Taehyung went straight home after the coffee session at Hoseok's coffee shop. He took off his blazer and necktie and tossed them on the floor of his house. He had a long day of work and meeting today, and he thought that his mind would be relaxed after drinking some coffee right after work but little did he know that his mind became more miserable after that. He didn't know that Jimin was that attached to Mari after she became his fill-in-bride on his supposed wedding day. 

Jimin was his best friend, and he didn't want someone like Mari lurking around in Jimin's perfect life. When Mari begged to marry him just a few weeks after their short relay, Taehyung knew that something was on her sleeve. How can she easily want to marry him after a one-night stand? It is clear to him that she just wanted to use him. Knowing Mari from Hoseok's past stories, she always asked for advanced wages to pay her bills. He knew immediately that someone like her would find a man with a stable career to support her. 

"Teahyung-shi!" A woman unlocked his apartment door and walked in with a happy face. It was his latest girlfriend named Minchae. Someone he met at RCove while dancing on the dancing floor. Unlike other girls who waited for him to approach them first, Minchae came to him and introduced herself without a second thought. She was confident, pretty and y. She got all the criteria that made him attracted to her. 

"Miss me much?" 

"Of course~!" She replied as she jumped to his side and pulled him into a bear hug. 

"Minchae-ah, do you still remember my words?" Taehyung asked as he looked into her eyes, filled with happiness when she saw him. 

"I remembered. You told me that you and I would never last forever because you didn't want to commit," She replied as she continued to snuggle with the man.

"Promise me that we won't go any further from this," Taehyung whispered slowly and received a nod from the lady. Taehyung shook his head as he rubbed his temple. He and Jimin were completely different from each other. Jimin is the one who loves to give his all into a relationship, but Taehyung is the total opposite of Jimin. Marriage? Marriage is something that he vowed never to be close to. Taehyung was confident that the baby was not his and definitely won't be his. If Jimin wanted to take care of Mari due to empathy, then it is fine for him. But if Jimin took care of Mari with the thought of the baby belonging to Taehyung, he would not leave it. Taehyung will make Mari abort the baby. 

Mari got into Jimin's car as he opened the door to the passenger seat for her. Mari was about to pull the seatbelt when Jimin stopped her hand from doing so because he wanted to do it for her. He pulled the seatbelt and buckled her safely on the passenger seat without many words exchanged between the two. Mari remained silent as Jimin took his seat and started to drive his car. 

"Jimin-shi, where are we going right now?" Mari asked when she saw they were not heading in the direction they were supposed to take. 

"My mother invited us for dinner," Jimin replied as he focused on driving. 

"But, look at my clothes... " 

"What's wrong with your clothes?" Jimin raised an eyebrow as he glanced at the girl beside him. 

"I'm wearing a checkered shirt with jeans," Mari replied as she rolled her eyes at the man. Can't he see that her clothes do not fit the occasion?

"You look fine~!" Jimin chuckled as he continued with his driving. 

"This is not fine. Let's go home first. I'll change into a better outfit," Mari sighed as she pleaded with her shining eyes. 

'What kind of better outfit that you plan to wear?" Jimin asked. 

"... " 

"Can you still fit into your outfits with that baby bump?" 

Mari pulled a pouty face as she crossed her arm. She forgot that she no longer fit in her formal outfits. The only clothes that she had were these baggy cardigans and hoodies. She places her palm on her baby bump. She made a record of her waist, her normal waist size is 27 inches, but now, she's 32 inches. Even though it was just 4 inches different, she still couldn't fit into her old outfit. Jimin smiled as he noticed Mari turned silent as she her small baby bump. 

"Let me touch it," Jimin said as their car stopped at the red traffic light.

"No," Mari looks at Jimin without any expression, and she looks back down at her baby bump. She will not let anyone touch her baby bump for the time being. The scene where she almost fell down from the bus kept on replaying in her head. She'll let Jimin touch her when she forgets about it. Jimin nodded his head as if he could tell what was inside Mari's mind. In less than 20 minutes, both of them were knocking on his mother's door. Yewon, Jimin's mother, opened the door of her house with a smiling face. It was her daughter-in-law and her son, Park Jimin. 

"My son!" The woman said and pulled her son into a tight hug. She misses him so much. The last time she saw his face was during his wedding ceremony. Yewon steps back to take a better look at her daughter-in-law. She looked at Mari from head to toe, and the girl was wearing a baggy checkered shirt and worn-out jeans. She sighed as she shook her head, looking at Mari. 

"Mari-ah, you should wear nice clothes. Don't make my son looks like he couldn't afford to buy any clothes for you," Yewon spotted as she gently pulled Mari into a brief hug. Despite anything that Mari wore today, her face could beat it all. With her shining dark brown eyes and beautiful facial structure with no make-up on, she looks stunningly beautiful as she is. Yewon linked her arm around Mari's arm and added, "I guess my son didn't care about all that when you have such a pretty face," Jimin shook his head at his mother before silently following the older woman into her house. 

"Jimin, you look slightly tired today. Are you okay?" Yewon asked her son as she sat down on the sofa. 

"I'm good. It's just I could not sleep well last night," Jimin replied, as his mind returned to the mystery call that he got from Joy last night. 

"Why? Is it because you're newlywed?" The mother son as she nudged at the silent daughter-in-law who sat beside her. 

 "I got some problems in the office. How about you, omma? You look tired today," Jimin diverted the subject of the conversation back to his mother. 

"Oh, your stepbrother's birthday party will be held this weekend. I needed to prepare a lot of things for him," 

"Birthday party?"

"Yes, and oh, both of you are invited." 

"...." Jimin nodded his head in silence as he plastered a smile on his face. His mother never made a birthday party for him since she got divorced from his father. Sometimes she even forgot about his birthday. It was such a miracle that his mother suddenly wanted to be the wedding planner for his wedding. He thinks that the wedding ceremony was a good opportunity for him and his mother to be close. That was why he couldn't afford to postpone the wedding and decided to take in a fill-in bride that day. He could not let go of the golden opportunity that only happened once after a few years. Celebrating his birthday with his mother was also one of the things that he wanted to do with his mother.    

Yewon stood up and left her son and daughter-in-law in the living room while she went to the dining area to set up the table for dinner. Mari, who could see the sudden change on Jimin's face, remained silent as she looked into his eyes that were staring at the coffee table blankly. He looks sad and confused at the same time. It was a facial expression from Jimin that she had never seen since he moved into her house. 

"Tsk! Tsk!" Mari was signalling Jimin to look at her. She wanted to distract him from the mental turbulence that he was currently in. Jimin remained still as he could not hear her signal. Then, Mari took out a pen from her tote bag and threw it at him. The pen hit his arm and fell to the floor, causing Jimin to raise his head to look at Mari, the culprit who dared to throw a pen at him. 

"Jimin~! Do you want to feel the baby?" She asked in silence. 

"...." 

"It's moving~!" She added as she looked around, making sure that there was nobody around them. She didn't want Jimin's family to be involved in any lie about her pregnancy. Jimin, too, looked around before he stood up and sat beside Mari. 

"Can you feel the baby move?" He asked. 

"Yup, give me your hand," Mari nodded her head as she took Jimin's hand and placed it on her swollen womb. Jimin's eyes bulged as he could feel the movement as if the baby was knocking from the inside of the womb. 

"Silly baby has been kicking for one minute. It was a muscle spasm, right?" Mari questioned as she looked into Jimin's eyes. Is it normal for a fetus to kick for one minute straight at this early stage of pregnancy? Jimin shook his head as he gently rubbed the baby bump that was covered by Mari's baggy clothes. "Is it normal?" Mari raised one of her brows as she looked at Jimin, which caused the man to erupt into huge laughter. 

"Shhhh", Mari put her index finger on Jimin's lips to make him tone down his laughter. "You're a silly girl!" Jimin said as he continued to laugh and casually pull Mari into a hug. He could tell Mari was trying to cheer him up with such a silly question. Everybody knows that fetus will kick at a certain age of a pregnancy. Mari looked at Jimin in confusion as she turned her head once in a while to look at their surrounding. 

"Why are you laughing?" Mari pulled herself away from Jimin and created some spaces between them. She was unaware that Jimin was sitting so close to her as if his body was glued to her when he felt the baby's movement in her tummy. Her confused face and her shining eyes that moved around to look at their surroundings were so cute in his eyes, causing Jimin to bury his face in his palm. 

"Wife~! I think you should read more books from now on. I don't want the baby to come out with a silly brain like yours," Jimin whispered before he erupted into another fit of laughter when Mari looked at him in disbelief as she rolled her eyes. Mari shook her head as she distanced herself from Jimin and crossed her arm. She was asking a real question to him. This was her first pregnancy; she didn't know anything. How Jimin makes fun of her ignorance makes her want to cry. The hormone of a pregnant lady was not helping her either. She felt as if she wanted to cry, but at the same time, she wanted to eat. 

"Mari? I'm sorry, hmm? It's my bad." Jimin panicked when he could see Mari's eyes turn glassy in a split second. He knew that a pregnant woman is sensitive, but he didn't know that it was this bad. "Hit me right now. Hit me. I should've not made fun of you like that," Jimin took Mari's hand and hit his chest with her hand several times. Which then causes Mari to pull her hand away.

"Ouch! It hurts!" Mari replied as she looked at her hand, which was made like a bat by Jimin. Jimin laughed again as he pulled Mari into a tight hug. He never knew he could be this comfortable with Mari in less than a month of living with her. Is she one of the charity cases to him? As Namjoon said, she was one of those charity activities for him, and he couldn't just ignore her because he knew how hard is it to live like a single mother. Jimin was a consistent donor to the single mother associations, and he'll bank a huge sum of money to the association every month to help the unfortunate. Maybe he felt so much empathy for Mari because she's a struggling single mother. 

"So, how was married life? Fun?" Mr Min asked as the dinner went on smoothly. He might rarely get the chance to meet Jimin as a stepfather, but he tried not to make their relationship awkward for his wife, Yewon. Jimin nodded his head to the question. He put a short smile on his face as he didn't know what to say. He rarely had conversations with the man his mother got married to. 

"Our marriage life was good," Mari answered the question for Jimin as the atmosphere in the dining turn solemn. 

"Jimin is a picky eater. I hope you tried your best to be patient with his pickiness," Jimin's mother said. 

"Really? He's not picky at all. He ate everything," Mari replied as she looked at Jimin, who kept his head low while eating his food in silence. Jimin was not a picky eater and ate everything grandma made for him. No matter how salty or tasteless the food is, he'll make sure to finish it. Maybe it will be awkward for him if he becomes picky while living with grandma and her. 

"I've gained some weight after marrying Mari," Jimin added as he looked up at his mother. Jimin was extremely skinny in high school and malnourished. Since high school, he tried to gain weight healthily, but none of his efforts worked. But after living with Mari, his eating pattern changed, and he ate everything that was served to him. Naturally, he gained weight from all the delicious meals made for him. "Maybe my appetite changes, omma," He said in a slow voice but still able to be heard by his mother. 

"Omma!!" A deep voice of a man disturbed their conversation. A man who was wearing a baggy white hoody and ripped jeans walked into the dining room and kissed the crown of Yewon's head before he went to Mr Min and hugged him. 

"Suga! Why didn't you call us? How did you get here?" Yewon asked as she looked at her stepson. 

"I wanted to make a surprise for both of you!" Yoongi smiled at his stepmother and turned his head to look at Jimin, who was silently watching them. "Oh! My stepbrother is here too! Park Jimin, right?" 

"Yup, nice to meet you." Jimin bowed his head to the newly arrived man. 

"Oh! Who is this beautiful angel right here?" Yoongi eyes widen when he looks at Mari. He had never met her before. Is she a stepsister that he had never known of?

"This is my wife, Kwon Mari." 

"Ha~! I remembered omma told me that you're getting married. I'm sorry I couldn't make it that day; I totally forgot about it." Yoongi squinted his eyes at Jimin as he pulled a chair beside Yewon. "I'll bank some money to your account as your wedding gift. How much do you want, little brother? You know if you're ever short on money, you can always call me,"  Yoongi said as a smirk appeared on his face. Jimin smiled as he nodded his head while his hand underneath the table clenched into a tight fist. Mari, who was watching the scene, put a lovely smile on her face while she grabbed his hand. Jimin turned his head to look at Mari, who took his hand by surprise. 

"I craved for short ribs stew," She mouthed at him, causing Jimin to smile as he shook his head. 

"Omma, Mari wanted to eat short ribs stew," Jimin said loudly to his mother, which caused Mari to throw his hand away. 

"No, these foods are good. My husband was joking. Your food is great," 

"I'll make some short ribs stew for you in the future." Jimin's mother replied as she smiled at her daughter-in-law. 

"Thank you," Mari bowed her head shyly as she gave Jimin a side glare. Jimin smiled cheekily at her, but deep down in his heart, he was glad that Mari paid much attention to him. She definitely could sense that he was uncomfortable. She didn't ask him anything personal. All she did was say things that made him smile. Mari and Jimin ate silently as the table was filled with conversation between Yoongi, his father and Jimin's mother. Jimin and Mari bid them goodbye after a short empty conversation.

"Home sweet home!" Jimin said as soon as he opened the door to Mari's grandma's apartment. 

"Yeah, make yourself at home," Mari replied as she rolled her eyes and pushed him aside to get into her room. 

"Ey~!" Jimin was about to chase after Mari when his phone buzzed. Taehyung's name appeared on his screen. He remembered that he had left Taehyung hanging just now at the cafe when he chased after Mari. 

"Taehyung-ah~!" Jimin said as soon as he picked up the call. 

"Jimin, if you think that baby belongs to me, abort it," 

"... " Jimin turned his head to look at Mari, who had already disappeared into her room. "What are you talking about, Taehyung-ah?" 

"Namjoon told me that you're taking care of Mari," 

"Yes, I did because I felt bad towards her. This had nothing to do with you. I won't say anything about the baby to you. Don't worry," 

"I am not worried," Taehyung replied and caused the conversation to have a short pause. 

"Then why are you saying this?" Jimin sighed as he sat down on the sofa in the small living room. He looks at the closed door of the two rooms in the apartment. Maybe grandma was already fast asleep by now. The dinner ended slightly after eight, and they arrived home at nine.  

"It's just... you look so concerned about Mari."

"Of course, I am concerned. You know me better than anyone else. Why did I do these kinds of stuff? She's not the first woman I've helped." 

"Hmmm... I know. You're so busybody with somebody else's business." Taehyung chuckled at the end of his sentence. "Jimin... Namjoon and I wanted to go for a short vacation at my summer house. I want you to join us," 

"... " Jimin remained silent as he was pondering. 

"Can I bring Mari with me?" 

"Why would you want to bring a woman along?" 

"No... it's just... " 

"What??" 

"Okay, I'll join you guys. Just give me the date."