In Seven Days

Monday; 8:39 PM

"You have a child?!"

Byulyi's singing ceased the moment the door slammed open. Her head snapped towards him and she looked at him with wide eyes—a comical reaction he would have seen had his eyes not been busy falling out of their sockets from the scene in front of him.

There stood Byulyi in the center of a white room beside a white crib, loose clothing draped across her shoulders and a surprised look painted on her face. Within her arms was a sleepy bundle of fat with a thick head of dark hair, his plump flaming tear-stained cheeks rested against her shoulder, watery doe eyes stared back at Jin as tiny hands balled into fists clenched the material of her dark blue shirt.

Surprised by the sudden loud sound, the baby reacted the only way a baby does when agitated: wailing loudly.

Jin flinched at the loud noise, a grimace instantly settling over his face, whereas Byulyi seemed completely unfazed by it. She swayed gently, humming the lullaby she was singing earlier before Jin loudly barged into the room. As the crying subsided, he found himself examining the baby's face.

A mole below his left brow.

Thick lips.

Fluffy hamster cheeks.

Oh God.

He was blinking slowly now and his crying was reduced to mere sniffing and he can't help but find a sense of familiarity from his brown doe eyes.

"I told you to leave." Byulyi's voice cut through the gentle tinkling of the baby mobile. It was not at all like her humming earlier.

Like an idiot, Jin pointed a slightly trembling hand at the two of them.

"You have a—"

"Mama," the child whimpered. Sensing that his mother's attention was not on him, he lifted his wet eyes and pink nose to look at Byulyi.

Jin could see the way Byuli's features soften before she placed a gentle kiss on the baby's forehead. "Don't cry Seokmin-ah. Eomma's here. Shhh," she mumbled in return, gently placing his head against her shoulder again to lull him back to sleep.

Seokmin.

That was the kid's name.

Jin could feel the thinnest of strings tug his heart.

Byulyi gestured her head to the white sofa near the wall where a horde of stuffed animals sat. "Can you bring him the bunny," she asked, her voice much calmer—though Jin had a feeling it was more for Seokmin's benefit than his.

His feet brought him to the end of the room, large hands taking the soft fuzzy gray bunny that was no bigger than the Seokmin's torso from the middle of the group. He was back where he stood before he even realized what he was doing.

Seokmin straightened against Byulyi's shoulder and his lips curled to a frown. Jin thought he would cry again but he simply stretched his chubby hands towards him, opening and closing them as he mumbled heavily, "Bub-bub."

Jin dumbly extended his bunny-containing hand to which Seokmin tearily accepted. He sandwiched it against his and Byulyi's chest and adjusted his head so that only the tip touched his mother's shoulder to accommodate his Bub-bub.

Seokmin stared at Jin with pitiful half-closed eyes, stirring an unfamiliar feeling in his chest as his lips trembled.

Jin breathed a shaky inhale and pointed to Seokmin. "You have a child."

Byulyi turned to him with deadpanned eyes. "Wow, that's some great observation skills Jin."

Jin couldn't spare another brain cell to rebut Byulyi's sarcasm when all of them had been overstimulated to the point of calmness at all this new information. Thankfully, the silence had permitted him some form of cognizance as his brain whirred back to life.