─ 47. toy stores
***
ELENA'S POV
10 AM
The next morning, I woke up to Dae bouncing on my bed next to me, efficiently waking me up. Half asleep, I listened as Sang explained that Jungkook had remembered what I asked him yesterday, and dropped the little boy off to spend the day with me while he worked.
Cuddling the little boy, I soon got up, showered, dressed, and put the braces over my hands and joined Sang and Dae in the living room.
My brothers had all gone back to their daily lives after their short vacation.
A smile lifted my face, I was happy that the boys – and most surprisingly Mr. Blackbourne and Vic had seemed okay with the fact that Jungkook and I were now in a relationship.
I held the little boy on my lap and flushed at the reminder of what happened last night. Oh crackers. How would I face him today?
"Let's get going!" Sang said, voice a high pitched squeal, grabbing her purse. I followed her with my eyes, giggling as she bounced around the living room in joy.
"What are we gonna do today, mommy?" Dae asked innocently, little hands coming up to hold my elbows as I stood up and dusted off my jeans.
This morning, I had decided to wear light blue jeans that clung to my legs, a small white lacy top that exposed my freckled shoulders, and a matching pair of white wedges completed the look.
Sang, being the life saver she was, helped me curl the ends of my hair and pinned the front pieces back with a pearl beret.
For the first time in a long while, I felt like dressing up and feeling pretty, so I donned the pink diamond necklace my family had gotten me for my birthday months ago.
Light makeup was applied to my face, not enough to irritate my skin; but enough to enhance my features, and lengthen my lashes.
I kissed Dae's little cheek and held out my hand for him to hold onto.
"We're going shopping, Dae-Dae–"
"And we can't forget about stopping by the nail salon." Sang cheered, a slight look of disgust coming over her features when she looked at her nails, "Mine desperately need a new look."
Holding Dae's hand in one hand, and his bag in the other, the two of us followed Sang outside to her car, and then Sang helped me put Dae into his car seat, one Jungkook had dropped off for us.
I giggled and buckled myself into the seat when Sang started telling Dae all the exciting things we would do today.
Quite honestly, I was really excited to spend the day with Sang and Dae – even though I looked forward to, yet dreaded seeing Jungkook later today.
I bit down on my lips to hide my wince.
After we both cleaned ourselves last night, we spoke about going out to dinner tonight. Jungkook had acted normally, and didn't seem upset by what I had done – so I hoped he would continue to act that way once I saw him in person.
***
Hours had passed, and I had never felt so good while shopping for hours on end, but I knew it was Dae that had kept my spirits up and made me continue on, despite my feet aching because of my choice of shoes.
"Crackers." I mumbled, glancing in the trunk of Sang's car – seeing it nearly filled to the brim with the stuff we had gotten.
I got out of the car, purse in one hand, and Dae's in the other, I looked around the lively city of Charleston I hadn't been to in what felt like years...but thinking back, I'm pretty sure it had been years since I had seen this part.
There was a huge, expensive looking building here – that basically screamed money with its tall glass windows, scaling up the entire building, but I didn't pay much attention to it when Dae started to amuse himself but holding my hand and playing with my acrylics I had gotten a few hours prior.
Sang cracked her fingers, and then continued to click her pink ombre acrylics together as she looked for a place we would go next.
Suddenly, she smiled slyly.
"There's an adult store down the block..."
"There's a child here, Sang." I flushed, pressing my hands over Dae's ears while he looked up at me in confusion. Sang snickered at the mortified look on my face.
"I have to pick up a few things over there, why don't you take Dae to the toy store over there," she pointed to the place across from the huge building I hadn't yet got a good look at.
I immediately nodded, a beaming smile across my lips.
"That sounds great! Doesn't it, Dae-Dae?" I kneeled down to face the grinning boy.
Dae giggled loudly and beheld me with sparkling eyes, "May I get a toy please, mommy?"
My heart melted at his adorable words, "Of course," I pushed his silky hair out of his eyes, "You can get anything you want." I could afford to get him anything he wanted since I did have my credit card – the one that Vic and Mr. Blackbourne had for Sang and Gabriel, and me at times, when we went shopping.
I wasn't much of a shopper, but Sang and Gabriel could honest to god shop until they dropped. I didn't know how they could do it.
Sang pressed a kiss to my cheek once I stood up and propped Dae up on my hip. I was aware that Dae was big enough to walk on his own, but being in the city, around so many people, I didn't like the idea of him only holding onto my hand. I wouldn't know what to do with myself if something happened to Dae because of me.
Sang parted ways with us when I neared the toy store, and held onto a happy Dae as he awed at the gigantic store full of toys. I walked around the store, pointing out all sorts of different toys to Dae.
The little boy was in awe of everything we passed, and didn't know what he liked the best...so I kinda...may have...placed all the things he liked into the cart I had to go back and get.
I just couldn't help myself. I wanted to get and give him everything that was in my power to do so.
"What do you think, Dae-Dae?" I asked the adorable boy in front of me, as he was strapped in the buggy – a generous amount of toys placed in the cart just for him. I held out a huge train set, full of all different sorts and styles of his trains and waited for his reaction.
"WOW~" he cooed cutely, eyes wide in happiness. His little hands reached out and grasped ahold of the box set I held out for him. He poked at the pretty trains and chirped happily.
"Go on," I giggled, leaning down to grasp the handle of the buggy, "Put it in the back."
Oh crackers, I couldn't deny this little baby anything.
But he deserved all of this and more.
I held his little face in my hands and kissed his head until a voice, coming from right beside me, caused me to startled.
"You have a beautiful son," I flushed and turned towards a middle aged woman with an infant into her arms. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a bun, and her youthful face held kindness.
I instantly smiled and flushed while looking back at Dae.
"Thank you." I wasn't his biological mother, but he was my pride and joy. It filled me with such happiness to be addressed as Dae's mother by a stranger I didn't know. I peeked down at the baby in her arms and awed at the sight, "Your baby is adorable. Congratulations!"
The kind woman smiled and laughed softly to herself, "Thank you," she responded, caressing her baby's cheeks. "It's been hard since I came home from the hospital with those sleepless nights and all. But at least I have my husband by my side."
I nodded, understanding how difficult it must be, despite never going through it myself.
"I think the only thing you can do is take it one day at a time. It'll get easier." I said with a soft smile, "You seem to be doing amazingly so far."
"I hope so." she sighed, before looking over my shoulder. "I see my husband now," she said and a bigger smile overcame her lips, "It was so nice meeting you...and thank you so much for your kind words. I needed to hear that."
"Don't worry about it," I smiled, "It was nice meeting you too."
Dae grabbed my attention once more as the mother walked out of sight with her baby and her husband. I smiled to myself and walked around the store, picking up another couple things Dae loved before going to the checkout.
I paid for everything Dae and I had chosen, widening my eyes slightly at the price of it all, before everything was all bagged up and we were waiting on Sang in front of the toy store after I had put the toys away in the car.
"You can play with the toys once we get home, okay, Dae-Dae?" I told the little boy, giggling when he hugged my legs and thanked me again.
"I can't wait to show Daddy!" he chirped, "He's gonna love them!"
I smiled down at him, while on the inside, my stomach dropped.
Oh crackers.
Why didn't I think to ask Jungkook if I could buy Dae all those toys? A sheepish smile overcame my lips, and I stuffed the receipt down in my purse, hoping when it was out of sight, it would be out of mind ( it would be hard since the toys I had bought were like three hundred dollars total ).
"Why don't we go see your Daddy before we go home?" Sang suddenly asked, appearing beside me out of thin air. A quiet shriek left my lips and my hand flew up to hold my chest.
"Crackers, Sang!" I trembled out a laugh, "You scared me."
Sang giggled and shook the big bag in her hand teasingly. Which caused me to blush like mad.
Sweet Jesus, just what did this woman buy?
Dae pouted out his bottom lip and cocked his head to the side, "Can we go see him, Miss. Sang? Where is he?"
"Yeah," I nodded, intrigued, "Where is he?"
"A lot close than the both of you thought," She snickered and pointed towards the huge building across from us. I furrowed my brows and peered at the huge building she was pointed to.
"I don't get it."
"Me either." Dae pouted out, going along with me.
Sang rolled her eyes and huffed.
"Um...does he work in that building or something?"
If he did...he was so close!
I'd never seen him at his workplace before!
"Sweetie," Sang rose a single brow, "Look up....yes...like that...a little more..."
"Oh my crackers." I gasped out loud, hardly able to believe my eyes. Further up on the huge building, there were huge letters attached to the building. Four letters I knew very well.
JEON was the name attached to the building.
"He doesn't just work there, El." she giggled at the look on my face, "He owns that place."
Dae cutely gasped alongside me. "Daddy owns that big place?" he asked, "Can we go in!? Please?" he begged, tugging at my jeans. My lips parted and I looked at Sang for help.
"Could we even go inside?" I asked her, only to be cut off by Dae's cute words.
"Why couldn't we go inside, mommy? Daddy owns it and we're his famawee." he said so cutely that I had to kneel down to look at him.
"I know, Dae-Dae. But daddy could be busy–"
"Let's just take a picture and send it to him." Sang said, coming up with an idea. I shrugged and looked at Dae.
"Do you want to take a picture and send it to daddy?" I asked and I didn't have to wait long at all for his reply.
Sang had Dae and I pose in front of the huge building – with me kneeling by his side, while the little boy hung onto me and giggled when Sang snapped picture after picture. Our smiles were wide and beaming across our faces when Sang showed us the finishing product.
"These are perfect," I said to her, peering at the pictures of Dae and I. Sang had taken really good pictures, and in each one, the building was in perfect sight, along with Jungkook's last name above our heads.
I picked my favorite one and sent it, along with a sweet message of how much we missed him, and even asked how his day is going so far.
I locked up my phone and held onto Dae's hand once Sang joined us.
She had finally put that bag inside the car. Thank crackers.
"Where should we eat lunch?" I asked, neck craning around to see if I could spot a decent restaurant in the area.
Sang opened her mouth to reply, but the ringing of my phone shut her up. I furrowed my brows and looked down, a huge smile on my lips when I saw Jungkook's name across the screen.
I answered it without a second thought.
"Hello?" I asked, excited to hear his voice.
Jungkook chuckled on the other line and I could basically feel him grinning on the other line.
"Hi, sweetie." he greeted softly, "So you stopped by the company? Why didn't you come see me? I miss you and Dae so much." He sounded unhappy with the fact that I didn't let him know I was here earlier.
I giggled and let Dae climb up into my arms with Sang's help and propped him up on my hip.
"I didn't know your company was here. Sang and I took Dae shopping for the day – we're still here in front of the toy store. We're trying to decide what to have for lunch." I explained to him with a flush crawling across my cheeks, the earlier dread of seeing him was long gone. Now, I only wished to see him.
I heard him hum on the other line, "How about we all have lunch together? I was just about to leave. Sounds good, no?" he asked and I flushed brighter at the light teasing in his tone. Dae giggled and played with my hair when I smiled at him.
"That sounds amazing! We miss you." I whispered with a light giggled.
Crackers, I missed him so much.
"I missed both of you too, baby." Jungkook rumbled, "I'll be down a couple minutes, sit tight, yeah?" he asked.
"Okay." I responded, shyly turning away from Sang's teasing grin.
"I love you." he said sweetly, making my heart sing for him even more than usual.
"I love you too."
a/n ; Elena can never deny Dae anything, can she! Lmao. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!