puzzle piece | jeong jaehyun

25

"This is literally all your fault" Yunhui said, giggles leaving her lips as she continued fishing for the keys inside her handbag

"How is you being drunk my fault?" Haechan giggled, pushing her lightly and causing her to stumble which Doyoung eventually rolled his eyes at and decided to look for the keys himself

"Because you bought it for me!" She exclaimed, pointing her finger at him with wide eyes

"Because you said you weren't a lightweight" he argued back, and very cutely so in his drunk state

"I'm—not" she said, her words interrupted with a hiccup making the boys laugh

"Wait—shit—I need to get Hyuk" she said, quickly turning on her heel, losing balance again, before stumbling towards the door across from her. Instead of knocking this time, she pressed the doorbell an annoying amount of times, getting Jaehyun's attention as he placed the dirty plates in the sink after they all had dinner.

"I'm coming" he said, approaching the door as the kids poked their own heads into the hallway from Jinah's room at the sound of the annoying doorbell. He quickly opened to the door to reveal his neighbour who had a dazy smile on her face, opposing the tiredness in his.

"Are you drunk?" He asked and she giggled, bringing up her fingers to pinch the air, trying to convince him she was only a little drunk when she was already quite tipsy. He sighed and looked past her to see her colleagues rejoicing as the keyed her door open, until he heard the faint patters of small feet behind him

"Mommy" Hyuk called out, moving past Jaehyun's legs and approaching his mother with wide arms as she crouched down for him

"Hello baby...did you have a good day today?" She asked and Minhyuk didn't respond, scaring Jaehyun a little bit incase he mentioned their 'adventure'. Instead he just hugged his mother even tighter to show how much he had missed her the whole day.

"Let's go home, go say hi to our guests" she said with a wide smile, watching him hesitate for a split second before running off into the house to check who had come around.

"Thanks for taking care of him—"

"I said I would because you'd be held back in work, not because you'd be out drinking all night" Jaehyun said, an irritated look on his face as he crossed his arms over his chest and her smile slowly faltered

"Alright, relax Dad. It's 8pm and we went for one drink after work—it was a mess at the office—"

"Doesn't seem like it was one drink" Jaehyun interrupted and she groaned, throwing her head back

"It was...one very, very, strong double shot cocktail that tasted like ass—turns out I'm a lot worse at handling my alcohol than I thought I was" she defended with a sigh and looked at him with a pleading expression until he finally sighed, dropping his arms

"Why don't...you come join us for a drink. You know...take the edge off from today?" She said, knowing he seemed more stressed out than usual—which was new for Jaehyun who was usually very laid back. He didn't quite understand how Yunhui could manage to do a whole day of shopping with both the kids and he couldn't even successfully buy a carton of milk with them.

"And Jinah can sleepover—"

"Sleepover?! Daddy are we going for a sleepover?! Please can we go daddy?! Please!" Jinah said, practically jumping down and screaming until he had to shush her down to make sure he didn't seem like a hypocrite to the new neighbours in 4.c.

"See, she wants to" Yunhui said, a lot more easy going than usual. Jaehyun sighed and narrowed his eyes at her before turning back to Jinah.

"Okay, but—"

"Yay! I'm gonna wear my new pyjamas!" She said happily, darting off before Jaehyun could stop her. He sighed and turned his eyes back to Yunhui who now had a playful glint in her eyes

"What?" He asked, and she couldn't exactly tell his non playful mood straight away from her unusual state

"Nothing" she said, a giggle at the end of her statement making Jaehyun raise his brows a little

"Just wondering if I get to see your new pyj—"

"Yunhui, Haechan broke your bottle opener—"

"No I didn't! It just broke on its own!" Haechan defended, cutting Doyoung off. Yunhui shot the boys a quick glare as they interrupted her half drunk and half flirtatious conversation with her neighbour, only to have his door closed when she turned back

"Come on, let's just try the garlic mincer" she said with a huff, stumbling back into her own apartment. And it didn't take much longer for them to find out that a garlic mincer would also 'break on its own', leaving them in a sticky situation with their unopened bottles of cider.

Luckily, the hot neighbour next door—who unfortunately hadn't bothered to change into his pyjamas—brought over a bottle opener along with his daughter that was dressed head to toe with a matching fluffy pink set.

"You're a saviour" Yunhui said, reaching for the metal tool in his hand which he subtly moved further away from her reach, almost leaning into him

"No, I'm just sober" he corrected, looking into her eyes that seemed more relaxed than usual

"Well...not for long" she said, cracking a smile and reaching for it again. Jaehyun shook his head with the ghost of a smile creeping on his lips.

"I'm gonna check up on the kids for a bit" he said to her quickly, turning around first to great her friends out of respect—who all looked at him as if they knew something he didn't

"Jaehyun right? We've heard a lot about you" Taeyong smiled, Doyoung nudging him almost to not blow their cover

"All good things I hope" Jaehyun said with a nervous chuckle, seeing the attention shift to him

"Keep hoping, it's Yunhui we're talking about here" Haechan said, poking fun at his senior when she didn't have the chance to hear him. Jaehyun let out a light laugh knowing exactly what he was talking about.

"I'll be back in a bit" Jaehyun said to them, bowing a little before turning to walk down the dark hallway and leading Jinah to Hyuk's room as she hid behind his legs