#and also dorm banchan like he does for Nemo he’s everyone’s dad actually

[baenxietydad]

“Something like that,” Mu-yeol mused. “Either way I’m a whole forty-two years old and answer to a squirrel.”

Now, Mu-yeol wasn’t trying to eavesdrop on the group of four people gathered around a table behind him. But his ears practically perked up because he very clearly heard Korean being spoken, a Gwangju accent if he ever heard one. They were discussing their order.

He almost excitedly pointed it out like he would to Nam-min but kinda thought mm, might be weird.

“I’ll run this to Karen,” he said, and on his way back noticed the group was still discussing what to order. Mu-yeol bit his lip, debating talking to them, but decided against it. Maybe after they ordered.

“I’m a little early because of the squirrel,” Mu-yeol said with a small chuckle. “I’ll go entertain him for a bit.

Normally he’d just bother Hatter for a minute but it looked like he’d be busy enough shortly. Or it did, until he went to go hangout with Karen and heard the family from Gwangju talk about using a translation app. Mu-yeol had assumed they also lived in the UK, like him and the Moons, and that’s why he didn’t interrupt them earlier and was going to consider it after they had ordered their drinks. But if they were relying on a translation app, well, then he should probably streamline ordering for them and just translate.

He greeted them with a polite light bow and introduced himself, explaining he lived here and could help. The man in the group, Kim Ji-hoo, as he introduced himself, explained they were in the UK touring Pride U as his daughter had accepted a Merlin Magick Fellow scholarship attend and were sorcerers from, as he suspected, Gwangju. Only his daughter Mi-joo spoke English well and she wasn’t too confident about translating for her parents and grandmother. That was fair. It was hard to do! And exhausting. Especially when you were so young and not used to it, and this was your first time speaking your second language outside of your home country. Yeah, he knew that feeling well.

The grandmother kind of side-eyed him. He knew why— his pixie ears, he was a pixie — but he remained polite. He was used to this reaction. Mu-yeol motioned for the Kims to follow him to the counter.

“They’re visiting from Korea,” Mu-yeol briefly explained. “I’ll just, like, translate if that’s okay. Right, so…”

One by one, they told him their order and he repeated it to Hatter— all but the grandmother looked directly at him when they spoke to him, she just looked at Hatter.

“Did I do it? Its always so nerve wracking doing that on the fly.” Mu-yeol said to Hatter after he gave Kim Ji-hoo his WhatsApp number, telling him to have Mi-joo ask him if she needs anything at all while she’s in school.

Absolute Lithops Effect || Hatfish