Baby Daddy

10. A Mess

"So...yeah. That's it."

Jungkook chuckled at how Seol ended his narrative, leaning back on the bench as he cast his eyes upwards at the cloudless sky above him. Jungkook knew that he should be thinking that this boy was pulling his leg, but he found a tiny part of him believing all this. Maybe it was just the exhaustion talking. Maybe he just needed more sleep. Or - better yet - maybe he was already asleep and this was all some sort of really lucid dream.

"Why did you chuckle?" asked Seol.

"It's just...unbelievable. You ended such a fantastic tale with something so bland as 'that's it.' If I'm to believe what you said, you traveled back in time because you wanted your mother and I not to get divorced," said Jungkook as he turned his eyes from the sky back to the reality seated beside him on the bench. "Did I get that right?"

Seol nodded his head as he looked at Jungkook.

"Do you believe me?"

"Well, I did say it was unbelievable," said Jungkook, "But as crazy as it sounds, a part of me does. I don't understand it, but a part of me really believes it. I mean...look at you. You look a lot like me. There are - of course - parts of you that don't belong to me, but that just means it belongs to your mother...whoever that is."

"Do you want to meet her?" asked Seol.

Jungkook huffed, looking down at the sweaty outfit he was wearing.

"I look like a mess."

"I'm sure she will too," said Seol which caused Jungkook to laugh.

"Is that how you should talk about your mother?"

"Well, I mean..." A blush crept over the stammering Seol's cheeks. "She has been sleeping all morning. It's why I slipped out for a jog. I need to be busy."

"You sound like me," said Jungkook as he sighed. "Are you sure it's wise to go over now?"

"If you're worried about what you look like, you're fine," said Seol. "Auntie Ava will be excited to see you too. She slept over last night."

"Auntie Ava?"

"Mom's best friend," said Seol. "You'll like her too."

"Well, I can't go over empty handed..."

Jungkook kept trying to grasp at every excuse that danced through his head. He could feel the nerves taking over him piece by piece. The part that believed all this was letting the nerves spiral out of control. If all this was true, he might just be minutes away from meeting the woman he would fall in love and have a son with.

"Buy her a slushee," said Seol with a small grin. "She used to like blue raspberry too."

- - -

"Ava, wake up!"

"No..." she said softly before rolling over onto her stomach, pulling a pillow over her head.

"Ava...Seol is gone."

"What?!"

That caught Ava's attention as she sat bolt upright from where she had fallen asleep on the other side of Rai's bed. Ava rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she looked at Rai, noticing that Rai was holding a slip of paper in her hand.

"What's the paper?"

"It's a note...from Seol. He said he'd be back soon, but he didn't say where he was going."

Before Rai could say anything else, Ava turned to grab the pillow from behind her and launch it Rai's way. Rai had to move to duck out of the way last second so it would slap the wall instead of her.