Junghee felt her agile heartbeat skip a beat when she heard the ring on the line. She pressed the phone against her ear as her hold around the papers in her other hand tightened.

“Hey!”

She felt her cheeks flush at the smooth and warm voice that greeted her. “Hey,” she said. “Are you busy?” she bit onto her lower lip, the previous restlessness coming back.

“I’m never busy for you.”

Junghee couldn’t help the smile that broke out, she could always trust Jinki to cheer her up in one way or the other. She sighed when she heard the distant voices and whispers on the other side of the line. “I’ll call you later.” she felt her palms moistening the phone.

“What is it?” She could hear the worry begin to tinge Jinki’s voice. “Is everything alright babe?”

Junghee hummed. “Everything’s alright silly, I’m just missing you that’s it. Now run along to that conference of yours, we’ll talk later.”

She threw her phone aside on the bed as she unfolded the paper, reading it over and over again, her heart falling with every possibility, every what if that ran through her head.

Jinki had been away for almost a month, big mergence of companies had kept him up on his toes and away from her. After a few initial days of the meetings and press releases, Jinki expressed his thoughts, told her how much he missed her, told her he didn’t like it one bit that his work was coming in between them. Junghee put her foot down as she pushed Jinki out of the house next day, she couldn’t let something of such importance, the reward of Jinki’s constant hard work go to waste ‘cause they were too much in love and missed each other.

The absence of Jinki by her side had forced her to submerge herself more into her school and her students, she had distracted herself to the point that she didn’t realise she had been late by almost a month. She opted for clinical tests, not believing the positives she got on the home kits. But, the results were same.

She picked up her book from the side table, flipping to the page which was bookmarked, but her mind not processing the letters written in intricate black ink. All she could think was what would be Jinki’s reaction? Were they ready to be parents? Will they even be good parents? Considering how things were progressing in their lives now, will this child pull everything to pieces?

“Hey babe.” Jinki’s warm tone disrupted her wayward thoughts. “Is everything really alright?” he asked as he sat down in front of her.

“What are you doing here?” Junghee asked, as she sat up straighter, putting the book aside, surprised. “What about your conference?”

Jinki entwined his fingers with hers. “All after you, so tell me what is it,” and he kissed her knuckles.

Junghee felt herself warm up at the gesture.

“So?” Jinki asked again as he squeezed her fingers lightly. “What is it?”

Junghee untangled her fingers from Jinki’s, her heart beating with increased vigour as the nervousness cruised through her veins. She took in a deep breath, steeling her resolve. She picked up the now worn out paper from the side table and handed it over to Jinki.

Jinki looked at her curiously as he unfolded it. Junghee saw Jinki’s eyes widen as he read through the report. “I...you...w-we are going to be parents?”

Junghee nodded earnestly at the shock that endowed Jinki’s features. “Oh my god, really?” and Jinki pulled her into his embrace. “I can’t believe it!” Jinki exclaimed.

Junghee felt her eyes well up with tears at the pure delight she had seen on Jinki’s face. All the thoughts that were making her worry had been washed away by the excitement and the tenderness she had heard in Jinki’s voice. So what if their lives were a mess right now, but eventually everything would fall in place, and if they ever did come across any hard time, they’d still have each other to lean on. Together, they can work it out.

She let her her tears run, taking away all her adverse thoughts with them when Jinki kissed her all over the face, whispering thank yous and love yous in between each kiss.