[C78] FIND YOUR WAY (1/2)
Prompt Code: C78
Title: find your way
Rating: r
Side pairings (if any): slight kyungsoo/chanyeol
Warnings: brief mentions of mpreg
Word Count: 14,847
Summary: Jongin’s life has hit rock bottom ever since he knocked up his high school boyfriend and first love. But maybe he has been looking at it the wrong way since then. 17again!au
AN: Hope this was to your liking! This gave me writer’s block too many times to count and really wish I could have written it longer;;; but hope I did your prompt justice.
“Get up!”
Water splashes onto a snoring face, jolting the middle-aged man awake. Jongin sputters as he shoots up from the bed, pushing away the wet covers and trying to wipe the water from his eyes.
“What the fuck, Baek!” he shivers as he gets up, looking at his soaking wet attire.
“You reek! How long has it been since you showered?” Baekhyun asks pinching his nose and throwing the now empty bucket to the side. Jongin groans and realizes he was still in his suit from the day before. He shoves past his so-called best friend and goes into the bathroom.
His eye bags are immensely noticeable; he doesn’t even bother trying to hide them now. He is also in a terrible need of a haircut and probably a shave. But he doesn’t do any of that as he hops in for a quick shower and changing into some baggy clothes.
He takes a look at his soggy suit and sighs. That will probably be the last time he would wear a nice suit like that again. His only job that he has been working at for the past decade started turning into a hell-hole for him after his boss passed down his job to his good-for-nothing, asshole kid who only hired hot women and didn’t give a shit about doing actual work.
All those years of hard work for nothing. And without an actual college degree it would not be easy to just find another job. But Jongin wonders if quitting was really the answer. Maybe he should have put in more effort. Maybe if he appreciated it more he could’ve kept it. At this point, Jongin knows he isn’t thinking about his job anymore.
Both him and Baekhyun eat their breakfast in silence. Well as silent as it could be with Baekhyun’s loud chewing and smacking of his lips as he ate.
Jongin tries hard not to get annoyed. After all, Baekhyun currently was the only person in his life who is willing to help him right now. They both have been through thick and thin together and he should really be grateful-
“Damn you really need to get your shit together. Your hair looks just like it did in high school except you can’t really pull it off now since you’re old and all.”
Jongin grits his teeth.
“We’re the same age, Baek.”
“Eh, yeah, technically. But you look way older. I think I aged loads better. Still look like I did ten years ago! Though I look way more handsome now don’t you think?”
Jongin grips the bridge of his nose and closes his eyes. “Fine yes, I look like total shit but that’s what happens when you get kicked out of your husband’s-“
“Ex-husband,” Baekhyun corrects him casually as he takes another mouthful of cereal.
“-ex husband’s house.” It pains Jongin to even say those words from his own mouth. He never actually accepted it yet but the reality hits him and he sighs and downs his orange juice in one gulp.
“Aw, it’ll get better man,” Baekhyun says patting his back. “You can only go up from rock bottom, that’s what I always say. And boy did you hit rock bottom.”
“Baek, you don’t know how much I’m refraining from pun-“
Jongin’s phone rings and he curses when he sees the caller ID.
“Hello?” he says as he walks into another room for some privacy. Though he knows Baekhyun will find a way to figure out what he talks about anyway.
“Did you forget you were supposed to come pick up your stuff today?” a deep voice sounds on the other end of the line. Jongin’s heart rate picks up and his throat feels clogged.
“Uh…um…yeah. I’m on my way already, actually,” Jongin lies. He is still in his sweatpants and stained t-shirt. “Kyungsoo, listen-I-“
“Jongin, I really don’t have time. I’ll see you soon alright?”
Jongin is about to respond but the line goes dead on the other side. He tries to find some decent clothing and goes out of the room to ask Baekhyun if he could borrow his car.
Jongin gets out of the car and walks up to a house he used to call home. He gives himself a mini pep talk before ringing the doorbell. A young brunette girl opens the door to which Jongin gives a bright smile to but only receives a pop of her bubble gum in response.
“Yeah?”
“Taerin, is that really how you’re going to greet your father?” Jongin says, a forced smile still on his face as he tries not to turn red. Taerin just blows another bubble, twirling her pigtail before she walks back into the house without a word. Jongin gives up and goes in after her as he looks around.
The living room still looks the same, save for a few boxes with the words EX written on them. Kyungsoo really wasn’t subtle, Jongin thinks.
“Where’s your brother?” Jongin asks as he goes to make himself a cup of tea. If he closed his eyes hard enough maybe he could picture himself still living here. He waits for his daughter’s response but when he doesn’t get one he looks up. She is still on the couch but with her earphones in. He stalks over and taps her shoulder.
Pulling out an earphone she gives him a face.
“Where is your brother?” Jongin repeats.
“How should I know?” she rolls her eyes as she goes back to looking at her phone. Jongin gives up and decides to just walk around the house.
“Taeoh?” he calls. He knocks once, twice on his son’s room but there wasn’t a response. “Taeoh?” He calls once more before he turns the knob and opens the door.
“Dad what the fuck!” There was the distinct sound of a shutting of a laptop and a flurry of flying blankets and Jongin quickly closes the door and leans his back on it, groaning as he smacks his own face. His son was growing up. Unfortunately he had to walk in on him doing it.
The door opens suddenly behind him and Jongin has to catch himself before he fell on his back. Taeoh still looks rumpled and his face was red, either from anger or embarrassment, Jongin wasn’t sure.
“Sorry, son. I mean you should really lock your door,” he advises. Taeoh just walks past him and groans as he sits on the couch. Jongin follows awkwardly behind.
“Uh…so where’s your dad?” he asks.
Both of the siblings point to the direction of their backyard without looking up from their phones.
Jongin gives a muttered ‘thanks’ before he walks out.
He sees Kyungsoo’s backside and thinks about if this were in the past, he would have wrapped himself over the smaller man in a loving embrace. But as if Kyungsoo could sense him, he turns around and gives a small nod in greeting.
“I put your boxes near the front door,” he says as he continues throwing rubble in the trash.
“Wasn’t that the fountain I was going to build for you?” Jongin questioned.
“Oh like the barbeque pit you were ’going’ to build too? When? In like fifty years?”
Jongin scoffs and that only makes Kyungsoo angrier.
“Unlike you, Jongin, I believe in moving forward.” Jongin winces. “I’m rebuilding my garden the way I always wanted to.”
“Come on Soo, I was really going to get to it,” Jongin says. He moves closer to his husband only for the other to move away.
“Sure, Jongin. As if you really cared. It probably took you so long because you spent half the time you could have spend working on it, complaining about how you could have gotten a better paying job if you went to college so you could just hire someone to do it.”
“Well can you blame me? I’m just disappointed with my life!” Jongin admits. “Try looking it at my side for once.”
Kyungsoo shakes his head and continues shoveling dirt. “I didn’t ask for you to marry me.”
“But I did it anyway,” Jongin says, arms thrown up in exasperation. Kyungsoo laughs bitterly and stands up straight and looks him directly in the eyes. Jongin frowns at how Kyungsoo’s eyes lost that glimmer he had so many years ago.
“Good for you then, you don’t have to do me any more favors.” He turns away. Jongin reaches out a hand, wants to hold him so bad-
“Kyungsoo, baby!” Jongin groans as Kyungsoo’s (unfortunate) close friend comes in through the gate. “Oh…look what the rat dragged in.”
“Hi Jaedong,” Jongin forces a smile.
“Jongdae,” the other man corrects with a scrunched nose. He shoves past Jongin to talk to Kyungsoo. “Okay so look, you need to get back in the scene. I have a ton of guys lining up just dying to meet you.”
Jongin clenches his fists and resists the urge to grab Jongdae’s permed hair and drag him away from his home.
“I have a couple of numbers that you can hit up,” Jongdae says. Jongin can’t bear to listen any more as he stomps back into the house.
His kids are still in the same position they were in before. Jongin sits down in the loveseat and grins at them. They remain tapping away on their cellular devices, not once acknowledging their poor father trying to get their attention.
“Sooo…” Jongin drawls out. “How’s life? How’s school guys?”
Taeoh just glances at him and shrugs. Taerin doesn’t bother to respond.
Jongin sighs and tries again. “How about basketball, Taeoh? Didn’t you say you were going to try out?”
Taeoh just looks embarrassed now. “Tryouts are next week. I’m nervous.”
“Don’t be! Son, you’ll do great. You have my genes after all.” At that, Taerin laughs out loud. Jongin glares at her for a second before mustering a smile. “How about you Taerin? How are your college applications going?”
“She got into Yonsei Uni,” Taeoh pipes up. Taerin’s arm shoots out and hits her brother right in the chest, causing him to wheeze.
“Shut up!” she hisses. Jongin looks between them confusedly but a smile breaks out.
“What? Taerin! That’s great!” Jongin claps his daughter on the back.
Taerin rolls her eyes but just shrugs nonchalantly. Jongin frowns at that and is about to ask-
“Jongin?” Jongin turns and sees Kyungsoo walking in.
“Yeah?” he says as he gets up, brushing off imaginary dust. He’s not sure how Kyungsoo can manage to make him feel so anxious in a home he’s been in for however many years.
“Just reminding you about our court date on Thursday. Really, don’t be late. Tell Baekhyun I said hi.” The way Kyungsoo ended his sentence implied to Jongin he has overstayed his welcome.
Jongin gives a nod and awkwardly stands there. “Well then. See you tomorrow. See ya kids! Remember I’ll be picking you up from school next Monday.” The kids are back to playing on their phones and Kyungsoo has already left the living room. Jongin sighs and makes his silent exit, not that his family would have noticed otherwise.
Jongin drives home in the shittiest mood he has been in in a while. And to his luck, it started to pour the minute he got to the freeway. Raindrops pelted his windshields and he swears he hears thunder. He hates thunder.
Luckily there weren’t many cars around so at least he didn’t have to deal with traffic and can get to Baekhyun’s place pretty soon. But as he is driving he sees a dark blurry figure looking over the bridge. Jongin squints and sees a man. He quickly stops the car and runs out into the rain.
“Hey get off of there! You’ll get hurt!” he yells over the loud sound of rain pelting concrete. The man doesn’t show he heard him. Jongin runs across the road and yells again. “Do you hear me? Get off of there!”
The man turns to him and laughs. He is old, with white crisps of hair and wrinkles around the corners of his smiling eyes.
“Don’t you wish you could have done things differently?”
Water is getting into his eyes and his socks are soaked. Jongin is in no mood for deep talks. “What are you talking about? Please, we can talk about this when you get down.”
“If you could go back in time, would you?”
“I-I…what?” No broken marriage, no kids who hate his guts. He could have gone to college.
“Would you?”
“I don’t know! Maybe! But that’s no reason to…to…” Jongin grips at his wet hair. The man laughs once more before he jumps. Jongin cries out as he leans over the ledge, eyes searching for the old man’s body. What he sees instead is a whirlpool, unreal with its darkened swirls and misty clouds surrounding it. He leans closer, squinting his eyes when he feels a force pulling him down and he falls
Falls
Falls
Jongin groans as he tries to use all his power to open his eyes. They feel crusty but he manages as he tries to sit up. How the hell did he get home? All he remembers is fighting with Kyungsoo and then driving home in the rain.
He decides it doesn’t matter as long as he did it. He wonders why his entire suit is covered in water and mud but he figures it’s probably another Baekhyun antic to try and wake him up. And that he just decided to add in mud to the mix. That little…
Jongin slips into the shower and washes off all the mud from his suit. His limbs were too sore to take off his clothes and he was probably saving time to wash his clothes. He walks out of the shower and takes out the hair dryer. He closes his eyes as he dries his hair and opens them slightly to check how damaged his face looks. He should really moisturize his eyebags one of these days-
But his eyes widen as he glances at his reflection.
“What the-“
Staring back at him in the reflection was him. But not him at the same time. It was him fifteen years ago. No wrinkle in sight, no dark eye bags. His tan skin looked glowing. Jongin thinks this is a dream. No, it has to be. He will wake up right when he slaps himself. No, he is still staring at past him except now he has a red handprint on his cheek.
“Shit, what the actual fuck!” He yells and nearly slips on his wet feet but his fast reflexes caught himself in time. He slowly walks out of the bathroom and looks left and right.
A bat comes swinging from his peripheral vision and he quickly ducks just in time.
“AHHHHHH!”
Baekhyun is swinging at him with a bat, still in his long ridiculous pajama robes. Jongin yelps as he dodges each swing and tries running from his best friend.
“Baek! Baek, it’s me!”
“How do you know my name!” Baekhyun yells. “What did you do to Jongin, you freak!”
“Baek, it is me! I’m Jongin!” Baek starts to throw his extensive Frisbee collection at him but Jongin swats each of them away as he backs up and turns to run down the stairs. Baekhyun starts to give chase. He has shorter legs but was much faster as he leapt and jumped right onto Jongin’s back. Jongin was sure that if he was in his older body he would have definitely toppled over. Baek starts to hit his head, smacking wherever he could. Jongin yelled and tried to get Baekhyun off but the man was relentless.
“Baek, goddamn that hurts! Will you stop for just one second?!”
He finally falls down on his back which made Baekhyun fall as well, the man finally letting loose his iron grip on Jongin’s neck.
“Ow, Jesus, my back,” Baekhyun whines. Jongin gets up in a flash and smiles.
“Wow! I feel…great,” he says, straightening his back. He didn’t even crack anything yet. Baekhyun immediately picks up his Jedi stick and swipes at him. Jongin quickly moves back as the man gets up and hastily tries to hit him.
“Baek! Don’t I look familiar to you?” he asks while trying to maneuver around the lightsaber.
“You-you are just…a weird good-looking man in my house!” Baekhyun says.
“Would a stranger know you have a mole on your upper lip and your thumb and your left buttcheek?”
“Pervert!” Baekhyun banshee screams and charges at him. Jongin knew his best friend and he knew he was going to tire out soon.
“Or how I know you hate cucumbers and refuse to eat anything with it?” he tries again.
“You could have wiki-ed me!”
“Fine! How about your intense crush on Park Chanyeol back in junior year of high school?”
Baekhyun gasps. “I never told anyone except…”
“See! It’s me!”
“That bastard blabbed!”
“What?”
“I’m going to kill Jongin!”
“No, I am Jongin! Jongin is me!” Jongin sees a portrait of them two together next to the couch and lunges for it before Baekhyun started to attack him again.
“See! Look.”
Baekhyun stares intently at the picture and then back at Jongin’s face.
“Oh shit,” he quickly moves his hand down but unfortunately forgot it still had a lightsaber in it and thonks Jongin hard on the head.
“Fuck!”
“Sorry!”
“Can you please stop staring at me? I understand why you were doing it twenty minutes ago but now it’s getting weird and uncomfortable,” Jongin says as he makes himself a sandwich.
“It’s just…how?” Baekhyun says, eyes wide and mouth wide open.
“I don’t know. There was this heavy storm and I was driving home and this old man was about to jump off the goddamn bridge. I went to go stop him but he jumped. Last thing I knew I woke up in bed looking like this.”
Jongin feels like this is too good to be true.
“Maybe this is a second chance!” he pipes up. Baekhyun raises an eyebrow at Jongin’s excited face.
“Second chance for what?” he asks.
“For-for everything,” Jongin starts pacing back and forth as he chews on his sandwich. “Like…I could go to high school again. I could tryout for the basketball team and get that scholarship I never had. And this is the perfect way to get close to my kids and-”
“Jongin, you’re crazy if you think you’re going to high school,” Baekhyun says, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Why would that be so crazy?” Jongin asks around a mouthful of food. He starts opening a bag of chips and digs in. “It’s perfectly believable! That old man was a spirit that came and made me younger so I could redo my shitty life!”
Baekhyun is still looking at him like he was insane. “I just don’t get why this old man, if he was an all knowing omnipotent spirit, would choose you, an insignificant human, to give a second chance to.”
“Anyway!” Jongin shouts, chip crumbs spewing out, ignoring his friend. Baekhyun scrunches his face in disgust. “I’ll do all that I can to fix this. And you’re going to help me.”
Baekhyun looks indignant. “What? Why should I?”
“I’m your best friend! Don’t you want to see me succeed? Please, you just have to pretend to be my father so I can enroll in school.”
“Yah! Do I look old enough to be your father?” Baekhyun says, whacking Jongin on the head with a newspaper. “But fine, I guess for your well-being, I will help you.”
“Hello,” Baekhyun grunts with a forced lower voice as he raises a hand to shake with the principal. The principal, Wu Yifan, raised an eyebrow but shook his hand nonetheless. Jongin elbowed his friend hard.
“I’m the one pretending, you’re actually old remember?” he hissed in his dear ‘father’s’ ear.
“Right,” Baekhyun coughed. He smiled. “Sooooo….all the paperwork’s good?”
Mr. Wu looks through Jongin’s file and nods slowly. “Everything seems…” he stops on a photo of Jongin with a hot-dog eating contest trophy. “Legit.”
“Great!” Baekhyun pipes.
“Why did Kai leave his previous school again?” Principal Wu asks. Baekhyun glances at Jongin. They never really did come up with a reason.
“I was homeschooled,” Jongin blurts out the same time Baekhyun says drugs.
Yifan raises an eyebrow. “Excuse me? What was that?”
Baekhyun coughs when Jongin glares at him. “I homeschooled him on the importance of drug safety for a while but Jongin wanted to learn about more…things…over than drugs.”
Yifan nods and Jongin opens his mouth wide at how easy Yifan allowed that flimsy excuse.
“Kai can start first thing tomorrow morning,” Mr. Wu smiles. They both bow gratefully as they leave the office.
“Wow I can’t believe it worked,” Jongin breathes once they leave.
“Thank my social skills.” Jongin is ready to make a jarring retort when someone bumps into his shoulder harshly while passing by.
“Nice clothes, douche.” Baekhyun and Jongin frown at the group of male students laughing. Baekhyun shrugged and pointed at the younger.
“They were definitely talking about you.”
Jongin opens his mouth and then closes it and then opens it.
“I’ll have you know this is the trend! Isn’t it?” he embarrassingly takes off his cap and adjusts his popped out collar. He should have really worn a belt too. Having saggy jeans were more of a hassle than comfort.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Baekhyun sighs.
Baekhyun dragged Jongin all over the mall, surprisingly still very agile for his age.
Jongin opened his mouth wide with shock with every swipe of Baekhyun’s black card on each purchase pertaining to his perfected high school look.
“You’re a true…best friend,” Jongin says, choking back a sob at the beauty in front of him.
“Shut up, it’s just a rental but you’re welcome,” Baekhyun grins as he hands over the car keys. Jongin takes it without looking away at the silver Porsche in front of him.
“Imagine we had this in high school,” Jongin whispers, mostly to himself. Baekhyun just shakes his head.
“I guess they would’ve stopped sticking my head in the toilet but they would’ve probably stolen my car. You on the other hand probably could’ve gotten any girl you wanted…” Baekhyun trails off. Jongin gets quiet, knowing the implications of his friend. But he shakes his head as well.
“Kyungsoo was always the one,” he affirms. Baekhyun simply pats his back as he heads back to his own car and they start the drive back home.
Adjusting to high school after graduating nearly eighteen years ago was certainly…hard. Kids were making out in the hallways, there were people skateboarding on the stair railings, and what exactly was the point of hall monitors if no one did their damn job?
Jongin awkwardly pushed past two couples canoodling and finally made it to his classroom. He tsked at the couples making sure to give them a stern glare, although they were a bit preoccupied to notice. His glare turned into a bright smile once he noticed Taerin was in this class.
He waved happily to his daughter but the girl rolled her eyes and turned around to talk to her friends. Jongin slowly put his hand down, dejectedly but he rushed to the empty seat behind her. This was certainly the chance to get some bonding time with his daughter even if she didn’t know it was him.
If Taerin noticed, she didn’t acknowledge his presence. Jongin frowned. He was about to ‘introduce’ himself when a big guy with unruly spiked up hair walked into the room. He was obviously cocky, walking in slowly as he chewed his gum obnoxiously and smirking at any girl he saw. Jongin rolled his eyes. He hated jerks like him. He guessed high school wasn’t all that different after all. He was just going to ignore the guy but to his surprise, he was walking in his direction.
“Please don’t come to me, please don’t come to me,” Jongin muttered under his breath as he looked down at his desk.
He looked up and his eyes widened in shock when the blonde leaned down and started kissing his daughter. Jongin’s fists clenched but he quickly went back to staring at his desk when the guy sharply turned his head towards his direction.
“Who’s this loser sitting in my seat?” he asked loudly so every single person stopped their conversation and were looking straight at them.
Jongin kept quiet, hoping he would just take a seat somewhere else. But the guy leaned a big palm on his desk and his face leaned in close, breath hitting his hair.
“I said…who is this loser sitting in my seat? Behind my girlfriend?” he said loudly in his ear. Jongin turned to him and gave a smile.
“Oh? You were talking to me? I didn’t know this lovely lady was your girlfriend. Hi I’m Kai,” he says, holding out a hand. The boy looks at it and sneers. He looks as if ready to punch Jongin’s face in when the teacher walks in.
“Joohoon, please sit down. I don’t want to see you in a fight before the second bell rings you hear? And much less hurting the new kid.”
The guy grunts one more time before winking at Taerin and sitting in a seat in the far back. Jongin shakes his head and tries to keep his anger at bay. Taerin was dating a douche like him? What the fuck?
Did Kyungsoo know about him? Did Kyungsoo consent? Jongin thinks Kyungsoo would hate a guy like Joohoon but then again he feels like he lost all rights to thinking he knows what Kyungsoo is like now.
Maybe Joohoon was a decent guy. Maybe he was nice but it was just a bad first impress-
A stinging pain hits the back of his head and he hisses. He looks behind him to see a broken piece of pencil on the floor. Joohoon snickers as he chews up a wrapper and shoots it through the straw and right onto the skin above his right eye.
“Don’t murder the kid, that’s not what you’re here for,” Jongin tells himself as he turns back around. “You can do this. There’s only…seven more periods left to go.”
“So, Byun Kai do you want to introduce yourself?”
Jongin musters a smile.
Jongin was walking to his car when his phone started ringing. His eyebrows furrowed when he saw who was calling and picked up.
“Hello Kyungsoo?”
“Where the hell are you?” Jongin is taken aback by how frustrated Kyungsoo sounds but then his eyes widen and he hits his forehead with a curse.
“Shit…it’s Thursday isn’t it?”
“Yes. And your ass isn’t here!”
“I’m so sorry but I’m going to have to cancel for today something really important came up.”
“More important than our divorce? This is so typical, Jongin. Fine, we’ll postpone the date but can you take this seriously for once?”
Jongin frowns. But he bites his tongue. “I am sorry. I will make it for the next one I promise.”
“Hn,” Kyungsoo doesn’t sound convinced one bit and Jongin could understand that. His husband hangs up and Jongin sighs at how fucked he is. He couldn’t possibly show up at his court hearing as a seventeen-year-old boy. People would call him crazy for claiming to be a thirty five year old man.
He really needs to get his life together before then. Just then he sees Taerin walking out arm and arm with that bastard, Joohoon. Jongin is ready to chase them down when he spots someone else. Taeoh is walking alone with his head down. Jongin grits his teeth at the sight of a bruise on the side of his son’s face. He rushes over immediately, shocking the boy as he moves back, arms coming up from reflex.
Jongin holds up his arms to show no harm. Taeoh relaxes but only a little bit as he walks faster.
“Wait, Taeoh!”
The boy was already spooked but after hearing him call his name, he started to run.
“Taeoh! Stop!” He catches up to Taeoh easily and pulls his shoulder back.
“Please don’t hurt me, I don’t have any lunch money left,” Taeoh whimpers. Jongin’s eyebrows furrow.
“Who would dare steal money from you?” he asks, gruffly. Taeoh cowers and Jongin lowers his voice. “More importantly, who gave you that bruise?”
“It’s none of your business! Who are you anyway? And how do you know my name?” Taeoh asks.
“I-I’m Kai. I’m new here. Uhh I’m your father’s friend, Baekhyun’s kid.” Taeoh’s eyebrow raises in disbelief.
“Uncle Baekhyun has a kid? How come I’ve never seen you before? Who’s the mother?” he questions. Jongin sighs.
“He doesn’t let me go out much. And I’m a bastard child. Anyway, answer me. Who gave you the bruise?”
Taeoh still looks uncomfortable answering but he relents.
“Joohoon and some other guys on the basketball team. It was a ball though, no fists were actually involved.” As if that justified it.
“That bastard, I’m going to kill him. Don’t ever let them touch you again you hear?” Jongin says. “Was it because they’re jealous of you?”
Taeoh lets out a loud laugh and shakes his head. “For what reason in this world would they be jealous of me?”
“Taeoh! Hurry your ass or Joohoon’s not going to drive you home!” Jongin turns to see Taerin with her arms crossed and impatiently tapping her foot.
“We live in the same house!” Taeoh yells back but one look from his sister and he mumbles a bye to Jongin and quickly runs to Joohoon’s car.
“Whoa, whoa , whoa wait. You’re going to sit in the same car as the guy who did that to you?” Jongin asks, pointing at the huge purple mark on his cheek. Taeoh looks embarrassed.
“I already missed the bus…” he says.
“I’ll drive you come on,” Jongin just smiles at Taerin as he leads Taeoh to his own car. Taerin squints her eye to see who her brother was leaving with. Jongin waves brightly. She scoffs and shakes her head but she goes into the passenger seat and tells Joohoon to just drive.
After they leave the parking lot, Jongin still looking at the car disappearing down the street shakes his head.
“I’m very disappointed in your sister. She and I are going to have a big talk when we get home.” Taeoh gives him a weird look.
“Sure whatever, just drive me home.”
“Wait, how do you know where we live?”
Jongin doesn’t see that Joohoon kid’s car when he parks into their driveway and frowns. “Where did your sister go?”
Taeoh just shrugs as he unbuckles his seatbelt and gets off. “Probably on a date or something.” Jongin fumes but he gets out of the car. He accepts Taeoh’s offer to get a drink before he goes ‘home.’
“I think my dad just got home but he’s fine with people over,” Taeoh says. Jongin feels so, so odd coming into his home as a friend, a guest, instead of a bug Kyungsoo would very much like to get rid of.
“Oh hi.”
Jongin turns so quick, he almost stumbles but he catches himself and bows multiple times. “Hello, Mr. Kim.”
“Ah actually it’s Mr. Do but hello, are you a friend of Taeoh’s?” Kyungsoo says as he smiles nicely. Jongin is stunned for a couple of seconds. It has been so long since he has seen Kyungsoo smile genuinely at him no less that he forgets how to speak. It also was a stark contrast to how he sounded earlier on the phone.
Taeoh notices and steps up to save him the embarrassment. “This is Uncle Baekhyun’s bastard, Kai. He gave me a drive home today since Joohoon and Taerin are busy doing girlfriend boyfriend things. So I’m going to give him some drinks as thanks.”
“Oh sure no problem, get any drink you want from the fridge. I also made kimchi jigae if you’re hungry,” Kyungsoo says as he walks into the kitchen. Jongin nearly moans, mouth already watering at the thought of Kyungsoo’s cooking. It has been so damn long since he had tasted his husband’s food.
“If you don’t mind,” Jongin says, bowing and giving his thanks.
Taeoh excuses himself so he could change into more comfortable clothes and Jongin nods but on the inside, he is sweating bullets.
“You know, you look a lot like my ex-husband, Jongin when he was young,” Kyungsoo says. Jongin smiles weakly and sits down.
“Oh really? Must have been good looking then,” he jokes. Kyungsoo laughs and Jongin thinks that’s that but his husband surprisingly answers.
“He was the best looking in the entire school,” he says. Jongin nearly chokes on his own saliva.
“Really?”
“Mmhm, was good at sports too. Really was the entire package.” Jongin tries not to beam. But then he remembers the keyword ‘was’.
“How’s your father?” Kyungsoo asks, stirring the jigae. He scoops some into a bowl and hands it to Jongin. The boy gives thanks before settling on the counter. Kyungsoo looks weirdly at him and gives an amused smile.
“My husband used to always eat the counter, never liked eating on the dinner table,” Kyungsoo comments. Jongin nearly chokes and he hasn’t even taken a first bite yet.
“Um, my father’s okay,” he answers his first question to change the subject. “Your hus-uh ex-husband…he’s doing well too.”
Kyungsoo hums but doesn’t say anything else before getting some yogurt drinks out of the fridge.
“Jongin also left so many of these yogurt drinks in the fridge so really, help yourself,” Kyungsoo says, putting at least four or five of them next to him.
“Thank you Mr. Ki-I mean Mr. Do. Sorry,” he mumbles.
“Don’t worry about it, it’s a recent separation. Excuse me, I have to get ready for a date,” Kyungsoo says apologetically. “You can just leave the dishes in the sink I’ll take care of it.”
Jongin is about to say yes in affirmation but then his mind reruns those last few words.
“Date?” he asks, throat dry. He quickly opens a yogurt drink and downs it before Kyungsoo answers. The man is washing his hands but turns his head to him and smiles.
“Mhm. My first date in a while,” he says casually. Meanwhile Jongin loses his appetite. Taeoh comes back in the room.
“Hey Kai, do you like video games? I have a ton we could play,” he says. Kyungsoo tsks and hits Taeoh’s head lightly.
“Don’t you have homework? And if Kai is busy, you should be letting him go home soon.”
“Ah, it’s quite alright. We could do homework together if that’s okay?” Jongin says. “Then we can play afterwards,” he says to Taeoh right after. His son smiles brightly and nods.
“Deal.”
Kyungsoo is stunned silent. It was never easy to get Taeoh to do his homework. But he smiles and pats both boys on the back.
“As long as it gets done.” He leaves to go to his room and Jongin resists the urge to follow.
“Do you know your dad is going on a date?” he says when Taeoh leads him to his room.
“Uh…yeah. But good for dad you know?” Taeoh says as he takes out some worksheets. Jongin sits down on the carpet and ruffles through his papers with a pout.
“I mean how do you feel about it? Like…about your other dad and stuff?” Jongin says, trying to sound nonchalant about it. Taeoh still looks at him suspiciously.
“Is my father telling you things?” Taeoh says. “Cause he tends to exaggerate.” Jongin wants to hit his head on a wall. “And dad can do whatever he wants. Father is the one that screwed things up.” Jongin thinks he might already be crying. “I still love him and all but he should have tried harder.”
Jongin frowns. In his heart he always knew it was him at fault but to hear it from his own son really stung. He murmurs he’s going to go to the bathroom real quick.
“Oh okay, bathroom is right around the-“ Jongin murmurs a ‘got it’ to which Taeoh just looks after him confusedly but continues working on his homework as Jongin leaves the room. He goes to the living room and sees Kyungsoo is already dressed in black button up and black slacks. Jongin smiles as Kyungsoo didn’t really change all that much in choice of attire. He walks closer while Kyungsoo starts putting on his pair of nice shoes. The one he usually wears the rare times Jongin took him out on dates.
“You look…great Mr. Do,” Jongin says. Kyungsoo jumps at his voice and straightens up with a blush.
“Ah thanks, Kai. It was nice meeting you,” he says as he grabs a light jacket and turns to leave. Jongin had so much to say. I hope the guy’s a jerk, is one of the many thoughts. But he holds it and lets Kyungsoo leave. He was at least hoping to catch a glimpse of the guy. Jongin runs to the window and peeks out the blinds.
He can only spot a black car, as Kyungsoo climbs into the passenger seat. Jongin tches. He didn’t even come out to the door to greet Kyungsoo, what a dick, Jongin thinks.
“What are you doing?” Jongin turns to see Taeoh grabbing a glass and pouring water in it. “Are you spying on my dad?”
“Psh, no. Was just curious on who his date was, that’s all.”
“Hm, looks like you were spying so you could tell my father,” Taeoh says as he drinks his water.
“I wouldn’t do that!” Jongin whines, upset at how childish that sounds.
For the rest of the hour, Jongin just tries to focus on homework. He wasn’t up to date with all this high school academics as he thought and he took longer than he expected. But they finish and Jongin plays with Taeoh as promised. He doesn’t remember the last time he has spent so much time with his son.
“Damn have you played an actual game before? What the heck? Even my dad is better at this game than you,” Taeoh says, laughing as Jongin’s character dies again. “You play just like my father.”
“I can’t help it, my dad doesn’t let me touch his games!” Which was true, Baekhyun was incredibly stingy about his games. “Why the heck are there so many buttons? Is this even necessary?” As Jongin rambles about the multiple buttons, his character dies yet again.
Taeoh just laughs and shakes his head as he goes in for another kill.
“Okay, I think I’m done with this for the day,” Jongin says as he chucks the controller to the side.
“Yeah I was getting kinda bored of kicking your butt.”
“You hurt me,” Jongin puts his hand on his chest in mock offense. “So uhh your dad buy you these games?”
“Yeah. Think he thought I was going to be upset about him divorcing my father,” Taeoh says shrugging. “Not gonna complain about that.”
“And are you? Um upset about your parent’s divorce, that is.” Jongin tries not to look too interested, as he casually plays with the fur on the carpet.
“I guess every kid sort of has to be a little upset right? But they weren’t good for each other so maybe this is for the best,” Taeoh says. He looks uncomfortable sharing this but Jongin just has to know.
“Is your dad happy?”
“Huh?”
“Your dad. Is he happy that he’s…separating from your father?”
Taeoh shrugs again. “It’s hard to tell. I know dad will always love my father but some things don’t work out you know? So he keeps himself busy, hoping to move on.”
Jongin must have looked troubled because Taeoh searches through his other games. “Let’s play something else. I’m sure you wouldn’t be too bad at Mario Kart.”
Jongin goes home with his heart heavier than usual. He loved hanging out with his son and in that, some tension was finally released from his heart. But he was still unhappy. He was grateful he could see a part of his son’s life he wasn’t able to before but he was hoping his son would be more open to his own father and not to a friend he had only just met. He wants to fix this. He wants to be a part of the family again. He wants his son to convey his feelings to him and he wants his daughter to be proud of a father like him. He wants Kyungsoo to not feel as though a heavy burden was lifted as soon as they were separated. He wants Kyungsoo to not feel alone in having the world as a weight on his shoulders.
He just wants Kyungsoo back because he never stopped loving Kyungsoo.
“Yah, where have you been? It’s way past your bedtime,” Baekhyun yells as soon as Jongin walks in through the door.
“I was at Kyungsoo’s,” he simply says. Baekhyun raises his eyebrow as he gets up from the couch.
“Oh. Why?”
“I was hanging out with Taeoh. Kyungsoo didn’t recognize me. But he left for a date,” Jongin says the word as if it was poison in his mouth.
Baekhyun looks at him sympathetically and pats him on the back. “You knew that would happen eventually.”
“Yeah but that soon? We’re not even properly divorced!” Jongin gripes. Baekhyun shrugs.
“He’s just trying to move on, bro. And I’m sure he needs fresh air, you guys were fighting for a decade.”
“Thanks Baek, really needed that.”
“In all seriousness, what is it that you want? When you were with Kyungsoo all you did was complain but now that you guys are over, you still complain! All those years married and all you did was talk about how your life would have been so much better if you didn’t knock him up.”
Jongin’s heart constricts and something ugly sets itself in his stomach.
“Those weren’t my words-“
“But that’s what you were implying wasn’t it? How you never liked your job but didn’t bother to look for another because ‘I don’t have a college degree’ and why didn’t you have your degree? Because you knocked up your high school boyfriend. How you made empty promises to your husband but then broke them in record time? How you made Kyungsoo feel worthless? As if you did so much for him. Well guess what Jongin, Kyungsoo sacrificed a lot for you too. It wasn’t just a one way street.”
Jongin chokes up. “You think I didn’t realize this by now? It’s already too late. I still love him but he doesn’t love me anymore. I ruined it all. I lost my family. I lost my home. I lost the only thing that ever mattered only cause my big head was all I ever knew.”
“I’m not saying all of this to make you feel bad, Jongin. I mean that’s a part of it. I’m saying this so you’re more certain of what you want this time around. You can’t just go back and forth on him because that’s selfish. You have to want this more than anything you’ve ever wanted before. ”
“I never stopped. I’ve always wanted Kyungsoo the most.” Baekhyun throws his arms up, exasperated.
“Show him that! How the hell is he supposed to know?”
“Yeah! I will. By the next court date I will confess. I will beg for another chance on my damn knees.”
“You better damn right get him back. Make him happy this time,” Baekhyun smiles and wipes away mock tears.
Part 2