10

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by wickedjackel

by wickedjackel

Jeno widens his teeth, tugging on Jungwoo's sleeve. He holds his two hands up and opens his mouth. "Jungwoo is my left hand and Lucas is my right." Then he proceeds to press the two hands together while wigging his eyebrows up and down. "I saw this on tv!"

Mark makes a face, covering Donghyuck's eyes. For someone who watches a lot of television, Jeno knows too much for his own good. What are his parents doing anyway? This boy should be watching cartoons not something like this!

"The sky is dark!" Donghyuck yells, panicking as he couldn't see any light. Of course, this is the part where Mark realizes the cold hard truth. He needs to pick new friends—ones with a brain.

Lucas grins, eyeing Jungwoo who had his mouth hanging wide open. He doesn't exactly know what to say, but only a simple wink would do. See even Jeno wants them together, although he's not complaining. "Hey, the kid is right we would make a great—"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence!" Jungwoo hollers, throwing an unfinished apple pie towards Lucas's face. Desperate times call for desperate measures. He has no regrets! "Not in front of the kids!"

Donghyuck gasps, pointing his middle finger towards Lucas who was covered in a good chunk of apple syrup. He starts to laugh, waving his middle finger around like the big idiot he is. "Haha! That's what you get!"

It only took a moment for Jaemin to realize Donghyuck had been unintentionally flipping off everyone. Maybe, the boy didn't know, but something tells him he's doing this on purpose. "Donghyuck, that's not nice. Use your other finger to point."

"But the middle one is my favorite." Donghyuck pouts, petting his middle finger as if it was the best thing that's ever happened to him. "It's my longest finger!"

There is going to be a time where Mark regrets ever befriending Donghyuck and that time was now. He narrows his eyes towards the boy, grabbing his hand as he intertwined his fingers with his. "Stop, pick another favorite."

Donghyuck blinks, looking at his hands. Somehow he feels really happy, although he's unsure of this feeling, he likes the way Mark holds his hand. It's soft and warm, much like how he treats him. All the time. "I—I think I have a new favorite." He continues, shyly looking away. "But I'm not telling you!"

"Well, I don't want to know." Mark looks over to Jaemin with his lips closed. At least now, the second-hand embarrassment is over. Just kidding! He spoke too soon.

It seems everyone forgot about poor Lucas who was hit by an unfinished apple pie a minute ago. All it took was one whack to his face to have Jeno's apple wasted on the floor. Okay, 50% of it was still on his face. "So, what are you going to do now? We're out of apples."

Jungwoo snorts, sending a glare towards Lucas who didn't seem to admit it was his fault. If he hadn't even brought that sentence up, this wouldn't have happened! He swears, there's not a day where this brat stresses him out. "Sorry Jeno, I'll have to bake you another one tomorrow."

Jeno grins, eyes smiling towards Jungwoo. "Don't worry! Mommy and daddy will make me one."

Jungwoo releases the biggest 'aww' from his mouth. Honestly, Jeno was so adorable and mature for his age. Even though at times he's still a kid, but that's the whole learning experience! He's going to grow up into a fine man one day. "Alright, it's almost time to go home."

Mark looks over towards the window and sees his mom waving her hands high up in the air. Gee, someone is a little too excited to see him. Saying goodbye to everyone, Mark gathers his backpack and strolls on over to the door. "Bye everyone, my mom is here."

On the other hand, Donghyuck's father also arrived. He was just a few minutes later than Mark's mom. In his hands were a bag of groceries and something tells him, he's going to have his favorite dinner tonight. "Daddy is here! He bought curry!"

All that's left was Jeno. It's been a good fifteen minutes since the two boys left with their parents and it's beginning to worry both Jungwoo and Lucas. Even though Lucas could have left with his younger brother, Jaemin wouldn't let go of Jeno's hand until he saw his mom and dad come to pick him up.

"Isn't it getting late?" Jungwoo gets up and heads towards the phone. He looks out the window to see if anyone was coming, but it was already pitch black.

Lucas opens the door, trying to see if he can see anyone walking towards him. From the looks of it, the only thing that caught his eye was a few students from the neighboring daycare center walking home with their parents. "I don't see them."

Jeno fumbles with his fingers, looking at Jaemin with tears in his eyes. He knows his parents are probably late. They're just late. "Mama and dada are coming."

"Don't worry," Jaemin hushes Jeno, wiping away his tears with his fingers. He nods, slowly soothing the boy while patting his back. "It's going to be okay. I'm with you. Your best friend."

With a half grin, Jeno nods realizing he wasn't exactly alone. He looks towards Jungwoo who had his back turned while dialing a couple of numbers in his book.

"They're not answering." Jungwoo hangs up and then calls Kun from the nearby classroom. It's the first time he's experienced this, so surely Kun who's been at the daycare longer than he would have an answer.

Kun pops his head out of the classroom, with a bandana tied on his head. He finished cleaning and was about to end his shift when he heard Jungwoo's voice calling him from the kitchen. Not a minute to lose, he quickly walks over there, lifting an eyebrow. "Wait, why is Jeno still here? It's past pick up time."

-
A/N:
Okay! Got to end it there. It was getting too long. Can you sense what's going to happen? It was hard for me to choose which character to take on this role since originally I chose Donghyuck, but Jeno had more of an impact. 😢 It's not going to be a smooth ride from here on out anymore.