THE BABY PROJECT || HUANG RENJUN

CHAPTER 5

Even though Sieun had been a mildly annoyed, overly tensed, yet slightly rapturous grump when she walked through the main door of Starbucks with Renjun, the smell of caffeine in the air soon altered her complex emotions to one of pacific. "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke played overhead, and the low music, coupled with the unusually uncrowded Tuesday afternoon, was oddly uplifting.

Sieun skipped the queue, as cheeky as ever, apologized to the two customers fussing over the menu, emptied the change on the counter, and ordered a regular latte.

"What about you?" She asked her partner.

"Iced Americano. No water." Sieun angled her head to look at him over her shoulder. "Isn't that just espresso? Why waste money when you can get it for cheaper?"

Sieun watched as Renjun's face tightened and twisted, irritation writing in the fine lines of his furrowed brows. His hardened stare shifted toward her, ever so slowly, like a deliberate squeaky door in a horror movie, and her head turned abruptly, the motion whip-sharp. She muttered to the barista, "And one Iced Americano. No water, please."

Her voice cracked with distress, dry and brittle as wet paper left too long in the sun to dry. And yet she maintained a steady smile in her growing need to be done with the budget draft and return to her dorm where her bed awaited in earnest.

Bastard, she seethed in her thoughts. With the beverage in hand, she rushed to her favorite booth, the one by the window at the back corner of Starbucks, and set everything on the table.

Renjun followed, pulling up the chair opposite hers to settle down, and immediately manspreaded. His brows still pinched, cold gaze seeming to catalog everything around him, impatience swirled in the black ocean that was his pupils.

Sieun laid the box, a pen, and a notepad beside her latte. "Shall we open the box?"

Renjun shrugged. "Sure." He leaned back, and his eyes returned to their aloof, unfriendly mien. Early afternoon light streamed between them, growing gravid with ticklish, and he looked less irritated with the soft, yellow spring glow cascading over his person.

Stuttering a deep breath, Sieun cracked the lid open, tossed it aside, and delved through the items. The fake baby lay at the forefront, its tiny arms and legs adjusted as per manufacturing ability. A big smile accentuated the dimples on her cheeks, her amber-colored eyes wide open, and that was what made it look too real to be made of plastic.

A shiver crept along her spine.

"What do we do next?" Her nervous gaze befell on Renjun, eyes anticipating directions for the next course of action.

A dark brow quirked. "Let's switch it on."

Sieun nodded. Gently, she lifted the baby from the box and turned it onto her stomach. Three vary colored lights immediately caught her attention. "What are these?"

"Indicators?" Renjun pulled the manual out and began skimming through the text. "What light is on?"

Her head tilted to the side. "Red?"

Renjun rolled his eyes. Clasping its leg, he softly tugged, lowering her hand, and straightened his back to check the specifications. "It's off, probably out of battery. We should charge it." Taking the single charger, he ventured by the wall for an outlet, located the power strip, and plugged the charger into the back of the baby. "Let's make the budget draft while we wait."

"Okay." Sieun twirled the biro between pinched fingers and scribbled "Baby Budget" across the lined paper of her notepad. Below the title, she wrote all the essentials she could remember: diapers, bottles and nipples, blankets, towels, toys, formula...

Her lips puckered.

Will the baby need a crib? 

What about a car seat?

She blinked in consideration. "Do you suppose we'll need a baby bouncer?"

Renjun blinked along. "How am I to know that?"

He spoke, and his indifferent tone made her brows pinched. 

It wasn't anything new, to be honest. Renjun's coldness was notorious. It paled to what she had seen at her work when a combination of entitlement and arrogance brought out the worst in humanity. There was really no reason why something so noted would make her feel so peeved. But it did, and the words spilled out in a manner she hadn't meant— annoyance.

"Did I do something?"

Renjun's drawn breath rattled in his chest. "What?"

"You've been consistently rude to me since earlier," Sieun said, the words laced with tinges of bafflement and hurt along with the existing annoyance. "I don't recall offending you anytime, so I do not understand this hostility. However, if I have wronged you, I'll apologize. So, can you please be civil for the course of this project? This is important to me."

Renjun rolled his eyes so hard that they almost lodged in the back of his brain. "Are you done?"

Pink tints besmeared her cheeks. His mocking, cocky attitude glinting in the afternoon sun made her blood boil further. Bastard. No other reason behind his behavior occurred to her. He had to be a wretched louse.

She cleared her throat. "I suppose you were expecting someone better for the project, but it can't be helped. I—"

"And when have I insinuated as such?" Renjun sneered, narrowing his eyes. "When did I announce my dissatisfaction for you to read me a lambasting monologue?"

"You don't have to announce it to insinuate," she grumbled. "Your disapproval of me is quite evident in your mannerisms."

Renjun cocked his read, a move reminiscent of a drill sergeant sighting an unruly soldier. "Since when were you familiar with my mannerisms to spot the difference between disapproval and plain indifference? How are you so sure that what I deam your worth isn't anything more or less than a speck of dust?" Hands tugged in his trouser pockets, he crossed his leg beneath the table. "Such arrogance. Do not rank me in the likes of the lot you prattle."

"I am not arrogant."

"And I am not an object for you to cast judgment." A brief pause hung between them. "However," Inhaling a long breath, he pulled his hands out of his pockets to fold it on the table. "I understand the cause for your discernment. You and I are partners for the next six weeks. I will try to be more mindful of my actions."

Breathless, she blinked and watched him sit up ramrod straight, his face steel-like in its genuinity, before he stood up.

"Where—where are you going?" Was he leaving? Was he going to abandon her with the baby after such a sincere display?

Renjun pointed at the baby. "I think she's all charged up now."

The sun flashed across his dark eyes, and Sieun realized that the coming six weeks were going to be one hell of a rollercoaster ride. 

Update every Sunday and Wednesday? Hopefully, hehe. :)