※※※※※

Sehun was stressed. All he thought about was Friday evening when Namjoo had arrived at the table. Then wheeling back to Chanyeol’s playboy voice.

Over the weekend he couldn’t sleep well. He craved for an alcoholic drink, but with Seulbi he knew better. He still didn’t know what he wanted to say to Namjoo. Just knew he was extremely upset with her.

She knew better. She was smarter than him, but she treated herself like that, and it made him angry. How could she? Why did she?

Namjoo was always the better counterpart. If he messed up at least she wouldn’t have.

But…but…

Sehun ruffled his hair vexed. Entering the break room Monday morning in need of his essential cup of caffeine, Sehun went right to the coffee machine. He’d woken up grumpy. Struggled not to yell at Seulbi as she slowly picked at her food. His nifty hands unable to dress her properly. Shoving her shirt over her head so harshly she burst into tears. They’d walked to the bus stop together with Seulbi still dry sobbing and received the stares of the other mothers.

Grabbing a packet of sugar, he poured half of its content into his cup. Lethargically stirring the mix as his mind retraced everything since Friday evening once more. What a headache he was giving himself.

His attention spurred when a presence appeared at his side. On instinct he sensed who, but he needed confirmation. Glancing to his left he spotted Park Chanyeol.

The man had the audacity to smirk. Just like that Sehun’s temper snapped.

“What’s so funny?” Sehun was no doubt already riled up.

“I didn’t say anything.” Chanyeol calmly said. “It’s nice to see you again. Have a good weekend?”

Shoving the cup of coffee away Sehun’s hand burned as the liquid sloshed over the side. Ignoring the pain, he shifted to face Chanyeol. Sehun was ticked.

“Who are you?” Sehun seethed. “Do you know me?”

Chanyeol coolly turned, standing face to face with him. The sheen in his eyes were so calm and collected it made Sehun furious.

Just who was this guy?!

“I know you.” Chanyeol said.

Sehun grit his teeth. He wanted to wring this guy’s neck so bad.

“Goseong Elementary, Goseong Junior High, Goseong High, and Goseong University. You don’t know?” Chanyeol asked. “Ibseong Road right down from Chilgoo Street. That’s where you lived. Right?”

His gaze grew stern. “What the hell are you?”

The corner of Chanyeol’s mouth lifted mischievously. “An old mate, maybe?”

What a joke!

“Don’t you dare touch her!” Sehun hissed a warning.

“Why?” Composed, Chanyeol shared the condescending stare. He whispered, “Are you jealous?”

Sehun’s lower jaw trembled with rage.

Chanyeol’s mischievous smile just widened. Leaning a centimeter forward, Chanyeol whispered again, “Too late.”

Sehun lost it.

※※※※※

Namjoo was overspent. The past weekend . Real bad. Chaeri was giving her the silent treatment. She had received nothing but deep, dark glares. The roommate refused to breathe around her.

Very quietly, everything felt like it was her fault.

For sleeping with Chanyeol.

For causing the drift between her and Sehun.

She should have just made up with him when he returned. Not throw a fit around him. Now they would never get close again. Be friends ever again. Becoming just two strangers who’d grown up in the same town.

It pained her.

Why was it like this?

Why had she made it this way?

All her fault.

Namjoo popped two pain reliever pills before heading into work that Monday. She wouldn’t be able to get through the day with chaotic kids in the condition she was in. She couldn’t have her patience thinning. Not professional.

Hooking her bag over her shoulder, Namjoo walked into the building. Inhaling. Exhaling. Bringing a widening smile onto her face the second she entered the boisterous classroom. Heading right for her apron, Namjoo’s gaze swept the room. Curiously. Instinctively. Spotting Seulbi at her blue table. Her tiny shoulders shaking up and down like she was crying.

Situating her apron on she crossed the room. Seulbi’s mouth was downturned forming an upset pout. The chubby boy across from her was spilling crumbs onto the table. Nibbling noisily on a cracker despite the ban of snacks in the classroom early morning. Crouching down Namjoo sat next to her.

“Are you ok?” Namjoo asked.

Seulbi continued dry sobbing, not saying.

Putting an arm around her, Namjoo comforted. “It’s ok.”

She tapped the tiny girls’ arm sitting with her until class began. Seulbi remained ever quiet throughout the day, but she had stopped crying when the kids broke into a chorus of laughter when the teacher tripped.

Namjoo left the classroom during the 15-minute naptime to prepare snacks. Watermelon was on the menu today. Carefully slicing the fruit into bite size Namjoo placed them on the colorful plates in front of her. After napping the kids would be recharged enough to go outdoors for recess. She would have her lunch then.

So absorbed in work, Namjoo’s attention shot to the fore when shrieking echoed from down the hallway. Dropping the knife Namjoo hurried toward the open doorway. Poking her head out she spotted the classroom teacher screaming. Giving chase after someone. Further down the corridor Namjoo spotted an abnormal shape shuffling toward the front doors.

It was only then Namjoo caught the sound of a child frantically crying. The principal burst out of his office so swiftly Namjoo heard the door slamming into the wall. His urgent feet raced past her flying past the classroom teacher and grabbed whomever it was.

“Ma’am! You can’t do this!” His voice boomed.

Confused, Namjoo stepped out of the cafeteria kitchen. A room some distance from her assigned class. Some six doors down, so she was far. The chaotic noise had garnered other teachers’ attention by now. Plenty of them hurrying out of their classes to help the principal catch this person Namjoo could not see very well.

The urgent wailing of the child was overpowering, screaming absolute mercy. The sound so terrifying Namjoo wasn’t sure how to react. The other kindergartners had woken up from their nap. Running out the door to curiously gawk. Catching them another teacher beckoned them back inside and shut the door.

Small arms and legs frantically thrashed. Unable to hold her capture still, the child dropped. A woman cried desperation, imprisoned by the classroom teacher and the principal and other teachers. The bustling bodies shifted as the woman attempted to give chase.

Namjoo heard, “Seulbi!”

It was then. She saw. Sehun’s daughter running straight for her. Bawling fearsomely. Her chubby face a sheen of wet tears, arms outstretched. Namjoo heard help! in the sounds of her shriek cries.

Instinctively catching her, Namjoo’s eyes went wide. Catching a split glance of the woman still screaming for Seulbi before she scurried back into the kitchen and slammed the door shut. Turning the bolt, she locked the door. Sliding to the floor because her legs were suddenly shaky.

Seulbi clung onto her. Little arms and tiny legs. Sobbing deliriously terrified. Namjoo hugged her, heart racing. Cupping the back of Seulbi’s head as she wept into her shoulder.

Maybe ten minutes passed before the knock on the door jolted her. Namjoo’s was sore from where she was sitting. Seulbi’s weight pushed her down clinging tightly onto her for protection that it was hard to budge.

Planting her palm to the floor Namjoo struggled to stand. Finally manage after a hard minute. She shifted Seulbi in her arms, supporting the girl with an arm as she unlocked the door. The gray-haired principal was on the other side.

“What is going on?” Namjoo asked.

“How is she?”

“Asleep.” Namjoo side glanced at Seulbi whose face was pressed into the crook of her neck. “I think.”

“Come.” The principal gestured his chin toward the hallway.

“Where?” Namjoo worried.

“The cops are here.” He explained.

Well, that explained it. Trusting the security of the authority, Namjoo followed him down the hall. Right into his office where in one of the visitor’s chair was a young woman in a fishtail braid. Several strands were loosened and pulled out of the braid messily. Namjoo read displeasure in her expression.

Rising immediately, the woman reached for Seulbi who immediately stirred and began crying when her hands touched her. Seulbi wiggled in Namjoo’s arm, holding her more tightly sobbing petrified.

“Ma’am,” an officer stepped forward, placed a hand on the woman’s small shoulder, and urged her back down. “You can’t touch her.”

“But I’m her mother!” The woman bellowed.

Namjoo glanced down at the female. She was young. A pretty thing. A prominent nose, big round eyes. False lashes, cut clean makeup with a finished touch of glossy lips. Her tiny mint green shirt hugged her s beautifully. She was wearing very short shorts that ran all the way up her thighs and knee-high leather boots. A fashionable chick.

Namjoo looked to the principal for explanation.

“She says she’s the child’s mother,” the principal explained. “We’ve called Seulbi’s father to talk.”

Then she shouldn’t even be here with Seulbi! Unless they had verified it…

Namjoo glanced toward the door at the sound of footsteps.

“Seulbi!” It was Sehun. There was a bruise and a cut on his face. Namjoo stared.

Their eyes locked momentarily then his attention swayed to the woman sitting next to her. When she caught the rounding of his eyes, she knew.

※※※※※

Sehun saw red all morning. From body slamming Chanyeol to the floor. Fist connecting to face. Brawling until they were dragged apart. Even then Sehun had attempted to go at it again. If not for the arms bar locking him, he would have smashed Chanyeol’s smile in.

He was still dissatisfied. He hadn’t pummeled him to his heart’s content. While he’d sat in the manager’s office being reprimanded all he thought about was that cunning smile on Chanyeol’s face.

Then the call. Someone had tried taking Seulbi. The cops had run the perpetrator’s verification through their computer. He needed to go to the school right away.

Everything was red again.

Making it out the doors, he snatched Haewon’s wrist and lugged her down the yard around the corner out of sight.

“What are you doing here?!” Sehun growled.

Violently flinging her arm away, Haewon glared. “You took my daughter all the way to this crummy town?!”

“She’s my daughter!” Sehun tried not to yell too loudly. “You don’t even want her.”

“I am her mother! I gave birth to her! I went through hell to give her life and she is not my daughter?!” Haewon her finger into her chest infuriated.

“She was never your daughter,” Sehun uttered. “Just because you gave birth to her does not make you a mom.”

Slamming her fists into his chest she screamed.

“You shut it,” Sehun warned.

“You jerk! It’s all your fault! You forced me into this place, you can’t cut me off like this.” Haewon’s eyes crazily widened.

“No.” Sehun quieted. “I can. Where were you when Seulbi was hungry? When she needed milk? You were out doing I don’t know what. You let her soil herself. And then! You took her around when she was two! When she was two! Haewon!” Sehun bit down on his teeth. He leaned into her face furiously, breathing hotly. “To win sympathy points from men. You used my daughter for your sick deeds. So, you stay away from us.”

“I hate you!” Haewon screeched. “I didn’t even want to have her! You begged me! I went through fifteen hours of pain for you! For her! And now you pretend I did nothing for our daughter?! I sacrificed the most, Sehun!”

“What did you lose, Haewon?” Sehun challenged. “Money? Your time? Your life? You picked it right up where you left off. Don’t blame me or my daughter for your misfortunes. I left you not because you aren’t responsible, but because you’re incapable of caring for anyone but yourself.”

Taking a step back to put a gap between them he said before leaving her, “Leave.”

The cops left when he returned and verified he’d sorted matters out. The principal offered to walk them out leaving him alone with Namjoo. She’d slumped into one of the chairs. His heart melted at the sight of his daughter curled up in her arms. Leaning all of her into Namjoo’s body comfortably.

“What’s with your face?” Namjoo asked.

“Nothing.” He lied. He was still upset with her. And yet he didn’t want her to know he’d gotten into a scuffle because of her.

“Is it really her?” Namjoo wondered.

Sehun didn’t answer. He reached for Seulbi instead. His sleeping daughter wriggled and cried, afraid. She wrapped her arms around Namjoo clinging harder.

“It’s daddy. It’s just daddy,” Sehun softly said. “Come on. You can let go.”

Turning Seulbi peeked at him. Bursting into heavy sobs finally confident she was in safe arms. Letting go of Namjoo she reached out for him. Sniffing and whimpering into his shoulder. He rocked her to comfort her.

Standing, Namjoo straightened her uniform. Her entire shoulder was drenched in Seulbi’s tears.

“Thanks.” Sehun said. It was the least he could say with utmost sincerity.

“Yea, no problem.” Namjoo quietly muttered.

She started passing. Regret churned through him. Hurting because Namjoo had chosen to go to someone else. He had always been a phone call away and also; he could have called her any time. But he never did.

She was right. He had promised first. He should have kept it.

Sorry was a little too late. If he told her he was jealous about her and Chanyeol how would she feel? Laugh at him? The way she always brushed him off whenever the topic of being a couple came up.

He never being anything more to her than just a friend. Could Namjoo look beyond that barrier between them? Their lives had changed drastically, but he had come home for her. Even if he could not digest the fact she was sleeping with some guy she was still Namjoo.

Beyond his disappointment all he thought about was her. Always Namjoo it had been. When his mother came and saw the state he was in. A hole of an apartment. Peeling walls. A closet sized kitchen. Unwashed laundry Haewon always promised to do. The sink overloaded with dishes. A garbage that smelled of dirty diapers. A place so aged the atmosphere was dank and dreary. When she said, “I didn’t raise you to be like this.” Shaking her head when, again, he needed money.

When his father said, “You have to learn to be on your own now. You created this mess; you have to own up to it.”

He’d taken one look at Haewon and sighed disheartened. They’d left his trodden apartment heads hanging, sighing inaudibly.

“What the hell is with them?” Haewon complained. “So, how much did your mom give you?”

Enough money before she stopped giving any at all. In a day’s time the money he tried to sparingly use already went missing. Once in a while his mom used to call, and then suddenly no more. One day he received a call from his father, screaming at him to tell Haewon to stop begging for money.

That was the first time anyone ever slammed the phone down on him. Again, he always thought about Namjoo. Of happier days. Playing scenarios to ease the weight off his chest. How much do you need? I’ll wire it to you right away he constantly imagined her saying.

Namjoo his best friend. Namjoo his only one.

Namjoo who would always be there for him.

But he never called. And she never called.

Now she had someone else. Too late Chanyeol said. He was already first in line.

Namjoo turned in the doorway. Looking over her shoulder. “She’s pretty, Sehun. I can see why you forgot to call.”

His heart ached.

That was not it.

Namjoo was gone by the time he whirled around.

*** ;;;;;;;

***Now that Haewon's in the picture...