A chance gained

He remembers the first time he saw her vividly.

He had a presentation the next day but his brother forced him to visit his girlfriend. Yunho was charmed by the lovely Hyori the second she opened the door and flashed a warm smile.

Yet, her sister was the one who stole her heart.

Kim Jaejoong was beautiful. That’s what caught his attention first. However, in the first hour itself he came to know she was an even more beautiful person inside.

They stayed overnight and Yunho was surprised to see Jaejoong the next day with her hair down and huge glasses. Jaejoong had poor eyesight and could only do without glasses in the familiarity of her home.

Even then, Yunho was besotted enough to find the nerd Jaejoong beautiful.

She was even more ethereal on the day Jihoon and Hyori married.

Yunho’s black tux matched Jihoon’s while Jaejoong also wore a short bridesmaid dress, white just like the bride’s. If you asked Yunho, he wouldn’t deny that he imagined it was them who were getting married not their siblings.

It was when the child at heart Jaejoong was talking about funny pigs in a blanket are, Yunho had set a deadline for himself.

Graduation.

When Jaejoong has graduated, he will confess his love to her.

That however, was on the backburner when Jaejoong started talking about this Siwon person. They would meet up on the weekends to hangout but lately Jaejoong’s conversations have been about this jock with a very bad reputation. Yunho doesn’t know him but he sounded like a douche. Yet, he didn’t say anything. Jaejoong’s face lit up while talking about him and Yunho liked seeing her happy.

At least that’s what he kept telling himself when Jaejoong told him Siwon accepted her confession.  

Yunho drank that night. His brother and sister-in-law were worried, but they didn’t know what troubled him.

But again, Yunho willed himself to stay strong. ‘As long as Jaejoong is happy’, he told himself.  He would see Jaejoong play with their new-born nephew and all negatives thoughts went away.

For a while, Yunho contemplated moving on and dating someone else.

There was a nice girl in his class, Kwon Boa.

“Boa, can I talk to you?” Yunho asked her while she was with her friends. Her friends giggled knowingly. Nobody missed the long stares the college heartthrob had been giving the prettiest girl in college. Everyone suspected Yunho liked Boa.

What they don’t know is, that Yunho found her a nice person who could make him get over Jaejoong. About the pretty girl part, Yunho believed she wouldn’t be if Jaejoong was in college with them.

Boa followed Yunho out to the garden. She kept glancing at Yunho’s phone that vibrated every 2 seconds but went ignored.

When they were in the garden, Yunho found it hard to speak. Boa thought he should clear his head. “why don’t you take that call and we’ll talk after you're done.” Boa smiled and Yunho nodded.

He pulled his phone out from his pocket and stared at it. he didn’t know this number. He swiped the call option and held it to his ear.

“Hello?”

“I’m calling from Seoul General Hospital. Mr Jung, it’s about your brother.” The person on the other line spoke for a few seconds and Boa saw his body freeze.

“Yunho?” She called gently but Yunho didn’t hear.

He was running out of his university and to his car.

The doctors were expressing hope. They said that Jihoon and Hyori could survive.

At that time, that was the only thing keeping Jaejoong and Yunho stable. That and the baby in Jaejoong’s arms.

Yunho the scanty curls of the sleeping baby, “it’s a miracle isn’t it?”

“hmmm.” Jaejoong nodded as she smiled at the peaceful baby.

Jung Changmin was without a scratch. His parents had flung themselves over him the second the car swerved on the wet road. The car crashed a tree killing the driver on the spot. Jihoon was flung out of the car before it could hit and sustained injuries. Hyori was half crushed in the impact. However, her body was a shield for her son and he survived.

“mmm…..mmm….” the baby fidgeted and his lips parted. With his eyes closed, his lips nibbled on Jaejoong’s uniform shirt and the two grownups chuckled.

“should we feed him?” Yunho helped her up so they could go the infant care and get him some formula milk.

It wasn’t far and Yunho was helping Jaejoong with feeding the fussy baby. “he’s going to hate us for feeding him formula milk.” Jaejoong pretended to be sad.

 “Hah! Like he knows the difference.” Yunho joked.

For a while, the only sounds were of Changmin’s noisy feeding. Jaejoong’s eyes were on Changmin and Yunho’s eyes were on Jaejoong. This was the first time they were standing so close. Their faces just a few inches apart made Yunho’s heart skip a beat.

Yunho didn’t want to think about her like that. So he brought up a topic he didn’t want to. “So what was Siwon’s reaction to the whole news?”

Yunho didn’t expect Jaejoong’s face to become so dark. It was as if she didn’t want to hear his name. “We’re over.” That was all Jaejoong had to say to end the talk and for Yunho to smile.

‘Just this once, I want to be selfish Jaejoong.’

Surprisingly, neither Jaejoong nor Yunho were as devastated by the deaths of their siblings as the media portrayed them to be. Yes, for a few hours Jaejoong broke down in the emergency stairway and Yunho was in the mortuary for an hour trying to ‘wake up his sleeping brother’. Hyori and Jihoon were nothing less than parents to Jaejoong and Yunho, their only family. So of course they didn’t take it too well initially.

However, it changed in less than a day. a nurse brought Changmin to Jaejoong who was fretting for being left alone to long. Jaejoong went with Changmin to Yunho and then their grief was replaced by a ball of sunshine that is Changmin.

They were his godparents and now were his parents. Jaejoong and Yunho promised each other that they would give Changmin the family Jihoon and Hyori gave them and would have given their son.

“He’s quite handsome.” Jaejoong looked up for a moment and then went back to changing Changmin’s diaper.

“Who?” she asked.

“Choi Siwon.” Yunho chuckled when she looked at him with a don’t-mention-that-name look. “You still hate him?”

“Oh no~!” Jaejoong singsonged, “I don’t feel like flinging poopy diaper at the man who so cordially invited me to be a .”

“yeah, that was wrong.” Yunho looked away. he was angry when Jaejoong had told him what had transpired between them and to think Yunho was willing to let him have Jaejoong.

Today at the wake, when he saw the handsome teen and came to know he was the Choi Siwon, Yunho wanted to punch the living daylights out of him. He didn’t because he was the son of a man Yunho greatly respected. His inbred gentleman didn’t allow him to.

Although, when Yunho caught Siwon’s eyes looking at Jaejoong with longing, he mentally smirked. Yunho should get an Oscar for pretending that he knew nothing and be so cordial with Siwon. Basically, Yunho was silently thanking the man for giving him Jaejoong on a platter. He wasn’t letting his chance go now and it was reinforced with the idea that together, he could make a good parent with Jaejoong.

“Do you want me to hit him next time I see him?” Yunho offered while Jaejoong passed him Changmin.

“tempting but no need. I’ll forget him eventually.” Jaejoong put a big smile to assure him.

“that’s good.”  And to Jaejoong’s surprise, Yunho kissed her forehead.

She wasn’t expecting that…..ever. The man just acted like it never happened while babytalking with Changmin.

“Take your time and make sure all the things are right.” Yunho kept on giving Jaejoong instructions from the front seat. Jaejoong just nodded while getting her stuff as noiselessly as possible. Changmin was sleeping in his car seat beside her and if he woke up to no Jaejoong, he’d bring the roof down.

“even unnie wasn’t this naggy.” She remarked.

“that’s coz you weren’t homeschooling then. How do you know the exact things when you're not in class? That’s why I’m telling you to check the details with your teacher.” Yunho advised like a wise sage.

“I don’t need that. I know everything. You forget I’m the nerd queen.” Jaejoong said proudly.

“that was before. The contacts and new hairstyle don’t make you a nerd.” Yunho’s eyes gestured to her new look.

“I had to okay. You saw how Changmin got violent seeing the nerd look.” Jaejoong pouted.

“I’m not saying it’s bad. I’m just saying you have all the makings of a hot nerd.” Jaejoong chuckled cutely at that. “now go and get your work done quickly so we can go grocery shopping. I want strawberry milk.”

“you and your strawberries.” Jaejoong shook her head and got out of the car.

Yunho’s eyes followed Jaejoong disappear in the building. He had some feeling that made him look at the building and sure enough on the third floor, he found Siwon at the window. He tried not to look it, but Yunho knows Siwon was looking at Jaejoong. Yunho pitied him but at the same time, he knew he was not of concern anymore.

Jaejoong looked up from her studying when Yunho came in. at his feet, Changmin walked while holding Yunho’s pinky. His two fingers were in his mouth and and Jaejoong knew that meant something was bothering him. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why.

There were erratic rain showers in Seoul tonight. It rained in some parts of the city at varying intensities. While it hasn’t rained in their area yet, it’s dark and the thunder and lightning made it frightening even to Jaejoong.

“are you scared baby?” Jaejoong held Changmin close who ran to her.

“Mama….scared….” Changmin trembled in her arms.

Changmin started walking and talking earlier than expected and he was already referring to his foster parents as Mama and Daddy. Said parents didn’t mind though. They didn’t intend to let him know of his real parents anytime soon, but they will someday. Because they want Changmin to know he’s loved doubly by parents who gave their lives for him.

“are you done with the report?” Yunho asked her.

Jaejoong saved her finished report. “just rechecking. Finished long time ago.”

“Minnie is too scared to sleep alone and he doesn’t want to sleep with just me either. Would you mind sharing a bed? Minnie will be there too of course.” Yunho looked nervous.

Jaejoong wanted to coo at his cuteness. She wasn’t hiding the growing affection she had for him lately but Yunho was being bashful and always worried he’d anger Jaejoong in some way.

Jaejoong stood up with Changmin and held Yunho’s hand. “I’m sleepy.” She made a big show of yawning and Changmin yawned too. Yunho smiled and led them to his room.

“do you intend to sleep?” Jaejoong whispered. Both were lying on their sides and their heads propped on their palms. Changmin slept in between them, his belly by Jaejoong and hand holding Yunho’s finger.

“says the one who said she was sleepy.” Yunho retorted in a whisper.

“keyword, was.”

“go to sleep Jaejoong.”

“nope. If I sleep you might attack me.”

“if you think so I can leave if you want.”

“you're not going to attack me? That means I couldn’t seduce you.”

“Jaejoong!” Yunho whined.

Here he was being a gentleman and giving her time to like him and she’s talking about doing it already. She took some sick pleasure in making the older man blush.

“I’m not talking to a teen. Good night.” Yunho became prone on his back and used is free arm to cover his eyes.

Jaejoong chuckled and lied down too. She didn’t close her eyes though and she knew Yunho was awake too.

“Yunho.”

“what now?”

“when will you ask me officially?”

“……”

“I can practically hear your silence.”

“stupid teen.”

“ually frustrated college guy.”

Some of Yunho’s silence and Jaejoong’s chuckling.

“want to do it in your room?” Yunho looked at her with eyes twinkling in the dark.

“isn’t the music room soundproof?” Jaejoong advised with a seductive smile.

“done.” Yunho was jumping out of the bed and making a haphazard pillow fortress for Changmin before carrying Jaejoong bridal style out of the room

They never made it to the music room and Changmin’s temple aka kitchen was desecrated instead.

“You can’t be serious! They really crowded him like that?” Yunho asked Jaejoong but Changmin answered by nodding fervently. His little balled fists were raised and his face scrunched up to show how pitiful he is.

“I never knew my classmates could be this loud. Changmin had