「 lukewarm | yang hongseok 」

[ f i v e ]

05 | perfect

The next morning, Juhyung didn't remember anything from last night which made Hongseok both relieved yet worried. Of course it's normal for a young child to not remember their dreams, but he wanted to know what his son was dreaming about. Nonetheless, he decided to just let it be and let it go, it's not like it was going to happen again, anyways.

"Juhyung, you know it's Sunday, right?", Hongseok asked as they ate cereal at the kitchen table. The small boy nodded, slurping up his milk and swung his feet happily under the table, kicking his dad in the process. "And since you didn't do your homework when we got back from the playground, that means you have to do it today"

Juhyung's positivity soon diminished, a frown now on his lips as he whined. "But daddy! Homework is boring! Why do they even give us that?"

Hongseok laughed as he picked up the bowls and placed them into the sink, hearing his son complain and whine. "Come on, it can't be that hard, right?", he asked.

He saw Juhyung press his lips together over his shoulder, a sigh leaving his lips before he trudged over to his backpack and placed it next to him. He opened it up and revealed his red take-home folder, opening it up and took only two pieces of homework which was reading and spelling.

"The sooner you get it done, the more time you get to play", Hongseok piped in, turning around to do he dishes. Juhyung huffed, pulling out the pieces of paper that was slightly crumpled and filled with doodles. "That's my boy"

Truth be told, Juhyung never liked reading and spelling because he was never good at it. The words on the piece of paper never made any sense, what do they even mean? He didn't get how everyone was able to understand it, they were just a jumble of characters that seemed to dance on the paper and float around. And spelling was just as bad - the way you spell a word doesn't sound anything like the word! How do people even do that?

The other kids in his class never got homework during the weekends, just him. Ms. Kim said that it was suppose to help him get better at reading and writing, but it never did. It just made him more upset and stressed, and it made him lose more time playing with his dad or watching TV. But did he tell his daddy? Of course not.

He knew how stressed out his father can get because of work and saw how hard he works, so he just kept it to himself. He was also too embarrassed to ask his dad for help, he wanted to be the best for his father - what happens if he finds out that he isn't good at spelling and reading? Would his daddy not love him anymore? Would he be yelled at? Would his dad leave him?

That's why Juhyung always seems to 'lose' or 'forget' his spelling and reading tests, so that his dad doesn't find out about how much he's struggling at school.

After twenty minutes of struggling and confusion, the small boy finally gave up and wrote random characters on the spelling lines and bubbled in random letters for the reading assignment. He quickly shoved the papers in his folder and hopped off of the chair, tackling his father with a big hug. "Daddy, let's go play video games!", he smiled happily, dragging his father onto the couch and grabbed two Wii controllers.

"Did you finish your homework?", Hongseok asked, raising a brow at his son. Juhyung nodded quickly, shoving the controller into his father's hand.

"I did, now let's play!"

↺ ↺ ↺

Juhyung didn't know why his dad was acting so weird this morning : he kept on asking if he remembered his dream from last night. Of course when he said he didn't, he saw his father breathe out in relief but still had his worried face on - knitted eyebrows and pursed lips. He also tapped his foot against the tiled floors of the kitchen, but he didn't know what made him worry.