I woke up the next morning in my bed. It wouldn’t have been an issue except for the fact that CAP and I had fallen asleep on the couch last night. Speaking of CAP, he was nowhere to be found. By the time I was awake enough to function, my phone was ringing. Apparently, thinking about the devil made him call because it was CAP’s name on the ID.

“Good morning Sleepyhead,” he said when I answered. In spite of myself, I smiled. It was nice to hear him joking.

“Some of us don’t have the work ethic you do,” I replied. “Where’d you go so early in the morning?”

“Hi mommy,” I heard in the background.

“I went to get Min Ki,” CAP explained.

“How do you know where my mom lives?”

His signature old man chuckle floated over the line. “I called her from your phone this morning. I hope that was okay.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“We’ll be home in a few minutes.”

“Bye mommy.”

“I’ll see you guys later.”

“CAP, I’m not too sure about this anymore,” I said quietly.

“It’s just a couple of pictures Yaya. The house needs some decoration, don’t you think?”

My mind latched on to only parts of his statement. One was that he called me Yaya. Somehow, he’d managed not to address me directly since we’d gotten together so it was strange to hear him call me by my old nickname. I don’t know exactly what I’d been expecting but it wasn’t that. The second was that he said the house. Not yours, or ours, but the. What was that supposed to mean?”

“Come back here Min Ki,” I called to the toddler who was getting too close to an expensive looking piece of equipment.

CAP and I had decided to get some family portraits done. Part of me thought it was a little on the corny side, but I could see the point of doing it. First of all, it kind of solidified what CAP and I were doing. We were together and a family now. Secondly, it was just a little bit tacky to come out with this using a self taken picture. The whole world was about to blow up, so why not do it in style?

Half an hour later there were digital prints on a flash drive on CAP’s key ring. Now we were on our way to see Andy who wasn’t exactly thrilled with our choice. I guess he recognized that we were dead set in doing this because he offered no resistance when we got to his office. He wasn’t particularly warm however, nor did I expect him to be.

I let the men handle whatever they were going to do with the pictures and the story and went down to the practice room where I knew the others were. They were all happy for an excuse to take a break. Ricky and Changjo decided they were going to start Min Ki’s idol training learning by teaching him one of their dances. Niel played overseer and the two older ones came and sat with me.

L.Joe was quickly becoming one of my favorites. Something about him was just so chill even if he was a little shy around me. I chalked it up to the fact that they didn’t spend much time outside of these four walls but the others had warmed up quickly enough.

“Hey noona?”

“Yes L.Joe?”

“Do you…can I ask you something?”

“Sure. What is it?”

He looked at the floor, then between me and Chunji, and back at the floor. Chunji got the hint and went to join the dance class that had turned into a full scale production. I had to laugh. These boys were undeniably under Min Ki’s spell. If I didn’t watch out, they were going to spoil him as badly as both grandmothers were trying to.

L.Joe and I watched the scene for a while before he got up the nerve to try again. “Noona, what’s it like?”

I was thoroughly confused. “You’re going to have to be a bit more specific than that L.Joe.”

“You and hyung…being together, having a kid-what’s that like?”

I shrugged. What was I supposed to tell him? I regarded the boy before me. When I first learned about him, he was barely 18 years old. Now he was 22, a man really, and he was asking me something very serious. I didn’t want to give him any false hope, since it was obvious he had a reason for asking, and I also didn’t want to discourage him from whatever he had on his mind.

“It’s…I don’t know what to tell you,” I answered honestly. I saw his shoulders slump, but I continued on. “CAP and I aren’t a traditional couple. I mean, think about how we met. The feelings are real, I know that, but it’s difficult. Even without this added drama of the scandal, it’s still hard. We were just getting to know each other when I left and it’s kind of like we’re right back there but we don’t have the time to go about it slowly. It’s a learning process in a sense.”

He nodded, mulling over what I said in his head. “Do you regret it? Leaving, I mean?”

Did I regret it? I repeated in my head. “Yes…and no. I can’t live with regrets. If I do that I’ll never move past where I am now. At the same time, a lot of this could have been avoided, or at least been less severe if I’d just stayed and took care of my business. You know the saying about hindsight being 20/20? I can’t really say whether I regret it or not. I’m here now.” I thought about it for a moment before adding, “I am who I am now because of the things I did in my past. I like who I am, so I’m willing to take the rest of it as it comes.”

“That was encouraging.”

CAP’s voice almost made me jump out of my seat. I hadn’t even noticed him come in the room. L.Joe nodded his assent and quietly thanked me before going over to the other boys, complaining loudly that they were teaching him wrong. The sudden mood change was jarring but I let it go. CAP and I sat for a while watching them confuse our poor child.

“How’d it go?” I finally asked.

“As well as can be hoped,” he answered. “We’ll see how everyone else reacts when the story comes out in a couple hours.”

“Is it cool if we hang out here? I don’t want to go home by myself.”

I saw the corners of his mouth lift up a bit. “I don’t mind.” He turned to the others and raised his voice a bit. “What do you guys think about noona and Min Ki staying with us for the rest of the day?”

The boys cheered so I took that as a sign that they didn’t mind. Smiling, I took Min Ki from Changjo as they went back to seriously practicing. Seeing them working so hard up close was an eye opening experience. For the first time, I was truly appreciating how much effort they put into their work. My heart was going to break for them if I caused them to lose this.

Hours passed by quickly and soon CAP and I were making our way back to the house, Min Ki knocked out on the backseat. Although it was fairly late, I was surprised by the amount of people on our block-something that was unusual. That’s when I sat up really straight. All these people were strangers, mostly girls with camera phones and determined scowls on their faces.

“CAP…”

“I see them.”

Damn fangirls. Or antis…I think the fangirls are scarier. “Let’s just get this over with,” I said as we braced ourselves to get out the car.

I opened the car door and looked around. The group of girls had continued down the street with a shriek. CAP and I shared a look but I wasn’t going to question it. We made it inside as quickly as possible and locked the door behind us. I put Min Ki to bed and went to the living room with CAP.

“What’s going on out there?” I asked him.

“Someone more important must be out and about,” he mused. “Let’s not worry about it and go to bed, okay?”

I nodded. Slipping into bed next to CAP was the best part about the end of the day. It was comforting and he made me feel safe. I hadn’t had that feeling since that day with Baro when he gave me that ring. I shifted my position to clear my head. No. No more Baro.

“Good night CAP.”

He kissed the top of my head. “Good night Yaya.”