I look at my watch and it’s already past 9pm. Dannie should start cleaning up and prepare to go to bed. She needs to sleep early for school tomorrow, but I actually feel a bit apologetic to take her away from her uncles since it is pretty obvious that she’s having a good time talking and playing with them.

I am actually sitting at the single couch typing on my laptop. I need to pass another set of articles for tomorrow, so I need to work on these before sleeping. The guys will normally talk to me, though, and I will respond as natural as I can, trying to sound as comfortable as possible. To be honest, I start feeling a bit at ease after talking to Kibum in the kitchen. He’s nice and Doc Jinki is nice, too, and as I can see, Jonghyun and Minho ssi are really funny people. They like arguing with each other but always end up laughing about it and settling down in a humorous way.

“Dannie…” I gather all the courage to tell Dannie she needs to sleep. I close my laptop and place it on the table while looking at her. “You need to wash and go to bed, dear. You have school tomorrow.” I already expected Dannie’s disappointed expression but Taemin is quick enough to make her feel better.

“Mommy’s right, Dannie. You need to go to bed. Don’t worry. Uncles will come back again to play with you.” Taemin says which is seconded with the other guys.

“I’m sad Dannie needs to sleep, but we’ll go back in the weekends so we can spend more time together!” Jonghyun announces which makes Dannie really happy. She smiles widely and her disappointment is suddenly gone.

“Do you promise, uncle?” Dannie extends her pinky fingers toward the uncle which makes him a bit surprise. “Let’s seal a contract!”

“So this is a contract?” Jonghyun says doubtful but extends his fingers anyway, entwining with Dannie as they sealed the promise with that gesture. Jonghyun laughs again, “You should do the same with the other uncles so they won’t escape the promise.”

The other guys willingly do it with Dannie and my daughter is really happy about it. “Goodnight, uncles!” She says lively and goes towards her daddy to plant a kiss on his cheek – bidding goodnight.

Dannie then takes my hand and both of us enter her room together. “Mommy, do you think they will really come back?”

“Of course. You sealed a promise with them, remember? If they don’t come back then daddy’s gonna chase after all of them.” I laugh upon saying that coz I really imagine Taemin running after his four hyungs. It’s funny. HAHAHAHA. Gosh. Why am I so good in entertaining myself?

Dannie jumps on her bed minutes later and pulls her blanket to herself. I sit beside her and open a book to read to her so she can fall asleep faster. It does. After few minutes of reading, I notice she’s already sleeping.

I kiss her forehead before standing up so slowly making sure it won’t disturb her. I walk silently to the door and switch the light off before twisting the door knob to go out.

But before I even pull the knob, I start overhearing the conversation of the guys outside. It seems that that they are seriously talking to each other.

“Dannie seems to like you a lot, Taemin-ah. How long did you say you’re going to stay together like this?” I hear a voice asking who I think is Jonghyun.

“1 year.” Taemin answers shortly. “But I don’t intend to live together with Rae In for a year, hyung. She and Rae In will move back to her house after 3-6 months.”

“It’s nicer to have them around, Taemin.” Doc Jinki tells Taemin.

“It’s nice to have Dannie around, but Rae In? I don’t think so.” The youngest boy let out with a soft chuckle that definitely insults me. Excuse me, Mr. Lee but the feeling is mutual. I know you know very well how I will never choose living with you if I only had other options to choose from.

“She seems nice… and pretty.”

Oh. Oh. Oh. I am really sure it’s Choi Minho who said that. Why, thank you! Thank you for looking at me as a pretty girl. Hahahaha. Am I blushing?

“How is she nice and… pretty??” Of course, I am expecting Taemin to say that. Of course.

“Hey, Taemin… she’s not the same girl.” Kibum says later on. “Not because you hate her before means you need to hate her forever. Give yourself a chance to know her. At least try to offer a friendship.”

“It’s impo-“

“And don’t even tell me it’s impossible.” Kibum adds completely cutting Taemin off. “It’s not impossible. It’s not like you had any huge argument with her before. You were both teenagers back then, Lee Taemin, and that argument was only for children. You aren’t child anymore.”

I wait for Taemin to answer back but he doesn’t. I don’t know if it’s because he finally agrees or it’s because he is out of words to argue back.

But actually, I can see Kibum’s point. That argument… those things why we hate each other so much. It’s already in the past, and we’re both really young when it happened. But you know what? Sometimes it’s hard to change a habit. I’m serious. It’s like hating on him has become a habit ever since the day that I could remember, and when I don’t get irritated to him even once in a day, I find my day so incomplete.

It’s probably wrong, but… nevermind.

“And if you think you’re helping Dannie with what you’re doing, you’re wrong.” Doc Jinki talks again and I could hear him clearly. “You’re giving hopes to Dannie that she can have a complete family again. She obviously likes the both of you, and this situation is helping her a lot to heal. What happens now when the day comes that both of you separate ways? It won’t probably hurt her the same as when her parents died, but it’s still pain, Taemin. Your efforts to make happy are pointless.”  

Suddenly, Jinki’s words struck me. They are all true. Everything that we’re doing for Dannie will be put into waste if we part ways so soon. He is right. He is very right.

Taemin doesn’t answer, too. I hope he gets him as much as I do. Right now, I wish Taemin is thinking the same way I am. For once, I want the both of us to think alike, so we will know what to do, and we can help each other.

I go out after hearing that they are about to leave.

“We’re sorry for disturbing the household, Rae In.” Jonghyun says with a smile to which I only shake my head.

“No, it’s alright.” I say with a smile on my face. These guys… I know they are nice people, and in no time, I can get closer to them, and who knows maybe in the future I can write an article about how five young super handsome men became friends when these faces usually gather to be a KPOP idol group. Just kidding.

“Take care of Dannie and Taemin, alright?” I would have immediately answered yes if Minho didn’t add Taemin’s name with it. Does he mean I really need to take responsibility of this guy? Are they serious or just teasing me or what?

Minutes later, the guys are already at the door saying goodbye to Taemin. They are still noisy, joking and teasing Taemin and each other with some random funny things they say to each other. When Doc Jinki looks at me, I nod and walk closer to them to properly say goodbye, too.

“You can drop Dannie once in a while in my clinic so I could check on her, too.” He tells me with a smile to which I positively responds to. “See you around!”

We watch as the door closes in front of us. Finally. The unit is back to being silent. I don’t move when I realize Taemin isn’t moving, too. What happened? Is he thinking about something or what?

“What happens when we need to separate and Dannie goes with you alone? I’m curious if she’ll be as happy as she is right now.”

What he just said quickly gets into me. It makes me think as well. These issues about Dannie always concern me, but to be honest, I don’t know how to answer his question.

“I thought it would be easy. However, I realized that after signing those papers and after I allowed her to call me Daddy, everything became real.” I see him lowering his gaze to look at me so I do the same to look back. “At what extent can you be selfless, Rae In?”

Again, another question that is hard to answer. I’m selfless, actually, we are selfless, for always thinking about Dannie and putting her as our top priority, but then there’s a sudden question… at to what extent can we be selfless?

I am about to say an answer when suddenly, Taemin grabs my elbow and randomly pulls me closer to him – enclosing me in a hug!

“YA-“

“Shhh…” He shushes me with that soft voice. “You might wake our child up.”

“Yah, what are you doing?!” I aggressively want to let go but he’s a lot stronger than I am, seriously, so instead of letting me go, I feel him even hugging me tighter, which is honestly making me nervous and in panic.

“Maybe I can be selfless… to the point that I’ll swallow every hatred I have for you, be a good guy, and start treating you nicely.”