Taeyeon sighed as he settled down on one of the benches near the park. The family day had just ended and it was not the result he had thought it would be when he decided to ditch work. Jaeyoon was upset and neither Jessica nor he could do anything to cheer him up. They tried ice cream; no; new toys; no; park; maybe – that’s why they were currently in there, watching over Jaeyoon who was moping inside the playground.

Jaeyoon was very enthusiastic to play the inter-house basketball game and he was unfortunately very confident to win it. However, their opponent was Jia’s team – the height difference between her father and Taeyeon was just... ridiculously huge. Taeyeon tried, but the best effort he could give was nothing to Sooyoung. He could easily dunk the ball whereas Taeyeon needed two blocks to step on just to touch the net. It was like fighting without any weapons.

Jaeyoon was greatly disappointed and upset over their failure.

Another sigh escaped his lips – just staring at Jaeyoon like that made him cave into guilt. He felt like he failed terribly. He was feeling worse for this than the fact that he ran away from the most important part of his job.

“Don’t think about it, Jaeyoon will get over this quickly.”

He clenched his teeth and looked at Jessica beside him. “I know it’s just that...” he looked down, guilt and resentment creeping once again in his mind. Why did he feel like this? He had no idea. It was not like it was necessary to win the game – or even play the game to start with – but he felt horrible for losing it, especially Jaeyoon expected a lot from his ‘uncle Taengoo’.

“Taeyeon,” Taeyeon lifted his head up and looked at Jessica. “Stop it okay? It’s not like you committed a crime or something. Jaeyoon’s just a kid, give him something he’d like then voila, he likes you again.”

A small smile finally managed to break out of his lips. He just realised that Jessica was actually comforting him – which may be a first. “You changed a lot.” He accidentally blurted out, but he didn’t regret saying it.

“Maybe I did.”           

Taeyeon smiled a bit more. “Jaeyoon’s just like you, you know, moody.”

“Thanks a lot.” Jessica turned to him and gave him one of the glares that used to scare the living daylights out of him, but this time that glare actually made him feel better.

“Jessica, remember what I told you before you left me?” Taeyeon asked, rubbing his fingers against each other. He didn’t know why he had started this topic but he just felt the need to talk about it, though his heart was already thumping hardly against his chest in nervousness.

Jessica just nodded her head and never bothered to look at his way.

“I said I’d wait... I did.” He scoffed quietly, mocking himself for actually hanging onto his words. He should have known better – Jessica just liked him before because he was her ‘pizza boy’. But he loved her so much it nearly killed him when he watched with his own two eyes how Jessica just easily slipped away from his grasp that miserable night.

The feelings from that event slowly went coming back to him again. The hurt, the torment, the misery of helplessness came rushing back to his veins; it felt like it just happened yesterday. The scars were cut open again and he was remorseful for bringing up this topic back.

Jessica had her head hung low. “Let’s not talk about this, shall we?” She said, almost pleading, her eyes remained focused on the ground.

A tinge of pain struck Taeyeon straight to his heart. He morosely kicked some pebbles on