“I can’t believe I’ve failed my exams...” Jaeha sighed for the nth time already.

“Yeah you sure have,” her best friend rolled his eyes, looking completely done with her. “You always say you’ve failed but then, surprise! You always pass with great marks if not the best of your whole class. Just have a little faith in yourself, would you?”

She didn’t answer and slowly sipped on her coke. Summer had just begun and it was already a bright and warm day, so the duo had decided to go out after their last day of exams to have a drink and unwind but Jaeha was having this very classic post-exams depression. It would last two days, three at best, and then she would be perfectly alright but at the moment she was busy complaining and moping about how awful teachers were for interrogating them on such hard topics and how terrible her performance had been during the whole week. Jungkook however was having none of it; for him it meant he was done with the school year and best, he was done with his first three years of university.

“Are you going to be like this during the whole week-end? Your father is not going to appreciate it if you spend your time together sulking.”

“I’m not sulking...”

“Not sulking my .”

He emptied his glass and since she had barely touched hers, he helped himself and emptied it. He offered to pay and since she didn’t have the heart to go against him today, she waited for him outside. Then he drove her to her place and told her to not forget to send him a text message as soon as she would reach her father’s home. She assured him she wouldn’t forget and waited until he was out of sight to go home. She left her shoes and bag by the front door and dragged her feet to the living room, looking all sad and depressed, when suddenly someone shouted her name. She jumped, startled by that sudden outburst, and all sadness vanished when she was suddenly pulled into a tight hug. She didn’t even have time to really see who it was, but she knew who it was thanks to his unmistakable voice or perfume. Her favorite uncle, Jackson.

“You didn’t tell me you’d be coming!” she said as tears of happiness mixed with frustration rolled down her cheeks.

He seized her face and rubbed their noses together in an Eskimo kiss.

“Surprise baby Jae!”

All the frustration she felt was suddenly gone and she burst out in tears. He couldn't help but laugh and hugged her even more while gently rubbing her back. Jaebum who had seen the whole scene sighed loudly, feeling bad for his daughter. He knew she never felt great after exam periods. But this time he was glad Jackson was here to comfort her and he knew her father would keep her busy enough during the week-end, meaning she wasn’t going to spend the upcoming days locked in her bedroom crying.

“Don’t cry my darling,” Jackson said with his strong accent. “You’re done with school, you should be happy, why those tears? Do you want me to take you to McDonald’s to make it better?”

She let out a choked laughter and dried her tears with the back of her hands. When she was younger and would cry for some reasons, Jackson would always take her to McDonald’s knowing it would immediately make her feel all better.

“Should we?”

“Appa is coming to pick me up for the week-end in a few hours,” she explained when she could speak again.

“Mh, too bad. We’ll go on another day then.”

He ruffled her hair and let her go. She greeted her dad and Youngjae and went to the fridge to get a glass of cold water.

“I’m staying for the week,” Jackson told her. “So we’ll have plenty of time to hang out together once you’re back.”

She nodded and then left the true adults alone to go and pack her things. She left the door of her bedroom open to hear what they were talking about and heard Jackson asking about “the little guy” so she guessed her dad must have had already told him about the gender of her sibling. Youngjae was 33 weeks along, there was only one week left before the 9^th month which meant the baby could pop out at moment now. Deep inside she was really eager, yet she couldn’t help but feel nervous about this. A baby was a lot of crying and she feared that would prevent her from getting her beauty sleep. Also, she worried the baby was going to take all of her dad’s spare time and attention. She was for sure going to learn how to share her parent after twenty years of being the only child.

When she came back to the living room, they changed subject and talked about work. Jackson was here on holidays and would be flying to China to be with his family by the end of the upcoming week. Of course Jaeha was glad he had not forgotten about her and was already thinking about all the things they could do next week to spend the most time together as possible.

The conversation carried on for a while and when the doorbell rang Jaeha was really taken aback. She had not realized it was already the time for her to go. Jaebum was the one who opened and greeted his ex-husband and his partner warmly before letting them enter the place. Jaeha thought her father would immediately focused on her but his eyes found Jackson first and while his eyes opened widely his lips turned into the brightest smile ever.

“Seun-ah!”

“Jinyoung!” Jackson hurried to his side to embrace his old friend. “Dude how long has it been?”

Jinyoung laughed and looked at him from head to toes.

“You have not changed at all. How old are you? Thirty?”

“You’re the one to talk,” the Chinese man complimented back. “You look good man!”

“So do you man.”

Jaeha rolled her eyes; their way of speech was so old-fashioned. Jackson’s eyes then fell on Mark and he silently questioned Jinyoung by raising a brow.

“Jack, this is Mark, my boyfriend. Mark, this is Jackson, a very old friend of mine. My former manager,” Jinyoung introduced them to one another.

“The L.A. man, I’ve heard a lot about you,” Jackson said in a perfect English.

“Same here,” Mark answered in his mother tongue.

“You want to stay for a minute?” Jaebum stepped in but Jinyoung shook his head.

“I’ve got a late appointment for work and I don’t want to run late, sorry.”

“Dude come on, we have to hang out, you’ve got so much time to catch up,” Jackson pouted.

“I really can’t. But if you’re free next week we can meet for diner somewhere.”

And just like that they settled on meeting at some place they apparently used to hang out a lot when they were younger on Sunday evening, when Jinyoung would bring Jaeha back to Seoul. She could tell her father was already looking forward that moment, it was obvious he was glad to meet with his so called “old friend”. She took her bag, made sure she had a phone charger and wished the men she wouldn’t see for two days a good week-end before she left along with Jinyoung and Mark. On their way out of the building, she asked him where he was going and what kind of appointment it was for it to be this late, but he didn’t actually answer and remained really vague, almost as if he wanted to avoid the topic. She didn’t question him any further and soon she wondered what she was going to do with Mark in the meantime, while waiting for him.

“If you’re hungry you two could go to a restaurant,” Jinyoung said and the tone of his voice made her think they had already planned this earlier. But she was happy with this idea, she was indeed a bit hungry.

“Alright, let’s do that.”

They drove through the neighborhood for a while and dropped Jinyoung at a famous broadcasting station headquarters, which made her even more curious, but she didn’t really have time to worry about it because Mark immediately asked her where she wanted to go. When she asked if he was alright with eating McDonald’s, he said there was no problem and a few minutes later they were sitting in one of the many fast food restaurant there were around waiting for their order. At first she didn’t know what to talk about but was desperately looking for something to say so that it wouldn’t be awkward. Fortunately though it was Mark who spoke first and asked her about her exams. It instantly sent her back into depression mode but he cheered her up by saying typical sentences like “just wait for the results to come out first before saying everything is over” or even “you know just like you I used to always believe I failed but in reality I never failed”.

“You sound like my dad,” she scoffed.

“I take that as a compliment, your dad is a great man,” Mark smiled proudly.

“Well maybe he won’t be anymore once the baby is born,” she leaned her head against the palm of her hand.

“Why is that?”

“He won’t care about me,” she didn’t even realize she was sharing some of his fears with him.

“He would never do that,” he assured. “Your dad loves you way too much to ever stop caring about you.”

“How can you say that? You don’t even know my dad that well...”

“I know things you don’t, Jaeha. That’s why I can assure you that.”

She was not really convinced but she was not going to argue any further with him either.

“You don’t have kids, do you?” she inquired.

“No I don’t.”

“Why?”

“Because I never got the chance to have one,” he answered very honestly.

“Do you want to have one with my father?”

“Actually...” he made a short break. “We’ve been talking about it. And we’re thinking a baby dog would be a great addition to our family.”

She couldn’t help but let out a long relieved sigh.

“A dog, great. I like dogs.”

“I know, that’s why we’d be happy to have one.”

“But not an actual child?”

He shook his head.

“I’m too old for that, I think. And I know Jinyoung is not ready to have another kid.”

“Really? Why?”

“I feel like Jinyoung wouldn’t want me to say that to you,” he started. “But I feel like it’s important for you to know about that. About the reason why he doesn’t want another child.”

“Yeah…?”

“He feels so regretful towards you, Jaeha. He truly regrets leaving you and not being part of your life for ten years and now he is really trying hard to redeem himself in your eyes and having a child would make him feel even more guilty.”

“But… what if you want to have a child with him…?” she didn’t even know what to say anymore.

“I know he would be an amazing dad and would take very good care of our child, but his mind would always go back to you and to all the moments he wasn’t by your side and he would feel even more guiltier. I can’t impose such feelings on him, just for my own selfishness. It takes two people to have a kid, it requests two bodies and minds. If one doesn't have that, then I believe there’s no use in having a kid...”

“But just because of me… if you really want one… that’s awkward for me.”

“Jaeha, I’m fine. I’m really happy with our situation. You know, I get the happiest whenever Jinyoung tells me you’re coming for the week-end or when I see how bright his smile gets when you call him. I don’t need more than that.”

“Really?” he nodded.

“Yeah, really.”

She didn’t know if she could really trust his words but she didn’t have time to ask for more information because one of the employees brought them their food. She thanked him and immediately started eating. They didn’t really say much during the meal but once they were done and left the place, Mark immediately resumed the talking and asked her about her plans for summer break. She detailed him what she had planned so far, which didn’t take long since she had not really planned anything apart from hanging out with Jungkook, and they made their way to the broadcasting station again to wait for Jinyoung to be done with his appointment. They listened to some music and chatted about the weather getting colder at night for another thirty minutes before Jinyoung finally came out. He sat down at the back and didn’t even leave them the time to ask him how his appointment had gone, he was firing questions first and asked them if everything went well. It was Mark who told him where they ate but he willingly didn’t mention what they had talked about; it was between Jaeha and himself.

They left Seoul soon after and on their way, Jinyoung explained Mark how he had met Jackson.

“We met through Jaebum,” he started explaining. “They met during their first year at university. You know Jaebum studied medicine, right?” both Mark and Jaeha nodded. “So did Jackson, but only for a semester. He failed and changed course, instead he started studying international business. Well, during his only semester at med school, he met Jaebum and almost from the first day they became friends. It was like friendship at first sight.”

“Cute,” Mark commented.

“And when Jaebum passed his first year, they went out to celebrate with a group of friends and of course Jackson came along. I was part of the group of friends, thanks to a high school friend of mine who was studying at the same time as Jaebum.”

“Were you and dad already dating at that time?” Jaeha asked.

“Yes, we had been dating for a few months when this happened. Of course your dad was really glad to introduce me to his best friend and through the night I found out Jackson was a really funny guy and he had so many stories to tell it was fascinating. I immediately knew he was the kind of guy I liked to hang out with usually, because they were mood-makers. During the conversation I somehow brought out that I was sick and tired of the manager I had back at that time, a guy whom my company had imposed on me, and since I was in my rebellious years I was looking for a manager on my own, a guy whom I’d really appreciate and enjoy working with. One thing leading to another, Jackson told me he had a lot of spare time in his hands, that he was thinking about quitting university since he was very bored of it and that he was going to start looking for a job. And that’s how it happened. Not even three weeks later he became my manager.”

“How old were you at that time?” Mark inquired.

“We all were 18, going on 19. It was… well… exactly 23 years ago.”

“And then later that year dad proposed to you,” it was not a question, Jaeha stated what she knew.

“Exactly. He proposed in August, we got married in December and we went on our honeymoon two years later and then our little honeymoon baby was born,” he said with a fond smile while looking at her.

“Oh my god… ‘honeymoon baby”… that’s so lame,” she tsked.

“That’s what you are, a baby that was conceived during-”

“A honeymoon,” she didn’t let him finish his sentence. “I know, we get that.”

Jinyoung laughed, amused by her reaction.

“I can’t imagine myself having a kid at 22,” she said next. “That’s really young.”

“My situation back then was really different from yours, you know. I had been living my dream and had been famous for a few years, I was already one of the top actors… but it was starting to feel suffocating. At 18, I wanted to hang out with friends, go out for a drink whenever I wanted to, I wanted to find love and just live the same life as every other young adults. But instead I was stuck with a strict contract, I couldn’t go anywhere without my manager, I couldn’t say what I wanted, couldn’t wear the clothes I wanted. Stuff like that that made my life hell. I met your dad at a time when I wanted to give up on everything I had to live a peaceful life. But Jaebum told me to not give up, not after everything I had gone through to reach the top. He never once cared for my fame, he never judged me, he just loved me for who I was and that was the best feeling ever. That’s why I didn’t need to think twice when he proposed or why I didn’t fear having a child when I was twenty, because I knew your dad was always going to be by my side to support me in the best way as possible.”

“Did he? Did he support you?”

“Of course he did. When I had a feud with my previous label and when they threatened him to divorce me or else they would sue him, this kind of ridiculous things, he never faltered. He stood up for me and for our marriage, he fought with me during the lawsuit and whenever we received harsh comments on our situation, he didn’t even listen to them. When you were born he grew even more protective. That was really adorable,” he smiled fondly while recalling the good memories.

None of them dared to say anything for a while after that, they were all busy thinking about his words on their sides. When they arrived around two hours later, the moment Jaeha stepped out of the car, she called for her father’s attention.

“Appa, did you ever regret marrying dad and having me?”

He answered immediately.

“Never. Not once. Of course there are a lot of things I’d like to change if I could go back in time, but you and your dad wouldn’t be one of them.”

“Even if it ended with a divorce?”

“Even if it ended with a divorce,” he assured.

Hi guys! How are you doing? Hope you are all doing well, and if you're like me stuck at home, stay home!

Here's another chapter, a long one, and certainly my favorite so far :D I love writing about Jaeha and Mark, I do hope you like them too!

Thank you very much for the amazing comments on the previous chapter, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thank you to all of you who also subscribed, it means a lot to me. 

Take care of you, until next time :)

xx

Mae