Deer Godess

30

"Minnie!" Jihyo greets as she opens the door. "Oh, hey, Hyun."

"Hey, Hyo. Thanks for watching Mina for the weekend." Coming inside and kicking her shoes off.

"No problem, we love having her over. Plus, you are the one having lunch with Nayeon's mother, I think that's punishment enough for the month."

"Please don't remind me." The shorter woman huffs. "But we have to take some employees out for barbecue tonight, so there's that."

"And Jackson didn't want to stay with Mina?"

"He has a date? I'm not sure, didn't even know he was seeing someone."

"Oh, they have been talking for a few weeks, seems like it's their first real date, if you don't count rushed lunches and a few rides home." Jihyo throws nonchalantly.

"And how is it that you know of my son's dating life more than I do?"

"That's because he came to us with his worries a few times. Hey, Hyun, Minnie is already in Sana's room and Tzu has been MIA today." Jaebum greets as he passes the living room, heading out to work.

"Hey Jae, have a nice day at work." Dahyun greets back.

"I will, knowing you two are having lunch with the old hag has me in a great mood since your call last night." He says, waving goodbye, and leaving.

"You two are loving this, aren't you?!"

"You have no idea. We get happy every time we know you two have to deal with that woman. It's spiritually healing." Jihyo offers.

"Alright, Imma head out and try to get my wife calm and controlled enough so we can get to the restaurant."

"It's, like, eight? In the morning?"

"I know, I'm already running late as it is."

Both women laugh, they had been holding less and less of a grudge against Dahyun as they had been interacting more. Sure, Nayeon was still working for it, but Dahyun was out of the undesirable list already, they even found her funny every now and then. After the stunt Nayeon had pulled last sunday, old lady Im decided she wanted to probe more, and the couple had to call everybody back to coordinate stories and keep the façade. Suffice to say, now they had to take the team to a brazillian steakhouse for the evening, not that either minded, though.

"Oh, did you remember to pack Minnie's swimming suit?"

"Shoot, forgot!" Dahyun looks really apologetic.

"Don't worry, she can go with one of Sana's. Jae is taking them to the waterpark tomorrow, Momo and I are working morning and afternoon, and Chae has some revelation tea thing, so we thought it would be easier to take them out."

"Oh, yeah, Chae told me. I must be really getting old, these things the young ones come up with make no sense to me." The smaller woman laments.

"Chaeng said the couple is older than Jae, though." Jihyo lets out a bark of laughter at the face she receives in answer. "I don't know what you people do in the high society, but if Chae is getting paid, no complaints here."

"Oh, don't lump me with those weirdos." Dahyun chuckles. "I'm not throwing any of those 'let me show you how I throw my money away' parties."

"Says the woman who thinks driving a purple five-hundred with yellow bumpers is 'hip and cool'."

"You love my car and you know it, a little less envy would be good for your soul, mrs Park."

"Alright, go back to calming your wife for the lunch with the in-law."

"You love rubbing salt, don't you?!"

"Your wife did me the favor of never having to see that woman in my life. That's about the one thing I thank her for." Jihyo says with the ghost of a smile on her lips.

"Okay, that gave me the energy I needed. I mean, I knew you were a softie, but this was something else." Dahyun says when she is a safe distance from the other.

"You know what, I might just pray for Gucci. Watch your back, Im."

"Like you didn't just reveal yourself a teddy bear, Park." Dahyun hurriedly enters her car and leaves after that.

Jihyo chuckles and goes back inside, she was about to start preparing the ingredients for lunch and try to plan what she would make for the group to take to the water park the next day, she was hoping to get Jaebum to go shopping on his way home. Mina and Sana were running around the house with Gucci, and Tzuyu was still nowhere to be seen, but seemed to still be committed to giving the girls whatever they wanted, asboth had ran through the kitchen with some power rangers helmets she was certain she never bought and Dahyun certainly didn't bring.

"Tzuyu, you better show up." The woman speaks into the empty kitchen in an increasingly calm voice.

"Hey, Ji. What's up?" The goddess pops her head through the kitchen ceiling.

"Where have you been all day?"

"I was walking around and exploring town. Missed me?"

"You know, go back to wherever you were."

"C'mon Ji, stop being like that. You know you love me." Tzuyu taunts, she knows Jihyo was just worried about her, and is in no danger at the moment.

"I always worry when you are not in my line of sight. What are you doing?" Jihyo asks while being cuddled by the deity.

"Sure sure. Now be quiet and let me cuddle you." The goddess says as she tugs the nurse a little closer. "Everyone knows you are just a teddy bear and wants to be cuddled."

"You are lucky the girls are home, and I don't want them learning how to dismember a body yet."

Tzuyu chuckles at that, but doesn't release her hold. Jihyo huffs, trying to look annoyed, but fooling nobody, they remain like that, as the goddess knew she had already finished everything there was to do and the girls were playing peacefully somewhere in the house. Gucci was looking after the kids, Jihyo could let herself be pampered for a while.

With a soft smile, Tzuyu moves both to the couch, her mind still occupied by the familiar presence that had been calling for her for a while now. The presence had only grown stronger and she needed to find it. Maybe the time away from the feeling made her a little rusty on pinpointing it, but she was certain it was near, so close she could feel it all around her and it made her entire self ache for it.