Without You

Chapter 29

"JiYooooooooon." I hear someone sing. I slowly open my eyes, and I see my father sitting beside me on my bed. I sit up and I see him holding a cake.

"What's going on?" I ask. He rolls his eyes.

"It's your birthday today." he says. "It's January 12th. Don't tell me you forgot."

I smile innocently, but tired. He rolls his eyes again and chuckles. He kisses my forehead and leaves the cake on my dresser.

"Okay. Get ready for school. We'll eat out after." he says, and then leaves my room.

***

I'm walking with Jungkook, holding his hand, around campus until it was time to go to art.

"Today's my birthday." I tell him. He stops and looks at me. I think he thinks I'm lying.

"What? I'm serious. Today's my birthday." I tell him. "I forgot today was my birthday."

"How do you forget your own birthday?" he asks. I shrugged and chuckled.

"When's yours?" I asked him.

"It passed." he says. My eyes widen. "You were mad at me at the time. It's okay."

The bell rings and we go to art class. I sit down in my seat and Jungkook grabs the clay, and comes to sit down. We start working on trying to make a good looking flower. I wish Mr. Song didn't change the rules of us using a different medium. We'd be done by now if we were able to still paint our project.

"What are you going to do for your birthday?" Jungkook asks.

"My dad is taking me out to eat." I say. He nods. "You want to come?"

He chokes on his own spit. I look at him weird and he calms down.

"Does your dad even know we're back together?" he asks me. I shake my head and he sighs. "You know that he thinks I cheated on you. And I don't think he'll let me go that easily since your mom cheated on him."

I sigh and go back to making the clay flower.

"Okay. I'll come." he says. I look at him and give him a big smile. "Also, did you know that your pretty little ex moved?"

"What?" I say, and look over to where YeJun sits. His chair was empty and I raised an eyebrow.

"Apparently he moved yesterday." Jungkook says. "Good."

I chuckle and roll my eyes. I see him smile.

***

"Come on. My dad won't say anything." I tell him as we reach the front of my house. I open the door and walk in, him following behind me.

"Dad?" I shout.

"In the kitchen!" he shouts back. I hold Jungkook's hand and walk into the kitchen. My dad turns around from washing dishes, and he stops as soon as he sees us together.

"Uhm, honey can I talk to you for a second?" he says, walking out the kitchen and into the backyard. I let go of Jungkook's hand and go after him.

"Yes Dad?" I ask.

"You two are back together? Isn't he the one that I heard cheat on you?" he says, wiping his hands on his jeans. I sigh and nod.

"It was a misunderstanding." I tell him. "Dad, I know. If he does something again there's no going back."

He nods and then sighs.

"I have something to tell you too." he says. "Your mom's coming to eat out with us as well. It's your birthday and I felt like she had a right to be here."

I stare at the tree behind him, crossing my arms.

"I know your mom did wrong, but she's still your mom. She's not my wife anymore but she's still your mom. At least for your birthday JiYoon." he says. I sigh and nod my head.

"Alright. Fine." I said. He smiles and pecks me on the forehead. We both walk back inside the house.

"Wait, Dad. Is her boyfriend coming?" I ask him. He looks at me and shrugs. I sigh and walk in.

"Did you know it was JiYoon's birthday?" my dad asks Jungkook. I roll my eyes.

"No. She barely told me today." he says. My dad looks at me and I smile.

***

Jungkook shakes the hand of my mom and of course, her boyfriend that she had to bring. We all take our seats in the restaurant and wait for the waiter to hand us our menus.

I sat in between my father and Jungkook. My mom and Eric sat on the other side. The waiter came and handed us our menus. We all looked for our food in silence.

When the waiter came back, we all individually said what we wanted. The sad thing is that my dad is paying for the whole thing.

Minutes later, our food came and we all ate. Eric would talk to my mom but I can tell that my mom felt awkward talking to him in front of us. It was kind of quiet the whole time. Jungkook would whisper jokes to me to try and make me laugh, so it wasn't always awkward.

"Happy Birthday JiYoon." Eric tells me. I smile a little and nod my head.

"Yeah. Happy birthday sweetie." my mom says. I keep my small smile.

"Thanks." I say. I can see her a bit sad, but I didn't really care sadly.

When we finished eating, my mom opened her purse and reached inside for something. She took out a wrapped up gift.

"You can open it at home." she says. I nod my head and place it on my lap. She gets up with Eric and she says bye to all of us. We wave and they both walk away.

"Of course she'd cheat with a half American." my dad mumbles. I laugh at him and he chuckles.

He picks up the bill for the food and sighs when he sees the price. He goes to his wallet. I see Jungkook take the receipt and read it. He then places it back down on the table. He as well, reaches for his wallet.

"Jungkook, what are you doing?" I ask him.

"Don't worry. I'm just helping by paying half." he says. "Like how I helped you when we first ate out together."

I smile and roll my eyes, remembering that day. He felt bad I almost wasted my money.

He hands my dad 20,000 won. My dad looks at him and then at the money. He shakes his head and pushes his hand away.

"No. It's okay." he says, placing the money on the table. My dad smiles at him and takes it. He takes the bill to the counter and pays for it. Jungkook and I stand up and get out the table.

He puts his arm around me and we both look at each other. I chuckle at him and he gives me a peck on the lips.

"Ah, ah, no." my dad says, pushing through the middle of us. I laugh and Jungkook holds my hand. We walk out after my dad.

Before we got in the car, my dad stopped and turned around to Jungkook.

"Hey. Sorry about the other day. You know, you broke my daughter's heart that day so I didn't want you to stay any longer. But, you seem like a nice kid." he tells him. Jungkook smiles and bows.

"But, if you do anything again you better hope your parents can plan your funeral." he adds. I hit my dad's arm. We all laughed. I'm glad things are finally getting better.