Taemin entered the little cafe and rushed over as soon as he’d spotted her.

He found her in the far corner booth, almost completely shielded from the rest of the place. They usually chose this little private space when they wanted uninterrupted make out time.

‘I came as fast as I could. What’s going on?’ He sat down and noticed that the plain black coffee she’d ordered was still untouched.

Gia shook her head and looked down, fighting tears.

‘Oh god what happened?’

But Gia just couldn’t bring herself to speak.

. Gia was freaking him out.

Taemin sat in the driver’s seat of his father’s Mercedes and held her to his chest as she cried.

She just about managed to make it clear that she didn’t want to tell him in the cafe where they might bump into someone they knew. So the only thing that could think of was to get her inside the car.

She'd tried to tell him a couple of times what was wrong, but every time she had begun to speak, her voice would crack and she'd just start sobbing harder. How bad could it be? Jesus. Was she about to break up with him? Was the relationship too much, too soon for her? Was she too overwhelmed with the whole sneaking around? Oh god, was that it? Her parents had found out about them? Had they maybe found the recent pictures they’d taken in a Photobooth at a street fair? He’d told her to leave them in her locker at school, but she’d insisted to take them with her. He felt like he wanted to puke, he was so not used to seeing Gia like this. She was a strong girl and never cried.

Taemin took in a deep breath as he sank his fingers around her upper arms.

‘Just tell me now if you want to break up. Is this what it’s all about? Your parents finding out?’

Even though he felt like his heart was being ripped from his chest with a crowbar, he had to know. Frantically, she began shaking her head, which was somewhat to his relief. It certainly calmed the fires raging in his gut, but it didn't give him an answer as to why she was so upset.

‘G, come on-‘

‘I'm pregnant.’ She looked up when she made that announcement as her tear-stained eyes locked with his. As those two words began to sink in, he started to feel a sick of guilt that slowly manifested itself deep within his gut. Pregnant. Pregnant? With a real baby? How the hell had he allowed this to happen? Was he such a up that he had only thought of himself and hadn't taken care of his girl? Oh god. He was supposed to start college in a matter of weeks. Hell, his parents would kill him! And what about her? She would be the one who had to carry most of the load, like literally. Could she finish high school? Would she be able to take care of a baby and get everything done that her senior year would entail? , all these thoughts and he hadn't even responded to her yet. How could he respond? His throat was so dried up that it was almost impossible to breathe.

‘Taemin,’ she reached up and clutched his shoulder.

‘Please. Say something.’

Taemin swallowed, his lips, stared down into her beautiful eyes and said the first thing that came to him.

‘I love you, it'll be okay. I'll take care of you, ok? We’ll get through this...’

Her lips began quivering again but a tiny hint of calm amid the turmoil seemed to soften her expression.

‘Oh, Tae...I love you, too.’

‘We'll get through this. We’ll be okay.’ he repeated, wondering if he was telling the truth, his stomach exploding into waves of panic.

‘I'm scared. My parents-,’ she said as another tear spilled over. He reached up and wiped the tear away. Yeah. He could relate.

‘I know.’

‘What do we do now?’ she mumbled through tears, shaking her head.

‘We can't keep this secret for too long, I’ll start to show at some point.’

He knew what she meant and nodded in response until he stopped and realised what she'd said. His eyes trailed down to her stomach. Her beautiful, still-flat stomach. A baby was in there. His baby, Her baby. Their baby. He glanced back up into the eyes of the mother of his child and felt a sharp spiral of possession mix with the cold ball of fear churning in his gut. ‘

‘Damn, it's going to be a real baby, huh?’ he asked rather stupidly. Her lips twisted.

Confusion hit him, bleeding with the panic he was feeling.

‘I don’t get it, though. I had never forgotten a !’

‘I know. It seems almost impossible, but I know it's true,’ she sighed. ‘I’m late...and I kind of feel different, you know?’

Taemin thought about this for a moment.

‘Do you even know for sure though? Maybe it’s just stress. We are in the middle of our finals and you’ve been studying non-stop. Have you taken a test?’

Gia let out a humourless laugh.

‘I can't buy one in town. Can you imagine? The gossip mill would be all up in our business within minutes! And I’m never this late, Ace.’

‘When you say late, how many days-‘

She leaned forward and rested her forehead against chest, mumbling her response into his shirt as if she had no more energy left.

‘Over a week...’

Taemin rubbed her back in comfort while alarm bells were going off in his head: fear for their future, fear for an innocent baby's future. But still, just because he was feeling like a complete loser for letting her down, he was not going to show Gia this. No, he didn’t have a choice now. He needed to man up and deal with this.

They decided not to go to a doctor as the risk of anyone seeing them or finding out was way too high in their immediate surroundings.

Alternatively, Taemin drove them straight to Key’s house and explained the situation to his best friend.

To his very surprise, nor he or Gia received any sort of lecture.

Instead Key went straight into problem solving mode, leaving the two at his house with herbal tea while he went out on a hunt for a pregnancy test.

In the end, he brought back three kits, thinking better to be safe than sorry.

‘How’s she?’ Key asked when Taemin came out of the guest room that had an adjacent bathroom where Gia had spent most afternoon in.

‘She’s finally asleep.’ He sighed heavily.

‘All this crying can’t be good for the-...ehm the...’

‘The baby?’ Key asked straightforwardly.

Taemin nodded and followed him through the hallway to Key’s room, sitting down on his friend’s bed and burying his head in his hands.

‘All three, Key...they all came back positive...’

Key looked at his distraught friend for a moment before he finally shrugged and sat down in the bed as well.

‘I’m assuming you guys are keeping it?’

Taemin looked at Key with a pissed off frown.

‘What kinda question is that?!’

‘A smart one if you ask me. You and Gia should know all your options.’

Getting back up, Taemin started pacing the room nervously, running his hands through his hair.

‘Well it’s not an option for us, Key. I love her!’

Getting up as well, Key walked the few steps to come standing in front of his friend and crossed his arms over his chest.

‘Well then you know what you gonna have to do next. You guys have to tell your parents.’

Two weeks later, Taemin was seated on one of the large couches in his living room, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, so keyed up he thought he might have an aneurism.

He and Gia were both sitting facing her parents while his own parents were sitting beside them on a separate couch.

Both set of parents wore stern and unhappy expressions on their faces and Taemin knew exactly that they were preparing themselves for some bad news.

It was probably too much wishful thinking on his part that the confession in front of them would be as easily received. Wishful thinking, for sure. He knew that his parents were going to a brick and hers? He just hoped that they’d be supportive since his definitely were not going to be. But now, as Gia fidgeted beside him on the couch and their parents’ stares were burning holes into their skin, the knot in Taemin’s stomach only continued to grow.

‘What's going on? Are the two of you dating?’ Taemin’s father asked with a voice was wasn’t loud per se but carried through the room in a silent threat. Since Gia had agreed that Taemin would do the talking, she sat silently now, although he could feel her starting to shake in fear. So he did what she needed him to do and reached out to take her hand in his.

She squeezed his hand back without looking at him as she continued to stare down to her feet.

‘Yes, but this isn’t exactly why we called you guys to come here.’ Taemin reluctantly admitted, cursing himself that he sounded so weak.

‘What’s the meaning of this!’ Gia’s mother snapped.

‘Are you having relations with this boy, Gia!?’

Oh boy, this was going way worse than he thought it would.

Taemin’s abdominals clenched as he took a shaky breath.

‘Gia and I have been seeing each other for nine months now. We love each other and...’ he his lips and swallowed nervously, bracing himself for their reaction.

‘..and