It was a bad day. Hyesung had not even dreamt of such a day. Nightmares would have been frightened by such a day. Hyesung couldn’t believe that it had been Eric’s mom behind the door in the early morning. The crying sounds of Cupcake and Nugget was a fitting soundtrack for what Hyesung was feeling.

“Pilkyo,” Grace Mun mumbled, eyes squinting to invisible size.

“Mrs. Mun,” Hyesung responded, timid thickening his voice. “What a pleasure…” he bowed stiffly.

Eric’s mother didn’t like to stand in the hallway, but lightly shoved the thin man out of the way and marched inside the small apartment. “Hmmm,” Grace Mun sniffed the air like Hyesung lived in a landfill. “Small,” She then turned to the model.

“I beg your pardon?” Hyesung thought he had not heard the comment, but in his dismay, he had heard correctly. “Well, it is just for me,” he responded, but silenced himself as soon as Eric’s mother gazed at him. “I am looking for a bigger place.” he wasn’t, but it just hurled out of his mouth.

“Hmmm,” Grace Mun hummed again, entering the stupidly tiny living room.

Dirty cups were almost covering the table, the floor was the new home for the clothes and magazines. Hyesung gulped when she looked around, hands folded onto her front, and examined the room like a terminator. Eric had not given Hyesung any warning that his mother was coming over, which explained Hyesung’s pyjama.

“You’re still messy,” She commented, running her hand through the curtains.

“Ah, yes…I…” Hyesung gulped. “Please, sit down. I need to feed the babies,” he replied, and turned. But Eric’s mother wasn’t going to stay in the messy living room. She followed Hyesung to the babies’ room. “They are very hungry,” Hyesung laughed awkwardly as he picked up Cupcake and fed him quickly. Then he fed Nugget and placed him back to his crib to wait.

“Where is my son?” Grace suddenly interrogated.

Hyesung closed his eyes when the bathroom door opened, and half Eric walked inside, ruffling his hair and yawning. “Who was it at the doo-MOM!” Eric halted instantly like a sculpture and stared at his mother wide-eyed. “What are you doing in here?” he went to hug the elderly lady.

“Well, I wanted to see my grandchildren, of course,” she grinned widely. “Did you spend the night here? With him?” she nodded toward Hyesung, who was now shushing the babies and softly them to sleep.

“I did,” Eric responded truthfully, or dumbly, if you asked Hyesung.

“Can we talk?” Grace Mun questioned suddenly. “Alone?”

“Whatever it is, you can tell it in front of Hyesung,” Eric was very brave in front of his mother. Hyesung couldn’t help but bite his bottom lip and give the man a little smirk.

“Fair enough,” She started. “You are out of your mind coming back to this man. He broke your heart, didn’t he?” she wasn’t angry. She just didn’t understand. “You deserve so much better than Hyesung, Junghyuk ah,” she her son’s cheek. “Why are you back with him?”

Hyesung wasn’t hurt by what she said because it was all true. Why was Eric back with him? They had had two very beautiful children together, but he didn’t have to stay. Hyesung hadn’t told him to stay. Why had Eric stayed?

“Because I love him, mother,” Eric said softly. “I have always loved him, and that is a reason enough.” he removed his mother’s warm hands off his cheeks and went to Hyesung. “He gives me all I want.” Eric grabbed Hyesung’s chin and then pecked his lips. “And because I am happy, I wished you could be too.”

Grace Mun was not easy to satisfy, and Hyesung knew what that look on her face meant. She was not going to forgive Hyesung easily. “Fine,” she relented. “But only because of these two,” she referred to the sleeping babies. Eric hugged his mother tightly and thanked her for being so nice. When he let her go, she mumbled, “You two better get married or our family will talk about you.”

Eric looked at Hyesung.

Hyesung looked at Eric.

“We will think about it,” they said in unison.

The sound of high heels echoed in the parking lot. Dongwan huddled up his coat and looked around. He felt like the hero of a spy movie. The steps advanced him fast, and in a blink of an eye, Youngmi stood by him. “Evening,” She said.

“Good evening,” Dongwan responded. “So?”

“The paper I gave you yesterday,” Youngmi began. “It’s a name of the bar Minwoo is going tomorrow. His favourite indie band is playing.” She explained. “It’s from 8PM to 10PM.”

“You couldn’t text this to me?” Dongwan lifted his head after reading the scribbles on the paper. “We live in modern times, nuna.” he chuckled.

Youngmi flipped her long hair and flashed a smile that reminded Dongwan of Minwoo. “What’s the fun in texting?” She asked. “It feels mysterious this way.” she stung her tongue out. “Well? Are you gonna go there?” she then turned serious.

“No,” Dongwan crumbled the paper and gave it back to Youngmi. “I should give Minwoo space.” She looked at the crumbled paper on her palm and then at the man in front of her. Men really are idiots, Youngmi thought, rolling her eyes too obviously. “I’m sorry this doesn’t work out the way you want.” Dongwan said. “But it requires two to make one, and I am not the one for Minwoo. I’m sorry.” he apologised and t