Chapter 12

“That’s interesting Rylynn. Very interesting.” Jackson seemed like he was enjoying every moment of this. His arms were crossed on his chest, his grin as wide as ever. “Has your mom ever spoken about your father before?”

“Sometimes. Mommy told me that my father is very handsome and that’s why I’m going to be very very pretty when I grow up. Last week she said that if we came here, we would maybe meet him because he lives in Korea,” explained Rylynn completely sure of herself.

“Handsome, huh?” I could tell that Jackson was trying to hold in his laughter, as his tears were on the verge of falling. “Do you think that your mom still loves your dad?” he asked, taking a step closer.

“I don’t think so…”

Jackson’s eyes grew and turned his gaze to me, as if to question my judgment. It still baffled me how he assumed with assurance that Rylynn was talking about him.

“Mommy is always very angry at daddy. He was supposed to come to our house last year, but he didn’t. Mommy was very upset, she even cried,” she explained before I covered to stop her from spilling some more.

A cloud of guilt hovered over Jackson, his playful expression dying down. I coughed to lighten up the mood, and blinked a couple of times. There was a short moment of silence as Jackson stared at me for a good minute.

“Did you actually cry a lot?” he asked, wearing a serious expression now. His mischievous smirk plastered over his face was gone, a charismatic glare taking over.

“I cried, yes. But not a lot,” I lied. In reality, I knew that I cried for weeks while waiting impatiently for Jackson to fulfill his promise. “Not a big deal. Anyway, he wasn’t all that great. Not very honest, not very bright, not very good looking,” I expressed, pronouncing every word clearly.

Jackson’s eyes widened, his arms crossed as he came closer. He gave out his sassy aura, making me feel invaded in my space as he leaned forward. I turned my back to him to keep Rylynn out of the conversation. I glared from the side.

“Not honest? Not bright? Not good looking, huh?” Jackson repeated, his eyes trailing up and down on me, the serious from earlier completely died down. It was still Jackson alright, the sort of semi-cocky bastard with an overwhelming charm nonetheless. A smile curled up in the corner of his lip.

I threw a sarcastic smirk right back at him.

“Yup. And I’m sure that Rylynn’s father knows exactly that he deserves every single one of those names,” I spat out, almost laughing. Deep down, it sort of hurt seeing him again. I bit my lip, holding Rylynn closer to me as my joints quivered. Jackson was leaning in closer now.

“I’m sure that he knows that,” whispered Jackson in a low voice, suddenly giving out the serious vibe again.

I stared at him, drowned into his eyes. His face was lightly covered in foundation that his stylist had probably patted his face with. It was weird knowing that he was now a professional singer. Though he was the same, I could feel the air of change around him. He had grown so much since his trainee days, his already menacing glare becoming even sharper.

Jackson moved past me and leaned towards Rylynn, who had jolted back a little from Jackson’s distance. He smiled at her and touched the tip of her nose.

“So, Rylynn… It was nice meeting you. I really hope that we can be friends.”

Rylynn grinned playfully, jittering in my arms out of excitement at the word ‘friend’.

“You’re so pretty, Rylynn,” complimented Jackson, pinching her left cheek. “You definitely took after your dad…”

I glared at him, knowing exactly what was implied in that sentence. I pretended to laugh, but it was clear that I was just trying to display my displeasure.

“Very funny. First day I come back and I already get insulted,” I picked up my bag that I had dropped on the floor, getting ready to walk away with a superficial grin.

“Hey, you insulted me too!” he fought back shoving his hands in his pocket.

“When did I insult you? The only person I insulted was Rylynn’s father. Clearly that can’t be you, because like you said, Rylynn took after her good-looking father. In your case… I don’t see anything special in terms of looks,” I began to attack playfully, yet still sort of angry at once. It had been long since I had last spoken to him in this manner.

“Ahjussi,” Rylynn suddenly called out of the blue. “Have you been friends with my mom for a long time?”

Jackson nodded and brushed the side of her pink cheeks.

“Well then, have you met my dad?”

He stood silent and smiled innocently. After a couple of seconds of hesitating whether or not he should say, he finally sighed and opened his mouth.

“Yes I did.” My eyes grew, glaring as hard as ever. Jackson threw me a loving gaze to settle me down in my anxious skin.

“How is he like?” questioned my daughter further. She pressed her hands on my shoulders.

Jackson coughed and searched for words.

“He’s a bad man,” he answered looking to the ground, leaving me unsure who he was talking about exactly. “He hurt your mother so much.”

His eyes trailed to the side as he began to brush away the traces of gloom all over his face after he had made such declaration. Jackson suddenly, leaned forward Rylynn, indicating that she give him a kiss on the cheek that she happily accepted. He then turned towards me and jokingly demanded I give him a short peck as well.

His mischievous smirk gave me the urge to beat the hell out of him. He was provoking me.

I came in closer, near his cheek, and moved past towards his ear.

“Do you want to die?” I whispered, mumbling my words so only he could understand. Jackson chuckled a bit at my intense reaction and took slow steps back towards the building indicating that he was indeed leaving.

As he smiled, I couldn’t help but notice how much he leaked charisma and charm. It was beyond anything I was ready for. I could barely believe that I would ever get the chance to see him again. Jackson waved and began to pick up his pace.

“You and Nayeon look good together by the way,” I finally added, making Jackson stop to think about what I said in the process. He frowned and didn’t say a word.

***

That evening, I finally went to that dinner I was supposed to have with PD-nim. It was at a nice restaurant, comfortable and conveniently near the company building. PD-nim stuck out like a soar thumb amidst the crowd as he walked in. I had seen him earlier, but it seemed as if he was all fixed up for this occasion, although there was nothing formal about the restaurant.

“Good to see you, Lina.” He took me into an embrace. “And there is my little goddaughter.” It was funny how he just claimed himself as her godfather without any sort of consent.

Rylynn smiled.

Park Jin Young looked around the restaurant, not even taking a seat, leaving me sort of confused.

“Lina, do you think that we can get a bigger table?”  he asked, still scanning the room.

“Why?” I asked trying to follow his eyes to figure out what he was looking at.

“I brought a few people with me, they’re just outside and they’ll be in any moment now.”

That didn’t sound right at all. Just then, a couple of familiar men walked in the room, looking in all directions. I looked up to the ceiling, revealing my displeasure. Though I liked a lot of the GOT7 boys, I didn’t think I could bare a dinner with Mark and Jackson. It was just way too overwhelming. Bambam spotted us first and came breezing towards us at the speed of light.

“Lina noona! You’re having dinner with us too?” he asked with a huge grin on his face. I scratched the back of my head and bit my bottom lip. Jr. and JB followed along shortly afterwards, greeting me warmly.

“You again!” Jr. said with enthusiasm. “Mark and Jackson’s girl.” Jr. was so darn honest, it caught me off guard.

“Is this your sister, Lina noona? I didn’t know that you had a younger sister,” asked Bambam when seeing the child at my left-hand side. I pretended like I didn’t hear him.

I turned sort of red. As more of the boys came in one by one, I gradually turned nervous and resented a strong wave of anxiety.

“Mommy it’s the Bambam that we watch on TV!” exclaimed Rylynn with such excitement that was hard to contain.

Bambam was sort of taken aback when hearing that I was the mom of the child rather than her sister. As I scanned the faces of the rest of the boys, they too seemed in shock that I had a kid, though I was young. The room remained quiet and uncomfortable for all of us.

Making matters worse, the duo that I least anticipated came in; Jackson’s arms thrown over Mark’s shoulder like the good old friends they were. They were sort of taken aback at my presence, not expecting me at all.

At the sight of me standing on front of my seat, holding Rylynn’s hand, Mark sort of froze in place, stopping from his tracks. Jackson was forced to drag him to a seat on front of me. I wanted to stare Jackson down for creating such an awkward situation by putting Mark directly on the seat closest to me, but Jackson avoided looking at me altogether.

“I’m sorry about merging two dinners together,” began PD-nim apologetically. “ I forgot that I had planned both on the same day. But I’m sure that it won’t be a problem since most of you know each other alright. By memory, I seem to recall that you’re actually very close,” he said referring to Mark and I of course.

I had to hold in a laughter that would have come out sarcastic.

We took a seat, an uneasy silence filling up the atmosphere on our side of the table. I fixed Rylynn’s shirt to occupy my hands.

“So, Rylynn, my beautiful goddaughter,” began PD-nim. “I hope that you don’t feel intimidated my all these boys. They are nice kids.”

“It’s okay,” started Rylynn with such ease, not one bit shy. “Mommy watches them on TV. They are my favorite too.”

“Really?” asked Yugyeom from across the table with a sweet and loving voice as he addressed himself to Rylynn “Who’s your favorite out of all of us?”

She slowly lowered her head shyly and pointed at Bambam who was sitting beside her. Bambam finally smiled, breaking the tense, surprised and confused aura he gave out just a second ago. He held out a hand for Rylynn to high five.

“What about me, Rylynn?” asked Jackson with a nagging tone, acting all jealous as he normally did when he wasn’t picked first.

“I like you too. But mommy likes you more,” she stated with no filter, it made me face palm in my head.

“Really? Is that so…” said Jackson tapping his fingers on his arm, winking at me and leaning his elbows at the edge of the table. Trying to ignore him altogether, I turned my eyes straight ahead, only to find Mark staring directly at me. It was as if wherever I looked, it wasn’t safe.

Mark took out one of the pieces of papers to place his order and grabbed a pencil. He jotted down a couple of words silently, and pushed the paper on front of me.

It read:

“Rylynn is mine, isn’t she?”

My heart sank. How did he figure that out so quickly?

Mark seemed scare. I could see fear invade his eyes as he blinked a couple of times.

I took a pencil for myself and began to write words on the paper.

HEYO!!Haven'y updated in so long. Enjoy! Thank you for all the support.

God Bless You all.