An Extra Beat of Love

28. Uncle

It was a long day. Jeongguk had thought he would be able to arrange everything in time and get home early as promised, but that didn't happen. He had to return home at the time he regularly did. 

Hana ran to him as she always did the second he entered the house, but there was no sign of Taehyung. "Where's your Oppa, baby?" he asked, picking his daughter up into his arms to shower her with kisses. 

"Chimmie Uncle," Hana said. 

"Chimmie Uncle...?" Jeongguk frowned and a few seconds later, he realized who Hana was talking about. With an angry grind of his teeth, something that he had unconsciously picked up from Taehyung, he stomped into the living room. 

"Whe-" he got cut off by a couple of loud chuckles coming from the kitchen. He furiously put Hana down and stormed into the kitchen, only to find Taehyung leaning on the counter with his back facing the entrance of the kitchen and laughing along with 'that man', who was standing in front of Taehyung, with his side leaning against the counter as well.

Jeongguk glared at the two of them, watching the familiar eye smile of 'that man' fall and turn into a glare.  

"Wha-...oh, Jeonggukie!!" Taehyung walked towards Jeongguk with a wide smile, only to be stopped by Jeongguk, who had raised his hand up with his palm facing Taehyung. His glare never left Jimin, who was now walking towards him. 

"What are you doing here?" he wanted to ask, but Jimin was already brushing past him and walking towards the main door. Without any words further being said, Jimin picked up his phone and left the house. 

"He is not Hana's Uncle," Jeongguk spat through gritted teeth and received a deadpan from Taehyung in return. "Don't be mean. He actually came to apologize for that day," Taehyung said. 

"What?" 

"I think one of the hyungs might have told him what happened after he left. He came to apologize and said that I was true and that he shouldn't have cut all ties with all of you when he was the only link for you to contact Soohyeon-ssi. 

He agreed that you were right about not contacting her after promising her that you wouldn't involve her in Hana's life. He came with good intentions, Jeongguk. Things just happen. It was none of your faults. Don't spoil what the two of you had because of something that literally happened due to fate," Taehyung lectured. 

Jeongguk looked down at his feet. He just couldn't bring himself to nod at Taehyung. He heard Taehyung sigh and felt him leave the kitchen, but his mind was already too lost in his thoughts to think about that. 

In the few days that he had had to think about the whole thing, the one thing that angered him more than the previous facts was that Jimin had not bothered to let him know that Soohyeon had passed away. 

He did not understand how Jimin had expected him to just turn up at the funeral when the only person who could have informed him about Soohyeon had cut all ties with him. 

He had loved her, for god's sake. He had loved her and had sacrificed his love for the sake of his child, someone that he did not want to kill. 

Sure, he did feel extremely guilty for having killed Soohyeon because of wanting Hana, but he hadn't known that it would affect her health. How was he supposed to know if no one had bothered to tell him about it? He had thought Soohyeon was just not ready for being a mom. That was what she had always said to him, after all. 

And that was totally fine. 

He thought he would be able to solve the problem by not letting her be the mom that she didn't want to be. He thought it would be totally fine if he promised her that he would never contact her again and that he would never involve her in his life and that he would keep the child away from her forever.