Chapter Text
The thing about having a friend who owns a recording studio is that said friend is not to be trusted with secrets like the fact that you’ve just been let go from your job at the kindergarten you’ve worked at during the past six months because they go by the philosophy “first in, first out.” Mingyu learns this the hard way.
Not even two weeks of self-pitying and too much ice cream later said friend with the name Jeonghan barges into Mingyu’s apartment – of course I didn’t knock, we’re friends Mingyu – and plops down on Mingyu's stomach with his most terrifying grin plastered on his face. Mingyu is now both breathless and scared half to death, because not only did Jeonghan knock all the air out of his lungs, but he also got this look in his eyes that tells Mingyu that he’s done something he’s insanely proud of. The thing is, it’s not always a given that anyone else will benefit from one of these famous somethings.
“You still laying here then?” Jeonghan questions with that unimpressed tone of his as he reaches out to tug on one of Mingyu’s curls. “Well at least you’ve showered this morning, that’s good. Brilliant even, what with the interview you’ve got in a few hours and all.”
“Yeah, yeah, get out hyung, will you?" Mingyu sighs out. He breathes into the moment of silence, and then it hits him; "Wait, what? The what I’ve got when?”
“The interview,” Jeonghan repeats. “The one I got you yesterday. Didn’t I tell you on the phone last night?”
“No.” He most certainly did not. “You talked about Joshua’s eyes for forty five minutes then you fell asleep on me.”
Mingyu doesn’t even know Joshua but he still feels sorry for the poor guy for having to deal with Jeonghan’ incessant stares the days they’re both at work. He has a feeling Joshua does his work way better than Jeonghan does his and the only reason Jeonghan gets away with it is because he’s the boss.
“Oh right. You really have to see them, they’re so-”
“I don’t care! What were you saying about the damn interview?” Mingyu interrupts. He also pushes his friend off of his stomach and somehow manages to roll away and make place for the both of them on the tiny couch.
“The interview, yeah! So we have Jeon Wonwoo working at the studio now, right,” Jeonghan rambles on, and Mingyu nods ‘cause he can faintly remember Jeonghan mentioning that sometime last week in-between stories about cookie dough and Joshua’s eyebrows. “And yesterday I might have overheard him on the phone talking about his kid and how he needs a babysitter or something, right? So I immediately thought of you of course, and-”
“You didn’t,” Mingyu hisses. It comes out kind of weak though, because he knows his best friend too well to even hope that Jeonghan might have actually let a moment pass quietly for once.
“I did! I told him about how unfair it was that they fired you and about how much the kids loved you and, well, he wants to meet you!”
And, yeah. Mingyu knows he’s fucked, ‘cause when has Jeonghan let him out of an uncomfortable situation before?
Now Mingyu isn’t all too familiar with Jeon Wonwoo. When he became famous Mingyu decidedly didn’t care. As the world fell for that fantastic guy with all that cute timid charm and pretty face, Mingyu kept to the groups in his iPod and resolutely told himself that if he’d managed the first nineteen years of his life without knowing anything about the singer he would do just fine if he remained unknowing.
It’s now six years later and even though he’s stayed true to his words and let the world go Wonwoo-crazy without him, he is a hundred percent certain that the guy who greets him by the front door is not Jeon Wonwoo, and it’s confusing him because he’s also quite sure that Jeonghan had said that Wonwoo wanted to meet him himself.
“Hi, Mingyu is it? Kim Mingyu, right?” the guy asks, and when Mingyu nods his confirmation he smiles and it makes Mingyu feel at ease. He invites him in and leads the way through the hallway and into a living room, and all he can really think about is how much he loves the fact that the house is a little messy, fairly normal-sized and with this vibe that says that people really live here. It’s a house that belongs to a family, and the fact that one of its members is a multimillionaire just doesn’t seem to matter.
“Yeah, so, you know. You should take a seat,” the guy suggests, shrugging from his position on one of the couches where he's already made himself comfortable. Mingyu realizes, then, that this might be Wonwoo’s... Boyfriend? Whether he is or isn’t, this is already shaping up to be the weirdest interview he’s even been on ‘cause he’s never heard an employer talk as informal as this guy. Maybe his ripped-jeans-black-t-shirt-wearing self will fit in here perfectly then.
“I’m Jun, Wonwoo’s best friend, which is the main reason why I’m here, Wonwoo trusts me to have a good judgement on these things.”
So, not his boyfriend then.
The conversation flows easily from there. Jun asks him to tell a bit about himself – something he manages to do without telling a single one of the embarrassing stories of his drunken escapades with Jeonghan – and of course some about his time at the daycare, which quickly turns into a discussion about super-glue and how no child under the age of ten should be allowed to use it. It’s fun and it doesn’t feel like an interview at all until Jun sits up straight and clears his throat.
“Okay, so you seem like a good guy. All Wonwoo is really looking for is someone who’ll take good care of his kid, and you don’t seem like a psycho or a murderer or anything, and according to your friend you don’t even listen to Wonwoo’s music so there’s no need to worry about you being a stalker either, right?” Jun asks, and the concern in his voice is actually amusing enough that it makes Mingyu chuckle out loud.
“No, not really a fan and definitely not a stalker,” he answers, arms stretched out from his body and the palms of his hands facing Jun, as if the gesture will somehow prove his innocence.
"How, though?”
“What?”
“Oh, I mean, most people are either fans or haters, I’ve never really met anyone our age who doesn’t know of his music at all,” Jun explains. “You do listen to music, right? You’re not some kind of freak?”
Mingyu laughs again, starting out in small chuckles but quickly turning into a full on belly laugh when he catches the horrid look on Jun’s face that tells him that he’s regretting his outburst.
“No, no, I do listen to music, of course I do. I’m more into groups though.” he says, pulling his hand through his hair as he formulates his next sentence in his head. “And like you said, it’s not that I don’t like Wonwoo’s music, it’s just that I decided right from the start that I didn’t need to hear it.”
“Well that’s painfully honest, wow.”
And yeah, that voice is deep and is coming from the doorway where Mingyu is met with the sight of a guy whose face he has seen on the front of magazines plenty of times. Even though he doesn’t really care for the guy it sure feels bizarre to actually see him in person. Not to mention that he’s fucking gorgeous too, casually leaning against the wall, dressed in sweats and a jumper and smiling at him with this unreadable something in his eye.
“Yeah, well. I, uh–”
“Don’t worry about it, I get it. I was the same about that Eric Nam bloke before I met him and realized he’s made out of pure talent and kindness,” Wonwoo says, now walking closer and eventually extending his hand to Mingyu, who takes it carefully and silently hates himself for not standing up before engaging in the handshake. The self-hatred fades quickly, though, because before he knows it Wonwoo has let go of his hand and is sitting next to him on the couch, much closer than necessary. He’s still smiling and his hair is looking soft where it’s resting against his forehead. He looks cosy. And he smells fantastic, and-
“So if it’s alright with you I was thinking we could start off tomorrow?”
Mingyu should probably have paid some attention to what Wonwoo was saying instead of admiring the way his lips moved. He nods though, ‘cause the words he did catch sounded positive.
“You’ll just have to come by for a few hours and we’ll hang out and see if Nari feels comfortable around you.”
Mingyu is just about to ask who Nari is when he realizes that it must be Wonwoo’s kid.
“Oh, so you’ve got a little girl then!” is his excited response. He probably sounds like an idiot. “How old is she?”
Wonwoo gives him an amused look before he turns to Jun and changes it into a frown. “What kind of employer are you? Did you tell him anything about my daughter or did you figure he’ll just have to interrogate her himself?”
“Would’ve gotten to it if you hadn’t barged in here just now,” Jun says with a nonchalant shrug, and he doesn’t even look offended. It’s like he’s used to the banter and doesn’t mind it at all. It reminds him a lot of his friendship with Jeonghan and he’s suddenly very happy with the prospect of being around these people in the near future.
Mingyu finds out that Nari is three years old – three and ten months, Mingyu, dad is always wrong – and a ball of energy and sunshine, much like her dad. He meets up with them outside their house the following morning and after hiding a little behind her dad’s legs for a few minutes curiosity seems to get the best of her and she interrupts the grown-up’s conversation with a tentative tug on the hem of Mingyu’s t-shirt.
He is quick to crouch down and tilt his head to the side as he says, “Hello princess, is everything alright?”
She positively beams, first at Mingyu and then up at her dad who is watching the exchange with a warm smile. “Princess?” she then questions, “Dad always calls me princess.”
“Well you are one, aren’t you? You sure look like one,” Mingyu remarks, and Nari nods with a serious expression before she remembers her initial question.
“What’s your favourite colour? Mine’s pink, do you like pink?” she asks, and Mingyu chuckles a little ‘cause he would have been able to tell just by looking at her clothes; a pink shirt peeking out under the hem of the pink jumper she’s got on her tiny frame and pink shoes on her small feet. The jeans she’s wearing are the only item on her body that’s not pink, and even those have something that sparkles in pink as decorations by the pockets. Something tells Mingyu that the girl has a big say in what goes in the bags and what doesn’t when she’s out shopping with her dad.
“I do like pink quite a bit actually,” Mingyu admits, then he lowers his voice and reveals, “But my absolute favourite is purple.”
Nari grins, first because of the way Mingyu had whispered and the way Wonwoo pretended not to have heard a thing, and then because of the actual answer. It was a good one, apparently, because after that there’s nothing holding her back. She grabs Wonwoo’s hand and pulls until he finally moves, and as they head off to the playground by the park that is supposed to be just down the street Mingyu gets a surprisingly detailed summary of what the girl had for breakfast this morning – pancakes, Mingyu, pancakes! – and of how her dad had been close to knock over his cup of coffee when he was swatting at a fly. Judging by the way the retelling of the story makes her laugh Mingyu thinks he must have missed something spectacular.
Once they reach the park Mingyu stands next to Wonwoo and they both watch the little girl as she fearlessly sprints across the grass and to the playground. He finds himself oddly attached to her already and is mentally trying to stop himself from getting his hopes up about this. Still, he’s got to admit that he really wants the… Well, for lack of a better word; job. From what Mingyu’s gathered so far it seems more like getting paid for doing normal day to day things. Kind of like being a stay at home mum.
Something nudges his side and when he looks up Wonwoo is smiling at him. It’s a beautiful smile, really.
“Come on, I usually sit over here,” he says and points to a bench by the edge of the playground, slightly hidden and placed far away from the others where a group of women seem to be chatting rather vigorously. “It’s got a good view of the park and the sharks usually stay away from me.”
Mingyu doesn’t understand what he means until he realizes that Wonwoo is looking at the women and shuddering the way Mingyu himself tends to do when he’s looking at something that brings him particularly bad memories. It makes him snort quite loudly, and that of course brings Wonwoo’s attention back to him.
He looks at Mingyu with a sheepish grin and says, “What? It’s not that I don’t like talking to people, I just don’t care much for mothers in their thirties who don’t get enough attention from their husbands, alright? They’ve been looking at me like I’m meat since the day I moved here with Nari and I can always hear them talking about me from the other side of the park. They’re worse than my most intense fans.”
Mingyu starts to laugh again, open and free in a way he hasn’t for a while. He’s been miserable about losing his job for far too long and not even Jeonghan has managed to coax out a chuckle from his lips. Now, though. Now laughing seems like the easiest thing in the world again; like everything around him is worth at least a smile.
They’re both still grinning when they finally sit down on the bench, and for a while they sit in comfortable silence and keep an eye on Nari while carefully avoiding the looks from the ladies that seem curious to find out who Wonwoo’s new friend is.
Then Mingyu realizes that, “You said ‘when you moved here with Nari’, does that mean that her mother is out of the picture?”
He makes sure not to sound like he’s snooping for information, adding a softness to his tone in case it’s a sensitive subject.
“Are you kidding me?” Wonwoo asks, “Did Jun tell you anything? Like, at all?”
“Well... Not much. He asked me many things about myself and that you and Nari are not a huge fans of vegetables.” Mingyu says, grinning unnecessarily big because he can’t seem to stop now that Wonwoo has gotten him started again.
“Fantastic,” Wonwoo mutters, shaking his head and leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, and eventually his head in his hands. “I don’t even know Nari’s mum, it was a one-time thing that turned into a nine month thing that she didn’t want anything to do with later on, so I was at the hospital on the day of the birth, got my little girl in my arms when she came out and have barely let go of her since. Her mother is just… I don’t know, I’ve kind of gotten used to thinking that she doesn’t exist? S'gonna be hard to explain it all to Nari, I’m kind of hoping she’ll never ask about it.”
“Huh,” is Mingyu’s initial response, ‘cause sometimes he does stupid things like that. “I don’t know a lot of guys that would do such a thing, sounds to me like you’ve been a great dad from the start. You must have been young back then.”
Wonwoo smiles, of course he does. “I was twenty-three. Luckily enough I’d spent the previous three years being a popstar and living out all the dreams I had as a kid, so when I found out I was going to have a kid of my own I realized that that was the only big dream I had left, you know… To have a family. And the thought of my baby getting adopted just because I didn’t want a relationship with the mother seemed so ridiculous that I just, uh. There was nothing else on my mind than keeping her myself. And I’ve never regretted it.”
Mingyu probably shouldn’t form a crush on the guy whose daughter he might become the nanny to.
Mingyu has never really learned how to keep his emotions in check.
“So, uh,” he says, scratching his head. “Aren’t we doing this the wrong way? I mean, is there anything you want to know about me?”
It’s not that he doesn’t enjoy listening to Wonwoo, ‘cause he really does. He just doesn’t want to come across as nosy. And besides, if it turns out to be a bad fit and he doesn’t get the job he’s probably better off knowing as little as possible about how good of a guy Jeon Wonwoo is. It just won’t go very well with his good old ‘Jeon Wonwoo who?' attitude.
Wonwoo smiles at him in a way Mingyu can only describe as secretive, the way people usually do when they know more than they should. It would be unsettling if the smile wasn’t so heart-warming.
“No worries. I reckon I know plenty already.”
“How do you-” he starts, but then it hits him; “Jeonghan. Of course.”
“He talks a lot about you.” Wonwoo exclaims. “He looks fine. And a bit crazy at times, but who isn’t?”
Mingyu sighs, ‘cause that’s what most people say when they’ve met his best friend. He’s pretty sure he’s the only exception to that, actually, but that’s probably because Jeonghan had been heartbroken the night they’d met and Mingyu had offered him a shoulder to cry on as they spent the early morning hours on the sidewalk outside some house party Mingyu had happened to stumble past on his way home from a friend.
“Yeah, well. There’s crazy and there’s insane…” Mingyu drifts off, mumbling to himself but apparently doing so loud enough for Wonwoo to hear, judging by the laugh that bursts out of him.
“From what I’ve heard you’ve had your moments too. Swimming naked in fountains and-” “That was a dare! And I might have been a bit drunk, and Jeonghan and my other friends are obviously to blame,” Mingyu says, waving a hand around as if it’ll help him make a point.
Wonwoo is staring at him, shaking his head with the remains of a chuckle still tugging at his lips. He’s just about to say something when Mingyu speaks up again, seemingly unable to keep himself even slightly professional.
“Heeeey, you’ve got to be the insane one here if you’re seriously considering to hire me to look after your kid when all you know about me is what Jeonghan has told you.” Jeonghan might be his best friend but he rarely backs away from an opportunity to retell the top ten of Mingyu’s most unfortunate stories.
“Not at all. He said you’re that guy that makes sure everyone else has food on their plates before you sit down to eat, and that your cooking is to die for, and that you’re the one out of his friends who swears the least,” Wonwoo says, ticking it off on his fingers. “Which is all brilliant, ‘cause I love food so much that I can get impatient when I have to cut up Nari’s food before I can eat my own, and I really can’t cook for shit, and I swear, like… A lot. And I promise I’m a better dad than I set myself out to be.”
He ends his ramble with a chuckle that makes Mingyu feel so, so fond of the guy.
“Well alright then, if you’re willing to risk it…” Mingyu trails off, hopeful and excited in a way he hasn’t been for a long time, his chest swelling with it when he locks eye with Wonwoo and sees the serious glint hidden in the brown.
“’S not a risk, but sure I am.”