A week into her official break, and Jihyo’s already feeling very bored. 

There’s almost nothing to look forward to, with all her schedules cleared until further notice. That, plus how her body aches constantly and the overwhelming urge to lay in bed forever. If her growing belly is not a sign that she’s starting to feel very pregnant, then the weariness is. 

On top of all that, there’s the strange feeling inside her when the baby moves. It’s light, almost like a flutter as baby girl announces her presence, but it only happens when Jongkook’s away. Jihyo really wants him to be there the next time baby girl kicks her to share her joy, just like he asked for during their vacation to Jeju.

That felt like eons ago. Jongkook isn’t always at home these days. He has all his schedules to attend to, and it really makes her feel lonelier than before, now that she has nothing lined up. It’s not his fault she sometimes goes to sleep or wakes up to an empty bed.

But it would feel nice if he could be home with her more. 

How do people take breaks without driving themselves insane? Jihyo needs to do something to keep her busy, so she pours her attention into renovating the nursery. She sets a date to paint the room, and Jongkook finally finds the time to take a break without going to the gym or to work. 

A nice, pastel pink colour is what they’ve settled on, and so far the walls weren’t the only things covered in paint. She has patches of pink all over her clothes and parts of her skin, and so does he — they aren’t very good at this. Luckily, they had the hindsight to cover most of the floor and furniture properly first. 

“We should have hired someone to help us paint.” Jongkook chuckles, wiping some of the paint that’s gotten on Jihyo’s cheeks. He does a terrible job; it only spreads the paint all over her skin.

“You said we didn’t need help!” Jihyo scowls, wiping her cheek on the sleeve of her shirt instead. She’s probably going to have to throw this one away. 

“Why didn’t you stop me? We could have called Kwangsoo. Or Sechan. Even Somin, if we were desperate.”

“Are you just listing all your dongsaengs?”

“They happen to be the most free.” He shrugs, turning to dip his paintbrush into the cans. It drips mostly on the floor, and Jihyo shakes her head at the mess. “Maybe we should take a break.”

“No way, we’ve only been at it for less than an hour.”

“An hour? It feels like an entire day!”

She eyes the white walls ahead of them skeptically. “Think again, oppa.”

He grumbles, working hard on the upper walls of his corner. “We should have just called Kwangsoo.”

Jihyo rolls her eyes, wanting to make a witty quip about how he shouldn’t drag his dongsaengs over to help them do manual  labour, when her baby girl chooses this time to make her presence known again. 

“Oh!” 

The little cry from her is surprising; Jongkook drops his paintbrush, and is instantly by her side. “What’s wrong? Are you in pain? Oh God, are you going into labour?”

“Yah, it’s way too early.” Jihyo gives him one of her best dirty looks, unable to tell if he’s joking or not. “Actually, your baby just kicked me.”

After his heartbeat goes back to normal, he frowns, confused. “What?”

This time, Jihyo settles her paintbrush aside too, smiling at his frantic expression. “Someone’s been real active lately. Come on, I’ll show you.”

She takes his free hand, guiding it to her abdomen and placing it gently on top of her belly. It’s very faint, but he feels it before she can even explain. The light nudge coming from her, just the right pressure to feel a kick. 

Jongkook gasps, his eyes widening in wonder. “Is that...?”

“Yup.” She grins, still holding his hand firmly to her belly. “She started just recently.”

“This isn’t the first time?”

“No, but she’s usually not this mobile.” She laughs, watching the amazement light up on his face. “I think she likes your voice.”

Jongkook lowers his head right down to her belly, grinning widely. “Hey there, baby girl. It’s me, daddy.”

“You’re acting silly.” Jihyo laughs, knocking his head away. “It’s only been five months. She can barely hear things.”

“So? You get to be with her everyday, I should talk to her once in awhile.” He jokes, looking up at her smugly. 

“Then you try carrying her inside you for nine full months.” She huffs, but she honestly thinks it’s adorable that he’s acting so paternal already. Then their daughter kicks her in the belly again, like she’s trying to protest against her words. “Your daughter’s going to be a soccer player.”

He leans over, smiling, and gives her a soft kiss on her lips, the only place not smudged with pink paint yet. “I love you.”

It still makes her heart flutter, like the first time he confessed and the many more declarations after that. Months in, and she still feels like a teenage girl around him, even if they are spending less time together like they once were.

Jihyo doesn’t want to bring that up. They were more than that; she understood the demands of his schedules. Instead, she settles in his arms, tilting up to meet his eyes. “I love you too, but you’re getting paint all over me and not the walls.”

He laughs, rubbing the leftover of the pink smudge on her cheek cheekily, and she can’t help but feel her insides turn to jelly. It takes a lot for her to feel so in love, she thinks as their foreheads touch ever so gently. 

Jongkook goes back in for a second kiss, and soon he has her up against the wall (the white, unpainted one — she might not want to throw this shirt away entirely). She wraps her arms around him, holding him closer as they deepen kiss, accelerating their mini make out session. Jihyo’s not complaining; it’s been some time since they’ve found the time to be intimate with one another, so why not today? It’s been so long, and she yearns for him, every kiss and touch that he’s ever made. 

She’s about to demand that he takes off his shirt, when his phone rings, vibrating from across the room.

“Ignore it.” He whispers, attacking her swollen lips. She does, into his ear as he along the skin of her neck, making marks as he moves lower down. 

He is very skilled with his hands, and soon she forgets all about their interruption. How can she focus on that, when his lips are pressed up against every part of her bare skin, paint and all? Her fingers dip into his shorts, just lightly gazing along the edge of his underwear...

But his phone rings again, still buzzing against the table he placed it on an hour ago. It’s a huge distraction, and it pulls her back to the present: the unfinished walls, and the dripping wet paint on the covered floors. 

“You should answer that.” Jihyo sighs, pulling apart, the mood long gone.

Jongkook groans; he hasn’t had a day off in forever, and this was the one afternoon to make it up to his girlfriend. She’s not the only one who had noticed how busy he was in the past week. “I’m sorry, Jihyo. It will only take a second, I promise.”

“Okay.” She nods as he turns his back to her, rushing off to answer his phone, but she knows it will take more than a minute, let alone a second.

He’s been so busy lately, and she can’t deny him of his work. After all, that’s what they did. This industry never had a holiday, and she knew all too well how it goes.

So she smooths her shirt with her hands and tries to make herself presentable again to pick up from where they left, snatching her paintbrush up and going back to the tedious job of coating the walls with paint. It’s the least she can do to get this nursery ready. 

Even if sometimes it feels like she’s the only one caring lately. 

“Thanks for letting me tag along, unnie.” Somin beams, holding up a pair of tiny watermelon printed socks. “Can you believe little feet fit in these? Now I want a baby too.”

“Go get drunk and go wild.” Jihyo suggests drily. 

Truth be told, she’s been feeling very down these few weeks. Everyone’s gone back to filming and she’s so caught up on so many dramas, there’s no way anyone’s going to when she returns. 

If she returns. It’s still a long way to go. 

At least Somin’s free to go baby shopping with her. Jongkook’s busy almost everyday, promoting and filming for god knows what — Jihyo doesn’t bother checking the calendar anymore at this point. He’s just... busy. She doesn’t have proper conversations with him that last any longer than ten minutes these days. 

“Oppa told me the baby kicks now.” Somin continues, unable to put down the socks. Why were baby things so damn small and cute? “Oh unnie, this is all so exciting!”

“It is, huh?” Jihyo can’t resist letting out a smile. “You really should consider having one.”

“It’s a baby, not a puppy.” The younger actress sighs deeply. “Maybe I should get drunk. Do you think Sechan’s up for it?”

“Every time you say things like that, I can never tell if you’re joking or dead serious.” Jihyo moves along, snatching the watermelon socks away from a triumphant Somin. They walk down to the next aisle, a section full of baby shoes. “You can at least tell me what’s going on in the show. Oppa never tells me because he’s worried I’ll feel left out.”

“Well, you’re not missing much. Did you see the Twice episode? The boys just laughed at me while I tried to dance!” Somin pouts, annoyed. “I miss you, unnie. I’ll mention you every episode so they don’t get used to having only one female member!”

“That’s really not necessary. Although... what’s up with you, Sechan and Kwangsoo?”

“Huh?”

“On last week’s broadcast, you said they had to do everything you told them to do. Usually Sechan does that willingly, but Kwangsoo? I couldn’t believe it when he actually went to help you betray Sukjin.” Jihyo frowns. “And they were on the same team!” 

“Um...” Somin panics, coming up with something, anything, to avoid answering this question. “Lucky me, I guess?”

“Okay, what did you win?”

“Win? I didn’t win anything! You’re reading too much into it, unnie.” Somin chuckles nervously, trying to change the subject. “So what’s up with you? You know, other than baby shopping.”

“I finished up painting the nursery the other day. It’s a nice pastel pink now, a little lighter than the shade of pink we had on the cake.” Jihyo lists, thinking about the finished nursery. 

Unknown to Somin, she’s just unlocked a treasure chest full of projects Jihyo’s accomplished in her downtime. “And the crib is installed. The men who came in said we should move it to our room first, and then move it back to the nursery after we get used to the night time routine, but we’ll see. The bed is still there, so I’m thinking of maybe sleeping there if she gets fussy at night.”

“That’s nice, I—“

“—What else... oh, I got the cutest onesie the other day, it had matching socks! I can’t wait to wash it. And—“

“Whoa, unnie. Did you do all this yourself?” Somin interrupts again, confused and a little overwhelmed. She would have thought Jihyo was resting well at home, not running what sounded like a full time business. 

“Yeah... Jongkook oppa’s been busy lately. You know, with The Voice. And his new CF.” Jihyo says nonchalantly, avoiding Somin’s eyes. “The gym. The usual, really.”

“That doesn’t sound like an excuse.” Somin frowns. “Wait, you painted the entire nursery yourself? That guest room is huge.”

“Not entirely... Oppa helped.” Jihyo defends, unable to stand the judgement in Somin’s tone. “He helped paint maybe one quarter of the room? He had a call, so we got a little interrupted, but it’s fine. They make those long paint rollers now so I don’t have to stand on a stool to paint or anything.”

“Please say you didn’t stand on a stool.”

“I didn’t!”

“Unnie...” Somin sighs, a little worried now. This sounded nothing like Jihyo, and she’s usually the most put together person she knew. “You should have called us. Maybe Kwangsoo, at least.”

“It’s no trouble.” Jihyo turns her attention to some watermelon printed booties right in front of her, shrugging. Why did they make so many watermelon printed things anyway?

“It’s not about that. It’s just not good for you to be up and about all day.” Somin furrows her brows, disappointed. “How busy has Jongkook oppa been? You didn’t hesitate to say yes when I asked if you were free today.”

“I don’t know, I don’t see him as often as before.” Jihyo replies breezily, pretending to be distracted by the shoes on the other rack. She doesn’t like to be scrutinized by anyone, not even a dongsaeng like Somin. 

But Somin doesn’t like to see her unnie upset either. She could go quiet and drop the subject, and yet she doesn’t. “Unnie, are you okay?” 

“Yeah.”

“You really shouldn’t lie to me again.”

“It’s just... Sometimes it gets lonely in the house.” Jihyo confesses sadly, then forces herself to brighten up before Somin can sympathize. “But it’s alright. I can go visit my parents to fill up the day. Or Seongmoon.”

“You can call me any time. I don’t really have much going on anyway.” Somin offers. “And you should probably talk to Jongkook oppa about this. Maybe he assumes you want your space? Whatever it is, it’s not good to bottle it up.”

“It’s fine.” Jihyo insists, shrugging it off again. There’s a slight edge to her voice as she dismisses Somin’s worry. “He’s just busy.”

Somin really wants to say something else. Maybe about how Jongkook keeps talking about her during filming on Mondays, or how he still goes to the gym and terrorizes poor souls like Sechan and Kwangsoo. He’s just clueless about women; he wouldn’t even think of this as a problem.  But there’s just something in Jihyo’s tone that stops her from pressing any further. 

“Okay.” She nods, dropping it completely. Instead, she picks up a pair of purple lace bottles, and grins. “Hey, did you see these? They are so cute! Can you buy ten different pairs of shoes even though they only have two feet and they can’t even walk?”

Things become a routine in the following weeks, him going to work and her staying home. Jihyo knows she’s supposed to watch her diet and her exercise and what not. It’s just a tiny bit stressful to be constantly up on her feet while she’s monitoring the nursery. She’s already stretched between shopping and looking up for prenatal classes that they might take before the baby comes, just to get ready. 

It’s not that Jihyo’s exclusively trying to hide things from Jongkook, but she doesn’t want him to worry. After all, he’s taken up The Voice Korea, and he can’t just drop all his schedules because she feels wobbly on her own two feet. 

They were a team, him and her. She could do her part and he could do his by working. 

Surely she’s not demanding too much? Once again, she’s pregnant, not handicapped. If he had to work, she should be fine getting on her own and finding her own food. She even attempted her own dinner the other day without burning down his kitchen.

It’s just a tiny bit frustrating that he’s never really home anymore.

Jihyo has had the last straw when Jongkook forgets to show up for lunch on Sunday. It’s the weekend, for crying out loud, but it’s also the second week in a row that they’ve skipped this. Last week, because of his rescheduled tapping.

And God knows what it is this time, because she really can’t keep track anymore.