Chapter Twelve

"Family Dilemmas"

After spending a total of three days in the hospital, Hyuna was finally discharged – after a lot of begging and three sets of puppy dog eyes. And although Jonghyun had to work on the weekdays, he now made it a point to stop by Yoona's house right after shooting. This time, he spent equal amount of time with the boys and Hyuna, though Hyuna was still trying to avoid him. After a week, even with all the gifts that had accumulated- gifts Jonghyun had bought for Hyuna -she still didn't fully trust him. However, she has slowly become more willing to accept the gifts than she used to the first few days of his visits. But whenever Jonghyun attempted to talk to her, all she said was the usual 'yes', 'no', and 'thank you'.

Besides not progressing with his relationship with Hyuna, he hasn't gone very far with his relationship with Yoona either. Not that he minded.

**Flashback**

"I need to talk to you," Jonghyun said into Yoona's ear as they watched Jonghyuk and Jonghoon doing impersonations of a character they saw on TV to entertain Hyuna who was giggling from the patient's bed.

Yoona frowned at him but nodded. After excusing themselves and leaving Eunhye in charge of the kids, Yoona followed Jonghyun out of the room.

"What is it?" she asked, wanting to get straight to the point.

"About what I said yesterday, about Hyuna," he started, in such a low voice it was a miracle Yoona could even catch his words. "I'm sorry about what I said."

Not expecting this sort of thing from Jonghyun at all, Yoona's brows shot up to her forehead in obvious surprise.

"I thought wrong and my own thoughts got the better of me," he explained, sighing and leaning onto the wall with his arms crossed in front of him. "I had assumed that Hyuna wasn't my daughter. I never even considered the possibility that she could be my daughter. I thought you remarried or something and had her. I also never knew you'd been to the hospital with her for her check-ups all those times you left the boys with Eunhye at home. I had thought you genuinely preferred her over the boys because I'm the boys' father and therefore disliked them as much as you dislike me. So I ended up hating Hyuna too."

"I-I understand," Yoona said, leaning onto the wall beside Jonghyun and following his gaze to the blank white wall opposite them. She never expected to understand their entire situation but from what Jonghyun had just said, it certainly explained a lot.

Jonghyun glanced down at her looking amazed and doubtful. "No you don't, how could you possibly understand?" he blurted out in an incredulous voice without thinking.

Mentally smacking himself, he hoped Yoona wouldn't blow off again and start screaming at him.

"And I don't dislike you," Yoona added, completely ignoring his last statement, much to Jonghyun's relief. It was also much to his surprise as her words registered to him. Seeing the look on his face, Yoona smiled at him. "I haven't fought, much less screamed, at anyone like that…ever. That was a first for me, so I think I got a bit carried away."

"A bit?" Jonghyun repeated with his brows raised. "If you screamed any louder and any higher, you would've broken every piece of glass present in the area," he pointed out sounding quite sure that could happen.

Yoona couldn't help but giggle at this statement, guessing that Jonghyun hadn't forgotten just how high her voice could get when the notes call for it whenever she sings.

Can't help the grin forming on his face, Jonghyun gave in to his emotions and laughed with her for a while until both calmed back down.

"I can't just blame you for what happened you know," Yoona started after their laughter subsided. "We both know that we're both at fault," she added somewhat sadly with traces of regret in her voice. "We were both so caught up with our own issues, the kids got affected. And Hyuna…Hyuna just got the worst end of it."

Jonghyun said nothing to this.

"So I propose a truce," she said, pushing herself off from the wall and standing in front of Jonghyun with a hand outstretched towards him. "Can we at least be at peace when the kids are around? For their sake, and I guess for ours as well. It would be great to at least know that I won't end up screaming my head off at you again."

With the oh-so familiar smirk crossing his features as she said this, Yoona could almost feel herself melt down to the ground as she always did years ago.

"Truce," he agreed, taking her hand and shaking it. "But I do have one question Yoona."

Yoona had dreaded this, and was hoping he wouldn't ask what she knew he would.

"Why did you leave five years ago?" he asked. He was burning with curiosity now but he tried to keep his tone mild.

She was smiling, albeit very sadly, at him. And Yoona was silent for a couple of minutes before letting out a long, almost tired, sigh. "A lot happened Jonghyun," she said, the sad smile still playing on her lips. "You had a very promising career ahead of you as an actor, and I was holding you back," she said truthfully. "I never even thought of things like that before until…well, until that thought suddenly came to my mind. And as I thought more about it every day, as I contemplated on that thought further, I realized that it was the truth. I was holding you back. So I…I left."

**End of Flashback**

Jonghyun didn't know if Yoona meant that explanation to sadden him but whether she did or didn't, it didn't have that sort of effect on him at all. He didn't feel at all sad or touched about it. Her reason only proved to him how easily she can dump him, despite her reason for leaving was supposedly for his benefit.

Her explanation also didn't make much sense to Jonghyun either.

When she did leave him, there was no indication at all that he had a 'promising career' ahead of him. In fact, he never got his first big break with Mr. Jung Doohong until after he realized Yoona had left him. It wasn't long after she had left that Jonghyun got the call from Mr. Jung and his proposal to him regarding his acting career.

By now, it was obvious to him that Yoona was lying, unless she was actually a really good psychic without him knowing, to predict that he'd actually become a star shortly after she left. Yoona had probably just left him because he was such a failure as an actor. That was the only reason Jonghyun could think of for her leaving him. He had starred in a few independent films when they were together, and also a few very minor roles in much larger films, but only as an extra, and that was pretty much it. What girl would be happy with that? That must have been the reason for her sudden departure. And she was just merely saving him the embarrassment by not telling him beforehand.

'Maybe I should thank her for not further embarrassing me," Jonghyun thought almost bitterly to himself.

After their little talk, he had treated Yoona friendly enough as would two newly acquainted friends, and nothing more. Try as he might, he didn't want anything much to do with someone who had broken his heart, it was hard enough to maintain a properly decent relationship with her as a friend.

"Hey Jonghyun! Are you staying for dinner?"

"Yeah, mom's asking if you are," added Jonghyuk after his brother.

Smiling at the boys, Jonghyun shook his head. "I can't, I have an early day tomorrow. I have to get back in a few minutes."

The two frowned but nodded before running back into the kitchen to tell Yoona.

"Is it okay if I visit and play with you again tomorrow Hyuna?" Jonghyun asked the little girl who was analyzing a 50 piece Jigsaw Puzzle that had the image of a butterfly and a flower.

Hyuna looked up at Jonghyun without smiling but nodded. "Thank you for this," she said, pointing to the puzzles which are still mostly scattered in a pile in front of her. She had already connected one-fourth of the pieces ever since he gave the box to her earlier that afternoon.

"You're welcome," he said with a grin before she resumed looking through the unsolved puzzle pieces with a look of concentration on her face.

"Where have you been?" Nana asked in an accusing tone the minute Jonghyun closed the door to the suite.

Eyebrows raised, Jonghyun held up the white plastic bag he was holding which had several brown paper bags inside. "Dinner, you want some?"

A grin spread through her features and she nodded. "I'm famished. What did you get?"

"Chinese," he responded, handing her the plastic bag as he took off his shoes, shrugged off his jacket and took off his cap.

"So, where have you been since you left the studio?" she asked conversationally as she laid out all the food on the kitchen counter and transferred them to plates.

"Nowhere in particular," he replied with a shrug. "Just went out to buy stuff."

Nana looked back at him, knowing full well that he didn't bring anything else besides the food as he came in. She had gotten the vibe that Jonghyun had been keeping something or another from her. Ever since he called her in the dead of the night last Sunday saying that he won't be coming to work the next day due to 'unforeseen circumstances'.

'Unforeseen circumstances indeed,' she thought to herself as she continued on with setting up the dinner table while stealing constant glances at Jonghyun.

"Something you want to talk to me about?" Jonghyun asked point blank, getting slightly annoyed with all the looks Nana had been throwing at her from across the room ever since he arrived.

"Nothing important," she said hastily with a smile. "Dinner's ready," she announced after a minute or so later.

Immediately digging into his food so he can retire for the night, Jonghyun was already halfway through his plate of rice before Nana finally came to sit across him.

"By any chance do you have any more plans later?" she asked with an amused look. Jonghyun looked at her questioningly, making her nod at his half finished plate. "You're in a hurry."

Gulping down half a glass of soda, he looked at her. "You've seen the stuff I had to do earlier. Doing some of my own stunts may be fun but it takes its toll. The sooner I go to bed, the happier I'll be and less disagreeable tomorrow."

"Where have you been running off to at the end of the day lately anyway? You must be in a lot of stress. Maybe you should head straight back here after shooting. You don't want to strain yourself too much," she suggested sounding hopeful that he would at least tell her.

"It's a…personal matter," he said with an apologetic look on his face. "I have to run off after shooting. I have to buy a couple of things in several places," he added, thinking of all the things he had bought and given to Hyuna for the past few days. He has still bought several things for the boys but he's been giving Hyuna just as much things in order to compensate all those times he had neglected getting her anything when he was out with Jonghyuk and Jonghoon.

"I see. Well, anyway, I talked to the director earlier," she started looking more pleased now. "He says we've only got a month, maybe two, of filming left. Depending on how well it goes this month. If we don't have much re-shoots to do, then the sooner we finish. Isn't that great?" she asked brightly.

Jonghyun stopped eating, his chopsticks with a dumpling at the end suspended in the air, midway to his mouth.

He replaced the dumpling onto his plate and looked thoughtful.

'I hadn't thought about that,' he told himself. Indeed he hadn't even considered what would happen when he leaves Korea for another movie he might do. In fact, most of the movies he has done besides the one shot here and the last one in Paris, have always been shot in the States. What would he do when he's called for another movie away from Korea? What will happen to Jonghyuk, Jonghoon, and Hyuna?

" Jonghyun?"

He looked up at her.

"Is something the matter?"

"It's nothing," he answered curtly before resuming with his meal.

"You suppose Jonghyun will come tomorrow?" Jonghoon asked out of the blue, making his siblings look at him.

Hyuna didn't say a thing although gave him a curious look,

"Of course he is. He comes here every day doesn't he?" Jonghyuk answered with brows raised.

"You think we should ask him tomorrow then?"

This time, Hyuna spoke up. "I don't think you should and I think mommy isn't pregnant. And I also think that maybe what you heard that lady say mustn't be right."

The boys looked at her before looking at each other. They had already told Hyuna the topic of their interest since they came from the hotel, feeling guilty they hadn't done so sooner. Their mother did tell them to never let Hyuna feel so left out because of her condition. Now they blamed themselves for what happened and so told her about it as soon as they got the chance. It was hard at first because they had to explain a lot to her like who Nana is and all they knew about her. That was the precise reason why they decided not to tell her in the first place, since she might not feel as strongly about it like they do. She never met Nana and doesn't know just how mean she is like they knew she was.

"Well, I checked the dictionary what 'suspecting' mean," piped up Jonghyuk although looking defeated. "I still didn't understand what it meant. Mommy says we can read in that book if we want to check meaning of words but their meanings are even more confusing. There are numbers and weird letters there too."

"That's an unhelpful book," Jonghyuk said with a frown.