I hope that this chapter will meet the expectations. Thank you, all for waiting.

 

 

Getting used to surprises should be an actual skill they should learn. Because no one even had a single thought about Jihyo, Jeongyeon, and let alone Chaeyoung would be standing at the doorstep of Nayeon, Momo, and Sana’s apartment. Frankly, it wasn't late, but it wasn't about the hour of their visit. It was the fact that they didn't agree to meet beforehand. With Chaeyoung. As it turned out though, Mina and Haru were at some sort of an event. They also claimed that they had to talk about something important. They were let in, though Chaeyoung seemed rather upset. She didn't leave Jihyo and Jeongyeon’s side for a second and refused to look at anyone else. And once they settled down, they started the important conversation.

 

“Ok, what happened?” Nayeon took the initiative. Jihyo and Jeongyeon shared a look, then they both glanced at Chaeyoung who was sitting between them, looking grumpy.

 

“Chaeyoung told us that she overheard Mina and Haru fight. Apparently, Mina said that they aren't a family and Haru was really mad. Chaeyoung said that he squeezed Mina's arm to the point it hurt.” The response was instantaneous. Nayeon jumped to her feet with the angriest expression one could imagine. 

 

“He hurt her?!” Sana exclaimed, her voice loud and forceful.

 

“And she didn't tell you?” Momo added her own few words. 

 

“Oh, I'm going to kill him.” Nayeon made her way to the kitchen, but Momo grabbed her arm and kept her in place.

 

“I bet this is why she didn't tell us.” Jeongyeon pointed out, rightfully so. 

 

“Let's not commit murder. Especially in front of Chaeyoung.” Jihyo shot Nayeon a disapproving look. It calmed Nayeon a bit, but her inner desire to end Haru’s life remained. “No one is going to harm dad, ok?” Jihyo addressed Chaeyoung and waited for confirmation that she understood that. The little girl nodded carefully. 

 

“Did he do that before?” Sana gathered courage to ask the difficult question. And it seemed that no one truly knew.

 

“We want to say no. He is an but he never acted aggressive like that.” Jeongyeon's answer had to be enough. 

 

“Then what? We go to her apartment and force them to end things?” Momo looked for a solution while still holding Nayeon in place.

 

“If my first suggestion isn't good enough for you all, let's go to the authorities.” Nayeon huffed.

 

“It's an idea. But Chaeyoung.” Jihyo once again reminded them of the child still sitting there, looking more and more scared.

 

“We can go there once Mina's on our side completely.” Jeongyeon suggested and no one could really argue. 

 

“What do you want to do Chaeyoung?” The question was a surprise, especially to Chaeyoung herself, because she didn't expect to be included and because Sana was the one asking her that. 

 

“I want to be with my parents but I don't want them to be sad and hurt.” She said reluctantly. It was an honest response, no doubt.

 

“Your parents won't be happy together. They love you dearly, but they don't feel the same way about each other.” Jihyo spoke softly and with all the warmness she could muster. To make Chaeyoung comfortable. 

 

“I don't want them to go away.” Chaeyoung sounded on the verge of tears. Jihyo and Jeongyeon hugged her tightly.

 

“They won't. Even if they don't live together, they will see you everyday. It will be like back when your dad lived in his apartment.” Jeongyeon tried to convince Chaeyoung by comparing it to how things used to be. Even if realistically, there were going to be changes in the way they operated.

 

“And they won't be sad anymore?” The little girl still sounded unsure, but it seemed that she had enough courage to understand, try. 

 

“They won't. And they will love you just as much as they do right now. This will never change.” As Nayeon was listening to the conversation, a realization appeared in her mind. That Chaeyoung was a great kid. She was proud of how Mina raised her. No doubt, Nayeon wouldn't have been able to do such a good job. And Chaeyoung nodded again, signaling that she was ok with their plan. Or at least she was going to try to be ok with it.

 

“So…Jihyo, Jeongyeon, Nayeon, and Tzuyu go to talk with them and we stay with Chaeyoung?” The proposition Momo put forward was met with a positive response. 

 

“Is it ok, Chaeyoung?” Still upset, Chaeyoung nodded again. She knew that she couldn't go with the rest, she wouldn't be allowed to. “We'll go close to the time Mina and Haru return. And no violence.” Jihyo finished and looked pointedly at Nayeon. 

 

“Fine.” She agreed but of course, if Haru continued being a piece of , Nayeon was going to break her promise.

 

“Now we just have to call Tzuy.” Jeongyeon sighed but didn't move to grab her phone and do what she said. Jihyo seemed pretty apprehensive as well but reached for her phone.

 

“I see that calling Tzuyu is a difficult task.” Nayeon said jokingly.

 

“She hasn't spoken to Mina in a while, even to us. She's really upset and done with Mina. And that's why I'm calling Dahyun and she will hopefully be able to convince Tzuyu to join us.” There was some hope in Jihyo's tone, but her expression didn't display any of that. Dahyun picked up, fortunately and promised to talk with Tzuyu about it, but there was no way of saying how that was going to end. And so they waited, trying to fill the gloomy atmosphere with smalltalk. Waiting for the inevitable.

In a way, Tzuyu hoped that distance would be a good way of reaching a conclusion of the problem. Even if in fact, it wasn’t the reason for why she did that. She was just so upset with Mina and furious with Haru that she had to get out of there. So she was grateful for having Dahyun with her. It was easier to focus on other things than just her ed up family situation. She attended classes and studied, to an acceptable level. She was also just happy that she could spend so much time with her girlfriend. But even Dahyun could annoy her sometimes. For a very good reason. It was a topic she wanted to avoid and whenever it was brought up, Tzuyu immediately shut it down. On that particular day though, Dahyun was relentless. She even took away the book Tzuyu was studying with.

 

“Please, one time don’t dismiss this. Jihyo sounded serious. So let me explain before you say no.” Tzuyu rolled her eyes and tried to grab her book without having to stand up from the chair, but Dahyun jumped back.

 

“Very mature.”

 

“Oh, because you’re acting mature.” Dahyun retorted and it was absolutely a valid comment, Tzuyu didn’t want to hear it though. 

 

“I think that I have a better reason to act this way.” Tzuyu said with a frown.

 

“Ok, I’ll just say it.” Dahyun inhaled and Tzuyu groaned to interrupt her. Dahyun tried again and Tzuyu got up to just get the book and leave. But after a short period of wrestling Dahyun revealed what she wanted to say.

 

“Jihyo said that Mina and Haru argued and he hurt her, Chaeyoung saw it too.” Tzuyu was stunned. She had a hard time processing the information at first but when she connected the words with the meanings, she saw red. She was going to do something not morally correct to that man. She turned around and quickly prepared herself to go out. “I will come with you if you want to.” 

 

“Stay, I don’t want you to be involved in this.”

 

“Why?” She asked with a bit of hurt showing in her voice.

 

“I don’t want you to go to prison.” Tzuyu replied and went out before Dahyun could say anything to that. Frankly, she wasn’t capable of killing anyone but beating someone up was a different case and she might’ve been capable of that, especially if she grabbed a chair or something similar. She jumped into the first bus available and was at Mina’s apartment just on time. Nayeon, Jeongyeon, and Jihyo were there, waiting for Mina and Haru to come back. And they noticed how angry she was. And she noticed that Nayeon was just as furious. 

 

“Ok, first, we are going to promise not to use any violence.” Jihyo was talking directly to Nayeon and Tzuyu, but the two of them seemed rather dismissive of that.

 

“I am just saying that he will absolutely take a chance to sue you two if you both jump his .” Jeongyeon tried to approach them in a more practical way.

 

“I just think that I will pull off prison uniforms.” Jihyo and Jeongyeon sighed in unison at Nayeon’s ridiculous reply. 

 

“Where is Chaeyoung?” Tzuyu hoped that her niece wasn’t in her room to witness even more of the fighting.

 

“She’s with Momo and Sana in our apartment.” Nayeon informed her and it sounded like a good idea.

 

“When are they going to be back?” Tzuyu wanted to know how long she would have to wait and choke down her anger.

 

“In about 30 minutes.” Jeongyeon let her know and it was too long. But she couldn’t do anything about it. Jihyo and Jeongyeon tried to calm Nayeon and Tzuyu down in that period of time. Though it didn’t have a good result. It was also all forgotten when they heard the door open, Mina and Haru entered without a word. Mina appeared in the living room first and halted in the entrance when she saw Nayeon and Tzuyu there.

 

“Nayeon, Tzuyu, what brings you here?” Haru appeared behind her and his face looked extremely punchable. “Is Chaeyoung asleep?”

 

“Don’t worry about her. Worry about this 's health because I am going to strangle him.” Nayeon let out and before she could move, Jeongyeon grabbed her arm and stopped her.

 

“No criminal behavior.” She reprimanded and decided to keep her hold on Nayeon.

 

“What is your problem?” He asked, with a stupidly confused expression.

 

“You are! You think that you can hurt Mina and we are going to pat your back?!” Tzuyu pointed at him accusatively. 

 

“What? What are you talking about?”

 

“You hurt Mina and in front of Chaeyoung at that!” Nayeon joined back.

 

“In front of Chaeyoung?” Mina asked in disbelief. She seemed to be close to fainting as well.

 

“How do you even know that?” Haru’s words made them all even angrier.

 

“From Chaeyoung! She came to Jihyo and Jeongyeon, scared. You think that this is fine?” Nayeon tried to wrestle her arm out of Jeongyeon’s hold, but she wasn’t allowed the freedom. Their conversation was interrupted when Mina fell to the floor, leaning forward, looking out of breath. Jihyo was next to her at the split of a second, supporting her. It also made everyone become quiet. Tzuyu went over to help Jihyo bring Mina to the sofa and then Jeognyeon brought a glass of water for her.

 

“Chaeyoung witnessed our fight…?” Mina asked weakly, staring at the floor.

 

“Yes, I am sorry.” Jihyo confirmed it and Mina couldn’t stop her tears. And the rest hoped that it meant the end of the little nightmare. Even Haru was just standing in place, not uttering a word. But Tzuyu wouldn’t believe that he changed his mindset after 5 minutes. She couldn’t do anything though, not when Mina was distressed. When she did calm down a bit, Nayeon was the first to speak.

 

“Are you really someone that is getting off at torturing others?” Haru looked at her and then at Mina. 

 

“All I wanted was to have a family. And then you disappeared, left me and our child, so don’t you dare judge me.” 

 

“Don’t try to turn yourself into a victim.” Tzuyu countered his attack. 

 

“So it was ok for Nayeon to do that? I knew at the moment I learned that she was out that I will do my best to be a good father and build a family and I will take care of them, that I won’t leave like you. And everything was going well until you didn’t decide to come back out of nowhere and brought that girl along.” He sounded more emotional than just angry. He was absolutely not going to take any responsibility for his behavior though.

 

“You are the reason your plan didn’t work out. You are controlling Mina, dictating her life. It’s ed up.” Nayeon answered back, trying not to let him omit his fault. “I know that what I did was unacceptable but you are outright abusive. Mina doesn’t love you.”

 

“I know that. But she loves Chaeyoung, she is her mother, and Chaeyoung also needs her father. She doesn’t need you.”

 

“You’re so insufferable. How did Mina manage to stand you for so long.” Nayeon scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

 

“She is a good person, unlike some people. So you can stop trying to destroy our family.” He truly wasn’t understanding anything. And it was harder to just keep cool with every second. 

 

“What sort of a family is it?! Where parents don’t love each other?!” Nayeon shouted back at him, somehow hoping that it would wake him up a bit.

 

“Somehow it was good before-”

 

“Just shut the up! It seems to me that you’re just scared of being alone.” Nayeon interrupted him and her comment made him lose some of his cool. 

 

“Of course I am! You left me! Just like that! No conversation, no warning, no goodbye, you just left! How am I supposed to just go and trust another person after that? Mina took Chaeyoung in without hesitation and we got along well enough, but you came back and made everything worse.” Nayeon pursed her lips, uncomfortable. Because it seemed like she really was the reason for a lot of trouble. 

 

“Listen, I am sorry. Nothing can convey how much I regret doing what I did. But this act isn’t making you happy, you are just saying that to yourself. And no one is telling you to stop being Chaeyoung’s father. We want you to leave Mina alone.” Nayeon said, calmer.

 

“You are going to despise each other even more, and it will take a toll on Chaeyoung. You will hurt her even more than you’re hurting each other. And it will be hard for her to forgive you for that. She told us that if you two are going to be sad she doesn’t want you to be together.” Jihyo added to give Haru even more perspective on the situation. He fell silent. They let him think it over. Praying that he would give up and say yes to divorce. His expression changed then, his eyes started sparkling, that was a good sign for them. 

 

“I…ok. We can end this.” It felt like it took hours for him to decide. The atmosphere became lighter as well, some of them sighed with relief. “I’m also sorry for my behavior.”

 

“Finally you are speaking some sense. Thank you.” Nayeon responded with a genuine smile. He wiped his eyes, collecting the stray tears trying to escape. Though more welled up in their place.

 

“So you are going to give Mina a divorce?” Tzuyu asked to fully confirm it. Because it still seemed pretty unbelievable.

 

“Yes. I will.” He nodded and sniffled. The nightmare was over.

 

“You can stay here for tonight but tomorrow you two need to talk with Chaeyoung about it and then you should leave Haru.” Jihyo informed him with a more serious tone. 

 

“I understand. We will do that.” It was really weird how agreeable he was. But they weren’t going to complain about it. “I will go now.” He excused himself and made his way to Tzuyu’s room which would soon be hers again. And their attention was fully on Mina.

 

“How are you?” 

 

“I don’t know.” Mina answered Nayeon’s question. 

 

“That’s fine. We’ll be here.” Jihyo assured her friend and smoothed her back.

 

“Chaeyoung-” 

 

“She’s asleep. Momo texted us.” Jeongyeon replied quickly. It was best that Mina wasn’t worried about anything else for the time being.

 

“For now, you should just let it out and let things settle in.”

The morning after was awkward. Mina and Haru weren’t really talking much, both dealing with their own turmoil and the reality of the difficult conversation they would have with Chaeyoung. But they decided to do it as soon as their daughter was back home, brought back by Jihyo and Jeongyeon. She approached them apprehensively. Her expression was unsure of what they were going to say. Mina and Haru gesture for her to join them on the sofa, she ran up to them and sat in between. They wrapped their arms around her small form. 

 

“Everything was ok last night?” Mina asked gently and she left a kiss on her daughter’s head.

 

“Yes. Momo is funny. She is a cool plane.” Whatever that meant, Mina was glad that Chaeyoung was taken care of. “And Sana was a good target.”

 

“Right.” Haru said with a similar expression of confusion as Mina had. “We are glad that you had fun.”

 

“Your aunties also told us that you told them something important yesterday.” Mina began directing their conversation in a more serious way. Chaeyoung nodded to confirm the words. “We want to talk about it. Is that ok?” 

 

“Yes.” Mina and Haru shared a look, it was a way to come to the final agreement and bring their lives to normal. 

 

“You saw us argue?” Haru was looking for confirmation.

 

“Don’t be mad at me.” They both squeezed their daughter in a comforting gesture.

 

“We are not mad. We are just sad that you had to watch that. We are sorry, Chaeyoung, for acting this way.” Mina’s words seemed to have calmed the little girl down. Thankfully, they would be in trouble if Chaeyoung started crying.

 

“You noticed that we aren’t happy. Because we don’t love each other as much as we love you.” Haru continued, with a gentle but apologetic smile.

 

“And it’s ok if you are sad because we don’t love each other. It’s nothing bad. But we will be happy if we stop being married. That doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to meet with your dad or me. You will be with us every day. It’s just that your dad and I won’t be together. And we will never stop loving you more than the whole universe.” Mina was hoping that she was using the right words. Even if there were no right words. She knew that they would need time to heal, probably involving therapy. But they had to start somewhere. 

 

“Truly, we will never leave you. I will go back to living at my apartment and well, you can decide where you want to sleep. We will never forbid you from seeing one of us.” Considering that they didn’t discuss what to say much, Mina thought that they were doing a good job at it. They just had to wait for Chaeyoung’s response. Of course, they would still go through with the divorce, but it would’ve been easier if their daughter was understanding the situation.

 

“And you won’t be sad anymore?” There were always going to be moments where they would be sad. It wasn’t what Chaeyoung needed to hear though.

 

“We won’t be sad anymore. Promise.” Mina said and looked at Haru to confirm her words.

 

“We will be happy.” He added.

 

“When are you leaving, daddy?”

 

“Tonight.” Chaeyoung nodded, her expression betrayed that she was disappointed but she seemed to have accepted it. 

 

“You can go with your dad if you want to.” Mina smiled at her daughter encouragingly. But Chaeyoung seemed conflicted.

 

“But who will be with you, mommy?” It was a question that made Mina want to just squish her daughter but she couldn’t risk hurting her. 

 

“I am sure that aunt Jihyo and aunt Jeongyeon will stay with me.” She reassured while caressing Chaeyoung’s arm. Mina also thought that Haru wouldn’t have anyone to keep him company so it would mean a lot to him to have that time with his daughter.

 

“But I’ll be back tomorrow.” Chaeyoung said a bit forcefully. It made Mina and Haru chuckle softly.

 

“I’ll be waiting.” Mina replied and hugged Chaeyoung a bit closer. It went well. Better than she could’ve ever imagined.

 

“Does it mean that Sana will be your girlfriend?” That question took Mina by surprise. And it wasn’t a simple question to answer. She couldn’t just ignore it though. It wouldn’t be fair.

 

“I like Sana but right now I am not sure if she’ll be my girlfriend. Are you ok with that?” 

 

“I was scared that Sana will take you away and you’ll leave me and daddy. But she said that she doesn’t want to do that and she is fun.” Chaeyoung sounded cautious, she probably still wasn’t fully over her negative feelings for Sana, but seemed open to accepting her. And it was all Mina could ask for.

 

“Thank you, Chaeng.” Chaeyoung smiled at her brightly and snuggled closer to her. 

 

“Do you want to help me cook?” Haru asked and changed the conversation to something more casual. Mina was fine with that. She knew that there was no way of this ending bad. Especially when Chaeyoung nodded and joined Haru in the kitchen. And Mina sat on the sofa more comfortably and just relaxed. For the first time in a long time.