“What are you doing here?” was the first thing Yukhei said after he had overcome his surprise. Not that he was surprised she was here, he was just shocked she was in his house.

“Well that’s not a nice way to welcome your mother, I thought I raised you better than that” the woman says.

Yukhei scoffs “You gave birth and did nothing more than that, it’s not even enough to call yourself a mom”.

Her warm eyes turn cold at his words, not that the emotions in them were real. They were and always would be fake. Yukhei knows the woman despises him but she just thinks he’s too dumb to understand that. Breaking news: he’s not.

Before she can say anything else Yukhei speaks up “How did you even find me?”. “You didn’t want to give me your location so I traced your phone”. Yukhei knows he should not be surprised at her actions. If she wanted something she would cross all possible lines to get it.

He is reminded of the phone call they had a long time ago. She had called him asking for his whereabouts, which he of course -what was he stupid?- didn’t give. If he only had known that by then she already had his location he probably would have moved. (who remembers the phone call in chapter 4)

Sadly he didn’t, so here he was, having his still sleeping daughter in his arms -thank god she’s a deep sleeper- and his mom standing just a couple meters away. “So here I am, you’ve seen me, not that I understand why you wanted to see me anyways, it’s not like you care, so please get the hell out of my house” he tells her.

“Who said I came for you?” his mom says, slowly making her way over. Yukhei protectively holds Mei in a tight grip against his chest. “Don’t come near me” Yukhei shouts when his mom is within reach. “I just want to look at her” she says stepping even closer. She lifts up her hand ready to touch Mei when Yukhei takes a step back. “She’s my daughter you don’t get to touch her” he tells her hoping she would back away.

But she doesn’t instead she stays “And she’s my granddaughter”. She says it with that tone, that tone that Yukhei recognizes out of thousands, that tone she specifically used to make something very clear to him. The puzzle pieces fall together and it suddenly makes sense to

as why she’s here. “No” he says “you can’t”.

“It’s not about if I can Yukhei we need to, we need her” she says slowly starting to lose her patience. “You’re not getting my daughter” Yukhei shouts at her and Mei stirs in her sleep.

“We need somebody in our bloodline to lead the company in the future Yukhei, we all know that’s not going to be you. so it needs to be her” she tries to explain. She doesn’t need to because Yukhei fully gets it.

“So you kicked me out because getting a girl pregnant would be a shame on the family and the company but getting that child to lead the company is okay?” Yukhei screams at her. “It would be less shameful than not being able to have a new leader for the company” she casually says not any shame or regret on her face.

“And you just think I was going to be like, Yeah great idea here you have her have a nice life?” Yukhei shouts again while also trying to console Mei who woke up and started crying because of her dad’s shouting and the unknown woman in their house. “Of course not that’s why if you don’t just hand over custody, I'll give youth services a call, let them now that this apartment isn’t exactly child save”.

He isn’t surprised he truly isn’t but he can’t help but look shocked at the thought losing Mei.

She isn’t wrong, the apartment is really crappy but it was all he was able to afford back when moved here. His mother grins out of satisfaction at seeing his face. “So reconsidered your answer?’ she asks him. “Yes” Yukhei responds.

“You still ain’t getting her”. “Then prepare to fight” she tells him angrily. “I will that's what parents are supposed to do” he says back. “When you change your mind you can call me, if you haven't called by next week, don’t be surprised by a visit of youth services” is the last thing she says before opening the door and leaving the apartment.

As soon as the door shuts Yukhei lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He places both of them on the couch, gently rocking Mei in his arms until her cries die down. “I’m sorry princess” he mumbles in her ear as she’s falling asleep again.

He puts her to bed and decides to call it a night for himself as well. He falls asleep, frustration, anger, and panic being the only emotions he’s feeling. In the end, exhaustion takes the best of him postponing his worries to the next morning.

The whole scene made him forget about his phone, that was still in his jacket -on silent mode especially for the dinner- of which the screen was lighting up notifying he had yet another call or text from a number’s saved as “Baby lion”.

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“Hi this is Yukhei, I'm not available at the moment pl” Mark hung up the phone as he got voicemail once again. He didn’t understand why his boyfriend hadn’t responded.

When he called the first time he had been feeling super happy about how the dinner turned out. Yukei had probably been putting Mei to bed so it wasn’t weird he isn't answering. But after another couple of voicemails, the feeling faded away and made place for a slight worry. Putting a child to bed doesn’t take that long.

It was unusual for Yukhei to not answer, to ignore him and he doesn’t understand. They called or texted every night, telling the other goodnight and if the hadn’t seen each other they would talk about their day.

Was he mad at him? Had he done anything to make him upset? Mark thinks back to the conversations they had, the looks they shared desperately trying to find any reasoning for the man’s behavior but he can’t think of anything.

‘Normal’ people would just go to bed and try again the next morning, but those people hadn’t been hurt before, those people hadn’t been left like that and those people weren’t Mark.

Who was falling further and further into a headspace, where only negative thoughts existed and voices told him things that felt like the truth. He tried to resist it the best he could but the tears started streaming, the slideshow started playing as an episode took over with this time, not Yukhei insight to help him, and him being just like the voices said: alone.