Christy’s POV

“Inguk, where are you going? Come back here!” Taemin yelled as he chased Inguk through the house. It’s been a couple of days since he’s been staying here with us and it’s finally the weekend. Thankfully, after the first day, Inguk finally opened up to all of us and now he is freely playing with Taemin.

Onew, on the other hand, hasn’t been so up to speed on the whole taking care of a toddler type thing. He’s slower on the uptake and like I thought, he stays way from Inguk most of the time. I knew that he would probably be like that when the baby arrives, which is why I convinced him to take his mother’s offer and look after Inguk for a while. He could learn to open up a bit to children.

Sitting on the couch, I just laughed at the site in front of me. I can tell that Taemin is going to be a really good playmate to our baby because of the way that he plays with Inguk now. “Gotcha!” Taemin yells as he grabs Inguk and rolls around on the ground with him.

“No, no, no,” Inguk says as he attempts to get out of Taemin’s embrace, but laughing all the same.

“Why aren’t you playing, too?” I ask Onew as he sits down next to me. His behavior has still not changed and slowly, I’m becoming used to it and letting him just do what he wants. It’s better than objecting against it and having him just tell me a thousand reasons why he wanted to do it, most of them being because I’m his wife. Still, that doesn’t explain all of his strange behavior.

“Taemin seems like he has it under control,” Onew says watching them as they’re now sitting on the floor and playing with a truck.

“Where did the rest of them go?” I ask.

“They went out to get food,” he simply says. “It’s nearing dinnertime, did you not notice?”

“I guess not,” I say with a light laugh.

“Well, just know that today is Friday and it’s dinnertime,” Onew says laughing at me.

“Yeah, thanks,” I say rolling my eyes as I pay attention to Inguk and Taemin on the floor.

Suddenly, the doorbell rings. “I’ll get it,” Onew says getting off the couch. “What are you guys doing here?” I hear him ask.

“Who’s there?” I ask turning around to see who’s coming in.

“Is this Inguk?” Nicole asks as she comes in the living room.

“Yeah, but wait, how do you already know his name?” I ask. Nicole, Changmin, and Raina enter the room. I don’t know why Raina is with them, but she apparently is and she comes in. I would’ve thought that Changmin wouldn’t let her in, but maybe Onew overruled his decision.

I’m still apprehensive about Onew and Raina’s relationship. Are they really dating? Sure Onew sometimes shows a loving side to me and he acts cheesy and does all of those things, but is it really genuine? I can never rule out the possibility that Onew and Raina are possibly an item. Does she know about the agreement between us?

“Hey,” Changmin says sitting down on the other side of me. “Is this Inguk?”

“Yeah, it’s Inguk,” I say. “Are you guys sticking around for dinner? Key, Jonghyun, and Minho went out to get some.”

“Alright,” Nicole happily says as she sits on the floor and begins playing with Inguk. I turn to look at Raina who is simply sitting on the chair and not doing anything, just sitting there. Is she nervous to be in the house or does she not want to be here?

“Onew,” I say grabbing his attention.

“Yeah?” he asks as he takes a seat on the other side of me. Why isn’t he sitting next to Raina?

“Call Key and them and tell them to get more food,” I instruct.

Onew’s POV

I get up off of the couch once again and make my way to the kitchen to tell them to get more food. I have no absolute idea why any of them are in my house right now. I especially don’t know why Raina is in the house. Did Changmin bring her along?

Speaking of, I hope he’s not attempting to do anything to Christy. Within the last couple of days, I’ve been acting more like a loving husband to Christy hoping she would at least get a hint, but she hasn’t. She thinks that I’m just weird for doing it. Maybe I should step it up, but with Changmin, Nicole, and Raina here, it gets pretty difficult.

“Onew, do you want something?” Jonghyun asks picking up his phone.

“Get more food, we have some unexpected guests over,” I tell him.

“Who?”

“Changmin, Nicole, and Raina,” I hesitantly say.

“What?” Key asks getting on the phone.

“Key, what are you doing?” I ask him.

“Why are they there? I thought tonight was supposed to be just us hanging out with Inguk before we go on a trip tomorrow,” he complains.

“Trip, what trip?” I ask.

“Oops, I wasn’t supposed to say anything,” Key quickly says. “You’ll see, but now they ruin the whole plan.”

“What plan?” I ask as I get more confused by the second.

“Oh, never mind,” Key says. I hear a shuffling on the phone and I can only guess that he gave the phone to Jonghyun.

“We’ll be home soon,” Jonghyun says hanging up the phone before I can ask any more questions. Just what are they planning?

“What did they say?” Christy asks as I come back into the living room.

“They said ok,” I say sitting down next to her. I don’t tell her anything about tomorrow and I wonder what Key is planning. He’s probably been planning this for quite a while.

Silently, I sit on the couch while Christy talks with Changmin. I’m feeling uneasy about him being here, but I don’t let it be known to Christy or anyone else for that matter.

I don’t know how long I’ve been sitting in silence, but Raina turns to me and she speaks the first words that she has in quite a while. “Onew, can I speak with you?”

“Sure,” I tell her.

“Can we talk privately?”

“Yeah, no problem,” I say getting off the couch. “Let’s go outside, shall we?”

Raina nods her head and we both escape to the outside to talk privately. I have no idea what she wants to say to me. There are a thousand instances that are roaming through my mind on what could possibly happen, but it doesn’t hurt to speak to one another, we have a lot of things that neither one of us had said in the last time we talked to each other, which was when she was insulting me, but I can manage to look past that.

Somehow, I find myself being slightly awkward around Raina now knowing that she knows how Christy is pregnant and we’re married, but then again, the whole school knows thanks to Nicole. And because of that, now everyone always asks me questions about it, sometimes even the questions degrade Christy, so I don’t respond no matter what the question is. I guess I’m slowly outcasting myself from everyone, and there’s Nicole to thank for that, but still, I’m the leader of SHINee, I won’t go down so easily.

I won’t go down when everyone’s bothering me about the pregnancy and the marriage and I’m definitely not going to go down when it comes to Changmin.

Christy’s POV

I watch as Onew and Raina leave to go outside. So I guess they must be dating if they’re escaping from everyone else. I can’t help but feel a little deflated knowing that they really are.

“Don’t worry about them,” Changmin says giving me a smile.

“Yeah,” I say smiling back to him.

“Oh, Nicole, is there anything you want to say to Christy?” he asks suddenly turning to her.

“I’m sorry,” Nicole says looking at me. “I’m sorry that I told everyone about your marriage and pregnancy.”

“No problem,” I say attempting to ease up the somewhat tense atmosphere. “It was bound to happen anyway, people were going to figure out.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t mean to just blurt it right out in front of anyone,” she says.

“I forgive you,” I tell her. “Now stop stressing over it, I’m perfectly fine.”

When I first heard about Nicole telling everyone about me being pregnant and married to Onew, of course I was mad at first. I mean, is that something that can just casually come up in a conversation with other people that I probably didn’t know? Sure, I get that it was a mistake and then again, it was Nicole that spread it and she has a habit of not being able to control .

“Okay, just making sure,” Changmin says as he puts his arm around my shoulder. I can suspect that Taemin saw it and now I’m slightly nervous for who knows what reason. Am I nervous because of Changmin’s arm around me or am I nervous because Taemin saw the action?

“Bang!” Inguk yells breaking the silence. “Bang!”

“Ah, you got me,” Taemin says as he puts his hand to his chest and crashes onto the floor. “Ah, I died. Inguk, now what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to rescue you,” he says as he goes over and sits on Taemin.

“Ah, Inguk, you saved me!” Taemin yells sitting up and grabbing him, only to lie right back down again with Inguk trapped into his arms.

“Are you nervous about being a parent?” Changmin asks as he watches the sight of Taemin and Inguk together.

“Isn’t everyone always nervous?” I ask.

“True.”

“But the baby won’t be here for a while, I have time to prepare myself.”

“Are you concerned about Onew?”

“Should I be?” I ask sighing as I unconsciously turn to look at the door that I know he’s standing out in front of. “I’m sure his fatherly instincts will come through once the baby arrives. Right now, he’s just slightly awkward with Inguk, but I’m sure they’ll become close.”

“Of course they will, don’t doubt it for a second,” Changmin whispers to me. “And don’t forget that I’ll always be here for you, too.”

“Thank you,” I say turning to look at him in his eyes.

For a moment, I find myself staring in his eyes. I don’t know what it is about them, but I just find myself getting lost in them sometimes. I feel my heartbeat quicken and I quickly turn my head hoping that he doesn’t notice anything.

“Is someone embarrassed?” he whispers into my ear so Nicole and Taemin don’t hear it. Apparently he did notice.

“N-n-no,” I stutter.

“It’s alright to be embarrassed, I know I’m a good looking guy,” he continues whispering as he chuckles a bit.

“Of course you are,” I say rolling my eyes at him as he simply smiles.

Onew’s POV

“What do you want to talk about?” I ask her.

“I just want to apologize about how I acted before,” she says looking down at the ground and not even looking at me. “I want to apologize about how I insulted Christy. Honestly, when I found out that you guys were married and that she was pregnant, I was upset and angry.”

“Why?” I curiously ask. “You never liked me before, so why would you be upset and angry at her?”

“Because I never was on good terms with her,” Raina says. “As you probably know, Christy and I don’t have the best relationship out there.”

“Don’t worry, I already know,” I tell her, “but why? Why did you guys become like this?”

“Because of you,” she simply states.

“Me?” I ask confused. Why in the world would they become this way because of me? “Why me?”

“Because she always had you and I was…jealous,” Raina says sighing. “I was jealous that you two were best friends, always hanging out with each other and doing everything together. I was jealous of you two because I wanted to be next to you.”

I digest everything that I’m hearing. She was jealous of Christy because she was close to me? Just because we’re good friends and our parents are friends, she was jealous because of that?

“It’s stupid, I know,” Raina says as she looks up, but she still avoids eye contact with me.

I don’t know what comes over me, but I reach out and I hug her. “It’s not stupid,” I tell her while I’m hugging her. “It’s not stupid at all. Thank you for apologizing and telling me.”

Slowly, I feel her arms snake around me. “I’m sorry that I said such mean things about you and Christy.”

“It’s alright,” I say patting her back. We keep in that position until we hear voices that bring us back to reality.

“Onew, what are you doing?” Jonghyun asks. Immediately Raina and I pull away from each other to be met with awkward stares from Key, Jonghyun, and Minho.

“Nothing,” I say looking at them. “I was simply giving her a comforting hug.”

“Right,” Key says rolling his eyes as he shoves his way past Raina and me. “We brought dinner; let’s just go inside before it gets cold.”

The five of us enter the house to see Nicole, Taemin, and Inguk playing. I spot Changmin and Christy on the couch with Changmin’s arm around her shoulder and Christy’s head resting on his shoulder. Somehow the sight angers me.

“We have food,” Minho announces to everyone. Inguk stops playing and runs over to Minho. “Are you hungry?” Minho asks holding him up. “The hyungs are going to get your food out, so just wait a little while longer, alright?”

I turn my eyes to Changmin and Christy as I see Changmin inching his arm away from Christy’s shoulder and acting like he didn’t do anything. Why can Christy see his affection for her but she can’t see mine? Is it because he is the one that she has always had in her sights while I’m just her friend?

“Hyung, here’s your food,” Taemin says handing me a box of chicken.

“Oh, thanks,” I say taking the box from him.

“Are you alright?” he asks.

“Yeah, I’ve never been better, why do you ask?”

“I don’t know. Is it because Inguk is around?”

“No,” I say shaking my head. It’s not because Inguk’s around, it’s because Changmin is around.

Christy’s POV

Everyone grabs their meal and sits around the living room. Onew takes his seat right beside me and I want to ask him what he and Raina were talking about, but wouldn’t that be an invasion of his relationship? I mean, even if Changmin and I aren’t in a relationship, Onew never asks me what we talk about. Does that mean that he doesn’t really care about me?

“Christy, clear off your schedule tomorrow,” Key says to me.

“Why?” I ask.

“Because we’re going to go out with Inguk,” he says.

“Oh, okay,” I say nodding my head. “It is the first weekend that he’s staying here so he won’t have to go to school or anything.”

“Exactly,” he says with a smile as if I were reading his mind.

“Do I have to come?” Onew asks. I can’t tell if he doesn’t want to come because he already has a plan with Raina or if he doesn’t want to go because he and Inguk haven’t really warmed up to each other yet.

“Of course you have to come,” Key says. “You and Inguk have to get closer to each other.”

“Isn’t it funny how awkward Onew is with him?” Nicole asks. Everyone stops what they’re doing and just stares at her. I bet Key thinks that she’s crazy, he does anyway, but even more so since she just said that and tonight is the first night that she actually ever saw Inguk. How could she just say that?

“Um…yeah,” Changmin says doing his best to break up the awkward atmosphere. “Anyway, Christy your birthday is coming up soon, right?”

“Yeah,” I say nodding my head. “In October, why?”

“Just wondering,” he says shrugging his shoulders as he goes back to inhaling food. He just loves food that I’m even surprised he began talking.

“Do you want something for your birthday, noona?” Taemin asks looking at me.

“You don’t have to get anything for me,” I say shaking my head.

“But noona,” Taemin whines.

“It’s alright,” I say looking at everyone. “I don’t need anything.”

“Of course you don’t,” Jonghyun says rolling his eyes. I don’t understand what that means.

Throughout the birthday talk, I take a glance at Onew and he just keeps eating. It makes me wonder if he even knew that my birthday was coming up. Does he even know when it is? He probably does since we always used to celebrate it when we were younger, but the more I think about it, we did everything together when we were younger, so that doesn’t mean that he actually knows when my birthday is.

Why am I even thinking about it this much? Why should it matter to me if Onew remembers my birthday or not? He has Raina, doesn’t he? He should pay attention to her and I’ll pay attention to Changmin. I don’t even know why I’m worrying about him again, anyway, I thought I wasn’t going to.

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Where is Key planning on taking them? How will Jonghyun, Key, and Minho react to Onew's hug with Raina? What will happen between Changmin and Christy? Is Raina sincere about her apology? Where does Nicole fit? Will Onew be able to become close with Inguk? What are the guys planning for Christy's birthday?

Here is Chapter 23. Hope you enjoyed :D

And I guess you guys really want the baby to be a boy since the numbers are climbing higher for a boy than a girl. See the previous chapter for the poll on whether you want the baby to be a boy or a girl.

This time around, I have a different poll. No, I'm not planning on finishing the story anytime soon, there are plenty of things that still need to happen, but just out of curosity, when do you think it should end? Like when the baby is still a baby, a toddler, a year old? Or should I have a sequel? Hmm...I don't know. That's why I'm asking for all of your opinions :)

Vote below and what you vote isn't going to determine if the ending is going to come faster or slower. The ending will come when the ending comes. Just think, we're barely even halfway through Christy's pregnancy right now. There is plenty of story still left.