Sorry

Jaejoong carefully placed the tray of porridge on the bedside table before shaking the small figure lightly.

“hey Minnie, wake up. Don’t you want to eat?” small bambi-eyes fluttered open. They looked at the bowl on the side before meeting bigger doe-like ones. Changmin nodded. He was sleeping on his parent’s bed because his current condition couldn’t be tended to in his crib.

“let me help you up okay.” Jaejoong tucked her hands under Changmin’s armpits and made him sit up. She made sure he was fine and then proceeded to feed him.

“mama hutt!” Changmin whimpered, with tears in his eyes.

“where does it hurt baby?” Changmin pointed at the bandage on his head. Jaejoong caressed the small head carefully. She knew there wasn’t anything besides that she could do. “eat a little first. Then I’ll give you the medicines to stop the pain.”

“Mama yuckie!” Changmin made a face remembering the bitter tablets he ate just yesterday.

“but mama is smart!” Jaejoong made pointed at her head, “I made it into a powder and mixed it with honey. You’ll eat it then, no?” Changmin made a thinking face and then nodded. Jaejoong smiled and cupped her son’s face but retracted when Changmin winced. “sorry baby!” Jaejoong blew on the cut on Changmin’s cheek to soothe it.

“hungee! Mama eat!” Changmin shoved her face away and pointed at bowl of porridge. Jaejoong obediently fed him and made him eat his honey concoction of tablets. When the food was done, Jaejoong was about to tuck him in bed but Changmin caught her skirt. “daddy?” Changmin asked for his father heartbreakingly. He hadn’t seen Yunho since he was discharged; actually Yunho wasn’t around when Changmin was awake. Hence, the 2 year old had assumed the worse.

“daddy is busy, baby.” Changmin looked ready to bawl anytime soon, so Jaejoong quickly spoke, “you want sit with mama?” Changmin’s fervent nod made Jaejoong smile. She pulled the blankets and tossed them on the side. Carefully, she lifted him up. She tried not to show when the plaster on Changmin’s foot hit her hip but Changmin didn’t notice. His face was buried in the crook of her neck while his left hand circled her shoulder. His right hand hung limply because he couldn’t move it much. There was a patch of dressing on his elbow and wrist and lots of scratches hidden under his bambi pyjamas.

She placed him on the couch in the living room and went back to her designs. Rolls of fabric were in her makeshift office and Jaejoong was cutting them up for her new outfits.

“I want daddy!” Changmin’s sudden demand halted Jaejoong’s hands.

Flashback

“yah! Jung Changmin, how many times should I tell you the curtains are not your swing!” Jaejoong pried Changmin from the thin fabric. When Changmin was separated from them he ran off to find another pair of drapes to play monkey on. She glanced at the curtain and groaned.

“you look upset?” Jaejoong noticed Yunho stand at the entrance to the bedroom with Changmin on his back. Looked like he intercepted him. Jaejoong grabbed the curtain and showed Yunho the gaping hole in it. “still going Tarzan on the drapes I see.” Yunho’s hand reached behind to boop on Changmin’s crown but Changmin thought it was a game of dodging instead.

“I can’t work and mind him at the same time. Yesterday, he knocked the vase while swinging on the living room curtains. What if it had fallen on him!” Jaejoong squeaked. 

“we can leave him at either of our parents’!” Yunho suggested while reaching behind him to catch the scruff of Changmin’s neck. Jaejoong scrunched her nose.

“leave him in a house with thousands of windows with giant drapes?”

“you have a point.” Yunho pulled Changmin over his shoulder so the little head was in line with his, “you're coming with daddy today.”

“daddy fish?” Changmin asked eagerly.

“not fish baby offish…er…I mean office.” Jaejoong came to Yunho.

“you sure?” she fiddled with his tie. Yunho passed Changmin to her.

“yup! No drapes there. Just the wall to wall blinds. He can’t hang of those. Get him ready while I finish breakfast.

Jaejoong complied and dressed up Changmin while Yunho munched on bacon and eggs Jaejoong prepared. Since it was short notice, she couldn’t prepare any lunch for her two men. Yunho assured her he would order in so Yunho left with a very excited Changmin.

“now listen Minnie. Daddy has to go for a very important meeting okay?” Changmin nodded to show he was listening, “Aunty Eunji,” Yunho pointed at his middle-aged secretary behind him, “is going to take care of you. So be a good boy, okay?”

“okii daddy!” Changmin replied so cutely that secretary Eunji cooed. Changmin gave a peck on Yunho’s cheek which Yunho returned with his own before leaving in an elevator.

“so Changminnie, are you hungry?” stupid question to ask him.

“yes! Yes!” Eunji made him sit on the couch outside Yunho’s cabin and gave him some cookies. While Changmin ate quietly, she continued her work at the desk. Until, she got a call to collect some documents from another department. “Changminnie!” she called and when the child looked up, “I have to go somewhere. Don’t go anywhere okay. And if the phone rings or somebody come don’t talk to them. Just go inside your daddy’s room, okay?”

“okay.” Eunji made haste to get the work done so she can get back to her charge. Changmin munched on his cookies while colouring on some papers Yunho gave him. Some noise alerted and he saw some man approaching. Remembering what the aunty told him, Changmin jumped off the couch, and made his way to Yunho’s office, halfway making a u-turn for the cookies and going back to the door. With the door safely closed, Changmin looked around the large office room.

What caught his eyes were the cream-coloured blinds running across the window behind Yunho’s desk. These blinds had some ropes to adjust them, the dangling end of it attracting Changmin.

At home, when he wants to swing, he finds it difficult to hold on the cloth of the thick curtains that block sunlight and the other thin ones can barely hold him. These ropes will be easier to hold, Changmin thought.

He was already across the room and standing under the tassels. He stretched his arms but they couldn’t reach. He was tall but not that tall. But nothing was impossible for the resourceful Changmin.

Changmin dragged Yunho’s ergonomic chair and positioned it near the ropes. He managed to climb on the chair and reached for the ropes, this time his hands reaching midway of their length. But he didn’t keep the chair close enough, so it was a little out of reach. In a last ditch effort, Changmin jumped and caught the rope.

That was a disaster!

The sudden weight on the blinds caused them to get yanked out from the valance. The entire thing began falling apart from one corner dropping Changmin on the floor. It wasn’t a big fall but he ended up knocking his head on a huge wooden drawer knob. Additionally, the heavy blinds that were falling from phase-wise from left to right knocked off two things. First the chair that fell hard on Changmin’s leg. The cracking sound that came was indication of the damage it caused and Changmin howled in pain. Secondly, the blind pushed a tall plant, a present from Yunho’s client, near the desk. The heavy potted plant escaped Changmin by inches, but it fell over the chair over Changmin’s legs, effectively trapping him. The mud from the pot spilled on the floor, some into Changmin’s face, making his eyes sting.

“DAAAAADDDDYYYYY~!” Changmin screeched and cried in pain which was answered by the door banging open.

Donghae had come to deliver some documents to Yunho, but saw that his secretary wasn’t there. Knowing Yunho is in a meeting, Donghae tried to call Eunji till he heard a massive commotion that lasted less than a minute with painful cries coming right after.

He burst into the room and gasped at the wreckage. He followed the cries to behind Yunho’s desk. He was greeted by a gasping and hiccupping Changmin.

“oh my god, Changmin!” Donghae tried to push his panic to the back of his head so he could focus on saving his friend’s son. He carefully pulled the plant away followed by the chair. However, the second the chair was away from the toddler, Changmin screeched at the shooting pain.

“ it’s broken!” Donghae said to himself looking at Changmin’s swelling leg. It was more worrying that he could see a suspicious dark wetness on Changmin’s crown and he could guess Changmin hit his head as well. Afraid to move him, lest the injury worsens, Donghae’s mind worked at a hundred miles per second to decide who to call first. Yunho, because it his son or medical help, because that’s what Yunho would do after he saw his son.

Donghae decided.

He fished out his cellphone and dialled the emergency number. The operator assured the paramedics will be there in less than 10 minutes. All that Donghae could do now was comfort the child.

“shhhh! Minnie, uncle is here. Don’t worry, nothing’s going to happen.” Donghae held the small hand while carefully trying to wipe the mud from Changmin’s eyes with his handkerchief.

“da…..dad…dy?” Changmin choked.

“daddy will be here soon.”

“Oh my god!” Donghae was startled by Eunji’s gasp. He looked at her sternly and called her towards the desk. Pointing to the phone on Yunho’s desk, he instructed her.

“Don’t panic. Changmin shouldn’t see that. Call the building’s on-call doctor.” Eunji did so with trembling hands. The doctor was there in less than a minute. He was in the middle of securing Changmin’s foot in a splinter while Donghae told Eunji to call Yunho.

“this better be important.” Yunho’s sharp voice came through the phone’s speaker.

“sir, your-”