Chapter 12
A fist connected with the left side of Keiji’s face. He stumbled backwards, falling to the floor and immediately feeling the loss of Jin Ri being connected to him. He winced as he touched his cheek and looked up, only to find mere air.

“What a hit!” a laughing voice remarked.

Keiji felt himself being lifted up. When he had stood up and saw who was helping him, he immediately pushed the person away.

“You better have that iced,” Donghae commented, nodding towards his bruising cheek, looking satisfied.

“That’s twice now, Lee,” Keiji sputtered, tasting blood from his inner cheek, reminding him of the first instance that he had punched him.

“Well you deserved it both times,” Donghae shot back.

“What did I do to you this time?” Keiji asked defiantly.

“You have some nerve…” Donghae began, clenching his fist. But he held himself back, even though he wanted to do nothing more but punch him again. “Do you have any idea what you just did? You kissed a married woman, who is my friend, who is married to someone whom I consider my family. You don’t get away with doing things like that.”

“So you’ve been following me around, hoping to catch me doing something wrong just so you can punch me?” Keiji wondered aloud, resentment evident in his tone.

Donghae smirked. “As much as I would like to take credit of the growing bruise on your cheek, I can’t,” he told him. “Although I would have done the same if Sica hadn’t done it.”

“Je—Jessica did this?” Keiji growled in surprise.

“She did,” Donghae declared with a proud smile. He had called Jessica after the shoot and she mentioned that she was going to the studio to visit them. He followed after her and witnessed her punching Keiji in the face with all her might. Anyone who knew Jessica very well would know that she wasn’t someone you could threaten without her doing anything about it. She looked and seemed fragile. But she wasn’t any of those things, especially when it involved people she cared about.

Donghae narrowed his eyes at him. “You better watch who you push around, Keiji,” he warned. “We’ve let you mess with Kyuhyun and Jin Ri for too long now. With what you’ve just done, we won’t let this slide.”

“And what exactly are you going to do about it?” Keiji challenged, smirking. Before Donghae could respond, he continued, “There’s a lot going on that none of you know anything about. If you or anyone else meddling don’t want to get hurt, I suggest you stay out of it.”

Donghae did the only thing he could think of at that moment and punched him again.

~ * ~

Jessica bit her lip as she watched Jin Ri cry quietly. She was seated on the sofa in the corner of the room, hunched over, her hands covering her face.

After running out of the studio, Jessica had brought her to an empty room to help her calm down. She had come to the company to pick up some stuff from their manager when she heard that Super Junior M was having their photo shoot. Deciding to visit, she went straight to the studio she was directed to by one of the staff. She had walked in and was startled to find Keiji and Jin Ri in a lip-lock. Without thinking, she had stridden towards them and punched Keiji as hard as she could. Now her hand hurt, but she was sure it was nothing compared to how Jin Ri was feeling.

Sighing, she sat down beside her and put an arm around her friend, hoping to make her feel better even if it’s just a little bit.

“Ri, I’m sorry,” Jessica softly pacified her.

Jin Ri wiped her face and turned to her, a small smile on her face. “It’s not your fault,” she told her, shaking her head. “If anything, I should thank you.” She let out a breath and chuckled in sarcasm. “I really should have told Kyuhyun about Keiji and I when I had the chance. Now everything’s just messed up.”

“I can’t exactly blame you for not telling him,” Jessica stated with a soft sigh. “It’s not easy telling people about Keiji and how he worms himself into your life.” She really had a lot of regrets where Keiji was concerned.

“Were you and Keiji…?” Jin Ri pressed, but trailed away, not wanting to pry. If she had wanted to tell her about her relationship with him, she would have done so right from the beginning. But she sensed that there was something bad that had happened that she didn’t want to share to just anyone.

“My relationship with Keiji isn’t exactly something that I’m proud of,” Jessica began, meeting Jin Ri’s eyes. “The other girls don’t even know about him. Only Taeyeon does.” Smiling and shaking her head, she continued, “It was like a whirlwind romance. He swept me off my feet and I swooned without stopping to think.” She bit her lip and looked at her hands as she played with it. “I’d been struggling with some feelings and it just so happened that Keiji was there at a time when I wanted affection, some reciprocation of the feelings I didn’t know what to do about.” Sighing, she finished, “I was stupid.”

“Sica,” Jin Ri started, reaching for her hand and squeezing it to offer some form of comfort.

“It wasn’t easy telling Heechul oppa and Donghae oppa about him,” Jessica went on. “Especially Donghae oppa.” She could still remember Donghae’s face when she had told him. It wasn’t pleasant. He didn’t look happy.

“You know him better than I do,” Jin Ri assured her. “Donghae oppa is not one to judge. He’s very careful with showing feelings.”

Jessica chuckled, almost in sarcasm. “Exactly my point,” she confirmed.

Confusion flitted over Jin Ri’s face as she tried to decipher what she had meant by that. When Jessica met her eyes, a sudden realization washed over her.

“Sica, are you—?” Jin Ri started to ask.

But the door opened and Donghae walked in, cutting short whatever she wanted to ask Jessica. Jin Ri stood up and bravely met Donghae’s eyes. She knew that he disapproved very much the way she was handling the whole thing with Keiji and Kyuhyun. It surprised her, though, that he hadn’t told Kyuhyun yet like he had said he would.

“Kyuhyun’s looking for you,” Donghae told Jin Ri. “I told him I would get you for him.” Jin Ri nodded. She looked at Jessica and gave a smile of appreciation for her help. “What happened, Ri?” he demanded gently.

“He wants something from me that I can’t give,” Jin Ri explained quietly.

“You know what I’m going to say, right?” he responded, making her meet his eyes. “You should tell him. Tell him before things get even more out of hand than it already is.” She sighed. “He is going to get mad. Because you should have told him right from the beginning.”

“Oppa,” Jessica stopped him from saying any more. “She will tell him.”

“I’m just trying to find the right timing,” Jin Ri confirmed what Jessica said.

“Ri, I love you and Kyuhyun and I’m telling you this type of secrets aren’t any good,” Donghae insisted. “Kyuhyun’s—.”

“Hey,” Kyuhyun greeted, walking in and interrupting them unintentionally. He took one look at Jin Ri, who had stood up, for him to know that something wasn’t right. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Jin Ri immediately answered before Jessica or Donghae could even open their mouths.

The two girls exchanged a look then Jin Ri looked at Donghae, immediately looking away after feeling guilty about what he said.

“You’re not okay,” Kyuhyun pointed out, sure of himself. There were tear streaks that lined her pretty face.

“I want to go to the doctor,” Jin Ri suddenly said, knowing that Kyuhyun would approve. He had been trying to get her to see the doctor for days, but she always refused. “I think it’s time I had myself checked up on whatever virus I got.”

“Let’s go,” Kyuhyun agreed at once, forgetting his earlier concern. He put an arm around her, giving a smile to Jessica and Donghae as he lead his wife out of the room.

Jessica had just stood up to follow after them when Donghae stopped her. She gave him a curious look.

“Are you alright?” Donghae sincerely asked, looking into her eyes.

“You should be asking Jin Ri that,” Jessica said, smiling a little. “But yes, I’m alright.”

Unexpectedly, Donghae reached for the hand that she had used to hit Keiji. The skin on her knuckles was torn and bleeding. In reflex, she moved to remove her hand from his, but he stopped her.

Instead, he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it, surprising her.

~ * ~

“I’m really unhappy that you’re feeling unwell like this,” Kyuhyun stated as he and Jin Ri walked inside their house.

He brought her to the bedroom and made her lie down on the bed, insisting that she should not do anything for the rest of the day and just rest. He sat down on the edge of the bed, frowning at her.

“How can you make frowning look so hot?” Jin Ri teasingly asked, intertwining her hand with his and squeezing it to assure him that she was fine.

“I’m serious, princess,” he went on, a bit sternly. “You should take a couple of days off from work.”

“If I could do that, I would,” she told him, chuckling at his idea. There were a lot of scheduled shoots that she had to do. She couldn’t afford to take even one day off.

“Why not? I’m going to take a couple of days off so that I can take care of you,” he told him. “How am I going to do that if you’re not going to be home?”

“How are you going to do that with Super Junior M coming back?” she pointed out, raising her eyebrows in inquiry. He pouted when he realized he’d forgotten about that. “Kyu, I’m fine. You heard what the doctor said. I just need to get some rest and stress less.”

“I’ve never heard of stress making one throw up all the time,” he said, shaking his head and kissing her hand, his eyebrows furrowed.

“My seobang is so y when worried,” she commented, smiling a little. She gently grabbed his collar and pulled him down so that she could kiss him.

“So are you saying I should look worried more often?” he responded, eagerly kissing her back.

“Maybe,” she giggled.

She hadn’t intended to initiate anything more than a kiss. But when their kiss intensified and he positioned himself so that he was on top of her, she didn’t stop him. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, in efforts to pull him even closer. In turn, he wrapped one of his arms around her, the other hand caressing her leg and her backside on top of all the clothing that she still had on.

“I really like this making-a-baby activity,” he pronounced after a while, in between heated kisses, lifting her dress up. “It’s very—.”

“Stop talking, seobang,” she interrupted him, swallowing his words in another passionate lip-lock.

He acquiesced without hesitation. He the bed, lying flat on his back so that she was on top. By this time, his shirt lay forgotten on the floor, while her dress was hitched up almost to her waist.

Kyuhyun was in the process of removing her dress, when Jin Ri suddenly grabbed his arm, stopping him. She got off the bed in one movement and rushed to the bathroom. He sat up in confusion as she ran. They were just about to get to the good part, after all.

After a couple of seconds, he heard sounds of her throwing up.

Sighing, he got off the bed, not bothering to put his shirt back on, and walked to the bathroom. His wife was hunched over the sink once more, something he’d been seeing far too often in the past days. She turned the faucet on and gargled with water to remove the after taste of her vomit.

Wrapping his arms around her waist from the back, he kissed her right shoulder. “This is why I’m really unhappy about you being unwell like this,” he declared softly. "We get interrupted when things are just getting good." He pouted.

“I’m sorry, seobang,” she told him, turning around in his arms and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Don’t call me seobang,” he said, shaking his head.

“Why not?” she asked, frowning, surprised at what he said. As far as she knew, Kyuhyun had always wanted her to call him something else other than his name, just like the way he called her. She knew he wanted to be called something that she would never call anyone else, to feel special. Seobang had just come to her one day and he liked it very much. So now, Kyuhyun was seobang.

“Because when you call me seobang I always want to do not so wholesome things to you, especially after what we were just doing,” he answered in a small voice, looking almost embarrassed. He really liked it that his wife finally found a nickname for him. Seobang may be an old-fashioned name for husband, but he didn’t care. When Jin Ri used it, it made him feel so special and so manly.

He was pouting in the cutest manner that she just had to giggle. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “Oh seobang,” she teased. “You know I don’t mind that you always want to do those not so wholesome things to me.”

“So then we can continue?” he asked, almost giddily, sliding his hands down her arms and dangerously low on her hips.

“I don’t feel so good,” she told him regretfully. She hoped that she could already be free of whatever disease that she had acquired. Maybe she should really consider taking a few days off and get some of the much-needed rest that the doctor mentioned she should have.

He sighed and nodded, leading her back to the bedroom, where he picked up his shirt from the floor and put it on.

Randomly, he thought out loud, “Isn’t throwing up something that pregnant ladies do?” He froze and turned around to face his wife. “Princess, maybe you’re pregnant!!!”

Jin Ri laughed at the adorably happy look on her husband’s face. It was too bad that she had to rain on his parade. She walked towards him and started fixing the collar of his shirt, like a good wife would.

“You know I would love for that to happen,” she earnestly stated, looking into his eyes. “But I’m not yet pregnant. The doctor would have said something. Besides, my period’s due in a couple of days.” She chuckled and gave him a kiss when he looked disappointed. “We’ll have little Kyuhyuns in no time.”

“And little Jin Ris?” he asked, a hopeful look on his face as he wrapped his arms around her. “I want little Jin Ris too. And they’ll run around the house and we’ll chase after them, hoping we don’t destroy any furniture in the process.” He nodded contentedly like a little boy.

“And little Jin Ris. Mischievous little Kyuhyuns and little Jin Ris running around the house,” she agreed, touching his cheek affectionately. Kids made Kyuhyun so happy and she wanted nothing more than to fulfill that desire of his, to have a big family.

“Promise?” he cheekily insisted.

“Promise,” she answered without hesitation. Encircling her arms around his neck, she thoughtfully went on, teasingly, “I’ve been thinking of some names, actually. What do you think of Yong Jae for our son? And maybe Mi Cha for our daughter?”

“You’re going to need a lot more names than that, princess,” he snickered, giving her a kiss on the lips.

“Well I’m not going to get pregnant with 11 kids all in one go,” she shot back, rolling her eyes. “We can think of the other names later.”

“What do you think of Tassadar, Fenix or Artanis?” he mused. She blinked then stared at him. “I really like those names. I was thinking that we don’t have to give our kids the conventional Korean names, you know. Arcturus is also an interesting name.”

“We are NOT naming our kids after StarCraft characters!” she declared rather violently, shaking her head wildly. She pushed herself away from him and slapped his arm.

“Princess, when have you started not being able to differentiate a joke from the truth?” he teased, pulling her closer to him once more. He chuckled at her reaction. “I want our first kid to be named Hyun Jin. Cho Hyun Jin. Sounds good, right?”

“Sounds cheesy is more like it,” she told him, fighting hard not to laugh. “Kyu, why do you think of all these names? Hyun Jin? Really? Combining our names?”

“Hyun Jin is a real name, in case you don’t know,” he retorted. “It just so happens that it has both our names in it. Cho Hyun Jin,” he repeated proudly. “It sounds nice.”

“And what if our first child’s going to be a girl?” she wanted to know, raising her eyebrows at him.

“Then she’ll be a girl Cho Hyun Jin,” he answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Our kids are going to suffer so much,” she muttered, shaking her head.

Kyuhyun looked like he was about to protest violently so Jin Ri pressed her lips to his, silencing him.

“Hyun Jin is a nice name,” Kyuhyun insisted when they had pulled away.

“I never said it wasn’t,” she replied, laughing at how he was making it into such a big deal.

“But you don’t want to name our kid that,” he pressed, looking at her curiously and expectantly.

“I only said that we’re not naming our kids after anything related to StarCraft. Besides, we have time to think of names,” she pacified him, kissing him again to distract him. “I love you, seobang.”

He groaned. “I told you not to call me seobang!”

“But I just changed my mind,” she stated, innocently blinking. “I was thinking that now is a good time for you to do those not so wholesome things to me,” she suggested, smiling seductively as she pulled him towards the bed.

She didn’t need to say anything more.

They were already too busy doing something else.