🆂🆀🆄🅰🆁🅴🅳 2| SEQUEL

30

Donghyuck stood with his jaw dropped when he saw all four of his friends show up in the daycare. Jisung broke the news to him before they did so that he wasn't as shocked and warned him not to ask any questions. He still overreacted when he ran to them and crushed them in a hug, or at least attempted to.

"I'm so happy for ya'll," he cried tearfully.

"Thanks, Haechan. Good to see you again," the girl says, chuckling awkwardly. He pulled away and grinned at her, smacking her arm.

"You've changed so much! You're more...hot"

Of course, he had thee pairs of eyes glaring at him but he was good at ignoring them.

"Really? I'm flattered," she says slightly grinning. "You've grown well yourself, I'm jealous of your beauty," she says as the male smiles shyly.

"Okay enough. We came for Rita," Renjun says, breaking their little flirting. They walked in and were led to one of the playrooms where a couple of toddlers were playing. They were supervised by two adults.

"This is Yeri and Ningning, they're volunteers here," he says as the two young ladies looked up. Jina froze at how beautiful they were, they were probably her age.

"Hi," they greeted politely.

"Ladies, these are my best friends here, they're VIP guests. Regulars," he says as he dramatically waved his arms to present them.

"Of course," the girl named Yeri says turning to smile at her.

Renjun found his baby crawling around. He scooped her up gently and she clung to him like there was no tomorrow.

Once they walked out Jina felt like she could finally breathe.

"Can I hold her?" Jaemin pleaded, watching the baby with longing eyes.

"Back up, Nana. I got her first," he snaps causing Jaemin to roll his eyes.

"You can hold me," Jina jokes, not meaning it.

She screeched when she felt herself hoisted up in the air, nearly having a heart attack.

"I didn't mean it! Put me down!" She squealed. The funny thing is he couldn't hold her as he started stumbling. Jeno came from behind and help him balance as Jina slid off.

"Are you dumb? You could have dropped her,"

"Jeez, I didn't know you were weak," she scoffs, kind of offended. "Or am I gaining weight?"

Jeno turned to squeeze her cheek lovingly. "Of course not, he's just weak."

"Someone is reasonable around here, you cutie," she coos, on her tiptoes to ruffle his hair, he blushed in return.

Meanwhile, Renjun was having a private conversation with his daughter.

"Smothering Dog," he says as he points at Jeno.

"Dumb bunny," he says pointing at Jaemin.

"Wild cat," he points at Jina.

"You and I, my child are foxes. We are diligent and level-headed. We are smart, cunning, and flawless, at the top of the food chain- watch out for the pole!" He screeched.

Too late. Jeno bumped his head into the pole he failed to notice in time.

***

"You're all dumbasses," Renjun sighs as three heads were lowered in shame. Somehow they all sustained bruises of some sort on their walk home- including Jeno's pole damage. Jina tripped over her toes and Jaemin accidentally smacked himself. Due to excessive laughter, they kept falling at their feet, he was sure many people pointed at them as drunkards.

So here he was. Treating their bruises.

"Today was exhausting," Jeno sighs, already drained.

"Right... I don't know about you all but I'm going to take a nap," Renjun says with a yawn. When he finished with their bruises he and Jeno cuddled up in his room and fell asleep.

"Alright. What are we doing?" Jaemin asks.

"Can you look after Rita? She should be napping too," she says and the male went to the toddler who was flapping a scary-looking doll. Where did that come from?

She didn't look tired, she was in a rather playful mood.

"You're so weird," he scoffs as he watched her kick her legs in and out. His eyes widened when the doll's head went into her mouth, biting on it harshly.

"No, bad. That's dirty," he reprimanded pulling the doll from her mouth.

Her lips twisted, frowning at him but then pulled his hand and bit on it making his soul leave his body for a moment.

"Oh my god! That's also bad," he hissed looking down at his hand to see if he had all his fingers, it made her giggle.

"You like to watch people suffer for fun huh?" He briefly walked away and looked through the cabinets and the fridge, pulling out a snack.

"Are you giving that to Rita?" Jina asks.

"Yeah, it's okay. Right?" He asks and with a confirmed nod, he walked back but saw that the baby was nowhere to be seen.

He panicked and looked under the table. His panicked mind looked at the windows or the balcony but they were closed.

He walked down the corridor and saw Renjun's room left open, he peeked in and found the baby attempting to get on the bed, she couldn't even stand as she was flailing her arms, looking frustrated.

"Stop making noise, Jun," Jeno groaned. He picked up the baby and silently nudged Jeno who opened an eye to look at him.

"Rita wants to sleep too, be careful," he whispers, he lazily pulled the blanket up and waited for her to crawl in and wrap her tiny arms around his bicep. Jaemin couldn't help but squeal it was the cutest sight ever.

After years of hardship, he had never imagined that he could ever feel hopeful again. Some things still haunted him but he felt now that he had everyone he loved he could fight against anything.

It was just one thing that was clawing at his heart leaving him with a guilty conscience and it was the fact that Jina didn't know everything. He preferred it stayed that way. He didn't want her to go through any more pain or worries, she had enough.

He walked into the kitchen where she was cooking as always. He walked behind her wrapping his arms around her waist and placing his chin on her shoulder.

"Rita's asleep?" She asks to which he responded with a hum. He saw that she was making a lot of food and difficult dishes at that.

"What's with all this? What's the occasion?" He chuckles, the low vibration in his voice made her tummy tingle with butterflies.

"It's to compensate because I ran away yesterday," she says lowly as she bit her lip. He spun her around with a visible frown on his face.

"You don't have to compensate for that. If you aren't ready for such things then we can wait. You being here is enough," he says warmly. He tilts her face up, caressing his thumb over her reddened cheeks lowering to press a soft kiss against her lips which were the best feeling in the world.