Present = Black

Past = Green

Chapter Sixteen

Dara POV

Dara could sleep a wink the rest of the night. She tossed and turned all night trying to but to no avail.... When she'd close her eyes she'd remember the look on Jiyong's face before he walked out the door. 

She's never seen him look so defeated before and it bothered her so much. She doesn't understand why she'd be affected this way but she shouldn't care, right? 

In the past five years she tries to avoid thinking about Jiyong because she knows all too well how much it affects her, this was because she had tried her best live without guilt about running away because she thought she was doing the right thing. This is probably why everything she does around Jiyong lately is out of impulse because she has no idea what to do with the situation presented to her.

When it does have something to do with Jinnah, she's ready for that but this wasn't the issue at hand. If he wanted to talk about what he plans with for Jinnah then she's willing to talk about it but at the moment Jiyong is acting such a child that all she could do is respond that way as well.

What got her pissed off than anything is how he could judge her if she does decide to start dating. It's like she's a bad mother for thinking about it. If he only knew that in the past five years, hell even the whole ten years she hasn't even dated anyone else other than him. She never even gotten close since then either. No one really caught her attention, and if David did then it was because of Jinnah. 

Yet, how hypocritical could he be. He's the one married. It's like those words he spat at her has a hidden meaning behind them. That she's a  or something for even thinking of dating. She is so angry at him right now. That she tossed and turned for the past five minutes, even throwing an innocent pillow across the room in fury. 

She lays on her stomach with her face on the bed and yelled out her frustrations at the father of her child.

"!" She muffled her scream into the pillow until she ran out of breath. She turned her head so she could breath.  Never in her lifetime has she been this pissed off at Jiyong. If allowed he'd be her punching bag now.

Her eyes found the clock sitting by her bedside, it was almost 5am. She groaned. Her night of sleep is now wasted and now she can only pray that at least she'll have a little bit of sleep because she still needs Jinnah to be ready for school. 

After just laying there for a minute or two she was sure she was able to fall asleep or maybe not because the next thing she heard was the alarm. Which meant she was laying awake with a blank mind for a good hour now.

It was time for her to get up. She grumbles in annoyance about how time got away from her that quickly... She wanted so bad to stay in bed but her tiny visitor will come soon if she doesn't get up in the right time in... 

Three

Two

One...

Then her door knobbed clinked and here comes Jinnah in her jammies that Jiyong picked out. He is such a guy because the pajamas were so mismatched, it made her want to chuckle but she's planning to pretend to sleep.  

"Mommy...." Jinnah whispers holding on to the door knob. Normally Dara would be awake before her alarm goes off so seeing the dark room. She knows theres that this would be those rare times that she has to wake up Dara.

Dara hides under the covers and whines. 

Jinnah giggled and tuns towards the bed trying to grab on the sheets. "Mommy, wake up. School time." 

Dara smiles to herself as she does her best to hold on to the sheets. "Five more minutes,"

Jinnah gave up pulling on the sheets and her little feet stomps to the head of her bed. "No. We have to get up." She had her stuffed rabbit sitting on Dara's head. 

"You can take a shower and I'll wait here." She knows how much Jinnah hates that Dara sleeps in while she's awake. Jinnah wants that if she's awake and ready to be in school Dara should be too. 

Jinnah climbed up the bed and started shaking Dara's shoulder. "Wake up, wake up, wake up...." 

Dara takes off the sheets from her and pulls Jinnah into her arms. She then covers both of them under the sheets as she traps Jinnah in her arms.

"But Mommy, I have school." Jinnah whispers since it seems little comfortable to stay sleeping at the moment.

"Five minutes. And then we'll go." Dara wraps her arms around Jinnah, her chin tucked in the top of Jinnah's head. "My alarm will go off again and we can go have breakfast, what do you want?" She mumbles into her hair. 

Jinnah cuddles more as she turned so she would be facing Dara's chest. "Eggs and bacon and ham and toast!" She said excitedly. 

Dara just nods and closed her eyes to rest. She was glad that Jinnah obliged her five minute sleep.

She could feel her little one snuggle closer to her. And then Jinnah started humming one of Dianne's songs that Dara wrote. It was actually the song that was recorded when she was sitting with David. 

Oh god David. 

She forgot about him. In the middle of the crossfire last night she totally put David in between it. 

Now she feels nauseous. How on earth could she forget about David. She doesn't even know what to do about that anymore because she isn't sure if she should go on that date or call him to cancel. 

"Mommy?" Jinnah asks curiously. 

"Yes, baby girl?" Thats when Dara realized she had shot up of bed, rubbing the side of her head. "Oh." She mumbles. She smiles at Jinnah trying to take all those worries out of her mind just so she can focus on Jinnah. "Go take a shower, baby girl. I'll cook us breakfast."

Jinnah giggles as she also shots out of bed as well. "Okay!" Then she plants a quick kiss on Dara's cheek before she ran out of the room to the bathroom to take a shower.

The next few moments with that became a blur as her mom auto-pilot went on launch. She just focused on Jinnah definitely. As she cooked bacon and eggs with toast just the way Jinnah likes it. She also packed her a sandwich from the left over meal that they didn't finish.

"Do you want grape or strawberry?" Dara asked as she opened the fridge to grab a hold of the fridge to determine what juice to give. 

Jinnah puts on her backpack and she pursed her lips trying to decide what have. "Strawberry!"

Dara nods, "Alright, grape it is!" As she grabs the purple juice box and she slowly places it inside the lunch box.

"Mom!" Jinnah whines since she knows Dara was teasing her.

Dara stops herself from laughing by chewing on her lip. She then returns the box but looks at Jinnah for confirmation. the little one shook her head violently when Dara would not exchange the juice. "Alright, strawberry it is." She puts the strawberry in her lunch pack and walks over towards Jinnah to hand her the bag. 

"Thank you, mom!" Jinnah smiles as she holds on to her Lunch box. She also reaches out of Dara's hand since she was ready to head on to the bus stop. 

"Alright, let's go."

"Gaja!" Jinnah said excitedly since that's the only Korean word she knows so far. 

Dara bit her lip. She could teach her another word or two but she feels that it's something Jinnah and Jiyong should share together. "Yeah, gaja." She squeezed Jinnah's hand tightly. 

They walked to the bus stop with Jinnah talking nonstop about what was gonna happen today for teacher's day. She wasn't sure why the parents weren't invited because there was some presentation but Jinnah just mentioned that they were just gonna sing a song to all their teachers give the cards and then resume class as normal. 

"Well I hope to hear the song too," Dara said.

Jinnah steps in front of Dara and nods. "I'll sing you that song when you pick me up later mommy!"

Dara leans at the sign and lightly touches Jinnah's hair. She didn't wear any hair accessories today since she just wanted to keep her long hair down. "Your dad is going to come get you again later." And she sighed when she saw Jinnah's big smile. 

"That's cool!" 

Dara figures the bus won't be here for another two minutes or so. She knows this isn't the appropriate time to tell her but seeing the hope shine in her little girl's eyes, well it does hurt since she knows the real truth behind Jiyong future visits. She stoops down to be at her eye level, "Baby girl, I just want you to know that Daddy isn't staying long."

Jinnah's expression changed but she nods, "I know." She said calmly, "He lives where Uncle Jay lives." She stated as a matter of factly.

Dara chews her cheek she has yet to ask Jay the extent of his conversation with Jinnah. "I'm not trying to make you feel sad but I just don't want you to feel disappointed when he's not going to be here after this week." She knows that Jiyong is only staying in New York till Thursday and that's two days from now. He told her that he canceled all his meetings for this week so he can spend his time with Jinnah.

Jinnah's eyebrows met, she seems confused as to why Dara is the one that's upset. "Why is he not coming back?"

Dara blinks. That was definitely not the thing, she was surprised by this statement. How could someone this young immediately think of this. "No I mean, you won't see him as much though."

Jinnah pursed her lips together trying to think. "But I also don't see Uncle Jay as much but he still visits and calls too. Can't Daddy do the same?"

She really doesn't get how Jinnah is taking this too well than she should, it's just that she's making it so simple that Dara worrying about what's to come is just making it seem like she's the one overthinking everything and making a big deal of things when it isn't really. But Dara knows better, with Jiyong status it is complicated. So if Jinnah at least understands that Jiyong does live far away than the specifics of it is a different story. 

So Dara planted a big kiss on Jinnah's forehead, "Yes, of course he can." Jinnah doesn't quite understand what is going on at least. She is rather happy to have her father around not totally seeing that she will have an absent father. There isn't really a need to push the topic about it now.

Jinnah squeezed Dara's hand tightly and started jumping adorably which she normally does when she gets too excited. She turns around and sees the bus. She waves when the bus driver honks her horn. 

Dara also waves at the bus driver too. "Have a good day at school, baby girl." She straightens Jinnah's hair.

"See you later at home tonight, mommy." Jinnah holds on to the strap of her backpack, stepping slightly forward to actually step on the sidewalk edge where she can step into the bus. 

"I might not be home when you're home." Dara had just went ahead and told Jinnah anyways. She is a woman of her word. No matter how uncomfortable it is of how she got to ask David, she still should go to dinner with him.

Jinnah turns towards Dara, "You have a meeting, mommy?"

She clears , "Something like that." 

"Oh okay." But then she got totally distracted when the bus stopped in front of them and two of her friends were by the window already waiving at her. "Bye Mommy!" 

"Jinnah wheres my kiss?" Dara asked. As she held on to Jinnah's backpack so she wouldn't run yet. 

"Oh. Sorry." Jinnah tip toes as Dara stooped to reach her. She plants a quick kiss to on Dara's cheek, "Bye!" Then runs inside when the doors open. 

"Morning Miss Park," the driver greeted happily at Dara who Dara responded with a smile and nod too, "Morning Jinnah." 

"Morning!" Jinnah greets in return. She hopped into the bus, without even making a second look to say bye to Dara again. She was too excited to be with her friends probably gonna show off their card. 

And so Dara just stood there waiting for the bus to be out of sight before she decided to walk back to her house... Where reality finally starts to hit her with the things that she has to deal with today. Jiyong and David. 

"Hi Josh," Dara greets as she enters the studio. He was sitting on a couch by the entry way not expecting company. 

He was startled because he wasn't really watching the door but watching a video. "Jeez, you scared me." He stood up immediately and runs his hands through his hair. Embarrassed since he knows what his job entitles. 

Dara just giggles and waves him off. She's never really the strict boss and she knows that he does his job well keeping the unwanted people the get in. Besides the place looks closed anyway so no one would come in, and Carina is out for the week because of her Honeymoon too so there is no one answering the phones if it rings. "Just stand down. It's okay."

"Aren't you off the whole week?" Josh asks.

Dara bites the bottom of her lip. When Dara is off her hiatus, she never steps foot in the studio because she usually stays home but with her staying home is driving her crazy. She cleaned every inch of the house already fur to her anxiety of whats to come tonight and she has nothing else to do anymore. She still has yet to tell David that she's contemplating about dinner. Every time she has a thought of some kind pause in her activities, she'd start to think. 

She hated it. 

She just smiles, she just said the simplest thing she could say. "Well Jinnah is going to spend time with her dad. So I'll just hang around here. At least write a couple songs or so." She was in the middle of one yesterday before Jay showed up. 

Josh nods. "Alright then. Have fun." Josh sits back down but moves closer to the entrance door. 

Dara enters the dark studio where most of the instruments are in. She stares at her guitar but decided to sit on the piano bench instead. She self taught herself how to play the piano, she isn't as good as she liked but she can play when the need rises. 

She remembered the tune she played yesterday and started to mess around with the piano to get the right feel for it. She rarely does the piano but when she does a beautiful sad song usually comes out of it. Well those were the words from Leah. Dara just writes music because she enjoys it. 

"Piano? Wow you must be feeling the blues,"

Dara looks up from the keys and could see Leah standing by the door. She had her arms across her chest staring at her intently. She then shook her head, "Doesn't going on sabbatical mean staying away from caused stress?" She knows that as much as Dara loves the studio if she feels that she's neglecting Jinnah she's always take days off to change that, even though Jinnah doesn't notice as much. 

"That's the point." Dara mumbled incoherently. She saw the confused expression on Leah face then changed the topic since she didn't really want to talk about it. "Aren't you supposed to be in the Main office?"

Leah scoffs, "Why so I can just sit there and make sure that I'm living proof my brother-in-law's life is just the studio or at home. My jealous pregnant sister needs to calm down. Is what she needs to do." She had been complaining that her sister has been irrationally jealous for no reason lately. And has begged Leah to stay with her brother-in-law just to watch him just to make sure he isn't meeting up with any y desperate singers. Dara and Leah think that Mark isn't the type to cheat but when a pregnant girl is being paranoid then might as well just listen to her favor than fight with her.

Dara just chuckles. She knows how Leah hates it when Dara goes on her hiatus because Leah always goes back to the main office where she either just sit there her talents unused or be under producers that she totally hates. At least now she's with her brother-in-law, who she completely don't dislike. 

"Not funny," Leah rolls her eyes in annoyance. She has been trying her hardest not to yell at her sister by how totally hormonally insane she is. 

"Sorry," Dara pursed her lips together. "So how'd you know I was here anyway?" 

This time Leah scoffed then gave Dara a 'duh' look as if judging her that she wouldn't know Dara was hiding out here. 

That's when Dara could see Josh sitting close by where he could take a quick glance at Leah, in that second he brightened up as if her mere presence alone made his day. Dara raises an eyebrow back at Leah, "So Josh is your spy now," she remembered how Josh was on his phone immediately as soon as Dara went in the studio. Josh has such a big crush on Leah that she uses it to her advantage so much. "Poor kid your just using him," Dara teased.

Leah lets out a fake laugh and then gasped dramatically as if she was accused for something she is totally innocent for. "Me? Mix business with pleasure? I would never!" Then she glares at Dara knowingly, "Unlike someone I know."

Dara pursed her lips together, knowing she got caught. There was no way to it now. She can't deny it but it still leaves her the question of how.

Leah flips her hair, answering Dara's unspoken questio