“Jesper, do you wanna go and find daddy together with me?” I whispered softly, knowing he won’t be able to hear as he was still asleep.

“Ma, I got a job offer from a company in Seoul.” I brought the question up when I was helping out with dinner in the kitchen, knowing that I had to face it sooner or later.

“Are you accepting it?” she asked in return.

“I want to. But I’m not sure… Should I?” I answered honestly. “What’s your concern?”

“You, dad, Jesper… You guys are all here.” I let out a soft sigh, not knowing how to choose between my family and my fiance. How I wished we are all living in the same country, then, I will be able to come and go easily to visit my parents as well and Jesper would not need to shift to a thoroughly different environment.

“Jia, when you’re married, you are not marrying for the certificate and the name. You are marrying into his family. We will be fine. One day, you will still have to leave our side somehow. This is how life as a woman works, my darling.” My mom didn’t even look up from the marination that she was applying on the minced meat when she answered me.

“I… I know. I just…” I just can’t bear to leave your side. I said in my head. “Do you want to come with me to Korea? Does dad want to come together with us? Jesper will not be used to it without you.” I continued and looked up to see my mom’s response.

She shook her head and replied, “baby, you have to be independent already. Ma will not be by your side forever, there are things where you should do on your own. Ma and pa have friends here, we have our business here. Your brother is here as well. We don’t even speak their language, how do we survive if we were there? Jesper will be fine. He will get used to it after some time. Baekhyun’s mom will be there as well. You can always bring him back here when he has his breaks.”

I nodded and thought for awhile about what she said. Whatever she said was true. I had no reasons to bring them to Korea with me. I couldn’t be so selfish.

“Should I bring Jesper to Korea right away?”

“Hmm? That depends on your decision and compromisation with Baekhyun.” she shrugged with a sigh. “Will it be too sudden for him?” I asked worriedly. “He might not be able to adapt to the change too quickly. He may be excited at first and he would definitely agree to it without thinking much but when he is transitioning into the life there, will he be fine?”

“Sally, if you want your family to be together, there will be necessary compromises that are needed from someone. He will have to go through that phase eventually no matter how late it is you bring him there. Unless you don’t want him by your side.” My mom paused, looking for a knife. “-and, doesn’t he have you and Baekhyun by his side to help him through it?”

I hummed a little as agreement and lost myself in my trail of thoughts as I washed the lettuce in the basin.

[ Baby, are you home yet? ] I sent half-heartedly to Baekhyun.

While waiting for his reply, I checked my mailbox and read the mail about the job offer that was sent in both Korean and English. In the mail, they mentioned that they’d welcome me into the company anytime I was ready. Convocation would be in 3 month’s time. I replied to the email stating when would be my convocation and when I would be able to officially join them before I changed to the next tab to continue watching Friends.

Baekhyun replied me an hour after with a short “yes”. I didn’t even remember that I wanted to ask him about Jesper. It was only until I finished 2 episodes after the one I was watching (about two hours after that) before I realized I should check my phone and reply messages.

There wasn’t a second text from Baekhyun. I opened the chat box and stared at the message not knowing what to reply for a minute.

[ slept? ] I sent.

[ Baekyung: no ] Instant one word reply.

[ oh ] The annoyed me who was full of pride didn’t want to take the initiative anymore after all the short replies. Simply leaving my silenced phone on the nightstand, I turned off my laptop and went into Jesper’s room to check on the little one.

Baby boy was soundly sleeping with a thumb in his mouth. I pulled it out and his hair a little. As usual, I planted a kiss on his temple and tucked the blanket in for him, turning off the night lamp.

I went back to my room and lay down on the bed, hugging my teddy bear. It didn’t even take a minute of silence until I heard the vibration of my phone on the nightstand. I was almost going to ignore it until I heard the vibration ringing consistently and persistently.

I stretched my hand out to reach to the phone and brought it over to the front of my face.

[ Incoming call from Baekyung ]

I lazily swiped right to pick up the call and greeted a gloomy nasal “hng”.

“Jagi? Are you okay? Why aren’t you picking up the calls? What’s wrong?” Baekhyun’s worried voice rang in my ears and I pouted subconsciously. I was a little pissed, not sure at who but I was pissed. Probably myself ‘cause I said I shouldn’t be a burden to him but here I am making him worried again. I didn’t even know what was wrong with me. I shrugged the tightness in my chest off and answered, “nothing. I’m okay.”

“Jia, here you go again. Remember we promised to be frank with each other regardless of the size of the matter?” He persuaded patiently. “You promise to not keep everything in anymore. And I’m here to listen to whatever it is, alright?”

I took several long deep breaths to clear my

clogged and tight felt chest before I spoke.

“I don’t know. I got annoyed at the one word replies… I feel weird, something felt wrong with me. I guess I’m just a little tired…” I said and my voice started trembling a little.

“Shh, it’s okay, baby. It’s okay. Please don’t cry I swear I will hate myself if I made you cry again.” He pleaded over the call.

I honestly didn’t know why my emotions were all over the place as well. Nah, potentially just a premenstrual syndrome. “You okay, honey?” He asked again as I kept quiet and he probably heard some weeps.

“Yeah.. sorry.” I muffled. “My emotions are all over the place. I’m sorry I threw my tantrum at you Baekhyun-ah.”

“It’s alright. You know you can talk to me about anything right?”

“I love you,” I said randomly. He laughed a bit before he answered back, “I know. I love you even more. I miss you too.”

“Hmm,” I hummed as agreement and I continued, “oh ya, I wanted to ask you something…”

“Go on.” He responded.

“I’m planning to start work maybe… next month?”

“Seoul?”

“Yeah.” I paused and asked, “where do I stay?”

“Do you have a house here?” He asked.

“No.”

“Do you have any relatives here?” He asked.

“No.” I shrugged.

“What do you have here?” He promoted again.

“... a man.”

“That’s right! So where do you stay?”

“... with him. But he has a family home, his own apartment and his company dorm.”

“Bingo. You’ll be in my apartment and family home, my lady. Depending on where I go.” He said heartily. “So what other concerns do you have?”

“Jesper…” I said truthfully. “I’m not sure if I should bring him there now or later?”

“I personally would say to bring him along as early as possible. But he can stay with mom and hang around with hyung’s little brats during weekdays when you’re at work. You can pick him up for weekends.” He answered as if he’s got all of it thought about.

I thought for a bit and said, “I’ll ask him first? How about school…”

“I’ll get it all arranged for him, of course. Even if he needs a private tutor, we can get one for him too, alright? Don’t worry! He’ll be fine! We’ll all be actually.”

I nodded and continued talking about my other plans with him.

“Is it possible for you to attend my convocation 3 months after this?” I questioned. It’l