Spitting Image | Jeong Jaehyun

90

"Jae—"

"Where is she?" He asked in a hurry, pushing past his mother into the empty living room. Eyes immediately landing on a woman's coat and handbag that was placed on the couch along with crayons and paper splashed across the coffee table.

"They're in bed...you came later than we expected" his mother said and he was off springing on his feet towards his old bedroom where Jihye usually slept whenever he would drop her off with his mother.

And like his mother said, she was fast asleep, with her mother by her side, tucking her in. His breath hitched in his throat as he looked at the back of her head. Her chestnut coloured strands fell to shoulder length like it always did.

"Hyesun" he breathed out in slight disbelief, and she turned to face him over her shoulder before turning fully. There was an unsettling feeling in his stomach, as if this was what life would've actually been like if she never left. Yet it wasn't the most comforting feeling either. His eyes dropped down to land on the small bump on her stomach that poked through her top. She saw his eyes widen at her stomach, and she nervously covered it with her grey cardigan.

"Don't freak out, it's not yours" she said with a dry chuckle, walking out of the room past him and into the living room, taking a seat on the sofa beside her belongings.

"What are you doing here?" Was the first thing he could get out of his mind, ignoring the glare from his mother at the cold remark. She couldn't exactly blame him for reacting this way either.

"I saw online that you've gone public with your girlfriend and...well we signed a contract with your agency years ago about keeping Jihye's identity a secret so I thought I'd come here and just—"

"You could've just called—even an email or something" he said with a sigh

"Well...we did block each other" she sighed and Jaehyun tried his best to not roll his eyes

"I wonder why" he muttered

"So I contacted a few of your managers I still had contact with and before one of them got back to me with your landline I already booked a flight—"

"But why? I just don't understand why now. Like why not come back for her fifth birthday party or like—a school play— why now, this very fucking moment?!" He said with frustration and anger

"Jihye is sleeping Jae" his mother said with a warning tone before leaving the two alone and he sighed, running a hand through his strands.

"And she's carrying a child so just...calm down a little" his mother advised quietly to him on her way out.

He took a seat on the couch with some space between them, elbows on his knees as he leant forward, keeping his eyes trained on the little drawings on the coffee table.

"I'm sorry, okay? I just...I'm worried for you, and our child" She said and he immediately scoffed.

"You've kind of lost the right to call her your child, don't you think?" He asked with a sigh, shaking his head

"I know I left and—"

"No you didn't just leave Hyesun. You abandoned her, you abandoned us" he corrected, spiteful from her actions that taunted him to this day. And just as it was starting to lessen, she showed up in his life and made it all come back

"I know. I had to choose between me and you guys and...I was selfish and I chose myself I know—"

"You didn't have to choose at all" he muttered and she sighed beside him.

"I'm sorry for what I put you two through...and I'm also sorry that an apology will never be enough. Neither of you deserved that. But I'm here now and..." she trailed off, not knowing the best way to open up conversation with her closed off ex boyfriend