NOTHING BUT YOU: FOREVER YOU | Na Jaemin

Part 2 | School Uniform

Grace, wake up!!!

That dream. It keeps coming back again. Grace breathe in slowly as she moved the duvet away from her body. She gets up from the couch and walk to the hanger. The weather got chilly since last night and so she decided to put on her cardigan.

As she wears it she looked at the mirror in front of her, the eye bag gets darker everyday due to her lack of sleep. It's been a tough week for Grace since she went back to her hometown. Adapting to her native language isn't as easy as it seems, Grace finds it hard since she didn't use it in her previous town.

Work starts in a week yet she felt overwhelmed by it already. The University that she works for was the University that she graduated for her master degree. It was fine until she realized that she couldn't remember about the road that leads to her work.

She sighed as she fold her arms together, giving it a rub to make her feel warmer. She walked out from the living room and made her way to Shane's room. She opened the door and found Shane still sleeping on his bed.

She walks closer and turn off his table lamp. She shook his arms and greeted by his groan.

"Your Uncle is going to be here in a hour." She speaks softly to her son and by that, Shane opened his eyes.

"What time is it?"
"Six."

He let out his groan again and only to make Grace pull his arms.

"Let's go, take a shower first. I'll make you a breakfast."
"I want eggs."
"I'll make your favorite as usual."
"Okay then."

Grace shaked her head and let out a sigh. "Come on, you're gonna be late." She said as she hopped out from the bed, walked back to the kitchen room.

After she made their breakfast together, Grace started to open up the boxes to sort out the things one by one. You knew her, she cannot stand with messy place even though it doesn't look messy at all since all the stuff she had was still inside the box. She wanted to organize it as soon as possible so she could finally say that this is home.

The morning went fast and Shane had finished his breakfast already. While waiting for Josh to come, Shane decided to help his Mom to organize the stuff. He organized all the books on the wall shelves and move the couch to its right place. On the other hand, Grace was busy with vacuuming all the floor.

Right at 8, Josh texted her that he was already downstair of the building to ask about the number of their apartment. Even though Grace was already told him last week. Well, it's Josh after all, he probably deleted all the message he had in his message box.

"My darling, Grace!" The man in front of her shouted as soon as she opened the door of her apartment.

Josh looks awful. At least that's what she thought. He still in his pajamas pants and the bed hair he showed right now wasn't look good at all.

"You look fucking homeless." Grace said as Josh pulled her into a hug.

"I miss you so much!" Josh replied and it made Shane laugh at them.

"Oh! There you go my lovely nephew!" Josh pushed Grace immediately after he saw Shane at the back.

He pulled Shane into a hug too and lift him up after. Grace once again shaked her head because of her silly brother.

"Oh my God, you've grown taller!" Josh said after he pulled out from the hug with Shane.

"I am, dude." Shane said and Josh reciprocated it with a back pat.

"When was the last time I saw you? Last summer, right?"
"It was six months ago. It's not that long." Grace replied.

"I know, but he grew taller in just six months!"
"He's turning 15 in a month so it's not surprising at all."
"God, your mother is so annoying." Josh said as he looked at Shane.

"You're exaggerating, Josh."
"I spoke the truth."

Grace just sighed and continued to turn the vacuum on.

"Alright, I'm going to prepare my backpack first." Shane said and left Josh and Grace in the kitchen room.

"How are you right now?"

Grace tucks her hair behind her ear and turn the vacuum off again. "Never been better."

"Really? You look... terrible."

She rolled her eyes as she walked closer to Josh. "Don't even start."

Grace grabbed two glasses from the cabinet and give one for Josh. She took the water from the fridge and poured it quickly.

"He texted me and Shane last night."

Josh swallowed the whole water in just a seconds and put the glass back on the counter. "I met him last night at the bar. He was with a girl, probably one of his fuckbuddies."

"Are you sure they fuck together?"
"Well, Grace. You still had a gut to defend him."
"I'm saying the truth, he's not that easy."

Josh remains still and looked Grace in the eye. "Did you text him back?"

"No. Not yet."
"Don't."
"Why?"
"It's not the right moment. You just came back."

Grace breathe out and lean her body on the counter. "He misses his son. He wanted to meet him."

"He's just using Shane in order to meet you."
"Well, he said he wanted to meet me also."

Josh joined Grace to lean on the counter. He put his arms folded and turn his gaze to Shane's room.

"Text him back then. It's not great to leave the message on read."
"What should I say?"
"That you wanted to meet him also?"
"No."
"You missed him, too. Right?"

Grace scoffed and stroke her long hair to the back. That's the word that she had been avoided to say, to hear— yes, she missed him so much. The thought of coming back to her hometown was already making her messed up in this past few months. She kept thinking about him, about Na Jaemin.

"I don't think I'm ready to meet him again."
"Take it easy, Grace. Why don't you start with Shane first? Let him meet his Dad today after we come back from school."
"Yeah, I already told him before."
"Then, it settled."
"But he's going to come here, right? It means I have to see him!"

Josh sighed and patted her shoulder. "Just say hi and get Shane ready to his Dad."

"It's not that simple."
"Grace, listen. He's the same Na Jaemin that you knew. Nothing's different. He's Shane's Dad!"

"The decision in on Shane's in the end." He continued, "He's going to choose between you and him. Shane is not a kid anymore. He understood enough about your relationship with him. You're not a divorcée. You're just his ex-lover. His ex-fiancée."

With that, their conversation went silent after Shane called his Uncle from the door and leave her heart thumping fast from the emotion that she holds right now. However, Grace smiled and approached her son quickly.

"Hey, are you ready to go?" She asked and strokes his hair gently.

"I am, Mom."
"Alright, go get your school uniform and be good to your Uncle."
"I will." Shane smiled and asked Josh to leave the apartment.

"Grace, we'll see you soon."
"Yeah, take care of Shane."

Josh just nodded before giving her his last pat on her back.

***