Black Orchid | BEOMKAI

Chapter 30

Staring down at the reflective silver doorknob, I could see my Picasso-esque face within it; how undone yet finished I looked. I was right in my assumption that Kai was cooking dinner. From the doorstep, I could hear the sound of a knife steadily cutting upon a chopping board, though I couldn't help but feel like it was coming for my throat. With a quiet sigh, I pushed the door open and I could smell the medley of ingredients that hung in the hallway air: rice, rosemary, lemon and thyme– the wrong kind that I needed more of. Making my way into the living area with a creak from the door, Kai heard it, dropped his knife and came running to face me.

"Beomgyu..." he said, trying to read my face and glanced down in predicted puzzlement at the baby carrier.

I stood exactly where Kai once had when he revealed Maya's identity to me. All that fear that ran circles in his eyes now sprinted laps around my own. As I tried to think of how to begin, it became apparent that I needed to mention Angela as an ice-breaker and secretly hoped that Taehyun would forgive me for stealing his spotlight.

"Taehyun wanted to be the one to tell you this," I said and Kai's eyes only grew wider as he struggled to take them off the carrier and back up to my face.

"T-tell me what..?"

"The only reason he's been working in the genetics department is to try to find your family for you."

His lips parted and his chest swelled with air. "What? He's really doing that... for m-"

"He finally found someone," I interrupted gravely. "Her name is-.. was Angela. She was twenty-four years old and lived in L.A."

Kai almost appeared excited, but more confused. "Was?" he questioned and I swallowed before elaborating.

"She died a few days ago in a car crash. Her body was taken to the hospital and Taehyun tested her DNA. He found your genes in her."

Kai now looked less confused and more pleasantly curious which only crushed me. "So I really had family in L.A all this time?" he asked mostly himself and glanced back down at the carrier. "So then– who's this?"

"Angela's daughter," I said as I took a step back, as if to cower from the confession. "The reason I left so suddenly before was because I know who her father is."

Kai was moving fast towards me, his face broke out into an uncontrollable smile that just tore me straight up the middle. "Really?! Is that why you brought her back here?! The father lives in Julian?! My family lives here?!"

Stopping him from getting any closer, I held my hand upon his chest directly over his heart. I could feel it beating almost as quickly as my own and the inevitable tears began to well up.

"Yes-" my voice broke along with my sentence and I stole the moment selfishly. Relishing in the warmth of Kai's smile that I might not ever receive again before I committed to our potential undoing. "I'm her father, Kai."

And that smile of his that I had stolen dropped with the weight of my confession. He took a step back from me and I almost fell forward, not noticing I was using him for support.

"Kai–" God knows why I was trying to bargain. I had no right. Further away from me he stepped. His eyes darted across every edge and surface of the open kitchen and living area, passively scanning everything in sight as I saw his mind crumbling.

I could feel it coming. The 'how could you?', the 'I loved you, I waited for you and you did this?' and the 'get out' were already ringing in my ears. I could do nothing but watch as he stopped circling the room and laid his eyes upon the black Orchid he kept on the cabinet. The longer he gazed at it, it seemed to freeze him in place like a painting; a masterpiece that I was now so sure I was blemishing.