“You.. want me to stay?” there was a smirk on his face now. Kyuhyun couldn’t help but feel contented. Just this simple act of her made it quite clear to him that his presence was still wanted. And he liked that. Maybe we still have a chance..

“No. I mean—yeah—just—just take a look at this sample will you? Please?” Mira braved herself to look into his eyes.

.   .   .

“Sure,” he finally shrugged, after taking her in for a few seconds. Instead of shoving her to the side, he chose to stand right behind and lean in forward to place his head just by hers. He looked through the sample and said, “wow.. what is this?” he murmured and adjusted the knobs on the side of the device to get a better look. He was fascinated.

A different kind of feeling was developing on the right hand side of Kyuhyun though. Mira stayed as stiff as he could. She was struggling to push away distracting questions like—what is that cologne he has on? Or.. Is that a new hair cut? And even.. the urge to just cuddle into him. Kyuhyun.. why am i yearning for you.. she sighed in her mind.

The door opened again and in came the charming looking Dr Jung.

“Am I... interrupting something?” he flashed them a meaningful smile.

The both of them straighten up and muttered a ‘no.. its nothing’. Kyuhyun felt undeniably uncomfortable with the older man’s remark. To him, he shouldn’t joke about stuff like that, considering he and Mira had a past. A ual past to be exact, or so he thought.

“Actually, there is something,” Kyuhyun moved the microscope so that it faced Dr Jung. “Have a look, Jung paksa-nim” he ushered his hands.

Dr Jung squinted his eyes, looking through the dual lenses. While he was doing so, Kyuhyun decided to read the man.

Well, for a man, he is good looking. I can say that much. And for his personality—he paused for a while and gave the man a good look up and down a couple of times. Judging from how ultimately cool you act, despite you and Mira actually have a son!—i’d say that you could either be a player, or you’re just an expert at hiding your own feelings. Yeah, that’s right Jung paksa-nim. I’m judging you hard.

“Don’t you all recognize this?” Dr Jung finally spoke, after giving the sample a good look. He then gave both of them a good look and Kyuhyun caught him giving Mira the-raised-brow look. Kyuhyun silently thought.. is that some kind of communication he’s giving her? Something about their past? He bit the inside of his cheek as curiosity seeped into his system.

The room resonated of Dr Jung’s lovable chuckle now. He finds it amusing that the two junior doctors didn’t know what the sample was. “I’ll let you guess, is this Bacteraemia or is it Sepsis?” he asked them, as his head slanted to one side, revealing an even charming look, which really made Kyuhyun just hate him a little bit more. What is that smell? Jealousy?

“Yeah.. we know that that is a Bacteraemia sample, Dr Jung,” Mira began to explain.

“Yeah, that’s like basic knowledge..” Kyuhyun pft-ed under his breath, earning ice dagger glares from Mira.

“It’s just that, it looks a bit different from the ones we used to see back in microbiology class,” Mira smiled as she continued to explain to Dr Jung. Indeed, she felt the awkwardness between the two of them slowly washing away, like an oil-based painting left out in the rain—it colours slowly dripping off, yet visible marks are left to be seen.

Those marks would stay there for a longer time and to brush them off completely would take a little bit more effort.

Mira was thankful that despite their past, Dr Jung wasn’t being awkward with her and continued to treat her like any other new doctors. Had he not, she would have an equally hard time, if not worst, to cope with him always being there.

Mira knew Dr Jung was that kind of a person. He knows what to say, when to say it, and who to say it to. All at the perfect time. He was a smart and charming man, just like that. It was because of this that her late mother could easily get along with the man.

Yes. All along it had been about her mother and Dr Jung.

Ever since she left home for college, her mother always had time to call her to share what she and Dr Jung talked about in cooking class that day. It was either ‘Did you know that you can skip the eggs when baking, Mi? You can actually just use bananas! How fascinating is that, Mi, right? Yeah.. Jung paksa-nim told me that’ or  ‘Mi, now umma knows how to make the chocolate chips to look nice in the muffins. Dr Jung showed us today, that we should coat the chocolate chips with flour first before adding it into the wet batter! Wow.. I’m learning a lot..’.

Whatever makes her happy, is what makes Mira happy. And based on that sole reason was why she didn’t go up against her mother when the lady told her that she’ll be getting a divorce from her husband—Mira’s father.

Mira was smart enough to understand, at that age, that her parents were no longer happy. She had lived to see how much her mother had suffered from loneliness—waiting for her father to get back late from work, spending the littlest time with his family.

But Dr Jung that depressing element from her mother’s life. He was there. He gave her a new meaning to her life.

He made her happy.

It was upsetting to see her family didn’t quite make it to the end, in fact crumbled half way. But seeing her mother smile and listening to her laughter seemed to be able to top every off.  Mira remembered the day Dr Jung personally came to see her and asked for her blessing. He wanted to marry her mother. She remembered the man expressing how he had never encountered such a lady like her mother. He told Mira about how love just happened between them and how he was happy to embrace it. He wanted Mira’s blessings.

And she gladly gave it to him.

Everything went well, right from the point her mother married Dr Jung. But, it didn’t stay like that for long.

 Soon, her mother started to get weird ideas of wanting a child of her own with Dr Jung. She was 40-ish at that time, which was a risky age to be.. urm.. making babies.

Even when Dr Jung already advised her countless of times to just forget it, and that they would be great without a child, her mother couldn’t fathom the idea of not having a child with him. ‘A child of our own would be the prove of our love, Sunggie..’ she would often say to Dr Jung.

The troubled man didn’t know what to do anymore, for he dare not risk the woman’s life. This was when it all happened.

Everything that could have possibly gone wrong happened when he decided to ask Mira, his step daughter, to help.

“Mira..Mira??”

She snapped from her visit down memory lane.

“Ne? Did you say something, Jung paksa-nim?” she asked, ashamed that she had zoned out in the midst of an important discussion.

“He said, you should know what kind of sample that is..” Kyuhyun took the dignity to enlighten her, not forgetting to return the death glares she had given him earlier.

“Ohh. I should?” Mira took a moment to flip through her memory notes. “Ohh. That’s right!” she chuckled, in a weird kind of manner. “ It’s just Bacteraemia! Just a Bacteraemia!” she clumsily noted, when indeed it wasn’t a normal Bacteraemia sample.

But Kyuhyun didn’t have to know that. Not now! Not today!

Mira quickly changed the slide and placed another and started to pretend to be busy testing the other samples. She now knows why the heck it is that Dr Jung made a point that she should remember that pattern of weird looking Bacteraemia blood cells.

It was similar to hers. She used to have bacteria in her blood, three years ago..

..when she was pregnant..

..at the age of 21 years.

With the successfully fertilized egg of her mother, by the responsible of Dr Jung.

..inside of her.

***

“Why are we having lunch together?” Mira asked the man who was hungrily shoving spoonfuls of rice into his cavern. Apparently, they didn’t realize that it had past noon by thirty minutes and nobody was left in the cafe, except for the two of them.

“Because everybody else finished, and I hate to eat alone.”

Cocky brat. Mira cursed under her breath, to which the cocky brat answered with a snort.

Mira put down her sandwich and reached inside her lab coat. Her phone was vibrating.

“Mm. Sehunnie.. ohh..yes.. I’ll be home this weekend okay? Okay.. I promise I’ll bake cookies. Okay? Be a good boy and listen to halmeoni okay? Love you.. bye..”

Love you.. how did I get so unlucky. I didn’t even get those words from her when we were together.. Kyuhyun swallowed hard and sipped his drink to wash away the discomfort in his heart, which was quickly forming.

He cleared his throat. He was going to ask her about Sehun. Now. There wasn’t always a chance when they could sit together and not squabble. He wants to know about everything. About every involving Mira and Sehun and Dr Jung. Living in curiosity and uncertainty wasn’t his way of life. He had to clear those things up. Being the smart one he is, this opportunity was one he had to take, if he ever wants to hear it from Mira’s own words.

“Sehun OK there?”

“Mhmm..” she hummed, chewing her food and swallowed it.

He decided to ask her right when her guard was down, and that was when she opened to take a bite of the tuna and cheese sandwich.

“So, Kim paksa-nim, when were you actually planning to tell me that Sehun is your son?”

Hi all. Thanks so much for reading.

So did you get the secret?

Mira actually helped her mother,

And be the surrogate mother to Sehun.

If there's something that you don't understand,

leave me a message and I'll be more than happy

to have it explained to you.

It's just that I have so many ideas,

and I don't want to write a blab which is too long.

Hope this chapter was Ok.

*XOXO*