Chapter Text
“So am I kicked out of school?” Jooheon asks, leaned up against his window in the passenger seat. There’s a notebook open on his lap, and he seems to be scribbling some phrases down, but Hyunwoo won’t look close enough to pry. At least not while Jooheon’s looking.
“What?? No,” Hyunwoo answers, shaking his head at the question. “Your teacher seemed very concerned for you… He offered to tutor you one on one.”
“No way,” Jooheon instantly proclaims, shaking his head back and forth. Hyunwoo raises a brow, surprised to have gotten such an instantaneous reaction out of his son. “I’m already the loser whose parents got a divorce, I don’t need to add special tutoring with the teacher on top of that. If anyone finds out I’m dead.”
“I… think your grades are more important than your reputation, Jooheon,” Hyunwoo tells him, his voice stern. “This will affect whatever choices you could have for your future…”
“I don’t care,” Jooheon almost snaps, his head jerking towards his father. “Those kids come at me enough, I don’t want—”
“Heon,” Hyunwoo interjects, shaking his head, “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to put my foot down. I won’t let what’s happened—”
“And what’s happened, exactly?” Jooheon outright demands. “You haven’t said yet, at least not around me. Tell me what’s happened, Appa.”
Hyunwoo falls silent, retreating into his shell at the accusation in Jooheon’s voice. I wasn’t good enough to keep your mother around. I bored her too much. I was too closed off. I wasn’t enough of a husband for her, and I’m not enough of a father for you. The reasons float around in his mind, but he won’t say a single one of them. He may not know a lot about being a father, but he knows he shouldn’t have a breakdown in front of his son about his divorce.
He shouldn’t push that baggage onto his child.
“You’re taking tutoring lessons from your homeroom teacher,” Hyunwoo states, his tone robotic. He can feel Jooheon’s eyes on him for a moment longer, as if waiting for more, but Jooheon eventually slumps further against the door. He pulls up his hood and pulls his knees up to his chest, writing with renewed vigor as he shields the pages from prying eyes. Hyunwoo just keeps his gaze on the road, praying he’s making the right choices.
Hyungwon chews on the end of his thumb, watching his roommate, Minhyuk, bustle about and get ready for a night on the town. Hyungwon isn’t going, of course. He has too many grades to mark. But, he can most certainly live vicariously through his childhood friend.
“What about this one?” Minhyuk asks, cocking a hip to the side to show off how his leather pants hug his legs. “I feel like this one shows off my ass ets more~” Hyungwon snorts, although a bit belatedly, at the joke. Minhyuk frowns at the delayed reaction, going back towards his closet to find a different option. “How was your day? Didn’t you have a meeting or something with a parent?”
“Oh,” Hyungwon hums, frowning as he hugs his knees to his chest, “yeah… I don’t know. Day was fine, meeting was weird. Same old, same old.”
“Weird?” Minhyuk prompts, glancing over his shoulder to look at his roommate. Hyungwon nods, pursing his lips.
“It was a single dad… Well, newly single dad,” Hyungwon notes, earning a juvenile “oooo~” from Minhyuk. “It’s not like that…! His son is really struggling right now, and I just offered to help out.”
“Help out how?” Minhyuk asks, brow furrowing. Hyungwon sighs, shrugging a bit.
“I just said I could tutor the kid,” he answers, “nothing weird as far as that goes… He just—I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do know,” Minhyuk argues, sighing as he obviously settles on the outfit he’s already wearing. He goes to plop down next to Hyungwon on his bed, leaning back against his hands. Hyungwon shrugs again, though this time he’s unable to meet Minhyuk’s eyes.
“He just… looked so sad ,” Hyungwon finally admits, “and lost. And panicked. I can tell he really loves his son, just from that short meeting, so it isn’t any type of willful neglect. I bet he just never expected this to happen, and now that it has he doesn’t know up from down.”
“Huh,” Minhyuk says, sounding unimpressed. He reaches over to pat Hyungwon’s thigh, giving him a teasing smile. “Well, don’t go crushing on the straight single dad, Wonnie. I know how you like your projects.” Hyungwon sighs, exasperated as his friends stands to make his way to the living room. He follows, his arms crossed over his chest.
“I already told you, it’s not like that,” Hyungwon argues. “Besides, you don’t know if he’s straight, he could be bi! You of all people should know that! … N-Not that it matters!!” Minhyuk glances at Hyungwon, obviously unimpressed by the defense.
“Wonnie, I know everyone in our decently-sized town, and I don’t know of any freshly single dads on the market.”
“Because he isn’t on any market!!” Hyungwon tells him, growing a bit flustered. “He just got divorced, for pete’s sake!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Minhyuk says, waving a dismissive hand. “I’m running late, so I’ve gotta run. Don’t fantasize about this unavailable man too much while I’m gone~” And with that, he exits the apartment. Hyungwon stares after him, huffing out a breath of aggravation.
He swears, sometimes he doesn’t know if he hates or loves Minhyuk more.
Hyunwoo has the reigns tightened on his son as soon as they get home, and he’s honestly pretty proud of himself for it. Jooheon doesn’t seem all that pleased, but at least Hyunwoo knows his homework is all finished and ready for tomorrow. Jooheon skulks off to his room and slams his door shut, and Hyunwoo let’s him have his privacy until dinner.
He feels guilty for being hard on his son, but he remembers the words from his teacher to comfort himself… He guesses it’s just something else he’ll have to learn along the way.