.•° ✿ °•.

How on Earth am I going to find this kid's mother? In a city the size of Seoul? I wouldn't even know where to start.

I peer down at Gumball as we walk back from the police station, his dainty wrist gripped by my hand to keep him from getting lost.

It's gonna be tough, but I'll find his mother. Somehow.

Gumball suddenly stops and stares at his side like a robot. I stop too and tug on his arm. "Aish, come on. I don't have all day."

He doesn't acknowledge me, but continues to stare at the window of the library we're walking past. He then approaches the window and squishes his face against the glass while staring at the display of children's books.

I stroll forward to see which one he's looking at...

The Little Lost Ducking — by Sue Barraclough.

"Forget it, I'm not wasting money on some 5-page toddler book that you probably don't even know how to read. Come on." I pull him from the display.

...Wait a minute.

All he ever does is follow me because he has nothing else to keep him occupied. If I buy it, maybe he'll leave me alone long enough to work on my new track.

"I changed my mind. You get 5 minutes to collect your dumb book and then we're out." I quickly make a U-turn.

∘₊✧ ° ☀️ ° ✧₊∘

Many eyes train on me as we search through the children's aisle of the library. One worker in particular pretends to shuffle some books whilst continuously glancing at me and it's damn annoying. This is why I can't stand public places.

"What are you looking at?" I disrupt the quiet setting.

She instantly blushes and scurries off. Once she moves, we're able to spot the yellow and baby blue padded book on a high shelf. I reach on my toes to grab it and pass it to Gumball.

"There, you've got your book. Happy now?"

Without smiling or taking his eyes off of me, he pins the book to his chest protectively with crossed arms. I think he's happy...?

My hand pushes the back of his head when leading him to the front desk, "Well your mind better be made up because I'm not coming back here. Let's rent it already."

We make it to the front desk where an older lady takes the book before cooing at Gumball.

"Hello there. Why, aren't you an adorable little man? I see where you get your handsome looks." She smiles at me. I just exhale and stick a hand in my pocket while she scans the book.

"Wait... I've seen your face before! You're Jungkook of EXO right? My daughter loves your music—"

"Yeah now you're pushing it. Thanks for the service." I snatch the book and pull Gumball out.

∘₊✧ ° 🌤 ° ✧₊∘
— AT HOME, 8PM —

After our visit to the library, I took Gumball to a stationary store and bought a coloring book with some crayons. He now sits on the rug of my open living room and scribbles with full focus while cartoons play in the background.

Good, he's distracted. Time to make music.

I manage to sneak into my recording room and shut the door without drawing any attention. Sinking into my comfortable leather chair feels so refreshing, as does the longed touch of my keyboard and speakers... God I missed this.

Okay, time to get serious. I need to finish writing this hook...

"Alright~ She dropped the cheesecake~"

I cringe at my own melody. Ew, no, that sounds stupid as fuck. Why did I ever write that?

After about 15 minutes of nodding my head to the instrumental and forming lyrics, I can feel the song finally coming together. I've got 6 days to finish everything for the album so hopefully—

"Gah!" Gumball's presence beside me makes me jump.

"Ugh, it's you. What do you want?" I rub my eyebrows.

He proceeds to hold up his coloring book, showing me his work with a blank expression. I sigh deeply and take it in my hand before nodding at the page.

"It's nice... You should show this to Jungkook. He loves artistic crap."

I give him back the coloring book and push him away, "Alright, go back to the living room now. I'm working."

Gumball instantly skips his little legs out of the room. I turn in my chair and resume the instrumental, tapping my pencil against the desk to the beat and quietly free-styling some verses...

"—Ah! Oh what now?!"

Gumball shows me more drawings he colored in. He's actually not terrible, for a four-year-old.

"Yeah yeah, I already said they're good. Now go watch some TV or read the book I bought you."

He skips out again, this time leaving his coloring book with me. My lips twist in thought as I hold it longer than intended, but finally put it down and refocus on my music.

"How about... Alright~ banbogdoen sisogeim~"

Yeah, that sounds way better than cheesecake.

*Pitter-patter...*

The child returns, holding out a box of blue hair dye Bighit had sent me weeks ago. The company wanted me to dye my hair a bright color for this comeback, but I instantly cringed and refused. The MV sketch already looks like 100 unicorns threw up, it doesn't need more color.

"And what do you expect me to do with this?" I take the hair dye.

Gumball stares at me silently for a moment, then takes back the box and holds it up against my hair.

"You want me to dye my hair? No way." I push the box against his chest. "That's just some crap the company sent me. I'm not turning myself into a carebear."

He gives me unintentional puppy dog eyes, once again holding the box up to my head. I swat his hand away in refusal but he only repeats.

"Ugh, kid, I said no! Go play!" I turn my back on him.

I don't care if he stays in here or not, I'm ignoring him and focusing on this solo.

I use my mouse to cut and shift around bars of audio... Before the box of hair dye pops up in front of my eyes.

"Kid—!" I snatch the box.

He tugs on his sweater and sways his body innocently, staring back at me with those puppy dog eyes again...

I look at him, then the box, and sigh.

∘₊✧ ° 🌈 ° ✧₊∘
— DRESS REHEARSAL —

"Yoongles, you dyed your hair! It looks really good." Hoseok fluffs it until I smack his hand away.

"What made you finally want to color it?" Namjoon asks.

"Tsk, this kid wouldn't stop pestering me to. I'm washing this out straight after the comeback though."

"You brought Gumball back!" Jungkook immediately squats to play with his hands. "Hey there little Gumball~"

"I take it the police station idea didn't work." Hoseok chuckles before asking, "Has he spoken yet?"

"Nope."

"Well where are you gonna keep him during rehearsal? He can't come on the music video set with us."

"Which is why I came prepared." I grab Gumball by the wrist and lead him towards a staircase railing before handcuffing him to the bar.

"See. I get to rehearse and he gets to watch."

"I hope you never have kids." Namjoon rubs his forehead.

"There you all are! Why am I the only one in costume?! Get changed already, how lazy can you people be!" Jin comes over scolding us all.

"Yeah yeah, we're going."

∘₊✧ ° 🌈 ° ✧₊∘

"Cut! Good take Yoongi." The director announces. I stand behind the camera to review the shot while stylists touch me up lightly.

At least the blue hair photographs well. And my obnoxiously bright red and white striped "LOVED" sweater compliments this headache of an MV.

"Yoongi, we need a costume change for the next scene."

"Coming."

But before I can follow the stylist, I glance over at the staircase to see my handcuffs loosely dangling from the bar with Gumball nowhere in sight.

"What the hell...?" I walk towards it. He's... Gone.

"Have you seen Gumball?"

"W-what?" The stylist blinks.

"Gumball. T-the kid. He was just here, I handcuffed him to this staircase."

"Hyung, what's wrong?" Namjoon asks alongside Hoseok.

"I lost the fucking kid. Wait, no, he lost his damn self. Ugh, what four-year-old knows how to escape handcuffs??"

Namjoon rests a hand on my shoulder. "Calm down, it's going to be okay. We'll go around and ask the staff if they've seen a little boy. He couldn't have gone far."

"I am calm." I shove his hand from my shoulder. "But yeah, let's find him before he does something stupid."

And so, the three of us go around looking for Gumball with what little time we have between our next shoot. Staff by staff, they shake their heads at our question in confusion and after 15 minutes of searching, I grow impatient.

Where the HELL is this kid?!

"Yoongi, calm—"

"Namjoon, I'm fucking calm."

"Well your face says different... I'm sure nothing bad has happened to him. We just have to keep looki—"

"Guys! Jin and Jungkook found Gumball!" Hoseok waves from the dressing room. Namjoon and I gape at each other before rushing over.

...And what I see next makes my blood boil.

"Walk... And walk... And walk... And stop! Now strike a pose! Vogue. Vogue. Oh you're a natural darling. We'll name you... World wide cutie guy."

In the middle of the dressing room, Jin gives a ridiculous runway lesson to Gumball who's dressed in the clothes I'm meant to wear for the next scene, my shirt dragging along the floor while he and Jin wear matching fluffy scarfs and sunglasses. Jungkook sits beside them, clapping with laughter and recording the two before catching sight of me. "Oh, hey Hyung."

"Hey Hyung?! Are you two idiots??" I yank Gumball's arm.

"What did we do?"

"We've been looking for him for nearly 20 minutes and you three were in here playing dress up?? You couldn't have told me you found him?!"

"Found him?" Jin looks at Jungkook confused. "We were with him the whole time... You guys were looking for him?"

A solo career sounds real good right now.

"Just get him out of my clothes before the stylists see." I grumble through clenched teeth.

"To be fair, you did give him your old sweater to wear. It was probably uncomfortable."

"I don't care." I crouch in front of Gumball to notice the eyeshadow on his eyes. "You idiots put makeup on him too? Great, now I've gotta wipe this shit off."

"Aish, it wasn't even us! He helped himself to your clothes and makeup before we even got here! Remember this 'idiot' is older than you, have respect!" Jin yells.

I just roll my eyes and continue rubbing the child's face with cleanser wipes, harshly enough that his eyes pinch shut and cheeks puff.

At least the stylists didn't see—

"AHH! The clothes! They're all creased!"

Never mind.

∘₊✧ ° 🌙 ° ✧₊∘
— AFTER REHEARSAL —

"Bro, I have an idea!" Hoseok slaps my knee. The other members finished shooting a while ago but Hoseok, Gumball and I remain on the dressing room couch, scrolling through our phones.

"What?"

"We have a platform! Out of 20M+ followers, someone's got to know this kid. What if we post a pic to send a message?"

"Eh... I don't want to put a child on the internet. There's predators and weirdos out there."

"Good point. Then we can put out an announcement and describe his looks, along with the date and location you found him. Then you'll have little Gumball back home in no time~" He tickles his chin.

"Alright, but don't post to Twitter, it's too mainstream. Try fancafe."

"Cool. I'll make an announcement."

Hoseok's thumbs tap his phone rapidly and about one minute later, he gasps.

"Whoa."

"What??"

"There's already over 15,000 replies."

"Huh? Already??"

"I mean, we're famous." He shrugs smugly before scrolling down the comments. There's a lot to get through, so I end up helping him on my own phone.

"There's a girl here who claims to know Gumball."

"Dude, a thousand girls are claiming to know Gumball." I toss my phone stressfully. "None of them are being honest, they're just saying anything to get close to us."

"Yeah, maybe this wasn't the best idea. Though we should still keep an eye out, there could be someone actually telling the truth."

"Yoongi, you're done filming. You can go home if you'd like." A staff member enters.

"Finally." I huff, walking out almost instantly. "Hurry up kid, I'm not waiting for you."

"Bye little Gumball~" Hoseok waves as Gumball automatically follows me.

∘₊✧ ° 🌙 ° ✧₊∘

Once we exit the back, I expect to be met with an empty, silent road, but Gumball and I instead get bombarded by a swarm of fangirls screaming behind a fence and snapping photos while security try to hold them back.

"Suga! Suga-Oppa, is that your son?! Wah, so cute!!!"

"I want to have Suga's-Oppa's next baby!!"

"Back off girl, he's mine!"

"Shut up, you're only 14!!"

"Ladies get back! I said back!" Security yells.

What are they all doing here? This road's usually clear. How did they know about Gumball?

Wait... The post...

I immediately cover Gumball's face and lead him towards our driver's black SUV with my other hand on his shoulder. The girls continue to scream until I shut the car door to block out their annoying voices.

Great. I'll definitely get a scolding about this from the company tomorrow.

I exhale a breath when collapsing against the leather seat in relief. Gumball just stares at me with his signature blank expression, confusion swimming around in those big eyes of his.

"Gumball, welcome to the famous life."