~ Fall, Current Year ~

“Whee…”

“Probability of paternity said 99.9996%. He’s really Nabi’s biological father,” I said to Yong who was lying on the bed beside me.

After I received the call from the nurse that someone was looking for me and claimed to be Nabi’s father, I saved the number that the guy left with the nurse. The last time someone claimed to be my daughter’s biological father, I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars just to prove that he’s not my daughter’s biological father. I already knew that the guy was just there for the money. But if I couldn’t present to the adoption center that Nabi has no known relative, the adoption process wouldn’t be complete. We wouldn’t have our precious daughter with us to this day.

I never told Yong anything about this though. What’s important is we have Nabi now with us and we have the right to call her our daughter.

Yong and I decided to meet him nonetheless. We never brought Nabi because we wanted to protect our daughter in case the claim from the alleged father is not true. The guy was somewhere around Dr. Song’s age with thick facial hair that covered the lower half of his face and introduced himself as Lee Juwon. Other than the beard, he looked decent and clean. He claimed that he has been looking for his wife and daughter for the last four years. He’s been working overseas and he suddenly lost contact with his pregnant wife and has no clue what happened to her.

When we told him about the unfortunate thing that happened to his wife, he seemed lost and in denial at first. When we apologized and offered our condolences, that’s when he realized that we were really telling the truth. He cried in front of us, and as much as we wanted to deny it, he sounded miserable and believable.

When we opened about the topic of our daughter, we told him that we don’t want to seem so insulting but we wanted to make sure that he’s really the biological father of our daughter. He understood our doubts and was even willing to take a DNA test just to prove that he’s Nabi’s father. We took a sample of his blood and matched it with Nabi’s. He even paid for it. We told him we’ll keep in touch once the results are out.

I personally took care of everything just to make sure that we’re getting his actual blood. After what happened last time, I don’t want to be really complacent when it comes to my daughter. If this guy’s claim is false, then we could easily proceed as if nothing happened without carrying any burden with us. However, it turned out that he’s really Nabi’s biological father.

“It matched” Yong whispered beside me.

We were lying on our bed, our arms and legs touching against each other as we stared at our ceiling, seemingly disoriented about what we’re going to do now that we know who Nabi’s biological father is.

Yong held my hand as she turned her body to face me. I turned my body so I could look at her too. She grabbed my other hand and placed it on her cheek. I automatically caressed her cheek while she did the same on my wrist.

“What if he’ll get Nabi from us, Whee?” Yong asked worriedly, a small frown on her lips.

“He can't,” I answered right away. “No, he can’t. He’s not supposed to know that we’re the ones who adopted Nabi. We’re protected from him knowing about us when I filed for closed adoption. I don’t know how he managed to know that information. Maybe he knew from his wife which hospital his wife went for checkups, and somehow got information about me. I don’t know…” I sighed heavily before I cleared my throat. “If he tries to get Nabi from us, he’ll have to file a petition to reverse the adoption. In most cases, that’s almost impossible to be granted. With this case, him not knowing that his wife finally gave birth, I am not so sure about it”

I removed my hand from her hold and wrapped it around her waist. I moved closer to her and leaned my forehead on hers before I closed my eyes and sighed deeply. “But we’ll fight, okay? We have the sole parental rights of Nabi right now. We’ll talk to him first before we’ll let him see Nabi. Legally, we have the right to do what’s best for our daughter”

She released my wrist before she wrapped her arms around me as well. She pushed her face to my chest while I tightly embraced her. The last time we were in this position was when we had to wait until we were able to apply to adopt Nabi. I didn’t tell Yong that I was working my best so we could claim Nabi as our daughter because I don’t want to get her hopes up. I don’t like seeing how her face instantly went down when she realized that we couldn’t easily adopt Nabi.

“You seem to have thought this through” she whispered softly. She pulled her face away from my chest so she could look at me.

“I had a lawyer discuss what were our options for adoption and the possibilities once she’s legally our daughter.” I kissed her forehead before I whispered, “I love our daughter. I also don’t want to see how it makes you sad when we find out that we can’t have Nabi right away. I have to find a way”

She stared at me intently while I just held her gaze when she didn’t say anything. One of her hands went up to my cheek, her thumb rubbing it gently. Then she started tracing my nose and my jaw next, making me close my eyes. Her index finger was just lightly touching my face, but it was still enough to run shivers all over me.

She cupped my cheek next and tightened her arm around my waist, pulling me towards her, before I felt her lips on mine, kissing me slowly. This time, I could feel my arms popping goosebumps while I gripped her pajama top as I kissed her back. She tilted her head, deepening the kiss and making it last longer. Long enough to make my lungs burn and heart beat faster.

When she finally broke the kiss, my eyes were still closed and my lips were still thrumming from her kiss while I tried to catch my breath. I felt her thumbs lazily caressing my cheek before she leaned her forehead on mine. I pulled her closer to me and molded our bodies on each other, dissatisfied with the small distance in between us.

“Tell me how did I deserve you, Whee” she whispered when our audible breaths went silent. 

I chuckled at her as I opened my eyes and pulled my face away just a little so I could get lost in her gaze. Her gaze that was so intense I had to hold onto her tighter so I wouldn’t waver against it. “Baby, that's my line. Why are you stealing my line?”

Her lips cracked a huge smile, eradicating the ferocity in her gaze when her eyes twinkled as she smiled at me. She leaned forward once again and quickly kissed my lips before she pushed her face on my neck. I sighed deeply and closed my eyes as I felt her warm breath right on my neck while her lips softly graze on my skin.

“I’m genuinely curious though. What did I ever do to deserve someone like you?” she whispered.

I leaned my lips on the scar on her head, letting it linger there, while I absentmindedly brushed my hand on her hair. “We’re just wondering the same thing. I could never imagine my life without you anymore. Ow!” I whisper-shouted when she suddenly gently smacked my back. “What did I do?” I whined before I pouted at her.

She pressed my pouting lips with her index finger and thumb, and shook my head. “Stop being so cheesy”

“Hmm… Hmm… Hm…” I mumbled my words while she just chuckled at me, never letting go of her hold on my lips.

I stopped trying to speak when she still held onto my lips while laughing softly at me. My pout slowly turned into a small smile while I watched her laugh in front of me. Her eyes turned into small slits but I could still see how her eyes sparkled in between her eyelids. Creases formed at the corners of her eyes while her dimples went deeper, making my hands itch to trace them and feel the depth in them.

I lifted my hand and held her chin before I placed my thumb on one of her dimples. I watched my thumb tracing it and felt the depth of her dimples. My curve on my thumb could fit on the curve of her dimple. When her dimples would be covered with shadows, it would sometimes remind me of the stars on my arm and abdomen because it would look so deep. But when I touch it, it’s unlike the stars I have. Every time I ran my fingers on my stars, I could feel how hollow they are, but not with her dimples.

“Whee…”

I looked at her eyes and met her intense gaze once again. “What?” I asked her. My thumb on her dimple stopped moving while my eyebrows jumped as I looked down, noticing how her hand left my lips and is now gripping the collar of my pajama top. I gulped before I looked at her eyes again. “What?” I asked again, whispering this time.

She sighed deeply before she leaned forward and kissed my chin. She buried her face back to my neck again and our arms returned to embracing each other.

“I love you” she whispered softly. “Have I told you that?”

I chuckled, releasing the breath I didn’t know I was holding, as I said, “You’re the one who’s being cheesy right now. That was what I meant to say earlier but you decided to silence me.” I kissed her scar again before I let my lips stay there and closed my eyes. “And yes. That’s what you said first thing in the morning when you were kissing all my stars”

She kissed my chest before she pushed her face further to me and tangled our legs together below our blanket. “Good” she whispered, hearing the relief in her voice. “I thought I forgot”

“You never.” I started brushing her hair again as I sighed in contentment. “I love you too, Yong” I said to her before I started humming to help her sleep right away.

Albeit hesitant, we decided to meet Mr. Lee to discuss some matters with him, especially matters concerning our parental rights over Nabi and how we would never give it up. He offered to treat us over lunch and even set the place and time we’ll meet. Since we’re not available by night, we agreed on meeting him by lunch.

Yong drove from the university to the hospital and dropped by my office first before we’d meet Mr. Lee in this restaurant near the hospital. When Yong arrived in my office, I immediately pushed away from the desk to stand up, removed my white coat and hung it. I grabbed my black coat and wore it before I grabbed my purse. I walked to Yong and kissed her cheek then I held her hand as we walked out of my office.

“Are you nervous?” she asked as we headed for the elevator.

“I don’t know… Should I be?”

“I don’t know. I’m nervous though”

We walked inside the elevator and I pressed the button for the ground floor before I held Yong’s hand again. I lifted it up and kissed the back of her hand then whispered, “It’s okay. We’ll just have to talk to him first. Try not to worry to much”

She sighed and nodded her head. I pulled her closer to me and kissed her cheek just as the elevator doors opened. We walked out of the elevator and headed to the hospital entrance. Once the fall air hit us, I removed my hold on Yong’s hand to wrap it around her shoulders, trying to shield her from the cold air. She crossed her arm while we hurriedly walked towards the restaurant.

Once we got in, we handed our coats to one of the waiters by the entrance. I said Mr. Lee’s name when a separate waiter asked us about our reservation. After confirming our reservation, he told us to follow him and walked further inside the restaurant.

“Hands” Yong whispered beside me as we followed the waiter.

I lifted both of my hands and she immediately rubbed her palms on them, warming it up. Then she held them both and showered it with kisses, making me smile at her. I divided my attention between Yong and the waiter in front of us to make sure that we wouldn’t lose him, at the same time make sure that Yong wouldn’t hit anything or anyone while she’s still busy with my hands.

“Thank you” I whispered and smiled at her when she was done. She linked our fingers again and smiled back at me.

I immediately spotted Mr. Lee when he stood up from his chair and bowed at us once we reached his table. We bowed at him before we shook his hand to greet him back. I pulled the chair across from him to let Yong sit down first before I sat beside her.

“I already ordered since you mentioned that you can’t stay long. I hope you that’s okay” he said once we’re all sitting comfortably.

I nodded my head as I said, “That’s fine. Thank you for your concern”

“No problem” he said and smiled at me, making me unconsciously smile so wide as I held his gaze.

When our food arrived, I broke the eye contact and blinked my eyes, unsure what got over me. I glanced at Yong beside me and noticed how she’s staring hard at Mr. Lee. Her gaze was on him the whole time the waiter placed our food on the table while her eyebrows furrowed a little. She looked like something’s bothering her or maybe this is because she’s nervous for our daughter so she’s assessing him. I’m not so sure.

I held her arm and slightly swinged it as I whispered, “Yong…”

“Hmm…” she only hummed as she briefly glanced at me then she stared at Mr. Lee again.

I nudged her arm again and asked, “Is there something wrong?”

She blinked her eyes and eased the creases in between her eyebrows before she looked at me. She raised her eyebrows and asked, “What?”

I moved my chair closer to her before I leaned forward and worriedly scanned my eyes at her face. “Something’s bothering you. What’s wrong?” I cupped her cheek and rubbed my thumb on it while she sighed and leaned on my hand.

“Nothing’s wrong. I’m just nervous. I’m sorry”

I smiled at her and nodded my head as I said, “You don’t have to apologize. That’s okay.” I softly pinched her cheek and opened my palm in between us. “Hold my hand?” I offered to her.

She placed her hand on top of mine then I wrapped my fingers around her hand, squeezing it once and holding it tightly. I’d have to eat with just my left hand now, but I’d rather go over that struggle than leaving my wife feeling anxious beside me.

We decided to eat lunch first before we proceed with discussing things. Mr. Lee was smiling at us the whole time we were eatin