a family ☆ s.jn | ✔

01

A small body suddenly landing on yours stirred you awake that morning, accompanied by an overly excited voice.

"Mommy! Mommy! Wake up Mommy!" Your daughter squealed, sitting on your stomach.

Playfully grumbling, you rolled over to knock her off gently onto the other side of the bed, smothering her under the blankets and your legs. She giggled and excavated herself, now sitting on your back as she called out for you.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Yujin continued saying brightly.

Finally, you acknowledged her, voice muffled as your face was pressed against your pillow. "Yes, little one?"

She still understood you, asking, "Can we go out to breakfast today?"

"What time is it?"

There was a pause as she shifted off your back to be able to look at your bedside clock.

"7:13."

"Why did you wake me up so early on a Saturday, Yujin?"

"I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep."

Sitting yourself up in your bed, you brushed your hair away from your face and gave her a tired smile. "Like mother, like daughter. Start getting ready, I'll be out in a couple of minutes."

"Yay!" She cheered, wrapping her arms around your neck to peck your cheek before practically leaping off your bed and darting out the door.

Reaching to unplug your phone, you saw that there was a new message from last night, the contact name bringing a smile to your face.

[johnny: you're probably already fast asleep, but i'm about to go to bed so goodnight. i'll see you tomorrow, don't forget to wear something pretty ;) reservations at 6:30]

You'd normally shake your head at your boyfriend's greasiness, but instead you cursed yourself. You had completely forgotten about your date with Johnny that night and thus didn't have a babysitter. Dialing up the number of your normal babysitter, you started getting yourself ready for breakfast. The line buzzed a couple times before she picked up.

"Oh, hello Ms. Y/L/N, how are you?" The young woman asked once she had picked up.

"I'm alright. You always seem to forget that you're two years older than me, Haseul-ssi." You reminded her with a silent sigh.

"Right, I apologize. I'm not quite used to having clients younger than me."

Her comment wasn't meant to carry much weight, she was just commenting rather objectively that you were fairly young to be a mother, much less the mother of a four year old. You weren't necessarily ashamed of it, it just wasn't a fact you liked to be reminded of. Especially being a single mother at that, a single mother who didn't truly know the father of her daughter. You'd gotten pregnant at a very low point in your life, but Yujin was the light that had pulled you out of that darkness.

In your attempt to give her as much stability and happiness in her life as possible, you focused on getting a job and being able to provide the bare necessities for her. Now that you had a stable career, an apartment you could truly call home, and she was to be enrolled in school next year, you felt comfortable dating again. But you could never introduce them to Yujin unless you were absolutely sure they'd be around for a while, and hopefully forever. She needed stability, not a carousel of men that were vaguely father figures. Especially not at such a crucial stage in her life.

That was probably why you still hadn't even mentioned the fact that you had a child to Johnny. You'd been dating for nearly eight months now, making sure to have your babysitter reserved beforehand, and planning ahead for nights you had decided you'd stay with him for the night—always at his place—in order to reserve your babysitter to sleepover with Yujin.