“More Scotch, please.” Jongin requested, calling the bartender by waving his empty glass in the air, the ice clinking against the container. “More rocks this time. And a lemon. Thank you.” The bartender took his glass and he was left staring into his hands. He sighed, observing the empty hotel restaurant he was seated in on a weekday night. Everyone else was probably home, resting, with their loved ones… or their families... and their kids. He shook his head, waving the thought away. It would’ve only upset him more. He opened his phone for a distraction, but the biggest reminder was on his lock screen, so he just shoved it away on the table too.

The bartender returned, handing him a full glass just when he heard footsteps towards his direction. “Jongin-ah,” He took a quick sip, and turned his head towards Sehun’s voice coming from the main door. He was in a clean black shirt under a cashmere coat, newly dyed black hair down with his bangs sweeping through his forehead. Jongin waved back once he saw Sehun put a hand in the air until he reached where he was seated. “Sorry, have you been waiting long? This place was hard to find.”

“No, no,” Jongin said. “Just a couple minutes. Only my second glass.” He playfully smirked, shaking the glass in between Sehun’s eyes. “And sorry, I dragged you all the way downtown— have to keep it… low-key right now if you haven’t been informed.”

Sehun gave him a knowing nod.

“And all the Scotch in the loft’s gone.”

Sehun chuckled, taking off his coat before pulling the stool next to Jongin back and taking a seat. “Where’s everyone else?” He asked, looking around the restaurant like Jongin did earlier. “Lu hasn’t texted me—“

“Actually,” Jongin took a bigger swig of his drink this time. “It’s just the two of us tonight.”

Sehun’s eyes noticeably enlarged for a moment.

“I mean, if it’s okay with you—“ Jongin raised a hand in the air. “If it’s too weird, we don’t have to—“

“No, man, not weird—” Sehun laughed in gasps, Jongin raised an eyebrow. “Okay, maybe a little. But it’s only cause it’s the first time.” He defended. “But actually, I kind of feel nervous all of a sudden.”

“First dates tend to do that.” Jongin elbowed his side, Sehun laughed harder in response. “But seriously, I just. Uh.” He gulped, putting down his glass on the counter.

“Yeah?” Sehun smiled, comfortably leaning his elbow against the bar.

“I have something I need to talk about.” Jongin said, sitting up straight. “And uh, I think it’s something only… you can understand.”

“Should I get a drink for this?”

“Get two.” Jongin responded playfully. “Or like, five.”

They both sniggered to themselves, Sehun calling the bartender to order for himself. “What’s up, man?” Sehun clapped his shoulder.

“You can’t tell me Luhan didn’t tell you.”

“Luhan tells me everything, yup.” Sehun nodded. “But besides you coming home out of nowhere, I’ve heard nothing. Why? Is it big? Must be big for Luhan to keep his mouth shut.”

Sehun laughed to himself, but Jongin took a silent gulp. For once, he didn’t want Luhan to keep his (big) mouth shut. He didn’t exactly want to be the one to break the news concerning his current girlfriend to the ex-boyfriend. “Seulgi is…” He stammered for the right words. But he knew there were no 'right' words to tell Sehun this. There was just one.

“Madly in love with you?” Sehun interrupted, cackling before he took a sip of his gin. “We all know that, man—I have been dully informed multiple times, don’t have to rub salt on the wound—“

“Pregnant.”

Sehun’s hand dropped back on the table as if by reflex, the glass thumping hard against the wood as the gin that was supposed to be a source of comfort became the reason of him choking; well, alongside Jongin’s revelation. Not to mention, Sehun looked five times worse than Baekhyun did. Jongin, on the other hand, didn’t know what else to do besides pat Sehun on the back. Gin, or any form of alcohol for that matter, would have been a tremendously better form of relief. “Sorry,” Sehun said, shaking his head in an attempt to recollect his thoughts and himself. “It’s just… uhm. That’s. Wow. Seulgi. Pregnant. Wow.” He didn't know why he felt the need to repeat the overly enthusiastic wow. "And it's confirmed?"

“Yeah.” Jongin said, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand; really not knowing what else he could say. Really not remembering why he called Sehun in the first place again.

“What did you say?” Sehun cautiously asked, deciding to let go of his glass for now just to be careful. “I mean, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you react?”

I do mind. Jongin’s eyes enlarged, flashbacks of how the rest of his friends reacted when he responded to the same question returning to his brain. “Well, uh.” Jongin tried to avoid his gaze. “It wasn’t exactly something I’m proud of—“

“Did you tell her you should get married?”

Jongin’s eyeballs looked like they could hop out from their sockets now, he almost looked like Chanyeol. “Uhm.” Yes.

“And did she run away—“

“Well…”

“Or did she force you to go away? She’s still in Busan right?”

Jongin blinked at him.

And Sehun just started laughing, quite loudly. Quite surprisingly loud. Quite, really, super insensitively loud. “That’s one big flashback.”

“What?”

“Seulgi and I had a pregnancy scare too a couple years into our relationship. I mean, obviously, she wasn't and yours is totally different. But yeah.” He said it as if Jongin was supposed to know that and the level of annoyance increased by around 99.9%.  The .1% came from the obnoxious laughter earlier. “Sorry, I didn’t—you didn’t know?—I’m—I—“

“How did you react?” Jongin eagerly questioned, curiosity topping the rest of his numerous emotions as of that moment, spinning sideward on his stool to face Sehun.

“I told her we should get married too.” Jongin didn’t know why but he found extreme comfort in the thought that he wasn’t completely insane. He almost felt better. “I mean, we weren’t exactly formally taught how to react to these things, weren’t we?”

“Exactly!” Jongin exclaimed a little too elatedly, sounding as if he didn’t feel any ounce of sadness anymore. “Sorry, it’s just. Everyone—I mean the rest of the guys, have been treating me like I’m the dumbest man who ever lived for reacting the way I did- I knew I came to the right person.”

The corner of Sehun’s mouth tilted upwards. “Well, it was the only rational way to react. I couldn’t think of any other way—“

Jongin put his hand up in the air initiating a high five. “Yes! Rational! No other way, none--”

“At that moment.” 

Jongin’s hand plunged back down on his lap. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, imagine if you and I were together, you being Seulgi- a girl-" He also felt the need to deliberately point that out. "And you told me, hey Sehun we’re having a baby and the first thing I tell you is ‘oh cool, but let’s make sure this thing we have is legal first’, and say nothing else afterwards, how would you feel?”

“Woah there man, this is our first date, I’m not exactly thinking of our future yet—“

“Right there. That’s it.” Sehun snapped his fingers in success, as if he accomplished something brilliant. “And I said you were Seulgi in this hypothetical situation—but whatever, do you get it now?”

Jongin was assuming he should have looked like he reached his own moment of eureka, but was certain he looked more puzzled and disoriented than ever.

Sehun sat up, noticing the expression on his friend’s face and folded his hands together in front of him, completely facing Jongin now. “Jongin, how long have you and Seulgi been together?” Sehun had his one arm lean on the bar table, and had his chin rest on his palm.

“Two? Almost three years.”

“Have you ever fought over something this huge before?”

“Uh,” Jongin thought. “Besides our last break-up,” Sehun’s eyebrows rose simultaneously, remembering the big part he played in the said event, surprised that he even brought it up but Jongin didn’t seem to find it relevant right now. “Nope. Nothing. Besides what to have for dinner and me being home late or not replying or the small stuff, we don’t really fight, in general.”

“But do you remember what Seulgi chose to do when that happened? Or when any of those did?” Sehun tried to remind him.

“She… left me. Or she stops talking to me. Runs off to her team's dorm or wherever. She just leaves.” The whole scene of one of the most horrible periods of Jongin's life replayed itself in his head and the need to call Sehun an was back. “But that’s different, moving out was a given—I mean, we couldn’t keep living together after that—"

Sehun cut him off, before Jognin really did call him an or did anything worse. “And how do you make up?”

“I don’t know, uh,” Jongin was starting to get frustrated, not knowing where the punch line was or when it was going to arrive. “I say sorry, and say the usual ‘everything’s going to be okay’ stuff, and things just go back to the way they were.”

“So she leaves, or you do. And then you apologize, and assure her that everything’s okay, and things just go back to normal?” Sehun questioned; more of summarized the whole conversation.

Jongin cocked his head to the side, sighing. “What point are you trying to make here, Sehun?”

“I’m saying that’s how Seulgi is, Jongin.” Sehun began, smiling his usual seemingly cold but sincere smile. “Seulgi runs away. She looks for an escape. She tries to forget the any problem exists. She tries to act tough, like she can handle everything on her own but in all honesty; she’s just like any girl. All she need is assurance. Assurance that everything will be okay, and that everything despite being out of the norm, will go back to normal.”

Jongin’s gaze travelled down, how Seulgi responded in anger replaying in his head.

“Think about it, when her leg reached the peak of its being injured,” Sehun pointed out. “When has Seulgi’s answer ever been ‘I want to get this checked’, ‘I want medicine’, ‘I need to stop training’. When?” A whole bunch of other memories returned to Jongin. “She tries so hard to seem like she’s rational, but Kang Seulgi is not rational. She’s a fighter. She fights for her standards of right, and yeah she’s stubborn, and yeah she can be selfish. But in all the good ways possible. And yes, Jongin, you’re a man, and being rational seems like the only way to go sometimes, but at that time, all Seulgi needed was you. All she needed to be assured of is that she still has you. All she needed was no reason to run again.” Sehun rested for a while, letting Jongin have a moment to absorb everything. He took the initiative to silently place a hand on his shoulder, while the other hand roamed for Jongin’s phone on the table. “That reason being,” He clicked the lock button, the light fading in along with Jongin’s wallpaper. It was the selca Seulgi took on the Busan bridge they were walking on next to the river. Seulgi changed it when he was asleep after that night. And after so many times of ignoring his phone, it was only then that Jongin noticed he was hugging her from behind, and his hands were on her stomach. “That her future. That future you know she constantly worries about. No matter how irrational. Is still going to be with you.”

And as he stared more at his lock screen, at that photo of him and the girl he loves and Sehun’s voice trailed away, Jongin finally reached that eureka moment he was yearning for.

Meanwhile, Sehun’s smile grew wider next to him, patting Jongin once more on the back realizing he finally understood after all his yapping, comfortably drinking all of what was left of his gin in one shot. Jongin ordered Sehun another glass as a way of showing appreciation, clinking his glass against Sehun’s and happily taking a “shot” of his own. “I do have one more question though.” Sehun said, after they both finished their drinks.

“Anything, man. As long as it doesn’t concern my relationship with your ex-girlfriend again.” Jongin laughed, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Can I be a godfather now?”

They were both laughing this time, followed by Sehun’s nth question asking if Jongin would really trust his child with Luhan, Baekhyun or Chanyeol. And Jongin didn’t only know the answer to that question; he finally had an answer to all of his previous ones.

Author’s Note

(First of all, sorry for all the typos and grammatical errors if there are any- I haven't edited this, I was too excited to post ahue sorry sorry sorry)

Of course, I wasn’t going to discontinue this. If you read what could have been, I made it clear I wasn’t going to leave the Roommate series or SeulKai in general. I just needed to take some time. And I did! And I’m okay now! Hooray! (Hooray?? Tf Ayn) Oh well, anyway. First SeKai chapter and I couldn’t be happier. All this Kaistal and Seulkai, when we all know the realest is Sekai. I am kidding. 1/2. Goodbye. Jk.

I hope you enjoyed it. I’m glad to be back. Missed you guys! (& like I always say) Til' the next update. ✦

PS. I just recently released Politics, that Suho/Irene fic I was always saying I wanted to write. But this time, I decided to make it a Suho/Irene/Bogum fic, just to make things waaaay more interesting. And also, I love Park Bogum. (Watch Reply 1988, and you’ll understand why). Click on the link if you want to read it, as well! Thanks a ton, my lovely kids.