Worlds Apart - Taekook - Book 2

Chapter 296 - Shaky Foundations

"Enjoying the peace and quiet?"

Yejoon closes his eyes briefly and nods his head at his friend as they enjoy a drink together, having found a peaceful part of the lower deck. "Ki-Joon and Si-Jin are great kids but I'd forgotten how much work they take."

"Are you sure that having Sukmin at yours is okay? We can get a hotel or..."

Yejoon raises his hand, "Billy, stop! We have the room for him to stay and you will be joining him soon. We know very well what building renovations are like and they rarely run to the schedule originally set. When it runs over, you and Marie do not need the inconvenience of finding another hotel and Sukmin would be better off with a stable arrangement. He's a great kid."

"He is. He's not one hundred per cent himself today. I don't know if the wedding is some kind of trigger for a bad past memory? It's difficult when we have no idea what happened and when? You are right about the uncertainty."

"You are doing the best that you can do, which is all that we can do as parents." Yejoon gifts his friend the reassurance that he so often needs. Parenting is tough, even with children who are biologically connected and he always wants the diner owner to know that doing his best is part of the job.

"I think Sukmin is younger than his actual age but I find him easier to cope with than the two little ones. If we are ever going to take other children in, I hope that Marie doesn't have her heart set on small people."

Yejoon laughs and raises his beer, "Oh definitely! jara and Kyong are raising two well behaved boys but I have never been more thankful that my two are all grown up. Taehyung won't be giving me grandchildren and that's way off in the future for Heeju, so I have time."

"We could always escape to Ma-Ohi when it all gets too much? We could ask them to install a golf course? I think JK and Taehyung might be out there quite often when more little ones join the family. JK loves his nephews but he escapes quickly. Ash is a good man but I think he still has a lot of life to experience and some growing up to do."

"And Taehyung simply doesn't like kids. He's always been like that. From a young age he stated he didn't want to be an Appa. I don't know why? I used to think it was because he is gay and society doesn't really accept his relationships so I considered whether not wanting to have children was his defence mechanism? But over the years I have seen him interact with small children and I can see that he doesn't like small humans."

Billy nearly makes an error when swallowing his beer as he hears the last sentence but he manages to avoid choking. "JK likes kids but he told me that he doesn't want to share Taehyung!"

"Jungkook said that?" Yejoon is surprised. He didn't ever doubt Jungkook's feelings for his son but he knew that Taehyung could be quite sensitive and Jungkook mostly internalised his feelings so it always appeared that the needy one was his Son. After hearing what Billy said, he shakes his head, "Jungkook really said that? Wow!"

Billy gives a breathy laugh, "Yeah, he did. The things he comes out with sometimes! I know what you're thinking... when you see them together, JK always appears so 'unbothered?'"

"I wouldn't say 'unbothered'... Umm... 'emotionally stronger'... perhaps? Taehyung pines in public, like a lost puppy. We've never seen that side of him. He's usually so professional. He would allow the professionalism to drop when he was with us and when Heeju was around he didn't get a lot of choice because she provokes him until he's regressed twenty years..." he huffs, an attempt to portray annoyance but meant in jest as he likes nothing more than having his family all together, even if his adult children are bickering like they were under ten again.

"What about men he's dated in the past, before JK?"

"None stand out..." Yejoon taps his beer as he thinks, "... there was one guy who Jimin set him up with. I think that lasted longer than others but we didn't really meet him properly. We've seen him at events with dates and made small talk with a few but... oh there was one we had hope for... the owner of a hotel chain in Europe, he was keen on Taehyung and we thought that he was staying with him when he flew off to business meetings but I think that was wishful thinking on our part. He was a nice guy, I knew his family through business links. Taehyung always preferred those agencies for dates though... I never did understand that?"