Chapter Text
Flx wishes the glitter in his hair and the nail polish smeared across his fingers were a little more purposeful and a lot less placed there by 5 year olds the first time he meets Hj. But we can’t always get what we want.
Flx checks his watch for what feels like the hundredth time in the last 30 minutes, then glances anxiously at the entrance to the parking lot. He’s starting to sweat in the humidity and he just wants nothing more than to go home, shower and sleep. But instead, here he remains, standing outside the elementary school he teaches at, holding the hand of his last remaining student of the day, waiting for her parents to pick her up.
This happened every once in a while, a parent would have a doctor’s appointment run late, they’d get caught up at work or in traffic, but they usually would call the school to inform Flx. In that case, depending on how late the parent was, the child would sit in the office or go to the after school care program the school offers until the parents did arrive. However, that did not happen today. No parent had called, no estimated time of arrival was given, so Flx remained standing in the now vacant car line, awaiting the hopefully inevitable arrival of the 5 year-old’s guardian.
Flx looked down at Hayoon (I literally looked up most common korean girl names, this is not an actual person I’m referencing a younger version of or anything. If this is not an accurate name or anything pls just let me know), the abandoned child, as he’d begun calling her in his head, purely out of annoyance and impatience. He sees her beam up at him, making him feel a little guilty at how much he wants to leave, all annoyance previously held in his features melting away as he smiles softly down at her. She and Flx had just finished playing what felt like their fiftieth round of iSpy, during which time she picked out objects that aligned with what was expected of a 5 year old: the sky (blue), the grass (green), her new dress (red), etc.
“Mommy said today daddy is going to pick me up,” She said for probably the hundredth time since she showed up to school today.
All day she’d been so excited for her dad to come pick her up and Flx himself was even a little excited for her as well because he’d only ever seen her mother do so. Being that he waited with his students at the car line every day, he tended to notice which parent or guardian was in charge of transporting their child. He’d exchange pleasantries with most of the parents and recalls having a good rapport with Hayoon’s mother, who happened to be around Flx’s age (mid-twenties he’d guess).
However, those hopeful feelings regarding meeting his student’s dad had since soured as they continued to wait longer and longer for said father to show up.
Just as Flx is about to check the time once again, he notices a car pulling into the nearly empty parking lot. The car was black and shiny and looked very expensive, which juxtaposed Flx’s own car that was made in 2007 or something with chipping paint and a dent in the back bumper, the source of which remained unknown, which sat in said parking lot, calling for him to start the engine and drive it home.
The car skids to a stop right in front of the two of them and out jumps a man with long jet black hair, tortoise shell sunglasses, and what appears to be a well tailored suit. He looked expensive.
“Dad!!” The little girl yells, jumping up excitedly and running towards the man.
The moment she releases Flx’s hand he nearly sighs in relief, wiping his sweaty hand along the leg of his pants, before returning his attention to her and her father.
Flx is momentarily surprised by the the wealth gap that appeared to exist between his student’s mother and father. It wasn’t that Hayoon’s mother seemed poor by any means, but her white mini van and casual outfits when picking her daughter up, were nothing compared to the man in front of him.
The guy runs around the car and scoops her up, “Hayoon! Sweetheart, how are you?” The man kisses her cheeks loudly, making the girl giggle and squeal excitedly.
Flx watches as the man stands up to full height as his daughter rattles off information about the day into his ear, arms wrapped snugly around his neck, her body resting on her dad’s hip. The man’s face is blocked by his daughter’s head for a while, but soon he turns his body in a way that gives Flx a better view of his features. The man pulls his sunglasses up to rest in his hair, pulling his hair away from his face and - holy shit.
that man is hot Flx thinks.
The man’s hair flows beautifully, ending just around shoulder height, pulled into a half up half down style, which contrasts the tight fitting black trousers and matching jacket. The hair style on anyone else would look casual, possibly even haphazard or messy, but this man makes it look deliberate and styled and lovely. Somehow, and Flx isn’t sure how, but just the man’s hair alone looks expensive with how soft and silky it seems. Flx kinda wants to run his hands through it a little bit. Flx’s gaze travels to the man’s face, his near perfect complexion, his sleek brows, his fox-like eyes, and, jesus christ, those lips. He looks around Flx’s age but with how well he’s dressed and the car he’s driving, Flx can’t be too sure.
Flx is suddenly self conscious of the glitter he knows is still in his hair and the marker doodles that are on his arms from the students today. He looks down at himself, dressed in baggy overalls, fully prepared to only see 5 year olds today, not hot businessmen with pretty lips.
The man looks over at Flx after a few moments, “I’m so sorry I’m late.” The man pauses, guilt swarming his face. “Things got crazy at work and there was all this traffic. I didn't consider how long it’d take to get here. I’ve never picked her up before usually her mom picks her up so I’ve never left work at this time and-”
Flx cuts the man off with a laugh, “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”
The man looked startled for a moment. Flx watches the way the man stares at him for a split second, almost as if he was just now registering Flx’s existence. The man’s eyes slowly traveled down Flx’s body, making Flx blush, shoving his arms behind his back to hide his paint smeared hands and marker covered forearms.
Flx didn’t have much time to figure out if the man was checking him out or judging him because a high pitched voice interrupts the two of them.
“It’s okay daddy, we had fun! We were playing iSpy!”
Both men quickly shift their attention to the momentarily forgotten 5 year old. The man smiles at her, sounding a little bit airier than before, “Oh were you now?”
The man looks over at Flx as he says this, an amused expression on his face as he raises his eyebrows at him. The man’s voice is dripping with delight, as if he’s fully aware of how painful a situation that was for Flx, but is nevertheless tickled by it.
Flx crosses his arms and cocks his hip to the side with some attitude, nodding his head and chuckling, “Yes, for 30 minutes.” Flx jokes, putting emphasis on just how long that is to be playing such a game.
The man at least has the audacity to blush, scrunching his face and pressing his pretty lips together to display his sympathy, “Yeah, I’m sorry about that.”
Flx finds his expression cute. He also notices he’s not that mad about waiting so long anymore. He won’t admit how much those two thoughts are tied to one another.
“Mr. Lee look, this is my papa,” The little girl squirms in her dad’s hold to try to face Flx better as she yells excitedly. “Papa, it’s Mr. Lee I told you about Mr. Lee you know Mr. Lee!!”
She’s practically screaming with excitement as she rambles on and Flx giggles as her dad blinks rapidly in reaction to her yelling directly into his eardrum.
Her dad turns to Flx and he seems to register what his daughter said at a delay, suddenly looking surprised, “You’re Mr. Lee?”
Flx nods, looking down at himself then back at the man with a shrug, “Last I checked.”
The man’s eyes run up and down Flx once more, making Flx wanna both disappear and melt at the same time, before he says, “I’m Hj, Hayoon’s dad.”
Flx smiles, liking his name but probably actually just liking the way Hj said it. Flx goes to say nice to meet you but is interrupted by Hayoon, who whines, kicking in Hj’s arms.
She practically stage whispers, unknowingly totally within earshot of Flx, “Can we go home dad I really gotta pee?” Her eyes are pleading and wide like saucers as she says it and Hj’s mimic hers, making her giggle. In that moment Flx thinks he sees a resemblance between them for sure. Both of their iris’ so dark and big, both of their eye shapes so slender and fox-like.
Hj nods quickly, “Of course, angel. Let’s just get you strapped in.”
Flx watches, shuffling his feet as Hj puts her in her carseat, and shuts the door. Hj sighs once she’s inside and turns to Flx, running a hand through his beautiful black hair and removing the sunglasses from the top of his head. In doing so, some of the shorter hairs that shape Hj’s face fall down and he looks so good Flx thinks he might scream if he could.
“I’m sorry again,” Hj flushes.
Flx almost misses what Hj says, distracted by the way his lips move when he talks, but thank god he was good at reading lips. Especially when those lips are as gorgeous as Hj’s were.
Flx flushes, shrugging in an attempt to appear calm, cool, and collected, “Seriously it’s fine, shit happens.”
Hj laughs at Flx’s bluntness, nodding his head. Hj’s wide smile slowly fades to one that just pulls softly at the corners of his lips, but makes no move to leave. A few moments pass where the two are both staring at each other before Hj clears his throat, breaking the silence.
Hj smiles at Flx as he begins to walk backwards, “I’m gonna…” Hj pauses, pointing to where his car is behind him, rather than finishing the sentence audibly, “Thank you again.”
Safe to say, Flx exited the parking lot that day much happier than he expected. And maybe that had to do with his student’s hot dad, but no one needed to know that.
✧✦✧✦
Hj starts picking up his daughter almost everyday after that. Some days he’s on time, but sometimes he’s not. Flx isn’t that mad about those times. They have brief exchanges each time and Flx revels in the casual conversation with someone his age, especially someone so attractive. Don’t get him wrong, Flx loved his job, but only ever talking to 5 year olds and his friend Jisung (who Flx would argue had the maturity of a 16 year old at best), left him yearning for talks like the ones he had with Hj.
“I like the tats,” Hj smirked, pointing down at Flx’s arms one day while buckling Hayoon into her seatbelt. He’d been on time today.
Flx gives Hj a confused look, scrunching his eyebrows.
Hj juts his chin out at Flx’s arms once again, the smirk growing on his face. Flx looks down, face still contorted in confusion.
It only takes a second for Flx to understand what he’s referring to: the various attempts at cat drawings a couple of his students had attempted on his arms that day. Flx flushes as he looks up.
“Thank you,” Flx bites his lip to try to hold back the smile growing on his face. “I’m going for a full sleeve.” Flx adds jokingly in an attempt to regain some control.
Hj throws his head back in a loud laugh, catching the attention of some of the other teachers and parents currently picking up their kids as well, but neither seem to care too much.
“You should give me the info for your tattoo artist, I love the art style,” Hj winks with a wave as he gets into his car and Flx thinks his knees almost buckle.
Flx mentions Hj to Jisung, a fellow teacher at his school and long time friend of his, and he acts like Flx has met his soulmate. Flx does his best to explain to him that it’s not a big deal and he’s only spoken to Hj for a grand total of like 10 minutes over the past few weeks, but Jisung won’t have any of it. From then on Flx is very aware of the looks, the winks and the thumbs ups Jisung gives him in the car line whenever he sees Hj arriving. Flx merely rolls his eyes and tries to focus on Hj’s sparkly eyes and lovely smile for the small amount of time he gets to see him.
If nothing else, I can at least admire a pretty face. There’s no harm in that Flx reminds himself whenever he catches himself romanticizing the situation more than he thinks is healthy.
Then one day, Hayoon gets sick.
Hayoon had been acting strangely since halfway through the school day in Flx’s opinion. She had been far less bright and happy than normal, which was something unusual for the boisterous and hyperactive child. She was much quieter, not speaking much or interacting with the other students or raising her hand to answer questions, instead spending her time with a small frown and a flushed face (but not in a good way).
Flx had been an elementary school teacher for about 3 years now and had worked with many children prior to his current job, therefore, he considered himself quite good at spotting when one of his student’s was falling ill. He tried to ask if she wanted to go to the school’s nurse but Flx never found negotiating with 5 year olds to be easy. She shook her head frantically, with wide eyes and a pout. Flx noticed the way she stared at the other children while they giggled and played, his gut telling him she was not telling the truth. However, he didn’t have it in him to force her to go to the office anyway, there’s always a chance he was misreading the situation.
It wasn’t until around 30 minutes before school ended that Hayoon approached Flx, pulling on his shirt to get his attention, then gave him that look he had become all too familiar with: she was about to be sick. Flx didn’t even wait for her to speak, swiftly grabbing her and running her towards the trash can near the door.
After calling the office to send someone to clean up the situation in his class room and sending his students to the teacher next door, Flx held Hayoon’s hand and walked her to the front office to call her parents. She was pouting and dragging her feet as she walked and Flx couldn’t help the way his heart clenched in his chest; he hated when any of his kids were unhappy.
Upon arriving at the front office, Flx noticed there were only 20 minutes before the end of the day. He considered not calling her parents since he knew Hj would likely come pick her up soon anyway, however, it was still protocol to call a student’s parents when they got sick while in his care. Flx calls her mom, because it’s the first emergency contact listed. He hears the urgency in her mom’s voice as she assures Flx she’ll be there as soon as possible and it makes him feel bad for the way he’s been basically drooling over what he assumes is her husband for weeks.
When the call ends and Flx’s gaze falls back onto Hayoon’s emergency contact information, he has to force himself not to look too hard at the contact info below her mother’s, the name Hwang Hj feeling like it has a spotlight on it. However, he shakes his head at himself and puts the file back with only a little bit of hesitancy.
Flx plans to remain in the office for the 20 minutes until the end of the day with Hayoon to keep her company, as he would do with any other student if they were sick this close to school ending. However, he’ll return to his students to take them to the car line once the bell rings, signaling the end of the day.
Hj arrives about 5 minutes before the bell.
He shoves open the office door, looking frazzled and slightly out of breath when he says to the woman at the office desk, “Hi, I’m Hwang Hj, I got a call about my daughter being sick.”
The woman points behind her in the direction of the nurse’s office. Hj doesn’t seem to listen to whatever she says after that, bowing is head in appreciation as he approaches the door.
Flx was sat on the child-sized doctor’s office style bed, arm wrapped around Hayoon who, despite her wishes, was encouraged to remain sitting upright, with a trash can at her feet, in case she needed to be sick again. Flx allowed her to rest her head on his shoulder as he spoke softly to her in an attempt to soothe her. She had been whining every few minutes that her tummy hurt and that she felt warm and, in her words, “yucky”, since they arrived. Likely nothing he could say would truly help, however, Flx couldn’t fathom just sitting with her in silence, so he continued whispering words of encouragement in an attempt to distract her from her sickness.
When Hj entered the room, Flx’s head shot up, hearing the loud footsteps as they approached the door. Flx watches as Hj’s face falls from one of stress to one of pure sympathy and aching love when his eyes land on his daughter’s frail state, curled into Flx’s shoulder.
“Papa,” Hayoon says, her voice wobbling as her bottom lip starts to shake.
Hj moves towards her, sweeping her up into his arms bridal style, allowing her to lean her head on his chest, her legs bent over his arm. Flx watches fondly at how gently Hj moves her, the way he kisses her head and coos at her softly. Flx almost feels like he’s intruding on an intimate father-daughter moment as he sits, blatantly staring up at them from where he remains seated on the bed.
“Let’s get you home, love,” Hj whispers sweetly to his daughter, rocking her softly.
Her head pops up from his chest for a moment, her eyes wet with fresh tears, bottom lip pushed out in a pout, “Can we watch Princess Jasmine?”
Hj’s brows furrow fondly, nodding his head, “Of course.”
Flx can't shake the feeling that he's intruding on their father-daughter moment as he remains seated just feet away, staring up at them. Despite this, he can't seem to pull his gaze away or move his feet from where they're cemented on the floor. He wants to coo at the way Hj interacts with his daughter with so much love, he wants to watch the sometimes silly, sometimes tender, but always genuine, dynamic between his student and her father.
It’s a moment that makes Flx think he should maybe take a step back, maybe he’s too invested in this lovely, pretty man he barely knows and his sweet, adorable daughter. Flx isn’t sure what he’ll do the next time Hayoon’s mom picks her up, unsure if he can look her in the eyes knowing the way he ogled her husband and romanticized the dynamic between her husband and daughter.
Flx feels the guilt settle in the pit of his stomach along with the embarrassment. He felt silly putting so much attention, no matter how harmless it was, on this man, this parent, of his student. The, seemingly, biological parent of his student, who’s mom was still in the picture and likely also in Hj’s life as well.
It’s just a silly crush he tried to reassure himself.
However, the guilt still remained.
Flx isn’t sure if Hj has even registered that he’s in the room, until Hayoon speaks again.
“Can mommy come over and watch with us?” She asks, pouting in a way Flx knows he himself would never be able to say no to.
Hj seems to freeze for a moment, glancing at Flx hesitantly, it was the first time he’d looked at Flx since entering the room, “Uhh, she’s gonna be at her house. Do you wanna go to her house instead?”
Oh shit Flx thinks.
“I guess not…” She looks down with a deep frown.
Flx’s brain feels like it’s suddenly on overdrive at what Hj had just said. He wasn’t sure if he was insinuating what he thought he was.
Flx is only able to revel in the joy of this possibility for a few moments before his mind starts to reveal more gaps in his logic, reminding him of more information unknown, more disaster scenarios, more logical explanations for what had just been stated. The doubt returns as if it had never even left.
’Just because he’s not living with her doesn’t mean they’re not together’ Flx later whined to Jisung, who scoffed back at him.
’How many couples do you know that have a child together, but don’t live together, Flx?' Jisung rolled his eyes as his blonde friend.
’Even so, that doesn’t automatically mean he’s gay! If anything, him having a biological child is significant evidence against that’ Flx huffed back, pitying himself.
'There’s only one way to find out’ Jisung giggled maniacally, making Flx groan and swat at his friend.
“Can Uncle Channie come over then?” Hayoon asks with wide pleading eyes.
“He can come over when you’re all better, but I don’t think he wants to feel yucky like you do,” Flx can’t help the small smile that pulls at the corners of his mouth at the way Hj phrased the sentence.
Hayoon nods, placing her head back onto her dad’s chest, curling into his arms. Hj kisses her hair once more before he turns his attention to Flx. Hj’s eyes are full of appreciation and sympathy and maybe something else.
“Thank you for being with her before I got here. Sorry to always keep you waiting…” Hj smiles softly, looking down as a blush rises on his cheeks.
I’d wait for you any day Flx thinks immediately, internally groaning at himself.
“It’s no problem, it comes with the job description,” Flx laughs softly, looking down at his hands, playing with his rings, feeling flustered.
When Hj doesn’t speak or move for a moment, Flx looks back up at him. Flx watches as Hj seems to hesitate but his daughter lets out a whine and he’s back in dad mode.
“Let’s get you home, sweetheart,” Hj tightens his grips on his daughter and goes to exit the room.
Flx gets up to follow him, glancing at the clock to see only about a minute remaining until the bell rings. Just before exiting the office, Hj sends Flx an apologetic look, one Flx had grown used to being on the receiving end of since he’d met the man, and mouths 'Thank you' one more time at Flx before stepping out the door fully.
Flx smiles softly at the door as it swings closed, feeling wistful, only to jump at the sound of the bell ringing obnoxiously through the office. Flx scrambles to exit the office, speed walking in the direction of his classroom, all the while only one thought repeats in his head:
I want that man so bad