"Tell me if you don't wanna talk about it, but have you solved the problem with Iseul?" I ask him, and he chews on the piece of pancake he put in his mouth. "We talked on the phone because I knew it would do worse by text, and she was crying, she said she was sorry and that she was immature," he takes a sip of the hot chocolate. "And she told me she won't ever act that way again."

"And what did you say to that?" I grab a slice of bacon to eat as well, and he looks at me, loving his warm drink. "I told her that I was disappointed in her. I wanted her to understand it, but I said that I forgive her for this one, but if she ever does this kind of thing again, it's over. I was clear," he puts his cup down. "Like, I love her a lot. I wouldn't want to lose her, but she's sometimes very immature, and that's something I can't stand because I don't mind if she's clingy, a bit childish to get some kisses and attention, but not when she does something in order to hurt me or get me mad. I can't stand that shit. No matter how much I love you, if you intentionally hurt me, I'm gonna be mad as fuck,"

"That's understandable, you have the right to feel like that," I show him that he is not the one in the wrong. "But I'm glad you kinda made up and that she apologized. I hope she's learned her lesson."

"Same," he continues to feed himself well, and I enjoy breakfast with him.

•••

1:10 pm.

I push against the floor with my feet to move the swinging chair, Joonha standing in front of me and texting his girlfriend while smoking a cigarette, which he wants his dad to not know about.

I hate what I am seeing, he is ruining himself for studies. That is not the way he should take.

I peek up at him with pain, not seeing the same Joonha anymore. He brings his phone up to his ear and taps the ash off the cigarette to leave it in the ashtray next to him. "Hey," he answers someone, who I assume to be Iseul. "Tell me what's going on."

I look down at Choco playing with a toy and often coming up to me so that I can throw it away and make him run after it. "Babe, stop giving him your attention. Just do your work, do your best, and don't give a damn about what this asshole says," he reassures her, making it obvious there is a small issue. "It doesn't matter. You're doing good, so I don't want you to tire yourself out because he's not satisfied, and if he has a problem, I'll come and tell him to calm the fuck down with you because you're not his slave."

I put my eyes down on Choco but see him hold a small branch in his mouth, so I take it and throw it to the other side of the garden, and I smile at how he excitedly runs to catch it. "I know, baby. I love you too," he tells her and takes a drag on the cigarette. "I'm with y/n right now, my dad's gonna be here soon. I'll come visit you tomorrow, I promise."

"No," I shake my head but joke, and he raises his blue eyes up to me. "You stay here with me."

He smiles like I am doing. "Nothing, baby. She's talking to Choco," he lies to her as if he did not want her to know this. "I'll see you tomorrow, I gotta hang up," he glances at Choco. "Yeah. I love you too, baby. Take care," he ends the call, and he holds his phone down to put it in his pocket.

"You don't want her to hear me?" I grin but pet Choco who is asking for some attention. "It's not like that. She's just a bit..." he rolls his eyes. "...jealous because we've always been very close, and she doesn't like it."

"Oh, she's gonna drift you away from me then," I hide the discomfort this sentence caused, but he shakes his head. "No. That's not gonna happen. I never told you about this because it bothers me, but back when we weren't dating yet but that I was still living here with you, she was very jealous of our relationship, and not long ago, she told me that she feels uncomfortable about us still being so close because she doesn't know your intentions so much, and all that..."

"Hm," I raise my eyebrows, the words not even coming to my mind. I cannot believe it. "She knows I'm dating your dad, doesn't she?"

"Yeah, I told her, but I guess she's very possessive," he shrugs, but stubs his cigarette out, and I bend my head back to look up at the transparent roof covered in snow, the cold not affecting me that much because of the patio heater next to us. He leaves his spot and comes up to me, so I turn my head to look at him, and he fixes his beanie and rose earring.

"Are you gonna leave early in the morning tomorrow?" I fear that he might do so, and he sets his eyes on me. "No. I'll leave in the evening. Don't worry."

"Good," I lower my look, but he already stands up. "Let's go back inside, I'm getting cold," he slides his hands in his pockets, and I follow him with Choco. We both tap our feet against the floor to not come in with snow, and we walk in, take our shoes off, and he closes the sliding door.

"Have any of your teachers said anything about tattoos?" I question him, out of the blue, and he heads up to the sofa with me. "No. I don't go out shirtless, so no," he chuckles and sits down. "I know, dummy, but maybe they talked about it."

"They didn't, but I don't care if they ever say anything about it because I won't show my torso to my patients so that's not a problem," he takes his phone out and reads a text. "By the way, have you seen Seunggil lately?"

"I did. Last week, he was skating, why?" I tell him, and he leans back. "I texted him the other day to know how he's doing, so I was curious. Also, how is it going with the nightmares?" he remembers, but his dad comes back. "It's fine. It just has been happening a lot these weeks, I don't know why."

"Is it like the ones you had before? Because I won't ever forget when you had a nightmare in my bed, it happened a long time ago, but I explained to you what I saw, right?" he reminds me of it, and I nod. "You did, but yeah. It's the same type of nightmare."

"Could it be because you've seen the bitch a lot in court these previous months?" he guesses, and before I could answer, Jungkook walks in. "Probably..."

"She's in jail, no need to worry about anything anymore now," he touches my hand to rub his thumb over my skin in a comforting manner, and I smile, then we both look at his dad. "Hello!" he beams, and Jungkook steps towards us, with a cup of Starbucks coffee in his hand. "Hey, how are you doing?" he leans towards me from behind the sofa and kisses my temple. "Good, and you?"

"Good too, how was it at your mom's house this morning?" he joins us and sits down next to me. "It was great. She was really happy," he smiles. "She even bought me some new hoodies for winter, so I'm glad," he giggles, cutely. "How many?"

"Three, but two Prada ones, and a Valentino one with small fruits on them, it's my favorite one, but I don't even wanna think about the money she put into them," he lifts his hand up to his head to hold the back of it. He is pampered, his parents both invested to buy him his car, he gets new stuff every time he visits us, but he deserves all of it. "Don't stain them then."

"I know, I'm even scared to wear them," he does not surprise me. "Well, it's useless to leave it in your closet."

"I know," he smiles and moves forth to grab his glass and drink. "Did you have lunch already?" I ask him since I noticed the coffee he brought, and he shakes his head. "I didn't have time."

"Alright, I'm gonna cook then," I stand up, and I head to the kitchen but hear Jungkook whisper to Joonha. "Have you smoked?"

"Why do you ask me that?" he answers, quietly, both speaking in a low voice as I am getting the food out of the fridge. "It smells like cigarettes, and I know y/n never smoked in her life."

"I just smoked one," he does not lie, and this fills me with relief. Since he knows, I will not have to hide it from him. "And when was the last time you did before that one?"

The house remains pretty quiet for a few seconds, and I take a peek at them but feel the tension from where I am.

"I don't know, yesterday, I think," he tells him, not liking this topic at all. "And before that?"

"I can't remember," he mumbles. "You're lying to me, Joonha. I know it," he does not believe him, knowing him way too much to not see when he is not honest. "You know I hate when you lie to me, so don't do this, please."

"Dad. I don't wanna lie to you, so stop asking me questions about it. Let's not talk about it. I don't wanna argue or cause some fight on the only day I can see you both," he refuses to talk further about this issue. "You just have to tell me the truth. We won't argue or fight about it."

Joonha sighs pretty heavily. "I smoked the day before too," he tells him the truth, thankfully.

"When did that sort of routine start? And what's the reason for you to start doing this so often?" he cannot talk about anything else, sounding very worried and scared for his son, which is very understandable. He knows what it is like, he knows exactly how this goes when you fall into that trap.

"I don't know, some months ago. It helps me...My studies are stressing me out like ever, my relationship with Iseul is not going well...It's hard to be away from you two and Choco..." he lets out, and I feel like his dad's presence is allowing him to get the distress out. "Let's talk in the office," Jungkook does not let this conversation go on here, and they both leave in another room.

'JUNGKOOK'S P.O.V'

I close the door so that y/n does not hear us, and I face him, with unbearable worry. "You maybe don't want to talk about this, but I need to do it. This is about your health, both mental and physical, so I'm not going to avoid it for whatever reason, Joonha. What is happening lately? How are you truly feeling about university?"

He nibbles on his inner cheek and glances down. "It's hard. I don't know..."

"I know it is, but how are you feeling? Like, how do you feel every day? What is on your mind? What do you think about this process?" I move towards my desk and sit on the edge of it. "I just...I have no idea. I'm just tired."

"Because of the work and lack of sleep only or there's something more?" I intertwine my hands between my thighs, and he rubs his neck. "Maybe also because I'm not eating well, and I'm nervous about my relationship with Iseul. The distance seems to be too hard to stand for her, and...there's the problem with y/n...Whenever I talk to her on the phone on the weekend when I can't be here, or even when I talk to her now, like today, I can see that she's sad...I called her last week when you were at a student's house, and I could tell that she was kinda crying because I told her I couldn't come home. I know I'm worrying her a lot, It's hurting me a lot, I miss her a lot, I miss you too, and all of this shit is getting me to smoke nonstop because it's the only thing that calms me down and gives me a real break," he reminds me of myself, and I become horribly anxious. Nothing is going as good as he told me it was multiple times.

"Are you enjoying your studies or not?" I ask what is very important to me, and he shakes his head, and his eyes become shiny. "I fucking hate it. It makes me feel so dumb to not be able to do great and have good marks like some of the others. I can't stand to be away from home, to not be allowed to be myself, I don't feel good. I wasn't ready, and I never wanted to be a damn doctor...I just wanted to do this to show you and mom that I'm capable of doing something good and that I'm not just a dumbass...but it only makes me realize that I'm not good enough for that..." his tears leave his eyes, and I understand from this reaction that it is more than serious.

"Joonha. You're not dumb. You don't need to become a doctor for me or mom to be proud of you. We are proud of who you are, who you became, you never disappointed us in any way and failing medical studies will not be a reason for us to be, nor does it mean that you are not good enough or not smart. Smartness or intelligence is not defined by your job, being a doctor is all about hard work and stuffing your brain with constant information you memorize all throughout your life, and let me tell you, I've met some real dumb doctors in my life, so that doesn't mean anything. Someone smart and intelligent is someone who creates, who is aware of his surroundings, himself. Someone who has been educated, who knows what is right or wrong, who's curious, who learns from his mistakes, who knows how to treat someone well, and much more than that. So you are a smart man, you are good enough, you just need to find what you love, what you are passionate about, and what makes you happy," I tell him, with sincerity, and make sure he does not have such thoughts on his mind again.

He wipes his tears away, and I control myself in order to not cry in front of him. "You love video games a lot, you love coding, you always talk about how much you'd love to create your own robots, your own games, and see people play them, so why don't you work into computer engineering?"

"I want to..." he answers with what I expected to hear. "Then do this. We won't be disappointed. You know it, we don't want anything but you to be happy. That's all we want. No matter the job you have, no matter what you work in, we just want you to enjoy life and love what you do," I repeat those words I wish he could not forget. "Thank you for always supporting me..."

I smile and move forth to take him in my arms. "We'll always support you, but now, I don't want you to do this to yourself anymore."

"Yeah, I'm just gonna try to pass the exams because I want to end this semester, but I'll eat more properly and not stress out about it," he reassures me. "And not smoke anymore. You have to stop right now, otherwise, you'll regret it forever. Trust me."

"I'll try. I won't buy any more boxes, and I won't touch the one I still have," he nods, getting me to feel less apprehensive. "That's good. That's what you have to do, and about Iseul, we'll talk about it after dinner, okay?"

"Yes, but don't tell anything about this to y/n yet," he asks me to keep it to myself, and I give him my word. "I won't. We should go and help her with the cooking now because she's been waiting to see you, so spend time with her too."

"Yeah, I was going to do it anyway," he smiles, and I we both head to the door to get out and join y/n, who has been alone this whole time.

•••

8 pm.

"Yeah! Twenty-two points!" he adds them to the ones he already scored with his previous words, and I look at my letters to find a way to do better. "What? Are we losing, Sir?" he taunts me while holding the bag of letters for y/n to take six of them out. "It's unfair, you're playing together against me."

"You said you were unbeatable, so one or four against you wouldn't change anything, uh?" he provokes, knowing he might win against me. "And y/n is with me, but she's just observing and counting my points, she's not even finding—"

"That's not true," she slaps his arm. "You're winning because I'm here."

"Ah yeah? Tell me what word you found then," he raises his eyebrows at her, and as soon as she looks down at the board and goes silent, he smirks. "See. That's what I thought."

"You're mean," she crosses her arms over the table, and I look at her. "I told you. You should have played with your man instead."

"Whenever you play against me, you don't let me win, so I'm siding with Joonha to win this time," she smiles at me and does not even regret her choice. "Oh, so that means you're using me then?" he leans back, but she shows some cuteness to get him by the emotions. "No! I'm helping you, you are using me to win."

"Obviously not since you always lose," he states facts, and she stares into his eyes to throw lasers at him. "I won't ever play with you again."

"Too bad, you'll never get to know what it feels like to be a winner again," he smiles and checks his letters, and she does not even respond but looks at what he is doing, so I try to find a word to put on the board.

The sound of a phone ringing interrupts the game, and I peek up at Joonha who grabbed his phone. He leaves the table and picks up the call, and as soon as I hear him say 'baby', I understand this is Iseul.

I glance up at y/n while touching my letter rack. "Come help me while he's away. He won't know," I whisper and smile at her, but she does not fall for me right away. "Are you asking me to cheat?"

"It's not cheating, it's helping your loving man," I find a pretext. "Helping you means betraying Joonha, so you won't get me with emotional blackmail, cheater," she calls me, and I chuckle but deal with my loneliness for this one. "I'm so hurt. I always cuddle you and give you all my love, but that's all I get in return."

"I'm going to not show you any love anymore so that you see the difference," she threatens me, and I look up into her eyes. "Wow. You'd do that? Do you even think you could?"

"You think I can't?" she jokes for sure, and I scoff. "You wouldn't even last for five minutes. Stop it, baby."

"It's starting now," she defies me and crosses her arms. "I'm not giving you my attention anymore, and I hope you lose against my favorite boy."

"Your favorite boy?" I raise my eyebrows but feel some bitterness turn my smile into a fake one. "Yes," she does not take her words back but avoids my question, and I nod. "Alright," I grab my cup of warm coffee to swallow my jealousy, and I put down the word I found. "There, add thirteen points," I take some letters out, and Joonha comes back while y/n is writing. He sits down. "Is it my turn?"

"Yeah," I put the bag down. "Y/n's favorite," I stare at her and swallow some more coffee, but she chuckles, and he looks at us both with confusion. "Uh?"

"Nothing, he's mad because he's losing," she smirks, knowing how this makes me feel. "Oh, grandpa's mad now," he dares to add more pain to my heart, and I gape. "Well, you know what? I'm going to bed—"

"No! We're joking," she believes this will help. "I love you, stay and keep playing."

"I thought you weren't giving me any attention anymore?" I remind her of her own words, and she smiles. "I wasn't serious. You know I wouldn't be able to do it."

"Yeah," I already plan on getting revenge tonight, and I glance down at my letters.