welcome home, yoonbum [k.s. au]

chapter four

"Alright, let's clean up!" Sangwoo said as he picked up his plate and headed over to the sink. He grabbed a towel and a scrubber and held it out to Bum and Jieun. Bum immediately took the scrubber while Jieun stared in confusion at the towel. At the orphanage, the older kids would help clean while the others continued on with their day. Bum was used to helping Seungbae all the time since he didn't have many friends to run off to.

"You too, Jieun. You can dry the dishes!" She looked away.

"But.... I don't wanna." She said shyly. Sangwoo's eyebrows furrowed.

"We all have to clean, Jieun, that's my rule."

"But I don't know how."

"Just take the towel and wipe the dishes."

"But at the orphanage–,"

"You are in my house now, not Seungbae's orphanage." Sangwoo's voice dropped and his smile was hardly realistic. Bum's heart started to pound faster. What was she doing?

"... O-okay." Jieun took the towel and stood next to the counter. Sangwoo sighed and snapped back into a happy mood.

"Alright, kids! Let's knock out these quickly so we can take a bath!" Bum filled the sink with water and added in the soap on top of the dishes. He grabbed plate after plate and scrubbed the excess food off of them and set them in the other sink where Sangwoo ran them under the water. Sangwoo handed the plate to Jieun and watched her closely as she fiddled with the towel over the plate.

"You got it, Jieun." He spoke softly as he opened the cabinet above the counter.

"Stack the plates here." Jieun looked up. It was just out of her reach. Her lips thinned as she stood up on her toes. The plate tapped against the first floor of the cabinet. Sangwoo sighed.

"Useless," he mumbled under his breath. Bum was shocked, did he just call Jieun useless for being a small child? She mustn't of heard him because she continued to struggle. Sangwoo finally gave in and swiped the plate out of her hand.

"I'll get it Jieun, just dry them." Bum could hear the irritation hiding in his voice. Her little voice whimpered slightly as she strangled another plate with the cloth. In order to keep on Sangwoo's good side, Bum scrubbed faster and more efficiently. He was done with all the plates in seconds and only had the utensils left. He searched with his hands for them in the opaque sink water. Where are they..? He struggled to grab any on the first few tries. His hand went from one side of the sink to the other, then the corners and the middle again. He whooshed his hand to the other side again and felt a sharp pain in his finger. He yanked his hand out and let out a quiet, "Owww..." He looked at his finger. It was bleeding slightly off the tip. He started to panic a little.

"S-Sangwoo!" He cried out and turned to him. Sangwoo's hands went for the paper towels.

"Ah! Bum! Be more careful, okay?" Sangwoo's face was calm as he wrapped the finger up.

"Keep pressure on it. Does it still hurt?" Bum nodded. It stung badly, but it wasn't any worse than the pain the bullies at school inflicted on him. His blood started to bleed through the paper towel. Bum started to panic a little more, am I never going to stop bleeding??? Sangwoo's eyes gazed up at Bum's. He started to shush him softly.

"It's going to be okay, Bum. But please, call me dad."

* * * * * *

After wrapping Bum's finger up with a band-aid and finishing up the dishes, Sangwoo started the bath. Jieun and Bum hid behind the door as they watched Sangwoo set up the tub. He was humming an unfamiliar tune as he filled the bath with bubbles and a rubber duck. Bum and Jieun have never taken a bubble bath with another person, let alone a rubber duck. They looked at each other and squirmed. Bum was twelve, Jieun only eight. It made sense for Sangwoo to bathe with her, but not with Bum. He could clean himself; he's taken care of himself his whole life.