Chap Thirty-Eight 

Saturday afternoon.

“Pie, pie, pie! Grandma’s pie, yay!” Hyeri chanted, hopping excitedly as she watched the pie bake in the oven.

“Riri ah, be a good girl and wait!” Luhan said with an amused chuckle, while beckoning her to come over.

And being a girl who didn’t want to make Daddy sad, Hyeri reluctantly trotted towards the male.

Luhan laughed as he helped carry Hyeri up onto a kitchen bar stool, sitting his pouting little girl beside him. The pair of father and daughter was currently at Luhan’s old home, waiting for midday snacks and treats. Luhan smiled to himself, blissfully content in the warm environment; the familiar sounds of his younger siblings bickering and the light murmurs of his parents chatting idly from the living room travelling to the kitchen.

“Daddy, when will the pie be ready for eating?”

“Riri, for the last time, you have to wait till Grandma appears!”

“Then… would the pie be ready now if I go find Grandma to take out the pie, I want the pie now-”

“No you can’t.” Luhan chided, close to snapping. “Could you just wait, I am-”

“Luhan! Do I hear you being mean and impatient with my precious little granddaughter?”

The young parent groaned inwardly, turning around to face his mother who had just entered the kitchen.

“I was just being assertive.” Luhan blinked innocently, as she shook her head in slight disapproval. 

“Well, you are doing it wrong then-” the woman mentioned simply, while wearing a pair of gloves to take out the pie she was baking from the oven. “-If you were putting your assertiveness correctly, where is Taeyeon then? I know it is something that is not easy to ask for but you should at least try to visit as a group of three, your father had been commenting about the lack of visits from his daughter in law.”

Luhan sighed at the mention of his wife, using a hand to affectionately pat innocent Hyeri’s head, who had on a confused expression as she could not understand the conversation. “Taeyeon had work Mom, she came back just last week from break and it’s not nice for her to ask for leave from work again so soon.”

“Okay I understand that, but how is the relationship between the both of you now?”

Luhan went into a reflective quiet at his mother’s question, taking a moment to think before slowly speaking.

“It is… better I suppose… we do talk more often now, as compared to a few months earlier.”

And it was the truth honestly; Luhan had noticed the slight changes in Taeyeon’s general behaviour after returning home with Hyeri. He didn’t know what had happened during the absence of his wife and daughter, but Taeyeon had definitely changed during the visit back to her maiden home – the young mother was nicer, more thoughtful, talkative and approachable; it was as if she had returned to the nice high school girl that Luhan had fallen for years ago.

Taeyeon was greeting Luhan every day before work and after work, cooking nice meals all the time and picking up conversation about Luhan’s and Hyeri’s day. It was a welcome change, Taeyeon had on her pretty smile more often, Luhan liked that but he couldn’t help feeling unsure. Was it just a phase as she was guilty for leaving with Hyeri, or just an attempt to make Hyeri’s childhood more complete with happy parents? Or was she finally responding to Luhan’s previous attempts of trying to save their failing relationship?

 Luhan didn’t know what to think, if it had happened earlier, he would not be feeling so troubled, he would be happier even, for he had practically given up on trying to revive his family of three. However, he had Sehun now, a young beautiful boy with a pure heart, who was in love with him. Luhan loved the boy too, he had fallen too deep into their bonds to give up their relationship and he couldn’t bear to break the boy’s heart. Not to mention, Kai would end their friendship and come after his life with a furious vengeance. It was a huge mess and no matter what Luhan did, he was sure someone would be painfully hurt in the end, and he didn’t want that.   

“Luhan, I said your pie is getting cold.”

“Oh.” The male blinked back to reality, looking at the pastry that