The Odd Doctor Out | A Drama | S. 5

815 🩺 Just Adult Things

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Eve ♡

~~~

Freshly showered, when Seonghwa walked into his bedroom, hanging his towel on the door handle on his way past, he found his husband sitting on the edge of the foot of their bed, arm outstretched to rest on the side of Nabi's crib, socking it softly. He looked quiet—had been that way for a bit—even though he was animated whenever he was talking to anyone.

He quite thought that he knew him better to be fooled by it.

Wandering over to him, he sat down beside him and put a knee behind him to lean into his back, gazing over the crib edge at their daughter. 'She's getting so big so fast,' he murmured. It felt like just yesterday that she was just the tiniest little girl, no bigger than his forearm, making her wonderful little newborn baby sounds...

'She'll be one before we know it,' Hongjoong murmured, love in his voice as he gazed down at her.

'Oh god,' he breathed. 'I don't think I'm prepared for that yet.'

'Well you better start,' Hongjoong replied quietly, 'because it will be here very soon.'

He smiled, resting his chin down upon his husband's shoulder. 'I never thought being a father would feel like this,' he breathed.

From the outside, it felt like parents were suspended in time—their children ever present and barely aging. However now that he was a dad, he was coming to see that so quickly, Nabi had grown so fast, and milestones were passing as fast as they had come. His first year of practicing medicine had felt like it had trudged on forever, however a single year with his daughter was passing him by in the blink of an eye.

He heard Hongjoong hum. 'Indeed, time is moving very quickly.'

For a few minutes, they stayed comfortably in silence, simply watching their daughter's little chest rising and falling with her breath as she slept soundly. He thought there was no greater happiness than doing just that. She was the light of their lives, and he felt like the luckiest man alive to be spending such precious moments with the man he loved and their little girl.

That was why his heart pained when he decided to ask, 'Joong babe... Are you okay?... After what my mother said to you?'

'Hmm?' Hongjoong stirred, turning in a way that made him lean back to grant him room to more. 'Of course. Why?'

'You don't have to pretend,' he said, smoothing a hand over the small of his back. 'I can tell you're still thinking about it.'

Sighing heavily, Hongjoong nodded, dropping his facade. 'That much might be true, but... Hwa I'm fine. Sure, I wish it didn't happen, but I knew she didn't like me. I'm not concerned. In fact, baby, I'm more concerned about you...'

'Me?' he breathed. 'Why? I'm not the one she insulted.'

'Yes, but she is, your mother.' Gently letting Nabi's cradle slow to a halt, Hongjoong waited to see whether she would awaken, before shifting back onto the bed and turning to him fully. 'I feel like I handled it very poorly... Hwa, I shouldn't have ordered her out of the house—'

'You had every right to do that,' he interrupted sternly. 'She was out of line, and before I moved in here, this was your home. She had no place coming here and accusing you of things she has not a clue about.' Reaching out, he took his husband's hand in his and smoothed his touch over his skin.