupts him with roll of her eyes. “Uncle Junsu said you were known as the Dancing Machine back in school.”

“He said you had all the moves back then and was actually pretty cool before you grew old and boring,” Minseo says helpfully.

Hyukjae groans, face dropping to his hand. He is seriously going to have words with Junsu about spilling his embarrassing high school secrets to his kids.

“Maybe he just doesn’t want to dance with me,” he mumbles.

They look at each other and a silent exchange seems to pass between before Minseo turns back to him, frowning hard. “Well, we won’t to dance with you anymore so either you walk over and ask Donghae or just unhappily watch us have fun from the side line." 

"And that’s boring,” Haeun says, throwing her hands up in frustration. “Do you want to be that boring person at the party?”

Hyukjae sighs, when did his kids get to be so reasonable and smarter than he is. “Okay fine, you guys convince me. I’m going, I’m going.”

Haeun and Minseo breaks out into an identical grin and quickly push him back to the dance area before he can change his mind. 

The girls give him an encouraging thumbs up as they discard Hyukjae several feet away from Jihu and Donghae, arms swing and feet stepping in rhythm between a couple of adults slow dancing against the upbeat music, a pair of kids dancing to some sort of complicated choreography, and a parent and child pair where the kid is teaching his father some bizarre flamingo dance.

Hyukjae lets out a heavy breath before he ventures forward, moving between the bodies on the dance area as he makes his way toward them

He clears his throat when he stands close enough to catch their attention, abruptly stopping their movement as their eyes drawn to him. “Um, can I cut in?” Hyukjae asks Donghae.

Donghae’s raise a brow. “I have to ask my partner,” he says, looking down at Jihu expectantly. “How about it, Jihu? Can you spare a dance for your Dad?”

Hyukjae’s chest is in a tangle nervous knot as he explains, “N–no, I mean I want to dance with you, Donghae.”

Donghae’s lips open to a silent ‘O’, his eyes darting to the side, seemingly flustered by his request. “I still have to ask Jihu though since I promise to dance with him until the end.”

Hyukjae turns to Jihu with a serious expression on his face. “Jihu, can I dance with Donghae?”

JIhu looks thoughtful, looking at both of them back and forth between them before deciding on his answer. “Okay, just because it’s Daddy. You can have Donghae for one dance." 

"Just one?” The corners of Hyukjae’s lips drawn downward into to an exaggerated frown.

Jihu pauses. “Okay three dances,” he raise a finger up and starts to count it off until he reach three, “but you have to read to me a story tonight and I get ice cream before bed.”

Hyukjae hesitates as if he’s thinking it’s over, and then, casually, “You drive a hard bargain but you have a deal.”

Donghae’s lips twitch. “Traded for a story and an ice cream, I see how much I’m worth.”

Jihu looks up at Donghae and gives him a confused look. “But you said you wanted to dance with Daddy just a second ago.”

Donghae’s cheeks go bright red, hands flailing around to cover his embarrassment. “Shh! That was a secret.”

“Oh,” Jihu says, eyes widen in realization. “Sorry!”

Hyukjae’s covers his mouth to hide the laughter that is threaten to burst out, and the quiet delight that is simmering in the surface.

“I see,” Hyukjae says, bending down to hug Jihu, “then thank you for giving us this chance to dance with each other. You are very generous." 

"You welcome, Daddy,” Jihu mumbles into his chest before pushing him away. “Have fun!”

And just like that he dashes off, leaving Dongahe and Hyukjae to stands awkwardly in the middle of the dance area staring at each other like they’re on different planets.

Hyukjae straightens up and steps forward, closing the distance between him and Donghae. “Shall we,” he asks, offering his hand out.

Donghae tentatively smiles as he takes it. “Gladly.”

And maybe Hyukjae it’s just coincident or if he was more romantically incline, he would think it’s fate that the music is switch into a slow waltz at that moment. 

“You can take the lead,” Donghae says, eyes shinning bright despite the stilted lighting of the park. “My waltz is a little rusty." 

"Okay.” Hyukjae swallows, feeling his throat dry up as he wraps an arm around Donghae’s waist and grips his hand in the other, drawing him in till they are breathing the same air.

Donghae’s hands are warm in his as they move, slow and steady to the tune of a sweet serenade as the singer sings about the perfect love and off in the distant, from the corner of his eyes, he spots Jihu joining his sisters several feet away, trying to have a three way waltz with them and failing badly at that. 

Hyukjae doesn’t know anything about perfect, but this is the closest as perfect will ever get for him.

03.

Hyukjae stumbles into his house in the dead of night with weariness sunken into his bones and the strain of it slowly spreading throughout his entire body till his limbs feel like heavy anchor, threatening to pull him under the weight of jet lag and exhaustion from pulling another consecutive late night of work in Macau so he can get back home in time.   

His hand blindly tries to locate the light switch on the wall and after a heedless struggle, he finds it and flicks it on. The house is pitch in a soft amber light coming from mounted lamps that line the wall, enveloping the entire foyer with a feverish glow. Hyukjae blinks away the exhaustion bleeding behind his eyelids and breathes in the familiarity of home.

He drags his feet across the tile floor of the main hallway with his luggage hauling behind him, dropping the cumbersome layers of cloth—his tie, coat, briefcase, suit jacket, socks, and shoes thrown aside—along the way, something he knows he’ll come to regret later in the morning but he’s too exhausted to put any effort into caring now. As he ventures deeper into the house, it seems eerily void of life as silent reign and not even the high pitching chatter of any of the kids can be heard; he knows that the unlikely hood of the kids being up this late, half past 2AM, is a disheartening fact but he had hope anyway after only seeing glimpses of them these past few days as he was swarmed with the heavy caseload from the business trip and the only thing that had tide him over where pictures Donghae had taken and phone call from his kids.

The wall lamps guide him to the base of the stairway and he staggers up the steps, each step sluggish and heavy, with only his pants and dress shirt on, heading to check up on the kids before going to bed himself. He leaves his luggage in his room before heading to the kids’ and the first room he visit is Haeun’s, the door giving away with a slight budge and he peeks inside. The dim lighting coming from the night light near Haen’s bedside is enough for him to see but when his eyes fall onto the bed he’s finds nothing but an empty bed. His legs, finding a considerable amount of strength now, propels him forward to Jihu’s room and then Minseo’s but again empty, the beddings undisturbed.

Hyukjae has a momentarily freak out, completely blanking out as fear grips him, before he collects himself and thinks. It’s a Saturday and the kids aren’t in bed. It’s a Saturday and the kids aren’t in bed—oh, right. Hyukjae rushes down the stair, nearly tripping over a discarded shoe along the way, and heads directly to the media room.

Hyukjae enters the media room near the back end of the house to the sound of, “Malika crouches down in the bush as she zeroes in on her prey,” the narrator drones on on the TV screen, showing a lioness stalking a wildebeest, legs hunched and head low the floor, setting up for an ambush.

The only light sources in the room come from the large screen TV mounted against the wall as the nature documentary continues to play, something the kids had picked up from Donghae who adores these kind of show, and the lighting fixtures from the patio filtering through the glass doors that lead into the backyard, but it’s enough for Hyukjae to spot the small forms huddling underneath under a layer of blanket in the pit beside a larger figure curving protectively over one of them.  

The sense of relieve seeing the three small heads peeking through the blanket is nearly immeasurable. He knows, he knows it well that the odd of any of the kids getting kidnapped are slim to none because Donghae is here—Donghae, who is terrifyingly capable in mixed martial arts, another strange discipline Donghae had picked up in his ‘travel’ alongside things like picking locks as though that’s something any person would pick up as a skillset but it settles Hyukjae’s anxiety over the children’s safety anyway.

Donghae had texted him earlier asking about his plane arrival time, and Hyukjae had sadly assumed some kind of welcome back home surprise was prepare, maybe they had stay up and waited for him to welcome him home with a kiss and a hug, but they’re all dead asleep now and it’s too late.

Hyukjae sighs as his gaze past over the sunken pit, attached to the floor of the room in a circular shape and the four people in it. The conversation pit was meant as a place to watch the eighty-eight inch TV screen he had installed for viewing pleasure and to entertain the guests in a comfortable setting but the kids had commandeer it as a napping ground instead.

Blankets and pillows are spilled onto the bottom of the pit, and stuff animals all abounds. Haeun had settled on the outside, clutching her favorite shark stuff animal to her side, while Minseo took the space between Haeun and Jihu, her left hand flung over Haeun’s blanket covered stomach and one of her legs had kicked out from underneath her blanket, and Jihu is quietly tucked into Donghae’s side as Donghae arches around him.

They look cozy, warm, and so inviting that Hyukjae unconsciously takes a step forward, unknowingly stepping on one of Jihu’s electronic dinosaur figure that makes a loud roaring noise. Frantically, he reaches down to shut it off and sighs just as he sees Haeun languishly dragging herself upright, rubbing her eyes furiously before blinking up at him.

“Is that you, Daddy?” she asks, voice thick in the lull of sleep. “You’re home already?”

Hyukjae pulls to a stop. “Yea,” he says, warmth swells within his chest. “Just go back to sleep, sweetheart.”

“Okay,” she says, barely holding back a yawn, “but you should join us.” Her head starts to droop and she tries to fight it but Hyukjae stifles a laugh as she tilts over toward Minseo, her head landing right on Minseo’s chest.

Minseo lets out a painful groan and a, “Ugh, you’re too heavy,” she complains, batting at Haeun’s head and Haeun rolls away from her with a noisy grunt.

God, he misses them so much.

He really, really want to join them but he should change out of his clothes first yet Hyukjae can’t seem to move away from his spot as though the entire house had narrowed down into this room only.  He already made a mess of himself all over the house with his discarded clothes so—why not.

Hyukjae shrugs.

He quietly and carefully, steps down into the pit and slips into the space beside Haeun, trying not to disturbed any of the sleeping forms and Haeun instinctively reaches toward. “We miss you,” she says, cozying up to him.

He wraps his arm around her waist and pull her closer. “Me too,” he replies against a bushel of her hair, tickling at his chin, and that seems to please her as he hears a slow rumbling snore coming from her.

Minseo, just a few feet away, suddenly scoots closer to them till she’s pressed up against Haeun’s back and tangles her hand with his. She doesn’t open her eyes nor exchange any words with him, no sign given that she’s even awake, but acknowledging squeeze she gave to his hand is enough for him.

“Thank you,” he says, clutching her hand tightly in his as though he’s afraid to tear it apart and she’ll disappear on him.

Just as he’s about to close his eyes and call it a night, he glances over the head of the kids to catche the sight of Donghae’s sleeping face and a content smile that grace those soft lips. Donghae’s eyes abruptly flutter open and his smile widen at the sight of Hyukjae over Jihu’s head, it’s warm and tired but, “Hyukjae,” he mumbles, “welcome home,” and Hyukjae’s breath hitches.  

His heart is set aflutter, a thrumming in his ribcage—a disorienting beat takes him hostage. "Yea, I’m home,” he murmurs in agreement, quiet and reverence in this small space that is share between them and Hyukjae’s entire world is right here in this room, tucked away under pile of pillows and blankets and stuff animals, snoring softly between the two of them; it’s small and fragile but it’s his and it’s precious.

He’ll guard it with his life.  

04.

That morning Hyukjae left the kids and Donghae at a strip mall with a folding table, several plates of cookies, a container of ice tea and a good luck bellied over a severe sense of paranoia before heading to work. As he busies himself slogging through a pile of paperwork on his desk and attending boring meetings, he get a series of update from Donghae about the kids’ progress.

Among one of the photos that Donghae had sent him was picture of the booth that they had set up and the sign, hazardly drawn—plastered against white are one-color rainbows dotted throughout that he can only assume coming from Minseo and several carefully drawn pictures of a variety of dogs in all sort of positions that one can tell the artist put a lot of thought and care into it, and that’s definitely the work of Jihu, alright—and reads in a neat and precise handwriting of Haeun: “Selling Dogs for a Cookies Shelter,” is the title and below that, in smaller print, “Help save them please!”

It took Hyukjae five minutes of uncontrollable laughter before he sobers enough to send a message back to Donghae, writing, “You may want to reread your sign,” and waits.

It isn’t long before Donghae texts him back with a, “(///Σ///)” and a new photo: Haun sitting in front of the banner, having already crossed out the character dog and rewritten it as cookies and in the process of fixing the last character while Minseo looked on, directing her sister with her hands on her hip and Jihu right beside her watching but Hyukjae’s eyes caught the cat headband Jihu is currently sporting for some reason and a blue ribbon is tied around his neck.

Hyukjae doesn’t even recalled Jihu wearing such a thing when he left them, so how did that come to be? “What’s going on with Jihu?” he texts Donghae, curious and also a little worried because Jihu, unlike his outspoken and domineering sisters, tend to let himself get dragged along by his sisters’ antics with no hope of saying no.

“Your eldest, that’s what happened to him,” Donghae writes back as though that explained it and it does.

Hyukjae has the worrying suspicion that someone had let Minseo loose and usually if Haeun is there, she is able to act as a stoppage for her sister’s more wilder behavior, but it’s fundraiser for a dog shelter and nothing get Haeun more rile up than in defense of animals. 

So when his lunch break finally come along and he immediately heads several block down to the strip mall, he doesn’t even bother taking the car since it’s so close by and that’s precisely the reason why he let them have their fundraiser in the first place.

Hyukjae finds their booth in front of a hair salon of one of his clients, who had given them permission to set up shop there, and it’s surprisingly deserted. There’s a couple of people milling around but none seems interest enough to buy anything as the sun beats down on them on this sticky hot day.

The kids are behind the table, tucked underneath the canopy, shouting various words to passerby such as: “We have cookies and tea for sale! It’s only 1,500 won and so yummy!” and “Beat the heat with a tea!” but mostly it’s Minseo saying, “Save a puppy and buy a cookie!” that catches people’s attention.

All the while, Donghae is nearby sitting on a portable chair and fanning himself with a paper fan as he dutifully watches over them. Donghae’s hands off business when it comes to letting the kids do much of their own work on whatever project that get their interest, like this fundraiser, can raise eyebrow but Hyukjae’s kids have wild personality and that mesh quite well with Donghae’s free spirit way of taking care of them.   

Hyukjae steadily approaches the booth and at the immediate sight of him out of the corner of her eyes, Haeun launches herself toward him, abandoning her post to her siblings. “Daddy you came!” she exclaims, nearly colliding with his left leg as he stands several feet away from the booth.

“Hey, how it’s going?” he says, detaching her away from his leg and looks over to the table see Minseo and Jihu trying to catch the attention an older gentleman casually looking over at their table.

She steps back and flashes him a wide grin. “We’re doing great!” she declares.

“Oh, then how many have you sold so far?” he asks, eyes darting off to three plates full of cookies still on the table as Donghae stands up from his chair, his fan left on the table, and moves closer to them.

“A lot!” Haeun declares, extending her arms out to the side to emphasized her answer, while behind her, Donghae hold up eight fingers to clarified exactly how much ‘a lot’ of hers it is.

“Wow, you guys must been busy,” he says lying through his teeth and pulling up a smile. “How about I help increase that number even more?”

“You would?” Her face brightens up. “Thank you, thank you, daddy! You’re the best! So how many would you like?”

“I’ll have one please,” he says but at Haeun’s carefully forge neutral expression and Donghae coughing in the background, he hurriedly adds, “uh I mean three since I’m really, really, hungry.” He pats his stomach to stress his point.

“Alright, three cookies,” she says happily, but abruptly the corners of her lip turn downward and with such a sudden shift in her expression Hyukjae has an ill-boding feeling about this. “But wait, don’t you want some tea to go with it? It’s so hot right now I’m sure you are very thirsty, daddy!” she presses and Hyukjae belated wonders when did his kid learn to become such a shrew salesman.

“Okay tea too,” he relents, and feels too much like had jumped into a sea full of shark and there’s blood in the water.

“I’ll go get your order then,” she informs him and heads back to the table with a light hop to her steps.

Hyukjae heaves out a sigh as soon as she is out of reach and Donghae steps closer to him, his eyes alight with laughter and the corner of his lips twitch. 

“Don’t,” Hyukjae snaps. 

“I didn’t saying anything,” Donghae replies, smirking.

“But I know exactly what you’re going to say,” he mutters. Hyukjae is used to be the one who is able soothes the anxiety of his clients and calm them down, charming his way out of any situation but in front of his kids he’s helpless.

“I was just going to compliment you because you’re such a good father,” Donghae tells him like he doesn’t know exactly how Hyukjae is weak to his kids.

So this is what being a parent feels like, Hyukjae thinks a little grimly. “Sure,” he says, suspiciously and as he about to throw another retort over Donghae’s deepens grin, over Donghae’s shoulder Haeun is actively engaging a man in a business suit.

Haeun launches into her sale pitch as the man’s curiously draws him closer to their table. “Won’t you buy a cookie, ahjussi? It’s made with a lot of love and care and it’s taste great too!”

“Sorry, I’m not hungry right now,” the man declines gently, stepping back and about to head off.

“But ahjussi,” Minseo says, lips wobbling and the man pulls to a stop, looking perturbed, “we’re doing this to help raise money for the Shindo Dog Rescue and we need all the help we can get.”

“Uh,” the man says, confounded.

“Ahjussi, don’t you want to save some dogs? They can’t feed themselves so we need to help them and it’s not like we’re asking for a lot just buy a cookie from us and that already go along way! I mean you love dogs don’t you, ahjussi?” she asks and she might as well saying: you’re not a total heartless bastard that watch dog starve to death right?

The man stares at her, jaw tightening and Minseo holds his gaze, steady and unflinching. “I’ll buy one then,” the man says finally with a defeated tone, pulling out his wallet. 

“Ajusshi, thank you! You’re the best!” Minseo says, grinning broadly over her win.

Hyukjae turns to Donghae, eyes wide. “Is she guilt-tripping that man to give her money?” he asks, incredulous. 

“Well, think of it this way,” Donghae offers with casual shrug, “it’s for a good cause.”

Hyujkjae frowns. “That’s not—” his words are left hanging in the air when out of the corner of his eyes he caught the slight movement of Jihu.

Jihu walks around the table to stand in front of the man. He tugs at the man sleeve and looks up at him with a wide grateful eyes. “Thank you very much ahjusshi. You are so kind,” Jihu says softly, smiling sweetly at the man and proving once and for all that’s he every bit his sisters’ brother. Hyukjae can see the moment the man’s defense is completely shot down and he’s ready to leave his entire fortune to them if they ask.

“Here, give me five instead,” he says, fumbling for more cash in his wallet.

They’re kids and they’re already master manipulator; Hyukjae doesn’t know if he should be proud or scare.

“Not bad right? I just told them sometimes people need a reason to buy into something and we just need got to find it. And occasionally that mean a sweet word or two that tug at their conscience would do the trick,” Donghae explains next to him with the casual ease of a master con artist.

“You—“ Hyukjae starts and stops. He doesn’t even know where to begin, the fact that Donghae would even teach that to his kids or that his kids had listened and quickly picked it up is just—better left not to think about it or else he’ll get a headache. 

He turns back to the kids in time to see Haeun directing her siblings to him and this time it’s Jihu and Minseo’s turn to abandon Haeun to take care of their lone customer and get Hyukjae’s his cookie and tea, so they can rush over to greet Hyukjae.

“I’ll go help her,” Donghae says, wincing as Haeun drops a cookie as she try to pick out five for the business man.

Hyukjae nods and watches as he go, passing by Minseo and Jihu and giving them a resounding high five as they speed over to Hyukjae. “Dad!” Minseo shouts, grinning and settling in front of him. “Did you see that? We made another sale!”

“Yea, I saw,” he says, ruffling her hair. “You were great.”

“Of course,” she huffs like it’s obvious and Hyukjae laughs. She bumps shoulder with Jihu who is nearly knock sideway by it. “Though Haeun and Jihu helped a lot too, especially Jihu.”

“Oh?” he looks down at Jihu, who raises his arm up toward Hyukjae and Hyukjae picks him up with a familiar ease, heaving his leg over Hyukjae’s hip. “You’re a superstar today huh?”

Jihu nods, ducking his head to hide his blossoming smile. “But what’s up the ears?” Hyukjae asks, pointedly looking at Jihu’s cat headband.   

“He’s our mascot,” Haeun proudly states. “Our customers love him!”

Hyukjae frowns. “Did you ask your brother for his permission before dressing him up like that?” he asks, narrowing his eyes at her.  

Minseo shuffles her feet as she shifts in her spot. “Um, no?”

He peers back at Jihu.  “Do you hate it?” he asks, brows knitting into a worried line. “Want me to take it off for you?” 

Jihu shakes his head, biting his lip.  “No, s’okay. It’s for the puppies,” he mumbles.

Unlike his spotlight prone sisters, Jihu doesn’t like to call attention upon himself, preferring to say in the shadow if he can help it, but when time call for it Jihu will answer, he always will because Jihu has the biggest heart that Hyukjae knows and it doesn’t always match his small stature.

“Ah, I see,” Hyukjae says, nodding his head in understanding. “You’re doing such a good job then.”

Jihu’s small smile grows with the praise. “Thank you, daddy,” he murmurs, shyly and sweetly like the first blush of spring.

Hyukjae quickly kisses his forehead and places him back down in just time for Haeun and Donghae to arrive in front of them with Hyukjae’s order. “Daddy, here you go,” Haeun says holding up a cookie bound up in napkin to him while Donghae holds his tea and the rest of his cookies.   

“Oh right, thanks,” he says, taking from her hand. He carefully examines the lopsided cookie and slightly burned surface before closing his eyes and heedlessly biting into it, taking the entire thing into his mouth with very much regret.

“How is it?” Haeun asks, looking hopeful. 

“Tea,” he croaks through a mouthful of disgust. The cookie state like sawdust, hard and dry it was like he was chewing on piece of rock.

Donghae quickly hands him his tea in a plastic cup and sending him a sympathetic wince. Hyukjae downs the tea as fast as he could and nearly choke on it when his throat closes up and wants the tea to go in the opposite direction, heading right back out of his mouth. 

It was too sour and even when it washes down his throat, it leaves a bitter after taste on his tongue. He squishes the cup and throws in the trash can nearby like he couldn’t get rid of it fast enough.

“So?” Minseo demands, head tilt curiously. “What do you think?”

Once he regains his composure and doesn’t think he’s going to die from his kids’ homemade cooking, and no they’re not purposely poisoning him or anything. “Um, it’s good?” he says hesitantly and then at the kids’ frown, “I mean it’s very good,” he elaborates, saying in a little more confidently this time around. “Just, uh, what did you guys put in there to give it that… interesting taste?”

“Well, salt, a lot of salt actually for the cookie and a bunch of lemon and lime for the tea and—”Donghae says, counting off the ingredients and Hyukjae quickly flaps his hand in front of Donghae to say no more.

“Okay, okay, I think I get the gist of it now,” he says, holding back a grimace. No wonder they didn’t have much sale in the first place, not when their cookies is made out of rock and salt and their tea might as well be a whole lemon.

“Do you want some more daddy?” Haeun asks, expectant eyes directed toward him with all the intensity of someone not of her age and Hyukjae feels like he’s pinned under the glass like a butterfly.

“N-no, thank you,” he says, swallowing back nauseating idea of another bite of that—that disaster. “I’m going to save it for later in the afternoon when I can snack on it while.”

Minseo looks at him curiously, thoughtful even and then she lights up.  “Dad, why don’t you bring back some for Uncle Junsu and your workers too,” she suggests slyly. “We have plenty and you bought three so what about a couple more?”

“Uh, I don’t think—” he says, fumbling for a way out of this death trap he found himself in.  

“Oh, oh, yes! You should do definitely do that, daddy!” Haeun says, perking up with barely contain excitement. 

He turns toward Donghae for help but Donghae just willfully shakes his head and left him to their tender mercy. “Well I,” he protests.

“I want Uncle Junsu to taste our cookies,” Jihu says, voice rising above his siblings and Hyukjae and beholding Hyukjae with a hopeful expression on his face. 

Hyukjae deflates, the objection die on his tongue at Jihu’s sincere desire to share their food with Hyukjae’s work place. “Okay, just get me twenty cookies and a bottle of tea then.”

Some how he feels like he been con by his own kids into buying their affection but he doesn’t seem to mind so much when they wear their happiness on their face as they clamor around each other in a cheer.

“So how about you guys take a break and we’ll go get lunch and fill our stomach with something else?” he proposes and they rush at him in squealing delight as Donghae smiles at him behind them.

Later, Donghae will slide up next to Hyukjae in the booth in a small diner and jab him in the side with a grin. “They did good right?” he says, eyes twinkling madly. “You must be proud of them.”

“Yea I am,” Hyukjae confesses, watching Haeun and Minseo fighting over their share shave ice as Jihu quietly eats unbothered, “and you’re not so bad yourself.” His eyes pass over Donghae with a fond look. “Thanks for indulging their whims and encouraging them to go through with it.”

Donghae flushes under the scrutiny. “Shut up and eat already before your ice cream melt,” he retorts but there’s no bite to it and Hyukjae tries not smile so much that it might break his face.

---

After he sends the kid off back to their booth and a full stomach, Hyukjae walks back to his work with a plate full of dangerous cookies and a bottle of that-should-not-be-call-tea.

“What you got there?” Junsu asks upon seeing Hyukjae enter the break room with a handful things he didn’t have when he had left for lunch.

“Food,” he answers.

“I thought you were getting lunch with the kids and Donghae so why are you bringing back food all of a sudden? Did they ditched you when they realize you’re not cool enough to hang with them?” Junsu asks, eyebrows raised and leaning back into his chair.

Hyukjae frowns, feeling an annoyed pinched on his neck. “No, we went out and eat already.”

“Then what’s with the cookies and tea?” He gestures toward Hyukjae’s full hands.

 “Uh, you know how my kids are selling snacks for the dog rescue Minseo’s class is fundraising for and these are--,” Hyukjae starts.

“Say no more,” Junsu cuts him off, rolling his eyes. “Just leave the offering here and go do your business.”

“Okay,” he says, hurriedly dumping the plate of cookies and the bottle of tea on the table and runs out before somebody caught on.

And it’s not even a minute before he hears loud, “What is this crap,” from Junsu just as Hyukjae retreats into his office. He locks the door and barricades himself inside before Junsu decide to seek his revenge on Hyukjae. 

Hyukjae love his kids but he’s not getting a stomache for them. 

Later that afternoon as he works, he get another text from Donghae: “(*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑ success! We reached our goal 100,000 won! Even if 1/3 of the contribution can be attributed to a Mr. Lee Hyukjae so thanks for the generous donation (⺣◡⺣)♡*.”

He knows he’s being teased but strangely it feels good.

05.

For all the years that Hyukjae has been alive on Earth, he had never face a harder trial than shopping for Haeun’s upcoming ninth birthday. You would think shopping for a kid would be uncomplicated and easy comparing to shopping for another adult but there’s something about the guilelessness of children that hangs at a knife’s edge. Another adult would give him a polite and grateful smile upon receiving his gift but children, oh they hide nothing; he doesn’t know what he’ll do if Haeun even breathe a disappointed sigh.

And so on a rather dull Saturday’s afternoon, he finds himself loitering around COEX mall for the perfect gift for his eight years old daughter. Baring buying her an actual zoo and adopting every endanger animals on the planet, Hyukjae has to settle for a more realistic gift instead.

Toys are an abundance in their household and anything she needed for her multitudes of extracurricular activities that hold her attention he already got it for her, so in the end he decides on getting her a jewelry instead.  

The idea itself is simple but hard to execute when he is face with an array of choices and zero knowledge of what Haeun may like. Hyukjae knows to seek help when he needs it and sends a quick SOS text to Donghae.

Donghae is supposedly back home with the children, keeping them busy and entertained while Hyukjae is away. But seeking help from Donghae, lends to some very unsolicited advice and editorizing, because he keeps sending progressively exaggerated frown in the form of colorful emojis every time Hyukjae sent him a picture of a selection of increasingly expansive necklace.

“She’s going to be nine not nineteen,” Donghae would reply back with a row of storm emojis. “Get something more age appropriate. She doesn’t need to be wearing a necklace that cost more than my car.”

“Your car is a piece of junk and a walking death trap,” Hyukjae points out to which Donghae only answer that to that is a rather inflammatory respond that is not for the sensitive eyes nor ears.

After much bickering back and forth in text and Donghae abusing the screaming face emoji to illustrate his point, they settled on a PANDORA two tone bracelet instead with a handful of bead charms to go along with it that she can customized however she like. 

Charm bracelet, Hyukjae thinks, is definitely age appropriate for a girl of Haeun’s age and if the excessive numbers of zeros speak of something else, Hyukjae is not hearing it nor does he want Donghae to know.

Just shopping for the bracelet took him an entire forty-five minutes and wearing out the patience and professionalism of the salesperson who had to deal with Hyukjae’s needlessly inquiring questions—is this metal safe for a kid to wear?—and Donghae’s heavy skepticism leaking through the phone.

Eventually, with his newly bought bracelet in tow, Hyukjae departs from the jewelry store and is about to leave the mall premise entirely when his eyes caught a pair of white closed toe shoes out on display, , dotted with lace trimmed beading and delicate metal wings framing the back.

Drawn to the beautiful pair of shoe, Hyukjae enters the high-end kid’s boutique and is immediately met with a knowing smile of a sale lady.

“Can I help you with anything, sir?” she asks.

“Yes, I would like to see the pair those shoe you have out there, please,” he says, pointing to the display piece. Haeun got a beautiful coral blue dress picked out for her birthday party with embroider butterfly pieces that seem to be bound in place. He can already imagine how she would look with her dress and that pair of shoe, breathtakingly beautiful and heart-stopping.

Her eyes light up as though she though she caught her next meal. “Any particular size you have in mind?”

Hyukjae pauses, drawing blank. “Uh, I think it’s six? Maybe seven? Or is it eight?” he says unsurely. “Wait let me check.”

He pulls out his cellphone and quickly selects the first number from his history list. He waits for the dial tone, putting it on speaker, and then, “You better not be changing your mind about the bracelet,” Donghae says in lieu of a hello.  

“No,” Hyukjae says, rolling his eyes. “I’m actually looking at a pair of shoes right now that Haeun may like and want to know her shoe size so I can buy it for her.”

“Didn’t you already get her a present?” Donghae asks, sounding exasperated and entirely too fond. “How many presents do you plan to give her now? Four, five, or maybe you should just buy her an entire store.”

Hyukjae coughs awkwardly into the speaker and hears her discerning amused snort from the sale lady. Donghae often likes to point out how wholly whipped Hyukjae is for his children. “Just tell me her shoe size please,” he begs instead.

“It’s six,” Donghae answers and before he can say anything more, “Daddy!” he hears Haeun’s voice screeching in excitement across the phone line. “Are you buying my present right now?! Oh, oh, what is it?! Tell me, tell me–”

“Alright no spoiling your present before your big day,” Donghae says to her.  “Just say good-bye to your dad now before he buy out an entire store for your birthday,” he adds and Haeun delighted laughs ring through the speaker and softens any blow of Donghae’s words.

“Bye daddy! Come home quickly before Minseo-unnie eats all your popcorn chicken!” Haeun says and the phone goes dead after that.  

“Sorry about that,” Hyukjae says, turning to the sale lady, flushed with slight embarrassment.

“No apologies require, sir. Your husband and daughter are really cute,” she says with an obvious laughter in her eyes.  “I’ll go get the size you wanted.”

“Uh, no he’s actually my—“ he starts to say but she’s already turn away from him and off she goes, the protest left to die on his tongue.

“My kids’ nanny,” he finishes, the words left hanging awkwardly in the air.

Somewhere in the back of his head, a voice clearly tells him maybe there’s an obvious reason that some stranger would misconstrue his relationship with Donghae but he really doesn’t want to give a thought to it, not when it’s not only his heart on the line but the wellbeing of his kids and what it mean if his relationship with Donghae doesn’t pander out.

His heart just has to settle for being last place on his priority list.

a/n: this 'verse, magical nanny au, is something i been working on and off for what feel like the longest time lol. Now I feel like i can finally give this my time and effort to, knowing what im writing for and my goals are. consider this work to be snapshots into this 'verse, we'll jump in timeline and every chapter can be read as standalone dealing w/ certain theme (haeun's bday, minseo's fundraiser, etc) and sometime no plot whatsoever but just plain fluff lol. think of this chapt (of pre-written pieces) as an introduction to the 'verse and i will be expanding on all of the scenes in the near future bc they are part of a larger overreaching theme i have in mind *g*. anyway, thanks for indulging this cheesy family drama of mine and i hope you like the kids as much as I do bc they are precious little spitfire.