Tossing and turning SooJi rolled from one side of her bed to the other with a yawn until she rolled onto her back. She trained her sleep-laden eyes at the ceiling and sighed. She didn't feel well-rested at all after the sleepless night she had been through, mostly filled with thoughts about the upcoming talk she had to have with JaeJoong sooner or later in the day. By the looks of it probably sooner. If the brightness peeking through her blinds was anything to go by, it was past sunrise already. With a deep sigh she sat up, ruffling through her morning mane. She glanced at the clock on her nightstand and rubbed over her face. Seven a.m. That was pretty early, even for her on a Monday when her shift didn't start before noon.

With a heavy sigh she dropped back onto her mattress and closed her eyes in an attempt to fall back asleep so that she could postpone the talk as much as she could. She was certain that it would enfold into a major argument. If JaeJoong had inherited anything from her, then her temper and assertiveness. Pushing the thought aside, she snuggled into her blanket and forced herself to sleep. She furrowed her eyebrows though when the noises of rattling pots, a sizzling pan and slippers shuffling over the tiled kitchen floor intruded her closed bedroom door. Realization of JaeJoong being awake and preparing breakfast ever so often dawned on her and she opened her eyes. So much for an attempt to sleep further.

With a sigh she rolled out of bed, trying to tame her mane with her fingers and grabbed her silky dressing gown from the post of her bed. She threw it over her shoulders, knotted it together in height of her abdomen and slipped into her fluffy pair of slippers. With a stifled yawn she opened her door and slipped past the bathroom into the hallway. She rounded a corner leading towards the kitchen and indeed found JaeJoong deeply concentrating in, what seemed to be, snipping vegetables. Whether for breakfast or lunch she couldn't tell, but if the aroma was anything to go by, she would say the vegetables were for lunch. She watched him for a while from her spot, not daring to disturb the quite peaceful image in front of her eyes.

A soft tune was playing on JaeJoong's lips whilst moving the knife over the washed vegetables with much skill that mingled with the catchy song playing on the radio. Time and again his shoulders moved to the beat of the song she realized to be Troublemaker. She had forgotten whom the song was from, but surely JaeJoong would know if she asked him. That was if he were in the mood to answer her in the first place. Without a care he danced through the kitchen and she really didn't want to be the one to spoil that, but sooner or later she had to and she decided for sooner.

“Good morning, JaeJoong-ah,” she announced and shuffled over to the kitchen counter. A pang pierced her heart when she literally saw JaeJoong tensing upon hearing her voice and tightening his lips to a thin line whilst focusing his eyes on the snipped vegetables. He grabbed a handful of fruits next for what she assumed to be for the pancakes sizzling in the pan. He hummed in response after a while and she inwardly sighed in relief. At least he didn't ignore her completely but who knew how long that relief would last.

She sat down on a chair at the counter, resting her elbow on the marbled surface and leaned her chin onto her palm. She noticed JaeJoong's eyebrows jumping from a light furrowing to a scowl, to a frown and back to a light furrowing when he registered her presence. By the look of his fluffy hair falling into his eyes she assumed that he had showered right before preparing breakfast.

“You could at least greet me a proper good morning, you know,” she complained and let a pout play over her lips. JaeJoong sighed at that, put the knife aside, dumping the vegetables into a bowl before he raised his eyes at her.

“Good morning,” he replied, not very warmly and without any hint of a smile. He resumed his task shortly after and poured the snipped vegetables into the boiling water of the huge pot on the stove behind him. He turned the pancake in the pan over and approved softly at the golden colour it already had gained.

SooJi sighed softly. “Look, I know you're mad at me,” she muttered, putting her hand down onto the counter. A snort interrupted her and JaeJoong's comment of “What gave you that impression, I wonder,” confirmed her assumption. “JaeJoong, please. Can't you at least look at me?” she requested almost whining and felt a weight rolling off her chest when JaeJoong turned around. He folded his arms as he leaned against the sink, raising an eyebrow in anticipation of her upcoming words.

“Listen, I know I was a douche yesterday. I'm really sorry that I didn't listen to you and gave you so much trouble,” she confessed, her eyebrows furrowed in sorrow when she waited for JaeJoong's reply.

The 18 year old teen watched her intently with no specific emotion crossing his features. “Dad called you last night and gave you a piece of his mind, didn't he?” he said calmly after what seemed to be hours of agonizing silence and SooJi couldn't help but flinch at the statement.

“Guilty as charged,” she muttered and rose her hands in surrender. She felt another pang piercing her heart when JaeJoong sighed deeply and turned his back at her.

“The bathroom is unoccupied,” he mumbled whilst resuming his task in preparing breakfast and lunch and she knew well enough that the discussion was over. At least for him. She sighed deeply when she trudged to the bathroom located right across her bedroom. She really wondered how she should breach the topic of her marriage to him without fuelling his anger even more and figured, after a much needed hot shower, that this was probably an impossible task.

SooJi took her sweet time in getting dressed, time and again picking another set of clothes she wanted to wear in an attempt to postpone her talk with JaeJoong. She really didn't look forward to the argument. The pitter-patter of little feet resounded in the hallway, and by the way the bathroom door was slammed shut and JaeJoong's scolding voice following right after, it seemed that TaeGoon was already up. She smiled to herself. It wouldn't take that much longer either for HaNeul to come out of her bedroom with tiny sleepy eyes and her favourite plushie in her hand.

And of course she was right. When she left her bedroom fully dressed the six-year-old shuffled out of her room with a loud yawn, rubbing her tiny eyes and pulling her bunny after her. SooJi couldn't suppress the happy smile when JaeJoong scooped her into his arms.

“Good morning, princess,” she heard him say over HaNeul's excited squeal and could literally feel his broad smile radiating just by looking at his back. He walked her over to the kitchen counter and asked her what kind of pancakes she wanted today.

“Banana!” the little girl announced with her arms thrown into the air and JaeJoong had to dodge the stuffed bunny. When JaeJoong set her down onto one of the chairs at the kitchen counter, TaeGoon slipped out of the bathroom behind SooJi and greeted his mother a good morning. SooJi ruffled his hair and greeted him back before she ushered him over to JaeJoong to tell the older what pancakes he wanted.

“Tae, I told you so often to not bang the doors,” JaeJoong scolded the auburn haired boy with a frown when he noticed TaeGoon running over to the kitchen counter. SooJi registered that he had noticed her presence and felt relieved that he didn't change his attitude towards her in front of his younger siblings.

“Sorry,” the eight-year-old replied with a sheepish smile and climbed onto a chair next to HaNeul. JaeJoong regarded his reply with a raised eyebrow and shook his head smiling, when the auburn haired boy declared that he wanted blueberry pancakes.

“Why don't you two get dressed already whilst JaeJoong is making your pancakes?” SooJi announced when she reached the kitchen counter and ruffled both her younger children's heads. After a round of pouting and whining about not wanting to leave, TaeGoon rushed into his bedroom when JaeJoong had promised to go out with him later for a round of soccer. HaNeul ushered over to the bathroom to get her face washed and was accompanied by her mother. When TaeGoon returned fully dressed, JaeJoong had set up the table for breakfast and put a blueberry pancake onto his plate. He complained when HaNeul was allowed to sit down still in her nightdress and forgot about the matter completely when JaeJoong poured him a cup of chocolate milk. He was so easily pleased, really.

They were half through breakfast when they already decided that JaeJoong would spend the remaining days of their vacation with his younger siblings, much to their excitement of course. TaeGoon had finished his last bite when HaNeul turned to her mother with big eyes and a slightly smeared mouth full of banana pancake.

“Momphy bwhn ish ppa un omin?” she declared with crumbs pearling from her lips while speaking.

“Hana, gulp down before you speak,” JaeJoong scolded her almost in time with his mother who rubbed over HaNeul's stuffed cheek. The little girl gulped down her big bite and took a sip from her strawberry milk.

“Now you can ask again what you wanted to ask,” SooJi announced with a smile when she faced HaNeul.

“When is papa Yun coming again?” HaNeul asked curiously and with a smile and didn't really register her mother tensing at the question and her smile freezing on the spot. JaeJoong regarded the question with furrowed eyebrows and mouthed the strange words to himself, looking at his plate.

SooJi cleared and quickly glanced at JaeJoong who looked very much confused. “Soon, honey. You have to sleep five more days,” she explained and with that HaNeul seemed to be satisfied, if her munching on her pancake was anything to go by. The remaining breakfast was going by in silence, mostly on JaeJoong's side who still pondered about the meaning of HaNeul's words, and SooJi felt quite uneasy in her own skin.

“TaeGoon, would you be so kind and help your sister in getting dressed. I need to talk about something with your brother,” she requested when everyone had finished eating. With a complaint on his lips TaeGoon followed the request and ushered after his sister into her room.

SooJi took a deep breath before she turned to JaeJoong and found the teen staring at her with furrowed eyebrows and his arms crossed over his chest. “What is it that you want to talk to me about? I bet it has to do with this papa Yun,” he beat her to the topic and emphasized the last word with quotation marks in the air and a very sceptical voice.

“It has to do with him, yes. And I doubt that you will like what I'm about to tell you,” she declared with a heavy sigh and fumbled with her fingers. She didn't even have the guts to look him in the eyes.

“I bet. It's not like any of your flings was anywhere good for us,” JaeJoong all but snarled as a scowl overcame his features.

SooJi scowled back at him. “Look, I know you are not particularly happy that I left your father and, yes, my pick so far hasn't been good, but you didn't even meet him yet to be able to judge him,” she declared. JaeJoong regarded her statement with a snort and rose from his chair. He started cleaning the table and SooJi felt quite irritated at his behaviour.

“I'm not eager to meet this person,” JaeJoong replied when he stored the used plates in the sink and came back to the table to get a hold of the cutlery.

“Well, you will. He'll be coming on Saturday because he wants to meet you,” SooJi declared with a louder voice and rose from her chair.

JaeJoong glared at her in anger and clenched his fist. “I definitely don't want to meet him,” he all but barked and SooJi was certain that TaeGoon and HaNeul were able to hear the argument in HaNeul's bedroom. She knew that was about to happen.

“If you want to or not, you will meet my husband. End of discussion,” she barked herself and just noticed her words when JaeJoong tensed and let the cutlery fall to the ground. The sound of forks and knives slithering over the ground was agonizing to SooJi's ears when everything around her seemed to have fallen into a deep silence.

“Your what?” JaeJoong asked and slowly turned to her. She had to gulp at the anger and disbelief written all over JaeJoong's face and took a deep breath.

“My husband. We got married a bit over a month ago,” she explained and flinched at the way JaeJoong's eyes widened in disbelief, his nose flared and his eyes darkened even more at her statement.

“Why would you want to introduce him to me when you obviously didn't care about telling me before you married him?” he gritted out between his teeth and SooJi felt guilty, because sure enough, she wanted to tell him, much more so, her now husband wanted it as well, but there just was no time.

“It's not like I didn't want to tell you, we just didn't have the time when his father had insisted on marrying as soon as possible,” SooJi tried to defend herself, and even to her it sounded like a cheap excuse but it still was the truth.

“An arranged marriage? Seriously? Are you out of your mind?” JaeJoong muttered honestly perplexed and wondered for a second whether he had to be worried about his mother's mental health.

“I am not, thank you very much. I am still your mother and you don't need to talk to me like that,” she barked back and glared at him.

“I know that you are, it just never really feels as if you're a mother,” JaeJoong mumbled and before she knew what was coming over her, SooJi's hand had come across JaeJoong's cheek. Both stared wide-eyed at one another, SooJi shifting her gaze from her palm to JaeJoong in disbelief. From all the arguments they had been through, SooJi had never raised her hand against him. She could literally feel the disappointment seeping through JaeJoong, mostly because she was disappointed in herself.

“JaeJoong, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to,” she apologized meekly and felt tears gathering behind her eyes when JaeJoong backed away from her.

“Whatever you do you never mean to,” he muttered and waltzed past her to the entrance hall. She watched him pull over his jacket and slip into his shoes before he pulled open the door. “I stand by what I said. I won't meet him,” he declared, looking back at her before exiting, letting the door close loudly.