“…there is no other but You, I pray for my safeness, my family, and my friends.”

The sound of someone murmuring woke Jaehee up.

“God, I’m very thankful…”

Jaehee’s eyes fluttered open and she immediately turned to the source of the murmur and saw a man, with both his elbows propped on the edge of the bed while his hand supporting his head, and his eyes shut. He was saying his prayer out loud; oblivious to his surrounding but his words were filled with sincerity.

“Thank you God,” the murmured ended and the man opened his eyes, unaware that Jaehee had awakened. A small smile developed on her face, as her eyes fixed on her fake husband. Seeing him, sitting beside her caused warmth to spread all over her body.

Their eyes suddenly met and a gasp escaped from him. “Oh! You’re awake!” Hakyeon said in a surprised tone and she made a small nod, there was a faint smile on her face.

Breaking the eye contact, he quickly looked at the IV drip next to him. Jaehee quickly followed his gaze and suddenly realised that she was in an unfamiliar room – a ward.

Alarmed, she pulled her hand in front of her face to see that her hand was connected to the IV drip and there was a quick terror flashed in her eyes.

Hakyeon noticed the sudden movement from her, and he detected the change in her face. Getting up quickly from his seat, he held her hand and covered it from her sight. He could sense that she wasn’t pleased at what she just saw.

“Cha Hakyeon…” she called with a pair of widened eyes. “What have you done to me?”

Hakyeon’s eyes dropped to her lips and he could still the dryness on her lips. Bitterly, he collected his courage to see her in the eyes and opened his mouth. “You fell asleep in the kitchen and I felt your body’s temperature rise… You have fever… and the Doctor said you’re dehydrated as well. So, that’s why you’re here…”

She watched him wordlessly, taking in every word that rolled off his tongue slowly.

“But don’t worry. You’re not staying here for long. You just have to take in enough water and we can go back home,” he added with an excited smile, obviously trying to cheer her up. He rested her hand under the cover, out of her sight when she was paying her attention to her. She was impressed when she found out that he already let go of her hand without her noticing.

“How long will it take?” Jaehee asked, she realised her voice wasn’t really her normal voice. felt like burning.

As if he was reading her mind, he helped her to sat up and unscrew the water bottle’s cap. Bringing the mouth of the bottle close to her, he carefully helped her to drink the water. She gulped down, feeling the water slid down her drying throat down to her stomach. She felt full all of sudden and gestured him that she had enough.

He sat back on his seat and her eyes never left his face. He looked back at her and a smile formed on his face, “You’re okay?”

She nodded and looked away, silently feeling grateful. She had made a best decision. She knew that he wouldn’t disappoint and he already proved himself, without him knowing.

---

Both of them arrived to Jaehee’s house after the Doctor granted their leave. Jaehee hadn’t fully recovered but she was getting better than when he first found her in the kitchen. She still needed to get her medication and drink lots of water.

Hakyeon opened the door to her bedroom, to help her settle on her bed but she refused to get in bed yet. She sat on the couch at the living room and gestured him to take a seat as well. “I had enough sleep in the hospital. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep anymore.”

He took a seat not far from her; he was keeping a safe distance between both of them. She looked comfortable in her seat and her eyes still hadn’t left his face. Hakyeon noticed that she had been watching him since in the ward until they were home.

Even they were in the cab, she had been stealing glances at him.

“What was it about?” she asked, breaking the silence that suddenly became unbearable to Hakyeon. He arched his eyebrows to her, “What is it?”

She smiled, tugging his heartstring. He suddenly hated her smile. She always smiled even when she was in pain. He hoped that she left the bad habit and stopping masking her pain with her sweet smile.

“I heard your pray,” she spoke, catching Hakyeon off-guard. He wasn’t aware of the fact that she heard him while he was praying. He knew he was saying the words out loud but it was not loud enough to intentionally wake her up.

“You heard…?” he asked. “Was I too loud? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean–”

“No,” she interrupted as she shook her head. “I’m not saying you were noisy or blaming you. I just want to know what it was about. I never heard people saying their pray out loud.”

He could see she was actually looking at him with impressed eyes and a little curiosity tainted on it. He sighed out in relief and shifted in his seat. “I was just praying... Hoping that everyone around me always being safe and healthy.”

“You always do that? You’re so kind…” she asked again, interested.

He released a nervous laugh, “Not every time though. I do it time to time but I do pray silently but I’d prefer to say it with my mouth.”

She nodded, “So, you prayed for me?”

He felt blood rushed up to his cheeks and his ears burning hot. She was making him feeling hot all of sudden even though it wasn’t actually hot in the living room. He nodded as a response. “I do. I pray for everyone. I prayed for little Seojun too.”

“You’re so kind… I’ll pray for you as a return. I’ll pray for both of us,” she grinned and he no longer could see her in the eyes. She still had her eyes on him and thinking of praying the way he did before she went to sleep later that night.

Hakyeon saw the clock and found an excuse to leave. He suddenly got up, making Jaehee to stand as well. “It’s late, I think I should go,” he said without looking her in the eyes.

“Already?” she asked in disappointment.

“You should be okay by now. There’s no reason I should stay again for the night,” he answered. He remembered the chants he made in his head this morning, to avoid staying again for the night because he ended to being no use in the next morning.

“No, I’m still sick,” she replied and without his expectation, she pulled his hand and bring it to her forehead. Shock, he pulled back his hand without touching her forehead. “You have your medication; take it before you sleep…”

Quickly turning away from her, he collected his belongings to leave but he froze when she made a request.

“Can I have a hug?”

The sense of Déjà vu rushed into him all of sudden and he stood there for a while without turning back to her. Should he? Or shouldn’t he turn? But if he didn’t turn to do what she asked, that meant he wasn’t doing his work properly. In fact, she wasn’t asking for inappropriate things. It was just a hug, right, a normal hug.

“What am I talking about?” she chuckled to her sudden non-sense request in the middle of the night. “I’m hallucinating. I’m–”

Hakyeon suddenly shut her up with his hug. She froze in her position and felt him patting her gently at the back. He had his chin on top of her shoulder and she looked vacantly at the empty space in front of her. She was stunned.

“Good night,” he greeted and let her go, without looking her in the eyes. She nodded in surprise and watched him vanished to the door. She hadn’t even replied his greet but he already left in hurry. “Good night, Cha Hakyeon…” she whispered.

The door closed behind him and he pulled the collar of his shirt, trying to loosening it. He felt his body temperature had risen up, not because he was infected but because of her. She was making him to feel lots of mixed feelings and he didn’t like it.

He didn’t like what she made him feel, it made him lost focus and at the end disrupted his task. Why did the foreign feeling must come when she was around? Right…! She is beautiful and young, so? That was not a ticket for him to grow inappropriate feeling towards her.

She was only an employer. She hired him, signed the contract and paid for him. She was hiring him only to fill the empty space she had and that was it. The only thing left for him was to do his work, just like when he worked for the older women.

That was it!

But why was it difficult for his heart to follow the instruction and behaved? His heart shouldn’t react to her. Should not…

---

He came early the next day, but he wasn’t standing in front of her house’s door. He was standing outside of her apartment building, contemplating if he should come and see her condition, to check if she had her medication.

It was weekend and he wondered if she went to work in the weekends? He still had no idea what she did for a living. He admitted that they didn’t spend much time to know more each other. Well, he should respect her personal life, but he needed to at least know a general fact about her.

When he worked for the previous women, he knew their career and their work’s place but Jaehee? He had no idea at all.

He remembered that it was written in their profile but he wasn’t really paying attention to her work because her birth year bothered him so much. It took days for him to move on from it and he hadn’t fully let go of the fact.

He still had long list of questions for her and he wondered if he ever had the chance to get everything answered because most of the questions were too personal.

He then found himself walking to the main entrance, straight to the lift. He would meet her even though she would stare at him with questionable looks but his heart had itched to know how she was doing. He couldn’t sleep peacefully after the scene of her in the kitchen kept haunting him.

The lift open in front of him and his eyes fell on someone’s shoes. He suddenly had the urge to look up and looking up to the owner of the shoes, his eyes immediately recognised the owner. The man in the lift shot him a threatening look and suddenly scanned Hakyeon from head to toe.

Hakyeon felt as if the man’s eyes emitted laser as it scanned him up and down, judging him.

“The door’s closing,” Hakyeon broke the silence, couldn’t hold his judging look any longer. Hakyeon admitted it; Hongbin looked more luxurious than him. He was nothing, compared to Hongbin who afford to wear expensive suit all the time.

Hongbin had his lips locked; he shot Hakyeon a final disgusted look and exited the lift. Hakyeon could only shook his head and entered the lift, watching Hongbin walked away from the lift, not even looking back. Rude, Hakyeon thought and the lift’s door closing slowly.

His finger froze right in front of her house’s door. His heart raced for no reason. After the unexpected encounter with Hongbin earlier, the feeling of wanting to protect her increased. He somehow wanted to show Hongbin that he could do a better job in protecting Jaehee.

He wanted to show that he was not any ordinary worker, even though Hakyeon wondered if Hongbin knew what he was to Jaehee.

He hoped that Jaehee hadn’t said anything about what their relationship was about. He wanted Hongbin to feel regret on the choices he made. Hongbin certainly had lost his opportunity; Jaehee is a good woman and a loving mother.

Pressing his ear on the door, he tried to pick up any sound coming from inside her house –if she had woken up. However after several attempts to pick any sound, he failed to get the answer but from hearing the quietness, he could conclude that she was still in her bed.

Quickly, before she could greet him at the door, he pressed in the passcode and entered the house. As he expected, the house looked deserted. She was still in her bed and he quickly went to the kitchen to make her a bowl of porridge.

While in the kitchen he made sure he didn’t cause any noise that could reach her hearing. Even though he was not really a good cook, but he made the best porridge in the world, or so he thought. With a final touch, he placed it on the table nicely, with a spoon placed beside the bowl. He sat across the seat she would take and patiently waited for her.

He wanted to make a surprise for her. His heart flutter even from imagining she was sitting in front of her, enjoying his bowl of love. He felt happy just from the thoughts.

The door to her room opened and Jaehee emerged from it. She was unaware that there was someone else with her in the house. Yawning without covered, she had her hair in mess and her eyes half closed.

Hakyeon could see she was walking straight to the kitchen, probably hungry and hunting for food. He saw how comfortable she looked in her pyjamas, making he smiled to the sight. She still looked beautiful in his eyes.

Just when she stepped in the kitchen, her eyes widened to see Hakyeon grinning at him.

“Good morning,” Hakyeon chimed.

Jaehee was glued on her track and her mind went blank. What was he doing in her kitchen? He even said something to her, what was it? She couldn’t register any words he just cheerily said to her. Her brain refused to work with her in the morning and Hakyeon noticed her frozen state.

“You must be hungry, I make you a porridge,” Hakyeon said every words slowly.

Jaehee was still blurred but she managed to take a seat in front of him anyway and stared down to the bowl of porridge. She could smell the scent and it made watered. She hadn’t had anything for dinner last night.

Reaching for the spoon, she slowly dug the heart-warming meal and had a taste. A smile instantly produced on her lips and she looked up to Hakyeon who had been waiting for her reaction. After seeing the positive feedback, Hakyeon could sit back in relax and feeling full only from watching her eating the porridge to its last drop.

“This is fulfilling,” Jaehee remarked. “I can stay full until tomorrow with this.”

Hakyeon shook his head, not liking what he just heard.

“No, you should not skip your meal. Even if you’re feeling full,” Hakyeon replied and took the bowl and spoon from her but Jaehee stopped him. She snatched the bowl and the spoon away from him, “I should pay you back by doing the dishes.”

She then got up and walked to the sink to do the cleaning. Hakyeon didn’t want to argue because he knew it would be useless in the end. He just stayed seated and turned to face her at the sink. Not even once she acted as if she was uncomfortable with her outfit or covering her no makeup look –or perhaps she was too caught with the meal that she forgot to even make her hair looked nicer.

“How are you feeling?” Hakyeon asked.

She nodded as a response. “Good. Your food adds it up. It makes me feel energetic! And wanting to run a lap!”

Chuckles heard from him and he nodded with her exaggerating answer. “That’s good to hear. We can go out to the field and run together.”

“Really?!” she turned around immediately. There was a keen look plastered on her face, “I’ve always wanted to jog around the city’s park with someone!”

He nodded eagerly, “If you want to, we can go together.”

Wait, did he just hear her said ‘city’s park’? Why did she sound as if she just moved to the city?

“Can we go now?” she asked, clearly impatient. “Give me five minutes, I’m going to change!” She excitedly speed walk to her room and Hakyeon heard her bedroom’s door closing. He got up to clean the table, and he suddenly realise that he wasn’t prepare for the sport activity. He didn’t bring his sport shoes with him.

Suddenly the sound of the door’s bell interrupted his thoughts. Without waiting Jaehee to take it, he voluntarily walked to the door, not expecting anyone. It could be a mail man to deliver her stuffs because who else would be in the door?

“Who is it?” Jaehee’s voice heard from behind him and he opened the door to the man he saw earlier at the lift, Lee Hongbin.

Hongbin had this obvious glaring look in his eyes. Jaehee pushed Hakyeon gently away from blocking her view and her gaze landed to Hongbin at the door. Hakyeon and Hongbin had an eye staring competition and Jaehee saw little Seojun beside Hongbin. She couldn’t help but to feel disheartened to see Seojun.

“I can’t look for Seojun today, I’m sorry,” Hongbin said, obviously having an ugly plan in his head. He stopped the eye-staring competition and looked at Jaehee. Jaehee had her long hair tied up, looking ready for a run.

“Oh, did I just interrupt your plan?” he said, and Hakyeon could feel the mocking behind his words. He was intentionally sent Seojun to them so that he could stop anything that both Jaehee and Hakyeon wanted to do that day.

“No, it’s okay. We can go another day,” Jaehee tried to hide the bitterness on her face but Hakyeon could read it from her body language that she wasn’t expecting this as well.

“No, I can find another person to take care of him or I can just bring him to my work,” Hongbin said, asking to be pitied. He then pulled Seojun back to him, acted as if he wanted to leave.

Hakyeon could no longer hold the disgusted feeling and wanted to beat the sense out of him but he channelled the frustration to his clenching fists only, didn’t want to cause a scene –especially when Seojun’s around.

“No, Hongbin. Seojun would throw a tantrum. Leave him with me. I can help to take care of him,” Jaehee offered. She thought she could postpone the activity with Hakyeon at another time. Besides, Seojun really needed a care right now. If it was for Seojun, she could do anything for him.

“Really? Your friend doesn’t look okay with it,” Hongbin intentionally poke on Hakyeon’s wound. If only Hakyeon could freeze the time, he would and broke the guy’s jaw.

Jaehee glanced at Hakyeon, she then held his arm, shaking it lightly. “We can go out at another time,” she said almost whispering. Hongbin saw it and pretended he wasn’t seeing anything, he knew he already got on Hakyeon’s nerves.

Hakyeon breathe out inaudibly, “Yeah, I don’t mind.”

Jaehee smiled and looked back at Hongbin, “We’re okay. You don’t have to worry anymore.”

Hongbin sneaked a glance to Hakyeon and looked back at Jaehee while nodding his head, “Well, if you said so. I’ll pick him up later.”

He then crouched down to Seojun’s level, kissing his son. “Be nice to Mama and Mama’s friend, okay? Give me a kiss.” Seojun kissed his father before he walked back to Jaehee.

“Thank you,” Hongbin said his final farewell and shot Hakyeon a victory look. Hakyeon glared at him, ready to pounce at him anytime soon but Hongbin knew he should disappeared quick. Jaehee pulled Hakyeon back into the house with Seojun.

She could feel the tension between the two of them.

“Do you have the leftover of the porridge you made? We can give Seojun some of it. He’ll love it,” she asked and placed Seojun in Hakyeon’s arms. Hakyeon instinctively held the baby safely. Jaehee walked to the kitchen to make a meal for Seojun who might be hungry.

Seojun looked at him, blank.

And Hakyeon looked back, trying to calm down his nerves. The baby’s father sure knew how to raise the fire in him but he shouldn’t let Seojun to be the victim of his father’s doing. After all, Seojun is also Jaehee’s son.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N; Comment and Subscribe ❤