Chapter Text
"Dad?" Mark hummed as he helped his son tie his shoes, smiling up at the six year old boy that sat on the shoe shelf.
"What if nobody likes me?" His son, Julian Lee, asked while tugging on one of the strings on his hoodie.
Mark finished tying his shoelaces and stood up, dusting off his the knees on his pants. He looked at his son, the said boy standing up and resting his head against his fathers thigh. This had been a concern for his son for a while, them moving closer to Marks workplace over the summer - which inconveniently meant that his son would not go to the same school as the children he had befriended at Kindergarten. Mark hated that his son was in this situation, but he had made sure to look for the best school for his son. The decision was made when Marks close friend and colleague Johnny told him that his son was starting third grade after the summer at Neo Elementary School, and after a few hours of research and contacting teachers as well as old students parents - Mark enrolled his son there.
"Julian," Mark pulled his son up to him, hugging him tightly to his chest as he spun around a little - making his son let out a gleeful laugh, "You are the most amazing boy in the whole world, you are kind and sweet and funny, everyone in your class are going to be lovely" He reassured his son, placing him back on the floor.
"And remember, if you don't have anyone to play with at recess - just go look for Dominic, do you remember Johnny and Taeyongs son you hung out with during the summer?" Julian nodded at this, smiling up at his father - the way he looked right now reminded Mark so much of himself as a child, and he thanks God everyday that his son had gotten almost 90% of his looks.
The father-son duo got into the car that stood in the driveway, Mark unlocking the gate to get out into the street - he himself being nervous about his sons first day.
Their car rides were never quiet, both of them being very talkative as usual. But when Mark parked his car outside of the school, Julian clutched on to his seatbelt.
"Please don't leave me here" He pleaded with his father, trying to give him the best puppy-eyes he could.
Mark could melt just by the way his son looked at him, squishing his cheeks with both hands.
"It's going to be so much fun, your principal is standing right there," Mark pointed outside to where an older lady stood with a bunch of kids surrounding her, a notebook in her hand and she seemed to be checking in the kids.
Julian looked at the older woman, then back to his father.
"Juli, if you behave like a good boy today - we can eat whatever you want for dinner" Mark suggested, this making Julian widen his eyes.
"Even kimchi jjigae?" The boy asked, making Mark laugh.
He nodded at his son, "and we could even get ice cream".
This made his son clap and smile. He grabbed his Spiderman-themed backpack, have his dad a peck on the cheek before saying goodbye and running out of the car. The car-door left open made Mark chuckle, but leaned forward to close it. He looked at his son through the window, the son running up to the woman and waving at her - the principal (known as Principal Johnson) smiled brightly and seemed to greet him back and writing something in her notebook.
Seeing that the first exchanged seemed to go smoothly, Mark started the car to drive away.
The ten minute car ride was one of the few times Mark got to think about nothing else but his deepest thoughts. Usually about Julians biological mother. The woman who baby-trapped him when he was 21 and she was 30. It had been a very toxic relationship, which Mark obviously hadn't realized until the day he found his two month old son alone in their apartment - dehydrated and crying. Only a letter was there, it was written on the back of a supermarket receipt and basically just informed Mark that the woman had given up on their child and that she didn't want anything to do with either of them anymore. 21 year old Mark, still in college, was stressed. But thanks to his friends and family members - his son had an amazing early childhood and Mark got the degree in Business and Marketing like he always had wanted.
Roughly one year after his ex had left, Mark got the news that she had died in a car-crash while high on cocaine.
Mark parked his car outside the big entertainment building he now was the CEO of, CT-Entertainment. His love for music and production had been affective as he had worked his way up in the company since age 22. The former CEO had taken a big liking in him, both being passionate about the work and always doing it flawlessly - as well as being an excellent father at the same time. These reasons made the former CEO (old and ready to resign) to promote him to CEO this January. Some people liked it more than others, but the majority understood the decision.
"Mr. Lee, good morning to you" The receptionist Maria greeted her boss.
"Good morning Maria, did you have a nice week of?" He asked, looking through some papers that were stacked in a file with 'corporate' on it.
"Really nice, my daughter got her drivers license so we went on a roadtrip to the beach" She said, big smile on her face.
Mark smiled at this, "I can't wait until Julian gets his license" he said, grabbing a specific letter with his name on it, before bidding goodbye to Maria.
"When are you picking up Juli?" Jeno, one of the established managers CT, asked while drinking from his coffee cup. He had met Jeno in Business-School, and the two of them immediately had become friends. Mark had made sure that Jeno got a temp job a year later after Mark had, and together they had build their careers.
"In like twenty minutes" Mark answered. writing an email hastily.
"I miss my Godson, when am I meeting him again?" Jeno groaned, emptying his coffeecup. Yeah, that was also an important connection they had - Jeno was one out of two godfathers to Julian. The other one was their mutual friend Renjun, who at the moment was working at the local art-gallery.
"I bet Renjun gets to meet him all the time, that sly bastard always tries to be the better Godfather" Jeno whined, making Mark chuckle.
"Renjun has been busy at work the last month, working on their new section or something like that - so no, they haven't met each other since his birthday" Mark explained, and Jeno nodded.
"Such a pity that a pretty face like his goes to waste behind the scenes of an art-gallery, he should be THE art" Jeno mindlessly mumbled, Mark raising an eyebrow.
"You know he seeing that Jaemin guy, right?" Mark asked, and Jeno just nodded.
The two of them stayed quiet for a while, until the alarm on Marks phone went off.
"Time to go, I'll tell Juli that you said hi - you can come over on Friday evening if you want, it can be like a gift for him after finishing his first week of school?" Mark suggested, making Jeno nod enthusiastically.
"That's an amazing idea"
Mark stood outside the car as the small boy with black hair ran up to him.
"Dad!" He exclaimed and threw himself against his father, Mark holding him tightly.
"Did you have a good day?" Mark asked, crossing his fingers that everything would be okay.
"Yes," the boy said with a bright smile, "so much good" he said, making Mark smile brightly.
They sat in the car as his son hurriedly explained everything that had happened.
"My teacher is pretty" Mark was shocked by this statement.
"Is she nice?" Mark tried to change the topic from his son having a crush on his teacher to find out if she was any good at all.
"It's a male teacher, he looks like he is your age" Mark was even more confused now, his son didn't really have a perception of his fathers age - sometimes he could look at a forty year old and say that they look the same, other times at someone that couldn't be older than twenty-two.
"He is also Korean, like us" The boy continued, "the older kids call him Sunshine, so we are doing that too".
Mark furrowed his eyebrows, what was up with this teacher. Working as a teacher, being Korean and NOT using his last-name when kids addressed him made Mark question things.
They didn't talk about anything regarding the teacher, more about different subjects they will have and which ice cream flavor they should choose.
After they had eaten dinner, Julian seemed to suddenly remember something he had in his bag. He came back to the dining table with a sheet of paper.
"Information about the first parent-teacher tomorrow at 17.00" Mark read out loud.
"Do I get to come as well?" Julian asked excitedly.
"No, I am sorry buddy - it is only for adults, but I think you can hang out with Dominic at Johnny's place?" Mark answered, and Julian (although disappointed) agreed.
Mark nervously sat in his car and drummed his fingers against the steering wheel. He was nervous because he knew he was going to be the youngest parent in there, and even more embarrassingly that he was a single-parent on top of that. As the clock turned 16.55, he decided to walk out of the car and in to the school.
He fixed his tie that still was firmly tied around his neck, he straightened his posture and the simple office-work outfit made him seem less nervous then he felt.
As he walked into the classroom they were assigned to, he was met by a room filled with people in their mid to late thirties, some people in their early forties.
The room was filled with separate desks for each kid, paintings on the walls, bright colored books and arts-and-craft supplies as well as corner with instruments.
Mark was drawn to a drawing on the wall furthest back in the classroom. It was picture of a house with two stick figures outside holding each a flower.
The taller stick figure had an arrow pointed to it with the word 'Dad' on it. He recognized his sons handwriting, and smiled as he saw the name in the corner of the drawing. Mark pulled up his phone and took a picture of it.
"Hello everyone, I am very sorry for being a little late - but I have homemade cookies as an apology gift" Mark turned around as he heard a voice of male from the front of the classroom.
The parents hurriedly grabbed a cookie or two, Mark following the movement before taking a seat on the empty chair further in the back.
The male, Mark guessed being the teacher, had his back against the parents as he wrote his name on the board.
"My name is Donghyuck Lee!" The male exclaimed before facing the classroom.
He had a bright smile on his lips, brown hair that was slightly wavy and he had tan skin. Dressed in a simple yellow sweatshirt paired with black suit pants and a pair of black sneakers.
'Oh shit, Julian was not lying' Mark thought as he almost choked on cookie crumbs.