Chapter XIII: The In-laws

"Hyung!Hyung!!"

Dara blinked awake to see Sanghyun sitting up in his bed, trying to gain Jiyong's attention. He was still asleep but was starting to stir as Dara reluctantly moved away from his larger body.

"Sanghyun, What's wrong?" Dara asked. Her brother had another sore on the top of his lip, a side effect of the chemo, but he seemed to be in good spirits.

"My new big brother's here." He answered simply, as if Jiyong's presence was enough to start anyone's day off on the right foot.

Her brother's easy acceptance of a relative stranger still bothered Dara, but she knew it wasn't in Sanghyun's nature to approach anything with caution or reserve. What happy ten-year-old did? It was her job as his mother-figure to teach him those things, right?

"Sanghyun, dear, you don't have to call Jiyong hyung or big brother, you know. You can call him Jiyong, just like I do."

"But I want to call him hyung. He's my big-brother, isn't he?" The boy set his face stubbornly, looking almost identical to Dara's stubborn set of her jaw.

"We, um…yes in a way, I guess that's true, but it's okay if you want to take a while to get to know him first. That's all I'm saying."

"Sanghyun's nearly nonexistent eyebrows knit together above his swollen face, another side effect of the cancer drugs. He obviously didn't understand. But before Dara could explain more, Jiyong interrupted.

"He can call me hyung, that he can." He said, sitting up and offering Sanghyun a smile.

"How are you today?"

Sanghyun's grin was like the sun coming out from behind a cloud. He reached his arms out to him.

"Good."

He said, even though Dara knew Sanghyun no longer knew what feeling good was like.

Careful not to upset the IV's, Jiyong moved to his bed, took him in his lap and gently rubbed his large hand over his bald head as if he was ruffling pretend hair.

"I think I need a wig."

Sanghyun said with a slight pout. He had refused them before, saying they were for girls. But every now and then the boy was self-conscious about losing his mop of spiky brown hair.

"We can still get you one."

Dara offered. Knowing it was important for Sanghyun to feel good about himself. She was sure he wanted to impress Jiyong, knowing that made Dara uncomfortable all over again.

‘Don't let him hurt him.’

But Sanghyun was happy for now, she told herself, and now might be all they had.

"I don't think I would like it if you had a wig." Jiyong said.

"I couldn't tickle you with all that hair in the way." He ran his fingers over Sanghyun's head and down his sides and Sanghyun was giggling with abandon.

The nurse who came in to administer Sanghyun's medication smiled at the sight. "Someone's happy this morning."

"This is my new big-brother!" Sanghyun announced.

Jiyong grinned up at the nurse. His hair was standing up in wisps but Dara resisted the urge to tuck them behind his ears. They'd slept with their bodies pressed close together, but she hadn't let her fingers seek the warm skin beneath his shirt, the toned muscles of his chest and arms, even though she'd awakened more than once and longed to do just that.

"What time is it?" Jiyong asked.

"Six-thirty." The nurse answered, bustling around the room.

He set Sanghyun back on his bed while the nurse replaced and adjusted the IV's that would deliver another round of chemicals into Sanghyun's bloodstream.

"I've got to go. I have an important appointment at eleven, and I'm not even close to ready. I'm going to give poor Top an ulcer."

"Top?"Dara echoed.

"My partner, remember him?"

She nodded but felt a flicker of disappointment at the thought of his leaving.

‘It's just a reaction to the stress. I have to concentrate on my conference with Dr. Forte.’

She reminded herself. Somehow she had hoped Jiyong would be there with her when she met the doctor. She wanted him to talk with the doctor, get a feel for how much he thought she would trust his opinion. But that was silly. She was the one in med school. Sanghyun was her brother. And Jiyong knew nothing about non-Hodgkin's lymphoma or its treatment.

"Thanks for last night." She said, walking him partway down the hall.

"It was nice not to be alone."

With a glance around them, he stopped and took her elbow, turning her to face him.

"The insemination is scheduled for Thursday morning." He said.

But I've been thinking that we should wait until after the transplant-"

"We'd have to wait until I ovulate again. That would take another month."

"I realize that. But you're going through so much right now, which you are. It doesn't make sense to add to your stress level."

She grinned. "Aren't you afraid I'll back out?"

Jiyong watched her for a moment.

"You have that right. I'm not going to try and railroad you."

"I know."

"Except that you did say I could go to the birth."

He added, giving her the sweetest smile Dara had ever seen.

"Did you mean it?"

The thought of having Jiyong's baby caused Dara stomach to tingle, along with other, much more private areas of her body. What was happening to her? She wondered.

She was falling for him…falling hard and asking for a whole new world of heartache.

"I meant it."

His dark brown eyes warmed.

"I'll call and reschedule the appointment, then."

Dara caught Jiyong's arm before he could go.

"No, let's go through with it on Thursday."

‘While I still have the courage.’

"It should only take an hour or so."

Jiyong raised his eyebrows.

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure." She said.

 And for the first time since she'd met him, Dara decided that maybe she wouldn't give him up without a fight after all.

Jiyong sat staring at the results of his brainstorming session and frowned. It was still early. He was alone in his office, but he was getting nowhere. Fast. Taking out the battery-powered razor he'd brought to work with him, he stood from his desk and began to shave the two days; worth of growth from his jaw.

‘What now?’

He'd considered trying to sell YG's Roost on adopting an animal mascot for their television commercial, but everything he thought of was too juvenile for the upscale steak and chicken restaurant. They'd hired one of the best chefs in the area to create some new pasta and salad entrees, but without a bold new advertising campaign, the same old clientele would visit the restaurant.

And would order the same old things. And their normal customers were aging, which made it easy to forecast a decline in sales in coming years. To grow the market the way they wanted, they needed to appeal to the younger crowd and the growing number of vegetarians and health conscious in the populace. But how to reach the twenty-to-thirty-five year-old group in an effective and innovative way.

"How's it going?" Top entered his office without knocking, carrying two cups of tea, one of which he sat on Jiyong's desk.

Jiyong glanced at the clock encased in a perpetual-motion device sitting on top of his desk. Seven-forty. The secretaries would be in soon, and his quiet think time would be gone. The phones would ring, employees would congregate at the tea and coffee machine and talk and laugh, and Top would remind him every five minutes that their meeting was quickly approaching.

"Pretty good." He lied, shutting off the hum of his razor and trying to look more optimistic than he did as he sat back down at his desk. He'd been doodling, trying to free his mind up enough to do his favorite part of the job-the creative, or the idea for the ad.

But thoughts of Dara and Sanghyun kept intruding. He was worried about them both, excited at the upcoming insemination, confused by the desire that at his nerves whenever he and Dara were close enough to touch. It warred so completely with the loyalty he still felt towards Taeyeon, yet seemed so right in other ways.

He sensed he was losing…something.

He'd hung on for eighteen months only to feel a part of himself slipping away, which caused a bit of panic, enough so that he was almost glad to be thrown into crisis mode on this job. Especially when, as a bonus, it kept Top preoccupied to grill him about his new wife.

Sitting in the artsy black and silver chair across from Jiyong's desk, Top angled his long legs out in front of him.

"We're in trouble, aren't we?" He said.

"You don't have anything."

Jiyong shrugged and shuffled his papers around so Top couldn't see just how much of nothing they really had.

"I wouldn't say we have nothing. I've found a few ideas that might work, that I did."

Top took a drink of his tea, then grimaced as though it was too bitter.

"Okay, shoot. Let me hear what you've got."

In advertising it was typical to have two types of thinkers, creative and business minds. In Jiyong and Top's homegrown firm, they each did both, sales and marketing, and the creative. And they often did it as a team, which had its drawbacks. Jiyong wouldn't be able to bluff his way out of this the way he could if Top was some completely left-brain number cruncher.

"Well I was thinking we could go with a Mafia or Yakuza theme." He said.

"That always makes a smile and ties into the distinctly high quality and Italian bent of some of the Roost's new dinners. We could have some guy sitting at the table wearing concrete shoes but eating with apparent gusto. Then, this godfather type, who's sitting across from him can rasp: 'At YG's Roost, You'll get the best meal you've ever had, even if it isn't your last'."

Top raised his eyebrows.

Okay so it was pretty weak. But there wasn't a lot to tie the western image of the new pasta and salads with the restaurant's name.

"How about we use a cow wearing a big sign that says.

“'Give cows a break. Try the new pasta entrees at YG's Roost.’”Top suggested.

Jiyong had thought of something like that, back when he was still considering animal mascots, but had discarded it.

"I don't think they want to go that far. Beef is still their main business. We're not out to destroy that, only to bring in a sector of the population that isn't interested in red meat."

Top tried his tea again.

"What about, 'Get a thief of a deal on pasta at YG's Roost.'"

"It's a pretty pricy menu. I don't think we want to go for the price angle." Jiyong slid his paper out and started doodling again.

"Maybe I should stop fighting the cowboy theme. It is a steak place and it does have a saloon type appearance, that it does. Perhaps we are stuck with it, anyway. We could have an old cowboy do the commercial and say something like-"

Jiyong leaned back in his chair and pulled up all the memories of old western movies he had seen, he spoke in a drawl.

"- YG's Roost has the best darn pasta and salads a body can rustle up, and that ain't no bull.'"

"That ain't no bull." Top thought for a moment, rubbing a finger over his upper lip, finally he said.