Archive of Our Own

Time was passing slowly today, Ten thought. Or was it passing quickly? He couldn’t really tell, it was quite a strange time of year, very busy yet abnormally slow. He was eyeing the time a little more than usual today, not only because he was eager for the meeting with the arts nonprofit he worked at to end, but because today he would be responsible for picking up his son, Yangyang. 

Normally, Yangyang would stay at Johnny’s house after school. Johnny was an English teacher at Yangyang’s elementary school, and Johnny and Ten had gone way, way back. It also helped that Yangyang was best friends with Johnny’s son, Donghyuck. It was just more convenient for Yangyang to catch a ride home with Johnny and for Ten to pick Yangyang up from Johnny’s once he was ready. Yangyang no longer complained that he never got to see Donghyuck because they didn’t go to the same school, Johnny didn’t have to work as hard to keep Donghyuck occupied, and Ten could see to the end of his work day without worry. A win for all parties considered, and it had worked for them since the beginning of the school year.

Today though, Johnny had apologetically called Ten in the morning, saying that he caught some wicked stomach bug and would Ten be able to pick up Yangyang on his own because Johnny was feeling real shitty and might possibly die if he left the house. At that Ten had suppressed a laugh, and asked Johnny if he needed Ten to drop anything off for him. Johnny had said no, Kun was taking good care of him. They’d left it at that. 

“Let’s wrap it up for the day,” Ten’s supervisor Taemin said. “We’ll pick it back up tomorrow, okay everyone?” 

There were a few verbal assents, some yeses in the chat, and some clapping reactions.

Ten clicked out of the Zoom call and made his way to the door. He methodically pulled on his coat, slipped on some shoes, fumbling his hands to make sure his wallet and car keys were still in his pocket from earlier. The last thing he grabbed before heading out the door was his phone, and with some luck he would hopefully still be early, traffic considering. 

It was disturbingly cold for this time of year, Ten thought, as he slammed his car door closed. He had elected to park in one of the residential streets a little ways away from Yangyang’s school. He wasn’t stupid enough to park in the school parking lot, no, that was not a game he was willing to play today. 

Ten’s brisk pace grew even faster as he heard the school bell chime. He squinted as one of the children waved at him, trying to put a name to the face. Oh, that was Yangyang’s friend, Renjun. He waved back and was pleased to see Renjun’s face open up into a grin. Renjun runs off with who Ten thinks is Jaemin. 

Ten scans the schoolyard, finally spotting Yangyang, who was standing with whom Ten assumed was his teacher.

“Dad!” Yangyang exclaimed brightly. 

When Yangyang excitedly wrapped his arms around Ten’s legs, Ten bent down to greet Yangyang, ruffling his hair and pressing a kiss to his head. 

Yangyang released his grip on Ten, turning and saying, “This is Mr. Moon, my teacher!”

Ten straightened up and said, “Hello Mr. Moon. It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Ten.” 

He blinked as he took the other man in. He had only spoken to Mr. Moon once, when they’d had a parent-teacher interview over the phone, but they had never met in-person. Mr. Moon had sounded young over the phone, sure, but it hadn’t prepared him for this. There was just something about him, Ten thought.

“Please Ten, call me Taeil.” He said with a smile, extending a hand. 

They’re more or less the same height, Ten thinks as he’s shaking Taeil’s hand. He tries not to stare too hard, but all the same, he is already cataloging the curves and angles of Taeil’s face the same way he looks at the references for his art commissions. There was a possibility he was filing it away for later, but he refused to entertain that right now.

“Dad, we were just talking about you,” Yangyang says.

“Oh,” Ten starts. 

“Yangyang was just telling me you’re working on some drawings of the moon. Said he liked me better than the moon,” Taeil chuckles, “And I think that’s such high praise.”

Ten laughs at that. A client had commissioned him to draw some different phases of the moon and Ten was becoming all too familiar with lunar phases. There was some kind of irony at work here, Ten’s brain supplied. 

Ten is about to say something appropriately witty about the moon, but they are interrupted by a student asking Taeil, “What pages are we supposed to read again? Was it starting from page 164 or 168 ....”

Yangyang whispers a goodbye to Mr. Moon, tugging on Ten’s hand.

“See you tomorrow, Yangyang. Goodbye Ten,” Taeil says before addressing the student. 

The dismissal is clear, and the last thing Ten thinks about Taeil that day is that he reminds Ten a little bit of a teddy bear. How utterly cute, enough to make Ten’s nose wrinkle. 

Ten shuts his car door. Johnny had been sicker than what he’d made it out to be on the phone yesterday, and so Ten was here to pick Yangyang up again. He was running later today than he had yesterday, and the school grounds were a little emptier, straggling students walking past him.

Ten sees Taeil holding a door open, waving to his students. He doesn’t see Yangyang. 

“Hi Ten,” Taeil says. “Yangyang’s just in the washroom.”

Ah. “Hello. How were the kids today?” Ten asked. 

Taeil makes a vague hand motion. “Seemed rowdy today. First graders are always a fun bunch.” 

Ten hummed. 

“How was your day today? Yangyang said you had a presentation …?” Taeil trails off.

“Kind of. I did the graphics for the presentation. I don’t know why I had to be present at the meeting, seemed like it was like I was there for moral support more than anything,” said Ten. 

Taeil seems to consider that. “We did some drawing today.”

“Did you? What kind?” Ten asks, perking up. 

“Family pictures. We’re going over family vocabulary this week.”   

Family pictures. Ten was happy with his little family: Yangyang, and their two cats Louis and Leon, but sometimes he thought about how Yangyang lacked another parental figure. He frowned reflexively. 

Taeil continued, “You have two cats! Yangyang was explaining to me how Siamese cats change coat colour when it gets colder.” 

They’d just talked about that last night, and Ten told Taeil about as much. “Yes, it’s getting colder, so our cat Louis is getting darker. Yangyang just asked about that last night.” 

Taeil nodded. “He’s a very curious boy.”

“I hope he’s not giving you any trouble.” Ten said. Yangyang was a sweet boy, but sometimes his curiosity was never ending. He could press on and on about a topic. Ten indulged his curiosity, but it wasn’t without active patience. 

“He’s an angel. Besides, I love hearing about cats,” said Taeil.

Was Taeil a cat person? Somehow, Ten found this new development very agreeable. “Do you want to see pictures?”

When Taeil agreed excitedly, Ten pulled out his phone, showing him a photo Yangyang had taken of Louis. 

Taeil gasped as he looked at the photo. “You have the same eyes.”

“As the cat?” Ten asked. 

“Yeah, one and the same.” Taeil said. 

Ten switches to a photo of Leon, showing it to Taeil. 

“This one too!” Taeil’s eyes are bright, his face lighting up as he looks between Ten’s phone and Ten’s face.

The wonder in Taeil’s eyes is incredibly endearing. 

“How cute,” Taeil coos. “You’re graceful too, just like a cat.”

In this moment, Ten feels lucky he’s not prone to blushing. He imagines that he’d be able to feel the blood rushing to his cheeks, colouring them. He decides to sidestep the comment, instead saying, “I’ve just had a lot of practice. I trained as a dancer for some time.” 

“You dance.” Taeil said. “It adds up. I can see it. I haven’t done any dancing for a while.”

“But you used to?” Ten asked.

Taeil makes a noise under his breath. “It was a long time ago.” Taeil’s gaze is fixed somewhere in the distance, eyes clouded over. 

Ten thinks he knows the feeling. Thinking about the past could be loaded, Ten would be the first to admit that. 

At that moment, Yangyang comes running out of the school. 

“Sorry about that, there was a bug in the washroom,” said Yangyang, “We had a fight. I won. Let’s go home now, bye Mr. Moon.”

Taeil laughs at that. “Bye bye Yangyang.”

It’s only when Ten gets back in the car that he realizes: 1) he’d spent more time talking to Taeil than he’d thought and 2) his concern for Taeil is maybe more than it should be. Was it natural to be this worried about his son’s teacher?

Once more, Ten is here to pick up Yangyang. Johnny was well enough to go to work today, but Ten had suggested he come pick up Yangyang so Johnny could go straight home and rest. A small voice in the back of Ten’s head said it was also so he could see Taeil again. It was like the tiniest sliver of a crescent moon, so Ten squashed the voice, suppressing it. It wasn’t that odd to want to see Taeil … after all, he was Yangyang’s teacher, and Ten was allowed to have a reasonable amount of concern about Yangyang’s education.

When he arrives at Yangyang’s designated exit door, Taeil isn’t holding the door open. There’s another man there, propping it open. Ten is betrayed by the pang of disappointment he feels. 

The man seems to give him a once over, before a vague look of recognition passes over his face. “You’re Yangyang’s dad, right? He should be out in a minute.”

“I am, thanks,” Ten holds his hand out in greeting, “You can call me Ten.”

“Lucas,” he said, shaking Ten’s hand. “You must be looking for Mr. Moon? He’s in a staff meeting right now.”

“ … That’s fine.” Ten said mildly. “I’m just here to pick up Yangyang. But you’re not in the meeting?”

Lucas smiled in the same way Yangyang did when Ten let him skip his chores. “I was excused.”

They laugh together at that. The school bell chimes, signalling the end of the school day. There’s a brief moment of silence that hangs in the air before Ten begins to see students filing out of their classrooms. 

“Will you be here tomorrow? You don’t usually pick up Yangyang.” Lucas says. 

“Probably not,” said Ten. 

Lucas nods sagely. “John does look better today. I’m sure Taeil will miss you.” 

That was a testament to Taeil being a professional, Ten thought. It was nice of Taeil to show concern towards getting to know his students’ parents. 

So Ten nods. “Of course,” he says. 

Lucas grins at that, laughing. Ten doesn’t have time to further consider it, as Yangyang comes out, holding something in his hand.

“Hi Dad! Hi Mr. Wong! Look at my t-rex!” Yangyang is carefully cupping an origami dinosaur. 

Ten and Lucas ooh and ahh at it, before Ten and Yangyang bid their goodbyes. Ten fights a long sigh as he realizes he doesn’t know when the next time he’ll see Taeil is. 

The next evening, Ten is doing the dishes while Yangyang does his math homework. Yangyang is very focused on the task at hand, biting his bottom lip and using his fingers to count as he adds simple sums. 

“Oh, Dad, before I forget,” Yangyang rummages in his backpack. “This is for you.” He pulls out a folded piece of paper, placing it on the table. “It’s from Mr. Moon.”

Ten finishes the dishes, wiping his hands dry on a dish towel before examining the paper. As he unfolds it, he finds it’s actually two pieces of paper: a sheet of loose leaf and a form. The loose leaf has handwriting on it, which piques Ten’s interest. He flattens it, straightening the creases in the paper and reads: Dear Ten, sorry I missed you yesterday. It’s punctuated with a frowny face sticker. I hope Jaehyun didn’t scare you off! I was going to send you an email but there was a board-wide wifi outage today. A hand drawn frown this time. Please contact me if you have any concerns. Hope to speak with you soon, Taeil. Next to where Taeil signed his name, there’s a little sticker of a full moon. 

The other form is presumably time sensitive from what Ten can see. Ordinarily he rarely dealt with paper forms anymore - everything was online - so this was new. He scanned the form, filling it out diligently. 

“Did everyone get one of these, Yangyang?” He asks.

Yangyang looks up from his simple arithmetic. “Ummm, everyone got a form.” 

Ten considers that. If there was a wifi outage, of course every student would have gotten a form. The note, he stalls. The note. 

He thinks about replying to Taeil’s note, the sheet of paper suddenly feeling like bricks in his hand. 

Dinner at the Qian-Suh household on the weekends always leaves Ten feeling metaphorically lighter. Kun’s cooking on the other hand, made it impossible not to have seconds. Ten was full, sitting back in his chair.

The kids had all finished first, having vacated the table to continue their playtime. Ten could still hear them chattering in the living room.

It was just Ten, Kun, and Johnny at the table. 

“It’s really coming together,” said Kun. 

“Is it? The new midi worked out?” Johnny replies. He’s looking better after his episode earlier this week.

“Yeah, I took your advice about it and everything just slid into place. Still a long way to go, but the project is really shaping up.” Kun said. 

“You know, I talked to Taeil today,” says Johnny.

“Did you?” asks Kun. “How’s he doing?”

“Maybe we should ask Ten that question,” Johnny replies.

Ten narrows his eyebrows. “What do I have to do with this?”

Kun splays his hand out in Ten’s direction, looking at Johnny before saying, “I told you.”

Johnny sighs. “Taeil’s fine.”

“How is Ten?” Kun asks, looking back at Ten.

Ten shrugs. “Just had the best meal in the world, what can I say?”

“You think a little flattery will get you somewhere?” Kun asks, and then flutters his eyelashes. “It will. Remember, the secret ingredient is always love.”

Ten laughs at that. He wouldn’t give up his rapport with Kun or Johnny for anything.

“You know, much like you, Taeil is also single.” Johnny said. 

“You’re a decent enough matchmaker,” Ten replies. “I don’t know, just set him up?”

“He’s already inter- You know what, I can’t tell if you’re fucking around with me or not.” Johnny said. 

“Language,” Kun hisses. 

Johnny stares at Ten, eyes boring into him. “Taeil’s a good man. And you deserve happiness.”

“Yangyang’s growing up.” Kun says, resting his head on his hand. “It could be time for something new.” 

Ten doesn’t like that Kun and Johnny are ganging up on him. 

“Just promise us you’ll consider it,” Kun says. He reaches across the table to hold one of Ten’s hands. 

Johnny reaches out for the other one, and now they’re both looking at him like they’re entrusting him with something important. 

“I will.” Ten says weakly. 

It’s maybe a month later when Ten next picks up Yangyang. Today, Johnny has to attend some PD conference at the local school board office. 

It’s a bit of a shitstorm. Ten had had a commission due early in the morning, so he’d stayed up until ass o’clock, or dawn, whatever it was, to finish it. After he’d dropped Yangyang off at school he’d sent the commission off. He would have gone straight to sleep, but his attendance at some work meeting had been mandatory. 

Somewhat thankfully, the meeting was online so he’d sat in his home office hoping he wouldn’t knock out. It was, as some meetings are, incredibly dull. Ten had been there to be there, but he wasn’t an expert in any of the discussion topics so he was content to mostly sit back, only chiming in when he had questions. Louis had sat on his lap the whole time, and he was surprised the warm weight of the cat hadn’t led him to fall asleep. 

He had promptly gone to sleep after the meeting ended, but not before setting 5 alarms. Just in case he slept through all of them. 

Which he had nearly done. He’d slept through all but 1 of them, and thankfully he’d been smart enough to set it at a time early enough to allow him to get some coffee in. He drank decaf now, but it was more the ritual than the caffeine. Caffeine-induced jitters, he’d left those behind a while ago.

Not that he needed caffeine to be jittery. Ten had mostly been Taeil-free for the last month. For a week after receiving that note from Taeil, Ten had debated with himself on whether or not he should write back, but he’d really had nothing to say. After all, Yangyang was doing fine at school. He had no real concerns. The best thing he had come up with was a little sketch of the moon, which still lay on his desk. 

Taeil had been in contact through email newsletters, and Ten tried to complete whatever Taeil was asking for in those as soon as he could. He was overcompensating, perhaps. 

It was difficult for Ten. He was used to being direct, and it was frustrating that he couldn’t express the right emotions. Although there was nothing physically hindering them from being together, at the end of the day Taeil was Yangyang’s teacher. 

Not to mention Ten had capital I issues regarding his family. He had worked hard to make sure Yangyang felt loved and supported, and as much as he strived to meet every other challenge in his life, this was a sensitive area of his life. Was the mortifying ordeal of being known worth it? So much had gone into maintaining the status quo, and as the saying went, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. 

This was the stuff that kept Ten up at night, and on his mind at moments like this, making his way to the right door.

Taeil is at the door, holding it open. Ten watches as he bends down into a squat to talk to a student. 

As Ten walks closer he begins to hear snatches of the conversation. 

“I can’t do it,” the girl says, and Ten can hear the sniffles in her voice.

Taeil makes a noise of affirmation. “It’s frustrating, right?” 

“Yeah.” She fiddles with the zipper on her jacket. It’s apparent to Ten that she’s having trouble zipping up her jacket, hands nervous. 

“Let’s take it slow,” Taeil says. 

Ten watches as Taeil walks the student through it, smiling when she does it on her own and puts her hands out to meet Taeil’s in a double high five. 

Taeil was so good with children. As expected of him, being a first grade teacher, but it made Ten’s heart melt all the same. 

Taeil sends the student off and Ten hopes he doesn’t look like a lovestruck fool. 

“Hi.” Ten said. 

“Hi,” Taeil says, in what is certainly his dealing with parents (read: customer service) voice, before realizing it’s Ten. “Ten! It’s so good to see you.” Taeil is beaming.

Ten doesn’t think his heart can take much more of this. He’s drawn to Taeil like a cat to catnip. “Hello. It’s been a while.” Ten smiles. 

Yangyang comes waddling towards them, dressed warmly in a puffer jacket and trying to hold a piece of paper in his mitten-covered hand. 

Yangyang waves at Ten. “Hi Dad, I just had art class. Look!” He holds the paper out to Ten. “It’s the moon.” 

It’s a little painting of a moon, not quite full. It’s cutely shaded in, and Ten says to Yangyang, “Great work Yangyang! I love it.”

Yangyang breaks out into a toothy smile. “I was going to give it to Mr. Moon.” He looks to Ten as if asking permission. 

Ten nods, and Yangyang presents the paper to Taeil. 

Taeil bends down to Yangyang’s height, asking, “Is this me?” 

Yangyang nods excitedly. “But,” Yangyang lowers his voice, “I still like you better than the moon.” 

Taeil laughs. “Thank you, Yangyang, it’s beautiful. You must have gotten your art skills from your dad.” Taeil looks at Ten. 

“You’re right, Mr. Moon. I watched him draw the moon over and over and over last month.” Yangyang said. 

“That’s right, that series of the moon. How did that turn out?” Taeil asks Ten. 

“There was lots of back and forth during the process, but the client was very satisfied. I learned a lot about the moon in the process.” Ten said.

Taeil nods. “You’ll have to show me sometime.”

“I will,” Ten says, and somehow he thinks he’s replying to something entirely different. 

Yangyang says, “Mr. Moon, will you put up my painting?”

“Of course, we can pick out a place to hang it in the classroom tomorrow, how’s that sound?” Taeil asked.

“Okay! I’ll remind you.” 

“I’ll keep it safe until then,” Taeil said. 

“Bye,” Yangyang said, stretching out the syllable. 

Taeil stands, waving at Ten and Yangyang. “I’ll see you soon.”

Ten knows he’s talking to Yangyang, but he wants so badly for it to be directed at him too. Why couldn’t this be easier?

When Ten knocks, he expects Johnny to be the one answering the door. Maybe Kun. What he hadn’t expected was Taeil answering the door. 

It was Kun’s birthday slash New Year’s Day celebration dinner and Kun had asked Ten to come early to help out around the house. Ten had thought it would just be him, Johnny, Kun, and the kids. 

“Hi Mr. Moon! Do you want to come play with me and Donghyuck?” Yangyang says. 

“Sure, just let me help your dad carry these groceries in.” Taeil takes the box of fruit off of Ten’s hands. Yangyang follows Taeil closely through the hallway, apparently not wanting to lose a playmate. 

Taeil places the box on the kitchen counter before smiling at Kun and Ten, following Yangyang out of the room. 

Ten waits until he hears their footsteps receding before whisper-shouting at Kun, “You know Taeil? Why is he here?”

Kun looks at Ten like he’s just grown horns. “Ten,” Kun starts slowly, “Johnny and Taeil are coworkers.”

“Of course I know that,” Ten said, exasperated. 

“I told you I was producing for Taeil, it’s not my fault you didn’t remember.” Kun says smartly, unpacking the groceries. “Oh good, you bought the organic vegetables.”

“You’re saying Mr. Moon- Taeil- He’s-” Ten sputtered. 

Kun looked at him, concerned. “How about you sit down, and I pour you a glass of water. Poor thing, you seem to have lost your mind.”

“Listen here old man,” says Ten, before Johnny strides into the room. 

“Who’s calling who old?” Johnny asks, amused. He’s carrying Yizhuo, who eagerly reaches for Ten.

“Hello, my favourite 3 year old, Yizhuo! Ningning!” Ten coos at her. She sticks a finger in his dimple, before laying her head on his shoulder and letting out a soft huff. Ten adjusts her on his waist. 

Kun laughs before he says, “Ten forgot I was producing Taeil’s album.” 

Johnny rolls his eyes. “He’s living under a rock, apparently. I guess love just makes you a little dumb.”

Ten lets out a garbled noise. He wants to unpack the whole situation, but what comes out of his mouth next is, “He sings?”

“Damn well,” Kun said. “He asked me to record some background vocals for him, but I think if he comes into the studio a little more I can just use his.”

A mischievous look comes over Johnny. Johnny nudges Kun. “Ten sings right?”

Kun and Johnny share one of those looks that Ten hated because despite being a polyglot it was of no use here - they were having a conversation in a language only they were privy to. 

Ten whispers to Ningning, “Your daddy and baba are telling secrets again,” the pout audible in his voice. 

“Uncle Ten, I think they’re just trying to help,” Ningning said. 

And what can Ten say to that. Bested by a 3 year old. 

“What if-” says Kun.

“-Ten records some background vocals for Taeil!” Johnny finishes. 

Ningning claps her hands. “Uncle Taeil and Uncle Ten have pretty voices! Yes!” She uses her hand to pat at Ten’s face. “Uncle Ten, you should do it!” 

“See, even Ningning agrees.” Johnny says. 

Ten points out, “We don’t even know if Taeil would agree to this!”

“Who said anything about me not agreeing? Also, what am I agreeing to?” Taeil comes into the room holding Chenle. 

Ningning squirms in Ten’s arms as does Chenle in Taeil’s arms, the kids beginning to babble in Mandarin. Ten puts her down when she says to him, “Uncle Ten, I want to go play with Lele!” 

“Bye baobao, you two play safe,” said Ten. 

“We’re going to play with Hyuck, and Yangyang and,” Chenle pauses, thinking. “I think Jeno and Minjeong are here?” Chenle says before running off with Ningning.

“Dongyoung is here?” Ten asks. 

“He’s just left,” said Johnny. “Jaehyun is working so Dongyoung said he was going to leave the kids here then pick up Jaehyun for tonight’s dinner.” 

“Taeil, is that you?” Sicheng asks, coming into the now-crowded kitchen. He places a bottle of wine down. “Kun-ge, you didn’t tell me the wine cellar was so nice, I would have gotten you something better.” 

Kun waves a hand, “That’s Johnny’s thing right now. I just do the drinking.” 

Ten watched as Taeil pulled Sicheng in for a hug. Sicheng seemed to sense Ten’s surprise, and he said, “Before I moved in with Yuta, he was roommates with Taeil. We just had him over for dinner last week.” 

“We did, didn’t we? Winwin, where did you put the chocolates? Chenle wants to share some with the other kids, our sweet son knows how to share,” Yuta said, peeking his head into the kitchen. 

“Talk later,” says Sicheng as he leaves the room with Yuta. 

Simultaneously, a ringtone goes off and Johnny leaves the room to take the call.

“Kun, can I help you out with something?” said Taeil. 

“Of course,” Kun replies, taking out 3 cutting boards. They’re having hotpot for dinner, and there’s a lot of meat and seafood that needs to be cut in preparation. There were also vegetables that needed to be washed and cut. Kun sets them all up, and the 3 of them work in tandem. 

Kun is abnormally chatty today. When they were roommates back in college, Kun had always impressed on Ten that there wasn’t much need for talking when cooking. Now though, Kun is in the midst of continuing their conversation from before, talking about what he was doing in the studio lately when Johnny comes back into the kitchen, holding a phone out. He says to Kun, “It’s your mother again.” 

And so Kun leaves the room. It’s just Taeil and Ten now. They’ve actually gotten a significant amount of work done. Kun had assigned Ten the vegetables, which Ten had washed carefully. He had finished cutting them and now was arranging them on serving vessels, but he seemed to be short on space. 

He thought he had seen a bunch of them earlier, so he said, “Babe, can you pass me that?” 

Before Ten can think about what he had said, Taeil obliges, looking at Ten with a twinkle in his eye. “You know, you should at least take me on a date before you call me babe.”

“You would want to? I mean you’re … ” Ten trails off. Ten had done more than his fair share of questionable things, but this was his son’s teacher. Crossing this boundary would likely be difficult to repair and reverse.

“I think,” Taeil pauses, “you’ll be happy to know I won’t be Yangyang’s teacher once the semester ends.”

“You’re leaving?” Ten asks, not able to help the instant cold sweat he breaks into.

“Far from it. I was hired to be a music teacher, but after some last minute reorganization the school administration realized they didn’t have enough first grade teachers and I had the qualifications. They’ve finally hired someone though, so now I can just teach music,” said Taeil. 

“That’s certainly. Um. Convenient.” Ten said. 

“So when are we going to dinner?” Taeil asked. He frowns when he sees Ten, whose face is contorted into a look of shock. “If you want to, of course. I didn’t mean to misread it. I just thought-”

“No!” Ten cuts him off. He knows he’s lucky to have come across Taeil, who seems to already know all of his friends, and most importantly, who Yangyang already likes. “It’s not that. It’s just that Yangyang is my first priority.”

Taeil’s eyes soften. “Of course.” 

“Before I ask you, I need to ask Yangyang,” says Ten. 

“Ask me what?” Yangyang asks, holding his empty water bottle out to Ten.

Ten fills Yangyang’s bottle with water, wondering how to phrase it. “Would it be okay for me and Mr. Moon to get to know each other a little better?” 

“Like on a date? I thought you were already doing that. That’s what Hyuck heard his dad say I think,” Yangyang said. 

Ten was going to kill Johnny. 

“But if it makes you feel better, you can have my per- permiss-” Yangyang tries to sound out the word, “permission! Mr. Moon taught us that word last week!” Yangyang says proudly. He reaches up to Taeil for a hug, and Taeil picks him up.

“Good job,” Taeil says to Yangyang. To Ten, he says, “So what do you think?”

Seeing Taeil and Yangyang look at him with those pleading eyes, there’s only one thing for Ten to say. “Yes.” 

Taeil and Yangyang both extend an arm, and Ten steps into their hug. 

Outside the kitchen window, night has fallen, and from where they’re standing, Ten can see the moon. When he looks at Taeil and Yangyang under the light of the moon, he thinks there’s nowhere he’d rather be.