Taste | Changbin

Chapter Twenty-Three

"You got to meet Hana's baby before us?" Felix stuck his hand to his heart. "That's not fair! That's more than unfair, I might have to end our friendship over it! I didn't know you knew Hana." 

"Technically, I didn't. I met her in a cafe after leaving the arcade. She was going back to the hospital and she asked if I wanted to see her. How was I supposed to say no? She was adorable! I hope you guys can see her soon!" 

"I'm a little hurt," Felix crossed his arms over his chest. "I thought we meant more to Hana than this. I ate Nutella covered pickles with her. I called my mom to provide her with pregnancy advice. I even bought her a pregnancy pillow and this is how I'm repaid?" 

"Can you please relax your eyebrows? I can't put products on them when you have them scrunched up like that." 

"Sorry," Felix instantly relaxed his face. 

The weekend had finally passed and it was finally Monday morning. Lennon was back in front of the makeup room's vanity. She organized all her products out before she began working on Felix. He was the first one she saw this morning. He had brought her another drink even though she didn't ask for it. 

She had pushed it over to the back of the vanity. There was no way she was going to spill this drink on a member of the band. She'd do anything for that not to happen. 

"How is Hana? We all really do miss her. By the time we finish up here at the studio, we're all basically exhausted." 

"I think she might be just as exhausted as you guys. She has purple bags beneath her eyes and she's worried about her daughter. Did you know she named her daughter Hyun-Joo? It's really pretty and I think it suits her daughter perfectly." 

"Oh sure, go ahead and rub it in that you met the kid before us." 

"I didn't just meet her, I got to hold her too." 

"That's it! I'm calling Hana and lecturing her. You're basically a stranger and she lets you hold her kid before me? Me! I'm supposed to be Uncle Felix! What happened to that? Am I not good enough to be an uncle?" 

Lennon pressed her lips together to stop a laugh from coming out. She knew Felix was joking, but it was funny to see him act like this. His lips were pressed out in a pout. Arms folded across his chest with one foot tapping the floor. 

"I'm sure you'll be a great uncle. She might be busy now, but you could attempt to call her. She told me that she was going to spend the next few days at the hospital. They want to make sure everything is good with Hyun-Joo before they bring her home. I got to meet her husband too, he seems nice." 

"I see that they've practically adopted you into the family. You might as well be Hyun-Joo's godmother at this point." 

Lennon turned around to grab an eye shadow palette. Felix wiggled in the chair for a moment before yanking his phone out of his back pocket. Lennon turned back to him. "Let me call her and then I'll close my eyes." He quickly entered his phone's contacts and scrolled all the way to Hana's number before pressing it. 

"What do you want, Felix?" 

Felix's mouth dropped open in shock. He mouthed the word "unbelievable" to Lennon before he closed his eyes. She dipped the brush into a red powder before applying it to one of his eyelids. 

"I don't think that's any way to greet Uncle Felix. I thought we had a special thing going on. I forced myself to eat Nutella dipped pickles with you when nobody else would. I let you almost break my hand while you went through fake labor. I got you a pregnancy pillow and you repay me by letting Lennon hold your child first?" 

"Is that seriously what this is about?" 

"I'm sorry, I didn't think he'd get this mad," Lennon called out. 

"Well, you could have shown up at the hospital, but you haven't been here yet! It's not my fault that none of you guys have appeared. It's not like I can take Hyun-Joo out of here yet. If you'd bring your dumbasses to the hospital, you'd be allowed to hold her." 

"Hmph," Felix huffed. 

"Yeah, that's what I fucking thought. I just went through childbirth a few days ago. I'm still recovering and I can't even get a 'hi, hello, how are you?' I can't even get a 'Hana, I've really missed you!' I just get a huge lecture." 

"Wait, we have missed you. The guys and I have missed you a lot."

"You haven't come to see me!" 

"I'm sorry, you know how busy we are. We'll make it up to you, I swear." 

"I'll probably need a babysitter at some point." 

"Well, thank goodness that Hyun-Joo has eight uncles." 

"And an aunt," Hana added. "She has an aunt now too." 

"An aunt?" Felix raised an eyebrow. "Who's her aunt?" 

"Auntie Lennon." 

Felix snapped his head towards Lennon with wide eyes. She couldn't hold back her laughter. "When did she become an aunt? How did that happen? Am I missing something? I thought you two didn't know each other." 

"I found Lennon on Saturday afternoon at a cafe. I brought her back to Seoul and asked if she wanted to see Hyun-Joo. It kind of escalated from there. She went out and bought my husband and I dinner. Plus, she offered to keep an eye on Hyun-Joo at the hospital while we went home to collect ourselves. She promised to call us if anything happened to her. It took a lot of convincing on my end, but my husband said it'd be a good break for both of us." 

"You left your kid with a stranger?" Felix asked.

"Well, technically, we were in the hospital. It's not like anything bad was going to happen. The hospital has security and cameras, so I wasn't worried about my child being kidnapped." 

"Okay, I hate to sound like a bad guy here, but that sounds so irresponsible." 

"It was a good judge of character! Lennon wasn't exactly a stranger. Everyone has been texting me about her. It was a great judge of character because when we came back to the hospital, she was reading Hyun-Joo, a baby book. She was reading her Goodnight Moon." 

"Wait, that's cute." 

"I know! I turned to Su-Jin and started bawling. It was such a small gesture, but it meant so much to me. We've been texting each other a lot since Saturday night." 

A smile worked its way onto Felix's face. "Okay, I'll see if I can get the boys together tonight and come down to the hospital. I've got to go, so Lennon can continue doing my makeup. I'll talk to you later, I love you!" 

"Love you too! Bye, Lennon!" 

"Bye, Hana." 

Felix hung up the phone and started up at Lennon. "So Goodnight Moon, huh?" 

"Listen, it's a really good book. I know Hyun-Joo is a newborn, but it was fun to pretend she could understand it. I think she was attempting to understand the story because she kept staring at me with her big bright eyes. She's so adorable, I can't wait for you to meet her. You and the guys are going to love her!" 

"Even Changbin?" 

"Especially Changbin."