Taehyung

"Uhm, the divorce certificate is here," Maya's voice lowers, causing a sudden quake within my chest, and my limbs tremble a bit too.

"Oh, it's here already?" I pointlessly ask her, and she says a soft 'yeah'.

"Dated when?"

"The letter is dated two days ago," she responds, once again in a soft tone.

"Okay..." my voice trails off as my fingers weave through my hair, and I lean back in my chair.

We end the call in a few more seconds without exchanging any elaborate words.

It's Friday, and I would be meeting Areum tomorrow. I've been doing it for a while now, but somehow, I'm suddenly a little anxious about this weekend because for some reason it doesn't feel the same.

A few dreary minutes later, I receive a text message from Jang-Mi, and her messages perfectly align with my gut feelings that things aren't going to be the same this weekend.

Jang-Mi:
Areum wants to sleep in her room tonight, and she also wants to stay the weekend with you.

Jang-Mi:
Will that be okay? If not, I will talk to her.

Me:
Yeah, I want her to stay the weekend with me.

Jang-Mi:
I will drop Areum at her piano class today and leave her things at home.

Jang-Mi:
I have the keys, forgot to return them. I'll leave them in the usual place.

Jang-Mi:
You can pick her up from the piano class.

Me:
Okay

Throughout these past few weekends, I've only been spending my evenings with Areum after she has her lunch. And it is always the usual things that we do together like going to the park or having ice-cream or playing arcade games before I drop her back at Jang-Mi's place.

This would be the first time that Areum and I would be staying alone at our home, and it makes me a little nervous. It isn't that I can't take care of her on my own, but what makes me a little edgy is the amount of questions that she would barrage me with.

I call Maya right away to tell her about the plan for the weekend.

"Maya, Jang-Mi just messaged me that Areum wants to spend the weekend with me, and that she also wants to sleep in her room," I speak softly, exhaling all my worries in a long breath, and I pause for her response.

"Oh, that's nice, and you've also been missing her a lot. I think you really need to spend more time with her..." she responds sweetly.

"Yeah, I think so too..."

Maya takes a deep breath, and it feels as if she just sensed that something is not okay with me.
"Taehyung, relax. Let me know what else I need to do, and I'll, maybe, stock up some food and grocery. Will you be able to manage on your own?" What she says doesn't register in my mind, but the cautionary tone of her voice implies that she is as anxious as I am about this entire situation.

"I'm not sure, but I will try," I answer quietly before we end the call.

Numerous thoughts peak within my mind, and I find myself unable to actually concentrate on my work.

The divorce declaration, handling Areum on my own this weekend and answering her questions—everything is worrying me. Not to sound mean or anything, but at a time like this, I really think I need some time alone to let the truth sink in.

But, I guess, Jang-Mi also needs the same.

I'm even contemplating taking the rest of the day off and spend it alone to try and collect myself together, but the criticality of the meetings lined up post-lunch gives me no choice than to stay back at work.

The more I try to think about things, the more my head keeps pounding in protest, and at this point, the dull throb within my skull has actually escalated into a major headache.

Honestly, I have no idea how to handle everything. Last time, Areum was so resistant to the idea of living away from either of us, and I'm pretty sure that not much must have changed this time around.

However, she has been away from me for so many days, and so I'm hoping that she would manage quite well with just me for two days. And she has never asked me any strange questions when I met her these past few weekends.

If Jang-Mi is managing, I should also be able to do it, right? Areum and her questions and everything else.

I can do it. I will try my best.

Battling the various emotions within my mind, I leave work at the stroke of five and drive straight to her piano class since Areum's class ends at 6, and I would have to go there on time to pick her up.

I arrive at the piano class ten minutes ahead of time and wait outside, not knowing what to expect when my daughter sees that I'm here to pick her up instead of her mother.

At 6 pm sharp, the class ends, and I enter through the sound-proof door to find Areum bidding goodbye to her teacher. Once her eyes find me, they widen multiple folds and a huge smile falls on her lips.

"Appaaaaa!" She squeals and sprints up to me, and before I could kneel down, she throws herself on me and hugs me tight around my thighs.

My eyes grow moist at the way she expressed her love, and I have also been missing her presence and warmth so bad that I can't even manage to find the right words to speak without my voice cracking.

"Can we leave, bubba?" I ask shakily even as I'm smiling big, and she nods in response.

"How come you're here, appa?" Areum asks me; curiosity twinkling in her eyes.

"Because I wanted to," I ruffle her hair a little, picking her up in my arms and leaving the classroom.

I walk straight upto my car while Areum locks her little arms tight around my neck and showers me with her endless sloppy kisses.

"I missed you so much," I kiss her cheek when we finally reach my car, and the smile on her face instantly makes the few tears that were dancing on the edge of my eyes drip down my cheeks.

"I missed you so much, appa," my daughter clings on tighter and buries her face in the crook of my neck.

"I'll never let you miss me so much again," I give her my word, and she nods a little with her head still in place.

"Can we go home now?" I ask softly, and she responds with an almost inaudible 'okay', probably forgetting the fact that only I would be there with her at the place she calls her home.

After making sure that she's settled down in the backseat, I take on the wheels and drive home. The drive time is filled with Areum's narration of various events that happened in her life over the past week.

As always, I don't recognize most of the names of her friends that she says, but just listening to her cute voice and her innocent babble is something that I have grown to live with, and even a week away from her felt as if someone had severed a part of my heart and hid it away somewhere.

Right now, I feel so complete in her presence.

It takes us about twenty minutes to reach home, and when we get there, I notice that the front lights in the house are all turned on, which tells me that Jang-Mi had been here earlier to leave Areum's things.

Parking my car outside our house, I help my daughter out of her seat, and we go inside after I retrieve Jang-Mi's keys from under the thirsty-looking potted plant right next to the front door. It is almost a dead plant that has succumbed to the lack of water for many weeks now.

"Where's eomma?" Areum asks as soon as we enter the house, and it instantly makes my headache return with full force.

"Uhm- bubba," I turn around to close the front door. "It's just you and me here. Eomma will be with her parents," I use my words as carefully as possible, keeping my unwavering gaze strong on my daughter.

I have no idea how Jang-Mi had managed to handle her questions on her own. Or could it be that Areum never asked about me when she was with Jang-Mi?

That couldn't be possible, right?

"Oh," her shoulders drop in defeat. "Why? I thought eomma will be here already," she lets out in a disappointed manner.

"Bubba," I step closer to her and hold her small shoulders in my hands, making her raise her head to look at me. "Just like how you're with your appa, eomma, too, wants to be with her appa. Have you eaten something?" I ask her, swiftly changing the topic to dodge any impending meltdowns that might be impossible for me to handle on my own.

"I'm hungry," Areum declares, heading over to the dining table. "What's for dinner, appa?" She asks me as she drags a chair to settle down to have her dinner, and these questions from her are only amplifying my headache.

"Uhm- uh... I have yet to cook something for dinner. What do you want to eat?" I have no idea what to do now because there's pretty much nothing left in the pantry or the fridge.

"Can you make pajeon, appa? Please," Areum cutely requests with a big smile as she helps herself to a banana from the fruit bowl.

I pull out my phone to find a recipe for pajeon and then make a list of the ingredients that I would need to buy. When I power up my phone, I find a few messages from Maya.

Maya:
Refilled the fridge and fruit bowl.

Maya:
Discarded some old grocery and bought some basics. I also vacuumed the house and did a bit of cleaning.

Maya:
Take care and text me when you're free

Her messages bring a smile to my face, and it feels as if a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I place a call to Maya's phone while walking into the kitchen.

"Hey, do you have a recipe for pajeon?" I ask her, not waiting for her to even say a proper hello.

"Yeah, I do. I'll send it to you, and follow this recipe to the dot. It will turn out just perfect. Are you going to cook?" She asks me.

"Yeah, I have to," I laugh softly, lifting the apron off its hook.

"Wow! Don't forget to click pictures and send them to me, okay?" She asks me while I retrieve the utensils needed to cook.

"Me or the food?" I check with her as I hold the phone between my jaw and shoulder and roll up the sleeves of my shirt, running a hand through my hair thereafter.

"I'm a little greedy, so how about both?" Maya chuckles, making me laugh as well.

In a few more seconds, we end the call, and she sends me the recipe for pajeon. It takes me a very long time to locate the ingredients, but, fortunately, almost all the important stuff needed to make pajeon are available at home, except the seafood, which, of course, Areum might not realize.

I turn on an animation movie on TV to keep her distracted while I take care of making dinner in the clumsiest manner possible. It takes me almost forty minutes to ladle out an average-looking, sloppy batter onto the girdle, and flipping the pancakes seems like performing a brain surgery, but I somehow splatter bits of batter everywhere and flip over the pancakes which are now slightly charred on one side and torn as well.

The place looks filthy, and I look worse, and I totally forgot to click pictures of myself while trying to cook without any major disasters. Forget pictures of the food that I cooked because it looks downright sad.

Plating a few pieces of pajeon that look unappetizing to say the least, I take them to Areum who is lying down on the couch, curled up in hunger.

"Bubba, dinner is ready," I extend the plate to her, and she sits up, taking the plate from my hands and glancing at the pathetic pancakes.

"They may look and taste just okay, but bear with me. Appa will learn soon," I untie my apron and plop down next to her on the couch.

"That's okay, appa. I like it," she speaks as she nibbles on the edges of a broken piece that she has picked up with her chopsticks.

Phew! Cooking dinner really felt like fighting a battle.

After a bit of coaxing and bribing, I manage to feed her a few more pieces of pajeon, by which time, I almost lose my patience and grow so hungry that my hands begin to tremble a little.

I manage to eat the remaining food even though it tastes nothing like pajeon. A slight peek at the dishes that are piled up in the sink makes me almost curse under my breath, and I push the task of cleaning them to tomorrow because Areum is yawning and almost falling asleep on the couch right now.

All these years, I really underestimated how hard it is to just cook and do the dishes and feed the child one night. And the laundry and vacuuming aren't even in the picture yet.

I have been living a very comfortable life, after all.

Only today, I have realized how extremely hard it must have been for Jang-Mi to take care of these tasks so seamlessly all these years that never have I felt anything out of place or lacking, not even once. She always made sure that everything was taken care of, even when things were sour between the two of us.

And only after witnessing first-hand the behind-the-scenes of all the comfort that I was experiencing all these years have I realized that none of this is anything lesser than the strenuous office work that I have been doing all these years.

It is no surprise that she felt the need to be appreciated.

My mind keeps blaming and scolding me for all the times that I had dismissed these household chores as nothing. But the truth is what happened in the past cannot be changed now, and another valuable lesson that I have learned today is that no job is lesser than the other. Saying a few nice words would cost me nothing, and I make a mental note that from now on, I will make sure that no little effort that anyone takes to give me something will go by unappreciated.

After Areum brushes her teeth and changes into her pajamas, I tuck her into her bed, along with her bedtime bunny.

Kneeling on the floor beside her bed, I gently stroke her head a few times and kiss her forehead.
"Goodnight, bubba. Sleep well," my voice comes out soft and quiet.

"When will eomma come back?" She asks as she turns around to lie down on her side.

"I don't know," I swallow thickly, praying that she shouldn't start crying. Luckily, she only frowns.

"I'll see you in the morning," I kiss her cheek once and get up to leave the room when she stops me by pulling the hem of my shirt.

"What about The Music Fairy?"

"What's the music fairy?" I turn around and ask her, planting my hands on my hips and quirking a brow at her, and she points to the nightstand next to her bed where there is a storybook with a bookmark poking out.

Great!

Picking up the book in my hand, I sit down cross-legged on the floor beside Areum's bed and continue reading the story from where the bookmark was placed earlier.

She bombards me with a lot of questions about the story, to which I absolutely have no answers. To be honest, I don't have answers to any of her questions.

As she grows more sleepy, Areum asks a few more times about Jang-Mi, and I give her the same answer each time before she eventually gives up and falls asleep out of exhaustion.

I could pass out right here on the floor beside her bed, but I somehow manage to stumble across to my room and crash on the bed without bothering to take a shower or change into my pajamas.

All that I can say for now is that 'night one' of the weekend has been successful. We have survived.

I hope tomorrow will be better.

But how can we forget the way he flipped the pajeon?
SO COOL!
😍😍👑

But SO HOT!!
🔥🥵

Published on : 06/04/2022