Deer Godess

31

Jihyo and Jaebum wouldn't say they were welcoming Nayeon into their lives already, but it's been a couple of months now, and they had to admit the woman was doing her very best to show them she was very regretful about her past self and had grown into a whole new person, who knew exactly where she stood. So, the couple had told her they were alright with her visiting now, it was no walk in the park, don't get them wrong, but Sana, Mina and Jackson weren't being separated in this lifetime and they might as well just start dealing with the Imcident already.

And that brings us here, to a lovely afternoon, the kids were playing in the front yard with Jackson (Tzuyu had vanished again, she'd been doing that lately), Momo and Jihyo were about to arrive from their shift with the meat for the barbecue, Youngjae was running late with the drinks as always, Chaeyoung was battling the grill and refusing any help claiming 'she got this' (she didn't, but they just left her to it). All of these activities bring us to Jaebum and Nayeon, sitting on the porch of the Parks house, each the furthest away from the other as they sat on the weirdly comfy bamboo loveseat placed there.

"I don't really hate you, you know." Jaebum sighs, seeing how his sister was at the edge of breaking into tears, it was interesting how he still knew her after so long. "I do resent you, and I can't just let you slide for what you did to Jihyo, but I don't hate you."

There is a moment's pause, and then some loud sobbing. He knew Nayeon would break down as soon as he spoke up, but can you blame the man for hoping she had grown out of her habit of crying about just everything?! The woman started rambling something nobody but herself could really understand, all Jaebum got were bits and pieces of not knowing something, a discovery, something about Dahyun and horse gear (he really didn't want to know about that one), and just more incoherent rambling.

"You are lucky Jackson got the girls wrapped around his finger, or this would be much worse than just Nayeon ugly crying." A voice comes from beside them.

Both turn, surprised, to see that Momo and Jihyo had arrived, the taller woman looking like she was already showered, if the hawaian shirt, short shorts and flipflops were anything to go by. Jihyo was still in her work clothes, they really didn't wear scrubs out of the hospital, but the clothes they wore to get there and back had that 'I won't hesitate to restrain you' aura in them.

"Oh, hey love. Hi Ji." Jaebum jokes, getting up to hug Momo before kissing his wife welcome.

"You two be careful now, I will not hesitate to take Chaeng and Sana and run away." Jihyo mocks, accepting her husband's hug. "And you know they would come with me in a heartbeat."

"That, I can't deny." Momo chuckles. "How about you take Nayeon inside, she's still ugly crying. I'm sure Ji won't mind using Sana's shower so you two can talk better."

"I sure won't, just let me get a change of clothes and I'll leave you two to it." The nurse places a soft kiss to Jaebum's cheek and pats Nayeon's shoulder as she goes inside.

Momo makes herself busy with the supplies they had just bought, there were some things Jihyo had picked up for her own house, as they were already in the supermarket, so she decided to start by putting those away while the woman finished her shower. While the others were busy with their own activities, the siblings found themselves in Jihyo and Jaebum's bedroom, much like the rest of the house, it was very homey but still humble, which brought a sad smile to Nayeon's lips.

"Don't go on pitying me now." The man knew what his sister was thinking.

"I'm not, I'm pitying myself." She lets out a bitter chuckle. "You are happy, truly happy, and my idiotic and selfish self had thought you would be miserable when you saw what you were losing when you left. But I was the only one losing anything."

"I blame myself for part of it." He's caught the woman's interest. "Don't look like that, I raised you. It's normal that I feel responsible about how you turned up, despite my best efforts."

"I'll have you know, the brat was mother's fault. Don't be too hard on yourself, you made me the woman you see today."

"It's a relief to know that, I questioned my skills as a father a lot, when Sana came into our lives. It took Jihyo a lot to help me through the doubts, and she was pregnant too."

Nayeon feels like she just got punched in the gut, she really preferred if that was the case. Sure, she knew what she did was the lowest, but she never really grasped the full ramifications of her decisions, it came as a little part of her dying when she heard that. To think a great man and an amazing father like Jaebum doubet he was anything less than the best, because of her own selfishness and her own inability to accept he wasn't her property back then.

"No crying." He reprimanded before she could let the first tear out. "You lost that right when you chose to do what you did."

The woman finches, not that she wasn't expecting it, but the tone Jaebum spoke on sent a chill down her spine and she felt her heart clench and her stomach turn in the worst way she had ever felt in her life. He was hurt, resentful and ultimately hollow, all the years of unspoken feelings seeping through every word that came out of his mouth, an unbelieving and slightly disgusted expression playing on his features.

"I-"

"You don't have to say 'sorry' again." He cuts in. "I know you regret it, you've been showing it enough. And it does show that you are trying."

"That I really am." Nayeon lets out a bitter chuckle.

"You do know you have to work things out with Jihyo too, right? I will not hesitate to throw you all out if she says so." Jaebum turns to look at his sister at that. "I know Sana would be sad and all, but trust me when I say, she would get over it and you would never catch a single glimpse of us again."

There was so much truth and so much finality to her brother's words that the lump in her throat felt like a basketball, and didn't feel to be going away so easy this time.

"Take your time, I don't want the girls seeing you like that. The bathroom is that door over there." Jaebum says, getting up and pointing to the other door in the room. "If you feel like a shower, take whatever clothes you want, and there are towels in there. I'll leave you to it now."

With that, Nayeon is left by herself, she finally lets the waterworks begin, Jaebum was right, she had no right to cry for what she did, but was very grateful that he could see through her so easily and gave her the time to do it regardless. Her big brother was always looking after her, even after everything, and she couldn't possibly ask for a better man to have her back, Jackson got pretty close, don't get her wrong, but that was her son and she was the one to have his back (stubborn and nonsensical, but this is Nayeon, remember?!).