Chapter 7

 

After driving aimlessly around for a few minutes, Changmin finally asked, “How are you doing?”

“I will be fine, thank you.” She answered in a barely audible tone. After a few more minutes, she spoke up again, “I’m sorry for dragging you into this mess.”

 

Changmin stretched his arm out; his hand found hers & gave it a squeeze, “That’s what friends are for. Are you feeling better?”

 

Yuri responded by squeezing his hand back.

“What do you want to do now? Are you tired? Do you want to go home?”

“I don’t know. Please, I don’t want to go home yet.”

 

Changmin made a decision then. They can’t drive around in circles forever with Yuri looking pale & tired, “Where are we?” Yuri looked up in surprises when the car stopped.

“At my place. You looked like you should take a nap & since you didn’t want to go home.” Changmin answered haltingly, while gauging her reaction.

“Thank you, Changmin Oppa. You are such a wonderful person.”

 

Jaejoong slowly walked back towards the restaurant; his shoulders slumped in defeat. His mind was in such turmoil right now that he almost drove off, forgetting about Hyoyeon.

“Jaejoong Oppa, what happened?” Hyoyeon had been waiting impatiently for her boss to return from his mysterious undertaking.

“I don’t want to talk about it! Let’s go!” He snapped, “Are you ready?!” He didn’t even bother to see if she was ready but just turned around & headed towards the door again.

“Who were those people that you chased after?” Hyoyeon asked curiously, as she hurried after Jaejoong. This was a side of her boss she had never seen before.

“My wife.” Jaejoong answered curtly.

 

‘So, that was his wife?’ Hyoyeon couldn’t make herself attend the wedding, thus never seeing the wife. It seemed that Yuri was far more beautiful than Hyoyeon ever thought she would be. Her eyes narrowed when she thought about how this was going to make the situation more difficult, the competition tougher but there’s still a chance for her & she should strike now when there’s trouble in paradises. If she planned carefully, everything could still work out for her advantage.

 

Jaejoong couldn’t think about anything else other than Yuri. He brought Hyoyeon back to the office & immediately, left to go home. How could the situation between him & Yuri get so bad all of a sudden?

 

When he got home, he was furious when Yuri wasn’t there. Where could she & Changmin have gone to? His anger slowly turned into concern when hours went by & he still didn’t hear from her. His pride had stopped him from calling her earlier but that didn’t matter now. He picked up the phone & dialed his missing wife’s cell number.

 

Yuri had been napping when her phone rang, interrupting her sleep. She sleepily glanced at the caller id & noticed that the call was from Jaejoong. Wild emotions pulled her from the lingering effects of her slumber. She sat there, staring at the phone. Should she answer it or not? The phone quit ringing & a beep sounded, indicating that a message was left. She thought about picking up her voice mail but decided against it. She had to figure out what she was going to do first.

 

Unwittingly, Jaejoong’s words from what seemed like eons ago played in her mind, ‘Who knows? Someday, we might find someone that we truly care about & when that time comes, I think it would be wise to agree that we should let each other have their own freedom’. Was that it? Was he just biding his time until the baby was born before telling her that it was over between them? But what about all the things he had been doing lately? She really thought that he was starting to truly care about her.

 

Changmin had heard her phone ring. He waited for a few minutes & knocked on her door gently, “Yuri, are you awake?”

 

Yuri opened the door & smiled. Changmin felt his heart flutter when he saw her adorable sleepy face, “Are you feeling better now?”

“Hmmm, thank you for letting me sleep here.”

“Any time.” He smiled back, “I heard your phone ringing, was it Jaejoong?”

 

Yuri’s expression immediately became sour, “Yes.”

“He must be very worried about you. Do you want to go home now?” Changmin offered, although, every single cell in his body wanted her to remain in his house.

“I didn’t pick up the call.”

 

Changmin didn’t know what to say. He selfishly wanted Yuri to get rid of her husband but knew that wasn’t the best thing for her to do! “Are you hungry?” Changmin asked, changing the topic.

 

“Actually, yes, I am.” Yuri grinned in embarrassment when her stomach also answered for her.

“Let’s go see what we can find in the kitchen.” Changmin led the way into the well-equipped room.

 

“Wow Oppa, you have everything in here.” Yuri looked around in envy.

 

“What can I say? I like to mess around in the kitchen.” He started showing off all the modern contraptions his kitchen had to offer.

 

They had a marvelous time inventing their dinner & Yuri started to think that life would be so much better if Jaejoong were more like Changmin. Her phone rang again, while they were in the middle of cutting up some onions. She pretended that she didn’t hear it until Changmin prompted, “Your phone is ringing.”

 

“It’s probably Jaejoong again. I don’t want to talk to him.”

“You should answer it. I think both of you should talk things over.” He gallantly advised.

“I don’t know. You saw what happened earlier, what’s more to talk about?”

“It could be some kind of misunderstanding.” Helping Jaejoong out was killing him.

“What misunderstanding? He kissed her.” Yuri replied stubbornly.

“Yuri, think back. Did we really see them kissing? We saw him leaning towards her.” He tried to reason out, “Let’s not talk about this anymore. Right now, my baby & I need food.” If they continued to talk about this, she was going to totally lose her appetite.

 

Her phone rang again, towards the end of their meal, “You should really answer that. He must be frantic by now; I know I would be if I were him. At least let him know that you are okay.” Changmin prodded.

 

Yuri reluctantly went back to the bedroom to retrieve her phone. The message tone beeped again. That was three calls in less than an hour & her phone was showing that she got three messages. She held the phone thoughtfully in her hand & finally drew up the courage to pick up her messages.

 

‘Yuri, this is Jaejoong, please give me a call, I’m at home?’ Moron! As if she wouldn’t know that the call was from him nor tell from where he’s calling from.

 

‘Yuri, where are you? It’s getting late & I’m still waiting.’ That jerk! Good, let him be the one waiting for a change.

 

‘Please Yuri, at least let me know that you are okay? I know you are mad at me but at least give me a chance to talk to you? I’m going crazy with worry here. Please don’t shut me out like this?’ Jaejoong’s anxiety & pain was very evident even over the poor quality of the phone line. This confused Yuri even more.

 

She made her way slowly back to the kitchen where Changmin was washing the dishes, “Well, did you talk to him?”

“No. The phone stop ringing when I got there. Oppa, I’m really confused. How can Jaejoong be so worried about me when he would usually just ignore me most of the time?”

 

“I don’t know. Only your husband has the answer to that question.”

“Part of me is afraid of hearing the answer.”

 

“I can understand that.” Changmin wiped his hands & held Yuri close to him, “There must be a reasonable explanation about what we saw earlier. He seemed to care a lot about you.” He hated seeing her like this, “Oppa, I’m afraid. What if he really does have someone else?”

“Don’t be afraid. I will always be here for you.” Changmin held her tighter.

 

He let her go when her phone rang again, “Answer the call, Yuri.”

 

Yuri remained close to Changmin. Being near him made her feel as if he could ward off any setback from her husband, “Hello.”

“Thank god, Yuri.” Jaejoong closed his eyes when he heard his wife’s voice. All nightmarish notions fled from his mind.

“I just want to let you know that I’m okay.”

 

“Wait.” Jaejoong rushed out when it seemed like she was going to hang up the phone.

 

“What is it?” Yuri responded stoically.

 

There were so many questions running through Jaejoong’s mind. He urgently collected his thoughts before asking, “Where are you? I will come pick you up.”

“No need for that. I need some time alone for now. I will let you know when I’m ready to see you.”

 

“Yuri, don’t hang up.” Jaejoong said frantically, clutching tightly to the phone as if he could hold onto her by doing so, “When will that be? We need to talk.”

 

Changmin grabbed hold of the phone when Yuri looked as if she was going to have another breakdown, “This is Changmin.”

Jaejoong’s anger came back full force, “What do you think you are doing?! Are you keeping my wife away from me?! Where did you take her to?!”

“Listen, if you don’t calm down, I will hang up.” Changmin warned. He waited for a few seconds & continued when the other party remained silent, “Yuri is at my place right now &.” He took a look at Yuri, “You had better haul your over here if you want to make peace with your wife.”

“No Oppa, I don’t want to see him yet.” Jaejoong heard Yuri’s voice, “Dammit! What’s your address? I’m coming over right now.” Jaejoong said impatiently. He wasn’t going to lose his wife.