Chapter 4. Taeyeon & Stephanie.

“You make it up.” Eyes squinting at me, Taeyeon had her left hand poised on her hip. A sharp kitchen knife in her right hand was now dangerously aimed at my direction.

“I'm not.” I turned around to take a carton of milk from the fridge. “Call Daesung to confirm. This is a sudden meeting.”

“I'm not ready.” My wife huffed, back to dicing tomatoes for a moment before setting the knife down. “I can't do this. I just can't.”

“Yes, you can.” Drinking the milk straight from the carton, I waited for Taeyeon to chastise me for such bad habit.

She said nothing though. She was too distracted; lips pursed, brows furrowed deep.

“Just take Stephanie shopping or something for a moment. I'll come for you guys once the meeting is done and we can go to the amusement park together.”

“A moment? Your meeting won't take just a moment. What if I run out of things to talk about?” Taeyeon took off her apron, walking away from the kitchen counter. “You prepare the breakfast. I'm going to google stuffs. What's trending among 12-years-old girls these days?”

“Seriously?” I chuckled, closing the fridge and took the knife to resume dicing the tomatoes.

“Dead serious.” She was already sitting at the breakfast bar, swiping through her iPhone.

“You can talk about your job. It will make an interesting subject.” I poured the chopped tomatoes into a bowl before going to the fridge again for the eggs.

“Yeah, of course.” She rolled her eyes at me. “I'll just go and tell Stephanie about how I recently investigated a case where the victim's head had been smashed into pulp with a hammer. Bond with her over grotesque stuffs. The girl like pink stuffs for God's sake. She won't like the details of my job.”

Her hostility made me chuckle again. Things would work out just fine with Taeyeon's first time being alone with Stephanie. I was sure of that.

-- 0 --

I picked them up at the biggest mall in town some six hours later, both girls giggling as they entered the car.

“How was it? Fun?”

“Look.” Taeyeon showed her fingers. The usually plain nails now were polished in metallic black and had tiny glittery skulls on them. “I have no idea that nail art is this fun.”

“Show me yours, Stephanie.” I looked over the rear view mirror.

The girl leaned forward to show me her hello kitty adored nails, smiled shyly.

“Pretty. You guys didn't shop for clothes?”

Stephanie shook her head. “We ate. A lot.”

“A lot?”

“Pastries, chocolates, and pizza.” Taeyeon pat her belly. “And I think we still can fit apple candy and ice cream from the amusement park later, right Steph?”

“Right.” Stephanie grinned, albeit a little. Her eyes twinkled and it was the first time I ever saw such feature on her face.

She seemed happy.

--- 0 ---

“I'll tuck her in.”

“She's twelve, not a toddler”

“So?”

My eyes met my wife's challenging ones and the argument died then and there. Stephanie was spending the night with us for the first time ever. Taeyeon had been dead set on her path of making Stephanie feels extra welcomed in our house. She had been busy tending to the little girl's needs since we picked her up from the poster home this evening.

“Go. I'll be upstairs in a moment.”

--- 0 ---

“So, Jiyong is an orphan too?”

“Yes. The Kwons took him in when he was ten. If Mr. Kwon, my father-in-law, hadn't found him am