Chapter Text
Recommended bgm: What A Time - Julia Michaels (ft. Niall Horan)
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“Daddy, can you hurry up? Can we go now?” Xinyi stands on her toes to pull on Minghao’s sleeve, which almost makes him tip the spoon over and spill the scrambled eggs.
“I’m almost done, honey,” Minghao sighs and speeds up shoving breakfast into his mouth under his daughter’s nagging.
It’s Xinyi’s first day of school in Korea. Normally speaking, kids are pretty hesitant on their first day of school (if not crying at the top of their lungs that they don’t want to go anywhere without their parents). But Xinyi doesn’t seem to fit in the category.
She has picked out her favorite strawberry dress to wear despite the chilly weather (she successfully persuaded Minghao to let her wear it after promising to wear a pair of warm fuzzy stockings underneath) and made Minghao braid her dark, soft hair into two french braids, with matching pink bows to tie them off at the end. Any stranger would have thought she’s going to celebrate a holiday in that outfit.
Minghao doesn’t know where she gets that from, because it’s so completely unlike himself. Maybe her birth parents, he thinks. He is always grateful for the woman who gave birth to his little angel, even though he has never met her in person. Not a single day goes by without him thanking her for bearing the little creature for 10 months in her womb.
When Minghao finally finishes eating, he and Xinyi pick up the empty plates to put in the dishwasher. The little girl almost flies off the stairs on their way to the car, her backpack jumping up and down at each of her bounce–thinking this will become the usual sight to start his morning from now on, Minghao can’t help but smile as he unlocks the car door.
❀
“ Smell Flower Kind… kindagarden …” One hand in her dad’s, Xinyi frowns as she tries hard to read the lettering on the front gate.
“It’s Smile Flower Kindergarten, sweetheart,” corrects a friendly middle-aged woman, “Welcome! You must be Xinyi.”
Not a bit shy, Xinyi nods, beaming brightly.
“You must be the headteacher,” Minghao bows politely to the woman. “Mrs. Park, thank you for helping us through the transfer process over the phone. It is really nice to meet you in person.”
“You are welcome, Mr. Seo,” Mrs. Park greets back warmly. Minghao pats slightly on Xinyi’s shoulder, speaks clearly and slowly in Korean: “Now, what are you going to say to Mrs. Park?”
“Good Moorning , nice to meet you, Ma’am!” Xinyi says in her not-so-fluent Korean with full enthusiasm.
Mrs. Park giggles at her cuteness. “Good morning. I’m sure you will do well here, darling.”
“I would hope so. After all, she’s quite outgoing, and she likes to learn,” Minghao agrees, proudness of his daughter peeking out from his words, and gives her hand to Mrs. Park gently.
“That’s wonderful!” Spotting a tall figure moving towards the gate, Mrs. Park waves for the person to come over quickly. “That will be Xinyi’s homeroom teacher, I want to introduce you to him. That way if there is anything in the future, you can directly communicate with him.”
“That would be very nice,” Minghao accepts her kind consideration with a nod.
“Good morning Mrs. Park,” greets the tall man, his chocolate-colored locks shining under the late autumn sun, soft and fluffy.
“Mr. Seo, this is Mr. Kim, homeroom teacher of Sunflower Class.”
❀
The world must be really small.
It must be so small that among all the kindergartens that Minghao could have chosen in a metropolis like Seoul, all the classes that his daughter could have been in within this specific kindergarten, she ends up being the student of his college ex-boyfriend.
But time isn't so generous, freezing itself to give him that much time to think.
“Mingh… Mr. Seo,” the tall man in the pink apron bites down his own tongue greeting Minghao with a dry, nervous laugh. Surprised, and obviously uncomfortable.
“Mr….” Minghao feels a lump in his throat as he tries to say the other’s name. Not a painful feeling, but not very pleasant, either. He clears his throat with a slight cough. “Mr. Kim.”
Mingyu looks at the little girl by Mrs. Park’s side, waves at her with a forced smile trying not to scare her. Then his eyes travel back to the black-haired man in front of him.
“This… is your daughter.” It’s not a question, no. So there’s no need for Minghao to reply.
Mrs. Park gazes between the two, sensing the tension in the air. She chimes in gingerly. “Do… do you two know each other?”
“Well,” Mingyu glances at Minghao a little awkwardly, “We were–”
“–We knew of each other in university,” Minghao jumps in before Mingyu’s words form into an answer, his voice almost mechanical.
“Oh!” Mrs. Park makes an exaggerated exclamation. “What a coincidence!”
“I know, right?” Minghao’s brow quirks unnoticeably as he returns to wearing the warm but distant smile. Hearing an upbeat melody ring from the kindergarten building, Minghao kneels down by his daughter's side. She has been quietly observing the whole exchange with much confusion and an equal amount of curiosity.
“Hey, sweetie,” as he whispers to her in Mandarin, the lines of his features immediately soften. “Daddy will be going now, I will pick you up after school. You will do well, won’t you?”
Xinyi nods. “I will be good and make a lot of friends!”
Minghao smiles, strokes her braids gently, and fixes the left bow that has become a little tilted in all her running. He rises. “Well, I’m sure you will take good care of her, Mr. Kim. ”
“Of course,” Mingyu’s voice is even drier than before, but it's not hard to tell he’s trying desperately to sound as normal as possible. He extends a hand to the little girl. “Xinyi, is that right? I’m Mr. Kim. It’s almost class time, let’s go into our Sunflower Class, what do you say?”
She runs to Mingyu's side to tug at his sleeve, a little habit of hers, excitement bursting out from her eyes in the shapes of stars. “Let’s go, let’s go! Xinyi wants a Sunflower !”
“Of course, you can have a sunflower.”
Minghao watches her disappear into a smaller and smaller dot tagging along with the familiar stranger. He opens the car door, but his motion to close it slows down as the rest of their conversation slips into the car between gushes of cold wind.
“Mr. Kim, what is a Sunflower ?”
“You don’t know what a sunflower is and you want one already?”
“I don’t know, the word sounds pretty in Korean.”
“It’s a type of flower with a really pretty, bright yellow, and there are many many black seeds in between…”
“Wait, wait, you are speaking too fast!”
“Sorry, sorry! It’s a yellow flower, with, a lot of, black, seeds, in the middle.”
“What is seeds ?”
“It’s the little, hard thing that you plant in the soil.”
“What do you mean plant ?”
“That means….”
Maybe he isn’t that bad as a kindergarten teacher.
❀
The first week of school passes peacefully without requiring any contact with Mingyu besides their awkward greetings every morning and afternoon. Which isn’t too bad–Minghao can even say that it’s getting less and less uncomfortable by the day. They can almost look at each other in the eyes without having the urge to start a fight now, a big accomplishment.
“Daddy, can you drive a little faster?” Seeing Minghao zone out and miss the green light, Xinyi gets agitated reading the clock.
Minghao zaps back into reality. “Sorry! But we still have time–there are only three more blocks.”
“I know,” Xinyi mumbles in her safety seat in the back, “But I have something special today.”
“What is it?”
Like an ostrich, she buries her head between her shoulders. “I can’t tell you.”
Minghao raises his chin in surprise, drags out a teasing tone. “I see, Xinyi, you are holding secrets from me now?”
“No!” Xinyi whines, pouting. “It’s not like that. Daddy, stop asking me questions!”
When Minghao walks out of the car to help her out of the seat as usual, she has already unbuckled herself.
“Good morning, Xinyi!” By the front gate is Mingyu, wearing a blue apron with a cartoon cloud embroidered today. He smiles and waves.
“Mr. Kim!” She jumps out of the car with glee, runs to hug Mingyu’s thigh so excitedly that she even forgot to say goodbye to Minghao.
“Are you ready for our project today?” With her most positive answer, Mingyu hugs her tightly while greeting two other kids who are just walking in. A stinging sour suffuses inside Minghao’s chest, but he doesn’t want to acknowledge it.
Seeing him still standing by the car, lost, Mingyu taps on Xinyi’s shoulder to have her turn around. “Remember to say goodbye to your daddy, he’s sulking. ”
The little triumphant smirk at Mingyu’s lips sets the nostalgic annoyance aflame. Minghao clicks his tongue.
“Bye, daddy–let’s go, Mr. Kim! It’s cold outside!“
“Alright, whatever you say.”
No, Minghao needs to correct his previous statement. He can never live peacefully with the presence of this man. Never.
❀
“So,” begins Soonyoung chewing on a mouthful of white rice, “I heard you and the transfer kid’s dad were college mates.”
Mingyu almost chokes on his ramyeon. “Well, I guess you can say that.”
“What a coincidence. You know, Jihoon and I were high school classmates,“ Soonyoung scoops up some kimchi. “But we weren’t that close back in high school–I tried to befriend him, but he hated my guts for some obscene reason, so it never worked out. But then on a reunion after graduation, we somehow ended up drinking together. Just the two of us! And then, boom, we clicked.”
Mingyu laughs drily. “That’s… wonderful.”
“Were you two close in college times?”
We knew of each other, Mingyu remembers Minghao interrupting him in front of Mrs. Park. If he doesn’t want people to know about what happened between them, it’s understandable. Having a past homosexual relationship with the teacher of your child–it could bring you quite a lot of nasty rumors among other parents.
But it’s Soonyoung. If Mingyu can only confess his troubles to one person, it would be Soonyoung. With their similar background, he can, and he would understand (even though the chances of him actually spilling it to someone else is high).
Weighing the pros and cons, Mingyu checks to make sure they are the only ones in the office, and finally puts down his chopsticks. “We… we knew each other quite well, actually.”