Chapter Text
Rain sputters itself down in hasty, thick rivulets as Euijoo mentally prepares himself to attempt to make it home before the beginning of the worsening wave of the storm, with the soles of his shoes just narrowly missing becoming as soaking wet as the pavement he jumps onto. The train he's just departed from's doors slam behind him with finality, and as his auburn hair begins to darken with the relentless rain, a pit of worry begins to seep down and fill his stomach as he takes in the darkening sky and mood around him.
The usual bustle and rushing crowd he's used to earlier throughout the day is non existent as he grimaces at the slick sound his shoes make as they slap themselves against the puddling pavement, and in a last ditch effort to stop himself from completely becoming sick, he uses his jacket as a halfhearted and dilapidated umbrella. The air is humid and warm, nothing like what they had promised earlier during their prediction of the weather on the radio, and a slight fog appears to sequence and thicken around the darkened clouds from where he can just barely see.
A rogue car slowly makes its way by from across the other side of the street, with the low hum of the engine just barely audible above the incessant smacks of dew. Its headlights are almost blinding, and Euijoo has to quickly tuck his chin into his chest to protect the rest of his skewed vision from becoming even more disarrayed as the car makes a lazy turn.
Whispering out a soft noise of complaint under his breath, he goes to straighten himself back up and continue on his journey back home, when the sound of a soft wail catches his attention from a nearby alleyway. It's as wet sounding as the rain and panic driven, and despite what he promised his mother he'd never do, Euijoo hurries his footsteps even faster and crosses the road in a quick flight. His backpack slaps against his flank and tugs down the material of his jacket, and he almost trips on the uneven pavement, yet he never slows down his trek.
There's just barely any light filtering itself through the dark and mildewy tunnel, and Euijoo temporarily squeezes his eyes shut in dread, before he's reopening them and taking his first few footsteps inside. As he does so, he can pinpoint it coming from a baby, and his earlier worry turns into bewilderment. Strands of dyed red plaster themselves on his forehead and just below his eyebrows as he ventures past a few discarded trash cans, and when he bends down to try and find the source of all of the noise, he finds a car seat protected by tied together cardboard boxes.
Euijoo's hesitant to try and shove the drawstring laden protectant to the side with the rain still pummeling down, but as another wail resonates in his eardrums and his heart twists painfully with the sound, he does it anyway. His jean clad knees soak themselves through as he kneels down, and his fingertips whiten as he uses them to lift the barricade. His breath catches in his chest as damp and reddened, big brown eyes stare up at him pleadingly, and Euijoo lets out an involuntary coo at the sight, before he carefully reaches forward to readjust the thick wool blanket left tucked around the baby's lower half. It looks like a rushed attempt at a swaddle, with a pacifier just resting at the precipice of their collar, and he instinctively lifts it back up to their pout, before waving it around like a prize. The baby immediately opens its mouth for it, and Euijoo's body slumps forward in relief at the temporary silence that comes after. With his head half covered and protected by a stairwell leading up to an aged apartment building, he risks damaging his phone by reaching into his back pocket to pull it out.
His fingers slightly tremble around the resting device, and as he goes to tap it awake, his thumbs pause over the screen. Euijoo rapidly blinks around a teardrop of sky dew residing on his eyelashes as his mind runs a million miles an hour within the minute. The buses have officially stopped operating, there are currently no other drivers or cars on the road nearest to them, all stores are closed except for a few miscellaneous bars, and there's no possible way he'd be able to live with himself if he left the child here alone on their own until the morning.
Lightning makes itself known as he ponders over his soon to be made decision, and as it causes the younger to jolt in place and then whine over the plastic substitute, Euijoo already knows that he's made up his mind. Drops of rain cascade down his jeans as he stands and then reaches back over for the car seat's handle, and he hastily drags his own jacket off from on top of his head to cover the child as well as he currently can.
Small socked feet still peek out from the bottom, just long and strong enough to kick themselves free from underneath the blanket, and as they wiggle and then try to reattach themselves back to the warmth, Euijoo smiles to himself. Both in affection, and in disbelief. He's barely present enough over his own curiosity to remember to pocket his own phone, and it almost clambers down onto the soaking concrete. The movement has his back colliding with one of the metal trash cans, and the sound the top makes as it slides off and then crashes loudly onto the pavement has him physically cringing and curling up over the child's holder.
Wails painfully reverberate within his eardrums immediately after once again, and instead of no longer knowing what to do, Euijoo continues his task of trying to get them both out of the torrential downpour. He's just barely stepping out the backside of the alley when he hears rapid footsteps running towards him, and he can barely step an inch back before the car seat is being yanked out of his grasp, and his back is agonizingly being shoved against a brick wall.
Skin threatens to split with the motion and Euijoo can't help but to hiss out in pain, with the sound ending muted. Because instead of the angry look he expected to find, he's instead met with a heartbreaking expression of fear.
The man looks scarcely any older than he is, though he might be younger, with sticking together black long strands of hair painted on the sides of his face. He's inappropriately under dressed, in nothing but a seemingly torn tank top and a ratty pair of jeans, and his forearm is trembling as it presses itself into Euijoo's heaving chest. "What the hell do you think you're doing with my kid?" The man asks, his forearm turning into a rough palm on Euijoo's chest as he uncomfortably shifts against the brick wall. The man's voice attempts to seem strong, though it sounds weak. Overused and scratchy, like he'd fought like hell to be standing here.
His eyes are an exact match to the child slowly starting to calm down, and even as the other continues to stare Euijoo down and press him into the wall, he still instinctively twists his wrist in a gentle motion to rock the holder back and forth. There's a wet hiccup, and then the baby is settling around a strained coo. Bright white light temporarily casts over them, and within the soon to be stolen fixture, Euijoo can make out scrapes on the other's chin and face.
"I was going to take them back to my place, until the rain slowed down and I could get some help." He stutters out, so soft and broken that even the father in front of him's face partially softens. The rain fastens and becomes an even heavier burden, and even though as much as he'd still like to help the parent and talk to them, a part of Euijoo wants to duck and cover himself, to rush back to his home.
"I didn't know if they were abandoned and left behind, or if you were already trying to find a safer option for you both," he tries, the droplets of liquid running down his lips making it even more difficult to talk. His heart scatters irregular and fast beats and plummets into his stomach, before jumping right back up, and as stupid as it sounds, something in him is telling him that he needs to protect them. He doesn't know if it's the scared look in the other's eyes, or the innocent look on the baby's face he saw earlier when he first walked into the alley, but he can feel, sense, that if he walks away from them and leaves them to their own devices, he'll regret it and won't be able to sit with his decision. He spits out an offer that sounds as ridiculous and disbelieving as anything he's ever heard, and then he clamps his lips together afterwards.
"Spend the night at my place."
The stranger's eyes impossibly widen, and then they slit, before almost coming to a close. The man yanks his hand off as if he's been burned, and the shake of his head is frantic. "No way," he croaks, it sounding like choked venom, something wrapped around fright. "I don't do that kind of work, and I don't trust strangers."
Euijoo looks at him for a moment, confused, before his own palm comes up to frantically wave in the air. "God, no, nothing like that. Just for something dry to wear and a roof over your head for the night. There isn't anything more that I want from you, other than to make sure that you and your child are okay."
The other man's eyes are still distrusting, but even through the storm, Euijoo can see him break resolve and weaken. His shoulders slump in obvious exhaustion, and as another strike of light greets them from above, light bruises of sleep deprivation make themselves known from underneath his eyes. A slight movement from the car seat lets them both know that his baby is going to soon begin to fret, and as a soft crack in a cry festers into the humid air, the wide brown pair of eyes squeeze themselves shut. "I don't have anywhere else to go, alright?" He nearly whispers, the defeat so heavy in his tone that it causes Euijoo's own spine to curve. He can see his forearm begin to shake with the exertion of having to stay still for so long, while using his wrist, and he barely flinches when Euijoo reaches out to take it.
"Please don't make me regret letting you in, and letting you help us." It's a distinct plea, cutting deep within Euijoo's chest, enough for his own breath to be stolen, becoming barely a molecule to push past the rain.
Euijoo strengthens his hold on the carrier, readjusts the jacket and hides a wince as he peels himself off of the brick wall, and when the other reopens his eyes, something in him awakens.
"There is nothing else I'd rather not do."