FOR THE FUTURE ⋮ nohyuck/markhyuck/markhyuckno

Chapter Twenty-One

Jeno and Donghyuck tried to find every little toy car inside the room, pack Noram's clothes, and even made sure to put some candies as well as the gifts he received from them. In the meantime, Mark must've been doing the same as Donghyuck had already informed him in fear that the kid left something at that dorm too.

Noram wasn't aware of the plan for quite a while. When it was afternoon, according to Donghyuck's plan, Mark had to take Noram to the woods earlier, with no explainable reason, and write Future Donghyuck a letter about this whole thing. Then the kid's most hated person―his Papa―had to appear together with Uncle, who tried to pass as Daddy.

They did just that.

The kid was building a snowman when Donghyuck and Jeno approached the portal. He heard their footsteps, or crunchy layer of snow, and looked over his shoulder, scanning their expressions and possibly freaking out. He rushed to Mark, who stood there reading something, perhaps, a letter, and bashed his head into Daddy's stomach, wrapping his arms around his waist afterward.

"Stop it," Mark laughed. "Why do you always―"

He noticed the two and grimaced.

"Took you a while."

"Noram," Donghyuck said, getting a whine from the kid. He even buried his head into Mark's jacket as if he wanted to go underneath and hide.

"Noram, look at him," Mark hummed, patting the kid's head.

The latter didn't react.

"Fine," Donghyuck said, running out of patience. "Then I won't tell you goodbye and just leave. Here's your backpack."

The brunette didn't really intend to leave, he just wanted Noram to end this childish game, and as he didn't have much experience with kids, he talked harshly.

It seemed to reach the depths of Noram's mind. Slowly pulling away from Mark, the kid checked on Donghyuck and, noticing that he looked serious, Noram panicked.

"Okay, I'll stop! I'm sorry!"

He suddenly changed teams and left Mark's side only to bash his head into Donghyuck and hug him.

"I'm sorry!"

The brunette sighed, ruffling the kid's hair, "Apology accepted, although you worried me to the death."

These words startled Noram. Looking up with eyes full of tears, the boy gasped.

"Are you dying?"

"No way," Jeno chuckled. "That was just a comparison. A very bad comparison."

"It's... scary."

They stayed like this for a couple of minutes until Noram stopped crying. Then he became energetic and returned to the snowman building. He even asked for others to join too.

"Noram, I'm not finished," Donghyuck cleared his throat.

"Wait, Papa. I want to make its stomach so I can finish with his head next time."

"That's exactly what I want to talk about," Donghyuck said, a little awkwardly, receiving a facepalm from Mark.

Noram stopped playing. He turned at the three in confusion. Donghyuck was suddenly stunned and had to look away as his eyes were just too expressive.

"What your Papa wanted to say is..." Jeno started. "Well, we think it's about time you should go back. It's the 4th of January today. Less than 20 days are left until the portal closes, and everything changes. We think... that it would be great if you spend your last days with him instead."