With every step closer to his destination, Lee Hyeon’s pace quickened just slightly. It shouldn’t have been possible, and yet — between the scents of the flowers blooming along the roadside, he could have sworn he caught traces of Yoon Seowoo’s smell.
Follow that scent, and it would lead to his nest. The trail of Yoon Seowoo’s pheromones winding through the yard in overlapping paths looked like a painting made by flinging paint across a canvas. The vivid, twisting threads of color showing how he had moved over the past few hours were deeply, quietly alluring.
Following the densest trace inside, Lee Hyeon found Yoon Seowoo in the annex, unfolding a stroller. The baby was there too — fixing Lee Hyeon with a sulky look the moment he spotted him. Between his chubby cheeks, his plump little lips jutted out, making him look exactly like a ruffled, irritable chick.
“You could have waited at the studio……”
“Weren’t you the one who recommended the walk to the daycare as a scenic route?”
“Did I say that?”
Unlike Lee Hyeon’s breezy tone, Seowoo answered flatly and gave an awkward little smile.
The truth was, Seowoo found it difficult to keep the same unbothered expression that Lee Hyeon wore so easily. The moment he’d spotted him coming through the gate just a few minutes ago, he hadn’t been able to hide his agitation. If Dano hadn’t grabbed his hand and started shaking it, he might have lost himself completely to the pull of his pheromones.
He was the one who’d asked for the pheromones under the guise of treatment — so why couldn’t he keep his composure like this?
“Okay, Dano — shall we sit down?”
Resolved to focus on Dano as much as possible, Seowoo pointed to the stroller. But the baby shook his head firmly from side to side.
“Walk.”
“Yeah? Hmm.”
Seowoo lifted his wrist to check his watch. They were a little short on time, but perhaps walking alongside Dano might actually help him endure the awkwardness.
“Alright, then we’ll have to walk a bit fast.”
“Okay, Daddy, hold my hand please.”
They set off toward the daycare hand in hand — and Lee Hyeon fell into step beside Seowoo. But before they’d taken even a few steps, Dano let go of his hand and repositioned himself, planting his small body squarely between the two of them.
……
Without noticing the two adults exchanging bewildered glances over his head, Dano was busy — holding Seowoo with one hand while pushing at Lee Hyeon with the other. Even as he let himself be nudged aside by a force barely worth the name, Lee Hyeon looked utterly incredulous.
“The baby holds a grudge.”
There was no point getting upset with a child who hadn’t even turned thirty-six months yet. And since there was no way to explain the complicated situation — and since he wasn’t entirely without fault — Lee Hyeon had no choice but to walk along, nudged a little to the side.
When they arrived at the daycare, the two of them realized they’d underestimated the situation. Dano’s resistance didn’t end there. Just like any other day, the daycare entrance door opened and they were about to send the baby inside — when Dano planted his feet and refused to move, gripping Seowoo’s hand tight. He poured every ounce of his strength into holding onto his father’s hand, his lips jutting out in a full pout. When Seowoo tried to walk in with him, Dano wrapped himself around his leg and stretched his voice into a long, drawn-out wail.
“Daaaaddyyy……”
His tone made it perfectly clear what he wanted to say — but his round eyes were fixed directly on Lee Hyeon.
Seowoo crouched down to bring himself to Dano’s level and met his gaze. The downward curve of that little mouth told him everything he needed to know before a single word was spoken. Dano’s heart had always been as transparent as a clear glass marble.
A teacher who had been welcoming the arriving children inside read the atmosphere and stepped outside.
“Dano. Why are you standing there like that. Say ‘see you later, Daddy’ and come inside with the teacher.”
When the teacher reached out to take his hand, Dano tucked both his hands away into his own chest. Then he buried his face against Seowoo as if playing hide-and-seek.
“Is Dano feeling unwell? Was he not doing well this morning?”
The teacher gently touched the back of Dano’s neck as she spoke, but Dano rejected even that touch. Seowoo shook his head with an apologetic, helpless expression — not because it wasn’t true, but simply because there was no way to explain the actual situation.
Refusing to go to daycare was common enough for young children. A bad day, a falling-out with a friend, not wanting to be separated from a parent. The reasons were more or less the same — but in Dano’s case today, it was almost certainly that he didn’t want to leave his father alone with the unsettling man.
“Dano, today is the flower-planting day you’ve been so excited about…… if you go in and plant them nicely, Daddy will come pick you up really soon.”
Dano turned only his face from where it was buried against Seowoo and looked at Lee Hyeon.
“Don’t wanna. Not going.”
His pale little brows were furrowed deep. Seowoo bit down on his lip, silently blaming Lee Hyeon for having tagged along without a thought. Just then, as if he’d read every word of Seowoo’s inner monologue, Lee Hyeon inserted himself into the situation and spoke up.
“If he doesn’t want to go, does he really have to?”
The teacher and Seowoo both looked up at him simultaneously at the absolutely unhelpful comment that was only adding fuel to the fire. They were both equally dumbfounded — but Lee Hyeon shrugged shamelessly. He slid the sunglasses he’d been wearing halfway down his nose and met Seowoo’s eyes over them. There was even a flicker of mischief in his gaze.
“Don’t look at me like that. Since it’s come to this anyway — why don’t we go on a little outing? What does the baby think?”
……
Was he always like this? Seeing this unexpected side of him, Seowoo didn’t know how to respond. Lee Hyeon paid it no mind and crouched down beside Seowoo, lightly tapping Dano on the tip of his nose.
“You’re thinking — if I hadn’t come along, he would have gone in just fine like any other day, aren’t you? We’ve known each other longer than a day or two, you can’t fool me. Let’s go get some air while I try to earn a few points.”
Caught between the speechless teacher, Dano clutching his sleeve tight, and Lee Hyeon grinning shamelessly — the most flustered one of them all was Seowoo.
In the end, Seowoo admitted defeat and scooped Dano up into his arms, following Lee Hyeon out. Draped over Seowoo’s side, Dano beamed brightly at the teacher and waved a cheerful bye-bye, completely oblivious to his father’s inner turmoil. He was so triumphant about getting his way that he was practically a tiny little devil. Seowoo patted the baby’s bouncing bottom as he kicked his feet in delight. It was impossible to stay annoyed when he was this happy.
The park on a Monday morning was quiet. Lee Hyeon, who had been the one to suggest the outing under the premise of getting better acquainted, had no actual ideas about where to go once they were out. He had no knowledge of places young children typically visited, and everything he looked up on his phone was either closed on Mondays or didn’t open until the afternoon.
The empty lawn had nothing but sunlight, a stray ball with no owner, and the occasional dog passing through on a walk. The three of them sat in a row on a bench — Seowoo, Dano, then Lee Hyeon.
Dano clearly didn’t like having Lee Hyeon sitting next to him — but it was still better than having him pressed right up against Seowoo, so Dano had wedged himself firmly in between them as a self-appointed barrier.
“……Dano, shall we play catch with Daddy?”
The moment Seowoo suggested it, Dano spun around and climbed down off the bench. Then, with a sideways glance at Lee Hyeon, he tugged at Seowoo’s hand. He shot Lee Hyeon a silent look that clearly said don’t follow, and Lee Hyeon let out a short, humorless laugh.
Meanwhile, Seowoo had already forgotten that he’d been glaring at Lee Hyeon for encouraging Dano to skip daycare — and now that they were actually at the park, he was thinking it wasn’t so bad after all. It was because of the plan he and Lee Hyeon had settled on the previous weekend.
The only time without the child is weekday mornings. Location will be my studio — and the method is up to me.
Before Seowoo could even ask why Lee Hyeon got to decide that, he had added:
Because both the giving and the stopping are entirely up to my patience.
He needed time to get used to it. In Seowoo’s view, Lee Hyeon was unguardedly familiar to an almost excessive degree. Thinking back to who he’d been three years ago, it felt as if a completely different person had walked in wearing his skin. It was a good thing his pheromones still smelled exactly as he remembered, or else……
He needed to warm up before throwing himself into the main event. Seowoo gently deflected the ball Dano kicked in all directions, all while sneaking glances at Lee Hyeon over and over.
Donghyeok was covering the shop. Strictly speaking, this time slot was time Lee Hyeon had essentially bought from him under the pretense of taking photographs. The treatment plan, too, was carved out from that same time — so the fact that today he’d spontaneously suggested they go out and play together genuinely made it hard to get a read on what he was thinking. And then there he was, sitting motionless on that bench doing absolutely nothing — so it didn’t seem like he’d needed the outing for himself either.
More than anything, what kept catching Seowoo off guard was that he kept catching glimpses of Lee Hyeon’s other, more human sides — beyond just Lee Hyeon the painter. Come to think of it, before they’d reunited here, Seowoo had never once seen him eat. Perhaps the feeling he’d once harbored was closer to a longing for something mysterious and otherworldly. Less human, more like an elf……
He was about to give the ball another light kick as it rolled toward him.
“Daddy!”
At the sound of Dano’s voice calling out to him, Seowoo snapped back to attention — and at the same moment, he saw a pair of long legs shoot out from behind him. Lee Hyeon had drawn close without him noticing, gave the ball a casual kick, and then strode right past Seowoo toward Dano. The ball, sent with more force than they’d been using, sailed past Dano too and went rolling far into the distance.
Dano spun around and broke into a run after the fast-rolling ball. A toddler’s sprint was precarious at the best of times, so an anxious Seowoo ran with him. Lee Hyeon dashed ahead, snatched up the ball, and then kicked it lightly back toward Seowoo. Seowoo caught it and lifted it up, and Dano came panting up to him with both arms stretched high.
“Kick it to me.”
Lee Hyeon called out from where he stood at a distance, rolling up the sleeves of his knit sweater and beckoning Seowoo with a wave of his hand. His face was faintly flushed, and he was smiling.
