Warning: Has not been double-checked for mistakes.

It isn’t easy taking care of a child, Changmin learns.

From the temperature of his milk to the height of his bath water, every little detail takes second checks and reconfirmation before he’s confident in feeding or bathing his baby. Victoria feels good enough to be on her feet but Changmin insists that she stays in bed until she is fully recovered.

Changmin is in charge of everything in the house, from cleaning to cooking and taking care of his woman and child. He’s never felt so tired before, yet, at the same time he feels so full and complete.

In the middle of the night one evening, Victoria wakes up to an empty home. Changmin is nowhere to be found and their baby is not sleeping in his crib.

After looking around a bit she finally fishes for her cellphone and dials his number.

“Why are you up?” Changmin asks her. “Did I wake you when I left?”

Victoria frowns and says, “Where are you?”

“Max caught a fever so I brought him to the hospital,” Changmin explains. “We’ll be home soon so don’t worry.”

“I’ll meet you there,” Victoria replies. After a while of trying at persuading her to stay home, Changmin gives in and gives her simple instructions on how to find them at the hospital.

When she arrives at the hospital she catches sight of a slightly familiar face. At first Victoria doubted herself but after blinking the blur out of her eyes, she confirms what she had seen.

“Can I help you?” A nurse asks at the front desk.

Victoria thins her lips. “Is there a baby under the surname of Shim checked in here?”

“One moment,” the nurse smiles at her. After a little bit of scrolling the nurse finally finds what she’s searching for. “There are two patients under the Shim surname, one is in our pediatrics ward currently being checked up and the other has been being treated in an infant warmer for a few days. Which are you here for?”

Her breath catches in . “Is the infant’s mother listed as Wendy Son?”

The nurse double checks the screen. “That would be correct. If you take the elevator down the hall to the fourth floor and follow the signs down the short walk way you will find a quarantined room. The babies all have a small tag on the infant warmer boxes with their names.”

After thanking the nurse and nodding her head in comprehension, Victoria heads towards the elevators.

She hadn’t known that Wendy, like herself, has already given birth. As a matter of fact, Changmin hardly ever mentions anything about Wendy unless Victoria brings it up herself first.

Her footsteps are heavy as she makes her way to the infant warmers room. However, the moment she sees the baby lying in the box, everything seems to be lifted off her shoulders.

The baby appears to be crying, small hands struggling for something to hold onto in the air above it. A nurse quickly paces over and tucks the baby’s arms back into its blanket wrapped around its body and the baby temporarily stops crying. If a baby is crying, it is healthy, she's heard.

“What are you doing here?”

When Victoria turns around, Wendy is being pushed over to the window panel on a wheelchair. “I saw you in the lobby just now,” Victoria says, as though that explained everything.

The person pushing Wendy is an elderly woman, perhaps in her fifties, and Victoria nods at her politely. “Is everything alright?” She asks.

Wendy almost scoffs. “Perfect,” she drawls, “can’t you tell?”

“How can you be so impolite to your friend?” The older woman scowls at her before looking at Victoria apologetically. “I’m sorry, she’s still recovering from giving birth prematurely so her mood is quite unstable.”

Victoria shakes her head silently. She hesitates for a moment before asking, “Has he come visit you and the child yet?”

“Are you worried?” Wendy chides back.

Before Victoria can respond, Wendy takes control over the wheelchair and brings herself to the window. She lifts her finger to the glass and her eyes begin to tear as she stares at her baby.

“Why is it that your baby gets to sleep in the arm of its father, but my baby only gets a box?” Wendy asks. “Why is it that you get to sleep in his bed but I’m stuck in a disgusting hospital room?”

Wendy’s words freeze Victoria to her spot. Every nerve in her body is stiff, every joint locked, and she doesn’t dare look the older woman in the eyes.

Why? Why does Victoria feel so at fault when none of this is because of her wrongdoing?

“What right do you have to own everything that should belong to me, too?” Wendy chokes.

The older woman seems to want to say something but from what Victoria catches out of the corner of her eyes, the look on her face pretty much says everything—confusion, distraught, helplessness and a little bit of meticulous anger.

And so Victoria takes a deep breath before collecting herself together.

“Changmin and I dated for a very, very long time, Wendy,” Victoria begins to say. “We shopped for our first home together; from the blinds to the bathroom rugs, from the chopsticks we use to the paintings we hang on the walls. On the first night we spent in the same room together, I hugged Changmin so close that he could feel my heart beating against his and he asked me to hug him a little less tight because it made him feel uncomfortable, but not once did he touch me because I was too afraid—I was afraid of the pain, afraid of the attachment, afraid of the commitment. I knew how much pain he was in because of me, he’s a healthy man after all, but he lived through it and continued sleeping in the same bed with me until I finally asked him; I said, Changmin, do you want me or not?”

Wendy’s breathing becomes heavier, supposedly only becoming angrier at Victoria’s confession.

“He takes care of my parents,” Victoria continues, “watches over my mom and accompanies my dad, even more than I do. Changmin treats me really well, too well, and I can’t really give you a reason why.”

“Are you trying to say I’m not good enough—that he loves you even though you don’t do anything to deserve it but I can do anything and everything, but it still won’t make a difference to him?” Wendy scoffs.

Victoria shakes her head. “Changmin is easy to satisfy; it’s easy to make him smile, easy to find out what he likes, easy to fall in love with him because he’s so simple it's amazing, but Changmin is not an easy man.”

Wendy remains silent.

“You love him because he’s so considerate, so careful, so loveable,” Victoria smiles, “but you forgot one thing, Wendy; Changmin didn’t start out this way—he became this way.”

“Because of you?” Wendy asks with a provocative tone in her voice, narrowing her eyes.

Victoria smiles back at her in reply. “No,” she denies, “because of love. You fell in love with a man who’s already in love, yet, you’re expecting of him what he’s only willing to give to the person he loves.”

Slowly, the older woman’s worried frown begins to smoothen out. She seems to slowly understand the situation, slowly seeing who’s in the right and who’s in the wrong, so she crosses her arms over her chest and lowers her guard.

And, in a tone that is both firm and confident, Victoria asks, “What makes you think you have the right to ask me why I get to have everything Changmin gives with his heart instead of you, when the one he loves has always been me?”

A small voice in her head asks her, “Was that really necessary?”

But when Victoria thinks back and remembers the last she heard of Wendy and her mother, she doesn’t seem to feel so bad anymore.

“You slept with a married man?!” Wendy’s mother interrogates angrily.

But Wendy denies it with all her strength. “No, Changmin’s not married, mom! We were drunk and I—!”

“That’s enough!” Her mother hushes her. “I can’t believe this, Wendy!”

Victoria had given Mrs. Son a phone number, telling her to contact Changmin if Wendy or the baby needed anything of him.

“The baby is Changmin’s,” Victoria insisted when Mrs. Son refused to take it, “he has responsibility to watch over them.”

It isn’t as though Victoria likes the feeling of playing the middle man between the two families, but a part of her seems to believe that if she just let Changmin distance from them and neglect his duties towards Wendy, there will never be an end to the issues. They will never really be free.

When Victoria finally finds Changmin and their son, she tells Changmin what just happened between her and Wendy. A while later, after the doctor is finished with giving their son a shot to help the fever, Changmin decides to pay Wendy and the baby a visit.

“I didn’t think she’d tell you so quickly,” Wendy says while forcing a smile. Her mother has wheeled her back to her patient room but is staying with her grandchild at the infant warmer station, to Changmin’s relief.

He helps her sit up in the bed and takes a seat to the side. “Max caught if a fever; I would have come to see you and the baby earlier, but both Max and Victoria aren’t feeling well.”

“They’re priority,” Wendy answers bitterly.

Changmin clears his throat awkwardly. “How are you feeling?”

“Just fine,” Wendy answers, shifting her face away from him.

He proceeds to sit there in silence, not quite knowing what to say.

“Do you want to see our baby?” Wendy suddenly asks him.

Changmin thins his lips in thought before nodding. “Have you named the baby yet?”

“I was going to ask for your opinion,” Wendy replies.

He once again retreats into silence.

“You don’t even want to name her?” The young girl bites out. “Changmin, just how much do you hate us?”

“I don’t hate you, nor do I hate the baby,” he clarifies, “I just… I don’t know, Wendy. This isn’t exactly how I planned for things to be.”

Wendy’s eyes begin tearing up again.  “You mean to say you never planned for me to appear in your life.”

“I’ll take care of you and the baby like I promised,” Changmin says, trying to change the topic. “Other than providing financial needs for the two of you, I can’t think of any other way to help you. I’m sorry.”

She takes a pillow and throws it at him, tears bursting from her eyes. There is so much pain in her chest—so much she wants to tell him but so little she can say. He doesn’t care to hear them, after all. “Get out. Get out!”

Sighing, Changmin obeys her demand and slowly backs out of the room. When he is finally outside, when he can no longer see her after closing the door, it’s a whole new world—Changmin feels like he can breathe again.

“Aside from being a little spoiled, Wendy isn’t that bad of a girl.”

The foreign voice catches Changmin off guard. When he turns around, there is an old lady standing not too far away from him.

“Changmin, right?”

He nods and forces a small smile at the lady. “You are?”

“Wendy’s mom,” she introduces herself. “Have you seen the baby yet?”

-----

A/N: Enjoy~ :)