~~~~~

Namjoo looked up when Jongin returned to the table and wondered if he was upset that Kyung had come. She hadn’t expected it too. His phone call that morning was what had made her get up that morning. After waking up to find her face buried in Jongin’s chest she had laid there quietly with her mind spinning in the warmth of his body until the ringing phone made her get up.

Now she was looking at the same person who’d been going to bed with her the past few nights. It was strangely compelling yet at the same time, nothing new about sharing a bed and blanket with him. Ignoring the mother coming in with the main breakfast dish Namjoo watched Jongin take the seat next to her. If he had something to say or if he was going to nitpick her for letting Kyung over, she wished he’d hurry up and do it.

Jongin said nothing. Made no comment or remark.

“You should go get dressed. The bus will be here soon,” her mother said to Jaegeun. The young child groaned before sliding out of his chair and sulked as he walked away.

“I’ll go check on him,” Namjoo excused the moment her mother sat down at the table and followed Jaegeun to his bedroom. She knocked on the door once before opening it to find Jaegeun pulling his school uniform out from the closet. “Do you need help?” she asked.

“Go out, go out. It’s embarrassing.” He quickly shooed her away.

Namjoo broke into a smile, realizing he was starting to build boundaries to protect his privacy. Apologizing she closed the door and waited for Jaegeun to dress. The door opened a few minutes later and the nephew stepped out in his school attire with backpack slung onto his back. He looked much more mature than the boy she had been seeing him as. In two quick years Jaegeun had gone from a toddler to a young child. Realizing how much one could grow in the span of two years daunted Namjoo.

Grabbing her hand he said, “Lets wait for the bus together.” Namjoo smiled at him and walked along with him, pausing along the hallway to hear him call out to Jongin and his grandma, “I’m going to school!” then grinning up at her, dragged her along to the steps outside.

It was a beautiful day out with clear blue skies and rolling clouds. An ordinary day at work would be what was in store for her today. Only except the fact that she wasn’t going there. Down the street she recalled a man used to sell ice cream. It didn’t seem like he sold it there any longer.

“Auntie,” Jaegeun called. She turned to see him looking up at her with those large curious brown eyes. “Are you angry?”

Draping a smile onto her lips she asked, “Why would I be angry?”

“Because I wasn’t sick,” Jaegeun said. “You and Uncle argued, right?”

The smile she had used to mask the truth dissipated. Had Jaegeun heard her yelling at his uncle? What should she say to such a young kid?

“Uncle said it was the only way to get you home. I’m sorry Auntie,” Jaegeun apologized. “We just really wanted you home.”

“I’m not angry at you, Jaegeun.”

“Then are you angry at Uncle?”

Namjoo had to take a second to ponder over it. Her and Jongin’s matter lie on a different level. Hours of talking out their differences probably wouldn’t even help them.

“Your Uncle and I,” Namjoo began, “have a lot of things to figure out. That’s all.”

“Then, are you going to stay?” Jaegeun innocently asked. “You’re really going to stay, right? Right?”

No. She wanted to tell him again that people need to live apart sometimes, but she couldn’t utter those words to this cute face. In the end she forced herself to smile and nod, and just in time his school bus rolled around the corner. Namjoo walked him toward the yellow bus and waved goodbye before returning to the house. She paused when the loud wheels of a car approached and turned to see Secretary Hong getting out of his black BMW.

“Good morning,” he politely greeted. Namjoo awkwardly nodded in turn and wondered if he knew about her and Jongin’s affairs or if he would find it weird that she was here…at Jongin’s home.

“I heard about what happened yesterday. You weren’t hurt too much?”

“Oh…” she managed, “everything’s all right. Are you here to see J…the Chairman?”

“Yes, I brought over some work,” he handed her a briefcase he’d compiled with numerous portfolios and a binder.

So, she thought, Jongin wasn’t going in for work too. Why?

“I’ll give them to him,” Namjoo offered. After watching him get to his car she finally walked back inside to find Jongin in the sitting room with the TV on. A cup of coffee sat within his hold and he turned to see her walk in. She couldn’t help but feel that he’d been sitting there, waiting for her to come back in.

“Secretary Hong stopped by,” Namjoo set the briefcase down by him. She glanced at him once before walking by, intending to spend the rest of her time in the bedroom; perhaps boring herself out of her mind since she hadn’t brought any books with her. Maybe she would spend the whole morning playing games on her phone.

“Namjoo,” Jongin called, “can’t you just sit down with me?”

She about turned to look at him but her attention shot toward the door when the bell rang. She hadn’t known about any other visitor, unless Secretary Hong had made a trip back because he’d forgotten something. Before Namjoo moved toward it Jongin got up to beat her to it. A familiar deep voice greeted Jongin loudly at the doorway before a set of twins crawled their way in. Namjoo’s eyes grew wide, bewildered at the sight of the babies and slightly stepped back when they came her way.

A male voice laughed happily, “Would you just look at them? They’re so energetic this morning.”

“Come in,” Jongin invited and closed the door.

Namjoo lifted her head up from the pudgy babies when that deep voice called her name. “Namjoo?”

Masculine Chanyeol still towered her even from where he stood, his face filled with riveting shock and surprise.

“Oh my God…it’s really you,” he breathed then smiled. “It’s me, Chanyeol. Park Chanyeol. You remember me?”

Stupefied for some unexplained reason, Namjoo’s eyes drifted over to the young woman – the nurse she recognized – at his side smiling gracefully. Linking an arm around her shoulder Chanyeol pushed her forth. “This is my wife, Cho Eunhye. You’ve met before, right?”

“Hi,” she smiled, “I should have introduced myself properly before. I’m Eunhye. It’s really a pleasure to finally meet you.”

Namjoo awkwardly shook her hand when she extended it toward her.

“Oh no!” Eunhye called. “Don’t eat that!” rushing toward her baby she picked one of the girls up. “Say hi to Auntie. This is is Nari. The other girl is Nuri.”

Suddenly thrown deeper into Jongin’s world without a forewarning, Namjoo felt strange and out of place. She wasn’t sure how to react. She didn’t really know these people anymore, and she wasn’t officially with Jongin. She didn’t even know why she was still here.

“Sit down,” Jongin urged. “I’ll get you both some water.”

“I’ll come with you,” Chanyeol offered and followed him down the hall, leaving Namjoo with his wife.

Overwhelmed by this sense of awkwardness Namjoo managed a teeny tiny smile before sitting down at the edge of the couch and watched Nuri crawl along the floor curiously. She was slobbering heavily but smiling happily without a care in the world as her little hands brought her forward with knees following in sync.

“You must be surprised,” Eunhye first started, bouncing her baby on her lap. “Do you want to hold her?”

“Oh no,” Namjoo quickly shook her head.

“Come on, Nari isn’t picky like her sister,” leaning forward Eunhye settled Nari onto Namjoo’s lap and beamed with a smile as she watched her baby look up at Namjoo before giggling. Her eyes winked and her body trembled as if the sudden giddiness was too much for her tiny self to handle. “She likes you.”

Easing her hand onto Nari’s back to hold her Namjoo felt her eyes sink into those large brown eyes of this young thing. The common smell of what a baby was drifted up her nose when Nari grappled at her shirt. Staring at her longer mesmerized Namjoo and left her in awe. She hadn’t been around babies before and this one seemed so healthy and tiny. Immersed in observing Nari she didn’t notice Eunhye getting up to retrieve Nuri before sitting back down.

“I heard from Chanyeol,” she said, “that you and Jongin got married early.”

Nodding, she said with eyes still planted on Nari’s goofy smile, “We did.”

When Eunhye said nothing in turn Namjoo looked up to find her smiling at her. “You don’t like to talk about it, do you?”

Namjoo averted her eyes as if ashamed for being read.

“I’m sorry for being nosy, but I heard everything since Jongin spent much time with us when he wasn’t working. I heard about how Chanyeol got stood up when you and Jongin got together, that you two got married in the early stages of dating, and that Jongin had never been so happy before. It was a real tragedy when the hostel burned down. I’ve never seen Jongin in such despair before and he never got over it. Chanyeol felt really guilty when we got married during Jongin’s time of grieving,” she confessed. “Why are we happy when his best friend is depressed? He often thought that. Jongin didn’t like anyone mentioning you, not even his best friend. He always seemed angry at the slightest mention of you, but I know for a fact that it was because he didn’t want to show anyone how truly sad he was.”

And? So what?

Namjoo knew Jongin grieved. Death was never a happy thing. It was the norm for anyone to grieve.

“What about you? Did you miss Jongin when you were away?”

Nari crawled out of her arms toward her mother. Namjoo let her eyes linger over the baby as she transmitted the question to her brain. Glancing up she found the woman eagerly awaiting her answer with a patient smile across her lips.

What she went through those two years, Namjoo wanted to bury forever.

“It’s ok if you don’t want to say it,” Eunhye comforted. “But you should have strength. A lot may have happened, but that was two years ago. If you’re scared right now, it’s ok to be but things can’t surely still be the same. I know Jongin really waited for this, so I hope you two can get along again. You probably wouldn’t be here if you didn’t care the slightest, right? Have hope. It can make the biggest difference.”

~~~~~

“So,” Chanyeol began as he followed him into the kitchen, “how’s it going?”

“If you’re asking about progress, there’s none.” Jongin opened the cupboards for glasses.

Chanyeol laughed in a mocking manner. “Surely you’re lying.” He paused then asked, “Right?”

Jongin turned to shoot him a frown.

The friend threw his hands out, “What? I only said that cause you two were such lovebirds as I recall.”

Scoffing, he repeated, “Lovebirds.”

“I’m not right?” Chanyeol shook his head confused as Jongin opened the fridge for the water.

“I wish it was that easy then things would be working out right now,” Jongin muttered. “Namjoo didn’t come back alone and she didn’t spend the past two years alone.”

Chanyeol playfully gasped to lighten the atmosphere but instead received a light glare from Jongin. Resorting back to the serious mood the friend asked, “Was she with her brother?”

“A friend…some guy,” Jongin mumbled then added, “he’s a lawyer.”

“Oh…” Chanyeol managed to utter. “Damn. So, are they, like, together?” At this, Jongin glanced up at Chanyeol with laser in his eyes. Holding hands out to block them Chanyeol said, “Whoa there, I was just wondering. You haven’t explained things clearly, so chill.”

“No,” Jongin gruffly stated. “As long as Namjoo’s here, she can’t be with him.”

Leaning over the kitchen island Chanyeol patted his shoulder roughly, “That’s more like it. Now toughen up and go get her back.”

Jongin stared down at the glass of water he’d just filled without moving. “How? It doesn’t seem like Namjoo wants to come back. I think she hates me.”

Falling onto the same wavelength, Chanyeol stared at his friend solemnly. “Why would she hate you?”

Vexed, Jongin tried to seek his memory for an answer. “I don’t know. She just…it’s like she doesn’t like being with me, anywhere near me. All we do is argue. It’s like…she’s constantly angry with me. And all she talks about…is that lawyer. I hate it that he knows her more than I do.” Turning to Chanyeol he angrily told, “He spent two years with her! More time than I ever did with her!”

As he struggled to calm his sudden emotions seeping to the fore, Jongin stared at his friend then away. He didn’t want anyone to see him like this, acting like a child and throwing a tantrum because the girl he liked didn’t reciprocate his feelings.

“Have you asked why she’s angry with you?” Chanyeol calmly asked after Jongin quieted.

“Because I pulled that lawyer into a low position in my company,” Jongin muttered. “I interrupted their life and I pulled her away from his side.”

“She said that?”

Suddenly embarrassed, Jongin remained quiet. They were all his assumptions, what he believed were true. There was no other reasonable explanation for Namjoo’s behavior toward him. From the start, she only contacted him because of Kyung. All along, it had been Kyung and someone else. Never him.

“You said you argued with her, and you regretted it,” Chanyeol reminded. “Do you remember? You told me so many times about it, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget it.”

“I know.” Jongin turned away.

A silly smile grew onto Chanyeol’s face. “Have you thought about why she walked out? Was it just because of the argument or did you say something that made her pack up and leave?”

Eyes darted toward his friend and Jongin, again, sought his memory for an answer. Now that was something he hadn’t thought about. That night, why had Namjoo packed up and left?

~~~~~

“Did you wait long?” Chanyeol asked loudly when he walked into the sitting room with a tray of snacks. Jongin followed with a tray of glasses of water and set it down onto the table beside the tray of snacks. Upon sighting the food the twins began crawling for it, but laughing happily Chanyeol grabbed one of the girls before they managed to grab a cracker.

Namjoo looked up when Jongin handed her a glass of water then sat down beside her as Eunhye shifted away to make room for him. Grasping the cold glass between her hands she let her eyes waver over the twins.

“So, Jongin,” Chanyeol called bouncing one of the girls on his lap and waving her arms about, “can you guess who this is?”

She shot a sideglance at Jongin then toward the baby on Chanyeol’s lap. She couldn’t tell either. Both the girls had chubby cheeks and were dressed alike, even their eyes resembled each other’s.

“I don’t know,” Jongin shook his head.

“Guess.” Chanyeol urged.

A moment of silence passed between them before Jongin said, “Na…Nuri.”

“Wrong!” Chanyeol called then leaned down to speak to his daughter, “Your uncle still doesn’t know you even after all this time. Shame, shame on him. Lets see if your aunt will know.” Chanyeol turned toward her. “Namjoo, can you guess who this is?”

They were playing around, Namjoo realized. “Nari.”

“Ding-dong!” Chanyeol loudly said and clapped Nari’s tiny hands together. opened wide to smile and laugh along with him. “Now that you answered correctly, I was going to give you the prize of going on a trip with us.”

“A trip?” Namjoo repeated surprised. “Oh, no.”

“Why not?” Chanyeol asked then grinned teasingly. “Oh I see. You’d feel bad going alone. Then we can let Jongin come along, too. The more the merrier, right, Nuri?”

“It’s Nari,” his wife corrected and they broke out into laughter.

Namjoo’s attention turned when Nuri crawled over her feet and reached up to touch her knee. She stared at the baby, puzzled.

“She wants you to pick her up,” Eunhye said.

Namjoo wasn’t sure if she could do it. She probably wasn’t good with babies and didn’t think she had the nature of a mother to care for one. She didn’t even know her niece well, had never even changed her diaper. Two years had gone by and she had missed a lot. The fact was starting to grow on her.

The next thing she knew Jongin had the baby in his arms, playfully lifting her up and down as naturally as ever while she screamed joyfully. Without realizing, her eyes remained glued on the pair, growing ever more captivated by the sight. Jongin simply appeared delighted, grinning and laughing gleefully.

If they’d had a family, he would have been a good father.

***They're being prompted to think more about their relationship and what they might still have. Namjoo needs a little more encouragement because she's still in the dark and Jongin needs to stop assuming it's all about Kyung. And here it comes. Jongin never really thought about why Namjoo packed and left. The moment she realizes he doesn't hate her everything could change for the better.