So there she was again, roaming the streets of Seoul with nothing but only her luggage and bags and, a sum of money that could guaranteed her unknowing survival for a few days. Enough time perhaps, to find another shelter. Saehyun was sweating and her tummy was grumbling loudly signing that it needed to be fed. Observing the surrounding, there were numerous of restaurants in this area rating from the expensive looking one to the street food stalls but none of them attracted Saehyun’s attention until she saw the red-coloured restaurant at the end of the road. McDonalds’s.

Being a huge fan of unhealthy instant foods, Saehyun wasted no more time and rushed into the said restaurant to fulfil her needs. The line in front of the counter wasn’t crowded and she whispered out her gratitude for it because she probably couldn’t wait any longer at this rate of hunger. Saehyun took a glance at her watch and it was already half past five and maybe that was why people weren’t packed in here. It was too late for lunch and way too early for dinner. Nevertheless, it wasn’t really matter anyway.

As she pulled and placed her luggage and bags at the table near the window (her favourite place whenever she came to a restaurant), Saehyun indistinctly heard a voice, assumedly calling her but not really, because as to what it seemed there was no other woman in this restaurant currently other than her, but the voice was shouting ‘Mommy’?

“Hey,” someone greeted her from behind. Saehyun turned to see Baekhyun who was grinning with Yuhan in his arms, wearing blue baby jumpsuit and Hyemi at his side, holding masses of bags. “Oh, hello!” What a surprise! It had been weeks since the last time Saehyun met them and she never expect their next reunion would be in a McDonald’s Restaurant somewhere in Seoul but it didn’t mean that she wasn’t glad. Saehyun was eagerly happy to see them again and for once, the odds were in her favour.

Baekhyun offered to pay for her food (to which she vigorously nodded in agreement) and they spent approximately two hours in the restaurant talking about random things. And that included her job offer and what had happened to her today.

“Saehyun-ah, you should report this to the police! You shouldn’t take this easy! How dare he rob your money this way, if I ever meet that culprit I’ll beat him to pulp! I swear.” Saehyun was shocked at Baekhyun’s response after hearing about her apartment crisis. His face was all flushed in red, he looked extremely angry and Saehyun wouldn’t doubt that he would most likely killed Baron Sehyuk’s imposter if he got the chance.

“I want to report this case too, but the real landlord said that he will settle this up after he got back from his vacation, three days from now.” Saehyun didn’t dare to make eye contact with Baekhyun, at least not now. The way he acted earlier a tad frightening her but she still managed to sustain herself from squealing over how manly he was. Even if it sounded pretty odd to think so.

Sitting on her left side, her adored niece scooted closer towards her and gave Saehyun a warm hug. Hyemi’s action really melted her heart and cooled down the anger she felt earlier. “Poor Mom- Mama Saehyun! Where will you be staying now? If you stay outside, Aunt Saehyun will catch a cold and if Mama Saehyun caught a cold Mommy-ma Saehyun will feels bad.” The stuttering and various nicknames Hyemi called her made Saehyun giggled.

“Aunt Saehyun, Hyemi. Aunt Saehyun,” Baekhyun abruptly hissed at his daughter, correcting the call she gave for Saehyun. He might think that Saehyun would feel bothered with the call ‘Mama’ but no, she was far from being bothered. She kind of fancied it, it was a cute nickname after all. Mama Saehyun. So, why not?

 “No, it’s okay Baek! She can call me Mama Saehyun as she likes. I like that nickname too,” Saehyun smiled to assure her (ex) brother-in-law that she was utterly fine with it. Along with the permission, Hyemi gave her Dad a very satisfying look and jutted out her tongue in mocking. To her surprise, Baekhyun jutted out his tongue back as well causing her to chuckle at their childish behaviour.

When they were preparing to leave the restaurant, Baekhyun being a concern person he was, asked Saehyun about her next plan or the place she would stay afterwards. Saehyun pecked Yuhan’s cheek as she stood up with the baby secured in her hold, melancholy replied Baekhyun’s question with just a shrug.

“You can stay with me,” Baekhyun said as he assisted Saehyun by carrying her bags and luggage while she was holding Yuhan. “I mean, us! Well, that if you want to. At least until all of these problems got settled up?”

Maybe it was Saehyun’s fatigue overtook her view but, Baekhyun looked like he was blushing even though he was grinning cheekily and she couldn’t help but to think that his eyes were as cute as puppies when he invited her to stay with him; his family.

“I thought you never ask?” she chuckled in respond. The intent look Baekhyun gave her and the never-fading grin on his face was almost creepy and disturbing. Saehyun thought of re-evaluating her decision but, Nah. This is right.

∆

As Saehyun arrived at their home; Baekhyun’s home, the scenes inside the house were far from her imaginations or rather memories of what she had recalled few years ago. The wall paints were the same, the furniture too but the situation of those things were the one that in haphazard.

Havoc, was the right word to describe it. The sofas and carpets looked like they weren’t in their right positions and there were pillows and blankets (and baby blankets too) scattered in the living room. When she passed by the kitchen to go upstairs, she almost had a heart attack.

It was a disaster! How come this family who was actually consisted of a baby lived in such a horrible condition? The kitchen island was full with not only foods (rotten one) but laundries? And other unrecognisable stuffs and Saehyun felt like she was witnessing a crime scene. She stopped from following Baekhyun upstairs to get to her room, and wandered into the kitchen instead. Only one part of the kitchen cabinet was cleaned and arranged properly and that was where Baekhyun kept the medicines and the first aid kit. The stove was covered with oil stained and was very, very, very dirty to the state that Saehyun thought to just throw it away as a suitable alternative other than actually clean it.

Saehyun suddenly felt angry with all of these. Maybe because of her sympathy towards her niece and nephew or because of their irresponsible father who once told her that he could manage his family without any help. She padded towards the living room where Hyemi was crouching on the floor, taking out her plushies from the bags she brought back home.

She picked Yuhan who crawled on the carpet and placed him on her lap. Saehyun silently watched Hyemi doing her job and as time passed by, she couldn’t help but to question Hyemi about her plushies. There were almost two dozen of them now, to what she counted as Hyemi set them all on the floor.

“Wow, Hyemi. Who gave all of this plushies? Do you want to sell them? Why are there so many, honey?” Hyemi picked a pink teddy bear and stuffed it on her lap, next to Yuhan. “Oh! I only accept apology in plushies, amusement park and McDonald’s,” she said with innocence sparks in her eyes.

“Oh so, Daddy bought all of these for you? Why?” Saehyun gurgled. “You had a fight with him or what?”

“No, Mama Saehyun! Daddy just forgot to feed us dinner last night. Daddy wants to say sorry.” Saehyun thought she heard it wrong. “What?!” At the same time, Baekhyun walked down the stairs, and he probably heard their conversation as he looked rather guilty and tainted in shame.   

Saehyun’s mouth gapped slightly in disbelief and her hands were trembling with anger. She moved Yuhan from her lap and asked Hyemi to hold her brother safely and went to stand and stomped towards Baekhyun who was stoned at his current position.

“What the hell, Baekhyun? You forgot to feed them? Forgot to feed them?!” her volume increased with every phrase. She was practically yelling but Baekhyun kept his mouth shut, looking down to the tiled ground under his feet. “You’re such a ty father! How could you leave them starving?! Do you realise that you have a baby and a five year old daughter?! Do you?!”

He eventually looked up to see the fire inside of Saehyun’s eyes. She was indeed mad, and she admitted she never felt angry as livid as this one in her entire life. Not even when she was conned for the apartment’s deposit money. “I was tired, okay? I suddenly overslept after I got from work. Calm down, they just missed a dinner.”

With that, Saehyun’s wrath took over her. She threw a punch on Baekhyun’s right cheek, with all the might she had and the man fell onto the floor. Hyemi gasped from afar and Saehyun almost regretted her action. Baekhyun groaned in pain but he still had the guts to get up. He stared at Saehyun and she could see his nose and the corner of his lips were bleeding.

“Please punch me again,” was what he said. Without doubts and time to rethink, Saehyun pummelled Baekhyun’s left part of his face with her fist once again. However, Baekhyun didn’t fall this time perhaps the second punch Saehyun gave him was lighter.  “Again,” he growled.

Saehyun rolled her eyes and shoved Baekhyun hardly until he fell onto the steps of the stairs behind him.

∆

The night was getting darker and Saehyun was rolling on her stomach on Hyemi’s bed, along with Hyemi herself and baby Yuhan.

Before then, Saehyun had brought both her niece and nephew to the nearby food stalls with a little help from Hyemi to instruct the directions and they ate lots of foods for dinner, and with lots, it meant the sum that exceeded the normal quantity for people to eat for dinner. Except for Yuhan though, she had fed the baby boy with formula milk and baby’s food afore they went to hunt for food.  Saehyun didn’t even speak a word with Baekhyun after the incident and brought the children out with the absent of his permission. Baekhyun saw her went out with his children without saying anything but Saehyun didn’t give a damn about how Baekhyun would feel for all that didn’t matter.

When they came back home, late, Baekhyun was laying on the couch. He wasn’t sleep or watching the television neither. Saehyun rushed upstairs with Yuhan and Hyemi without a second look at Baekhyun.

It was 11 pm and three of them loaded the queen sized bed in comfort even if it didn’t seem so. Yuhan and Hyemi were already in deep slumber but not Saehyun. She was in deep thoughts instead, besides her eyelids weren’t felt enough heavy to sleep yet, and as she got bored, she called her mother.

Speaking in soft tone, she told her mother about her long day but keeping aside the incident where she punched Baekhyun of course. “Aigoo, I’ve told you not to trust the internet…but have you report to the police?”

“No, I haven’t, Mom. The landlord promised to settle this up. Besides, if the police get involved, this case would get bigger and I’m way too lazy to go to the court for a million times, Mom.” Saehyun shifted her position on bed and played with Hyemi’s hair. “Luckily you have an ex brother-in-law who is kind enough to help you.”  Saehyun wanted to puke at her mother’s statement but, needless to admit, there was a truth in it though.

She ended the call with a common ‘Good night, I love you’. Saehyun body should be dead off tired now with all the situations occurred to her today, but she still couldn’t fall asleep. The soft voice inside her head told her that it was because she felt rather guilty for hitting Baekhyun earlier when he was indeed kind enough to provide her hospitality.

Fighting a war with her conscience, her ego lost the battle. She slowly walked out of the room and straight towards the living room where Baekhyun was and fortunately or unfortunately still there, but currently sitting upright on the couch with the television on. He sensed Saehyun’s presence and turned to look at her for a moment before he looked away.

The minor injuries weren’t treated as to what Saehyun deduced from the corner of her sight, other than his nose which had stopped bleeding. She left Baekhyun alone in the living room, and from the man point of view, he felt a bit upset from Saehyun’s act but he uttered no words.

Upon seeing Saehyun reappeared again in front of him, with the first aid kit in hands, Baekhyun had nothing else to say but to keep a blank expression while deep inside, copious of colourful auras washed over him in delight. She took out a pintsized of cotton wool and dipped it with antiseptic before delicately dumped it onto the cut at the corner of Baekhyun lips. Saehyun’s hot breaths on his face made Baekhyun’s raging hormones went almost out of control.

She then plastered the cut and went to get two bags of ice to put it on the dark blue bruises on Baekhyun’s cheeks. Saehyun sat in a ‘killing’ proximity next to Baekhyun (he said in his head) with both of her long limbs holding out the bags of ice for Baekhyun.

He knew it was rude to stare, nonetheless, what else could he do? Her gorgeous face was a breath away from his, and who else could reject the lovely view of her eyes. “I’m…sorry, for…you know, punching you,” Baekhyun took a while to register the words she had been saying. He hunted for an eye contact with the lady but she just wouldn’t look up straight to his face.

“It’s fine. I deserved it,” he breathed out. Saehyun dropped the bags of ice away from Baekhyun’s cheeks and raised herself from the couch. “Yea, you really deserved it but, still. I shouldn’t have punched you, that hard.” Her eyes stared at him in apology. “Do you learn martial arts or something? Because your punches are…good?”

The foolish feedback made Saehyun smiled. “Yes, actually I did. I can punch you again if you think my punches are good,” she chuckled.

She then sashayed towards the kitchen to put the bags of ice in the sink and to keep the first aid kit back into the cabinet. Saehyun smiled sweetly at Baekhyun again on the way back upstairs.

Once Saehyun out of his sight, he murmured, “You can punch me all the time you want, baby if that what makes you satisfied,” and proceeded to hug the cushion and fell asleep with the dreams that lulled him in cloud nine.