Chapter Text
“Please say sike.”
Yeonjun’s voice sounds incredulous as he stares at his boyfriend with his mouth agape and his eyes open wide enough to remind Soobin of the walnuts he just ate for lunch. Within a matter of moments his peaceful life had been turned upside down. His hands are still shaking from the adrenaline and his head is fuzzy from using his powers for the first time in so long.
Yeonjun for his part seemed completely recovered from the intensive fight he just had, only the mud on his knees serving as a stark reminder of the events that just occurred. In fact, what Soobin just said seemingly rattled him even more than the appearance of all the figures from Magic Island.
“Soobin, you can’t be serious. We can’t just take them to an orphanage!”
It has only been moments since they sent the people from the hyena clan back. But when Yeonjun had asked what they were going to do with the children, Soobin’s brilliant idea had been to just bring them to the police or an orphanage.
Right when Yeonjun was just starting to consider that the use of his vision powers might’ve caused his boyfriend some brain damage, the elf spoke up again.
“We wouldn’t leave them there.” Soobin walks towards Yeonjun and around the children that were silently watching the two adults converse, exchanging a few looks with each other every now and then.
“They know the kids are missing, there are guidelines for things like this. When a child accidently transports to another world, the family reports it and the first place they check is police stations and orphanages in case some human found them and brought them in. As long as we don’t take them too far away, they’ll be back for them any moment. Besides, we can’t control the portal that we came through. If we send them in there, who knows where they’ll end up.”
That makes sense. Yeonjun nods, for the first time in his life thanking the strict elven education system as he hears his boyfriend rattle of the laws of Magic Island that Yeonjun could never be bothered to study.
“Besides, what other option do we have? Take the children in?” Soobin adds with a slight chuckle.
A shudder runs through Yeonjun’s body, the last thing he needs right now is three children to take care of. Any place else is safer than with the two of them at the moment.
“Alright,” Yeonjun says, relenting with a sigh. “And what do we do after that?”
Soobin shrugs: “What do you mean? I’m going back to school after that, I have a group project planned for after my lunch break.”
Yeonjun hits Soobin on the shoulder and hisses: “They know we’re here now; we’ve been exposed. They’ll come back for us.”
This elicits a sigh from Soobin who shrugs again: “Well, our only option is to go back to Magic Island and try to explain…”
“Absolutely not.” Yeonjun firmly interjects.
“Or… we need to move. Different city, different country, different world I don’t know.”
Yeonjun drags a hand through his hair in exasperation and his eyes fall on the three children that are staring at him and Soobin with varying levels of understanding.
“Are we going somewhere sir?” The little boy he now knows to be called Taehyun questions.
“You guys are going home.” Yeonjun says pointing to them with his chin. “I hope.” He adds quietly.
“Home?” The littlest one, Hueningkai, questions with a tilted head.
Soobin hesitantly leans down and puts a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “We’re going to bring you somewhere safe to stay until someone comes to bring you back to Magic Island.”
He doesn’t have a lot of experience with children but even he can tell that the expression on the boy’s face isn’t happiness, although he can’t place what else it could be.
“Let’s just find this orphanage and get this over with.” Yeonjun grumbles, putting each of his hands on Beomgyu and Taehyun’s back to start pushing them down the hill so they can exit the park. Soobin picks, the surprisingly cooperative, Hueningkai up with his one arm as he takes out his phone to google with the other one. A soft gasp and whispered “So strong” is said so softly by the little boy that even Soobin who’s holding him almost misses it. He elects to ignore the slight embarrassment that the exclamation makes bubble up inside of him.
Meanwhile Yeonjun who’s walking with the two other children in front of him:
“Orphanage?” Taehyun asks as he peers at Beomgyu. The slightly older boy frowns before escaping from Yeonjun’s grasp and leaning into whisper something in Taehyun’s ear. After what Yeonjun assumes, is a no doubt beautifully eloquent explanation on whatever the boy thinks an orphanage is, he pulls back and Taehyun looks significantly more upset than before.
Not wanting to sit through a tantrum in the few minutes it’ll take to get to their destination, Yeonjun makes a hurried disclaimer.
“You’re not going to be there for long. A few hours, max a few days and someone from Magic Island will come to pick you up to get you home.”
Whatever he was trying to accomplish didn’t happen as now Beomgyu also looks mildly upset and Taehyun’s gaze drops to his feet.
He would inquire why they are upset but his muscles hurt from exerting them in the fight, he’s angry that his clothes are dusty and afraid of his future with Soobin. With a sigh he decides he doesn’t have the energy to deal with their pouting and so they descend the rest of the hill in virtual silence.
Soobin manages to find an orphanage half an hour away from where they are and soon they are standing outside of the park, waiting for a cab.
“We’ll probably be a little late but it’s the only one that-” Soobin quirks an eyebrow at the still upset looking Taehyun and Beomgyu before looking at Yeonjun. “-What’s wrong with them?”
“I don’t know, suddenly they started pouting. I guess they’re upset that their trip to the human world got cut short.”
Suddenly Taehyun pipes up: “Are you also going to Magic Island?”
Yeonjun shakes his head: “No, we’re staying here.”
“Why?”
Soobin answers: “Because we live here.”
“Why?”
Soobin answers, hesitance to his tone: “Because the portal that brought us here was in this town, so we decided to live here.”
“Why?”
“Because it gives us an escape route in case of… emergency.”
“Why?”
Yeonjun throws a pissed off look at Soobin. “Remind me what the punishment is for punching a child in the human world?”
Soobin chuckles at his boyfriend’s frustration: “He’s just curious. In half an hour you won’t have to deal with them anymore.”
Suddenly the boy in Soobin’s arms starts squirming and it’s only then that he realizes that Beomgyu had been pulling at the younger’s gown. Since he doesn’t have a reason not to, he puts Hueningkai down and watches Beomgyu immediately pull the child close to him.
Interesting how close these children are even though they’re from different clans. The tree spirits and wizard owls aren’t known to be closely knit or even settled in the same area and the white bird race is so rare that most of them keep to themselves. So how these children got to know each other is a complete mystery to him.
He doesn’t get very long to ponder over it though, as between the bickering coming from Yeonjun and a still ‘why’ asking Taehyun, a cab finally pulls up. Yeonjun sees this as his chance to get out of the never-ending loop of questions and approaches the driver by opening the car door.
“Good afternoon sir.”
“Good afternoon young man.” The driver smiles politely at Soobin too before looking around and nodding: “Two people?”
“No, the three children are with us to-“
Yeonjun’s words are brutally cut of by Soobin yelling.
“What the fuck!”
“Damn Soobin,” Yeonjun chuckles, a teasing tone to his voice. ”Watch your language around the kids…” Yeonjun’s words trail off however when he looks around and there is not a single child in sight.
“Where did they go?!”
“I don’t know!”
Soobin and Yeonjun look around in a panic, how did they just suddenly disappear?
The driver, seeing the situation, has a worried look on his face. “Do you want me to call the police or something?” He offers politely, phone already in hand.
His question gets answered with silence however as Soobin and Yeonjun look at each other, each with a mysterious glint in their eyes.
Yeonjun and Soobin did not massacre the entire fortune teller clan on Magic Island, they’re not that horrible of people. That being said, no one ever said they were particularly justice driven people either.
“Do we need to look for them?”
“They’re not our children.”
“And they could be tracked down and brought back to Magic Island any moment.”
“And if we are with them when that happens, we’ll be the ones in trouble.”
The driver is left incredulous as the two strange men look at each other, nod and turn themselves towards him.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find them on our own.”
“…What?”
“You can leave now.”
The driver seems hesitant to leave but eventually gets in his vehicle and drives away.
“Are we really leaving?” Soobin questions.
“It’s like you said,” Yeonjun states, already walking away. ”As soon as the hyena’s report what they saw, someone from Magic Island will come to collect them. If they are smart enough to sneak away from us while we’re not looking, I’m sure they can survive a few hours in a park.”
Although he has his back turned towards him, Yeonjun can feel Soobin’s head dip down. With a huff Yeonjun slows his pace to turn towards his boyfriend and squish his cheeks.
“The portal huts were always guarded very carefully, it probably got even more strict since we fled through one of them. If these children were able to sneak in undetected, they are more than capable of surviving one night in the human world.” With a soft smile Yeonjun squishes Soobin’s cheeks before leaning in and pecking him on the lips.
“But what if something happens?”
“Listen, I only have a limited amount of care to give away and at the moment all of it is being used to stress over the fact that those hyenas are now going to tell the council where we are.” Yeonjun says.
He’s made friends here; has a job he loves and a life he treasures. He just had to get involved and try to save those children. Children who apparently didn’t even need any saving. The entire life they had worked so hard to built was just put in jeopardy, he at least wants a chance to go back to work and say goodbye to it.
“How about this, we’ll finish our schedules for today and then we’ll come back to the park to see if we can find them anywhere.”
Eventually Soobin looks up to meet Yeonjun’s eyes. His resolve melts as he peers at his boyfriend’s eyes and eventually Soobin lets out a chuckle before saying: “Fine, they’re not our responsibility after all.”
And so, they make their way back. Soobin to university where his group mates for the project are probably wondering where the hell he is, and Yeonjun to the dance academy where he still needs to prepare his last dance class for the day.
With a last promise to talk about it at home, the lovers part.
As blunt and easy as Yeonjun made the decision seem, he can’t deny that there isn’t a slight guilt pooling in the pit of his stomach at the thought of something happening to the children. Each one of the children’s clans possesses many powerful abilities. Logically he knows that the 3 children walking around a park with superpowers pose more of a danger to anyone else than to themselves. Tree spirits are known to heal, the wizard owls posses various kinds of magic and he’s heard of members of the white bird race even being able to fly.
They’ll be fine.
Yeah, they’ll be picked up and taken back to Magic Island in no time.
Right now their focus should be on how they’re going to protect themselves from anyone from Magic Island potentially coming after them.
Soobin for his part, is a lot better than Yeonjun at ignoring his guilt for leaving the children behind. He arrived at the campus barely 30 minutes ago, and him and his team are making surprisingly swift progress with their project.
The overthinker in him is worried about the children they left behind, but the chronic introvert in him is currently too busy using 100% of his brain power on surviving the awkward social situation that is doing a group project with strangers.
It is this laser focus on trying to come of as a well-adjusted human being that almost causes Soobin to miss the child running by their table in the corner of his eye.
He ignores it at first, his eyes laser focused on the laptop in front of him as he writes down everything him and his group still need to get done before the deadline.
“If no one else wants to, I don’t mind creating the visuals for-“ Soobin’s attempt at being a helpful team member is interrupted by an insect flying into his face.”-Aagh!”
Soobin is so startled he fully tumbles of the bench and onto the grassy floor, the cocky butterfly still flapping its wings in front of Soobin’s face.
“Soobin, are you ok?” One of the other students asks, helping Soobin up from the floor as he untangles his long limbs from the bench.
“What kind of butterfly is that?”
“I doubt that’s a butterfly, I’ve never seen one with wings like that.”
The talking from his other teammates catches his attention and his gaze quickly zooms around the area until he manages to locate the butterfly flying towards the big tree a few feet away from them. It’s true that this butterfly has wings that seem significantly different to most others he’s seen but Soobin swears he’s seen something similar to this before. It’s not until he catches sight of a white gown behind the tree that he remembers where he’s seen the butterfly.
Magic Island! He once took a trip with his father to the forests at the outskirts of the mountain range and one of the animals they studied during that trip was butterflies with crystal wings exactly like this one.
How the hell an insect from Magic Island ended up in the human world is a question indirectly answered by the giggling child hidden behind the tree.
“Oh no…” Soobin mutters under his breath.
“What do you think Soobin, is that a butterfly or not?”
Soobin had completely ignored the way his fellow groupmates had been arguing about the origins of the insect in the background and he’s slightly startled when he’s suddenly pulled back into the conversation.
“What? Oh yeah, my nephew has one of them as a pet.” Soobin lies with more ease than he’s proud of. A round of aah’s and I told you so’s echo around the group before Soobin abruptly gets up from his seat. “In fact, I think the giggling kid behind the tree might be him.”
With one swoop Soobin closes his laptop and notepad and sweeps it all into his bag before turning to his increasingly confused looking group members. “Sorry, I think I have to go.”
“You’re leaving?”
“That’s your nephew?”
“What is your nephew doing here?”
As he’s climbing of the bench and already walking away, he ignores all the questions they throw at him and only turns around once more: “You have my phone number, just text me what my share of the project is. I don’t have a preference for anything.”
He doesn’t know whether they say anything else because his only focus in that moment is the little boy behind the tree that still doesn’t seem to have noticed that he’s approaching.
Once he reaches the tree he slows his pace, the children disappeared very abruptly last time, he doesn’t want to startle him and have that happen again. With soft and careful steps he walks around the tree until he’s standing behind the kneeling child.
Now that he’s close he can see that this is the youngest of the three, Hueningkai if he remembers correctly. The boy has his hands cupped together and with closer inspection Soobin can see that he has the butterfly from earlier cupped into his hands.
Any anger or annoyance he felt earlier can’t help but melt as he watches the soft sight of the boy carefully petting and whispering to the insect. Soobin has no idea if the butterfly knows what the boy is saying but it has its head turned towards the boy like its listening so he wouldn’t be surprised either way.
“...Hueningkai?” Contrary to what he expected, the boy seems anything but surprised to see Soobin there.
“Kai.” He states proudly before turning back to the butterfly.
“Kai?” Soobin questions earning a nod from the little boy. “Do you not want me to call you Hueningkai?”
“My name is Kai.” The boy says, finally turning fully towards Soobin before pulling the tall man down to his level. “Look, I called a friend.”
“What do you mean ‘called’,” Soobin frowns, “did you bring it here?”
Kai nods proudly: “I can do even more.” He drops the butterfly without a second thought and before Soobin is even able to blink the animal dissipates leaving nothing behind to hint that it was ever even there. While Soobin is shocked, Kai doesn’t bat an eye and immediately starts moving his hands around, a soft light radiating from his fingertips.
Soobin’s eyes widen to the size of dish plates, and he quickly grabs the boy’s hands before he’s able to do anything else.
“You can summon creatures!”
Kai nods. “My father even said I could summon dragons one day if I start learning well. But I’m a little slow…” Kai’s voice trails of slightly at the end but Soobin has heard everything he needs.
“Can you summon anything?”
“Any creature from Magic Island my father said.”
“Oh my God, that’s just…,” Soobin has only ever read about summoners before. As he looks at the little boy, it feels like a page of his textbook has come to life, “wow…”
On second thought, maybe leaving this child alone to just roam the human world isn’t the best idea. He only needs to summon one dangerous mosquito and the human race with their weak immune systems will be done for.
“Taehyun hyung and Beomgyu hyung are even more powerful!” Kai quips proudly.
Yeah, him and Yeonjun definitely made a mistake in letting these children run free…
---------------
Another frustrated hand rakes through Yeonjun’s dyed hair as he once again turns the music off. It’s not like he expected to get much of the choreography done after what just happened, his head is very much not in the right headspace for creativity. But he’s been struggling over the same part for almost an hour now and he’s about ready to give up.
After another swig of water, he decides to give it one last go.
The music starts again but with every swing his arms make and every step his feet take, his limbs just grow heavier and heavier.
What’s the point of this? He and Soobin said they’d discuss their next move later today but with the way things are looking right now, it seems there’s a large chance he won’t even be here next week when he’s supposed to be teaching this dance to his class.
He might as well just go home. With quick paces he walks towards the stereo and turns the music off. However, the expected silence never settles as Yeonjun’s ears pick up faint babbling outside of the window in the corner of the dance studio. He doesn’t bother checking who or what is making the noise though. Behind the building is a little garden that some of the children like to play in for a bit after their dance lessons end. It’s probably just some child having some fun before they’ll be inevitably dragged home by an exhausted parent.
Or at least, that’s usually the case. But as he’s packing up his water bottle and towels he can’t help but make out a few of the words that the child is saying.
“…he never even finishes the song…”
The voice trails off slightly and Yeonjun finds himself inching closer to the window to try and make out what is being said. Why does he feel like he’s heard that voice before?
“…could Taehyun make my hair pink too?”
Taehyun?
With a gasp realization hits as Yeonjun throws open the window and grabs the collar of the child crouched in the bushes underneath it.
“Beomgyu? What in the world are you doing here?!”
Beomgyu looks a little surprised to have been caught, clearly under the impression that Yeonjun wasn’t going to hear him loudly talking to himself. He gets over his amazement quickly though as the cheeky grin from before reappears on his face and he makes an attempt at wiggling out of Yeonjun’s grasp, earning a scoff from the older.
“You’re not going anywhere after running off like that earlier.”
Beomgyu copies Yeonjun’s scoff, pouts and states: ”Taehyunnie didn’t want to go back to the orphanage.”
This revelation makes Yeonjun loosen his grip and quirk an eyebrow.
“What do you mean ‘go back’?”
As much as Yeonjun wants an answer it’s clear that Beomgyu has abandoned the conversation after saying what he wants to say as he is no longer looking at Yeonjun but peering around the dance studio at all the mirrors.
Yeonjun lets out a heavy sigh. “Kid, are you listening to me? Hey, look at me when I’m talking to you.”
Beomgyu finally manages to tear his eyes away from the amazingly creative facial expressions he was pulling at himself in the mirror and looks at Yeonjun.
The little boy’s eyes scan Yeonjun’s face and his head tilts to the side in confusion.
“Why is your hair pink?”
“Because I dyed it that colour. Now tell me what you meant about Taehyun going back to the orphanage.”
“Why pink?”
“Because I like that colour, now answer my question!”
“I like the colour pink too!”
No amount of educational books will ever teach him the gift of patience to deal with children and their annoying questions.
With a groan Yeonjun abandons his attempt at making conversation with the kid, finally fully letting go of the child’s arm. Beomgyu, finally freed from the elder’s grasp, immediately shoots towards the mirror.
Yeonjun watches for a moment how the kid entertains himself pulling silly faces in the mirror before he concludes that he is going to rapidly lose braincells being around this kid for too long. And so he decides there is only one thing he can do.
“Alright kid, come with me. Let’s burden Soobin with that crazy energy of yours.”
“Are we leaving?” Beomgyu asks turning his head away from the mirror slightly. ”What about Taehyun?”
“What about him?” It takes a moment for realization to hit and another groans threatens to escape Yeonjun’s throat, ”Are you telling me you know where Taehyun is? Is he here?”
A proud nod from Beomgyu quickly confirms his thought. At least this way he won’t have to go looking for-
“Yeonjun hyung!” a loud yell from the doorway startles them both.
With as much dramatic flair as he can muster, Yeonjun turns towards the sound of the lovely voice and nearly throws himself on his knees. Like a ray of sunshine breaking through a thunderstorm, Soobin waltzes through the door with Hueningkai in his arms.
“Soobin! You won’t believe how happy I am to see you!”
Even Beomgyu’s attention is caught: “Kai!”
“Beomgyu hyung!”
“What is happening here?” Soobin barely manages to put Kai down on the floor before Yeonjun throws himself in his boyfriend’s arms.
“I’m losing braincells with every minute I’m around this kid is what’s happening.”
A light chuckle leaves Soobin’s throat as he wraps his arm around his boyfriend who is still clinging to his side.
“Well, it seems they saved us the effort of having to go look for them later.”
“Wait,” Yeonjun loosens his grip on the taller man and looks up with concern laced in his features,” what about your group project?”
Soobin waves his boyfriend off:” I told them to just figure it out, we have more important matters to deal with right now.”
Yeonjun nods, turning towards the two children: “Yeah, like finding Taehyun.”
Meanwhile Beomgyu has successfully roped Kai into his game as they are now both squishing their faces against the mirror, giggling every now and then at their own visages.
As the couple peers at the two children licking the dirty practice room mirror, Soobin can’t help but say: “If he’s as intelligent as these two that shouldn’t be too difficult.”
Yeonjun chuckles before tapping his boyfriend’s shoulder: “As brainless as they seem, I think Beomgyu knows where the third one is.”
Soobin quirks up an eyebrow as Yeonjun approaches the children and kneels down at their side.
“Beomgyu-yah, can you tell us where Taehyun is?”
“Taehyun?” Beomgyu says tilting his head cutely.
“Yeah, you said he was here.”
“Yeah, Taehyun is here.”
Yeonjun shoots a look at Soobin who nods before he looks back at the child.
“So can you tell us where exactly he is? Is he outside? In a different room in the building?”
“Oh, I don’t know.”
Soobin swears he could almost see visible steam come out of his hyung’s ears at the child’s answer.
“W-what do you mean ‘you don’t know’? You just said you know where he is?”
“I can call him if you’d like.” Beomgyu says excitedly.
Yeonjun furrows his eyebrows at that and he hears Soobin scoff behind him. “Call him? Call him how?”
With a smile Beomgyu turns around and toddles to the window, his dirty white gown waving in the wind behind him as he climbs up on the windowsill and leans out of the open window.
“Woah be careful there,” Soobin starts to say as he rapidly approaches the boy leaning out the window, “If you lean out too far you could fa-“
Before he’s even able to finish his sentence Beomgyu takes a deep breath and screams out into the previously peaceful gardens of the building: “Taehyun-ah!”
Soobin and Yeonjun both physically flinch at both the volume and suddenness of the yell while Kai simply gazes at his hyung with a smile that says he’s heard this volume from Beomgyu before.
“Beomgyu! What the hell was that for!”
Yeonjun had an entire rant on his tongue about not disturbing the people who are trying to work or relax in the gardens but the words die out before he gets to expel them as he notices something flicker in the corner of the room.
The two adults and children watch as tiny Taehyun appears out of thin air in the corner of the practice studio.
“Ah!” Yeonjun screams, clutching his chest. “Jesus Christ, I think I just had a tiny heart attack.”
Soobin although equally startled, pulls Beomgyu down from the windowsill as he attempts to soothe his boyfriend: “Don’t worry hyung, wizard owl clan members are capable of magic. Although it’s unlikely at his age, maybe he managed to turn himself invisible or teleport or something.”
“Whatever it was, I’m not risking any of my colleagues seeing this. We’re taking them home.”
“Home?” Little Kai quips, interest suddenly peaked.
“What about work?” Soobin questions as he watches Yeonjun quickly collect his things from the bench in the room, “didn’t you have an afternoon class to teach?”
“I’ll just ask Wooyoung to cover for me,” Yeonjun says as he zips up his bag, “this is more important.”
---------------
“All right, have you guys ever been to those plays that the elves sometimes put on in the capital of Magic Island?”
Taehyun nods: “I went once for a school excursion.”
“I went with my mommy!” Beomgyu says, physically bouncing as he recalls the memory.
“My family took me every year.” Kai says from where he’s seated on Soobin’s lap.
“Damn, every year? Your family must be rich, even I’ve only gone like twice.” Yeonjun says chuckling slightly as he presses a few buttons on the remote.
“Anyway,” Soobin interrupts, grabbing the remote from Yeonjun and catching all the children’s attention, ”this is a tv. The people you see on this machine are basically preforming a play but if you press on this button you can go watch all different kinds of plays.”
“Does this machine run on magic?”
“Does that mean we have to pay every time we press the button?”
“Are these plays all about history too? Because in that case I don’t want to watch.”
“Oh dear…” Yeonjun mutters, already getting a headache from all their questions.
Soobin continues to explain and patiently answers their questions as he flicks through the channels.
“Here, this one is drawn. Animated. You’ll probably like it.”
With that he gives the remote to Taehyun and takes Kai off his lap to set on the couch.
“Where are you going?” Kai asks as he snuggles into Beomgyu’s side who is already watching the tv with intense concentration.
“We’re just in the other room, we’ll be right back so just watch tv for a bit.” Yeonjun says as he follows Soobin to their bedroom.
As soon as they close the door they both flop down onto their bed.
“I didn’t really have a list of what I wanted to do after work today but if I had made one, taking care of three children definitely wouldn’t be on it.” Yeonjun says, swiping his air out of his eyes.
Soobin chuckles in response: “Three children from Magic Island on top of that.”
A moment of silence settles between them. All that’s heard is the faint talking and maybe arguing of the children in the living room.
“Soobin I…” Yeonjun makes an attempt to break the quietness, but the words seem to die in his throat. Soobin can feel the questions hanging in the air between them, they both can. But they both know that answering these questions is going to require some life changing decisions to be made.
Yeonjun stands up and turns to Soobin. After taking a deep breath he makes another, more successful, attempt at breaking the silence.
“I know that the right and safe thing to do is to runaway. That if we’re found we’ll just be dragged back to Magic Island and get convicted for a crime we didn’t commit. But I-I-“
“Hyung?” Soobin says, looking up at Yeonjun and encouraging him to finish his sentence.
“I don’t want to leave…,” Yeonjun’s voice sounds defeated. Like he’s already had this argument in his head and knows he’s fighting a losing battle, “It took so long for us to find our place here but now that we’ve found it I don’t want to give it up. I enjoy teaching dance and I enjoy spending time with my new friends. I don’t know if I can start over in finding all of that.”
Soobin sighs.
“I get it hyung… I feel the same.”
Yeonjun looks up a little surprised: “You do?”
Soobin’s gaze drifts to the window and as he talks his voice takes on a breathier quality that starkly reminds Yeonjun of the way Soobin’s father talks: “I’m tired of fighting. I’m tired of running away. If I am to choose between living out the last few weeks of my life here with you or spending another fifty years on the run with constant anxiety… It’s an easy decision to make.”
Soobin closes his eyes momentarily before getting up from the couch and taking Yeonjun’s hands in his: “If you want to run, I’ll go with you. If you want to start anew in another place or universe I’ll go with you. But if you’re willing to stay here and go out fighting, then I will gladly fight by your side.”
The situation is melancholy and tragic, Yeonjun is aware of that. But as he gazes at Soobin’s elven eyes and watches the sincerity drip out of them, he can’t help but smile.
“To the end?”
Soobin returns Yeonjun’s smile.
“Of the world.”
They stamp the moment with a soft kiss. There are many words they could use to try and explain their complicated emotions but in that moment with their interlocked lips they don’t need to. They know each other well enough.
Yeonjun knows Soobin’s soft lips as well as he knows the man’s heart. For years his lover fought to find his place in the world and Yeonjun knows better than anyone that the years they got to spend together were already happier than Soobin ever expected his life to get.
And as his hands tangle themselves in Yeonjun’s pink locks, Soobin recalls the broken person his boyfriend was when they first met. As their lips move in sync he remembers every moment where the person Yeonjun used to be would shine through the immense grief he held for his family. He thought he’d never be happy again. And Soobin knows better than anyone that Yeonjun is ready to die for that love.
Neither of them know how long it took for them to come apart and take a fresh breath of air but when they finally do they are both softly panting. They rest their foreheads against each other and take a moment to just enjoy each others company.
Soobin ends up being the one to shatter their happy peace.
“I don’t want to ruin the moment, but we still have three children in our living room that need taking care of.”
“Ugh, we should probably go talk to them.”
In the living room things are surprisingly calm with all three children intensely focused on the episode of Pokémon that is playing before them.
“Boys? We need to talk.”
Yeonjun says as he turns the tv off and Soobin and him sit down on the floor in front of the couch. They both watch as all three of the children turn quiet, clearly feeling the tension in the air. Beomgyu is shifting in his seat uncomfortably, Taehyun is sitting so still Soobin feels inclined to check if he’s still breathing and Kai’s bottom lip is wobbling as a warning to the waterfall of tears that is threatening to spill.
“Were we bad?” Kai asks, his voice quiet as a mouse.
“No, you weren’t. We just want to discuss how you’re going to get home.” Yeonjun clarifies.
“Home?” Beomgyu questions, leaning forward.
“Yeah, back to Magic Island.” Soobin explains.
Beomgyu scoffs: “We don’t want to go back.” He states with a raised chin and crossed arms.
“Come on, your parents are probably very worried about you.” Soobin tries to reason.
“My parents?” Beomgyu repeats.
“Yeah, your mommy and daddy.” Yeonjun nods.
“They are gone.” Beomgyu says softly, his gaze dropping to his lap.
“Gone?” Yeonjun says, dumbstruck with the sudden revelation.
“Dead,” Taehyun finishes matter-of-factly for Beomgyu who doesn’t seem to be listening anymore, “Mine are too, I live in an orphanage.”
“Oh, is that why you ran away earlier?” Soobin says, everything slowly starting to make more sense.
Taehyun nods in response: “I don’t want to go back.”
Yeonjun can’t help but sigh as he turns his gaze to Kai:” What about you?”
“Me?” Kai says, turning his head to the side cutely.
“Yeah, where are your parents?” Yeonjun tries to ask.
Kai thinks for a moment. “Work, probably.”
“So, you ran away from home?” Soobin asks carefully.
“No…” Kai says but his voice tapers of and isn’t very convincing.
“Yes he did!” Beomgyu suddenly interrupts with a loud yell. “Taehyun and I found him in the woods.”
“This all just got a lot more complicated…” Yeonjun mutters as Beomgyu continues to babble to Kai and Taehyun.
“Or it just got a lot easier…” Soobin says trailing of, his eyes glazed over in a way that Yeonjun recognizes to mean that he has an idea.
“Easier? How?”
Soobin places his hand on Yeonjun’s thigh in a gesture that says, ‘give me a moment’, before turning to the children.
“Alright,” he says to gain the attention of the three pairs of eyes on him, “if you want you can stay with us for a while.”
“Really?” The three children say in almost unison.
“Really?” Yeonjun echoes, equally as confused and surprised.
“Well, the truth is that we can’t send you back alone and we are not exactly in a situation to join you in going back. So, either way you are stuck here until someone comes to collect you.” Soobin explains mostly to the children but also partly to Yeonjun who nods in understanding.
“Right, there are only two options for you boys," Yeonjun continues off Soobin’s point, “You either go to an orphanage to wait for someone to bring you home or you stay with us for the time being.”
Various variations of ‘we’ll stay here’ and ‘I don’t want to go to the orphanage’ fill the room and Soobin has to take another moment quieting all the children again.
“But it might be a little dangerous to stay with us.”
“We’ll be fine, I’ll protect us!” Beomgyu announces proudly as he stands up on the couch.
Yeonjun can’t help but chuckle in response to the little boy’s bravery.
“We’ll do the protecting. For the three of you it is important to know that this world is very different from Magic Island.”
“I know that. They thought us at school.”
“They thought you about different universes at school?” Soobin inquires, slightly surprised since he was never taught anything like that at Taehyun’s age and elven education is known to be the most all encompassing of all the species.
“No, I overheard the masters at the orphanage talk about it. They always talk about the news as they serve breakfast.”
“Do they now?” Yeonjun says amused, “what kind of news?”
“People cheating. The flower teacher protesting for his son. The cook buying old vegetables for a cheaper price.”
“Flower teacher?” Soobin repeats. His heartbeat speeds up slightly as the words leave his mouth, his head unable to stop the hopes and dreams from clouding his mind.
His father was famous for teaching with a flower in his hair, he’s heard students call him ‘flower teacher’. But his father is a teacher in an elven school, there’s no way Taehyun who resides in the mountains with his clan could know him.
And yet, a part of him dares to hope.
“Yeah, flower teacher.” Taehyun replies.
“What does he look like?” Soobin says, edging closer to the little boy. Taehyun shrugs in response: “ I don’t know, I’ve never seen him.”
“Of course…”
“What do they say about the flower teacher?” Yeonjun suddenly quips, having clearly picked up on who Soobin thought Taehyun was talking about.
“Hyung don’t-“ Soobin begins to say.
“They say his son was wrongfully affused.” Taehyun says after thinking for a moment, his finger tapping his chin as he thinks.
“Wrongfully affused?” Yeonjun repeats confused, “Do you mean wrongfully accused?”
Taehyun shrugs again: “Maybe, I don’t know.”
Soobin and Yeonjun look at each other and for a moment they don’t breathe.
“Soobin-ah… if that is true then maybe they know we didn’t do it.”
Soobin’s eyes dart around and Yeonjun recognizes that a storm of thoughts are going through his lover’s head: “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, the hyena clan still attacked us.”
“Well, I attacked them first.” Yeonjun interjects.
“Even so, he says he doesn’t really remember. Maybe they’re talking about someone else.”
“Isn’t that to big of a coincidence to be about someone else?” Yeonjun tries to argue.
“Giving your partner a flower to wear in their hair is a common practice among us elves, my father wasn’t the only one to wear one to work.”
Yeonjun nods, giving up: “Fine, so what are we gonna do now?”
Soobin shrugs: “ We have room to house them.”
Yeonjun startles:” Are you kidding?”
Soobin shakes his head in response: “It’s that or leaving them on the street.”
With a frown Yeonjun looks at the couch where three hopeful pairs of eyes are staring up at him.
In any situation he would’ve said no. The children got themselves into this mess so they could get themselves out of it.
But he remembers the days and weeks after he lost his family. He too considered fleeing to another world to escape the memories that haunted him at every corner. Something drove these children here. Maybe it wasn’t too different from what drove Soobin and him here. But as he looks at the three of them on the couch, he can almost see a reflection of who he used to be staring back at him.
Soobin watches his lover ponder but it’s of no use. He knows that Yeonjun’s heart is a lot softer than it seems. And so, he is not the least bit surprised when the other man groans before grumpily saying:
“Fine, how difficult can three children be?”