"Hello. My name is Park Jinhee. You must be one of the new kids?"
After reaching the school, you are greeted by a kind-looking, silver-haired woman. She smiles kindly down at your daughter, who shys away and hides behind your arm.
It's Areum's first day of school – 1st grade in primary school. You know she's nervous, and so are you, to be honest. She's the oldest of two, and little brother Heejoon is (hopefully) at home with the nanny till you get back.
Your phone suddenly vibrates in your pocket.
"Ah.. Areum, follow Mrs. Park inside, okay? Mommy will be right there," you promise and nuzzle her hair. The poor little thing keeps looking back at you as she disappears inside with the lady in hand.
You finally glance down at the number. Baek PD is calling.
"Hello?" you say and look down at your wristwatch.
"We need you on set right now."
You're kinda startled from the borderline yelling. He's a tough one to work with. Brilliant but could use some lessons on how to be nicer.
Someone suddenly bumps into you from behind.
"Sorry," the person mumbles and shuffles off. You're too immersed in the phone conversation to really care, and just glance over your shoulder for a brief moment, not really looking, while turning your back to the entrance.
After the rambling is over, you try to offer a polite answer.
"Sir, with all due respect, it's my girl's first day of primary school and I-"
"Didn't you hear me? Right now means you're already late and every second you aren't here is money out the-"
You hang up before he gets another word out.
If you cut me off, I cut you off.
You know you're an important piece in this puzzle, so you can take your time. He won't fire you. No you no drama. He needs you.
You head inside the school and find the classroom where your daughter is patiently waiting amongst the rest of the kids on the floor. She looks a little anxious and nervous, but you decide to just place yourself in the back of the room with the rest of the parents instead of making her aware of your presence.
You feel a buzz in your pocket and discreetly glance at it.
From: Younghyun
Baek PD is swearing at you
Your eyes roll like balls.
To: Younghyun
That's because he can't fire me
"Hello everybody and welcome to primary school!" an oddly familiar male voice suddenly calls out.
You hide your phone and look back up to clap, but your eyes widen in shock instead. The class' teacher is a tall, blond guy, with a pair of round, golden glasses, who doesn't seem to have aged at all.
"I am so happy to meet you! I am your homeroom teacher, Park Jaehyung," he smiles at the children.
You blink a couple of times and do a double take just to be sure your eyes aren't fooling you. He hasn't looked at the parents yet, so you slip behind a muscular man, towering above you, in an effort to leave his line of sight.
"Now, since it's your very first day, and you might be a little nervous and scared, I have brought some presents for you!"
You take a peek and see him holding a big, black bag filled with something you can't quite see.
"Areum," he calls and your daughter shyly stands up. "Come up and pick one," he kindly says and holds out the bag.
You watch your daughters eyes light up as she gets a look of the content of the bag. You stretch a little to get a proper view.
"Pick whichever you'd like. Those that aren't picked will stay here at school for everyone to play with."
With no hesitation, the overjoyed girl's hand disappears for a moment and comes back out with a pony plushie – the exact same one you had been looking at just this morning. You had planned to go buy it after dropping her off but would now not get the chance.
Jae's face lights up with a smile as he watches the ecstatic child hug her new best friend and return to her seat. After every child has picked a toy, they do a presentation where every child introduces themselves, name, age and favorite color, along with their new toy.
Finally, the first period is over and they have a short break, and the kids are helped outside. It is now also time for the parents to go. But you stay behind as the only one.
You shyly greet your old friend, who is going through some papers, with a smile. You figure it's better to meet sooner rather than later.
"Hey, Jae! How are you?" you ask in the most excited tone you can make, going in for a hug.
A wide smile forms on his lips as well as he welcomes the embrace with open arms. Oh, how nice it feels. To be in his arms again. It somehow has this oddly homey sensation. You almost refuse to let go when he starts pulling back.
"So how are you? I haven't heard from you since I moved."
That's right. After all of the events back in the day, you asked your parents to move you to a different school. So you ended up in Seoul. You still kept in touch with your old friends, though. Well, all except Jae. You knew he had moved here when he got accepted into uni – Younghyun told you. But you never knew where he ended up. Well, now you found out.
You talk for awhile. It doesn't seem like he's really in touch with any of the old guys anymore. You tell him how Sungjin is now a businessman of some sort – despite having married the guy, you were never really sure of exactly what he was doing –, Dowoon became a mechanic, and that Younghyun followed his passion for music and became a music producer and composer at JYP Entertainment. All while you worked your way through small commercials to short movies to theater plays and musicals to end up at the big screen as a screenwriter. You and Younghyun occasionally work together on productions – him both helping out with some of the writing and a lot of OSTs.
After a while of babbling, you notice how Jae is biting his lower lip. He has a question to ask, so you end your speech.
"So," he pauses. "How are things going with Sungjin?"
"Oh," you let out, a little taken aback. You hadn't really expected to talk about the guy who basically stole you away from Jae. "Well, things are fine. We, uh. We got married around 8 years ago. Got Areum 6 years back and then another one, a baby boy, Heejoon, 7 months ago. But we're in a bit of a complicated period right now."
"Oh yeah?" he lets out a little fast, lights twinkling in his eyes.
"Yeah. Sungjin is currently in Busan to take care of his mother, so it is pretty hectic at home. And lonely. You know, being alone with two small kids while having the job I do. But we're working us through it," you elaborate.
When you tell him this, however, it's like his soul fills up with some sort of melancholic feeling. His shoulders drop, voice turns softer and, despite the curled lips, he has this sad aura about him.
He gulps, eyes blank, still smiling. It seems odd to you. His hands are in his pockets – the thing he always does when he feels awkward or disappointed after having gotten his hopes up. You know him too well. You know he's putting up an act, but you're not exactly sure why.
"Enough about me. What about you? How are things holding up at home?"
Startled, he stutters, "Good good. Uh, I got, uh, I'm engaged."
You're a little surprised.
"Really? Wauw. Congrats! How, I mean who, Sohyun? And when?"
"Oh, uh," he laughs nervously and scratches the back of his neck. "No. Just someone I met at Uni. A really nice girl. We had been together for a while when we moved in with each other and, well, I just recently thought it was time to-," he tensely tries to explain when he is cut off by your phone. Baek PD is calling again.
You smile at him and excuse yourself to go answer.
He stared longingly at the door for several minutes after she vanished from his life again. The rest of the day he spends thinking about her. About how he missed her velvet-like voice, her endearing smile, her adorable way of just talking like there was no tomorrow. Her hugs, her warmhearted being, her calming aura. He could still feel her body against his as she embraced him. He had nearly held onto her when she started letting go.
When he later that day arrived at the loft, exhausted as ever, he let his girl know he was home by calling her name. A tired smile found his face as he welcomed the tiny figure with widely open arms. He nuzzled her head, kissed her right on the nose, and moved his hands further down her body. She immediately rolled over, exposing her belly.
"You wanna go for a walk, Honey?" he asked the little brisk piece of eternal love. And she barked in return, tail wagging wildly.
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[A/N]:
BOOM! That's it!
So. What do you think? Please tell me your thought! I have really spent so much time writing this whole fic – my first ever! And I am pretty content with the outcome. I have received more love and support than I could ever dream about and I surely won't stop here.
Thank you for reading! I appreciate you taking off some time to follow along. I hope you enjoyed! ^^
(All sorts of feedback is appreciated. Please feel free to tell me both good and bad parts, and what I could potentially change next time.)