•Choi Dong Wook (Se7en)

•Jung Il Woo (South Korean Actor)

•Audrie (Audrie Daniel aka Kiko Mizuhara)

•Sang Min (Fictional Character)

***

Bom paced the floor of her living room, trying not to stare at the little stick lying on the coffee table just a few feet away.

“It isn’t time yet,” Taeyeon said when Bom stopped and hesitated.

“Why does it have to take so long?!” Bom exploded.

She couldn’t take not knowing another minute. The past weeks had been ones of un-imaginable stress with Jiyong breathing down her neck, asking her every few days if she knew anything yet. The last time he’d asked, she’d all but screamed at him to back off.

Maybe he’d finally gotten the hint or maybe she’d just sounded that desperate because he hadn’t been in contact for the past couple of days.

The hell of it was, he acted concerned. It almost seemed as though he was acting on the assumption that she was pregnant and had made it his mission to “check on” her frequently.

He was making her insane.

“It’s only been two minutes,” Taeyeon soothed. “It doesn’t do any good to sit and stare at it. It won’t make things go any faster.”

Bom sank onto the couch. “You’re right. It’s driving me crazy, though. I just feel it. In my gut. I’m pregnant. And don’t tell me it’s some psychological crap and that I’m imagining all the symptoms. I’m just telling you that I feel different. My s are sore. I’m queasy. My smell is off. Weird stuff gets to me. Like the smell of cupcakes. Who the hell gets sick smelling a cupcake?”

Taeyeon smiled. “I don’t think you’re imagining anything, sweetie. Let’s wait for the results and then we'll tackle the solution together. Okay?”

Bom groaned and closed her eyes. The past three weeks had been a form of torture she never wanted to repeat. She changed her mind from day to day. One day she thought having a baby would be great. She and Taeyeon would have little playmates. On other days she thought she was solidly out of her mind and was terrified by the prospect.

And, well, she felt a little stupid. An un-wanted pregnancy at her age? She wasn’t some stupid teenager playing around with unprotected . She’d always been so damn careful. Always!

She’d never considered herself terribly old-fashioned, but still, she’d preferred to have children within the boundaries of a loving, committed relationship.

“Okay, you can look now.”

They both stared at the stick on the coffee table like it was an ugly bug neither of them wanted to get close enough to squash.

Bom’s stomach curled into a vicious knot.

“You look. I don’t think I can.”

Taeyeon reached over and took Bom’s hand, squeezing hard. “Just remember, that no matter what the outcome, it'll be okay. I promise.”

Bom nodded, then slammed her eyes shut as Taeyeon reached for the stick. She didn’t even want to see Taeyeon’s reaction. Her heart thundered until she could feel it jumping into .

“Bom,” Taeyeon said gently. “Open your eyes.”

Bom cracked open her eyes to see Taeyeon’s solemn expression. Taeyeon laid the stick back onto the table, her gaze still centered on Bom.

“What?” Bom demanded, unable to stand it any longer. Taeyeon’s expression told her nothing. Nothing at all! “Am I pregnant?”

“According to the test you are,” Taeyeon said slowly.

Bom deflated in a whoosh, sagging forward as she reached for the test, wanting to see the confirmation herself. It was a bit blurry and she blinked rapidly to bring it into focus.

And there it was. Two, glaring red lines that pretty much said, Yes, you’re pregnant.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered.

Taeyeon looked uneasily at her. “You aren’t going to do something crazy like faint on me, are you?”

Bom managed to close , but she was numb from head to toe. It was as if Taeyeon was talking from a mile away and Bom was having this surreal out-of-body experience. The entire room seemed to slow down and become a big void of white noise.

Pregnant.

With Jiyong’s baby.

Mr. I Don’t Do Relationships.

Mr. I Won’t Call You.

As screwups went, this one was epic.

She closed her eyes again and groaned.

“What am I going to do, Taeyeon? Jiyong is going to freak. He gave me this long speech about how he didn’t do commitment, it was just , blah, blah, blah. A baby is definitely a commitment.”

“Take a few days. Let yourself come to terms with the shock. Then talk to Jiyong,” Taeyeon advised.

“I need to talk to him now.”

Taeyeon frowned. “Bom, you’re upset. You aren’t thinking rationally. The last thing you need is to go up against Jiyong. He can be…He’s intense, okay? He'll bulldoze over you.”

“No one’s going to bulldoze me. I need to talk to him now. Other than me, this affects him the most. He deserves to know so he can start planning accordingly. It’s not like I’m going to wait a week and then suddenly decide not to tell him. The result will be the same no matter when I talk to him, so why wait? Besides, he’s been blowing up my phone for weeks now. No sense holding off any longer.”

Taeyeon sighed. “I just don’t want you to make any impulsive decisions. He can be persuasive. That’s a nice term for it. He can be ruthless.”

“I can hold my own with him. I’m not afraid. This is as much his problem as it is mine. I'll be damned if I spend the next week agonizing over my future alone. If I suffer, so can he.”

A laugh escaped Taeyeon and her eyes danced merrily.

“Okay, you just convinced me that he won’t rip you to shreds and have you for dinner.”

“Damn right he won’t,” Bom muttered. “If he even tries, he won’t ever have to worry about fathering another child.”

Taeyeon laughed again and then impulsively leaned over to hug Bom. “You know, this is going to be just fine, Bom. We'll be pregnant together for a little while at least. Ryeo-wook and I will do anything we can to help, and you have Ga In, Nicole and Yo Won. Oh, and my mother. She views you as another daughter, and when she finds out you’re pregnant, look out. She'll have you packed in so much bubble wrap you won’t be a