「 lukewarm | yang hongseok 」

[ f o u r ]

04 | don't leave

Walking into his home, Hongseok was confronted with a completely silent house. Tilting his head, he slipped off his shoes to see that Juhyung's shoes weren't there along with Yeseul's. Trying to stay calm, he looked around the house to see no one was there, looking both on the first and second floor. After ten minutes of looking around, he finally pulled out his phone to call her.

"Hello?"
"Where are you two? Are you guys safe?", Hongseok asked quickly, running a hand through his hair out of fear.
"Yeah, we're just at the playground near by. Is there something wrong?", Yeseul questioned.

The police officer let out a breath of relief, shaking his head as he slipped on his shoes once again. "Um, yeah, I was just worried because I came home to an empty house"
"Oh, I'm so sorry - I thought we were going to be back before you came home. Do you want me to bring him back to your house now?"

With his phone still pressed against his ear, Hongseok slipped out of the house and made his way towards the park. "No, I'll meet you two there. I'll see you soon"
With that, Hongseok ended the phone call and was soon presented with the light blue and grey playground. There were trees surrounding the playset, the floor of it being that weird foamy material that had a rock-like texture (and that's what Hongseok hated the most because those bits always got stuck in his shoes). There was also grass outside of it if you wanted to throw a ball or play with your dogs. Turning the corner, he saw Juhyung on the swing, Yeseul pushing him as he laughed happily.

With a warm smile etching its way onto Hongseok's face, the police man walked over to the both of them with his hands in his pockets, standing a good distance in front of the small boy so that he doesn't get kicked in the face. Juhyung's eyes widened and midway through the air he jumped off the swing, falling on his knees and face but quickly got up. He ran up to his father, jumping into his arms and hugged him tightly.

"Daddy!", he exclaimed, smiling widely, "How was work?"

"It was good, but go play on the slides for a little bit, okay? I need to talk to Miss Yeseul", Hongseok smiled, patting his son's back before watching him run off to play with the other kids. He stood up and stuffed his hands in his pockets, shifting from foot to foot as he met Yeseul's cat-like eyes. "Is it okay if you watch Juhyung on certain days? My parents might not be able to babysit him as frequently and my brother has been really busy with work. I know this is all sudden and I don't want to force this on you -"

"That's fine, Hongseok, no need to ramble", she chuckled. With a sigh of relief, the man gave her a gentle smile.
"I can pay you because I feel bad that you're babysitting my son for me when we don't know each other that much. How about -", before he could continue, Yeseul already cut him off with a small smile.
"It's fine, I don't need money. Besides, Juhyung is a really nice and sweet kid"

Hongseok smiled to himself, proud that his son was worthy of such a compliment. Of course he knew that his son was kind and nice and handsome (come on, he raised Juhyung and has his looks), but just hearing it from someone else made him even more proud. Call him petty, but it made him happy that he was able to raise his kid to have good manners all by himself without Aerum.

"You like Iron Man?", Yeseul chuckled, snapping Hongseok out of his thoughts. His eyes widened in surprise, shaking his head quickly at her.
"O-Of course not! Superheroes are for little kids - Juhyung likes him", he hastily responded, clearly lying through his teeth.

"Nice try, but Juhyung told me that his dad loves Iron Man and even has action figures of him", she rolled her eyes, laughing. "He told me that he likes Spider Man"
Hongseok felt his ears grow hot, screaming internally because his son told an almost friend his secret.

How embarrassing, he thought to himself, squeezing his eyes shut and groaned in embarrassment.

"Don't worry though! I like Captain America - I mean he's pretty hot", Yeseul responded, giggling. Hongseok let out a breath of relief, sending her a small smile but was holding back the urge to argue why Iron Man was better. He decided to let it slide just this one time so he wouldn't make more of a fool of himself. They continued to talk as they sat on a bench, watching Juhyung play with the local children.

↺ ↺ ↺

Hongseok awoke to the sound of muffled sobs, checking the time on his phone to see that it was almost three in the morning. Sluggishly getting out of bed, he crept through the halls to see that the cries were coming from Juhyung's room. With wide eyes he slowly opened up the door, rushing to his son's side to see that he was crying while he was sleeping - tears streaming down his puffy cheeks as his red lips quivered.

Hongseok was silently panicking at this point - he didn't know what to do! Juhyung never had a nightmare this bad before, normally he would wake up and go to his dad's room before falling asleep with him - he never cried during his dreams. It was bad too - he was breathing heavier than usual which made his father panic even more.

"J-Juhyunggie, wake up", Hongseok quivered, shaking his son with little force and tried to wake him up. He didn't want his son to have an asthma attack, Juhyung never had one ever since he was two. When the small boy wasn't responding, Hongseok shook him more vigorously. "Juhyung, w-wake up!"

After a few, long minutes of trying to wake Juhyung up, the boy finally stirred and fluttered open his puffy eyes. He was panting heavily, gasping for air as more and more tears streamed down his red cheeks. Hongseok immediately sprang into action and grabbed his inhaler, sitting up his son and placed a firm hand on his back before pressing down the canister. He released his breath that he didn't know he was holding, a sweat forming on his forehead as he looked at his son with anxious eyes.

"Are y-you okay?", Hongseok asked with a shaking voice, stroking his back. Juhyung didn't say anything, instead he hugged his dad tightly and cried into his chest.

"D-Don't leave m-me", he sputtered out, clutching onto the sweater's fabric as his tears stained the maroon material. The dad froze, shaking his head slowly as he hugged his son back.
"Of course I won't leave you, Juhyung", he responded softly, stroking his dark hair. "Why would I leave you?"

Juhyung grew silently after his question, burying his face in the soft material and dried his tears on it. "C-Can I s-sleep with you tonight?"

Hongseok's heart broke as he saw the fear in his son's round eyes, his nose red from how hard he cried. He gave him a kiss on his forehead, nodding before scooping Juhyung into his arms and carried him to his queen sized bed. Although it is intended for two people, he knew that he would have to sleep on the edge of the bed because of how sporadic his son's movements were when he was asleep - but for his son he doesn't mind.

Placing Juhyung under his bed's covers, Hongseok went into the bathroom and wet a face towel with cold water before walking back out to clean the boy's face with it. After doing so, he saw that he was falling asleep already. Hongseok softly smiled at his son and hanged the towel for it to dry before slipped under the blanket with him, giving Juhyung one last kiss before falling asleep.