Turns out, Yeri really didn't have to worry because the next day, when she walked into the store with Mira in her arms, Jungkook was playing with Poppy next to the bookshelf that contained a collection of classic books.
At the soft chime of the bell, he sprung up and whipped around to look at her with an alarmed expression, as if he was caught doing something illegal. "Good morning," Jungkook greeted before glancing back down at Poppy, who was currently rubbing against his leg and purring.
Ignoring him, Yeri lightly stroked Mira's back as she called out her usual greeting, "Good morning, Ryemi. Is everything good?"
The enthusiastic high school girl nodded and flashed her a thumbs up. "Stellar."
"Perfect," Yeri grinned. "Is Seulgi here, yet?"
Before Yeri could see Ryemi's shake her head, Mira gurgled a string of words that made absolutely no sense. Nonetheless, Yeri smiled and whispered, "Mira, you're going to be meeting your Dad very soon." She only grasped Yeri's nose and giggled.
The truth was that Yeri didn't want to tell Jungkook, yet. She didn't want to go through the hassle of splitting time with Jungkook; mostly because she was selfish and wanted Mira all to herself. However, she had no other choice, and what better time than right now. Coincidentally, Jungkook had come on the day of the week Yeri always bought Mira to work with.
Making her way to the office, she paused when she realized Jungkook wasn't following her. Rolling her eyes, she turned around and through gritted teeth, asked, "Are you going to come or stand there the whole day?"
Jungkook, who had been steadfastly following the whole exchange, perked up and nodded. "I'm coming."
Forcing herself not to be angry for Mira's sake, Yeri went to her office and pushed open the door with her hip. A baby meant learning a bunch of new skills and one of the skills she had mastered was turning a door handle with her body. She didn't wait for Jungkook to arrive as she went to her chair, set down her purse, and firmly positioned Mira on her lap.
The door opened again a second later to reveal Jungkook. Stepping inside the office, he said, "The bookstore still looks amazing."
Of course, he knew about the bookstore. Yeri had spent hours and hours talking about how she wanted to grow Reading Cats (which were all put on hold after she had Mira), in which Jungkook had patiently listened, occasionally giving his tips. (Although, now, she didn't even know if he wanted to listen to her rant.)
Yeri shrugged. "I had help," she briskly said. The "you wouldn't know" was on the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed the petty words. She straightened Mira's pink dress and told her how cute she was. "You are so perfect, Mira."
Jungkook curiously glanced at the baby. "I didn't know you babysat now."
Snorting, Yeri lightly bounced Mira on her lap and raised an eyebrow. "Babysit?" Was this man being fucking serious?
He nodded. "I mean, I knew you liked children, but to actually take care of one while working. It's just new."
Yeri almost sprung across the room to dig her claws into the asshole's dull skull. The only person stopping her was Mira. She couldn't become a wild woman in front of her daughter. But the man was fucking unbelievable. That was all he had to say to his daughter.
"Who's baby is that?"
Shooting him a nasty glare, she said, "Yours."
He lifted an eyebrow. "I don't think I have the capabilities of popping out a baby."
"Jesus," Yeri retorted, "Did two years do something to your common sense? The baby is our's."
Jungkook's whole world seemed to freeze. His chest stopped moving up and down, his hands stopped gesturing in the air, and he stopped blinking. The blood drained out of his face, leaving behind a very pale and unhealthy complexion. The room was so silent that Yeri swore she could hear a feather drop onto the floor. Even Mira was oddly quiet, curiously staring at Jungkook with huge eyes, as if she knew that he was acting very strange.
"My baby?" he finally croaked.
Yeri narrowed her eyes and observed his behavior. It was as if the ground underneath him was shaking and splitting open, and he had nowhere to run or hide. His only choice was to face the challenge. "Yes. Her name is Mira."
He let out a deep noise filled with surprise before he slid down, like his knees were too wobbly to support the rest of his body. Roughly rubbing his face, he suddenly started to gasp, struggling to inhale and exhale. Tremors wracked his huge body, a force that could shake a solid chair. Yeri's eyes widened at his reaction: half of her wanted to scream at him to stop lying, while the other half wanted to comfort him. He was freaking out, but why?
"I-" He coughed and buried his face into his knees. "I have a baby." The word sounded like a nuclear bomb in his mouth.
"Yes," Yeri said, her tone indicating that she was not only done with his bullshit, but also confused. "You have a baby."
Mira chose this moment to happily shout, "Mama!"
Jungkook's head flew up to look at the baby. His eyes flashed with a myriad of emotions. "I have a baby," he repeated like a broken record.
Yeri merely shot him a deadly glare.
"Shit," he groaned, running his hands through his hair so many times that he looked like he had been electrocuted. "Shit. Shit. Shit. I didn't know, Yeri. I didn't know we had a daughter."
At his claim, Yeri almost growled in indignation as rage tore through her body. Even if he didn't know when he left, she sent him so many messages that there was no way a person could miss all of them.
He heavily exhaled and shook his head. "I didn't know, or I wouldn't have left."
Yeri knew it was stupid to feel hurt, but she couldn't help the light sting that struck her heart. In the end, Jungkook had never loved her like she loved him. "Stop coming up with excuses," she snapped. "I texted you about it."
Suddenly shooting up, he paced back and forth in the office before stopping and saying, "I have to go."
Scoffing, Yeri said, "Again?"
"I need a night to think about this," Jungkook said as he literally sprinted to the door. He gave Yeri and Mira one last look. "Give me some time to think about this." Then, he slipped out the door like water.
And he was gone again.
Yeri sighed. What did he expect? For Jungkook to finally become a father? That was a hope that had slowly withered and died away in a frame of two years.
And like Mira had psychic abilities, she sensed the spoiled mood and slapped her palms against Yeri's cheeks, so it formed a squishy sandwich that made her lips pucker. "Mama," Mira gurgled.
...
"Boys are puzzle pieces," Seulgi loudly announced, catching the attention of some of the other parents sitting in the playroom. "Some are easy to figure out, like the 6-piece set you give to toddlers, while some are hard, like the 5000-piece set that's always made worse with the picture practically being the same color."
Three days have passed since Jungkook ghastly stormed out of the office, bringing the weekend and a much needed break for both Yeri and Seulgi. So, in a very last minute conversation over a messy cereal breakfast, they had decided to bring Mira to the mall, so she could play in the ball pen that she loved and then watch the movie that had been long overdue. Now, they sat besides the ball pen, watching Mira crawl around and giggle (her legs were still a bit wobbly whenever she tried walking), wolfing down the Chinese takeout they had bought twenty minutes ago, and talking about how universally alike men were.
"And, yet, we spend so much money to buy the large puzzle pieces, only to get headaches and frustration." Yeri sighed, as she fidgeted with the wrapper of the fortune cookie included in the meal.
Seulgi laughed. "I'm sure that the picture in the end will be worth the trouble."
Yeri rolled her eyes. "Happily-ever-afters don't exist in real life." Maybe, in the past, she had foolishly believed that, but things have changed.
"Sadly, that is true. Romance is very romanticized in the dramas and movies." Seulgi was, in fact, everything, but a hopeless romantic, which explained why she slept with boys faster than a person used money. She also didn't believe that romance was all fun and bright and perfect. Technically, she wasn't a cynic, just someone who has seen the dark parts the world could offer and believed that being realistic was the right way to live. Considering the things she had to go through though, Yeri understood. "But, back to Jungkook, do you believe him?"
Scowling, Yeri shook her head.
Seulgi slowly chewed her yuxiang eggplants before saying, "I'm going to become your enemy for a second, so you can hear both sides of the story like I do, since I'm sure your blinding rage is becoming a bias against him."
Laughing, Yeri nodded. "Go on, Lawyer Kang."
Mouth splitting into a goofy grin, Seulgi said, "So, just to be clear, based on what you told me, he didn't know about Mira."
"Yes, but how is that possible?" Yeri huffed. "I sent him so many messages. This also isn't the seventeenth century anymore. Letters don't take months to arrive."
Seulgi scratched her cheeks. "You're right, unless someone cut all contact from the outside world."
"Maybe, but that still explains nothing. Why did he leave in the first place? Why didn't he at least inform me about his decision? If he didn't like me anymore, the least he could do was tell me. Granted, we were not official boyfriends and girlfriends for very long, but he took ghosting to another level," Yeri said, ignoring the tinge of hurt at the thought of him not even considering her as a person who needed proper closure.
Frustrated, she harshly ripped open the wrapper. Having someone disappear on her was similar to anxiously waiting for a runaway or lost child. The first day, Yeri had not thought that something was wrong, thinking that Jungkook was simply busy. Then, as day one turned into day two, three, and then four, she had panicked, thinking he was dead in a ditch or somewhere remote. She had searched everywhere and even contemplated the police, but Seulgi had stopped her, saying if he was dead, then the police would definitely know, especially since he was pretty famous. Finally, as days turned into weeks, the police had told her that there was no mention of a celebrity dying. When a month went by, she had reasoned that Jungkook had left. But no one would understand the month of having to go to work and pretending everything was fine. Then, Mira had come along and Yeri's focus completely changed.
"But he did say he's not giving up."
Breaking open the cookie, Yeri said, "Words are easy to say. Actions, on the other hand, actually depend on the willingness of the heart. He broke my trust and that's the main issue."
Seulgi sighed. "You win."
Taking out the fortune, Yeri read the words: the love of your life will carry you through any circumstance in life. Well, wasn't that perfect timing? Scoffing, she handed the small slip of paper to Seulgi, who read it and snorted. "All lies. I never trusted fortune tellers," Seulgi said.
Crumbling the fortune into her fists, Yeri quickly checked on Mira, who was happily making incoherent noises with a girl around her age, and then asked, "Anyways, tell me about the guy you recently went home with."
Seulgi cackled as she closed the white takeout box. "Mochi Boy?"
She never called the man she had slept with before by their actual names. (Yeri swore it was a defense mechanism, but Seulgi always denied her claim and said the names were just too funny.) As a result, she had slept with Bird Ghoster (he was the slowest texter ever because he spent most of his days observing the behavior of birds), Haunted Shoe (she swore he only had one pair of shoes that somehow always stayed clean), Cold Vampire (he rarely left the house and was always cold), and more. "He's good, but I'm pretty sure he likes to eat mochi more than he likes to have sex. That's all he ever eats."
Yeri laughed. "How do you find these boys? They're never dull."
Winking, Seulgi said, "It's a talent." Standing up to throw away their trash, her brows suddenly furrowed. "Off topic, but I do have one burning question about Jungkook."
"Shoot."
"If he didn't know about the baby, then why did he come back?"
That was definitely a million dollar question Yeri had no answer for.
...
The following Monday was proving to be extremely terrible.
After a late night with Seulgi, Yeri had been woken up by Mira's wailing at four in the morning before the sun had even peeked out. Apparently, Mira had pooped in her diapers, and how a little baby could have the smelliest and most explosive intestines in the whole world was still unknown to Yeri. After about an hour of cleaning and trying very hard not to breathe through her nose, she had been too awake to fall back asleep. So, she spent the rest of the morning aimlessly surfing the web. Then, Siwon arrived to babysit for the day and Yeri left for work after a big fat kiss on freshly clean Mira.
On the drive to work, Yeri's phone had chirped with an incoming text. She hastily glanced at the notifications, which said "Do you have time to meet with-", before throwing (lightly though because she was not financially blessed to casually buy a new phone) back onto the passenger seat. That was another headache-inducing matter she could worry about later.
And then to make matters worse, Yeri walked into the store to see Jungkook absently rubbing Poppy while reading the blurb of a book.
As she stared at the sight in front of her, she felt a slight tinge of betrayal that Poppy, who had previously loved her, was now only paying attention to him. It was definitely petty, but she really didn't give a shit in that moment.
Hearing the bell ring, Jungkook looked up, put down the book, and stood up. Smiling, he said, "Good morning."
Yeri brushed past him and shot Poppy a slightly hurt look. She simply meowed at her, like she was wrongly accused. "Why did you come back?" she asked.
Jungkook hesitated. "Can I see Mira?"
Coming to a screeching halt, she whipped around. "What? You suddenly want to be a father?" she asked, unable to help the venom in her voice.
He grimaced, but slowly nodded.
Seeing the hesitance in his actions, Yeri's bitterness dissolved. She had complained for two years about his absence and now that he was back, wanting to see Mira, she was being a complete jerk. She had told herself she would separate her personal grudges with Mira's right to be a father, and she was currently not doing a very good job.
"What time are you free?" she asked.
Perking up with excitement, Jungkook said, "Anytime you're free."
"Then come to my apartment tonight at six."
-AUTHOR'S NOTE-
Guys, this chapter took me hours to flesh out. It literally almost killed me because I didn't know how to write it and idk just a bunch of questions and phew at least i wrote something hahahhaha, which is why I decided to just post it. (Even if it's a bit iffy) So, comments would be rlly appreciated lol!!
Also, just a warning, there's probably going to be slower (like even more rip) updates from now on, because ummmmm i need to kinda map out the solid direction of the plot, since I only have a vague idea. I'm also a bit lazy so... yeah... but I'll try my hardest to do it as quickly as possible!
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!! tysm for the support! 💞💞 oh also, how is the pacing??? 🤨
btw, yuxiang eggplants is one of my favorite chinese dish:'))) it's just so damn savory and good!🍆🍆