puzzle piece | jeong jaehyun

35

"Thank you for everything, Jaehyun...seriously" Yunhui said with a smile as she relaxed her body by the cold metal wall of the elevator

"I'm not done" Jaehyun said with a soft smile, placing his phone back in his pocket before ruffling Minhyuk's head

"Do you guys want some pancakes?" He asked with an excited smile and Jinah couldn't help but to jump up and down in the elevator, making Minhyuk grab onto Yunhui's leg incase the plummeted down

"My daddy makes really good pancakes!" Jinah said, looking at Minhyuk with wide eyes

"No, you're doing too much. You don't need to—"

"I want to." Jaehyun interrupted, his words soft but firm. Her lips remained parted, ghosts of the words she had wanted to say out loud being muted—but a silent understanding was formed with the way his eyes met hers.

"So pancakes?" He asked, the corners of his lips tugging his smile wider and she eventually breathed out, a relaxed smile, an incredibly grateful one at that, on her face

"Pancakes would be great" she said and he smiled

"Alright, pancakes it is." Jaehyun decided ultimately

"Can you make mine a teddy bear? With the chocolate eyes and nose?" Jinah asked, tugging on his jumped excitedly and he smiled down at her

"Of course. What pancakes does Hyuk want—wait...let me guess. Dino pancakes?" Jaehyun asked with a hum and smiling immediately when the boy's face lit up

"You can do that?" Hyuk asked, looking between his mother and Jaehyun, wondering why he had never heard of such a meal before

"I can do anything" Jaehyun said with a proud smile, his eyes turning to Yunhui who remained leaning against the wall of the elevator, her face relaxing as she heard the soft conversation between the three.

She couldn't remember the last time someone other than her gave much of a thought to Minhyuk. Let alone remember that dinosaurs were his roman empire.

"Hey, lets go" Jaehyun said, waking her up from her deep thoughts as the doors opened. She hummed, taking a second to adjust back to reality before she saw Jaehyun walking towards his apartment door, each hand holding one kid.

Yunhui followed slowly behind, letting herself in last and respectfully taking her shoes off by the door, moving Hyuk's shoes to make sure they were straight as well—and eventually fixing Jaehyun and Jinah's too. She took another few seconds just standing there, viewing the four pairs of shoes in a line together.

Things shouldn't be this natural.

She didn't have much time to think as she heard the sound of a stove top turning on, making her way in and observing all the items in the fairly clean hour for a man with a five year old. She saw the two kids huddled together on the cloud-like couch, as Jinah started to being out her toys. Yunhui walked towards the kitchen, seeing Jaehyun break a few eggs into the batter he was preparing in a bowl.

"Need any help?" She asked and he turned around with a small smile on his lips, his face not showing one ounce of stress or regret for his lack of sleep last night.

"Yes...I need you to go into the living room and mind the kids" He said, watching her shrug and move towards the pan that was heating up to add a slice of butter

"The kids are fine, let me help—"

"What did I just say?" He asked, stopping her hand that held the butterknife and she turned to him with a sigh

"But—"

"You can help by sitting over there" He said with a chuckle, pulling it away from her fingers and she groaned

"Just so you know...I'm completely fine" she said, placing her hands on her lips and he raised his brows at her with an amused look

"I'm perfectly fine to cook and do...things. Just because I had a rough night doesn't make me any less capable of being a parent" she said with a huff, feeling helpless

"I never say you aren't" he said with a light chuckle, shaking his head at her childish frown

"Okay well...as long as we're on the same page about that..." she said with a smaller voice, wrapping her cardigan closer against her torso

"We are." He said, turning back to the pan

"And since you're practically begging, I'm going to go sit down on the couch now." She said, making him well aware that she was only doing this as a favour to him—even though the situation was simply quite the opposite

"Have fun." Jaehyun hummed, focusing on cooking up the pancake batter instead as he heard her turn with a little huff, her feet tapping away against the wood as she left to situate herself on the cloud couch.

It didn't take Jaehyun much longer to return, balancing two plates on his hands and Yunhui finished up a phone call with her boss, pleading for the next few days off work so she could keep a close eye on Minhyuk.

"Pancakes!" Jinah shouted loudly, making Yunhui and Jaehyun both shush her quickly, trying to not get Yunhui in more trouble with her boss

"Okay, thank you so much. I'll email it to Doyoung tonight" she said, hanging up the phone eventually, turning towards Jaehyun who had already seated himself by the floor with the kids. Their plate of pancakes in small bite size pieces of their preferred shapes decorated around numerous fruits, syrups and cream, while a more basic plate remained untouched.

"Are you not eating?" Yunhui asked, a concerned expression on her face as she moved to the floor as well, taking the knife and fork in her hands

"Uh...I thought we could just share" he said simply with a sheepish smile. Yunhui narrowed her eyes at him, watching him make sure the kids ate before she let out a scoff in realisation

"You only have two plates don't you?" She asked, shaking her head in disapproval and Jaehyun snapped his head over to her

"Mind you, I only moved in like two months ago...and I don't exactly invite anyone over for dinner so..." Jaehyun trailed off lightly at the end, scratching the nape of his neck as he realised he may have just overshared how dry his dating life was

"Okay well regardless you—is this the only cutlery you have too?!" She said, noticing how there was also one knife and fork brought out

"Like I said, no one's coming for dinner so—"

"You are such a man." She said, unintentionally shooting down his admission of being single and lonely. She stood up to her feet, making the three of them look up at her as she rushed towards the kitchen

"One coffee mug, two bowls—oh and you have three glasses—that's improvement I guess—ONE FRYING PAN?!" She screamed from the kitchen in horror and he squeezed his eyes shut, turning to Minhyuk slowly

"Is she always like this?" He asked with a sigh, only for the boy to slowly nod. Jaehyun broke into a small smile, turning back towards the girl as she walked back out with her hands on her hips, looking down on him

"Seriously, how can you live like this?" She asked, shaking her head at him and ignoring the scoff that left his lips in disbelief

"How many toilet rolls do you even have?" She asked, cocking her head to the side

"Uh...I don't know like...two—"

"Okay that's it. Kids get up." She said, her hand ushering for them all to stand up, which they did immediately

"Where are we going?" Jinah asked, a smile on her face

"Ikea."