My alarm goes off and I groan to myself as I hit snooze. 10 minutes later, it goes off again and I hit dismiss. I am not trying to get up. Not now, at least. I lay in bed for a good 5 minutes when my phone begins to ring. No one wants me to get a good night's rest, apparently. I slide the talk button, putting the bright phone up to me ear to eliminate the light.

"Mmm, hello?" I say, very sleepily.

A chuckle is heard on the other end before the voice speaks. "Wake up, sunshine. Good morning."

I smile lazily to myself as I hear the deep voice greeting me a good morning. "Good morning, JB."

"Since I had to call you like you asked in the case that you didn't text me by 6:15 like you said, this is just a friendly reminder that you need to get your beautiful self up."

I yawn, sitting up and stretching my arms before putting the phone back to my ear. "And I appreciate you for it. I would've slept for another 3 hours."

"I know it's early, but you have to set up for the little one's slumber party. If you want, I can bring you a latte."

"Please. I'll love you forever."

"Sooner said than done." He chuckles and I smile at the sound. "I'll be over in 30. Wake up, princess."

The call ends and I feel a swarm of butterflies in my stomach after hearing him call me princess. What a way to wake up. I hop out of bed and take my robe with me to the bathroom so I can quickly shower, brush my teeth, and situate my hair. In the bathroom, I take about 20 minutes to do all that, just braiding my hair into 2 French braids on my head and slicking down my edges, tying a head scarf on them to set and lay them. Going back into my room, I go to my drawer and pull out a pair of legs, a tank top, and my underwear. I dress quickly and still have about 3 minutes until Jaebeom said he'd be here.

It's almost 7am and the sun is starting to rise. I turn off my room light and grab my purse and car keys, needing to start shopping for the remainder of the items needed for the party after I see Jaebeom. I quietly make my way through the house, as to not wake the kids. I successfully make it outside, the cool morning air hitting my skin and instantly relaxing me. I lock up, turning to see Jaebeom pulling up. I smile and skip down the stairs, meeting him at his car as he steps out.

We hug for a few good seconds before he pulls away. "Someone's having a good morning now that they're awake." He jokes.

"It's a great morning, now that your face is the first one I've seen."

His cheeks turn a shade a pink and he awkwardly chuckles. "I should be making you feel like this."

"You do all the time. It's my turn now."

He flashes me a toothy grin, not being able to hide his happiness. "Oh." He opens the passenger door and grabs my drink. "Here you go. One fresh latte."

"How much was it?" I open my purse and reach for my wallet.

He pushes my wallet back inside, shaking his head. "It's on me."

"You sure?"

"I have more money than I know what to do with. It's okay."

"What a flex." We laugh and I graciously take the drink. "Thank you so much."

"You're welcome." He kisses my cheek and even though this is the second time, I will never get used to it, nor tired of it. "Text or call when you can. Have a good day, I'll be thinking of you."

"And I'll be thinking of you too." I smile, pulling him into one last hug.

When we disconnect, he smiles widely at me and gets in his car. He drives away and I head to my car, but not before taking notice of Namjoon standing in the doorway. I could just get in my car and go get what's left of party things because I don't wanna have an incident like last night happen again, or I can be the polite Harlow that I always am and say good morning so that we start today on the right foot. Polite Harlow it is.

"Good morning." I grin softly, waving as I reach my car.

"Good morning." He returns it, but it looks kind of forced. I won't question it because I don't want to think about it. "Remember the plan?"

"Yup." I nod. You meet up with Jiwon so that she can see Jin for her birthday, then you'll have the kids all day until I finish setting up."

"What time will her friends start arriving?"

"Around 3. I have more than enough time for setup."

"Perfect." He smiles wider, this time it being genuine and his dimples pop out. "I can't wait to give her a great weekend. I'll let you go now."

"Okay." I smile, getting into my car. Thank goodness that wasn't as awkward as I had anticipated.

--

"Okay, okay! Settle down everyone!" I wrangle all the girls around me and have them all sit around in a circle while I sit in the middle. "Alright. Listen good, girlies. I'm Harly. I'm Jin's nanny and I promise you'll all have so much fun, but we gotta go through some rules. Number 1, inside voices while you're in the house, so that means no screaming. Number 2, if you need anything ask me or her daddy, Mr. Kim. Number 3, you don't need to sleep but you all need to be in your little sleeping areas by midnight."

"Where do we sleep?" One of the girls asks me.

"Good question. I'll show you in a minute. Okay, rule number 4 is you all gotta be nice to each other. Rule number 5, anything that is shareable will be shared. Rule number 6, no boys allowed."

"Eww!" The girls exclaim and laugh when I mention boys. Oh, to be so young and naive.

"2 more rules. Rule number 7, everyone here is a princess while Jinnie is the birthday queen. And rule number 8 is have lots of fun. Can you all do that for me?"

"Yeah!" They all clap and cheer with their sweet little voices.

"Okay, let's do it. Follow me to the castle!" We all get up and they follow me through the house. We go upstairs first to where the bedrooms are and we stop. "Down this hall is King Overlord Kim and Prince Overlord Jae's sleeping quarters. Queen Soojin sleeps in that room on a regular basis, but not tonight. And I, Queen Harly of everything, sleep over there. We are not to enter these rooms for any reason. Now we can all go back downstairs."

We all go downstairs, where I have a train of about 10 girls following me, Namjoon and Jaesun following me as well. We go through the kitchen where I made it look like a pretty pink cotton candy dreamland, then to the backyard where the pool and bounce house castle is, and I've set up everyone's new swim suits on the patio benches. They each grab the one with their name and follow me into the house once more. We reach the basement door and there's a sign that says "Royalty Only".  I open the door and let them run down. I let the screams slide because they're so excited. I set up 10 cute individual sleeping castle tents, with princess sleeping bags, and mini stuffed dragons to protect their castles as they sleep. Surrounding them, I've put fairly lights and circled an LED light around, changing colors from pink to purple to green to light blue. They each find their name and look through their sleeping section. To say that this is going better than I expected is an understatement. This is incredible.

"Wow. You did amazing." Namjoon looks around in awe of what I did to the basement. "This is insane."

"You only turn 8 once." I smile, giving my attention to the girls before whistling and getting their attention. "Okay, does everyone have a set of jammies in there?"

"Yeah!" I get as a response.

"Okay good. So the first thing we'll be doing today is getting in the pool. There's 4 bathrooms you can use. There's one down here, 2 upstairs, and one on the top floor. 3 stay here, 5 go to the 2 upstairs, and 2 go all the way up. Let's go!"

3 girls line up at one bathroom while the rest run upstairs. 10 girls, all between the ages of 7 and 9. This is going to be a very long, but fun night.

--

"Harlow."

I look up to see Namjoon next to me, broom in hand. He begins sweeping the floor and I smile.

"I guess I can say this princess sleepover was successful."

"Oh, absolutely." He returns my smile, and it's genuine. "Do you think they were expecting that horse & carriage ride this morning?"

"Not even." I shake my head. "Made them really feel like princesses. Jinnie's gonna be the talk of the school now."

"She will." After that, we go back to cleaning the basement. Jin and Jae are already in bed, very exhausted from their hard partying. I fold all the stuff I used to make the castle tents and pack it in a box. Namjoon calls out to me. "Hey, Harly."

"Yeah?" I respond, continuing to fold.

"What made you start dating?"

I stop my movement, rolling my eyes before turning to face Namjoon who is sweeping like he didn't just ask me that stupid ass question. "Why wouldn't I? I'm a grown woman."

"Just asking." He shrugs. "You weren't before, so why now?"

"That's none of your concern. Who I choose to see and potentially date has nothing to do with you, Namjoon."

"I'm just asking, you don't need to get upset."

Oh, this mother fucker here.

"Well, I'm getting upset. It isn't any of your business. You're not my fucking daddy."

"I mean, I was the other day. Was I not?"

"Who do you think you are?" I step closer to him. He has the fucking nerve. I'm so hot with anger right now, I swear steam is coming from my ears. "That's done and over. Remember 'keeping things on a platonic, friendly basis. Nothing more than maybe a hug if we really need it'. Remember that? Get your shit together and focus on finalizing your divorce."

I bump his shoulder on my way out of the room and head upstairs. He really has the nerve to question me on who I'm seeing and then says some shit like that? He's fucked up and I'm not standing for that. I'm staying in my lane, as I said before. Is he jealous? Why in the hell would he be? I'm not his, I never was, and we basically agreed that I never will be.

∆

Double update! Oooooooooh, Namjoon! 🤭 wanna see more passive aggressive Joonie? Just stay tuned for my updates! I'm updating this more frequently because I'm in my zone 💕

Use this line to leave me thoughts and feedback. Next chapter, do you want more JB? Want a Namjoon POV? If so, I won't tell you what he'll be focused on lol.

Have a great morning/day/evening/night! Momma loves you! ❤