"Oh." is what Kibum says when he sees Taemin gets out Jinki's vehicle. It's been a while and he's made great effort not to cross pass with the other victim of his and Jinki's affair for he's awfully aware that he's a guilty party. He wears a tight-lipped smile as he approaches the other who is looking quite calm or Kibum can't really tell because Taemin has become very closed off really since the whole ordeal or that's what Jinki says.

"Hey." Taemin greets first. It's a friendly one, nothing to raise suspicions that he's about to let the claws out or that he has any similar intent of the sort.

“Hello." Kibum tries to peer in the back seat.

"She's sleeping." Taemin offers. "I just took them to see a movie." Kibum nods but on the inside he's very tired and slightly annoyed because he hasn’t seen little firecracker in a 15 days and  all he really, really wants is to take his daughter home and cuddle.

"I don't want to be long..." Taemin begins looking Kibum straight in the eyes causing the latter to fidget under his stare.

Taemin sees Kibum’s discomfort and is proud that the other feels that way in his presence.  Kibum’s shorter and probably more stylish than him is but there truly is no great difference between the man standing before him and himself. He doesn't see what Jinki apparently saw in Kibum. He can't wrap his mind around it. He can go on for days, thinking and thinking how Jinki sought comfort from Kibum and not him and how that comfort led to the little one sleeping in the back. It's frustrating so frustrating not having answers or the answers that he wants to hear like Kibum throwing himself at Jinki, breaking his resolve with each toxic kiss giving rise to an affair sustained through his entire pregnancy.

"How are you?"

I'm  annoyed. "I'm fine, just exhausted from the 3 hour drive. And you?”

"Alive." Taemin knows that one worded responses kill conversations but he can’t find the appropriate word to expression his current state. He senses Kibum's impatience which encourages him to speak up.

"You have a very beautiful daughter."

"I could say the same about your son."

Taemin nods and smiles to himself and kicks at some loose pebbles on the ground.

"I want ...us to have a relationship. You know, since our kids are siblings. I don't want any hostility between us and I wouldn't mind if we could somehow, possibly return to the relations we had before the.." Taemin pauses. Fiasco, catastrophe, turmoil, disaster "issue."

Kibum’s feels the pressure of the tears at the back of his eyes. It's an impending breakdown, to milk his body dry of all the guilt that Taemin's words just caused. Taemin never fails to amaze him with his undying compassion and it’s like he can never redeem some semblance of equality in his presence. He feels inferior , guilt stricken and he wants to fold in on himself.

"I'm so sorry for everything, ever-”

"You don't need to apologize every time we meet. Its seems as if I’m still blaming you for what  transpired almost 5 years ago." And if Taemin doesn't think that he sounds like the biggest hypocrite in the world then, he's probably  drunk because the next few  sentences will only  acquire some truth if  he ever gives himself some chance to let go of the past. "I forgive you and I want to work this out, whatever there is between us, for the sake of the kids and ourselves. Plus I don't want my husband to always be in the middle."

Kibum notices. Their conversations are laced with some hidden, coded attack like how Taemin says 'my husband' instead of saying 'Jinki', reminding him that yes Jinki indeed is my husband , our relationship is exclusive and you're the outsider.

"Ok." Kibum quips.

***

"Ahhhh!" Hope screams and splashes the water in Kibum's face which has him grabbing at his face and his eyes burning. When he calms down, he sees her at the opposite end of the tub. He's confused because his daughter loves bath time.

He shuffles over to her and rubs her back lovingly and resumes bathing her until she jolts again , alerting Kibum that something's wrong. He lifts her out of the water and sees a dark bruise on her left knee.

He touches it with the pads of his fingers and she screams again.

"Oh my baby. " He kisses her temple and is very careful for the remainder of bath time.

After drying her hair, and putting on her pyjamas, Kibum gets a tube of ointment and starts rubbing. Hope cries all the way through and he lets her , knowing that the cream will ease the pain in the net half hour. Soon she's exhausted and asleep on the pillow next to him. He pulls the cover over her and goes to the kitchen for a glass of water.

Kibum paces the length of his kitchen with his cell phone in hand, contemplating giving Jinki a call and a piece of his mind. He's uspet. No he's damn furious. He's been gone for 2 weeks, leaving Hope in the care of her father and she's returned injured and in pain. There is no other explanation than neglect. Oohh he's so mad. It makes him wonder what Jinki's actually doing when Hope’s visiting. He probably leave the responsibilities to Taemin and hell , if he were Taemin he wouldn't be so eager to take on the struggles of another child, especially one brought about by extramarital affairs. Jinki probably locks himself in a room with Taemin  the entire time doing god-knows-what while Hope's wandering around and slipping off steps and Jinki's not there to catch  her.

"I need to stop." He grabs his head in frustration. A few more minutes pass until he decides, yes, Jinki deserves a call from him at , he looks at the clock above the stove. "9:25pm"

It rings and rings in his ear until he's forwarded to voicemail.

"Why am I not surprised?" Kibum scoffs and downs the rest of his water before huffing to bed. Hope moves a little when he settles on the bed. Sometimes it feels so surreal that he actually gave birth to this little girl who makes his life exciting an colorful.  She gives him life.

Still angry from Hope's injury and Jinki not picking up his phone, Kibum opens his instagram account and scrolls through his newsfeed, stumbling upon a picture of Taemin kissing a very happy baby on her chubby cheek, a girl who just happens to be his daughter.  Love is radiating from the photo, its like their happiness is infectious  and unending and it makes his eyes burn.

***

Taemin sighs in content and rolls over to watch a Jinki hurry to the bathroom to have a quick shower. Beams of perspiration forms a film of sweat on his face but he’s too sated to care and just want the moment to simmer as he reflects on the passionate events that -

"Oh!" He jumps up when Jinki phone rings. He picks it up to see none other than Kibum’s incoming call. His moment of bliss immediately dissipates and he throws the phone under the pillow, out of sight but it continues to ring.