Chapter Text
There was no denying that Winwin was cute. The tall boy was definitely adorable, especially with the sweet and sunny smile the boy had. Kun swears that seeing Winwin smile brings peace even on his most hectic days. Winwin’s cheeks blushed pink when someone would complement him, a nice rosy hue that made Kun keen on wanting to squish the younger boy’s cheeks. Ask Winwin to smile and the flowers would bloom, ask him to do aegyo and the world was at peace for those few seconds.
Therefore, it was surprising how much younger and smaller the boy looked compared to Kun who was only a year older. Kun blames it on the wrinkles which grow whenever his children start their shouting matches. Thankfully, Winwin isn’t one of those children, instead the younger just sits and watches the fight go around him without a care in the world, seemingly denying the existence of any other person, and you’ll most likely find him on the sofa, petting and playing with the dorms cat.
Winwin is easily one of Kun’s favorite children (astoundingly he currently has 19 of them, Taeyong taking over parental duty together with Kun) because of his calm and innocent demeanor. Winwin’s independent, cute, smart, a hard worker who is also diligent and responsible. Definition of a golden child.
If Winwin had a dating profile and Kun was in charge of managing it (which Kun doesn’t and nor does Winwin have one), Kun will be happily and willingly swiping left on anyone who showed interest in his son, because Winwin was too perfect to settle for low life people only aiming to get into his child’s pants. Winwin deserved nothing but the best, and only the best. After all, Kun grew up with the boy and although there really wasn’t much of an age difference between them for Kun to actually baby Winwin, Kun wanted Winwin to be happy. For Kun, Winwin was like a small, quiet puppy that had to be showered with love and affection. The best thing about it? Winwin was definitely a good boy and he deserved all the head pats in the world.
.
The Black on Black Era was a new experience for Kun. Never before had he seen so many NCT members in the same vicinity, gathering together, talking, asking each other how they were as if they hadn’t met in years. However with the outfits that were currently fitted onto them, if Kun happened to walk in on the rest of the members and had no idea about NCT, he would’ve thought that they were all hot people that were in a really weird club. But he did know better, and thought that the outfits matched their concept well enough. Kun really loved the piercings that they wore. But what he loved more was seeing his children interact, and how he could latch onto Chenle and Renjun, who he hasn’t seen in over a month. He did notice how Renjun became snarkier, and he guesses that it’s because of Donghyuck.
Kun also watched how Winwin interacted with his members, how he started talking to them and how they all showered the shy boy with love by squeezing his cheeks or patting his hair. It was also funny to see Winwin reject the love like a kitten, even going as far to head-butt Yuta in the chin, after the Japanese man started to caress his cheeks. He also saw how Ten started to pick up a fight with Winwin, who bothered the younger like how a kitten bothers its older siblings. After Winwin successfully caught Ten in a chokehold, Renjun laughed from his place underneath Kun’s chin.
So it was curious with how close Winwin was with his team, and how much his team loved him, that they found him sitting on the couch in their new dorm four months later. Six of them (Lucas, Xiaojun, Hendery, Yangyang, Ten and Kun, himself) had just finished celebrating the joyful news that they were to debut in an all new Chinese unit sub-group, when Ten had turned on the lights and screeched, which made the one of the other three fresh debuted idols screech in return. Seeing Winwin with his face buried on his knees which he hugged close to his chest, unmoving, made Ten jump out of his stupor and usher the other four minus Kun, to their shared bedrooms. Kun was going to chase after Ten before the younger stared him down, and Kun retracted his hand back timidly.
Damn it. Here we go again.
So that was how Kun found himself sitting in front of Winwin, placing himself below the softly sniffling boy. It wasn’t that Kun hated trying to care for the other members, but he’s scared that if he said the wrong things, their minds wouldn’t be able to come back from where it came from. He doesn’t want to worsen their conditions. After all, to Kun, a mind is like a bridge. He doesn’t want to help them build a bridge just for it to end in the middle of nowhere. It would be easier to leave them with a short bridge then to let the bridge reach a superior length then lose all hope of ever reaching a destination. Bridges fall harder when that happens. They crash and disappear down into the ocean below, into an eternal abyss that has no point of retrieval. Kun does not want to lead someone into their own doom.
Sometimes, Kun thinks that it would have been easier if their entertainment hired a psychologist for their idols. Then their idols wouldn’t have to go through their own phase of self-denial, trying to reassure themselves that everything was alright, so that they wouldn’t have to convince themselves day and night that they were okay. But Kun guesses that would never happen.
Kun reaches out for Winwin’s knee, careful to make his touch as soft as possible, but his hand is trembling. “Winwin,” he tries to say in a soft voice, but his voice is hoarse from the drinking that night, and it comes out croaky, like he hasn’t drank for hours. “Winwin,” Kun tries again, his hand gripping Winwin’s knee, although not harshly, just enough to make Winwin notice his presence.
Winwin doesn’t let up, doesn’t even care that Kun or the others had seen him crying. He continues with his own small sobs. Kun waits for a while, hoping for Winwin to finally lift his head. He waits for five minutes, ten minutes, then finally realizes that they both aren’t in the right condition to talk.
Winwin’s still in a sorrowful state, and Kun feels as if the alcohol has gone to his head. So he stands up, still quiet. “Winwin,” he says a final time, “It’s going to be alright. We’re going to be alright.” Kun leaves the living room, and not once did Winwin look at him.
.
The next day, forgoing the sleep till noon routine Kun does when he’s tired, Kun finds Ten and Winwin in the living room, who is now lying down, still on the sofa, covered by one blanket. He guesses one of the kids might have done it, maybe Yang Yang. The boy had a soft spot for Ten after all, no matter how much he tries to annoy the elder. Kun leaves them there, still sleeping, and goes to the kitchen to make tea.
Kun knows they’re all going to be alright.
Winwin’s going to be alright.
He’s sure they will be.
Kun will make sure of it.
.
Winwin wakes up in Ten’s hug, and the smell of soy sauce coming from the kitchen. He sits up, careful to jostle the man. His mind clears from the blurry sleep, and sees Yang Yang chasing Lucas in front of him, almost bumping into the television, their joyful shouts filling his ears. A head covers his vision, and he recognizes it to be Hendery’s. “Hello, good morning.” Hendery greets, pulling away by a bit. He laughs at the distance between them, and maybe at how big Winwin’s eyes might’ve been. “Kun-ge’s cooking porridge!” Hendery exclaims loudly, further bothering Ten who has just begun to wake up. Ten exhales heavily, eyes sharpening, and reaches behind his head to throw a pillow at Hendery. The boy dodges it anyway, and it hits Winwin in the head instead. Thankfully, it’s soft.
“Sorry Sicheng.” Ten apologizes. Ten crawls towards him, and frames Winwin’s cheeks with his palms.
Winwin nods in return.
“But you get it right? What we’ve talked about?” Winwin nods again. “Kun’s also available, but he’s still a bit awkward in this kind of stuff. Still you should.” Ten stops. “I mean. If you want to.”
Ten gets a wide, heartfelt smile in return.
Winwin thinks that there’s a silver lining in every cloud. He’s going to love it here.