Chapter Four – Eyes Don’t Lie

JunSu stared at the woman who was sitting on his sofa holding a two year old on her lap, his mind working hard around what she had just told him. He looked from her to the little boy in her arms and wondered if his heart would ever return to its normal beating pattern. At the moment, he doubted that it ever would. He looked at the little boy in her arms again and then he finally – after a full half hour of standing in the middle of the living room in shock – went to the sofa and sat down.

The minute he had done so, the little boy struggled out of his mother’s arms and went to him, demanding ‘up’. Not knowing what else to do, he reached down and picked up the little boy. He could feel tiny arms wrapping around his neck and he looked over to the woman even as he hugged the child – his child.

“I know this is a shock, JunSu,” GinChi said, watching them. “And I’m sorry I never contacted you before now. I can’t take that back, and I’m sorry. All I can do is give you the chance to be in his life now. JoonKi needs his father.”

Jun couldn’t believe what she was telling him. Shock wasn’t even beginning to describe how he felt at the moment. He felt like someone had hit him with a sledgehammer and he was too stunned to do or say anything about it. She had come to his house an hour before with the baby. They had made small talk for a little while, and then she had blurted out that the baby was his and she was leaving JoonKi with him. She wouldn’t say why she was giving up her rights to the child, only that she had things going on in her life and couldn’t take care of him anymore.

“I…” he began slowly. He looked at the baby who was staring at him with big brown eyes and smiled at him. He didn’t need proof that JoonKi was his son. He saw that in the baby’s eyes and smile. He looked almost exactly like his nephew, Daeshim. “I don’t know what to say.”

GinChi looked at him and gave him a soft smile. “Tell me you’re going to take care of him,” she whispered. “Promise me that you’ll never let anyone hurt him and you won’t turn him over to the system the minute I’m gone. Tell me you understand why I have to do this even though I can’t tell you.”

Jun opened his mouth to speak again, but nothing came out. He didn’t know what he was going to do, he wasn’t equipped to raise a kid, and he didn’t know the first thing about raising a child. Although, he was able to admit to himself that GinChi had done most of the work with the baby simply by giving birth to him and also raising him for the first two years of his life. Still, the fact remained that as of ten minutes ago he had officially become scared out of his mind.

“I can’t tell you I understand,” he said quietly, holding the little boy close. “I won’t lie and tell you I understand…but I will tell you I’ll take care of him. He’s my son, how could I do anything else?” He looked over at the girl and he could see tears welling in her eyes but she blinked them back.

“It makes this easier,” she said as she wiped at her eyes. “It makes it easier knowing that you’ll take care of him, JunSu. This isn’t easy for me, please don’t think that it is…I don’t want to leave him, but I have no other choice.” She stood, taking some papers from her purse and laying them on the coffee table. Then she came over and took the baby into her arms, hugging him close to her.

“Be good for Daddy,” she whispered as she kissed JoonKi’s forehead. “Be a good boy and grow into a strong man, my darling. Don’t ever forget that I love you, baby. I’ll always love you.” She looked over at Jun once more, the tears falling freely now. “I-I have to go,” she said. “Or I won’t be able to.”

Jun took the baby back from her, then he followed her to the door as she made her way over to it. GinChi stopped once and turned to him, her brown eyes shining. “I love him, JunSu,” she said. “It kills me to leave him, but I have to. No matter what you may hear, no matter what you may think of me, please don’t ever think that I don’t love my son. This is for the best…one day you’ll understand.”

Jun nodded though he doubted that he ever would understand why or how she was so willing to leave her son behind. He knew that he would never be able to do something like that, especially now that he knew about his boy. He couldn’t understand how she was able to walk out of the child’s life the way she was about to, without so much as an explanation. It didn’t make sense to him, but he knew better than to push her.

“Good bye, JunSu,” she said as she kissed his cheek then JoonKi’s. “Try to…forgive me.”

And then she was gone. He watched her from the door way as she walked down the driveway to her car and a driver got out to open the door for her. Once she was in, the driver got back in and then pulled out of the driveway. Jun stayed in the door way watching the car as it disappeared out of sight then looked down at the little boy in his arms. JoonKi was sleeping now, completely unaware that his entire life had suddenly changed so drastically.

Closing the door, Jun went back to the living room and lay his son in the playpen that his mother had brought with her, covering his tiny body with a blanket. He went to sit on the sofa, watching the baby and feeling like he was going to cry. He was going to have to do some shifting with his schedule with work now that he had a son to take care of. The only thing he was sure of was the fact that Bhebie would understand and be willing to let him take whatever time he needed to get things straightened out.

What the hell was he going to do now, he wondered. His life had been completely turned upside down in the span of a few hours and he was completely powerless to do anything about it. He looked at the papers on the table and picked them up, opening one of the envelopes. It was a letter from GinChi, notarized by a lawyer saying that she was giving up any and all rights to the child in question to the child’s father and that she understood the ramifications of what she was doing.

Other papers consisted of JoonKi’s birth certificate, medical reports and other things of the like. She had even done out a list of things the baby liked and didn’t like, what he liked to wear and his schedule for each day. It seemed that GinChi had thought of everything. Everything except a proper explanation for what she had done.

He stood again, going over to the play pen and looking down at JoonKi. He looked so peaceful, so serene and Jun couldn’t believe that he was actually a father. He couldn’t believe that the adorable little miracle sleeping right now was someone that he had helped to create. He wondered if the stunned, yet proud feeling was one that his twin had felt when he saw his boys for the first time.

Thinking about Jae, he realized that at the moment the only thing he really wanted was to hear his brother’s voice. That and he knew that he was going to have to call his family and tell them what was going on anyway. Reaching for the cordless, he sat on the floor by the play pen and dialled his brother’s number. Jae answered in the middle of the second ring.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me,” Jun said, his voice cracking a little. “What’s up?”

He could hear the smile in his brother’s voice when Jae spoke. “Not much,” he said. “Trying to keep Annie away from the cookies and keep the boys out of the backyard.”

“Why out of the backyard?” he asked. “And leave Annie alone, she knows not to eat too many cookies.” His sister in law was a diabetic who had one major sweet tooth. The good thing was though that she could control her diabetes and her urges to eat things she knew that she shouldn’t be eating. Most of the time anyway.

“It’s raining and they’ve already gone through five changes of clothes today,” Jae answered. “They seem to think it’s funny to have mud baths.”

Jun laughed, completely picturing his little nephews covered in mud and grass. He was betting they were having a lot of fun whatever they were doing. He wondered if JoonKi would have as much fun doing things like that if he had been there with them. Then he realized that his son was nearly the same age as his nephews. He reached for the birth certificate and looked at it, smiling. JoonKi was actually two months older than his nephews.

“Jun?”

“Oh, sorry,” he said. “Mud baths are fun…we used to have them remember?”

Jae laughed. “Yeah, and Cho says that Mom used to hate to let us back in the house. So what’s wrong and don’t say nothing because I know the difference. You’re voice is all weird. What’s going on?”

Jun took a deep breath and sighed. “I-I have a son,” he whispered. “He’s two and his name is JoonKi and …” his voice trailed off as the shock of it all finally got to him and he broke down.

Jae was silent for a few minutes and then he spoke, “Jun, tell me everything.”

It took several long minutes for Jun to be able to fully explain everything that had happened that day due to the fact that Jae kept interrupting him to ask questions and also because he was crying like a child. When he finished, he took a shaky breath and sighed. “I, I can’t do this alone, Jae. I’m scared out of my mind here. I need you.”

“I’m on the first flight out,” Jae said. “Give me a few hours to get things organized around here and then I’m there, okay? Just hold on for a bit.”

Jun nodded and then hung up the phone. He knew that things were going to be okay because Jae was going to come and they would figure out something together. He didn’t have to do this alone because he had something that a lot of people didn’t have: a highly intelligent support system in the form of his twin brother. He knew with Jae’s help they could figure something out.

“You’re serious?”

Katsumi sighed into the phone, leaning against her bedroom door with her feet crossed and stretched out in front of her. She switched her phone from one ear to the other and sighed again. “I’m serious, Jui,” she said. “She came back here a few days ago.”

“And how’s that going?” her twin brother, Jui asked. Even though he was in California, he sounded so close and she missed him more and more. She wished that he hadn’t decided to move to the States when their mother had her accident. But he had told her that he had to go so he could help support the family and she knew that he worked hard to do just that. She just wanted him closer.

“How do you think it’s going?” she asked, hating the bitterness in her voice. “It’s Kumi and she’s milking being her for all it’s worth. The way Mom and Dad are acting, you’d swear she was the perfect daughter come home to the flock.”

Jui laughed a little and Katsumi wished she could see her brother’s smile. “Well, that was always how she was, you know that. And you also know that nothing she does is bad. I love our parents, Kitten, but when it comes to her, they’ve got blinders on. Comes with being the eldest child. Just like you being spoiled when we were younger comes with being the baby.”

Katsumi shook her head, pushing her hair from her eyes. “Yeah well, if that’s the case, how come you weren’t ignored then? After all, it’s the middle child who’s ignored.”

“Ahh, technically that is true,” Jui said. “But I’m also the only son, so by default I don’t get ignored. Though, we are going to casually forget the fact that I’m more girly than you sometimes, and the fact that I’m gay. I’m still the only son.”

Katsumi shrugged as she got to her feet and walked over to her bed, laying on it. She remembered how when they were younger, she and Jui would go to Kumi’s bedroom when they were scared and crawl into the bed with their big sister. She had never minded it then, putting her arms around them and holding them close, promising that she would protect them from all the bad things. She didn’t know when or why it had happened, but Kumi had changed, almost overnight it seemed, and it was no longer cool for her to be close to her younger siblings.

Somehow, the protective sister had changed into a vindictive bitch and Katsumi hated it.

“Why couldn’t you have come home?” she asked. “You I like.”

Jui’s voice appeared shocked when he spoke again. “What, you don’t like our darling sister, Katsumi?” he asked. “I’m surprised at you. You know that Kumi only does what’s best for us, after all, she loves us so much.”

If she hadn’t known her brother as well as she did, Katsumi would have gone to California and smacked him hard. As it was, she knew he was being sarcastic – he didn’t care for Kumi any more than she did. Why would he have? Their sister had made it a point to put him and his choice in lifestyles down at every chance she got.

“So…tell me about the guy,” Jui said. “You told me that the bitch was back and that you met someone. You’ve talked about the bitch; now tell me about the guy. Is he hot?”

Katsumi smiled to herself as she rolled over onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. Her mind automatically went to JunSu and she wondered what he was doing at that moment. Perhaps he was at work or maybe he was out with his friends. She refused to think that there was a possibility that he might be on a date. Even though they had technically gone out once, she didn’t lay any claims to him – no matter what Bhebie may have thought – and she knew he was free to do whatever he wanted.

“His name is JunSu,” she told her brother. “And yes, he’s hot. He’s nice too, and sweet. He helped me out one night when I was done of work.” Well, it had actually been twice, but she didn’t mention the first time to her twin. Jui wouldn’t like it too much and he would tell her again that she should quit her dancing. “We’ve been out for coffee and we might go again sometime. We’re friends.”

“That’s good,” Jui said. “Make sure he don’t hurt you, cause then I’ll have to hurt him. And you know if I have to do that, I might break a nail and then I’ll be really pissed.”

Katsumi laughed and was about to speak once more when she heard a beeping sound. Sighing, she told her brother to hang on for a minute and then she switched over to her other line. “Hello?” she asked. She was almost sure that she could hear a child crying in the background, but she didn’t know anyone who had children.

“Kat?” she heard a frantic voice asking. “This is Jun; uh…could you maybe come over to my place and help me out here? I don’t have a clue as to help him stop crying and I’m scared that I’m doing everything wrong.”

Katsumi didn’t have any idea what was going on, but she could hear the desperation in his voice. “Umm, I’ll…I’ll be right over,” she promised.

“Bless you,” Jun said. He rattled off his address, telling her to get a cab and he would pay the fare when she arrived, then he hung up.

As she flicked back over to her brother, Katsumi shook her head a little. Jun must have been babysitting one of his nephews, which meant that at least one of his siblings was visiting. She felt bad for him and knew that he would need the help. She didn’t know much about kids, herself, but between the two of them maybe they could figure things out before the child’s parents came back.

“Jui? That was Jun, he’s having a little problem and I’m going to go help him out okay?”

Her brother laughed. “Okay,” he said. “Give me a call tomorrow or whatnot. I’ll talk to you soon and be careful. Love you, Kitten.”

“I love you too,” she said as she hung up. Less than ten minutes later she was out the door after making sure that her parents were settled for the night. Her sister was, of course, out somewhere, not that it mattered. The more time Kumi spent away from home, the better.

Once she was finally at Jun’s house, she paid the cab fare herself, then walked up to the door, taking in the view around her. Now that she knew that Jun had money, she wasn’t surprised that his apartment was rather nice looking. It was a lot better than the one she lived in with her parents at any rate. She knocked on the door and waited for him to answer, sighing to herself. Everything about the situation told her to run, but she couldn’t.

“Thank gods,” Jun said breathlessly as he opened the door, a crying child in his arms. “I can’t get him to stop crying. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He just woke up like this about an hour ago.”

Katsumi took one look at the baby and then held out her arms. The baby went with her willingly, clinging to her with his tiny arms and sobbing in her neck. His cries, however, stopped instantly as she cooed softly at him.

“Where are his parents?” she asked as Jun stepped aside to let her in the house.

“His mother is gone,” Jun said, his eyes wide at the sight of the little boy so obviously content in her arms. “She came, she talked, and then she left.”

Katsumi was a little confused at those words, but she didn’t question them. She walked over to the sofa and sat down with the child, still cooing to him. “What about his father?” she asked. “Where is he?”

Jun sat in the armchair next to the sofa, running his fingers through his red hair and sighing heavily. “You’re looking at him.”

Jun watched as Katsumi put the baby in the playpen and covered him with the blanket. He was sitting on the chair still, having flopped there the minute she came through the door and calmed JoonKi down. He still didn’t really know what was wrong with his son, but whatever the problem was, the girl seemed to have found the solution. All he knew was that at the moment, he felt like JoonKi hated him. There was no other explanation for it, in his opinion.

“JunSu?”

He looked up at her when she walked over to his chair and knelt in front of him, placing her hand on his knee. He was tired, he had a headache and he didn’t know what to say to her. “Thanks for coming over,” he said finally. “I had no idea what to do…I’m not cut out for this.”

She shook her head, her blue eyes focused on him. “You didn’t tell me you had a son,” she said quietly. “Why?”

“I didn’t know,” he answered. “Up until three o’clock this afternoon, I had no idea that he even existed. His…his mother didn’t tell me anything about him. I hadn’t seen her since we broke up.” He still didn’t know why she hadn’t at least tried to contact him to tell him about the baby, it wasn’t like she hadn’t been able to. He lived in the same house that he’d always lived in and she had found him easily enough when she wanted to drop him off.

“I met his mother when I first came here,” he said. For some reason he felt the need to explain to her the situation regarding his son. He knew he was going to have to do some major talking when it came to his brother, but he felt like Katsumi had a right to know as well. “We dated for a while, but it just didn’t work out, you know? And I never heard from her again until today. I didn’t know I had a son…I would have had him with me all the time if I’d known.

“He wouldn’t hate me then,” he finished as he ran his fingers through his hair again. “If I’d been there his whole life, he wouldn’t hate me.”

He looked down at the floor, unable to take the look of pity he was sure he was going to see in her eyes. It was either going to be pity or complete disgust at the fact that he hadn’t even thought about the chance that he could have fathered a child with the girl before walking out of GinChi’s life. The fact that she had walked out of his just as easily didn’t cross his mind.

“He doesn’t hate you, JunSu,” she said. “He just doesn’t know you is all.”

“He went to you and quieted down pretty quick for you,” he said with a pointed look. Let her try to worm her way out of that one.

“I’m also female,” she said with a smile. “I’m betting that he’s spent his whole life with his mother and her alone, JunSu. He’s probably just not used to having a male around all the time. Give him some time and I’m sure he’ll be more comfortable around you.”

Jun sighed, knowing that she was probably right, but it didn’t change the fact that he still believed that his son hated him. Or was afraid of him, one of the two.

“Okay,” she said after he didn’t speak for a while. “What do you have here for JoonKi? I mean by way of supplies for him.”

Jun looked over at the bag that was placed by the playpen, gesturing to it. Katsumi walked over and picked it up and started to go through it. A moment later she asked him to get her a pen and piece of paper. He did as she asked then stood over his son’s playpen, watching the baby sleep. He looked so peaceful and calm that Jun almost forgot about how loud the little boy could be and how loud he had been only an hour or so before.

“These are things that he needs,” Katsumi said as she put the paper and pen on the coffee table along with other papers that she had been looking through. “His mother was pretty thorough when it came to the things that he’ll be wanting at least.”

Jun nodded, looking at the paper and reading off the things that Katsumi thought that JoonKi would need. There was a lot of stuff there, but he knew that he wouldn’t have much of a problem getting it. The problem came when he realized that GinChi hadn’t really told him what he should do if the baby got incredibly upset as he had.

“I can do this, right?” he asked. “I mean, I can take care of a kid and not screw him up too badly right?”

Katsumi smiled at him. “Of course you can,” she assured him. “And…and I’ll help you as often as I can.”

Jun gave her a grateful look and then he walked over to where she sat, crouching beside her on the floor. Reaching out, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a hug, his breath shaky. Knowing that she was going to help him and also that his brother was coming was going to make this a lot easier. He just hoped with everything that was in him that he didn’t end up messing his kid up any more than he already was.

Right now the only thing he and his son had in common was the fact that they had both lost their mothers. Not exactly the greatest thing to share, but it was all there was right now other than DNA.

“You’re going to be just fine, JunSu,” Katsumi whispered as she hugged him back. “Now, you should go and pick up some of those things for JoonKi. I’ll watch him for you if you want me to. Or, I can go and get the stuff.”

Jun thought about it for a few minutes then he told her that he would make the run to get the supplies. His reasoning was simply that he didn’t know if he would be able to keep the baby calm if he woke up and started to freak out again. At least if there was a female present JoonKi would feel a little more comfortable in his new home.

“Oh,” he said. “My brother might show up while I’m gone,” he told her as he walked to the door with his car keys.

“Okay,” Katsumi told him. “Do you want me to leave when he gets here?”

Jun shook his head. “No,” he said. “If you don’t mind, stay until I get back.” He walked back over to her and smiled softly as he hugged her again. “Thank you,” he whispered. “I appreciate this more than you’ll ever know.”

Katsumi was sitting on the sofa flipping through a book of short stories written by someone called Saleym Rose which she had found on Jun’s desk. She was having a good laugh at some of the conversations that the characters had at a place called ‘Sedona’s’. She smiled at the stark reality of the things that the main female character went through, the heartache as well as the ups of her life. It almost broke Katsumi’s heart when she read about the girl’s struggles with her sexuality and then breaking the heart of her boyfriend by moving away.

A smile came to her lips, however, when she read about five good looking brothers walking into Sedona’s soaking wet to the skin but looking absolutely gorgeous and how both the main female character and her best friend thought they were going to die from ‘hotness overload’. Katsumi couldn’t help thinking that if she saw JunSu walking into Bhebie’s soaking wet that she would probably feel the same way as the girl in the book.

She heard a tiny whimper and she glanced over to see the baby was shifting about a little. It was getting late and she didn’t really know how long he had been sleeping that day. For Jun’s sake she hoped that he would at least sleep through most of the night. The last thing the baby’s father would need would be the child up all night, crying.

Katsumi went over to the playpen, making a mental note to remind Jun that he needed to get a proper bed for his son, and sat on the floor in front of the playpen, watching JoonKi through the mesh. He was an adorable little boy, she noticed, and even in slumber she could see that he looked like his father. He was going to grow up into a handsome young man, she knew. And if he took after his father for anything else, he would grow up to be a wonderful man who cared about people. Even strangers.

“You’ll be just fine, won’t you baby?” she whispered. “You and your daddy will be just fine.”

She stood again, and tried to think of something that she could do to occupy herself until Jun arrived back home. He had only been gone an hour, and he had called a few minutes before to let her know that he was on his way back home and also to ask her if there was anything that she needed. Before that, however, he had inquired on his son, wanting to know if the baby was okay. Even after only a few hours, he was already thinking along the lines of being a good father, his first concern for his child.

The doorbell rang and she jumped to her feet, rushing over to the door before whoever was there could ring it again. She didn’t want to wake up JoonKi. She opened the door slightly, leaving the chain lock in place – one couldn’t be too careful – and peeking out. When she saw who was on the other side she let out a small gasp.

“Y-You’re…” she broke off, not knowing if she should believe her eyes or not. There was a famous musician on the other side of the door! “You’re…”

The guy laughed. “Kim JaeJoong,” he said.

Katsumi shook her head, still staring at him. She heard him say a name, but the only thing that was going through her head was that he was famous and she knew who he was. And he was there, standing on the front step of JunSu’s house. “You’re Rush!” she said finally.

“Also known as Jae,” he said. “Jun’s twin brother. You must be Katsumi, Jun’s told me about you. Am I allowed in?”

She shook herself and closed the door to release the latch and then opened it again, ushering him inside. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I…Jun didn’t tell me you were his brother. He didn’t tell me he was twins with you.” She didn’t bother to comment on the fact that he said that Jun had told him about her or that he even knew her name.

“Remind me to kill Jun later,” Jae said with a laugh as he walked to the living room and put his duffle bag on the floor by the sofa. He went to the playpen and looked down at the sleeping child and his expression softened. “So this is JoonKi,” he said. “Wow…where is Jun?”

Katsumi nodded toward the door. “He went to pick some things up for the baby. He should be back soon.” She sat in a heap on the sofa, unable to take her eyes off the man who was now running his fingers over the baby’s hair. She couldn’t believe that a person she admired, someone whose music she listened to on a daily basis was in the same room with her. Or that he was actually the brother of a guy that she was friends with. She realized suddenly that there were a lot of things about JunSu Kim that she still needed to learn. Then something that he had said to her the day they went for coffee struck through her head and she sighed.

“So you’re the one who has the five kids,” she said. “How is it no one knows that? I mean, you’re famous and people all over the world know everything about you, but there’s never anything about you being a father…or married.” She knew that she was being rude and nosey for asking such personal questions but she couldn’t help herself.

Jae moved away from the playpen and sat in the armchair, reaching forward and picking up the book Katsumi had been reading earlier. “Easy enough answer,” he said. “My wife threatened me with bodily harm if I told about her or the kids. We don’t want the boys exposed to the craziness that is the music world while they’re so young. Annie also thinks that it will make me less popular with the female fans if they think that I’m unattainable – even though I am.”

Katsumi didn’t quite understand that reasoning. She was sure that if she was Jae’s wife – or even the wife of someone famous – she would want the whole world to know so that no one would ever get the inclination that they had a chance at being with him.

Jae seemed to know what she was thinking because he started to laugh. “My wife is a little unconventional,” he told her. “She’s a Newfie and that makes her crazy. They all are, she says.”

Katsumi gave him a blank look. “Wh-What’s a ‘Newfie’?” she asked.

“She’s from Newfoundland,” he answered. “A province in Canada. Newfie is what they call themselves.”

“Oh,” Katsumi said, though she didn’t really understand at all. She didn’t know much of anything about any other country other than her own and she felt a little stupid. Luckily Jae didn’t seem to mind. A few minutes later, however, she let out a breath of relief when the door opened and JunSu walked in loaded down with shopping bags. She jumped up to help him, taking the bags from him.

“You didn’t have to buy out the stores, Jun,” she teased him, though inside she felt like crying. Were she ever to have a child she knew that she would in no way ever be able to provide for them the way Jun so obviously was. Once more she was stuck by just how different their lives were. It almost didn’t seem fair.

“I got him something of everything…” Jun began then he broke off. His gaze moved to over her shoulder and he spotted his brother standing in the middle of the living room. Katsumi stood back and watched as the brothers embraced and then she smiled. Their closeness and obvious love for one another was evident from the smiles on their faces.

“You got here fast,” Jun commented to Jae. The darker haired brother nodded, saying something about being on the first flight out. Katsumi suddenly found herself wishing that her brother was in Japan so that she could share in the close bond that only twins had.

“I…” she spoke up a few minutes later. “I should leave, it’s getting late and I have an early day tomorrow. The baby should be fine for the night and in the morning just try to keep him calm.” She gathered her jacket – well, technically it was JunSu’s, but it was the only one she had with her – and purse, reaching for her cell phone intent on calling a cab.

Jun shook his head then walked over to her, taking her arm in his hand and leading her toward the door. “Thank you again for coming over,” he said. “Here, for the cab over here and for watching the baby,” he held out some money to her and she looked away. “You helped me out, Kat,” he told her. “I’d pay Jae if he was the one babysitting, so please…just take it okay?”

Katsumi didn’t want to take his money, but there was a look in his eyes that told her that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She sighed heavily and placed the bills in her purse, then opened the door. “If you need me again,” she said. “Don’t hesitate to call.”

“I won’t,” he said. “Thank you again. It meant a lot to me to have you here. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

“Think nothing of it,” she told him. “Just know I’m here if you need me.” She returned his warm hug and sighed softly when he kissed her forehead. Just as her cab arrived, she called out to Jae that it was nice to have met him and then promised Jun that she would call him the next day to see how things were going.

As she sat in the cab on her way home, Katsumi ran her fingers over her forehead where he had kissed her and then sighed. He was so sweet, so gentle. She knew that if she wasn’t careful she could end up falling for him and that was something she couldn’t allow herself to do. No matter how much she may have wanted to, they were too different and she knew it would never work.

Didn’t mean she had to like it though.