Love In Contract | Taekook

Chapter 17

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TAEHYUNG'S POV

This is a terrible mistake. Having Jungkook in Harin's life only to rip her away at the end of our agreement. She's so excited to show her new friend around her room, talking a mile a minute, telling her a story about each item she holds up.
Jungkook goes along with it like a trooper, but I can see the uncertainty in his gaze. This is new for him, and it's not lost on me that this isn't the
lifestyle he wants. The only reason he's in this is for the money.

A fact I need to remind myself of whenever we're together. Yet he's here. He showed up with dinner knowing I'd need someone to lean on after that circus of a press conference. He did it of his own free will. And I can't pretend like that doesn't mean something to me. Harin digs under her bed, attempting to pull out the trunk of old toys, and that's when I step in. "That's enough for tonight, Rin. It's time for you to take a bath."
Her bottom lip juts out. "Five more minutes?" "No more minutes. It's a school night. Now say goodnight to Jungkook." Her eyes fill with tears, but she blinks them away. "Goodnight, Jungkook."

"Hey, don't be sad." Jungkook crouches down beside her.
"I can come back another time."
Harin makes herself at home sitting on Jungkook's knee as if he's a
human chair. "Come back on a weekend so I can stay up later."
Jungkook chuckles. "Why don't we have a movie night? You can pick out
your favorite Disney princess and I'll bring popcorn and snacks."
Harin's eyes light up as she flings her arms around Jungkook's neck and
squeals. Jungkook pushes off the ground and sets Harin on her feet. "Go take your bath and do your homework. Make sure you listen to your father so we can have that movie night soon." "Okay!" Harin marches right past me and into the hallway.
I shake my head as I laugh. "Sorry about that."

Jungkook waves me off. "Don't apologize. I'll get out of your hair now." I step in front of him so he can't leave the bedroom. "Thank you."
For being here. For indulging Harin. For somehow knowing I'd need
a friend. He lifts his eyes to mine.
"I just wanted to make sure you were okay." My fingers tangle with his, giving his hand a gentle tug to move him closer to me. "Fuck, you want a hug, don't you?"

I hike a shoulder, a smirk playing on my lips. "You don't have to. I know you don't like them."
"I've met my hug quota for the month in just one day today." He heaves an exasperated sigh, and then without another word, he slides his hands around my waist and wraps them around my body. I melt around him, engulfing him in my embrace. Resting my chin on top of his head, I can actually feel the tension leave my body as I inhale the deepest breath I've taken all day.

"Harin's life is about to change tomorrow," I say. "I don't know how
to prepare her for any of this."
"Maybe you can't prepare her, but you can guide her through it."
He's right. I can't control what happens to us, but I can control how I
react. Be there for Harin to hold her hand through this. I lift my hand to cup his face, skating my thumb over his cheek, letting my touch say what my words can't seem to do justice.

Regardless of the hardened mask Jungkook keeps in place, he gave me a peek at the real man underneath it today. I hope one day he'll be able to take it off completely for me.
"Daddy," Harin calls. "The water is getting high in the bath tub."
"Jesus," I mutter. "I should get in there."
"Go. I'll see myself out."
Before I bolt out of the room, I pull Jungkook back in to me and press my lips to his forehead.

~~~

After the bath, I run the comb through Harin's wet curls. "There's
something I need to talk to you about." Her big round eyes flick to mine in the mirror. "Am I in trouble?" "No, not at all." I lean in and press a kiss to her pudgy cheek. "Something happened at work today, and it's important so I wanted to tell you."
Her little body straightens on the sink counter as she squares her shoulders. "I like when you tell me about work." My face softens. "Well, that's good because I'm going to be talking to
you about work a lot more now."
"Really? Why?"

I section her hair into three parts, preparing for a French braid. "I've
tried to keep you away from all the people with cameras who are always
taking pictures of me. And because of that, I haven't been able to take you
many places the way Annie does. I was trying to protect you, because
you're the most important thing to me in this world. You know that, right
baby?" She nods. "But I think by keeping my work life separate from my home life, that hasn't been very fair to you. And I really want to take you out to places like all the other moms and dads do with their kids."
Her eyes widen. "Like Jungkook's art gallery?"

I laugh."Yes, like the art gallery. Or the park. Or Chuck-E-Cheese. And I want to bring you to the stadium when I have a game so you can see all the behind-the-scenes stuff."
She bounces on her bottom, shaking left and right. "Yay!"

Once I steady her, I use my pinkies to hold each strand of the braid as I twist each piece of her hair over the other. "But those people with the cameras, sometimes they can be very rude and not respectful of our personal space."
"The pepperoni?"
My head tilts back as I let out a loud laugh. "The paparazzi, yeah."
"Why are they so rude, Daddy?"
"They get paid for taking photos of us, so they try to get as close as they can to get a good shot. But it can be loud, and the camera flashes a lot. I took Jungkook out to dinner the other night, and they were there."

Concern etches her features. "Was Jungkook scared?"
"No, and I was there to protect him, so everything was okay." My fingers
move down her braid. "I'm going to be hiring a security team to keep us
extra protected too."
"Will the pepperoni hurt us?"
"No. They just get close and it's hard to walk around them to get where
we're going." Her nose scrunches. "Their parents have to teach them some manners."
I chuckle. "Yes, they do."
"So, does this mean we can go to Jungkook's art gallery tomorrow?"
I pull the hair tie from around my wrist and twist it at the end of her
braid to secure it.
"You really like Jungkook, huh?"

She nods vigorously. "You never have friends over the house, especially
pretty ones like Jungkook. And he doesn't treat me like I'm a baby. I like him." Warmth spreads out from my chest. "Me too." She turns her head from side to side and checks out her hair in the mirror, and I suck in another deep breath before dropping an additional piece of information on her. After racking my brain about how I'm going to explain why Jungkook's living with us, I landed on the safest lie.

"jungkook's apartment is undergoing construction, and he needs a place to
stay for a while. Since you like him so much, I wanted to ask you if it's okay
if he comes to stay with us for a while in one of the guest rooms."
Her mouth falls open and her eyes dart to mine. "Wait, really?"
I nod. "Would you like that?"
She squeals her ear-piercing squeal, and she flings herself off the counter. "Yes!"
I laugh as she jumps into my arms. "You really have to stop jumping
around with this broken arm, you little spider monkey."
"Are we going to decorate his room for him?"
"No, I think we'll let him decide how he wants his room to look." I shoot her a wink. "But I do have another idea I think you can help me with."

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