BABY MAMA | pjm

LIX

ACT XII | SCENE LIX

❝RESPONSIBILITY❞

THE CONFERENCE ROOM was freezing. or maybe it was just jimin who felt he was sitting in a subzero room. his gaze shot to his father who sat to his left at the head of the table. the older man had an unreadable steely expression on his face and gave away absolutely nothing. a skill he constantly reminded jimin that he needed to master. he wasn't going to deny he was severely lacking compared to his capable father.

he scanned the room full of old men, trying to figure out what they were all thinking but failing. they were mostly stoic, making it difficult for jimin to predict what direction the meeting would go. it made his heart thump painfully against his chest. all their faces were hard and straight, it didn't help the chill he was feeling from within.

he twisted his rings around, taking a sharp intake of breath. he was starting to get annoyed with himself for being so apprehensive about the whole situation. this was bound to happen and he had been expecting it. he should be confident like myungsoo always taught him. so what if they were here to talk about his baby mama? it wasn't like a good number of the men in that room didn't have mistresses with an illegitimate son or daughter hidden somewhere. even though he didn't pay attention to rumours, that didn't stop them from floating by his ears every now and again. and here they were coming to judge him.

yet his father had pointed out one crucial issue. if you can't take responsibility for your private life, then how can they put the business and the lives of the several people that work for us in your hands with confidence? these men, no matter how much philandering they did, always seemed to manage it well. but he hadn't been able to for a long while. it was still a bit of a mess if he was being honest.

"since we're all present here, the meeting may begin." myungsoo announced, pulling jimin out of his thoughts. he breathed in deeply, preparing himself for a possible onslaught. one of the older men in the room cleared his throat and leaned forward toward the microphone in front of him. "this board has been called to order to address the issue of the news which has been spreading around the corporation." he began steadily. "it is regarding director park jimin fathering a child outside wedlock."

the room was immediately filled with mutterings as though the board had no prior knowledge of the reason the impromptu meeting had been called. jimin glanced at his father again, still amazed at how impassive his face remained. he could only hope his expression - or lack thereof - was even half as good as the older man's. the man who had spoken - jimin remembered his name was choi gijoon - cleared his throat to quiet down the room.

"firstly, we need confirmation of the truth or otherwise of this rumour." he continued, pinning jimin with hard brown eyes. gaze shooting to his father again momentarily, he saw that he was already looking at him and had no intentions of offering any form of help at the moment. pulling at the cuff of his jacket sleeves, he leaned forward in his chair which felt like it was made of ice. "the rumours are true. i do have a child." he kept his voice crisp, clear. once again, the room was filled with subdued chatter. he waited, offering nothing more until they had questions.

gijoon repeated his previous action and the room became quiet once again. "how old is this child? who is the mother? and what intentions do the both of you have?" he queried, clearly asking some of the questions that had been passed around in the momentary muttering. jimin's brows went up. "those are personal questions." he simply replied, feeling his nervousness metamorphose into slight irritation. "you should be well aware, director park, that your private life can affect the business."

"with all due respect, i do not see how the age of my daughter or the identity of her mother would affect dk group's stocks and shares." jimin replied, exerting energy to keep the annoyance out of his voice. the men looked taken aback by his response, the room dead silent for a good minute. the man next to gijoon - whose name jimin could not care to recall - whispered something in the other man's ear. "but the identity of the mother does matter. her character and background may affect us negatively or positively. she may be even be from one of our rival companies." gijoon finally said. "i can assure you that she is a respectable and principled woman and she has no interest whatsoever ever in dk group."

the murmurs resumed and jimin was sure he heard someone scoff at his choice of words. his nostrils flared and eyes became hard, daring any one of the men to make a contrary opinion of jangmi. none of them did. even with his usually soft harmless appearance, something about him appeared intimidating in that moment.

"do you have any more questions that are of importance?" he scanned the room. they were all stunned silent. finally gijoon spoke up. "how do you intend to subdue the issue were it to come out as a scandal? are you going to take responsibility for making your child legitimate?"

☀️☀️☀️

more sort of jimin pov for y'all. also more open ended chapters haha.
++my test got cancelled and i didn't study for it so my life's going great rn lmao.
what do you think jimin's answer to the question will be?