I needed somewhere to stay, especially since I was planning on sticking around so my mom came with me to help me find a place. I took it as a sign that I was growing up some that my mother and I were getting along. I wasn’t so angry at her anymore and it was nice to have some help with Min Ki who was being hyper for some reason. My suspicion was that my mom had given him some kind of sugary cereal but she refused to answer me when I asked.

The first place was smaller than I would have liked. I missed my little house in the country, but it was time for me to move on from that phase of my life. Right before lunch, I found a nice house that used to be some band’s dorm. There was definitely more than enough space and it was in a pretty nice neighborhood.

“That wasn’t too bad,” I said to my mom over lunch.

“No, and that place is cute. When are you going to move your stuff?”

“I’m not going to. It’s just me and this little one here. What’s left in the house here is fine.”

“Who was it that the landlord said lived there? Do you trust the cleanliness of that stuff?”

I had to laugh. Of course my mom would say something like that. “I think she said it was Infinite…I’ll make sure to clean everything before we sleep there.”

“That would make me feel a lot better.”

My mom had to go to work, so after lunch I took Min Ki to the park. Sitting on a bench, I watched him play with some other kids and made a list of all the things I needed to do.

First, I would need to clean up the new place some. We’d need new sheets, some basic toiletries and some pots and pans, along with some groceries. I needed to find a job and a daycare or preschool for Min Ki. Just thinking about my list made me tired.

My phone started vibrating and I had to search through random pieces of candy, pens, and notebook paper to find it in my page.

“Hello?”

“Is this Anna Paek?”

“Yes, this is she.”

“I have your paternity results at the lab. You may come by and get them when you’re ready.”

What if I’m never ready? I thought. “Okay. Thank you.”

Rushing wasn’t going to change anything, so I let Min Ki continue playing. I didn’t contact either of the boys until twenty minutes after I got the phone call.  Baro was ready to go right then, but CAP still had an hour left until he finished recording for some show. Personally, I was glad for the delay.

 I reached out to P.O. and his comment was ‘that was quick’. I’d been thinking that as well but I didn’t know that much about science to question anything. It was probably a good thing it all happened so quickly. I hadn’t had nearly enough time to stress myself out about it as I could have.

“Come on Minnie. It’s time to go.”

In that way children have, Min Ki’s selective hearing loss kicked in and he continued playing like I hadn’t said a word. I let him play a little while longer but I still had to force him to leave. He didn’t cry, thankfully, but he did pout for most of the bus ride. I hoped that not saying anything to him about it wouldn’t turn him into a brat.

We made our way to the lab and the nurse gave me a sympathetic smile. While we were waiting on the others, Min Ki shook off his attitude to tell me about all the kids he met and played with today. He was a talker, definitely, and the nurse echoed my thought when Min Ki decided he wanted to ask her about everything she was doing.

Baro made it ten minutes after we did, and CAP twenty minutes after him. Now that we were all together, a yellow envelope seemed to magically appear in the nurse’s hand, Min Ki fell suddenly quiet as though he knew something serious was going on.

“According to this, with 99.97% accuracy, the little one’s father is…”

It felt as though everything slowed down as I watched the nurse’s lips form the next words.

“…Bang Minsoo.”