Deer Godess

35

Everyone must admit, Chaeyoung had a talent to handle meat (Momo could attest to that,but not the point), her dry aging experiment was delicious, and dinner had been filled with compliments to the small photographer, grunts and moans of satisfaction and a lot of cutlery clinking against the dishes. Until Jihyo deemed everyone relaxed enough to speak up, she knew there was something up when Dahyun called asking to meet up, the woman's voice carried a lot of weight.

"So, I think I'm pregnant again." Jihyo decides to just blurt it out.

"You what now?" Jaebum asked, a moment too long after he heard it.

"I think I'm pregnant again." She repeats, looking at her husband with eyes dripping love and a big smile.

"You are. But still go in for the tests." Tzuyu says, taking a break from her plate.

"So you were behind it." Not a question, Jihyo had already considered it after all.

"Yes and no. Sana asked, I granted." The goddess shrugs simply and goes back to eating.

Chaeyoung and Momo just keep minding their dinner, whilst the rest of the family is looking at Jihyo and beaming with happiness, the two girls just smiled at each other, Mina gave her friend a big hug and murmured 'I told you so' before both went back to eating their especially delicious meal. Nayeon, dear Nayeon, started tearing up, and there was this mix of pure happiness and sheer terror in her eyes.

"Yeonnie, you alright there?" Dahyun asked, worried her wife might have broken down.

"I'm alright, but we should talk about this after dinner, don't mind me and keep eating." The older woman waves their worries off and starts eating again, her face still a storm.

Once finished, they ask Tzuyu and Elkie to play with the girls in Sana's room, Jihyo goes the extra mile and asks the goddess to soundproof the child's room, to make sure nothing they were talking about could be heard. Both deities already knew of everything that was about to happen, and agreed easily, it was better if the girls were kept out, afterall. Nayeon starts talking the moment she hears the door close.

"Alright, so mother is after you."

"Who is after who now?" Chaeyoung asks for confirmation.

"Old lady Im decided to have Jaebum and his family gone for good." Dahyun clarifies. "She has just lost her last connection with the company and is getting desperate."

"And why would she come for us now? It's been years, I don't even have the last name anymore, there is nothing between her and I." The man in question rages a little, held in place by his wife.

"I know." Nayeon's voice is small with a tinge of sadness. "She thinks I'm going to bring you back in and restore you to your rightful place."

"And why would she think that?" He questions again, tamer this time.

"Because I am bringing you back. If you want, I mean." The younger Im explains. "Sana is already a legal heir, and I will include your second child as soon as they are born. But I want to know if you and Jihyo want to take any part in the company, if not, I'm just writing you two off as beneficiaries and let you keep going as you were."

"Ookaaayy.... And why are you doing any of this?" Jihyo asks, really taken aback by it all.

"Because, Jihyo, I know the mistake I made was just too grave and I've been trying to make things right. For that, I spent my years removing every last trace of father from that company before I could bring you all in."

"And how did you manage that, exactly?" Jaebum is interested now.

"Easy, I began from the bottom. When you walked out, father wasn't that happy about me being the one to take over, so he made me start off as the coffee girl and get to the top by myself." Nayeon has a small smile as she recalls. "And start from the bottom I did. Father never really valued his employees, just the profit they could bring him, so I became friends with each and every one of them on my way up, then did the same when he would send me away to another unit just to start over. Im Corp is on the palm of my hand, and mother might have heard it from one of her informants."

"I thought you said you have the company freed from their influence." Momo chimes in.

"Oh, we do. You see, getting rid of her lackeys inside would only be a bother, she would sneak in new ones and we would go through the trouble of spoon feeding them information all over again." Jackson clarifies. "It's not difficult, but it's tiring to start from the beginning each time. It's a very tedious process, you see."

"That... Makes a lot of sense, really." Jaebum grants, scratching his head a little. "But what are the plans now, Nay?"

The familiarity she was addressed with makes Nayeon lose it there for a minute. Dahyun holds her hand a little tighter and waits until her wife is over the shock. None of them were expecting it, well, none but Jihyo who had been talking things through with her husband for a while. Momo, Chaeyoung and Youngjae look on with soft, satisfied smiles on their lips, Nayeon looks like she is about to start crying and Dahyun and Jackson look slightly panicked by the possibility.

Upstairs, the gods had been talking as well, the difference is, they didn't need words and could keep playing with the girls, pay attention to what was happening downstairs and talk to each other without much effort. Gucci had it the easiest, Tzuyu had been reconsidering this whole humanoid thing..... Until she caught a particular thought from Jihyo and another similar one from Jaebum, which made the deity certain that showing up to Sana had been one of the best choices she could have made.

Elkie felt an overwhelming endearment for the humans her wife had decided to bless, they had been away from humankind for centuries, and she had forgotten how it feels to be revered by good ones. It was in their nature to feel captivated by these creatures, but, every now and then, the gods would come across some who were worth their blessing, and Tzuyu seems to have found herself a handful of them.

The gods had agreed to return to their realm soon, Elkie promised they would return once the little one would be born. Tzuyu did try to argue and stay, but Gucci made a good point when he reminded her their time was different from the humans', what would be months for them should be a mere blink for the deities.