“Omma! How was the play? Byunghun said you enjoyed it.”

The family was having their dinner together at the usual rectangular marble dining table. Byunghun swallowed thickly when he heard Chanhee ask his mother about the play. He could feel his palms getting wet from his anxiety as Chunsa’s pink baby spoon slips from his grip, falling onto the pink hello kitty bowl with a soft clink. His heartbeat quickened as he glances at Sowon from the corner of his eyes, praying hard that the woman would play along with Chanhee’s words or he’s going to get a long lecture from Chanhee for lying to him.

“Yeah. It was okay.” Sowon puts another mouthful of rice into , not making eye contact with her son and her expression cold.

Byunghun heaves a soft sigh of relief, going back to feeding his daughter who was playing with her barbie toy at the dinner table. Chanhee smiles, satisfied with his mother’s answer, naively thinking that his wife and his mother had a great bonding session that afternoon and things were finally looking up.

If only he knew it was just about the complete opposite. Byunghun’s heart sank at Chanhee’s bright expression. A dreaded guilt bloomed through his entire being but Byunghun told himself he wasn’t going to give up, he was going to win his mother in law’s heart over no matter what. He just had to try harder.

“Ahh” Chanhee breaks Byunghun out of his little self pep talk, putting a spoonful of rice topped with kimchi to his wife’s tiny mouth.

“You’re always so busy feeding Chunsa you always barely touch your food. By the time you start eating, the food’s already all cold.” Chanhee pouts, remembering Hyeri’s words to him the other day.

The woman had told him to pay more attention to Byunghun during meal times, noting that Byunghun didn’t even had a single bite of food the night she went over for dinner. Chanhee was thankful for how caring and meticulous Hyeri was, despite them not being together any more she still cared for him and his wife.

“Channie, it’s okay. I’m used to it. I’ll eat once Chunsa is done.”

“But the food’s going to be cold, our baby takes hours to finish her meal. Or at least let me feed her when I’m done.” The older whines, clearly not happy with how Byunghun chooses to shoulder everything by himself.

Byunghun shoots him a slightly irritated look, indicating that he doesn’t want to argue any further and Chanhee just purses his lips together giving up the thought of convincing his ever so stubborn wife. He knew all Byunghun wanted was the best for him but sometimes he can’t help but feel a little angry at how Byunghun never lets him help shoulder anything. Wasn’t that what a couple is supposed to do? To go through thick and thin together? Chanhee lets out a dejected sigh as he continued to poke at his rice, the food suddenly didn’t taste as good anymore.

===

“Lee Byunghun.” Sowon steps into the kitchen just as Byunghun finishes washing all the dirty dishes.

The boy respectfully bows to her upon seeing her enter the area, pulling a small smile despite how badly she has been treating him because no matter what she was his mother in law. The woman who single-handedly brought his husband into this world and bring him up to the man he is today. Byunghun was always thankful to Sowon, for raising Chanhee so well into the man he loved so much today.

“I saw that look on your face just now. I saw how you looked at my son and I don’t like it. You don’t deserve to disrespect my son like that do you hear me?” The woman harshly grabs Byunghun’s cheeks between her thumb and fingers, allowing the long manicured nails to dig deep into his delicate skin earning a soft yelp of discomfort from the boy.

Byunghun nods quickly, figuring out that Sowon was talking about Byunghun’s irritated glance towards Chanhee when they were arguing over who should feed Chunsa earlier on.

“You don’t even deserve to marry my son in the first place.” That being said, Sowon lets go of Byunghun’s cheeks roughly and grabs his right hand at the speed of light before the poor boy could even react. Yanking off the beautiful slim white gold wedding band that adorned his slender ring finger, she threw it out the window much to Byunghun’s dismay.

Once Sowon was out of sight, Byunghun dashes to the window to check for his wedding band only to see a the silhouettes of the bushes in their garden. Hurriedly rushing outside without even wearing a jacket or a poncho in the cold rain, he cradles his belly before bending down with much difficulty getting on all fours to search for his precious jewellery. He couldn’t lose his wedding band, he just couldn’t. That ring signifies the bond that the husband and wife shared, it was far to precious to even get a replacement. Shivering in the cold, the boy reaches to his back pocket and fished out his rose gold iPhone 7 and pressed firmly on the home button as the screen illuminated brightly in the dark. Swiping up to the control panel, the hastily switches on the flashlight and starts shining on the ground in hopes that his wedding ring would be around somewhere.

Byunghun was about to crawl further into the bush when he felt a harsh kick from his unborn child, making him lose his balance. He loses his grip on the floor, sliding forward into the mud that was all wet and gooey from the rain and scraping his hand over a textured stone. Biting his lower lip down hard to prevent himself from crying out in pain, he brings his scraped up hand towards him and realizes that it was bleeding. The baby’s kicks were also getting stron