Handle My Kids With Care

Where's Jisung?

"As in she actually went to the store or she's gone gone?" I already knew the answer I was going to get by the recent lack of her items in my room, but I wasn't sure if she had told him anything.

"I think Mommy's gone. There was some guy, an then she left." Hyunjin replied, but by his tone of voice I knew he had no idea what was going on. I just can't believe she left while Felix was in the bathtub.

"She come back, right?" Changbin's voice quivered as he spoke, and I sighed.

"I'll call her and see what's going on. Why don't you guys go get a snack or something." The four of them perked up at the mention of food and raced each other to the kitchen. I'm sure Felix had no idea what was going on, but he was just following his brothers.

I set Seungmin back down in the crib, and he smiled up at me before closing his little eyes and falling back asleep. The baby had probably sensed something was going wrong and just wanted to know someone was there.

I grabbed my phone from the back pocket of my pants and hesitated before dialing her number. There was a very high chance she wasn't going to pick up at all, but I needed some answers if she was going to.

"Hello?"

"What the heck is going on?" She paused, and for a second I thought something important had come up and she had to leave right at that second. But I knew my brain was just making up excuses to distract myself from what was actually happening.

"Chan-"

"No, don't use that soft tone with me. You left Felix in the bath! He almost drowned!" My sudden shouting woke up Seungmin again and I had to calm him down before taking myself outside so the boys couldn't hear me.

"That wasn't meant to happen. I was getting the bath ready, but he must have climbed in there on his own. You know I wouldn't-"

"I don't know what you would do anymore! I mean I thought we loved each other. I thought you weren't going to leave me and our kids! How much of that was a lie?" I ran a hand through my hair, grabbing a large section and just holding on to it tightly so I could feel some sort of stability in my life again.

"All of it. After Jisung I just didn't feel any sort of connection anymore. I just needed some place to go before I could leave."

"So you ran off with some other guy? When were you going to tell me?"

"Daddy?" I looked around me to try and find Jisung, but I couldn't see him.

"You have Jisung." She sighed deeply.

"I didn't know he was in the car until after I left. I'm on my way back from the court to drop him off along with divorce papers. All you have to do is sign." Without anything else she hung up on me. My knees then gave out and I collapsed to the grass as my phone fell to the ground next to me.

This was something we could have talked out. This was something the boys should have heard before hand so I don't have to tell them when I'm still figuring this whole thing out myself. This wasn't supposed to happen.

"Mom's not coming back, is she." Minho didn't even ask it in a question, and I didn't dare turn around so he could see how I was slowly breaking into pieces in the grass.

"No, no she's not. At least not after she gives Jisung back." In my peripheral vision I saw Minho sit down next to me on the grass. He didn't look at me or show any sort of expression on his face, but he just stared straight ahead.

"Last month Mom asked me if I wanted to go away with her, just the two of us. I told her I couldn't leave you guys. She asked me again this morning, and I said no. Now I know what she was really asking." The two of us sat in silence for a while until I could hear a car pulling into the driveway. Minho stood up, still not looking directly at me.

"I'll get Jisung in the house. Take your time." I nodded and Minho left me in the grass alone with my thoughts.

I don't know how long I was there for after I heard the car pull out of the driveway, but it was pitch black by the time I got back inside. All of the lights were out and the dishes were piled into the sink. I walked down the hallway and checked in the three rooms the boys were in, but they were all sleeping in their beds.

As soon as I laid down in my own bed, it finally hit me that it was just the seven of us now. I rolled over onto my side to see Seungmin sleeping in his crib next to me.

"How am I going to do this, Minnie? Hmm?"