The Age Of Love

Nineteen - Mr Perfect Boyfriend

A red light flashed. "Tweet tweet says the bird," a mechanical voice chanted. Eun Jung cooed at the toy, smiling brightly. Jeong Hyeok sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the play-mat watching his daughter. Yorkie lay on the couch behind him with his head hanging down Jeong Hyeok's shoulder. His chest was glowing with joy. These were the moments he lived for lately. It was hard to imagine how different his life was not even three short months ago. Three months ago, he hadn't had a daughter, and now he couldn't imagine life without her.

Going back to work has been hard. As per agreement with his father, he was currently working three days a week in the Gangnam office-- and trying to accomplish 60 hours worth of work in that time. Most of the time in the office, he was in meetings with department heads, on conference calls with J-One senior management across the globe, trying to woo potential advertising clients, or discussing targeted marketing strategy with social media bigwigs.

He was worried his lack of accessibility to the rest of the team wasn't helping the employees warm up to him. He tried his best to spend an hour or two a day in the open office, making rounds, conversing with team members. Things were still cold, but he thought he was starting to feel them thaw a little.

Still, an hour or two on top of the 12-14 hour shifts he was already pulling, made for exhaustingly long days. And it still left him no choice but to work from home on his days off-- taking calls during nap time, answering emails between diaper changes, reading proposals while feeding Eun Jung her bottle. Plus, there were those Sunday afternoons with his mother. It was just there weren't enough days in the week.

But Tuesdays and Saturdays were family time. That's why they'd decided on their custody agreement. And Jeong Hyeok did everything in his power to keep those days sacred. He might try to get in a few hours at night before he went to bed, but never during the day with them.

And as hard as it was, going back to the office, not being with them as much, he had to admit, things with Se Ri had improved over the last few weeks.

She'd started writing again, taking her laptop and an extra external battery down to her new spot on days when Eun Jung was with her appa. She claimed to have completed another chapter of the book, although she was still hesitant to let Jeong Hyeok read it. She'd also written a freelance article on The Korea's Herald's paid family leave proposals for civil servants, comparing it to family leave policies in other countries. It seemed like Jeong Hyeok had maybe been right when he moved into his own place-- a little space was helping them to figure their shit out.

So much of their relationship had been all for nothing. When they were together, they were together, and maybe a little unhealthily co-dependent. But then, when they were apart, putting up walls and trying to go on with life as though the other person was meaningless to them. Now they were being forced to find the balance. And while the exact parameters of their relationship were still confusing, at least there were finally seemed to be a viable path forward to them.

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" Se Ri asked from the other room.

"I promise, love," he assured her, "it's going to be fine."

"It's just, what do we really know about this woman?"

"Se Ri, she is well vetted. I am pretty sure the background check I had done on her was just barely this side of legal. We know more than enough about the woman who will be watching our daughter for the evening."

Se Ri came into the living room, dressed in a blue, terrycloth bathrobe, her hair half dry, with the wet parts pinned up to the top of her head in little clips, a hairbrush in her hand. "We've never left her with anyone who isn't family before."