“Tokki-ya,” Jin interrupts calmly. His hand disappears from my hip and comes up instead to cup my cheek. “Breathe. Just tell me what it is.”
“Right,” I exhale. “Okay. I’m…with child.”
It’s possibly the weirdest pregnancy announcement known to man, but I can’t bring myself to say the P word just yet.
Right now, it’s all I can do to keep from spewing more sick across the bedsheets. My heart feels like it’s leaped into my throat and a thousand more thoughts form thinking about our future.
The huge change that this’ll be for us both.
Silence meets my confession. But I don’t need any light or sound in the room to confirm I’m still under Jin’s study—his gaze is palpable and so is the energy he exudes. Though that doesn’t make it any easier to pick up on how he’s taking the news.
Is he upset? Angry? Nervous? Over the moon?
My mind spirals, then my mouth opens and I find myself rambling again.
“I know this wasn’t the plan. We’re not even married yet, and we haven’t set a wedding date, and your life is so complicated with the Baekho Pa and everything that’s happening with the Bulgeomhoe, and bringing a baby into all of this is probably the last thing you need right now.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen. My IUD is supposed to be 99% effective, but obviously we’re part of that freak 1%, which is so on brand for us, right? Anyway, if you feel like you’re not?—”
“Tokki-ya,” he says simply. “Stop. Breathe, remember?”
I snap my mouth shut, my pulse racing.
Jin is quiet for a moment longer, then he’s stroking my cheek some more. “I’m surprised. I won’t pretend otherwise,” he says. “This is... unexpected.”
My stomach drops. “Jin?—”
“But,” he continues, his thumb stroking along my cheekbone, “I’m in love with you. You know this. Which means I want this baby.Ourbaby.”
The breath I didn’t realize I was holding rushes out of me all at once. It sounds a lot like the air being let out of a tire. We’re so hyper focused on each other, it doesn’t even matter.
“I want to be your husband,” Jin explains. “Which also means I want to be the father of our child. This changes the timeline,notmy intentions.”
Tears prick at my eyes, hot and sudden. “Really?”
“Did you think I would react differently?”
“I didn’t know what to think. That was kind of the problem. I took the test and then went into overload mode. This is ahugechange, Jin. This… this will change everything.”
He silences me with a kiss to the lips.
Slow, deep, tender.
It rights my world in the moment, chasing away the fluttering in my stomach and bringing a smile to my face when he pulls back.
“It will,” he admits. “But it will be for the better.”
“You think so?”
“It’s the life we created together. That could never be wrong.” We come together for another quick, sweet peck on the lips. Jin’s long fingers glide along my cheek down to my jaw, more so absentmindedly than anything. “But don’t keep things from me, alright? From now on, we tell each other everything.”
I nod along. “I know. I just… needed a moment to process it myself first. I’m going to be someone’smom.”
Though I don’t know it for sure, I sense the flicker of amusement passing across his features. He traces my jawline and then says, “Spooky. The only thing scarier is the fact that I’m about to be someone’sdad.”
I laugh at his dark joke, then snuggle closer, drowsiness suddenly returning.
We fall back to sleep for good, the uncertainty and anxiety I’d been feeling long gone.
