11:34 P.M

”That’s enough for today,” Sehun says after completing what feels like his five hundredth paper crane. He carefully places it at the top of his ever-growing pile next to Jungah’s, which is twice as big. ”Or else we might drown in these.”

Jungah huffs in dismay, but she doesn’t protest as she scoops up her creations and stands up. Sehun only watches her dump them all into the empty fruit basket on the kitchen windowsill. The whole carpet is strewn about with colorful origami animals, to the point that Sehun fears standing up and walking around in worry of accidentally stepping on one. Although he has no idea where Jungah is going to store all of them, he finds himself admiring their six hours of hard work with an odd sense of pride. Mostly because Sehun had no idea that, during his twenty eight years, he secretly had a talent for origami.

Sehun's thighs are so stiff at this point that they sort of feel like cardboard as he gets up. He goes on to assist Jungah with lining all the cranes up according to size, all while sneaking glances at his watch. The last five hours really flew by, and it only makes him that much more thankful that Jongin is going to be home any minute. Mostly because Sehun hates the idea of Jungah being without her father during a raging thunderstorm, but mainly because his fingers might shrivel up and fall off if he has to fold another paper crane.

To Sehun's surprise, Jungah hasn’t showed a single sign of being anxious, which he came to realize after rushing straight to Jongin’s house, fully drenched and out of breath, only to be greeted with the sight of Jungah doing her homework at the kitchen table without a worry in the world. Sehun recalls how foolish he felt when Jungah went on to ask him if he rushed all the way there just to escape the rain, but he didn't get a chance to respond before she proceeded to drag him towards her origami book.

”Lisa’s birthday is on Thursday, do you think I should give her one?” Jungah asks with glittering eyes. She says something about Lisa’s favorite color being pink while picking up a crane in said color.

Sehun can’t help the smile that tugs on the corners of his lips. ”They’re all really pretty so I’m sure she’ll love it,” he chuckles.

”Really?” Jungah grins, twisting and turning the object in her small hands. ”She’s turning ten, isn’t that great?” she hums after carefully placing the crane on top of her backpack.

The five hours of sitting on the floor with his legs crossed must be getting to Sehun, because he hurriedly takes a seat on the nearest chair before he can collapse. ”That’s a big day,” he hums. A thought subsequently hits him. ”You’re turning ten soon, too, if I’m not mistaken?”

Jungah is silent as she nods. ”Yeah,” she mutters. "On Saturday, I think." 

Sehun blinks. ”Aren't you excited for your birthday?” he softly asks, cocking his head aside. 

Jungah shrugs nonchalantly. ”A little, I guess,” she says in a flat tone. ”But Dad said he doesn’t have time for that stuff lately, so I can't be excited.”

Sehun forces himself to stand up when Jungah asks if he could please make her something for dinner. A part of him decides against it, since Jongin might have a fit if he catches her eating so late at night. However, all it takes is Jungah politely taking a seat at the table for Sehun to change his mind. 

Now, if Jongin’s apartment was eerily deserted, it’s nothing compared to the cupboards and fridge. In fact, all Sehun knows is that Jongin's lack of lunch breaks is starting to make a whole lot of sense. While Jongin never seems to have an issue with skipping out on eating, which has Sehun wondering where on Earth he gets his energy from to be able to work fifteen hours a day.      

It’s not until Sehun finds a rumpled packet of instant ramen that Jungah’s words sink in. ”What do you mean by him not having time for it lately?” he asks.

Jungah looks up from her textbook, which is littered with colorful photos of planets and space. ”I dunno,” she sighs. ”He just keeps saying that he doesn’t have time to celebrate birthdays and stuff anymore, so Nana gives me gifts instead.” She proceeds to doodle in her notepad while humming a kiddish tune to herself.

Sehun bites the inside of his cheek. He isn’t sure if Jungah’s carefree smile is anything to go by, but something tells him that she’s overly used to it by now. Nevertheless, he has to force himself to hold back an irritated sigh when he turns the stove on. Even though he’s had his own fair share of parents missing out on his own birthdays, Sehun just hopes that Jongin will give Jungah the attention she deserves once Saturday rolls around.

They fall into silence, the only audible sounds being Jungah’s whistling and the stove whirring into motion. Sehun takes a seat when Jungah goes on to recite the planets in order from largest to smallest. Her grandmother must be the one feeding her, he thinks.

As he waits for the water to boil, Sehun watches Jungah tie her hair into a ponytail, all while hoping that Jongin will come home soon. While Sehun knows that Jongin will be drop dead exhausted after another long day at the office, a part of him hopes that Jongin have it in him to sit down and spend at least a little quality time with Jungah upon returning home. Because there’s something about her nonchalant humming, combined with the thunder crackling, that really makes Sehun’s stomach turn.

”I hope Dad won’t be too frightened when he gets home,” Jungah says, walking over and grabbing her backpack. She carefully places the crane aside before dumping a large notebook and color pencils on the table. ”Since he’s really scared of thunder.”

Sehun raises an eyebrow, even though he figures that he shouldn’t be surprised. ”Is he now?”

Jungah nods as she hands Sehun a piece of paper and three pencils. ”One time when I was little, there was a lot of thunder outside, so I went to his room at night,” she says, ”and I saw him hiding his face under the blankets.” She proceeds to draw a pink sunflower. ”But after a while, he stopped being scared. I asked him why and he said it was because he takes magic pills to help him sleep, so that’s good, right???”

Sehun hopes that Jungah won’t slam him for his nonexistent art skills as he picks up the blue pencil. ”That doesn’t sound too good to me, actually,” he sighs. He does his best to scribble out a stick figure, only to fly out of his seat when the pot nearly boils over.

Jungah blinks. ”Why doesn't it sound good?” she asks almost defensively, all while Sehun turns the stove off.

Sehun fetches a small bowl from the cabinet. ”It’s…complicated,” he mutters.

”But he says they help,” Jungah retorts seconds after Sehun places a bowl in front of her. ”Some days, it takes a long time to wake him up, so I sometimes arrive late to school, but he said they make him happy, so I’m happy,” she adds before staring at Sehun with a hint of hostility. ”He’s my dad and not yours, you know.”

Sehun puts his hands up in defense. ”You’re right,” he chuckles. He checks his watch. Two minutes to midnight. ”Must be stuck in traffic,” he mutters, mostly to himself.

Jungah loudly slurps her noodles, causing broth to fly everywhere. "Dad's smart, he'll be home soon, don't worry. "

They sit in silence for a minute. Sehun can physically feel the words on his tongue as he watches Jungah enjoy her food. After a few seconds of peddling back and forth, he opens his mouth to speak when Jungah sends him a look.

”Hey, there’s something I want to ask, but you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” Sehun calmly says, leaning across the table. ”Okay?”

Jungah wipes with the back of her hand. ”You can ask me anything!"

Sehun nods. ”You know when I came over last week, and we had lunch together?”

Jungah’s eyes twinkle. ”Yeah, so???"

”Do you remember what we talked about?" Sehun asks. "You said something about your father looking strange when he came home sometimes.”

Shoving her chopsticks in , Jungah blinks in wonder. ”I think I remember that,” she mutters. ”And that he always smelled weird, right?”

Sehun nods. ”Exactly. Now, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but does he do it often?” His eyebrows knit together when Jungah immediately nods. ”Are you sure?”

”Yeah,” Jungah sighs with a tired pout. ”I mean, he did it a lot before, but I’m with Nana these days, so I don’t know how much he does it now.” She sloshes one of her chopsticks around in the bowl. ”I wish he would stop doing it soon, though. It was funny at first, but now it’s kinda scary.”

Sehun raises an eyebrow. ”What do you mean by ’scary’?” he asks, ignoring the tugging at his gut.

”Sometimes when he comes home from work and smells weird, he almost can't talk properly,” Jungah sighs. ”It's like he isn't listening to me when I ask him if he wants to watch TV and stuff.” Something flashes in her eyes. ”And a few weeks ago, he screamed at me really loudly and I cried.”

A bolt of lightning nearly sends the roof flying, but Sehun barely hears it over his own pulse in his ears. ”He screamed at you?” he echoes. ”What did he say?”

Jungah shrugs. ”I couldn’t understand what he meant, but he said that everything was my fault and that he wanted to die,” she says, eyebrows knitted together in puzzlement. ”I told him what he said when he had to drive me to school, but he just said he couldn’t remember anything.” She picks up a few noodles with her fingers. ”But he said he wouldn’t say it again, so it’s okay now.”

Sehun runs a hand through his hair. ”That’s…good, I guess,” he mutters as Jungah continues to color in her book. All he hopes is that his little talk with Jongin last week paid off, even though Jongin hasn’t stuck to his promise of giving him a call ever since.

One thought leads to another, and the next thing Sehun knows, he’s pulling reaching into his inner pocket.

”Do you have one of your own?” Sehun softly asks, placing his phone on the table. ”I want to show you something.”

Jungah eyes the black object before rushing over to her backpack. ”Nana gave it to me this morning,” she squees, waving a silver flip phone in the air. 

Sehun accepts it with a low hum, and he tries not to think about how many years it’s been since he had a phone like this of his own as he turns it on. He wastes no time in punching in his phone number (after spending nearly a minute trying to figure out the ancient controls) before handing it back to Jungah. 

”I know you’re mostly staying with your grandmother nowadays, and that this might seem strange for you,” Sehun says. "But if your dad ever does the same thing again or if you’re feeling scared in general, call me and I’ll try my best to help you out, alright?”

Jungah stares at Sehun’s name on the screen before she giggles. ”Can I call you if I’m having trouble with maths?” she asks and something tells Sehun that she isn’t joking around.

Sehun nods. He’s lucky that math happens to be one of his strong suits. ”You can call me about anything you like,” he chuckles.

Cheeks flushing with joy, Jungah places her phone next to her before resuming drawing. ”You’re almost better than Dad,” she sing-songs, picking up the yellow pencil.

Sehun blinks. He definitely wasn’t expecting that. ”What do you mean?”

”Because...because you're like a dad,” Jungah says with a bright grin. A lock of hair comes loose from her ponytail and falls in her face when she concentrates on drawing a bright yellow sun in the corner. ”I kind of wish you were my dad instead of Dad.”

Sehun is silent for a minute. ”I appreciate it, but you shouldn’t say things like that,” he says. ”Your father’s got a very stressful job and has to work late, I’m sure he’s doing his best, don’t you think?”

Jungah pouts. ”Maybe, but you seem like a better dad. You look like a better dad, too!” She points to Sehun’s crisp suit.

”We’re all humans, and humans sometimes do things they shouldn’t,” Sehun says, to which Jungah responds by cocking her head aside. ”Your father’s done things he shouldn’t have, but humans change and I’m sure your father is doing his best to improve himself.” All that floods his mind is Jongin’s angelic face as they slept next to each other. ”You know, you’re actually a very lucky girl to have him as a father.”

Jungah blinks, eyes round as dinner plates. ”I am???”

”Yeah, you are,” Sehun responds with a wink. He stands up and puts her empty bowl in the sink, wondering if he’s obligated to prepare her for bed while they wait for Jongin to walk in the door. A loud clap of thunder fills the air, and he’s not surprised to see that Jungah barely flinches. ”You’re very brave, as well.”

Jungah beams. ”Really?”

Sehun nods, fighting the urge to tell her just how brave she actually is. ”Yup,” he hums, leaning against the counter. ”I was terrified of thunderstorms when I was your age, maybe even more terrified than your father.”

”Really?” Jungah pouts. ”But it’s good that you had your mom and dad and brothers and sisters to make you feel better, right?”

Sehun bites the inside of his cheek. ”Not quite,” he says. ”I mean, they were there but they weren’t there, so to say.” He fights the urge to pinch Jungah’s cheeks when she looks like a question mark. ”I had no brothers or sisters growing up and my parents were always away, so I had to learn to be brave on my own.”

At this point, Jungah has abandoned her coloring book. She stares at Sehun with a hint of wonder and curiosity on her face. ”But your parents can’t always be away, right???”

Sehun shrugs. ”Some jobs require people to travel a lot,” he says. ”My mother worked for the government and my father had his own company, so they were only home for Christmas.”

Jungah almost looks completely entranced as she blinks. ”Did you have a Nana who took care of you when it wasn’t Christmas?” she asks, swinging her short legs back and forth on the chair.

”I started living with my aunt until I was around seventeen," Sehun says, "but I lived with my roommate after I started college since she couldn’t take care of me anymore.” He figures that if he still kept in touch with Yifan after all these years, he would call him up and let him know just how thankful he is for taking him under his wing after his aunt suddenly passed away. "And after I finished college, I was on my own." 

Sehun barely gets a chance to ask Jungah when her bedtime is before he’s nearly tackled to the floor in a bear hug. He has no idea how somebody so small could pack such enormous strength, since he finds himself unable to squirm out of her iron grip no matter how hard he tries. It’s not until Jungah goes on to nuzzle her face in his stomach that he pats her head. All Sehun knows is, that while Jungah may be lucky to have a father like Jongin, Jongin is undoubtedly the luckiest father in the world to be blessed with a daughter like her.

”Does it make you sad???” Jungah asks, eyes trembling with worry. ”You can call me if you’re sad, you know!”

Carding her fingers through her hair, Sehun nods. ”I’ll keep that in mind,” he says before sneaking a glance at his watch. ”I hope your father gets home soon, though, since it’s getting late.”

Jungah looks up. ”You have to go?” she asks and Sehun almost feels bad for opening his mouth when her lower lip quivers. 

Sehun is silent as he nods. ”I’m afraid so,” he says, smoothing out her ponytail. "I have to get up early tomorrow, just like you, you know."

”You're going home to meet your wife,” Jungah titters, poking Sehun’s ribs with her slim fingers. To say that she basically laughs her chin off at Sehun's unmanly shriek would be an understatement. 

Sehun shakes his head. More like husband, in that case. ”I live alone,” he says, only to regret it when Jungah tightens his grip around his waist to the point that he wants to gasp for air. ”It’s alright, you get used to it after a-”

”You can stay here if you’re feeling lonely,” Jungah retorts. ”Dad sometimes sleeps in the car because he’s too tired to go to his room, so you can sleep in his bed tonight.” She's silent for a moment. "Sometimes, it gets lonely being at home like this, but if you're lonely, then we can be lonely together, right? Then we'll feel better!"

Sehun doesn’t get a chance to respond before the sound of tires screeching to a halt fills the air. Due to the pitch blackness outside, he can’t see anything besides his own reflection staring back at him in the windowpanes. All Sehun knows is that Jongin couldn't have picked a better time to come home, because another second of this and he definitely would have suffocated to death.

”Seems like your father's home,” Sehun says apologetically. The rain is coming down even harder, which has him thanking himself for choosing to take the car to the office. ”But you have my number, so you can always call me, okay?"

Inevitably, Sehun is unable to wriggle out of Jungah’s iron grip, so he opts to awkwardly waddle towards the hallway while she clings to his waist like a baby koala. By some miracle, he manages to toe his shoes on without stumbling and smashing his face into the wall, and he’s about to reach for his coat when a loud thumping sound makes them both flinch. It almost sounds like a chair being thrown against the front door, but Sehun quickly reassures Jungah that it’s just Jongin knocking to be let in, since he gave his house keys to him earlier.

”I’ll get it!” Jungah squeals.

Ignoring the bruising sensation in his hips, Sehun turns around and grabs his coat while Jungah races towards the door. Sehun knows that Jongin will probably be ticked off at Jungah being up at this hour, but in his defense, he wouldn't exactly call babysitting his strong suit. 

Sehun is halfway through sliding his coat on when the door is swung open and the smell of fresh rain water fills the hallway. However, he doesn’t get a chance to ask Jongin if he managed to turn in his reports on time before before Jungah loudly complains about ’that weird, gross smell again’. Even though Sehun knows that he doesn’t need to, he whirls around, anyway. 

Not even the dark rain can conceal the obvious redness tainting Jongin’s cheeks, and Sehun doesn’t need to look twice to know that his gaze is hardly focused as water drips from his matted hair. It doesn't take long for the winds to carry the smell of sour tequila into the apartment, all while Sehun flies over to catch Jongin before he can stumble and fall flat on his face. 

With the front door open, Sehun spots Jongin’s black car parked crookedly, backwards and practically in the neighbor's yard. Not only is the engine running with every single light , but the driver's side door is sitting wide open, and Sehun can practically see the leather seats getting drenched by the second. In his arms, Jongin grumbles something incoherent before upchucking the contents of his stomach all over the carpet and missing Jungah’s feet by an inch.

Jungah takes a step back with her nose wrinkled in disgust, all while Sehun inwardly curses.

ing hell.