Ex-Wife | Kim Seokjin

Part 19

Ye-Ji's Point of View

'How are we going to do this with Ara?', he asked.

In my head, I was daydreaming about Ara finally having a father figure in her life. I was picturing Jin sending her to school and the moment I heard his voice, I snapped out of it. I looked at him and inched away from him.

'Look, Jin. I don't expect  you to suddenly become her father and I also won't stop you if you ever decide to be in her life but you need to figure things out first before wanting to be Ara's #1 Father just because you missed the first three years of her life. But if you ever decide to be involved, I am expecting you to do it a 100%. Not when you think it's convenient to you', I said.

It had been almost two weeks since we last had that conversation. Of course I wanted Ara to have a father but I can't be the one who has to answer 'Where's daddy?', 'When is he coming back?' every single time. If he wanted to be Ara's father, he has to be a consistent one. I also had stopped hanging out at their dorm since all of them already knew about her. 

"He hasn't called you?", my mother asked as she was preparing for dinner.

I shook my head, "He has to figure things out. I am okay with it"

My mother stopped cutting the vegetables and turned her attention to me, "Ye-Ji, do you think coming back here is a mistake?"

"No, what made you say so?", I was curious with her question.

"It feels like you are in this mess because you came back, we really don't wanna put you in this situation. Your father and I have been talking.. do you want to move elsewhere? And start over?", she asked.

"It's okay.. Ara has just started to love her school and I have a job that I love doing. Besides, appa has just recovered from stroke. I don't want to put any pressure on him", I said.

After we had dinner, I put down Ara for her bedtime and of course she made me read a story book that the boys had signed for her. Ever since she got that copy, I had been repeating the story for a million times but hey, whatever makes her happy.

I took a long shower and was ready to watch a scary movie by myself, mostly because Yoongi and Taehyung ditched me at the very last minute. I plopped onto the cushion in our TV room and started eating popcorn. 

Text Message

Jin - Are you asleep?
Ye-Ji - No, just about to watch a movie.
Jin - Oh sorry for bothering you.
Ye-Ji - What's up? It's just a home movie.
Jin - Can I come over?
Ye-Ji - Are you sure?
Jin - Please?
Ye-Ji - Okay but be quite. Ara is asleep.

Not too long after that, Jin arrived and he looked a bit frail. I guess he was tired from all the dance practice and never ending recordings. He didn't say anything when he got into the house but he did ask for my permission to check on Ara. 

I decided to peek through the small opening of the door to see what Jin was doing and what I saw completely broke my heart. Jin was kneeling next to Ara's tiny bedframe and from afar, I could tell that he was crying. He pulled the covers up to Ara's shoulder and gave her a tiny kiss on the forehead. I quickly ran to the TV room and sat down to make sure Jin didn't know I was watching.

"You okay?", I asked as he enters the room.

I wanted to ask him a lot of things but he looked quite devastated so I just started doing small talks with him.

"Can we just skip all the awkwardness and just be friends?", I asked to ease the tension.

He nodded and sat right next to me, "What are we watching?"

"Honestly I have no idea. Thought of watching Rom Com but since you're here-"

"Watch anything you want, I just want to be next to you tonight", he cut me off.

His response surprised me and it took me a while to process whatever he just said. He started wiggling to find the best position to sit and when he finally did, his body was just an inch from mine. 

I decided to watch the first episode of Hi Bye Ma! and of course it made bawl since the kid reminded me of Ara. Halfway through the episode, Jin suddenly rested his head on my shoulder and much as I was confused, I liked it. So I just let him.

I caught Jin dozing off many times during the series so I just casually asked if he wanted to sleep in the guest room.

He rubbed his sleepy eyes and pouted, "It's okay. Just wanna be close with you and Ara tonight"

At first I thought of watching few more episodes but after seeing how comfortable Jin was sleeping, I guess I must've fallen asleep too.

The next morning, we woke up quite early because Ara couldn't contain her happiness when she saw Jin sleeping on the couch. Jin went back to his old house to shower and promised Ara that he'd have breakfast with her.

We waited for a while until a text message comes in.

Text Message

Jin - I am so sorry, Ye-Ji. I had to leave. Will make it up to both of you. I promise. Please tell Ara that I love her.

Same old shit, different day.