Work Text:
As Kim Dokja was walking home from work that day, he saw a small human-like figure sitting on the steps just outside his house. Intrigued, he began to walk faster, wondering what a kid was doing waiting there. He stopped in front of her, but she didn’t even look up and ignored him with her head down.
“Hey kid, are you lost?” he asks, looking at her carefully. Upon closer inspection, she had two dark pigtails, and a pastel pink backpack with a kirby keychain on it sitting next to her. She couldn’t be any older than 10 years. “Kid?”
She finally looks up at him with an expressionless face and Kim Dokja recognizes it immediately. She’s an exact carbon copy of his boyfriend, Yoo Joonghyuk. Dark eyebrows seemingly painted with an artist’s single brushstroke, cheekbones that compliment stony features, jawline that could cut, and a bored neutral expression resting throughout all of it, Kim Dokja could not deny that this was most definitely Yoo Joonghyuk’s offspring.
Which should be impossible for a multitude of reasons. First of all, Yoo Joonghyuk is dating Kim Dokja and has been dating him for the past 10 years. They’ve known each other since they were both 10, and they are now 28. Kim Dokja has heard Yoo joonghyuk himself say he has no other relatives. So unless Yoo Joonghyuk secretly had another lover sometime in the 18 years Kim Dokja has known him, it shouldn’t be possible.
Yet the proof was right in front of him.
Without another word, Kim Dokja grabs her from underneath the arms and holding her like a stray cat, rushes inside to show Yoo Joonghyuk what he found.
Yoo Joonghyuk’s door bursts open with a bang in the middle of his streaming session. “What the f—”
“Yoo Joonghyuk!” Kim Dokja shouts.
Joonghyuk pauses his game and streaming session, taking off his headset and turning around with his thumb and index finger scrunching his eyes. “Kim Dokja, how many times do I have to tell you—”
“Who took your DNA and why!?” Kim Dokja yells, presenting the little girl to Yoo Joonghyuk’s stupefied face. She was still wearing an expressionless look, her backpack hanging upside above the ground from where she had just managed to grab it before Kim Dokja whisked her away.
“Kim Dokja, what are you talking about?” he says, still exasperated and refusing to take Dokja seriously.
“Just look! She has your face!” Dokja insists, holding her up to him.
So Yoo Joonghyuk does. He gets up and walks across the room to where Kim Dokja and the girl are, leaning in with furrowed eyebrows to look closely at her face. With a final squint, he shares his thoughts. “She does.”
“What, you’re not denying it?” Kim Dokja sighs pitifully. “So you really did cheat on me with Lee Seolh-”
Before he could finish that statement, Yoo Joonghyuk bonks him on the head. “Stop thinking foolish things,” he says, redirecting his attention to the girl’s deadpan face. Kim Dokja was still holding her from the armpits, but she remained limp and didn’t attempt to move. “What’s your name?” he asks her.
“Yoo Mia.” She responds. It’s the first thing she’s said this entire time. Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk both stare at her in shock at the reveal of her family name.
“It could just be a coincidence,” says Joonghyuk, looking up to make eye contact with Dokja.
“With that face? There’s no way,” He hisses back. “You’d be better off admitting she’s some kind of sister you didn’t know existed, do you think I’m stupid?”
Yoo Joonghyuk opens his mouth to respond, but Yoo Mia beats him to the punch. “Yeah.”
Kim Dokja looks down at her in confusion. “Huh, you think I’m stupid?”
The girl's face hardens in annoyance. She looks just like Joonghyuk like that, Kim Dokja thinks to himself. “No.” She strains out, “You’re right. He’s my oppa. There’s a note from our parents in my backpack.”
Now all three were speechless.
Dokja slowly sets her down on her own two feet while Joonghyuk checks the backpack for a note. He pulls out a folded piece of letter paper, and opens it up to read it. Dokja peers over his shoulder to read it as well.
Joonghyuk,
We no longer have the means to take care of your sister. We’re depending on you to raise her from now on.
Signed,
Yoo
They both stared at the short note, one looking at the letter with a dark expression, and the other with shock. Kim Dokja couldn’t believe that Yoo Mia actually was Joonghyuk’s long-lost little sister. He looked down at her, and couldn’t help seeing the sadness and fear in her eyes, despite the rest of her face remaining quite neutral. She seemed to share that with Yoo Joonghyuk in that regard.
Dokja bent down to his knees to look her straight in the eyes. “Don’t worry,” he reassures her. “We’re not gonna make you leave. We just want to know more about you. Where did you live before?” he asks in a soft voice, trying not to pressure her.
“With mom and dad,” she answers. “I don’t know where. I just know that they gave me that note and told me I was going to live with my brother from now on.”
Yoo Joonghyuk was positively boiling over with rage upon hearing this, but Kim Dokja knew it wasn’t from the fact that he was now responsible for a child. He knew it was because Yoo Joonghyuk’s parents who had disappeared from his second half of life had now finally reached out to push a little sister they had never told him about onto him. Still, it was important that Yoo Mia didn’t get the wrong idea, so Dokja stood back up and placed his hand on his shoulder. “Joonghyuk-ah,” he said. “Let’s go set up a place for Yoo Mia to sleep.” Yoo Joonghyuk nodded, and Mia perked up a bit, seemingly reassured that she wasn’t getting kicked out, at least for tonight.
It was around 5 pm, almost time for dinner. Once Mia’s bed was set up in the guest bedroom, they headed to the kitchen to start making food. “Mia, what would you like to eat?” Joonghyuk asked. He seemed to want to make her feel comfortable and welcome after their disastrous introduction.
Mia didn’t say anything and just stood there with a blank expression. Kim Dokja ushered her into a seat at the kitchen counter and decided she might be a little shy. “Your oppa makes a really good murim dumpling,” he suggests. “Would you like to try it?”
She nods her head slowly, hesitantly looking up at her brother’s eyes before quickly glancing back down.
Yoo Joonghyuk takes notice of this and nods to himself before taking out some ingredients, a cutting board, and a knife. Kim Dokja walks over to his side of the kitchen and starts helping with the prep work. Yoo Mia watches them both with curious eyes, despite trying her best to seem disinterested. Kim Dokja cuts his vegetables messily, they are much more uneven than Yoo Joonghyuk’s perfectly cut example, but Yoo Joonghyuk uses them anyways in the filling, not even batting an eye at how they looked. Once they’ve finished making all the dumplings, Yoo Joonghyuk steams them.
“So, Yoo Mia, what school do you go to?” Kim Dokja asks.
“Dongdaemun school,” she replies. “Will I be going to school tomorrow?”
“Yes.” Yoo Joonghyuk responds from over where he was supervising the dumplings. “You should keep up with your studies.”
“Okay.” Mia agrees with him, suddenly in a better mood.
Kim Dokja smiles. It seems she’s finally warming up to them. “Do you like school, Mia?”
“It’s okay, the teachers are nice and the work isn’t hard. I mostly like my friends Shin Yoosoung and Lee Gilyoung.”
“The work isn’t hard? What grade are you in?”
“3rd grade. I’m 10 years old.”
“Wow, 3rd grade and you don’t even find it difficult. That’s quite impressive.” Kim Dokja commends.
“Don’t patronize me, ahjussi.”
“Eh? No—”
“Dinner’s ready.” Yoo Joonghyuk interrupts.
They gather around where Yoo Mia is sitting at the counter. Dokja brings out plates and silverware for everyone while Joonghyuk sets up the dumplings in the middle. They smell amazing, and Yoo Mia stares at them with hungry eyes while Kim Dokja drools slightly. Yoo Joonghyuk reaches over with his finger to wipe the drool on Kim Dokja’s face before serving the dumplings to Yoo Mia, then Dokja, then himself.
“Joonghyuk-ah, you’ve really outdone yourself this time,” Kim Dokja praises with his mouth full. “They taste even better than usual.”
He feels a smack hit him lightly from the back of his head and he smiles. “Stop talking nonsense and finish your food,” Joonghyuk says before stacking more dumplings onto Mia and Dokja’s plates.
“Yes, yes, you sunfish bastard.” Dokja replies, already another mouthful in another dumpling before realizing what he said. “Ah,” he looks at Mia, “don’t say that to anyone at school! Some words are only for adults to use.”
Mia looks at him with dour eyes. “Hey ahjussi, you’re kinda ugly. When are you leaving?”
Dokja feels his sanity crack.
“He lives here with us.” Yoo Joonghyuk says, not looking up from his food.
“Okay.” Mia’s attitude immediately changes.
“Mia, what time does school start?” Kim Dokja asks, trying to pretend like he wasn’t still recovering from the blow she had dealt earlier.
“8:00 am.”
“My work is in the same direction as Dongdaemun school, so I can drop you off. Picking you up is another story…”
Yoo Joonghyuk frowns when he hears this. “Your work starts at 9:00.”
“Yeah?”
“So you don’t need to leave so early. I can take her.”
“Eh? Joonghyuk, did you forget we only have one car?”
“I’ll buy another one.”
Dokja shakes his head but smiles at Yoo Joonghyuk. Really, his boyfriend is so funny. “Alright sure, but how about this? Instead of dropping her off in the mornings you can pick her up in the afternoons. That way you don’t have to leave the house twice every day.”
Joonghyuk thinks about this, then nods in agreement. “Alright.” he says.
Yoo Mia smiles softly to herself. She seems relieved. Dokja thinks she must’ve been more worried about suddenly being entrusted to her brother’s care than she let show.
Dokja smiles at her. “Don’t worry Mia, we’ll make sure you are taken care of.”
“My oppa is the one taking care of me, not you.”
Kim Dokja decides he definitely does not know how to get children to like him.