CHAPTER 14: I'LL GO WITH YOU TOMORROW

Jongup shifted in his seat when the once queasy feelings he felt at the back of his throat surged back again. He could no longer focus on his young master’s conversation with his cousin as he tried to rid of nausea he was suddenly getting. The boy frowned as he averted his gaze outside the window, trying to distract himself from the uncomfortable feeling only to feel worse. The sport car was moving incredibly fast to his liking and Daehyun unthinkingly made a shape turn to enter the next route, making him closed his eyes shut. Please not now, Jongup-ah…

“Well, perhaps I was wrong, Taehyung-ah. You know what…” Daehyun took a brief glance at Jongup as he stopped mid-sentence. He noticed the latter was suddenly clutching the seatbelt and that he was frowning hard, eyes tightly closed like he was uncomfortable with something Daehyun did not even know. He panicly averted his gaze back on the road and spotted a gas station a few hundred meters away.

“What?”

“I now care for him.”

Daehyun ended the call without waiting for Taehyung’s reply as he swiftly led them to the gas station. Right after he found an available space, he parked his car and turned to look at Jongup.

“Jongup, are you okay?” Daehyun asked, his tone filled with concern and worry. He knew something was not right with the lack of response from the other. He carefully reached out and put his hand on top of Jongup’s, making the latter flinched a bit. Daehyun’s brows creased when he could feel his maid’s hand was a bit cold.

“Your hands are cold. Are you feeling sick?” The pregnant boy slowly fluttered his eyes open when he could finally calm down. He was glad he did not have to ask Daehyun to pull over for he was now feeling okay again. He seemed to not know they were not moving anymore. So much of immersing himself in getting rid of the nausea.

“I-I was… I felt nauseated.” Jongup slowly replied. He looked up to meet Daehyun’s concern eyes.

“How are you feeling now? Do you wanna throw up or something?” Jongup briefly shook his head and took a deep breath in.

“Not anymore.”

The maid was taken aback when his young master suddenly pulled both of his hands into his and rubbed them together. His once cold hands started to get warm again. Daehyun quickly slowed down the air-conditioner and took off his leather jacket only to wrap it around Jongup. The boy could not help but bite his bottom lip and blink wordlessly. Daehyun was treating him differently now. Ever since he was in the hospital, Daehyun had been so much caring and gentle, as if the once cold-hearted hot-tempered young master Jung Daehyun that he knew never existed.

“Are you still craving for frozen yogurt?”

He shook his head in reply.

“I’m going to treat you to dinner. Is that okay with you? Is there something specific you’d like to have?”  Daehyun boldly asked. He surpressed a chuckle when he saw Jongup’s surprise expression. This time, he would not deny that his maid was really cute when he expressed or showed how he felt.

“D-Dinner?” Jongup was totally caught off guard. Did his young master really say that? He did not see this coming though. He thought that Daehyun was nice to him before because his emotional state was not really stable during his stay at the hospital. Now that he was already discharged, he thought the other was going to take him back and ask him to prepare dinner. Well, he was a maid afterall.

“Like what you see?” Daehyun’s voice snapped Jongup out of his thoughts and the latter could not help but blush slightly when he realized that he just stared at his young master. The boy quickly casted his gaze down to avoid making eye contact with Daehyun.

“Just tell me what you wanna have. Treat this as a gift from me because you’ve discharged from the hospital and hmm…you’re good for the past months.” Daehyun sincerely complimented his maid. Jongup stayed quiet for seconds before he hesitantly opened his mouth.

“Uh…C-Can I have pickles and ice-cream?”

He was just sweating and shivering before, but as time passed, he started to cry. He unconsciously fisted his hands into tight balls making the knuckles turned white and nails hardly digging his soft palms. Jongup’s forehead was dampened with cold sweat and tears streaming down like there was no tomorrow. Sobs could be heard and soon, he was thrashing around on the bed, as if trying to avoid or escape from any danger that he thought he was facing at the moment. Little did he knew, it was just another nightmare for he did not even wake up from his sleep.

“N-No…Please…Don’t d-do this to m-me…”

Meanwhile, Daehyun could not bring himself to sleep after the dinner. The dinner went well, though he still could not believe Jongup could eat those pickles with ice-cream oh-so-deliciously like it was a common food combination. However, he had heard about this weird pregnancy cravings from his brother, cousins, and friends, so he thought he had behaved well enough not to cringe or grimace in front of Jongup. Seeing the other happily digged in, Daehyun could not help but smile contentedly.

He clearly remembered his maid’s reaction after he told that the boy could no longer live in that apartment. The latter was nervously fidgeting when he heard the word ‘apartment’. It seemed that Jongup could not stop the dark memories from invading his mind and Daehyun had to squeeze his hand to snap him back to reality. The young master had seen enough and he was sure his decision for moving all Jongup’s things out from the apartment to his apartment was a right one. He wanted his maid to stay with him from now onwards and obtained no objection from his parents. And he could see how thankful and relief the young boy was.

“, I really need to change my car.”

Daehyun rubbed his face with his palms and sighed. It was his mistake and he should have known in the first place that he should not drive his sport car like he always did when the pregnant boy was beside him. Luckily he managed to pull over on time before Jongup hastily got out of the car and threw up everything that he just ate. How could he forget about the boy’s morning sickness?

He made a mental note to ask his father of any vacant car that he could use for these few months and keep barf bags in the car, just in case Jongup could not hold himself. Not that he could not control his speed of the sport car, but he thought Jongup should at least ride a comfortable car. Little did he knew, he unconsciously thought about Jongup way too much. All on his mind was Jongup-related, really.

“Tsk… morning sickness…is there any remedies for it?” Daehyun grabbed his phone on the night stand and leaned against the headboard. As he was browsing through the list of websites, he was startled by a glass breaking sound and a scream. It did not take long for Daehyun to identify whose voice that was for he already carelessly tossed his phone on the bed and sprinted to the only room he could think of. Jongup!

Jongup was wide awake now. But the darkness made him suffocate to breath. He was already on the floor at the corner of the bedroom with knees pulled up to his chest. He was crying hard and shaking violently as he pressed his palms against his ears, trying to block his hearing from what he thought were door banging sound and people’s scary voices asking him to open the door. The scene was exactly like what happened in the bathroom during his stay at the hospital. But of course, it was only his imagination. No…don’t kill my b-baby…

Daehyun abruptly stopped in front of Jongup’s room. He cautiously turned the doorknob and opened the door, not wanting to scare Jongup more. When he switched on the lights, he caught a glimpse of a shattering vase on the floor before he dashed to Jongup’s side.

“Jongup…” Daehyun softly called said person. When he did not receive any response, he tried to hold Jongup’s hand only to be pried away. What he did not expect was for Jongup to swiftly make an escape when he tried to hold the boy’s arm and almost ran through the breaking glass vase on the floor if he was not fast enough to grab the boy’s wrist, pulling the boy into his arms.

“N-NO! Let m-me go, please!” Jongup was wriggling and squirming hard in Daehyun’s arm, in attempt to make another escape. By hook or by crooks, he would protect his baby from being killed by heartless people. He could only cry harder when the arms around him tightened. His energy was slowly dissipating and he could not fight the other’s strength. Jongup felt hopeless. He felt useless for he could not protect his baby.

“P-Please…I beg y-you. Don’t-Don’t k-kill my baby. Plea-se…” Jongup was sobbing and begging at the same time. Daehyun’s heart sank when he witnessed how broken and fragile Jongup was.

“Shh…shh…Jongup, hey. It’s okay. You’re safe now. The baby is safe here.” Daehyun coaxed as he tightened his hold around the other with one arm and drew comforting circle on Jongup’s back with his other hand.

“No…you-you’re going to k-kill baby. Please don—”

“Shhh…Jongup. It’s me, Daehyun. You’re safe with me, Jongup-ah. I’m not going to let anyone harm your baby. I’m going to protect you, okay.” Daehyun could feel his shirt was soaked with Jongup’s tears but he could care less about it. What was more important was to bring Jongup back to reality.

“Dae-Daehyun?” Jongup faintly whispered as he tried to digest whose name was that. His mind was utterly in confusion and it took time for him to realize what was happening around him.

“Yes. Daehyun. You’re safe with me now, Jongup-ah. Don’t be afraid. No one is going to hurt you here. I’m here to—” Daehyun stopped midsentence when he suddenly felt Jongup locked his arms around his torso tightly and clutched his back shirt until it crumpled.

“Young-Yo