Things were great, but money had always been tight, they had some to spare, but preferred to save up for emergencies, and then little Sana showed up, Jihyo was already pushing it with her shifts, and Jaebum decided to take more extra hours, they would need as much as they could save for their little girl to grow up well, and both were fine with doing all they could, even if it meant a little less time together. And their friends were there every step of the way, from Chaeyoung taking into her own hands to build the nursery, to Momo monitoring both Jihyo and Jaebum to make sure they were healthy and not over exerting themselves, to Youngjae taking Jihyo to her appointments when Jaebum couldn’t make it, and video-chatting his best friend throughout the entire thing.

They were happy, and they were making it work, well, until Nayeon decided to show up again, maybe for the sake of it? Jihyo wouldn’t know, and she wouldn’t ask her husband, seeing how distressed he was after the encounter. The woman showed up on a saturday, Jihyo was having a shift that afternoon, and Jaebum was helping Youngjae with his car at the front, when a very expensive car parked in front of the house and a face none of the men wanted to see came out of it.

“Jae, heads up.” Jaebum whispered to his friend only.

“What?” Came in an equally hushed tone.

“The devil’s spawn showed herself again.” He hisses, but clenches his jaw and squares his shoulders to face his sister.

“You know, it was very difficult to find you.” Is the first thing Nayeon says to him.

“That was the plan, but looks like I have to try harder.” He spits back. “What are you doing here? As I understood, we are nothing for a couple of years already.”

“You really let go, huh?” She chuckles humorlessly.

“Just say whatever you want to say and leave, Jihyo will come home any time now and I don’t want her to see you ever again.” Jaebum’s voice is cold, and he sees Youngjae looking relaxed but ready beside him.

“What do you want me to say? I was immature and spoiled back then, it doesn’t remove what I did anyways.” Nayeon tries to negotiate.

“Look, I really don’t want to keep looking at you. Just say what you came here to say and leave.”

“Fine, dad is dying and he wants to see you.”

“I don’t know why you bothered to come here for, but that man is no father of mine, he made sure of it. Now go and never come here again, I don’t want you anywhere near my life, and I don’t plan on getting near yours as well.”

“You know mom will send their men for you and she will come herself if she needs to, she will do anything father asks her to.”

“And I’m sure you will do your best to convince them not to, because I have nothing to do with them, I do not owe any of them this favor and refuse to give them the satisfaction of having me come to them for this whatever last redemption bull they are trying to pull.”

“Jaebum, please, I-”

“You don’t get to say my name so casually as well. Just go. I’m Park Jaebum now, and very proud of it. Im Jaebum died the night you decided my wife wasn’t good enough to be in your lives and threw me out so easily.”

Nayeon just huffs, resigned, she knew it was a long shot, especially after he changed his last name like that. As a kid, Jaebum would always be very happy talking about his future wife, how Im would be a great last name, and how her name would fit it, no matter what it would be because it fit everything. She knew how much her brother loved his family and, after all these years, she saw just how much that one fit she had as a teen had killed the man that raised her.

The woman entered the car and drove home without another word to Jaebum, who she saw wasn’t the loving brother she grew up with, the boy who, despite not being that much older, tried his best to raise her and do what their parents never cared for. It was him who would wake her up, make sure she had everything she needed for school, went to all her plays, taught her how to write and read, attended every event of her life, even if it meant he would spend the night awake to make up for the time he spent with her.

She made sure to not let anyone know about this visit, asked Dahyun to hire a private investigator, as nobody would think her wife was looking for people she never met, and made sure no one but herself and said investigator knew who she was looking for. She bound detective Kwon by an iron clad non disclosure and rented a car to go to the house, she knew her car had a GPS tracker and knew this was a long shot, but still didn’t want to bring problems to her brother, whatever the outcome. 

Nayeon managed to return the rental, but broke down as soon as she entered her own car, parked at her office garage the entire time, she didn’t want any suspicious activities in her log, and decided to take a cab downtown for her rental. But she couldn’t bring herself to get back to work that day, and Dahyun couldn’t know what she had been doing, her wife was the best, but couldn’t let things go easily. The chances that Dahyun would move heavens and earth to find out and solve the problem were too high, and Jaebum deserved his peace, he deserved to be left alone with his new life, the life she forced upon him herself.

It took a while, but Nayeon managed to get a hold of herself and called her assistant, telling him to cancel her appointments for the day, and telling him to take the rest of the day off himself. Bambam was a nice man, very hard working, but also her father’s lackey, she knew she shouldn’t leave him with her office, so she said Dahyun hadn’t been feeling well since the night before and she decided to drag her wife to the hospital, which was true, but they had gone the previous night, not that he needed to know this. Bambam just asked to be called if she needed anything and Nayeon waited to see him leave the building before she headed home. All the carefulnes was never too careful with mr Im.