the best things / jungri

v. 3+1=4

quick recap of previous chapter ‼️ jungkook finds out that he has a child with yeri, seulgi and yeri tries to figure out his intentions and why he came back, and yeri tells jungkook to go to his apartment at six to meet mira

Yeri was going to burn a path in the carpet, but she was too jittery to stop pacing and sit still.

Earlier in the day, after giving Jungkook her address, she had left him without another word: one because she was busy and two because she didn't want to waste further energy dwelling on her emotions.

Except after a day of drowning herself with work, it was coming back to bite her ass.

Her mind couldn't stop spinning wild scenarios. What if Jungkook didn't like Mira or thought she was an ugly rat? What if because of her appearance, he decided he wanted nothing to do with Mira Scientifically speaking, Yeri wasn't sure whether a father was capable of feeling that, but nonetheless, sweat prickled the base of her neck and her stomach twisted into complex knots. She was scared for Mira, who could possibly grow up without her biological Dad. How would she explain this to her in the future? That the man who shared her blood and helped conceive her decided she wasn't worth it?

"Not going to lie, you pacing back and forth is probably the most exercise you've gotten in months," Seulgi teased as she blew a raspberry against Mira's chubby cheeks. The baby was sitting on her lap, happily yanking on a fistful of hair, oblivious to the fact that her life was going to change in about ten minutes.

"Should I be thanking Jungkook?" Yeri's voice dripped with sarcasm.

Lightly tickling Mira's stomach, Seulgi laughed. "It's fine to be nervous, but don't worry too much. I'm here for emotional support, remember? I'll make sure he understands how much he fucked up."

Yeri exhaled. Seulgi was right; she was being irrational.

Despite her attempts to calm down, though, when the doorbell rang, Yeri almost jumped out of her skin. Wiping the cold sweat from her hands, she slowly made her way to the entrance. When Seulgi flashed her a thumbs up, she gathered up her courage and opened the door.

Jungkook was standing on the other side, one hand holding a small teddy bear, the other rubbing the nape of his neck. He had a black cap pulled low over his eyes, but Yeri could still see the way his mouth twisted into an uncertain and timid smile. "Hey," he greeted.

See, everything is relatively normal.

She gestured at her apartment, moving aside to make room for him. "Come in."

Tentatively stepping inside, Jungkook scanned the small space, eyes darting from the shoe rack to the beige loveseat to the fake ivies framing the single window in the living room. He opened his mouth as if to speak when Yeri pointed at his shoes; looking like a child getting caught for stealing cookies from the jar at midnight, he kicked off his sneakers, hesitantly pulling off his cap and bunching it in his hands, hair matted to his scalp with sweat.

Huh, why did he suddenly look so lost?

Yeri's heart unwillingly lurched and she grimaced, pointing at the hardwood floors. "I don't have time to clean this every week."

He quickly shook his head. "No, you're fine. It was my fault..." After a few seconds of excruciatingly heavy silence, he tilted his head, saying, "Your apartment is nice."

She closed the door. "Thanks, but I barely decorated it, so there's no need for pretty words."

Shaking his head, he claimed, "I'm being serious." He pointed to the numerous posters of book characters, plastering a whole section of the living room. She had read about them when she was younger and never had the heart to let the pictures go. "I remember almost falling on top of one of them, and you freaked out. It was funny." He smiled. "Your apartment is simple, but so you."