umbrella { sunjay }

4.

jongseong sat idly in his favorite coffee shop, finishing his planning for his next seminars of the week. he could do this task from the comfort of his home but it was a rejected thought.

as he put the last form of punctuation on his sentence, he felt his cellphone vibrating in his trench coat pocket. the contact read to be one of his close friend's from college; lee heeseung. 

"hello?" jongseong answered the phone casually as he read over the words that appeared on his screen. 

"jay! how are you? how's the wife?" heeseung was always a good friend to jongseong. the two were roommates way back then. dorm life was the best part of jay's university years. he made life long friendships that continued to last even years after graduation. they were practically brothers, and they acted like it too.

"i'm doing fine, sena as well." of course this was a lie. the married couple were far from being 'fine'. they barely even spoke to one another, let alone got along.

"how is everything at home? how's my niece?" lee heeseung was a year older than jongseong, which made him twenty six years old. he had an incredibly talented and smart wife and a four and a half year old daughter named heera, that was basically jay's flesh and blood. she adored her uncle jay, and likewise.

lee heeseung lived the life that jay wished he could obtain. heeseung's marriage was happy and healthy, it was obvious by how the small family acted around each other and the love was so prominent that anyone could see it. 

"everyone is perfect. in fact, speaking of your niece..." jay knew where this was going. heeseung would sometimes ask jay to babysit heera for however long, whenever he and his wife needed some alone time. 

fortunately for heeseung, jongseong was never actually bothered. he actually enjoyed spending time with the little monster. he loved kids and wanted a family just like heeseung. 

"i already know what you're gonna say, hyung. how long do i need to watch her for?" jay was pretending to be annoyed but he couldn't help but to smile softly to himself. 

he fondly remembered the day heera was born. 

heeseung was freshly graduated from university with a masters degree in business and had been with his fiancé; yeona, at the time, for three years. 

suddenly yeona's water broke and when they arrived at the hospital, heeseung's first instinct was to call jay. 

jay dropped whatever he was doing and raced to the hospital. he was excited, but also worried about yeona's health because anything could happen during child birth. he and yeona were extremely close as well, so he cared about her health too.

once he arrived, he waited patiently in the lobby era for any news. and luckily, it was a very smooth delivery and heera was born a happy and healthy baby. 

jay remembered the moment heeseung walked out the delivery room with tears streaming down his face and the biggest smile jongseong had ever seen him have. in his hands, he held a little swaddled baby with a pink tiny hat. 

she was fast asleep as heeseung gently handed the baby over to his best friend. when jay received the baby and looked at her petite features, his eyes lifted upwards to look at the proud father, in shock of how precious something could be.

"well, me and yeona are going to be gone for two weeks on a cruise. i'm sorry this is short notice but i didn't have anyone else i trust her with. i'll owe you one." even though heeseung couldn't see him, jay nodded in agreement. he didn't trust anyone else to watch his niece either. 

"okay, when are you dropping her off?" he knew there wasn't much entertainment at his bare home so whenever he had time to stop by a store, he would pick up little things he thought heera would find fun or they could do together. 

for example, last week he went to the store and stumbled upon a kid friendly makeup kit and didn't hesitate to purchase it, knowing heera would love to give her uncle a 'makeover' as she called it. usually, she would use sena's makeup but sena wasn't too happy last time when the little girl shattered her new eyeshadow pallet.

"later in the evening? is that okay? maybe around six-ish." jay agreed to that time as he collected his computer and placed it into it's respective case. it was a little past four p.m. and if he left the coffee shop now, he would have time to prepare dinner and a fresh batch of cookies for the little one.

"i'll see you later, hyung." the two best friends bid their goodbyes before ending the call.

❀ 4:30pm  song recommendation: happiness is a butterfly -lana del rey

"i'm home." jongseong announced as he walked through the front door. instead of a greeting, he only received the buzzing sound of the living room television playing a show. 

jay sighed to himself while making his way towards the kitchen. the kitchen and living room had no separation, so he could see sena sitting comfortably on the plush white sofa and staring blankly at the grand tv. 

"would it hurt to say hello to your husband?" jay remarked quietly underneath his breath as he searched in the refrigerator for the ingredients he needed. 

seemingly, sena had heard the comment and a scoff echoed throughout the quiet house. choosing to ignore this, jay turned his attention from the fridge to face his wife. 

"heera is coming over at six. she'll be here for about two weeks." he bluntly explained before turning back around to prepare the meal he was making for supper.

"what? how can you just make that decision without talking to me first?" sena stood up from the couch and approached the male who had his backside facing her.

this was one of the things the couple often argued about. they tended to make their own separate decisions without consulting with each other beforehand. they were both too stubborn to speak to one another when they were angry so they did things the other might not agree with.

"it's not like you've never done that. it's just for two weeks." jay kept his voice stern, but at a normal volume. he wasn't in the mood to argue.

"i'm not talking about what i've done, i'm talking about how you're just deciding to babysit a child in our home for two weeks without even asking me if i was okay with it. and you know that when you're at work, i'm going to be the one responsible for her." the things sena stated weren't wrong. whenever jay agreed to babysit heera, he still had to work. so sena was the one who did the babysitting until two thirty p.m.

"she's my niece, i couldn't just say no. i know i should have let you know before hand but i'm telling you now." jongseong wasn't easy to anger so he just continued to cook while sena stood feet behind him, clearly pissed off. 

"yes. jongseong, you could've said no! it's not just your house! i live here too. and you know how i feel about kids!" sena's voice began to raise, as well as her anger. jay exhaled a deep breath before turning to face her.

"no, i couldn't have said no. and i didn't want to say no. my best friend asked for my help and i love my niece. i actually like spending time with her. i completely understand you don't like children, but that doesn't mean i have to as well, sena." 

jay wiped his hands off on a kitchen towel and leaned up against the countertop. he was trying his best not to argue back.

"you're clearly not hearing anything i'm saying. first of all, she's not even your biological niece! i don't understand why you keep acting like you're apart of their family. i'm your family! me! the day you married me is the day we became family!" at this moment she was fully yelling at the male. her anger was boiling over and there was no stopping it from burning everyone in sight.

"it doesn't matter if she's my blood! she's my niece regardless! she's still my family! i don't care how you feel about her or children in general, but you won't disrespect my family! do you hear yourself? you're getting upset because i agreed to watch my own niece for a while. don't you think that's silly, sena?"

it wasn't that he didn't actually care about his wife's feelings, jongseong just had finally lost all his patience.

❀