Chapter Text
Soobin practically sprinted out of his office building the moment he got the call from the daycare. He couldn't shake the painful memory of his boss's face when he asked for emergency leave. His boss had looked at him like he had grown a second head after hearing the reason.
"Is everything alright, Soobin?" his boss had asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is your son sick?"
"No, sir" Soobin had squeaked out, sweating through his dress shirt. "My son Yejun is fine. It’s my husband, Yeonjun. He...he is currently detained in a time out corner."
But Soobin swallowed his pride and dignity. A much bigger, more terrifying problem was waiting for him across town.
Honestly, Soobin could not believe this was happening. It was their son Yejun’s very first day of daycare. He had mentally prepared himself for a phone call about Yejun crying, or refusing to eat his peas, or having a bathroom accident. He never expected his fully grown husband, Yeonjun, to be the one causing a scene.
To make matters worse, the situation involved Beomgyu. Earlier Yeonjun and Beomgyu had met, Yeonjun had given him a glare so fierce it could have melted steel. It was obvious to both Soobin and his friend Taehyun that the two had some sort of dramatic secret history, but neither of them knew the details yet.
Soobin shook his head, dodging a pedestrian on the sidewalk. He could worry about their mysterious past later. Right now, he needed to focus on surviving the chaos waiting behind the daycare doors.
Luckily, the daycare was only a few blocks away from his office. Soobin rushed up the steps, completely out of breath, and reached for the doorknob. Just as his fingers brushed the brass handle, another hand crashed right over his with sweaty desperation.
Startled, Soobin turned to apologize, but the words caught in his throat.
It was Taehyun. He was panting heavily, his tie completely crooked, and his shoulders rising and falling as he tried to inhale enough oxygen to stay conscious. Soobin figured he probably looked just as messy, panicked, and unhinged.
"Soobin" Taehyun gasped, a weak, breathless smile breaking through his exhaustion. "I definitely didn't expect to see you again so early today. Especially not because our husbands are acting like feral animals."
Under normal circumstances, Soobin would have laughed. But right now, his knees were shaking from the stress. "I didn't expect it either, Taehyun-ah. How did you even get away from work so fast?"
"I told my manager there was a family emergency" Taehyun groaned, rubbing his temples. "Which isn't a lie. If Beomgyu kills your husband or vice versa, that’s a legal emergency. How about we go in together? Safety in numbers. It might lessen the pressure."
"Please" Soobin nodded solemnly, as if they were stepping onto a battlefield. "Don't leave my side. If Yeonjun is in a bad mood, I'll need a witness."
Taehyun turned the handle and pushed the door open, gesturing for Soobin to enter first. "After you, brave soldier."
The two dads walked down the brightly decorated hallway, passing colorful drawings of suns and handprint art that felt deeply ironic given the situation. They searched for the specific room the daycare worker had mentioned.
"Do you think they actually threw punches?" Soobin whispered, his anxiety spiking.
"With Beomgyu? It's highly likely" Taehyun muttered back. "He quite has the rage of a thousand chihuahuas when he's upset."
As they walked down the brightly colored hallways they tried to find the specific room the daycare worker had told them to go to. They tried to make small talk to calm their nerves, but they quickly stopped.
"Maybe we should stop talking" Taehyun whispered, staring down the quiet hallway as the distant sound of muffled arguing grew louder.
"We need to save every ounce of our energy just to mentally prepare ourselves for the storm behind that door."
"Agreed" Soobin sighed.
When they finally reached the designated room, they paused in front of the dark wood door. They turned to face each other, exchanging a quick, supportive look.
"Good luck" Soobin whispered solemnly, as if they were going to war.
"Good luck to you too. See you on the other side" Taehyun whispered back.
Soobin twisted the doorknob and pushed the door open.
The moment they stepped inside, they both wished they had taken a massive, deep breath beforehand. They definitely needed the extra oxygen to process the hilarious, childish sight unfolding right in front of their eyes.
The room was completely silent, but the tension was thick. Beomgyu was sitting defensively on a tiny, neon green plastic chair meant for toddlers, his knees practically touching his chin, his arms crossed tightly over his chest.
Yeonjun was slumped in an identical tiny pink chair in the opposite corner, looking equally angry and completely ridiculous given his long legs. Both of them were actively whispering quiet, angry curses under their breath and glaring daggers across the room at each other.
Meanwhile, sitting perfectly in the middle of them was a tired daycare teacher at her desk. She was completely ignoring the grown men and their petty drama, keeping herself busy writing notes in a big binder, looking like she wanted to quit her job immediately.
Soobin tried his absolute best, he really, really tried not to laugh. Seeing a confident, trendy grown man like Yeonjun being treated like a naughty toddler after trying to start a fistfight in a daycare was the funniest thing he had ever seen.
But the final straw came when Yeonjun, thinking the teacher wasn't looking, subtly raised his middle finger at Beomgyu across the room.
Soobin simply could not hold it in anymore. A loud snort escaped his nose.
Taehyun wasn't doing any better. In response to Yeonjun's rude gesture, Beomgyu’s eyes flared with rage. "Oh, you want to play dirty?!" Beomgyu hissed. He grabbed a nearby teddy bear from a toy shelf and hurled it straight across the room at Yeonjun’s head.
The stuffed animal hit Yeonjun right in the face with a soft, pathetic thud.
"Hey! Assault! Did you see that? He assaulted me with a bear!" Yeonjun gasped, pointing at the plush toy now resting on the floor.
Watching a fluffy stuffed animal fly across a serious disciplinary meeting broke Taehyun’s restraint entirely. He unleashed a loud, booming laugh that he had been trying to suppress for the last ten seconds, tears instantly forming in his eyes.
Their sudden presence was finally noticed as their loud laughter echoed off the office walls. Three pairs of eyes snapped toward the doorway. The teacher looked relieved to see actual adults, while Beomgyu and Yeonjun looked completely offended.
But even with their angry husbands staring at them, Soobin and Taehyun couldn't stop laughing. Every time they tried to compose their faces, they would catch each other's eyes, and the laughter would just burst out all over again.
"I can't...I can't breathe" Soobin wheezed, clenching his stomach and leaning heavily against Taehyun.
"Look at how small the chairs are! Why are they sitting in the baby chairs?!"
"I know!" Taehyun choked out, wiping a tear from his cheek.
The two tall men leaned against each other for balance, clutching each other's shoulders just to keep from falling onto the floor from laughing so hard.
They were so trapped in their amusement that they didn't even notice the sharp, murderous looks being sent their way until a loud, furious voice shattered the air.
"YAH! KANG TAEHYUN! STOP LAUGHING RIGHT NOW!" Beomgyu shouted, standing up from his tiny green chair, which made him look even funnier.
Beomgyu's face was turning bright red with embarrassment and anger. "This is a serious matter! Our son's honor was compromised! Stop giggling with Soobin!"
That loud shouting finally snapped Taehyun and Soobin back to reality. They immediately straightened up, smoothing down their wrinkled clothes and fixing their expressions as if they hadn't just almost died of laughter a second ago.
They cleared their throats loudly and quickly stepped away from each other to put a professional, serious distance between them.
"Sorry" Taehyun muttered quickly, though his voice still trembled with a leftover chuckle. He cleared his throat again. "Sorry, honey. I'm listening."
Soobin, on the other hand, instantly wished he hadn't looked at Yeonjun so quickly. Even though Yeonjun hadn't yelled or called out his full name, Soobin knew he was a dead man walking. Yeonjun was staring at him with a cold, unblinking glare that meant serious, long term trouble.
Soobin silently reminded himself to text his boss tomorrow to ask if he could take the graveyard shift for the rest of the month. He desperately needed an excuse to sleep at the office for the next few days, because judging by Yeonjun's current expression, he was definitely going to be sleeping on the living room couch tonight or worse, the floor.
But those domestic worries were pushed aside when the woman sitting at the desk finally stood up. She tapped her pen sharply against her binder, breaking the awkward silence to greet the newcomers.
"It is good to see you, Mr. Choi and Mr. Kang" the woman said, her tone professional, calm, and completely exhausted.
"Thank you for coming so quickly. I was about to give up entirely."
"It's very nice to meet you, Ma'am" Taehyun replied politely, giving a small, respectful bow. "We are so incredibly sorry for the trouble our... mature husbands have caused."
"Yes, a true pleasure to meet you, Ma'am" Soobin added, quickly putting on his best, most polite corporate manners to make up for Yeonjun's middle finger. "Thank you for taking care of our boys, and we apologize for the flying teddy bears."
The woman smiled softly in response and motioned toward the two empty adult sized chairs placed directly in front of her desk. "Please, sit down so we can talk like actual adults" she signaled, giving a pointed look at Yeonjun and Beomgyu.
Once the two of them were sitting comfortably, the atmosphere in the room finally shifted into a serious, quiet conversation about the morning's events. The teacher looked back and forth between all four men.
"First" the teacher began, looking sternly at Beomgyu and Yeonjun, "we need to address the behavior of the parents. Shouting, grabbing collars, insulting each other's parenting, and throwing stuffed animals is completely unacceptable in a childcare facility. You are supposed to be setting an example for your children."
"He called my Yejun a brat first" Yeonjun muttered under his breath, looking away stubbornly like a fiven year old.
"And he called my Jihoon a liar!" Beomgyu fired back, leaning forward out of his tiny chair. "I had to defend my son!"
"Boys, quiet" the teacher said sharply, and both grown men instantly shut their mouths. She rubbed her temples with a long sigh. "I don't care who started it. But more importantly, we need to talk about the root of the problem which is Jihoon and Yejun's argument over the black crayon."
Soobin leaned forward, his expression turning serious. "How are the boys doing now? Are they still upset? Did they actually get hurt?"
"They are currently in the playroom having apple juice and crackers" the teacher explained, her tone softening.
"They have completely calmed down and are actually sitting near each other now. But because the two little boys are classmates, a misunderstanding like this can easily affect their relationship moving forward."
Taehyun nodded in agreement, looking over at Beomgyu with a soft but firm expression. "She's right, Gyu. We need to handle this properly. Jihoon is already so shy and terrified of this place, and we don't want him to feel scared to come back here just because of a silly crayon."
"And Yejun was so excited to make friends today," Soobin added, looking at Yeonjun. "We don't want them to start the school year with a grudge."
The teacher smiled, glad to finally hear some logic and maturity in the room. "Exactly. Fixing their relationship as early as possible is important. We want to make sure the environment doesn't become awkward for the kids, and more importantly, we need to teach them how to share and communicate so we can avoid any further toddler fights and parent fights.in the future. Can we all agree to cooperate and apologize?"
Soobin and Taehyun immediately nodded, while Yeonjun and Beomgyu looked at each other, and finally gave a quiet, reluctant nod, realizing just how childish they had been acting compared to their own toddlers.
The tense atmosphere in the room had lessened slightly now that all four men had finally agreed to cooperate. But the thick, awkward silence hanging in the air told Soobin that they were nowhere near a happy ending. There were still serious things that needed to be fixed, and the very first step was owning up to their mistakes and apologizing.
Soobin cleared his throat, adjusting his collar as he looked at the teacher with a deeply apologetic expression. "We are so, so sorry, Miss Kim. This is completely unacceptable behavior for grown men, and...well we would truly like to apologize on behalf of our family."
"Yes" Taehyun added immediately, nodding with a serious expression.
"We sincerely want to apologize for the absolute chaos caused today. We expect better from our partners, and we promise it won't happen again."
Miss Kim stood up slowly from her desk, folding her arms. She looked at Soobin and Taehyun with a soft, understanding smile, but then her expression turned entirely to ice.
"I appreciate your words, gentleman" Miss Kim said, her voice dripping with authority. "But I don't think the two of you are the ones who are supposed to be saying sorry right now."
She turned her sharp gaze across the room, looking first at Beomgyu, who was still pouting in his tiny neon green chair, and then over to Yeonjun, who was slouching heavily in his tiny pink chair.
"Right, Mr. Beomgyu and Mr. Yeonjun?" the woman spoke, her voice dangerously calm.
Neither of them said a word.
Beomgyu suddenly found his own shoelaces incredibly interesting, while Yeonjun crossed his arms and stared blankly out the window.
The heavy silence made Miss Kim let out a long, exhausted sigh. She tapped her pen firmly against her desk to get their attention.
"Very well" Miss Kim insisted, her eyes narrowing.
"Since we are acting like children, I will treat you like children. If the two of you refuse to apologize and make up right now, I will have no choice but to permanently ban both Mr. Beomgyu and Mr. Yeonjun from all future daycare pick up and drop off duties. You will not be allowed on the property. Now, I want to hear a real apology. To each other. Right here, right now."
Hearing the word banned, both Yeonjun and Beomgyu groaned loudly at the exact same time, throwing their heads back in defeat.
"Now" Miss Kim insisted, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.
Yeonjun was the first to move. He groaned again, stood up from his tiny pink chair, and stretched his long legs out. He reluctantly walked over to the exact center of the office room.
Beomgyu let out a dramatic sigh of his own, slowly pulling himself up from his green chair and dragging his feet across the carpet like a teenager forced to do chores.
They stood face to face, barely a foot apart, still glaring daggers at one another.
"I'm sorry" Yeonjun muttered, speaking directly to the ceiling panels. "For technically calling your kid a thief over a stupid daycare crayon."
"Say it like you actually mean it, Mr. Choi" Miss Kim commanded from her desk, sounding like a warden.
Yeonjun rolled his eyes, took a deep breath, and finally forced himself to look Beomgyu right in the eyes. "I am sorry, Beomgyu. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. I was being stubborn."
Beomgyu shifted his weight, looking slightly embarrassed now. "And...I'm sorry for grabbing your collar and almost tackling you onto the reading corner beanbags" Beomgyu mumbled, sticking his right hand out toward Yeonjun.
"Even though your over dramatic face made the staff lose their minds." Beomgyu added.
"Mr. Kang" Miss Kim warned, her eyebrows snapping together.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I can't help it, it's just my personality!" Beomgyu corrected quickly, his voice squeaking as he tried to look sincere.
Yeonjun stared at Beomgyu's extended hand for a long, agonizing three seconds before finally reaching out his own. They shook hands with the stiffest, most awkward, and incredibly reluctant grips that physical science would allow.
They dropped their hands the exact millisecond they felt they had fulfilled the teacher's requirement, wiping their palms on their pants afterward.
By the time Miss Kim finally sighed and gave them permission to leave the office, Soobin and Taehyun didn't waste a moment. They immediately walked down the hallway to retrieve their sons from the quiet room, leaving their bruised ego husbands waiting awkwardly by the main exit doors.
A minute later, the doors to the nap room popped open. To everyone's absolute amazement, Yejun and Jihoon came walking out hand in hand. They were happily giggling together, whispering toddler secrets, completely oblivious to the massive war they had started between their parents just an hour ago.
Even funnier, Yejun was safely holding the daycare's borrowed black crayon in his free hand. He looked completely satisfied and happy, now that both his orange fox and Jihoon's brown bear had perfectly colored, shiny black noses.
"Don't even look at me" Yeonjun whispered aggressively to Soobin the moment they walked out into the parking lot, his arms tightly crossed over his chest.
"You laughed at me in there. You laughed with Taehyun. You're sleeping on the living room couch tonight."
Soobin didn't even argue. He just let out a long, heavy sigh, looking down at little Yejun, who was happily hopping over the sidewalk cracks.
"Hey, buddy" Soobin said softly, gently patting his son's head. "Next time you lose a crayon, let's promise to just ask Jihoon to help us look under the table first, okay? Please. Daddy's spine really cannot take the living room couch again."