The next afternoon found me in the dishroom of the Parks’ restaurant, glumly washing dishes while Young Jae sang a loud, peppy song next to me, cheerfully drying all the wet dishes I handed him.

“Can you shut up?” I flicked dirty dishwater at him, but he took it in stride and grinned at me.

“Aren’t you on bedrest?” Young Jae cocked his head at me questioningly. “Shouldn’t you be, like, in a bed? Resting?”

I shrugged. “Jimin and I went to my Busan gynecologist this morning before he left and she said it was fine if I did a little bit.”

Young Jae raised his eyebrows. “You have a Busan gynecologist? Do you have a Seoul one, too?”

“Yeah. Just in case I have the baby in Busan. I mean, I spend enough time here, you know? I want there to be a medical establishment that has my history and is familiar with my pregnancy. Especially now that I’m ‘high-risk.’”

“Are you still high-risk? I thought everything was fine.” He cast a worried glance at my swollen stomach, the fabric of my apron stretched tight against it.

“I don’t know.” I replied vaguely. I tried to brush a loose, frizzy curl out of my face with my elbow, but kept failing. Young Jae reached over and tucked it behind my ear with a soft smile.

“You don’t know?”

“No, I don’t know.” I snapped. “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s scary.”

“Okay.” Young Jae smiled pleasantly, letting the subject drop. He patted my head and went back to singing, but this time the song was soft and sweet. A favorite of mine; Time and Fallen Leaves by AKMU.

He had a nice voice.

“Hey.” Young Jae abruptly stopped singing and turned to me.

“Hey, yourself.” I returned with a lopsided smile. He looked like he had when I first met him four years before. Young and dimpled and overflowing with energy.

“You remember when you were a literature teacher?”

I laughed as I submerged my hands into the soapy water and scrubbed hard at a stubborn stain.

“Yes, Young Jae, I do indeed remember.”

“You remember when I was the gym teacher?” He playfully nudged me with his shoulder.

“No.” I said bluntly, laughing again. “Young Jae, we’ve been over this. I have no memory of working with you.”

“We went to staff meetings together!” He cried indignantly. “I had the biggest crush on you! Always trying to get your attention, always wiping the drool from my mouth when you walked by in your little sundresses. One time I even accidentally-on-purpose hit you in the head with a volleyball while you were walking in the hallway by the gym, hoping you would at least get mad at me, but you just distractedly threw it back to me and said, ‘Thanks.’”

I giggled. “Oh my god, I remember that. You know what it probably was? I had just started dating Jimin and I kind of walked around in a lovesick haze for a while.”

Young Jae nodded, a tiny, wistful smile on his face. “You were really pretty that spring.”

“I’ve always been really pretty.” I told him, belatedly returning his shoulder nudge.

“You were especially pretty that spring.” He insisted. “Always smiling, always tucking your hair behind your ear and biting your lip. Always scribbling in that little notebook of yours on that one bench in the garden. The one under the cherry blossom tree, next to the lilac bush. A flower among the flowers.”

I didn’t reply, but I glanced over at him to see a gentle expression on his face.

“It’d be nice if you were happy like that again.” Young Jae said softly.

“I wouldn’t be happy like that again unless I fell in love with Jimin again for the first time. Or someone else, I suppose it wouldn’t matter if it were Jimin. I’d just need to fall in love.” I passed him a plate and he took it with an expression of mild surprise. “What? It was the first flush of love. Everyone’s like that when they fall in love.”

“I’ve never been like that.” He gently set the plate down next to a stack of clean bowls.

“Maybe you’ve never been in love before.” I said lightly, quirking a smile at him.

“Requited love.” He correctly, staring thoughtfully into my eyes. “I’ve never been in requited love before.”

Young Jae reached out a hand and the chain from which my wedding rings dangled. He pulled his lower lip into his mouth and looked down at me from beneath his long eyelashes.

“Would you have married him if you weren’t pregnant?” He asked me, once again. Always this question.

“Why do you have such a hard time believing that Jimin makes me happy? I’m not in unrequited love with him, Young Jae.”

“You’re just always sad.” He replied, letting go of the chain. “I’ve never seen you happy with him, you know? Just maybe glimpses here and there, but you two have always fought in front of me. Serious fights. And you cry and he’s mad and I just feel like maybe you two shouldn’t have gotten married.”

“You’ve never been married before.” I reminded him quietly. I turned back to the dishes and began washing again with renewed vigor. I didn’t want to have this conversation with him. “You don’t know what it’s like.”

“Even before you were married.” He continued gently, moving to stand next to me once again. “I used to see you crying under that cherry blossom tree, too, you know.”

“Love is hard.” I passed him a tub of wet silverware, which he immediately placed to the side in his eagerness to continue the conversation. “Tears are involved, you know.”

“I just don’t want you to-”

“I don’t want to have this conversation anymore.” I said firmly. “I’m happy. I’m very happy with Jimin, he’s a sweetheart. He always has been. He skipped a concert to be with me! Don’t make me doubt my marriage, Young Jae, because you don’t understand. You’ve never been in a serious relationship before, okay? You don’t get it.”

Young Jae stepped back and I glanced over to see a hurt expression sweep his face. “Okay.” He said quietly.

We washed the rest of the dishes in silence.

“Mama!” Haru bounded over to me as soon as I stepped into the main kitchen. She wrapped herself around my legs and kissed my knees. “Mama, you’re the prettiest.”

“Hello, sweetheart.” Mr. Park smiled at me as he chopped onions on a large wooden cutting board.

“What are you two up to?” I asked, extricating myself from Haru’s grasp.

“Uppy!” She demanded with outstretched arms.

“I can’t, little love. Mama’s back hurts today.” I patted her head as her lips turned down in a pout.

“I’ll pick you up!” Young Jae’s voice said from behind me.

“Uncle Young Jae!” Haru squealed and rushed at him. He scooped her up into his arms and tossed her into the air.

“Ah, Young Jae. You’re finally here.” Mr. Park looked up with a slight frown. “Where were you?”

“Hmm? He wasn’t supposed to be in the dishroom with me?” I looked between the two men. Young Jae’s ears gained a pink flush as Mr. Park cleared his throat.

“No, sweetheart. He was supposed to be in the kitchen, with me, learning how to make our signature dishes.”

“Why?” I asked in confusion. “Why does he need to know those?”

“Because he’s taking over the restaurant, love.” Jimin’s dad informed me. “Didn’t you know?”

“No.” I replied breathlessly, staggered. This was our restaurant. I had always assumed that Jimin and I would take it over when he’d finished his idol career. “I thought Jimin was supposed to…?” I trailed off, glancing at Young Jae. He looked uncomfortable, to say the least.

“Oh, of course. But Young Jae’s taking it over while we’re in Seoul.” Mr. Park offered by way of explanation. I must have looked confused, because he continued. “You know, after you have the baby. We’re subletting your old apartment from you for a while. Until you all get settled in.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that!” I cried out excitedly. Young Jae chuckled at me in the background and Mr. Park smiled indulgently.

“Yeah, Jimin asked us to this morning, before he left. He said he thought it would be nice if we were around to see our second grandchild as an infant, since he didn’t think you’d be up for visiting so often on the weekends with two children.”

I ducked my head down to hide a rather shy smile. Jimin had thought of all that?

“Yeah, Gemma and I are going to take it over.” Young Jae chimed in. “We’re going to introduce a café section to the place.”

I didn’t like the idea of Gemma in the restaurant, but I knew that she’d grown up in it, that it had been her restaurant before it had ever been mine.

Maybe that was why I didn’t like the thought of her taking it over.

A hesitant knock had us all glancing back towards the doorway, where the devil herself stood. Alright, I didn’t really think she was a devil. It was just a saying, right?

Besides, Jimin called me his little devil and I wasn’t about to bestow that nickname on Gemma. Not if she was also taking my restaurant.

I wondered when I had become so hostile towards Gemma again, but the sight of her in a rather familiar looking shirt jogged my memory. That white shirt with the thin blue and red stripes? Didn’t I buy him that?

“Isn’t that Jimin’s shirt?” I blurted out before saying hello.

Gemma looked a bit taken aback by my rudeness. “Uh…yeah. He lent it to me a while ago, like, Christmas? I got my messy while we were baking or something.”

Young Jae wiggled his eyebrows knowingly at me and I shot him a look.

“Looks cute on you.” I looked her up and down, reflecting on the truth of my words. She had her hair in a bun, accentuated by a little red bandana headband. Her eyeliner swept her lids and trailed off in a cat’s eye, while Jimin’s shirt hung loosely over her tiny blue denim shorts. She looked adorable in my husband’s shirt, while I felt incredibly pregnant and unattractive in his sweatpants.

I stretched my arms out for Haru, who willingly obliged me, despite the pain in my lower back. I needed some reassurance of my standing with Jimin. Gemma may have been wearing his shirt, but I had mixed my DNA with his and here was the living proof.

Young Jae snickered, probably catching on to all my thoughts. I shot him another look, but he just quirked his mouth at me, delicious dimples appearing on his left cheek.

“Gemma, love, thanks for coming.” Mr. Park ignored my social gaffe and stretched his arms out to Gemma for a hug. “It’s been a while. Good to see you!”

“Hi, Aunt Gemma.” Haru said shyly into my neck. Gemma came over and tickled under her chin, which of course made her giggle and drool a bit on me.

“Hi, Haru. How’s my favorite girl?” Gemma kissed her cheek and I felt Haru smile against my neck as she burrowed herself deeper against me.

“Good.” Haru mumbled. She was so quiet in front of strangers and yet so hectic at home.

Haru and I hung out while Mr. Park taught his two temporary successors how to cook his exquisite dishes. I kind of hoped he’d offered to teach me as well, but my in-laws had long since given up on improving my cooking abilities. The only one who hadn’t, curiously enough, was Jin. He was always willing to lend a hand to my dining experiments and eager to try them, which was a change from my reluctant husband, who steered clear of my cooking.

After a while, Mr. Park took Haru out to visit with her grandmother and the three of us were left alone in the kitchen. Gemma and Young Jae diligently chopped vegetables while I munched on a custard tart. Young Jae kept glancing up at me with a small smile on his face. I stuck my tongue out at him and he immediately ducked his head back down, a slight flush coloring his cheeks.

“Where’s Jimin?” Gemma asked abruptly. “I thought he was home, but I haven’t seen him around.”

“He’s on tour.” I informed her as I nibbled the crust of my tart. “He just came home for a couple of days to surprise me.”

She looked up with a smile. “That’s so sweet. You’re lucky. Taehyung never did anything like that for me.”

“Well, you did leave him to go to France, so there’s that.” Young Jae rudely pointed out.

“Jimin never did anything like that for me before, either. It’s kind of serious to skip a concert. I, uh, appreciated it, though.” Kind of serious? His manager had called him to threaten him with his career this morning, so I urged him to go after our gynecologist appointment.

“He loves you.” Gemma smiled at me again. “It’s nice to see Jimin so grown up and in love. He never dated much before, so we all kind of worried about him.”

I suddenly remembered Young Jae’s words from a few days ago. Everyone thought he loved Gemma. People used to catch them kissing sometimes.

God, I was jealous. Like some insecure, lovesick teenager. I was jealous of Gemma and her history with Jimin. I had a better history with Jimin, clearly, but here I was, jealous of a few stolen kisses in school hallways.

I didn’t care about any of the girls he’d slept with, or Hwasa and her magical thighs, or even that he learned his excellent kissing skills from a girl on American Hustle Life. I think I still cared about Gemma because she was still in his life.

And obviously still very important to him.

Could I respect their old, lifelong friendship? Yes. Did I like hearing her confess that my husband had been her best love? No.

I liked Gemma. I thought she was cool, independent, and seriously stylish. I liked her especially when she had been dating Taehyung and not reminiscing about loving Jimin. Affairs were easy things to slip into, especially when our life had been severely lacking. I didn’t want to think that way of Jimin, but I knew it could happen one day.

Jimin kissing another woman, accidental or not, was not something I ever wanted to witness again in my life.

I met Gemma’s eye and she smiled at me.

“You know,” I began casually, “Taehyung and my friend broke up, if you’re still interested in him.”

JIMIN’S POV

“Gemma, I can’t talk right now, I’m really busy.” I mumbled into my phone, ignoring Taehyung as he shot me an interested glance. We were in the van on the way home from a performance. My absence from the last concert had been explained as “rest,” which the fans had taken well. I uploaded a few pictures for them as apology. I did feel apologetic for missing a concert, to my fans and to Bangtan, but I wanted my marriage to stay intact.

“Yeah, okay, but is it true Tae broke up with his girlfriend?” She asked eagerly. “Jimin, you have to tell me. You have to.”

“Yeah, it’s true.”

“You think I have a chance?” Gemma continued to pester.

“Gem, ing leave me alone about this. I’m trying to call my wife now.”

“Park Jimin! Answer the damn question!”

“No, I don’t think you do.” I told her bluntly.

“Why?” She whined. “Why do you think that?”

“Because he’s still in love with his ex-girlfriend.” I glanced at Taehyung, who was staring back at me.

“Is that Gemma?” He asked quietly.

“Yes.” I snapped. “Gemma, call Taehyung on his own goddamn phone and let me use mine to call my wife, okay?”

“Jimin!” She shrieked into the phone. I winced as the noise grated on my ears. “You jerk!”

“Figure out your own romance problems! I’m done matchmaking for the rest of my life!”

I hung up abruptly and tried not to notice the loaded look exchanged between Namjoon and Taehyung.

Taehyung’s phone started to ring as I dialed my wife’s number. I saw Gemma’s name pop up onto the screen, which meant that he hadn’t deleted her after all this time.

“Pick it up.” I hissed. “Or she’ll call me crying later.”

“So? Be a good friend and listen to her cry.” Taehyung hissed back.

The ringing stopped, but soon started again, a different name on the screen this time. I glanced at Namjoon, but he was looking impatiently at his phone, probably expecting a call from the girl who was calling Tae at the moment.

Taehyung picked up and answered in a gentle voice.

“Hey.” He said softly. “How are you?”

I didn’t hear Ji Eun’s reply, but I saw Namjoon glance swiftly at Taehyung. So, he recognized the way Taehyung spoke to her, too, didn’t he?

I ignored their love-square and pressed my own phone to my ear.

“Hey.” My wife answered.

“Hi, baby.” I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my face. The time with her had been so good. I couldn’t wait to get home and spend all the time in the world with her. “How are you?”

“Young Jae has boundary issues.” She sighed.

“Hmm, what have I been telling you since 1992?” I asked sarcastically, plucking at a loose thread on my jeans.

“You weren’t even alive in 1992.” She giggled.

“No, but you were.”

“So? How were you gonna talk to me when I was a month old? Huh? I didn’t even know Young Jae then.” She giggled. “.”

“Anyway, what has my former best friend been doing to you? Did he force kisses on you again?”

“Nah, he keeps asking me if I’m happy and also telling me about when he liked me when we were at the high school together. You remember when he was a gym teacher?”

“Yup.” I glanced over at Taehyung, who was still deep in conversation with Ji Eun.

“Man, that was so long ago.”

“It was when we met. Maybe a little before that. He’s known you longer than I have, I suppose.”

“Hey, did you know he and Gemma are taking over the restaurant and your parents are taking our apartment in Seoul?”

“Yeah.” I looked out the window as we drove through the streets of Seoul. We were staying in a hotel tonight, the dorms having long since been occupied by a rookie group. “Obviously I knew that, I planned it. I wanted to make sure we would have some help when the baby’s born. Especially if I’m going to be away sometimes. Even for a night; I know it’s hard and I want you to be well taken care of.”

She giggled. “You’re the cutest, sweetest, best husband ever.”

I smiled bashfully and Hoseok poked me in the side with a grin. Seriously? I was still getting teased about being in love with her even after becoming a dad?

“Remember that the next time you wanna pick a fight with me.”

“Sure thing, gorgeous.” She chippered back.

“You’re cute, you know that?” I flushed as Hoseok let out an “Oooo” next to me.

“You’re adorable.” She cooed.

“Are you drunk?” I swatted Hoseok’s fingers away as he tried to pull my cheek. “You’re pregnant, lady. You can’t even have one drop of alcohol.”

“I haven’t even had a yeetle bit.” She promised, than burst into helpless giggles. I waited patiently while they subsided.

“Are you sure? You sound drunk.”

“I’m just so tired.” She told me, traces of a last giggle in her voice. “Jimin, I haven’t slept in, like, two days.”

“You’re so cute. I just love you so much.” I rested my cheek against my hand, a wide smile curving across my face.

Hoseok made fake gagging noises, so I punched him in the arm.

“The maintenance workers called me today. You know, the appliance installation guys? The kitchen is all ready and the bathroom should be done by the end of next week.”

“So, we can move in at the end of next week?” She asked interestedly. “That would be awesome, but we’re hardly packed.”

“I know, we’ve been slacking. Packing is hard and annoying and I hate it.”

“Unpacking is even worse.” My wife complained. “You know it is! It took us, like, years to unpack our apartment now.”

“In our defense, we were newlyweds and you were pregnant.” I defended, a smile in my voice.

“And you were away a lot.” She said wistfully.

I hunkered down in my seat, knees to my chest and phone wedged between my ear and shoulder.

“I’ll be home soon.” I said softly. “I promise.”