8 Years [ENGV]

#16

HAEIN

Two weeks passed. We lived together, we went out together, she would call me when I didn't come home on time, I would let her know when I would be late. We talked about our day and our efforts; we lived like a couple, but we weren't a couple yet, we were taking it slow — her words.

Even so, I often felt distant from her, as if she was thinking about the situation. My biggest fear at the moment was doing something that would make her give up and ask me to leave again and tell me to raise Haeji separately. I was afraid that someday she says, she didn't need me, as she had said many times that she does.

However, I knew some tricks, like; smiling. I knew how my smile could be her weak point, how she liked cuddles before bed, massages and feeling safe, and I did my best to make her have everything she liked and please her.

"Chu..." I called, looking at the time on my cell phone. We had a meeting with the psychologist and our lawyer in two and a half hours. Our plan was to wake up early and well, I woke up with the alarm clock, but Jisoo didn't even move, she was in a deep sleep. "Jisoo..." I kissed her cheek and she flinched.

"Five more minutes, please." She asked in a sleepy and sly voice and turned over, lying on her back, giving in to sleep again. I laughed and lay on top of her, she grumbled and tried to push me away.

"But if you stay for five minutes, we can't take a shower or have breakfast together."

"I don't care." She said in a muffled voice. I kissed her neck.

"We're going to be late for the meeting." She whimpered, and I got up, getting off of her. She was awake and staring at me as if she wanted to kill me. "There are those little eyes that I love so much!" A pout formed on her lips and a wrinkle between her eyebrows. It was cute to see her irritated like that.

"Get out." She pushed me aside and stood up. "You make our breakfast while I shower."

"Can't we shower together like always?" I asked, disappointed.

"No." She said, turning to me. "If we get in that shower together, showering is the last thing that will happen there." I laughed and watched her enter the bathroom before standing up and obeying her order.

♡

We arrived at the meeting place before the psychologist, who was late and apologized, not going into details about her delay. She greeted us politely, but as always, she got straight to the point.

"Ming Hae-ji is now able to live with you." Jisoo and I frowned and looked at each other. "The school principal is already aware of what's going on. I mean..." The lawyer quickly corrected herself. "What they know is that Hae-ji's aunt is handing over custody of her to you, they don't know that she's your biological daughter."

"Hae-ji told the whole school that Mr. Jung and Miss Kim are her parents." We looked at each other again, this time smiling. "She already feels like your daughter, and in all my years of career, I've never seen her adapt so quickly."

"So Haeji will come to our house every day?" I asked.

"Yes. She shows excitement and anxiety when talking about the weekends. I concluded that it would be better for her to stay with you after school, but I will continue to accompany her and if I notice any change in her behavior, she will return to the boarding school." We nodded. Jisoo could only smile, and I knew she was holding back tears of happiness.

"Does this mean we can have custody of her?" Jisoo asked. The psychologist denied it.

"It's too early, but the process looks promising." Jisoo smiled. "I need a few more weeks." We nodded. "You can pick her up from school starting on Friday and you don't have to return her on Sunday." She handed us a piece of paper. "This is her class schedule, she takes some extracurricular classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays that end at 3:10 p.m." I took the paper, she took dance, art, and music classes. We thanked the psychologist and went back home. Jisoo was extremely happy and as soon as we entered, she jumped up and down in triumph and screamed euphorically — seeing her happiness completed mine.