"See this picture? This was your mother when she was your age, and this was your grandmother," He smiled, holding the baby on his lap tightly to him with his hands, "Your grandmother would have loved to meet you. Did you know you look just like her? Of course...You're just like your beautiful mother," He flipped another page, "Look, this is your mother on her first anniversary. Can you see how pretty this hanbok is? I promise that grandpa will get you the most beautiful hanbok for your first anniversary too."
Jimin stopped by the door frame of her father's house library, staring at her father as he showed her daughter her baby and childhood pictures. She cleared her throat and briefly bowed down to her father, and he immediately turned his attention to her.
"Oh, Jimin," He looked up at her with a smile, "I hope you and Minjeong don't mind about it but, I went to pick Minji up, I wanted to show her some things," He answered with a smile, before he got up from his armchair, holding the baby tightly on his arms, "Do you want to hold her or something?"
"No, I...I'm going to work today," She answered, surprising him.
"...Work? With that crazy bastard around town-"
"-Minjeong and Chanyeol oppa will be around Jihyo and I all day long, so please don't worry, father."
"Oh," He said, acknowledging his daughter's words, "Is it so?"
Jimin nodded with a soft smile, "I was wondering if you'd like to take care of Minji today with my parents-in-law," Jimin said at the end, surprising her father. Sooman had to admit that he was nervous as hell. He did consider them his family now. but he had told them so many hurtful words in the past, and he knew he would never be able to take those back. Just to think he would have to take care of his granddaughter with his daughter-in-law's parents...It just left him utterly nervous. Feeling even more nervous than the very same day he took the presidency of group, back when Jimin was only eight years old.
"...Okay," He said, smiling at his daughter, "But I think you should hold her first. She'll miss her mother for the rest of the day."
Jimin walked inside of the library, as her father walked towards her as well, handing her her daughter for a brief second.
"Good morning, Minji ah," Jimin muttered with a wide smile, her eyes shining, even. Sooman felt a pang on his chest when he saw the happiness in his daughter's eyes the moment she held her baby in her arms. It was so rare for him to see that gleam in her eyes. The last time he had seen it was when she had given birth to her son.
...
"Aigoo...You're eating so well," Jimin whispered with teary eyes, caressing her son's head with her delicate long fingers. He could see her hospital bracelet on her left wrist, her black hair sprawled against the pillow, completely messed up because of her sweat; all this while carefully observing as her baby boy steadily sucked milk from her right breast, "Isn't Kim Jeongwoo the cutest baby in the world? Hmm?"
Sooman carefully observed his daughter through the small gap of the door, seeing as she reclined her head on the pillow and softly patted the baby's side with her left palm, a soft smile gracing her lips.
"...You look just like your mama, baby," She whispered, her lips parting up with her words, but not breaking her smile, "You're just like mama, Jeongwoo..."
...
"Did you sleep well?" She giggled, "Of course you did, you fell asleep while listening to mama's heartbeat, wasn't it? My cute baby," She muttered, kissing her daughter's forehead. She smiled and sighed, caressing her daughter's cheeks with the back of her hand, "Eomma is going to work now, and mama is going with me...Can you spend a day without mama? Hmmm?"
The baby blinked her eyes, silently sucking on her pacifier. Jimin smiled, "You're staying with your grandparents today. With grandma Taeyeon, grandpa Kibum and grandpa Sooman. Okay?"
Jimin turned her head around as she heard footsteps, and immediately turned back to her daughter, "Look, mama came to give you a kiss too. How does that sound?"
Minjeong chuckled, extending her arms, "Come here, princess~."
The baby's eyes curved up in glee as her mama held her in her arms, kissing her temple tenderly, "Mama is going to work with eomma today. So I can't take care of you today!" She lifted up her right hand, holding her index finger high in the air, pointing up, "You'll stay with good company. Alright?"
"Mma~."
"Ah, please stop killing me with your cuteness," She pouted, staring cutely at her daughter, before her expression turned serious again, "Mama and eomma have to go now. Okay?"
"Mma!"
"Yes, eomma's leaving too," Sooman said with a smile, approaching his daughter-in-law and granddaughter, "But I'll take care of you, alright-"
"-Don't you even dare hurting her. My parents are very patient but my sister's going to cut your neck with no hesitation."
Sooman smiled at Minjeong, "I'm not hurting your daughter, Kim-"
"-Ning wanted to be a paid killer as a kid, just so you know."
____________________________________________________________________
"Minjeong, I should just get a chair, I mean-"
"-Shh. You're comfortable here, aren't you? So just stay here," She muttered, wrapping her arms around Jimin's waist tighter. Jimin sighed and turned her head around, looking at her with a clearly worried expression.
"But I'm making you uncomfortable. And I don't want you to be uncomfortable, Minjeong."
Minjeong sighed and blinked, before she brought her left hand up to Jimin's head. Minjeong just stared at her silently, almost making Jimin wonder about what she was thinking about right in that moment. She just stared into her eyes intensely, not muttering a single word. Jimin stared back at her, seeing as her lips slightly curved up and her right hand's fingers pressed harder on her waist.
"Yu Jimin."
"Yes."
"I'm a woman."
"Yeah."
"And you're a woman."
"Yes..."
"...You really think it bothers me to have your butt above my crotch?"
Jimin blushed, looking at the computer screen right away. Minjeong leaned up from the swivel chair, pressing her chin against her shoulder as she began typing some words and numbers on the keyboard, while accessing some kind of computer program she couldn't recognize at all.
"What are you doing?"
Jimin sighed, smiling softly, "Putting these account movements and stocks in the stock market," She muttered, before her eyes went down again to the keyboard, "This will later go into the stock exchange."
She kissed her shoulder, staring into the screen, "You must be busy, then. Do I bother you?"
She shook her head, "No. I actually feel more relaxed, with having you here," She confessed in a low whisper, clicking with her mouse on a few links and buttons that showed up in the Mac's screen, "I feel so lonely when I have to work on my own. People told me it's better to focus if you don't have any kind of distraction but I guess I just need that one element that could possibly distract me to keep me focused."
"...It feels weird for me to see you working like this."
"Why?"
She hugged her tighter with both of her arms, "I lost five precious years of you and sometimes my brain doesn't remember you're a grown up woman with a couple University degrees," She chuckled, "When I see you writing or doing something like paperwork I think you're studying...When you're actually putting up stocks in the stock exchange."
"...We have the 15th largest stock exchange of the world," Jimin replied, "I'm still kind of studying how to do things well in there without screwing up. There's too many people who depend on me."
Minjeong glanced over her desk, noticing the phone was turned off.
"...You're avoiding people, I see."
Jimin turned her head, staring at her.
"I have you here, don't I? Then why should I have my office phone turned on? Media are too noisy, I don't like them," She muttered, before she closed the window of the stock exchange.
"...I'm so proud of you."
Jimin wrapped her arms around her neck as she turned around, sitting above Minjeong's legs. She stared into her eyes and Minjeong cupped her cheek, caressing it softly.
"...I love you," Jimin muttered, smiling, "More than anything else."
Minjeong briefly pecked her lips, smiling.
"I love you too," She whispered, "All of you."
____________________________________________________________________
"Yah! What do you think you're doing with my niece!"
Sooman looked at Ning, surprised at the sudden informal speech towards him by the younger female. Ning hurried to his side, leaning down as she reached down to pat the baby's clothes, seeing they were slightly dirty with milk on her neck area.
"You're going to make her sick if her neck is wet!" She sighed, seeing the baby looking up at her with round brown eyes, "Aigoo, Minji ah. Your grandfather isn't careful at all! Have you seen how wet you are? Ah, seriously," She looked up at the older man, grabbing the baby bottle from his hands as she brought the baby up to her arms, "If you can't properly feed her with the baby bottle, just leave it to someone else."
Sooman realized that what Minjeong had previously told him was true. Ning could be really intimidating, and she was pretty good at it. That woman had authority in her words and actions. Although most people would have thought it had been extremely impolite and rude of her to talk to him in an informal speech, it just surprised the man. How fearless the young female was. He didn't remember her being like that when he first met her. At all.
"Kim Ning Ning shii."
The girl turned around, looking at her sister's father-in-law with a deadly serious expression. To be family with South Korea's most powerful and influential man would have made her extremely nervous and self-conscious in the past; but it wasn't a bother to her anymore. That man was nothing more than trash in her eyes. What he had done to her sister was just inhumane.
"What?"
Sooman smiled.
"Your sister was right."
Ning rolled her eyes.
"Look. I don't know what Minjeong told you. But yes, she's right. I get pissed off easily. I'm not easy to tame nor am I easy to control. But that's just how I am. If you can't handle it then just turn around and leave. My pleasure," She muttered, before she turned back again and walked towards the living room, leaving the man alone, wondering just when he would be able to finally get along with Minjeong's family, or if that would even happen to begin with.
____________________________________________________________________
"Are you okay?"
Jimin nodded, leaving her cellphone above the bedside table after she entered her bedroom. She looked up at Minjeong, as she laid down their sleeping daughter on Jimin's bed. Minjeong covered the baby up and patted her little tummy gently, smiling to herself.
"Did she eat?"
"...I gave her milk with cereal."
Jimin nodded silently, gulping down. She looked to her left side, staring at her girlfriend as she sat up on the bed, smiling before she looked at her. Her smile faded as she saw Jimin's worried expression, and she sensed it was worrying her immensely.
"...Jimin ah," She muttered, sitting closer to her, "Are you okay?"
Jimin pursed her lips, nodding.
"...I'm fine."
"You don't look okay," Minjeong sighed, "Should I call the psychiatrist? Do you want him to see you tomorrow so that you two can talk about your medication-No, it's me, right? I know I was a huge bother today. I should have just sat down in your couch-Or was it the journalists outside the bank-"
"-Win."
Minjeong blinked as she stared at her intensely, not muttering a single word. She kept being silent for the next seconds; which she found weird and worrisome. Minjeong just stared back at her, looking into her eyes so that she could guess what was going on inside of her mind. But she just looked so blank to him, that she didn't know what she should do.
"...Can you come with me?"
She nodded silently, looking up at her as she got up from the bed. Minjeong also leaned up, following her as she walked towards the bathroom inside of her bedroom. She didn't mutter a single word; but she just silently followed her. She knew that she had to show or tell her something; she wasn't so sure of what it was, but it surely it was something she wanted to make herself sure that it would be privately discussed between the both of them.
Minjeong closed the door behind her, breathing out as she stared at her. Jimin's eyes slowly looked up at her, and she gulped down.
"...Rina-"
Minjeong looked down at her as Jimin suddenly pinned her between her and the door, holding her waist. Her breath got caught up in her throat and she closed her eyes, feeling Jimin's soft lips pausing against hers.
Jimin's left hand went up to her collarbone, her fingers delicately going up her neck as she tilted her head to the side, deepening their lip locking before her fingers cupped Minjeong's right cheek. Minjeong's hands went under her shirt, feeling her soft skin under her fingertips, before she turned them both around, making her lean against the wall next to the door.
"...Make love to me," Jimin whispered under her breath, her lips taintingly moving against hers as she pronounced those words.
Minjeong just complied, losing control of whatever she should be thinking about or doing. And she could feel herself slipping away from reality the moment her jeans' fly went down and Jimin's panties dropped on her feet; absolutely ignoring any rational thoughts, although she could sense something was definitely wrong.
____________________________________________________________________
Minjeong began regaining consciousness the moment her daughter crawled above her, wailing as if complaining about something. Without opening her eyes, she remembered that, after making love to her, they had taken a shower together and had fallen asleep on her bed, with her hugging their daughter close to her chest.
Minjeong scooped the baby close to her, burying her head deeper in the pillow.
"...Mmm...Why are you upset...? Did eomma lose a grip of you while sleeping...?"
She slowly opened her eyes, expecting to see the beautiful face of the woman she loved the most; but she wasn't there.
She frowned and sat up on the bed, noticing her side of the bed was made.
"...Jimin? Are you there?"
She looked in the bathroom's direction, but it was way too silent. For everything to be that silent, she could only have left the room. She blinked and pushed the sheets away from her, rushing to the couch next to the bed to get a pair of boxer briefs and a bra to put on.
She rushed to the door of her bedroom, opening it slightly, and looked around. She saw a maid and touched her arm, stretching her out.
"Excuse me, have you seen my girlfriend?"
The maid shook her head, "I haven't seen Mrs Yu today, Kim Minjeong shii."
"I see...Thank you," She muttered, before she closed the door, entering the inside of the bedroom. Minji was sitting on the bed, looking intently at her father. The baby began wailing and Minjeong rushed to her side, taking her to her arms.
"You're hungry," She muttered under her breath, upset, "You're hungry and your mother left without-"
She stopped in her tracks as she spotted Jimin's cell phone next to the baby bottle, a paper note sticking under her cellphone. She put the phone aside and took the note to her hands.
I'm sorry.
A lump began forming in her throat as she remembered her unusual behavior after she came back to her bedroom the night before, carrying her cellphone in her arms.
She left a note saying she was sorry.
And she had left it with her cellphone.
"...R-Rina," She took in a shaky breath and looked around, putting Minji above the bed as she rushed to wear some clothes; only wearing her black jeans and her white shirt, not even bothering to button up most of the buttons. She grabbed the baby and took her to her arms, leaving Jimin's bedroom and running down the stairs, walking towards the dining room, knowing people would be in there.
"Honey, is everything okay?"
She took in a shaky breath.
"...Where is Jimin?"
Ning blinked, gulping down, "S-She isn't in your bedroom?"
Ning started crying, obviously distressed by what has happening around her.
"E-Eomma, hold her for me," She muttered, going over to her mother's side. The middle aged woman took the baby in her arms, looking at her daughter worryingly as she saw her rushing towards the main door, going outside despite the heavy rain that was falling outside.
Her car wasn't there.
"Jimin!"