THAT SECRETARY

twenty

“channie?” i call out as soon as i step into jaemin's house. there are still students and i'm assuming that channie is also here with them. “baby?”

“channie no daddy!”

i furrow my eyebrows when i heard a few laughs obviously from babies, and a soft sob.

“me, channie have daddy! i have daddy! i have daddy mawk wee!”

“we didn't see him!” when i peep on the door of another room, i saw another kid pointing a finger on channie while channie cries.

“you have no daddy! unlike us—”

“what's going on here?” i said with a gritted voice. i'm totally triggered when i heard them made fun of channie for not having a daddy when in fact i'm here.

“who are you mister?” another child replies and titled his head at me.

i crouch down and hiss. “i am lee haechan's daddy and i'm here to tell you that it's not good to make fun of other people because of not having a daddy!”

“daddy!” channie sobs and raises both his arms for me to carry him. “daddy, they fight with channie!”

“w-we didn't!”

“he started it first!”

“no… we didn't—”

i click my tongue and let channie's face bury on my neck as i grab a few bills from my wallet.

“here…”

“what is this mister?” the one who pointed at channie earlier grabbed the bills but with pure hesitations.

“buy candies or something but… i don't want to hear anything like this again, okay? i don't want any of you to make my son cry again nor any other kids, do you understand?”

“y-yes, mister!”

“now go!” i motioned for them to run and they did. now i'm left alone with the crying baby in my arms.

“baby, are you okay?”

he sobs. “where is papa?”

“he's sleeping in my car. do you want to go to papa now?”

“mawk wee.” he says when we started walking away from jaemin's empty house.

“baby? what's wrong?” i frown when i didn't hear him call me his daddy.

once we've reached the car, he reaches for his seat and placed himself sloppily before tapping his papa at the front.

“baby, don't wake papa up. he's tired.” i said and planted a kiss on his forehead. “stop crying now baby. does anything hurt?”

donghyuck started whimpering and wiping his eyes. then he looked over his shoulder and saw his baby crying, making his eyes widen in shock.

“what happened? channie, why are you crying? hey…”

“papa.”

“yes baby, tell me what's wrong. mark, what happened?”

“a few of his classmates made fun of him—”

“channie has no daddy, papa right?” donghyuck gasps while i'm left frowning.

“baby i'm here. i am your daddy.”

“what is this all about channie?” donghyuck squeezed himself in between to sit beside channie. “baby channie!”

“mawk wee is channie's not weal daddy.” channie sobs again making my heart ache and i'm sure donghyuck's hurt by this statement as well.