Work Text:
“What do you mean my daughter ran out of the building?” Jeonghan nearly drops his phone hearing that from his secretary.
“I’m so sorry sir, I don’t know how it happened! One moment we were drawing little fishes then the next she disappeared chanting sushi! I will find her immediately sir, please don’t worry!” she rambles on.
“I am not worried,” he states with a twitch in the corner of his lips, brushing silver hair out of his eyes.
She takes that as a cue to walk out of his office to alert her subordinates and security guards.
My beloved Mina, you are so glad appa loves you so much, Jeonghan thinks. Storming out of the office with intent to find his daughter in his mind, he passes by his secretary and instructs her to cancel all his meetings.
He has a daughter to catch, after all.
This is Joshua’s third and last class for today, he’s so prepared to leave school.
The date is especially encircled with his limited edition orange marker (Mina’s favourite colour), he put on his daughter’s favourite sushi collared shirt (Mina’s favourite food) and booked a table at an all-you-can-eat buffet sushi restaurant (Mina’s favourite place). Of course he would, it’s her birthday!
He has to pause those thoughts, however. Currently, he’s teaching his mothertongue English at a local high school; about 4 minutes away from Jeonghan’s main office. The CEO insisted he just stay at home since he gets tired easily, but Joshua dismissed the idea immediately.
His best friend Seungkwan cheered him on upon hearing that.
(Really, he demanded Joshua to meet him up for lunch after that. He thought it would be just the two of them, but Soonyoung and Chan tagged along just because Seungkwan was paying.
No matter how much Seungkwan huffed and complained looking at the cheque, he still ended up taking them for desert. To Joshua Hong’s unemployment, they said.)
The day Mina turned five, he marched into the gates of the nearest school from his husband’s office, showed his teaching certificate and resume, and asked for any job openings. The principle considered him for a minute before shouting, “You’re hired!”
(Today marks his first year of teaching.)
Now, he just finished distributing the worksheet for his students and is writing the new homework assignment on the blackboard, when one of his students decided to speak up:
“Mr. Hong?”
“Yes?”
“There’s a little girl outside the classroom playing hopscotch by herself.. she’s so cute!’
“That’s nice, can you describe what she's wearing in English?”
“Okay. She is wearing a dress with a salmon drawing on it and-”
“Wait, that’s my little girl!”
Dropping his marker abruptly, he announces to his students, loud and clear, “Finish your worksheets, submit it when the bell rings. I have a husband to murder.”
And with that he leaves his classroom, their snickering heard in the distance.
Outside the class, he spots the little girl they are talking about.
She is nearly half his height, with eyes that shine and crinkle like he does when he smiles. Her lips mouthing the words to Baby Shark as she hops from square to square, tripping on her dress as she lands with a soft ‘ouch’.
Almost instantly, she brushes herself off and continued to play about. Her appa says she is a big girl now, she can take care of herself.
Hearing his footsteps approach, she pauses to turn her head around and wave at him sweetly, “Hi daddy!”
Any ill-intent he had in his mind was wiped out as he bent down to hug his daughter, face melting from the stone cold façade to one that is of fondness as he says the words, “Hello sweetie, are you okay?”
At that exact moment, he could hear the panting breaths of none other than the cool and composed CEO Yoon Jeonghan, who just so happened to be his husband.
His gelled hair now sweaty from running, his black suit disheveled and tie not secured neatly in its proper place. His brown eyes light up in delight when they land on Mina, however all that joy disappears as they catch sight of his fuming husband.
Before Joshua could chide him on losing his daughter, again mind you, Jeonghan decides he needs to prove his sincerity by getting on his knees in schoolgrounds to apologise wholeheartedly.
“Baby I’m so sorry you know how she gets when she asks for more than one scoop of ice cream, she gets so much energy from I don’t know where, and apparently she’s been running around like crazy since morning and my secretary said she was fine drawing fishes in my office and I know it is my turn to take her to work and she’s supposed to stay there until your classes are over so we can go out together when I pick you up so-‘
His monologue stops as he hears Joshua stifling his laughter, daughter now in his arms giggling along with him. He must’ve picked her up while Jeonghan was rambling.
Momentarily confused, he stops as his husband hands his daughter back to his arms and said, “I’ll be out in 15 minutes, I just need to collect their worksheets and give them their homework for next week. then we can go out and eat sushi or something.”
Their daughter, who he forgot was in his arms, started jumping around at the mention of sushi.
“Sh-“ his husband is giving him a death glare at this point, so he ends it with “ushi! Yay!”
Joshua rolls his eyes and pecks him and his daughter on the cheek before leaving them to return to his class.
Jeonghan stares in awe, watching him walk back inside and looking at Mina to see her do the same. He exhales and said, “We are so whipped for him, aren’t we darling?”
She nuzzles closer to his chest in response.
Joshua returns to the class being absolutely silent. With a sigh he deadpans, “It’s alright, you can laugh.”
The quiet atmosphere is immediately ruined as the class erupted into laughter.
One remarked, “I have never seen CEO Yoon like that before!”
Another commented, “My dad said he is absolutely serious during work hours, he has not even seen him smile once!”
They continued to chatter endlessly as the bell rung. They quickly picked up their learning materials to go to their next class, not forgetting to submit their worksheets.
“Have a good weekend everyone!” he tells the last of his students before packing up his own things. Placing the worksheets inside his bag, he noticed one of them had a message on the top right.
Ah, it’s from the one who pointed out where Mina was, he decided. The message, messily scrawled on said, ‘Please wish your daughter happy birthday from me, sir! I saw your calendar by accident earlier this week, and every day I wish to meet her. Please bring her to work one day!’
He grins reading this and chuckles to himself, before leaving the room to join his husband and daughter, who are happily napping under a tree.
His heart flutters at the sight and he kisses the crowns of their head to wake them up. Opening one eye sleepily, his husband mutters, “A few more minutes...” and his daughter hums in agreement.
Pulling on their hands, he laughs and asks, “Now who’s ready for some sushi?”
(They ended up coming home with satisfied stomachs and a happy daughter.)