The atmosphere was more than tensed in the house. Ever since Youngjae had come back home after his journey at the hospital, the couple was walking on egg shells around Jaeha. They were acting as if nothing had happened and they carried on their little routine – which had drastically changed now that Youngjae had been put on a forced paternity leave; the doctor had ordered him to rest a lot and to not overwhelm himself in order not to strain his health or the baby's. But whenever they were addressing themselves to Jaeha, they were being extra careful, as if they expected her to go mad whenever they were opening their mouths.

 

If Youngjae had always been cautious of his words, he was now even more.

 

That week-end, they spent the most awkward week-end the three of them had ever shared.

 

Jaeha busied herself with all kind of useless things, such as cleaning her bedroom and bathroom, declutering all the beauty products she had (she had accumulated a lot over the years and now felt like the perfect moment to go through all of them and decided which ones to keep or not in order to make space to eventually buy new ones) and such as reading a book of poems she had even forgotten she owned. She had fun looking through the pages to read all the notes Yugyeom had written when they were back in high school working on some of the melodious poems of the book.

 

And during the week-end, she also waited for her boyfriend to contact her, but he never did. If that was going to end like this, she obviously would be broken-hearted, but she couldn't be the only making an effort.

 

She however spent a lot of time on the phone with her father whom she refused to see by pretending to be busy. Fortunately he didn't seem to feel the slight harshness in her voice, so he didn't question her about it – and somehow hearing his voice had a really soothing effect on Jaeha who actually appreciated talking to him, even if it was only over the phone.

 

On Sunday night, Jaeha was wandering in the kitchen, looking for a snack to eat when they had had diner not even an hour ago, but all the stress she was feeling made her hungry all the time. She desperately needed to busy with something, and that something would be food.

 

However her quest came to an end when she received a phone call from none other than Jisoo. Jaeha answered, wondering what her friend could possibly want from her.

 

“Hey, Jaeha, I need your help,” the girl on the other end of the line pleaded.

“What can I do for you?” she answered, leaning against the kitchen counter.

“Please tell me how many ideas you've found for the synthesis of documents. Please!”

 

Jaeha suddenly froze.

 

“Which synthesis are you talking about...?” she trailed off.

“The one we have to hand back on tomorrow! I just can't find anything about the fourth document, it just doesn't go in any parts of the plan I've found.”

“You mean the synthesis the teacher gave us before the break?”

“Yeah this one exactly.”

“.... oh ,” Jaeha cursed and mentally slapped herself. She had completely forgotten about said homework and it usually took her several hours to do it, she wouldn't be able to have it done for the next morning.

“You've forgotten, haven't you?” Jisoo chuckled nervously. “I wanted to send you a message earlier to ask you if you remember, but I thought maybe you knew...”

“Don't apologize, it's my fault. I'm sorry I can't help you though... I'll go do it now and I'll let you if I ever find something.”

“Do you want me to send you what I've already found...?”

“Please don't. I'll do it on my own.”

“I'm sorry, Jaeha...”

“It's fine! Don't worry! I'll have it done by tomorrow! See you.”

“Yeah... see you...”

 

The moment she hung up, Jaeha hurried to her bedroom and rummaged in all her school stuff to find the documents she would been needing. She kept cursing at herself while she moved around, looking for her pencils case and sheets of paper and she also took her desk lamp with her as she settled on the table of the living room: the surface there was big enough for her to spread all her stuff over it, it would make things clearer and maybe she'd be able to have it done in a few minutes (she knew she was being delusional but she needed motivation).

 

At first she had a hard time going through all the five documents because of how unmotivated, tired and hungry she was but eventually it all subsided when she told herself she needed to have a good grade to pass this literature subject.

 

It took two hours for her to manage to fully understand the first two documents, but the other three remained a mystery for her. No matter how many times she kept reading them over and over, it just didn't make any sense.

 

Thinking it would all get better with a bit more sugar in her system, she ran to the kitchen and stole a few sweets from the jar; surely her dad wouldn't mind if she was eating his precious strawberry sweets.

 

And right when she had her two cheeks stuffed with candies and could barely even talk anymore, Youngjae appeared, looking extremely bothered. Indeed, he was deeply frowning, his few wrinkles looked deeper than ever and he had puffy eyes, more so than usual. Also, he had one hand protectively settled on his round stomach – over the week-end he had stopped wearing loose tops, now he was wearing whatever he wanted whether it meant his stomach was showing or not.

 

When he saw her there, he froze and they stood still for several seconds, staring at each other without saying a word, before he reacted by walking further into the room to grab a glass of water.

 

“Why aren't you asleep?” he mumbled, his voice filled with sleep.

“I have homework to do,” she answered after she had hurriedly swallowed all the candies, which left a bitter taste at the back of instead of the usual sweetness.

“At that time?”

“Well... yes, I have kind of forgotten to do it earlier... it's due for tomorrow.”

 

His eyes widened and he gasped.

 

“Really? Oh my god, how did it happen? When are you going to be done? It's not going to keep you awake all night, right? Perhaps you want me to help you, no?”

 

She shrugged off.

 

“Well it's all about literature and all but I can do it, it's fine-”

“Let me help you,” he said as he put down his glass.

 

She didn't say no because she was tired, wanted to go to bed and Youngjae helping her meant a good grade; it would be stupid of her to refuse.

 

They sat down by the table, next to each other, and Youngjae instantly turned into his teacher mode. He grabbed one of her pen, read all the texts and on a sheet of paper noted down all his ideas. What Jaeha hadn't even been able to do in two hours took him twenty minutes.

 

“There,” he smiled, handing her the paper. “I'm going to write the first and second part, you write the introduction, the third part and we'll do the conclusion once we're done, alright?”

 

She nodded, rushed to her bedroom to grab her laptop and when she came back he had her dad's tablet in hands and he was already writing.

 

They wrote in silence, the silence being disrupted only by the tapping sound of Jaeha's keyboard. Youngjae would from time to time stop writing to rub his stomach and would let out few deep sighs, before going back to her synthesis.

 

“Is it hurting?” she asked, her eyes never leaving her computer.

“What does?”

“Your stomach.”

“Well, the baby has decided it was a good time to wake up and grab my attention by kicking. Nothing I can't handle however, I'm fine.”

 

She nodded, throwing a quick glance to his stomach before looking away again.

 

“Is it a boy or a girl?”

“Huh?” from the corner of her eyes she saw him looking up at her.

“The baby. Is it a boy or a girl?”

“Actually we don't know. We want it to keep it secret until the birth. Why? Would you like to know?”

“No, I don't care...” she mumbled.

 

She didn't know if the weird thing his lips did was twitching into a smile or a smirk, but she didn't bother with it.

 

“We didn't mean to keep a secret for so long, you know?” he then spoke first, dropping his tablet for a second. “We've been wanting to tell you for months but... we were cowards, your dad and I, and we never managed to tell you. We actually feared your reaction. While I was scared you would hate me even more, your dad was scared you would suddenly decided to leave the house and not talk to him anymore. You leaving is... inconceivable. He has told me several times he would not be able to handle it. You're his precious daughter and he loves you more than anyone else on this planet. That's why your reaction truly mattered a lot for him and why we didn't tell you...”

“I bet he was disappointed then, right? By my reaction, I mean...” she mumbled.

“No actually he was a bit frightened. You didn't exactly reacted the way he expected you did, and so your lack of shouts and threats and all the things you usually do when you're angry really stunned him.”

 

She snapped her head to the right to glare at him, but he laughed and playfully elbowed her in the side.

 

“I'm kidding – well, not really, I'm serious, your reaction was actually surprising, but I'm not complaining about it.”

 

She didn't add much, not knowing what to say. It had been her mindset for the whole week-end actually, since she had learned about the pregnancy, she didn't know what to say about it. It was not that she didn't care, but almost. She kept telling herself she was not involved since it was not her baby, it was her dad's and Youngjae's. Yet there was a part of her that knew she was going to be involved against her will because, well, the baby and her had the same dad and that was already more complicated to accept than the news itself. She didn't feel like she was ready to share her dad once again.

 

However she was trying hard to be mature about it because in three months the baby would be coming so she had no time and had to adapt to this situation quickly.

 

“The guest room – well the former guest room is going to be the nursery right?” she asked even though she already knew the answer.

“Yes,” Youngjae confirmed.

 

She sighed and rested her head on top of her hand, staring blankly at her computer for a while.

 

“Do I have the right to say this to my father, my other father? Can I tell him?”

“Of course you can,” Youngjae gently smiled at her. “He has the right to know you're going to be a sister. And if you don't tell him I think Jaebum hyung will do it anyway.”

“A sister...” she mumbled to herself.

“I won't force you to accept the baby right away and I won't ask you to call yourself a sister if you don't want to, Jaeha. It's alright, I understand you need time to get over the news. But I'd be forever thankful if you could avoid saying harsh words to your dad because of the baby. Instead, we'll wait for you to be ready and we'll even go as far as helping you accept it in hopes we can live together, the four of us, as a family in the future. That's what I want for my baby. I want him or her to live with his fathers and his sister.”

 

Jaeha could tell he was dead serious and meant every single words he said. But the worst in this situation was that she couldn't even get mad at him. She just couldn't. Contrary to all of the times before, she couldn't bring herself to insult him or tell him she didn't give a crap about whatever he was saying.

 

It was like something had switched in her brain and made her think only of nice things.

 

“I'll try,” she promised. “I... I will do my best, to accept the baby... as a sister...”

 

Youngjae's smiled widened and he laughed with relief and he put down the tablet to force her into a bone crushing hug which had her freezing still in his embrace, not knowing how to react. That was the very first time something of that kind happened between them and it was really awkward for her.

 

“Thank you, Jaeha. Thank you very much,” he said with a trembling voice and before she knew it he was sniffling.

“A-Are you crying because of me?”

“No, it's the hormones, don't worry. I'm perfectly fine. You know what, you should go to bed, it's late now. I'm taking care of your homework.”

“No it's fine I'll do it, you should rest.”

“Go,” he insisted. “Go now.”

 

She slowly nodded and slowly stood up.

 

“Thank you, then. Have a good night.”

“You too, Jaeha. Rest well.”

 

He waved at her before motioning her to go away, which she did. She went to bed, shook from their little talk and all their interactions.

 

*

 

The next morning when she woke up and went to the kitchen to grab something to eat, she found a note obviously from Youngjae considering the extremely bad writing and his tablet on the counter.

 

Your homework is done. Don't forget to write your name.

 

She smiled, truly relieved, and took his tablet and rushed to her bedroom to print her synthesis.

 

 

 

---

Hello everyone! How are you doing?

I'm sorry I wasn't able to update this story in months, but I really focused on my studies. But the good thing is that I'm done! I only have exams and my intership left, but I'll have more time to write now! 

So here's the new chapter! I hope you'll like it. I'm really eager to have your reactions!

I really had fun reading your comments last time, so I'll be waiting for them this time again!

Thank you very much for subscribing, commenting and upvoting!

See you soon (I promise!)

xx

Mae