earning it back // chaelisa

chapter 13: turn the light down part one

It's Jake who gets the door, only a few moments after Chaeyoung knocks.

As a true gentleman, he opens the door fully and lets her inside, before closing it behind them – except he's little over three feet tall and has to get to his tiptoes to reach the doorknob. Lisa's upbringing shines through him, all good manners and politeness, and Chaeyoung can't help but smile as she crouches down for a hug she knows is coming.

He's been a hugger lately. Every time he sees someone he likes, he goes for a hug – it's something they started doing in his daycare, and Chaeyoung is more than happy to oblige. And sure enough, his tiny arms wrap around her neck in an awkward kid-like embrace, his shoulder finding her windpipe way too easily. But Chaeyoung holds back a cough and wrap her arms around his tiny body, tugging him closer.

"Mama, it's Chaeyoung!" he shouts towards the stairs the moment they part, almost shattering Chaeyoung's eardrum. She straightens up, taking a moment to gather her bearings, only to find Jake looking her up and down, with a distraught expression. "You look funny."

Well. Funny isn't really the look Chaeyoung was going for.

It took her longer than she's willing to admit to settle for an outfit, her bedroom currently looking like a scene straight out of a hurricane movie. Clothes are thrown on the bed, all over the flood, most of them inside out after she had tried them on and discarded them. But Chaeyoung gets his point – with high heels, a red dress that leaves the gals out and about and a full face of makeup, complete with smoky eyes and heavy eyeliner, Chaeyoung is a far cry from jeans and bare face that Jake has grown used to.

"It's because your mom and I are going out," Chaeyoung says, booping him under the chin with her knuckle. It does nothing to help with the pouting he has going on. If anything, it only makes it grow deeper.

"To a grown up place I can't go," Jake says with a sigh, as if it's something that's been repeated to him so many times that he just accepted it. But he still crosses his arms. "I don't like it. I wanna go too."

There's no fake ID powerful enough to allow a four year old to get into a club. He might be smart for his age, but he absolutely does not look twenty one. Chaeyoung makes a mental note to take both Lisa and Jake out next weekend – because, if things go right, Chaeyoung and Lisa will both be absolutely beat this weekend, and need all of Sunday to recover. Maybe to the planetarium, Jake has been loving learning about new stars and celestial bodies lately.

"But you get to have a sleepover!" Chaeyoung says, with all the enthusiasm possible. It is a pretty thrilling experience when you're that young. "Are you excited?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" His face shifts from near braty to his usual smiling self, each yes accompanied by a hop, his hands clutched tight near his chest. "Auntie Jisoo said we can watch movies all night and eat snacks and pizza and not sleep."

It does sound like something Jisoo would promise and fully plan on carrying out, "Are you sure your mom is okay with that?"

"Oh!" Jake stops hopping and his eyes go wide as he looks behind him to make sure his mom isn't going down the stairs. Then, in true theatrical fashion, he goes a 'come closer' gesture with his index finger until Chaeyoung bends down so he can whisper in her ear. "It'll be our secret!"

His whisper is barely low enough for it to not carry all the way upstairs, but Chaeyoung nods, a silence promise that she'll take it to her grave.

As if on cue, Lisa's voice booms from the stairs, "No, it won't." Both Chaeyoung and Jake look up at the landing, where Lisa is slowly making her way down while hooking an earring on her ear and staring at them like they're the deers and she's the headlight. "You'll be in bed one hour after your bedtime, and that's all the extra time you're getting."