Irene placed the child into her lab’s cot, she didn’t expect Kai to come running into her lab right in the middle of the night. She knew they were all going to be here but, not near the back of the palace. He was drenched in sweat from head to toe, and she reckoned it could’ve been because he ran all the way from Krystal’s room to the lab.

“He’s already asleep,” She assured, stuffing her hands into her lab coat. “Don’t worry, our baby formula works fine.”

Good thing for the couple, Irene and her team have been working on food and nutrition formulas. Ever since the pandemic ended, the princess was assigned by her father to work on food products that would strengthen the next generation of individuals who could potentially be indirectly affected by it.

“Thanks Irene.” Kai gratefully expressed his gratitude, averting his gaze to Sehun who hasn’t said anything since she realised she didn’t have any milk left.

The princess let out a small hum and removed her gloves, discarding them into the nearest bin.

“I’ll leave first.” She told, grabbing her handbag, “I’ll have our assistants send over—”

“It’s fine, we’ll be leaving soon.” Kai interrupted, his eyes still trained on his unmoving wife on the white couch. “Thanks.”

Irene wordlessly turned her heels and left the room, it probably came as a huge shock to the couple—but it wasn’t abnormal for mothers to not lactate. Especially for Sehun’s case.

Once they were left alone, Kai scooted closer to his wife and was about to pull her close to him when she murmured a harsh don’t. The man sighed and got off the couch. He went into the room where his son was sleeping soundly, and right by the cot he was placed in, Irene nicely laid two new boxes of formula milk.

Instructions are on the tin cans, don’t spread the product yet

We’ve yet to launch them.

He took off the note and wore a wistful smile on his face, turning his gaze from the small paper to his son. Taeoh has a peaceful look on his face, well—all babies seem to have that look on their face whenever they are sound asleep. He wanted to let Taeoh sleep in the palace a little longer, but it doesn’t seem like Sehun was well enough to stay out of their house for so long. Kai could tell that she was shocked.

It was something that would certainly happen, the doctor even warned them about it. With what she’s went through and depending on iron pills, her biological systems were bound to be affected.

Carrying the boy into his arms, Kai left the room and walked up to his wife. “Let’s go.”

It was unfortunate that they had to leave so soon, but Kai at least managed to send a quick text to Baekhyun, explaining the situation. The latter assured that everyone else would understand the situation and told him that he could just drop by during Luhan’s wedding tomorrow morning.

“Hopefully by then, Sehun would be fine.” Baekhyun spoke through the phone. “Call me if things still won’t turn.”

Kai hummed in acknowledgement and hung up. He looked at his son through the rear mirror and spared one last look to his wife before driving off, biting back a shaking sigh. The ride back home was silent, Sehun had her face turned away and looking out of the window. Neither of them said anything, but Kai knew Sehun probably felt terrible. Her son was wailing in hunger and yet—there was nothing she could do.

He looked for the right things to say once they got home, but nothing came across his mind. He couldn’t tell her that it was okay because of course to her, it wasn’t. The journey back didn’t feel long either despite the silence since he had a lot to think about. As soon as he parked his car in their garage, Sehun pushed the door open and dove right into their home. Kai let out a frustrated sigh—things haven’t been going well lately for either of them, but he guessed that they’ve always avoided talking about things.

Well, to put it nicely, maybe they just didn’t know how to. They’ve never gotten into a huge argument before despite being married for about two years now. Not that it was necessary of course but it wasn’t healthy either.

Kai tucked Taeoh into his cot by his and Sehun’s bed. He looked at his sleeping face for a few more seconds before planting a soft kiss on the boy’s forehead. Kai loosened his tie and plopped onto the bed, leaning his head against the bedpost as he waited for Sehun to finish bathing.

Their bathroom door swung open with Sehun already dressed in her pyjamas, ready for bed. Silently, she crawled up onto the bed and was about to lay her head down when Kai caught her arm.

“…Aren’t you going to say goodnight to him?”

Sehun stayed quiet. The air felt heavy when neither of them spoke. The brunette pulled her arm away and buried herself into their covers.

But Kai wasn’t going to let her have her way.

“Sehun—”

“I’m tired.” She snapped, her tone low. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”

“No. We need to talk now.” Kai belatedly pulled the covers off her body, making her almost retort in response when she saw the scowl on his face.

The couple has seen better days. But two years were enough to change things between them.

“Why are you looking at me like that,” Sehun frowned but instantly scoffed when Kai looked away, “You think this is my fault—”

“Yes.”

The brunette’s expression instantly dropped, her lips trembling—and Kai’s never regretted saying one word more than anything else he’s done. His brows furrowed as he clamped his eyes shut.

“No, that’s not… Sehun, I’m—”

“You think it’s easy for me to look after him myself?” She breathed loud enough for him to hear, “You’re not even around most of the time, three months after his birth, you just go back running to the palace!”

“Stop. Sehun, you know that things are a mess right now,” Kai tried to rationalise, “Luhan’s plans to reinstate his mother caused an uproar lasting for months now.”

“We need to make sure that nobody’s planning for a rebellion. And you tutor my men, you should know how chaotic things actually are in the palace.” He emphasised, continuing to justify his absence. Kai looked dead into Sehun’s eyes and paused before speaking once more, “Luhan needs me.”

Sehun snickered disbelief, “What…?”

Kai clamped his eyes shut. This wasn’t how he wanted their conversation to go, he even started by saying the wrong thing. Of course he didn’t mean to say that it was Sehun’s fault that she couldn’t produce milk. Stress could have been one of the factors of her not being able to lactate and with what she’s going through alone, Kai only had himself to blame.

But nothing right seemed to be leaving his lips.

“So, you don’t think that Taeoh needs you? That our son needs you?” Sehun’s voice was getting louder and louder.

“Sehun, you’re going to wake—”

“You don’t think that I need you?”

Kai exasperatedly sighed, wiping at his face in frustration.

“Kai, I couldn’t even eat properly! And because of that my body’s not producing enough milk!” Sehun’s tone went higher as she fought back tears, “I’m tired, I’m exhausted. I run to and from the palace too Kai, you’re not the only one who has things to do!”

She angrily blinked her tears away and wiped at her cheeks, “And if it isn’t for the sitter Yuta introduced me to, I wouldn’t have known who else to turn to!”

Sehun wished that she didn’t feel as terrible as she did now. She knew Kai held so much responsibility and she knew that he hadn't been sleeping well. He tries his best to be home by sunset and attempts to leave the house at least after the sunrises so that he could spend time eating breakfast and dinner with his family.

But he could only try.

Before getting married, neither of them knew that he would be so occupied and weighed down by his position. Things were tough to handle being a general but Kai was struggling to keep things together being the marshal now. Sehun has never been in a relationship before and she doesn’t know how to work things around—and being married to someone was far different.

The both of them were still trying to figure out ways to make things work between them, trying to understand each other by simply keeping their own feelings to themselves. Never once have they tried coming clean or communicating their problems, both being afraid that they would hurt the other.

“No one else to turn to huh,” Kai sniggered through his smirk, “Then why don’t you just be with him if you want to depend on him so much—”

SMACK!

Kai’s jaw dropped. His left cheek stung and he could feel it getting hotter by the second. All of a sudden, it felt as if all his sens