FOR THE FUTURE ⋮ nohyuck/markhyuck/markhyuckno

Chapter Eighteen

Although Jeno was as young as Donghyuck, he was full of surprises. The brunette knew his boyfriend for nearly three years, and he would've never thought that Jeno was so great with kids. Not only did he substitute Donghyuck in taking care of Noram, combing his hair and helping him to dress or playing with him, giving some time for the brunette to rest, but he also switched into a kid-friendly mode, and stopped swearing, talking only with easy words for a kid to understand.

When Donghyuck complimented him, Jeno wasn't surprised. Instead, he said he read about kids on the internet and thought about practicing on Noram. He claimed to do everything to be a good father, and since Noram was the same baby inside of Donghyuck, he thought of this as the best practice.

"Not everyone gets such a chance," Jeno added. "It's like a spoiler of how it would be after eight years."

There was this one thing Jeno couldn't get out of his head and it involved Noram's interest in baseball. Together with Donghyuck, he brought Noram to the stadium and admired how the kid excitedly ran from one corner to another. After observation, Jeno called Noram to come closer and gave the kid the first baseball bat.

"It's heavy," Noram complained.

"Oh, is it?" Jeno chuckled.

Assisting, Jeno taught Noram how to swing the bat. It was all great until the pitcher let go of the bat, and the kid, too keen to swing it by himself, swayed it so hard all of sudden that he struck the baseball bat to Jeno's knees.

Panicking, Donghyuck rose from the plastic chair and rushed to Jeno, who fell backward.

"Are you okay?"

"What happened?" Noram asked as he turned around, obviously clueless.

"N-nothing," Jeno laughed. "Just a little injury."

Domghyuck began touching his boyfriend's legs, checking how bad it was.

"Your legs aren't broken, right?"

"No. He's a kid. He can't swing that strongly."

However, Jeno needed time to recover, so he stayed seated on the floor for a while until he could finally stand up and support himself on his legs.

"How about Papa throws a ball, and you try to hit the pitch? I'll stand behind you, Noram, and if I catch it, Papa and I win."

"If I play, this would be like a baseball parody," Donghyuck scoffed.

"We need a parody. It's a new player here," Jeno patted Noram's shoulders.

Donghyuck agreed as soon as he noticed how excited Noram was. He really liked playing baseball even though he didn't have many skills yet.

"Should I throw weak ones?" the brunette whispered to his boyfriend.

"Pitch a normal one. It's still gonna be weak."

Donghyuck glared.

"I'm just joking. Try to match his strength."

Their little game turned out to be quite fun. At first, Donghyuck threw weak pitches, but he noticed that Noram kept hitting them, and Jeno never got a chance to catch the ball. Trying to challenge the kid, Donghyuck threw a ball higher and that ended dramatically. Noram began accusing him of cheating!

"Papa's cheating. I'm not that tall!"

"Can't accept that you missed one pitch?" Donghyuck teased.

Letting out a gasp full of overreaction, Noram turned to Jeno for support. He must've shown his famous puppy eyes as Jeno felt lost for a second and then smiled apologetically to Donghyuck.