Hang on. Where's the baby?

Taking care of a child is a huge responsibility. From the diapers and no sleep stage to the "I need to make sure my child develops a good and loving personality stage" to the "make sure they're ready to go out into the world alone" stage, it's never supposed to be an easy thing. But sometimes it really wears a parent (or two) out.

Wonwoo's internal monologue was centered around all these thoughts when he, for the first time, had to take care of Jiwoo alone. Both Junhui and him had this utterly groundbreaking idea (did you catch the sarcasm?) to give themselves a break and go out with their friends for a night, friends who'd been begging for an outing with them since a month or two after their adoption of Jiwoo, and leave the other one alone at home with him for some good old one-to-one bonding time. Nice plan, right? Not like anything will go wrong.

Well, yeah, nothing did go wrong. Just the good old normal baby stuff, like crying at the top of their lungs (seriously, how do you have such unbreakable vocal chords?) and having to scramble around the house to figure out what the baby wants before you're successful at either finding it or you just have to wait and rock him in your arms until he quiets down.

How did Junhui handle all of this yesterday? Wonwoo was so relieved when he went out and was greeted with the familiar chaotic energy of his friend group. Not like he hated parenting, he would literally kill for Jiwoo, but he just missed them all a lot. But Junnie's out there right now, he thinks, and he deserves this more than anyone else. He's been noticing the bags under his eyes too, from the countless nights that Jiwoo would wake up at demonic times at night. He's been noticing the wrinkles on his forehead and his constant nervous tics and how he is so fixated on Jiwoo's every move. If someone needed time away, it was him.

It wasn't all hell, of course. When Jiwoo remembered that he could be cute too, he laughed at Wonwoo's face for no reason, and Wonwoo, while being confused about what was in his face that a baby found so funny, laughed along with him. He was just so cute, Wonwoo's chest felt so warm whenever he laughed. With Jiwoo being almost a year old, Wonwoo got him on the ground and tried his best to get him to stand up and walk towards him as well. He ended up crawling to him in the end, but oh well, he wouldn't want Junhui to miss his first steps, there's still a lot of time for him to learn.

Nearing to 10 PM though, nearly three hours after Junhui's departure, Wonwoo was exhausted. The TV had on some reality show that Wonwoo had zoned out on a long time ago, his eyes closing every few seconds and his hands rocking the chair beside him to make sure Jiwoo didn't wake up.

The keys jingling against the lock of the door to their apartment finally opened Wonwoo's eyes fully.

"I'm back", a voice rings out in the hallway leading inside the house. A smile automatically grows on Wonwoo's face. He doesn't understand how even after so many years he's still so whipped for this man. Sometimes, the universe truly does play with you and leaves you with no answer to your questions and a man who you're irrevocably in love with.

He stretched, his hand going back to it's place on the chair Jiwoo was in, feeling grateful he didn't wake up when he fell asleep.

Junhui walks in with a smile and a lightness to his shoulders. Wonwoo smiles back. Junhui's eyes land on the chair beside Wonwoo.