Saturday

Jodi had a bright smile on her face from the moment she woke up that morning. The sun wasn't up yet, she had only slept six hours, but she was filled with an abundance of energy. It took a lot of willpower for her to not wake the sleeping man beside her. But she did drop a kiss to his hair before shimmying out of the bed. Jodi dressed in the closet in an attempt to make as little noise as possible. Once she was dressed in her running gear, she kissed her husband before going out. Ebah came out of the office to greet her and she knelt down to give the dog an affectionate scratch. Jodi walked to the door and clipped on Ebah's leash. She stretched once she got outside then set off at a brisker pace than usual.

Back in the house, Jodi chugged a bottle of water and headed to her room for a shower. Seeing JiYong curled so cutely on his side, she knelt on the bed to kiss him yet again. JiYong stirred and looked up to see his wife smiling down at him. And because she was smiling at him, he felt compelled to smile back. “You look happy.”

“I am,” she affirmed with a beatific smile. “I got a text from Soo last night. YooJin said I can pick the twins up at 11 a.m., and keep them until Monday.”

“Oh, yeah?” Jodi nodded happily. “That's good. Maybe she's coming around?”

Jodi scoffed. “I wouldn't bet on it, but I'll take what I can get. I have missed them so much.”

JiYong tugged on her arm to make her lay down. She protested, as she had just gotten back from a run, but he insisted on holding her for a few minutes. “I'm happy to see you so happy.”

“Thanks, baby.” Jodi raised up and kissed him quickly on the lips. “Go back to sleep. I'm going to shower and get some work done.”

“Lay with me till I fall asleep?” he asked with his eyes already closed.

“I really need a shower.

“Come here.” JiYong tugged on her arm until she laid down on her back. He put his head on her chest and sighed contentedly. “I like the lullaby of your heart when I'm trying to sleep.”

“Oh, now I know I need a shower. You've got grease all over me.” Jodi pushed at him playfully, but he didn't budge. She her fingers through his hair and waited for his breathing to even out. Jodi his hair affectionately before going into the bathroom. JiYong was still asleep when she came back out. Walking passed him quietly, Jodi made herself a small breakfast and went to her office to do some editing. Anything to kill time. She got so into it though, that it wasn't until JiYong told her it was ten that she jumped up and got dressed.

On the whole drive to her grandparents house, she tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as she drove. “Are you okay, Jo?” JiYong asked.

She looked shy as she smiled. “I can't explain it, but I'm nervous. Since I moved here to Korea, I've never gone this long without seeing them or talking to them. I'm not sure if she's explained why I've been out of touch. Or if she has, what has she tild them? I'm scared that they'll be mad at me.”

“But you didn't do anything wrong.”

“I know that and you know that, but children internalize everything. Anytime something goes wrong, they blame themselves first. Or at least JinShil does. That JeongUi boy probably hasn't even noticed.”

JiYong smiled and rubbed her thigh comfortingly. “It'll be fine, hon. They love you. Well, JeongUi loves me, so since I'm here, he'll at least be polite to you.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha.” Jodi smacked his shoulder playfully. His joke worked, though. She was much calmer for the rest of the trip. Jodi parked on the narrow street and held her husbands' hand as she walked into the small courtyard that led to the front door. Three steps in, the front door flew open and the twins came barreling out.

“Noona!” they yelled in sync. Jodi dropped to her knees and let them come to her. Once she had them in her arms, she pressed her face to their shoulders and cried. They both patted her on the back and one of them, likely JinShil, asked what was wrong.

“I just missed you both so much. You've gotten so big,” she told them with a watery smile. Jodi kissed them both and hugged them tight enough to make them squeak. “Sorry. ”

JiYong stepped up behind Jodi and squeezed her shoulder. She stood to turn away and wipe her eyes while he moved down the their level. “Long time no see, little ones.”

“Hi, hyung,” they chorused as they moved forward to hug him as well.

“Are you excited about today? We're going to play and eat and have lots of fun. Sound good?” JiYong asked them. They nodded excitedly. JiYong held his hands out to them and guided them out so that he could get them buckled in. Jodi kissed their hair as they went by. She turned, intent on knocking, when SooYoung walked out with her aunt by her side. The two younger girls smiled and winked at one another before Jodi approached them and bowed to her 'mother'.

“YooJin-ssi, have you been well?” Jodi asked politely.

“Fine,” YooJin clipped out shortly. Turning her eyes away from Jodi, she looked at her niece. “Please be sure that man is strapping them in properly.”

SooYoung nodded, made eye contact with Jodi and walked briskly out the gate.

“Thank you, YooJin-ssi, for letting me have some time with them. I was thinking that tomorrow, I could take them to Wolmido Island so they can play in the amusement park there. I'll have them back Monday morning, of course.”

“I don't think that will work.”

“Why not?”

“I want you to bring them back tonight,” YooJin said with no inflection in her voice.

“But-but you said I could keep them for the weekend.”

“I changed my mind.”

“But why w—” Jodi felt an arm come around her and a hand lay still on her stomach. 'Don't' JiYong murmured in her ear. Jodi took a deep breath and nodded. “I'll have them back tonight.”

JiYong stepped around her and approached her mother. He bowed so low that the back of this neck showed, “Annyeong-haseo, Kwon JiYong-imnida.”

“Yes, I've heard a lot about you from my sons,” YooJin responded. No greeting in return, no introduction.

“I've heard a lot about you from your daughter,” he told her with a small smile. He bowed again. “It was very nice to finally meet you. We'll being the boys home tonight.”

“Before 10 p.m.,” Yoojin called to his retreating back. JiYong looked back and nodded before grabbing Jodi's hand and walking her out. Once outside the gate, he hugged her close.

“That woman, could ruin a wet dream,” Jodi spoke into his shoulder. She shook her head helplessly and buried her face in her husband's neck. “I've never met someone so ing mean.”

“It's okay, baby,” JiYong said comfortingly then squeezed her shoulder. “Shake it off, though. Enjoy the time you can with them, okay?”

Jodi nodded and pulled away. “Why did you come back?”

“Soo told me you might need some back up,” he said with a chuckle. Jodi nodded again, then they held hands and walked to the car. JiYong slid into drivers seat and asked them all, “Who's ready to have a good time!?”

* * * * *

As soon as they arrived at the park, the boys started complaining about having to use the bathroom. JiYong pointed Jodi in the direction of the restrooms and leaned against the car to wait with SooYoung. He gave her a once over and nodded. “That's a cute outfit you have on.”

SooYoung looked down at her baby blue ensemble that off set her pink bangs and smirked. “Thanks, you paid for it.”

“Huh? Oh, the gift card. Did you use it well?”

“It's not all gone yet. I bought some things for my brother and for my parents. A scarf for halmoni, a wallet for haraboji . . . stuff like that.” SooYoung finished her list with a shrug.

JiYong looked around to make sure Jodi hadn't snuck up on them. He beckoned SooYoung closer and whispered conspiratorially, “I'll get you another one. Just don't tell your cousin.”

“You don't have to do that,” SooYoung responded with a shake of her pink bangs. “But if you do, I won't complain.”

They smiled at one another and winked. Jodi came back over with the boys a minute later and the five of them made their way into the park. As soon as the twins were spotted, a group of female dancers surrounded them and wanted to pinch the twins' cheeks. JeongUi was all about it. He stepped forward and introduced himself boldly. JinShil hid behind JiYong's leg. JiYong drew him out and asked him politely to introduce himself. He did, reluctantly. JinShil pointed towards the playground in the distance and asked if he could go over there. After Jodi nodded, JiYong took both of the boys over to where the other kids were playing. Haru ran up to greet JiYong and he ruffled her hair affectionately. JiYong introduced the three kids to one another and watched them bowed shyly. Haru held her hands out to them and told them that a game of 'Tag' was in progress. JeongUi ran ahead, but JinShil looked at JiYong over his shoulder. JiYong gestured for him to go and play. JinShil smiled at Haru and followed her to the playground.

After that, JiYong stuck by Jodi and SooYoung, telling people who they were as they went. Most recognized them from the show, anyway. JiYong saw YoungBae tossing a basketball from one hand to the other and moved in that direction. Luna set her iPad down and jumped up when she saw him. Luna ran into his arms and kissed his cheeks loudly. Jodi and YoungBae made eye contact across the distance and ran towards one another. They held hands at arms length and spun in circles. JiYong and Luna were not amused.

“We do not act like that,” Luna cried.

“Yes, you do,” Jodi and YoungBae said in unison. Luna rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at them. The guys wandered off, taking SooYoung with them. Jodi sat across from Luna at the table and watched her get engrossed in her iPad again.

“Where's Stacy?”

“She couldn’t make it. She'll be here tomorrow, though,” Luna answered distractedly.

Very curious about what had her interest, Jodi asked, “What are you reading?”

“Fanfiction.”

“Who?”

“Fanfiction. Fans write stories about TV characters and singers and stuff. This is a site mostly about Kpop artists,” Luna explained. “I'm really stuck on this story about my husband. It's sooo good. There's some good ones about your husband, too.”

“Oh, yeah?” Jodi said, very intrigue by the notion.

“Here, try this one.” Luna tapped on the screen a few times before handing it over to Jodi.

“January 2012

The too cold winter breeze was the first to welcome Seunghyun to this new territory that he had stepped on. It was already in the middle of January and everything was covered in white layers of snow, the gray streets, the green trees and even his own black hair, all of it was covered in white.

But what bothers him though was the school building that he was facing to.

“This can’t be the place..” he whispered to himself, eyes staring at disbelief at the huge silver plaques plastered on top of the building reading St. Anthony’s School for the Mute and Deaf.

Surrounding him were its students in their gray colored uniforms covered in over sized jackets and coats running towards the school building probably desperately trying to reach their morning classes on time. Some would pass by him quietly while some would accidentally brush pass him.

And Seunghyun just stood in the middle of the chaos. . . .”

Jodi kept reading, immediately into the story. When it was over, she found herself tearing up a little. “That was beautiful.”

“Good, right? It's better than a lot of them. I like that writer. She doesn’t make JiYong sound all tormented or crazy like some others do.”

“Can you send me the link to that? I might check the site out later.”

“Oh, gladly. Just don't tell Ji. He hates that he's always a bottom in these stories.”

The two were still talking about the stories when DaeSung and Emiko walked up. DaeSung kissed Luna on the cheek then fidgeted a little before walking over to Jodi. She raised an eyebrow at him and gripped his hand.

“Need to talk?” Jodi asked him softly. DaeSung nodded. He spoke to his girlfriend for a moment, then pulled Jodi to sit at a different table. “Alright, talk to noona.”

* * * * *

Choi SeungHyun didn't really want to attend the YG picnic. The only reason why he was walking into the park was because he missed his brothers. And because he didn't want to hear anything from President Yang. They would have to get 'family' pictures taken and his absence would be noted. Nope, he had absolutely no desire to be there . . . until he saw the girl with pink hair sitting on the bench. She looked up from her phone for a moment with a smile still on her face. Her deep dimples made his heart flutter. Beautiful, he thought to himself. SeungHyun had no clue who she was, but he needed to find out. He looked around and sought out the friendliest person he knew.

“Little SeungHyun,” SeungHyun said as a greeting.

“Buon pomeriggio, grande SeungHyun,” SeungRi responded with a smile. SeungHyun rolled his eyes.

“I need to ask you a question,” SeungHyun said as he grabbed the maknae by the collar. He drug him a few feet away from everyone else and looked around to be sure no one was listening. “Who is she?” SeungHyun asked and nodded towards the girl on the bench.

“Ah, that's Jodi's cugina, Baek SooYoung.”

“Jodi's what?”

“Cousin!”

SeungHyun thew his hands up and rolled his eyes. He nodded a few times and kept looking at her discretely. “Thanks, maknae.”

“Va bene.”

“What?”

“No problem,” SeungRi translated with a large hand gesture.

“When are you going to get over this Italian thing?”

SeungRi made another hand gesture, SeungHyun threw his hand and walked away.

* * * * *

JiYong saw Jodi sitting with Lydia and ChaeLin, laughing hysterically at something on ChaeLin's phone. Coming up behind her, he looked over her shoulder to see she was watching 'Secret Big Bang'.

“Ani, ani! Ahndweh!” he yelled and snatched the phone out of her hand.

“I've already seen the 'foam kiss',” Jodi told him with another round of giggles. JiYong looked embarrassed as he handed the phone back to ChaeLin. “Oh, it's alright, baby. As far as I'm concerned, you got to kiss Choi SeungHyun, so you're living the dream.”

“Yeah, whatever.” JiYong's cheeks were still red as he tugged on her hand. “Walk with me.”

“Where are we going?” Jodi asked as they got farther away from everyone else. He stopped at a clump of trees, put his back to one and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. JiYong lit one and offered one to her. Jodi shook her head. “I quit.”

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