The Odd Doctor Out | A Drama | S. 5

804 🩺 Just Domestics & Feels

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~~~

Having significantly calmed down after ordering his husband's mother out of the apartment the day before—suffering a restless night's sleep and an anger-induced headache up until that morning—sitting on the floor in the living room, Hongjoong was more or less supervising Nabi throwing her rattle across the carpet and crawling around after it. He had forced himself to let the altercation go, accepting that there were more important things that should have been occupying his mind.

And as he watched his daughter playing, the longer he sat with her, the more he began to let the past day's incident go. He was doing his best, and he was doing what was best for not only his daughter, but himself, too. What more was he supposed to be doing?

Sighing, he let his eyes follow Nabi, crawling after her rattle. She seemed to be quite content to occupy herself, and at least today, she was behaving, staying on the rug and not straying off. She was getting so much more nimble with her newfound skill, and it had been just that morning that she had given him a fucking heart attack.

It was his own fault.

He had changed her nappy on his bed over a folded towel, and upon putting her back in her jumpsuit, he had turned his back for one moment and he'd heard her make that cooing sound she always did when she wanted someone's attention...

And he found her nearly crawling off of the side of the bed.

Gone were the days she would stay right where he put her. He was beginning to think gone were the days of her washing basket crib too, for he had caught her sitting up in it just days ago, threatening to tip it over.

Seonghwa had been the smart one to put hand weights in the bottom of it under her stuffed pillow bed to hold it securely down, but for how long that would suffice, he wasn't sure.

Thoughts of Seonghwa flowed to mind easily, however although he listened instinctively for him shuffling around, he remembered he was at work—had left sometime in the morning. There was a distinct quiet to their apartment, apart from the ear splitting sound of Nabi's rattle smacking into the edge of the coffee table and falling to the floor. He had already memorised and committed to memory the sound of her little hands and knees pattering as she crawled over to grab the rattle and throw it again.

Sighing, he took his eyes off of her and looked down at the tin in his lap. It was the one the nun from his mother's orphanage had given to him—the one filled with photographs and letters from his mom. However while he'd had it all this time, he'd still not been able to bring himself to open it. It felt heavy in his hands, and uneasily cold, like there was some kind of spirit attached to it.

It was like he could feel his mother in it... Or at least, a part of her.

He strongly suspected much of its contents would be news to him. He felt like there was so much about his mom he didn't know, but while he was holding the answers in his hands, he couldn't quite bring himself to open it...

'Hyung...'

Thoughts tearing from the tin, he put it down and looked up instinctively, to see Wooyoung emerging from the hallway towards him—face looking kind of pale and mottled, and dressed still in his pyjama shirt falling to his thighs. He looked thinner from the past few days, but front and foremost, he just looked sullen and emotionally exhausted.